We are recording. We are recording. Hi, Samantha. Hello. At the beginning of every episode now, because in our failed attempt to record just mere moments ago, I asked if she was okay. Like, I'm singing, having a job of good times, Samantha, just deadpan. Are you okay? Are you sure you're all right? You're sounding a little manic right now. I don't know. I'm just happy to be talking to you. I'm sorry. Well, that's fair enough.
Also, we have a snack time coming and I'm maybe a little too excited. Snacks with snack. Okay, but first we have a couple updates. One is that we recently got some feedback from a patron that left and the feedback was that we got boring. So I would like all of our present patrons that have stuck with us, you will eventually be getting a sticker of our logo with got boring stamped on it in red to thank you for sticking with us. So those are ordered. I don't know when I'll get them out, but everybody, every level, if you've given us money, if you're a current patron, you'll be getting one of these stickers.
Just, you know, so funny. If you're not like that familiar with the back end of Patreon, when people cancel their pledges, they can leave a comment. Most people, I feel like don't leave comments. And you can, you can, I think you can choose a reason from like a drop down menu and then you can leave a comment. And I think most people are like, my financial situation changed or whatever other reason. Don't give a comment. Fine. You know, I understand in this economy, right? I keep giving money. I get it. Totally fair. More than fair. This person just said other got bored.
and honestly I don't I try not to look at those super often because I don't want to worry about it too much but just every so often it like gets the best of me and I'm like I gotta I gotta know and then my fear of course is that I've like put my foot in my mouth and I've said something like truly terrible that I need to like atone for and I'm gonna feel like so bad we're gonna finally be canceled the day is gonna come yeah exactly so to just see that I just got boring I was like oh I feel a relief so we know we're boring we're boring already I'm not sure I got boring I was like sure maybe whatever but for some reason it just strikes me as really funny and of course You know, most of our listeners are such sweetie pies that when I posted this, everybody was like, really defensive. It was like, how dare this person? We're laughing our ass. That's the funniest thing. I feel like that person wanted to be rated zero out of five Robert Stacks, but I can't do it. I was too amused. You get a two. Two out of five. And you already gave us money. We appreciate that money. It's keeping the boring show going. I mean, really, they're the sucker because they gave us, I don't know how much. Yeah, the trade keeps rolling in part because of them. My other update is that we have a new line of Barbie Corps merch. Hell yeah. It says, solve mysteries, bitches in Barbie font.
which don't come from me, Mattel. Oh my God. It's not in Barbie font. It's inspired by a different doll that is pink sometimes. And it's a doll. Yeah, it's doll font. I don't even know. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you can get that on t-shirts and sweatshirts and black tank tops. Of course, Arden. And also now we have new items, steel water bottle, which I think looks so cute. It looks really good on the water bottle. I gotta say. And the pennant is perhaps the most popular item. And I think I need one. It looks really cute on the mint green or maybe the purple. Solve mysteries, bitches. Don't you want that hanging up in your house? I do actually. I can have it in the back of my like Zoom.
so um if you need you know any such items uh you know you're looking for a christmas gift yeah depending on where you are check that shipping they are made to order but if you ordered like right now i think you'd be fine but just check what it's gonna say it's gonna come um I was going to say. Oh, yeah. So it's perhapsisyou.com. Go to merch. That'll take you to the shop. And then you can see all of our cute new items. And I'm working on getting us some spooky train day items. So it should be coming in the approximate near future. Heck, yeah. You're going to want to get that as a Christmas gift for yourself. Yeah. That might be after Christmas. So you can just be like, that can be a gift to yourself to brace the new year. Yeah. Start the new year off right. It's a spooky train day. Yeah, exactly. But I love the Self-Mystery Switches. It's so cute. It's so good. Great. Great, great stuff. Do we have any other updates? Yes.
I want to give an update at the very end of our last episode. We made some bold claims about the show on Netflix. Oh, right. And we were wrong. We did not know. Okay. To be fair, we were going with how they pitched the show, which is deceptive. I'm going to say it's deceptive. So we recorded in person that last episode. And when we were done, we decided to immediately try and watch this show. And I'm going to say it's really bad. It's called Easy Bake Bake Off or something. And I was assuming that you had to use an Easy Bake oven to make a food.
I have a theory. It's just a fucking cooking show. It has nothing to do with anything. They try. I think so. I have a theory that they originally tried to use Easy Bake Ovens or maybe a giant size like a light bulb or something and it didn't work and they had to like change their form. Yeah, I agree. I think that this is honestly what I think happened. Trixie Mattel has done a series of videos where she makes things in Easy Bake Ovens and they've been like, you know, they've gotten a ton of views.
So someone at Netflix saw that they already hired Trixie and Katya to like watch stuff for them. Right. And they were like, Oh, we should do a show where we have people cook things in easy big ovens. Well, Trixie's just like making cakes and like the stuff that's supposed to go in the oven. I don't know that you can do like actual competitive, like maybe how you decorated them or something. I don't know. I think they tried to do that. And yeah, it just flopped. It was, it was like all the cakes look bad or it was just like, you could only make, it's a tiny little thing. You can just like slide it. Yeah. It's not good. And like the format of the show, the reason why I think.
they originally were going to use easy bake ovens because the format of the show is they have two challenges. The first one is like an easy quote unquote like challenge where they have to make something fast or something whatever. And then the second like main challenge, the elimination challenge or whatever, they have to use what they call, I forget the exact wording they use. It's like inspired by an easy bake oven or something, but they don't explain, they do not explain how this oven is inspired by the easy bake. It's just an oven. I'm pretty sure. I don't think they can control the temp, but that might be it.
I think that the oven turns on and stays on for a set period of time. I forgot how long, like 45 minutes or something. And then it's at one temperature and you can't control it. I think that, but they do not explain this at all. It appears like a normal oven. It looks exactly like a normal oven, except yeah, they just can put it in there. They kind of put a logo on these sliding doors. Oh, it's so.
and it gets shaped like the outside is like shaped like an easy it's extremely stupid um the very first episode they have their first challenge was they had to what was it they had to make a midnight snack you had to make something the idea was like you're hungover it's late at night or maybe not you're hungover whatever you're like about to go to bed you've been drinking it's like midnight make an easy meal and then people are making like fucking sauces and shit and I was like you've got to be kidding me and Samantha was like yeah in this situation you eat shredded cheese out of the bag over your sink and you know that she's right everybody you're not like frying shit. You're not putting things in a wonton wrapper. The moment a block of cheese and a grater came out, I was like, I'm sorry.
I would have been the bitch that just like sat there, filed my nails for the 35 minutes or whatever. And then yeah, just walked up to that handsome guy from Queer Eye and was with a bag of cheese and was like, this is what you do. Well, you could have easily won the challenge because you get a bonus if you finish first. So you could have just gone to the fridge, took out a bag of shredded cheese, put it on the counter, hit your I'm done button. I'm done. This is my, this is my midnight snack. You're over there making homemade wontons. It's called peanut butter and a spoon, bitch. Give me my points. Maybe you open up a bag of chocolate chips if you're feeling fancy and you dip the chocolate, the peanut butter cover spoon in the bag of chocolate chips.
Sounds great. Yeah. If you take like a banana, you smear some peanut butter, maybe drizzle a little honey on there. You're good. Go to bed. Go to bed. We watched two episodes in the second episode. They had to, it was like a date night theme and they had to make like a quick date, like your dates at the door or whatever. You have to throw something together. One guy made like fucking oysters. Yeah. You don't even have to cook that. You have to be prepared. You don't just like have fucking fresh oysters on hand.
You have to be prepared. That's not like, oh, let me throw something together. Fresh oysters. Does he literally live in the sea? This is like King Titan. He's like, oh, I have the snack right here. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? It makes no sense. Also, the woman that keeps winning. I mean, we watched two episodes. I don't know that I'm going to watch anymore. But the woman who won the first two episodes made, she called it a casserole. It was literally breaded chicken breasts. This bothered Samantha so much. A side of roasted broccoli. She called that a casserole.
I'm sorry. I know there's the casserole versus hot dish debate. This is not that. This is the fact that that is in no way, no place on earth is that a casserole. I love how much is, you're right. I mean, you're right. She just said that because she cooked it all in one pan, but that's not, no, that's a one pan meal. That's not a casserole. Also, this one keeps winning despite the fact that she's making the most white people food you've ever seen in her life. It looks like it has, doesn't even look like a salt on it, frankly. It looks, it's very, it's really the epitome of like.
what's that magazine they sell online from the grocery store that's like women's world or something okay there's this like papery magazine that is always about weight loss but also has pictures of elaborate cakes on it yes i don't know what it's called but i don't exactly it's called like gaslighting the magazine or something because it's all about like weird stupid tricks to lose weight that you shouldn't do while showing you like very high calorie food but i feel like there if you made the recipes that were in that i feel like it would be this woman's food and i mean i can't cook like i make white people tacos all the time but i'm not going on a cooking show winning with my like yeah packet of taco seasoning and ground beef like that's not yeah it's i can't i cannot recommend it i can't and i it's really bad and it's honestly a travesty that they call it inspired by an easy bake oven are you kidding me that makes what does that mean i mean nothing cook your food with a light bulb or get out they should have at least given them like toaster ovens or something if the easy baked oven thing didn't work you can cook a lot in a toaster they should be grilling a grilled cheese with an iron like you would in college yes yeah make a soup with a coffee percolator oh it's so gross
Okay, yeah, so that gets an un-recommendation for us. We know you've been waiting these past three weeks to find out if you should watch that show. I should apologize. We didn't have a new episode last week. Our fortnightly schedule was thrown off. I've been under the weather. Maybe my voice still sounds a little bit weird, but I opted to not record last week because I had zero energy.
I feel like I would have sounded like this. I got to wake Liz up halfway through the recording. Yeah. Anyway, anyway, I'm very excited because we have a snacks with segments. Of course, we were at the Marshalls at the Harbar Mall and we saw these jelly bellies. There is holiday favorites box. Also, I appreciate that this box of jelly bellies has them separated by flavor. Yeah. So I don't have to rummage through. That's the eleganza for you. That's how you know this is like a nice holiday present. I just have to throw in. So, okay. I feel like on this podcast a lot, I bring up.
Me and Samantha going to the Harmar Mall, which if you're not in the area, look, it's my favorite mall. It's also a fucking dump. It really is. It's more like a strip mall that just happens to have a little bit of indoor area. And since the pandemic, all the shops that were just on the inside have closed. All the big stores are still there, but it is a little eerie. And now the like HomeGoods won't let you even like exit into the mall part. You have to like go all the way outside. It's so weird. So also so inconvenient because if you're at Car Mar, you're obviously going to Marshall's HomeGoods and Michael's and they're kind of far away from each other. And so you have to go like all the way around the whole freaking mall practically. Yeah, it's so odd.
Recently, there was a wide text alert that went out to tell people that there was a killer in the vicinity of the Harmar Mall and to be on the lookout, I guess. Apparently, it went out to way more people than it was supposed to. I don't really know. But the point is that I was informed of this by Samantha. I was literally on my way there. And I was like, oh, should I not go? What's happening? And Mac, of course, was just like, well, isn't there always a killer on the loose? I was like, OK, well, thank you. Thank you for being so concerned with my safety. Anyway, I was telling this story at dinner.
and um a friend of my brother's who i don't know if they're listening hopefully not just goes i've never heard anyone talk about the harmar mall as much as you and i'm obsessed with this comment and i want that on a shirt this is such a niche story i love it so much i don't care i don't care people that are not in the area how many stories do i have to hear about la traffic How many stories do I have to hear about how the New York subway is broken again and you can't get on the such and such line? This is kind of big. I love talking about the Harmar Mall. A similar comment will be levied against me someday because I'm always talking about the Harmar Mall, which is a huge dump. And also down the street from a normal mall. No, fuck that mall. I want to go to Harmar. I want to get sushi. And then I want to walk through HomeGoods and Marshalls. It's our favorite because it has all you can eat sushi, which is pretty delicious. And after you gorge yourself, you can wander over to the Marshalls and HomeGoods and smell out the candles. And it's a really good time. But anyway.
The dig of someone saying, I've never heard anyone talk about the Harmar Mall as much as you. I might put on my gravestone. I love it so much. But it just occurred to me that I was like, well, here I am once again. Okay, now we are going to try these Jelly Belly flavors brought to you by the Harmar Mall. Do they pay us? No, they should. Could you imagine if the Harmar Mall sponsored this podcast? Also, there used to be, it's closed now, RIP, the Hallmark store in Hallmark, but that's where we used to go buy our Beanie Babies. I don't know. So, yeah. They always had good Halloween clearance. Anyway, I guess that wasn't keeping them open. But the flavors we have to sample today are hot chocolate, eggnog, pumpkin pie, candy cane, and cranberry sauce. I am most interested in trying cranberry sauce. Okay, I am too.
So let's do that one last. Oh, you want to do that one last? I was going to save candy cane for last so that the mint didn't spoil my palate. You're so right. Okay, we'll start with hot chocolate. Okay, this tastes totally standard. I don't really like it. It tastes like a hot chocolate jelly belly. I mean, a chocolate jelly belly. I don't know what's hot about it. No, it's not hot. It just tastes like cheap chocolate. I'm not really enthused. I don't know really what I expected. Maybe like a hint of marshmallow, but no. Oh, that would have been good. Okay. Now I've got to cleanse my palate for eggnog. I'm afraid for this one, I've got to say. I like eggnog.
Oh, it just really fucking tastes like eggnog. Wow, it really does. Okay, this is amazing. You get that, like, nutmeg-y taste. If you like eggnog, you will like this. Travis is going to love these. It's good. I like it a lot. Wow, that tastes like an explosion of eggnog in one little bite. I don't know how many of them I could eat, but it's really good. It's very sweet. Very sweet. Okay. Pumpkin pie. This one tastes like a candle smells. Yeah. This is a mess. It tastes like I just had a mouthful of potpourri. There should be more, I feel like. I don't understand. This is a confusing flavor.
It just kind of tastes like spices. I'm not getting any pumpkin. I'm not getting any crust. It's like the foam on top of a pumpkin spice latte. Or maybe like the pumpkin spice syrup. Yeah, no, I'm not into it. Okay, now. Cranberry sauce. This is the one I'm most interested in. Oh, that is good. That's really nice. It's a tiny bit tart. It does taste like cranberry, not just like generic red berry.
That's my favorite by far. I want to eat all. I wish this whole thing was cranberry sauce. Okay, peppermint or candy cane. I'm assuming this is very standard. But it is cute. It's pink. It's like speckled. I don't know. Oh, it's very strong. That's so minty. And it's very clearly peppermint. That's nice, actually. It really does taste like taking a bite out of a candy cane. Like, I feel like the amount of peppermint extract or whatever is perfect. Yeah. Okay, I think if you see this box, it's worth getting.
Though I do feel like the hot chocolate and pumpkin pie are kind of duds. They're a little bit duds, but... The other ones are so good, though. As you go through, like, eating them all together, I think, is a nice, like, flavor experience. Yeah. It's a little journey. Yeah. It definitely would not be worth it to get just the hot chocolate ones or just the pumpkin ones, but having them all together. It's a cute little thing. Where can I get a whole bowl full of this cranberry sauce? I know. Jelly bellies. We'll have to keep an eye out at the Harmar Mall. Not sponsored. Okay. Today we're going to be talking about...
We are in season seven and we have been for a really long time and that still blows my mind. But today we are talking about episode 18 and Samantha goes first today and she gets to talk about her favorite subject, the power of prayer. This? Oh, my God. This is mystery. I really wrote this down. This is my only notes for this entire segment. There was a double-blind study on prayer. Three question marks? Okay. Was there, though? Was there? I don't know. This man with his poofy hair is... I realize he's a doctor. I don't know. He can still be suspect. There's very suspect doctors. I also wrote down Dan's mustache plus mullet plus turtleneck equals ski school. Ski school! Ski school, right? Yeah, I actually wrote down... I have a note about his turtleneck as well, so that's put out to me.
Only here. Only here. Perhaps it's you. I haven't known about his turtleneck as well. Could you imagine wearing a turtleneck with a sweater over it and being filmed under those lights? Yeah, that guy's hot as hell. I was going to say this was just like a normal everyday look that you thought was timeless and would never age back in the day.
I mean, yeah, it's fine, but he was so sweaty. Yeah, he probably stank. Yeah. Full transparency, I took basically, that was like my only note that I took about this case. I'm reading off the Unsolved Mysteries wiki because I do not care about the power of prayer. This is not a mystery. I mean, pray, fine. That's okay. I don't think this is really a mystery. I don't know. Yeah, it's much more of like a personal thing, I would say, whether, you know, however you decide to communicate with the divine or yourself or the universe.
Why is Robert Stack involved in that is my question. I don't know. I don't know. But Robert Stack does start out with a poem, I think, a nice quote about the power of prayer and talking about how in good times, most of us maybe don't pray as much as we should. But as soon as someone gets sick, then suddenly we start to pray. What do you think Robert Stack would pray about? Maybe he wants more boats. More luscious babes. Yeah, probably. Yeah.
like oh i hope i hope i don't know i hope we don't start filming before 11 a.m i don't want to get up please god yeah uh yeah i don't know okay so we have two examples of the power of prayer um the first one is kathleen bernhardt um she in 1991 um she had like a troubling sonogram uh situation i don't know a mammogram. I'm not really sure, but she had like a routine breast exam or maybe she felt a lump. That's not explained. And they found what they thought was breast cancer. So she, this was at the end of the week or whatever. She was directed to come back on Monday to have a biopsy and a possible mastectomy. So she tells us that she was really frightened because she had two friends who had died of breast cancer at very, very young, which is horrible. And I can imagine how you would panic if you've had that experience of seeing a friend die, let alone two of breast cancer at a young age. I think she was very, she was 42 at that point at this time.
So it frightened her. And she was determined that she was not going to have, she wasn't going to have a biopsy and she wasn't going to have a mastectomy. She was not going to have cancer by Monday. So she prayed all weekend. She fasted and drank fruit juice. I don't know. All weekend. She wanted a miracle. Okay. Does anybody remember this like Hollywood diet they used to sell at like Walgreens or whatever that was literally just juice? It was like the quick Hollywood diet. And it was like some sugar water. You were like, drink this. You just drink juice. It was like, drink this instead of eating. And you're like, yeah, no shit. Like if you're malnutritioned, guess what?
yeah you're gonna lose weight anyway um well apparently that's what this reminded me of she was like i'll just do that i'll just drink juice i don't know robert stack said that she had like read about meditation she like read up about it and so she decided to try it i don't know so um she does she literally tries it one weekend masters it she's like the fucking buddha apparently she prayed all week she prayed one weekend and she mastered it yeah i don't know so come monday morning she had like another Exam. I don't know if this was a mammogram. They call it a sonogram. But this new image showed no lump. And she explains that both the nurse and the doctors. They were all very confused. About why this lump had disappeared. And they wanted her to have a biopsy anyway. And she was like, nah, I'm good. I'm healed. Peace out. And she left. You guys don't understand. I spent the weekend drinking juice. I don't need a biopsy. Bye.
This is the whole story. She says that she was miraculously healed. I want to point out that she was never diagnosed with anything. So I'm not sure you could call this a healing. She was asked to come in for a follow-up. There was like a shadow or a speck or whatever on her image. And she was asked to come in one day for a follow-up. And when they did the follow-up, it turns out there was actually nothing. People have biopsies all the time of things that turn out to be benign. She was not diagnosed with cancer. This is not, she was not.
I don't know that you can say that she was healed when we don't even know she had cancer to begin with. I'm glad that it turned out to be nothing. But particularly back then, those images were not so great. And there was stuff that turned out to be nothing all the time. It was like a fingerprint or a piece of dust or whatever. Like, it was probably always literally nothing. And I'm sure that weekend was absolute hell of waiting to find out what that was. And I'm glad it turned out to be nothing. I do not think it is because she prayed and drank juice. But that's just me.
I don't think so either. I don't want to minimize that this could have been a dramatic experience for her, probably was, that praying, she says it made her feel peaceful and calm. And that's great. All that is good. She was not diagnosed with anything. Lumps in your breast also can come and go, I don't know, I'm not a doctor. It could have been anything. But it certainly wasn't cancer. She's alive and well. It doesn't seem like she ever had anything come up related to that. It just makes me think of that beyond belief we talked about with the phrenology head. Right. Yes, actually I thought about that too. Is that where they got, do you think that's where they got that story? I don't know.
People can also be bad at their jobs. Like, I don't know. Did someone just not do a good job taking the pictures or interpreting it? I mean, is this in the early 90s? That technology is not that great. I feel like there's false things now, but particularly then. Yeah, I know. Who knows? Yeah, so that's our first story. I guess she was healed by the power of prayer. So good for her. We're just jealous.
The next one about Eric Donowski. So at 11, at just 11 months old, he became very ill after receiving a liver transplant. So he had some sort of, I don't know what, but he had had one liver transplant that failed. He got a second liver transplant and he became sick with a virus is what they, they're saying in the, I don't know, the whatever reenactment. And.
Obviously, 11 months old, he's on his second liver transplant. I can't imagine a normal 11 month old, a healthy 11 month old has much of an immune system, let alone one that having a liver transplant. I think they have to suppress your immune system also to make it so your body doesn't reject it. So a virus in this patient is obviously very concerning and really not a good thing. And transplant surgeon Tom Starzl.
was concerned because his body had rejected the first liver. So now he's going through the second transplant. He has viral pneumonia and everyone is fearing the worst. It's not looking good for little Eric. His parents decided that they were going to pray for a miracle. The surgeon had told them that you should prepare yourself in the next 24 hours, basically. That's how dire it was looking to the doctors.
His mother that night contacted a journalist who published a story asking readers to pray for the young boy. I would like to point out that this was on the fucking front page of the paper. Of the eerie daily times. This was above the fold. This was the front page. And Mac was like, wow, wasn't a lot of news that day. And then he literally Googled that day and he was like, you know what? There really wasn't a lot going on. He was like, no, it really was a slow news day. Okay. Okay. Well, that's fine. Fair enough. I guess we can all pray for this cute kid then. Yeah.
I love that he Googled the day. Hilarious. So within a week, hundreds of parishioners in Erie began to pray for Eric. And we're told that amazingly, in just a few days, he began to improve. And by his first birthday, he had beaten the virus. Eventually, Eric underwent a third liver transplant that was successful. And years later, he is as healthy as every other kid. He is grateful for everyone who prayed for him. He's in the Unsolved Mysteries episode. And he's, like Liz said, just super cute. He really just goes, I heard I was very sick. And people prayed for me.
He's like, I don't know what's going on. I'm a small child. Why are you talking to me? Let me go play with my Transformers. So on some mysteries wiki, I have no idea how they know this. Maybe he wrote it himself, but he is apparently still healthy to this day and has a family of his own. And he had a child named Maverick who was born in 2014. Wow. Badass name. Yeah. So that's the power of prayer. I, again, I don't know. I mean, it's.
I think unsurprising and probably rare for a little baby to beat viral pneumonia, but I'm sure it's not like unheard of. I mean, you can't get over a virus. I'm sure they were, they were treating him. Like they were, he was in the hospital. He was being treated for pneumonia. He beat the pneumonia. I don't, maybe prayer helped. I don't know. I just was, did prayer not help anyone else who didn't beat pneumonia? Yeah. That's my problem with these segments is I'm glad these people are okay. And I appreciate that the people who care for them, it was a really hard time for them and they were struggling. But it does sort of imply that the people who didn't make it, like no one prayed for them. And I just don't think that's.
that's true. Or I feel like almost worse is that they were praying and God was like, nah. Nah, not you. Nah, you could bite it. I mean... Yep.
I mean, it's a little bit, yeah. I think of poor Saint Bernadette. The Virgin Mary appears to her to show her the healing water. And Bernadette goes, oh, good. I have some ailments on myself. And Mary goes, not you, bitch. This is for healing other people. You're going to die at fucking 22 years old or however young she is. Yeah, exactly. Oh, way to only think of yourself, Bernadette. I'm showing it to you. This is not for you. We didn't pick you. Yeah, you will die young, but you will be remembered. You will be spoken on the Unsolved Mysteries podcast. And isn't that better than living? She was like, no, that's worse.
so much worse oh i want to live and have a life and yeah i don't know some doctor with poofy hair i didn't write down his name he comes on and talks about a double blind study where like people who were prayed for healed more than people who didn't and then robert stack points out that experts argue that you cannot really control like how do you know people aren't praying you can't really control that you can't control for that you don't know that they're not like saying a quick prayer on their way to the hospital or whatever i can't i don't know I've had so many people tell me over the years that they're praying for me. The worst. The worst. I will pray to Satan for all of them, I guess. Just to balance it out. To balance it out, yeah. Nothing like a sanctimonious. I'll be praying for you. Yeah. I'll be praying for you, too. That you fall off a cliff.
I mean, yeah. Okay, so if prayer works, can I pray that, yeah, my enemies fall in a well? Please, please fight my enemies. Show them the Old Testament Lord. I don't know. We could try it. We could do a double blind study. Okay, five listeners, divide yourself into two groups. Some of you pray for the downfall of our enemies. Some of you don't. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Okay, now on to the second segment, which is a big waste of time wanted. This goes back to August 4th, 1994. It is the case of 20...
one-year-old Lionel Lovano, who was arrested in Houston, Texas after a six-month skiing operation investigating an international drug ring that sold a quarter of a million dollars worth of heroin. And I for a second went, that's not a lot. Every month. I was just supposed to say that. That's really not six months. Yeah, but that was every month. Oh. See, they say it in this way where they're like, they sold a quarter million dollars worth of heroin. And I went, eh. And then they went, every month. And I went, oh, heck.
But still, who cares? Who cares? Whatever. Whatever. Stack tells us that handsome Lionel lived a, quote, lavish playboy lifestyle full of cars, motorcycles, expensive clothes, and plenty of girlfriends. And I swear to Christ, Stack is jealous. Okay. So would he be willing to spend the best years of his life behind bars after being arrested at 21? No, he would not. Shortly before his arrest, Lionel was in a serious motorcycle accident and sustained injuries. Therefore, he was being treated in a private facility outside of the prison system.
So a week into his stay there, three unannounced visitors came to visit his roommate in the hospital, who is not a prisoner, except no, they weren't really there to see him. They were there to see Lionel. And I fucking love the scheme. So what it was was Lionel's sister and two other people show up at the hospital. They say they're there to see the other person in the room. The security guard that's there for Lionel doesn't think anything of it. They go into the room. They show a gun to the other person in the hospital and they say, you shut up.
Meanwhile, Lionel goes into the bathroom, shaves, puts on a wig in his sister's clothes so that he can walk out with the other two people unnoticed. My favorite part is when he comes, he steps out and like asks his accomplices. He's like, how do I look? He's adjusting his wig. He has lipstick. You know, Robert said he put on some lipstick. And so he's like, how do I look? He's in his like drag. He's in drag as a sister. Yeah. He has to like adjust himself. And they're like, you look great, man. They kind of like saw off his handcuffs with a little saw. I mean, I love.
everything about this. I just, I love it. I'm going to point out that I'm not sure if anything Lionel did was like violent or bad. I don't really have a problem with him escaping for being part of a hair at Winring. I really don't. And I find this incredibly funny.
Okay. So Lionel just walks out the door with the two accomplices. Nobody thinks anything of it. His sister, this is the loyalty of the sister. Like I just have to applaud. She stays behind. She stays behind to threaten the roommate into not talking until Lionel's had enough time to get away. Then when people realize he's gotten away in the commotion, the sister just leaves. She slips away. Nobody even really notices that she's not supposed to be there. She just walks out. I love it so much. Okay. They should have made a movie about this. It's amazing. Okay. Oh yeah. Also, Stack describes Lionel in disguise as having a total makeover, which I thought was hilarious.
Like it's a part of Clueless and they're like going to pull up the computer with the different outfits or something. He was just dressing like his sister. I don't know. It's not like a new look. He put on a wig and a, yeah, a female suit. He's not going to do that for the rest of his life. He's just doing it to leave the hospital. It's not a new look, new lease on life for him. Okay. So funny. So funny. Okay. So unfortunately the accomplices that helped him escape were tracked down. I'm not sure if that includes Lionel's sister or not. Hopefully not. But Lionel remained on the lam when the statement first aired. I looked it up. They never caught Lionel. What? Really?
The speculation is that he just went to Mexico and he stayed there. And at this point, the authorities are not pursuing him. So good for you, Lionel. Good for you, Lionel. I hope he had a great life. Everybody on unsolved.com is like, oh, yeah, he's in this city in Mexico and he's still part of it. It's like, how do you know? Supposedly, he's like. Dark on Lionel? Yeah. Snitch away, fair and square. He got away in the most hilarious way possible. Let him. Just let him. Let him go. Yeah. Amazing. I love this segment. I love it. Okay.
you're up next so we have a mysterious death two mysterious deaths actually all right it is the morning of december 12th 1992 um a car has stopped at a remote intersection at the edge of the yankton sioux indian reservation in lake andes south dakota it was cold and the road was icy um the driver is 20 year old arnold um i'm not gonna try and pronounce his last name because i'm gonna do it badly um one of the passengers was his girlfriend 19 year old ruby i love the name ruby yeah it's a great name it's a really pretty name um the other passenger is ruby's cousin 17 year old tracy Dion all three had been drinking um when the car crashed into a frozen ditch um so there's one survivor uh Tracy is the one who survived um and she describes well okay so earlier in the day I feel like I skipped ahead earlier in the day uh so they had been out drinking actually not earlier in the day in the evening uh late into night into the night they were drinking um Ruby had dropped her daughter off with her um I'm not sure if it was her father or her i'm not sure i think it may have been her father um and they drove to his house to pick up the daughter and he was like i can tell you've been drinking why don't you come back later um so they all leave and shortly after is when this incident happens so um
Tracy describes they came up to a stop sign and they stopped and then her memory is a little bit blurry but she recalls the car like accelerating really quickly and I don't know if there was ice this is in the middle of winter I don't know if there was ice at this intersection or what but they lost control Arnold lost control of the car and ended up flipping upside down into the ditch You know, it's really easy to lose control of your car on ice when you don't have anti-elect brakes. I speak from experience. Yeah. And at low speeds, too. I mean, you don't need to be going very fast. Like, yes, they were stopped. And even if he had, I mean, it seems like he may have stopped on the accelerator. But even if he hadn't, like, you can lose control at low speeds. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So the car flips over. Arnold is thrown from the vehicle. Ruby and Tracy are in the car. Ruby is able to get out. And Tracy is reaching for her. Like, she is hoping that Ruby would help her out. But she doesn't. The car door shuts. And Tracy is trapped in the car.
Arnold and Ruby disappear. Eventually, help arrives. And I believe someone helps Tracy get out of the vehicle. Tracy is very upset. She doesn't know why Ruby abandoned her and didn't help her. I think she was drunk. I mean, I don't know. I mean, they all had been drinking quite a bit. Ruby could have bonked her head, lost consciousness. It was freezing cold. It's in the middle of December. Everything's frozen. I was wondering if they thought she was dead. Maybe. She was like, why didn't my friends help me get out of the car? It was like, first of all, they're drinking. They're not supposed to be driving. They probably freaked out. But also, if she had lost consciousness or just...
I don't know. They're not thinking rationally. Maybe they just thought she was done. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. And they were, I mean, certainly they probably weren't thinking rationally because they had all been drinking quite a bit. So by daybreak, the police come and search the area. There was ice underneath the car that was frozen solid. They say that they feared that Arnold and Ruby had wandered off and fallen through the ice at another location. We hear from Bill Youngstrom, who was a deputy for the Charles Mix County Sheriff's Department. He says, he makes it very clear that.
He believes they searched the area thoroughly. He says that it's not uncommon for them to come upon car accidents, cars in the ditch where the drivers are nowhere in sight. Usually it's probably because the driver had been drinking, they were in trouble for DUI, they crash the car into the ditch, they get out, they walk home. These things happen. I do sort of wonder if they dismissed it as that and didn't look as hard as they are now claiming they looked. But they say that they searched the entire area thoroughly and they did not see any sign of Arnold and Rudy.
I don't have any evidence to suggest that they're not telling the truth, but I do wonder. Anyway. Well, also, I don't know. I guess we don't know a lot what this landscape is like, but it's also like fucking freezing, right? Like how long do they really want to look around? I do think they probably assumed that this was a case of the drivers walking home. Yeah. Because, yeah, it's a rural area. It's going to be freezing, right? They're not going to want to do it. There was once a guy, so I live on what, in Minnesota, Minneapolis standards is a busy street. But there was once a guy driving who like.
right in front of my house just drove like um hitting like three or four parked cars tried to drive away couldn't and literally did just get out of his car and start like running down the street and then people whose those cars he hit came out of that apartment building and basically like tackled so that you know they could get his insurance information or whatever to fix their cars but yeah i do think that is kind of common yeah i'm sure it is but okay but say that guy had gotten away and hadn't gotten tackled I feel like the car, I was like, there's no sense in running away. If it's your car, they're just going to see who the car is registered to. And then they're going to go to your house and arrest you there. Like, I mean, obviously he's not taking that through. He's drunk, but I'm surprised that they didn't go to their house later to see if they're okay, but also to like find them or whatever the shit. Well, I mean, Deputy Youngstrom does say that he investigated leads. So it is possible. I mean, I feel like.
They don't go into a lot of details in the episode about, like, what had gone on, but I think there was some amount of investigation going on. So it could have been that they did go to their house and check on them, discovered. Also, like, Ruby had a daughter, and her family says that they were convinced something bad had happened because she did not come back for her daughter. So it's clear that they're missing. I don't exactly know what the investigation looked like, how much of an investigation there was, but they disappeared. It seems like in thin air. Until...
the spring thaw in early March a motorist passing by the area saw a body in the ditch just 75 feet from the accident site um was Ruby she was face down in like this ditch was pretty full of water like it was pretty it was almost a small pond right so she's face down floating in the water um her glasses were missing both of her shoes were missing her clothes were intact and they did seem to be like the same clothes that she was wearing the night of the accident her body was in an advanced state of decomposition um so much so that it was hard to recognize her They had to actually identify her by tattoos. That's why I have tattoos. To make the identification of my rotting corpse easier. You're welcome. That's why I have a chronic lower back pain tramp stamp. Yes. I'm so glad you got that. So that way, when you throw yourself in front of a train, and I'm forced to identify your body, obviously, I can be like, just check. Just check the tramp stamp. Does it say chronic lower back pain? Oh, yeah, that's her. That's her. It was so dark. I'm sorry. I apologize.
It's just on brand for us. Please don't throw yourself in front of a train, Samantha. I don't want to identify your body in the middle. You know, yeah, you're right. I don't want you to have to go through this. Did we mention that our Patreon about season three of the reboot is out now? Give us a dollar. Go listen. In context. So they decide to pump out the ditch at this point. And around noon the next day, they find the body of Arnold submerged in the water about 15 feet away from where they found Rudy. See, okay, but that's how big this ditch is and how much water there is is that they didn't find this guy's body until they pump out all this water. Yeah, it's deep enough that an entire grown man can be completely submerged to the point where you cannot see him. They had to pump out.
They had no idea anything else was there. So it was deep enough that you couldn't just glance and see a whole man underneath the water. They had to literally pump it out. I feel like a phrase ditch, which is what they keep saying in the show, but I just feel like it's misleading. I think so. This is basically a weird little reservoir pond. Yeah. So his body was not as decomposed as Ruby. His skin color was the same. So weird. They also point out, which I guess this is kind of weird. He wasn't frozen to the ground. His clothes were not frozen to the ground at the bottom of the pond. That said, I don't know.
Like water. It had thawed. Like the water had thawed, even though it was still cold. It was early March. I don't know that his clothes not being frozen to the ground makes a lot of sense to me as like they were dumped there, which is basically the theory that comes out. Like the deputy thinks that they had been murdered elsewhere and had been dumped in this spot. I don't know that I'm convinced, but.
i sort of feel like i think the police officer at least one of the police officers involved i think he feels really bad that he didn't find these people so they were like right there yeah and maybe it's maybe it's perfectly understandable that he didn't maybe there's so much water in this thing that if they hadn't you know they didn't know to pump it and they were just both fully submerged i don't know maybe that's like an understandable error if you like knew what this area was like but the only thing is that like who is taking these people from a crash site murdering them, and then bringing them back. To the exact same crash site. That's what I think. Very implausible. Was a deranged killer. Just happened to be there. Waiting on the side of the road. Cackling, I assume. Just like, waiting. I know they're going to come to this exact intersection and spit out and end up upside down. The ice is so slippery here. And then two of them get out of the car. So the murderer, I don't know, shoves them in a van. Takes them to his murder hidey hole.
keeps him there for a while and presumably it seems like they're also saying he kills ruby right away yeah does not and also there's like a there's a witness that claims he thought they saw arnold on new year's eve so i don't know if arnold is actually the murderer in this scenario but then how does he end up dead i don't so i i do not understand the theory because ruby dies right away and then arnold lives for a while but is then later murdered and dumped in the same spot yeah that's the dumping ground samantha just where the car happened to crash yeah it doesn't I don't even understand. I'm assuming that the water affects the rates of decomposition differently or the like thawing and freezing or the medical examiner is just not that great of their job. Like, well, so they, yes. So they do say it's suspicious because Arnold was not as decomposed as Ruby, but even despite the fact that they were in the same place. However.
It was not exactly the same for both of them. Ronald was completely submerged. Ruby was floating on the surface. Arnold is a different person. He's a bigger person than Ruby. He's a man. Like, I don't, I assume all of these things affect how you decompose. Also, there can be like microclimates and like different, like different areas, even right by each other can be like a different temperature. I mean, there's, what's fully the water and what is it? So, right. I'm assuming at some point, I'm assuming they got out of the car crash.
They crawl away. I don't know. They succumb to the elements. They don't make it. The medical examiner thinks that they died of exposure. There's no cause of death that they could determine. They didn't drown. They weren't shot. They weren't strangled. It seems like they froze to death. I'm assuming that when someone, you know, the cops and whoever were looking around the area, both of them were fully submerged. They didn't think to look into the water or, you know, whatever. They thought it was too frozen and people couldn't be in there. I don't know. I really question. This officer says that he walked the ditch several times. He had other people walk the ditch. They signed sworn affidavits that they walked the ditch. I don't know. I feel like.
can be true and they didn't see them like if they were both submerged if it snowed if they had gone underneath the water somehow yeah they both fell in i don't know like he's fully submerged i'm assuming at some point she was too so even if we completely take this officer at his word that he looked around and really didn't see it seems possible to me because they're in water yeah i don't know it's weird but It's weird, but there's no other explanation that makes sense. It's just kind of weird. Like you said, was there just happened to be a murderer there at that intersection in the middle of nowhere at like 3 in the morning? Waiting for someone to flip a car because they're drunk? It makes very little sense. Also, this whole side quest about someone who claims they saw Arnold on New Year's Eve. I think they just had the wrong date. They said that there was people in the backseat. They interviewed those people. They were like, no, that never happened. They did polygraphs of these people. They claim they failed, but I don't know. Polygraphs are not...
used in court for a reason they're not reliable also yeah you're hauling people into a police environment and then being weird like surprised or stressed out maybe they have something else they don't want to talk to the police about you know like maybe they don't want to be there for other unrelated reasons yeah I think this is just a weird tragedy but there's really nothing to suggest that these people didn't just die of exposure and it's weird someone didn't see them earlier except probably not because they were underwater and it was freezing and nobody wanted to like go look in it and they were probably already and that sucks but they were probably already dead so I'm not sure there's really anything that could have been done it's just It's sad. It is really sad. It's sad that, you know, they show Ruby's daughter at the very end and it's so sad. So sad. It's terrible. But, you know, we live in Minnesota. I feel like you hear about people every year getting drunk at a party, walking home, passing out in a snowbank and dying of exposure. This is something that happens to people when they're intoxicated and they're outside in the harsh elements. You can freeze to death quickly. And it's so sad. People also walk onto ice and the ice breaks. So maybe this was like...
only partially frozen at one point and they thought they could walk across it and they could you know like who knows exactly yes they could have broken through in a different location and gone underneath the ice and there seems to be a lot of water in this ditch so like maybe they froze to death and their bodies rolled into it or maybe they were trying to walk across it and didn't make it like i think it really sucks for their friend who's like going why did they leave me in the car that's awful but it's probably a i feel like she may have survived because she stayed in the car absolutely in the car i feel like she was protected from the elements and people Until Hope arrived. If she had walked away because she was intoxicated and, like, tried to stumble home, she could have froze to death. No one would have gone into the dark field or wherever, forest, to try and find her. Also, they kind of had head injuries. Like, there's so many reasons why they're probably not thinking straight. And then, yeah, I think they just froze to death. Ugh. Ugh. Yep. So, the Unsolved Mysteries Wiki doesn't have any updates. I think we just solved it, so. Yeah. I think the cop feels bad that he didn't figure it out sooner, but I think there's actually not really that much mysterious about it. Okay, so there's two cop mastashes in this segment.
Oh, wait, no. I have a cop mustache from my last segment that I forgot to say. Okay. This was a blonde mustache on a cop that was very, like, worried about catching Lionel, and I have to say that I just wasn't. So his mustache was called Jesus Christ, Please Shut Up. Okay.
the cop for this that seemed very i feel like this is just my you know theorizing i think he feels bad he didn't figure this out sooner his mustache is called whoa hey there buddy because that's a phrase i guarantee he uses incredible um oh also at one point he was talking about how they found a clump of hair on the side oh i forgot about that and that it matched and i was like you can't match hair like that that's not a thing also so i don't they were so they found a clump of her hair on the side of the road near the area and he was using it as evidence to suggest that they were dumped there i think an animal could have been scavenging on the bodies i'm sorry this is gross but like that's oftentimes when you find a body they are not intact in one spot because animals come and distribute the remains around the area it's literally just black hair you can't match hair i don't know what he's talking about he was like it's a match to someone's a dna match no oh then you it's nothing even if it was though it's not it's not like the only thing that could be is that they were murdered and dumped like there's plenty of other explanations for why some of her hair may have ended up on the side of the road human hair equals murder yeah not how that works
Has anybody watched the show Hannibal where someone like is realizing, I think it's like their stepdad or their dad is a murderer and he makes all this stuff out of humans and she's like sitting on a couch and she like opens up the pillow and it's like stuffed full of human hair. For the reason that's so funny, like her face and she's like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, no. So funny. It should be funny, but that's very funny to me. Okay. Now we have a sad missing persons case. This is the case of the disappearance of Jean Moore. Obviously her fiance, Al Henderson, was the licensed suspect. And we do hear from Al and you can decide for yourself. They had known each other for 20 years and only recently gotten engaged. But despite them being friends for all this time, her children were not friends, fans of Al's. And I find that very telling. Her daughter Connie said, the longer I knew him, the less genuine he seemed.
which is not great. And she goes on to say that Al would frequently put her mom down, even in front of other people. So she didn't think that their relationship was very healthy. Which doesn't sound healthy at all. No. Okay, so the couple went on a trip to Laughlin, Nevada, which has a soft spot in my heart. It's like a mini Las Vegas. Like people from all over the world go to Las Vegas, Nevada, but only local people go to Laughlin. So it's like a...
I don't know, like a tiny, low-rent casino town. It's kind of amazing. Okay. And I just love casino mysteries. I just love them. Okay. So this is on April 9th, 1992. Sorry, 1992. Al reported Jean missing. And this is great because we get to see Robert Stack talking to us in the casino. So most people were convinced that Jean met with foul play and foul play, including myself. So we hear from Al, and here's what he says happens. That Jean wanted to go, had one last go at her lucky slot machine before checking out of their hotel. So he dropped her off at a side entrance of a nearby casino.
not the casino she was going to, and went to go find a parking place. When he could not find one, he went to the valet and got a ticket before going inside the casino. Immediately, I am suspicious of this story because I don't see why he wouldn't have dropped her off at the casino she was actually going to. But also, these places have the biggest fucking parking lots you've ever seen in your life. I find it completely impossible that he could not find a parking space. Also, this is like nine in the fucking morning. Never in my life have I heard of someone who couldn't find a parking spot and then was like, I'm going to pay a valet. Like, no. This is a...
Fucking casino. You think? At nine in the morning. At its most popular time. Nine in the morning on a weekday. I do not think that this parking lot was full. I just don't. It's sus. Very sus. So he couldn't find one, supposedly. And he went to the valet and got a ticket. And specifically asked the valet if his wife would be able to bring the ticket back instead of him. Which, of course, the valet was like, yeah, no shit. That's how these things work. I don't give a fuck. Yeah, it's a ticket. Someone bring me a ticket. It's nine in the morning. Please tip me, he said. So then he went to meet up with Jean. He gave her the valet ticket for the car.
They plan to meet back at their hotel room at a quarter of noon to check out at noon, right? And then he leaves Jean in the casino to play at Slot Machine at 9.30 in the morning. You know, when all the parking lots are full. So then Al goes outside to the ballet stand to catch a cab, only there aren't any. Possibly because it's 9.30 in the morning. So after waiting a while, not being able to catch a cab, he decides to go back inside and play some slots with Jean. However, her favorite slot machine was occupied by someone else. He doesn't see Jean around. That guy gets up. So Al plays that machine for about half an hour waiting for her. So that would have been from like 9.45 to 10.15. Because he really didn't wait for a cab very long. Okay. He doesn't see her.
He decides to go back to the hotel. He's apparently not weirded out that she's not there at their agreed on checkout time. Like, I think they're supposed to check out at noon. They were going to meet at quarter to noon. By quarter afternoon, she's still not there. That apparently doesn't alarm him at all. Still, supposedly believing nothing is wrong, he takes a cab back to the casino to find Gene. And at this point, finds out that the car is still with a ballet and there's no sign of Gene anywhere. Al spent the next few days questioning people at the casino and putting up missing persons flyers. But despite a $25,000 reward, they didn't get any helpful info.
Jean's children would like to point out that the story has changed a few times. Originally, he said that he dropped Jean off in front of the casino and gave her the valet ticket there. I think the problem with that story is that then the valet would have seen her, which he did not. And also, I'm assuming there's a lot more cameras at the front of the casino than they are at this weird side entrance that he later claimed, oh, that's actually where I dropped her off, right? Right. Because by the time he's talking to Unsolved Mysteries, he's dropping her off at this random side entrance of a casino that's like attached to where she's going. Now, granted, casinos are all attached. You know, you can like wander from one to one or whatever. But since there's no reason to do that in this instance.
He could have just dropped her off at the entrance. Right. They were going to a very specific place. Also, highly suspicious was all the jewelry she usually wore, including her engagement ring, is in the hotel room. This is stuff that she wore at all times. I'm sure she slept in it. I'm sure she showered in it. Whatever. Her children say there is no reason why she would have taken off all of her jewelry that she wore every day and left it in the room.
That makes no sense. Makes no sense, right? She was planning to be buried in those things. She was not taking them off to go gamble or whatever. So odd. Okay. Also, if you have been to a casino or just watched movies that take place in the casino, you're probably aware that there is an unbelievable level of surveillance in that environment. Yeah, that was going to be my question is where is the camera footage? Even a casino in Laughlin is not going to have like a blind spot because they're very, very concerned about theft and cheating. And it's an extremely controlled environment. There's probably like, unless you're on a...
I bet a casino in some ways is better monitored than like a military base. It's a very bad idea of a place to lie when you've gotten rid of your significant other because they go to the casino and there's no footage of Jean entering the casino, talking to the valet. There's literally no footage of her there that day whatsoever. That's not good. She can't be seen playing that slot machine that she supposedly went with her to get. And in fact, Al claims he played that slot machine for half an hour and he's not in that footage either.
Interesting. Al claims, oh, they must be looking at the wrong machine. But he's the one that told them which machine it was. The casino pulled up that footage. I think he had asked for it. And they were like, oh, no, we're going to give that to the authorities. Why would you give such a specific story that can be easily verified? I mean, maybe he didn't know. He did not think this through. He did not think this through. Because you can't say someone went missing from a casino. That's like the last place you should pick. Because really, they do have footage of everything. And she's literally not seen there at all that day.
So even if she came in the side entrance or whatever, she's going to have to walk onto the main floor. She's going to have to like, it's not like she was trying not to be seen either. She's not a spy. She was a lady that just wanted to go play her favorite slot machine, supposedly. So then the question comes up, was she even in Laughlin at all? Or is Al lying about everything? And the only thing investigators were able to find was a single witness, a waitress who served Al and Jean on that Monday, April 6th.
three days earlier, which was the day they arrived. This is her only confirmed sighting in the area. Three days earlier. No, they don't find anyone at the hotel. Can they confirm where he was that whole three days? I don't know. That was not mentioned. But you would think someone at the hotel had seen her. You would think they would have eaten at other places or had a drink or, you know, like, in theory.
you're in this environment with tons of people other people should have seen her and no one is has and also weirdly weeks later a friend came forward to say she actually saw the couple 150 miles away at a gas station at their in their hometown on april 8th which would be the day before gene was reported missing and also my birthday so you know stood out she was sure of the date because she was on her way to a school function and that's the only time she would have been at that gas station okay al says this is not true and he points out that there's call records from laughlin i mean i don't know i'm sure that's not really The fact that he made calls from Laughlin.
That doesn't really prove anything. Still, where's Jean? Yeah. Right? Where's Jean at this time? There is no update. Really? This was never called. They never found Jean. And Al is dead. Oh, my God. Al is really always the only suspect. Both Jean's children and the authorities think that he did it, but they never found any hard evidence. Well, that sucks. Yeah, it's really sucky. I think Al's story is total crap, personally. If he is not involved in her disappearance, he's lying about something else because she was fucking not in that casino. No, this woman didn't have any enemies.
the other thing so you have to go like who wants this sweet lady dead I don't know. Did he have the engagement ring because she called off the engagement? Maybe? Maybe. And that made him mad? That was something I thought about because I was like, why would you have that? But he also had all of her other jewelry too. Yeah, that's weird. Which I'm assuming he wanted to like pawn it or something. Yeah, or I mean, maybe he murdered. I mean, she could have taken it off every night before bed and he murdered her at night while she was asleep. And he never put it back on because he didn't think this through. Yeah, God, that sucks. Hopefully he got his in the afterlife. Yeah, hopefully there is a hell and he's not drinking a cold Coke right now. I hope so. God damn, what a bastard. The son Joe had a mustache.
And I feel bad making fun of it because I do feel really bad for Gina and her children. But damn, that is a large, dense mustache. Look, we all make bad choices. It's not always a reflection of your character. I just called it, yeah, that's too much.
Because it really, it's a lot. And his face doesn't, no, no. He would have been way better off without it. Sorry, Joe. I'm sorry for your loss. And I feel like her children always knew he was bad news, but they also wanted their mom to be happy, you know? And like, it just fucking sucks. That's terrible. Someone come up with some reason why Samantha and I need to go to Laughlin. That would be so fun. We're going to solve this mystery. We're going to find Jean. We're going to wear ourselves Mysteries Bitches t-shirts and we're going to find Jean. The thing is, I kind of wonder if she actually was murdered in her hometown.
And then Al was like setting up this alibi. Like, no, it can't be. We were in law. I don't know. I don't know. I don't trust you, Al, but you're dead. So, okay. That's the end. All right. Let's rate this episode. So mysteriousness is our first category. And honestly.
pretty mysterious yeah pretty mysterious i mean the power of prayer is not mysterious but all the other ones i mean there are some weird things about there are some weird things i'm pretty sure they just died of hypothermia but um there's still some weird things about it it's odd it's an odd story uh we don't exactly know what happened to lionel i hope he's living up in mexico having a grand old time um but we don't drink on the beach right now yeah and then poor jean what happened to her where's she yeah so pretty damn mysterious pretty mysterious thumbs up um reenactments i thought they were solid um There was a very dramatic car acceleration flip thing. I'm obsessed with Lionel getting dressed up with his sister. I'm obsessed. I love it. I love them pulling out the little saw to cut through the handcuffs. I love him adjusting his wig. I love him just like...
trying to to walk lady more ladylike when he's leaving the hospital so no it's like his complete makeover it's so silly it's yeah it's like this little tootsie it's just ridiculous um it is so good so thumbs up just because of that really are we also gonna give a thumbs up for fashion because of lionel's disguise okay yeah i didn't even think about that but yes i love that also in your car craft mystery the family is all wearing like is it freezing wherever they're talking to unsolved mysteries because they're all wearing puffy coats and like puffy snow suits All of them, including the little girl. They're inside, presumably. They're all in, like, poppy. Poppy, very 90s, like, wine-colored snowsuits. They all have mullets. All of them. They're a fucking fashionable family. I love them for that. So that gets a thumbs up. We have that ski instructor. This is not the best fashion we've seen in a while, honestly. Yeah, the ski instructor ensemble. And there's some very bold mustache choices. Lionel had a mustache, too, but actually, it worked for him. That was a good one. Yeah. It's too many done to shave it off in order to... You know, I'm sure I grew back in a few days.
I'm sure. Lionel, are you listening? Do you still have a mustache? Let us know. So this might be a rare thumbs up across the board. Oh. Because I'm going to give Stag a thumbs up too. He was in a casino at one point. Exactly. That's why. He waxed poetic about the power of prayer. He was clearly jealous of Lionel's lifestyle and wondering if he should deal heroin. Stag a thumbs up.
All right. So then what do we rate this episode? Honestly, I thought it was pretty good. It's pretty solid. I'm going to give it a four. Yeah, I think it was good. No unnecessary updates for mysteries. The power of prayer was really silly, but whatever. I thought the rest of it was good. At least it's not depressing. You know, she lived. Always a plus. I wish Jean, you know, lived wherever she was. And I'm assuming Lionel's just, yeah, having a grand old time with his heroine. And yeah, the mustaches were plentiful.
I don't know. I liked it. It's not as memorable as some of the more ridiculous episodes, but it's quite good. So, I don't know, like a four? Yeah, I would say a four. Yeah, I think a four sounds right. With a little, like, footnote that says, yes, this one is quite good. That can be added to our stats. Yeah, yeah, add that. Add it to our stats. Okay, so for today's recommendation, I thought we would talk about a book we read for Book Club, which was Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Because I love this book. I really liked it too. This was our October read. It was a great spooky season read. But honestly, I would read this book anytime, anywhere. It was the best book I read this year, hands down. It just has such a mood. It has such a vibe. It's about these two sisters living in their giant house after most of their family has been poisoned to death. And they're taking care of their older uncle, who's not really with it anymore. And their whole town hates them. And it's just about their life after this weird, horrible tragedy. And both of them are...
uh odd ducks I'm gonna say and uh I don't know the mood of it I listened to this as an audiobook I thought the reader was great and I just had like 45 minutes of this each night before I went to bed and I never I never wanted to end I just wanted to live in that ah so good Shirley Jackson has such Her style is so good because it's like, I feel like this word is overused in describing books, but atmospheric. Like her way, it's like the whole vibe, the spooky, weird vibe. It's like you can, it creates such a vivid picture in your brain of just this like unsettling, spooky atmosphere. And it's so funny, like in a very dry, it has a dry humor that's just really, really well done. This is now the second Shirley Jackson book that we've read for Book Club. We discussed The Haunting of Hill House before, and I really, really liked that too, but I liked this even more. And it just makes me think that she's...
I mean, I know she's like very famous and well regarded, but I honestly think she's underrated because this book is also like very funny. And it's not something I've heard people say about her, but she clearly was very witty. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't have loved it more. I think I talked about the movie before that's on Netflix and that is good. And it's pretty faithful to the book, but you know, as always, it's pretty much always the book is better. Definitely read the book. I got the audio book from the library, you know.
for free that was just a lovely oh oh i'm jealous if you haven't read it you're gonna read it for the first time i'm jealous because it's so good it is really good it's also a very good length yeah it's like perfectly paced like things are introduced like it's just very skillfully done the language of it is so good but also yeah like the structure of it is great and um there's this there's this like old woman who comes over for tea and is clearly trying not to ask about the fact that know their family died this grisly death and then after a while they cannot contain herself anymore and it's like is this the room where it happened but i was like this is me and samantha it really is i felt very seen by this ghoulish woman that was like How did it happen? She's being so rude. Asking too many questions about the sugar bowl. She just can't stop herself. Her friend is clearly embarrassed. I can't believe I brought this person who promised they would behave and is now making such a spectacle of herself. I was like, oh my god, this is me. It was such a delight. I was so happy to read it and it was so fun to talk about it. I think everybody should read it.
I was kind of like, why did we only read the lottery in school? Why didn't we read anything else by her? No kidding. I feel like our English classes and like, I don't know what grade we did this, like seventh grade or something. They're like, oh, we need to read one thing by a woman. Here, read the lottery. And then it was like, well, we're done. We never have to read a woman again.
no that's not true because if you went to school in the 90s did you have to read the joy love club no i didn't i feel like we all had to read the joy love club and that was like they were like great because that's an asian american and a woman at once and so then all of our diversity is on it we never have to think about it ever again in one book just it's a good book i'm not bashing the book it's just i feel like people were like great and that's all that's all the different voices you need one book Oh, what is a light? Okay. I think that wraps it up for today. That's it. We will be doing another Patreon episode about the season three of the reboot, whichever two episodes come next. I'm sure they're a huge fucking bummer. And we'll be talking about that over on Patreon. If you give us a dollar and tax, if you go fish that out of a mall found in, you can be part of that joy. If you like being bored, definitely sign up. Yeah. If you like being bored, sign the fuck up, bitch, because we're...
We're delivering that content straight to you. Oh, please, please, please. Like this episode on Repod. I need to stay number one. Keep us number one in the charts. When I added new merch to our store, I did include a notebook with this exclusive illustration of Robert Stack that friend of the pod Brian Duffy made for us. And on the back, it says, brought to you by the number one podcast on Repod.
And, you know, just tiny little print on the back. And I find that, to me, that's the height of comedy. I don't know about you, but. Absolutely. Yes. Number one podcast on Rebond is perhaps it's go. But yeah, you know, Twitter is dying, but we're there. We've got an Instagram. Our Facebook group. People have stayed on Facebook just to be in our Facebook group. And that is very touching. Thank you. Thank you for letting Zuckerberg have access to your data just to chat with us.
it's really sweet thank you um anything else we'll keep chugging along over here you know yeah absolutely we'll get to the end of season seven one of these things won't be this year i know isn't that wild we've been talking about this all year well whatever We can't give up on the five, so we're just stuck doing this. If our recording schedule is a little off over the holidays, forgive us. Oh yeah, that's true. I don't exactly know if we'll be able to squeeze in another episode before the holidays. It'll just kind of depend on our schedule. We obviously still have to record Patreon and things get pretty busy and traveling and everything. So just bear with us if we don't have a normal recording schedule for a little while. We're not quitting.
We will be back. We'll be back. It's just I'm not exactly sure. I'm not sure when. But definitely being number one on Repod has injected some new life into me. And I got to keep going. Absolutely. I've got to. I've got to be number one. All right, everyone. Keep barking. Thank you so much. Bye.