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Hi, is BD Wong there? Because it's time for Perhaps It's You. Your favorite, very unofficial, Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast. I'm Liz. And I'm Samantha. And look, we're here to talk about Unsolved Mysteries, I guess. I guess. Who knows? Look, I took three pages of notes on one segment of this episode. So now, legally, we have to talk about this. That is how laws work. We are legal experts. So, oh wait, no, not at all. We're people who watch TV and talk about it.
You might not have known. You might not have known. We also have like no power. We're not like policymakers. People seem confused about that. I don't know. Look, maybe we weren't going to make an episode this week because I think we've earned it. And sometimes the fact that we try to do an episode every week when this is like really not our job and this is not like a professional podcast. Every so often I go, that's bananas. Why do we try to do that? That's not right. So Samantha's like, oh, I'm very busy with work. And I was like, great, because I want to lie around and do jack shit. Sounds like a plan to me. But then little baby Samantha managed to get into a fight on the Internet.
And I know, we all thought it would be me. This fight led to a one-star review. So we're really here out of spite. I feel responsible for this. And look, okay, Liz has pretty much taken over our Instagram because I can't handle it. But some Karen responded to an Instagram story that Liz posted.
Which was about defunding the police. And honestly, the thing you posted was not even, it wasn't like burn all cops alive. It was like, what could we use instead of the police? And it was like social workers, healthcare professionals, I don't even remember. It was one of those very like- It was about like, if we spend less money on cops, which is a huge part of most city budgets, you have more money for other things. It's not really a controversial statement, I thought. Sometimes I say things and I go, oh boy, I'm gonna have to be explaining that later. And then that's usually not true. But this, I didn't even for a second go.
Oh, I should really rethink that. It was someone's tweet. I just thought it was like well stated. And the update since our last episode is that right after recording that episode, I went to a community meeting in Powderhorn Park here in Minneapolis. And the majority of city council announced that they planned to defund the police. Everybody's very excited. And then the following week, they actually put that to a vote. So now there's going to be like a year long process of figuring out what the new system is going to look like. But they're going to dismantle our police force and use that funding in other ways.
So anyway, I'm very excited about it. Look, every white person in suburban Minnesota thinks that we are on a knife's edge between law and order and the purge. I don't understand. Every comment section on anything you see is just a bunch of people who I guarantee do not fucking live in Minneapolis. They come to Minneapolis like once every other year and actually it's like going to the Mall of America, right? They're not actually like within city limits.
And they're posting about how they'll never come to the city again. I literally saw someone unironically refer to The Purge, which is something I'm constantly joking about now. People think that we're just going to descend into complete and total pandemic. I don't understand what people think is going to happen, but it's outrageous. I'm all for people like that thinking that this is The Purge because I don't want them to come. They can stay wherever they are. I don't want to see them. So yeah, it's The Purge. I am wearing a mask and doing a cartwheel and holding like nine swords right now. Also, people seem to think, people don't understand that government works very slowly.
Usually when you're not, when police departments aren't burning down, the government work usually works very slowly. So for the city council to announce this and vote on funding, that all seemed to happen very fast. But there's still like a year long process of what exactly things are going to look like. And it's not a year to get this in place. It's a year to explore options. Like that is how slow the government moves. It's not like tomorrow the police department is gone and everyone is given a state issued knife and you are on your fucking own. I mean, what? And for yourself and carved on a knife.
It says on one side defund police and the other side it says fend for yourself. And you're supposed to, now there's no one to enforce this law, but you're actually supposed to carry that in your teeth. as you walk around Minneapolis now. It also keeps you from breathing on people for the coronavirus, so it's twofold. Yeah, that's our COVID plan. I do, on one hand, understand people having questions, but what I don't understand is- That's part of what the year-long process is about, is figuring out what that's going to, like, to say, like, well, how's this going to work, and how's that going to work? First of all, those questions very rarely seem to be asked in good faith by people who actually live here, but it's also like, yeah, we don't know. We just know that the system is not working, and it's extremely violent, and we need to do better. Also- It's beyond reform. We're getting rid of it. We're starting something else. They didn't say there will be no law enforcement, or that-
You drank too many White Claws and there's no laws now. That's not actually how that works. Common misconception. You still can't murder people. Like, that's still going to be against the law. I don't know if people are aware. They said, well, here's what they said. They said, murder is now legal. We're going to the prisons. We're letting everyone out. And we're handing them weapons as they leave. And I said, well, that's pretty extreme. And I said, yeah. And some of them are like really big axes. So watch out.
No! It's just really... Oh, my God. Wouldn't it be so nice if you were worried about someone's mental health that you could call for a wheelchair fare check and the people that showed up weren't armed and might not accidentally shoot them? Like, that sounds so lovely to me. The current system is very dangerous. I think lots of people are, myself included, don't want to call the police in, like, basically any circumstance because they're going to shoot you or your neighbor or your dog or something. Like, see? See? But... Okay, anyway. To me, I forgot it's a little tiff. Okay, this is the issue. Is that...
We got a message on Instagram in a response to the story that, like Liz said, was not a good faith inquiry as to what we might think an alternative to the police might look like. It was all capital letters, LOL, one, two, three, four, five exclamation points. As many serious inquiries start. LOL. That's how you would deal with a violent rapist? Get them counseling? No arrest? No trial? No jail time? Just a hug and map quest directions to the free health clinic?
In case you're wondering how old this person was and why we just were deciding they were a Karen, I feel like MapQuest really seals it. You're not going to be part of Gen Z referring to MapQuest. It's not possible. That relic is long gone. Did I think it was worth my time to engage with this person in a serious manner? No. Did I feel like fighting with someone that day? Yes. Which is amazing. It's amazing that it was you and not me. It is amazing because I saw this come in and I was like...
Okay, I have to respond. You went, not today, bitch. Not today. I responded something to the effect of, oh yeah, cops are known for the excellent job they do locking up rapists. That's why we don't have a national backlog of untested rape kits. Oh wait, we do. And then this person proceeded to go up. Oh, I think I also made fun of their use of MapQuest, but... You did. No, I did.
You sure did. I think I also maybe told them that in the new police list system, we were going to report all crimes via AOL instant messenger. I did say that also. That would have worked so well at my college. Everybody was on that all the time. And basically we didn't use phones. We didn't have cell phones yet. And we didn't use landline phones. And literally all communication happened by AOL instant messenger. So if that had been. I don't want to call 911. I want to aim them. I want to hear that little door opening noise. And then I want to put up an away message that says, not a good time, no crimes, please.
So no, I did not engage this person in a dialogue. They were already rude. Yeah, they were rude. Also, they came into our DMs and we don't know them. Yeah, mocked our... Anyway, so they went off about how we are... I don't even remember what they said. Then we go around talking like this. Yeah, exactly. So they proceeded to tell us they were never listening to our podcast again, which how they listened to it in the first place, I have no idea because this is far from the first time where we...
have expressed some anti-establishment sentiments. I will just say that. Every time I said that I hated this country, I didn't mean except for its systems of extreme violence. That's not what I meant. I realize I'm not always the clearest communicator, but I just want to make sure everyone knows that when I'm going, oh, my God, I hate this country, I don't mean except for the extremely violent, militarized way that our police act in our cities. Yeah. How this person ever listened to our podcast? I have no idea. Maybe they listened to one episode. I don't know. A lot of recent one. Then this person left us some bad reviews all over the place, including Facebook, where they simply said they did not recommend our podcast because we're ignorant and delusional. Hilarious. I don't see what me being ignorant and delusional has to do with anything.
That has nothing to do with defunding the police. It's a separate issue. But that's a one-star review on iTunes Apple Podcasts. I think I have been very clear that only five-star reviews are allowed. And I realize that we're entering the purge and there's about to be no laws, but that's not true yet.
Okay. One of the laws is five-star reviews only. I can't be more clear about this. You can call our podcast, quote, dangerous, but it needs to be a five-star review. Yeah. And doesn't it make you feel like a little bit sexy? I'm not sure I've ever been called dangerous before. I 100% have never been called dangerous. And I kind of like it. Honestly, I do. It's unfortunate this was accompanied by a one-star review. It should be five-stars dangerous. That would make more sense. Dangerous. They're delusional and ignorant. Five stars. This person starts up their review by saying they may know Unsolved Mysteries, but that's about it. Bitch, jokes on you. We don't know about Unsolved Mysteries either. Yeah, we don't know anything.
We're making up stuff about Robert Stack and his yachts because we can't be bothered to look it up. I don't know what I'm saying. We started on a whim and we just kept going. We didn't even really watch On Soul Mysteries before we started this podcast. I kind of watched it since I was like five and we didn't do any background research. We just watch TV. This person goes on to say they seem to think all the problems with the judicial system are because of police. Well, there's lots of other problems, but it's a big problem. It's a layered problem with lots of issues.
They preach that all police should be done away with and replaced with social workers, safe places for drug addicts to inject their drug of choice. I don't remember saying that ever, but I'm for it. This person seems a little, a little obsessed with drug use. Yeah. Are we sure it's not Joe Biden?
I don't give a shit if people do drugs. I don't care. Yeah. Let's set up a needle exchange. That sounds helpful. Can we do that? Yeah. People should have a safe place to go. And what they shouldn't have are the police coming to incarcerate them for doing drugs. Decriminalize all drugs. I'm for it. When asked, how will society deal with rapists? We were not asked that. The answer was, police don't do anything. That's why there's a backlog of rape kits. Well, yeah. But also, has anyone in the history ever been happy with how the police handled their sexual assault? I mean, maybe someone out there. I've never heard it. I've never heard it ever. I've heard a whole lot of horror stories. Yeah. I've only heard bad things.
People are told, yeah, that's going to be hard to prove. Yeah, um, who's our president? I'm a rapist, so. The system works. Uh, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it might work as intended, but they reflect rather than answer important questions. Bitch, I don't owe you an answer to anything. Especially not when you come in and message us with some sort of ridiculous LOL. You're not asking serious questions. You're mocking us. I don't owe you shit. Also, this is a TV rewatch podcast. We're not out if you're answering the important questions. Confused. Yes, I am excited about the decision to defund the police. I'm not a policymaker. I'm actually not very involved in that whatsoever. I'm just in favor of it.
I'm not going to be the person who decides how that works. She thinks we have a lot more power than we do. We just own two microphones. Yeah. Look, anyone can make a podcast. I don't know if people are aware of this. Yeah. Yeah. You don't need to go to podcasting school. We don't even know anything about Unsolved Mysteries, as I said before. I mean, this review says we do, and I'm probably going to start putting that on stuff. It concludes by saying they only know enough to be dangerous rather than helpful. I don't know that I need to be helpful. I'm supposed to watch TV and tell you about it.
Mac, I showed Mac that review and he said, well, of course you're not helpful. You're a podcaster. It's a little bit of a bird. It's a little bit of a read. This is an Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast. We're a little caught up in current events. This is an important time, I think, in the timeline of this nation's history, but I don't need to be helpful, bitch. That's not what I'm here for. Maybe it's petty to spend so much time talking about this bad review, but I found it. Mac said it was, and then I was like, that's what we do. Don't tell me how to run my show.
I mean, Mac's not wrong, but we still did. He's like, why are you giving this person any time? And I was like, because. Because we want to. Because it's stupid. And they use MapQuest. Because they're really worried about other people doing drugs in their home or something. Frankly, I'm not going to take this seriously. God, no. They've got a lot of boots to lick. They're busy. And they're not listening anymore, so. They're not listening anymore, which is great because I don't. People act like that's an insult. And I was like, well, something was available for free. I don't really care if you take it or not. La-di-da. Go on about your life. Clearly watching too much SVU and thinking that cops are working day and night to track down rapists.
They are not. They're not. That's TV. Even at SVU, they're not out there preventing rapes. Yeah, that's a really good point. That's a really good point. When it comes to defunding the police, it's putting systems in place that can prevent crime. If you're concerned about crime, do whatever is in your power to help with poverty. That's the solution there. Right. It's not locking literally everyone up, which is our current solution. It's not worth, so. Yeah. Anyway. Look, it's hard to be dangerous.
It's hard to be so not helpful. It's hard to know enough to be dangerous, really. If there's a line from this review that you think would look good on some merch, let us know. I love taking people's mean words and turning them into cold hard cash. It's basically my favorite thing. They may know Unsolved Mysteries, but that's about it. Which is not true. We don't know anything about Unsolved Mysteries either. No, but I like it. I like it because it seems positive. Yeah, that's very marketable.
And it makes me, you know, if you've never listened to the podcast before, then you think, you might think we do know Balanced Up Mysteries. Oh, I'll turn it in. And then it's just us making up shit, talking about mustaches and ghosts we want to meet. They're so disappointed. All right. People with two microphones. And we're like, exactly. That's exactly what it is. Oh, I had another update, though. On a very different note, there is an update to a case that we have covered.
if anybody recalls the orange sock murders uh which is a case we talked about with mike and josh over on covering unexplained mysteries and i can't remember if we talked about that case on their show or when they came on our show okay i believe it was on their show because i don't think and someone who knows actually knows about some mysteries can correct me if i'm wrong i don't think the orange socks case is on streaming i think people have seen that maybe have seen like either you have the dvd set or you're like unsolved mystery super fan or something i'm not sure if this case is in the reap like the the streaming i was gonna say the reboot no the um the amazon streaming sure It's a really brutal case. A woman. Brutal reenactment. It's honestly terrifying. This woman that was, I think, maybe hitchhiking or trying to get it right anyway, ends up kidnapped and attacked and murdered. And her body was unidentified for a long time. And it's referred to as the orange sock case because I think an orange sock was found at the scene or maybe she was wearing one orange sock and then they found one orange sock later. But anyway, for a long time, her body was unidentified. I think last year it was finally identified. And the new news is that her headstone has been updated. So her name was Deborah Lewis Larnard, I believe.
deborah lewis larnard and um so now that her headstone is now updated and it has a photo of her on it and it used to just say unidentified woman which is so sad to me um so that update comes from the trail went cold podcast which is a podcast that's actually researched by someone who actually knows about until the streets if you want you're looking for that's what you're looking for you've been very disappointed with this podcast for years you're gonna want to head over to the trail went cold so i just thought that was a nice little update because i will be haunted by the horrible orange sock thing forever and ever okay um are we ready to get started man Do we have to, though? We could just stop it here and just release an episode where we just rant about a bad review we got. That's just going to encourage people to leave bad reviews. That's true. I mean, look, it was already petty, but that maybe is extra petty. Now listen up. We got a bad review. Okay. So we're on season five, episode 12. Samantha's going to take it away. She's got a really long segment to talk about. So this episode is primarily covering a conspiracy about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Timely. Which is very timely.
However, I can't say that I... It's also a bad segment. Yes. We'll get into it. It's an appropriate time to be talking about it, but it could have been done a lot better. A lot better. Okay. So Robert Stack opens... I'm just going to get right into it. Robert Stack opens the episode. He says that basically this episode aired...
really close to the 25th anniversary of Dr. King's death. Unsolved Mysteries rolls footage from the night before his assassination in which Dr. King gave a very eerie speech that you might be familiar with that a lot of people think foreshadowed his death the next day. I wrote down the quote. They don't play the whole quote in the episode, but it's, I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land and I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. That's what he said. People act like that's really like special that he said that right before he died, but he knew people wanted him dead.
He knew people were gunning for him. He had already survived an assassination attempt up until this point. It's not really that miraculous that he would say that and then be killed. He knew people were trying to kill him. Yeah, I can't say that this was actually foreshadowing his death, but it is eerie and something that they play in the episode. Robert Stack says that less than 24 hours later, Dr. King would be dead. And he goes on to say that James Earl Ray, having admitted to the crime, was pled guilty and that the case was officially closed. However, the anniversary of the assassination, according to Stack, has, quote, renewed attention on the circumstances surrounding the investigation of James Earl Ray.
So the whole episode, this whole segment, pretty much the whole episode. Yeah, not quite the whole episode, Samantha. Talking about this conspiracy with James Earl Ray. And... Is it that the FBI did it? No! I wish it was! Because that's what I actually would like to talk about, because that seems plausible. I will get to that later, but it's not. It's this convoluted story that James Earl Ray gives after having already pled guilty. Okay, so three days after he pled guilty, Ray recanted his confession, alleging that he was only a pawn in a larger conspiracy to kill Martin Luther King. No one took these claims of innocence seriously, however, and the case was immediately closed. So since he pled guilty, there wasn't a trial, so he was just immediately sentenced. And he's wearing this suit jacket.
That itself is a crime. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I have to agree with you on that one. Eight years after the assassination, a committee in the House of Representatives was tasked with reinvestigating the assassinations of both Dr. King and JFK. This investigation concluded that James Earl Ray was the lone assassin of Martin Luther King. However, this conclusion is not accepted by Walter Fontroy, who is chairman of that committee and now believes that the decision they came to was incorrect. So Walter Fontroy is interviewed for the episode and says that there are three things you look at when investigating a murder. Means, motive, and opportunity.
Faunroy says that he does not believe that James Earl Ray had these things. And it's not exactly clear to me to what degree he believes that Ray was lacking all of these things. I understand the means. A lot of people point to the fact that he was dishonorably discharged from the army and was known to be a poor marksman. That's actually pretty hilarious. Look, everybody knows this guy sucked at shooting stuff. Hard to believe he'd pull this off. He seemed to be a known dum-dum, which is pretty much the center of everyone's conspiracy. Ray could not have pulled this off on his own. He was too big an idiot.
This mumble mouth? No way. And I do sort of understand that. However, he was also a known racist. So I'm not exactly sure why someone would say he didn't have the motive. But anyway, that is sort of the center of the conspiracy. Anyway, James Earl Ray maintains his innocence. However, the FBI has stood firm up until this point in the episode. This is Robert Stack speaking. The FBI has stood firm on their conclusion that he was the lone gunman. Yeah, the FBI would say that, wouldn't they? So all of this happened before the opening credits even rolled. This episode is so long. This segment is extremely long. And it's a topic I would really appreciate.
going into in a way that actually made sense, but this episode does not do it justice. So Robert Scott comes back and tells us that researchers are now claiming that new information corroborates James Earl Ray's story. Based on this new information, Walter Fontroy is demanding that the case be reopened and that the committee's files be immediately released. They were, and I didn't check on this, but I assume they still are, sealed until 2029. Unsolved Mysteries gets into the history of Martin Luther King's assassination, which is that in April 1968, Dr. King and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were in Memphis, Tennessee, preparing a march in Washington to lobby on behalf of striking sanitation workers.
The night before is when King gave the speech referenced earlier at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis. And then at 6.05 p.m. the following day, King was standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he and his associates were staying, when a bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An hour later, he was 39 years old. So King's presence at the hotel was widely publicized in the media. Everyone knew he was staying there. Across the street from the Lorraine Motel were a series of buildings. One of the buildings was a rooming house run by a woman named Bessie Brewer. Shortly before 6 p.m. on April 4th, one of the tenants, a man named William and...
and Shooks found that the building's communal bathroom was locked. This bathroom faced the Lorraine Motel. This is where Robert Stack says, career petty criminal James Earl Ray loaded a high-powered rifle and took aim at room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, where he shot and killed Dr. King as he stepped out for dinner. While Martin Luther King was lay dying, James Earl Ray made his escape. As he was fleeing the building, he was seen by Charles Quitman Stevens, who lived in the room adjacent to the bathroom.
Robert Stack goes on to say that mere seconds from a clean getaway, the government believes that Ray saw a police car, panicked, and dropped his bundle of stuff. He had like all of his personal effects with him and his gun. He stole the comforter from the boarding house. Wrapped in the comforter and then he just dropped it and played for everyone to see like right outside this night amusement company. I'm not even sure what that was, but that's why everybody was like, yeah, this guy, he ain't too right. Yeah, this guy is a real root. He just dropped his bundle of evidence to his crime right there.
Three witnesses in the building right in front of his window saw him do this and then saw a white car speed away. Police recovered the rifle along with items belonging to Ray, but at that point he had fled the country. However, he was soon apprehended in the UK. I think he was attempting to board a plane to Brussels. So Ray did confess and eventually plead guilty. And like I said, because he pled guilty, there wasn't a trial. But then three days after his conviction, he began claiming that he was merely a pawn in a larger conspiracy. He fired his lawyers and announced that he had been pressured into pleading guilty. And he pointed to a man named Raoul as the real shooter.
So Robert Stack points out some things that support Ray's story. First, he had a long criminal history. However, his crimes were petty in nature and not violent. Again, no one thinks he's capable of anything, even crime. And then my next note for the next point that they bring up is just that people seem to think he would have to be a criminal mastermind to pull this off and he was just too dumb.
Imagine that being something you turn on the TV and it's just people talking about what a rube you are and how you could never pull something off. Walter Fonroy points to the fact that he doesn't believe that he would have been able to make it to Europe without help. I don't know what supports that except that he's a big dum-dum. That guy didn't even know there was a Europe. Are you telling me he was going on a plane to Brussels? He doesn't know that's a place. People seem to think he was struggling to get fake passports and that he would have needed someone to help him get a passport. I don't know what evidence there is to support that. This guy was a career criminal. I would think he'd be able to find a fake passport. But again, maybe he's just not bright enough to figure that out. All right. Walter Fonroy, who, like I said, is the chairman of the King's subcommittee, believes that Ray could not have been working alone. He looked at Ray's movements leading up to the assassination. This is where this episode gets fucking confusing. So I'm going to do my best because Ray goes all over the place and I don't know what it means.
But here we go. On April 23rd, 1967, Ray escaped from prison in Missouri where he was serving a 20-year sentence for robbery. Ray stayed on the move throughout the United States and Canada, first going to St. Louis and then Chicago, then to Toronto, then to Montreal, then Birmingham, Alabama, where he stayed long enough to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang and get an Alabama driver's license. He then drove to Mexico. Nice car. Nice car. Yeah. He drove to Mexico. He stopped in Acapulco before settling down in Port of Vallarta. That was in October 1967.
While in Mexico, Ray, using the alias Eric Starvo Galt, this is where he claims that he met a shady character named Raul. Ray claims that Raul would later pressure him into being an accomplice to King's assassination, but at first he was just smuggling. Something most people would do under peer pressure. Murder in an extremely prominent figure. Okay, we'll get to this later, but he claims that he did not know what was actually happening. He was merely buying a gun and leaving it in a hotel room. There's no way he could have known that Martin Luther King was just staying across the street. Yeah, it seems like the whole town knew that, so I'm not so sure. But again, big dumb dumb.
I'm just imagining being accused of something and people going, Liz, have you heard that woman's podcast? There's no way she did it. Look, everyone knows we made no unsolved mysteries, but nothing else. No, there's no way. Flew in Europe? I don't think so. At first, he was just smuggling contraband, according to him, for Raoul, across the U.S.-Canada border near Detroit. He was paid $750. I don't know if that's total or that's per... Get more money. Muggle? I'm not sure. After... Okay, so the story continues to get confusing. According to people who believe this conspiracy, they, and it's never made clear who they are because...
because we only hear one name and it's Raul, but I'm assuming it's some sort of criminal enterprise. Not sure. They dangled this promise of travel documents, which is apparently the only thing Ray wanted because he wanted to flee the country because he was, remember, he's escaped from prison. So he wanted a fake passport so he could get the fuck out of North America. So he would get sent back to prison. So that's why they think that they, Raul, whoever he works with or for, said, oh, just do one more smuggle and then you can get this passport. And then every time it was like stringing, they were stringing him along. What if at some point you go, fuck you, you're clearly never going to give it to me. Goodbye.
or just like stop doing it i also like that all of their shady conversations happen in pool halls Yes, that is true. I mean, that's where crimes happen. We've established that before. That's where crimes happen. Oh, yeah. People, if you're so worried about crimes, what about your pool halls, huh? Think about that. Okay, so they go all over the country. I'm sure people have. Oh, God. Unsell Mysteries draws us a map for how they've gone all over the country. I have no idea what it has to do with anything, but they do that. And then on March 29th, Raul outlines their next criminal enterprise. He asks Ray to buy some rifles that he claimed they were going to show to prospective clients. Later that day, they drove to Birmingham where Ray purchased a...
I'm going to sound like I do know nothing about guns. Don't worry. You only know about Unsolved Mysteries. It's fine. Is this a 24 caliber rifle? I don't know. A rifle. A big rifle with a telescopic sight. But apparently, according to witnesses like me, James Earl Ray was not familiar with firearms and he ended up actually buying the wrong gun. What a dope. There are essentially witnesses that were like marveling at how this guy was trying to buy a rifle, which you wouldn't buy unless you knew about. You know, like this is a very, I assume, specific high caliber rifle. You wouldn't normally just like walk off the street and be like, I feel like buying this today. But he was so like.
He didn't understand anything about it. He was asking all kinds of dumb questions. That makes me want to go to a gun shop and just be like, so I'm looking for a grenade launcher. Do you have any of those later on? No? Oh, okay. I'm just trying to think of guns I've heard of in movies. Yeah, I'll take a Smith & Wesson. You know, the .45. Yeah. That would be me. I would be James Earl Ray in this situation, having no idea what I was talking about. That was him in every situation, apparently. Well, I mean, yeah. Raul allegedly told him to go buy a different rifle, which he did. The new rifle was a Remington Game Master, which he allegedly gave to Raul on April 3rd. According to Ray, that was the last time he saw the rifle.
And according to the official investigation, this was the rifle used to commit the assassination. So at 3.30 p.m. on April 4th, the day Dr. King was assassinated, Ray claims that he met Raul at a local coffee shop. Raul told Ray to rent a room at Bessie's boarding house and await further instructions. At 4 p.m., he rented the room using the name John Willard. Ray was told to bring an overdue bag for appearance's sake, and Raul also told Ray to leave the Mustang outside because he wanted to use it that night. According to Robert Stack, the rest of the story is unclear because Ray has changed the story several times.
It's pure speculation on their part. Yeah, pure speculation. The one element that Barzak says always remains the same is that Ray claims at 5 p.m. he left the boarding house, he left the gun in the room, and did not return. He claims that just before 6 p.m. he drove the Mustang to a service station, and at 6.01 p.m. is when Dr. King was shot. So he claims that he was not there when it happened.
Fonroy and Ray's attorneys do not believe that he would have been able to make such a precise shot due to his history of poor marksmanship. However, an FBI investigator claims that with the scope that that particular rifle had and the distance between the boarding house and the motel, that it would have been easier than you would think to make the shot. This guy was like, you don't understand. Even Liz and Samantha could make this shot. I don't know though, because he only takes one shot. I feel like if you're, you know, you know, you're bad at shooting. The army like literally told you, whoa, buddy, you're bad at this. Wouldn't you take more than one? I guess I'm really, I have no idea. I have no frame of reference for shooting guns whatsoever. It seemed to me like a long, I mean, to me, it seemed like a long distance between the two buildings, but what the fuck do I know about shooting guns? So I have no idea. They go into a little bit how some people believe that he actually wasn't in or the killer, whoever the killer may have been, wasn't actually in the boarding house, but may have been in this like bushy.
hill right behind like that was a lot closer I don't really know what that has to do with the conspiracy what it proves one way or another but they talk about that for a while I guess maybe it would have been easier for him to make the shot from there so you don't have to rule him out I don't know I think so but also they're like talking about it in context of the conspiracy so I don't understand how this would like further I honestly have no idea but there is no conclusive evidence that can prove that the shot came from the bushes it's just that some people think maybe that Maybe it did. I don't know. So a dusting of the room Ray supposedly shot from revealed several unidentified fingerprints. But it was a boarding house, so of course. I don't know. How often does this place get cleaned? I don't think very often. From the photos, it looks like a total dump. Yeah. So it doesn't seem surprising to me. I bet he got cleaned never. But whatever. However, no fingerprints in the room could be linked to Ray. So there is that aspect of it. However, two fingerprints on the rifle were linked to Ray. But again, he said that he did buy the gun and he did bring it to Raoul. So people don't always leave fingerprints, though. You can be in a room and not leave fingerprints. Yeah, that's true.
And like ballistics never like definitively proved that that was the specific gun. It just, the killing shots were consistent with that type of rifle. I don't know. Ballistics is kind of a, not, not a science. So here we are. While the FBI never found a man named Raul connected to Ray, former defense investigator, Harold Weisberg learned that Ray had been in contact with a man named James C or JC Hardin. Hardin had been called, had called Ray from Atlanta and gave a message to the manager of the hotel that Ray was staying at. When Ray did not call him back, Hardin went to California to meet with him. Some believe that Hardin might have actually been the mysterious Raul.
They believe that he planned the crime for Ray to take the fall. The FBI investigated the lead long enough to have a composite made of Hardin. Oh, the FBI did? Interesting. Yeah, interesting. We'll get to that later. However, he was never identified or located. For unknown reasons, Ray has refused to say whether or not Hardin and Raul were the same person. He also has refused to positively identify Raul. The House Select Committee Chief Counsel G. Robert Blakely sums up the case by revealing that the FBI did not pull an adequate investigation and Ray was arrested by a rush to judgment to quickly arrest an assassin. So...
You did a really good job with that. Thanks. This case is convoluted as it's outlined in Unsolved Mysteries. But what I wanted to talk about was that first of all, this whole Raoul thing is unresolved. But there's like another layer of this conspiracy that I wanted to go over because what frustrates me about this is that Unsolved Mysteries gives so much airtime to the story from James Earl Ray when it...
I guess I should look into the timeline of it because there's a separate conspiracy that has way more plausibility to it. And that is the conspiracy surrounding Lloyd Jowers. So in 1993, Lloyd Jowers appeared on the ABC news program Primetime Live. He claimed that he was paid $10,000 by local mobster Frank Liberto to help organize King's assassination. Jowers ran a coffee shop on the first floor of the rooming house from which King was allegedly shot by Ray. Back door of his shop led to the bushes, which the bushes were apparently removed by the Memphis Police Department. Jowers had remained silent for 25 years after King's assassination, but he only produced his confession after there was like a mock trial in which.
Ray was actually found not guilty because there was never a trial. HBO did this like mock trial in which all this evidence was put forth and the jurors in that trial actually found Ray not guilty, which is very interesting. But after that happened, Jowers came forward and claimed that he was part of a larger conspiracy to assassinate King and frame Ray as a patsy. He claimed that, quote, Raul was actually Memphis police officers and that also the mafia had been involved. Jowers named Memphis police lieutenant Earl Clark as the shooter instead of James Earl Ray. In 1999, a civil suit brought by Coretta Scott King.
alleged that Jowers and others had conspired to assassinate King. The King family turned to William Pepper, who was the defense attorney in the mock trial, to represent them in the wrongful death lawsuit. This is the case of King family versus Lloyd Jowers and other unknown co-conspirators. It's actually the name of the case. During this four-week trial, Pepper brought forward 70 witnesses and thousands of documents. Jowers testified that Ray was only a scapegoat and that the Memphis Police Officer Earl Clark actually fired the fatal shot. The mixed-race jury that heard the case took only one hour of deliberation to reach a unanimous verdict that King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.
They found Jawas responsible and also found that, quote, government agencies were among the conspirators. The King family was granted the money that they requested in damages, and they saw it as a vindication. King's son Dexter said, quote, this is the period at the end of the sentence. So please, after today, we don't want questions like, do you believe James Earl Ray killed your father? I've been hearing that all my life, and no, I don't. This is the end of it. They believe that there is a large conspiracy that goes all the way up to the FBI, because as you may know, the FBI was surveilling Dr. Martin Luther King, as well as the Memphis Police Department.
And they believe that there was a conspiracy that involved multiple government agencies and the mafia. And Coretta Scott King, after the verdict, said, there is an abundance of evidence of a major high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband. The jury found that the mafia and various government agencies were deeply involved in the assassination. Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. Now, in 2000, Attorney General Janet Reno announced that after reexamining the assassination, no evidence of a conspiracy can be found, but it means nothing to me.
So yeah, the view of King's family is that James Earl Ray was a patsy and was set up to take the fall for an assassination that was put in place by government agencies. And to me, that holds a lot more water than this Raoul person, which I think they think that, I think they think James Earl Ray was talking to someone named Raoul. And this Raoul was a fake name that someone was giving him as they were setting him up to take the fall. So it's like interwound with the story that Unsold Mysteries puts forward. Because I think what they believe is that...
James Earl Ray really was in contact with this person named Raul who really did set him up, but it's actually people involved in these government agencies. Yeah, I mean, I always assumed the government was involved because it doesn't make sense, but I didn't realize until yesterday that that's been established in court. So that's pretty interesting. Yeah, and to my knowledge, the FBI has dismissed this, of course, but I'm not normally a conspiracy-minded person. But like you, I was always sort of like, well, yeah, of course. But I never, you know, had...
on an occasion to look into it until watching this episode and how confusing this whole thing was. Yeah. It's very interesting. I feel like Unsolved Mysteries, you know, probably didn't want to point a finger at the government. So they just focused on him saying it was Raul. And like I said, I should have looked at the timeline. I think this Jowers thing came out around the same time because around the 25th anniversary is, I think, when they ran. I don't know the exact timeline. I apologize. But it's around when the mock trial happened. So Unsolved Mysteries may not have been privy to this information either. But like you said, I doubt they would have implicated the FBI. So I don't know.
No, I think they would have been comfortable if they would like point it to like one crooked agent or something. But I doubt they would want to point to like the entire federal. And not even just the FBI, because the Memphis Police Department is alleged to be involved working with the mafia. Like that is not something on social mysteries. They're not going down that road. But it is interesting. And listen, points to another evidence that the system works. Yeah, it's great. I don't see why we would need to change anything. Yeah. Good segment. So good chapter in American history. Bravo all around. OK, we have a last love next. Blink and you'll miss this one.
There's more to it than I expected. All right. So it's World War II, folks. It's actually 1943. And the outcome of the war hangs in the balance. At this time, Private Harry A. Young from Philadelphia is killed in action. He leaves behind a wife and two sons. However, the plot thickens. This is a juicy one. 37 years later, his son and granddaughter track down his obituary for some reason and realize that it's wrong. It mentioned...
Private Harry Young having a baby daughter and also listed the wrong address. There was no mention of his two sons. So did the paper make a mistake? Well, looking into it, they found out that Harry Young enlisted in the army after Pearl Harbor. He had previously served six years in the Marine Corps and was now 30 with a family to support. So he actually needed his wife's signature to reenlist. She adamantly refused. And then the reenactment is like, yeah, no way. You're finally back. I need some help around here. And he's just like, it's just two years.
What? A young child? It's just two years, baby. Who cares? Anyway, she was like, I'm not signing that. So he walked out that day and never returned. He did not know at that time that his wife was pregnant with his second child. He forged her signature and re-enlisted.
only after he was gonna go really i don't know the guy is clearly a dirtbag and it's just funny that that like comes to light for his family like so many decades later but so he only told his wife that he had re-enlisted in the army after he was already sent overseas months later so apparently he just walked off one day and didn't even like tell her where he was or that he was okay or anything just stormed off of the fight and then was gone cool so now we go we learned that in october 24 1943 laura young his wife received news from the war department that he had been killed in action However, when she goes to collect her benefits, the War Department has uncovered a surprise. Harry Young was survived by two wives. So she shows up at the desk and, you know, she's got her little proper hat on and her gloves and her little cute outfit. And she's like, yes, I'm Laura Young. I'm here to collect death benefits for my spouse, Harry Young. And they're like, that's weird because Laura Young already came and got benefits. And she says, I'm sorry, what? Bitch, what?
So then she is put in the position of having to prove that she is his first wife and they had never gotten divorced. It turns out that after storming out on Laura, for a couple months, he went to go live with a woman named Estella, only 10 miles away. How they met and how this came to be, I have no idea. But after Harry's death, Estella, who seems like kind of a bitch, filed for benefits using Laura's name. Yeah, this is identity theft.
Yeah. At first I was like, he married another woman named Laura. Kind of genius. Because look, both of them are Laura Young. I would be bad at crimes. I was really like, oh, wow, that's a really big coincidence. I thought it was smart. I actually knew a girl in high school that was dating like three guys with the same name because her parents didn't approve of two of them. Keep them guessing. So I don't remember if it was just a common name like Matt or Dave or whatever. But she could be like, oh, I'm going out with Dave. And they would assume.
that she was going out with the one that they liked, right? That's genius. See, you're not lying. Sort of. Yeah, you're not lying. You're not lying. This is a loophole. Just lie. Don't bother dating three guys named Dave. Seems like a lot of work. But that's what I thought happened here. He was like, oh, it'll really confuse the war board if they're both named Laura Young. Maybe no one will notice I have two wives, right? Could just be one who needs a lot of benefits. I don't know. But no, her name's actually Estella and she's committing an identity theft. So Laura was eventually able to prove that she was in fact married to Harry and get the benefits for herself and her sons.
What is uncovered all these years later is a letter from Estella to Harry's parents after Harry's death. And it was to let them know that she loved Harry very much and that he loved her and they thought of themselves as husband and wife. And I kind of want to be like, bitch, you only knew this guy for a couple of months. He had a whole wife and family he just walked out on one day. And he wasn't keeping that from her either.
no so she was fine with it so she so she writes this letter to harry's parents and also to let them know that he has a baby girl and would they maybe like to see their grandchild well guess what she doesn't get a response to this letter about her life living in sin with their son so she just shows up at their house like a stalker and it's like i thought you would want to meet you know when you didn't respond to my letter because you clearly didn't want to meet your grandchild i thought you'd want to meet your grandchild And this being, you know, the past, they were like, no, I actually think it's horrible what you did. Don't you have your own family you can go hang out with? And she was like, well, I have some of Harry's things. Do you want me to bring them by? And they were like, no, we want you to send them because they were like, get out of here, you hussy. So they were not amused. And this information had been kept from Harry's sons because, you know, scandal. So they didn't know they had a sister until finding this obit that mentioned a sister. Right. But the night of the podcast, their sister, Kathleen, was watching. And so then they're all reunited and super cute.
And the fact that Harry was a dirtbag and Estella doesn't seem so great either. It doesn't really matter. These people all seem nice. They do seem nice. And they get reunited and they're very excited about it. Double A for World War II last love. I know. I think it's hilarious. I really want to know what this is. Okay. He has a fight with his wife. He wants to join the army. She's like, please don't go, which is, I don't know, a fucking reasonable request. No, please don't go off to die. Please stay here with me and your children. And he was like, no, bitch, I got to roll. So he, he storms off. Where does he go?
He goes to some pool hall, meets Estella, and then is just like, baby, I love you like a wife. Take me home. I mean, I'm just assuming. It's just funny that he, like, so quickly set up this whole other life. I think he probably was going to bail on, too. Yeah, this is sort of the thing. Like, ladies, look, it doesn't seem like, Estella seemed fine with this, but set the bar. Like, apparently he just went out and had his pick and just, like, found another lady. I know. I'm done with my wife. I'm just going to forge her signature. Seconds later. Oh, hey, baby. Going my way.
to put it out there i don't think this guy was a huge catch so no no i didn't like look at that picture of him and go i get it nope that didn't happen so i mean it is funny somebody pointed out so we got this one star review because this person was very upset that we're saying like maybe the police are violent we've also advocated sending all men to the moon And I guess people don't think we're that serious about that plan because, I don't know, everybody's fine with it. Even men. I'm surprised by that. Maybe you'll enjoy the moon. They seem to be excited about the moon colony. I don't know. But this person listening to our podcast up until this point does imply that they are not okay with defunding the police. But they are fine with shooting all men into space. I'm guessing they don't think we're that serious. But where do they think the podcast goes? Think about it. To the moon colony. Think about it. Exactly. With being built very slowly.
We're getting it ready. Yeah, I mean, I would definitely send Harry to the moon. But I'm glad that his children found some happiness. It's kind of sad that the grandparents didn't let them know that they had a sister. Like, I get that they weren't thrilled with Estella. I do get that, but you should have told them they had a sister. Yeah, tell them they have a sister out there. They could have met when they were 18 or something, even if the grandparents didn't want to be involved.
So anyway, anyway, speaking of dirt bags, speaking of dirt bags, it is a wanted. This slaps. You should. Okay. I have to say right now, we did promise we would have Rochelle on for this segment, but.
The pandemic makes that kind of hard. So I'm sorry, Rochelle. Also, this segment is not nearly as funny as I expected. Oh, yeah, kind of. It's sad. All right. So this is a wanted surrounding crimes happening in the city of Bryan, Texas. So the episode opens with a monologue about how Bryan, Texas is the type of place that people have in mind when they dream of escaping the big city.
This is where everyone afraid of the purge about to happen. Yeah, everybody that's afraid of the purge can move there. But in September of 1984, the illusion of small town security was shattered for one local couple whom Unself Mysteries calls Sue and Bill. Sue had always considered herself strong and self-reliant. However, the events of September 6th would test her character in ways she never imagined. I think she should be pretty fucking happy with herself, but go on. Sue rocks. Okay, she says my husband was leaving for work and I went into the bathroom.
To finish getting dressed, as I was standing there looking in the mirror, finishing up my hair, I picked up the makeup mirror and in the reflection saw a man standing behind her with a large hunting knife. It's a terrifying nightmare fuel. Fearing for the safety of her and her child who was in the house, Sue instinctively attacked. This reenactment is the best. I love it. Yeah, it's kind of awesome. It's just Sue screaming, I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you! So this man has her blocked in the bathroom with a giant knife. You know, he's probably bigger than her, at least in the reenactment he is, right?
This guy is standing there with a knife and I'm like, hey, hey, hey. And then she just goes at him. She charges him. Oh, so good. And then he backs up and she runs to the dresser and pulls out a gun and proceeds to chase him out of the house screaming about how she was going to fucking kill him or something. She didn't use the expletive in the episode, but I'm kind of guessing in real life. It's pretty great. She says, I was very quick and I don't think he was expecting me to do that. I think he probably was expecting me to plead with him not to do anything and I reversed the situation on him. Good for you, Sue. Yeah, that's awesome.
So Sue had seen this man up close, but authorities were unable to identify him from her description. She and her husband tried to put the incident behind him, but then four months later, she got another unfortunate look at the attacker. She said, I was going through the newspaper and I opened it up and his picture was in the newspaper and I was shocked to have found out what he had done. In the newspaper listed the state's most wanted criminals. Right at the top was the knife-wielding intruder. His name was Edward Howard Bell. Edward Bell's numerous accounts of indecent, had numerous accounts of indecent exposure to children. He was going around flashing kids. Gross. Sue also learned that Edward Bell was wanted for a shocking murder that took place on August 24th, 1978.
That summer, 26-year-old Larry Dickens was visiting his mother and sister in Pasadena, Texas, which is a suburb of Houston. An ex-Marine and youth counselor, Larry was also the father of a three-year-old girl. According to his mother, Dorothy Lang, Larry was cutting her lawn when Edward Bell pulled up in his pickup truck. She says, quote, I was standing in the kitchen window and there was a lot of children playing in the intersection right by our house. I saw this pickup truck driving by. He parked, got out of his truck, and then he was suddenly nude from the waist down. Yeah, it's pretty disturbing. As Dorothy phoned the police, Larry went out to confront the flasher. His mother watched from the kitchen window as the man pulled out a gun.
And I said, please don't shoot him. And the man just shot him anyway. And then he turned and started running out of the garage. And Larry, even though he had been shot, was still trying to stop the man. Larry had been shot four times in the chest and once in the head with a .22 caliber pistol. At that moment, Larry's 17-year-old sister, Donna, was returning home from cheerleading practice and basically saw him collapsed on the ground dying. It's really horrible.
I think she saw him get shot in the head with that rifle. Oh, she did? I thought she pulled up as he had run out of the garage. At least in the reenactment, she's pulling up. He's gone back to his car. I assume he's run out of ammunition and his handgun. And he pulls out a rifle and he shoots him in the head.
A dispatcher radioed the suspect's description as police units headed to the scene. At that very instant, the officers recognized the suspect's truck. Within 20 minutes of the murder, Belle was in the hands of police and on his way to face Larry's mother and sister. She said they opened up the back door of the police car. This is also a great reenactment. She said, I just wanted to get my hands on him. It hurt me so bad that he killed my brother. There is always going to be an emptiness and part of me is missing. Well, they open the door so she can identify that they've caught the right man. And she goes, that's him. And then she just launches on him like she's going to claw his eyes out. It's the reenactment.
I really appreciated it. It was pretty great. So incredibly, Edward Bell was released on bail. Less than two months after the murder, he quietly liquidated his assets. With more than $140,000 in his pocket, he disappeared. Cool.
Yeah, so the result is that he was captured. Thanks to tips from two viewers, Bell was arrested in Panama City, Panama on February 14th, 1993. At the time, he was prospecting for gold on land that he owned. According to one of the viewers, he had lived there about 10 years. He was extradited back to the United States to face first-degree murder charges and was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was eligible for parole in January 2013, but was denied. On April 20th, 2019, he died in prison from...
unknown causes he was 82 uh bell is currently considered a suspect in several murders in the 1970s including those of ronda johnson and sharon shaw uh he was given multiple he has given multiple chilling confessions from prison eventually claiming in 2011 that he was responsible for 11 murders um he claims a brainwashing program forced him to quote be a flasher whatever and ultimately kill sounds true After his death, many of the victim's relatives stated that they believed he was responsible for their deaths. However, no charges were ever filed against him in those cases. Samantha, you left out the most important part, which is who plays Larry in the reenactment. This is the Matthew McConaughey episode, which I didn't even realize until I was watching this yesterday. Is this the pinnacle of an Unsolved Mysteries Rewatch podcast where we talk about the Matthew McConaughey episode?
I mean, the thing is, I thought this would be really fun to talk about, but it's actually a really sad case. It was a sad case. So the fact that this is Matthew McConaughey's star, and that even in his first role, his shirt is not buttoned and he's sweaty, like, just predicts his whole career. But he does, like, a fine job. It's not like he's so bad that you laugh or something. Yeah. He's fine. But Larry going out to confront this guy who's abusing children, he, like, takes the keys out of his truck so he can't drive away. And then when the guy threatens him with a gun to give him back the keys, Larry won't give them to him, and that's why he gets shot.
It's just sad. It's too sad to really be fun, actually. I think we need a statue for Larry. I'm not really sure. The guy seems like a hero. Also, Dawn, was it Dawn or Donya? Dawn, his sister, when she, after she sees him shoot Larry in the head, she tries to block him in with her car.
And then tries to rip his face off later. So they both seem like great people. Yeah. I do kind of wish Matthew McConaughey was in like an alien mystery or something. I know. Wouldn't that be so much better? I know. Not at one where a guy's exposing himself to children and turns out to be a murderer. You can't make jokes about this. No. Even with Matthew McConaughey in it. What a bummer. It's not what I was expecting. Like I had just seen like some screencaps of Matthew McConaughey being like, you know, very Matthew McConaughey. And I was like, oh, that'll be so fun. We'll have Rochelle on. We'll do this. We'll do that. And then the reality of the situation is it's just a really horrible case. I feel terrible for this family. They clearly really loved Larry and that's a big boss for them.
And he died trying to do something good, but it just sucks. It does suck. Yeah. Anyway, what a dirtbag. The outfit, though. But you know what would prevent crimes like this? And it's sending men to the moon. If men are on the moon, they can't expose themselves to children and then shoot Matthew McConaughey. Okay. We maybe have to talk about Matthew McConaughey's facial expression in the garage, though. It's very Matthew McConaughey-y. It definitely is. It's like pure Matthew McConaughey essence. The screen grabs from this really lead you to believe that it would...
i thought it was gonna be fun i thought it was gonna be a good time and instead it's just a horrible bother this mother watches her son die the sister happens to come right at like the moment she's like holding his hand as he slips away like oh yeah awful Is that guy dead? Or do we have to go kill him ourselves? No, he died in prison at, what, 83? I mean, he got to prospect for gold for 10 years, which doesn't seem fair, but... No. Anyway. Well, that's that then. Okay, time to rate this. Very strange mix of mysteries, even though it's only three. Yeah. Mysteriousness?
There's no mystery with this conspiracy. The conspiracy around Dr. King's assassination is mysterious. But that's it. And the segment itself is very boring and also doesn't cover the real heart of what probably happened. So I'm going to say thumbs down. Yeah, I agree. Thumbs down. Do we have to give it a thumbs up for reenactments just because it's the Matthew McConaughey episode? Actually, I think some of these reenactments are great. I love that woman screaming, I'm going to kill you when she's in the guy of the house. I love Dawn about to claw that guy's face off. And we get some retro-y reenactments because of the World War II story.
You're going to see this guy storm off because, I don't know, his wife cares if he lives or dies. What a tool. Yeah, I would say thumbs up. And yeah, plus Matthew McConaughey. Thumbs up. Thumbs up. I think I might give him a thumbs up for fashion, too. Maybe just because of Matthew McConaughey's outfit. Matthew McConaughey. Look, he's allergic to shirt buttons. The shirt is on, but it's almost more like a cape. It is barely on. It's also like tattered. He's very sweaty. I think of him as a sweaty, almost oily man.
I don't, I really, some people clearly find that attractive. I really don't. I feel like he would probably not smell good. Yeah, no, I don't want. I'd be like, he might be kind of like sticky. This word, but he's moist all over. No, he seems very moist. I don't have a problem with that word. You can use it. Oh, right. Other people. This isn't just us talking. When damp was available.
He, no, I, I, look, hey, so your oats, but he's not my type. And it's because he seems damp. It's possibly sticky. I don't know. Why is he always so glistening? No. Yeah. And it's not the glow that makeup influencers are looking for. No, it's not a glow. It's like a slick. I'd also just like, is Matthew McConaughey going to stay in with you to like read a book? No, no. So not sexy. Matthew McConaughey's sexiness, that gets a thumbs down for me. Reenactments though, get a thumb up.
Robert Stack is not really in this episode. He's really not in this. I think he was a little bit excited to mention Wars because he's an old man, but other than that, thumbs down. Overall, I mean, it is the Matthew McConaughey episode. I found the presentation of the conspiracy very confusing and very convoluted and extremely long. Your last one was okay, but it was really quick. They also didn't talk about the impact of his assassination at all, or why it matters, or how unpopular he was at the time. Coming up on the 25th anniversary, and they didn't talk about any of that. They didn't talk about the riots afterwards, and how that led to the Civil Rights Act, and I don't know. They just sort of plopped it in. Nah, I don't really like this episode. I'm going to say two. I agree. And really, one of those stars was literally for Matthew McConaughey. He got a whole star. Actually!
And the fact that we find out this guy had like a secret life, which is a little, yeah, it's kind of juicy. I hope we get some other like second family stories. I feel like that's a thing you just could not pull off now. That you're like, oh, this guy had like a whole other family because you would just like be on social media and be like, dad, who are those? What? Who are these kids with? You're at the park. What's happening? But yeah, apparently people were like, I don't like this family. I bet having two families will solve that problem. The demands of two families. That's what I need.
Who has the time? I guess men, because they don't have to do housework. Particularly, yeah, men of the past and men now. But you know what's going to stop this? Send them to the moon. Yeah. See, it's going to solve so many of our problems. Yeah, that's it. How do you feel about it, too, for this one? I feel good about it. Okay. Moving on. So, another sort of update. This podcast has been very pro-statuary.
But there's a type of statue that we're not in favor of. And that's racist old douchebags that for some reason got statues. Statues should be an honor, right? Shouldn't be giving them to Jagoffs. Whoa. Okay. So also in the, since the time we've recorded, there was, I didn't even realize the statue of Christopher Columbus by the state Capitol.
And I was like somehow written in the state law that had to be there or something. I don't know. The American Indian movement for years have been trying to get that statue down. We do not want this genocidal loser up at the state capitol. It's insulting. And they were like, oh, our hands are tied. What can we do? Well, that got pulled down. He discovered the concrete. This is the state capitol in Minnesota. There's a picture that has been on multiple national news articles of the Columbus.
face and his nose just on the concrete he discovered the concrete yeah i mean he didn't discover land because people are already here and that's not how that works so that might be the first thing he ever discovered uh so i was sort of wondering what could we replace that statue with now obviously the right answer is the american indian movement should be able to pick whoever they want for having to look at that stupid christopher columbus statue for so long obviously i would support that but that's not really that fun to talk about so now we get to speculate What should Minnesota put up in place of Christopher Columbus? Some suggestions. Columbus becomes Columbo. You have to change for a few letters. The statue of Peter Falk up there, right? Everybody loves Columbo. Yeah.
I know a particular moth that could be a moth. I think we know the best statue, and that's a statue of Mothman and his booty in Point Pleasant. A very not realistic statue of Mothman, because Mothman is real and doesn't look like that. But think of the tourism that statue has brought to Point Pleasant. Like, I don't think the impact of art should be underestimated. I do think we should have a statue, just not Christopher Columbus, because everyone hates him. I had previously, I think on a Patreon episode, said that I wanted Minnesota to put up a statue of James Hong, who is a very prominent actor.
He is from Minneapolis and he's been in everything. He was in Blade Runner. He was in Chinatown. He's in Big Trouble in China. He is in that famous Seinfeld episode where they go to the Chinese restaurant. He's a major D. For ages, Hollywood, for whatever reason, was like, we can only have one Asian actor. We will only allow one. And it was that guy, James Hawk. You've seen him a ton of times. I feel like we should give a statue to him.
I don't know who I talked to about that, but that would be great. Obviously, many people have said Prince. And look, it is inevitable that there's going to be a statue of Prince. Honestly, the question is how many Prince statues is Minnesota going to get? We can fit a few more statues in. There's going to be one. Yeah, there's going to be at least one. I would say five. There's going to be more than one, probably, for different eras or whatever. You cannot underestimate how much Minnesotans love Prince. You really, really can't.
Yeah, I don't know. Any other thoughts? Friend of the Pod Arden posted a statue. Okay, I have a few. I really think we should seriously consider. Friend of the Pod Arden posted in our Facebook group a picture of a capybara statue that has a little top hat and is wearing pearls?
You know I love an animal in a top hat or a cartoon character in a top hat. Don't know why. Just love it. So I'm definitely in favor of a Capybara wearing a little hat as a statue. Does that have anything to do with Minnesota at all? Nope. And I don't care. I would go see that. I saw a thread on Twitter where someone posted something that was like, what can we replace all these statues with? Or like, oh, I know what it was. Someone had tweeted, name a good statue. Sure. It's a Mothman statue, but you know. The other thing that this person put forward was any statue of a dog.
that has been pet so many times that like the patina is wearing on like the nose or the head or whatever part of the dog is accessible. Sometimes it's the feet. If they're up really high, then like the feet rub off because people are petting it. Adorable. But in the responses to that, there was a few pictures of the company in the tweet. And then in the responses, people were posting dog statues from like their hometown that was universally, like this is true for dog statues, that they get pet so much that they're like, yeah, the outside part is rubbing off. But someone had posted, I don't even know where this was.
I remember seeing the photo of this cat that's, like, lounging on a bench. Like, a human has this big old belly. And it's just, like, it's got her arm up. And there was a side-by-side of that cat. And they put a statue up of that cat in that pose, in that spot. Freaking adorable. I think we should put that cat in that pose in front of the state capitol. Let's do it. I think we should get a statue of that raccoon that climbed the NPR building a couple years ago. NPR raccoon!
I don't know if other people are aware of this, but a couple of years ago when, you know, things in the world looked not bright, but were actually quite a bit brighter than they are now. We were all very excited to follow this raccoon that was climbing a building. And I was watching this live feed of it at like three in the morning because I needed to know if the raccoon was going to be okay. And it was supposedly where they switched it out with another raccoon and then they, you know, took it to safety somewhere. But I feel like that raccoon should be.
immortalized for everyone. A moment of hope. Yeah. Literally any dog. Maybe a statue of Emilio Estevez filming the Mighty Ducks. Because people get very excited that the Mighty Ducks was filmed here. So maybe that could pull in a little hockey tourism perhaps. Solid. Maybe you can make a statue so that you can pose around it and act like you're the Mighty Ducks and he's coaching you.
How do you, okay, is statue consultant like a job that you can have where you like help cities? I mean, there's, look, there's a lot of empty podiums out there right now. There's about to be more, I'm sure. Cities and states around the country could use a statue consultant. Liz is available. I'm just, maybe you're not. I don't know, but I'm going to speak for you. I'm very available to help you come up with what your town should put up as a statue. I think you have a gift for us, to be honest. I'm really blessed with coaching. I mean, yes, like, should it be a person of color? Should it be a woman? I hear you, but.
Can we have that as well as Nealey WestMS coaching the monkey dog? As well as a cubby bear wearing a top hat. Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's plenty of room. We could replace one Christopher Columbus with several. We also have a lot of parks. You know, there's a lot of green public space here, which is very nice. Put a print in every cart and also a print in every cart. Just hang out. Why not? I seriously went to the city of Liverpool just because I wanted to see a statue of singer Billy Fury that's on the dock. I, like, made a special trip just to do that. Don't think people aren't nutty enough.
No one is traveling here to see Christopher Columbus, but we're going to travel here to see another Mothman statue, I guarantee it. Can't we have our own Mothman Festival? Oh, also, update. You're probably not surprised. Mothman Festival canceled this year. There's a lot of disappointing things about 2020. This is very low on the list, but it's sad that the Mothman Festival... We were going to have this whole road trip and go to Kingspot. Look, we had a lot of plans, and the Mothman is a fickle beast. I'm sure he tried to warn us about it somehow. We didn't listen. No, as usual. Okay, Samantha, do you have any recommendations?
okay i have two uh silly recommendations although they are they are serious i tried the waterloo heart the waterloo seltzer the blueberry variety which i want so we can't for i can't for the life of me get a hold of polar water anymore um feel bad for us folks really miss that blueberry lemonade oh yeah that was good that was real good the best but can i find it anywhere no but i i went to target for the first time in months And I saw that they had all these flavors of Waterloo seltzer, which I think the grape one is the one I tried at your house that tasted like a Jolly Rancher that you didn't like. Oh yeah, that was bad. So I saw that they had blueberry and I tried it and it is delicious. I honestly, I'm not going to say it rivals the polar one because it doesn't, but it's different than the polar one because there's no lemon in it. And I sometimes think the polar one, the lemon can overpower the blueberry. This is just blueberry and it's really freaking good. So if you can get your hands on it and you can't get your hands on polar, I highly recommend the Waterloo seltzer.
I definitely bought that grape one because it was on sale. And in retrospect, should have been more suspicious if only that flavor was on sale. I like it, though. Sometimes you just see seltzer at a discount. It really did taste like grape candy, which is not a candy I gravitate towards. But in the seltzer that you just gave to me, I liked it. You're like, for free? Whatever. So I've been enjoying that. I've also been enjoying dark chocolate Oreos.
Oh, I didn't know that was a thing. I'm a sucker for a novelty Oreo. If I see a novelty Oreo in a store, I will buy it. Oh, bitch, same. It could be literally any flavor. They still see me coming with those. 100%. Apparently, there is a tiramisu Oreo that I have yet to get my hands on. I'm sorry, what? Yes. Yes. Goddamn. What an age to be alive. And I'm not going to a lot of stores, so I haven't had an occasion to see this Oreo. That's a problem, yeah. Apparently, it's out there. I need to try and find it. Okay. So those are my silly rules. But I also wanted to call people's attention to an organization, which I realize a lot of people are donating money, and you're probably stretched thin for organizations to support. But I came across on Instagram.
A group called Saddle Up and Read, which is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage youth achievement in literary excellence through equine activities. And first of all, you should follow that because their Instagram is adorable. It's just a bunch of kids breeding to ponies and horses. And it is the cutest. I found them through, I think, the Black Equestrian Network. I'm trying to diversify. I'm not really in the horse world anymore, but the horse world is very white.
There's a lot of people that have been for years, but especially now are pushing for more diversity in equine sports. And so I've been seeking out organizations to support. And I found this Saddle Up and Read organization. And they are currently trying to buy, they're not trying to fundraise a ton. They just want to be able to buy a truck so that they can take their, they serve a lot of underserved communities. And these people can't always get to them. They have a little farm where you can come and read books to horses and do other programs with their animals. But it's not accessible to people that don't have transportation, especially now during COVID. Like you can't just go pick people up. So they're trying to get.
um they're calling their campaign uh wheel i'm not sure how they pronounce this it's saddle up and read so i don't know if they call it swar but wheels for saddle up and read is their little campaign they have a gofundme you can find them on instagram um where they have a link to their gofundme um it's saddle up and read all one word and they're not trying to raise that much money they just want to be able to buy a truck and maybe a trailer so they can bring their animals to kids um and better serve the community so cute uh so maybe if you throw them a few dollars uh when you're looking for another worthy organization to support um maybe consider them because they don't have that many followers on Instagram. It's sort of a small operation. Like I think when you can call attention to some of these, you know, they're just out there trying to, to get kids with ponies. And I think it's like, if I could do that all day long, I look, that sounds like my dream. Just kids reading to ponies. Amazing. So I think they're doing really good work. And if you're looking for a group to support, I wanted to call some attention to them. That reminds me of something that I should have brought up in the updates, which is that listeners mark your calendars for July 13th.
Samantha and I are going to be selling some handmade items. Yeah. Oh, this is a big announcement. Yeah. Specifically cloth masks and dog bandanas. Yes. We're going to be selling those through Instagram and that sale is going to be July 13th. More details to come. So we are raising money for the East Lake Library here in Minneapolis that was damaged during the rebellion. It was mostly water damage from putting out fires. But they need money to, you know, fix the building and fix books and who knows. So we want to support them. We're going to be selling things that we have made, some with some alien fabric.
Yeah, I think you're going to want to check it out. And Samantha's going to be masking some masks too. And yeah, I almost completely forgot about that. So we'll talk about that maybe more on the next show. Yeah, we should maybe talk about that at the front of the episodes. I'm not sure how many people make it to like the very end. We are going to be doing that little fundraiser starting in July. We need a little bit of time for production to sew some of this stuff. Everyone knows we love the library. So we're going to do our part to help. And change is messy sometimes, but it's all part of the process. Yeah.
but we're gonna help them get back on their feet um oh i should also say that if you still want to send something in for the zine uh you can't so that's perhaps it's you podcast at gmail.com um i'll probably at some point put like a due date for that to end uh submissions but that hasn't happened yet so if you had something that you want to submit some fan art or a word search or i don't know whatever however this podcast has inspired you to create something some fan art of matthew mcconaughey Yeah, where's that? I'm going to put that out into the universe. I have no talent when it comes to graphics. Where is, like, an aerial view plan of the Capybara Ranch that we're going to make? You know what, someone could do, like, a teenage girl collage of just Matthew McConaughey in this episode. With hearts, yeah. Yeah, with his chest out. Yeah, with some heart eyes. Yeah, so that's a possibility. Just some ideas. Just some ideas. You maybe want to draw a picture of the pod dogs. I don't know.
There's lots of ways to be inspired. But I think that's pretty much it. I think we can finally wrap it up. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Don't have us angry DMs or we're going to bitch about it for an entire podcast like we did today. Yeah, yeah. Just be warned that we don't care if you stop listening and we definitely will bitch about it and we'll probably make merch and make money off of you. So think about that before you mouth off about drug use and MapQuest.
Think about that before you out yourself. It's quite strange. We have a website. Did you know? Perhaps it's you.com. There's a form there you can fill out. You can also find all of our recommendations. There's a recommendations tab. And yes. Okay. Only five star reviews. I could not be more clear. I couldn't. Follow the instructions. We are not into the purge yet. We have a year to decide how the purge is going to work. I need someone to review us with five stars that calls us dangerous. That's just way more sexy. Can someone do that? If you haven't reviewed us yet, do me a solve. Can you say five stars dangerous? Really looking forward to the purge.
these people know so much about Robert's dad. It's not even funny. Plus they're hilarious and very good looking and they're probably great cooks. You know, something like that. It's all true. Yeah, it's all true. Is that it? There's probably something else we're supposed to say. Send us movie stories or I don't know. Whatever. Do whatever you want. Just don't be a dick. All right. Keep barking, everybody. Bye. Bye.