Hello, friends and enemies. Hello, five listeners plus BD Wong. This is Perhaps It's You, an unofficial Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast. I'm Liz. And I'm Samantha. Are you sure you're Samantha, though? Well, last week I was Antha, but... We're just taking your word for it. Okay, we're here. I'm in Minneapolis. Samantha's in Minnesota Parts Unknown.
we are still alive and well the pod dogs are still alive and well everyone's doing okay yep uh i should five listeners i should have had more faith in you we i maybe we lost three or four listeners but who gives a fuck everybody was very nice and supportive about our last episode so people have been so kind and leaving us such sweet messages some of you are giving us way too much credit but i'll take it uh we really appreciate the support we really don't deserve that much credit at all just for like not being dicks but thanks We do appreciate it. Maybe the bar is low. I don't know. But I will say that I really appreciate the support. It seems like we still have five listeners. So that's encouraging. Yeah. I would make it for you, the five. So everybody else can fuck off. You know what? I just think that with all of my anti-American talk over the years, I think we've weeded out the riffraff. Yeah, Joffrey's gone. Joffrey's gone. I wouldn't salute that flag. Oh, my God. Can you imagine being mad about that right now? Please. No, absolutely not. Oh, my Lord.
Okay. Yeah. I stand by that nonsense comment since civilians aren't even supposed to salute the flag. But anyway. Oh, yeah. A lot happening. A lot happening. So what are some updates? It's only been a week since we last reported. So much has happened, though. I should have written stuff down. I almost don't know where to begin. But I will say, just before I forget, that we did give our June Patreon earnings to McGeezy. That's a Native American cultural center here in Minneapolis that was at least partially burned down.
uh in our glorious uprising so we contributed to their rebuilding efforts so thanks to the patrons for supporting us which allows us to support them in their time of need it's pretty cool yeah thank you so much to our patrons um we appreciate your support and we're really happy that we were able to do that and they're so close to their goal by the time this comes out they might have met their goal i don't know but if they haven't and you have some extra cash to give their way we can post their um their fundraising link because that would be a good helpful thing to do yeah i will say the outpouring of support that minneapolis has received is like oh my god It's so uplifting. A lot about the world is depressing right now. But then you hear these stories. Like we said in our last episode, we were going to give our June Patreon money to reclaim the block. And then like literally an hour later, they said, stop giving us money. We have enough. We have so much money. Please give to these organizations. And now people are turning to them. And it's amazing. I think so many people are just looking for a concrete way to help. And we were talking about last episode about how like everyone in Minnesota like prides themselves on being a good neighbor, right? Like they really like to be helpful. And one example of that is so there was a call in the newspaper that they were looking to gather 85 bags of groceries to donate to people.
whose primary stores have burned down, right? So there's going to be an issue for people getting food. It's going to be more of a fruit desert because people don't eat some groceries. I'm just going to do a little pause for you to guess how many bags of groceries turned up. So they asked for 85. Did they get 800? No.
Did they get 8,000? No. They got 20,000 bags of groceries donated. It took up an entire park. It's incredible. The photos are amazing. They're truly amazing. I'm honestly, yes, there's a lot of injustice and horrible things going on right now, but I'm honestly feeling much more optimistic than I have in a long time because it seems like change is happening and it's happening really fast and it's exciting to see and it's inspiring to see all of these people doing good.
The Minnesota, the Minneapolis schools, parks, the university, First Avenue, the major museums have all cut their ties to the police department. There's now a serious conversation happening about defunding the Minneapolis Police Department. Like that's something that seems to be honestly on the table where more than one city council member is on board with that. That just blows my mind. That's wild to me. And all that happened in the last week. Like I'm having to remind myself that it's been a week since we last recorded. And these are the updates that we have for you. It's amazing. The FBI is now investigating the Minneapolis Police Department, right, for civil rights abuses. Yep.
I mean, it is really inspiring. And if you're looking for that kind of change in your community, I'm not going to say that it takes burning down a police station. I'm not going to say that. But there does seem to be a correlation. So make of that what you will. I'm not advocating for it. I don't want anybody to get hurt, obviously. I don't want anyone to lose a home. I don't want, you know, maybe I have no courage in my convictions. I don't want negative repercussions. But I did see that.
burning down a police station is currently polling more favorably with Americans than either Donald Trump or Joe Biden. So that's where we're at. The slight majority of Americans felt that burning down that police department was justified. I think it was 54%. Well, both Trump and Joe Biden are under 50. So again, make it that way you will. I advocate, I don't advocate that, but it's an interesting observation. Also, Cole Sprouse got arrested at a Black Lives Matter protest, which means that now Cole Sprouse has a record and I don't. It's embarrassing.
Liz, you really got to step up your game. I know! I'm ashamed of myself. I mean, there's protests all over the whole world right now. And that is so inspiring to see. One of the most inspiring things, like the huge protests are amazing and very inspiring to see, but I've also found it really inspiring the small towns that are having protests. Like Ely, Minnesota had a protest yesterday that had like 2,000 people. Is there even 2,000 people living in Ely? I mean, yeah, that's a lot for them. It is. I mean, these are very white.
I'm not saying Uli specifically is racist, but some of these small towns are not inclusive, right? Don't necessarily have great track records. And all over the place, you're seeing them have Black Lives Matter rallies. It's amazing. My hometown of Whedon, Illinois, which is a Chicago suburb known for being especially religious and especially conservative, they had a Black Lives Matter protest with thousands of people.
is honestly shocking to me because i grew up there and i knew those people and that was not them that was not that uh and i think that that means we're seeing like a real tipping point like this is a sea change moment in public opinion it feels like a change it feels different it really does and i hope that that we can maintain that to actually get some justice for people because it's a big deal yeah and I see. OK, sometimes I worry that I'm not informed enough or I'm not articulate enough. I don't want to discredit people who know better. Right. Right. Sure. Like Samantha and I made an episode where we weren't dicks. But have we been like doing the hard work? No, we haven't. We're not. We're not the activists and the community organizers that have been doing the work to make this happen.
So I never want to, I feel like sometimes my caution is like, but maybe I don't like, you know, maybe I'm not educated enough or maybe I don't know enough about what I'm talking about. You know what I mean? Oh, I feel that all the time. Yeah. So I feel like if there's ever been in the past on the show some hesitation to like speak about stuff, that's at least part of what's in the mix. But I also wanted to say something like, I think it's wrong.
to expect to get literally everyone on board. I don't think we need to compromise to the extent that literally every person is agreeing with this movement. Some bigots are going to get left behind. That's okay. Let progress move on without them. If you've got some stubborn, racist family member that you're just like, I don't know what to do. They're not actually interested in what you have to say. They're not actually looking to change their minds. They're stuck in their ways. They're just going to get left behind. There's always going to be some hardened bigots. There's always going to be some activists that are working.
you know, hard to make things better. And then there's just a big group of people in the middle who are kind of like, they'll go with the flow, right? And I think we're at that moment where that group of people in the middle is tipping to the side of progress. And some people are gonna get left behind. Oh, well. Too bad for them. Sucks to suck. I agree completely. And I think it's easy to feel pressure to argue your way, argue your particularly racist family members, argue them to the side of understanding. And maybe that works for some people, you know, those people that are in the middle. But honestly, like you said, I think to some degree, it's not worth your energy. To some degree, like if they're actually willing to have a conversation with you, that's amazing. And talk to them about things that are important to you. If you can tell they're really not, that they're completely closed off. And for whatever reason, they're just like.
sheltered in their own bigotry leave them cut them off or do what you have to do and and we'll just move on without them we don't need them yep let them die alone right like i i i'm i'm saying this because i saw a facebook post from someone i went to college with that was really bemoaning like a lack of leadership at this time right that like here's this important moment and you know the president's like hiding in a bunker and blah blah blah and i was kind of saying it's there it's just not coming from the top Like there are people who are leading in this moment. Maybe they're not the people you want them to be. Right. Maybe you would like, you know, a president who's actually a leader. Too bad. That's not what we got. But there are people working really hard to move us in a better direction. And I was like, oh, look into what Reclaim the Bach is doing in Minneapolis to like move away from this model of policing. And I was asked if they had the support and collaboration of the police department. And I was kind of like, no, the police abolitionists don't have the support of the police department.
And aren't looking to reform them and work with them. That's specifically in the definition. But I think that comes from this idea of, like, we literally all have to work together, right? And that things get so compromised and watered down that they're kind of meaningless. But it's like, we actually don't need to work with the police department to replace them. We don't need to work with the police department to put them out of work. Like, that doesn't make any sense. Is the Witch Burning Guild working with the witches? No. All right. I've said my piece. That's what's on Liz's mind today. I think it's what's on a lot of our minds, honestly. If that was this podcast that I've just become.
I mean, it is now. It is anyway. I think ignoring it is, I mean, how could we? I don't think we want to. We want to talk about it. And I feel like we have these glimmers of hope. And so that makes me feel good. That makes me feel good for the future. Obviously, there's a long ways to go. But considering how much has happened in the last just week, it feels promising. It really does. It's really exciting and inspiring. And I don't know. Yeah, it gives me some hope for the future, which is rare. Okay. Any other updates? I don't think so. Okay. All right. That's fine.
Should we jump into talking about... Let's just now... Oh, wait. Did you know that this is an Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast? Did you know? Did you know we talk about Robert Stack? Well, we do sometimes. And now we're on... What is this? Season 5, episode 11. Already. Wow. Robert Stack is on the set of a school play. Yeah, it's weird. At the beginning of this. There's a fog machine. There's like kind of scaffolding stuff or something. Yeah. I don't know what was going on there, but... Look, sometimes I feel like they are desperate for locations close to them that they have not used. And probably that's just like literally on the block of whatever.
God, I can't even talk now. I used it all up on my rant. Oh, no. Oh, no. My podcasting mojo. Whatever. Who knows where that is or why that is. But this episode starts off with a lost love. Now, this is a sweet story, but it's like...
Especially detailed. This is less love. There's a lot here. Why exactly did we need all this information? I think they just thought it was like a sweet story, but they like stretch it out. All right. A lot of detail. So it starts off with learning about the polio epidemic. I don't know that that was like that necessary, but Robert Stout's here to tell you that thousands died from polio.
Until 1952, where, like magic, the polio vaccine was invented. So be sure to vaccinate your children, everyone. Don't let them get polio. When we're learning about the story of Judy Davis from Beverly, Ohio, she had polio, survived, but it impacted the use of both of her legs. So when she was starting junior high in 56, she was the only disabled student there. She didn't know any of the other kids. There's this dramatic scene where she gets, you know, she is able to get herself in and out of the car.
And would have been able to get up the, according to this written enactment, very many steps to get into her school. Is this the Washington Monument? Why does this school have so many steps? Her father had instilled in her that she should really do things for herself and not accept too much help. And she would have been able to get herself up the steps if there had been a railing. But the school was cruel. And not only are there 1,000 steps to get into it, but there's also no railing. So her dad had to carry her up the steps, which was kind of embarrassing. Particularly at this age, you're trying to like...
you're not an adult but you like think you're grown you think you know everything when you're in junior high so the school has no disabled kids so all of these kids that are just like mingling around before school stop and stare at her they're literally all staring at her like never seen a non-able pause gap because yeah they're all idiots so that's embarrassing but right as her dad is like you know about to leave or whatever this girl named becky comes over introduces herself asks her name and offers to help her so she carries her bag and walks her to her classroom and that is the start of a beautiful friendship And we learned that Becky was a very warm and open person and made her feel like anything was possible. That with Becky, she didn't feel like this outsider who was being left out of everything. She felt much more included and was able to be herself. So by the eighth grade, they wore coordinating outfits and were often mistaken for sisters. It's adorable. It's so adorable. Now, here's the part that I have no idea why this was included at all. So the school shows serialized horror movies at noon every day for some reason. Okay, granted, it's the 50s. Horror movies are not that scary. This is like a monster jumps out of a bush.
But I want to go to this school. I want to watch 50 B-horror movies every single day at lunch. Why? What? From the reenactment, it looked like they had a theater in. Yeah. Like when I watched movies in school, you were in your desk. Maybe I could try to roll out that car. Yeah. And you're all watching one little TV.
oh my god so many memories anyway yeah they have like i guess because they had like a theater they were like well we better show a movie every day make this worthwhile uh so a boy started sitting next to becky and holding his hand her hand his name was david major again why why do we need to know any of this i'll let you know it's not important but judy was too shy to talk to him but at one point she dropped her books and david helped them pick her up pick them up so shortly after that becky and david broke up and judy and david started dating we get this whole like teen drama yeah boyfriends and girlfriends and it's not that interesting I don't it's cute I guess but it's like a memory your grandma would have and tell you and you'd be like that's nice grandma but I don't know who any of those people are right that's what's happening right now it's like oh and then Becky started dating a boy named Gordon like all right what do you want me to do with that information anyway so a few months later yeah again that had nothing to do with anything a few months later Becky comes over to Judy's house with the terrible news that her family is moving literally the next day because her dad got a new job in West Virginia and literally in the reenactment they just hold each other and sob and it honestly made me really sad
Did you ever have a best friend when you were like in elementary or junior high that moved away and you just never talked to him again? I mean, I was that friend. Oh, you were? Yeah, we moved around. And yeah, you keep in touch for a while, but it's hard because you're a kid. You like write letters and you know, whatever. And long distance phone calls used to be a thing, right? You couldn't call your friend all the time. So you just kind of lose touch. And it is very sad. So that's what happened here. Oh, I want to mention that Judy's bedroom has these gigantic posters of Elvis in it. And it's amazing. I love it when we get.
Teenage girl bedrooms. I'm obsessed with teenage bedrooms because they're such an art project. They're such an expression of self. Mine totally was. It was just a giant X-Files collage for years. I would love to see a whole house decorated like that. Teen beat posters.
you know photographs of you hanging out with your friends and like things torn out of magazines and little figurines yeah yeah just like every single inch of space is used with yeah you got your fairy lights up and like some tapestry of the grateful dead or some shit oh my god i love it all so yeah they were pen pals for years they visit each other once but it's hard to sustain that stuff pre-social media Eventually, Judy went on to get married. She has four children. She's an outspoken disability activist. But she looks back on her friendship with Becky as something that's like helped her her entire life and has been like something that's brought her a great deal of comfort. So she was seeking out Becky. Now, it's a little unfortunate we don't get that reunion. We just tell that they were united as a result of the broadcast.
So I'm glad Unsolved Mysteries did a good deed, but I wanted to see them like hog and cry. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get through again because this was a sweet story. And I really appreciated getting a lost love that was a friendship, especially like such a meaningful, cute childhood friendship. I do think it's something a lot of people can relate to, that you had someone at that age of life that was really important to you. Things would have been very different without them. Do you have a lost friend, Samantha? Should we put out a call? I do. So I was trying to remember. I don't remember her name. I was very young. I want to say like second grade. But I do remember having a friend that moved away. And I think maybe we had like one year together before her family moved away. But I remember that very well. So I think, yeah, this is a story that everyone has. I had a fiance in like kindergarten. Adam, where are you? Come back to me. He was so mad that his parents weren't making a move that he didn't talk to him for a week. In kindergarten.
That's a lot right there. Oh, Adam, I don't remember your last name. Hope you're doing well. I'm sure you're listening to this. That would be amazing. That would be amazing. I kept those bracelets you gave me for years, Adam, forever, until they broke on a slide, just so you know.
Samantha's going to give us a missing person now. Yeah, we have a missing persons case next. And it opens with a reenactment of a disheveled and confused man wandering through a Mexican village. I think he's disheveled and confused because he's wearing the world's worst wig. This wig is ridiculous. And the guy, the actor, like, kind of can't keep it on his head. He keeps having to adjust it. It's so big and probably heavy. It's supposed to look like he's been sleeping outside, but I don't know what it actually looks like. Bees live in there? I don't know. It's really quite large.
Everything else about this man, he is buff. He is, like, clearly a model. And then they just stuck this disgusting wig on him that, like, opossum-styled. And then they were like, look, you live outdoors. No one's buying it, Unsolved Mysteries. Yeah, this guy drinks protein shakes. He's not. Yeah, we're not buying it. He's the only person that treats himself to pizza once a year. Which, oh, can you imagine? No, I can't. I literally can't. Yeah, the wig is supposed to do a lot of work. Since they didn't even really, like, dirty him up. It's a failure in costuming.
Yeah, not great. Robert Stack's voiceover tells us that it is September 1991 and that a young American, clearly lost and disoriented and out of place, is stumbling through the village of Colonia Vicente Guerrero. The village is 300 miles south of San Diego on the Baja Peninsula. The man lingered in the village for months, and Robert Stack tells us that tales of this mysterious man gave one California couple hope for finding their 34-year-old son, Gordon Collins, who had been missing for five months. Robert Stack goes on to tell us that the, quote, strange saga of Gordon Collins began on April 19th, 1991. And we see a reenactment of a group of friends speeding out of a harbor on a small fishing boat. There is some quality early 90s swimwear in this. Oh, yeah. I love early 90s swimwear. Speaking of lost friends, my best friend in like the fourth and fifth grade, her mom was a swim aerobics instructor and she had an entire dresser. And this was in like 1991. She had an entire dresser of swimsuits. And as a kid, that seemed like.
like that was the life like that was absolute glamour to have an entire dresser of neon high cut at the side you know like they were so flashy yeah they also had like a framed like like professionally mounted poster not probably like a piece of art it was super expensive of like killer whales jumping they had above it a like like a very professional black light And I was just like, this is the coolest. I was like, these people are living the life. I really thought that was what I was going to be like when I grew up. So maybe I need to get a whole dresser of swimsuit. It's not too late. I will say that. It's not. You have to pair the neon swim top with some high-waisted short jean shorts. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. For when you're on your deep sea fishing vacation trip. I just want to be a 90s Barbie that's come alive. That was the women in this reenactment. I swear. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. They're going to go lounge by a pink plastic pool.
I will also say that reenactment Gordon has a, what I wrote down, a statement mustache. My note on his mustache is that this mustache says, I have more confidence than I deserve. That's amazing. I called that mustache the golden boy. That jives. Yeah. And I described it as having Robert Redford color. Correct. That is accurate. Okay.
So anyway, Gordon was vacationing with his girlfriend, Anastasia Seals, which sounds like a fake name. I don't know. Sure does. They had joined another couple at a popular deep sea fishing spot midway down the Baja Peninsula. Gordon's friend, Wayne Schwartz.
was with on the trip he had fished this area many times so the group was comfortable however on their way out of the port that day a fisherman on his way in attempted to warn the group that a storm was brewing out in the ocean and that they should not go out but they very rudely ignored him and they were like yeah thanks ma'am because i don't speak spanish but apparently also can't interpret like body language and facial expressions but the guy was like a storm is coming you fucking gringos turn around and they were just like yeah thanks man bye And unfortunately, several hours later, a fierce storm swept across the area, and Gordon Collins and his friends never returned. So, not great. The next day, an employee from the hotel where the group was staying set out in a boat to search for them. 28 miles northeast of the port, he found their capsized boat. Floating nearby were the bodies of Wayne and Jordan Collins' girlfriend, Anastasia. Wayne's wife and Gordon Collins were missing.
Gordon's father, John, is interviewed for the show. He's convinced that Gordon is still alive. He points to the fact that the boat, the two bodies, and apparently everything that was in the boat was found within a one square mile of where the boat capsized. He spoke with the man who found the site, who said that the only things missing were the other two people and their life jackets. So there's that. The U.S. Coast Guard searched the area for three days, but found no signs of the missing people. After the search was suspended, the authorities presumed the two to be dead, and the U.S. consulate in Mexico asked Gordon and Arlene, that was Wayne's wife's name, Arlene, asked their parents to sign death certificates. However...
Rumors of Gordon still being alive had started circulating and his parents came to believe that he had been picked up by a fisherman and brought to shore. They were convinced that their son is suffering from amnesia. A common explanation for people being missing in the show. I mean, I think this is possibly a little more plausible than some other amnesia cases we've had. I don't really know what I'm basing that on. I'm not sure. I don't know. This one is kind of hard to flesh out. I'll say that. Gordon's parents traveled to Mexico to the area near where the boat had been found. They desperately combed Santa Rosalia, hoping to find clues of their son's whereabouts.
As they were handing out flyers, two fishermen came up to Gordon's parents. They told them that they had seen a man matching the photo on the flyer come out of the water. He was wearing nothing but shorts and was all caught up. The man apparently tried to catch a bus. Around the same time, a man named Jose was fishing on a nearby beach when he was approached by a shirtless white man. The shirtless man said that he was cold and asked to have Jose's blanket. The man seemed disoriented. He gestured towards the water and told Jose that he was waiting for his friends to come back from fishing and that he was going to sleep on the beach to wait for them. This was near Cabo San Lucas. So he just stole that guy's blanket. The reenactment is kind of hilarious. In the reenactment, he looks drunk. And I'm kind of like...
is this just a drunk guy wandering on the beach how uncommon is it can i use your blanket i'm cold and my friends are coming and the guy's kind of like i need that blanket that's mine he's like yeah so i'm just gonna borrow this and then he just like walks away with it jose is far too nice because he's like all right dude bye bye i don't want to get into a brawl with you yeah so this guy is also wanted as a blanket thief yes This is also a wanted. This became a pattern for Gordon's parents. They would travel to Mexico and stay until they stopped getting reports of sightings, at which time they would go home and wait for a phone call that Gordon had been spotted again. Immediately, they would hop on a plane and return only to start the process over.
So there were tons of sightings of Gordon around the areas of La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. So many sightings that it started to seem to Gordon's parents that Gordon didn't want to be found, but they refused to believe this. And this sort of led them to the amnesia theory because Gordon had a 10 year old son named Christopher and they were certain that he would never abandon his son. It would be weird to do that right after a boat accident where your friends died. That'd be the moment you're like, and also I'm going to abandon my family.
He was there on vacation. It's not like, why would you just suddenly get this idea to abandon your family? Like, that doesn't make any sense. So it makes more sense than that, certainly. The Collins eventually hired a private investigator. Who also has a mustache. There's a lot of mustache in this episode. He has a mustache that I call the straw hat. You think that's why. Nice. He ran ads in local newspapers, which generated leads in the village of Colonia Vicente Guerrero. Unsell Mysteries interviews a local businessman named Raul Amador.
who says that the mysterious man stayed in town for about five months. He never worked. He just sort of hung out. And what was interesting was that the man basically never stopped moving. He was constantly walking around. He never seemed to sit still. And everybody in town knew him. Bill Garcia, who is the private investigator, tells Unsolved Mysteries that everyone in town recognized the photo of Gordon Collins as the man who stayed in their town for five months. The man was eventually arrested for stealing food, and the local sheriff brought in James Hatfield, who was an American living in the village, to translate.
On Self Mysteries interviews James, who says that there is no doubt in his mind that the man was Gordon Collins because the man gave him the name Gordy, which is a nickname that he had his whole life. His parents call him Gordy. See, that makes this a lot more credible to me. This was the point where I was expecting a twist that they found him because that's a very specific name. And everyone in this town, he was hanging out there for five months. And everyone was like, oh, yeah, that was that annoying guy. We recognize that blanket thief anywhere.
So this was the part where I started to be like, you know what, maybe there's something to this. But unfortunately, the man moved on before Gordon's parents and Bill Garcia could get to the village. Bill says that Gordon seems to be wandering around the towns of the Baja Peninsula, not really trying to get home because he would travel north and then he would move south again and so on and so forth. Sporadic sightings of Gordon continued over the next year. And the U.S. consulate in Mexico actually reversed its finding and no longer presumes Gordon to be dead. So there's that. Unfortunately, though, there is not an update. According to Unsolved Mysteries Wiki, the case is still unsolved and Gordon's mom sadly passed away. I did Google it and there's no other information, but there is a semi-active Facebook page dedicated to finding Gordon Collins. I'm not sure who runs it, but...
Posts on the page say that all leads do get passed on to Gordon's father. So it's a family member or a friend. But the page hasn't been updated since 2018. In 2018, they said that Gordon would have been 65. Oh, man. I don't know. The last post on the page was an announcement that the page is no longer being actively updated, but that they are going to continue to take leads if and when they come in and that leads will be passed on to the family. So it sounds like his family is still holding out hope that he did survive and that maybe he's out there. Just not sure who he is and perhaps someday.
They'll be reunited. So that's kind of sad. I was really hoping for a twist at the end. I know. Because these leads seem promising. And I don't know. It seems like one of the more legitimate amnesia possibilities that have been on the show. But the fact that he hasn't been found, who knows? Maybe he went on to have a great life in Mexico. We can just choose to believe that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Are you ready for this Wanted? Yes. Because I love this one. I love this mystery. OK. So it's March 1992. Paramedics are called to a toy store in Redwood City, California.
In the, like, break room, they find 23-year-old Gilbert Ortiz convulsing. They ask him if he has recently had anything to eat or drink, and he had just been drinking a protein shake. He manages to tell them before, slipping in and out of consciousness, and when they ask who made him the shake, he says, a friend. The plastic bottle containing the shake was put aside to be tested. So he's taken to the hospital. His wife arrives. She tells the doctors that he doesn't do drugs and that she has never seen the bottle that the shake was in. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
That evening, he had developed pneumonia and his kidneys have failed. So he was moved to intensive care where he suffered cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma. At this point, they realized the bottle has disappeared before being tested. Then we get a little bit of backstory that Gilbert had a son, Jonathan, with his wife, Elizabeth. He had recently been promoted at the toy store, but him and his wife thought about money a lot. We do hear from, spoiler, Gilbert lives. So we do hear from Gilbert and he has a mustache, which I call the straight and narrow. Thanks.
Okay. So at this point, you know, flashback to the crime, Gilbert's sister and mother arrive at the hospital. And while they're there, Elizabeth got a strange phone call and started acting nervous afterwards. She then said that she had to go see her son to make sure he was okay. And that she was going to look at Gilbert's work locker to see if she could find evidence of what had happened. And even from just this part of the reenactment, you kind of get the sense that Gilbert's sister and mother don't like Elizabeth because they're like, yeah, sure, whatever. Get out of here. So two hours later, she runs back into the hospital screaming about her son, claiming that a child came up to her in the parking lot, leading her to a masked man.
who said that Gilbert had drunk poison and that if she told anyone, he would kidnap her son. and that he also handed her the poison. So Gilbert's sister doesn't believe a single word of this. She looks Elizabeth dead in the eyes and goes, but your son is with your mom. And she's like, yeah, but she threatened to get her. So Elizabeth's sister gets up, goes, makes a phone call, calls Elizabeth's mom, and was like, so is Jonathan there with you? And the mom's like, yeah, why? She's like, oh, because your daughter's spreading lies. That's all. Talk to you later. So at this point, a nurse comes over to get Elizabeth's story, and she says that the man was wearing a mask.
And when the nurse says, what kind of mask? She goes, I don't know. It covered his face. Oh, really? As masks might do. Elizabeth is not good at lying, which makes her bad at crimes. It's kind of a fundamental part of committing crimes. OK, so she said that if she said that this man told her that Gilbert drank this insecticide and if she told anyone that her son would be hurt. And the nurse is like, yeah, OK, I'm calling poison control on the police. And she's like, no, don't call the police. They'll hurt my son. And the nurse is kind of like, what do you expect me to do in this situation? So the nurse on duty is not amused. And she goes to the phone like you've never seen anyone look less sympathetic to someone whose husband is in the hospital.
She's like, yeah, I'm calling the police right now. For some reason, five days later, Elizabeth is questioned. Not sure where she is during this time. So she tells this story about a kid and a masked man. And the police are like, this doesn't even make sense. Like, what kid? How would they know who you were? Like, and eventually she goes, OK, OK, I made it up. The doctor said they would be looking for poisons in the house. And I wanted to bring in this poison and whatever.
And then she says that she has to go to a job interview. So she has to leave. She's the worst liar. She was gone for two hours. You think she could have come up with a story in that time. Yeah, I got a job interview. Gotta go. Gotta go. And they're like, well, could you come back and take a lie detector test? And she's like, yeah, yeah, whatever. Of course she didn't. Which I don't blame her, but also she's just bad at lying. And the reenactments are honestly pretty funny. So 11 days later, Gilbert regains consciousness. He confirmed that Elizabeth had poisoned him. His story was that Elizabeth was pressuring him to bulk up.
That, like, she wanted him to be, like, this really buff dude and that he was lifting weights and not really getting the results that Elizabeth wanted to see in terms of buffness. So she... Just break up. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I realize I already had a kid and stuff, but if your partner is, like, actively hating your body, it's probably not good. Like, it's not working. Sorry to tell you. Don't do this. Don't let your wife say, oh, like, I have a co-worker's friend who's super buff.
let me ask what he does and then supposedly it was these like amino acid shakes so she said that he got him to make him one of these shakes to buff him up and then brought it at lunch to his work and he was like so I'm supposed to drink this and she's like yeah yeah uh drink it before you eat anything and also it's gonna taste bad but that's okay this is gonna taste a lot like poison but you're gonna it's chocolate flavored but also insecticide flavored don't let that bother you Just drink it down the hatch. So he went, you know, he took it into his work. He was in the brave room. We hear Gilbert say that the shake burned his throat a bit, but he didn't know if that was bad. If it hurts, it's working. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Also, this guy, he just had too much faith in his life. He's blinded by love. Way too much. So he had almost finished the shake when he started to feel intense burning. And the next thing he remembers is being in the ER.
So this is not a subtle poisoning. No. It's not one of those poisonings where it goes on for years, just a little at a time. This was literally, he couldn't even finish the bed. Yeah, he couldn't even finish his shake because there was so much insecticide in it. But by this point where he's woken up in the ER, Elizabeth has already vanished with the kit. The poison, unfortunately, caused serious damage to his liver and nervous system. At the time that they were filming this segment, he was having trouble walking without assistance, and they weren't sure how permanent the damage was going to be.
The update is that after eight years on the run, Elizabeth was captured in Mexico. She was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. She served her term and has since been released. So from Unsolved Mysteries Wiki, unfortunately this has, I did really enjoy this segment, partly because Gilbert lived, so it's not as sad as it could be. Also just the reenactments of Elizabeth failing to lie in any convincing manner and everyone being like, just seriously, imagine if you told a story about how your husband was poisoned and everybody just went, what are you talking about? What man? What boy? What?
And you were just like, you know, a mask over his face. Yeah, gotta go. So I did enjoy that. This does have a sad update from Unsolved Mysteries Wiki. When Elizabeth was caught and convicted, Gilbert was finally reunited with his son. So Elizabeth was given a life sentence plus six years for child abduction and bodily harm. She attempted to appeal her conviction in 2004, but was refused. She was denied parole in 2010, 2014. But surprisingly, she has since been released from prison. Now, here's the part that's very sad. So brace yourself. During two separate incidents in 2010, Jonathan, now 20, brutally beat Gilbert, irrationally blaming him for his mother's imprisonment. Oh, my God. In January 2011, he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting great bodily injury.
later pled no contest to these charges and was sentenced to four years in prison. It's horrifying. Yeah, I really enjoyed this a lot more before I do that. Yeah, because I was like, oh, he got reunited with his son. Yeah, this is tragic and horrible, but it has sort of a happy ending, right? He lived, he got reunited with his son, Elizabeth played for her crimes, but then you hear this. That's terrible. I mean, something to keep in mind is that who knows what Jonathan's life was like when he was on the run with Elizabeth, only hearing Elizabeth's horrible lies. I mean, I don't know. Ugh, sad. I hate it. I know.
I know. And then we get another unnecessary update and then this is over. Yeah, the episode ends with a really long update. It's very anticlimactic. It's wasting our time. Again, yeah, let's do that. Mysteriousness? Um...
I guess it's a little bit mysterious because why did Elizabeth think those lies would work? How is Elizabeth so bad at lying? Had she never, like, I don't know, cheated on her homework? Were those the first lies that she ever told in her life? Somehow I doubt it, but it's amazing that she was that bad at it. Yeah, so actually that is a little bit of a mystery. I also think the mystery of Gordon Collins is kind of a mystery. That actually is a legit mystery, so I'm going to give it a thumbs up. Yeah, a thumbs up for sure. Reenactments? They're pretty silly, but actually I love these Elizabeth ones so much. Okay, the Gordon Collins ones are just bad because...
there's oh my yeah we already said why it was not tested well no but um and but but also the becky judy ones are so sweet even if they go on a little long so i'm gonna say thumbs up i'm gonna give it a thumbs up um okay i did really like that 90s one where i actually really liked um gilbert's glasses when we see you know like modern day gilbert he's very dashing um and then we get to these like past 50s reenactments with the kids so i would give like a hesitant it's not the best fashion but it's it's better than it is bad Yeah, I agree. Robert Stack? Robert Stack. He's barely in it. He's not in it very much. At the beginning, we get a trench coat, but I don't know. Show some commitment, Stack. No, I'd say something out on that. He was busy this week when they were... He's like, yeah, I gotta go buy it. What do you think Robert Stack... What was his rich person hobby? Let's just make it up. I don't want to actually learn. Do you think he... Well, he was on his yacht a lot. He was on his yacht. We made that up. Do you think he invested in racehorses or erotic artworks or...
What was his like rich person hobby? I want it to be erotic artworks, but I feel like it was probably just like going to the opera or some shit. Like collecting wine. yeah having a wine cellar or something or like um cigars maybe i'm sure for sure all you love yeah i just for some reason in my mind he lived this like really lavish life and i don't know that he was even like you know like that wealthy but according to you had a dresser full of swimwear i think he had a dresser full of smoking jackets oh that's definitely true i have this really old um like cocktail book but it also has like etiquette advice in it i forget i might be from esquire but it's quite old i want to say it's from the late 40s but in it it tells you to wear a tv watching jacket Like, not just, like, a smoking jacket, but it suggests, like, a jacket for watching TV in your home. Can we just imagine just this scenario in which the person that wrote that had a crystal ball and could, like, see us in the present day. Oh, my God. Yeah. Where I'm, like, wearing pajamas all day and I have snow crumbs on my chest. I don't want to put on a bra to walk the dogs. But it's, like, 5 p.m. And I'm like, do I really have to get dressed? Boo. Yeah. TV watching. Also, there's all this stuff about how if you have people over, you need to hire a bartender and someone to check coats. Like, in your apartment.
What? And I've kind of always wanted to throw a party like that, but it's a little beyond my pee. Someone to check coats. Yeah, the rest of the time, just standing there. Oh, that's our coat check guy just staring at us while we chat. Don't mind our bartender. And like, oh my God. Oh, actually, if you ever just like happen to see it, I don't know, a garage sale or something, some old etiquette book, definitely pick it up and flip through it because they are hilarious. And it'll be like, obviously any woman will buy a new hat for every season or whatever. They're so funny.
Amazing. That's now the merch. Perhaps it's your merch of my dreams. It would be the TV watching jacket. It's probably kind of expensive. I'm sure that would definitely be on our means. Like a satiny robe that you would watch TV in. Definitely. With a special pocket for the remote. Now that we're all spending a lot more time at home because of COVID, maybe these things could come back. I feel like the TV watching jackets of old couldn't have been that comfortable. Modern TV watching jackets could be essentially like a Snuggie you wear reversed.
I mean, a Snuggie is basically just a reverse bathrobe. Yeah. It's just a bathrobe you put on backwards without a belt. So if you call it your TV watching jacket, that makes it fancy. I mean, I feel like the 30s had some really great loungewear, like very glamorous loungewear. And I would like to bring that back into our lives because like real clothes is who cares? Overrated. Yeah. I now look at like every pair of shoes I own with such disdain. Why did I buy these? Where did you think you were going? Guess what? Nowhere. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. Were we supposed to rate this episode? We do have to give it a Robert Stack rating. You know, I didn't hate it, actually. I want to say three and a half.
I think that's probably, this is a middle of the road episode, but I did. It's slightly better than average. I did enjoy it. I don't know that I'm going to watch it again. But I'd like to remember Elizabeth and her terrible, terrible lies. Worst lies. I don't know. It covers his face. Why did she even add that there was a little boy in that story? I was in the parking lot and a little boy told me to go talk to a man. And he was like, why? I do think that's like a hallmark of bad liars. Oh, you'd spin this tale that's like needless. Like if this was real, you would never have all those details. But because it's a lie, suddenly it's all like there's a dog wandering by and like it was 32 degrees.
No, that's totally true. If you've ever known someone that compulsively lies, when you ask them questions, the answers are like, it never gets simpler. Things get more and more and more complicated. Whereas if you're telling the truth and someone asks a question, there's usually a very straightforward answer. And you go, oh, because this. Oh, because school was letting out. That's why there was a kid there. And you'd be like, oh, all right. But if you're lying, you have to be like, well, you see, the thing is the carnival's in town. And then the mayor said, and he fell off a horse. So, and it just is like, yeah. Oh, Elizabeth. Oh, Elizabeth.
Discredit to my name. Okay. So what is it now? Recommendations time? Yeah. Do you have something to recommend? I was going to say, hey, drink some water right now. Everything that's been going on, I have not been drinking enough water. I have not been taking my own advice. I woke up with a headache this morning and I 100% know why.
Yeah, and just a reminder. Hydrate. Hydrate. Yes, absolutely. It almost counts double. My second recommendation would be to sign a petition for Breonna Taylor, who you may have heard in the news recently, even though she was murdered two months ago. Breonna was a woman who was murdered by the police in Louisville, Kentucky. The police were serving a no-knock warrant and barged into her house in the middle of the night and shot her in her bed.
So that needs to be investigated. We need justice for Brianna. I'm sure there's multiple petitions floating around. Hi, Liz here. I just wanted to leave a little footnote that there are resources for demanding justice for Brianna Taylor in our show notes. So be sure to check out those links. We'll have a petition and some other things you could use to make sure her killers are brought to justice. Thanks so much, everyone. Bye. It just would have been her. What was it? It was just her birthday. It was her birthday on Friday. We're recording on Sunday. It was her birthday on Friday. And she would have been 27. It's just so unnecessary. Yeah.
So I was reading a little bit before we started. I just wanted to make sure I got the details right. So I was just reading this article from the New York Times about it called, Here's What You Need to Know About Breonna Taylor's Death. What I didn't realize was, so the cops had a no-knock warrant related to a drug raid, which I think is that type of warrant shouldn't have been made in this case because they didn't have enough evidence. You have to have very convincing evidence. There's a reason why you have to inform people about warrants, right? So you have to have very convincing evidence to get a no-knock warrant. And I don't think that standard was really met in this case. And they're also incredibly dangerous. Yeah, of course. As you can imagine. What happened was it hurt.
boyfriend was there and people barged into the apartment in the middle of the night well he legally owned a firearm so he shot the people that broke into the apartment and then they ended up killing Brianna in her bed He didn't know they were the police? No. Listen, militia weirdos are constantly shouting about how they have a right to defend their homes with their firearms. Any of them speaking up right now? Strangely silent about them. Do you hear crickets? I think that's what I'm hearing. There was no drugs in the home. They weren't connected to that drug case. All that information was incorrect. The actual suspect was already in custody. I don't see why this needed to be done in literally the middle of the night. Of course he thought those were just people breaking in. And now she's dead.
And it's really sad. And because this happened two months ago, but I feel like with everything going on with the pandemic, it didn't get the attention that it deserved. So people are now, while Black Lives Matter was trending and people were actually talking about it, were trying to get some justice for her. So if you want to take five seconds to sign a petition or call Louisville and let them know that you're paying attention. that you you know want to see justice for her i think that'd be a very good use of your time this i realized happened a little while ago but the amount of police brutality that has happened because people are protesting police brutality is quite strange it kind of proves the point it's weird that the police have gone so out of their way to prove black lives matter protesters right in a way like yeah there was a protest yesterday where i attended the the rally for that was to defund the police department here in minneapolis so there was a rally and then there was a march i didn't attend the march part i was just at a rally And then I was like, okay, you know, there's pandemic, whatever. The police are out of control. I'm going to go home. I'm going to live my privileged life. Well, after that, as protesters are just like marching down the street, peacefully protesting, there's a video of the police officers pepper spraying them from the cars. Yeah. What?
They're really kind of proving the point. It's happening over and over again. I'm sure tons of people saw that horrible video from Ohio, that old man getting pushed down by the police and everybody just walking past him, which is, watching that is hard. But there is a shocking number of these incidents caught on video where police slashing tires of protesters, police just kicking people in the heads. Shooting things at their faces. Yeah. I would argue we shouldn't be using those tactics at all. But they're not even designed to be used that way. Point blank range. People are losing eyes. Yeah. They really have gone out of the way to be like.
we'll kill you if you say we kill people. At this point, it's obvious that everyone there has their phones out ready to record you and they're still acting with impunity. They're out of control. So it's kind of proven everybody right. I mean, if Wheaton is out there protesting, that really does give me hope for the future. That people are like, oh yeah, that is bad. That's probably not how I want my society to work.
Okay. So Samantha, do you have a recommendation for us? Is it to drink in polar water? My recommendation is definitely to stay hydrated. And then I don't really have a recommendation so much as I have a hero dog story. Okay. I saw this and I purposely did not read it because I wanted you to tell it to me. Oh, you didn't read it at all? No. I wanted it to be a surprise for right now. Okay. And I actually have.
I've learned some things as I was preparing to record today. I had it up and I was reading through it and there's some like new developments. So this is very exciting. Okay. I was on Twitter and I saw a viral tweet from someone who calls themselves respectable lawyer. They're at respectable law on Twitter. I highly recommend that you go find the tweet because the photos that accompany it's actually what I'm reading from is a Twitter thread and the photos in each tweet are amazing. Highly recommend, but I'm going to read through them and do my best to make it like a cohesive spoken word story. Okay. This is the story of a Chilean.
protest dog who went by the name El Negro. Matapacos. He was a heroic Chilean protest dog who hated the police. And he's adorable. He actually looks a lot like my dog Renly, just slightly bigger. He's all black and he has that type of ear that are floppy, but they kind of stick up and out to the side a little bit. So cute. So El Negro Matapacos was a stray dog who began showing up to support Chilean student protesters in 2011. He gained fame for never hurting a civilian, but always turning aggressive towards the police. I'm going to describe each photo as I come to it. So this is a photo of him. He looks like...
And you would be so excited about this book. He's so cute. He's sitting amongst students who are like resting in a green area. Someone put a red bandana on him. He was fiercely protective of the protesters and he would accompany them into the thick of danger. And this is accompanied by a photo of a protester. This is from a photo from behind of a protester throwing something on fire, maybe a Molotov cocktail towards a police or military tank. And out in front of the protester is El Negro. His ears are up. His tail is clearly wagging. He's ready to defend.
So amazing. Okay. The next tweet is El Negro was always on the front lines. This is a photo of a tank. spraying high pressure water at some protesters who have a makeshift barricade and el negro is right up there with him with them behind the barricade i love this dog so much um oh it gets better he hated the water cannons but he never retreated he barked and thrashed and gnashed his teeth because he was brave and there's two photos on this one one is him literally like if you ever see a picture of a dog playing in a hose this is what it looks like but he was fierce about it this photo is him in the air twisting around biting at the water and then there's another photo of protesters being sprayed down and he's like right up there with them it's amazing All right. The next tweet is he gave absolutely zero fucks. Here he is making love to his lady friends in front of the cops paint splattered tanks. And it's a picture of El Negro making love to a lady friend. There's another one standing nearby. Yeah, he gave zero fucks. So funny. He was always there to back up his friends. This is a photo of a protester making a lewd gesture at the police. And El Negro is right next to him, ears perked. He's got a big smile on his little dog face. That's so funny. Next, he understood solidarity. He understood.
who the violent thugs were and he was just a dog so this is a picture of him and a whole group of protesters he people put little bandanas on him he is like you can tell he's like what he's clearly aligned with a group and he's right in there with them how can you tell when people are police this is fascinating i mean i think he understood i think he really understood okay so this is a little bit of a spoiler alert but he's not the only riot dog um and it seems like they really understand like who is the aggressor and like who is who is not good and they lash out and plus i think the we'll learn in a minute that the protesters like took care of these dogs yeah he gave them food veterinary care so like clearly one thing about domesticated dogs people always like to compare domestic dogs to wolves which is absolutely incorrect um they form communities with humans people have studied street dogs and they they've like evolved to live alongside humans so i think these riot dogs really like align themselves with the protesters in a way that's like i don't know ingrained it's really cool okay he never gave the cops a moment of peace this is a picture of him like right up there snarling at a group of three police officers um
This next tweet says beloved is probably too weak a word. El Negro is approaching canonization. This is a picture of an illustration and it is the caption reads patron saint of protesters and street dogs. And it's a illustration of El Negro surrounded by flowers and candles. And he has the like Catholic. I don't know what it's called, but you know where there's like a glow behind. Oh, yeah. It's.
really sweet and really adorable this is why i say you should seek out the twitter thread because these images are really really cool um he is the subject of street art throughout chile um and there's a little like there's a subtweet of all of these street art one is a black dog with his trademark red bandana um he's also a subject of more fan art than you can shake a stick at there's a bunch of little fan art of him um running with protesters there's actually an entire web page dedicated to it so definitely check that out if you need something uplifting um There's a video of like a parade and a giant El Negro statue that people are carrying through the streets. The red bandana was kind of his signature. So the statue has a red bandana on it. El Negro died of old days in 2017. He lived the last part of his life under the care of a volunteer veterinarian.
And he'll always be remembered as taking a stand. This is the sweetest fucking story ever. And I highly recommend you go check it out. There's a few other things I noticed when I was reading the thread. One was that there, he was not, like I said, the only protest dog. Recently, there is a protest dog in Chile named El Makita. And he was recently, I think in January, maybe, was injured. I think he was hit by a rubber bullet. And because he wouldn't approach any protesters, they staged a fake protest so that he would follow them to the bed.
amazing and that protest dog has an instagram uh let me see if i can find it there was actually a couple that i found um yeah el vaquita has an instagram account so go check him out uh he is very well fed um people really seem to love him there's a whole group of these protest dogs and if you find that thread on twitter you'll see people linked um Are you going to train your dogs to be protest dogs? My dogs would be terrible protest dogs. Yeah, same. Can you imagine Lenny? You'd just be rolling around trying to get pets from anyone. Police. It doesn't matter to him. They would be so bad. Gracie is so lazy. She never wants to get off her bed. And Renly is afraid of loud noises. So they would not be good riot dogs at all. They're not brave. I can't tell you how much I love the story of El Viquita and the protesters staging a fake protest so that he would follow them to the vet. That is amazing. That's so cute.
i mean where to take care of your animals that's that's awesome i really love the riot dogs they're amazing and you should go check out their instagram accounts because i'm so glad i waited to hear that story from you i love it so much a couple people sent it to us it's like look at this hero dog and i was like no no i'm gonna wait i gotta wait i gotta wait i also love this is why the other reason i recommend checking out this thread because so many people have posted photos here's a video of el rucio capucha uh And he, this is him chasing after the police. There's a lot of photos that people have taken of street art in their area. Like this is someone who lives in Santiago and there is a picture of El Negro with his red bandana. It's like spray painted on a wall. And in Spanish is the phrase, keep barking, which is so cool. Oh my goodness. I love that so much. Keep barking. I love it too. Not you, Lenny. You bark, Lenny.
That's Curtis's motto. Let's keep barking. Keep barking. Oh my goodness. Check it out. I love it. All right. I think that brings us to the close of our show. Yeah. Thank you, five listeners. Thank you so much. Here's that stuff that we always say at the end where we go, oh, did you know we have a Twitter and an Instagram and a webpage, perhapsitupodcast at gmail.com because we want to hear your paranormal tales or your psychic dreams. Also, you can still submit to that theme that we're making. Yeah. Send that over.
What else do we say? Oh, do we only accept five star reviews? I think that's obvious. I think we deserve them. So leave those.
Keep those two-star reviews yourself. Thanks. We don't want them. We do have a Patreon. Last month was low files. Guess what? This month's going to be low files. We're sticking with it. We wish there was more low files that we could do a whole low files podcast. So that's what's going to happen this week. We were behind on sending out Patreon rewards due to the pandemic and then also riots. My mail got turned off, believe it or not. But now everything is knock on wood. Actually, we are actually shipping things. So until Godzilla comes or some other.
You know what? That's next week. Those murder hornets really rear their heads. That is a go. Is there anything else? I mean, who cares? Who cares about any of this stuff? Thanks for listening, everyone. Thanks for all your support. Drink some water. Keep barking.