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Speaker 1: M M A Wall Street line, shackle change, Oh doesome

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girdy it's calling my name. There is no mercy and

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it's been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Rango.

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The three.

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Speaker 2: Come here, be by me to die.

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Speaker 1: Inside these walls, inside the wild.

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Speaker 2: Hadn't went no girls. I Hey everyone, and welcome back

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to Bloody Angola, a podcast one hundred and forty two

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years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest prison.

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I'm Jim Chapman, and today I am bringing you another

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suggested story from a listener, and this is the story

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of Louisiana State Benitentiary Death Row inmate Owen Perry, who

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in nineteen eighty five was convicted of the murder of

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five members of his own family. So let's get into it,

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and I'm gonna start by giving you a little history

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on Michael Perry. He was born on December third of

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nineteen fifty four in Lake Arthur, Louisiana. Which Lake Arthur, y'all,

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is located in West Louisiana, and it's part of what's

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known as Jefferson Davis Parish. And it's not a very

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large town. Even today, there are only about three thousand

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people that reside there, and most of the people that

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live there or around that area they work in the

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oil fields, and this is primarily due to the proximity

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to the Texas Line, it's only about thirty five miles

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or so away, and also the proximity to the Gulf

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of America not too much further away than that. So

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not much is known about Michael Perry's very young childhood,

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except that he was troubled mentally, so much so that

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at the age of sixteen, his parents drove him to Galveston,

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Texas for a mental evaluation. Now, despite what appeared to

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be some glaring mental issues, Michael did graduate high school,

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and during this time in his life, he was already

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kind of known as a little bit off, if you will,

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by those who knew him or went to school with him.

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Perry would often talk to himself. He was just considered

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very strange. However, he was not without talent and actually

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known as a pretty talented musician. He even played in

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a band called The Great Pretenders. Now, around this time,

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his brother suddenly dies in a work related accident, and,

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like any family that has to deal with or come

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to terms with the loss of a brother, a sister,

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a son, a mother, a father. It devastates the family,

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and Perry's younger sister, she really takes it hard. She

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eventually gets committed to a mental institution and she is

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diagnosed with schizophrenia. And Michael also has his difficulty coping.

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He would tell neighbors that his dead brother was on

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vacation in England. He just could not accept the fact

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that his brother was actually dead. And I'll deviate for

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a second from the story to tell you now, with schizophrenia,

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a lot of times doctors will say that it's a

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significant event in a life that will really trigger it,

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especially in young people. So it's not surprising that his sister,

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after she was committed, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It's also

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believed that that runs in families if you have a

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family history of that. They see a lot of cases

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where someone's diagnosed in their grandfather or grandmother. You know,

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close relatives also either have been diagnosed or they've had

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events where people would assume that was likely the reason.

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So back to it, it was not long before his

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parents took none of this and these strange behaviors, and

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just after his graduation from high school, they have him

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committed to the Central State Mental Hospital in Pineville, Louisiana. Now,

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at this point, Michael Perry is eighteen years old. He's

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there for a while, and then at some point he

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actually escapes the mental hospital. He somehow manages to make

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his way back to Lake Author, Louisiana and his parents home. Now,

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when he shows back up at the home, I just

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can't tell you why his parents did not call the

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police and basically say, hey, our son escape from a

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mental hospital and we need you to come in and

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take him back to the mental hospital. No one really

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knows why it appears, but the fact is that they didn't.

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They didn't call the police, they didn't do anything. So

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a few years pass in these mental issues with Perry persist.

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He can't hold a job, he gets very reclusive, kind

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of hangs in his room all the time, and he's

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really losing touch with reality by this point. And by

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the age of twenty four, he becomes absolutely obsessed with

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a film star who had just started in a hit

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movie which would become one of the biggest hits of

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all time. In the name of that movie was Grease,

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and the film star was a relative newcomer and her

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name was Olivia Newton John, which in his mental state,

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that ain't good. He continues to slip deeper into this

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schizophrenic state. Eight He wasn't diagnosed with it, but it

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was obvious that he was showing signs of it. He

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starts writing letters to Olivia Newton John, and he becomes

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convinced that she is sending him telepathic messages. He's so

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convinced of this, in fact, that he cuts down all

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of the trees in his parents' front yard because he

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believed the trees were causing interference with Olivia communicating with

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him by using telepathy, and so essentially he was basically

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hearing voices her voice talking to him, and he was

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convinced it was her and he was actually talking back

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to her, which this is a telltale sign of schizophrenia.

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It's actually known as auditory hallucination. He would also exhibit

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other signs. For example, his mother and Olivia had the

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same color eyes, and due to this, he go in

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and out of this state of mind where he would

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actually think his mother was Olivia Newton John. Then suddenly

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he would kind of snap out of this state of

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mind and he would realize his mother was not Olivia

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Newton John, that it was his mother, and he would

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actually get pissed, extremely pissed, and he would get violent

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and he would physically beat up his own mother. This

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happened several times. Now it would come out later that

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Michael had harbored an enormous amount of resentment for the

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fact that his parents had had him committed when he

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was eighteen years old to that mental institution, and that

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would play an important role in my opinion of how

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this case turned out. So I'll get to that later on.

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But as I said, he started beating his mother during

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these episodes. So his parents were like, screw that, and

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they told him he could not come in the house

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anymore without permission. And they had a large property where

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a bunch of family lived, including Michael's cousins, were on

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this property. Of course, his parents' home was on this property,

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and also on this property was a vacant trailer. So

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rather than just throw Michael to the wolves, his parents

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were nice enough to allow him to live in this

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trailer on their property. And Michael progresses even deeper into

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his schizophrenia. He starts exhibiting symptoms of the paranoia aspect

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of it One example of this is Michael is convinced

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that he is being monitored by his family, so he

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would mail himself empty packages and he would pack them

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in a way that he could tell if they had

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and opened or tampered with. And he would do this

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y'all over and over again. He then started thinking that

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Olivia Newton John is intentionally changing the color of her

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eyes as a method to keep him from communicating with

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her telepathically. I know it sounds crazy, but we're not

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dealing with what I would consider a sane human being here.

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He starts seeing rotting corpses coming through his floorboards, and

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he becomes convinced that Olivia Newton John is responsible for this.

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And it's around this time that he leaves Louisiana and

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he travels all the way to Malibu, California. He camps

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out in the woods near her home for several days,

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and he tries to gain access to her home several times. Now,

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Levia Newton John, as you can imagine, she lived in

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a gated community and she had security at the front

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and back gates, and he would actually walk up to

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this major megastar. At this point in time, this is

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like four years after Greece had come out, so she's

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at the top of her stardom. He would go to

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the front gates and try to get in to see

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Olivia Newton John, and of course the security is like,

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you know, go kick rocks. You're not getting in here.

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We're not gonna let you in here, and he would leave.

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He tried this multiple times, but in this dude's fragile

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state of mind, he took this shit hard. To him.

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This is like Olivia Newton John is rejecting him, basically,

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like they were boyfriend and girlfriend and they broke up,

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and he just gets filled with this massive amount of rage.

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He is so pissed off. It is like the straw

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that broke the cammel's back mentally for him. He goes

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back to Lake Arthur, Louisiana. He breaks into his cousin's home.

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Two of his cousins lived there, both males, adult males.

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He finds one cousin in one room sleeping, shoots him

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with a pistol right in the eye, killing him. Instantly

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goes into another bedroom where the other cousin is sleeping

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and shoots him in the head, killing him. He then

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walks over to his parents' house, which he knew they

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were on vacation, and their home was right across the

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yard basically from where his cousins lived. He knew they

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were on vacation, but he also knew they were scheduled

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to return home that morning. When he shot and killed

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his cousin, it was very early in the morning. So

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he goes over there, He makes himself something to eat.

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He turns up the music very loud, and you can

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only assume that's to drown out what I'm about to

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tell you about. But he just chills out on the couch,

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waiting for his parents and his young nephew to get

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back from this vacation. Jim, did you see what happened

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in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let

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me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot

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be as crazy as the case I told you about

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yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a

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podcast about it, and with that we did. Crime War

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Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.

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We cover trending crimes from all over the country, and

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even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is

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available now wherever you listen to your podcasts simply by

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searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link in the

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description of this podcast. The parents and his two year

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old nephew get home. His dad opens the front door,

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and as soon as he opens it, Michael shoots him

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with his dad's shotgun. Now at this point, he's twenty

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eight years old. He shoots his father, then shoots his mother,

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who was coming in the door behind his father. Then

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he shoots his two year old nephew. Now, because both

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of his parents were still alive after that first shotgun blast,

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he shoots them both a second time, killing them. He

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then was unsure if his two year old nephew was dead,

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so he shoots his two year old nephew a second

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time to make sure. Michael then drags his mother. There's

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dead body inside the house. She had fell halfway inside

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the door and halfway outside of the door of the home.

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He drags her completely inside and closes the front door.

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And that also will play a part in my opinion

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of this that I'm going to give you at the

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end of this story. So at this point, he reaches

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in his father's wallet, and his dad had like three

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thousand dollars cash in his wallet. Look, he's coming back

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from vacation. I doubt the guy walked around with three

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thousand dollars cash every day, but he's coming back from vacation,

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and that's probably the residual of what he had. This

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is in the early eighties. Banks warn't as prevalent as

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they are now atm machines. I don't even think ATMs

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existed back then. So when you went on vacation, you

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brought a bankroll with you, and his father had a

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bank roll on him, so he steals that money. And

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his mom had a like a small portable safe that

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he it was called a strong box. He took that

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as well. He was going to break in that. If

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there was any jewelry or anything, of course, he's going

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to steal that, try to point it or whatever. And

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he flees the scene in his dad's car. So police

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they get called to the scene, and it's not clear

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who called them or how they heard about this, but

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at some point the next morning they get called to

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the scene and as you can imagine, it's horrific. Some

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officers were interviewed at that time, and that's exactly the

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adjective they used to describe it. Just horrific. You've got

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a two year old who is just blown away, the

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mother and the father both shot in just execution fashion.

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It's just an ugly scene. And as I mentioned, this

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is a small town, and everyone knew Michael. They also

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knew he had been in and out of mental institutions

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for years. So the fact that he's not on the

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scene and nobody knew where he was, it did not

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take you know, a rocket scientist or an extremely astute

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detective to know he probably did this, and he was

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the number one suspect. Police wanted to talk to this guy.

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In the meantime. The first thing they did was they

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searched his trailer. Now remember his entire family lived on

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this property, and it was in his trailer they discovered

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a blank check. And on the back of that blank

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check they find what police referred to as a kill list. Now,

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this list included the names of all five of the

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relatives he had just killed, as well as several celebrities.

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In the word sky was written next to the name

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of each person he had killed, which I can only

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ascertain was meant as a reference to them being dead.

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It's almost like in his crazy mind, he's thinking I

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need to keep track of who I've already killed. It's

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almost like crossing someone off of a list, except for

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he used the term sky, which I guess means they

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went up in the sky. It was another word for killed,

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and also strangely written above the list where the words

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quote the Ten Commandments. The biggest issue for police at

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this point was they had no idea where Michael Perry

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may be. And what they did not know at the

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time that they discovered these bodies of these five family

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members is Michael Perry had already made his way all

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the way to Washington, d C. They would learn later

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he had planned to kill Supreme Court Justice and the

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first female justice on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor.

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Now later, Perry would say he targeted a because quote,

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no woman should ever be above a man. So while

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in BC, he would check into a hotel, he would

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go to the store and he would buy nine televisions.

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And y'all, this is the early eighties. This isn't televisions

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like they have now. These things a lot of people

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referred to him as bubble back TVs. They were very heavy.

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Even a nineteen inch TV at that time weighed a

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thousand pounds. It seemed like he bought nine of these

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some bitches and brought them back to his hotel room,

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and he would tune them all to static because he

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would say later, static is the only thing that made

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sense to him. So Michael Perry is on the lamb,

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if you will, for about two weeks in Washington, d C.

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Before he makes a mistake that would get him caught. Now,

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at the time of his capture, police in Louisiana they

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thought Perry was somewhere in Beverly Hills, California, because they

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had discovered this obsession with Olivia Newton John. So it

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00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,319
was somewhat of a surprise to them when DC police

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00:20:18,839 --> 00:20:23,839
contacted them and they said, hey, Michael Owen Perry, and

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00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,839
when we were doing a search on his name, and y'all,

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00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,920
this is in the infancy of computers, so it took

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00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,920
him a while. But when they searched his name, they

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00:20:33,039 --> 00:20:39,440
figured out he was wanted in Louisiana for those five murders. Now,

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the way he got caught is he was attempting to

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shoplift a radio in the nation's capital. And that in

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and of itself is wild because he had eleven hundred

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dollars in his pocket at the time of the arrest,

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but he tries to shoplift a radio, so police search

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00:20:59,039 --> 00:21:04,519
his room after his arrest, they find these nine TVs,

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all tuned to static, and they also discovered that he

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had written on the screens of these TVs the names

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of all five murder victims his family, and on the

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00:21:19,839 --> 00:21:25,920
sides of those TVs, another hit list was found with

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Sandra Day O'Connor and Olivia Newton John written on that list.

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This was on August first of nineteen eighty three. So

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Perry gets extradited back to Louisiana and during his interrogation

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with investigators, he confirms that he killed his parents due

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to being mad at them for having him committed and

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when they asked why he killed his two year old nephew,

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he stated that his nephew was evil and a demon

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and that's why he killed him two year old. So

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during his trial he would do some strange things as well.

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He would craft headbands out of napkins and he would

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00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:20,559
wear those headbands to court. He would also show up

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00:22:20,599 --> 00:22:23,680
to court wearing no shoes or socks, and he would

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00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:27,240
have very dirty clothing on and when he did wear shoes.

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Of course, they would admonish him for this and say

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you have to wear shoes. He would often remove his

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00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:39,000
shoes during court inside of the courtroom. In the media,

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they would ask him about this and he would say,

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it's the lifestyle of the mafia. Very strange. It also

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came out in the trial that Olivia Newton John was

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so frightened by Michael Parris. She was very aware of

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00:22:56,079 --> 00:23:00,000
this stalker before he was caught, well before he was caught.

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As I told you, he was writing her letters and

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00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:06,720
his letters were even very crazy. But it came out

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00:23:06,799 --> 00:23:10,839
she was so frightened prior to his capture that she

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moved from Beverly Hills back to her home country of Australia.

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She was quoted as saying in a magazine that primarily

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that was due to a photo that he sent the

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film star of herself, but her eyes were scratched out

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in the photo. There were something with Michael Owen Perry

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and eyes that bothered him. So evidence is presented and

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eventually Perry is found guilty of the murder of his

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00:23:41,079 --> 00:23:45,839
five relatives in nineteen eighty five, and the question now

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with regard to his sentencing was do you sentence him

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to the death penalty? Specifically, the question was is Michael

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Owen Perry sane enough to be sentenced to death? And

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the judge had to consider this, and he was in

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a pickle, and I got to be honest with you

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on this one. This is the first case that personally

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00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:13,119
that I've come across that I have covered where this

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00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,480
duve may have kind of a legitimate gripe as far

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as an insanity defense. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve

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00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:25,480
everything he gets, but by the letter of the law,

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in my mind, if anyone qualifies, it would be this guy.

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00:24:29,759 --> 00:24:32,480
But I could definitely give you some arguments as well

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that would speak to his sanity during the murders in

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my opinion. For example, in the case of his mother,

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00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:45,759
he shoots her, kills her, and her body was basically

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00:24:45,839 --> 00:24:49,839
halfway in and halfway out of that front door, so

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he pulls her body completely into the house and shuts

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00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,440
the door. Now, in my mind, there's an argument that

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00:24:56,559 --> 00:25:00,200
can be made there that this was an attempt to

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00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:04,000
hide the crime. He also told police he killed his

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00:25:04,079 --> 00:25:07,880
parents because he was mad at them because they had

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00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:10,680
him committed to a mental hospital, and that he waited

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00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:13,400
for them to come home from vacation to do it.

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Let me break this down. For not guilty by reason

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00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,440
of insanity plea, you need several things. First. You have

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to prove you were insane at the time that you

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00:25:26,559 --> 00:25:30,720
committed these crimes and you didn't know what you were

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00:25:30,799 --> 00:25:34,799
doing was wrong. Well, when you pull a body inside

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00:25:34,839 --> 00:25:37,640
of a home of someone you just killed and you

353
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,440
shut the door in an attempt to hide the crime,

354
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that proves that you knew it was wrong and you

355
00:25:43,519 --> 00:25:45,839
didn't want to get arrested for it. Otherwise you would

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have just left the body where it fell. Second, you

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waited for your parents to get home, and you picked

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00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,519
the day in time in which to kill them, right

359
00:25:54,559 --> 00:25:56,880
after they got off vacation, when his dad would have

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a ton of money. Right, That proves premeditation. That's also

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not something an insane person does. There was no sudden

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00:26:05,559 --> 00:26:08,720
argument that got out of control when you lost your

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00:26:08,839 --> 00:26:12,160
shit and you just started killing everyone. You planned it

364
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,599
in advance. So I'm not sure what was running through

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00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:19,799
the judge's mind. I'm not sure what he considered, but

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00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:23,319
it would be my guess that he probably considered several

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of those things. I just brought up, and he eventually

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imposes the death penalty for Michael Owen Perry. Now, I'm

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00:26:31,559 --> 00:26:36,599
going to reference Ford versus Wainwright, which was a decision

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that was used as a precedent in this case, and

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the judges in that case ruled that if an inmate

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does not understand or is not competent to understand that

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they are getting the death penalty and they're going to

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be sentenced to death and they're going to die vias,

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00:26:56,319 --> 00:26:59,759
you know, the state killing them. Essentially, you can't impose

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00:26:59,839 --> 00:27:04,079
a death penalty on someone that doesn't understand the ramifications

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00:27:04,079 --> 00:27:08,079
of their crime. However, in this case Michael Perry and

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00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:13,680
bloody Angola, he was prescribed an anti psychotic drug known

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00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:18,599
as how Dall, and they had look, they had several doctors,

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00:27:18,759 --> 00:27:24,000
psychiatric doctors assigned to him, and they stated to the

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00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:27,799
judge prior to this sentencing that while on this drug

382
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:33,119
called how Dall hl DOL, his condition was controlled enough

383
00:27:33,319 --> 00:27:38,640
that he fully understood what being sentenced to death actually meant.

384
00:27:38,839 --> 00:27:43,279
So the judge imposed the death penalty. And obviously, this case,

385
00:27:43,559 --> 00:27:46,400
being as sensitive as it was because of all these

386
00:27:46,519 --> 00:27:52,079
extenuating circumstances, it goes through appeal city and it ends

387
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:58,240
up in the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the question was

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00:27:59,039 --> 00:28:03,920
can the state force Perry to take hawdall, which is

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00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:08,160
the drug that deemed him competent for execution. You see,

390
00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,079
Perry didn't want to take it. They were forcing him

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00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,960
to take this drug, and that was the question before

392
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,279
the Supreme Court in Louisiana, and they ruled eight to

393
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:21,200
nothing that he could not be forced to take the drug,

394
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:26,759
which according to the law, you would think that would

395
00:28:26,839 --> 00:28:31,880
negate the legal authority to execute him, because these doctors

396
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,480
were saying, when he's not on that medication, he has

397
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:39,240
no grip of reality. But as of today, Michael Owen

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00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:46,680
Perry does still sit on death row, some thirty years

399
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:51,079
after his conviction. Now they say that one of the

400
00:28:51,119 --> 00:28:56,880
things he does inside of Bloody Angola is he drops

401
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,680
soap in his toilet bowl every and eventually, I guess

402
00:29:01,799 --> 00:29:04,680
the CEO's there. They asked him why he does this,

403
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,000
and he said it's because his toilet is hungry and

404
00:29:08,279 --> 00:29:12,119
his toilet likes to eat soap. So apparently his toilet

405
00:29:12,319 --> 00:29:16,160
is like a pet. To Michael Owen Perry. He talks

406
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:20,200
to his toilet. He feeds his toilet. And look, we

407
00:29:20,279 --> 00:29:22,599
all know soap, if you drop it in a toilet,

408
00:29:22,839 --> 00:29:28,920
eventually it dissolves. But in Perry's mind, that's his toilet

409
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,880
eating the soap. I mean, if that ain't some crazy

410
00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,079
shit right there, I don't know what it. Hey not

411
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,400
saying I agree, disagree, or whatever with the sentence that

412
00:29:38,559 --> 00:29:41,359
was imposed. I'm just saying, by the letter of the law,

413
00:29:41,559 --> 00:29:44,359
I don't know if there's anyone any crazier than this

414
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:46,880
story that I just covered right here, I'll say that.

415
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:49,559
But if it was my family that he killed, you know,

416
00:29:49,799 --> 00:29:53,200
I'd say he gets everything he deserves with the death penalty.

417
00:29:53,359 --> 00:29:55,480
But there you have it. But there you have it,

418
00:29:55,599 --> 00:30:00,839
the full story of Michael Owen Perry. Thank you so

419
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:04,440
much for listening. Check out the Patreon at patreon dot

420
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:08,759
com Slash Bloody and Goal of Podcasts for commercial, free

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early releases and more. Check out Exposed Scandalous Files of

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the Elite. I cover all the wildness that occurs in

423
00:30:19,119 --> 00:30:26,200
the world of the elite members of societies, whether they're sports, figures, entertainers,

424
00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:30,519
you name it. I covered Exposed Scandalous Files of the

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00:30:30,559 --> 00:30:36,119
Elite and Crime Wire Weekly it is myself and Kelly

426
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:39,920
Jennings of Unspeakable of true crime podcasts by Kelly Jennings,

427
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:44,200
and we cover the crime headlines that have trended throughout

428
00:30:44,279 --> 00:30:47,960
the week, and we do it in our own unique fashion.

429
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,720
I promise you you will be entertained. Check us out

430
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Crime Whire Weekly wherever you get your podcast, And until

431
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,160
next time for Bloody Angola, a podcast one hundred and

432
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,400
forty two years in the making, the complete story of Americas,

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00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:10,279
Bloody is present. I'm Jim Chapman, Peace.

434
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 1: A Wall Street line, shackle chain, Oh bosome birdie, it's

435
00:31:36,559 --> 00:31:42,920
calling my name. There is no mercy and this been

436
00:31:43,119 --> 00:31:51,079
a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three.

437
00:31:53,079 --> 00:31:53,759
Speaker 2: I'm here.

438
00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:04,640
Speaker 1: By me to die inside these walls, inside the wild

439
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:24,839
and when the wals I know it's overbody angle, obody Angle,