Speaker 1: Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa, and we are
Speaker 1: the hosts of the Book of the Dead, a true
Speaker 1: crime podcast based out of New Jersey, where we tell
Speaker 1: you about the most obscure cases that you may have
Speaker 1: never heard of. So join us in the Book of
Speaker 1: the Dead Library for another chapter of the Book of
Speaker 1: the Dead. Wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: Hi guys, this is darkcast Network, the best in indie podcasts.
Speaker 2: Check out all of the amazing dark Cast shows at
Speaker 2: darkcastnetwork dot com. Hey there, I'm Milana of Castles and
Speaker 2: Cryptids and you are listening to Rainbow Crimes with hopefully
Speaker 2: some Unicorn justice.
Speaker 3: Hey guys, it's me CJ. I'm back safely from my
Speaker 3: road trip to California for my niece's wedding, and I
Speaker 3: got to meet my three great nephews. They truly are great.
Speaker 3: We had so much fun seeing everyone. The boys are
Speaker 3: adorable and so smart. I played lots of catch with
Speaker 3: the oldest. He's now eight years old. I tried to
Speaker 3: win over the four year old early on by making
Speaker 3: him laugh. He's the shock jock of the family, so
Speaker 3: I told him. His grandma told me that he likes
Speaker 3: to pick his nose and eat his boogers. I asked
Speaker 3: him if I could pick one of his boogers and
Speaker 3: eat it, and that got him laughing because he knows
Speaker 3: what I said was inappropriate. I played a little with
Speaker 3: toy dinosaurs and action figures with him and the older boy. Also,
Speaker 3: I got to hold the baby, who is my sister
Speaker 3: says is delicious. He's just a roly poly bundle of joy.
Speaker 3: It was really something I needed to do to see
Speaker 3: my family again, although I did break two pairs of
Speaker 3: my reader glasses, so now everything's kind of blurry until
Speaker 3: my new ones come on Sunday. My daughter had fun too,
Speaker 3: but she was prone to a lot of emotion. She
Speaker 3: cried about not getting to see our family members for
Speaker 3: about ten years. So I know my next move is
Speaker 3: to get serious about fixing up this house we're in,
Speaker 3: getting it on the market, and moving closer to our family.
Speaker 3: That means, you know how I usually do a month
Speaker 3: of minisodes in like July, I'll most likely be taking
Speaker 3: the month the kids are gone plus a couple of
Speaker 3: extra weeks to be minisod month this year so I
Speaker 3: can do some deep work around the house and get
Speaker 3: some new T shirts made for our Pride in the
Speaker 3: Park on August first. The minisodes will be coming out
Speaker 3: June thirteenth through the end of July. Okay, with that
Speaker 3: house keeping out of the way, let's see what our
Speaker 3: main case is this episode. We have an unsolved case
Speaker 3: out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida in twenty twenty three. I
Speaker 3: know when solved cases aren't everyone's favorite, but if we
Speaker 3: can shine more light on a case with no resolution,
Speaker 3: maybe we can reach that listener or listeners who might
Speaker 3: have information on the case that'll help it be solved. Plus,
Speaker 3: with this case only being a few years old, there
Speaker 3: is still a lot of hope for justice. At thirty
Speaker 3: six years old, Jason Maruse was a lot of things.
Speaker 3: He was adorable, with big dimples when he smiled. He
Speaker 3: was vibrant, compassionate, and the spirit of adventure. He was
Speaker 3: born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and he partook in
Speaker 3: many family barbecues neighborhood gatherings along with the pound pound
Speaker 3: pound of his father's construction sites. The early exposure to
Speaker 3: construction would be the foundation for Jason's future. After he
Speaker 3: graduated high school in two thousand and five, Jason had
Speaker 3: mastered the fundamental skills of carpentry, and that led him
Speaker 3: to a career as a carpenter. But aside from his
Speaker 3: woodworking skills, Jason had a special knack of bringing people
Speaker 3: together in many ways, for being an ear that would
Speaker 3: listen to having a quick and easy laugh that drew
Speaker 3: a vast number of people to him. For the next
Speaker 3: nine years, Jason would be a successful contractor known for
Speaker 3: his precision and reliability. But for Jason, there was something missing.
Speaker 3: That was a connect with his community, the LGBTQ. Plus,
Speaker 3: he craved being a part of something more, something somewhere
Speaker 3: where his full identity would be celebrated and understood. In
Speaker 3: April of two thousand and fourteen, Jason, who was now
Speaker 3: twenty seven years old, would make the decision to move
Speaker 3: to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He knew Fort Lauderdale was a
Speaker 3: magnet for people of the LGBTQ community, and he was
Speaker 3: down to find more of his people. Jason also had
Speaker 3: his zest for nature. In being in the outdoors, he
Speaker 3: found a group of friends in the community and he
Speaker 3: spent time paddleboarding and kayaking with them. He enjoyed taking
Speaker 3: photographs of wildlife. He was part of a community garden,
Speaker 3: and he had planners he built on the rooftop of
Speaker 3: his condo where he grew herbs. Jason would deliver meals
Speaker 3: to hungry neighbors in need, and he would offer woodworking
Speaker 3: trinkets he made to his friends. He was indeed a
Speaker 3: kind soul. In spite of Jason's parents being divorced, both
Speaker 3: would visit him at different times. His mom even had
Speaker 3: plans to retire in Fort Lauderdale to be closer to Jason.
Speaker 3: On January sixth, twenty twenty three than now, thirty six
Speaker 3: year old Jason would leave his apartment between midnight and
Speaker 3: one am to meet his boyfriend at Eagle. Eagle is Eagle,
Speaker 3: Wilton Manors, and It's a premiere LGBTQ plus and leather
Speaker 3: fetish bar located in Wilton Manors, right next to Fort Lauderdale.
Speaker 3: It's a popular, high energy venue featuring international DJs, themed
Speaker 3: nights like Harness and Underwear Night and Go Go dancers
Speaker 3: dedicated to the kink community. But that night, Jason would
Speaker 3: never arrive to meet his boyfriend. Worried when Jason didn't
Speaker 3: show up to the club or respond to his texts
Speaker 3: or phone calls, his boyfriend drove to Jason's condo. He
Speaker 3: checked Jason's condo out, but he didn't find him there. Next,
Speaker 3: he went back out to the parking lot and he
Speaker 3: saw Jason's vehicle. As the boyfriend got closer, he saw
Speaker 3: Jason slumped over the steering wheel. Jason was bleeding from
Speaker 3: a gunshot wound to his neck, and he was unresponsive.
Speaker 3: The boyfriend called nine to one one for emergency services,
Speaker 3: and even though it only took responders just minutes to
Speaker 3: the location, Jason was dead. Unseene, there appeared to be
Speaker 3: no forced entry into Jason's vehicle, although his driver's store
Speaker 3: was slightly open, his personal effects were untouched, removing any
Speaker 3: suspicion of a robbery, and there didn't seem to be
Speaker 3: any witnesses in the surrounding area who heard a gunshot.
Speaker 3: The Fort Lauderdale Police didn't waste any time looking into
Speaker 3: Jason's thomicide. They canvassed the area near Jason's home. They
Speaker 3: interviewed neighbors and online friends. Nothing on Jason's phone offered
Speaker 3: any leads as to who would have done this to him,
Speaker 3: and no DNA other than Jason's led them to a killer.
Speaker 3: They have surmised his killer opened Jason's driver's side door
Speaker 3: with his finger upon the trigger of the gun that
Speaker 3: he was holding, and fired directly into Jason's vehicle at
Speaker 3: point blank range. Police did release a surveillance picture of
Speaker 3: a person of interest. The person of interest appears to
Speaker 3: be a large man, but the surveillance footage is in
Speaker 3: black and white, and it makes it very hard to
Speaker 3: tell what race this guy is. He looks to be
Speaker 3: a large man, at least stocky, maybe in his early twenties.
Speaker 3: He's wearing a light colored, long sleeved t shirt, a
Speaker 3: light colored baseball cap turned backwards, and dark colored pants,
Speaker 3: possibly beggy jeans. Now that is not official information, it's
Speaker 3: just what it looked like to me when I viewed
Speaker 3: the surveillance footage. It's also very tough to tell if
Speaker 3: the man in the video has any facial hair, but
Speaker 3: he does seem to have a distinct way of walking.
Speaker 3: It's now been three and a half years since Jason's
Speaker 3: life was stolen from him. Police have pretty much said
Speaker 3: the case is getting cold, but they're still looking for
Speaker 3: new leads, retesting any DNA they found, and even reinterviewing
Speaker 3: people that they've already spoken to. Should anyone have information
Speaker 3: on this case, there is a fifty thousand dollars reward.
Speaker 3: Police call Broward Crime Stoppers at area code nine five
Speaker 3: four four nine three eight four seven seven. There have
Speaker 3: been theories tossed out into the universe that maybe this
Speaker 3: was a drug deal gone bad, but there were no
Speaker 3: signs of any drugs in Jason's vehicle. Another is that
Speaker 3: it was a possible love triangle gone wrong, but there
Speaker 3: is nothing to back that up. The working theory now
Speaker 3: is that this murder was out of randomness, senseless and random,
Speaker 3: which to me kind of makes the most sense. But
Speaker 3: why why would anyone want to murder a random person
Speaker 3: mistaken identity? Maybe for my research, it didn't seem like
Speaker 3: Jason was loudly out. Although he moved to an area
Speaker 3: where he could live his truth out in the open,
Speaker 3: he still liked his privacy when it came to his
Speaker 3: sexual identity, and honestly, Jason didn't seem quackable as a
Speaker 3: gay man. I wouldn't rule out a hate crime altogether,
Speaker 3: though I feel until the perpetrator is captured, we might
Speaker 3: never know the motive for Jason's murder. Rests and power Jason.
Speaker 3: Our true crime quickie is from Queens, New York in
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy six. But because it was so long ago,
Speaker 3: I'm going to do my best piece of together, as
Speaker 3: there isn't a whole lot of information, just what I
Speaker 3: could gleam from some court documents and some old newspaper articles.
Speaker 3: In the mid nineteen seventies, two women who ironically had
Speaker 3: the same last name of Taylor met socially. They were
Speaker 3: twenty eight year old Carol Taylor, who was married to
Speaker 3: a man named Herbert Taylor, and thirty nine year old
Speaker 3: Elizabeth Taylor. Not to be confused with the actress Elizabeth Taylor,
Speaker 3: nor was Elizabeth related to Herbert or Carol. During their
Speaker 3: time together, Carol and Elizabeth developed a close bond and
Speaker 3: a friendship, and after some amount of time, they became
Speaker 3: romantically involved with one another. This was after Carol left
Speaker 3: her husband. Things in Carroll's relationship with Herbert had become
Speaker 3: ugly quickly, and the two would have multiple altercations over money. Plus,
Speaker 3: her and Herbert had two young sons together, and Carol
Speaker 3: was fearful that Herbert would use her newfound sexual identity
Speaker 3: to take the boys away from her. During this tumultuous time,
Speaker 3: Carol desperately wanted to cut all ties with Herbert, and
Speaker 3: she wanted to live a life where she felt free
Speaker 3: enough to be her true self and pursue a lasting
Speaker 3: relationship with Elizabeth, all of course, while maintaining custody of
Speaker 3: her sons. Carol shared these feelings with her new love interests, Elizabeth,
Speaker 3: and the two women began to conspire on a plot
Speaker 3: to murder Herbert. With Herbert out of the picture, Carol
Speaker 3: would stand to gain about one hundred and thirty four
Speaker 3: thousand dollars from Herbert's life insurance policy. This would help
Speaker 3: her to make a fresh start on her new journey
Speaker 3: with Elizabeth. I know one hundred and thirty four thousand
Speaker 3: dollars doesn't sound like much, but back then it was
Speaker 3: a lot. In today's money, that would be over three
Speaker 3: quarters of a million dollars, nice chunk of change. Carol
Speaker 3: offered her brother Robert ten thousand dollars to take care
Speaker 3: of Herbert, and when he wouldn't do it, Carol visited
Speaker 3: her friends Anthony and Teresa Pascarelli. She told them that
Speaker 3: Herbert had learned of her lesbian relationship with Elizabeth. And
Speaker 3: how she was very frightened that Herbert would use it
Speaker 3: as leverage to take the boys away from her. She
Speaker 3: told them she would pay them ten thousand dollars to
Speaker 3: arrange a hit on Herbert. She could even pay them
Speaker 3: some now, and the balance when she collected his life
Speaker 3: insurance ten grand back then was about sixty grand today.
Speaker 3: The Pascarellis refused Carol's offer Frantick to find someone to
Speaker 3: do the deed. Carol reached out to a professional hit man,
Speaker 3: and she offered him ten thousand dollars to do the job.
Speaker 3: On March thirteenth, nineteen seventy six, Carol had her sons
Speaker 3: with her at Elizabeth's place. The hit man went to
Speaker 3: the bungalow that she had once shared with Herbert, and
Speaker 3: the hit man shot Herbert to death. His body wasn't
Speaker 3: found until the following day. The identity of the hit
Speaker 3: man was never discovered. A few weeks after Herbert's murder,
Speaker 3: Carol told her brother and sister, if everyone would just
Speaker 3: keep their mouth shut, they'd all stand to earn ten
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. Apparently this is Carroll's favorite sum, but Carroll's
Speaker 3: brother was the first to dime out as sister Carol.
Speaker 3: He went to the authorities and he told them about
Speaker 3: her offer of money to murder Herbert. Shortly after, Carol's
Speaker 3: sister Barbara also went to law enforcement and she told
Speaker 3: them she had overheard Carol on the phone discussing the
Speaker 3: murder for Higher Plan with her lover Elizabeth. These accusations
Speaker 3: were enough for the police to arrest both Carol and
Speaker 3: Elizabeth and charged them with Herbert's death. At their court trials,
Speaker 3: Carroll's brother Robert, sister Barbara, and the Pascarellis all testified
Speaker 3: on behalf of the prosecution. The defense countered that all
Speaker 3: of these alleged witnesses were lying. They were lying to
Speaker 3: cover up Robert and Anthony Pascarelli being a culpable part
Speaker 3: of the murder for Higher Plan. But you know what,
Speaker 3: the jury didn't buy what the defense was selling. And
Speaker 3: even though the higher gun could never be found, both
Speaker 3: Carol and Elizabeth were found guilty of second degree murder,
Speaker 3: which held a twenty five year to life sentence. They
Speaker 3: were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and that
Speaker 3: held a eight to fifteen year sentences, and they were
Speaker 3: found guilty of criminal solicitation, which held a two to
Speaker 3: seven year sentence, all to run concurrently, so essentially they
Speaker 3: both received twenty five years to life. Both women filed appeals,
Speaker 3: and both were denied. Elizabeth ended up dying in prison.
Speaker 3: Carol would die in October of twenty eleven of a
Speaker 3: brain tumor. Rest in power, Herbert, I'm sorry, guys, I
Speaker 3: realized this episode might be a bit on the short side,
Speaker 3: but I did my best to make it a full episode,
Speaker 3: which means it must be time for a bit of sunshine.
Speaker 3: Woo woo. I got jokes. How did the gay man
Speaker 3: get lost going to the store? His GPS told him
Speaker 3: to go straight and he just couldn't do it. What
Speaker 3: do you call a gay cowboy a jolly rancher? Now
Speaker 3: here's a little science humor at web point? Does gender
Speaker 3: fluid become gender solid? Where do bad rainbows go to prism?
Speaker 3: It's a light sentence and it gives some time to reflect. Next,
Speaker 3: what do you call lesbian with a big tongue? Well hung?
Speaker 3: And lastly, what did one lesbian frog say to the other? Gee,
Speaker 3: we really do taste like chicken. That's it for me
Speaker 3: until next week. I love you, guys, You matter so much.
Speaker 3: Remember it is not a crime to be gay or
Speaker 3: to live your truth, unless you're a murderer.