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that's it. Hello,

3:11

everybody, and welcome back to

3:14

Small Town Murder Express. Yay

3:16

and choo choo. Oh,

3:18

yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is

3:20

James Petrogaloe. I'm here with my co-host. I'm

3:23

Jimmy Wisman. Thank you folks so much for

3:25

joining us all aboard the murder train pulling

3:27

away from the station. We have a very

3:29

wild one today, a bit of a famous

3:32

case actually today, and we're going to try

3:34

to tell it in our way. So

3:37

that's how we do this. It's honestly

3:39

crazy stuff. It spawned

3:42

movie ideas. The Coen brothers saw this and

3:44

went, now that's something. That's a thing. This

3:47

is something we can do that's pretty weird. We'll get

3:49

through the top very quickly here. Only

3:52

shut up and give me murder.com. Tickets

3:54

for live shows April 5th, April 6th.

3:57

We are Sacramento, San Francisco. It's here.

4:00

go. If you're listening to this right when it comes out,

4:02

go to the theater. What are you doing? Get

4:04

there. We're about ready to go. Right now we're

4:06

backstage. There's music playing. Let's go. So

4:09

do that. Rest of the year, tickets all on sale.

4:11

Tickets are selling out for some shows already, so get

4:13

there. Even the ones at the end of the year,

4:15

New York and Boston, get there. April the 20th, the

4:18

4-20th, the 4-20 virtual live show, Saturday night,

4:24

April 20th, just like a regular live show,

4:26

except you're in your living room. Drink or

4:28

on you. Whatever you

4:30

want to do. Your own food, your own

4:32

comfy chair. Do whatever you want. Anywhere in

4:35

the world with internet, you can see the

4:37

virtual live show. It's available for two weeks

4:39

after that, too, so you can buy it

4:41

or watch it a hundred times. Do whatever

4:44

you want to do with it there. shutupandgivememurder.com

4:46

is where you find all that. patreon.com/crime and

4:48

sports. Uh-oh. Bonus stuff. All

4:51

you got to be, $5 a month or above,

4:53

and it's just a cup of coffee, really. Or

4:56

hundreds of bonus episodes, including new ones every

4:58

other week. This week is no different. What

5:01

you're going to get this week for crime

5:03

and sports, we're going to talk about Hans

5:05

Niemann, who is a chess player who everybody

5:07

thinks had a vibrator up his ass to

5:09

cheat at chess. It's a wild

5:11

story, and we'll go into some other board game

5:13

cheating scandals as well. And then for Small Town

5:15

Murder, everybody's heard of this, and I've been wanting

5:17

to talk about it for a long time. We're

5:20

going to talk about D.B. Cooper and

5:22

what our opinions are and see if

5:24

we can solve this bad boy. We

5:27

can't. Spoiler alert, we can't. But

5:30

it'll be very interesting to talk about it. Very

5:32

interesting. He jumped out of the plane. We all

5:34

know what it is. patreon.com/crime and sports is where

5:36

you get all that. That said, I think it's

5:39

time, everybody. Let's do this.

5:41

Let's all clear the lungs here.

5:43

Arms to the sky, and let's all shout.

5:45

shutupandgivememurder.com. shutupandgivememurder.com.

5:52

Let's do this, everybody. Let's go on

5:54

a trip, shall we? Okay. Let's go,

5:56

Jimmy. We are going to Connecticut this

5:58

week. Yeah, it's a lovely place. Not

6:00

very far from here. We're going

6:02

to Newtown, Connecticut, which we've all heard of.

6:04

Oh boy. Yeah, it's not that one. Don't

6:06

worry. Not that case? Not that famous case.

6:08

No, no, no, no. Not that. That,

6:11

yeah, no. We're not doing

6:13

that. No, never. That's just a lot.

6:15

I don't even want to know what

6:17

exists. It's bad. Yeah. Population. But it

6:20

does. God damn it. It does. Oh,

6:22

it certainly does. 100% it does. It

6:24

does. Population here, 19,521. Is

6:28

that right? Yeah. It's a pretty small place.

6:30

It started out, as we'll talk about, as

6:32

a suburb of Danbury. So it's not, it's

6:34

a pretty small place. Median income here is

6:36

high. Median household income, $133,991. Crushing it. Connecticut's

6:38

an expensive place. It really is. And it's

6:45

nice. Things are nice there. When you drive on

6:47

the highway, I've said, you cross into

6:49

Connecticut, the road gets smoother immediately. Yeah. That

6:51

130 does not go far. No, it doesn't.

6:53

And home price here in this town, $531,100.

6:55

So pricey. It's about two hours to New

6:57

York City,

7:02

about 20 minutes to Danbury,

7:04

and an hour and 15 minutes to

7:07

our last Connecticut episode, episode 433. That

7:09

was in Willington. That was a ghost

7:11

with a samurai sword. That was a

7:13

crazy-ass episode. Connecticut, for a

7:15

bunch of rich people, they have some weird-ass

7:18

murders, man. That money will drive

7:20

you not. It'll drive you to murder with

7:22

a samurai sword. So

7:24

let's talk about a little bit of history here, just

7:26

for a second. The low

7:29

of people here was in 1930. They had 2,635 people here

7:31

in 1930. That was their low. And at that time, they

7:38

had local industry. They started to

7:40

grow a little bit more. They

7:42

made teabags and furniture and combs,

7:45

fire hoses, boxes,

7:47

pre-folded boxes, buttons

7:49

and hats. That's what they were making here.

7:52

Yeah. The Game of Scrabble was

7:54

developed here in the south. Stop it.

7:56

Swear to God by James Brunott. So

7:59

there you go. And then they

8:01

started after World War II. There

8:03

was all the highway development, and then it became

8:05

a suburb of Danbury, and so we know that

8:08

so far. There we are. December

8:10

14, 2012, of course, was the Sandy Hook

8:12

Elementary School shooting. That happened here

8:14

as well. That's why everybody's... If you go to Newtown,

8:16

that sounds familiar. This is why. Reviews

8:20

of this town, we'll go through them quickly here, and

8:22

they range. Five

8:24

stars, quintessential... They call it the

8:26

quintessential Connecticut small town. It

8:29

not only has fun local events

8:31

and parades year-round, but also stunning

8:33

historical buildings and amazing shops. Yeah.

8:37

More importantly, those fucking woods are gorgeous.

8:39

Oh, it's pretty there. Yeah, you drive...

8:41

Holy shit. The north east, the

8:43

woods are... Everywhere the woods are pretty. You

8:45

go down south, north east, anywhere you drive...

8:48

They're so thick. They're thick and nice. So

8:50

thick. Yeah, they're very pretty. Three stars here.

8:52

Living in Newtown as a young adult has

8:54

been hard. There are very

8:56

little... There are very little nightlife,

8:58

Jesus, and entertainment options. Maybe

9:01

you should be in school instead. That's maybe... Yeah, maybe

9:03

you should go back to English class. But he says

9:05

an entertainment option, so I guess it's technically correct. It

9:08

is a beautiful location surrounded by lush

9:10

woods. There you go. Farms and filled

9:12

with a great community. Chuck full of

9:14

a great community. Here's

9:17

three stars, very short. One

9:19

very bad incident ruined it. Well,

9:23

that'll leave a bit of a stain as the problem.

9:25

Yeah, that's tough. Have you heard of Amityville? I mean,

9:28

things happen. There you go. I don't know what to

9:30

tell you. Amityville was a very nice place in Long

9:32

Island until the 70s. That was a...

9:34

Two stars, other than the Sandy Hook

9:36

onlookers, there is none. I don't know,

9:39

none what? They don't say people. There's

9:41

19,000 people. Are they all just looking to lose? I don't know. I

9:44

don't know. Two stars, finally. It's

9:47

a typical New England town. Yeah.

9:50

That's all. So there you go. People

9:52

like it. Some people hate it. That's

9:54

what it is. That's what we have to do here. Not a

9:57

lot going on in terms of stuff.

9:59

It really is kind of... a quiet... it's a

10:01

place to live. It's a sleepy joint.

10:03

It's a place to live well. It's

10:05

not a place to really hang out

10:07

and party, but they have the Newtown

10:09

Arts Festival, of course. Really? Oh yeah,

10:11

the Newtown Arts Festival is the art

10:13

event of the year. It's a three-day

10:15

art event focusing on bringing the community

10:17

together to enjoy local talent in art,

10:19

dance, music, and food. Sounds like I

10:22

would hang myself if I had to. No

10:24

offense, I'm just not a big art guy. I don't know

10:26

enough about it. If there's art and then

10:29

dancing, I'm like, I don't know what the fuck people are

10:31

talking about. And if somebody's standing

10:33

outdoors saying, this is my art, I tend

10:35

to go very dismissive on it.

10:37

I just don't know. It would be in a

10:39

building. It could rain, you know that? It could

10:42

rain on all of your stuff. It's

10:45

really bad for art. Fucking water.

10:47

Yeah, like normally straight

10:49

works of art are normally housed indoors. Under

10:52

fucking glass. I get it. Here's

10:54

somebody who has this to say

10:56

about it. The festival

10:59

was organized and conducted beautifully and

11:01

ranks in the top three shows

11:03

overall that we have participated in

11:05

over the last 11 years. That's

11:08

very specific. Top three in 11 years. I

11:11

don't know. So if you're in the

11:13

11th year of the festival, there it is. They

11:16

say the magic that results from

11:18

this festival is truly inspiring. Well,

11:21

what is that? Let's get inspired. You know what

11:23

inspires us though? What is that? Talking

11:25

about a murder. Let's talk about a murder. Never

11:28

mind this art stuff. Okay, let's get

11:30

into this. Let's talk about a murder. This is a

11:33

weird one here. Okay, let's

11:35

talk about Hel Lorch

11:37

Nielsen, first off. Hel

11:40

Lorch. H-E-L-L-E. That's

11:43

her first name. Yes, she is

11:45

born in Denmark, this woman. Okay,

11:47

that makes sense. Born in 1947

11:49

in Denmark. She was

11:52

born in Copenhagen, I guess, and

11:55

grew up in a small village in

11:57

Denmark, which is a snow globe, right? She

12:00

just grew up in a snow globe. I

12:02

feel like, right? That's all it could

12:04

be. Leo's mom from Catch Me If You Can.

12:07

Yeah, maybe something like that. She's

12:10

known as a very outgoing kid,

12:12

and she liked going to school

12:15

more than the other kids. She was real

12:17

happy. She's very good at

12:19

learning languages. When

12:21

she was a teenager, she learned French and English,

12:24

and in addition to being able to

12:26

understand German, Norwegian, and Swedish as well.

12:29

She's fluent in all five? That's a lot. That's

12:32

a lot. Yeah, and that'll come in handy because she's

12:34

going to be an international flight attendant, so it helps

12:37

to speak multiple languages here. She attended

12:39

college in England. She

12:41

worked as an au pair in France.

12:43

They compare care people to kids. She's

12:47

very pretty too. She's blonde, the

12:50

whole high cheekbone. She's

12:53

a Danish tall, blonde, hot

12:55

Danish girl. Flight attendant. Flight

12:58

attendant from back then in the 60s. She's

13:01

not a nanny, James. She's an au pair. An au

13:03

pair. An au pair is

13:05

a woman you worry that your husband's going to cheat

13:07

on you with. That's an au pair. A

13:10

nanny is like a hunchy... Come

13:14

on, Grunas. Yeah. A nanny goes

13:16

at least like 220. You know what I mean? A

13:19

nanny has thigh-high stockings. Thigh-high

13:21

stockings, hair coming down

13:23

off of them. Thigh-high

13:25

tights. Yeah. An

13:28

au pair has thigh-high stockings. At least

13:30

one large hairy mole as well. The

13:33

au pair dresses like Alicia Silverstone

13:35

in Clueless. That's the difference. Yes.

13:39

That's different. It's a very different...

13:41

Au pair. I'm going to

13:43

give you a quote here. Her high

13:46

cheekbones, long blonde hair, trim figure,

13:48

and a warm, engaging smile turned

13:51

the heads of men whenever she entered a room.

13:54

She's hot as shit. Hot as shit is what that does.

13:57

While she's in France, she gets a job

13:59

as a steward. this at the time with

14:01

Capital Airways. And. She flew all

14:03

over the place Africa, Germany, Belgium mean

14:06

offline everywhere. That's when she heard that

14:08

Pan Am was looking for stewardesses in

14:10

the Ah, Kong and area see an

14:12

hour span Am at that time in

14:14

the sixties was v heirloom work. Yeah,

14:16

that was like if in terms of

14:18

like the Cache like that have stand

14:20

handsome pilots in these right you know

14:22

hot stewardesses as I am And yeah,

14:24

that was the way to go here.

14:27

She was one of eight candidates selected

14:29

out of a group of two hundred.

14:31

Was. Raised to have huge like

14:33

tryouts for like wheat, one dry out

14:35

intimate yeah, turned away and one hundred

14:38

ninety two of those checks. Abby? Yes

14:40

and they have made it through the

14:42

initial screening. Your eyes are all two

14:44

hundred smart, attractive, Young. Women And

14:46

they seven hundred ninety two? yeah, are not

14:49

hot enough for that. Hot enough to serve

14:51

coffee on it in a metal to a

14:53

the. Little

14:55

when I release their early so that

14:57

job as some grier glamour at all

14:59

over the world, Meet exciting people and.

15:02

And back then I read the book. what is it

15:05

to fly Girl is a couple. they think the month

15:07

with it's a book about Og A. Woman:

15:09

Who was who was a flight attendant Back them

15:11

and she went through all the process and she

15:13

said all the girls back then were just talking

15:15

about i want to get in first class like

15:18

a meter husband at that. Oh that's in the

15:20

sixties, that's a women were a lot of these

15:22

women that was being flight attendant. Some of them

15:24

are we are interested in careers and stuff but

15:26

or some they said like ninety percent of them

15:29

were married and retired by twenty seventh. They

15:31

would marry. Santa. I always have

15:33

crossed my fingers the get bumped up the

15:35

first class because that's where the nice flight

15:37

attendant his stats were the one who had

15:40

grudgingly yes spells was English is yeah fuck

15:42

that. I use that Nord to get the

15:44

miles on the on the through what I

15:46

can because I want everything up front vs

15:48

able to run a very nice he added

15:50

ice the emphasis. The video on the by

15:52

Bally's cannot give a policy as if there's

15:54

so many of you see just throws handfuls

15:57

of package Swansea be sister frazzled and not

15:59

have access to. Involves you guys fight

16:01

over. It's like we're about among. He's. So

16:05

she's taken to Miami. Wouldn't.

16:08

Be airline for training. And

16:10

so she had it's prior experience is already

16:12

a flight attendant so is very easy for

16:14

her and she was finished first in her

16:16

class. She was one of the heap He

16:18

or she stays in a small motel in

16:20

Miami near the airport. With. His

16:23

all the airline employees lived there

16:25

for silence pilots and stewardesses. It

16:27

was like an olympic village. basically.

16:30

A they said it was just pilots

16:33

and stewardesses just fucking banging away Arnold

16:35

Block and craziness and the says i'm

16:38

in Maryland and in the morning the

16:40

pool would probably have a film on

16:42

top of distances. Well my back to

16:45

back them to we're talking late

16:47

sixties. Ah, forget it In my God

16:49

one friend said she didn't tell you

16:51

the intimate things. About men sea sauce.

16:53

She was far too cautious to have

16:55

been promiscuous, but she had a few

16:58

lovers. And some lady that's

17:00

yes you assume a slider. wonderful person

17:02

yes is also like European and by

17:04

mean since the sixties fluctuate drawn carriages

17:07

as my business not your Css south

17:09

They said that I really liked airline

17:11

pilots the stewardesses really wanted to get

17:13

also for comfort the pilot say like

17:16

them a lot to and on May

17:18

twenty fourth nineteen sixty days when. She.

17:21

Meets a young man here. She's

17:23

twenty two. he's thirty one at

17:25

the time. And he has a pilot.

17:28

In his. Name is Richard

17:30

Crafts. Said. Dick Draft: Six

17:32

year old Dickey Crass. They said

17:34

he was at. Santa. Like

17:36

he had like the sixties. he was a

17:38

pilot so you're kind of clean. Copley's had

17:40

like he knows hair, little messy quasi hill

17:42

on can't miss like a little half, just

17:44

a little rock'n'roll I don't wanna fuck yeah.

17:46

nevertheless the sixties like all I bet in

17:49

his off time he goes and like sees

17:51

like the Grateful Dead Joe Brown as only

17:53

my wear a leather bracelet when yeah oh

17:55

yeah when he's on buttons as. The. The

17:57

island. Dress. Shirt sleeve. He pulls

17:59

it off. The leather bracelet I'm there with

18:01

a roach clip minutes? Fuck yeah yeah when

18:03

on the other side built in roach clip

18:06

definitely for hemp rope was anklet the since

18:08

there's no you know. And

18:10

he wears and he wears Birkenstocks like

18:13

lot Rcs since assist assist so they

18:15

said he was a little rough around

18:17

the edges, not the stereotypical pilot. And

18:20

he's about five foot eight and of a

18:22

medium frame guy. That and the guy doesn't

18:24

like stand out as like I'd giant guy

18:26

or a tiny guy or designer in an

18:29

average gets. He was. City's. Kind

18:31

of attractive though. He's always got a woman

18:33

near him which he the sixties pilots are

18:35

you? It's easy to admit yeah, he would

18:37

date exclusively flight attendants that's what he was.

18:40

and pretty much this yeah. and ah, he

18:42

would tell all of these. Extravagant.

18:45

Tales. These. Long

18:48

stories about his. Cia

18:51

involvement. Currently

18:53

of from what we understand here,

18:55

he worked. Before he worked

18:57

as a part of the Air America

19:00

program. quote unquote Rio do the illegal

19:02

bombings of Laos Vietnam War. He was

19:04

part of that. So yeah he tells

19:06

stories about that being is the I

19:08

was on a second. He was born

19:10

in New York in nineteen thirty seven.

19:12

He's got a couple brothers you get

19:14

to are older sisters I'm sorry. His

19:16

father was a very successful businessman him

19:18

and had said grub Kind of a

19:20

rich kid. His. Dad hadn't

19:22

bought a giant house in Connecticut in

19:25

a very affluent community, and his dad

19:27

was a former World War One pilot

19:29

and the college football player. South.

19:33

I mean monochrome to a just the coolest

19:36

guy ever get out. And I was when

19:38

I was quarterbacking my college team after I

19:40

got back from flying a bunch of sorties

19:42

and bomb in the kaiser. Yeah, now that

19:44

I. See. this crisis

19:47

get out of that the national championship

19:49

at pins the three years ah imagine

19:51

having to live up to that your

19:54

the armando always set that be brutal

19:56

so he went to private school richard

19:58

durbin but he wasn't good at it.

20:01

He graduated, ended up going

20:04

to the regular high school to graduate because they

20:06

were like, well if you're not even gonna get

20:08

A's in private school there's no point in having

20:10

you in here. Why am I spending this? Yeah,

20:12

he went to college for a little while but

20:14

then dropped out and just joined the Marines in

20:16

1956. He'd

20:21

quit it. He wanted, he liked aviation, which

20:23

I assume growing up with a dad who

20:25

was a World War One pilot. Very

20:28

easy. You know World War One pilot, that's

20:30

ballsy too. That's like dog fighting the Red

20:32

Baron. You know what I mean? James,

20:34

the gun was in time. Yeah, that's what

20:37

they're, that's a fucking, it's a biplane for

20:39

Christ's sake. What Snoopy's pretending to be is

20:41

what he was. The gun

20:43

is in time with the rotor or

20:45

the propeller so the bullet goes, it

20:47

shoots only when the propeller is clear

20:49

of it. It's frightening. It's frightening.

20:52

If that gets out of time, then what?

20:54

Oh, you're screwed. Yeah, you're crashing. You're gonna

20:56

rip out your fucking propeller. Also, people are

20:58

shooting at you while you're up there. The

21:01

other problem, it's not just your gun you

21:03

have to worry about. There's a bunch of

21:05

German guys trying to kill you. That's not

21:07

good. Alright. So he got into aviation and

21:10

became good at flying helicopters and then

21:12

he trained on fixed-wing aircraft

21:14

and then became certified as a

21:16

pilot in the late 50s. He

21:18

was transferred to Korea and Japan

21:21

while he was in the Marines. He flew

21:23

planes for Air America, which was a branch

21:25

of the CIA at that point, basically. And

21:28

that included the Laos, Vietnam bombings

21:30

and things like that. He,

21:32

I guess,

21:36

he, they say he was wounded during

21:38

a mission over Laos but we don't know if this is

21:40

true or not. So he

21:42

turned, he ended up returning to the United

21:44

States in 1966. Bob

21:47

is a pilot very quickly and easily. I'm

21:49

sure. Because he goes out of fly. And yeah,

21:52

so he gets a pilot's job with Eastern Airlines

21:54

in 1968, which is an airline

21:56

that went out of business probably 91, 92. Like

22:00

when I was a little kid we went

22:02

to Florida once and it was in the Eastern Airlines. I

22:04

remember... So it was probably just right

22:06

up and down the East Coast. It was mainly New

22:08

York, Florida. New York, Florida, New York, Atlanta,

22:10

like that kind of shit. That's where it went. That

22:13

was Eastern. But it was very,

22:15

a big airline at the time and very

22:17

busy. It was the East Coast airline. So

22:19

he's making a comfortable living. He's

22:22

a pilot. Sure. He's

22:25

doing great for himself. So he meets

22:27

Hell here in 1969. He

22:31

was already engaged when he met her. Well.

22:34

But he meets this, you know, smoke

22:36

show Danish broad and he's like, hold

22:38

on a minute. Maybe I've... Look

22:41

at her. Maybe I've been hasty, you know

22:43

what I mean? I may have

22:45

jumped the gun. Yeah. And

22:48

she didn't mind though that he was already engaged. She started

22:50

seeing him and she had a very

22:52

casual attitude about the whole thing. And she knew

22:54

that he had relationships with other women. She's

22:56

not jealous. That's one thing about her. She's confident

22:58

maybe. Maybe that's it. Yeah. She's

23:01

like, I'll throw you and get another. You're coming home to this probably

23:03

I would assume. You're not going to please. I know

23:05

what the... First

23:08

in my class. Yeah. First

23:10

in my class of hot chicks. So I know what I'm

23:12

doing here. Her friends didn't

23:14

really understand what

23:16

she was...why she's so into this guy. They're like,

23:18

she can have any guy she wants basically. Why

23:21

is she like this guy? Her

23:24

friends didn't like him at all either. But

23:29

in 1975, after they've been kind of seeing each other

23:31

for years now, like six years, she

23:33

becomes pregnant with his child. And

23:37

so they get married in November after she finds out.

23:40

Well, I guess it's narrowed down now.

23:43

So then they bought a one level

23:45

ranch home in Newtown, Connecticut and

23:48

she had her child and they end

23:50

up having three children overall here. Yeah.

23:52

So after their marriage, she returned to her

23:54

job as a stewardess and hired an au

23:57

pair, which back in the

23:59

seventies, a marriage... stewardess with children was

24:01

very rare. It

24:04

used to be a rule in the 70s is when

24:06

they changed the rule where you could still

24:08

be married and get hired. Before

24:11

that, that was part of if you were married, they

24:13

wouldn't hire you. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, they don't

24:15

want you. They want you to flirt with the passengers.

24:17

They're not gettable. That's what they want. They want to

24:19

sell this fantasy of not only are you

24:21

going somewhere to an exotic place in the air

24:24

and you'll be served, it's gonna be a hot

24:26

chick serving you who's single. Maybe you can take

24:28

her home in the next city. They're Hooters. Yeah,

24:30

exactly. Yeah, that's why they've been selling chicken wings

24:32

for 30 years. What

24:35

was it? Lukewarm? What is that? I

24:37

know that's Hooters. It's not on Hooters, but it's

24:39

an old joke that someone said Lukewarm cheese sticks

24:41

served by prostitutes. That's Hooters. Now,

24:44

I know they're not prostitutes, but I'm just saying that was

24:46

the joke. That's the idea. That's what

24:48

the general thought of it was. Right. That's

24:50

the market. And if you don't believe it,

24:52

then go look at their clothes. Yeah,

24:55

otherwise they'd let them put clothes on. Yeah.

24:59

Jesus Christ. She hires

25:02

an au pair as well. And he's

25:04

a pilot. She's doing that. They hire a 19-year-old au pair.

25:10

Oh, boy. And together at the time

25:12

in the mid-80s, early 80s, they

25:14

were making together about 125 grand a year, which

25:18

that's a lot of money in the 80s. It's good

25:20

now, but back then that was a lot of fucking

25:22

money. My family was

25:24

dreaming about it in 92, and I was

25:26

like, how much? Jesus. Back

25:29

then, this was the top 5% of

25:31

people in the country. So Richard does

25:34

all the finances, and he loves collecting

25:36

guns. He spends a lot of money

25:38

on guns. Really? Yeah, he's got a

25:41

collection. He likes to collect them. He

25:44

had several shotguns, dozens of handguns,

25:46

a lot of 9 millimeters, 44,

25:49

357s, that kind of

25:51

shit, high-powered rifles, all

25:54

sorts of hand grenades, crossbows. What?

25:56

Yeah. He's been in war for

25:58

Christ's sake. Yeah, but

26:00

I think those are still illegal. I

26:02

don't think you can have live hand

26:04

grenades probably. You shouldn't be able to

26:06

anyway. Pretty sure that's what

26:08

started the Waco thing. Yeah, shit.

26:12

But he would spend, they said that was

26:14

his hobby, was cleaning and polishing his guns. And you

26:16

know, because when you have tons like that, you have

26:18

to keep, it's like painting the Golden

26:21

Gate Bridge. You gotta start, you're done, you start back

26:23

over again at the beginning again. That's

26:25

what they do, they just keep going. So

26:28

yeah, he was doing all of that, trying to,

26:30

spending a lot of money on that here, a

26:32

lot. Now she

26:34

during this time started appearing in public with

26:36

bruises on her face from time to time.

26:39

What? Yeah, and she told

26:41

one of her friends that she was,

26:43

Richard was physically abusing her. Oh

26:46

boy. And they also said that she

26:49

was mean to her, he was mean to her

26:51

during her pregnancies. She told

26:53

a friend that she would never forgive Richard for what he

26:55

put her through when she was pregnant. She

26:58

said after the children were born, Richard would just disappear

27:00

for days at a time and then just come back

27:02

but never stay where he was. He's like

27:05

Don Draper from Mad Men. Yeah, who's he thinking

27:07

he is? He comes back like four days later,

27:09

he's like, I was working, don't worry about it.

27:11

I was dizzy. Yeah. Not now.

27:14

That's why I'm here. Crazy. I

27:16

just went to California and you know, came back and met

27:18

another woman and all this, but don't worry about it, I'm

27:20

home now, it's good. So they said

27:22

he would just pack his bags and leave and then he would come

27:24

back. He never knew if it was

27:26

business, a gun show, hanging out with some broad, who

27:28

knows? He'd do all that shit.

27:32

He controlled all the money. He made her

27:34

pay for all the house expenses and he

27:36

just spent his money on guns and bullshit.

27:39

What the fuck? He bought

27:41

all sorts of landscaping equipment and tractors and mowers

27:44

for some reason. He bought a $25,000 backhoe, which

27:46

he never used. It

27:49

was still like the tags on it sitting in the yard.

27:52

He just bought it. He was like, look at that. There

27:54

it is. That's a cat 3-10. Enjoy it.

27:57

That's what he was like. Yeah. neighbors

28:00

would complain about all the shit he always had in the

28:02

yard because he always had all this equipment. Yeah, it was

28:04

trash. He wasn't even using it. So

28:07

he starts, he becomes an auxiliary

28:09

police officer in the Newtown Police

28:11

Department in And

28:15

he's one of these guys who acts

28:17

like he is, you know, Joe Friday when

28:19

he's an auxiliary police officer, but he's like

28:21

Mr. Cop. Yeah. Like

28:24

all the other cops roll their eyes at him like this fucking

28:26

guy. Take it easy, tackleberry. You've got a backhoe. Yeah,

28:29

dude, your lawn is just littered with

28:32

fucking landscaping equipment. Fuck a dick, bro.

28:36

They said he was always at the police station even

28:38

when he was off duty and sometimes

28:40

responded to police calls without authorization. He'd just

28:42

show up because he heard it on the

28:44

scanner. So he just got in his car

28:46

and drove over there. What a fascinating man.

28:49

He's a weird guy. Yeah, we'll talk about

28:51

this. In 86, he was hired as a

28:53

police officer in the nearby town of Southberry,

28:56

and he made $7 an hour doing that. What?

29:00

Yeah, he was an unpaid auxiliary officer

29:02

for Newtown. He paid

29:04

his own way for all these

29:07

expensive training seminars on police procedures

29:09

that he didn't have to do. Use

29:12

of lethal force and all this stuff, and

29:14

he paid like all these, it's normally expensive

29:16

because departments pay for it if you need

29:19

it, but it's a small-town police force. Generally,

29:21

it's not that, you know, in the

29:23

80s, it wasn't that big of a deal. So

29:26

they said that he had a weird ... He's just

29:28

so into his police duties that it creeped all the

29:30

other cops out. He even bought his

29:32

own 1985 Ford Crown Victoria,

29:34

the same cars that the Connecticut- He

29:37

got his own cop car. His own

29:39

one and outfitted it as a police

29:41

car at his own cost. Multiple

29:44

radios, antennas, police lights, and a

29:47

siren, all at his own cost.

29:50

Hey, everybody. Hey, everybody.

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now back to the show. I

32:51

mean, if you're a cop, you're allowed to do that,

32:53

right? Yes, but normally if you're

32:55

a cop and they need you, they give you

32:57

a police car. That's how it works usually. They

32:59

don't say, when you apply as a

33:02

job as a policeman, they don't go, where's your car?

33:05

They usually assign you one, I would imagine,

33:07

right? If

33:09

you're necessary. Yeah, like to be on the SWAT

33:11

team. Where's your battering ram? Yeah, do you have a ram?

33:13

Well, we're looking for a guy with a tank if you

33:15

know anybody. That's because we need one of those. So

33:18

he continued to see other women too during

33:20

this time and she

33:23

was aware of the infidelity. His wife is

33:25

aware of it and tolerates it and kind

33:27

of just ignores it basically. We'll

33:30

complain to a friend once in a while, but that's it.

33:33

But by 1986, she starts openly speaking about

33:35

divorce with a bunch of her friends. At

33:38

some point

33:40

in the, I think it was about 84, he

33:42

had a cancer diagnosis

33:45

to the end of coming out of okay,

33:47

I guess. He beat it, huh? He was

33:49

treated and that seemed to bring them closer

33:51

together for a minute. One

33:54

of her friends said, I got the impression

33:56

that Richard was a private person. I did not

33:58

get the impression that he was. strange.

34:01

So... What is it? The man

34:03

bought his own cop car. He's not a strange

34:05

guy. He's strange, yeah. He's got a backhoe with

34:07

tags on him. For no reason. Never even started

34:10

it. No fucking reason. Yeah, he's still got the

34:12

plastic thing on the seat from the dealership there.

34:14

That plays average to you? What are we doing?

34:16

That's normal? Yeah. He's not strange. And it's dot

34:18

dot dot strange. So she was like, I never

34:20

got the impression that he was strange.

34:23

He has a caterpillar with a

34:25

New England caterpillar still on it.

34:28

Yeah. Jesus. What's happening? So by

34:30

86 they have three kids, 10-year-old

34:32

Andrew, 7-year-old Thomas, 5-year-old Christina. And

34:35

all three of the kids, by the way, were christened in

34:37

Denmark. And everybody, including

34:39

Richard's parents, went over for the christenings. Like

34:41

it was a big deal. So

34:44

in summer of 86, Helle retains

34:48

a divorce attorney. She's done

34:50

here. She hired also a private detective

34:52

named Keith Mayo, who sounds like

34:54

a made up cartoon character, but he's a

34:56

great private detective, as we'll find out. The

34:58

guy's fucking amazing. He's a former

35:00

cop, and she hired him to

35:03

gather evidence of cheating against Richard. November

35:06

18th, 1986 comes around. Okay.

35:10

Really bad winter storm, which if you

35:12

know in the northeast is

35:14

uncommon before Christmas time. Christmas? Yeah.

35:16

Or Easter around Thanksgiving? That's insane.

35:18

January, February, it'll snow, but usually

35:20

November, December, it snows once in

35:22

a while, but it's not really

35:24

that common. Flurries and it's cold

35:27

at all. It's cold, yeah. Sometimes.

35:29

Sometimes it's warm. So

35:31

they had a really bad winter storm

35:33

hit Connecticut this time, and driving conditions

35:35

are terrible. And the storm is, it's

35:37

a mess. Snow and sleet, and then

35:40

snow again happens. Oh, god damn it.

35:42

It's a triple bogey there.

35:44

There's ice everywhere. Everything's frozen. Gusty

35:46

winds. There's utility lines down everywhere

35:48

from the way to the snow,

35:51

because usually when that happens too,

35:53

it's at the temperature where the snow is heavy. Trees

35:55

get heavy when the snow falls. A lot of rain

35:58

falls down, and they fall into power lines. Power

36:00

goes out so electricity went out

36:02

in this area for several hours during this

36:04

night Real

36:06

bad now Southbury where he's

36:08

a police officer or written as a police

36:11

officer They called everybody called the plow

36:13

guys in to lay salt and plow and do

36:15

all this shit So for the next

36:17

few days and nights these guys were working non-stop Plowing

36:20

because yeah you first you do all the main roads and

36:22

they gotta get the side roads and all that kind of

36:24

shit one of the guys

36:26

Joseph Hine he November

36:29

20th he goes at 11 30 p.m. November 20th.

36:31

He goes to plow He

36:34

goes and picks up his plow to plow during the night. It's

36:37

a sander. I'm sorry. It takes the sander out and

36:40

Starts to sand route 172 which is

36:42

one of the main roads there at

36:45

about 12 30 a.m He returned to the

36:47

garage and picked up a snow plow so he sanded now

36:49

he's gonna plow he begins his

36:51

route along Southbury's main street here

36:53

and goes for several hours plowing

36:55

and Also trying going

36:58

around all these trees that are both falling in the road and

37:00

all that kind of shit at 3 30 a.m He's

37:03

plowing along the length of River Road Until

37:06

he came to an intersection of South

37:08

Flat Hill Road. It's still snowing and sleeting

37:10

at this point Yeah, and

37:12

it looked you know, it's that

37:15

that storm that you know that dark gray

37:17

that dark gray winter But it's also kind

37:19

of bright because the it reflects

37:21

on off the snow. Yeah, even at night It's

37:23

a little bit brighter because of the snow so

37:26

he's he's plowing here

37:29

He sees as he passes the intersection. He

37:31

sees a truck parked off on the side

37:33

of the road Yeah, somebody

37:35

that's maybe there they've slid off the

37:37

road or something He said

37:39

I would describe the vehicle as a U-Haul box

37:42

van. Oh One

37:44

to one one to one and a half

37:46

ton with dual wheels. He said so dually

37:48

in the back dually in the back He

37:50

said the box of the van was an

37:52

off-white or dirty white square type. The cab

37:55

was orange colored It's a small U-Haul truck.

37:57

Yeah, so He

37:59

said the light were off and the

38:01

roll-up back was closed. The

38:05

big sliding door. As he got

38:08

closer, he saw the truck had a large wood

38:10

shipper attached to its back. Okay,

38:12

so it's dragging a wood shipper. This is

38:14

on the banks of a river. Okay.

38:18

Now, the chipper, he

38:20

said, looked old and well used. As

38:23

he passed the U-Haul, he saw a man

38:25

standing near the driver's door who suddenly began

38:27

to walk near the back of the truck

38:29

when he saw the snow plow. Yeah.

38:32

The man motioned for

38:35

the plow to go around him. Like, go ahead, go

38:37

around him. Yeah, don't worry about it. I don't need help.

38:39

So the guy continued to plow down the road. Two

38:42

hours later, he plowed River Road from the

38:44

opposite direction because he plowed one lane and

38:46

then he plows the other lane. As he

38:48

passed this area, the Glen Road area, he

38:50

saw the same U-Haul with the attached wood

38:52

shipper once again. And

38:54

he said, I didn't see anyone in or around the truck

38:57

or the chipper. But as he passed

38:59

it, he noticed something different. He said the back

39:01

of the box was open this time. Okay.

39:03

And he said, I could see some wood chips

39:05

inside. Yeah. He also saw

39:07

wood chips on the shoulder of the road. He

39:10

continued to plow. He watched the U-Haul drive

39:12

away. And he said, that was strange that

39:15

a person would be out so early in the morning

39:17

in the middle of a storm chipping wood. Throwing

39:19

it into the back of the truck, yeah. This is not

39:22

a time to chip wood. You

39:24

wouldn't do this in the middle of the night during a

39:26

storm. Who the fuck does that? That's weird. So

39:30

now three days later here,

39:33

this is the nanny Dawn Thomas.

39:35

She's our au pair. She

39:38

says that this is November 21st. So

39:40

November 18th was the storm originally.

39:42

Now we're at the 21st. She

39:46

said in the house, she hadn't seen hell

39:48

in a while in three days. She

39:51

said she noticed a black spot the size of

39:53

a soccer ball on the carpet in the couple's

39:55

bedroom. Yeah. And

39:57

offered to clean it. And Richard said,

39:59

no. clean it and he said, I

40:01

just spilled kerosene there, so don't worry about

40:03

it. I'll take care of it. Black kerosene.

40:05

Black kerosene. It's the best guy. It burns

40:08

so much longer. It's

40:10

so much better. It's thick. The

40:13

next day, the au pair said she walked

40:15

into the bedroom and Richard had removed all

40:17

the carpets except for a narrow strip around

40:19

the edge of the room. He

40:22

also had taken the bed apart and removed

40:24

the carpet from the bedroom used by the

40:26

youngest daughter as well. That carpet was gone

40:28

too. He said that his

40:30

wife wanted the carpets changed, but

40:33

she recalled that she

40:35

had told her that she liked the carpets in both rooms,

40:37

so since when does she want it changed? So

40:40

no one has seen hell

40:44

in a few days here. We get to

40:46

November 30th 1986. It's been 12 days now and

40:51

yeah, people are looking for

40:53

her here. One

40:56

is a friend of hers named Jet

40:58

Romp. That's a great name for a

41:00

flight attendant. J-E-T-T-E. Jet

41:02

Romp? Jet Romp. Yeah.

41:06

Like, did you change your name to

41:08

that? I think I

41:10

was romping the jet with me. That

41:12

is certainly the name

41:15

you want for a flight attendant. Jet

41:17

Romp. Holy fuck. She

41:19

is my Jet Romp. So she

41:22

called looking for her friend and said

41:24

that, you know, it was

41:27

weird. Richard said that she

41:30

took off and he doesn't know where she

41:32

was. Yeah. She's not gonna take off from

41:34

her job and her kids. That's crazy. So

41:37

the friend said that, you

41:39

know, that Richard said, oh

41:41

relax, you've been watching too many movies. And

41:45

the friend said, well why don't you report her missing?

41:47

And he said, well she'd be mad at me if

41:49

I called the police and reported her missing. I'm sure

41:51

she's just doing something. You know, when she turns up

41:53

she's gonna be pissed. So her friend said the last

41:55

time she spoke with her was on November

41:57

15th 1986. they

42:00

had a conversation about her plans to divorce

42:02

Richard. Her

42:04

friend, Jet Romp, said she

42:06

was very angry. She had found receipts from

42:08

charge cards that showed Richard had been buying

42:10

Christmas gifts with a girlfriend in New Jersey.

42:17

But they had had a conversation. She

42:20

told Richard, I want to divorce you. Richard

42:22

had told her that marriage was for life. Jesus

42:25

Christ. I guess so. You're not

42:27

penguins. You're not penguins. You're not penguins.

42:29

Relax. Yeah. Credit

42:33

card receipts are for life too. Yeah. That

42:35

shit does not go away. Another friend of hers,

42:38

a flight attendant named Lee Fisher-Oll,

42:41

said that she telephoned the house too and

42:43

talked to Richard on November 24th. And

42:45

he told her that Hell had gone to Copenhagen

42:48

to visit her mother who was ill. So.

42:53

And then she called again the 28th. And Richard told

42:56

her he was in fact getting a little worried too because

42:58

he hasn't heard from her. So

43:01

the friend said, well, can I have the phone number of

43:03

her mom here and a

43:05

friend? And

43:07

I know her friend who can speak Danish and we'll

43:09

call. And so the mother told

43:11

the friend that the daughter wasn't there and she

43:13

wasn't expected to be there till April. That's

43:16

when she's going to come to visit. Yeah. So,

43:19

okay. And she said she didn't know where she could be. Yeah.

43:22

You sound impressively well for somebody who's

43:24

sick. Yeah. So she called

43:26

back to tell Richard the news about that. And

43:29

she said Richard was very abrupt with me. She

43:31

said he was leaving on a trip

43:33

and that was that. So

43:36

yep. December 1st comes around

43:38

here. Okay.

43:42

She, December 1st, now

43:45

Keith Mayo, who is

43:47

the guy that she had hired, he calls

43:49

the cops and he said, listen. Lion

43:52

of mine, who's recently, I can't

43:54

get a hold of her for two weeks. She's not around. She,

43:57

I'm afraid her husband killed her. because

44:00

she's been wanting to get away from this guy and

44:02

he's been violent with her before. And she

44:04

said she's afraid of him and now she's gone for two

44:06

weeks and I can't find her. That's the person she ever

44:08

hired. He was adamant,

44:11

please investigate this

44:13

crime. Now, she left her home,

44:15

allegedly, according

44:18

to the husband, on November 19th to

44:21

drive to Richard's sister's house, but

44:23

she never showed up at the sister's home

44:25

and hadn't been heard from since. Her car

44:27

was later found in an employee parking lot

44:29

at Pan Am Airlines at Kennedy Airport. But

44:32

there's no record of her going anywhere. So,

44:36

Richard is saying, well, she must have taken off if

44:38

she wanted to get away from me so bad. She

44:41

has memes, she has passports,

44:43

she can go on a flight to anywhere in the

44:45

world she wants. Yeah, a flight standby anytime she wants.

44:48

Also, she told me she was

44:50

going somewhere on a plane and that's where her car

44:52

is, so what the fuck? That's it, so they

44:54

talked to Richard the next day and

44:56

he says, quote, she was happy and showed

44:58

no signs of being different or upset when

45:02

she left. He said that he and his wife slept

45:04

at home. They woke up that morning on the 19th.

45:07

The plan was for her to go to my

45:09

sister's house in Westport because we had no power

45:11

due to the storm and I haven't

45:13

seen her heard from her since. That's it. The

45:16

police aren't very concerned. They're just not.

45:18

No, they said it's a marital problems

45:21

and they said, a lot of times when a

45:23

spouse leaves another spouse, when there's a lot of

45:25

problems, they just want some time alone. And

45:28

they said she has the means and the ways to

45:31

do this and so, yeah, she'd be the perfect candidate

45:33

for somebody to do that, so they

45:35

don't prioritize the case at

45:37

all. Put it in the folder somewhere.

45:39

Yeah, all of her friends, though, say she's

45:41

a devoted mother who wouldn't have left her

45:43

small children out of nowhere. Right, she's got

45:45

three kids, nobody does that. These days, she's

45:47

a good mom and they said that Richard

45:49

had a series of affairs which were well-known.

45:51

She discovered this recently. She told him that

45:53

she wanted a divorce. So,

45:55

I mean, they're worried, the friends.

46:00

Yeah, he's telling people different stories, too. He

46:02

told the au pair she's in Denmark. He

46:04

told another friend that she was

46:06

in Denmark and then she wasn't in Denmark. Right.

46:10

Yeah. Some more time goes by and Mayo starts

46:12

complaining. Mayo's like, you're not looking into

46:15

this. You talk to three people and they said they're worried

46:17

and you went, all right, fuck it, and didn't do anything.

46:19

And I got somebody that's willing to pay me to do

46:21

shit for her and she's not here. I need to pay

46:23

him my mortgage. So he sent a letter to the

46:26

police calling for an investigation and

46:28

what he described as their failure to

46:30

investigate. He said, as you

46:33

are aware, I attempted to report Mrs. Crafts

46:35

missing to the Newtown police department on December

46:37

1st. At that time, I

46:39

was aware of certain details of her disappearance,

46:41

which would lead any detective to believe she

46:43

did not voluntarily disappear. For unknown

46:45

reasons, the Newtown police department, particularly

46:48

the detective division, refused to treat

46:50

this matter seriously. Without

46:53

going into further detail, I strongly

46:55

recommend that your commission undertake an

46:58

independent investigation to determine the facts

47:00

and circumstances surrounding the obvious irresponsibility

47:02

of the Newtown police department's detective

47:05

division. Oh, he is calling

47:07

them on the carpet. Yeah. The

47:09

police said, hold the Mayo. Let's talk about this. We

47:11

got problems. Then they

47:13

said, okay, maybe we are concerned because they talked

47:15

to the au pair and get the

47:17

story there. And they said, well, that

47:20

sounds fishy. Yeah. Yeah. That

47:22

morning, he woke all three of his children up

47:24

at 6.30 a.m., loaded them into the family car

47:26

with the au pair, and drove over to his

47:28

sister's house. And then she was supposed

47:30

to follow. Richard dropped the

47:33

kids and Dawn off and left almost immediately.

47:35

And hell wasn't fair, even though she was

47:37

supposedly left before Richard. What the

47:40

fuck? She said that Dawn,

47:42

the Dawn woman, the au pair, told

47:44

the cops that Richard didn't return to

47:47

pick them up until later that day

47:49

at 7 p.m. and still no

47:51

mom here. So later

47:53

that night, Dawn asked where she was, asked

47:55

Richard, and he said, I don't know. Then

47:58

the next day, she said, I don't know. He said

48:00

she must be in Denmark with her sick mother. And

48:04

then there's also the stain

48:06

on the carpet, which they don't like, and the carpet's being

48:08

gone. Right, right, right. So

48:10

they say, hey Richard, we just need to

48:12

get to the bottom of everything, so would you mind just

48:14

clearing yourself with a lie detector test quick polygraph? Yeah, we'll

48:17

talk about it real fast. He said,

48:19

sure. He passes the

48:21

test. He

48:23

passes the test. But for some reason, even

48:25

though he passed the test, he was in

48:27

the CIA, basically. So he knows how to

48:29

pass a lie detector test. Sure.

48:32

I mean, he's aware of drugs. He's aware

48:34

of all kinds of strategies. He's aware of

48:36

breathing. They tell you different. There's a lot

48:39

of strategies here. One investigator

48:41

wrote in his report, and this is not a computerized

48:43

one. It's a guy with a piece of paper that

48:45

he's looking at. It's different. One

48:47

investigator wrote in his report that based on

48:49

the polygraph examination and my numerous conversations with

48:51

Mr. Kraft, he does not know where his

48:54

wife is. So they said,

48:56

yeah. But some detectives believe, some detectives

48:58

said, no, this is weird, and I

49:00

don't like it. They

49:03

really don't like the fact that he goes around

49:05

in his own little, you know. Police

49:07

car? His own little fashioned police

49:10

car, yeah. Bizarre. His own little

49:12

weird cosplay of police carring, and

49:15

they didn't like that. And also, they're getting

49:17

calls from her friends saying, what's going on

49:19

here? What the fuck? This is

49:21

crazy. So there's a few detectives that are a

49:24

little curious of what's going on. So they decide

49:26

to call Richard in for another interview. Let's

49:29

talk Rich. December 11th, they sit him

49:31

down, and they talk

49:33

to him. This is 9.20 p.m. And they

49:36

say, Richard, did you know that your wife aired a

49:38

private investigator? He said, no. Did

49:40

you know that the PI documented your relationship with

49:43

a New Jersey woman? And he said, no. Uh-oh.

49:46

Uh-oh. They said, why would

49:48

your wife tell her friends that she was

49:50

afraid for herself regarding serving

49:52

you divorce papers and tell them to

49:54

check on her if something happened? And

49:57

he said, I cannot imagine her saying this. completely

50:00

out of character for her to say this. She

50:03

did it, bud. Yep. They

50:05

said, well, on November 18th, when hell came home, when

50:08

and why did she leave? And

50:10

he said, quote, those answers are in my statement.

50:13

They know that. Do you remember? Do

50:15

you not remember? Yeah. It's

50:17

a homicide event or a missing person. They ask you the same thing five

50:19

times to see if your story is the same five fucking times. Yeah.

50:23

Do that with your 10-year-old and they'll always crack.

50:25

It'll change. Yeah. It'll change.

50:27

He said, what is the story with your bedroom

50:29

rug? Apparently you removed it or cut some pieces

50:32

out. Can you explain this to me? And

50:35

he said, all of the rugs in the house are being removed

50:37

and replaced. Why?

50:39

Yeah. Why now? That's

50:42

not an explanation. Well, yeah. When

50:44

my wife's been missing for a couple of

50:46

weeks and my kids are really ... It's

50:48

almost the holidays too. And my

50:50

kids are really worried about where's mom and

50:53

all that. I like to do major renovation

50:55

projects. You know, when we leave off

50:57

... If I leave for

50:59

a couple of days, I come back and she's done

51:01

something nice for me, like a chimney. Yeah. You

51:04

know how it goes. So he

51:07

said, what was spilled on the rug in your

51:09

bedroom? And he said, kerosene, Richard did. They

51:12

asked him, did you cut pieces out of the

51:14

rug? Richard said, yes, two feet at the time.

51:16

It's easier to remove it that way. It

51:19

is? Is it? Easier to cut chunks

51:21

out of it than just to rip it up from

51:23

the corner? She's going to roll that motherfucker and carry

51:25

it out. I've torn carpet up. You start at the

51:27

corner, you rip a piece out, then you get the

51:29

whole end, and then you fucking roll it. That's what

51:31

you do. So you get the whole thing

51:34

at once rather than several trips trimming

51:36

it out? Cutting two feet at a

51:38

time out. It's not

51:40

a fucking hedge. You don't trim it. He

51:43

said, what did you do with the rug you

51:45

took out of the bedroom? And Richard said, dump

51:47

the bedroom rug in the Newtown landfill a week

51:50

ago. It was blue in color. They

51:52

said, why have you been telling everyone different things about

51:54

your wife being missing, like her mother being sick? And

51:57

he said, I didn't want to say my wife was gone and

52:00

I didn't. know where she was. Like it was in the barrowman.

52:02

Yeah. So they said... I'm being

52:04

rejected. Yeah. They said that

52:06

she's received any mail since she's been missing

52:08

and he said no. She's gotten no letters

52:11

since she left. She usually gets about two

52:13

letters a week. So

52:16

they just asked him

52:18

that. His demeanor was very plain

52:21

spoken and they didn't

52:23

like it but they really don't have anything. What

52:25

else are you gonna do? So they let

52:27

him go. Yeah. Christmas Day, they found out

52:29

that he had taken his kids to Florida

52:32

for the holidays. So they execute

52:34

a search warrant on the house while he's not

52:36

there. Oh. They don't want to deal with him.

52:38

Yeah. They bring in Dr. Henry

52:40

Lee to be present. Now Dr.

52:42

Henry Lee at the time was a world-famous

52:44

the best. Now he's been completely disgraced as

52:47

a total hack at this point.

52:49

Well no, he lied to people for 40 fucking

52:51

years. How many people went

52:53

to jail or didn't go to jail because this guy

52:55

went up and went blah blah blah blah and it

52:57

was bullshit. So yeah. Yeah. God

53:00

damn it. So they

53:02

bring him there. They come in. They look

53:04

around everything. They found that it was

53:07

completely fucking in disarray. They said furniture

53:09

was strewn about. Dirty clothes were everywhere.

53:11

Dishes and kitchen shit was unwashed in

53:13

the sink and countertops. It looks like

53:15

a frat party happened there. Why would

53:17

you live like that? Said mattresses were

53:19

on the bare floor in the living

53:21

room along with boxes of toys and

53:23

other items. The carpets were all pulled

53:26

up. A freezer was located in

53:28

search. There was no body in there. They were like

53:30

maybe she's in there. They

53:32

said though yeah

53:34

they looked through that. This is a new

53:36

freezer though by the way that we don't

53:39

know about. Yeah. During the search they had

53:41

tons of weapons that were found and tagged

53:43

and cataloged and everything like that. So that's

53:45

what they do. Several Smith & Wesson 357s,

53:47

a few 38s, a cult Python

53:51

38 revolver, Ruger

53:53

carbine rifles, Finnish semi-automatic weapons, 12

53:55

gauge pump shotguns, Winchester rifles, Beretta

53:57

handguns with clips, 3 80

54:00

automatic handgun, two hand grenades,

54:03

Beretta crossbow, Walther PPK handgun,

54:05

two 9mm semi-automatic handguns, Heckler

54:08

Koch 45 caliber, over

54:11

and under style universal

54:13

shotgun, numerous clips, and

54:16

an assortment of ammunition. This

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for Watching! So.

56:00

He is armed to the teeth,

56:02

man. Doctor. Lead and

56:04

luminol tasks and various locations and

56:07

found positive for blood. I.

56:09

Said of course we were looking for any evidence

56:11

of someone attempting to dispose of a corpse. As.

56:14

What he wrote. The blood bronze

56:16

was on some sees towels. They

56:18

tested positive hear the blood was

56:20

oh positive which was the same

56:22

as hell Nurse. And saw. Black

56:24

people bleed on thousand their house? Sure yeah I

56:26

mean you could have a pimple or ideally don't

56:28

cut yourself. As a one of my tells yes

56:30

he says saves her legs got a day or

56:33

whatever so investigator keep males had an affair. Is

56:36

at Annapolis. bullshit. And. He's the once

56:38

he learned about the rugs being cut out

56:40

everything he does as they were on cell

56:42

phone and takes over the t figured out

56:45

where. His. The garbage

56:47

from his house gets deposited. Wins.

56:49

Phonics Grid which dump it. It's

56:52

a it's an F, A Canterbury

56:54

Dump which is about two hours

56:56

away. He recruited some helpers, some

56:58

garbage guys that he know, and

57:00

for the next several days he

57:02

went to the dump and sifted

57:04

through mountains of fucking trashed while

57:06

yes, and he threw everything Vase

57:08

ended up finding a portion of

57:10

rug that was identical to the

57:12

rug at the residence. He.

57:15

Was short was the missing piece. It also

57:17

add stains that to be human blood. He.

57:19

Took that to the laboratory and said

57:21

here idiots I did it for you

57:23

you sound it found it odd December

57:25

thirtieth. Then they talked to the plow

57:27

driver. That's when the plow driver tell

57:29

them but the you all the wood

57:31

chipper in all I can shed. And

57:33

then they do some research and they

57:35

find out that Richard Crass rented a

57:37

wood chipper from Derry and rental service

57:39

on November eighteenth. It's

57:42

at a cost of nine hundred, sixty seven

57:44

dollars and Fifty cents. Wow.

57:46

i'm yep it's nine slogging way he

57:48

up another receipt indicated that he owned

57:51

a chain saw that he purchased in

57:53

nineteen eighty one would sigma zoc about

57:55

and he bought a new freezer a

57:57

couple days later Okay.

58:02

Detectives head to the woodshipping site now.

58:04

It's on a river known as Lake Zoar.

58:07

It's a river known as Lake Zoar. Okay.

58:10

They saw piles of woodships along the banks

58:12

of the river, which is weird. Never

58:14

seen that before. I've seen a lot of rivers. Never seen

58:17

that. They seem to be... There also seem

58:19

to be small pieces of green plastic shit

58:22

strewn about in there. So

58:24

a detective got down on his hands and knees and

58:26

sifted through it. And all this,

58:28

he's looking for everything. He noticed some

58:30

scraps of shredded paper partially covered up

58:32

by debris as well. And he

58:35

also found a few pieces of mail. He

58:39

looked on the mail, one envelope you could read,

58:41

Miss Helll Crafts,

58:43

5 Newfield Lane,

58:46

Newtown, Connecticut. No fucking way.

58:48

Her address with stood. Holy

58:51

shit. And her name, Bill.

58:53

Yahtzee. Huh? So then all

58:55

the cops come here. Yeah. Every

58:57

inch of the ground has gone over,

58:59

photographed everything. They found

59:02

numerous strands of blonde hair that

59:04

we'll talk about, bone fragments, fabrics,

59:06

cloth, plastic items, wood chips, and

59:08

other shit. They bring everything

59:10

into the lab here. They

59:13

also find out, by the way, November 17th,

59:15

Richard purchased a freezer. Freezer one day,

59:17

wood chipper the next. Wow.

59:20

They led to the discovery of 2660

59:22

strands of blonde hair. They

59:27

found out many. 69

59:29

slivers of human bone, five droplets

59:31

of human blood, two teeth, a

59:33

truncated piece of human skull, three

59:36

ounces of, quote, human tissue. Just

59:39

a portion of a human finger,

59:41

one fingernail, and one portion of

59:43

a toenail. Now

59:46

there's also- He's rented, he blasted his

59:48

wife through a wood chipper of somebody

59:50

else's? Yup. Oh,

59:52

by the way. They also went to the bottom of the

59:55

Housatonic River during the search,

59:57

and they find a steel

59:59

chainsaw. the brand, the still chain saw.

1:00:03

With its serial number filed off, which

1:00:06

normally like terrified. That's what a

1:00:09

Baltimore drug dealer does before he

1:00:11

shoots up a fucking corner and throws it in the

1:00:13

sewer crate. That's not- That

1:00:15

is the scariest chainsaw on the

1:00:18

planet. Ever. Don't

1:00:20

touch it. In the chainsaw, in the teeth

1:00:22

of the blade, they were able to find

1:00:24

remnants of human tissue, blonde hair, and a

1:00:26

number of blue fibers in the teeth of

1:00:28

the blade. What? The blue

1:00:30

fibers matched the rug inside the home.

1:00:33

Did he roll her up in the carpet and

1:00:35

cut her up in the carpet? They

1:00:37

were able to restore the serial number even

1:00:40

below the scratching. They were able to- I'll

1:00:42

use some of that- Infrared shit or whatever.

1:00:44

Yeah. And it matched a receipt

1:00:47

belonging to Richard Kraft's indicating he purchased that

1:00:49

chainsaw on January 9, 1981 for $644.95. The

1:00:55

man used $1,500 worth of power tools. Yep.

1:00:59

And it's his chain. He threw it in there.

1:01:01

Holy. Yep. Keith Mayo

1:01:03

ended up finding the receipt for it and bringing it to the cops

1:01:05

as well. He's been helping out a lot. That

1:01:08

is insane. Unbelievable. Forensic odontology

1:01:10

analysis was able to prove

1:01:12

conclusively that the remains- those

1:01:14

were her teeth. Those

1:01:16

were her teeth. It's probably her blonde hair and everything else

1:01:18

here. One specimen was a

1:01:20

tiny piece of a fragment of tooth

1:01:22

with a piece of jaw bone still

1:01:24

attached. A forensic odontologist tested the tooth-

1:01:27

testified later that the tooth was removed from

1:01:29

the mouth with traumatic force that shattered it

1:01:31

off and shook the bone with it. He

1:01:34

said if a dentist had removed the tooth, the base

1:01:36

of the tooth would be clean and absent of jaw

1:01:39

bone residue. He said in my opinion the fracture occurred

1:01:41

by blunt force that fractured it to the center line

1:01:43

and took the jaw with it. So-

1:01:47

Jesus. Since there's blood in the bedroom, the

1:01:49

cops assume that he bludgeoned her in the-

1:01:51

at the foot of the bed During

1:01:54

the early morning hours of November 19th, maybe

1:01:56

when she was making her bed or changing

1:01:58

the sheets. They speculate that he

1:02:00

carried his wife's body to the basement where he

1:02:03

is just hooked up a new freezer that he

1:02:05

got two days earlier. yeah he place or in

1:02:07

the freezer then woke up the au pair told

1:02:09

them used to go to my sister's house. Lights

1:02:12

and I'm yeah they're not pick the

1:02:14

kids up and they believed some time

1:02:17

during the next day he took the

1:02:19

frozen body or that day took the

1:02:21

body that frozen solid to a secluded

1:02:23

piece of property that he owned. A

1:02:25

new Town. Just a property that's where

1:02:27

I used a chainsaw us to chop

1:02:29

up her body. And. Returned

1:02:31

them to the freezer and the next day

1:02:33

when it went. when it got dark, he

1:02:35

took those packages wrapped in plastic garbage bags.

1:02:37

Two legs are where he ran them through

1:02:39

the woods. Yep. Oh My.

1:02:42

God. This is horrific as

1:02:44

you as it gets. They.

1:02:48

Said what he didn't realize because it was dark

1:02:50

out probably and of snow and everything else that

1:02:52

he was shooting her into the river. Not all

1:02:54

the parts made it into the water and all

1:02:56

the ship landed on the side and didn't quite

1:02:58

get to the water. And

1:03:01

she had mail in our pockets and

1:03:03

that's what happened. He didn't know, didn't

1:03:05

realize it. That. See saves or

1:03:07

see Solve their own space. Death would

1:03:09

hurry Junk mail hiring Keith Fucking Miracle

1:03:12

Whip over there. Did it on Vo

1:03:14

Lethal. So January eleventh, Nineteen eighty seven

1:03:16

an arrest warrant has issued for him

1:03:19

he says is fucking hilarious by the

1:03:21

way, That. Night Nine

1:03:23

Pm a dozen Connecticut State Troopers and

1:03:25

detectives go to his house. Five New

1:03:27

Field Lane to arrest him is a

1:03:29

surround his house and they call him

1:03:31

on the phone. They

1:03:34

said come outside to surrender. We had a warrant.

1:03:36

He. Said quote, i'm tired. I'll take care

1:03:38

of it in the morning That. There's.

1:03:42

It it's team part of your yard around us.

1:03:44

A lot of there's when you're not. We've heard

1:03:46

about de Maya around Air that guys. They

1:03:50

said no now you really need to

1:03:52

come out now He got busy whether.

1:03:55

What he got? A little somebody with a

1:03:57

piece of close. he said

1:03:59

quote Don't call me back and hung up on

1:04:01

them. Not tonight.

1:04:03

Not tonight, I said. I'll be there in the

1:04:06

morning. So they're like, shit.

1:04:08

And they don't really want to rush the house because they

1:04:10

know he's got an arsenal in there. Right. So

1:04:12

they're like, fuck. We don't want to have to get shot and

1:04:14

shoot this guy. So they wait. And

1:04:17

finally, they said his children were still inside the

1:04:19

house asleep, he said. At

1:04:22

1230 a.m., he told the cops over the phone, I'll be

1:04:24

out in five minutes. And

1:04:27

then a few, a little while later, he

1:04:29

came out and surrendered. What?

1:04:31

He was taken to the jail and his bail was

1:04:33

set at $750,000. Oh my God. I

1:04:37

can't believe he came out people. He came out. The

1:04:39

kids are inside. I guess he didn't want to have a shootout with the

1:04:41

kids there. That wasn't bad. I'm shocked. I'm

1:04:43

shocked. A man that can puff his

1:04:46

wife into... He surprised him blow his brains out. Yeah. Or

1:04:48

his kids. Yeah. He shot his

1:04:50

wife into a river slash lake. It's cold,

1:04:52

man. Cold fucking blow. Wow. And

1:04:55

then the other one said, quote, it's like something out of Edgar Allan

1:04:57

Poe. That's what makes a next door

1:04:59

neighbor. I'd say worse than that. Worse than that.

1:05:01

I was going to say, it's more like fucking Friday the 13th

1:05:03

or something. Yeah. This

1:05:06

is unbelievable. Another one said, quote, I'm

1:05:08

kind of shocked it happened in Newtown

1:05:10

of all places. Of course. Wait

1:05:12

a few years. Wait a few years. Yeah,

1:05:15

you won't be so shocked. Since his

1:05:17

arrest, in the two days since he

1:05:19

was arrested, a major movie studio already

1:05:21

took interest in the case. A representative

1:05:24

of Warner Brothers visited Keith Mayo two

1:05:26

days after Richard Kraft was arrested, we

1:05:28

hope. So during the

1:05:30

trial here, the

1:05:33

state's attorney says that she

1:05:36

feared for her life because she should have

1:05:38

feared for her life. Her husband had police

1:05:40

training and connections stemming from his service in

1:05:43

the CIA. All

1:05:45

this type of shit. They said that it's

1:05:48

obvious she was afraid and for good reason. The

1:05:51

defense attorney said though that

1:05:54

the body fragments found in that area

1:05:56

here, we don't think

1:05:58

they even belong to her. And they said, we

1:06:01

think she's probably still alive. That's a defense. Okay.

1:06:05

Yeah, that's, that's, that's involved,

1:06:07

man. That is fucking wild. Uh, meanwhile,

1:06:09

all her friends are going to testify.

1:06:11

She would never leave her three small

1:06:14

children for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's insane.

1:06:16

That's not happening. Um, yeah,

1:06:18

that is wild. So Dr. Henry

1:06:20

Lee testifies about all

1:06:22

the thousands of pieces of everything.

1:06:24

They said they were able to determine about 65 pieces

1:06:27

of bone were cut with a heavy type

1:06:29

cutting edge that produced a crushing and cutting

1:06:32

force. He said the human

1:06:34

bone, the tissue, human fibers and hair

1:06:36

were all mixed together with wood chips

1:06:38

and vegetative debris, but most importantly, the

1:06:40

same machine cut it all. Yeah.

1:06:43

Also the teeth here, the way they

1:06:45

did it, they said they took several

1:06:48

hundred X-rays of the recovered tooth from

1:06:50

all possible angles using a series

1:06:52

of five sets of X-rays that were taken of her

1:06:54

teeth between 80 and 86. The

1:06:57

guy performed a comparison between the evidence

1:06:59

and the images of her teeth and

1:07:01

said the recovered tooth matched the lower

1:07:03

left bicuspid on the X-ray charts. And

1:07:06

he said he was 100% medically,

1:07:08

absolutely certain of the positive comparison.

1:07:10

That is that tooth. That's

1:07:13

that tooth. Her friend Gertrude

1:07:15

Horvath testifies here. Um,

1:07:18

they said, did this

1:07:20

is the defense said, did she have any, did hell

1:07:23

have any. Indicate any hesitancy

1:07:25

about going into her house. And

1:07:27

she said, no, that was that.

1:07:29

So, uh, when Richard was home

1:07:31

at one time, when she dropped her off,

1:07:33

the nanny testifies as well, Dawn Marie Thomas. And

1:07:36

she testifies about the stuff we

1:07:39

already told you about. And she said, as they

1:07:41

left the house after the snow storm with the

1:07:43

kids, the youngest kid realized she left her gloves

1:07:45

inside, but Richard refused to let her go back

1:07:47

in the house and get them. He

1:07:50

just get the fuck out. Snowstorm. Yeah. Mom's

1:07:52

dead. Get out. That's it. So that

1:07:55

is a very, very interesting. So

1:07:57

they also the carpet spot. The

1:08:00

prosecutor, there's that they testify

1:08:02

about the kerosene stain, the

1:08:05

au pair does. The prosecutor asked

1:08:08

the au pair about a freezer that the

1:08:10

couple kept in the basement, and

1:08:12

they said the freezer was gone after Hell disappeared

1:08:14

and that it was replaced by a new freezer.

1:08:17

That's not great. Wow. Dawn

1:08:20

said she asked Richard Krasz about the freezer and

1:08:22

he told her the old one was broken, but

1:08:24

Dawn Thomas said it wasn't broken. I've used it.

1:08:26

It's not broken. I put shit

1:08:28

in it every week. Yeah, Richard Krasz's

1:08:31

sister testifies that Richard

1:08:33

has never expressed any emotion about his

1:08:35

wife's disappearance. She describes

1:08:38

Hell as her sister-in-law. She said

1:08:40

she was good friends with her too. She

1:08:42

said they had planned to take their family skiing

1:08:44

in February of 87. They

1:08:47

made reservations at Okemo for a long

1:08:49

weekend. I think President's Week in February,

1:08:51

she said. She said that Hell had

1:08:53

sent a deposit. Oh.

1:08:57

She also testifies that her

1:09:00

brother Richard told her he knew that all

1:09:02

of his wife's friends think that he killed her. He

1:09:06

said, quote, they think I've chopped off her head.

1:09:09

That's very specific. Yeah. Yeah.

1:09:12

That's interesting here. So, they were

1:09:14

more testifying about the money

1:09:17

things, who controlled the money and that sort of thing.

1:09:20

They said from November 17th on,

1:09:22

have you seen him demonstrate any

1:09:24

emotions, any concern, any sorrow about

1:09:26

her disappearance? Yeah. No,

1:09:28

is her answer. None.

1:09:32

Oh. Even if you were in the middle of

1:09:34

a divorce and were a part, you'd be like, hey, the kids want

1:09:36

to know where Mom is. Yeah. That's fucked,

1:09:38

man. Even if you hated her, you'd be like, hey,

1:09:40

you know, kind of want the kids to have a

1:09:42

Mom here. Have a half day today because the kids

1:09:44

would need to see you. Yeah. So,

1:09:47

this goes, by the way, their whole defense

1:09:49

is nobody, no crime. Hey. Again.

1:09:52

That's the whole fucking defense. Nobody.

1:09:54

That's not her. Nobody, no

1:09:56

crime. Sorry. I don't know what to

1:09:58

tell you. 2,000

1:10:01

pieces of hair and her address on the riverbank. If

1:10:03

they were attached to a body, then you'd have a

1:10:05

crime. But nobody, no

1:10:07

crime. So

1:10:10

the barber emptied his bag there. Not

1:10:12

my problem. Not my fault. The,

1:10:15

okay, they have, there's three,

1:10:17

this is a three-month trial. So

1:10:20

much evidence, so many pieces of evidence. They had

1:10:22

to go over all these little pieces of evidence,

1:10:24

so much, so many witnesses. The

1:10:27

jury deliberates for 17 days. About

1:10:32

what? I have no fucking idea. Yeah,

1:10:35

what are they talking about? 17

1:10:37

days in, they come back and say,

1:10:39

hopelessly deadlocked. Get out

1:10:41

of here! Yup. One

1:10:44

person would not crack. Everyone else said guilty

1:10:46

from the start. 17 days, one

1:10:48

person held out and would not give in. The

1:10:51

one juror said it was like reasoning with a

1:10:53

child. He had a real difficulty

1:10:55

retaining. He was that many

1:10:57

in there. I think he has an ex-wife he hates

1:11:00

is what it is. Yeah, that's

1:11:02

what it's about. If I need to make her disappear, I

1:11:04

don't want to go to jail for it. That's all. Wow.

1:11:07

Another juror said that, quote, it wasn't

1:11:09

chaos, it was hell in there. They

1:11:13

said they tried to convince the lone holdout, but

1:11:15

in the end, that he simply refused to participate

1:11:17

any further. Just crossed his arms and said, I'm

1:11:19

done. Really? 100

1:11:21

witnesses, 650 exhibits, 53 days, a mistrial. That's

1:11:27

a man that definitely hates his wife. There's no other way

1:11:29

to explain that. So

1:11:32

they retry him though in 1990. This

1:11:35

was 88 was the trial, 93 was the trial. That's

1:11:37

the benefit of the high fucking taxes of that place.

1:11:39

Yeah, we got plenty of money to retry this. We

1:11:41

can try these all over and over again. I don't

1:11:43

give a shit. It's an exact replay of the first

1:11:45

trial. Exact same witness list, exact

1:11:47

same evidence. It's just a replay of

1:11:49

the second trial. The prosecution in closing

1:11:51

said, it's difficult to imagine a

1:11:53

more sadistic and surreptitious disposal

1:11:56

of human remains. Whoever did this

1:11:58

would have had to have nerves

1:12:01

of steel, ice in their veins,

1:12:03

disciplined. He'd be sick otherwise, trained

1:12:05

and obviously totally free of emotion,

1:12:07

like a CIA guy that's been

1:12:11

in war. Yeah, they're doing illegal bombing.

1:12:13

Yeah. No other human being could do that. Most

1:12:16

of us couldn't even do it to a rat.

1:12:19

The person who came within three quarters of an

1:12:21

ounce of committing the perfect crime, pointing to Richard,

1:12:23

there he is. The defense

1:12:25

said, nobody to prove the

1:12:27

death means no murder. That's literally what he

1:12:29

said. He

1:12:31

said, all they have is a handful of

1:12:33

hair, a few clots of blood and a

1:12:36

fingernail with traces of red nail polish, part

1:12:38

of a tooth, a dental cap, mangled bits

1:12:40

of bone, a thumb and a toe. Sing

1:12:42

it, little Marley. That's it. Nobody

1:12:45

to cry. Unbelievable. They

1:12:47

said the toe and

1:12:49

thumb could only be determined to be human.

1:12:51

Some of the blood and hair and the

1:12:54

nail polish were similar to the alleged victim,

1:12:56

but only the tooth and the

1:12:58

dental cap were conclusively hers. The

1:13:01

identification was immediately challenged by an expert for

1:13:03

the defense. He said, quote, we

1:13:05

have less than 3% of the

1:13:07

hair on the human body, less than two thirds of an

1:13:09

ounce or less than 1% of bones in

1:13:11

the human body, and with respect to the blood, less

1:13:13

than a quarter of 1% of that. But

1:13:17

they say to you that this is hell crafts.

1:13:19

There's no evidence of a murder. Jesus

1:13:23

Christ. He said if she wanted to

1:13:25

disappear to say the heck with all this, nobody would

1:13:27

be in more of a position to do it

1:13:29

than her. Wouldn't

1:13:31

she show up during the murder trial to go,

1:13:33

hey. Me. Leave

1:13:36

him alone. Surprise witness. Dead

1:13:39

lady. They explained exactly what

1:13:41

happens to a body when you throw

1:13:43

it through a fucking wood chipper. Yeah,

1:13:45

horrible shit. So this

1:13:47

verdict comes in way quicker than 17

1:13:50

days, and he is guilty as fuck at

1:13:52

the time. They find him guilty.

1:13:56

One of the jurors said that he could

1:13:58

only recall one vote that wasn't unanimous

1:14:00

that they took. They said in

1:14:02

the beginning nine jurors voted guilty

1:14:05

and three were undecided and

1:14:07

once they were talked to and showed, oh yeah that's that

1:14:09

and the dental evidence they went, yeah you're right and they

1:14:11

did it. The second vote was

1:14:13

unanimous guilty. What else would her teeth be

1:14:15

out there? Yeah, who sprays their teeth through

1:14:17

a wood shipper then goes out of town.

1:14:20

So yeah imagine

1:14:22

she'd take both of those teeth with her. Yeah,

1:14:25

I don't imagine. During the

1:14:27

sentencing Richard says a great deal has been

1:14:29

said about my apparent lack of emotion. He

1:14:31

has ice water in his veins. I have

1:14:33

feelings like everyone else. That's

1:14:35

all. And the judge says I'm

1:14:38

about to hurt them. You sir! They

1:14:40

fuck off 50 years in prison. How's that?

1:14:43

Connecticut is very very kind.

1:14:45

Yeah well he's late

1:14:47

40s right now. He shot a woman through a

1:14:49

wood shipper. Yeah, in 93 he loses his appeal

1:14:55

for a new trial. Okay, so

1:14:57

not gonna get that. In 2020

1:14:59

he is released from prison. He's

1:15:04

out? He was 82 at the

1:15:06

time and they housed him

1:15:08

at a transitional housing program for

1:15:10

veterans in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

1:15:13

What? Yep, they said

1:15:15

he served a dramatically shorter sentence for

1:15:17

different reasons mostly because of an old

1:15:19

sentencing law known as statutory good time.

1:15:22

That law because he was convicted

1:15:24

in 1990 which has

1:15:26

since been changed allowed for large amounts of

1:15:28

time to be taken off your sentence as

1:15:31

a reward for good behavior and jailhouse jobs.

1:15:34

So yes, so

1:15:36

they said had he been sentenced after the

1:15:38

new law had passed he wouldn't have been

1:15:41

eligible for any time off a sentence and

1:15:44

he would have been in there. So every

1:15:46

day is like a day and a half

1:15:48

or some shit like that. Yeah basically. They

1:15:50

said he's set to finish his sentence in

1:15:52

June completely. Oh my God, this

1:15:54

is a free man. Oh he's free based

1:15:56

on his sentence and without this period of

1:15:58

supervision Kraft would not would not have had

1:16:00

any assistance transitioning back into the community. So

1:16:03

for us, it's our job to prepare even

1:16:06

someone of extreme violence because they're going to go

1:16:08

home. Now in

1:16:11

1989, a film called The

1:16:13

Woodshipper Massacre was

1:16:15

made where children kill their aunt, freeze her

1:16:17

corpse, dismember it, then put it in a

1:16:20

wood shipper, exact replica. Also

1:16:22

this is the inspiration for Fargo's wood shipper.

1:16:24

Is it really? It absolutely is. Yeah, Joel

1:16:26

and Ethan Cohen said that. The

1:16:29

pilot episode of Forensic Files was about

1:16:31

this, for the very first one in 1996. The

1:16:34

one that set up A&E's contract with them.

1:16:37

Wow. 97 new detectives outlined

1:16:39

it in an episode. 98,

1:16:41

it was on the History Channel's television series

1:16:43

Crime Stories, and in July 2012, Investigation Discovery

1:16:47

did it again and checked it out. This

1:16:49

is the first man to actually do it.

1:16:51

Yeah, he's the first one that we

1:16:53

know about that actually cut his wife up with a fucking

1:16:57

chainsaw and then put her through

1:16:59

a wood shipper. That's why. Unbelievable.

1:17:01

A wood shipper. That everybody

1:17:04

in Newtown, Connecticut. Holy

1:17:06

shit. If you like

1:17:08

that show, tell the world about it. Get

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on whatever app you're listening on. Give a

1:17:13

nice review for us. It really, really helps

1:17:15

us out a lot. Shut up and give

1:17:17

me murder.com. Live shows all throughout the year

1:17:19

here. April 5th, Sacramento. April 6th, San Francisco.

1:17:23

4-20 April 20th, Saturday night, virtual live show anywhere

1:17:25

in the world with internet. You can have a

1:17:27

live show just like a regular live show, but

1:17:29

in your goddamn house with your own booze and

1:17:32

whatever else you got. Enjoy

1:17:34

that. It's available for two weeks after

1:17:36

that too, so you can watch it as many times

1:17:38

as you want and have a lot of fun with

1:17:40

it. Shut up and give me murder.com. patreon.com/crime and sports,

1:17:42

all the bonus shit. This week, chess guy with a

1:17:44

vibrator up his ass, Hans Niemann, DB Cooper. We know

1:17:46

who that is for small town murder. Just out of

1:17:49

a plane, he's a sketch that we have and know

1:17:51

who the fuck he is there. patreon.com/crime

1:17:53

and sports. Do that. Keep

1:17:55

hanging out with us. Also at

1:17:58

small town murder on Instagram. us

1:18:00

do all that shit. Until next week,

1:18:02

everybody! It's been our pleasure. Bye! This

1:19:00

month, check out the Audible original, The

1:19:02

Space Within. It's a chilling eight-part

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story about a psychiatrist, Dr.

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Maddie Weil, voiced by Academy

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Award winner Jessica Chastain, who

1:19:11

is tossed with unlocking the memories of

1:19:13

a child who went missing for seven

1:19:15

hours. Maddie soon discovers that there are

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more who have faced similar experiences, and

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the truth of what is happening to

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them may impact the fate of humankind.

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New members can try Audible free for

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30 days.