Rewind with Karen & Georgia - Episode 41: Live from EW Popfest

This is exactly right. Hello and welcome to Rewind with Karen in Georgia.
It is Wednesday and that could only mean one thing. It means we're going to recap one of our old episodes with all new commentary, updates, insights, you know, all of it.
Anything. Today we're recapping episode 41 that came out on November 3rd, 2016.
And at the time, we entitled it Live from EW Pop Fest.

So as you can tell,

we put a lot of time into naming this one for you guys.

And for everyone who doesn't know,

the Entertainment Weekly Pop Fest was a two-day event.

It was held in downtown Los Angeles.

There were panels with stars and creators

from movies, TV, music, and podcasts.

It was a really fun event to be invited to

because I feel like that was the first time we were like acknowledged as part of this community. Yeah.
Well, and it's Entertainment Weekly, which is a big deal. That was like, it's like getting invited up to the big table.
I don't know where. At a wedding? It doesn't work that way at weddings.
But just like that kind of like, this is kind of the big time. Yeah.
The people there, you know, stars like Jennifer Aniston, Joe Jonas, TJ Miller, they were all there promoting their latest thing. And as we have talked about on the show, our writer Alison Agosti and I were writing on a TV show that was also featured there.
So I went there with you one day that week and then went back as an audience member later on to support the show.

So I had a full 360 experience. What show is it? It was called Making History.
I think it's on Hulu or it's on some streaming platform. Oh, can I also say about this episode that there's a photo from this that has been since then on my like Google image search page that I hate so much and have hated for fucking nine years because I'm slouching.
I mentioned I have sciatica in it. So I'm slouching really fucking low.
We're in like little director's chairs or whatever. Yeah.
And that image just like kills me every time I fucking see it. Isn't that awful? Yeah.
Kind of like, it's like, look, pictures are pictures. There's now a billion jillion of them always around.
I know, but that one's always at the beginning. No one remembers.
I know, I know. Well, that's like the first eight years for me, I was just like, this is a nightmare that will never end.
Every picture was worse than the last one. And you're just like, let's take a picture.
And I'm like, can I get a fucking leg up here? I couldn't be older. Couldn't be more resistant.
I'm from the 90s where no one had pictures of fucking anything ever. Everything was a secret.
I love pictures. And this one, I'm slouching so hard.
I could hear my mom every time I look at it saying, sit up, Georgia. Janet, please.
Janet, could you just give us one EW Pop Fest? Can we just have one? Sciatica, Janet. Let us have one Pop Fest.
Well, let's listen to the intro to episode 41 live from EW Pop Fest. Hi, guys.
Welcome to day two of EW's Pop Fest. You guys having a good time so far? Good.
I hope you guys have been having fun at the other events and there's still more to come tonight. But I'm so excited to welcome this next show because it's actually my personal favorite, favorite show.
And I'm sure I'm hoping there's a lot of murderinos in the crowd because

I am one. Alright.

So without further ado, I am so pleased

to welcome my favorite murder

with Georgia Hardstock

and Karen Kilgoreth. What is this? Where are you going? What is this? Where are we? This is our stage show.

Karen's gonna...

I'm gonna do a song by JoJo right now.

I know you wish you could be outside watching her and supporting her.

Was that really JoJo?

Yes, it was.

I thought you were kidding.

I never joke about JoJo.

I can't.

I thought I was like, that's JoJo.

I don't know who anyone is.

You guys are so cute, all of you.

Hi.

Did you have to wait in a line and stuff for this? That's so important. We're super into that.
Yeah. We should have made them wait longer.
I mean, I do have to pee, but whatever. Do not do it.
They're like, ha ha, no. Start it now.
She's crying. Hurry up up and start this is really freaking rad um guys this is weird because we never sit in chairs like this um we're not used to being directors of any kind very bright it's bright it's cold are we in antarctica or something? I'm sweating.
No, I'm sweating.

Are you really?

Have you noticed

that this entire day

that's like raining

I haven't had a jacket on?

I have noticed

but I didn't want to criticize you.

Criticize me.

I'm fucking,

I'm always hot.

What's your deal?

Hold on a second

before the murders.

Georgia,

what's your medical problem?

You know,

I mean,

where do we start?

Right?

I mean. Let's start with sciatica and end with chronic anxiety.
For fun. Is Steven here? Yay! Steven Ray Morris! There he is! That's our regular sound engineer.
Yay! He's blushing. Look at him.
Touch him. Try to grab his mustache.
Is Elvis here? Someone do the meow. It'd be really fun.
Yay! It'd be weird if he came walking up this aisle. How did you get down here? Uber? We always, whenever Vince and I are out and we say the word cookie, it's always like, is he going to come out here? Yeah.
That'd be funny. I was going to put cross-eyed on this cat shirt that I'm wearing, but I didn't.
I'm not even, I just didn't. You just didn't.
Too sick. So I'm supposed to breathe into the microphone all the time? Yeah, definitely exit.
That's what Jojo does. She sings a line, she inhales, and then it's just a big sigh of how hard show business is.
Oh, this is rough. You guys.
Oh, God. Look at my, yeah, go.
We're honored to be here. Yes.
If you're not sure if you wandered in and you're from Denmark, this is the podcast, My Favorite Murder, where we, Georgia Hardstark and I, Karen Kilgariff, talk about our favorite murders, tell each other true crime stories that we like. We don't necessarily say research them 100% or we're not trying to be experts of any kind.
Most people that are into this stuff really are experts. God bless their souls.
They let us know when we fall down. They sure do.
They sure, sure do. But listen, if you're here to have a good time, then you've come to a place.
You've come to a really cold, bright place. You might be dead, which is thematically appropriate.
Do you ever wonder that when you start walking? Like I was walking up here and I'm like, this can't be real. I'm probably dead.
Again, chronic anxiety. Possible.
Although it would be a huge relief at the same time. Then I couldn't do anything wrong.
Do you ever get into a situation and you're like, what's the most embarrassing thing I could do right now and like get scared that you're going to do it. For sure.
What's yours right now? Well, we were just back, no brag, we were just back in the, I like to call it the Heineken lounge. It's where they keep, it's like the green room where they keep talent before they go and do their panels.
So we don't have to talk to anyone. So we kind of stood there with our purses on our shoulders, super uncomfortable, like, and my thing in that situation is like, you think you know somebody, so you're like, hey, and it's not them.
Like that in the Heineken lounge would have been death. My thing is they then don't know who I am, that I've met them a hundred.
Like it just happened actually when I was like, hey, and then I had to go to Georgia, like, because I saw the look on her face. And I was like, oh God, I've been there, but we've met like 17 times.
You should maybe know who I am. Yeah, but nobody does.
That's just part of it. I'm not special.
No, and I'm not either. Listen, if you're not special, neither am I.
But then when someone does see you and gets this like, like Erin Gibson from Throwing Shade, I want, yes. They'll be up here pretty soon.
Yes. She saw me and like opened her arms and her face lit up

and I was like, thank you so much.

Like her, oh my God.

She was wearing a lot of eyeshadow though.

So maybe it was just that.

She thought I was someone else.

It was just covering her.

She was wearing a lot of eyeshadow

in her eyeballs.

Once she wiped her irises away,

she was like, oh, I don't know you.

That's not Liza Minnelli.

Who the fuck is that?

Bye.

Her and Brian Safi, thank fucking God.

We're like, hi.

We're very kind to me. Yeah.
No, you were okay. Thank you.
I get scared. It's a lot of funny comedians.
You told me that you had news about your dad, but you wanted to save it until we were doing this. I did.
And I wrote dad and RV. And here's the reason.
Okay. So, okay, we're doing the Chicago Podcast Festival soon.
And I'm big timing and bringing my mom and her boyfriend along because they never go on trips and it's like, that's not a thing they do. And I have a lot of miles from our credit card from our wedding.
I honestly thought you were going to say have a lot of money. No.
Which would have been so baller awesome. I don't.
I have a lot of miles from the credit card I opened and the debt I racked up to pay for my wedding. God bless America.
So I'm bringing them to Chicago. Like they're staying in our hotel room.
It's not, I'm not like big timing it that much. You started the story by saying you were big timing.
I'm big timing them by bringing them so they can see that I, that there's a 900 seat theater and then they'll love me more. Oh great.
You know what I mean? Good. What a great Christmas this is going to be.
We're Jewish. It doesn't matter.
Oh, that's right. Shoot.
So then I had to tell my dad that I'm bringing my mom and her boyfriend to the city he was born in. I know.
Now they're divorced, right? Oh, wait. Yeah.
That would be weird too. That would have been awful.
He also didn't know about the boyfriend. Or that his marriage had ended.
Yeah. Like 25 years ago.
So I had to tell him that. And I was like, but you just went to Chicago, right? So it's okay.
And he's like, no, I thought he had just gone. So I wasn't going to bring him in now.
It's like, okay. So then he said, all right, well, do me a favor.
If you go to Las Vegas or New York, I want to come. So bring him if we go there.
Okay. He's a real party animal.
Nice. And then he said, and you know, when you get really up there, just like a small, nice RV trailer.
He requested something for if we ever get rich, like a small, nice RV. Let's see.
Those don't exist. Marty, I hate to be the one to tell you it has to be three city blocks long Yeah He got like He got He put a fucking thing in there And my sister was there So there's like a witness That I said yes Yeah No you're dead I know The funny thing is It's already on the list When I like daydream about How I'm gonna take care of my parents If I ever You know I'm in the lottery I mean an RV's not too bad No wants.
So I... Well, in a stark contrast, I found out that my dad has listened to this podcast, which is my fear.
Because my dad, who talks like a foul-mouthed sailor, anytime I say, even like shit or something in passing, as an over 40 woman, he's always like, Hey, watch it! Like, gets really mad. And of this one, we like, we like celebrate the word fuck.
Like we say it as if our lives depend on it. And I, that would infuriate him like crazy.
So I've never told him how to find it or what, I'm always like real vague about the name when he asks about it. And it's called the fuck word mystery show.
That's right. That's right.

So my sister texted me and said,

dad found out we're all,

because my sister and two of our childhood friends

are also going to Chicago.

We're just making it like a weird,

clanny event.

My sister and Adrian and Audrey are all going

because they love drinking in Chicago.

That's the main reason.

That's when my mom is going too. Yeah.
So it's going to be, they're going to have a great time. But my dad found out that they're all going because he told my sister, he tried to listen to the podcast.
And when my sister said, well, you mean you tried to? And he goes, eh, they talk too much. That's what a pod, what if a podcast was just not talking the whole time just like stony silence like we're in a fight just like the silent treatment yeah our new podcast yeah so if you ever want to be a stand-up comedian you just need parents who truly are not fans of yours that's i would say that's step one my parents and grandma, who was like 104 years old at the time,

like gathered together to watch

the episode of Drunk History I was on.

And like, they loved it and were supportive.

Like my family, they don't give a fuck.

It's not a good time for you

to tell me this story right now.

It's not, it's not ideal.

My family loves me so much.

Have a great Hanukkah or whatever.

He just wants to picture you

as like the sweet baby angel that he thinks she was, thinks she and I had too many of these plastic cups of wine look at that how cute is this little tiny wine that's plastic get in that fucking green room green room y'all I put one in my purse green room is it plastic it's totally plastic so you can bring it to a park. Incredibly.
Parks are for.

Incredibly hometown.

And my family knows I'm a fucking lunatic.

They're just glad I'm alive.

That's the only thing.

I am too.

Thank y'all.

All right.

Should we get into this?

Oh, by the way, this is for some reason.

As I was leaving my house, I didn't want to bend my papers.

And so I picked up the Mystic Places Time Life series book that Stephen got us.

I don't know if you've heard about that.

It was what we talked about in the last podcast.

And so... and so I picked up the Mystic Places Time Life series book that Stephen got us I don't know if you've heard about that it was a we talked about in the last podcast and so just to prove that we are not liars and we don't lie about gifts or things that Stephen gives us or anything Stephen's involved in except you didn't tell me and I didn't bring mine so I might be a liar oh that's right that's a cliffhanger you'll have to find on next episode.
All right.

You want, okay, so let's tell everyone our thoughts behind all this.

Oh, okay.

So since we are at the EW Pop Fest, what is this?

Where are we?

The Entertainment Weekly Pop Fest, we thought.

We thought it would be cool to do entertainment murders.

Yeah.

Entertainment-based murders?

I got a lot of murmurs.

I knew it would. I knew they'd murmur.
You're good. Okay, there it was.
Our name's being mispronounced the first. You know you've made it.
Not the first of many times. I mean, that is a funny thing.
Oh, we just did get an award where they misspelled your name, your first name on it. Yeah, they did.
That was pretty funny. I mean, mistakes happen, whatever.
AI. Let's blame AI.
And I get so nervous when I'm announcing things, too, that I couldn't, I could mispronounce Smith and be, you know what I mean? Well, that's exactly the time you second guess yourself. Just like when you see a friend that you know, and you go to say hi to them, and then you're like, is his name Steven? Yeah.
Or is it Steve? I definitely know his name, but what if I'm wrong? Yes. I usually just immediately tell the person that that's what is happening in my brain, and they don't usually like it.
And it doesn't work, and you shouldn't do it. Don't do it.
It's not a recommendation. So what's hilarious is that JoJo is performing at the same time as us yeah and we mentioned because you can hear it in our little room because we had this like little it wasn't a conference room even it was like there was like partitions that had been put up for the festival they had to break up a bunch of conference rooms i think and make them like what what would you say there's a hundred people in that room or 50 people in that room? I'd say it was closer to 50, but I'm really bad at that.
Well, like five across 10 back. Yeah, and then some people standing in the back.
Yeah. So it was a small audience of people who were like, it was like a Comic-Con for TV and movie people.
Yeah, exactly. So it was very intimate with JoJo playing over the door.
With Jojo right next door. Do you want a Jojo update? Because I do have one for you.
What? Allison went and looked some stuff up. So I couldn't stop laughing that I called that it was Jojo.
Yeah. Like out of the blue that way.
Yeah. And then I remembered she was on, and maybe I told the story real time,

but she was on Ellen when I worked on Ellen.

She was literally like 14 years old and she had this hit song

and she was such a good singer

and she was such a badass.

And do you remember that song?

It was like she was moving out

from her boyfriend's house or something

where you're like,

you are literally in seventh grade.

What is happening?

So I always loved JoJo

because she really was, it seemed like she was a real deal to me. she had the talent there yeah exactly she had the range so she had taken 10 years off because she got in a big fight with her record label so this was her first return to like entertaining again which is kind of amazing this thing that we were at was yes in 2016 she had like she stopped performing in 2006 i love the young women in entertainment who aren't playing the part of like, I don't know, daddy.
Instead, they're kind of like, I've been divorced twice. It's like, no, you have not.
What are you doing? Like singing those songs. But since that time, she made her Broadway debut in 2024 in Moulin Rouge.

She played Satine.

She also released the same year she released a memoir called Over the Influence, which was an unflinching look at her journey through child stardom, legal battles, and personal struggles. Damn, I like that title.
Oh, that's a good one. Over the Influence, JoJo.
And then she released a new EP this year called NGL. Not gonna a lie.
Wow. Karen is a fucking Jojo Siwa stan.
Who knew? This is entirely Allison going and being like, I'm gonna give you an update for Jojo. But you know, this isn't Jojo is not Jojo Siwa.
Those are two different people. Wait, okay.
I was worried about that this whole time. Yeah.
No, it's Jojo Siwa is that blonde girl that's from like the Disney channel that's a crazy dancer. Jojo literally looks like she is from the wrong side of the tracks.
Eyeliner Girl. She had that song Get Out when she was like 13 or 14 years old.
Get Out. Jojo.
Check out Jojo. Oh my God.
I didn't know that was the two different people. Yes.
I thought you were into Jojo Siwa. How many JoJo's could there be on the Disney channel? The answer is a ton.
That's, yeah, she kind of looks like, yeah, I like it. Okay.
All right. Now I get it.
I thought you were about the girl who said that she invented gay pop like last year. And everyone hated her for it.
JoJo Siwa said that? Siwa. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
I get it now. Wow.
I bet everyone that ever had a hit during the disco era really disagrees with that claim. Oh my God.
I thought they were the same person. I feel like someone's mom who's like, I love that JoJo.
I've been listening. And it's like JoJo Siwa.
That JoJo is so talented. She sings.
She can dance. She has every color hair.
She's tall. She's short.
I'm so embarrassed. Who cares? Okay.
So yeah, that was playing. Now I know.
Now I can picture it. Yeah.
Full detail. But it is, I think, important to say, aside from all that, like, so we're trying to paint the picture for you guys of what it was like to do this, because of course, we're honored to do it.
But then once you get there, it's like doing a nooner at a college where you're like I'm excited to be making money as a comedian but this sucks it wild and they everyone no one knows who I am yeah yeah it's like that audience was happy that we were there but they were so quiet that it was just like are we just supposed to power through this and so that's kind of what we did because there were no my favorite murder live shows really shows really yet. I also want to say that in it, I talk about my mom and stepdad and bringing them to Chicago.
And I did that and it was great. It was okay.
I always told my dad that when I made it, I would get him a nice little RV. And Vince and I did stick to our word and we got him a cute little conversion band.
That's all he wanted. We offered him like a real RV.
And he was like, no, I want to be inconspicuous when spending the night in a parking lot. He's living his dream.
He's Jack Kerouac on the road. Yes.
That's Marty's life. Exactly.
He's like a poet wanderer, man. Right.
But with a lot of desert hot springs involved. Yes.
It makes sense to me because having driven in some RVs and some kind of sleeper vans like that, the van is so much better because you get the same.

Once you're inside, you're just inside and it's nice when it's like smaller because you're warmer.

Those big ones are just kind of like hard to drive.

They're hard to park anywhere, to drive, to navigate.

They take down all the banners.

Right.

Every banner gets ripped down. So let's get into Georgia story about Lana Turner.
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So you want to go first this week? Who's, I think I'm first. I want to be first because I'm scared we got the same one.
And then we're going to, and then you just do yours. And I want to win, yes! No, I mean, jump right in if we did.
Okay. Does the person that the story revolves around, does her name start with Lana? No.

Okay, Lana Turner. Everyone knows her and loves her.
The way you said that was like, you're going to get an applause break. Lana Turner, motherfucker.
I realized, thank you. As I realized, I said that maybe nobody here knows who that is.
They're under 30. So it was a possibility.
She was born in 1921, so that was a long time ago. She was this film noir actress, hot blonde bombshell chick who was a leading actress in crazy dark films, right? Like noir film? Like film noir, like noir films.
But you were translating it from the French into just dark for the American, for this American. Film noir means dark as fuck.
She was discovered in 1937 and this is like probably bullshit, right? But like the story is that she was sipping a Coke at the counter at the Top Hat Cafe on Sunset Boulevard and the founder of the Hollywood Reporter, which I just realized might be competition with Entertainment Weekly. You can't say that name.
It's like giving us the cutoff sign. It just goes dark in here and then when lights come up, we're gone.
It's super hot all of a sudden. So, I mean, come on.
Is that true? She's eating a fucking sandwich. No, those are all lies.
That's all publicist shit. She was like, I don't want to get gross.
Where do I? Okay, so she was 16, apparently, signed to a contract at Warner Brothers, and then she became an ingenue. Do you guys hear that loud music through the wall? No, it's just you.
Okay, blonde bombshell, leading actress, reputation as a glamorous femme fatale. Thank you.
No, I wasn't correcting you. No, but you were right.
She was nominated for an Academy Award in 1957 for Peyton Place. What I'm saying is big time.
You know what I mean? Like gorgeous, big time. While she kicked ass at her career, I wrote, she sucked at relationships.
Oh, no. I know.
Haven't we all been there? I do. She dated a lot, changed partners often, and never shied away from the topic of how many lovers she'd had in her lifetime.
And then I wrote, which is fine for men, but if a woman does it, it makes everyone uncomfortable. Bullshit.
Fuck the page, you know. And then she said, I kind of want to make you read her voice.
Let's do it. Are you good? Okay.
So it's right here in quotes.

All those years

that my image on the screen

as sex goddess,

well, that makes me laugh.

Sex was never important to me.

I'm sorry if that disappoints you,

but it's true.

Romance, yes,

romance was very important,

but I never liked

being rushed into bed

and I never allowed it.

I would put it off as long as I could,

and I gave in only when I was in love or thought I was.

Which, again, take a bow.

And I actually put a lot of quotes in this, just so you...

I should have had you prep your voice before this. What if I get discovered at EW Pop Fest? Oh my God.
I knew I'm at it. Eating a tuna fish sandwich at the counter.
See, you can do the voice. Thank you.
Which again is bullshit. She fucked immediately probably and then dated them and it's fine.
It's fine to fuck immediately. Listen, you get to do what you want is the idea.
Like she can be like, I'd like to screw, but only when I, like, if I, like, if I have to.

Romance.

If I never allow it.

Allow it.

It's fine.

That was my diadrage.

She's dead.

It doesn't matter.

About.

You just ruined my story.

Spoiler alert.

Fuck.

Spoiler alert.

She gets murdered at the end of this.

Oh, she doesn't.

Is that disappointing?

Oh, did she murder someone? No. You don't know the story? No.
Oh, it's good. I'm excited.
Okay, great. I'm glad.
All right. 1942, marries her second husband, actor, and restaurateur, Joseph Stephen Crane.
They have a daughter, ended up being her only kid, Cheryl Crane, in 1943. Then they divorced in 44.
And then I wrote, okay, now this story gets dark.

Ready for this? Yes. Her fourth husband

was actor Lex Barker, and she

married him in 1953. And then

in Cheryl's memoir,

Detour, A Hollywood Story, which

came out way later, Cheryl Crane

claims that Barker, the husband,

repeatedly molested and raped

her. Bad news.
Saying that at

age 10, he lured her into the sauna, which sounds like a nightmare to begin with. That's horrible.
Like with your stepdad in a fucking sauna. Just kind of saunas anyway, because have you ever gone to like the one at Burke Williams and then the door closes and you're like, what if it locks forever? Separate from a creep being in there with you.
Remember the girl who died in the cryogenic freezer? Oh yeah, that's right. What a fucking nightmare.
It's a different episode. Sorry.
Yeah. Um, told her it was up.
Oh God. It's like, how gross do you want me to get? He exposes himself to her in a sauna, like sweaty dick.
It's just got like, what a pervert, perverted, sweaty. Um, then he starts raping her a lot.
But when, uh, Lana Turner found out about it, she held a gun to Barker's head while he slept and thought about killing him. She didn't.
And in the morning she kicked his ass out, which is great because a lot of times back then they were like, you're a lying liar. Yes.
You know what I mean? I love. Yeah.
They divorced, but to avoid scandal, no criminal action was taken against Barker.

Fuck that shit, man.

Yeah.

That's old Hollywood.

I mean, that's fucking current Hollywood probably too.

Let's not talk about it at EW Pop.

Actors are the best people.

Love Hollywood.

It's so fun and light.

And they never worked again.

Our last appearance was at EW Pop Fest 2016. So, okay.
So Cheryl is 13 and her mom starts dating Johnny Stampanato. Yeah.
Does he sound like a bad guy? No, not at all. You're wrong.
Does he have a big white suit? Like... Is he in Talking

Heads? Is that kind of thing?

He looks like... Why can't I

think of his name? Who's the guy that hosts Family Feud?

Steve Harvey.

Probably looks like that.

The audience never likes a joke if they're the ones

that have to provide the punchline.

I've learned that over the years. They think you're lazy.

But we're not. And crazy.
We've just... I've just, yeah, I've pickled my brain, white wine.
Yeah. Tell me about Johnny Stampanato.
Well, he was a, well, here, he's a bodyguard for Mickey Cohen, the famous gangster. Bad guy.
And he was an enforcer for the crime family. So in case you guys don't know, Mickey Cohenullen was like a hardcore gang, gangster, like gangland gangster.
And in her memoir, Cheryl describes him as a... B-picture good looks, thick set, powerfully built and soft-spoken and talked in short sentences to cover a poor grasp of grammar and spoken deep baritone voice.
With friends, he seldom smiled or laughed out loud, but seemed always coiled, holding himself in, had watchful hooded eyes that took in more than he wanted anyone to notice. Sharon Gibson.
More businesslike than her mother, Lana Turner. Apparently.
Yeah. I'm doing all different characters today.
I love it. Thank you.
So he is a jealous, abusive man, and one time he got super pissed because Lana was filming another time, another place in London with Sean Connery, who like, man, he's hot. He was hot back then.
And he got super jealous, like showed up in London and then they got in a fight. He choked her and she had to miss three weeks of filming because her fucking vocal cords were screwed up.
Oh, wow. Like he's a fucking dick.
Well, mafia. They're serious.
Yeah. He later shows up on set with a gun and threatens her.
And Connery, motherfucking, Sean Connery overpowers him, grabs the gun and beats his ass. Sends him fucking running from the set.
Sean Connery. Sean Connery next month on Entertainment Weekly.
Let's see. And then later, but then later, he holds a razor blade to Lana Turner's face and says that he'll disfigure her and like end her career.
So he's a fucking dick. Back in LA, Lana Turner tells Cheryl, her daughter, who's 13.
Ready? No way. It's Lana Turner.
I'm going to end it with him tonight, baby. It's going to be a rough night.
Are you prepared for it? Super chill. That's someone's mother? Yeah.
Like, send her to fucking... Mom, I'm trying to watch TV.
Get out of here. What would they be watching back then? Like, Dick Van Dyke? My mother Mother the Car.
There you go. Dead silence.

I thought that was funny.

They thought I made it up.

Yeah.

Isn't that from Arrested Development?

Turn it.

Okay.

So,

Sampanato comes over

and when she told him it was over,

you ready again?

Do you want me to start going?

I'll go, I'll go.

Yeah, do it.

You do it.

He grabbed me by the arms

and started shaking me

and cursing very badly

and he's saying

that if he said jump,

I would jump

Thank you. Do you want me to start going? I'll go, I'll go.
Yeah, do it, you do it. He grabbed me by the arms and started shaking me and cursing very badly.

And he's saying that if I,

if he said jump, I would jump.

If he said hop, I would hop.

And if I had to do anything,

this is why I had you do it.

And everything he told me,

he'd cut my face or cripple me.

And if I went beyond that,

he would kill me and my daughter

and my mother.

This is why I'm,

this is why you're the actor of the family. Here's the thing.

Anytime you're doing a voice, halfway through, you

want to give up. You just power through.

That's my advice.

But here's what I love. He said,

if I say jump, you'll jump, and if I say hop,

you'll hop. That's a hip-hop song, isn't it?

If I say

jump, you say...

I'm just saying, why doesn't he pick

other stuff that's different than jumping and hopping?

Like, he could have

total control over this woman. If I say give me Thank you.
You say jump. I'm just saying, why doesn't he pick other stuff that's different than jumping and hopping?

Like he could have total control over this woman.

If I say give me all your money,

you give me all your money.

Yeah, or just shut up for a while.

But instead it's hopping and jumping.

Hopping and jumping.

Sounds exhausting.

Take a nap.

So she breaks away and says,

don't ever touch me again. I am absolutely finished.
This is so bad. This is the end and I want to get you out.
And then she says, I was walking toward the bedroom door and he was right behind me and I opened it and my daughter came in. I swear it was so fast.
Truthfully, I thought she had hit him in the stomach. The best I can remember, they came together and then they parted.
Wait a second. I still never saw the blade.
The daughter killed Johnny Stampinato? Wait, did you guys know about this? What the, a 13-year-old? 13 years old. Fuck.
Fucking stands at the bedroom door. She had come in earlier because she heard her mom getting beat up.
And her mom was like, please go back to your room. Like, I'm fine.

This is taken care of.

And she said she doesn't remember going down to the kitchen and grabbing a butcher knife.

And she stood by the door and begged her mom to let her in.

Finally, the mom lets her in.

And she fucking barrels past Lana Turner and stabs him in the fucking gut.

And then he, let's see. Let's see.
Oh, single time in the abdomen, slicing his kidney and it struck the vertebrae and twisted upward, puncturing his aorta. Whoa, wait.
She fucking went for it. Wow.
This badass little bitch. And there's photos of her.
And she's this like cute thing. Cheryl.
And taffeta. Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl.
She fucking defended her mother. Shit.
I mean, right? She was like, why didn't she get the spleen in there while she was at it? I mean, she hit so many key. She knew how to stand.
Like, it's not just the thing. It's like a fucking thing, you know? It's like a ripping.
But also there's, there's to me the first thing i think of is like this is a child who's been put in danger by these men strange men that keep coming into the house because of the mother and the mother isn't safe and she's got to fucking like take action but it's also probably this crazy thing of like you know this mother who you keep seeing making these mistakes that are affecting you as well and you're're going to prove to your mom how much you care about her. Right.
Like that you will do anything to take care of her. Yeah.
You know, this like sad woman who had to be like through the industry and taken advantage of and bullshit of the fucking having a Coke at the counter. Like she probably went through a lot more shit.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Right. She wants to take care of her mom.
I just like that when we get serious, there's some gorgeous house music to play behind. I mean, I wonder if...
To set that mood. Yeah, this is very...
This is actually... Yeah, we become an NPR podcast where there's like...
It's very... There's music in the background all the time.
Just ambient music. Ambient music.
And it's like... Yeah.
JoJo singing in the background. So she fucking...
Oh. you're dancing.
A little bit. I thought you were pointing at me to like fucking finish.
Can you go on? Wrap it up. So she fucking stabs him.
That's so hard. And there were all these rumors, like there are all these like, you know, everyone who likes to do a, what's it called when you have these conspiracy theories? A conspiracy theory.
That Lana Turner actually, you know, sometimes you got to work through it on your own. Yeah.
Sound it out. Make it come to you.
Conspiracy theories that Lana Turner actually killed him and like made her daughter take the blame because she was 13 or 14 and she wouldn't get as much trouble. But then, let's see.
So the police arrive, Cheryl admits to the stabbing. She's taken a juvie.
And then there's a coroner's interest. Nope.
Inquest. And in it, so there's like basically a trial to see if she should go to trial, I think was what it was.
Because she's a minor. And mobster Mickey Cohen, who was fucking big time.
Did he invent Las Vegas? Yeah. Yeah.
And this is like when. so no that's bugsy siegel right yes they're all jews are there anyone anyone in the mafia here today anyone anyone well no one they murder me at the end of this um big time guy like and this is when hollywood and and the mob were kind of you know they needed each other in certain ways and so they were commingling.
But he was the person who identified Johnny's body at the morgue. So he had to testify.
Can you imagine having, like being a lawyer who's about to fucking question a huge, yeah, he's like, later days. Sorry, go ahead.
No, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, was he there to like speak against Cheryl? Or they were just there to kind of state the facts? I think that they, I think that the mob was pissed off that she, that, that they, well, let me tell you what happened.
Okay. So Lana Turner testified and it's like in the, in her best role yet, she explained what happened that night, which insinuates that she's fucking lying.
Right. You're not.
And then, so she testifies and that's where all those quotes come in that you read earlier so brilliantly. Thank you.
You're welcome. Then the jury takes less than half an hour and decides that Johnny Stompanato's death was a case of justifiable homicide.
And so all these gang members are fucking pissed about that. And they say that Cheryl was acting on a fear for her life and for that of her mother.
And they found that she is justified in using deadly force to stop him. And everyone was like, someone said, this is the, this wall just falls down.
I'm trying hard to ignore it. When the fucking background music is louder than the laughter of the crowd, there's a problem.
Well, the back of my shaking so yeah there's not a lot we can do yeah i mean just life okay so they were like this is the first time someone has been convicted of their own murder that kind of thing they were pissed off about it eventually the family of johnny sues lana turner for wrongful death they settle out of court which I always wonder, like when you settle out of court, that kind of implies your guilt, or does it imply that you just didn't want to go through this huge, crazy trial? I mean- They're like, give me two grand, like $200,000. How much is a lot of money? Yeah.
I'm not sure. I mean, I think it could just be whatever.
It's like either you're not going to win or you don't want to keep paying for a lawyer.

There's all kinds of reasons to do that.

Basically give me some money, which makes sense.

I mean, if he was bringing money home for his mother

and she's like, I don't have the source of income anymore.

Yeah.

But also you were maybe molesting my daughter.

So it comes out later in Cheryl's memoir.

And she was quiet about it for years and years

and finally came out with a memoir that details her molestation by her fucking, the second husband and says that Johnny was molesting her. Oh no.
I know. There were rumors that Lana Turner did it, but she takes the blame completely.
Cheryl does? Yeah, Cheryl takes the blame completely. She had stabbed him and also that he had been abusing her sexually.
But this fucking badass bitch, she had some trouble years at a teen, like went to an insane asylum and was sent to boarding school and all this shit and it was going very badly for her. And then she tried to commit suicide a couple of times and then got her shit together and she became a successful businesswoman

and real estate agent.

She fucking kicked ass

and then ended up having a really close relationship

with her mom.

Oh, nice.

She came out of the closet

and her mom completely,

Lana Turner supported her 100%.

She's been with this woman for, you know, decades

and she's this fucking awesome,

crazy awesome bitch

who fucking killed her mom's abuser, right?

That's so badass. so that's fucking it oh thank you this rare the applause rarely happens in my living room so this is so weird it's very satisfying steven will like do a silent clap and then and elvis knows when the like the last person goes yes but he.
Yeah. He'll come out of the bedroom for that.
I just like watching you throw down your papers in total victory. I know.
Legal and otherwise. I don't even know if that was a good story, but I just act like it.
It absolutely was. Thank you.
I mean, what a story. That is, it is one of the craziest kind of murder story hollywood murder stories there is i would say it's really heartbreaking in a lot of ways but yeah more so because that audience just didn't respond to us in any way shape or form they gave us nothing and it was almost like a dry run for like the bigger shows because we expected nothing in that Chicago show.
Oh, I mean, it's like we paid every one of our dues at the EW Pop Fest. And then we got to go on to just have Beatles style receptions every time we walked on stage.
But you know who was in the front row from the very beginning cheering us on? Who? Stephen Ray Morris, of course. Stephen! Stephen from the beginning.
And I'm sure he laughed solo because he does stuff like that. He's not afraid to like laugh when other people aren't.
It's like so... Try to be the laugh starter.
Yeah, because he's like a regular comedy fan, so he knows like... Yeah, how important it is.
Yeah. So thank you, Stephen.
Yes. Stephen sent me a text the other day, and it had like five crows.

There was a, did he send you this?

No, no. It was a flat screen TV that was sitting in the gutter, and then like five crows just

sitting in front of it.

And he took a picture of that and sent it to me.

It said, these crows are watching TV.

Stephen.

It's like, Stephen, Stephen, we spent like seven years of our lives together in the shit. I love it.
Well, I have some case updates, surprisingly, since it's such an old case. Good.
We should really focus on what we're here to do. Should we? I don't think I ended this story very well.
So in February of 2024, last year, author Casey Sherman released A Murder in Hollywood, the untold story of Tinseltown's most shocking crime, which revisits the circumstances surrounding Johnny Stompanano's death. Sherman suggests that Lana Turner, rather than her daughter, which this was a theory, Cheryl may have been responsible for the stabbing, challenging the long accepted narrative.
Gotta blame somebody. Totally.
And people are like there was mixed opinions about that. So that's a book you can read if you want, A Murder in Hollywood.
And then also Cheryl Crane has occasionally participated in documentaries and interviews, providing her perspective on the events of 1958. Notably, she contributed to the 2016 documentary, Lana Turner.
Oh, I'm not going to be able to say that. L'indetornable.
Yeah. Anyways, it offers insight.
Just look up Lana Turner. It offers insights into her mother's life and the infamous incident.
She's 81 years old now. She lives in Palm Springs with her wife, Joyce.
The same partner I mentioned in my story. Like, bless her.
I hope she's living her very best life. I love when old people have retired to Palm Springs.
It's such a nice place for people to live. Totally, totally.
So fancy. Maybe my dad can park his RV outside of there.
Yeah, he can get out there at the Lowe's parking lot and make some friends. Yeah.
All right, now it's time for this story that I totally forgot about until I listened to this episode. This is Karen's story.
I mean, it's actually funny that we both did stories about children in these murderous circumstances. Isn't that weird? Because it wasn't supposed to be like that.
No, I think, but we were doing like Hollywood stories. And I think maybe it's that thing of like, you know, in any kind of fucked up family.

Yeah.

It's like people that aren't doing it well.

And then.

Yeah.

It's like insular in a way more than.

It's just very Hollywood to have like an old lady that won't leave her son alone.

And like, you must bring me my pills.

Right.

Don't join a bowling league.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

So here's Karen's story about the wasp woman mine is also about uh a starlet but she was no lana turner um mine is the story of the wasp woman does anybody here know that one well then-mm. Well, nobody does.
Then I'll tell you. For a second, it looked...
My first page was gone. I'm just like, how am I going to lie my way through the facts of the first page? Where everything key...
Make it up. Make it up.
It doesn't matter. I've already told you that facts don't exist.
We, a sidebar i just saw a clip we were on a local news in sacramento uh news story about because we did the story of dorothea puente who is an old lady who killed all the people in her boarding house and for some reason i think it's because it's almost halloween the Sacramento local news did a story on, they just kept going, a podcast. They like didn't use the name until they absolutely had to.
Oh, yeah. Is that because they didn't want to say murder? I don't know.
I thought they were being rude. But they were, no, they were just mostly, they were focusing on the story of Dorothea Puente as opposed to us.
But they were saying like, oh, it it's my number i gotta go five six seven eight do you believe in love oh we didn't tell you we we created a five six seven eight one and two and improv dance um why was i bragging about that because oh because because as i watched the clip they start talking and then i realized like this is there's a woman behind a news desk holding papers about to talk about the story we did and i was like oh god i hope this is right like honestly worried like it was actually they they didn't find a dead person. They didn't.
It was an alive person. It was a man named Don.

Who was a Hollywood, yeah.

Very nerve wracking.

Anyway.

All right.

So my story is the Wasp Woman murder.

And this is the death of a woman

who was essentially,

if you had to boil it down,

a B movie star.

Her name is Susan Cabot.

I'm assuming it's Cabot.

It could be Cabot.

I hope it's not.

Cabot sounds right.

Cabot looks and sounds right.

And she,

essentially the background on her,

it's just going to be there

the whole time.

But what if we listened

and it was like,

oh my God, it's One Direction.

And we had to drop our mics

and run out there.

Everyone.

Follow us, you guys. Hey, everybody i got most of my information for this story from an article by a guy named james marison who writes on criminal element.com which was a really good article um that i ripped off and uh even credit it's, basically, here's what happened.
On the night of December 10th, 1986, the police got a call from 4601 Charmian Lane in the San Fernando Valley. Anyone? Valley? Represent? Valley? Valley? It's where hipster parents? Two people are like, yeah, I mean, sorry.
We had a kid had a kid um house so the caller breathlessly breathlessly identified himself as timothy roman and he said that a burglar had broken into their house and attacked his mother and himself paramedics arrived four minutes later by which time timothy was waiting for them calmly outside the front door and he told the two EMTs that he had been attacked and that his mother was in her bedroom and he believed that she was also injured. Let me guess, he only had cuts down the left side of his body for where he sat to himself? As a righty? Yeah.
Fucking asshole. Give him a chance.
We don't know anything about him yet. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
So the EMTs went into the back and his mother had been beaten to death with a dumbbell. And his mother was B-movie star, Susan Cabot.
She, now I transition into her. See, I tried to make this good storytelling where like, that's what happened.

But then here's the person.

But then I already started talking about her

at the beginning.

So now we're back to this part.

It's goddamn it, Karen.

Unprofessional.

That's what we are.

You know Susan Cabot from such films as

The Enforcer, The Prince Who Was a Thief,

The Battle of Apache Pass,

The Duel at Silver Creek,

The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent. Heard of any of these.
All your favorites from the 50s that you love so much. She was also in Machine Gun Kelly with Charles Bronson.
Okay, I know that. But her biggest role and the one she's known best for is a 1959 film called The Wasp Woman where she was the lead and she played an aging cosmetics executive named Janice Starlin, who unwisely injects herself with a rejuvenating serum derived from wasp enzymes and it turns her into a lustful, murderous queen wasp.
Now, if you have seen this, it's fucking amazing because they basically, The Fly came out and The Fly was a huge hit. So Roger Corman was trying to make a movie and basically get some of the action off The Fly.
And so when Susan Cabot turns into the Wasp Woman, it looks like she just pulled a black pantyhose over her head that has like two legs, on either side for eyes and like honestly pipe cleaners. I don't think anyone here knows what legs eggs are.
Legs eggs. I know legs eggs.
One person is over 31. Hi.
There used to be pantyhose that came in eggs. I'll tell you about it later.
Just super cheap. Be very funny though.
In when you see now, like I kept pulling pictures. I kind of want to pass my phone around, but it's just like, there's one picture where it's like her clearly turned to the screen like this, except for there's no, there's no definable features.
It's just these, these, like these really bad pipe cleaner antenna. And then these big weird eyes.
Oh, and like kind of fangs. It's hilarious.
They spent the whole budget on crafty and then they were like, let's just fucking throw this thing together. They were like, Susan insisted on getting blue cheese and now I can't afford a wasp outfit.
She wanted plastic cups of wine. She had to get her wine cups.
The poster from that time is they used to do like the illustrated posters and it's the thing I hate the most. It's a humongous, like giant wasp that's bigger, you know, that looks like it's the size of a bus.
And it's attacking a man, but the wasp has a woman's face with a bunch of makeup on it. And that's, I hate that the most when like horror movies or whatever put a human

it's basically like saying

I've turned into a wasp but my face

is still here that's the worst

because that wouldn't happen

well it wouldn't but also what if it did

then there's your weird

face that you took your wasp arm to put

lipstick on and shit like this face has

so much makeup on because you can't go

out without makeup you can't even if you're

a wasp so alright

so this is the movie she's

Thank you. stick on and shit.
Like this face has so much makeup on. Because you can't go out without makeup.
You can't, even if you're a wasp. So, all right.
So this is the movie she's best known for. I'm just saying, keep it in mind.
Okay. She also was, she was gorgeous and very petite and she dated tons of people, which is her prerogative, Bobby Brown.
One of which was King Hussein of Jordan. He dated around, didn't he? What's that? I think he dated a few actresses.
Yeah, yeah. I think so.
He looked, he had a kind of Clark Gable-y quality and I think he hung out in LA and he dated her. She actually drove Princess Margaret's Bentley.
I think he set her up and kind of like made sure she had a great life after her B-movie career was kind of fizzling. But then he broke up with her when he found out she was Jewish.
I'm sorry. Yeah.
Are you fucking kidding? No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

What if I just started vomiting?

Also, do your homework.

Like, what?

Oh, okay.

The romance is over.

Didn't I have Wikipedia back then?

You gave her, like, the most expensive car there is.

It should have been real.

But no.

Anyway.

Ugh.

A lot of anti-Semitism in Hollywood.

And Jordan, apparently.

Even though we fucking created Hollywood. No one's laughing.
It's true. It's true.
It's not funny. It's true.
So when the paramedics went inside, they found what would be a classic hoarders episode inside the Cabot's house. It had been Susan Cabot and her son.
and they had been living in this house where they said there were garbage bags in every room, newspapers and magazines stacked in toppling piles

along corridors, rotting food everywhere, dead rats floating in the pool, and they had 10 dogs.

I have two dogs, and I live like a goddamn bum. It's crazy.
I was going to say that I would pay to go through that. Because what year was that? 87.
Oh, I would pay. Like, I would want to see all her weird shit she said.
But then the end kind of bummed me out. And so I'm good.
Yeah. Like, I want to go to the estate sale, but only after they cleaned it up.
This estate sale, once they cleaned it up, there'd be nothing left. It'd be like wood beams and they'd be like, do you want, do you need wood? I'm good.
So when they get back to the bedroom, they find Susan Cabot lying dead on her bed, dressed only in a purple V-neck nightgown. Somebody remembered that it was purple.
Yeah, V-neck. Blood everywhere.
A large arc of it was sprayed on the bedroom mirror near her bed. There was sweat.
An arc of blood. Oh.
A blood spatter. Got it.
There's blood spatter on the ceiling above her prone body and further blood stains on the floor and on the bed. And the killer had covered Cabot's face and head with a piece of bed linen before bludgeoning her to death.
Which we all know what that means. Huh? Can't.

It's personal. Oh,

I just wanted someone to answer. Oh, I thought we all

did. Sorry.
It means

they're Jewish. What? Stop it.

Stop saying that word. This is getting

very anti-Semitic.

Underneath

that piece of linen, her face

was all but unrecognizable. So,

overkill, he beat the shit out of her face. So now, now they come back out and they're like, Tim, what happened? And he's like, you will not believe this.
I woke up at 930. I hear my mom being attacked in her bedroom.
So I go to the kitchen. As I'm reading it, I'm like, as you do, you should have said you at least stuck your head in.
But he went to the kitchen. As I'm reading it, I'm like, hmm.
As you do. You should have said you at least stuck your head in.
But he went to the kitchen where he found a ninja warrior. Are you...
I was waiting for the other thing they always blame it on. What? Black people.
Oh, a black person. Yeah.
Well, he said there was a ninja who was a Latino. Oh.
Yeah, come on. He said it's a white person and they'll believe you every time.
Well, so he said he fought with the ninja warrior, the curly haired Mexican ninja warrior in the San Fernando Valley. But the guy knocked him out.
And so then that's then when he woke up, he called. So they were just there to kill the old woman hoarder.
Like they didn't want to kill him. No, no, no.
They just want to knock him out. And then terribly murder her face.
You know how ninjas are. So of course the police were like, something smells fishy aside from the 12 bags of garbage in every room of your home.
So then as they talk to him more and more, I think they bring him in. And then his statements become increasingly inconsistent, of course.
And his wounds are overtly self-inflicted. And when he was asked about his relationship with his mother, he described it as very close, his mother.
And he talked about everything he told investigators, including intimate sexual matters. Red flag, right? Well, I mean, why? What kind of breakfast are you having that that's the conversation? How was your night? Well, I fucked so many people, mommy.
Pass the ketchup. Ketchup on eggs, murderer.
No, I'm kidding. I love it.
No, just wipe trash. So when the questioning was over, he was formally charged with his mother's murder.
He demanded that he be taken home to collect some medication that he needed. And there, without any prompting at all, Timothy led the detectives to the murder weapon.
So in his room, they had those 10 dogs. Four of them were Akita's that were his dogs.
And when the paramedics got there, they were in his room going crazy, like wouldn't stop barking, going insane. So they

couldn't go into his room. Well, when they bring him back after he's questioned at the police, in the police department, when they bring him back, he brings them into his room and that's where he put the murder weapon.
So that he put the dogs that like, it's all a little bit convenient of we couldn't go in there because those dogs were going crazy. Actually, here's a bloody dumbbell that I killed my mother with

and a scalpel.

Oh, no. Yes.

So... go in there because those dogs were going crazy.
Actually, here's a bloody dumbbell that I killed my mother with and a scalpel. Oh, no.
Yes. I adopted those dogs after this whole thing.
No, they had such a great life. There was a farmer that came into the San Fernando Valley.
Uh-huh. And they live forever? See? Here they are today.
You guys. Come on, boy.
Who's a good boy? Old, really smelly dogs oh my they would smell and they're like i saw murder i'm all crazy now i'm gonna eat your ankle okay so here's my favorite part and this is something that the paramedics noticed

when they got to the house

is when they were walking up to the front door,

they thought it was a 13-year-old boy

that was standing at the front door.

Oh, my God.

And then when they got up close,

they realized he had old face.

Why 13?

Which some of us have.

And it turned out he was 22.

Okay.

And the situation was that Timothy was born with pituitary dwarfism. Why 13? Which some of us have.
And it turned out he was 22. Okay.

And the situation was that Timothy was born with pituitary dwarfism. And so the way he was born, he should have only stood four feet tall.
But his mother got him on an experimental drug program. Oh, that's always chill.
Uh-huh. And it worked well for her in the movies.
So he had been taking experimental growth hormone for 15 years and he grew to be five foot four. But the problem was that this experimental growth hormone was something that doctors had come up with.
It was derived from the pituitary gland of cadavers. Oh, dear.

So they were... something that doctors had come up with.
It was derived from the pituitary gland of cadavers.

Oh, dear.

So they were basically injecting him with the hormones from dead bodies.

And later on, this was actually,

it was the National Institute of Health.

It was like a program that they had set up

for children that were born with dwarfism only to then realize, because it was an eight-year program, that they had treated 700 children with this growth hormone, who suffered from growth hormone deficiency. They gave them this medicine or whatever, this treatment.
And it turns out that as we all know, when you use old blood from dead bodies or old, you know, growth hormone or whatever, that's one of the major ways you can get Kreutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is also known as mad cow. Fuck.
No way. Yes.
So. Key word here is experimental.
Like, why would you let your, who in here has a child? Nobody. Why would you let your kid? So many questions.
Well, but this is the thing where it's like, she has a baby born with dwarfism as if that's unacceptable. She starts putting him on this program that essentially, you know, and his defense lawyers were like, he was a human experiment.
Dude, totally. And when you have the mad cow thing, part of the disease is dementia, your personality changes, you have mood swings, you don't know where you are a lot of the time.
Sounds like, it's like get hit on the head or be in an experimental fucking dead blood. This has to go into the triangle.
It can't be a lot of them. They're there, dude.
They're there. Keep your eyes peeled.
Churches. So then it was revealed.
I didn't mean to do a dramatic pause. I lost my place.
And then laugh at that. Then I thought I would use it.
Then it was revealed that Susan Cabot, when she put it together, that this pituitary gland hormone that her son was taking, she thought maybe that would make her look young. So she started injecting it in herself too.
So they were both taking this drug that was making them insane.

Who'd have thought that a hoarder would be crazy? I mean. And have bad ideas about what to inject into their body.
Oh, I believe it. So, page nine.
so uh basically he stood trial in May of 1989 and his legal defense initially put in a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. They just basically said that the psychological symptoms he suffered from, extreme change in personality, dementia, loss of ability to think clearly and memorably loss combined with his mother's behavior because apparently she was just sitting in this house.
It was actually like, and the guy that writes this article, it's a really good article. He equates it to like Sunset Boulevard and all those, there's a lot of movies where it's like the old aging actress that can't let go of her beauty and her fame like stopped in time yes and get and like basically locks herself in a house and like goes insane and tries to get people to come in the house with her well that's actually what susan cabot really was doing with her son um but in like the super bummer hoarders way like not in a charming interesting caviar no no caviar being served here.
Old tuna fish cans, probably, in the way I've pictured it. Just the cans are being served.
Do you want to chew on an old can? We're goats today. Help yourself.
Wow. So, essentially, Timothy's tutor came and testified at the trial and said that Susan frequently screamed at her son for no reason.
And then when Roman failed to take his medication, like he didn't shoot himself up, he literally couldn't add two numbers together. So they were, it was weird.
It's like they were basically on this drug together that made them insane and that apparently what he ended up timothy ended up saying was the night that he attacked his mother he doesn't remember doing it he doesn't remember going to pick up the barbell or any of the other things he used to bludgeon her to death but that she would not stop screaming at him and he she had been screaming at him and not recognizing him for like a week. I buy it.
So yeah, she was completely like over the edge and he basically, not actually being totally stable himself, snapped and just murdered her. I kind of believe it.
Yeah, you better believe it because it happened. And then I got...
Snap, snap. And that's what the prosecutor said during the trial.
So essentially he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. So after hearing all the stories and all the people basically saying she was not, and he was too, he had already spent two and a half years in jail awaiting the trial.
So, and then he basically got three years probation. The judge concluded her summation by saying that there was no doubt in her mind that he had loved his mother very much.
I wish he had gotten put in a fucking insane asylum so he could be taken care of, right? I'll tell you that the episode of, what's it called? It's called like murders and it's that Super cheesy e show With AJ what's his name And it's like called mysteries and murders Anyone got this someone do my homework for me Nobody knows it's on YouTube and you can See it it's about her it's about this murder But the guy himself Timothy is on it and he does that thing where he's like the anonymous person.

So he's in black

and the room's all dark.

Which,

thank God,

because it was probably

like newspapers

and fish bones and shit.

Oh, no.

Tuna fish cans?

Yeah.

Just stacks and stacks.

Oh, you bet.

But he basically said in it,

like,

he's talking firsthand

and just basically saying,

yeah,

I snapped

and it was a really bad situation.

I'm quiet, dude.

Yeah.

Usually I'm like, oh, yeah, you were crazy. We're all crazy.
Like, fuck man. Yeah.
That's intense. That's like, yeah, that's some next level.
That's entertainment, everybody. That's show business for you.
That's how show business works. Thank you.
Okay. We're back from that story.
I feel like my feelings about it changed so drastically from when you were first telling it till the end when I just had so much sympathy for this guy and what he was put through. And now that I understand hormones a little well too, like you're not yourself when you've got hormones pumping through you that are not.
Oh, I think there's so many elements in that household that were going on. It seemed like a terrible, it was like the mental version of hoarders, but like inside.
It just like terrible interior, not getting outside help, not talking to people outside and just spinning out. I mean, there's everything about this is a little nightmarish on top of the wasp.
Yes. Do you have any updates? No.
I didn't say this during the show, but Timothy Roman died in 2003 of heart failure. And that is the only, I mean, it's kind of old, but yeah.
And then this is the first time we, we only don't like what, two shows before, live shows, but this is when we bring someone up to do a hometown. Right.
I think for the first time, which is really exciting. And thank God it went well.
Yeah. Margie delivered.
Margie, great job. Let's listen to Margie's hometown.
Hi, come over here. Come talk to Karen.
Hi. What's your name? Margie.
Georgia, this is Margie. Hi, Margie.
Nice to meet you. Do you want to do it up there? Come on, come on, come on.
Yay, Margie, Margie, Margie. It's so cold.
I'm getting cold, which means it's almost over. Sit here.
Does this work? I don't know. Come here, Margie.
Yeah, it works, it works. Margie's got her backpack on.
She's going to run after this. Hi.
go oh god hi tell us your hometown where are you from I'm originally from Miami but I live here now in my hometown Florida welcome so much murder I love that so I live here now and my hometown murder is here sorry shaking no hometown is in quotes we all are so I worked in this office with this dude. Oh.
Wait. Is this a firsthand murder? Oh, yeah.
Oh, shit. Here we go.
Whoever pointed, good job. Yeah.
Buckle the fuck up, everyone. So this guy, like, I was an intern in this office, and he worked there.
He was a writer there. And he kind of would, like, creep on me.
He would, like, rub my shoulders and, like, can I get you a water bottle? It's called sexual harassment. Yes.
But when you're an unpaid intern, there's not a lot you can do. That's right.
You just keep quiet and stop and don't make money. Yeah.
So I got the hell out of there, but I stayed in touch with people who work in the office. And basically, recently, this dude snapped.
So he had this wonderful wife who had given birth to two of his children and they were in the process of getting a divorce. While they were getting a divorce, he had a living girlfriend who was now pregnant with his next child.
So during this divorce, while he's with this girlfriend, he gets charged with this sexual assault allegation of somebody else. Oh, third party.

So there's this girl who was raped, divorced wife, new girlfriend, babies on the way everywhere.

And when the rape allegation comes out, the girlfriend's like, no, no, I'm not about this.

So she leaves and they have like this apartment in WeHo. So he begs her to come back.
He's like, let's talk about this, whatever. So she leaves the baby at her mom's house, goes to the apartment.
That's good, though. Leaving the baby behind.
Yeah, baby's great. Baby's fine.
Yeah. OK.
Spoiler alert. So so she goes to his apartment and is never heard from again um ever ever basically um i know basically i'm pretty sure it was like the next day the her mother was really worried they hadn't heard from her so they sent the police over there he had barricaded all of his furniture against the door he was locked in his bedroom with her body that he had drained of all its blood and had been dismembered.
No. Weeho.
Of all places. This year.
This year in Weeho. Yes.
So more information keeps coming out. The dismemberment thing is like new information that we didn't know before but um the twist is that he um is a graphic novel writer who had written listen he had written listen this is her podcast he had written this terrible gruesome story about um a i think it's like a scientist who does the same thing to his like lab assistant.

Before this.

Oh yeah,

like a few years ago

he had written it,

had gotten published.

It did really well,

but it's like this really gruesome,

dark graphic novel

where he had like hung her upside down,

drained all the blood in his bathtub,

had dismembered her,

whatever,

and then he fucking did it.

And then he did it.

There's no way

you're getting out of this one, dude.

So,

that's my hometown murderer.

I love it. And you knew him? Oh getting out of this one, dude.
So. No.
That's my hometown murderer. I love it.
And you knew him? Oh, yeah. And he massaged you.
Yes. Welcome to L.A.
Yeah. That's what.
It's here for Margie. It's exciting.
Thank you. That was amazing.
Do you want to plug anything? Do I want to plug anything? Yeah, like your Twitter or your Instagram. Okay, well, my Twitter is MargeOverMatter.
Love it. Thank you so much.
My best friend John and I and my girlfriend Kirsten, we have a clothing line called Do or Die. Yay! Kirsten is the one who handles your clothes.
Oh my God! Hi! This is Kirsten. Yay! I'm gonna hug the shit out of you! Kirsten! From the printful, you guys.
Awesome. That's her.
She really wants to meet you. Oh, we're hugging.
Yeah. Okay.
Thank you so much. You're going to come up.
I love you. You're going to meet that microphone.
Yeah, we'll see you after. It's your parting gift.
He's like, no way. Oh.
All right. Awesome.
You guys, that's it for us, I think. Yes, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for being here. That was so fun.
All right. Well, yeah, that was a great hometown.
And fun times. I'm, of course, always being negative, but we had a fun time and we were truly so honored to be there and be a part of something like that.
Definitely. Should we pick some alternative titles? Yeah.
So like, what would we call this episode, this very special episode, if we didn't name

it Live from EW Pop Fest. Which I like to pronounce the EW Pop Fest.
EW. Well, the first suggestion is I never joke about JoJo.
Oh, that's so good. Which is what I was saying when you were like, is it really JoJo? Elvis is here.
Aww. That would be so sweet.
What have I brought him? Yeah, you brought him and then you had him cue and walk by himself up the aisle like a flower girl and then of course small nice rv just as a little perfect button for this episode i like that button good times all right well thank you guys for listening to this episode of rewind we you enjoyed it. Thanks for being at the EW Pop Fest with us,

both spiritually and in every other way.

And stay sexy.

And don't get murdered.

Goodbye.

Elvis, do you want a cookie?