WEBVTT

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This episode may contain content of a
graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and

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sexual violence against adults, children,
and animals. Listener discretion is advised.

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Hi everyone, I'm Tanya and I'm
Talia and we are Crimes and Consequences,

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a true crime podcast. Hi Talia, Hey Tanya, how are you today?

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Today's a good day. How are
you awesome? I am sorry?

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Yeah, everything's fantastic, fantastic.
I have another fine episode for all of

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us to listen to today, Hine, So welcome back everyone. Before I

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get into it, I would just
like to remind everyone to hit the subscribe

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or follow button on your face app. And have you ever heard of John

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Sweeney? No? No, no
answers, no answers no, okay,

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I've never heard of it. So
here I'm gonna get to yeah, not

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Sweeney, Todd, okay. John
Patrick Sweeney was born in Kirkdale, which

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is a middle class district in Liverpool, England, on October thirteenth, nineteen

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fifty six, to his parents,
Jack and Catherine. Although John's family was

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relatively poor, his childhood was pretty
uneventful. He was an overall happy kid

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who was always smiling. He had
curly red hair. And deep blue eyes,

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a huge grin and thick arched eyebrows. Jack and Katherine raised their son

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Irish Catholic, and John was raised
to have a strong work ethic and family

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values. He spent his time training
as a carpenter and he was a really

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smart kid and his family was pretty
decent. He spoke with a stutter and

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he was I know, he was
made fun like yeah. For five years,

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John found work throughout Europe. He
worked for various construction sites like as

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he got older, in Spain,
France, Holland, Italy, Germany and

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Austria. And because he had a
really good work ethic, he made pretty

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decent money. I think he was
really hard working. And while he's traveling,

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you know, he's dating and meeting
various women, having a good time

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time and he's young. But at
some point something in his brain snapped.

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When he came back to England after
working abroad for a few years, he

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seemed to be just incredibly angry,
bitter and jealous use of what, I

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don't know. He just was angry
all the time. His life was just

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now consumed by taking hard drugs and
drinking, and with this came a thirst

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for intense violence. Okay, he's
overall I mean, I mean in college

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I did some things and there was
some drinking, but I did not have

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a thirst for intense violence. No, I don't know what happened to him.

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His overall appearance changed. Also.
He once had a full head of

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neat, curly red hair. He
was thin. He just didn't take care

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of himself. No, No,
because he was an alcoholic at this point

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and he faced his beat right.
Yeah, he was just disheveled and his

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appearance just kind of was a mess. Even though he had a vicious temper,

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he still really wanted to settle down
and start a family. So in

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nineteen seventy six he met a lovely
woman named Anne Bramley and he married her

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that same year. Great, yeah, it was great, Not really though.

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Anne was wonderful. She had a
warm heart, kind smile, and

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she was raised with the same kind
of family values that John had. They

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moved in together after they got married
and lived near Liverpool, and they ended

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up having two kids, Michael and
Tracy. The happy family that John envisioned

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for himself, it really never came
to fruition because of his temperament. Yeah,

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he's angry, He eventually got into
committing like petty crime stuff. But

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he was a hard worker. I
didn't understand it was partly because he was

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drunk, so he would commit petty
crimes, assault, drug possession. In

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the marriage between John and Anne,
it was turbulent. Well yeah, and

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it really only lasted till nineteen seventy
nine when they divorced. At this point,

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John had become distant and whenever he
was around his family, he was

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violent, and Anne wanted to keep
the toaddlers Michael and Tracy away from Dad.

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Yeah, he's violent. He's violent, and she would have to call

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the police due to some of the
abuse that he did. Anne, but

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she also hit a soft spot because
she's nice. Yeah, she's nice,

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and John is the father of her
children. Okay, So she wanted to

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give him another chance, and he
did apologize to Anne. You know how

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it is. It's a vicious cycycle, right. He promised, I'm going

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to leave the drugs and the drinking
behind me, not steal from people.

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Yeah, and he made Anne believe, you know, they had a bright

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future. She gave him the second
chance and invited him back into the family

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and they got remarried in nineteen eighty
one. So they did get divorced,

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yes, And in her defense,
when she met him, he was a

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hard baker, right, and so
she's thinking, Okay, maybe he just

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lost his pack, lost his way. Yeah, And so they got back

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together and she believed that, you
know, he was changed, but she

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actually remarried him. Yeah, and
she read I mean she remarried him,

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Wow, But he really didn't change. He was still surprise, surprise,

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he was still drinking, and he
vowed that he wasn't going to ever let

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Anne leave him again. Their second
marriage didn't last, by the way,

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again, surprise, again, surprise, it didn't even last a full year.

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At one point, this is really
weird. John gave their child,

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Michael, a drawing that showed Anne
Michael's mom dead and lying in a coffin.

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What I know, hay Son,
I drew a photo. I got

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a picture for you at your mom, And next to the coffin was a

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gravestone that read rest in Peace.
Anne Michael ran to his mom and handed

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her the drawing, and horrible.
Anne was like, what the fuck.

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Yeah, She's kind of like this
is just crazy, Like he's he's lost

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his mind. She's not really scared
yea. Clearly she knew she needed to

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take Michael and Tracy out of the
situation and just get be safe. Yeah,

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and get safe. She ran away
at midnight to her family's home in

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Northampton, but John always had a
way of finding them, and November of

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nineteen eighty two, Anne had taken
her children to a small cottage in Ormskirk,

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which is a small town in West
Lanchestershire. I'm saying it wrong,

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I know it. It is fourteen
miles north of Liverpool, and she thought

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she'd finally escaped her abusive husband,
But to her extreme disappointment and fear,

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he had been following them the entire
way, and he knew exactly where they

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were stalking them. Oh yeah.
After following his family to what they thought

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was a safe haven, John watched
his family leave for a quick outing.

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The memory of how many times Anne
continuously rejected him made him really pissed.

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While Anne and the children were out, he broke the lock on the back

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door and crept inside the home.
Man, I know, he quietly walked

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throughout the house and he knew that
nobody was home, so I mean he

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was pretty comfortable. Once inside the
home. He had a plan. He

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was going to hide inside annt's closet. That's fucking terrifying, right. He

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didn't come to the home empty handed. With him, he had a pickaxe

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in one hand and a claw hammer
and the other. Oh my gosh,

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John thought, you know, I'm
probably gonna be waiting here for hours for

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Anne to come back. But he
was wrong. It was only a little

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while before he heard movement throughout the
house. As footsteps approached the bedroom door.

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John held on to these weapons tightly
so he'd be ruddy when Anne was

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in striking distance. When John finally
felt that it was time, he came

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pouncing out of the closet, but
rather than seeing his soon to be ex

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wife, Anne, John saw two
huge police officers right in front of him.

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What a shot. John dropped.
Both the weapons and the stutter that

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he had suffered his entire life came
out to play when he began making up

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excuse and excuse on why the fuck
he could possibly be hiding and his soon

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to be ex wife's closet armed with
some dangerous weapons pick axe, Hello,

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Hello. Anne and the children were
spending the night at the neighbor's house,

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and while there, Anne heard the
lock being broken and assume that an intruder

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was breaking into the house, so
he thought they were out in about.

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He didn't know that she was just
at the neighbor's yea, just at the

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neighbor's house. He's not paying He's
not a good stalker. No, and

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maybe you know yeah, yeah,
exactly, he's not a good stalker.

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Used to pay better attention, doing
a very poor job at stalking. John

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was arrested but wasn't charged what with
attempted murder? Well, your charger was

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something. Yeah, he wasn't charged
with attempted manslaughter. I don't even say

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trespassing because I'll get angry. Well, no assault was committed, and law

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enforcement felt that malicious intent was hard
to prove. So authorities were at a

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loss as to what to actually do
with him, since technically he was inside

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his own home, or so they
said. It's not his own home,

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it's not let's be any with an
intent to cause very bodily harm, right,

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clearly, But John was just told
to stay away from Anne. Oh

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okay, since he had a long
history of violence against her, and Anne

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was able to obtain a restraining order. That always is helpful. Yeah,

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sarcasm and right now, we know
that. We know that as lawyers,

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restraining orders a piece of paper,
protect yourself, right. The restraining order

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said he wasn't allowed to go near
Anne or the children ever again. From

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now on, I'm going to refer
to John as Sweeney since he no longer

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deserves to be on a first name
basis with us. Oh really, And

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I don't let you know why he
doesn't deserve it to begin with. But

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we need to distinguish between his life
before he started killing and during and after.

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Okay, so he's turned into a
Sweeney, Yeah, he's turned into

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Sweeney. The same year after the
break in arrest happened slash not arrest,

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Sweeney started over and moved to London, and this is where he ended up

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staying for decades. He only returned
to his hometown in Liverpool to visit his

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mother Throughout the years in London,
John would have run ins with Anne,

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but for the sake of their children, they remained civil. Or at all

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he did, I don't know.
Anne was probably scared as fock. But

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Anne ended up passing away in two
thousand and one after sadly an extremely long

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battle with cancer. Sweeney never made
another attempt on Anne's life. After that

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incident where he was arrested, no
arrested, he pretty much left her alone.

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It's good. Not long after his
move to London, it was now

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time for him to seek another love
interest. In two thousand and one,

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Swinney would meet his first victim,
a thirty three year old American model slash

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photographer, Melissa Halsted. How is
he getting a model? I don't know.

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His heart was still filled with nothing
but jealousy and hatred before he married

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Anne, and unfortunately this was going
to be prevalent in what he did to

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his victims, probably throughout his whole
life. Yeah. Probably. Melissa Halsted

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was born in Oaquit, Ohio,
and was the middle child to parents Margaret

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and Jack. They were middle class
and both Margaret and Jack worked in the

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oral surgery field in Dayton, Ohio. Melissa was a very pretty girl and

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her looks demanded attention. Although she
was a little self centered at times,

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she was very very intelligent. She
had close friends who said she was the

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type of friend that you would have
for life. She was someone you could

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both kind of love and hate at
the same time. As of her attitude,

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I think her incredible beauty and Her
bubbly and bright personality attracted all types

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of people, both good and bad. But even so, she was fearless.

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She had sparkling eyes and a striking
pose, and she was quickly scouted

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by the famous New York modeling agency
Ford follow Really so her fodeling career took

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her across America, Asia and Europe. Despite the various types of personalities around

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her throughout her career, Melissa always
saw the beast in people, but she

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wasn't that way with strangers. In
nineteen eighty six, she slowed her modeling

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career and trained as a fashion photographer
and six I thought we were out two

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thousand and one up. Yeah.
So this was before she settled in London,

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where she thought a new, exciting
chapter of her life was just about

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to begin. She had found a
boyfriend and she told her family about him.

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His name was Scouts Joe. She
described her relationship with Joe as love

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hate. She would experience the violence. I know, it's great, my

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daughter says, I have a love
hate relationship. Oh that's great, that's

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wonderful. A marriage and Joe was
sometimes violent, and she would show up

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on set with black eyes. Oh
that's horrible. You know, on bloody

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lips. And if these hints about
the black eyes and the bloody lip doesn't

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tip you off enough, Joe is
really Sweeney right. He had a short

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fuse and he never hesitated to punch
beautiful Melissa in the face whenever he thought

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it was necessary to keep her in
line. He was still this jealous,

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angry alcoholic with an intense drug problem. With Sweeney, the relationship between he

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and Melissa was just fucked up from
the get go. On three different occasions,

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Melissa tried to leave him, and
each time she did, he would

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end up being arrested and charged with
ABH, which is actual bodily harm and

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it's a charge specifically found in England
and Wales. It's like domestic violence.

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Yeah, it's when assault leads to
the victim being hurt or injured. In

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September of nineteen eighty seven, Sweeney
literally smashed Melissa's face with a bar stool.

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What And in December of nineteen eighty
seven, he beat her so badly

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as she lay in the fetal position
that he fractured both of her legs.

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Oh my gosh, someone needs to
get her out right, And the authorities

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were calling both of these occasions,
but Sweeney served no prison time. He

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was only fined five pounds. Wow, but she went back with him.

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Yeah, he was hurt, saying
at one point, who do you think

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you are? I'm the one who
says what you can and can't do.

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In April of nineteen eighty eight,
Sweeney threatened Melissa with a knife. This

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threat scared her so badly that she
called her sister and told her, quote,

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if I go missing, it's John
Sweeney who would have killed me.

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She's been with him a couple of
years now. Yeah. Melissa got a

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restraining order from the courts, just
as Anne had. Melissa's work permit to

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be in London expired in October of
nineteen eighty eight, and luckily for Melissa,

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she was deported from the United Kingdom
and was able to start a fresh

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life hundreds thousands of miles away from
Sweeney in Austria, Belgium, Germany and

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France. Oh good for her.
She got out one way or the other.

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Yeah, But regardless of where she
moved, stop Sweeney followed her.

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No, how's he getting all those
like those places? How's he getting this

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money? I don't know. He
was able to find her and each time

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he did, Melissa strongly rejected him. His drinking just got worse and worse

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too, regardless of her straining order
against him. They restrainings in the UK,

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so wherever she traveled to she knew
that he wasn't far behind. She

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did everything she could to cover her
tracks. He stalked her abroad. He

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00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:54.200
stalked her across six different countries in
Europe. I November first, nineteen eighty

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eight, Sweeney was able to find
Melissa and tractor to her new apartment in

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the Austrian city of Vienna. He
was high and drunk at the time.

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He was obsessed with the notion that
Melissa had cheated on him, even though

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they're not together. They're not together
in a different country, buddy, exactly,

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00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:17.399
and he refused to think that the
end of their relationship was his fault,

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so he wasn't giving up. He
broke into Melissa's apartment through the back

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00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:25.120
door she was home at the time. He gagged her and tied her up,

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00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:29.399
and then he absolutely destroyed her apartment. He knew that if he looked

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hard enough, he was going to
find proof that Melissa didn't fact cheat on

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00:16:33.159 --> 00:16:37.519
him. But during the many times
that Melissa was assaulted during their time together.

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Melissa knew what pissed Sweeney off,
so she was extremely careful not to

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upset him since she was scared shitless. Yeah, oh my gosh, tiptoed

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on. I mean, like,
I love you so much. I know.

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She never confronted him. She just
tried to get him to relax and

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calm down. Melissa did everything she
could to a peace Sweeney, and eventually

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he did release her. And because
she knew how to get him to calm

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00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:06.960
down, and when you're with an
abuser, you get to know the signals.

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00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:11.160
Eventually she bought him a ticket to
Amsterdam so he could smoke some weed,

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have a beer and get the fuck
out. Yeah, and get the

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fuck out and calm down. And
he took the ticket and he laughed.

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Even though he went to Amsterdam,
he wasn't finished with Melissa. Rather than

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thinking that Melissa knew him well enough
to know what he needed when he was

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upset, he took Melissa's act as
some kind of scam to shut him up.

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Every woman in his life up to
this point had done the same thing,

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or so he thought, I mean, he was paranoid. It sucked

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00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:41.920
him up so badly that any time
a kind woman did anything at all,

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heed it. Yeah, of course, he questioned, he thought it was

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a bribe, or especially when you've
gagged that woman and bound her. I

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mean I would question the kindness too. I know. Right, all of

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the women in his life are supposedly
conspiring against him, and he was going

240
00:17:56.279 --> 00:18:00.240
to make them pay one way or
another. He had the mentality of everyone's

241
00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:04.640
out to get me, and nobody
could ever reason with him and tell him

242
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any differently. In this case with
Melissa, Sweeney just knew that she was

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to blame for everything that had happened
between them, and he wanted revenge.

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00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:18.720
On November fourth, nineteen eighty eight, six years after his failed attempt on

245
00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:23.680
Anne's life, Sweeney approached to Melissa's
apartment again. The only difference between this

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00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:27.599
time and the time before with Anne
was that Melissa was home. He knew

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he couldn't break in, so he
knocked on the front door. Melissa was

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00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:34.039
pissed when she answered the door.
I mean, he's it's like, what

249
00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:38.680
do I want a cup of sugar? Add you gag me, bound me

250
00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:42.839
and destroyed my apartment exactly and just
like the night with Anne, Sweeney had

251
00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:48.000
a claw hammer clenched in his hand, waiting with anticipation for his time to

252
00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:52.720
strike. Melissa, knowing that it
was in her best interest not to upset

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00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:56.400
him, led him up to the
first floor of her apartment. I don't

254
00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.119
think she saw the claw ham win
her bag was facing him. Sweeney swung

255
00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:07.279
the hammer and made contact with her
skull. You know. Once she fell,

256
00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:11.400
Sweeney straddled her and proceeded to hit
her a few more times with the

257
00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:17.000
hammer. She should never let him
in. No, Melissa somehow survived this

258
00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:21.160
attack O, and she woke up
in a hospital bed. That's happy,

259
00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:25.319
thank god. Right, Melissa sided
the attack quote. I only ever wanted

260
00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:29.000
to help him, But now I
know he must have really hated me.

261
00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:33.119
A. Yeah, he's a psychic
or he's a psychopath, right psycho.

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Sweeney was arrested later that day.
The attack obviously left Melissa traumatized, yeah,

263
00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:45.519
and disfigured. When question about the
attack, Sweeney told investigators that it

264
00:19:45.640 --> 00:19:49.839
wasn't premeditated. Okay, sure,
I'm knocking on Tanya's door with my claw

265
00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:53.079
hammer just for the fun of it. What's going on with you tonight?

266
00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:59.519
Yeah? But it was instead based
truly on the emotions of two lovers in

267
00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:03.880
the heat of a passionate moment.
Oh. Although Austrian authorities weren't able to

268
00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:08.400
charge Sweeney with either attempted murder or
attempted me and slaughter, I don't know,

269
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:12.599
he was found guilty of it aggravated
assault and was sentenced to twelve months

270
00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:17.799
in prison. Twelve months okay,
so I've done like a five pound fine.

271
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Twelve months and twelve months and he
was to be deported for ten years.

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00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:26.559
He was of course released early,
and Melissa helped him achieve this early

273
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release. Melissa girl, she saw
the good in him and fell for the

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00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:37.039
tears, begging and promise, just
you know, he's gonna leave her alone

275
00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:40.000
this time. I'm really I promise, I'm going to leave you alone.

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00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:44.960
Melissa spent two weeks in the hospital
due to her injuries, and she relied

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00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:48.680
on pain killers to keep headaches from
incapacitating her because she had a fractured skull,

278
00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:52.960
but she still helped him. On
March twenty seventh, nineteen eighty nine,

279
00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:57.640
Sweeney was released after being in prison
for six whole months, and just

280
00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:03.680
like Anne, Melissa gave him another
chance. What the two rekindled their relationship.

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00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:07.359
We have rules, clawhammer on my
head. No, no second chance,

282
00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:10.599
of second, second chance, and
I would think this is more like

283
00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:14.000
the fifth chance or tenth chance.
But draw the bullshit. He's done.

284
00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:18.039
I don't blame the victim. No, she's trying. The two rekindled their

285
00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:22.599
relationship. A few months later,
Melissa's body would be found in duffel bag

286
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:26.359
floating in a canal. I can
see that, bumming. Yeah. On

287
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.359
the day that Sweeney was released,
Melissa picked him up from prison with packed

288
00:21:30.359 --> 00:21:34.559
bags so that they could relocate to
Holland. Since he was banned from Austria.

289
00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:38.480
You know, he got deported for
the next ten years. Melissa ended

290
00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:42.319
the restraining order she had so that
the two could start their new lives together.

291
00:21:44.680 --> 00:21:48.119
Sweeney was a sick man, but
Melissa truly believed that he loved her,

292
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.640
even though he controlled every move she
made. She just couldn't see it.

293
00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:56.359
While in Holland, Sweeney spent most
of his days in Amsterdam since drugs

294
00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:00.519
were legal there. He's just probably
having the time. This was the worst

295
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:06.519
spot for him to be. He
was drinking, using drugs heavily. He

296
00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:11.480
experimented with LSD and he became addicted
to heroin, and although he got some

297
00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:17.039
odd jobs in carpentry, Melissa was
the breadwinner for the couple. She had

298
00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:21.319
gotten a job as a fashion photographer
and makeup artist, and that's pretty much

299
00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:23.480
what paid their bills. Everybody probably
must be wondering what she's doing with this

300
00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:29.799
loser boyfriend. Oh right, I
mean the money that he made his carpenter

301
00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:33.680
that's what he used to pay for
his drug and drinking habit. The physical

302
00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:40.000
abuse didn't end either. Melissa was
continuously beaten by Sweeney, and whenever she

303
00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:42.640
was questioned about the bruises, she
just covered them up with makeup and she

304
00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:48.079
would make up excuses. Thankfully,
her job took her out of town for

305
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:51.599
months at a time, but when
she was gone for work, Sweeney just

306
00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:56.319
got worse with his paranoia, his
drug use, in drinking, his jealousy

307
00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:00.960
was boiling over, and his mood
got dangerously dark. In April of nineteen

308
00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:04.240
ninety, Melissa came home from being
away on business and she was on her

309
00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:07.759
way home and she had decided that
she was going to leave Sweeney for good.

310
00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:11.720
But unfortunately, when she came home, that was the last anybody ever

311
00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:15.799
saw her. I May third.
That same year, an army Duffel bag

312
00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:22.559
was seen partially submerged floating down a
famous canal in Rotterdam, about fifty miles

313
00:23:22.599 --> 00:23:27.759
from Amsterdam. Two police officers spotted
the bag and just assumed it was lost

314
00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:33.720
or stolen luggage. When the two
men lifted the bag out, the water's

315
00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:36.759
draining out of the bag, but
the bag just was really heavy, like

316
00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:41.240
dead weight. Once the Duffel bag
was unzipped, police discovered the naked torso

317
00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:48.119
torso of a female torso yeah,
that had been sliced up, folded in

318
00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:52.759
half, and jammed into the bag. There was no head, hands or

319
00:23:52.839 --> 00:23:59.640
feet with her body. A carpenter
saw was used to remove her head and

320
00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:07.400
beat the tibia and fibula was sawn
through. Her spine was completely severed and

321
00:24:07.480 --> 00:24:10.640
her hands were cut off. Like
I said, authorities believed that the bag

322
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:15.519
was in the canal for about a
week and decomposition was in an advanced state.

323
00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:18.799
The police had no idea who this
woman was. She had no idea.

324
00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:22.240
She was naked right, There's no
hands, there's no feet. The

325
00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:26.400
killer did everything he could to cover
his tracks. Almost all of the DNA

326
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:30.880
evidence was washed away from the body
being in the canal for so long,

327
00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:36.240
the only thing the police had to
go on was her torso so much.

328
00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:40.920
No, and maybe there's a missing
person report. Yeah, maybe, And

329
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:44.400
I think one of the reasons why
her head for obvious reasons, identification.

330
00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.680
But Sweeney, if you remember,
had fractured her skull, and that hospital

331
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:55.440
records, Melissa Halstead was now marked
as a Jane Doe and she was buried

332
00:24:55.559 --> 00:25:00.480
in an unmarked grave in a Rotterdamn
cemetery. Since Melissa was such a free

333
00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:06.119
spirit, her family had no idea
she was even missing until November of nineteen

334
00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:08.440
ninety, when she failed to wish
her mom a happy birthday. How long

335
00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:11.759
had she been dead? By then, she had been gone for several months,

336
00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:15.880
like her body was found in May. So this is what five five,

337
00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:21.319
six months later, get a mask. The hosted family hired a local

338
00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:26.599
lawyer to investigate Melissa's disappearance, but
it was obviously too late. She was

339
00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:30.720
gone, and Sweeney moved back to
England, hoping to find another woman to

340
00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:34.960
love. This time it was a
woman by the name of Dahlia Balmer.

341
00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:42.640
And before I tell you more about
Delia, we're gonna take a break Dahlia

342
00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:47.759
met Sweeney in nineteen eighty one inside
of a pub in Camden, England.

343
00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:52.559
Unfortunately, Dahlia was smitten with Sweeney
from home, and she laid eyes on

344
00:25:52.640 --> 00:25:53.680
him and I just don't get that. I don't seem like a toad.

345
00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:59.039
Okay, that seemed attracted. No, but that's whatever. Maybe I don't

346
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:02.559
know, maybe their own extremely charming, who fucking knows. Dalia was a

347
00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:07.240
petite, shy blonde who worked as
a nurse and had no irrational fear of

348
00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:12.160
any and all electronic devices. She
was absolutely infatuated with Sweeney, and shortly

349
00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:18.359
after their relationship began, he moved
into her apartment, which coincidentally was located

350
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:22.880
about a mile from the canal where
more remains would eventually be found. Dalia's

351
00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:27.839
apartment was a little odd. She
had every electronic device inside of her home

352
00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:33.359
in cushions for fear that they would
cause cancer. Did you ever see better

353
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:37.359
call Saul? Yes? Right?
Yeah, so it's like chuck right,

354
00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:45.960
yes, that like all the clothing
everything to protect him from us from that.

355
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:48.759
Yeah, so this is what Dalia
is like. Sweeney decided to redecorate

356
00:26:48.759 --> 00:26:55.400
her apartment with various beer cans,
crab pipes, oh, horror magazines,

357
00:26:55.599 --> 00:27:00.359
and a pet tarantula. Oh but
they didn't stop there. To top it

358
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:06.200
all off, he was a self
proclaimed artist and decorated her apartment with morbid

359
00:27:06.279 --> 00:27:12.960
depictions of headless female corpses, why
not axes, blood torture, and various

360
00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:18.039
body parts. He's an artist.
He's an artist. Just like Sweeney had

361
00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:23.759
with Melissa and Anne, Dahlia's life
was strictly controlled. He mentally, emotionally,

362
00:27:23.799 --> 00:27:29.559
and physically abused Dahlia over a four
year span. I hate him,

363
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:34.119
I know, and she would soon
be his next victim of unimaginable horror.

364
00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:40.359
In November of nineteen ninety four,
Dahlia attempted to leave Sweeney. She had

365
00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:45.240
been beaten and bloodied so bad that
she was just terrified for her life.

366
00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:51.000
You do know that when the victim
of domestic violence, either A becomes pregnant

367
00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:56.119
or B decides to actually leave,
the risk of them be murdered really really

368
00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:02.119
increases. That breaks my heart.
Pregnancy and then leading. Oh man,

369
00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:07.559
that's terrible. I used to work
at a domestic violin sheltered. Oh it's

370
00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:12.680
so sad. Sweeney had ways of
punishing Dahlia. He would tie her up

371
00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:17.400
to the frame of her own bed, and he would use the same type

372
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:21.160
of rope that he used to tie
Melissa's lifeless body up. That's what he

373
00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:25.680
used, the same type of stuff
with Dahlia. This punishment would last for

374
00:28:26.119 --> 00:28:32.240
days forty eight hours days torture.
She was repeatedly raped, tortured, beaten,

375
00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:36.079
and strangled while a gun was held
to her head. If she screamed,

376
00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:37.799
she was told that her tongue was
going to be cut out with one

377
00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:41.640
of the kitchen knives. He used
this time with Daalia to brag about what

378
00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:45.960
happened to his last girlfriend. Oh
shit, I know. When she tried

379
00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:51.880
to leave him, he told her
that Melissa was found in the Rotterdam canal,

380
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.519
decapitated with her hands and feet cut
off. Surprisingly, Daa's life was

381
00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:00.400
spared, at least at that point. He left her beaten and bloodied,

382
00:29:00.599 --> 00:29:04.279
well tied to her bed. When
Dahlia was finally out of that situation,

383
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:11.000
I think John Laughton, she somehow
got away. Okay, she confided in

384
00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:15.000
a friend about what had happened.
The goddamn polite no and at this point,

385
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:21.599
Sweeney to Germany exactly, she probably
is afraid PTSD right. She did

386
00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:26.799
go to the authorities after this.
Eventually, and since this wasn't the first

387
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.960
or second offense for Sweeney, he
was arrested a few days later and deported

388
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.680
back to the UK. They found
him. Why don't you just go back

389
00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:37.720
to the UK. He just needs
to go back. We don't want you

390
00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:41.279
here, Dahlia said later. Quote. He will do something. He will

391
00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:47.279
cut me to bits, just like
he had Melissa end quote. On December

392
00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:52.640
twenty second, nineteen ninety four,
Sweeney was released on bail from Pentonville Prison.

393
00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.519
This prison was walking distance from Dahia's
apartment. I thought he got deported.

394
00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:00.279
Well, that was in Germany.
He had fled to Germany and then

395
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:03.359
they deported him back to the UK. Oh. Once word of his release

396
00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:07.160
reached Dahlia, she's terrified. Oh
yeah, she's scared for her life.

397
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:11.440
She knew she should be. He
was coming for her. Absolutely. I

398
00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:15.079
get the funk out of dog a
man, right. So she's coming home,

399
00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:18.559
probably from work, and in this
little quiet town where she lived,

400
00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:22.240
and she usually bicycled home, so
she's off her bike. She's walking her

401
00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:26.960
bicycle up to her apartment building.
Sweeney jumped out and began slashing and slicing

402
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:30.000
her with a knife like surprised her. She put her hands up in self

403
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:36.200
defense, screaming her head off,
as obviously anyone would in this situation.

404
00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:41.039
Then she saw her own finger flying
through the air. Oh man, Dahlia

405
00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:44.559
said, quote, I saw my
finger fly through the air, and I

406
00:30:44.599 --> 00:30:47.839
thought, that's it. I don't
want to live anymore. End quote.

407
00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:52.319
That only was her pinky finger on
her left hand, completely savered. But

408
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:56.400
Dahlia also sustained multiple lacerations to her
hands, face, chests, and legs.

409
00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:00.559
Both of her arms were broken,
and she was stabbed in her size

410
00:31:00.759 --> 00:31:07.319
and breast. She had an axe
wound to her head. Oh my goodness,

411
00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:11.519
an axound to the head and a
punctured lung. And she lived,

412
00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:14.640
and she lived. Wow. As
she lay screaming in a pool of her

413
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:18.480
own blood, neighbors heard the screams
and they all came running out, armed

414
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:22.079
with various weapons, and they chased
Sweeney down the street. Damn, this

415
00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:25.880
poor woman could have died. But
yeah, she was a badass and she

416
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:30.119
survived this attack. Daia passed out
from losing so much blood and woke up

417
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:34.279
in the hospital bed inside of the
ICU of the Royal Free Hospital. Dahlia

418
00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:37.960
said that she died inside that day
and she was no longer the same person.

419
00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:44.039
Fucking probably got PTSD right. Yeah, she was physically and emotionally scarred

420
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:48.799
forever. Yeah, absolutely she was
mamed too. Sweeney went on the run

421
00:31:48.920 --> 00:31:53.200
for six years, six years,
six goddamn years. When told by her

422
00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:56.720
friends to watch her back for Sweeney, Dahia replied, quote, it's too

423
00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:00.720
late. I am not scared anymore, because as I am not me anymore.

424
00:32:02.279 --> 00:32:06.279
I don't even know what to think
of that. The police questioned Dahlia

425
00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:09.039
about what happened to her, and
she told him everything about the rate torture

426
00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:14.519
and beatings. She told the police
that Sweeney confessed to killing Melissa in Holland.

427
00:32:15.160 --> 00:32:19.200
The police went to search Dahlia's apartment
and they couldn't believe the artwork on

428
00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:22.119
the walls. They also discovered that
Sweeney had left his murder kit inside of

429
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:27.720
the apartment. K. Yeah,
this kit was a similar green Duffel bag

430
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:30.599
that the remains of Melissa were found
in. When Sweeney was on the run,

431
00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:35.079
he found an old friend, Kevin
Pratt, who he stayed with for

432
00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:38.480
some time. He bragged about the
attack on Dahlia. He confessed that he

433
00:32:38.519 --> 00:32:43.799
had killed and dismembered Melissa. He
also lied to Kevin about there being a

434
00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:47.480
huge monetary reward for his capture.
Sweeney died, I don't know, because

435
00:32:47.480 --> 00:32:51.519
do you think that's what I like? Hey, I haven't seen you a

436
00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:54.759
long time. Guess what, guess
what? I had killed Melissa? I

437
00:32:54.759 --> 00:32:59.799
almost killed Dahlia And there's a huge
rewards. The would be a huge reward.

438
00:33:00.279 --> 00:33:05.160
Oh, I'm impressed. I know, like I'm impressed. Oo right,

439
00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:07.680
I do like what the fuck?
You know what? Maybe Danny,

440
00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:12.119
you need to find a hotel to
stand to know if I want you here

441
00:33:12.119 --> 00:33:15.680
at my blaze, I know,
right. Sweeney did what he could to

442
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.480
keep his head down, so he
moved on from Kevin to his ex wife

443
00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:22.480
Ann and her kids. Yeah,
you told me they were done. Yeah.

444
00:33:22.519 --> 00:33:25.519
He never attacked her again, but
while staying in the night with them,

445
00:33:25.559 --> 00:33:30.119
he smoked weed and got drunks.
He stayed the night there. Yeah,

446
00:33:30.279 --> 00:33:32.000
he told Anne that he had done
something so bad. And I think

447
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:36.400
maybe because there was so many years, probably you know, she probably let

448
00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:39.720
her guard down and whatever. So
in Anne's defense, maybe that's what happened.

449
00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:44.359
He told Anne that he had done
something so bad that it would make

450
00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:49.000
her hair stand on end. He
then confessed to murdering Melissa as well as

451
00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:52.519
two other women. Oh, I
don't know who. Yeah. He knew

452
00:33:52.559 --> 00:33:55.319
that law enforcement was searching high and
low to locate him due to his attack

453
00:33:55.359 --> 00:33:59.960
on Melissa, so after leaving Anne, he hitched a ride back to Liverpool

454
00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:04.000
to visit his mom. While staying
with her, he taunted the authorities by

455
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.559
writing a letter to Scotland Yard and
walking about his many crimes. He wrote

456
00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:12.920
to them that they would never catch
him. Arctassistic. Yeah, yeah,

457
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.360
guess what. He described his attack
on Dahlia as an accident, a X

458
00:34:20.360 --> 00:34:25.880
accident. Yeah, fucker right.
Sweety had nobody else in his life at

459
00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:30.079
this point, he had run out
of options, so he decided to flee

460
00:34:30.119 --> 00:34:34.159
the UK and he went further into
Europe, where he decided he's going to

461
00:34:34.239 --> 00:34:37.280
spend this is how he's going to
get away. Knowing that he had to

462
00:34:37.320 --> 00:34:39.760
remain under the radar, he continued
to work as a carpenter, making money

463
00:34:39.840 --> 00:34:44.639
under the table, and went back
to using the many aliases that he had

464
00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:46.599
come up with earlier in his life. Like when he was thieving. Member,

465
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:50.000
I told you he was doing these
petty crimes. When he was first

466
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.480
with Anne, he lived with drug
dealers to feed his LSD weed in heroin

467
00:34:54.599 --> 00:34:59.239
habits. And like I told you, for six years he had fallen off

468
00:34:59.239 --> 00:35:02.880
the grit he gone. Finally,
after six years he resurfaced. He returned

469
00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:07.159
to England and went out in search
of another lover. This time it would

470
00:35:07.159 --> 00:35:12.360
be a thirty one year old mother
named Paula Fields. Paula was the youngest

471
00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:16.039
of eleven children and was born into
a typical working class family in one of

472
00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:21.039
the poorer regions of Liverpool. The
end of the nineteen seventies was really rough

473
00:35:21.239 --> 00:35:25.239
for the Fields family as the shipyards
closed down, causing poverty like just mass

474
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:30.800
poverty and unemployment. The underfunded council
couldn't provide the area with basic necessities such

475
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:36.199
as housing, heat or even food, so thousands of families were homeless.

476
00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:39.360
But the struggles for Paula had only
just begun. Paula's mother died when she

477
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:44.239
was only nine, and all of
the Field's children were split up to live

478
00:35:44.239 --> 00:35:49.039
with various relatives. Yeah, you
know, they went around to other family

479
00:35:49.079 --> 00:35:51.559
members so that they could be cared
for. Yeah, it owns a ship

480
00:35:51.639 --> 00:35:55.239
ton of kids. Paula had no
education, so she had trouble raising her

481
00:35:55.280 --> 00:36:00.400
own three children. I mean she
struggled for financial I imagine. In nineteen

482
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:04.000
ninety eight, she made the move
to London to try to start a new

483
00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:07.039
life for her in her own little
family as a single mom of all boys

484
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:10.800
under the age of five. She
worked shifts at the local laundromat and was

485
00:36:10.840 --> 00:36:15.840
able to make enough money to get
a single room at a nearby hotel and

486
00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.519
halfway house called Highbury Hotel. Since
she was no longer making enough money to

487
00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:22.800
take care of her kids, though, Paula turned to sex work. She

488
00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:28.639
was desperate to earn money trying to
raise her children, but eventually she got

489
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:31.199
addicted to crack. Her children were
taken away from her and placed in a

490
00:36:31.320 --> 00:36:36.159
foster care. In the fall of
two thousand, Paula met and fell in

491
00:36:36.199 --> 00:36:42.320
love with a red headed carpenter named
Scouts Joe. Scouts Joe Yeah, which

492
00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:47.320
is John Yes, John's sweetie.
Since Joe had access to drugs, she

493
00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:52.119
moved into his apartment, even though
he still had his morbid artwork hanging up

494
00:36:52.159 --> 00:36:55.360
and he had got to let some
things go right, and he had this

495
00:36:58.039 --> 00:37:00.280
his duffel bag full of murder supply. I can only imagine what was in

496
00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:05.159
there. Tools, yeah, tools
and rope, and god knows what the

497
00:37:05.199 --> 00:37:07.880
fuck else. He's a carpenter.
Paula spent most of her time strung out,

498
00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:10.960
and she didn't even notice when Sweeney
really took over her life like he

499
00:37:12.119 --> 00:37:15.119
had with the other women from his
past. On December fifteenth, two thousand,

500
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:20.519
Paula was last seen walking into Sweeney's
apartment. The last sound that neighbors

501
00:37:20.519 --> 00:37:24.679
heard was loud swearing and screaming.
I think it's probably an argument it's believed

502
00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:30.079
that Paula found out her boyfriend's true
identity. Sweeney moved out of the apartment,

503
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:32.880
and Paula was never seen or heard
from again. A couple months later,

504
00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:37.519
in February of two thousand and one, two boys were fishing a long

505
00:37:37.719 --> 00:37:43.239
battle Bridge basin when their fishing hooks
caught something heavy. Oh I know.

506
00:37:43.960 --> 00:37:47.840
The boys reeled in their lines to
find a heavy black duffel bag and it

507
00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:53.199
was just reeking. Sweeney seemed to
have learned from his mistakes with this discovery

508
00:37:53.239 --> 00:37:58.920
of Melissa's body, so what he
did to Paula was much different. This

509
00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:04.840
isn't going to be good. He
dismembered Paula's body into ten different pieces.

510
00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:08.840
He cut through her neck, ankles, knees, wrists, and elbows,

511
00:38:08.840 --> 00:38:13.760
wrapping each of them in their own
separate bags. He weighed down the Duffel

512
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:16.159
bag with bricks so the pieces of
Paula wouldn't make the bag float to the

513
00:38:16.199 --> 00:38:22.760
surface. He did this in his
own bathtub with the same saw he used

514
00:38:22.760 --> 00:38:25.639
on Melissa. He cleaned the tub
out, burned all of Paula's belongings,

515
00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:30.119
and that's when he moved out of
that apartment. As with Melissa, no

516
00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:35.320
DNA was found on Paula's body.
It had all been washed away, no

517
00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:38.760
clothes, purse id There was no
hands or feet or head found in the

518
00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:45.159
bag to help authorities identify the remains. Paula's body was unclaimed, just like

519
00:38:45.239 --> 00:38:50.920
Melissa's hand then, and it was
buried in unmarked grave. Yeah, Sweeney

520
00:38:50.920 --> 00:38:54.559
got away with yet another brutal murder. Unbelievable. After the remains of Paulo

521
00:38:54.599 --> 00:39:00.039
were discovered, authorities kept hearing about
Sweeney sightings in London. The police sent

522
00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:06.639
out his description as well as his
aliases to the various constables. On March

523
00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:08.920
twenty third, two thousand and one, there was a red headed carpenter named

524
00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:14.199
Joe Johnson working at a job site
in Shoe Lane, Holborn, London.

525
00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:16.639
He was cited and the police knew
that he was a very dangerous man,

526
00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:22.119
so they didn't want to take any
chances. Armed officers surrounded Sweeney at work

527
00:39:22.159 --> 00:39:24.639
and he was arrested. When he
was arrested, he had a seven inch

528
00:39:24.719 --> 00:39:30.719
knife in his waistband, of course, and a nine millimeter pistol was found

529
00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:36.920
in his work locker. The police
search, oh shit, probably some snacks

530
00:39:37.079 --> 00:39:43.519
and a couple guns alright in case, just like knife on me and you

531
00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:45.639
know guns in my life, I
never know. The police searched his apartment

532
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:50.559
and they found everything that they needed
to put him away for good. They

533
00:39:50.599 --> 00:39:55.159
found two loaded shotguns, I'm machetti, zip ties, a duffel bag that

534
00:39:55.239 --> 00:40:00.400
was filled with ropes, hammers,
saws, and over two hundred dry and

535
00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:05.679
poems depicting murder, torture, rape
and dismember Oh my god, fucking a

536
00:40:05.880 --> 00:40:09.440
right one of the paintings by Sweeney. He wrote a poem which read quote

537
00:40:09.639 --> 00:40:15.280
poor old Melissa chapter up in bits
food to feed the fish. Amsterdam was

538
00:40:15.320 --> 00:40:21.000
the pits quote so clever. Wow, he could have had a whole another

539
00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:24.920
career, you know, fucker.
Another drawing had a gravestone that read rip

540
00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:31.199
Melissa Halstead born December twelfth, nineteen
fifty six. Many of the drawings were

541
00:40:31.199 --> 00:40:36.199
of Anne and Dahlia being beheaded and
tied up like those were the ones that

542
00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:39.480
lived. Remember. For the attempted
murder of Dahlia, Sweeney was sentenced to

543
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:44.440
ten years imprisonment. While in prison, he bragged a police about killing three

544
00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:49.039
ex girlfriends, who coincidentally had never
been found alive. He also admitted to

545
00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:52.440
killing two German men who he had
caught having sex with Melissa. None of

546
00:40:52.480 --> 00:40:57.519
these confessions could be proven, so
Sweeney couldn't be arrested for them. On

547
00:40:57.679 --> 00:41:00.920
June twelfth, two thousand and seven, the remains of Melissa and Paula Fields

548
00:41:00.920 --> 00:41:07.280
were identified. Thanks to advances made
in genetic technology, Dutch police were able

549
00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:13.840
to upload the DNA profiles of the
unidentified females that had been found decapitated eighteen

550
00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:17.519
years earlier. Wow, eighteen years
Scotland yard also had the same type of

551
00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:22.760
unsolved murder yea was killed in the
UK, and so they had hers.

552
00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:28.519
And so the Scotland Yard and Dutch
police joined forces and they were able to

553
00:41:28.599 --> 00:41:31.519
match DNA to both Melissa and Paula. The teams were also able to connect

554
00:41:31.559 --> 00:41:36.880
the causes of death and identify the
killer. Sweeney was arrested and found guilty

555
00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:42.719
of the two murders on April fourth, twenty eleven, twenty eleven. He

556
00:41:42.760 --> 00:41:45.079
was sentenced to life in prison.
And I think he got a whole life

557
00:41:45.119 --> 00:41:50.079
tariff, so his ass is not
getting out. Dania Bomber has since retired

558
00:41:50.119 --> 00:41:52.679
from nursing and has released a book
about her time with Sweeney called Quote Living

559
00:41:52.679 --> 00:41:57.679
with a Serial Killer. All the
remains of both Paula and Melissa were sent

560
00:41:57.719 --> 00:42:00.880
to their families for a proper burial, except their heads, hands and feet

561
00:42:00.920 --> 00:42:07.159
were never found. And that is
my story about John Sweeney. I hate

562
00:42:07.199 --> 00:42:10.320
that fucker. What the hell I
hate him. I never heard of him.

563
00:42:10.719 --> 00:42:15.880
I didn't either. I know.
I means horrible, horrible, horrible,

564
00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:19.800
horrible, And I believe he killed
more people. Oh, I'm sure

565
00:42:19.800 --> 00:42:22.320
he did. I'm sure when he
was bragging about those other murders, I'm

566
00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:24.400
sure they are true. Yeah,
he knew he wasn't going to get caught

567
00:42:24.440 --> 00:42:29.159
for them, right gross? Anyway, Wow, well, thank you t

568
00:42:29.239 --> 00:42:32.559
Lea for listening, and thank you
everyone for tuning in. Thank is probably

569
00:42:32.679 --> 00:42:37.000
outdated. You're not tuning in,
you're just listening. You're playing, playing

570
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:40.320
your podcasts, playing your podcast that's
showing my age. Thanks for tuning in,

571
00:42:40.440 --> 00:42:44.400
y'all. Anyway, you're tuning in? Still appropriate? Is it?

572
00:42:44.639 --> 00:42:47.039
When tuning in is like tuning in
a radio step? But it's it works

573
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:51.679
for today. Okay, we're gonna
have it work. It's fine. Still,

574
00:42:52.039 --> 00:42:55.039
Hello, I'm a hundred, she's
not even close. Well, thank

575
00:42:55.079 --> 00:43:00.239
you everyone for listening, and if
you haven't already hit the subscribe to button,

576
00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:06.559
I'm whatever. After listening to you
can find us on social media at

577
00:43:06.559 --> 00:43:14.079
hardcore Crime, Facebook and Instagram.
Thank you, and if you go to

578
00:43:14.119 --> 00:43:17.519
our website, Yes, go to
our website Crimes and Consequences dot com.

579
00:43:17.559 --> 00:43:20.760
Oh my gosh, we should have
been a group. We should have.

580
00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:24.800
We can harmonize. You can find
on information there about joining Patreon. Yes

581
00:43:25.119 --> 00:43:30.119
you should is you would get an
additional episode every week, a full episode,

582
00:43:30.199 --> 00:43:32.639
full episode. You could also go
to your Apple podcast app and subscribe

583
00:43:32.679 --> 00:43:38.519
there also got early releases of these
episodes and no ads nods A listen to

584
00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:45.280
that shit. Nobody listens to ads
anymore. Everybody skips on it, right,

585
00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:47.159
right, right? I mean I
do when I listen to podcasts,

586
00:43:47.480 --> 00:43:52.400
listen to our ads. Of course
you do. No, I don't know,

587
00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:57.119
I don't, but anyway, I
think that's everything I feel like it

588
00:43:57.199 --> 00:44:00.199
is. It's good enough, it
good enough, so until our next episode,

589
00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:04.199
don't kill each other. Bye bye