S8E2: Going to the Dogs

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes. The rules for law and order create the boundaries for civil co-existence and, ideally, the backdrops for individuals, families, and companies to grow and thrive. Breaking these rules puts civil order at risk. And while murder is the Big Daddy of crimes, codified ordinances across municipal divisions, counties, states, and countries show the nearly endless ways there are to create mayhem. This season, we put our detective skills to the test. This is Season 8, Anything but Murder. This is Episode 2, dognapping is the featured crime. This is Going to the Dogs by Bonnar SpringDELIBERATIONMamie may have figured out what’s going on but Evan definitely needs our help to unpack this dognapping caper for his grandfather, Gordon. Here are the suspects in the order we met them:Bonnie, the daily housekeeper with a dog of her ownLou, the down on his luck musician turned chauffeur and handy manPaul, the cousin with a checkered pastJanice Dobosh, the real estate agent who swears she had an appointmentABOUT Bonnar SpringBonnar Spring writes international thrillers and short stories with morally ambiguous protagonists. A nomad at heart, she hitchhiked across Europe at sixteen, joined the Peace Corps after college, and trekked to Machu Picchu for a significant birthday. Bonnar’s short fiction has won both the AlBlanchard and Derringer Awards. She hosts the Crime Wave podcast, part of the Authors on the Air Radio Network.ABOUT DognappingDognapping has been a real thing for a long while. In Victorian times, organized gangs of dognappers stalked and stole pets from the wealthy, which wasn’t categorized as a crime. The crime website Crime Reads has a story of poet Elizabeth Barrett’s beloved dog Flush, who was dognapped three times. More recently, in February 2021, a dognapping turned vicious when the man walking Lady Gaga’s three French Bulldogs was shot to acquire the dogs. One pup fled but the other two were captured and taken. The man, Ryan Fisher, was shot in the chest. He survived but lost a lung and, not to mention to psychological damage. Lady Gaga offered a $500,000, to questions asked reward and the dogs were returned two days later. But questions were asked and the apparent hero, Jennifer McBride, was arrested with four others and charged with attempted murder. James Jackson was sentenced to 21 years for the attempted murder of Fisher.McBride pled the charge down to receiving stolen property and was sentenced to two years’ probation. But that wasn’t enough for McBride, who then sued Lady Gaga for the $500,000 reward plus $1.5 mil in damages. Lady Gaga stood her ground and the judge sided with her, finding that McBride could not benefit from the wrongdoing but seeking to enforce the contract.https://crimereads.com/dognapping/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67003283WRAP UPThat wraps this episode of Mysteries to Die For. Support our show by subscribing, telling a mystery lover about us, and giving us a five-star review. Check out our NEW website m2d4podcast.com for links to this season’s authors.Mysteries to Die For is hosted by TG Wolff and Jack Wolff. Going to the Dogs was written by Bonnar Spring. Music and production are by Jack Wolff. Episode art is by TG Wolff. Join us next week for a Toe Tag, which is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, or thriller genre. Then come back in two weeks for our next original story where identify theft is the featured murderless crime. It’s “Will the Real John Shady Please Stand Up”, by TG Wolff