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No Necessary dvoid over hbity I 24 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:01.159 Lost the conditions eighty plus. 25 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:11.519 You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking 26 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.640 Killers in True crime History and the authors that have 27 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:21.959 written about him. Gasey Bundy Dahmer, The Nightstalker VTK every 28 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:25.680 week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and 29 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:30.319 infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host, 30 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:33.200 journalist and author Dan Zupanski. 31 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:44.560 Good evening from a teen vampire cult that killed one 32 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:48.079 member's parents. The naked people who tell cops nothing to 33 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:51.319 see here. Frank Stanfield has seen it all in thirty 34 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:56.159 years as a newspaper editor and reporter, mostly in Florida. Vampire's, 35 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:01.920 gaiters and wackos. A newspapers Man's Life recalls rustlers hiding ranchers, 36 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.680 bodies in a bottomless pit, and a Jane Doe so 37 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.199 maol people believe it was a bear attack, and exposes 38 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:12.280 cops who bungle murder cases and praises those who are heroes. 39 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.520 There are tales of bears, sharks, snakes, alligators, and pot 40 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:19.800 bellied pigs. There is the teacher who is too pretty 41 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:21.960 to go to jail despite having sex with a middle 42 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.800 school male student. Hurricanes lash out, tornadoes spin a blender 43 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:31.560 of death and sinkhole swallow homes, roads and people. All 44 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.960 of this takes place while newspapers with their own zany 45 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:38.680 characters are fighting for their survival. The book that were 46 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:42.840 featuring this evening is Vampires, Gators and Wackos, A newspaper 47 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:47.120 Man's Life with my special guest, journalist and author Frank Stanfield. 48 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:49.439 Welcome back to the program, and thank you so much 49 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:53.280 for this interview. Frank Stanfield, Thank you, Dan appreciate it. 50 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:57.639 Thank you very much, and congratulations on this book. It's 51 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:01.240 pretty well a good slice of your life as a 52 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:06.240 journalist and the incredible stories that you covered as a 53 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:11.159 reporter and journalist. Let's talk about your background first and 54 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:15.759 how you got started in journalism and your first assignments, 55 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.719 before we talk about one of the more spectacular cases 56 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:20.800 that you turned into a book, Cold Blooded, that we 57 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:24.680 discussed May twenty twenty one, Cold Blooded. But before that, 58 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:29.759 tell us about your background and how you became a journalist. 59 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:32.680 Well, I grew up in the Midwest before we came 60 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:37.280 to Florida, and so I came from a family of storytellers, 61 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:40.199 you know, oral storytellers, and I always wanted to write. 62 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:43.520 So when I have a chance to go to college, 63 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:48.599 and I took political science and journalism classes and I 64 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:52.960 got my first job was at the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia, 65 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:56.199 and it was like a real eye opener. I said, 66 00:03:56.199 --> 00:03:59.360 this is what I've got to do. This absolutely has 67 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:02.639 my aim on it. So that's the way it started. 68 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:05.719 And they let me cover the cops quite a bit, 69 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:08.319 so that was my favorite. My favorite thing. 70 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:13.039 Well, you talk about your early experience at a KKK rally. 71 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:14.120 Tell us about that. 72 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:18.360 Oh, brother, Yeah, this is when this goes way back 73 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:23.199 to when Jimmy Carter was president and some idiot drove 74 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:26.959 his car through a KKK rally over in Plains, Georgia, 75 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.120 where the Jimmy Carter is from. So they had another 76 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:34.120 one of these rallies. This is ugly, ugly stuff, these people, 77 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:38.600 and they had a rally in Augusta. So my editor says, Okay, 78 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:40.879 we're going to go, but we're not going to write 79 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:43.240 about it. We're not going to give any ink to 80 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.480 these people. But you I want you there just in 81 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:51.439 case something happened. So I went and I introduced myself 82 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:54.800 and that the guard runs off to get the grand 83 00:04:54.839 --> 00:04:57.079 poobah or an interview, thinking I want to interview him 84 00:04:57.160 --> 00:04:59.199 or something, and I kind of wander around and I 85 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:02.800 get this. I get a sick feeling looking at these 86 00:05:02.839 --> 00:05:06.720 people and listening to their rants and burning the cross, 87 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:11.279 and it was a real sickening thing. But nothing happened. 88 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:16.279 So I went back to my office and the next 89 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:20.079 day the folks call and says, well, hey, what about 90 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:23.920 this reporter. He didn't write anything, And I said, the 91 00:05:24.040 --> 00:05:27.279 editor had the wheremouthal at least to say, well, she 92 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:32.639 didn't give me her give them my phone number, address, 93 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:36.160 what time I left work, and all that sort of thing, 94 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:39.759 So at least she didn't do that, so that was good. 95 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.279 Now you talk about this case and I just mentioned it, 96 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:44.600 the one that you turned into a book in twenty 97 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:50.480 twenty one, Cold Blooded, the case of Rod Ferrell, sixteen 98 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:54.439 year old vampire. We could go into this case and 99 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:57.160 take the entire hour to talk about that, but this 100 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:02.040 case you became part of it largely. You mentioned that 101 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:05.360 after some very fine reporting on behalf of the fellow 102 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:11.040 journalist you became. This became largely your case. Just tell 103 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:16.199 us about the most incredible part of this most incredible tale. 104 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:19.560 Well, Rod Perrat was only sixteen years old, but he 105 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:24.399 had the charisma and the drive to form a cult, 106 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:27.800 a vampire cult. And these guys were drinking each other's 107 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.160 blood and doing all these odd things. And so they 108 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:33.079 come down to Florida to pick up one of their 109 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:35.839 cult members. He had gone to school here at one point, 110 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:39.920 came back, picked her up and killed her parents, and 111 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:43.199 she left with them, and they were all caught three 112 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:46.399 days later, but she was not indicted. The rest of 113 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.759 them are indicted. So the sheriff was like, this ain't right, 114 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:53.839 you know, And what role did she have in all this? 115 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.480 I mean, that was kind of the mystery of the 116 00:06:56.519 --> 00:06:59.720 whole thing. And it was an outrageous case. Of course, 117 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:02.480 it made international headlines. It was just so outrageous. 118 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:06.480 You talk about another case, and it's the Missing Millionaire, 119 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:08.600 the title of that I believe in the chapter. But 120 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:13.079 this Robert W. Ford, and you had it that a 121 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:15.480 person got away with murder. Tell us a little bit 122 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:18.160 about this incredible story that you've included. 123 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:21.639 This was wild. This is back in the early eighties. 124 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:24.560 This fellow by the name of Neil Haber who was 125 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:28.399 a builder developer here and lived in Leesburg, Florida, and 126 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:34.319 he had come back from Mexico and went home, and 127 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:38.800 then about a day or two later he was reported 128 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:41.839 missing and in his car, he had some fancy car, 129 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:45.959 and so where was he? You know? And the step son, 130 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:50.800 this Robert Ford, told this really messed up story, like 131 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:54.920 he heard something, but he didn't really see the people, 132 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:57.839 and he saw there was blood in the garage, so 133 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:01.000 he just kind of wiped it down and he found 134 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.319 blood on a tarp, so he threw that in a dumpster. 135 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:08.279 And the cops messed this up every way you can 136 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:13.519 mess it up, and they basically just this Robbie Ford, 137 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.800 who was a stepson, just got away with murder. And 138 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:23.399 the cops, in their effort to try to solve this thing, 139 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:27.639 got real cozy and friendly with the widow and with 140 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:32.399 her suddenly brand new business partner who had just been 141 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:36.879 a gopher before. So the whole thing made headlines every 142 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:40.320 every day, and the family took out a full page 143 00:08:40.360 --> 00:08:44.120 out of the newspaper a reward for return of the car, 144 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:48.919 not for him, they wanted the car. Then they next 145 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.120 day said, oh no, we want him to of course, 146 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.759 Well they found him in the in the car in 147 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:57.399 an orange grove after he'd been in there for several days, 148 00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:00.320 and in Florida, that's not a good thing. So nobody 149 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.600 wanted the car after that. Yeah, But basically the man 150 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:09.919 had possible mafia tize business dealings. He had some very 151 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:15.519 odd accounting system, a lot of liquid cash. So there 152 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:20.679 was like several different possible motive suspects. So it was 153 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:21.559 very interesting. 154 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:26.360 You have a chapter called Cases that Keep Cops Awake 155 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:32.080 at Night and that's an understatement. And one Trenton Ducket 156 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:35.679 in August two thousand and six, and a woman named 157 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:38.320 Melinda calls nine one one, tell us a little bit 158 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:40.320 about this Trenton Ducket. 159 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:44.159 Trenton was about two years old, and she calls the 160 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.600 cops and she reports and missing. She says, oh, I 161 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:50.279 went to check on him, and then I went to 162 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.399 had some friends over watching TV, and I went back 163 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:57.879 to check on him again and the window screen was 164 00:09:58.039 --> 00:10:00.600 cut open. This was an apartment complex. He was gone. 165 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:06.200 So the next day Nancy Grace calls and asks her, well, 166 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:09.279 what was he wearing? What were you doing? And she 167 00:10:09.960 --> 00:10:12.720 the mom says, you know, she was very vague. She said, 168 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:15.519 we were just running around whatever. And when she called 169 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:19.519 the nine one one operator, the nine one operator said, well, 170 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:22.120 what was he wearing? And she says, I don't, you know, basically, 171 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.720 I don't know whatever, I don't remember or something like that, 172 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.120 And the whole thing was fishy from the beginning. Well then, 173 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:37.080 so after Nancy Grace interviews her and gets no answers, 174 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.159 she before the interview airs, she goes over to her 175 00:10:40.159 --> 00:10:45.320 grandparent's house and kills herself. So now nobody knows where 176 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:48.440 he is if he was killed, where's the body? If 177 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.200 she handed him off, which some police officers thought, where 178 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.159 is he? And another twist of this whole thing is 179 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:01.360 this kid's grandfather is on death row for killing a 180 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:06.879 kid gave as a cop too, So that's another whole twist. Yeah, incredible. 181 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.200 Yeah, And keeping in that theme, you have another chapter 182 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:14.960 called Killer Cop and you have Teresa May mccabee, which 183 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:18.080 is eleven year old. This is May nineteen eighty seven. 184 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:21.759 She's out for an errand to buy a pencil, and 185 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:26.200 she bumps into the last person that last witness anyway, 186 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:29.679 Caesar with a sixteen year old Mexican boy. But that 187 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.960 person that witnesses it is a police officer. Tell us 188 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.399 a little bit more about this tale. 189 00:11:35.399 --> 00:11:39.720 Right, and that's the grandfather of this Trenton, who was 190 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.399 born years years later. Of course, he's a rookie cop 191 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:48.279 a little town, a little bittytown in South Lake County, 192 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:51.799 which is outside of Orange County where Disney World is 193 00:11:51.799 --> 00:11:55.279 and all that. But yeah, he doesn't make a lot 194 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:58.519 of sense either. He's not. The police chief tells him, 195 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:01.279 is you get out there, you hunt this kid, you know, 196 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:04.399 no matter what else is going on. But the next 197 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:07.480 morning he's out there doing traffic stops and whatnot. He's 198 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:09.159 not doing what he's supposed to do. He didn't put 199 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:12.799 flyers out like he was supposed to do, and he 200 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:17.600 had They found tire tracks by this lake where they 201 00:12:17.639 --> 00:12:22.399 found the little girl's body, and the tire tracks matched 202 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.840 the patrol car. So he gets arrested. He swears he 203 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:29.039 didn't do it and all this, and there's been a 204 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:37.879 whole years of controversy about DNA. They found hair on her, 205 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:40.919 well that is it his or not? And for a 206 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.159 long time they couldn't. The technology didn't allow him to 207 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:47.240 test it. Now they can test it, but he doesn't 208 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:49.279 want it tested because he says that it will destroy 209 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:54.600 the only stample. Well, okay, whatever, so he's on death roat. Still. 210 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.759 You have a chapter called Mother Nature runs a much 211 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:03.519 and you also include stories of hurricanes and talk about 212 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:06.960 I believe it's Tampa is the lightning capital of the world. 213 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:08.360 I believe. Yeah. 214 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:10.679 Tell us about some of these incredible stories and why 215 00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:13.919 you included in a story in a book that's about 216 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.639 murder and death and some killing. 217 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:21.279 Well, mother Nature can be a pretty wicked killer too. 218 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:27.480 I talk in this book about what happened on Groundhog Day. 219 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:31.480 There was a tornado that came through a little town 220 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:35.240 outside the village's retirement community called Lady Lake and Lake 221 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:39.279 Mac and it killed twenty one people. But I mean 222 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:44.559 it was devastating the whole landscape. It picked up these 223 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:48.559 old double wide trailers of the older folks lived in 224 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:51.840 some of them, and just rolled them across the landscape. 225 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.720 Has killed them and snapped trees off. It suck people 226 00:13:54.759 --> 00:13:57.240 out of their house. One of the things that I 227 00:13:57.320 --> 00:14:01.320 saw the first thing was a man sitting where his 228 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:05.320 brick house was. He's just sitting there in a chair. 229 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:09.440 The house is completely gone. He was asleep on the mattress. 230 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:13.000 He heard his wife's scream in the other room. He said, 231 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:15.360 the next thing I know, I'm floating in the air 232 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:18.440 and I'm looking up at the stars because there's no 233 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:21.759 root in the house. That kind of thing. And then 234 00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:24.960 the hurricanes. There was two thousand and four, there was 235 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:28.840 like five hurricanes back to back to back to back 236 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:32.759 to back. And you know, when you cover those things, 237 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.279 there's two ways to do it. You can sit in 238 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:40.159 the emergency shelter and just wait for the thing to 239 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.840 be over with, or you can pick your moments and 240 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:45.679 get out and try to cover it like you should 241 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:48.840 be covering it. And that's what my photographer and I did. 242 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:51.440 And those things are so dangerous. We tried to get 243 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:54.799 back every night before it got dark because you can't 244 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:58.399 see tree limbs and road signs flying around the dark. 245 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:03.480 But at the last day of the last storm, she 246 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:05.559 went back to the car to get something out of 247 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:10.879 the car and a tree limb snapped, big tree limb 248 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:16.559 and just missed her. So they're very deadly, and we 249 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.000 saw a lot of a lot of destruction, a lot 250 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:24.039 of a lot of property damage. A lot of people 251 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.120 is scared to death by those things. With good reason absolutely. 252 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:34.159 You include a story Jane Doe, Bottomless Pit nineteen ninety 253 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:38.879 one in Rock Springs Run Reserve and a body's found, 254 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:42.240 and we mentioned this in the introduction that it was 255 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:46.360 brutalized so badly that people the rumor was that you'd 256 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:48.600 been mauled by a bear. Tell us a little bit 257 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:51.440 about this bottomless pit and Jane Doe. 258 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.879 Yeah, there's actually two stories there. The Bottomless Pit is 259 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:56.799 one story and the Jane does the other. Kind of 260 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:00.919 put them together one chapter with Jane Doe. After the 261 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:03.639 crime scene, people get to looking at the body, which 262 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:07.840 was buried under some limbs and things. That's what people, 263 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:11.279 I think, initially thought she had been killed by a bear. 264 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:16.039 They realized the body had been posed, that she had 265 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.360 been someone had I don't know how to say this, 266 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:24.360 had placed a bottle, a broken bottle where something like 267 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:28.799 that should not be, and had posed her hand pointing 268 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:34.080 to it, and she had been bitten and torn up, 269 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:39.159 just torn up. And so years later, a few years later, 270 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:43.480 and again this is all when DNA stuff was pretty new, 271 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:48.519 a analyst, crime scene analyst is feeding the mail DNA 272 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:51.279 found on her body through a computer, a crime computer, 273 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:54.559 and all of a sudden there was a hit and 274 00:16:54.600 --> 00:16:58.320 it was on a convicted rapist. So wow, that was 275 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:02.519 like a big right there, because the police hadn't gone 276 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:06.119 everywhere done everything they could. They even went to all 277 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:09.839 these topless bars in Orlando thing think that she was 278 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:14.400 maybe a dancer or something to see, you know, to 279 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.200 try to identify her. They never did identify her, but 280 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:20.519 they identified the killer. They had a trial. They brought 281 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:25.000 in this bitemark expert who helped put ted Bundy away. 282 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:29.359 He testified, so that was a big deal. The bottomless 283 00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:35.000 pit thing. Lake County, where I do my work, is 284 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:40.559 outside of Orlando, and it used to be especially very rural. 285 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:44.599 So Florida at one time still does have not had 286 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:48.799 more cattle than Texas. So there's a lot of ranches 287 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:54.119 and stuff. And so these two ranch owner and a 288 00:17:54.279 --> 00:17:58.119 foreman were out there because they were looking for missing cows. 289 00:17:58.119 --> 00:18:01.480 They were missing some cows. So it turns out that 290 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:05.519 a couple of these ranch hands shot them and threw 291 00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:09.039 them in this so called bottomless pit. They have these 292 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:12.000 sinkholes in Florida that are full of water. Nobody knows 293 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:14.960 how deep they are, but they weighted their bodies down 294 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:17.559 with concrete blocks and threw them in there, and then 295 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:20.519 they figured out, you know who these guys were, and 296 00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:22.680 of course one of them had a conscious because he 297 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.440 says the cop says, well, you know what happens to 298 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:29.319 a body in the water, meaning alligators, And so the 299 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:32.920 guy broke down and confessed and that got the bodies. 300 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.039 When they pulled the bodies out, they also found an 301 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.880 old duson Berg that had been used in a bank 302 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:42.400 robbery in the nineteen twenties in this place. So this 303 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:45.440 is a kind of a place that criminals used to 304 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:48.519 dump all their their stuff. So that was a very 305 00:18:48.519 --> 00:18:49.519 interesting case too. 306 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:53.079 You also include a case of a six year old 307 00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:58.240 girl named Kayla missing. Kayla McKean, tell us what's important 308 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:00.000 about this story and whine you included it. 309 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:04.359 Well, Kayla, I think she was five or six, I 310 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:08.640 can't remember. I think she was five and her dad 311 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:13.680 reports are missing on Thanksgiving and hundreds of people show 312 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:16.839 up to look for her and all this sort of thing. Well, 313 00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:19.680 this goes on for like three days, people looking, and 314 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.119 the cops suspect that he did it all along. This 315 00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:25.119 is a kid that he didn't even know he had. 316 00:19:25.559 --> 00:19:31.160 This girl until is a strange girlfriend tried to get 317 00:19:31.319 --> 00:19:34.960 child support. Yeah, well he'd killed her. But here's the thing, 318 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.279 this case was messed up every way you can mess 319 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:43.559 up as far as the child welfare system goes. You 320 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:47.559 had DCF people going out there and saying that they 321 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:53.039 investigated this or that and they didn't. You had every 322 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.839 kind of breakdown of the system you could think of. 323 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:59.400 The only people that were doing it right was the 324 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:03.599 school where the little girl went to school, and they 325 00:20:03.599 --> 00:20:06.160 were reporting things like, Okay, she comes to school and 326 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:10.119 makeup on to hide a black eye and that kind 327 00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:13.319 of thing. So the school was the only one that 328 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:16.759 did it. And so basically because of this case, they 329 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:21.160 had to redo the entire child welfare laws, the way 330 00:20:21.240 --> 00:20:24.200 things were done, how investigations are done, and so on. 331 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:27.400 So that was a major, major thing. 332 00:20:28.119 --> 00:20:31.839 Just like in the introduction, this chapter is called Gators 333 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:35.000 and Other Monsters. Tell us about some of the stories 334 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:38.480 that are included in this Gators and Other Monsters chapter. 335 00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:43.000 One of the things I talk about I interview the Spella. 336 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:47.000 He's a shark expert at the University of Florida, and 337 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:50.799 they talk about, well, there's a lot of shark attacks. 338 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:54.240 Most of them are not fatal, but some of them are. 339 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.319 And also some of them are so hideous tiger sharks 340 00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:02.799 on the west coast that people are like damaged for 341 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:05.799 life because of it. But he talks about he had 342 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:08.039 an injergy spent on this. He says, well, people are 343 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:12.039 catching these sharks now, cutting their fins off and you know, 344 00:21:12.119 --> 00:21:14.519 throwing the rest of the shark back. So he says, well, 345 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:19.000 who is who's hunting who here? And so you've got 346 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:23.480 people worried about the shark population now all things. But 347 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:29.480 what we had several instances in Florida over the years 348 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:33.599 of people being killed by alligators. These things are monsters. 349 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:38.200 They're huge, twelve thirteen feet long. They can get to 350 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:42.839 be several hundred pounds. So there was one little boy 351 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:46.599 over in Belusia County who was standing on the edge 352 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:50.480 of a lake with his parents and all of a sudden, 353 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:56.880 just the water ripples, the snap and he's gone. So 354 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:59.200 we did a story. We had a cable show the 355 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:04.720 Orlando where I worked at the time, and we went 356 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:07.440 out with a game and fish guy on this airboat 357 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:10.920 and we were talking about alligators and this is a 358 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:13.960 big habitat and so on, and a three footer swims 359 00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:16.400 up to the boat, and so the game and fish 360 00:22:16.400 --> 00:22:18.400 guy says, do you want me to catch him? And 361 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:21.359 we said sure, you know. So he's holding it and 362 00:22:21.400 --> 00:22:25.279 the gator little gators making these noises like Mama helped me, 363 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:27.480 you know that kind of thing. So the wind is 364 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:30.559 blowing us out to the middle of the lake, and 365 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:33.279 so we're done, and he said, well, I can't let 366 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:36.039 him out here because you know, he'll just be food 367 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:39.319 for other alligators, bigger alligators. So he says, here, you 368 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:41.559 hold him. How I get back to the shore. I'm 369 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:45.960 going like, say what now? Because he's wiggling around and 370 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.279 carrying on, and my photographer was laughing so hard I 371 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:53.400 thought she was gonna fall over. So they're out there. 372 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:56.880 They're very common, but people don't have any sense. If 373 00:22:56.920 --> 00:23:00.039 you ever feed an alligator, get in the habit of 374 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.039 an alligator's in the habit of being around people, they 375 00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:06.640 lose their fear of people. They're very, very dangerous. 376 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.440 And you talk about as well, people should know and 377 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:12.160 before they go out swimming at night is not a 378 00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:13.880 good idea. That's when they come out. 379 00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:17.160 No, that's when they come out. There's certain feeding times. 380 00:23:17.240 --> 00:23:20.039 And I just talk about a teenage boy that was 381 00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:24.119 killed by an alligator too, and an elderly woman because 382 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:27.200 they were just swimming in a place that they're full 383 00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:31.720 of alligators. And somebody in a couple of cases anyway, 384 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:34.960 have been feeding these alligators, which just encourages them to 385 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.559 come around. They're just they're big, and they've got a 386 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:40.640 brain the size of a walnut. I think they're not 387 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:44.039 real smart. They're just they're just made for killing, that's 388 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:44.519 what they are. 389 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:49.240 Yeah, you have a chapter called Cops and Sarah Heckerman 390 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:54.319 is a Lake County Sheriff dispatcher on February two thousand 391 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:57.880 and five, and it's in balls of Jason Wheeler who's 392 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:01.079 twenty nine years old, and friend had hog tied her 393 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:03.319 and raped her and threatened to kill her. And she 394 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:06.720 called if she called nine one one, tell us a 395 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:09.799 little bit more about this incredible story involving cops. 396 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:14.559 Yeah, Henckerman, she wasn't a dispatcher, but she called the cops. 397 00:24:14.599 --> 00:24:19.160 She was living in the woods, in the forest, I 398 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:22.759 should say, with the sky Wheeler. They have some children 399 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:26.119 together between them, So she calls the cops says, well, 400 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:29.960 now he tog tied me. If you come with lights 401 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.960