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1:26

to this week's main episode of Rotten

1:29

I'm your host, Stephanie Sue.

1:31

Welcome to IHOP. How many people are

1:34

in your party?

1:35

Great. Right this way. Is

1:37

this table okay? Can I get you any drinks

1:39

started before you guys look over the menu?

1:41

Alright. Coming right up. Dee

1:43

had the routine down to a tee.

1:46

She knew what to say, when to smile,

1:48

when to talk about her kids, when

1:50

to flirt so that she could get the best

1:52

tips rolling in. but today was

1:54

different. She felt the bile sitting

1:56

at the top of her throat Rotten to

1:58

come out at any second. She could hardly

2:00

remember any of the orders or which tables

2:03

were even hers. She ran to the bathroom

2:05

to splash water all over her face,

2:07

cold water, and she looked into the mirror.

2:10

You have to do this, d. Your life

2:12

depends on it. You have to you can do it.

2:15

Her hands were shaking as she grabbed the jump

2:17

bow sized oregano bottle in her purse.

2:19

She opened the lid, took a big gulp.

2:21

I mean, it always helped when she was anxious.

2:23

She went out to the tables, a fake smile

2:25

flowered on her face, she was smoothing

2:28

out the wrinkles on her apron. d,

2:30

are you okay? Guy on table five

2:32

needs more syrup. Yeah.

2:34

Okay. Got

2:35

it. Don't worry. Dee

2:36

walked over to the man sitting alone thinking

2:38

he needed more syrup, but instead he

2:40

paid his bill and handed her a napkin as

2:42

he walked down. There was a number

2:44

written on there. Not his number, not

2:46

a phone number. He wasn't hitting on

2:49

her. It read three

2:51

thousand dollars. That's how much

2:53

it would cost d, to kill the

2:55

man that she wanted dead, and to

2:57

keep her job at IHOP. She

2:59

shoved the into her apron none of

3:01

the other saw and tried to finish

3:03

her shift knowing that very, very soon,

3:06

he would be dead. She's a hit

3:08

woman. Yeah.

3:09

Well As always, the whole

3:11

show notes are available at Rotten dot

3:13

com. But if you want all the information

3:15

out there on this case, you will want to read

3:17

this book. because even just the psychology

3:20

behind this case, it's it's fascinating.

3:22

It is unlike any other case that we have really

3:24

talked about. You're going to think that this

3:26

case is gonna go one way. then it's gonna

3:28

take a u-turn, end up in a weird land

3:30

where strange things just keep on happening

3:33

and you don't even understand any of the parties

3:35

involved. Like their motives, are

3:37

not the typical motives that we deal with.

3:40

So

3:40

the best deep dive that

3:41

I could find on this was a book called Without

3:43

Mercy

3:44

by Gary Rotten. And

3:46

it is so detailed. The

3:48

author went through transcripts, court

3:50

files, police files, hundreds of

3:52

interviews, and they do such

3:54

an amazing job at all

3:56

the necessary details that provide just

3:58

so much insight into the

3:59

psychology of the people involved. So

4:02

with that being said, A lot of people

4:04

will do crazy things in order to

4:06

avoid being fired. I mean, for good Rotten.

4:08

I get it. Our entire livelihoods depend

4:10

on our jobs and the idea of losing

4:13

that job is is terrifying.

4:15

It's a life altering moment that can really

4:17

make or break a family. Now,

4:19

most of us we'll do whatever it

4:21

takes to not get fired. And by whatever

4:23

it takes, it means, you know,

4:25

maybe suck up to your boss a little. Be nice.

4:27

Bring some cupcakes to the office. That

4:30

type of stuff get your work done on time.

4:32

But some people, they will blur

4:34

the lines of morality so

4:36

long as they can keep their jobs.

4:39

Some people are willing to lie to keep their job.

4:41

It wasn't

4:41

me that embezzled the money, it was Kevin. Some

4:43

people will throw other people under the bus to

4:46

keep their jobs. I wasn't working on the

4:48

project, It was him, but would you ever

4:50

be Willing. Would anyone be willing

4:52

to kill for your job? One

4:54

waitress at IHOP would. So

4:57

before the Maple syrup brand dry,

4:59

two people would be dead. And

5:02

it all started with d. Now

5:04

d did not have killer instinct.

5:06

I'm just gonna tell you that straight up.

5:08

Decastile was born in Tampa,

5:10

Florida. She's a Florida girl, and

5:12

she was not a killer from the get go.

5:14

Like, nothing in her child or nothing in her personality.

5:17

Would you look at it and say, oh, yeah.

5:19

She's got some homicidal tendencies. I

5:21

wouldn't mess with that one. Nothing.

5:24

So her dad, Tom. Okay. To be fair,

5:26

Tom was something else. So it was a bit of a shit

5:28

show. So follow me on this one, but Tom

5:30

was living in Florida with his wife, Ohna,

5:32

This is not Dee's mom. They're

5:34

married, living together, not getting along

5:36

well, but, you know, marriage is rough.

5:38

Tom feels like there's a disconnect. We

5:40

don't have the same interest. my

5:42

interest is alcohol and young

5:44

woman. And obviously, Ona,

5:47

my wife, your interests are not alcohol and

5:49

young woman. I mean, how would we ever relate to

5:51

each other? So he finds another

5:53

woman outside of their marriage that loves

5:55

alcohol as much as he does and enter

5:57

into the picture Waitress Peggy.

6:00

Peggy and Tom are out all hours

6:02

of the night just getting drunk, getting

6:04

nasty with each other. And it wasn't long

6:06

before Peggy is like, hey, Tom,

6:08

don't

6:08

be mad.

6:09

I'm pregnant. Tom wasn't

6:12

mad. He was over the moon. He ran

6:14

to his wife, Ona, slapped divorce

6:16

papers on the table, ran out married

6:18

Peggy. Peggy gave birth in a

6:20

year to d. And within

6:22

that year, Tom slapped divorce papers

6:24

on the table ran out and remarried his

6:26

first wife's owner. So he

6:28

was like, this whole thing, it wasn't working

6:30

out. Like, even when you were my wife, I don't know,

6:32

it's just not, you know, great guy.

6:34

Really decisive. He knows what he wants

6:36

in life. Very loyal, great

6:38

redeeming qualities this one.

6:40

Peggy also was just not in a

6:42

space to take care of their daughter, D. she

6:44

had physical health concerns. Dee

6:46

was mainly raised by her grandma, which

6:48

she was a really great grandma, honestly.

6:50

She gave Dee everything she could possibly

6:52

want. you know how most grandmoms like

6:54

to spoil their grandkids a lot? Well,

6:56

that was Dee's grandma. She brushed

6:59

her hair, closed her plate with

7:01

her. I mean, They didn't have a lot of money, but whatever

7:03

they had, it went to d. d felt

7:05

like her grandma was the only one in

7:07

her life that cared for her, the only one that really

7:09

loved her. D was so

7:11

happy, so her life was so

7:13

stable, and then there was a knock on the

7:15

door.

7:15

It's your daddy, Tom.

7:17

and my wife, Ona. Ona,

7:19

say hi. This is my kid d. So,

7:22

Graham, not. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna

7:24

take d and raise her ourselves. I

7:26

know I'm telling you, this is a really weird dynamic.

7:28

It was an interesting situation. So

7:30

d moves in with Tom and his first

7:32

wife and third wife and current wife, Ona. I mean,

7:34

it's very confusing. And they pretty

7:36

much just raised her as their kid.

7:39

And surprisingly, Ona was good to her.

7:41

They adjusted very well. Dee would

7:43

go fishing and camping with her dad.

7:45

Oh, she loved it. Dee loved

7:47

being outside. She loved being with

7:49

nature. mean, the smell of that

7:51

wet soil smell, she loved

7:53

it, the melodies of the birds, she

7:55

had no idea. as a kid

7:58

looking up into the blue sky.

8:00

That one day as an adult, her only

8:02

contact with the great outdoors would be through a

8:04

small window with bars on

8:06

it. d loved outdoors with her dad

8:08

or really anything that had to do with her dad.

8:10

If it involved d's dad, Tom,

8:13

d was there. Okay? d later admits

8:15

that she loved her dad a lot. a

8:17

lot a lot. Maybe a little too much,

8:19

she said. He was a big toxic.

8:21

Okay? The guy, Tom, I mean, if you couldn't

8:23

already guess, he was a bit of a character. he had

8:25

a short fuse, he would throw a loud

8:27

temper tantrum and just completely

8:30

become hysterical at the smallest

8:32

inconvenience. Let's

8:34

say, he's practicing golf. He

8:36

tries to hit the ball with his golf club.

8:38

He misses the ball. You know how sometimes you it's

8:40

like I don't even know what you call it, but

8:42

you just don't miss the ball. or you just don't

8:44

hit the ball. Right? Lack of skill,

8:46

lack of concentration. I don't know who can you

8:48

blame but yourself for that. Right? You can't blame

8:50

the ball. Tom was the type,

8:52

to take his golf club, walk to the

8:54

closest and just go at it like it

8:56

was a pinata, and he was waiting for

8:58

something to pop out of it. for

9:00

missing the ball. Yeah. They said it's a

9:02

short fuse. I would say, it's a

9:05

nonexistent fuse. Like, you're just blowing up all

9:07

the time. when they went bowling

9:09

and he missed his spare, he would

9:11

verbally scream at his bowling

9:13

ball. Can you imagine being at your

9:15

local Brunswick? I mean, I would

9:17

shit myself. Full grown man screaming at his ball

9:19

until he's red in the face, spit just

9:21

splattering everywhere and his family is just sitting

9:23

there, waiting for him to be done.

9:25

Yeah. No. I would leave. I would pack it up. I'm gonna be

9:27

honest with you. But most of the time, Tom's

9:29

anger was witnessed by d, but not

9:31

pointed towards her. Like, he wasn't that

9:33

violent with her. He wasn't that abusive with

9:35

her except

9:36

once.

9:37

Indeed would remember this day for the rest

9:40

of her life. It would forever stay a mark in her

9:42

heart. She would never freaking forget

9:44

it. She was fourteen. It's a

9:46

scorching day in Florida

9:49

just disgustingly sweaty.

9:51

The type of day where you're constantly

9:53

breaking out into a sweat just by walking

9:55

a little too fast. just by

9:57

talking a little too fast. If you move a

9:59

little too quickly, you're gonna break out

10:01

into that agitating sticky

10:03

feeling the prickling at the back of your neck

10:05

and you just wanna open up the freezer and cool

10:07

off for two seconds. The humidity

10:09

makes you confused. Are my arms

10:11

sticky and because I'm sweating or is it just

10:13

humid? I don't understand. So it's that kind of

10:15

day. Dee is wearing a halter top

10:17

in shorts. I mean, she's in the comfort of her

10:19

own scorching hot home. ironing

10:21

close. So yeah, it's freaking IHOP.

10:23

And this one kid, let's call it

10:25

madam. He's from d school. He pops in

10:27

for a little visit. and

10:29

Adam was super into bowling.

10:31

Okay. d was super into bowling.

10:33

She could actually go professional. She

10:35

almost did go professional. It's a whole

10:37

thing. Okay? So Adam

10:38

After all the yelling the bad ass. Yeah.

10:40

Adam

10:40

would just sit around watching her

10:43

iron clothes and he's like, oh my god. So then

10:45

I did this and I got a spare and then I a

10:47

boost. And honestly, their conversation was

10:49

super mild. It was not something a parent

10:51

would be concerned about if they overheard. It was kind of

10:53

a it was kind of a nerdy conversation

10:55

about bowling. he was talking about

10:57

strikes and balls, literally the

10:59

bowling kind. Like, it wasn't a sexual

11:01

innuendo or anything. He was just talking about how big his

11:03

balls are, you know. But

11:05

right after Adam left, d

11:07

come here real quick. Dad's calling

11:10

her into the living room.

11:12

Coming D walked into the living

11:14

room and stood in front of her dad, waiting for

11:16

him to say something. What is

11:18

it?

11:18

Dad? Come here. What? She

11:20

could tell her dad was pissed. I mean, she had no idea

11:22

why, but he was pissed. She

11:25

walked closer and closer, and

11:27

Tom's hand came up fast and hard and he

11:29

slapped her across the face. look at

11:31

what you're wearing. Dressing like a

11:33

damn slut for the boys. You're in decent.

11:35

You're as cheap as piss

11:37

and any beater. d

11:38

said she could forgive the beating. She did

11:40

forgive the beating, but the words, you're

11:42

as cheap as piss, I mean, it

11:44

gutted her. She would remember

11:46

it forever, she would never forgive him for that

11:48

even when he died. So yeah, there was

11:50

some trauma and clearly something going on with

11:52

Dee's dad. But other than that, even Dee

11:54

claims she had a happy childhood.

11:56

she loves sports, extracurriculars, super

11:59

involved in school. She even got a car for her

12:01

seventeenth birthday even though it meant that her

12:03

parents would literally go into debt

12:05

getting it for her. I mean, she what she

12:07

wanted, but there were some big hiccups in

12:09

her life. Like, the fact that she

12:11

started getting drunk as early as thirteen.

12:13

And it wasn't just that that peer

12:15

pressure drinking. I mean, that's kind of how it

12:17

started, but she loved

12:20

alcohol. Like, do you number when you're that age, you try

12:22

alcohol. It's disgusting. You're like,

12:24

why do adults like this? This is

12:26

gross. I thought wine would taste like grape

12:28

juice. It doesn't. It does not

12:30

at all. d thought it had to do

12:32

with the fact that her body tolerated

12:34

alcohol. Other kids would

12:36

pretend to be cool and, you know, kind

12:38

of hold their noses while they take shots of tequila

12:40

and then chase it down with some Sprite,

12:42

but not d. She never

12:44

threw up. She was never

12:46

hungover. never had a headache

12:48

after drinking too much. She actually loved

12:50

it. She loved everything about it. She loved the

12:52

taste, the smell, the burning sensation of it

12:54

burning down her throat when she swallowed it. So

12:56

she's taken shots of alcohol and

12:59

other things because at seventeen,

13:01

she starts

13:01

gaining weight. weird for d. She's like,

13:03

I never gained weight like

13:04

this, and you guessed it. She

13:06

was pregnant. She

13:07

told Ona first, probably because she

13:10

was terrified at her dad's reaction.

13:12

But Ona was not a good support system.

13:14

Okay. Oda was nice to her but not a good

13:16

support system. All she said to date when

13:18

she found out that she was pregnant was,

13:20

oh my god. Your father is

13:22

gonna kill you. which is

13:24

accurate. Tom flew off the handle. He

13:26

wasn't violent. He didn't beat d likely

13:28

because she was pregnant, but he was

13:30

screaming at the top of his lungs. you're going to

13:32

ruin your life. I'm gonna kill that

13:34

son of a bitch. You know what?

13:36

No. You're getting an abortion.

13:38

That's what we're doing. An abortion.

13:41

He took our hands, stormed down to the

13:43

doctor. I'm sorry, but there's

13:45

no way for us to safely perform this

13:47

type of operation in the second trimester

13:49

because it could endanger Dee's

13:51

life. And just like that, Dee was having

13:53

a baby. Her boyfriend,

13:55

we're gonna call him Harry. Harry

13:57

decides in this conservative town that they

13:59

were just gonna have to get married before the baby

14:01

comes out. So it was agreed. They would

14:03

wed and hopefully live happily

14:05

ever after. The wedding itself felt

14:07

very high school. d was basically like,

14:09

okay. Like, I'll come pick you up at the

14:11

ceremony, see what your house at Rotten.

14:13

But when Dee drove up in her white dress,

14:16

one of Harry's best friends was

14:18

standing outside his front door like he's a like

14:20

he's secret service and the groom was

14:22

the president. Do you know where this is

14:24

going?

14:24

He's not gonna show up.

14:26

Hey. Where is Harry?

14:28

Harry's not going?

14:30

What what do you mean?

14:32

he's not

14:32

going and he's not

14:33

gonna marry you. What?

14:34

oh Why?

14:35

He said, look, he doesn't

14:37

wanna ruin his life. And if you take him to

14:39

court, I'm gonna testify that I screwed you,

14:41

and I can get five other guys to say the

14:43

same thing. We'll say that you don't even know who the

14:45

real father of the baby is. Now leave

14:47

Harry alone. What?

14:49

Yeah. Dee was

14:51

stunned, heartbroken. Sure. Harry wasn't

14:53

the catch that she was hoping for in

14:55

life, but she was kinda getting excited

14:57

about the idea. of the wedding, her

14:59

family, and this, this was just

15:01

cruel. It's not like Dee was ready to get

15:03

married and have a baby in high school. I

15:05

mean, Harry was being so selfish.

15:07

When Dee's parents found out they flipped out

15:09

on Harry's parents and the two actually

15:11

did end up getting legally married, but

15:14

they never know, live

15:16

together. It was just so that she wouldn't give birth

15:18

out of wedlock. They were never

15:20

truly a married couple. Endy

15:22

never truly a mom to her baby

15:24

boy. She actually gave birth to her

15:26

baby boy on her eighteenth birthday,

15:28

and she called him Tommy after her

15:30

father, Tom. Now, Tom,

15:32

senior, and ona. I mean, they were

15:34

upset, but they were infatuated

15:36

with their new grandson. They literally

15:38

treated him like their own child,

15:40

and Dee did too. She was more

15:43

siblings with Tommy than anything. She

15:45

virtually had no parenting responsibilities.

15:47

She would go out, date, drink,

15:49

Bowl work as normal as if nothing

15:51

in her life had changed at all whatsoever,

15:54

Tommy actually believed for years

15:56

that he was his sister, not his mom.

15:58

Meanwhile, Dee is out there dating millionaires.

16:00

You're like, wait, which has happened? How did

16:02

she upgrade from Harry to millionaires? Okay,

16:05

let me explain. So after

16:07

dropping out of high school, he gets a job

16:09

as a secretary for the mayor of the

16:11

city, sixty year old Henry

16:13

Melander. Henry was an

16:15

old married man No offense. Is

16:17

that offensive?

16:18

No

16:20

offense. I'll marry out there.

16:23

And she was eighteen years old. and

16:25

he mainly hired her for her looks and

16:28

youth. Look, it sounds creepy

16:30

and it is, but it's not the worst

16:32

possible thing in the world because he never

16:34

made her feel uncomfortable. So for him, it

16:36

wasn't that he wanted to get with young girls.

16:38

He actually liked being seen around young

16:40

women because I guess it made him feel like he had a

16:42

arm candy. he felt

16:44

like a pimp. I don't know. Okay. This guy is

16:46

weird. He was the mayor though. So

16:48

in fact, Di said she

16:50

loved him. He was like a mentor and a

16:52

father figure in her life. He introduced

16:54

her to so many business and political

16:56

connections. He taught her a lot.

16:58

His motto in life was, money

17:00

talks, bullshit walks. Gray

17:02

mayor. Gray mayor. Yeah. I I feel

17:05

like it should be the other

17:05

way now. What?

17:07

Bullshit

17:08

talks money walks. I see. Yeah.

17:10

Yeah.

17:11

Right? I don't know.

17:14

He's old. Yeah. He fool

17:16

me once. He never can get

17:19

fooled again. And

17:21

his money talked. Okay?

17:23

When D. got a parking ticket, it was taken

17:25

care of. When she was pulled over, say,

17:28

a DUI, it was taken care

17:30

of. What did Dee learn from this?

17:32

Was it to never drive under the influence ever

17:34

again because she could seriously injure herself or

17:36

others on the road? No.

17:38

She learned that in life, if you knew the right people,

17:40

any problem, every problem could

17:42

be fixed, paid off, swept under

17:44

the carpet, or even ignored.

17:47

Later while on death row, Dee

17:49

would say passionately that she wouldn't even

17:51

be sitting in prison right now if Henry

17:53

Melander, the former mayor was still

17:56

alive. Henry introduced her to

17:58

a ton of millionaires, sons of

18:00

millionaires, heads of the industries, future

18:02

governors, and sometimes men

18:04

that had occupations that you would be

18:06

smart not to ask too many questions about, you

18:08

know? Just know that they made their money and the less

18:10

you know, the better for you. d

18:12

went from dating men Harry

18:14

the ones that needed high school buddies to stand guard in

18:16

front of their parents' house to protect them from the

18:18

girls, to men who were fifteen years

18:20

older and owned yacht. I mean,

18:22

they were powerful, rich, and sometimes

18:24

even famous. But Dee had

18:26

a rule. She would only date if they

18:28

were single, no married ever.

18:32

Do you really like these men? She even

18:34

later theorized? I don't

18:36

know. Maybe I was looking for a father figure at the

18:38

time. Who knows? I'm not a psychiatrist.

18:40

Okay? But these are some of the best years of her

18:42

life. She went on dates on yachts,

18:44

ate the best food, traveled to

18:46

Boujis hotels, she drank some of the finest

18:48

wines and liquors, d said, usually

18:50

she would have a first date with one of these men.

18:53

Get drunk, have sex, and if she didn't get

18:55

drunk, she wouldn't have sex. And then there

18:57

would be no second date. Dee

18:59

said the boos made her more confident carefree happier,

19:02

but it also made her more sexually compliant.

19:04

And then she got pregnant again.

19:07

This time, the father was not hairy, but a rich

19:09

twenty something year old general generationally

19:12

wealthy man. We're gonna call

19:14

him Ben he was the youngest son of

19:16

one of the most powerful families

19:18

in all of Dade County. You

19:20

don't know Dade County? It's a county that

19:22

Miami is in, I believe. in Florida.

19:24

Yeah. Got it.

19:25

It's old money. Old money,

19:27

and we're talking in a big fat

19:29

county with a lot of big rich people,

19:32

you know. He's

19:32

from one of the wealthier family. Yeah.

19:34

And according to the author who

19:36

refuses to name this person, the family is

19:38

still prominent in Florida to this

19:41

day. Yeah. And together, they developed

19:43

Dee's taste for Scotch and they

19:45

made a fetus. Dee was not

19:47

ecstatic. She did not wanna go through

19:50

this again. and contrary to what some might be

19:52

thinking right Rotten, Dean was

19:54

very practical when she was younger.

19:56

I don't know what happened when she got older, but she was

19:58

very practical when she was younger.

20:00

She said that she understood her position in these types

20:02

of relationships, which is it

20:04

doesn't matter if she had a baby, she

20:06

would never marry this man. It

20:08

just wouldn't happen. their family would

20:10

never allow it. I mean, these older rich

20:13

families saw her as fun eye

20:15

candy, but not really a human on

20:17

their level if that makes sense.

20:19

So she told mayor about it. He gave her

20:21

five hundred dollars and she went in

20:23

for an abortion. Now, this abortion, she

20:25

was a bit too far along.

20:27

DEA said her doctor couldn't go the normal

20:29

Rotten, so I'm thinking no medical, no

20:32

surgical abortion. They had

20:34

to pump air into the uterus

20:36

to cause an portion to force a

20:38

miscarriage essentially. Andy

20:40

was sent home after they pumped Erin her

20:42

uterus. And when she goes home, she's like, well, what

20:44

am I gonna do? Just just wait for it

20:46

to happen that feels like hell. So

20:48

she went shopping. Okay. She's

20:50

out there shopping and her water breaks. It's like

20:52

a miscarriage. Her gonna break and feel like

20:54

you're giving but it's gonna be a miscarriage, I believe, in technical

20:57

terms. Will d thought? You know, I'm

20:59

just gonna be out with my friends. I don't wanna be

21:01

anxious just sitting around pins

21:03

and needles. And right there, in the middle of

21:05

Miami's busiest shopping district,

21:07

she went into labor right next to the

21:09

lady's shoe section, her water just

21:11

straight up broke and splattered on the

21:13

ground, and boom, d

21:15

wet rushed home, the pain was

21:17

excruciating, and finally,

21:20

she

21:20

lost the baby. d

21:21

said, and I quote, I just flushed it down

21:23

the toilet. I I mean, I guess it I thought it

21:25

would have been like a ball of stuff, but it

21:27

was a baby. what a horrible

21:29

experience. I will never get that moment out of my mind.

21:31

The next morning, I was still in a lot of pain

21:33

and I called the family doctor. And when I went in to

21:36

see him, He said it's a good thing I got there

21:38

in time because the placenta was

21:40

still hanging inside of me and I would have been

21:42

dead within twenty four hours. The

21:44

incident left Dee's uterine lining very scarred and

21:46

it would be a very long time before she was

21:48

able to conceive naturally again.

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supply. But this is kind of

24:07

the mark where these troubles would

24:10

really start. Because of this abortion, let me

24:12

explain. She's just twenty years

24:14

old. Because of this abortion, her whole life would change.

24:16

She had upgraded from being the secretary of

24:18

the mayor to being the secretary of Florida

24:20

power and light. which is

24:22

a super impressive position to be at at such a

24:24

young age. She was the executive secretary

24:27

at Florida Power and Light. I mean, she had

24:29

such a bright future ahead of her

24:32

She's twenty, but everyone looked up to her. Nobody

24:34

was upset that this young girl had this position.

24:36

She knew what she was doing. And I guess she

24:39

just thought, Well, you

24:41

know, honesty is the best policy. Isn't that what

24:43

they say? Now, she wasn't going around

24:45

announcing to the world that, hey, guys,

24:47

announcement everyone. I missed a few days of work

24:49

because of an abortion. But if somebody asked, she just told

24:51

them the truth. She was like, oh, yeah. I was out

24:53

because I had an abortion. Well,

24:55

she was

24:55

fired from her job because of it.

24:58

Yeah.

24:58

People

24:58

were very upset at what she chose to do with her

25:01

own body. It's weird.

25:03

Wow. But they were very upset.

25:05

Indeed, round Murders in scotch and

25:07

then decided, you know what? They're lost.

25:09

I can still do this. I'm still young. There's so

25:11

much I wanna do. Maybe I'll be a or

25:13

a pediatrician. You know, I love kids. And

25:15

by the time that she was fully recovered from the

25:18

abortion, Dee was bowling five times a

25:20

week. She was the best female bowler in all the

25:22

leagues in town. she was even elected

25:24

as the youngest woman ever to be

25:26

on the board of directors at the

25:28

women's international Boeing conference. What? Look, her

25:30

name is getting around. There

25:32

were whispers. She's gonna

25:34

go pro. I can just

25:35

feel it. Pro bowling

25:37

scouts would even come to watch

25:39

her. things were looking up. But when the bowling

25:41

scouts interviewed Dee's friends to get a better

25:43

idea of Dee's personal life,

25:45

the overwhelming response was,

25:48

while she drinks and the scouts did

25:50

not like that. So it was

25:52

then drowning her sorrows yet again.

25:54

She ran into her second husband at

25:57

a bar because remember Harry, yeah, this

25:59

is gonna be her second husband. We're

26:01

gonna call him Liam. Liam

26:03

was drinking a margarita and he

26:05

is like, What is that? I've never that before.

26:07

He's like, it's a margarita. And

26:09

what do you know? Just like Scotch, he was

26:11

like, hey, I think I liked

26:13

tequila. It's good. And

26:15

remember, where there was alcohol, there was sex,

26:17

and Liam was Dee's perfect type.

26:19

Okay. Keep this in mind because this becomes

26:22

in important later, but Dee loved a giga chad.

26:24

Okay. I'm just gonna be honest. She

26:26

loved a super physically

26:29

macho style dude. tall,

26:31

muscular, handsome, well dressed, but

26:33

like super buff, super gigachad. That

26:36

was her thing. So they get married,

26:38

and three out of the four weeks, the

26:40

dude was great. And you're like, what kind of scale is that?

26:42

Like, three out of four weeks, three weeks out of the

26:44

month. So apparently, there's

26:46

something called a moonlight alcoholic. Meaning

26:48

three weeks out of the month, Liam was super

26:50

chill sober. He would go camping with her

26:52

by her flowers. He made a

26:54

decent living as a real estate agent.

26:57

But then one week of the month, he would just go bizarre.

26:59

He would go on a drinking binge and become

27:01

physically and verbally abusive. But

27:03

seventy five percent of the time was good enough for d

27:05

for a while. because d,

27:08

she was sober at zero percent of the time.

27:10

She considered it an even trade.

27:12

d was a crazy high

27:15

functioning alcoholic. She was holding down a

27:17

secretarial job. She was managing her bank

27:19

account. She was drunk on the job,

27:21

driving home, drunk all the

27:23

time constantly drunk, but you

27:25

would never know it. You would have no idea if you just

27:27

met her. And when she was twenty eight, she

27:29

gave birth to her first daughter, Susan,

27:31

Dee was in love. She quit her

27:33

job to be with Susan full time and

27:36

both parents quit drinking for a while and

27:38

they were in this phase and they wanted to be this

27:40

happy, stable family unit, but

27:42

it wouldn't last long. He got

27:44

so drunk one night. Liam

27:46

grabbed a gun pulled the safety off. And

27:48

Dean knew a little bit about guns. Okay?

27:50

What? She used to go hunting with her dad, and

27:52

she knew that that this gun had a soft

27:54

trigger, meaning in his drunken state it

27:56

would be so in credibly easy for him to kill

27:58

her and Susan. So he's

27:59

screaming at her, you say one word and I'll

28:02

blow your head off. D. calmly

28:04

said no problem. Okay? Liam,

28:06

I'm gonna take the kid and we're gonna leave. Okay?

28:08

She left. She grabbed Susan

28:10

and left, called the police. Now,

28:12

Liam had connections with police and

28:14

they decided not to arrest him. But then Dee called her

28:16

old mentor mayor Henry and her

28:19

connections won out in the end. Liam was

28:21

arrested without any paperwork. and

28:23

Dee got a job as a police dispatch for

28:25

the city. She loved her

28:27

job. All the cops IHOP Dee

28:29

said, good old Dee, nice

28:31

as gal you'll ever meet. of

28:33

an interesting pattern of how everyone describes

28:35

tea. Everyone everyone will say some version

28:37

of. She's the nicest person you will

28:39

ever meet, I swear to you. So

28:41

why on Earth was she sentenced to the death penalty then?

28:44

More often than not, nice people don't end

28:46

up there. I guess you could say it

28:48

started when she moved to Tampa. she

28:50

moved back to Tampa. So she went she went from Tampa to Miami

28:52

and then back to Tampa. That's the whole thing.

28:55

Okay? In Tampa, Dee was reunited with

28:57

her biological mom, Peggy.

28:59

who was super unstable. It's

29:01

actually speculated that Peggy killed her husband because

29:03

he was violent with her. So in Tampa,

29:06

d meets her third husband, Chris.

29:08

and you guessed it, Chris is an alcoholic. D.

29:10

you didn't even like Chris. She felt pressured

29:12

to marry him because everyone kept telling her, oh

29:14

my god, you guys are like so cute together.

29:17

no seriously, you guys are, like, made for each other. Plus,

29:19

you're a single mom and he doesn't mind. I

29:21

mean, you should totally get married. So

29:24

she's, like, Okay, totally. So they did. And

29:26

they had two kids together, Todd and

29:28

Wyatt, and for a while, things were

29:30

okay. They both high functioning

29:32

alcoholics. They were making their money. They were paying

29:34

their bills on time. They were driving

29:36

drunk. Like, you would never know that they

29:38

had deep rooted alcohol addiction

29:40

problems if you just met them. It's

29:42

crazy.

29:42

But then Chris'

29:43

kidneys, you know, they were

29:44

overworked and they gave out.

29:47

Chris was hospitalized. Suddenly

29:49

Dee was swamped with all the bills. She was just

29:51

a secretary. There's no way that she could even see

29:53

a way out. She was drowning in bills. I

29:55

mean, there was no life raft coming

29:57

to save her. so she starts borrowing money from

29:59

the company to the tune of a hundred

30:01

thousand dollars. What company?

30:03

The company that

30:04

she works for as a secretary

30:06

It's just just another big gas company.

30:09

What

30:09

kind of company will lend you two hundred thousand

30:11

dollars? Well,

30:11

she stole it. Oh. She

30:14

unbeasled it, but she called her borrowing because, I

30:16

mean, she felt like she was gonna pay it back. I don't know how

30:18

she was gonna pay it back when she was already behind

30:20

on bills. But yeah.

30:22

Yeah. She didn't really have a plan

30:24

yet. So she was embezzling

30:26

money essentially and she was

30:28

caught. Not only was she fired but she

30:30

was effectively banished from the white collar job

30:32

market, she could never work another secretarial

30:35

position after that. So she had to start

30:37

bartending and which I

30:39

mean, can you imagine it's only going to

30:41

fuel her addiction to alcohol more being

30:43

surrounded by alcohol, everything single

30:45

day, all day, all night,

30:47

nonstop. So side note, Rotten,

30:49

she meets a customer, a regular

30:51

named Michael Mike Irvine. They

30:53

call it Mike. is

30:54

important. Just remember Mike. So d

30:56

divorces

30:56

Chris because he was too nice. She's like,

30:58

he's not that exciting. He's got kidney issues and

31:00

he's always sick. And I just want someone unstable. Okay?

31:03

then she meets her next

31:04

husband, Cass. Her and

31:07

Cass get married and he's an ass.

31:08

Okay? This was a terrible idea.

31:11

Cass is super abusive. He's

31:13

insanely jealous. He would beat up Dee just for

31:15

talking to other men. He was violent with

31:17

her the instability in the house. affected the

31:19

kids so much that eleven years old.

31:22

Susan is eleven. Her daughter, eleven

31:24

years old. Susan is like, I'm

31:26

moving out. Can you imagine an eleven year old moving out

31:28

because she can't take it anymore? Now, it's

31:30

not specified where Susan went. I'm

31:32

assuming she went with a relative, but

31:34

I mean, that's crazy. D

31:36

and Susan actually stay in touch. They did have a close

31:38

bond, but it really impacted Susan's

31:41

life. And with the

31:43

horrible influence of cast, Dee started to

31:45

give up on her life. She was

31:47

depressed. She wasn't even interested in being a mom

31:49

anymore. She let her two sons just

31:51

basically raise themselves. If they were

31:53

bored, she would drop them off at the mall and hand them a

31:55

few dollars of spending money. Dee was getting

31:57

fired from every job she had for drinking

31:59

on the job. She would get drunk and yell at

32:01

her bosses sometimes. She got up in the face

32:03

of one of her bosses and said whether you

32:05

like it or not, I'm

32:07

not working tonight and

32:09

then left. think you imagine, like, your schedule to work,

32:11

and that's what you do to your boss.

32:13

It's definitely a fireable offense,

32:16

I think. was downing two

32:18

bottles a day, and that was business as

32:20

usual for her. And

32:22

finally, she gets a new job at the

32:24

International House of Pancakes.

32:27

IHOP. Dee would get drunk,

32:29

drive to work every day, and then drink on the

32:31

job, and then drive home drunk, only to drink

32:33

Morn, honestly, the amount of drunk driving in

32:35

this story is shocking. But

32:38

also confusing how she never hurt herself

32:40

or worse hurt someone else on the road, Which

32:42

side note for some bizarre reason that had

32:44

to do with drunk driving, Dee felt like

32:46

IHOP was her last chance. She

32:48

was like, this is the only hope I had in my

32:50

life. Because anything further than I hop,

32:52

I can't drive too drunk. This is

32:54

like the perfect mileage to not get

32:56

caught, driving

32:56

drunk. Oh, this is close.

32:58

Yeah.

32:58

And then anything else that was closer,

33:01

she'd already been fired from. So

33:03

she just felt like IHOP was her last hope

33:05

as far as employment went. this is very

33:07

important. Indeed's mind, I don't know how it works because

33:09

it's very bizarre, but she she was like,

33:11

I have as my last chance. Okay.

33:13

Not the chance to quit drinking,

33:15

but Yeah. a chance to get drunk while still

33:17

go to work. Yeah. And

33:19

she really needed the money. So Cass

33:21

wasn't bringing in consistent money.

33:23

And in fact, he would just disappear for weeks at a time

33:25

on a drunken binge. So, I mean, it was

33:27

just really up to her. She was like a single mom

33:29

at this point. D's friend

33:32

said, you know, d was really nice.

33:34

d kept the cleanest house that I had ever

33:36

seen. d and I were never really close, but

33:38

I liked her a lot. She was always there with a favor,

33:40

always anxious to help you out. I moved away

33:42

and I never saw her again, but when I read in

33:44

the papers that she had been sentenced to die in the

33:46

electric chair, I'm an stunned.

33:48

D cast Steel was the nicest person that you could ever

33:51

meet truly. So again, how

33:53

did the nicest person that you could ever meet end

33:55

upon death whoa. It started with the

33:57

abuse from her husband and Cas. You know, the

33:59

one that was

33:59

never

33:59

around, never helped with the kids, but when he

34:02

was around, he would beat Dee to an inch of her life,

34:04

and a lot of Dee's friends knew about

34:06

it, and they hated Cass for it. I mean, a lot of

34:08

people regarded d as the nicest person you could

34:10

ever meet. So imagine anyone, the

34:12

nicest person you know, and

34:14

they're being beat an inch of their life by their partner, you would hate that partner,

34:16

wouldn't you? But at least she had friends like

34:18

Mike. Remember

34:20

Mike Irvine? one of the

34:22

customers, he always joked with her,

34:24

hey, if you're done with Cas, just call

34:26

me. I'm cheaper than a lawyer, and

34:28

at least he'll never bother you

34:30

again. Hinty.

34:30

then came that he

34:31

would kill Cass for her. Now, sure, she knew

34:34

it was a joke, but it felt nice

34:36

that someone was willing to kill for her or at least

34:38

even joke about it. I

34:40

mean, yes, he's just saying this to be nice, but it made her feel special, it

34:42

made her feel wanted and safe. And

34:44

yeah, okay, she bragged about it at

34:46

IHOP to her coworkers during the

34:48

slow time. And

34:50

maybe maybe she exaggerated it a bit.

34:52

Okay? Because, I mean, everyone knew

34:54

it was a joke. Right? So what did it matter if

34:56

she embellished it for

34:58

dramatic effect? He he, she had a friend that was willing to kill for her. And if

35:00

anyone else Willing hit man, she could call him up,

35:02

he he, because he's a hit he,

35:04

everyone laughed. But

35:06

course, one of them would their

35:08

boss. The manager of the IHOP

35:10

franchisee store was Alan Bryant.

35:12

So this is not a corporate owned

35:14

IHOP. This is a franchisee. So

35:17

Alan Bryant is the manager and

35:19

the owner of the IHOP, the guy's

35:21

name is and Alan and

35:23

Art are married. So they're romantic partners. And it it's very

35:25

intense. So you never really tell the manager of this IHOP

35:28

something that you wouldn't want the owner to

35:30

know because

35:32

it's not completely separated. Yeah. It's almost like a family business.

35:34

Right? So they go to the

35:36

manager. They're like Alan. I heard

35:38

one of the

35:40

employees who was talking about how

35:42

she knows a hitman, and I just thought, I don't

35:44

know. It's it's just very inappropriate to talk

35:46

about at work. Okay? Alan's

35:48

like, okay. Duly noted, I'm gonna have a talk with her. And I already

35:50

needed to talk to her about something. She's been

35:52

doing a lot of weird things at work that

35:54

may be most bosses would not

35:56

approve of. like the

35:58

oregano bottle. You like what

36:00

oregano Memorial Day

36:02

weekend was a busy weekend

36:04

for IHOP. They were running

36:06

a pancake promotion, so I mean it

36:08

was packed. Di could not catch

36:10

a freaking break. She was running around like a chicken with

36:12

her head cut off sweating her feet were

36:14

aching. She had gone hours without a drink,

36:16

not water. I'm talking whiskey. I'm

36:18

talking Scotch. And she felt like she

36:20

was gonna faint. She was making mistakes.

36:23

Her hands were shaking. She knocked over

36:25

customers' glasses while serving them, knocked

36:27

them onto customers. She was not on her

36:29

a game. And that's when she realized. Okay,

36:31

I need to get some drinks in me or else I'm gonna

36:33

lose my job. She started smuggling a

36:35

jumbo sized oregano bottle to work in

36:37

her purse and filled it with

36:39

scotch. She would pour herself an iced tea at work, and then

36:41

pour some oregano in there, put it back in

36:43

her purse, and stay drinking

36:45

on the job. Sometimes, she

36:48

would straight up chugaragon out of the bottle

36:50

when nobody was looking. Nobody

36:52

suspected that she was drinking on her job. They

36:54

didn't smell like booze, you know, they didn't

36:56

question if she was stealing an oregano bottle from

36:58

the store, if she just kept it out in her at all

37:00

times. Like, maybe she just really liked

37:02

oregano. None of that except for

37:04

one cook. Call

37:05

him John. John knew what

37:06

she was doing and he kept it a secret so long

37:08

as he could take some oregano sips as

37:11

well. Well, one day, He set off a

37:13

chain of events that would lead to Dee being on row. He took a sip of

37:15

Dee's oregano bottle and left it out on the floor

37:17

near the cash register rather than putting it back

37:19

in her purse. he

37:21

didn't out before it's too late. The manager

37:24

slash the the husband of

37:26

the IHOP

37:28

owner, Alan, He's Willing in

37:30

and he's headed straight to the cash

37:32

register where the oregano bottle is on

37:34

the floor and her eyes nearly popped out

37:36

of her face. She saw the oregano bottle and

37:38

she's freaking out. Okay. Like, oh

37:40

my god. She's staring at Allan. He's

37:42

going through the cash register, logging the

37:44

money. The goddamn Reginald bottle is still

37:46

there near his feet, and Allan's trying

37:48

make some small talk. Hey, Dee. You okay? How's it going? Dee

37:50

was nervous. Her eyes are

37:53

shifting between Allan and the bottle back to

37:55

Allan back to the bottle back

37:58

to Allan. Busy. It's starting to get quieter though.

38:00

You want me to send one of the girls home?

38:02

No. Let them say it's okay. You

38:04

want some coffee? I can grab you

38:06

some coffee. Rotten.

38:08

No time for coffee. Gotta run. D

38:10

shoulders slumped

38:11

down in relief. Alan was gone.

38:13

He didn't notice the

38:15

bottle close call. Dee didn't think to hide

38:17

the oregano bottle. She just thought it would she would

38:19

get it later. That was her biggest mistake. A

38:21

few minutes later, Allan walked

38:23

right back in door and headed straight for the oregano bottle on

38:26

the ground. It seemed he noticed the bottle

38:28

and he started to process what was inside it

38:30

later in car and now he

38:32

was back aggressively sniffing at the

38:34

oregano bottle like a dog. Deep

38:36

outside. Alan didn't

38:38

say anything. He didn't even turn and give her a look. He calmly twisted the

38:40

cap back on the bottle, placed it on the floor where it

38:42

had been any left. I don't know. Why do

38:44

I feel like that's

38:46

even

38:46

scarier? what is going on? Dee went home convinced

38:48

that she was

38:48

gonna get fired very soon. She cried to her

38:50

daughter about it. Susan tried to convince her

38:53

to stop drinking, if this job

38:55

means so much to your mom, then just

38:58

stop. D smiled and agreed. She would

39:00

for a while. And for two days, she just kept

39:02

telling herself anytime she wanted to reach for a

39:04

Rotten. My life depends on depends job, am drinking,

39:06

so I don't lose this job. And around

39:08

two PM on Tuesday, Alan

39:12

called. Dee, can you come to the afternoon? I your

39:14

day off, but I just want to talk to you about

39:16

something. Sure. Alan, what

39:18

time?

39:18

sir alan what time Four

39:20

o'clock?

39:20

law D hung

39:21

her head and she calmly walked over to iron

39:23

her uniform. I mean, she knew she was getting fired, but

39:25

still she wanted to put some effort into all of

39:28

it. She saw Ellen waiting for her at

39:30

the back by and he sounded nervous.

39:32

Maybe he was too nice to fire her. Hi, Allan. What's up?

39:34

Come on. Let's go for a

39:36

my boots performance ride. and

39:38

the two of them sat in the car while he drove aimlessly and

39:40

it was silent. Dee was confused. She

39:42

had to ask, where are

39:46

we going? No place in particular, more

39:48

silence. You

39:48

mentioned going to an organ

39:49

recital with art. How how is

39:52

that? Dulles

39:54

piss. Art's driving knots. He's jealous and possessive. He's like

39:56

living in a prison. Oh,

39:58

okay. Sorry to

39:59

hear

39:59

that. sorry to hear that Look,

40:02

Incidentally, I know about the oregano bottle b. The one

40:04

with the booze in it, it's yours,

40:07

isn't it? Yeah.

40:09

that I thought so. I'm

40:10

not gonna tell Art about it. He would fire you in

40:12

a minute if he knew, but I understand. Really? I

40:14

do. People like us, we gotta stick

40:17

together, you know? delet on a sigh of relief. Oh my god. She's not

40:19

getting fired. I'm I'm gonna give it up by swear.

40:22

I'm gonna stop drinking.

40:24

How so?

40:24

The

40:25

alcohol doesn't do me good, and I should have

40:27

given up the long time honestly, it's for the

40:29

kids. I owe it to the kids to give

40:31

up. Good. Good

40:34

for you. silence. And then his voice sounded angry while

40:36

he said his next few words. I gotta

40:38

get my break too, from art.

40:40

He's

40:40

driving me crazy.

40:42

And

40:42

while Alan drove around aimlessly, he ranted about how miserable art was

40:44

making him, how boring he was. And then he

40:46

asked her, if she had been to Monty

40:49

Trainers in Coconut Grove, The

40:51

the fancy restaurant, Monty Trainers?

40:54

Yeah. No.

40:54

It was

40:55

quite lovely.

40:56

We ate there after the recital. I'll take you

40:58

there sometime. d couldn't believe it. Instead

41:01

of firing her, Allan was inviting her to

41:03

a fancy restaurant and coconut grove, a

41:05

very expensive area, and then

41:07

more silence. d. I know it sounds

41:09

crazy, but someone told me know how to make people go away. But you

41:12

know someone that would kill for

41:14

money. What the fuck is going on in

41:16

this IHOP? So

41:18

a little bit about the manager and the owner of the IHOP. Let's start with

41:21

the owner. His name is Arthur Venezia,

41:23

and we're gonna call him art because

41:25

that's what everyone called him. His

41:27

parents were immigrants from Spain and they did really well

41:30

for themselves. Art was able

41:32

to explore his interest at a young age

41:34

and maybe his name played a role in it, but

41:36

he was super artsy. Like, he loved

41:38

art, music. Oh, any

41:40

creative expression he was into, he

41:42

actually became the president of the South

41:44

Florida Theatre, Oregon Society. He freaking loved the Oregon. He

41:47

loved to play. It was like a

41:49

lifelong passion for him.

41:52

Later as an adult, he was this savvy businessman. He

41:54

got into real estate, made a

41:56

lot of smart investments, accumulated quite a

41:58

bit of money in an assets, So

42:01

while balancing all the businesses that he

42:04

ran, all of his artistic

42:06

hobbies, art really didn't have a lot of time for friends

42:08

and hanging out. A lot of people

42:10

said, art was a heavy

42:12

introvert, but he was super kind. They

42:14

said, I mean, we only have nice

42:16

things to say about the man. Like, God, he was really

42:18

nice fellow. I never heard him say anything

42:20

bad about anyone in my whole life.

42:22

There was nothing that art wouldn't do

42:24

for you. He was intelligent, so kind, so well

42:27

mannered. But of course, he was very private. Like,

42:29

I never really knew

42:31

him that well. So he was very, very

42:33

private. And one thing that I know about super private people is that they're

42:36

once they let you in, they're

42:39

you're there forever. Like,

42:41

they're very picky about who they let in and

42:43

once they do, I mean, they really trust

42:45

you. So thirty three year old art

42:47

meets eighteen year old Alan Bryant, and

42:49

he lets him in. And at this point, art was

42:51

already established in the world. He had this

42:54

beautiful home in Coconut Grove. He had real

42:56

estate Willing stocks bonds. He

42:58

lived a pretty relaxed lifestyle, and

43:00

Alan, the eighteen year old he was super

43:02

attracted to that. And to the table,

43:04

Alan brought

43:06

company. youth and yeah, he's very attractive.

43:08

Alan Bryant was super soft spoken.

43:10

He had almost this gentle

43:12

southern vibe about him. He would

43:15

refer to everyone as missus and mister or a man and mister

43:17

even if they didn't, he didn't need to.

43:19

Side note, Alan was so charming that a lot of

43:21

woman wished and prayed

43:24

that he change his mind about being gay or they hope that he was just

43:26

pretending to be gay, which is

43:28

like what a loaded sentence, you know? But it

43:30

wasn't just the looks that art was

43:32

taken by art had a bit

43:34

of a savior complex.

43:36

He loved to help people, and Alan came

43:38

from this broken home and had a rough

43:40

childhood. And art is like, I

43:42

got you. I'm gonna help

43:44

you out. But Alan also had a

43:46

dark side. He was addicted to pills

43:48

and cocaine and he would

43:50

cheat all the time, primarily with Cuban men. He loved

43:52

Cuban men. He would cheat and cheat and cheat and

43:54

art would find out, and then they would get into

43:56

physically violent fights with art

43:58

primarily getting

44:00

a brunt of the abuse like he's being cheated on and

44:02

then being covered in cuts and bruises

44:04

all the time. What? But instead of

44:06

breaking up with Allan, art bought him an

44:08

eye IHOP. He was like, maybe you're

44:10

busy, maybe if you're a manager of IHOP, you're

44:12

so busy that you're not gonna get into trouble. It

44:14

was more of like a parent and child type

44:18

of relationship. So they've been together for eight years. They moved from

44:20

their big house in Coconut Grove to the

44:22

Redlands, which is about twenty

44:24

miles from downtown Miami, but it's like

44:26

Farm Central The name

44:28

redlands comes from the fact that the soil is

44:30

literally red, but it's so good at growing

44:32

plants. This area is one of the world's

44:34

biggest suppliers of Christmas trees and

44:36

palm trees. They have huge

44:38

avocado farms in the area, bean

44:40

plantations, I mean everything. And art

44:42

wasn't all of it. He bought five

44:44

acres of land. just woods. There wasn't even a road or a shack on

44:46

there. They had to bulldoze a path to the

44:48

middle where they set up this makeshift

44:50

house. The

44:52

idea was, The two would live there

44:54

for a while. And if they loved it, they would

44:56

start building their dream home, their

44:58

mansion there. The house saw a

45:00

shed that they were living in was more like a

45:02

one bedroom apartment. It was not lavish at all, and it was right in the middle

45:04

of the property hidden on all sides

45:06

by palm trees and pine

45:08

trees. It was

45:10

incredibly private.

45:10

on the side. They had

45:12

this huge metal barn that was much larger

45:14

than their house. You know the type of metal barns

45:16

that you might see people park like mini

45:18

planes on, like an airport hanger.

45:20

Yeah. It was like that. Allan had three greenhouses on property and he

45:22

would storage plants in the metal barn while he

45:24

sold them to a wholesaler. This guy's very

45:28

busy. guys live in his dream, but he's

45:30

very busy. And it really was right place, right time, wrong

45:32

person. There must be a million people in

45:34

this world that would fall in love with art

45:38

and would fall in love with this type of life, but Alan just wasn't one of

45:40

those people. Alan was

45:42

known unanimously by everyone

45:44

that knew him, worked with him

45:46

even passed him on the street as a pathological liar. I mean, it's

45:48

a bit of an exaggeration, but everyone said that

45:51

he was a pathological liar. They

45:53

said it was to the point where if you ask Alan,

45:55

hey Alan, what time is it? And he

45:57

tells you three o'clock. If your watch said

45:59

three o'clock, instead of thinking Alan was

46:02

telling the truth, you would think that he's

46:04

lying and your watch is broken. That's

46:06

how often and how much he lied about

46:08

everything. Everyone at IHOP could see right through

46:10

his lies. except for, well, d. d seemed

46:12

to be infatuated with this man. d said

46:14

this about Allan. Oh, sometimes

46:16

when I was busy at the restaurant and the kitchen

46:18

was all

46:20

bogged down. All the cooks couldn't keep up the orders and Alan

46:22

would come in and he would have turned out every

46:24

single order and every customer would be

46:26

served. He was a whiz.

46:28

when he was a wonderful waiter, he could have succeeded in anything,

46:30

like he could certainly turn the charm on. Nobody else agreed. So

46:33

I definitely think that she was seeing Allan with

46:35

some rosy tinted glasses because

46:38

what? eight, she was definitely overplaying his contribution

46:40

at IHOP. What's odd is that was not even Dee's

46:42

type at all. For one, she was forty

46:45

Rotten, he was twenty five. She

46:48

never really liked younger men. She also loved giga chads,

46:50

and Allan was not that. Dean just

46:52

said that she didn't have a crush. She only

46:54

wanted to impress him because he was her

46:57

boss. That's all. Besides, Alan was in a very serious

46:59

romantic relationship with a guy, not

47:02

art,

47:03

Patrick. His mister.

47:04

Patrick. The the man

47:06

that he was cheating on art with. Right? They

47:08

were very much in love. So it's not like Dee

47:11

stood a chance. Even if she

47:12

had a crush, but there

47:13

she was, offering up her friend Mike

47:16

as a

47:18

hitman. Everyone is always like Stephanie,

47:20

happiness comes from within. Like, yeah, I know.

47:22

Can I work in on it. But sometimes

47:24

some playful competition between friends,

47:26

family, your significant can be

47:28

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47:30

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47:42

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47:59

my gosh, it's out of this world. And when

48:01

I beat that level before my

48:03

fiance beats it, incredible. I love that I can bond with him

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49:47

Let's talk

49:48

about Mike. Mike was as normal,

49:50

regular mundane.

49:52

Just think about any boring synonym

49:54

for that because he was that type

49:57

a guy, like he worked at a gas station and as

49:59

an auto mechanic,

49:59

and he was just a nice person. He

50:02

left kids, he would work on people's cars

50:04

for free, he knew cast before he met d, and

50:06

everyone that knew Mike considered him

50:08

friendly, generous,

50:10

just nice. Later, even the

50:12

state prosecutor would say Mike had

50:14

no violent tendencies. He was just,

50:16

end, I quote, a

50:18

country bumpkin. His

50:18

ex wives, they all divorced him because he cheated, but they said

50:20

that he never raised his voice at them. He

50:23

never was violent with them. I mean,

50:25

it doesn't make sense. Why

50:27

was he offered up on a silver platter as a

50:29

head man? Maybe Mike was drunk and he wanted

50:32

money for booze. Unlike d,

50:34

Mike rarely drank. He frequented

50:36

bars and lounges to hang out with people, but he

50:38

wasn't a drinker. Oddly though, he did

50:40

drink a gallon of milk a day. That's a lot

50:42

of milk. And I'm serious. It's a bit strange. I mean, I highly doubt that the

50:44

milk made him violent, but like why are you drinking so

50:46

much to the milk? It's a lot of milk.

50:48

Some people were like, well, maybe he was a

50:50

violent homophobic.

50:52

Maybe that's why he was even the of murdering art as a

50:55

hit man because else? But no,

50:57

Mike was really a live and let live

50:59

type of guy. He didn't hate

51:02

anyone. Walden was it for the money? People doubted that too. He made

51:04

a decent relatively comfortable living. So

51:06

why on Earth was he offered up as a

51:08

hit man? And why did he take the job?

51:12

Some say that Mike was just the type of guy that couldn't say no.

51:14

If you ask him a favor, he would do it

51:16

even if he didn't want to, which I

51:20

don't know. I don't think I buy that. I have a hard time saying no too,

51:22

but you better believe I would never kill

51:24

someone. Yeah. So at first, d tried

51:26

to tell

51:28

Allen. No. Mike's a teddy bear. I don't know where you heard that or who

51:30

you heard that from, but he's a real sweetheart, you know?

51:32

So he's not a criminal. No. I

51:34

I think sometimes he sells dope, but he's super gentle.

51:37

he would never do anything violent. He's a really sweet guy.

51:39

So it's not true. He's not a

51:42

hitman. A

51:42

hitman. Jesus Christ not Mike.

51:44

He's like a teddy bear. He

51:47

was Just joking. He always said to me

51:49

if Cass and I ever decide to breakup hiring

51:51

him would be cheaper than a lawyer. You

51:53

take care of it. That's

51:55

it. You mean

51:55

he would kill cast, and only

51:58

cast? Yeah. But

51:58

even that, I think he's

51:59

joking. Damn

52:01

it. Damn it. Damn it.

52:03

Damn it. Are you really trying to have someone

52:05

killed? Forget it. Just forget it.

52:07

Dee said after those words it was silent and

52:09

she started to feel bad and sad and

52:12

she wanted to help. She wanted

52:14

Allan to like her. She wanted to be on his good

52:16

side. Well, I can't imagine

52:18

Mike killing anyone, but maybe he

52:20

might know someone who could. I kid you

52:22

not, this is the conversation that Dee

52:24

ends up on death row four. Because

52:26

allegedly, she felt bad about letting Ellen

52:28

down. Now, I don't know if I buy this

52:30

either because I mean, I just don't

52:32

get it. Like, you are doing all of this because you

52:34

don't wanna let someone down and you don't wanna get fired

52:36

because that would ruin your life. But going to jail

52:38

would also ruin

52:40

your life. Which side note, Alan never even implied any

52:42

consequences for Dee if she didn't help him? So

52:44

maybe there were other reasons of why

52:46

she wanted to, and we're gonna explore

52:48

those later. but

52:50

once Dee decided to help her life did get better

52:52

incrementally. Ellen started changing up

52:54

her shift instead of doing the night

52:57

shift she got the highly coveted six AM to two

52:59

PM morning shift. Allen said it was

53:01

because he wanted her to have time to start talking

53:03

to Mike about hiring the other guy

53:06

for them. she needs to plot this whole murder from two PM

53:08

to, I don't know, six PM.

53:10

Right? So she would meet up

53:12

with Mike. Hey, Dee. You

53:14

still married to that son of a bitch,

53:16

Cass? Yeah, not for long.

53:18

Good. You finally saw the light. I

53:20

saw the light a long time

53:22

ago, Mike. Then you ready for me to kill the

53:24

bastard? Don't tempt me,

53:25

Mike. Don't waste money on a fucking

53:27

lawyer. Okay? I'll take care of

53:29

cats for you. is the bastard

53:32

ready to die? I doubt

53:34

it, doesn't matter.

53:34

You just give me the word and I'll kill him

53:36

for you. We'll grind him up in the trash compact

53:39

or something. Side note, Mike sounds serious, but

53:41

he was friends with Cass first and most

53:43

likely he was joking. But somehow, in the

53:45

process of joking about it, Mike

53:47

would become a hitman. So I guess

53:49

it's really not a joke after all. Hey, can I ask you

53:51

something, Mike? Yeah. Would

53:53

you really kill

53:54

somebody?

53:54

really killed somebody You mean like

53:57

money? Yeah. Why?

53:58

Well, I know someone that

53:59

somebody

53:59

killed. Do you expect IHOP to

54:02

say

54:02

no, but instead he said,

54:04

who? Someone I know?

54:06

Not me. No. I'm

54:07

not a killer. Yeah. I didn't

54:09

think so, but I do have a

54:11

friend who'll do it. really? Sure.

54:13

Of course. I mean, we wouldn't

54:13

want your friend

54:14

to know who we are, but we can deal

54:16

it through you. Right? Okay. Well, then I

54:19

I'll just go tell my friend who

54:22

wants somebody killed if you just tell me the price.

54:24

What depends who the person is. You know, how hard he

54:26

is to hit a lot of things. I I bet it's like

54:28

gay manager of yours and he wants to knock his

54:32

lover off. What?

54:32

whoa Maybe you're

54:34

right. You bet I'm right. That

54:36

don't take no genius to figure that out.

54:38

My friend would need some more info first.

54:42

Like, what?

54:42

Like, who the hit is? Where

54:43

he lives? What are his habits? What kind of car he

54:45

drives? You know, when he's normally home? A photo. We're

54:47

gonna need a photo. Okay,

54:50

I'll see what I can do. And literally just

54:52

like that, they started plotting a But in

54:54

the end, it would be a

54:56

double homicide. So they agree on the price of three thousand dollars, which came

54:58

into IHOP, wrote it on a thing, pretending to

55:00

be a customer and gave the napkin. I don't know

55:02

why they did all of that. Okay? I don't know

55:06

why. and then they end up at the gun store. Dean Allen,

55:08

trying to buy the murder weapon. Dean claims

55:10

she didn't want to be there, but she was

55:12

still in her IHOP uniform and Alan

55:15

pressured her to go with him --

55:17

No freaking woman. -- in her eyes. To

55:19

say for after walk work.

55:21

Yeah. She

55:22

had some knowledge of guns she had

55:24

gone camping and hunting as a child, and Allan told her, I need you. I

55:26

I don't know anything about guns. Now, at

55:29

the gun shop, Allan was acting

55:31

strange. He was moving around

55:34

the storm with his arms behind his back. Looking down

55:36

at the glasses, glancing at the guns

55:38

really as if he was dragged in here by

55:40

his friend, And the last thing had

55:42

on his mind was buying a gun. And when

55:44

it came time to pay, Allan starts patting his

55:46

pants. Oh my god. Damn it.

55:48

Damn it. I forgot my wallet.

55:51

We'll have to come back. And they walked out,

55:53

but before they get into the car, he stops and

55:55

says, d, this is silly. Why should we come back? You

55:57

can buy the gun. For some reason, he had cash. He

55:59

handed her the cash for the gun.

55:59

And for some reason, d

56:02

went in and bought the gun under

56:04

her name So yeah,

56:06

fine. Alcohol does do funny, not so

56:08

funny things to the brain, but I refuse to

56:10

believe it was just that and her being

56:12

too nice to

56:14

say no. Who

56:14

just willingly buys a gun under their name when they know it's about

56:16

to be a murder weapon? On the way back

56:18

from the gun store, Alan was gushing

56:20

about his lover, Patrick. he talked

56:23

like a love sick school girl. I mean, he's the man that I've been waiting

56:25

for my whole life. You know, we have something

56:27

special. We really do. I just hope that

56:29

he realizes how good I

56:31

am for him. gotta just love him so much. It

56:33

hurts. Well, why don't you just move on and

56:36

move out? But what if

56:38

Patrick leaves? you know, I need to keep

56:40

him happy and in my life. I mean, we talked

56:42

about the kind of house we wanna live in, how to

56:44

decorate it. You know, I wanna show him

56:46

the world. He straight up

56:48

wanted art's money to shower his lover with it.

56:50

So knowing all of this and d is apparently a good

56:52

person, nicest person you'll ever meet,

56:54

according to everybody that knew her, Why the hell did she

56:56

go through with all of this? I mean, it just

56:58

doesn't make any sense. The first

57:00

theory is

57:00

that Dea is straight up mesmerized by Allan.

57:03

and she is so afraid of losing her job that she would

57:05

do anything to

57:05

please him. So she had

57:06

a crush and she wanted to keep her

57:09

job. The

57:09

second argument which a lot of DAs would

57:11

believe is that Maybe Alan promised to give Dee some money

57:13

after art was gone. And three, Dee's own

57:16

theory about why she behaved this way was that

57:18

she never really believed anyone was

57:20

getting murdered. She claimed that

57:22

she believed that Mike was a teddy bear,

57:24

and she thought that he was just fkin around with

57:26

them so that they could scam Allan out of a

57:28

few thousand dollars. And what was Allan

57:30

going to do? Go to the

57:32

cops. Officer, please, you have to help me. I was trying to

57:34

kill my lover and the hit Mango scammed

57:36

me. I mean, let's be real. There's

57:38

no way. d even said, Mike would refer to Alan as the

57:40

little homophobic slur. So

57:42

maybe he was a homophobic slur. Okay?

57:44

Some speculated it was a little bit

57:46

of everything. If it happened,

57:48

she would get some money out of it. But in order to

57:50

function and to really go through with it, she would

57:52

deny that it would ever happen in her mind

57:54

almost as a coping mechanism. D later

57:56

said, I don't understand myself.

57:58

Why I didn't just tell him to take the job and

58:00

shove it? I don't know.

58:01

Back

58:02

then if Allan called meet ten minutes. I did it.

58:04

It just doesn't make any sense. The men

58:07

I liked were always real macho types

58:09

and they never intimidated me. I never

58:11

jumped for those guys. So why did

58:13

I do it for Allan? Maybe it was because I wanted to keep my job.

58:15

And I guess to add some weight to Dee's theory, which I'm

58:17

not a hundred percent on board with that she

58:20

just believed no

58:22

murder was taking place. The arranged hit just kept

58:24

getting postponed. But was spending

58:26

money like art was gonna drop

58:30

dead tomorrow. So Alan is out there spending his money,

58:32

constantly stealing money out of the register to

58:34

buy his new lover, a new pair of

58:36

shoes, or a new wallet, and even

58:38

writing checks

58:40

from art's account that he knew that we're gonna get declined. He just

58:42

thought, what's the point of trying to keep up with appearances?

58:44

The guy's gonna die anyway.

58:47

But the hit was stalling so long that art and

58:49

Allan had this explosive fight. Art

58:52

found out that Allan had been stealing money from

58:54

the IHOP register and

58:56

bouncing checks. d saw

58:58

art as the eye out pissed off. His

59:00

face was red. He was screaming.

59:02

I could kill Allen that son of

59:04

a bitch. But when Dee really looked at Art's face, her heart

59:06

twinged a little bit because he didn't seem

59:08

angry. He

59:10

seemed sad.

59:10

the thing He seemed more

59:12

betrayed than hurt than anything.

59:14

I'm gonna kill him. Art stormed out,

59:16

but the next day he came back and he was the

59:18

one with strangulation marked around his neck.

59:21

d was so confused. Oh my god,

59:23

art, what happened to you? Alan

59:25

started strangling me on the property, and then I pushed

59:27

him off. It was off He had his

59:29

hands around my throat. He was squeezing so hard. He could've killed me. I swear it. I was

59:31

scared to death. He said he hated me. I

59:34

punched him. I slapped him.

59:36

He slapped me clawed at my

59:38

face. I mean, it was awful. We were spitting

59:40

and kicking and screaming at each other.

59:42

I don't know what would have happened if Barry hadn't

59:44

called the police. He ran

59:46

outside. The police ran in. Alan had

59:48

run into the bathroom and swallowed all the pills

59:50

in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Oh, it's

59:52

freaking out. The police got

59:54

there. They had a baby talk him out of the

59:56

bathroom. Like, come on, Alan. It's

59:58

okay. You're gonna be okay. Just tell

1:00:00

us what pills

1:00:02

you took. Now he's in the hospital. Dean was surprised, not that Alan would

1:00:04

do that, but more so that art seemed more

1:00:06

concerned about the guy that tried to kill him than

1:00:08

the fact that he had almost been killed by the man he

1:00:10

left for the past

1:00:12

eight years. At one point, he even turns to d and is

1:00:14

like, did Alan let you borrow three thousand

1:00:16

dollars? Remember that was the exact

1:00:18

amount for the hit on Arts

1:00:20

Life? What?

1:00:22

He said he let you borrow money for the divorce. Oh,

1:00:24

no. No. He didn't. Oh,

1:00:26

he lied and lied. Doesn't he? He said that

1:00:28

he was helping you get a divorce and that you

1:00:31

were his best friend. In the midst of all of this, Dee was

1:00:33

a little too happy. Best

1:00:36

friend?

1:00:36

Do you really

1:00:37

say best friend? Yeah. You

1:00:39

said you were getting divorced, but that's not

1:00:41

true. Right? No,

1:00:42

sir. That's

1:00:43

not true. Sorry.

1:00:44

Do you felt

1:00:45

like she was betraying Ellen by

1:00:47

even saying that? she had the urge to run to him at the hospital and take

1:00:49

care of him, which is just so bizarre. Like,

1:00:52

it's so out of left field. I'm

1:00:54

so confused. So when

1:00:56

Allan gets discharged from a hospital, the two

1:00:58

book a motel and they stay with each other.

1:01:00

Allan was pressuring Dee to make

1:01:02

sure Art died ASAP because soon it was gonna be too late and

1:01:04

Allan wouldn't be able to get his stuff.

1:01:06

And he is like, wait, I thought the hit is

1:01:08

all Allan.

1:01:10

I mean, it's too much. There's too much drama and art set that you guys are getting

1:01:12

into voice. I mean, now you can be

1:01:14

with Patrick, right, on what?

1:01:17

I can go be with Patrick on what salary high. You think

1:01:19

I wanna work at some Waitress at the

1:01:21

Florida Turnpike? How could you do this to me? D?

1:01:23

You had no right to call off the hit. It

1:01:25

wasn't your money. You no right to stop

1:01:28

it. I'm sorry I had no idea I just

1:01:30

thought it was over because Art kept saying you guys are

1:01:32

over. No.

1:01:32

What? I'm your friend. Believe

1:01:34

me, not art. Of course, our relationship is an over. This is

1:01:36

nothing we've had fights like this all the time. Alan

1:01:38

waved his hand in

1:01:39

the Waitress. confident that he

1:01:42

could get art back. And he went on rant

1:01:44

about how much he loved Patrick and hated

1:01:46

art. Which side note while they were at the

1:01:48

motel remember that he was married

1:01:50

to cast the super abusive one. Well, he's like, why the hell is my wife

1:01:52

at a motel? He somehow tracked her

1:01:54

down, came banging on the door, and he was

1:01:56

fuming. He opened up

1:01:58

the door, Alan was hiding

1:01:59

in the bathroom for some reason, and she's like,

1:02:02

what the hell cast? Who are you

1:02:03

with? Goddamn. And I know there's a man in

1:02:05

here somewhere. Where the hell is he? I told

1:02:07

you, I'm with Alan for Christ's sake. It's

1:02:09

just Alan. Oh, you expect me to

1:02:12

believe that?

1:02:13

Where is he? He's

1:02:14

in the bathroom, Cass, and he yelled. Well, I'm

1:02:16

staying right here until

1:02:17

he comes out and it'd better be a

1:02:20

homophobic slur in there or else there's

1:02:22

gonna be hell

1:02:24

to pay. Alan finally came out. Hey,

1:02:26

gas. How you

1:02:26

doing? And the emergency was

1:02:28

over. The situation was

1:02:30

incredible. not

1:02:32

in a good way. Just freaking incredible because who are these people? How

1:02:34

do you even find people like this? And by

1:02:37

noon the next day, Alan and Art had

1:02:39

made up and Alan moved back

1:02:41

into the house. and Mike got a guy named Bill involved in

1:02:43

the hit. Bill Rhodes to be

1:02:46

exact. Bill was like the most

1:02:48

stereotypical tough criminal type

1:02:50

of guy He was a Vietnam vet and a lot of people

1:02:52

said, Bill went to war one guy and

1:02:54

he came back completely different. He

1:02:56

wasn't evil or mean or bad. He

1:02:58

was just

1:03:00

different. He was introverted. It was it was hard to understand why

1:03:02

he didn't wanna be around people anymore. Some

1:03:04

people said that Bill was one of the nicest person

1:03:06

that they'd ever met. It was just

1:03:10

a lot. Anyway, Bill was the type of guy that would

1:03:12

carry around a razor blade knife for no

1:03:14

reason and he would soon use it to

1:03:16

slit art's

1:03:18

throat. He did quite a lot of prison time too for stealing a lot of things.

1:03:20

And there a psychiatrist said,

1:03:22

Bill has an adequate personality development

1:03:25

syndrome, which meant as a result of his life experiences

1:03:27

and trauma, this individual does not develop the

1:03:30

necessary controls in terms of making

1:03:32

decisions relative to what is right and

1:03:34

what is wrong. So

1:03:35

that's Bill. A little

1:03:36

fun trivia about Bill. He likes to spell

1:03:38

his name with one l. BIL. So anyway,

1:03:40

now that the police have already been called

1:03:42

to Art's House about a fight between Art and Allan. Remember, you

1:03:44

would think that Allan would want to lay

1:03:47

low. Nope. He wants to up the ante. He's

1:03:49

willing to pay Mike and Bill an additional

1:03:51

ten thousand dollars to make

1:03:53

sure that art died and to make sure that art died

1:03:55

very, very soon. So June

1:03:57

eighteen, Saturday night was the new day.

1:03:59

Mike and Bill we're gonna pick

1:04:01

up Allen from IHOP where Dee would be working her shift, do the DeeD,

1:04:03

and then drop him back off.

1:04:06

Totally normal business, not shady

1:04:08

at all.

1:04:10

He remembers that Allan was waiting to be picked up and he was losing

1:04:12

in his mind. He was talking a million miles

1:04:14

an hour about the most random things, tapping

1:04:16

his fingers on the counter, talking

1:04:19

to d. What do you think of the decor in here?

1:04:21

You think I should change it?

1:04:24

No. Maybe I'll stop smoking. You know what? I'm

1:04:26

gonna change your uniforms. The uniforms

1:04:28

are too boring. I want you girls to have a little style. I'm

1:04:30

gonna quit smoking. Hey, did you see that artist

1:04:34

exhibit recently? Rotten cool artist

1:04:36

exhibit that they did. Anyway, the weather has been

1:04:38

looking nice. Hey, look at that dog.

1:04:40

The dog, that's outside. You ever been to a dog

1:04:42

race before? They talked about

1:04:44

everything but Until

1:04:46

right around midnight, Mike's car

1:04:48

pulled up, and Alan

1:04:50

walked out. d

1:04:50

said, it was in that moment she knew this was real, that there would

1:04:53

be no more ripping Allen

1:04:54

off, that art Venezia was

1:04:56

gonna die soon. And d did nothing

1:04:59

She didn't call the police, she didn't try to stop it, she sat

1:05:02

there, poured a big heaping glass of scotch

1:05:04

into her iced coffee and downed

1:05:06

it. She said, what could

1:05:08

I do? call the police and say what? There's going to be a

1:05:10

murder and I'm involved. Hell, I didn't

1:05:12

even know where they lived.

1:05:14

So instead dees stood there,

1:05:16

paralyzed in fear in the IHOP, downing

1:05:18

scotch, and thinking about all the things in her life

1:05:20

that were failing. Her failed

1:05:22

marriage, her bills,

1:05:24

everything looked bleak. And after about an

1:05:26

hour, Mike's car pulled out. Alan

1:05:28

got out and d scanned him up and down as he

1:05:30

walked in. Thank god, there was

1:05:32

no blood on his clothes. Maybe maybe that's a good

1:05:34

sign. Maybe maybe they didn't kill

1:05:36

art, but they did. The first word

1:05:37

is out of Valens mouth

1:05:39

word. It's over. They

1:05:40

really didn't. D couldn't do it

1:05:41

anymore. She got into her car,

1:05:43

nearly blacked out drunk and somehow drove

1:05:45

all the way home. Now

1:05:47

there are multiple versions of what happened that

1:05:49

night. Each guy tends to just put the

1:05:51

blame on the other person. So clearly,

1:05:54

Mike wants to put blame on

1:05:56

Allan and Bill. Bill wants to put the blame

1:05:58

on Mike and Allan and Allan's, like, I had no idea

1:06:00

what was going on. I didn't even know that art was

1:06:02

getting murdered. I never even put out a hit on these

1:06:04

people, like, what it what what? Most

1:06:06

likely, the story went that Alan, Mike, and Bill

1:06:08

drove to Arts House, stormed into his

1:06:10

bedroom to

1:06:12

overpower him. Mike held Arts hands behind him while Bill slashed his

1:06:14

throat and Alan most likely

1:06:16

watched. But it gets crazier. The

1:06:18

next day, Alan approaches Dea at IHOP

1:06:20

and is like, hey, I need your

1:06:22

help. Cleaning the house.

1:06:24

Understandably, Dee was upset about it. I mean, she

1:06:26

was about to lose it. And he put pressure on her.

1:06:28

He's like, Dee, don't fall apart on me.

1:06:30

Okay? I need you. And for

1:06:32

some reason, that's all it

1:06:34

took. After her shift, Dee agreed to help

1:06:36

clean up the crime scene. I mean, I think at this

1:06:38

point, there's obviously more going on than Dee is

1:06:40

trying to get us to believe because she walked

1:06:42

into art's room, saw his lifeless body,

1:06:44

his throat cut, still in his p j's and

1:06:46

decided to help clean up

1:06:48

the scene. They stuffed art's body into the closet in the

1:06:50

garage, shoved it with bloody sheets, towels,

1:06:52

pillows, anything that had to do with murder,

1:06:54

anything with blood, they put it in the closet with

1:06:56

art's body.

1:06:58

I mean, truly, I don't get d. She had to have been in

1:07:00

love with Ellen or if she must have been promised

1:07:02

money because there's no way she did this

1:07:04

to keep her job at IHOP. Like,

1:07:07

come on now. Yeah. After stuffing Art's body into

1:07:09

the closet, Alan started pacing out

1:07:12

loud. Shit. What am I gonna

1:07:14

do? I'm gonna tell people that he went

1:07:16

to know Carolina. Right? That

1:07:18

makes sense. He has he has he has property in North

1:07:20

Carolina. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh.

1:07:22

Do we light his body in the woods or

1:07:24

something? Yeah. I'll

1:07:24

figure that out, but the first time

1:07:26

I've told missus Fisher, who's missus Fisher?

1:07:28

His mom. Oh, what are

1:07:31

you gonna say? Yeah. I'll say that Art said goodbye to

1:07:33

her before leaving to North Carolina, but she's too

1:07:36

senile to remember. Okay? I

1:07:38

mean, does she live nearby? When did he

1:07:40

say goodbye? No.

1:07:42

She lives here. What do you mean?

1:07:43

She lives here. Right out in

1:07:46

front was a

1:07:46

little trailer. His mom lived

1:07:49

on the

1:07:50

property. d

1:07:51

was yeah.

1:07:52

d was practically shutting. You right

1:07:55

here, you murdered art right here, twenty feet

1:07:57

away from his mother. I didn't

1:07:59

murder him. Oh, no. You just

1:07:59

stood by with

1:08:00

someone slit his throat with a razor

1:08:02

knife. Will you please calm down?

1:08:04

You're getting hysterical. Dea

1:08:07

was sobbing and waving her arms around wildly,

1:08:10

hysterical, Ellen,

1:08:10

I can't can

1:08:12

you imagine why I'm so

1:08:13

hysterical because you just got me involved in a murder and the man's

1:08:16

mother lives too many

1:08:18

feet away? Well, we'll take care of it. Okay? Take

1:08:19

care of it for God's sake. You can't take care of it. The man is

1:08:21

dead, art is

1:08:21

dead. You killed him and you got me involved in

1:08:24

that. This a

1:08:27

dream, Alan. We're not gonna wake up from it. Well, you've got

1:08:29

your friend, Mike.

1:08:30

From what? Well, isn't

1:08:32

it obvious?

1:08:33

We have to kill his

1:08:36

mom now. No. No. No. I didn't sign up for a

1:08:38

killing spree. We're not gonna kill some old lady. We'll do her. What do

1:08:42

you propose? We'll do with her. I don't fucking know, let

1:08:44

her live. How's that for a novel

1:08:46

idea? No. She's old. She's seen how she

1:08:48

can't even cook her own meals. We had to shut off

1:08:50

the gas because she kept forgetting to turn her

1:08:53

gov off. Well then

1:08:54

I'll feed her. You'll feed her. Yep. From the restaurant, I'll bring meals over,

1:08:56

whatever has to

1:08:59

be done, I'll do it. Okay?

1:09:01

Anything, Alan? Just don't kill her. I'll take care of her. And just like that d did. She

1:09:03

started bringing food from my hub twice a

1:09:05

day and became attached to Art's

1:09:08

mom, Bessi.

1:09:09

Yeah. What's

1:09:11

going on?

1:09:12

That's what I'm saying. This is the

1:09:14

most bizarre thing ever. Vessey didn't do much.

1:09:16

She had a cat. She watched TV.

1:09:18

She slept sixteen hours a day, so caring for her wasn't that

1:09:20

hard. d stopped by twice a

1:09:22

day with food and bessie would

1:09:24

ask for art a few times, d would

1:09:27

brush it off. and Dee said that she became attached to Bessie in a strange way, which

1:09:29

I don't know how to feel about that or if I

1:09:31

can even believe it because at the

1:09:33

same time Dee was helping

1:09:35

move Art's body from the closet

1:09:37

into the metal barn. So how how attached can you get to

1:09:39

a murder victim's mom after you

1:09:42

just murdered the victim?

1:09:44

And Dee was starting to unravel for sure. She

1:09:46

was overworked. Now that art was dead, Allan felt like he needed the

1:09:51

new manager. IHOP was facto owner. So in his

1:09:53

mind, he made Dee the manager,

1:09:55

which he was getting paid less because she

1:09:57

wasn't making tips. She had to work more.

1:09:59

She was working sixteen

1:10:02

hours a day and was making less money than when she was working eight hour shifts. Wow. Meanwhile, Alan

1:10:04

is living

1:10:07

his best life. Nobody

1:10:09

knew that art was dead yet. He was

1:10:11

taking money from arts bank accounts, renting an upscale house for him and his lover with

1:10:16

arts money. They redid the entire place. He

1:10:18

even bought Patrick a new car. He was stealing three thousand dollars a week

1:10:20

from the cash registers at IHOP. That's

1:10:22

twelve thousand dollars a month that he's just

1:10:26

burning through. He never went back to Art's home

1:10:28

or at least not So twice a

1:10:30

day, Dee would go and she would

1:10:32

smell what she felt like was a rotting

1:10:34

corpse She would see Art's dog, a

1:10:36

doberman just starving, waiting for his

1:10:38

owner to come home, and

1:10:41

he said it broke her heart.

1:10:43

She started drinking three bottles of scotch a day to drown her

1:10:45

feelings, but whenever she was getting close to

1:10:47

snapping, Allan would shower her

1:10:49

in gifts and take her

1:10:52

on lavish dates, like dinner dates, which again, I think

1:10:54

she really liked him because she would get all doggled up and he would play into it.

1:10:58

Allen was also putting pressure on d, asking her to ask Mike and Bill

1:11:01

to kill Bessie as well, he would try

1:11:03

to guilt temper and say, look,

1:11:05

she's so old. She's

1:11:07

gonna die anyway. we're gonna be doing her a

1:11:09

favor. She'll never have to find out what happened to her son this way. So

1:11:12

it happened.

1:11:13

Mike

1:11:15

and

1:11:15

Bill agreed on the price of two thousand five hundred

1:11:17

dollars. ND called Wayne's

1:11:19

backhoe service to dig a trash

1:11:21

pit on the southeast corner of the

1:11:23

property. was eighteen feet by four feet. And the owner of

1:11:25

the company, he came out to help dig because

1:11:27

the soil is very hard.

1:11:30

He can't do it they

1:11:32

had machines come in and they just

1:11:34

remembered a nasty smell on the property. They dug the hole and left.

1:11:36

Vessey

1:11:38

was strangled to death. and Bessie's

1:11:40

dead body, as well as art's dead body, was put in

1:11:42

the very bottom of the trash pit, and then they

1:11:44

covered it with old mattresses and whatever

1:11:47

else trash they could find they

1:11:50

called Wayne's backhoe service again to cover

1:11:52

up the pit, which they did. And

1:11:54

Alan thought that all his troubles

1:11:56

were over. Except

1:11:57

for the fact that he spent

1:11:59

all the money. Yeah. Wow. So IHOP had to be taken away

1:12:00

because they weren't

1:12:01

paying the bills, they weren't paying

1:12:03

the franchisee bills, they

1:12:07

didn't know and I hop anymore. So Dee lost her job. She was so

1:12:09

broke. She couldn't pay her rent. And when she went

1:12:11

to ask Allen for help, he's

1:12:14

like, well, I don't really have

1:12:16

cash. But there is a house that's sitting

1:12:18

empty that you could live in. So she moved into Art's house with her kids, the one that

1:12:21

Art was murdered

1:12:23

in. all these

1:12:24

people involved, I don't even know what

1:12:26

to say about these people. Alan sold Bessie's

1:12:28

trailer for four

1:12:31

thousand dollars and it only gave d three hundred

1:12:33

dollars worth of the profits. And when Alan was out of cash again, which he was

1:12:35

constantly out of cash, his burn

1:12:37

rate was insane. He refinanced

1:12:40

Art's house. somehow

1:12:42

they got away with it. They didn't even ask for

1:12:44

an ID. Alan became a notary so he could

1:12:46

make d the power of attorney for art.

1:12:48

They sold arts yachts his organ literally everything and

1:12:50

everything. And even then, Alan was still out of cash. I mean, he was spending like there was no end. Finally, they

1:12:53

had to sell

1:12:56

the property. and Dee told

1:12:58

her daughter everything. She was at a breaking point where she felt like she was next.

1:13:00

She suspected

1:13:01

that Ellen would

1:13:03

kill her next. They

1:13:06

helped

1:13:06

call the police for d. The bodies

1:13:08

were dug up, and d was arrested

1:13:10

for murder, which she was genuinely

1:13:13

confused by. She could not comprehend how

1:13:15

she could be charged for murder. If she didn't do the murdering, she wasn't even there when the murder

1:13:17

happened. She was just

1:13:20

so confused. Listen,

1:13:23

I think Dee is definitely delusional for sure. So

1:13:25

Dee, Allen, Mike, and Bill were charged

1:13:27

with murder. All of them

1:13:29

were sentenced to death on sparky. which is

1:13:31

the name of Florida's busiest electric chair, but they would

1:13:33

never have their date with sparky. They were

1:13:35

all overturned and commuted to life in prison

1:13:37

instead. I believe all of them are

1:13:39

still in Rotten, except for Dee,

1:13:42

who died of natural causes. And that's the story of the international pharmaceutical house

1:13:48

Wow. It's

1:13:48

a lot. Yeah. What is

1:13:50

what a

1:13:51

bizarre bizarre story? Yeah. This is,

1:13:53

like, I don't even

1:13:54

know how to understand these people's motives

1:13:56

and what they

1:13:58

were thinking and what these people, if they were

1:14:00

in a movie, I would think this is so unrealistic. This is dumb. But it

1:14:02

also makes you really rethink. What the hell is going on?

1:14:07

in that eye And

1:14:08

that's it for today's case. And I

1:14:09

will see you guys on Sunday for the

1:14:11

minisood. Bye.

1:14:14

me