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S07 Ep08: No Cold Cokes in Hell episode artwork

May 19, 2022

S07 Ep08: No Cold Cokes in Hell

from Perhaps It's You Hosted by perhapsitsyou

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S07 Ep08: No Cold Cokes in Hell

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Before we get to our show, here is a podcast we think you're going to love. Clap your hands and shake off the morning dew. I'm Amelia, and we're going Away with the Fairies. Fairies and folklore are one of the most popular topics, but did you realize fairies are also prevalent in modern media? Those old tales influence everything from tweets to movies. If you aren't seeing fairies everywhere, you probably aren't looking, or you need a stone with a hole in it. Those do help. So join me at Away with the Fairies, a new podcast delving into all things fairy. Follow on Twitter at Podcast Fairies and subscribe now.

Oh, hello. It's time for Perhaps It's You, the podcast of two people who started a podcast on a lark and never learned anything about audio recording. And they never will. And that is their promise to you. It's almost an accomplishment in and of itself. How are we still struggling with this? My name is Liz. My name is Samantha. And yeah, you would think some of this would like rubbed off by now. Just, I don't know. Can I not learn? Am I like too old? I can't learn things now. Is my brain just like mush?

I mean, it seems very true for us in podcasting because we really don't even know how to do this. And we've been doing it for years. And then I'm like, why don't more people listen to our podcast? I wonder why, Liz. I wonder why. It's also like, Samantha just called it the most beautiful day she has ever seen in Minnesota in her life, which is 100% accurate. And I'm like kind of bitter that we're recording this. Is that your fault, dear listener? No, but that's just the situation as it stands. It's no one's fault. It's just the way that it is. And I'm complaining.

it's like wow it's so nice out better sit by myself in my dining room and talk about unsolved mysteries it's like 70 degrees no wind no humidity the sun is shining the birds are singing and we're inside talking about fucking unsolved mysteries if you live in a part of the country like i'm assuming california i don't really know where else where it's like always like this you have no idea how precious this type of weather is never take it for granted where it is not freezing it is not humid it's not like I cannot stand the sun. Like, this is an actual nice day. Yeah, we get like five of them. Anyway, I'm fine. I'm totally fine. I'm thriving. I'm beyond fine. I'm great. I'm excellent. How are you, my dear? I'm...

troubled by something. So I was driving. This is the episode where you call me out. Everyone sit down. No, this has nothing to do with you. But I am troubled. Something is on my mind. And that is that I was driving home from work today, shortly before sitting down to record this podcast. And I passed a sign on the side of the road, much like it was a handwritten sign. Oh, you saw my Samantha Bean Sucks sign that I put by the side of the road? Yeah, it was on a piece of wood nailed to a tree in the forest by my house. I don't know who put that there. Samantha Sucks! No, this was like a poster board.

Sharpie situation. Oh, like a garage sale. Yeah, except this one said man sale. What? Man sale. So are they selling men or are they selling things for men? And what would those things be? I'm really struggling with this. I don't want to show up because I'm afraid, but man sale. Do we need to remind everyone that despite horrible labor conditions in this country, slavery is illegal.

You can't sell men. We don't particularly like men, but I don't think they should be bought and sold. No, I am against it. I'm going to take a brave stance that slavery is wrong and I'm against it. Man sale. I don't think this man sale should be allowed to continue. If it had been easier for me to snap a photo, I would have, but it was like in an intersection. I didn't see it till I was turning. And I was like, wait, man sale? Okay. This is going to be my guess. I'm not saying I don't hate this. I do. I'm guessing that they're having a garage sale. It's like fishing tackle or some bullshit. Probably. They're like, if we put garage sale, it's going to be little old ladies looking for, it's going to be Liz.

not even little it's gonna be me literally me looking for like doilies and strawberry shortcake paraphernalia we need to really get the men here with a man saying man you know what straight men love men wait a minute um I'm going to say this is unnecessary because I go to a lot of estate sales. They should have maybe called it an estate sale if that's the case. Because there's always dudes with like fishing hats at estate sales looking for cheap screwdrivers. Every single one. I don't see. You don't need men go to garage sales. No, they can't. You don't need to put mans. Am I not allowed? If I show up at the sale, are they going to be like, this is a mansale? Excuse me. I'm going to need you to leave. You can't buy this hammer. It's for a man. It's not even pink. Little hand can't even pick it up.

It'll break off. You'll have a broken wrist where your hand just fell off from the weight of the hammer. Or I could show up and just be like, I'm here to buy a man. I heard you have men here for sale. You don't have any men with experience with donkeys because I could use some help.

I could use some help with my donkey. Are there any horse trainers here? I could use a donkey trainer. That seems very specific. But maybe there's a big selection at this man sale. I don't know. I didn't check it out. Why have a man sale and have a small selection? That sounds pointless. It's a one man sale. We don't know how many men. Man. Man sale. Could mean there's one man for sale. Oh, you're right. Maybe someone is getting a divorce and she wants him gone. She wants to recoup some of her money from selling her man. It's not plural, so it is either just one man or maybe someone is getting divorced.

and she's selling off all his shit. Or she found out he's cheating. He's out of town and he's going to come back and there's going to be nothing left. She's like, Babe Ruth signed baseball. Yeah, that's 50 cents. She's getting rid of everything. He's going to come back to nothing. I'd be in support of this. Your family heirlooms? Yeah, I sold those as kindling. They're gone. But she should have put on that sign. He cheated. I'm selling all his shit. And then I would have been like, Liz, I'm sorry we can do a podcast today. I've got some shopping to do. I would camp out overnight to go to that sale. You know, okay, you know the deals are going to be lit. Oh, absolutely. It's all got to go.

Gossip's going to be amazing. The vibes are going to be, I don't know if they're going to be really intense. Women supporting women? No, no. You're going to be joyous. I would give anything to be at that sale. I would be camping out like it was the olden days of Star Wars tickets. I would put up a little tent on the side of the road. I'm going to be first in line. You could dress up. Yeah, absolutely. I would be in some, all I can think about is that thing and waiting to excel when she burns his car. Oh my God.

Well, that is weird. I don't know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Strange things. Clearly. Clearly. I wanted to dedicate this episode to listener Helen, who just signed up for our Patreon upon finding out that Mac, her voice crush, was on the newest episode talking about one of her favorite shows, Columbo. Welcome, Helen. And then proceeded to listen to it like three times in two days. Amazing. That's the kind of enthusiasm that I want over on the Patreon. Thank you, Helen. The rest of our patrons need to step it up. That's all I gotta say.

Matt was like, oh, I feel like I didn't do a really good job. And I was like, not according to Helen. A person you don't know. Thank you, Helen. She thought it was great.

We didn't talk about our field trip last time. We definitely should. It's a little bit pointless because that show closed. But whatever. Was Minnesota its last stop? I think it was made. I don't know if it's going anywhere else. It was made by that museum. Oh, it was? Yeah. I swear I saw that it had been somewhere else, but maybe I made that up. Maybe you're right. Now I want to know. Okay, it was called Supernatural America, Paranormal in American Art. Is this going anywhere? Oh, yes. Okay. So, no, no.

Yeah, it looks like we were the last stop. Oh, damn. It had been other places, but now you're fucked if you want to see this. Good luck. Hope you already saw it. It was very cool. I'm literally looking at the description and the first sentence is just, America is haunted. Yes. Ghosts from our history are inescapable and an unsettled part of daily life.

So this was a very large art show around the theme of paranormal. I thought it was pretty damn cool. What did you think? I loved it. I really enjoyed it. It was great. I thought it was like really well put together. I liked all the different themes. I mean, it's an art show, so most of it was art, but they did have a few objects like Ouija board planchettes and examples of spiritual photography or spirit photography. Those Victorian trick photos that make it look like people are sitting with ghosts. Just sort of, you know, enhance the artwork that was on display.

Yeah, I really, I mean, just because of my personal taste, I really liked the paintings better than some other aspects of it. I a little bit thought like it got worse the like more you went through. But yeah, so I had some different aspects of paranormal stuff. And probably maybe the main one was ghosts. But I did talk about some other paranormal things. And it ended with aliens, which, look, I'm sorry, I'm just kind of sick of aliens, everybody. I am too. I'm not that interested in aliens. And I'm really not that interested. I don't know.

It was just, it got intensely weird. Not that like, not that like the ghost stuff wasn't weird in some cases, but it got intensely weird the closer you got to the alien inspired art. And the disconnect from reality was evident, I would say. And I'm just not as intrigued by that really at all. I did really like all of the art that was attributed to the artist, of course, but then they had help from spirits and they were attributed as well. So it'd be like artist spirit and spirits.

like I think that that's cool and it's cool that they had examples of that but on the other hand I was like wow these spirits are bad artists all of the art is bad I didn't say I liked how I liked the art I just thought it was funny that spirits were attributed as the artist in some of the actual ghosts did some of this art now they did do it always very well but I'm not a ghost I don't know how easy it is to do art from the ghost realm that's a really good point here I am judging them by human terms and it's probably not even fair but they would be like yeah I was channeling the spirit of William Blake when I made this so put down my name and also put down William Blake's name and I was like wow I didn't realize William Blake was um so bad because it sucks but the show was just like so well laid out and i loved all the like wall colors were really like complimentary to the stuff and it's a very cool environment i also liked that people clearly like got dressed up in like witchy outfits to come that was fun that was really fun really appreciate that we um samantha pointed out so god i should have looked up this artist's name but there was an example of outsider art i feel like this person's really famous and i should know who it is but this guy painted the like different levels of hell and heaven that's my hands down my favorite piece um

This will stick with me for the rest of my life. I can post a picture of it on our Instagram. Perhaps it's you for people to see. And I'll look up what the artist's name is. But he painted what he thought was in heaven and what he thought was in hell. And Samantha, he wrote in some specific things that would be in hell that Samantha pointed out to me, which included no beds, no dope, which is a huge bummer. I'm sorry. So to be clear, there's no dope in hell. There's no dope in hell. Which does imply that there's dope in heaven, which I think is pretty sweet.

that part he didn't get into but yeah it does imply that for sure there are no beds in hell which fucking sucks not looking forward to that i guess there's probably like really great beds in heaven but very specifically he said there was no cold cokes in hell this was prominent right like right in the middle of hell is just no cold cokes and i cannot tell you the number of times since going to the museum that samantha and i have brought up the fact that there are no cold cokes in hell also you're Little known fact about your voice crush Mac that I probably, I think I've mentioned this before, but he has a Coke Zero problem. And so every time now he's cracking open a nice cold Coke Zero, I go, enjoy it now. You're not going to get any of those cold Cokes in hell.

I really hate to bring this news to all our listeners who are going to hell with us. I know you're out there. I'm sorry. There's no dope. There's no cold cokes. There's nowhere to sleep. It's hot. Yeah. Hell's going to suck. I thought it was going to be great, but not according to this. I thought all my friends were going to be there and it was going to be a bitchin' party, but it turns out we can't even get cold cokes. So I guess repent now is my point. Because if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably on the road to hell.

Like, I'm sorry. I'm just going to generalize about our listeners and we're hell bound. Where beverages are generic and room temperature. Maybe even like a little warm. Maybe warm. It did also say that hell was hot. So I assume it's going to be hot Cokes. I am not looking forward to my slightly warm diet generic ginger ale in hell. That is going to blow. It didn't say there was no cold ginger ale in hell. I mean, we're making an assumption. It didn't say.

I'm just, yeah, I'm assuming he had to like, you know, he couldn't list everything. That's fair. That's fair. I'm just extrapolating. If there's no cold Cokes, that means I can't get a cold ginger ale. And you can't get any dope. Yeah. Wow. That sucks. Because usually I'd be like, oh, I don't want this warm diet ginger ale. I'll just turn into some nice dope to get through. Oh, no. Can't get that either. But I want to lie down. Nope. Can't. No beds. Nope. Just going to lay on the hot ground. Fascinating. Fascinating. So I think we learned a lot is my point. We did. I had a great time. Sorry, no one else could see this article.

You know, we're always just a little behind. It was great and you missed it. We had a good time. So, you know, support your local museum when they show weird stuff. Okay. So today we're talking about, what is it? Season seven, episode eight? Yes. Of Unsolved Mysteries. We encourage you to watch this for free on the YouTubes. If you want to, or you can just listen to us talk about it. That's fine too. That's a fine option. I think probably the one most people choose. Samantha is going to start off with a really pointless drug case. Yeah. Speaking of dope. All right. Yeah. That segues really well. This guy's going to go to hell and go, where's my stock in trade? Nowhere to be found. I got bad news for this guy. So this is, this is a wanted and we're looking for Neil and Terry Gott.

I could not care less. I don't give a single shit about this whole case. I love the episodes where you're just done. I love where you're just like, I had Fox, I ran out, and now we're recording. We're done. I do not give a single shit about any of this. Let's go. I'm sure our listeners love this. I do. It doesn't matter.

So, neighbors, according to Robert Stack, believed that Neil and Terry Gott and their young daughter Heather were a typical family in North Benton, Ohio. Guess what? They were. No, they weren't. They sold marijuana. Oh, Evans to Betsy, no. The problem was that they weren't selling it to me, personally. And for that, shame on them. Maybe they weren't selling it to their neighbors, either. Maybe if they were, they would have kept their fucking mouths shut. Or they were, but it was, like, kind of overpriced and they knew it. They're like, you're ripping us off. This dope is not that good.

There wasn't a lot of competition in North Benton, Ohio. They were like, oh, this is all stems. I don't want this. And he's like, too bad. So Neil owned a successful auto repair shop while Terry worked for a house cleaning company. All that changed in 1990, however, when he began calling unknown drug dealers in Akron, Ohio. How did they know they were drug dealers then?

Well, I guess it's not clear how the FBI got wind of this guy. Maybe his neighbors turned him in. I don't know. But they started tapping their phones sometime in 1990 and discovered that, or I don't know if they were tapping their phones or if they were just monitoring who he was calling. I mean, what's the difference, I guess. But they did know. They realized that he was calling this known drug dealer in Akron a lot. And so that put him on a list, I guess. I'm not entirely sure.

Other than that, I don't know what their evidence is for this raid that they conduct on their house, but I guess, oh, NFL mysteries does say that the FBI listened to their conversations. So I guess that's a thing they can do. I guess that's a thing they can do. And the thing they did to this guy on December 15th, 1990, they hilariously say he put in a substantial order. This was for apparently eight ounces of cocaine. Okay. I don't know. Is that a lot of cocaine? It doesn't seem like a lot. What's a brick of cocaine? It seems like it should be more than eight ounces. I would think so. I'm going to Google it. Are you going to Google how much is a brick of cocaine? You're going to get on the FBI's watch list. I bet I already am. Brick of cocaine. How many ounces? It's like a thousand grams. Oh, fuck. Yeah. What? How much is one kilo of... I'm literally looking at how much is one kilo of cocaine? I don't know.

Someone convert that for me. Okay, so someone, okay, listeners, perhaps to see podcast at gmail.com. Is eight ounces of cocaine a lot? How many bricks is that? Oh, fuck. I live in hell currently. There's no dope here. I don't know how much cocaine. It's a substantial amount. But this was apparently substantial to the FBI.

Okay, so an eight ball of cocaine is an eighth of an ounce. So it doesn't seem like eight ounces is really that much. It's not even a brick. I guess to me that's not substantial. I don't even know that you can prove that's not for personal use. That just seems like you want to do cocaine several times. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyway, it was enough for the FBI. Priorities are in order. So they allowed him to make the purchase, but they were waiting. However, despite conducting this extremely intense raid, they decided not to take him into custody.

So I don't really know what the point of this was at all, to be honest. They wanted to continue their investigation until they got everyone in his network. They wanted him to flip on people, is what it is. That really wasn't clear in the episode. No, but they just want him to say who the drug dealers he was in connection with. Because again, this is not that much drugs. So they're like, lead us to people who have more drugs than you. Right. So another hilarious phrase that I think Robert Stack says is that Neil called his buyers and told them that they would not be getting their cocaine. It was a sad day for everyone. I had plans! How am I supposed to hold that coke party this weekend? Bad news, you're not getting your cocaine.

So due to these calls, the FBI was able to ascertain the names of the people in his cohort. Investigators had already begun to suspect that he was more than just a small-time cocaine middleman. This is when they learned that he had rented a nearby barn and that the electrical bill for said barn was up to $1,900 per month. All right, that is kind of suspicious. I'm going to say that Terry was bad at covering his tracks. Yeah, he probably should have gotten a generator or something a little more off the grid. Just a barn. Pretty obvious what's going on here. I have a lot of photo shoots in that barn, and the lighting is just, whew. What you don't know is I have chickens living in there, and it's like a penthouse for chickens. They've got TVs, air conditioning running 24-7. They're living in the lap of luxury. I get so many eggs.

I want to see this penthouse for chickens where they have like a, like a built-in swimming pool. Yeah. Yeah. A little water slide. Yeah, a chicken penthouse. I think I've lost my mind. I'm on board. Let's see where this goes. The Samantha loses all grip with reality and starts building a chicken penthouse. I've been in front of a computer too long today on a day like this. All right, so this led them to believe that he and Terry were growing marijuana. The worst crime you can commit. How dare they? Eventually, the FBI was able to get a search warrant before they got home and for the barn that they were renting.

and not surprisingly they should only be able to get it for the barn what does this indicate about the house i don't know but there was marijuana in the barn a lot of it they were growing a lot of marijuana well i would hope so to cover those electric bills otherwise this is a fool's errand my favorite part of this is that this fbi guy who has a a little mustache um he comes on and describes the sophisticated grow up and he proceeds to just list like normal gardening tools as if they're like the sophisticated tools of a criminal mastermind. He's like, he had tubes to water the plants and he had shovels and lights. And it's like, yeah, dude, he's growing plants. Like this is not, this is, he's not a criminal genius. He's just growing some plants. That guy has never grown one spider plant. He was like, they're in soil. You wouldn't believe it. I don't know. Whatever. He has an irrigation system to get water to the plants. It's like, well, yeah, of course he does. Yeah. They're valuable. Silly. I think that guy.

Was his mustache kind of square and dark? Yes. Yep. Okay. He referred to their daughter, and I don't think he intentionally meant this in a creepy way, but he referred to their daughter as a very attractive little girl. I wrote that down too. I wasn't sure if I was going to bring it up, but it creeped me out. It makes me throw up a little bit. So his mustache is the NFT for no fucking thanks. No. You know, it probably wasn't. It probably wasn't anything behind that statement, but it's not a thing you should say. Don't say it. Don't say something like that. That's not how you talk about children, dude. Don't describe little girls as attractive. It's weird. It's weird. Don't do it. So no fucking thanks to you, sir.

Yeah, so according to him, the marijuana... Also, his mustache is like a little Hitler-y. It's not a Hitler mustache, but it's like... You're not wrong. It's leaning in that direction too much. I was kind of like, I thought we stopped doing that, except for Michael Jordan and those Haynes commercials for reasons I cannot explain. Yeah, it's leaning that direction in a way that makes me think he just needs to lose it or he needs to grow it out a little because... It's in an uncomfortable zone. Yeah, it is. So according to him, the marijuana was worth up to $100,000. I seriously wrote down, this is barely a crime.

I was like, who the fuck cares about any of this? According to the reenactment, they were growing them in kiddie pools, which I thought was smart. A large amount of weapons were also found. Terry denied any involvement in the drug dealing. Neil was arrested, but his parents posted his bail and he went back to his drug operation. He's committed. He's got business to run, Liz. Support small business. In March 1991, 22 people were indicted on drug-related charges, including Terry and Neil.

I forgot his name halfway through this. It doesn't matter. He looks like D.B. Sweeney. I know Samantha doesn't know who that is, but he does. And at the end, I honestly go, I'm sorry you were arrested. I hope your marijuana farm thrives. So they go to court, but then they vanish shortly thereafter. I'm not sure why they bothered to go to court, but they bounce pretty immediately after. Maybe they thought, I don't know. Maybe it was just going worse than they expected. They were like, never mind. Let's just leave. This isn't looking good for us. I think we're going to take our chances. So they're on the lam. The FBI go to the house. And this is horrible.

They find in the backyard a dead dog chained to a tree. Okay, never mind. Death penalty. I don't know that this was their fault because shortly, at least in the reenactment, their neighbor comes up and the FBI agents are like, hey, have you seen the Gott family? And the neighbor is like, the neighbor said, no, they asked me to take care of their dog. Did he not do it? The next words are the FBI agent's mouth should have been, well, you're doing a bad job because the dog is fucking dead.

I somehow missed that the dog died. I'm very upset now. There was a dead dog chained to the tree, and apparently the neighbor was supposed to be taking care of the dog. Okay, death penalty for him then. So I'm not even sure that it was the God's fault. But anyway, they also found a woman who had rented a Utah trailer for them. They apparently left town on March 6th. The trailer was later found in Florida, and they had not been seen since. So if anyone cares, which I don't think anyone does, they were captured.

a viewer's tip led the fbi to a marijuana operation in lake county florida shame on that narc well of course they're good at it stick with what you know uh terry and neil were arrested in october 1995 along with three other people agents confiscated over a million dollars worth of marijuana and cocaine they probably did like half of it too probably so they were both convicted on drug charges and served time in federal prison and have since been released neil was later arrested again for drug trafficking and possession uh in june 2003 he was sentenced to one year in prison um and he has since been released and i assume he's still growing marijuana somewhere it seems like the only thing this guy wants to do so good for him he has a talent he's not going to abandon that just because i mean hopefully he lives somewhere where it's legal now and yeah but then they don't let people who have criminal records grow it oh you're right they don't let people with the experience and knowledge and wisdom Yeah, it's really stupid. Well, if we could stop locking people up for this shit, that would be great. It's a huge waste of money. It's a huge change of time. It doesn't help anything. If we could let everybody in prison for these stupid drug charges go, that would be really great. Anyway, yeah, that was not really the best mystery. Thy grows pot.

did you also i swear we've had this exact same mystery before it was just obviously not very similar very similar um okay but my next one is cool i have an unexplained i do like this one this is almost like an unexplained last love ghost romance okay robert stack says it has long been said that love conquers all consider the romance of frank and theresa wilson joined in marriage in 1926 separated by frank's death in 1960 the mystery is does frank express his love and devotion from beyond the grave So, it was 34 years after Frank's death when this segment was filmed, and Teresa tells us that she feels his presence at all times. Together, they raised seven children, which is way too many, three girls, and four boys. We see photos that are really cute of Frank's 50th birthday, where he was given money. Teresa had carefully swirled away to buy their first television set, which is pretty adorable. So cute. Okay. The last time she saw Frank, which we get a reenactment of, they had woken up at their usual time of 6 a.m., and she went to the door to kiss him goodbye when he left for work. His last words to her were, goodbye, sweetheart.

It's going to make me cry. He actually had a heart attack on his way to work and never made it there. He died at 59 years old. Teresa, however, just kept living for like ever. It's true. So this has been 34 years since her death. Her children were preparing for her 80th birthday. Teresa's family grew to include more than two dozen grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren. That's a lot, kids.

Oh my goodness. Okay. So for Teresa's 80th birthday, her family wanted to do something special for her. And one of her daughters, Margaret, decided to put together a book of letters written by different members of the family telling Teresa how much she meant to them, which I think it's a really great idea. Oh my God. Every family has a Margaret. And I absolutely love it where she's like, I'm making a scrapbook. It's going to be special. I'm going to spend 300 hours on it. Yeah. No expense spared. Margaret gets to go on national TV and tell everyone about her project. And I love that for Margaret.

That's true. That's actually really great. If anyone wants to steal this letter writing idea, I think it is a good idea. I think it will make old people extremely happy. It's so cute. I love it. Feel free to steal that from Margaret. You don't even have to give her any credit. It's fine. Okay. So however, one of the letters was delivered in a most unusual fashion. In the middle of a sleepless night, Margaret looked over to the door of her room and saw a man standing there. And this reenactment is so funny to me because I never think of a ghost wearing like khakis and a belt and a buttoned up shirt. But anyway, he was just like, you know, wearing his normal clothes.

It was Frank from beyond the grave, white and glowing. And Margaret realized that she was looking at her father. And he said, Margaret, I'm here because I want you to take down a letter. So she grabbed her journal and began to write down what he said, which included dear Tress or dear Tess. I don't know. It was Tress. Tress. Okay. As you celebrate your 80th birthday, I want you to know I'll be at your side as you blow out the candles on your cake. Happy birthday, sweetheart. After he dictates the letter, he smiled and vanished.

Margaret woke up the next morning, assuming that she had had a weird dream, only to discover her journal did have this letter written down in the middle of the night. And it also included the phrase, if I were really here, I would shower you in sapphires as blue as the ocean to match your eyes. Such a poetic ghost. I know. So it was in September 1982. It was the night of the party. Teresa was brought to a big dining hall. She figured out it was a surprise party. This is absolutely hilarious, where she was like, it was my birthday, and they were driving me out of town. Obviously, I knew what was going on.

Like, I'm not an idiot. Yeah. We pulled up at like a big dining hall. Like, oh gee, I wonder. Anyway. I'm sure she so very much appreciated it. She just like pointed out that they didn't surprise her, which I feel like is an unnecessary thing to do. Well, I think her daughter pointed out first and the Unsolved Mysteries people interviewing her probably, I think asked her about it. I'm not sure she would have brought it up, but because her daughter was like, I don't know that she was that surprised. I think she had it figured out. And I think the interviewers asked Teresa about it. She was like, well, it was my birthday and they took me to a fucking event center.

She didn't say fucking. She's the proper lady. That would be amazing if she did that, though. Okay, so as part of the party, they set her down to give her her gifts, including... I'm sure Margaret made a huge deal of giving her this book of all the letters. It included a really bad drawing, one of the nephews it made. Well, no, it's cute. It's cute. And it looked like maybe the first or second letter was this ghost letter, which Margaret didn't explain at all, it seems like. She was just like, here it is, a letter from dad. So, Teresa...

At first, assumes Margaret, like, wrote it as if it was from him to sort of include him. Which would be very weird. I feel like Teresa is being nice about it, but that would be strange. Honestly, I think I would have... Okay, if I'm in this exact situation, I think I might have waited to explain what happened and give her the letter. I don't think I would just give her the letter and then act like that made total sense, which seems to be what happened. Because Teresa was, like, trying to figure out, like, how is there a letter from my dead husband in here? Not in his handwriting. Why did my daughter, like...

pretend to be him yeah this creative writing assignment about how he wants to shower me in sapphires anyway but eventually she was like no it's from this ghost and she had a little trouble coming around to the idea except for the fact that he included the term sweetheart which was you know part of his last words to her goodbye sweetheart and apparently no one else called her therese so i don't know why her kid wouldn't know that but apparently she didn't i believe it's 100 so it doesn't matter yeah it's fine um and uh so she came around to the idea that really his ghost had dictated the letter but then she's like but i wish he would appear to me that way that honestly was a good point and i kind of want to be like dude it would have meant more Appeared to Teresa. Also, it seems like he never appeared again. No, he just had a letter to write and then he was gone. So doesn't that kind of bum Teresa out? Like, well, he could come back and say hi to me, but he never does. Just letter writing, just belt wearing and letter writing. The letter did include him saying, I love you more as each day brings us closer together, which I feel like is a little weird after you're dead, but okay. And he says- Each day brings Teresa closer to the grave. Actually, yeah, I guess that's what that means. I love you more as each day brings us-

Closer together. Stay a while, though. I'll wait forever. And she said that she was glad that her husband would be waiting for her on the other side and that it made her less concerned about death. And we see that Unsolved Mysteries films this woman's 92nd birthday celebration. So we got to see her blow out the candles on that. Let's find out how long did this woman live? How did Unsolved Mysteries come upon this story? Is what I want to know. Did they write in? A magical scrapbook? Was Teresa a friend of a producer? How did they come across this? I don't know, but I really, really appreciate it. I'm glad that they did. Let's see.

So, Teresa lived for six more years and passed away in the year 2000. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so six more years. 1998? She passed away at the ripe old age of 98. That was a long life. Her daughter, Margaret, passed away in 2012. Only 12 years later, because that woman was so old. So, so old. It's just the cutest little story ever. I loved it. It's extremely quaint. I really appreciated it. I was expecting there to be more ghost appearances, but it was like, nope, just the one. I guess he's waiting on the other side. It doesn't really matter. They're together, yeah.

she is um teresa is on uh find a grave if you would like to pay your respects um also frank is if you want to say hey i'd like a visit frank i don't know he'll take requests i don't know that he uh looks at the find a grave website i don't know if ghosts use the web but um maybe he's listening to this podcast though frank i want you to appear to liz tonight yes frank come just a man in khakis and a belt with his white button-up shirt tucked in at the foot of your bed tonight what kind of gemstones would you give me frank and he's like i don't know you i would give you nothing Say I would give you nothing. I guess his appearance is gifted. You don't deserve any sapphires. We've never met. Ask him to come on our podcast. Yeah, please. Frank, please. Okay. That's my only mystery for this episode. So. All right. We've got one more. This one's weird. This one's weird. So I'm not, what was the category of this? I don't even know, but a missing person. Okay. Sure. I mean, it might be a family of a Vietnam soldier, soldier believes their son may still be alive.

So we open up at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Robert Sachs says that along with 58,000 who lost their lives, the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. also carries the names of hundreds of G.I.s who are officially unaccounted for. One such name is Robert C. Borton Jr., also known as Kurt. However, Kurt's family believes that he should never have been inscribed on the wall in the first place. For Kurt's sister Diane and the rest of the family, they are convinced that Kurt is alive and living in the United States with a new identity.

so uh we learned about when i have so many questions but go on this is a weird one so when current first enlisted in the marines we learned that he was 19 years old eight months later just 19 days after arriving in vietnam he found himself on night patrol uh and it was not long after that that robert porten received the visit that every father dreads so he describes uh the visit in which he was told uh that kurt was missing in action uh he hopes that obviously he says that he hopes they'd find him right away and listening they listen to the news basically every day hoping that something would come up and they would hear that he had been found but it never happened um and and what oh this sounds like torture for this family two years pass and not a single word on kurt's faith the military never like follows up with them at all uh which is terrible they're just left to wonder and listen to the news on the radio or whatever to be in this like state of limbo for so long sounds extremely stressful oh to not know what happened he had just gotten there i mean he'd been there for like less than two weeks uh so um they were while they were praying for a miracle according to wanda borden kurt's stepmother in september of 1968 they believed that they received such a miracle she said they subscribed to a marine magazine and they were flipping through it when all of a sudden they saw his picture they said it jumped out of the out at them um they said there's our son uh they weren't expecting to see a picture of him but there he was and unsolved mysteries does show the photograph

it's not the best photograph it's not um i can see the resemblance um if you google it you can see the side by side of the photo with a picture of kurt and i can see like the hairline especially uh you can definitely see a resemblance but it's not like an unusual hairline like no one else could have it um so i guess you could say maybe it was just wishful thinking and this person that resembled him uh stood out to them but they were convinced that they were looking at a picture of kurt taken a full year after he was reported missing um we hear from someone in the armed forces like some official person telling us that the person in that photograph was identified as someone else and i'm like well i mean i don't know what the like confidentiality rules on that are but it would have been really helpful maybe to like put his family in touch with them to verify that maybe the army claims that they reached out to each person in these photos and each person confirmed that that they were who they were in the photo but but you're right like for the family it's not going to be enough and they already think the army is covering something up so if that is someone else let them talk to him or let them talk to his family or something to verify that like no that's just someone who looks a lot like your son i don't know right right so they say that they took the picture to the marine casualty office um and they got a letter back saying that it couldn't be him because quote quote this didn't match that um basically they don't give specifics on at this point as to the evidence in the letter that uh disproved that that was their son but they clearly did not believe it

So then, a few years go by, and the Bortons come across what they believe was additional evidence. This was a frame from a 16mm film shot in a Viet Cong prison camp in 1968. According to Robert Borton, the prisoner in the still frame looked quite familiar to him. He said, as soon as I saw it, I said, that's my boy. That's him there again. So this is where we hear from the Army guy. This is Major Dave Greco. He's a spokesperson for the Marine Corps.

Leave me alone. He believed that the Bortons are mistaken. This is where he says that each of the service members in the photograph were positively identified. He even says we've spoken to each of them and none of them is Robert Borton. I think it would have been really helpful for his family to talk to those people then. Yeah, it would have. Or at least the person that they thought was their son. So Robert Stack says that if it had ended with two photographs, Kurt's family may have dropped the entire matter, but the Bortons say that there is much more to this story. According to Robert, in the summer of 1976, he was approached by two strangers who claimed to be agents with the Department of Defense.

uh this is what he says they want to know if for my own my son's own personal safety if i would declare him dead he said no i will not do that and they told me i'd get a large sum of money and i said i'm not concerned about money uh they got in the car and left uh and at that point they said not to tell anyone about it So this is extremely strange. I'm interested to know if other people were approached like this. Is this like some scam people were running? I don't get it. I was wondering about that too. But ultimately, like after, so, well, okay. So first of all, the Marine spokesperson denies that that's how the Marines, that's how anything works in the military. He says- They're not just approaching people in parking lots out of uniform, demanding people sign letters. I wrote down his exact quote. We do things in a very professional manner. We would not approach someone to elicit them to change their son's status in a public parking lot of a shopping mall, which-

I feel like I want to be true. I mean, I can't imagine this is how they would do this. That's not how they would do things above board. That's not the official way they do things, but is it the way they do things when they're not supposed to be doing them? Maybe. It still seems weird, though. Well, it seems extremely weird, and Robert claims that the two men pursued him aggressively over a period of weeks, always confronting him in public places.

Robert can't read. He's functionally illiterate, which is how Unsull Mysteries describes him. So he could not read the documents that they were trying to force him to sign. Eventually, without knowing what the document said, he did sign. He said, and so I agreed to declare him dead for his own safety when they told me it was for his safety. He's like, well, at least I know he's alive.

So, which I guess you would feel that way. So in the end, Robert received a check for $43,000. The men swore him to secrecy, but he eventually confessed to his family. How did he keep $43,000 from his family? I don't know. I feel like that's the point in which he confessed. I feel like he kept it a secret until he received $43,000 and then he had to be like, look, this is where it came from. I don't think his wife found out for like 10 years. Are you serious? How did I miss that? I think he kept it a secret for them for a very long time. And I was like, this is a ton of money to this family. Yeah. He's just sitting on $43,000. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. You're probably right. I probably just missed it.

But anyway, at some point he told his family and they decided to go to Washington, D.C. to further investigate Kurt's case. On several occasions, they were allowed to examine Kurt's official files. According to Diane, the entries regarding Kurt's death kept changing. She said that at first they had him killed in March or April of 1966. Then he was killed in 1967. They had a story of him being with an engineering crew and being killed there. But then they had another story of him being killed in other places with other people several different times. So this kept changing, which obviously does not instill confidence in this family at all.

This is how Major Greco responds to this. That's his name? That sounds so fake. Major Greco. So this is his response. I think that a lot of what the families read may be the report of witnesses. These people could have been villagers who were remembering things that happened to them possibly 25 years ago. So there could be errors that happened over the years. Many times...

what he's kind of saying the file contains like eyewitness reports that aren't like official like it's not necessarily the government is saying what's happened they've like compiled all the information from different people but he also kind of like tries to blame the eyewitnesses and it's like look these people are farmers they don't know what year it is and i was like okay so the reason your files are screwy is because the vietnamese are dumb like this is what gave me this is what gave me pause because i do not remember writing this down but this is his quote many times they all and they being the vietnam civilians only understand things from the cycles of planting and harvesting crops What does that have to do with anything? He was saying they don't know what year it is. He's trying to blame the Vietnamese people for their files not being accurate. I just don't see how that's their problem.

Also, guess what they owe us? Nothing. Oh my god. So the Bortons continued to dig for evidence that Kurt was still alive. In the process, the family believed that someone was becoming increasingly curious about them. So they think they're calling attention to themselves. Diane and the other family members became convinced that their phones were tapped. One of Diane's cousins is certain that the entire family was being watched. That's so creepy. This guy agreed to be interviewed by Unsull Mysteries but asked that his identity not be revealed.

He says that every morning there would be a car pulled out of the office parking lot and would follow him to work. He would then find the same car, the exact same car behind him on his way home after that for about a month and a half, maybe two months. Eventually he wasn't followed anymore, but then he would start seeing them again. So they would go away and they would just, the same car would start following him again. What if I was like, oh yeah, that was me. Sorry about that.

How dare you? I went through a light stalking phase. I apologize. Who among us? So as part of his job at a security company, Diane's cousin often ran routine credit checks. At Diane's request, he entered Kurt's social security number into the system and made an unsettling discovery. He says that when he entered it into the system, it came back as an invalid entry. That number has never been issued. The same day, he says, I left work and was headed home and I was approached by someone.

this person very pleasantly called him by his name and then when he got within you know arm's reach he grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed a gun at his stomach it's a weird reenactment check it out it's bizarre so he gets up in his face he has this gun pointed at his stomach and he threatens to harm his family um he's like yeah so he's keeping his tone like really friendly in case everyone can overhear him he's just like yeah so you don't want to do that anymore yeah like and because the cousin is like what are you talking about he's like you know don't do it again you know like you're just not gonna want to do that anymore right guy yeah i this this is the part that makes me extremely suspicious because this family seems like the most normal they do family that has ever existed and I have no idea what like what else could be causing this like why would people be following them accosting them with guns in the parking lot like something is weird here so boring I think the question is is it government related or is it somehow and I don't really get how like some other type of scam like are people trying to But they're not getting any money from them. In fact, they gave them $43,000. So this is the worst scam in the world. Or best scam. Come scam me. I mean, if I want to be scammed like this, to be honest. I mean, I guess the other option is they're just making it all up. But it doesn't really seem like that. And why? Yeah, why? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. Usually with these situations, you have the government, which I don't really trust, versus a family that their judgment is clouded by grief. And so it's hard to know.

you know who's right because both sides of the story seem a little bit questionable where it's like well obviously you want that to be your son you miss him you're grieving for him and then with the government it's like well i don't know if i can believe anything you say because you're just gonna cover your own ass but this case unlike some similar ones we've talked about escalates to this very weird place it's bizarre it's completely bizarre and if it was only the photos i would be tempted to say you're just seeing grainy photos of someone with a very standard army issued haircut that is probably not your son and probably it wasn't but Then these people approach his father in the parking lot and convince him to change his status to dead. And his status does change. That's how he gets on the memorial. He is considered dead. And the only time his parents agreed to change him from missing an action to dead was in that parking lot. And then they got the money for it. So that is truly bizarre. And then this guy's accosting his cousin the day he looks up his social security number. It's very weird. I honestly don't know what to make about this at all. I find it incredibly strange.

It's very strange. And it gets stranger. So Robert Sacks says the most mysterious events were yet to come. In 1990, a full 24 years after Kurt Borton supposedly died in Vietnam, Diane moved to a suburb of Washington, D.C. And it was there that Diane believed she had a chance encounter with her brother at a gas station. So she's at a gas station. She sees a guy that looks just like him. And she's stunned. She said, it was my brother. I couldn't even believe it. I didn't have time to react.

And he said something weird to her about how it was going to snow. And she was like, it was a beautiful, sunny October day. He says like, it looks like snow today. Or something like, don't you think it looks like it's going to snow? And it just gets in a car. And she's like, first of all, no, it fucking doesn't. But it's almost like just an innocuous thing that no one would really think too much about. Except it's going to stand out because it's not true. It's just a mysterious thing to say. It's just very mysterious. I don't know. To turn to her and say, it looks like it's going to snow today. And then get in your car and drive away. Fucking bizarre. So it's not going to snow. And also you haven't seen each other in 24 years and everybody thinks you're dead. Yeah.

So the next April, Diane claims that she saw him again. She says she was driving down the highway when a red car pulled up beside her. She said she looked over and it was the same guy. It was her brother. And it was also the same red car that she had saw at the gas station. She said that he looked at me and he grinned and shot in front of us and then slowed down.

She said that she wrote down the license plate number and then he sped up and zipped away. He went, oh, he exited at an exit that led to the Quantico Marine Station too, which is an interesting detail. So Diane traced the license plate number to a man who lived in Virginia, but he claimed to know nothing about Kurt. A few months later, in July of 1991, Diane said that Kurt made another mysterious appearance. By this time, Diane said that at least one of Kurt's war buddies had confirmed to her that Kurt was alive, but that he had come home a disturbed and dangerous man.

What a bizarre thing to say. It's extremely strange. So this time when she saw him, she decided not to approach him. She said, I had been told that he was potentially dangerous and I had my two children with me. I believe, was this where they were visiting the Vietnam Memorial, weren't they? He was like leaning against it. Yeah, he was staring at them. They like, there's some, you know, like hills and trees. They're like coming out of the tree area and he's just like leaning against the wall. And her daughter's like, isn't that your brother? Like, isn't that your dead brother, Kurt?

And the daughters want to go up to them. They are upset. They're like, that's my uncle. I want to go see him. And she was fucking terrified and was like, I've been told that he's dangerous. He's clearly here for us. He's staring us down menacingly. I'm not going to approach him. It's very weird. It's extremely strange. So today the Borton family believes that Kurt is or was part of a secret government operation. Diane in particular believes that her brother has attempted to contact the family in order to let them know that he's still alive without endangering himself by exposing his new identity.

But why? I don't know. The army guy, Greco, whatever, the army guy, I'm sorry, do not yell at me. The Marine spokesperson said that he would, he said Kurt would not have been chosen for a special operation. He didn't have any special skills, any special training. But my response to that, my response to that is, well, isn't that the guy you want for your special operation? Like, obviously you would say that, but what if you disappeared him and then he went into special training for whatever skills he needed for his special operation and then you're able to say, look, this guy, like, no, he didn't have any special skills or training. Well, of course.

The person who goes missing isn't the super highly trained special operations guy. Because then, of course, he's in a special operation. I don't know. I'm probably making no sense. No, I think that's actually a good point. Because when the Greco, whatever, when he was saying, look, your brother was a loser. We wouldn't have picked him. I was kind of like, yeah, good point. But when you say, well, of course. Of course. That's what you want us to think. And now I'm back going, oh. It's a quagmire. Oh, you're right. You're right. I don't know. Something weird is going on here. Should we see if there's an update on some mysteries? Yeah. Yeah. Robert Borkin.

Okay, on result. Oh, we didn't talk about the remains. This is from the Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. In February of 1993, a partial set of remains was sent from Vietnam to the United States. They were transported to the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for examination. On April 21st, 1995, military personnel announced that they had been positively identified as belonging to Kurt. However, his family has refused to accept them and believes that he is still alive. The military believes that Kurt was killed with the other soldiers on the night of his disappearance. One of the other soldiers' personal effects were found close to where Kurt's remains were found. Sadly, Kurt's mother, Violet, passed away in 1995 and his father, Bob, in 2015. Okay, so they talk.

about and I might get this wrong because I didn't write this down they talk about going somewhere and like The military claimed that all they had was teeth. And when asked why all they had was teeth, the military told his family that there had been grave robbers. And for some reason, they left behind the teeth. And the military, I don't know if it was the fucking army or not. The U.S. government says that they confirmed his identity with dental records, but the family never provided them with dental records. It was dental records that the U.S. government or the military provided themselves, which is extremely suspect to me.

so first of all only his teeth were left behind like were they in was his jaw were they attached to a jaw the family says it was just teeth and there was nothing the military said there was nothing left because of grave robbers which what and then they apparently used like a rich trade for human bones that grave robbers are like taking i don't it seems racist i don't know i have never heard of this before that there was a remains they conveniently left behind just his teeth and they were able to conveniently identify him using dental records that they had already Yeah. I don't know about this. I don't know. Maybe eventually there'll be some DNA testing that will prove this all wrong, but this is weird and I kind of don't believe it. It's always frustrating with these segments when you have these military officials being like, I don't know why people are so suspicious of us. And it's like, because of your own actions. Because of your very suspicious behavior. Like, I know this family is grieving, but obviously we would tell them the truth. It's kind of like, no, that's not obvious at all. It's not obvious. In fact, the information you've given them has contradicted itself.

so yeah i have i have no idea what to make of this i hope that kurt managed to get in touch with his family in a way that like the government doesn't know about and we don't know about and i don't know they could catch up i have no idea what to think about any of this usually i'm like look he's dead i'm so sorry you know i feel for all these families that are torn apart on both sides by this totally pointless war that did not need to happen for any reason and it's just a tragedy and it completely fucking sucks and there's like nothing good to take away from it but this one has this like extra extra weird level to it that i don't so weird don't know what to like wouldn't that woman know her own brother? Like, it's hard to be like, no, she was wrong three times. His father received a check for $43,000. Where did that come from? Yeah, Greco never explained that, did he? How could you? Like, where did that come from? Yeah, I don't know. He is declared dead. His father couldn't read the files. The whole thing. It's layers of weirdness. It's extremely mysterious. It reminds me sort of of how that theory that after you see a UFO, the men in black behave intentionally weird so that no one will believe you when you talk about it later. Because this is just...

It's just very odd. I don't know what to make of it. I really wish the government could be more upfront with people who have lost family members, but you know what? They don't really listen to me. That's the thing. Then we get an unnecessary update, and then it's over. Okay, so that's the episode. Should we rate it? We have to, by law. Okay, mysteriousness. Okay, I was going to say not mysterious, but you know what? This last one, so weird. Also, can ghosts write letters? So let's say thumbs up. I think it's extremely mysterious. Yeah, it is, actually. Thumbs up. Reenactments? That ghost reenactment, though.

If you like a ghost in khakis, that's a reenactment for you. Glowing. Glowing. Yeah. Sure. Thumbs up. I don't really care. They're fine. Yeah, it was fine. How do you think they... Okay, so they had a reenactment with all those marijuana plants. Were those fake? I mean, I don't know. They look real. Maybe they weren't really marijuana plants.

I mean, they had photos of the actual barn, I think, but they also had a reenactment. That's a good question. Was Robert Stack growing marijuana? It came from Robert Stack's basement. With the excuse, no, no, no, we need this for Unsolved Mysteries. This is a prop. Yeah. Guys, this isn't, I don't smoke this. We film here. And then the cops are like, oh, okay. Carry on, sir. It's okay, Robert Stack. Yeah, it was reenactment. Fashion? Nothing remarkable. Nothing stood out to me except the ghost of the khakis, but I'm not sure that we can count that. Yeah, thumbs down. Yeah, no, nothing extraordinary. And Robert Stack? Barely in it. Where was he?

I don't know. Growing pot. Growing pot, I think. Thumbs down again. His grow op. Yeah, thumbs down forever. Honestly, I like this episode. Your ghost lost love was the quaintest thing I've ever seen. I loved it. I really could have done without the marijuana seller. That was very pointless. That seemed like a local news story. You don't need to show that to the whole nation years later. You certainly don't need to show it again years later. No one cares. But the rest of it was good. This last mystery was so mysterious. Yeah, I feel like they should make a movie about it or something.

I agree. I don't know. It's odd. I'm going to say three and a half for this episode. What do you think? Yeah, I think so, too. If we had a better mystery than the first one, it would be a solid four. Maybe even a five. I don't know. Probably not a five. Maybe a four and a half, but. I think they dropped the ball a little with that segment and then also putting in a whole segment again as an update. Agreed. So we don't get four mysteries. So I feel it was just a little bit cheated. Yeah, agreed. Okay, so three and a half. Robert Stack's out of it. Three and a half. Five, Robert Stack. My dog's going to start barking. Just go home.

Bark away. Okay, really quick. Let's do recommendations. Sort of in the spirit of your paperbacks from hell recommendation, which I did love that book. I recently read Paperback Crush, the totally radical history of 80s and 90s teen fiction by Gabriel Moss. This is sort of set up a similar way, but this is a look at paperbacks written for girls, preteens in the 80s and 90s. So like The Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High, R.L. Stine Field, Fear Street, those type of books.

And this was such a delightful, enjoyable read. I thought it was honestly hilarious. I laughed out loud several times. She's super funny. And it does have lots of pictures of the covers in there, which is also super important. Love that pastel artwork. So many girls in sweaters looking quizzically off to one side. I didn't read all of the books in here by any means. I was definitely not interested in books where kids did normal kid stuff, like went to camp. No fucking thank you. If kids were not solving mysteries or something, I was like, throw this away. This is garbage to me. But it was still really funny to read about different trends in publishing. And it's sort of the very beginning.

beginning of ya literature which is you know now it's such a huge market um but they sort of but it's the beginning of them going like hey we have children's books we have adult books what about books for people that are not those things and um these were the ones that were like specifically marketed to girls so there's a lot of yeah like babysitting kids forming like slumber party clubs um or yeah occasionally solving mysteries i also loved those 80s nancy drew books have everybody read those oh my god she was always going on vacation and like finding a smuggling ring or something which I absolutely thought was going to be my life. And I'm still disappointed that I have yet to bring down one smuggling ring while on vacation. I just, this was such a like enjoyable walk down memory lane. And it's just, it's, it's not long. It's very quick read, but I thought it was super funny. And I would recommend it to anyone that read books from that era. I'm into it. I'll probably read this book. It sounds great. I'm sure you read some of the girl and her horse books. They talk about those for a while too.

I almost exclusively read horse girl books. So this is very relatable. Pony Pals. Yeah. The Saddle Club books. This series called Thoroughbreds, which was like basically the same thing, except about Thoroughbreds. And what I liked about those books was there was like.

a hundred of them there were so many a lot of these books like i was a very avid um sweet valley high reader in maybe like the fourth grade and um i'm also disappointed high school was nothing like that what a lie um but yeah there's like hundreds of those books oh so many those thoroughbred series there was like multiple generations where like the girls in the first like 40 books grew up and had children and then their girls were the main characters and it was a whole thing I mean, you have to know. You have to know about the whole dynasty. I really appreciated that the author kept referring to Jessica Wakefield from the Sweet Valley High books as a sociopath because she absolutely was. It was not normal. It was like, we're what? It's, you know, your average set of California blonde beautiful twins where one is a sociopath and one is super boring. And I was like, yes, that is what those books were about. Those books are completely nutty and, oh my god, I could not read enough of them.

i'm just thinking about how the fact that the plot of one of them is that uh i think she hits her head in a motorcycle accident and it makes her real slutty that was the literally a teenage girl riding in the kentucky derby like that was It could happen. It could happen in any second. It could have been me. I'm still waiting for that head trauma that makes me real slutty. Oh, God. It's never too late. It's such an enjoyable read. From the plot summaries, all of these people are terrible. All of them. Like the bullies and the not bullies. You're like, wow, everyone here sucks. This is fascinating. It's very fun. I would recommend it. I love it. Tell your library to order a copy. 100% reading it. You have to. I'm going to make you.

Do you have a recommendation for us this week? Or is your recommendation just go outside? Vitamin D? I mean, that is my recommendation. But if you're not going to go outside, I have a show that you could watch. Ooh, okay. Which is a Hulu documentary. Hulu is a streaming service that I often forget that I have. I feel like it flies below the rate. Unless I want to watch something that's currently on TV, like Abbott Elementary or something, I really don't turn to Hulu. But this true crime documentary came on my radar because I think a podcast had talked about it or something.

I was intrigued and it is captive audience. Did you ever watch the docuseries? I know my first name is Steven. No, me neither, but you don't have to appreciate this documentary. So this documentary is about Steven Stainer and his family. Steven, I'm not going to spoil it, but Steven, he was kidnapped as a child and he lived with his captor for seven years and then he escaped and his story, like it was all over the media. It was a media circus before like that was a thing.

And eventually, as an adult, he connected with a documentary production company or something. And they did a docu-series called I Know My First Name is Steven about him. And the reason I like this documentary is because it's unlike any true crime documentary or any documentary really that I have ever seen before. They have all this footage of these interviews with Steven as a child. and they get like the actors who played characters in i know my first name is steven as adults to like read these interviews as if they were like as if so they get the actor who played steven as an adult to read steven's words and it's like it's very captivating at first i wasn't sure what to make of it i was like okay this is a little weird but i quickly came around to it because it's fascinating because you get this guy because the other thing is that this i'm not entirely sure what year this docuseries came out but it was at a time where they were trying to like gloss over a little bit about what actually happened to Stephen.

You get this man who played this character of Stephen as a child, and he's an adult now, and he's reading these words, kind of like realizing what the reality was for Stephen. The whole thing is fascinating. They get the, there's a twist. If you don't know the story of this family, it's absolutely tragic, but also extremely fascinating. And there's a twist with Stephen's brother, Carrie, and they also get the actor who played Carrie to read, to do the same thing. It's very interesting as like, I don't know, a stylistic choice for this documentary. I feel like...

Unlike a lot of true crime documentaries, they really give the family space to tell their story. Because the other thing is that this family feels like they never really got to tell their story. There's this documentary out there, and this is what the world knows of their father. And a little bit of a spoiler, but their father dies when his daughter's really young, and Stephen dies in a tragic accident. And so his daughter and his son, actually, really only know him through this TV show. And so they've never really gotten to know their real father. They feel like the public has never really gotten to know him, and so this is a chance to tell his story. The whole thing is fascinating. Also, the twist that happens halfway through.

has also tainted their family. And so I thought that this documentary was extremely well done. Very interesting. The whole story, if you're into true crime, it's fascinating. I knew of the documentary. I know my first name is Steven, but I never watched it. So to get this side of it was very fascinating. And I thought it was good. And I do recommend it. I think it's maybe only three episodes. Yeah, it's only three episodes. I liked it a lot. I'll check that out.

that is my recommendation while you're reading paperback crush okay everybody first though go outside oh my god go outside so um you know we have a patreon you should be as cool as hell and then sign up for that uh we have a website perhaps it's you.com maybe i'll finally correct our Patreon link in the show notes. Oh, now that it's actually fixed. Well, no, it's okay. No, this is what happened is that for the longest time I had it spelled correctly as far as what our podcast was called, but it was incorrect because there was a spelling error in the URL. We fixed, then it was, it was pointed out to me that the URL, that the link was broken because we actually have a spelling error. So then I updated the link in our show notes to have the spelling error and then you fix the URL. So now the link is broken again and I have to fix it.

We are professional. So just go to Patreon and search for us and you'll find us. You can be listening to Mac and I talk about Columbo for a mere dollar. Like, what are you going to do with that dollar that's better than that? What a good deal. You should download Repod to listen to our podcast and even our Patreon episodes because they are the app with the decency, integrity, bravery to give us money, which we do truly appreciate.

And I don't know. Subscribe. Follow us on the social medias at Perhaps It's You. Yeah. Do all that stuff. I mean, do the normal stuff. Buy some t-shirts. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We have a merch tab on our website. PerhapsIt'sYou.com. You want to be wearing a t-shirt that says Hello Friends and Anemies and BD Wong, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We will be back in two weeks. Thank you, five listeners. Thanks, everyone. Keep working. Bye.

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This episode was published on May 19, 2022.

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