Occasionally, a mistake can change the course of history and even distort the face of the earth. When the Khwarazmian Shaw humiliated and killed a couple of Mongolian trade emissaries, he arguably made one of the most consequential mistakes in all of human history. This mistake would lead to the deaths of millions. Borders would be redrawn. Family lines would end. Entire cities and cultures would disappear, and the Khwarazmian Empire would fall.
Part 2 of our possibly never-ending series on the Yellow Fever outbreak that devastated Philadelphia in 1793.
In February 2013 a Youtube video went viral, and for a short time a young drifter named Caleb Lawrence McGillvary was a star. In an interview with a local news station, Caleb who prefers to be known as "Kai" described how he had "suh-mashed!" in the head with a hatchet a man from whom he had recently hitched a ride. The driver who stopped to pick up Kai was mentally unstable which would become apparent after the man drove his car into a group of utility workers, and then wrapped a passerby in a bear hug while muttering that he was descended from God himself. Kai was, for a brief period after the video's release, a folk hero. Kai only enjoyed his new celebrity for a short while. Only 3 months after Kai's recounting of that day went viral, he killed a man. Kai was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to 57 years in prison. How did this happen? Is Kai really the eccentric hippie with a heart of gold that millions of people saw in that 2013 viral video? Find out on episode 26 of Where is the Line?
On this episode of Where is the Line? we'll speak with a very forthcoming mortician who will educate us on the details of what really happens to our bodies in the intervening time between our deaths and when we're buried or cremated. We'll also learn a few mortician jokes, and we'll hear about some of the most gruesome cases ever worked by "Ramone" the mortician. Additionally amid this episode, Kevin and Samantha will share their plans for their own post-mortem remains.
On Christmas day 2008, children all over the world were waking up early to see what Santa had left for them under their Christmas trees. The parents of these hideous, greedy, and totally dependent children most likely watched television and their spawn violently ripped wrapping paper to uncover new toys and electronic devices that they would undoubtedly break or lose within the week. Parents in California were met with news reports of a massacre that had taken place in the town of Covina, CA. Throughout the day, the death toll would rise, the details of the attack would come to light, and the world would find out that Santa Clause had shot people, he'd set a home ablaze with a flamethrower that he'd made himself, and that in the end, Santa turned the gun on himself.
In 2002 the FBI made 89 arrests as part of a child pornography investigation known as "Operation Candyman." Among the people who found themselves on the wrong end of this inquest was Jack Wayne Rogers. When his home and business were raided, authorities found much more than they had expected. In addition to thousands of explicit photographs of children, they found evidence that Rogers had removed and eaten the genitals of several men and trans women who believed Rogers to be a cost-effective alternative to a licensed surgeon. They also uncovered an online conversation in which Rogers, using the handle "Buggerbutt", related that he had tortured and murdered a young Skidmore Missouri man. The victim described by Rogers was almost certainly a young man named Branson Perry who had mysteriously disappeared a year prior to Rogers' arrest. Rogers also claimed that this young man was not his first victim.
Is Jack Wayne Rogers a serial killer? Or, does this man with a love for child pornography and severed genitals just have a morbid and overly active imagination. This is what we will discuss on episode 19 of Where is the Line?
Every Halloween, someone will inevitably make the local news by going a little too far with their decorations. Police will often arrive at what some citizen believed to be the genuine scene of a horrible crime only to find that the dismembered bodies on display are dummies, and the blood covering them is ketchup. Occasionally though, an opposite scenario plays out. October is the one month of the year that people might walk past a mangled body lying on their neighbor's lawn and think nothing of it. On this episode we'll be discussing two instances in which this actually happened. Both Rebecca Cade and Patricia Ward were brutally murdered and left on public display. Numerous passersby saw their corpses, believed them to be Halloween decorations, and scooted past without ever considering that they were looking at the scene of a homicide.
We recently received some electronic fan mail. This particular email's author related that he enjoys our theme song, he rates our podcast 5 stars, he hopes we continue making the show, and he was once cellmates with a man who cooked and ate his wife. That last nugget of information seemed worthy of a followup. So, we got in touch the man who sent us that email and recorded our conversation with him. Ryan Martin has 4 felonies and 13 misdemeanors. He's done time with a couple of high profile killers including "The Michigan Murderer." Ryan is also incredibly personable. In this episode we'll talk to Ryan about accidentally shooting a prostitute, about his history of violence and drug abuse, and we'll take a listen to some excerpts from his incredibly well written prison essays.
Long enough ago to have certainly past the statute of limitations, I misrepresented myself to serial killers. Pretending to be a woman, I filled pink envelopes with letters hand-written with feminine looping script and mailed them off to some of the most heinous criminals alive in America at the time. One of these criminals replied. The letter I received was from "The Night Stalker," Richard Ramirez. In this episode, we'll discuss my catfishing of The Night Stalker and answer the questionnaire that Richard Ramirez included with his reply to me. We'll also awkwardly segue into a discussion about Hybristophilia and share a few stories of love behind bars.
In 1927, just a few days before Christmas, Santa Claus held up a bank in Cisco, Texas. After several shootouts with police as well as with hundreds of Texas citizens with poor aim, the largest manhunt in Texas history took place. Within a week, Santa and his accomplices were tracked down. Before the legal system managed to dispense justice though, over 1000 Texans took matters into their own hands.
Where is the Line? 