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Michelle Knotek part 2, from mother bear to manslaughter

Michelle Knotek part 2, from mother bear to manslaughter

Released Thursday, 7th March 2024
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Michelle Knotek part 2, from mother bear to manslaughter

Michelle Knotek part 2, from mother bear to manslaughter

Michelle Knotek part 2, from mother bear to manslaughter

Michelle Knotek part 2, from mother bear to manslaughter

Thursday, 7th March 2024
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Episode Transcript

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0:07

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this watermark) On February 27th, 2017, Brianna Jean Baptiste would stop by her grandmother's house in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

0:16

Brianna let herself in, finding the house mostly quiet.

0:20

She would go upstairs to her grandmother's room, just to say a quick hello.

0:24

But, what she saw shocked her.

0:28

Mama Edna was lying in a pool of her own blood.

0:31

With only a faint heartbeat, CPR failed to keep her alive.

0:37

Someone had killed Mama Edna.

0:41

She lived in Flatbush, New York, so you know, it definitely wasn't the rent.

0:47

Welcome to Criminally Underreported Murder Mysteries.

0:51

Thank you for coming. Mama Edna was the community grandma, loved by many.

1:19

So, when word of her murder hit the neighborhood, everyone showed up to help the investigation.

1:24

Even a couple sewer rats were giving cops possible leads.

1:29

The home was full of people who had followed and loved Edna her entire life.

1:33

But, in their midst lay Judas. Edna's husband was in the other room when she was murdered.

1:40

Edna was both strangled and beaten. Either he ignored her pleas, or Edna died more quietly than the 2016 Clinton campaign.

1:49

Something else stood out. The police swept room to room, which is really impressive since most pigs can't even reach the broom.

1:58

But, they were attracted to something in her husband Frederick's room.

2:02

There was a pile of several burnt pieces of paper with Edna's name on them.

2:08

And ominously, right beside them lay an open book called How to Get Rid of a Witch.

2:13

Right there in the open book it read, Write the witch's name on pieces of paper and burn them all.

2:20

The cops would follow the obvious donut trail that led right to Frederick.

2:25

He was now a prime suspect in his own wife's murder.

2:29

While the spotlight was on Frederick, another suspect slipped away in the shadow, before they could be questioned.

2:35

By the time the police set their sights on them, suspect number two was in a whole different state.

2:40

They ran out that bitch like they were Connie at a psychiatrist's office.

2:43

Mama Edna was a Haitian immigrant, and in 1969 she immigrated to the United States for opportunity and found a new home.

2:51

The community of Flatbush welcomed her with open arms.

2:56

It was in this community where she worked as a seamstress, raised four kids, and was more popular than a 12-year-old on an Epstein flight.

3:05

The old sweet grandmother held another secret.

3:08

She was a rich. No, she wasn't a rich. She wasn't Mr. Krabs hiding away that wealth.

3:15

She was a witch. More specifically, she was a practicing voodoo priest.

3:21

Whenever the word voodoo is uttered, the Western mind twists and turns towards something dark, scary, and possessive.

3:28

But voodoo practitioners aren't evil, manipulative, and possessive monsters.

3:32

Come on, guys. It's a religion, not a Kardashian.

3:37

Much of our misconceptions about voodoo can be traced back to the Louisiana Purchase.

3:43

The United States purchased the land claimed by France for $15 million.

3:49

The French would lead the continent to the United States, leaving behind many slaves.

3:55

This was the first time the French would be paid for what they do best, running away.

4:00

Most French slaves were from the French San Gambier colony in West Africa.

4:06

The French would kidnap over a million people, using them for labor in the French colonies in the Caribbean.

4:14

Since the slaves were from the same region, they had similar folk religious beliefs.

4:20

These beliefs would adapt and change into what we know now as voodoo, with a U.

4:26

Voodoo, spelled V-O-D-U, originated from Haiti.

4:31

Although Haiti was a majority voodoo, all Africans were forcefully baptized and converted to Christianity.

4:37

It's the first bath recorded in French history, and to no one's surprise, it was a forceful one.

4:44

Some Haitians incorporated Catholicism into their voodoo beliefs, while others abstained from it entirely.

4:50

How voodoo got the bad rap was during the slave revolts between 1791 and 1804.

4:57

The Spanish and the British aided the revolution and provided essential supplies to beat the French.

5:03

Those supplies included bullets, ammunition, and of course, a Frenchman's biggest weakness, deodorant.

5:11

After a long-fought, smelly war, the Haitians would win their independence and kick the French out of Haiti.

5:18

The French had colonies in French Louisiana, but fighting the British was expensive and they were running out of bullets.

5:25

It took at least three to crack through the crooked teeth of your average British soldier.

5:30

To raise money to continue the fight, the French sold Louisiana for $15 million.

5:35

According to the National Geographic, adjusted for inflation, that is $342 million.

5:42

The United States not only had the territory of Louisiana, but also the slaves that lived there.

5:49

While American voodoo was indifferent from Haitian voodoo, to white Americans in the antebellum South,

5:54

a group of black people enjoying themselves as either a basketball team or a crime.

5:59

And since no one bawled in the 1800s, the press lied about the criminal shit going on in voodoo ceremonies.

6:05

They were reported to have child sacrifices, mass orgies, and demon possessions.

6:11

Honestly, I don't know if they were talking about a voodoo ceremony or an R. Kelly concert.

6:16

The only thing truthful about this statement is that voodoo believers do aim to be possessed by spirits.

6:22

In voodoo beliefs, God is very distant from human beings.

6:26

However, spirits are an in-between messenger for God and the real world.

6:31

So, getting possessed by positive spirits is how you come closer to God.

6:35

It's like having the Holy Spirit inside of you.

6:38

And there's nothing wrong with having something positive inside of you.

6:41

I mean, unless you're sharing needles with Magic Johnson.

6:45

In some voodoo beliefs, disciples and saints were also seen as positive spirits

6:49

that would possess the followers of Jesus Christ to do good.

6:53

The more negative pop culture association comes from the media of the antebellum South.

6:59

After the success of the Haitian Revolution, southerners in the United States began to panic.

7:04

A slave rebellion could spell the end to the South.

7:07

Turns out black people were allergic to that whole slavery thing.

7:11

I mean, chains and whips.

7:13

The books called Fifty Shades of Grey, not Fifty Shades of Black.

7:18

Even after the Civil War, exaggerations of the voodoo practices never stopped.

7:23

They didn't go away. Some newspapers, like the New Orleans-based Picayune,

7:28

described the practices of voodoo as full particulars of the hell broth and orgies.

7:35

Stories in the Picayune also told lies about cannibalism and child sacrifices.

7:40

Still, when the Ku Klux Klan was on their rise in the South,

7:44

they emphasized stories of sexual depravity and violence against white people,

7:48

especially women, to paint the KKK as protectors against violent savages.

7:55

The Ku Klux Klan at that time was a group of racist white men that were so bad at sex

8:00

that the only time they got action in the sheets was when they chased black people out of town.

8:06

But the Klan held an image as morally upstanding righteous Christian protectors,

8:12

of course, white families. So often the depiction of black culture would stand in opposition.

8:18

Despite the Christian influence of voodoo,

8:20

they were represented as anti-Christian and satanic.

8:24

Voodoo Christian services were a lot more involved and active,

8:28

and held more dancing than the white racist Protestant services.

8:31

And to a racist, nothing is more evil than dancing at church.

8:35

The second that black ass dropped to the music of the church choir,

8:38

your soul dropped straight to hell with it. In my opinion, if Jesus was indeed white,

8:43

one of his miracles had to be making that ass jiggle to a ratchet beat.

8:47

It's important that we know the history of both voodoo

8:50

and why even someone like Frederick might have been in opposition to it.

8:55

How we understand the past will influence how we see the future.

8:58

Frederick, despite being a part of the New York Haitian diaspora,

9:02

still hated the religion of voodoo and hated his wife for practicing it.

9:06

This man hated voodoo so much that he bought a book to get rid of voodoo witches.

9:10

But was that hate enough to murder his own wife?

9:13

Personally, I could never hate a witch. What's not to love about a woman who can make magic work with your broomstick?

9:27

When the police arrived at the scene of the crime,

9:30

there were neighbors, family, and friends who had heard of the murder.

9:34

Some were surprised, some were sad, and some were a mixture of both.

9:38

Frederick was at the top of the mind of every investigator.

9:41

The voodoo book was damning. However, what didn't work in Frederick's favor

9:46

was his history of mocking his wife's rituals,

9:49

installing locks on all the rooms, but most damning of all,

9:54

Frederick did not eat her food. When a black woman cooks, the whole neighborhood damn well knows about it.

10:01

The only reason you wouldn't eat a black woman's cooking is if you hate her.

10:05

If the KKK could cook as good as a black woman, I'm not saying I'd join them,

10:09

but don't be surprised when a couple of my bedsheets have cornbread crumbs,

10:12

collard green stings, and a couple of holes in them.

10:14

While Frederick was being questioned,

10:17

the police looked around for more possible clues.

10:20

Officers soon found Edna's secret bedding room.

10:23

Grandma was running an unlicensed bedding racket in her own home.

10:28

Instead of baking cookies, Grandma was out there cooking bread.

10:32

It turns out that the real OG on the block was the original Grandma Edna.

10:37

However, during the time of her murder,

10:39

Edna didn't have any bedding clients scheduled.

10:41

After asking around a bit,

10:44

law enforcement discovered Edna did have clients,

10:47

but not the ones taking bets with dead presidents,

10:50

but rather the ones taking bets on dead spirits.

10:54

So, next, the investigators looked at her voodoo clients.

10:59

Once the officers realized Edna had a large client list,

11:02

they weeded the list down. First, they filtered out all the spirits,

11:06

since police love ghosts in white bedsheets.

11:08

But after asking around, they realized that the most recent client of Mama Edna

11:13

was present at the home during the investigation.

11:17

However, they would suspiciously leave right before they could be questioned.

11:21

Not only that, but they were parked outside of the home the night of the crime.

11:26

They were also reported to have sped away when approached.

11:30

The only innocent person to ever speed away from a crime scene is OJ Simpson.

11:34

If our suspect is guilty of anything,

11:37

it's probably secretly fathering a Kardashian.

11:40

A crime far more serious than murder.

11:44

But who is our bucking bronco? None other than 43-year-old Tamisha Harper.

11:49

And this glove indeed fits.

11:53

Tamisha had been a client of Edna in the past

11:55

and was even scheduled to meet her on the day of that murder.

12:00

Tamisha was not at her house during the time of Edna's murder,

12:03

and according to the DA, Edna's granddaughter had stopped by Tamisha's house

12:08

to tell her about Edna's murder. Tamisha was home but didn't answer.

12:12

Instead, that bitch ran out the back like she was Kanye

12:15

trying to escape from common sense. Later, police officers would attempt to bring her in for questioning.

12:20

However, Tamisha never returned home.

12:23

Instead, she was a runner. She was a track star.

12:26

And she dragged her ass to New Jersey. Like a Genshin Impact player escaping a healthy social life,

12:31

she was hiding in her mom's house.

12:35

After being brought in, Tamisha Harper admitted to everything.

12:39

Tamisha believed that a jealous woman wanted her boyfriend.

12:43

So, that jealous woman put a curse on Tamisha.

12:46

Tamisha, in response, went to her family friend, Mama Edna.

12:51

After only a single session, Edna realized the spirits in Tamisha were fighting hard.

12:56

They were throwing hands like they were Drake battling the Age of Consent.

13:00

So, Mama Edna needed Tamisha to come back for a second session.

13:05

This was on the night of Edna's murder. Edna, while returning to her room,

13:09

said either speaking to Tamisha or the spirits in her,

13:13

You're here to kill me. Mama Edna, in that brief moment,

13:17

was unfortunately gifted with the knowledge of her fate.

13:21

When the two reached Edna's room, Tamisha claims that was when the spirits took over.

13:27

Like a demon, Tamisha struck Edna,

13:30

causing her to fall over. And while she called for Frederick's help,

13:34

Tamisha wrapped her cold hands tightly around her neck

13:37

until Edna's body was as cold and soulless

13:40

as the hands used to take her life.

13:45

Tamisha would hurry home and shower.

13:48

Regardless of what evidence she could scrub down the drain,

13:51

guilt is a stain that rarely washes away.

13:54

Its pungent stench follows you, leaving a trail back to the deathbed of your innocence

13:59

and forever tethering you to the birthplace of your guilt.

14:04

So she tried to run, and with the help of her boyfriend,

14:08

Tamisha fled to New Jersey and tried hiding with her mother.

14:12

But she was caught and cornered, and on the walk to the interrogation room,

14:17

she couldn't hold it in. She broke down and she spilled the whole truth.

14:22

I find it rather fitting that on her walk to the interrogation room

14:27

to exercise the truth, Tamisha's guilt would betray her

14:31

and choke the truth out of her. It's almost like Mama Edna never stopped fighting

14:36

those spirits hiding under Tamisha's skin.

14:40

Tamisha would plead guilty to manslaughter and receive 17 years in prison

14:44

in Bedford Hill Correctional Facility.

14:49

She could be freed by 2031. But the demons that led her to kill Mama Edna

14:54

will stay caged in her for the rest of her life.

14:58

Too bad she killed the one person helping her to fight them.

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