Speaker 1: The following is intended for mature audiences. Hey, Diva, this
Speaker 1: episode is sponsored by Blood, Sweat and Tears. How about
Speaker 1: this horror show? By showing some love and rating five
Speaker 1: stars on Apple Podcasts, leave me a little love note
Speaker 1: on there as well. All good reviews help push this
Speaker 1: into more people's feeds. Now Before diving into the chaos
Speaker 1: of the episode, I've got a rather creepy experience from
Speaker 1: one of my buddies. Hi, friend, I have a submission
Speaker 1: for a future episode. Something pretty weird happened to me
Speaker 1: and some friends. So I went to see Obsession with
Speaker 1: some friends. Definitely recommend. It was a five out of five,
Speaker 1: and afterwards I was dropping them off since I was
Speaker 1: up for a drive. I had just dropped one of
Speaker 1: my friends off, made sure he got inside the apartment complex,
Speaker 1: and continued driving down a one way road. A man
Speaker 1: crosses the street maybe thirty forty feet ahead of the car,
Speaker 1: so I slowed down to let him pass jaywalking, But
Speaker 1: alas as he passes the car, he makes hard eye
Speaker 1: contact with my friend and myself. It was odd, but
Speaker 1: I shrugged it off. The dude looked pretty normal. He
Speaker 1: was even pretty cute. He had on a tank top
Speaker 1: and shorts and a bag in his hand. Looked like
Speaker 1: he was headed home after a seven to eleven trip
Speaker 1: or something. But as I'm nearing the red light on
Speaker 1: this one way road, I'm looking back in the mirror
Speaker 1: and I see the guy turn around and start booking
Speaker 1: it toward my car. I'm talking, full on sprint down
Speaker 1: the street, staring hard as hell with that heavy eye
Speaker 1: contact again through my review mirror. Now I needed to
Speaker 1: turn left to drop my friend off, but with this
Speaker 1: dude running it down the street, I wasn't trying to
Speaker 1: find out what happened if he caught up with the car,
Speaker 1: so I made the right turn on red and high
Speaker 1: tailed it down another street. All in all, not too
Speaker 1: crazy and probably heightened after having watched a horror film,
Speaker 1: but the way he turned and snapped into action running
Speaker 1: toward my car had me shaky the entire way home.
Speaker 1: Welcome to a world where darkness and mystery converge. Navigate
Speaker 1: the depths of horror and true crime, and join a
Speaker 1: society beyond the ordinary, where buzzworthy topics, paranormal tales, and
Speaker 1: listeners submitted experiences blend into a realm of the unknown.
Speaker 1: You have crossed into a place where the unusual and
Speaker 1: the terrifying are just the beginning. My name is Ralph
Speaker 1: Anthony and welcome to the Scream Society Podcast. Hello Screamers,
Speaker 1: Welcome into another edition of the Scream Society Podcast what
Speaker 1: I love to call a variety show from Hell in
Speaker 1: the dawn of another Pride month. I hope you all
Speaker 1: are thriving and slang per usual and anyone who's uncomfortable
Speaker 1: during this time, well, I hope you have the gayest
Speaker 1: month ever. Feels good to be in my chair and
Speaker 1: on the mic once again. I've actually been on the
Speaker 1: mic quite a bit for other projects, which announcement time
Speaker 1: and totally non horror related. But I had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to collaborate on a project with my buddy, an independent artist,
Speaker 1: Buddha Kuil, which he then connected me with another independent artist, Aplo.
Speaker 1: And I'm putting an emphasis on independent artists because I
Speaker 1: want you guys to see what independent creatives are capable of. Hello, But,
Speaker 1: like I said, I was approached to be on their
Speaker 1: collaborative album, Studio eighty five on some interludes between the tracks,
Speaker 1: which are fire. But Studio eighty five is this pop
Speaker 1: and discoh inspired album, and I think the project really
Speaker 1: captures this summer vibe mixed with smooth coastal rides and
Speaker 1: lively nightlife. And we went all in on this album.
Speaker 1: Skits too because on the album I play DJ Danny
Speaker 1: Hayes on this fictional radio station that pretty much bridges
Speaker 1: the album together and it's just fucking cool. So please
Speaker 1: check that out. Give these guys a follow because right now,
Speaker 1: more than ever, it's so important we support real, non
Speaker 1: AI artists because we want to keep this shit human.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Studio eighty five is available wherever you get
Speaker 1: your music, and I'll link everything in the episode description
Speaker 1: and shout out to Bouda Akil and APLO four allowing
Speaker 1: me to be a part of the project. Moving on here,
Speaker 1: I've got quite a lot to talk about, including the
Speaker 1: latest horror movie Sensation taking social media by storm. Plus
Speaker 1: I'll be dissecting a terrifying but true case with airially
Speaker 1: similar parallels to set horror movie. So let's get into
Speaker 1: sinister subjects. We need to talk about the film obsession. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it is completely taking over the world right now. The
Speaker 1: horror community is going crazy. People who aren't even into
Speaker 1: horror are showing interest, and some people, including yours truly,
Speaker 1: are already calling it the best horror film of the
Speaker 1: year so far. So take this as a minor spoiler
Speaker 1: warning now. The film was directed by Curry Barker, who
Speaker 1: drew inspiration from a nineteen ninety one Simpson's Treehouse of
Speaker 1: Horror episode, which is quite fascinating to me. Also, Curry
Speaker 1: Barker comes from a background of making comedy sketches on
Speaker 1: YouTube and somehow turned a tiny indie budget like around
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars into one of the
Speaker 1: biggest horror sensations of the year. And that is basically
Speaker 1: nothing by Hollywood standards, and we've seen it happen so
Speaker 1: many times before. Usually movies like this get a little
Speaker 1: buzz opening a weekend and then disappear immediately. But this
Speaker 1: thing did the complete opposite. People walked out of theaters
Speaker 1: so disturbed or exhausted in a good way that they
Speaker 1: instantly started posting about it online and it created this
Speaker 1: insane word of mouth spiral and because of that, the
Speaker 1: box office actually went up almost forty percent in its
Speaker 1: second weekend, which basically never happens anymore. And now it
Speaker 1: has made over eighty five million dollars worldwide. No giant franchise,
Speaker 1: no crazy masks, no Halloween costumes based around it, no
Speaker 1: massive studio push, just the Internet collectively losing its mind
Speaker 1: over how uncomfortable and brilliant this film is. And I
Speaker 1: think what makes it really stick with people so hard
Speaker 1: is the way it completely flips horror expectation upside down,
Speaker 1: because I actually thought I was in for another fatal
Speaker 1: attraction type of film, and at first it seems almost
Speaker 1: what's the word I'm looking for, like goofy, Like there's
Speaker 1: this awkward music store employee named Bear who has a
Speaker 1: crush on his coworker Nikki. He basically gets rejected when
Speaker 1: he tries to confess his feelings, like he can't get
Speaker 1: the words out, and then buys this supernatural little item
Speaker 1: called a one wish willow so he can wish for
Speaker 1: her to love him more than anyone else in the world.
Speaker 1: I kind of need one of those, and the wish works,
Speaker 1: But instead of becoming some magical romance fantasy, her love
Speaker 1: immediately turns into this horrifying, suffocating obsession, like she becomes
Speaker 1: completely emotionally dependent on him. In this deeply unnatural way
Speaker 1: that feels more exhausting than romantic, because, let me tell you,
Speaker 1: once the credit started rolling, I actually said, get me
Speaker 1: the fuck out of here. I'm so drained. And I
Speaker 1: mean that in the best way possible. And if you
Speaker 1: didn't like this movie, I'm so sorry, but I absolutely
Speaker 1: loved it now stating the obvious. Inda Navarette's performance as
Speaker 1: Nikki is honestly what's making so many people call this
Speaker 1: movie unforgettable because she's creepy as hell. Okay, she spends
Speaker 1: huge parts of the movie with this forced smile. And
Speaker 1: I know you've seen the memes. I know you've seen
Speaker 1: it in trailers, I know you've seen it on posters.
Speaker 1: But yes, she spends huge parts of the movie with
Speaker 1: this forced smile plastered all over her face, staring at
Speaker 1: Bear like he is the center of her entire existence.
Speaker 1: But there is something so deeply wrong underneath it that
Speaker 1: it becomes genuinely unsettling, and she acts the house down.
Speaker 1: I'm talking. This is up there with Tony Collette and Hereditary,
Speaker 1: Demi Moore in The Substance and Naomi Scott in Smile Too,
Speaker 1: in my opinion. I remember there was one scene where
Speaker 1: she's having a melt down in a dark corner of
Speaker 1: the bedroom. And this was like probably one of the
Speaker 1: first moments that I was watching there, and I started
Speaker 1: to get really uncomfortable and really creeped out, and I
Speaker 1: even started plugging my ears at some point because I
Speaker 1: was so nervous because she's standing in this dark corner
Speaker 1: of the bedroom and her face just looks so off.
Speaker 1: And props to the special effects team here, because this
Speaker 1: was achieved by some Uncanny Valley type of makeup in
Speaker 1: utilizing darkness and shadows, and it was fucking awesome. And
Speaker 1: another praise I have here is that the movie strips
Speaker 1: all the fantasy of the dream girl who loves you
Speaker 1: unconditionally trope and turns it into absolute psychological horror because
Speaker 1: if you really think about it, and I'm sure we've
Speaker 1: all wished our crushes growing up loved us, but somebody
Speaker 1: losing all free will just to satisfy another person's ego
Speaker 1: or desire is terrifying, right, And this is where the
Speaker 1: online debate gets so interesting, because everybody on Instagram, TikTok,
Speaker 1: read it, you name it is split on who the
Speaker 1: real villain actually is, and some people are even fighting
Speaker 1: about it. A lot of people think Bear is obviously
Speaker 1: the villain here and the whole movie is this brutal
Speaker 1: metaphor for male entitlement and the toxic nice guy mentality,
Speaker 1: Like he thinks being nice to Nicki means that he
Speaker 1: deserves her affection, and by making that wish, he completely
Speaker 1: destroys her ability to consent. He ruins her entire life physically, mentally, emotionally,
Speaker 1: all of the above. And the horror is not some
Speaker 1: monster jumping out of the shadows here. Well, if you've
Speaker 1: seen the movie and you've seen Nikki with that makeup on,
Speaker 1: it's kind of terrifying. It could be like a monster.
Speaker 1: But I think what it is here is it's realizing
Speaker 1: what someone is capable of when they can't handle rejection.
Speaker 1: But then there are all these other interpretations floating around.
Speaker 1: Some people think the true villain is actually the supernatural
Speaker 1: force behind the one wish Willow itself, although the film
Speaker 1: never really goes into that much into the backstory or
Speaker 1: entities behind this wish Willow or but whoever, this was
Speaker 1: intentionally twisted the wish into this nightmare to punish both
Speaker 1: of them unfortunately, kind of like how genies use wishes
Speaker 1: to trig people. Then there are other theories analyzing Nicki's
Speaker 1: behavior under the spell and pointing out all these tiny,
Speaker 1: heartbreaking moments where it feels like the real Nikki is
Speaker 1: still trapped somewhere underneath it all which she is, and
Speaker 1: every destructive thing she does could actually be her subconscious
Speaker 1: somehow trying to fight back and force Bear to undo
Speaker 1: this wish. I mean, she even begs him to kill
Speaker 1: her at one point. And I think what really makes
Speaker 1: this movie hit though, is the way it just constantly
Speaker 1: shifts tones without relying on too many jump scares. I
Speaker 1: mean there are a few here, Like it starts off
Speaker 1: feeling like this quirky indie rom com, then it turns
Speaker 1: into this painfully awkward public humiliation drama, and before you
Speaker 1: realize it, you are trapped in this claustrophobic, psychological nightmare
Speaker 1: where every inner action feels just wrong, and I think
Speaker 1: the movie forces you to sit in the discomfort of
Speaker 1: what forced love would actually look like in real life.
Speaker 1: I really do think, though, that the real villain here
Speaker 1: is Bear, because he couldn't just accept the fact that
Speaker 1: Nicki wasn't interested, that Nicki saw him as this little
Speaker 1: brother figure. I don't know, it's just really fun to
Speaker 1: theorize here. I can tell you this much, though. I
Speaker 1: just hope we see some oscar buzz around this movie,
Speaker 1: because we need more horror films at award shows. Truly
Speaker 1: overlooking horror is doing a disservice to all of the
Speaker 1: actors who act their asses off in these films, and
Speaker 1: it is honestly still rare to see a horror movie
Speaker 1: pull off this kind of balancing act, especially one sitting
Speaker 1: at a ninety four percent on Rotten Tomatoes while also
Speaker 1: getting mainstream audiences on board. Usually movies this weird and
Speaker 1: psychologically nasty and a super divisive, right, but this one
Speaker 1: somehow managed to become both a critical hit and a
Speaker 1: giant online obsession at the exact same time. Now, as
Speaker 1: far as what I think the film wants you to
Speaker 1: take from it, and I'm going to backtrack here just
Speaker 1: a little bit to get some other points across, I
Speaker 1: think that the horror here is Bear, or more specifically,
Speaker 1: the kind of entitlement Bear represents. Like I said, he
Speaker 1: is this awkward, lonely, insecure, emotionally needy, basically the exact
Speaker 1: type of guy society constantly tells women that they should
Speaker 1: give a chance to And I think that's what makes
Speaker 1: the entire thing just feel so real. Bear does not
Speaker 1: actually love Nikki as a human being with agency, flaws, boundaries,
Speaker 1: and independence, right, He loves a fantasy of being loved
Speaker 1: by her. He is completely willing to watch her identity
Speaker 1: collapse in real time as long as her physical shell
Speaker 1: keeps feeding his ego. The movie, it's the romantic fantasy
Speaker 1: away until all that has left is possession disguised as
Speaker 1: this affection. And I think that's why Obsession is hitting
Speaker 1: with so many people, because beneath all the supernatural horror
Speaker 1: and viral marketing, the movie is really asking a terrifying question.
Speaker 1: If somebody truly loves you, but only because you stripped
Speaker 1: away their ability to choose otherwise, was it ever love
Speaker 1: at all? Or was it just possession wearing love skin? Now,
Speaker 1: this topic inspired me to look into a few cases,
Speaker 1: surely not of anyone making wishes and then coming true,
Speaker 1: but cases of real life relationships, real life obsessions turning
Speaker 1: into real life horror. So on that note, let's get
Speaker 1: into this episode's nine to one one call. Now, this
Speaker 1: case is one of those true crime stories that completely
Speaker 1: took a the media for years. Once you get into
Speaker 1: the details, you kind of understand why, because it's messy, disturbing, emotional,
Speaker 1: and the relationship at the center of it was toxic
Speaker 1: from pretty much every angle. So just to set the
Speaker 1: stage here, you have this guy, Travis Alexander, who was
Speaker 1: this salesman and motivational speaker from California who worked for
Speaker 1: this company called Prepaid Legal Services. His friends would describe
Speaker 1: him as charismatic. He was funny, super social, and really
Speaker 1: involved in his church. He even did stand up comedy
Speaker 1: sometimes under the name Eddie Snow, which is kind of
Speaker 1: random here, but I also want to make him feel
Speaker 1: more human outside of just being the victim in this case.
Speaker 1: Then you bring in this woman by the name of
Speaker 1: Jody Arius. She was from California as well and was
Speaker 1: trying to make photography happen while bouncing around different jobs
Speaker 1: before eventually working for the same company as Travis. The
Speaker 1: two met at a work conference that took place in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas in two thousand and six, and things moved
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Jody actually converted to the Mormon Church for him,
Speaker 1: and Travis baptized her himself and I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I find that just extremely weird, honestly, and I
Speaker 1: know I'm probably coming off as judgmental, but it's giving obsessed.
Speaker 1: It's almost as if Jody was obsessed with Travis already
Speaker 1: right now. They started dating officially in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: but their relationship was apparently super on and off and
Speaker 1: incredibly intense. Friends around them said it was chaotic and
Speaker 1: unhealthy pretty much from the beginning. Even after breakups, they
Speaker 1: kept reconnecting long distance. The emotional fights, jealousy, just all
Speaker 1: of it, and according to Travis's friends, they were really
Speaker 1: worried about Jody. They claimed she was obsessive and started
Speaker 1: to stalk him, getting into his Facebook account and even
Speaker 1: allegedly slashing his tires. Then, unfortunately, in June of two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, Travis was found murdered in his Messa,
Speaker 1: Arizona home, and the details are quite brutal here because
Speaker 1: he was stabbed twenty seven times. His throat was slit
Speaker 1: so deeply that his jugular gratid artery and trachea were cut,
Speaker 1: and he was also shot in the back of the
Speaker 1: head with the twenty five caliber handgun. Investigators believed that
Speaker 1: the attack happened while he was in the shower. The
Speaker 1: medical examiner later said that he had defensive wounds on
Speaker 1: his hands, meaning he tried to fight back. And what
Speaker 1: makes this case even creepier is just how police figured
Speaker 1: things out, because when Travis's friends couldn't reach him for days,
Speaker 1: they went to his house and found blood leading to
Speaker 1: the bathroom where his body was discovered in the shower.
Speaker 1: Right away, they called nine to one one to listen
Speaker 1: to some of these clips from the actual life. One
Speaker 1: can emergency, HI.
Speaker 2: This is pure with the tramp calling from one one
Speaker 2: for two eight East Queen Barrel Mammy correct, yes, O,
Speaker 2: huh okay, okay, that's one one fortwo Eightiest Queen Burrel
Speaker 2: Avenue in Mesa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, what's going on?
Speaker 2: What? What's going on?
Speaker 3: Our friend of ours is dead in his bedroom. We
Speaker 3: hadn't heard from him for a while. We think came dead.
Speaker 3: His roommate just went in there and he said they
Speaker 3: bought some blood. I didn't know when, but I can
Speaker 3: give you this phone to someone who went in there.
Speaker 2: Can yes, please name hello?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 2: What's going on?
Speaker 3: He's dead, He's in his bedroom, Okay, in the shower. Okay,
Speaker 3: how did this happen?
Speaker 2: Do you have any idea? We have no idea.
Speaker 3: Everyone's been wondering about him for she said that there's blood,
Speaker 3: so is it coming from his head? Did he did?
Speaker 3: It's all over the place?
Speaker 2: Hold on just a moment. Okay, you're a good friend
Speaker 2: of Travis's.
Speaker 4: Yes, I am okay.
Speaker 3: Because he had been depressed at all to thinking about
Speaker 3: meaning suicide anything like that.
Speaker 4: I don't think he's been being a community is that
Speaker 4: he's been really depressed because he broke up with this
Speaker 4: girl and he was all upset about that. But I
Speaker 4: don't think he would actually kill himself over that.
Speaker 2: Has he been threatened by anyone recently?
Speaker 4: He hasn't. He has an ex girlfriend that's been bothering
Speaker 4: him and in them following him and flashing tires and
Speaker 4: things like that.
Speaker 2: And you know the ex girlfriend's name, mother?
Speaker 3: What's his ex girlfriend?
Speaker 2: Who?
Speaker 4: Aw coool?
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 3: And do you know if he's ever reported it to
Speaker 3: the police.
Speaker 4: His her name is Jody. I don't know if he's
Speaker 4: ever reported hold on, yeah a cool?
Speaker 3: He's ever reported building school? Fool? But the sad said.
Speaker 4: No, he hasn't reported anything about guilty's behavior.
Speaker 2: Okay. The tub is in his bedroom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess I didn't go in, but from
Speaker 3: what I heard, his roommate went in, there's blood in
Speaker 3: his bedroom behind the door. Uh, and palpa, and then
Speaker 3: he said it's all over. And then they went in
Speaker 3: the bathroom and he in his shower.
Speaker 2: And you know his his his bedroom is where in
Speaker 2: the house.
Speaker 3: It's upstairs. And if you go up the stairs, it's
Speaker 3: on the left. It's the first door on your left.
Speaker 3: It's the only door on your left.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: And and it's just a big master, sweet bedroom oday.
Speaker 4: What's this?
Speaker 3: And she's talking to his friend right now. There's a
Speaker 3: girl that sends stocking him and see, and she's trying
Speaker 3: and he's trying to might not with some information. They
Speaker 3: hope my phone doesn't I I'm on like one bar
Speaker 3: of battery.
Speaker 2: Okay. Well, I'm just gonna keep you on the phone
Speaker 2: until officers arrive, e their officers or paramedics arrive.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I think I can hear the same.
Speaker 1: While searching the house, investigators found a damage digital camera
Speaker 1: inside the washing machine. Somehow they managed to recover deleted
Speaker 1: photos from it, and those photos became one of the
Speaker 1: biggest pieces of evidence in the case, and this, to me,
Speaker 1: is one of the more sinister parts of the case
Speaker 1: because pictures showed Travis and Jody together that day in
Speaker 1: intimate photos, all time stamped. Then the last image of
Speaker 1: Travis alive showed him standing in the shower, and that's
Speaker 1: the one photo of Travis looking at the camera, and
Speaker 1: the look on his face is just creepy because it
Speaker 1: shows him seconds before Jody murders him, and it's him
Speaker 1: either realizing she snapped or that he knows what's about
Speaker 1: to happen. It's also a photo of someone's final moment,
Speaker 1: which makes it disturbing to me. Other photos found after
Speaker 1: were blurry photos showing him on the bathroom floor bleeding heavily.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most haunting pieces of evidence I've
Speaker 1: ever heard about in a case. Not to mention, there
Speaker 1: was also a bloody pomp print with both of their
Speaker 1: DNA mixed together. Now, at first, Jody denied even being there.
Speaker 1: She told police she hadn't seen Travis in months. Then
Speaker 1: her story changed, and suddenly there were supposedly two masked
Speaker 1: intruders who killed him and attacked her as well. Now
Speaker 1: years later, she changed her story again and admitted that
Speaker 1: she did kill him, but claimed it with self defense
Speaker 1: after enduring abuse from him for months, and that became
Speaker 1: the center of the entire trial. The prosecution painted you
Speaker 1: as an obsessed ex girlfriend who carefully planned the murder.
Speaker 1: They pointed out that she rented a car, drove hundreds
Speaker 1: of miles, bought gas cans ahead of time, changed her
Speaker 1: hair color afterward, and showed up to a business event
Speaker 1: the next day acting completely normal despite having cuts all
Speaker 1: over her hands. The defense argued Travis was abusive behind
Speaker 1: closed doors and said Jody snapped while defending herself. During
Speaker 1: the trial, some really personal and uncomfortable details about the
Speaker 1: relationship came out, explicit text messages, phone recordings, sexual conversations.
Speaker 1: Even the whole trial basically became this massive public dissection
Speaker 1: of their private relationship. Jody testified for something like eighteen days,
Speaker 1: which is kind of unheard of. She talked about alleged
Speaker 1: emotional and physical abuse, claimed Travis had dark sexual interests,
Speaker 1: and said she feared for her life. The prosecution meanwhile
Speaker 1: focused on how many times she changed her story and
Speaker 1: called her manipulative and dishonest and understandably, so like how
Speaker 1: many times are you going to change a story? Girl?
Speaker 1: And psychologists were brought in from both sides as well.
Speaker 1: One expert said Jody had PTSD from abuse. Another diagnosed
Speaker 1: her with borderline personality disorder and said she wasn't actually
Speaker 1: a victim of domestic violence. So even the mental health
Speaker 1: side of the case became this huge back and forth battle,
Speaker 1: and because the trial was televised, people became completely obsessed
Speaker 1: with it. Every little detail was analyzed online. Jody herself
Speaker 1: became this incredibly polarizing figure where some people thought she
Speaker 1: was a cold blooded killer, while others believed there was
Speaker 1: more complexity to the relationship than the prosecution admitted. In
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, she was convicted a first agree murder, but
Speaker 1: then came another huge media circuit deciding whether she should
Speaker 1: get the death penalty. The jury couldn't agree the first time,
Speaker 1: and then even during the retrial years later, another jury
Speaker 1: still deadlocked over it. But eventually, in twenty fifteen, the
Speaker 1: judge sentenced her to life in prison without parole. And
Speaker 1: what still makes this case fascinating to people and myself
Speaker 1: is that it never felt simple, like you had this
Speaker 1: horrifying crime scene, the changing stories, the intense relationship dynamics,
Speaker 1: accusations of abuse, manipulation from both sides, and a trial
Speaker 1: that felt more like a psychological unraveling than a normal
Speaker 1: murder case. Right and honestly, just No matter where people
Speaker 1: land on Jody Arias, the one thing almost everyone agrees
Speaker 1: on is that the relationship between her and Travis it
Speaker 1: was deeply unhealthy long before it ended where it did.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break from the blood soak depths of
Speaker 1: late night Horror. Comes a collection so shocking, so scandalous,
Speaker 1: it'll make your wardrobe scream, want my face on your chest?
Speaker 1: Or maybe you just want to rep the cult, the logo,
Speaker 1: the legend, the Scream Society. Don't just listen to the nightmare,
Speaker 1: wear it, rep it, live it, get it now before
Speaker 1: it gets you. Head to Scream Dash Society, Dot Prinifide,
Speaker 1: dot Me and Rep Scream Society Merch. Welcome into Terrifying
Speaker 1: but True, the segment where I choose one random true crime,
Speaker 1: dark history or paranormal case and do a deep dive
Speaker 1: on it. This episode, I'm continuing on the theme of
Speaker 1: obsessions and covering the case of the Sunny Veil EESL shooting,
Speaker 1: and this case is pretty scary because it's one of
Speaker 1: the clearest examples of obsession escalating over years while basically
Speaker 1: everyone watched it happen. And the scariest part is that
Speaker 1: the victim, Laura Black, did everything people always tell victims
Speaker 1: to do. She reported it, moved multiple times, even involved
Speaker 1: hr because the aggressor was a coworker. She even got
Speaker 1: a restraining order, and it still ended in absolute tragedy.
Speaker 1: So let's get into it. When the unthinkable becomes reality,
Speaker 1: we find ourselves questioning everything as some stories are too
Speaker 1: terrifying but true.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Richard Farley was born in Texas in nineteen forty eight
Speaker 1: and grew up in a military family that moved around
Speaker 1: constantly before eventually settling in California. He was apparently really intelligent,
Speaker 1: kind of socially awkward, and worked as a software technician
Speaker 1: for a defense contractor called ESL Incorporated in Sunnyvale, California. So,
Speaker 1: by all accounts, before this case, he didn't have a
Speaker 1: criminal record or this history of violence people could point to. Then,
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty four, Farley met a coworker named Laura Black.
Speaker 1: Laura was twenty two years old, Farley was thirty five,
Speaker 1: and according to him, the second he saw her, he
Speaker 1: was completely obsessed. At first, it probably looked more like
Speaker 1: an awkward crush. He'd leaf letters, homemade bagd goods, little
Speaker 1: gifts on her desk and constantly would ask her out,
Speaker 1: but Laura repeatedly told him no. She later said she
Speaker 1: tried to stay polite and cordial while making it clear
Speaker 1: she just wasn't interested, but Farley absolutely would not accept that,
Speaker 1: and that's when things started escalating from uncomfortable to pretty
Speaker 1: fucking disturbing. He began calling her desk constantly throughout the day.
Speaker 1: Then he started showing up to her aerobics classes. He
Speaker 1: manipulated s HR department into giving him her personal information
Speaker 1: by pretending that he needed it for work related reasons.
Speaker 1: He got her home address and phone number that way
Speaker 1: as well. So here you have HR giving away this
Speaker 1: girl's home address and phone number to this creep who
Speaker 1: is obviously obsessed with her. Then after that he started
Speaker 1: digging even deeper into her life. He befriended custodians to
Speaker 1: try and copy keys to her desk so he could
Speaker 1: go through her belongings. He accessed confidential personal files, he
Speaker 1: stalked her movements obsessively. Over four years, he sent around
Speaker 1: two hundred letters to her, and these weren't just please
Speaker 1: date me letters anymore. He started creating this entire fantasy
Speaker 1: relationship in his head. He even doctored photos to make
Speaker 1: it look like he and Laura were this happy couple
Speaker 1: together and would mail them to her like imagine how
Speaker 1: horrifying that must have been. And every time Laura moved
Speaker 1: trying to get away from him, which she did four
Speaker 1: separate times, he somehow found her new address again. It
Speaker 1: basically became her entire life for years now. Eventually, Laura
Speaker 1: would go to ESL's human resources department for help, but
Speaker 1: they're the ones who gave him her address. Sough. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the company forced Farley into counseling, but it clearly didn't
Speaker 1: do anything because the stocking continued. Coworkers started feeling uneasy
Speaker 1: around him as well, especially when he began threatening employees.
Speaker 1: Cut to nineteen eighty six. ESL finally fired him after
Speaker 1: nine years there because of his behavior and his poor performance.
Speaker 1: But losing his job didn't stop the obsession. If anything,
Speaker 1: it made it worse because now he had all the
Speaker 1: time in the world to stalk Laura full time. Then
Speaker 1: things started heading toward this breaking point. On February second,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, Laura finally got a temporary restraining order
Speaker 1: again him. A court hearing was scheduled for February seventeenth
Speaker 1: to determine if it would become permanent, But the restraining
Speaker 1: order didn't stop him from buying weapons, and this is
Speaker 1: where the case becomes unbelievably scary, because Farley started stockpiling guns, ammunition, knives,
Speaker 1: tactical gear, basically preparing for a war. Investigators later found
Speaker 1: thousands of rounds of ammunition and multiple firearms connected to him.
Speaker 1: Days before the attack, he even dropped off a bizarre
Speaker 1: package to Laura's attorney, trying to prove they'd secretly been
Speaker 1: in this relationship. The package included fake photos, random receipts,
Speaker 1: and completely fabricated stories claiming they dated and even used
Speaker 1: drugs together. Laura's attorney immediately recognized it as delusional nonsense,
Speaker 1: But then came February sixteenth, nineteen eighty eight, Literally the
Speaker 1: day before the restraining order hearing, Farley drove a motor
Speaker 1: home packed with weapons to ESL's headquarters in Sunnyvale, He
Speaker 1: later claimed he planned to convince Laura to drop the
Speaker 1: restraining order and if she refused, kill himself, but instead
Speaker 1: he armed himself like he was going into combat. He
Speaker 1: loaded himself down with multiple guns, shotguns, hundreds upon hundreds
Speaker 1: of rounds of ammunition, knives, extra magazines, over a thousand
Speaker 1: rounds total. Later police would find even more weapons and
Speaker 1: gear inside the building. At around two fifty pm, he
Speaker 1: started shooting. The first victim was a man named Lawrence Kane,
Speaker 1: who was killed outside in the parking lot. Another employee
Speaker 1: barely survived by ducking behind a car door. Farley then
Speaker 1: shot his way into the building through a glass security
Speaker 1: entrance and began moving through esl looking for Laura. As
Speaker 1: he made his way through the building, people were just
Speaker 1: caught completely off guard. Employees were hiding under desks, running
Speaker 1: into offices, trying to barricade doors while Farley moved floor
Speaker 1: to floor with all these weapons. He killed people in hallways, stairwells, offices,
Speaker 1: basically anyone he viewed as being in his way, and
Speaker 1: by the time he reached the second floor near Laura's office,
Speaker 1: several more people had already been murdered. But then he
Speaker 1: found her office. Laura actually managed to slam the door
Speaker 1: shut in his face, but Farley fired a shotgun blast
Speaker 1: through the door. The shot hit her in the shoulder
Speaker 1: and collapsed her long. She fell unconscious, and Farley moved on,
Speaker 1: apparently thinking she was dead. But what's incredible here is
Speaker 1: that Laura actually survived. At one point during the shooting,
Speaker 1: Farley actually called emergency services himself and basically admitted to everything,
Speaker 1: saying I'm the one who's been wasting people. He blamed
Speaker 1: the restraining order, and he even blamed Laura for what
Speaker 1: he was doing, and the situation ended up turning into
Speaker 1: this massive six hour standoff. Farley wandered around the building
Speaker 1: armed to the teeth while SWAT teams surrounded the place.
Speaker 1: He talked for hours with negotiators over the phone, crying
Speaker 1: at times threatening suicide, complaining about losing his house and
Speaker 1: money problems, and talking about how hopeless his life had become.
Speaker 1: But what's disturbing is that while he expressed regret about
Speaker 1: shooting Laura specifically, he showed basically no remorse for the
Speaker 1: seven people that he did murder. He claimed he shot
Speaker 1: them because they were threats. At one point he even
Speaker 1: admitted to wanting to gloat about the situation for a
Speaker 1: little bit. All while this was happening, Laura had regained
Speaker 1: consciousness while hiding inside the building. Even with the collapsed
Speaker 1: lung and gunshot wound, she managed to stop the bleeding
Speaker 1: enough to survive until rescuers got people out, and finally
Speaker 1: around eight thirty pm, Farlely surrendered after asking for a
Speaker 1: sandwich and a soft drink, and by the end of
Speaker 1: it seven people were dead and four others were wounded.
Speaker 1: Now the following day, the judge made Laura's restraining order
Speaker 1: permanent and said something that became infamous afterward. Pieces of
Speaker 1: paper do not stop bullets. Honestly, that line is why
Speaker 1: this case still gets talked about today, because it perfectly
Speaker 1: captured the horrifying reality that the system really didn't know
Speaker 1: how to handle stalking back then, And to be quite honest,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I believe the system still doesn't know
Speaker 1: how to handle stocking situations today in modern times. So
Speaker 1: at trial, Farley admitted he committed the shootings, but claimed
Speaker 1: that he never intended to kill anyone and just wanted
Speaker 1: Laura's attention or planned to kill himself in front of her.
Speaker 1: His defense tried portraying him as a nonviolent man whose
Speaker 1: obsession temporarily clouded his judgment, but prosecutors laid out years
Speaker 1: of stalking evidence, the hundreds of letters, the fake relationship fantasy,
Speaker 1: the weapon purchases, the planning, the ammunition stockpile, and argued
Speaker 1: this was absolutely premeditated. In nineteen ninety one, he was
Speaker 1: convicted on seven counts of first degree murder and sentenced
Speaker 1: to death the following year. Lauris survived and eventually returned
Speaker 1: to work at the same company. But even after everything,
Speaker 1: Farley still wrote to her from prison, telling her she
Speaker 1: had finally won. And what makes this case historically important
Speaker 1: is that it directly changed the law in America. At
Speaker 1: the time, stocking wasn't even officially recognized as a crime
Speaker 1: in most places. Cases like this, along with several other
Speaker 1: horrifying California stocking cases in the late eighties, pushed lawmakers
Speaker 1: to finally create anti stocking laws. California became the first
Speaker 1: state in the country to criminalize stocking in nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: and within a few years every state would follow. So
Speaker 1: this case didn't just expose how dangerous obsession can become
Speaker 1: when someone refuses to accept rejection. But it also completely
Speaker 1: changed the way the legal system view stalking forever and
Speaker 1: in my opinion, for good measure. And I'll just end
Speaker 1: on this. If you or someone you know is in
Speaker 1: a situation like this is dealing with a stalker. It
Speaker 1: sounds crazy, I know, but it does happen, and I
Speaker 1: just I urge you to not take these situations lightly
Speaker 1: because they can't end in complete destruction. Let's get into
Speaker 1: ral versus a rod where I react to your stories, experiences,
Speaker 1: situationships and answer your questions while doing my best to
Speaker 1: give you perspective and or a little advice. To submit,
Speaker 1: simply email Scream Society Podcast at gmail dot com. My
Speaker 1: inbox is always open over on Instagram Scream Society Podcast,
Speaker 1: or click the anonymous of missions link in all my bios.
Speaker 1: Remember mostly everything remains anonymous. At the start of the episode,
Speaker 1: I shared a submission from a friend, Hey, Jake. Now,
Speaker 1: Jake had a pretty unsettling experience after seeing the movie Obsession.
Speaker 1: They were driving some friends home late at night after
Speaker 1: the movie when they stopped at a red light on
Speaker 1: a one way street and let a guy jaywalk across.
Speaker 1: At first, the dude seemed completely normal, casually dressed, carrying
Speaker 1: a bag, even kind of cute according to the submission.
Speaker 1: But as he passed the car, he locked eyes with
Speaker 1: them in a way that immediately fell off. And then
Speaker 1: things got even weirder while sitting at a light, because
Speaker 1: Jake looked in the review mirror and saw the guy
Speaker 1: suddenly turn around and start full on sprinting toward the
Speaker 1: car while staring them down. They were supposed to turn left,
Speaker 1: but instead panicked, took her right on red, and sped
Speaker 1: off to avoid finding out what the guy wanted. Nothing
Speaker 1: technically happened, okay, but the sudden switch and behavior, especially
Speaker 1: right after watching Obsession, left them genuinely shaken for the
Speaker 1: rest of the drive home. So I will title this
Speaker 1: one hell no, But honestly, like, are there any pictures
Speaker 1: of this guy? Because I kind of want to see.
Speaker 1: But in all seriousness, I really have zero critiques for you,
Speaker 1: because I think you did everything right here. Actually, maybe
Speaker 1: the first and only mistake was stopping to let this
Speaker 1: guy pass unless it was unsafe too and random tangent. Here,
Speaker 1: your boy has road rage because nothing crawls under my
Speaker 1: skin more than someone running out in the middle of
Speaker 1: the street. I will literally roll down my window and
Speaker 1: scream crosswalk like it's so crazy, Like like I've calmed
Speaker 1: down a lot as far as being unhinged and lashing
Speaker 1: out at people, but put me behind a wheel, all
Speaker 1: bets are off. But anyway, going back to the submission,
Speaker 1: I really wonder what this person was going to do,
Speaker 1: or maybe what they were on, or maybe he just
Speaker 1: wanted to ride with some batties. I mean I would
Speaker 1: do the same, honestly. How did Bear's cat get that
Speaker 1: pale box? I'll open to od obsession. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: a question I got on Instagram when I was posting
Speaker 1: memes and asking people how everyone liked Obsession, because apparently
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with obsession. That's why there's a whole episode
Speaker 1: about it. But in the beginning of the film, the
Speaker 1: main character, again Bear, comes home to his cat dead
Speaker 1: after it ate all of his pills. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what kind of pills they were, and saying that
Speaker 1: out loud sounds fucking wild as fuck. So I mean,
Speaker 1: a movie can't be perfect, right, But that is actually
Speaker 1: a really great question, and I would challenge this scene too. Actually,
Speaker 1: Like cats are picky as hell, right, Like every time
Speaker 1: I go to my dad's and I'm eating snacks, I'll
Speaker 1: offer some to my step mom's cats and they never
Speaker 1: want anything to do with them, or me for that matter.
Speaker 1: But like, this scene would have made more sense with
Speaker 1: the dog because I feel like dogs like to eat
Speaker 1: everything off the floor. But unless Bear left, the captains grewed.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Great question. Let's move on from the
Speaker 1: obsession topic. When are you coming to us? I will
Speaker 1: be coming to Australia when Australia stops having the scariest
Speaker 1: animals and insects known to man, like I have crippling arachnophobia.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry coming out in California though, hot take the
Speaker 1: Free Britney movement did more harm than good. Well, like
Speaker 1: there are there are so many different angles you can
Speaker 1: look at this. In the case where it's just about
Speaker 1: her family taking advantage and not allowing her to do
Speaker 1: really anything, Yes, but do we truly know the full
Speaker 1: story or do we know just certain sides because the
Speaker 1: media we know how the media works around here. I
Speaker 1: don't know, though, And I'm assuming this is talking about
Speaker 1: Britney Spears and the year she spent in this conservatorship
Speaker 1: that she just got out of a few years ago.
Speaker 1: But where I think the family and her handlers went
Speaker 1: wrong was completely stripping away her free will such a
Speaker 1: young age, right, Like, she wasn't allowed to make any mistakes.
Speaker 1: They wanted this perfect pop star, and when she did
Speaker 1: make mistakes, it was just blown out of proportion and
Speaker 1: people made a big deal about it. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's why her family and team put her in this
Speaker 1: conservatorship and in doing that, controlling everything, she wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to make mistakes and more importantly learn from them. So
Speaker 1: when the Free Britney Movement freed Brittany, they essentially let
Speaker 1: this person who never really had to experience messing up
Speaker 1: on a human level and learning from it. They let
Speaker 1: them out into the wild. And well, now she's going
Speaker 1: through it all speeding tickets, DUI dancing videos. People are
Speaker 1: worried about her safety, her sobriety, her mental health, and
Speaker 1: it's just it's all very odd, right, And I mean,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, I want her to be free,
Speaker 1: but I also think she should have been eased into
Speaker 1: all of this or guided somehow. But we can assume
Speaker 1: and give our opinions all we want, but I don't
Speaker 1: think we will ever know the whole story. I do
Speaker 1: feel really sad for her situation, though I should tell
Speaker 1: you about the time I was dragged out of bed
Speaker 1: and jump scared awake after slamming on the floor. Excuse me.
Speaker 1: A big thank you to those who submitted to the podcast.
Speaker 1: Make sure to get those questions in. Always remember to
Speaker 1: keep it respectful and honest. If you send it in
Speaker 1: the post about being dragged out of bed and waking
Speaker 1: up because you slammed on the floor, we need to
Speaker 1: talk like you can't just leave me like that. Check
Speaker 1: out the links in bio on the podcast socials and
Speaker 1: support a homosexual in need by buying some merch and
Speaker 1: until next time, I'll scare you on the next episode.
Speaker 1: No thank you for tuning into the Scream Society podcast.
Speaker 1: I sid written, produced and edited by yours truly, Ralph Anthony.
Speaker 1: Help the Society grow by subscribing on your favorite platform
Speaker 1: and leave a waiting in review. I always drive for fives.
Speaker 1: Have a horror or paranormal experience me to answer your
Speaker 1: questions on the show. Submit to beacons dot ai, slash
Speaker 1: the Scream Society, connect with the podcast on Instagram, TikTok,
Speaker 1: and YouTube at scream Society podcast and until next time,
Speaker 1: I'll scare you on the next episode.