It has become increasingly more and more common in our age of social media for
people to see challenges pop up on their Twitter feed or TikTok pages, if
pages is even the right term for that. Sorry, my husband's the one
that handles the social media accounts. You know what I'm talking about, though,
right tell me you're whatever without telling me you're whatever exactly that type of
challenge. Some of these don't quite go according to plan. You might remember
the cinnamon challenge from about a decade ago, you know, where you shovel
a spoonful of cinnamon into your mouth and try to finish it within sixty seconds
or risk embarrassing yourself for the overwhelming entertainment of your fan base. I will
admit it wasn't until February of twenty twenty two that I actually watched someone do
this challenge, because well, I've just never really cared to watch before researching
it for story. You might also remember, like I do, stories about
people who died after taking part in this challenge because it collapsed their lungs or
some other horrific freak accident occurred. Well, you might be as surprised as
I was to learn that nobody actually died attempting this challenge, or at least
none that I could find. Some people were hospitalized, sure, but no
deaths occurred. The closest you could come to saying that was when four year
old Matthew Radar unfortunately passed away after he accidentally ate almost a full container of
cinnamon powder. A tragic story for sure, and I don't want to gloss
over that fact, but Matthew was not taking part in the challenge. Still,
it brought about the awareness that these dares are not always so innocent.
Don't even get me started on the tide pods. We'll save that for another
day. It's not so much the potential dangers that bothered me about these Internet
challenges, though. To be told, honest, it is the fomo.
Let's rewind to summer of twenty fourteen. I was gearing up for my junior
year of college, living in my first apartment, and just overall enjoying life
in Athens, Ohio with my other friends, staying in the sleepy town for
the summer July hits, and my Facebook keeps blowing up with these silly videos.
Hey guys, it's Sarah and I've been nominated by my best friends Elizabeth
and Tammy to take part in the als ice bucket challenge. Who's gonna be
so Cold? Sarah and nearly every other person on my stupid Facebook feed stood
outside, usually in a kiddie pool, wearing a bathing suit and prepared for
you guys. That is so good the giant tub of ice water to be
poured over them before Oh my god, that was so cold. I nominate
my best friends Random, Manuel and Lynn to take part next. Once again,
I was not nominated, nor would I be for the entire summer,
and I won't lie. It made me a little sad to see all of
my friends nominating each other and taking part. Did they actually not like me?
I think At one point I even told my best friend who lived a
block away, oh, gee, I wish someone would nominate me for that
ice bucket thingy, and she said something like, oh, shure, I
forgot. I have to film that. My roommate nominated me yesterday. Oh
all the way tomorrow. I was promptly not nominated. And what was the
whole point anyway? I think most people forgot. The idea behind the challenge
in the first place was to help raise money for research on Luke Garrig's disease.
How many of my friends actually donated to ALS research that summer? Well,
probably not as many as should have. Yes, I'm still a little
bitter. And now you're probably over here like Skylar, Why not just nominate
your self, babe? Because how lame would that look? Hi? I'm
Skylar and I was nominated by myself to take part in the als Ice Bucket
Challenge because I actually annoy all of my friends so they do not want to
nominate me. No, I could not do that. And that brings me
to today's chapter. With a road trip across America, I knew we'd have
to make a stop in the Sunshine state. Florida has all kinds of wildly
insane stories. I mean remember the Florida Man challenge from twenty nineteen. A
lightbulb went off Florida Man challenge and I don't have to be nominated? Oh
where is the tweet that started it all? Nah? Here she is Swerven
mur Everybody google Florida Man, follow by your birthday Florida Man August twenty second
and tell me what you get. Minus Florida man tries to attack neighbor with
tractor Welcome to the original Dead Time Stories, a podcast where I Skyler fast
Now go beyond the crime to investigate human psychology and history. So maybe we
don't make the same mistakes of our ancestors. If you're us obsessed with our
podcast us we are, check out Patreon dot com slash og dead Time to
help support us. Oh what the hell, let's make my nightmare come true.
Hi, I'm Skyler Fasta now Jones and I've been nominated by Skyler Fasta
now Jones to take part in the Florida Man Challenge. We'll visit our first
guy after a few brief messages, and now on with the show. Welcome
to you, Mattilla, Florida, population just under four thousand folks. In
October of twenty twenty one, Clifton Bliss Junior lived here in his trailer Thomas
Smith Swear to God, if you don't shut that damn pop up, I'll
rip its fucking throw down. Good morning to your two Clifton. Yeah,
I headed son of a bitch. Fifty eight year old Clifton was not your
friendly neighborhood animal lover by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah the hell Clifton
lifted himself from his easy chair and through the blinds into his moonlit yard.
Shit bag cat, what are you hunting in my yard? Where's girls?
Knock the rect at all? Clifton swiped up that cat and yanked on its
collar. He found Please return to the Taylor family. Not a problem.
Oh? He tossed the cat on to the ground and stormed over to his
neighbors reckon so it went limping off all three legs. Hold on else,
could that be this time? An answered James. Might be an emergency or
something. Oh shit, it's Clifton again, and he brought his gun with
him. I'll handle it. You wait here, hone evening, Clifton Taylor.
You know where your cat was? Don't know, Clifton, Cats like
to wander. He was hunting on my damn property, tearing up my lawn
and making a racket. Cats do that, Clifton. We'll keep an eye
on him. Promise here. Kitty, kitty, kitty, you told me
that last time, and I'm tired of your laws. What are you doing
with that gun? I'm gonna shoot your damn cat so this don't happen a
game. Please don't kill my cat. You need to leave my lawn right
now, go home and think about what you just said. Come on,
kitty, come back home. Clifton must not have liked being hold what to
do, because he shot James Taylor twice in the chest. Oh God,
honey, call nine one one. I am. I am Clifton Clifton Bliss.
Come back out here right now, you little shit shit fuck damn it.
Come on the car because the cat harass me. Hey, baby,
I was just starting a dinner breaking and I was gonna call. There's an
emergency. Baby, you gotta come home. I shot dame. You what
that piece of crap do? This time? This cat wandered into our yard
and I went to go return to him, but he didn't like that I
was holding it by the scruff, so he started punching me. He did,
Hey, sure as hell did. Punched me over and over, saying
not to kill his cat. I had to defend myself. You absolutely did,
baby, Go back over there. You gotta tell the police what really
happened before he lost to them. Right, you're you're damn right. I'll
call you in a bit. With a new pair of jeans and boots on,
Clifton returned to the scene of his crime. I don't know how to
perform a CPR. Man, God, he's gonna die. No, he's
not. Miss. I'm going to walk you through this. Okay, hey,
y'all. Okay, over there, No I'm dying. He's fine,
everything's fine. You go on home, folks. Don't you dare believe him?
He shot my husband. The police are on their way now, but
you need to keep doing CPR. Okay, okay, sorry officers and threatened
me, ma'am. He's cat stalked onto my property and I tried to town
to keep it locked up inside. Please start beating heady and night. You
fucking threatened to kill our cat and shot him, ain't you? Clifton Bliss
Junior, Yes, ma'am, he surely is. I knew it. You
call in animal complaints, noise complaints, and complaint complaints all the time,
and all your neighbors we follow up with tell us you're a real hotheaded man.
Now. I don't know what happened here tonight, but I intend to
by the time the sun rises. Can you get into my vehicle, sir,
yes, ma'am. I can e ms IS here too, ma'am.
They'll help your husband as best they can. They can't help him. Now
he's dead. You've done it now, Clifton, And just like that,
Clifton was taken into police custody, where he refused to speak to officers.
Unfortunately for him, there were several witnesses, and even though he did not
have a criminal record up until this night, he was sent to the Marion
County Jail for a second degree murder and held without bail. Oh the cap,
by the way, was found unharmed and put back safely with its family.
A year before this whole silly affair, a twenty year old man named
Brent James skulked out of his cell and into the common area with other inmates
at the Juvenile Detention Center. You see that new kid at out of my
chairman, This show's fucking stupid. Yeah, the Xbox greet as Brent went
to play video games. Nice prison, right, An inmate took his seat
left and was replaced by a second inmate. Brent returned and tapped this inmate's
shoulder. Yo, man, that's my seat. Move move your feet,
lose your seat, Fuck off, dude. Brent pushed the other kid to
the floor and a scuffle broke out until Brent finally wrapped his arm around the
poor guy's neck. Just days later, Brent attacked a correctional officer after he
was denied a new pair of shoes. This fight ended with the officer in
a supply closet and a fire extinguisher, whether by Brent's hands or a freak
accident, was set off inside the tiny room. These incidents left the young
man with a battery on a law enforcement officer charge, and by October of
twenty twenty one, he was transferred to the same prison the pet hating Clifton
Bliss was in fine pretty row. Brent looked up as the older man was
escorted into the common area and up to his cell. Fresh meat Baby Brent
peered into Clifton's cell with an impish grin. Hey, baby girl, got
any pills? No, yeah, you do. All you old geezers got
loads of pills. I don't have anything. Fine, you'll give me some
bundles by the end of the week. You watch. What I really need
is your ship from the commissaries. No, that's my fucking pussy handed over.
Brent pulled out a paintball and proceeded to beat it against Clifton's back.
I should point out to those who, like me, didn't know. A
paint ball in the prison world is not the little balls of paint used in
paintball wars. No, and inmate usually chips paint off the walls, wads
them up into a ball, places them inside of a sock, and uses
said sock as a makeshift flail. Please be alone in your sack. Out
out, poser, pofzer. He's hitting me like a baby. Clifton went
and tattled, Maybe not the best move when you're the new guy in prison.
Here you go, cliff Man ditches in. Your good is new and
you got some paint killers. Oh come on, lady, I got four
bruises, says a golf ball on my back in this one here on my
head. You see, yes, I do. I also saw on the
evening news the face of the man you shocked. I wonder what he wishes
happened to his attacker. I'm ignoring a lucky for you. They feel real
bad. The old ark was smacked so hard by the little boy that they're
taking pity in moving you too in the other part of the prison. Let
me know if you need another band aid where you're Millow in November of twenty
twenty one, Clifton and his ever faithful wife stood before a judge at his
bail hearing with that attack fresh on their minds. My poor husband was assaulted,
your honor. That twirpy little boy tried to kill you, Yes,
ma'am, and the Sheriff's office is already investigating the attack. I assure you,
your honor, Are you not concerned our County jails eight's safe. My
concern rests on whether our inmates are being and fed and properly chucked away from
society. It's up to the offices to ensure order is kept in the facility.
Be happy, Miss Bliss wasn't shanked though. I have taken your concerns
into consideration, and we'll be given your husband an opportunity for bail. I'm
setting it to seven hundred and fifty thousand. As of this writing, no
further information has been released on Clifton the cat Hater, so I'm going to
assume that he's stepped away safely in that prison, away from Brent. After
the break, we'll meet our next Florida man. Welcome back to the original
Dead Time stories. Right before COVID, it was getting to a point for
me where I'd be on my commute home from work. Here a story on
NPR about another mass shooting, and I wouldn't really even batten eye anymore because
it was so common. Now, don't get me wrong, these were always
tragic and upsetting, but it's sort of like hearing about another COVID variant today.
Right at first, I would get this clenched up feeling in my tummy,
and then I would just kind of nod and say, oh, another
one, Okay, that sucks. And these stories all seemed to follow a
typical format. Seemingly normal white guy a decided he was fed up with the
world and bought a gun without having his mental health or even driver's license examined.
His friends all thought he seemed normal. Now the weather and you can't
help, but wonder are my friends going to wind up being one of those
guys? Well, Pa, I think that's the last of them. Who
would have thought you could cram so much of your life into a bunch of
tiny boxes. This is Paul Dermetico, owner and operator of Metco Marine of
Fort Lauderdale. The forty two year old recently divorced his wife and moved in
with you got my box cutter. I'll start on pecking this stuff and see
if I can find some space for it. His friend, fifty two year
old Eric DaCosta. It was around May twenty eighteen when they moved in together,
but they had known each other for about five years. When we get
tired of moving all this stuff, I'll order us a pizza, grab some
beers, and we can watch Wheel of Fortune or something. Is that what
you do every night? Drink and watch TV? Yep, Jack off two
if there's time. I want to celebrate my divorce getting finalized. Got some
good blow from my guy the other day. Fuck man, you're still using
that ship. Look, you don't use it not as often. I stick
to the good stuff like bud light. Uh think about two in a bump.
Let's see how much we can get done though. First, thank you
very much. We have some important topics to discuss with you tonight. Well
come on, Eric, We're not watching those fucking liberal ship shun contry.
Sometimes it makes good points, and this story is going to be real important.
Hey, how you doing, pleasure Bay to meet you? All right?
Wow, how are you guys doing? Tired? Yeah, you're you're
running around the country doing. Uh, doing a good job. Huh stopping
people from having guns? Bullshits. You've done a great thing. You turned
your grief into something positive. You went to Washington in March, and what
were the goals? Well, we are with the march. We want Americans
to stop being afraid of demanding our politicians to take action. They work for
us, we don't work for them. Everybody in the nation is either a
child or a former child, and that's what we want to do, is
say this isn't about red and blue, this is about protecting the kid.
Why'd you turn that off? Man? I don't want to listen to that
liberal shit. I want to eat our Chinese, drink some beer, maybe
get high and enjoy the night. You've been getting high a lot? Is
something going out? My wife fucking left me and I want to feel good
every now and then. Shit, why are you bugging out? I'm not,
but yes, you fucking are you jealous because I'm not giving you enough
coke or something? So you gotta get revenge by watching liberal news piss off.
On October thirteenth, twenty eighteen, Paul's mother was home doing well whatever
it is you want her to be doing. Maybe she was knitting. Maybe
she was watching the prices right? Who knows? Hello, mister Michael oh
Man, Thank god you answered it is Paul there. Oh, no,
he's not. He hasn't lived a year in years. This is Eric,
isn't he? And you two roommates? Well, yes, ma'am, but
I was hoping he was with you. See, I hasn't seen him in
about a week and well with his mentally ill bright mentally ill Sonny, what
are you saying? Oh, maybe he never told you or or maybe it
went undiagnosed by the head doctor. But I think your son's fucked up,
ma'am. Well, I don't think that's the case. But if you say
you haven't seen him, then then something's definitely wrong. How do you call
the police? No, ma'am, I didn't want to jump to no conclusions.
Goodness, let me give them a call. You go out and try
and find him. Nine to one. What's your emergency? Golly, I
hope I got the right number. I'd like to report the missing person and
now. An update on the remains found in the Diner Island ranch a few
days ago. Detectives are still looking into missing person's reports, but can't tell
us the body was an older man. Vv and Lewis spoke with the witnesses.
We was out getting ready to and stuff when my husband saw some real
strange in a gitch. He said, Babby, I think that there's a
boddy. When we got a real close we realized somebody cut someone up with
a n and dunted it there. Vultures was probably getting ready to swarm and
so fuckingy fuck fuck fuck. Eric watched the report from his trailer. Stunned,
He reached for his cell phone. Law offices of Dutch and Crawl.
Give me Michael duck coo, who's calling someone desperate? Just put me over
one moment Michael dut Co speaking Mike. It's Eric da Costa. I have
a situation. I need to know some legal stuff. On October twentieth,
Eric and Michael met with local police. Thank you for meeting with my client.
Officers. Eric has information on the body found in the wildlife reserve and
wants to give the family closure. It was my roommate Paul. You're honest.
I used my twenty two handgun to shoot him in the back of the
head because we got into a fight on October fourth. You want to do
what now? Have Patty over for drinks? You want to bring your trampet
ex wap into mo home? Our home? And yeah, she said she
wanted to talk and patch up a few rough areas we left open. Jesus,
Oh, come on, man, what's wrong with Patty? Wait?
I know exactly what's wrong with her. You're jealous because you haven't gotten pussy
in months, and I might get some when she comes over. Six ain't
got nothing to do with it. I don't want this woman in my house.
She don't love you anymore, man, grow up. I never said
she loves me. We want to talk. God, I'm fucking tired of
you telling me what I can and can't do. Don't talk with Patty,
don't do a line. Unpack the boxes, come here and suck my deck.
I never told you to blow me. You might as well. You
need to be careful because I'm getting closer and closer to snapping, and one
day you might wake up and find I blew the brains out of your whole
family, and I'm waiting by your bedside with my shotgun right up against your
fatskull. What the fuck? Paul? Sorry that took a turn. I
didn't want it to shit. Jesus, you're just like those schools shoot us
what No, not even close. I wouldn't actually murder your family. I
need some water. Eric cautiously stepped towards his slumped over roommate. With a
pistol smoking in his hands. He turned off the water, never taking his
eyes off of Paul, you know, just in case he suddenly jerked back
to life or something. His fingers fumbled across the countertop until they landed on
a plastic bag. Taking it out, he wrapped it around his roommate's skull
and then fastened it in place with his belt. That'll stop the blood.
Can't have you making too much of a mess to clean up. God,
you're too big to carry around. Someone might see you the bathtub. I'll
make you smaller. M okay, thank Eric, Thank Eric. Oh,
I know I got lots of grocery bags. I'll get you up and place
you in the bags, shove them in the hunting fraser and dump you in
the hunting grounds. Buzzards will pick you apart and no one will know it
was me. Yes, and the world will be safe. That's that's it,
exactly. Okay, where's my knife. What do you mean by the
world will be safe? Eric, Ain't it clear? I had to kill
Paul because he could possibly be the next mascula that we hear about in the
media, you know, like the school shooters and stuff. So he was
a shooter because he wanted to see his sex wife. No, I told
you he was threatened in me and my family. He's been snort and coke
more and more often, and he has that mental illness. Those made him
angrier and he was one step away from blowing up the whole town. Let's
say that was the case. Eric, When he threatened you, though,
did you not think you could escape and call us to have his mental health
assessed? I mean, I guess I could have left the house. Maybe
he wasn't an immediate threat. But y'all gonna not at least consider giving me
a reward. I saved us. Maybe the judge will give you on a
word, mister la Costa, but we have nothing for you here. As
you might expect, the judge would not have anything for Eric da Costa.
On November six, twenty eighteen, the judge set him to jail for premeditated
murder and abuse of a dead body and I should also note here that Eric's
story changed in court. Youanna, I felt like my life was in serious
danger. I had to kill him to defend myself, which is very different
than when he initially told officers that he did have an opportunity to leave the
home, but he chose not to ask for paul. A go fund me
was created in October twenty eighteen to raise money in support of his two children.
The page raised ten thousand, six hundred and sixty dollars of its one
hundred thousand dollars goal and has since closed. So there you have it.
Two order men and the wild headlines they created on my birthday. And I
should mention that it's obviously not just Floridians making these screaming headlines across the US.
Need I remind you of Stephen McDaniel essentially admitting guilt on TV, or
a bunch of white supremacists storming the Capitol and outfits I can only describe as
trashy. Neither of those events took place in Florida, but yet the Sunshine
State gets the rap. Happy Birthday, Florida Man was written and narrated by
me Skyler Faston, Now Jones and executive produced by Daniel fastedal Jones. Voice
talent was provided by Jeremy Staple, Jeanette Zosh, Jordan Catcher, Judea Foci,
Aisha Catalano, and Daniel fastenal Jones. Our theme music was written and
performed by Tracy Zales, Editing and sound designed by Brian Campbell, and cover
artwork by Catherine Fasten. Now thank you for tuning into another chapter of our
show. If you enjoyed it as much as we did making it, let
us know by leaving a five star review on your favorite podcasting app. You
can also visit patreon dot com slash og Deadtime to support us financially. Asad
thank you, we can give you goodies like coffee mugs, ad free content,
and behind the scenes looks at the stories. Feel free to also visit
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our show. The links to those can be found in the episode description.
Thank you as always for being a valued supporter of our program, our Deadtime
Stories. Murderous Road Trip across America continues next week to Arkansas. If you're
us worried about what they're starting to ban in the public schools as I am.
Then give this story a listen, and prepare to pass the message along
to your children. Until then, stay safe out there. I don't want
you to become the next chapter's topic on the original Dead Time stories