7: From the Ashes

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Speaker 7 Novel

Speaker 6 on April 10th, 2015, Phoenix Jones made a comeback of sorts.

Speaker 19 Ladies and gentlemen, this fight is three rounds in a world series of fighting games.

Speaker 6 He returned to the Decagon, the 10-sided cage where the mixed martial arts World Series of Fighting takes place.

Speaker 6 In one corner, you had 28-year-old Emmanuel Wallow.

Speaker 6 In the other corner, you had Phoenix, who decided to fight under his superhero name for the first time in his career. The Vigilante! Phoenix!

Speaker 6 This was was Phoenix's first fight in the prestigious World Series of fighting. It was a chance for him to rebrand himself after his falling out with his superhero teammates.

Speaker 6 It was also a chance for him to get his finances in order. He stood to win $10,000 if he won the fight.
And winning would put him on track to get more fights for bigger payouts.

Speaker 6 And it seemed like the world was ready to believe in Phoenix Jones again. He was going into this fight undefeated in his professional career.

Speaker 6 And in an online poll by the MMA site Topology, 92% of the respondents predicted Phoenix would beat Emmanuel Wallow.

Speaker 18 Look at this arena.

Speaker 22 Double-stacked seats. This is where the legacy starts.
This is where the Phoenix rises.

Speaker 6 For someone like Phoenix, who has an admittedly disastrous personal life, I totally see the appeal of MMA. There's nothing messy about it.
Hand-to-hand fighting is clean and simple.

Speaker 6 You can't misinterpret a punch to the face or have a difference of opinion about a roundhouse kick to to the groin. It just happens pure and visceral.

Speaker 6 Once you step into the cage, all the noise of your life melts away.

Speaker 23 The ring is the only true place in the world where no lies matter. Like nothing you said matters, nothing you claim to have done matters, none of it.

Speaker 23 Where two people were going to fight and my machine is better than yours and this is where I live.

Speaker 24 It's going to be okay for me.

Speaker 23 And even if you win, you have to be spectacular.

Speaker 27 So you're going to knock me out and I don't have to deal with it because I'm not going to be conscious, right?

Speaker 28 The hard part is

Speaker 23 losing and having to stand there and watch yourself lose or not completing your goals.

Speaker 25 But getting physically hurt, who fucking cares?

Speaker 23 Like, you can't possibly hate me as much as I hate me sometimes.

Speaker 6 Phoenix was back where he longed to be, in the spotlight, about to take on his latest opponent.

Speaker 30 I'm pretty much known for saving people.

Speaker 22 But the one thing that you have to know, when they close the decagon doors, not even Phoenix Jones can save you.

Speaker 32 We are set to go here in Connecticut.

Speaker 6 It would be a fight for the ages. You ready? You ready? Fight!

Speaker 6 I'm David Weinberg, and from the teams at Novel and iHeartRadio, this is the Superhero Complex, episode 7, From the Ashes.

Speaker 6 After Phoenix split from the Rain City superheroes, he vowed to continue fighting crime.

Speaker 6 But based on his social media posts, he seemed to be patrolling a lot less than he had with his team beside him. He only posted two patrol videos for the rest of 2014.

Speaker 6 In 2015, he posted five videos in January, one one more in November, and then went silent on his official Phoenix Jones YouTube channel. To this day, he hasn't posted anything there since.

Speaker 6 But before he went dark completely, Phoenix posted a video from another channel, a video that was unlike anything he'd ever put out before.

Speaker 33 Hey, this is Phoenix Jones. I'm putting this on my YouTube channel, but it's really for other real-life superheroes I'm going to be sharing on my Facebook page.

Speaker 6 Phoenix is in street clothes.

Speaker 33 He has a massive high top haircut black rimmed glasses and he's looking directly into the camera he seems sincere acknowledging that maybe he'd made some mistakes in the past and i realized i harbor a lot of resentment for a whole lot of superheroes in this community for various actions i mean different things But when it really comes down to it, you guys are the closest I have to anyone who understands what I want to do.

Speaker 33 And like inside, I felt this crazy excitement that I wasn't alone, that I was going to put on the suit and I was going to make a difference with my family, you know?

Speaker 33 And as time has progressed, it's really been depressing to think that it's not that way. And someone has to start the trend.
Someone has to eventually give up the pissing match.

Speaker 6 And I guess it's going to be me.

Speaker 33 So I'm sorry. I'm sorry for anything that I've done that's offended you or any of my actions that have caused you guys discomfort or trouble or pain.

Speaker 33 It was never really my intention to do that. I just wanted to be the best.
I still, I feel like I am.

Speaker 33 I feel like I am the best.

Speaker 6 Ah, there it is. The moment, he couldn't stop himself from proclaiming his superiority.
But seriously, it must have been incredibly difficult and humbling for him to post a video like this.

Speaker 6 to admit publicly that maybe he did need all those people who he called clowns and losers by his side.

Speaker 33 When you break it down, being a superhero isn't all about fighting crime or being effective. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm dropping all of the negative talk about other superheroes.

Speaker 33 And before I recorded this, I deleted my entire banned list. So if you were once banned as a superhero, you are unbanned.

Speaker 33 I hope we can really just move forward.

Speaker 33 It's so funny to say this. If there was none of you, there wouldn't be any of me.

Speaker 6 that phoenix offered to bury the hatchet with el caballero and he even did the unthinkable he volunteered to help a different team of superheroes the emerald city heroes organization which el caballero founded also known by their acronym echo no more negative stuff no more garbage we're all a team and uh i'll see you guys in the streets

Speaker 6 Was the self-proclaimed only true real-life superhero suddenly turning over a new leaf? Was he humbled humbled by his loneliness?

Speaker 6 Was he growing as a person and coming to terms with his own shortcomings? It was certainly looking that way. Perhaps he used his downtime for self-reflection.

Speaker 6 I do know that during this time, Phoenix turned back to the one thing he'd always found comfort in when he was growing up.

Speaker 6 Martial arts.

Speaker 36 Martial arts was how I got away from all of the bad stuff in my life.

Speaker 25 Martial arts was what saved me.

Speaker 6 Do you remember your first MMA fight?

Speaker 26 Well, Ken Beringer.

Speaker 6 Sometimes in life you are presented with an opportunity to do something brave or stupid, depending on how you look at it. And for young Ben Fodor in 2006, this was one of those moments.

Speaker 6 He says he went to see an MMA fight. He was sitting there in the audience with all the other fans of brutality when it happened.

Speaker 28 And they're like, oh, sorry, one of the fights bailed.

Speaker 25 Guy made a joke. Anyone from the audience want to fight?

Speaker 18 And I was like, I'll do it, you know?

Speaker 25 And that was me versus Ken Beringer.

Speaker 22 Beringer. Like, I was 35 years old.

Speaker 6 Phoenix was only 18, but even though he already knew he wanted to be a fighter, he hadn't quite developed the stomach for it.

Speaker 26 Before every single cage fight, I always like projectile vomit maybe 15 minutes before it's my turn, every time, like clockwork.

Speaker 25 And right as we're warming up to get ready to go, I'm just like, oh,

Speaker 22 we know it's going to happen, so we just carry a bag with us.

Speaker 23 But I mean, I have crazy nerves until I don't.

Speaker 6 It turned out that Ben Fodor was much better at kicking and punching people than he was at holding down his lunch.

Speaker 6 He won fight after fight, eventually racking up 11 wins and only one loss in his amateur fighting career.

Speaker 6 He says he even teamed up with the MMA trainer Eric Weissman to run a gym.

Speaker 6 The world of fighting and training was a comforting place to be.

Speaker 24 Fighting is easy for me.

Speaker 23 Fighting has never been a thing that is a hard concept for me to understand. There's no like, oh no, someone wants to harm me.
Like, I feel feel like people want to harm me all the time.

Speaker 6 Fighting grounded Ben, and it solved another big problem in his life. Money.

Speaker 6 MMA was a lucrative way to make a living. Fame may have played a big part in the disillusion of the Rain City superheroes, but it also gave Phoenix new opportunities.

Speaker 6 In 2015, he signed a big deal with the World Series of Fighting, in large part because of the celebrity status he'd acquired as a costume crime fighter.

Speaker 6 In fact, that was how Manny Wallow first heard about Phoenix.

Speaker 6 What was your first impression of him?

Speaker 34 Honestly, man, and don't judge me for saying that I thought he was a weirdo.

Speaker 34 At first I got confused because the contract says Ben Forder, but when I kept putting Ben Forder in, I kept getting Phoenix Jones. I'm like, who is this?

Speaker 34 I hit him on my trainer, and he's acting the same person.

Speaker 10 So that's why I was like, oh, shit, this guy got an alter ego.

Speaker 6 I loved talking to Manny. He was gregarious and candid, and he's still fighting.
And like Phoenix, he likes to do some good when he's not trying to choke people unconscious in the decagon.

Speaker 34 It don't last forever, you know? You got to have a, what's next for you. So for me, one of my passion was always to surf my community, everything.
So I went on to become a firefighter.

Speaker 6 Manny is also pragmatic about his opponents.

Speaker 34 Fighting isn't personal. It's something I do because I love it.
So if I sign my name, we could fight, like me or you fight, and we could be friends afterwards. It's no big deal to me.

Speaker 6 So he says he was surprised when Phoenix started attacking him on social media in the weeks leading up to their fight.

Speaker 34 Before I could even look to see see who he was, he was already talking shit on me. Like, you know, so it's like he came

Speaker 34 looking for me. I don't hit up opponents or nothing.
I just go on YouTube and stuff and find shit. But he started with the whole making videos and everything about me.

Speaker 18 And I'm like, oh, okay.

Speaker 6 When I spoke to Phoenix, he said Manny had challenged him to the fight, and that made it personal, whether he liked it or not.

Speaker 6 Apparently, all the smack talking did get under Emmanuel's skin.

Speaker 6 In the video of the weigh-in before the fight, it's actually Manny who looks furious.

Speaker 6 He taunts Phoenix, gets right up in his face as if he's about to hit him.

Speaker 32 President Ray Sempo having to step in and back the fellas up. They were ready to go down right there.

Speaker 6 It's Phoenix who stands there playing it cool. At one point, he holds his hand like it's a mouth, opening and closing it as if to say, Yeah, keep talking, buddy.

Speaker 34 Everybody, you know, I'm an easygoing guy, you know, I don't talk shit, but he got me out of my character.

Speaker 34 Like, so at the weigh-ins, when I finally saw him, I just went off ah, like, and I'm forgetting, like, this is the way in the cameras there and everything.

Speaker 32 Sometimes the effects of the wig cut plays out at the weigh-ins.

Speaker 6 The fight was on.

Speaker 32 Phoenix Jones, Emmanuel Wallow, we go inside the cage.

Speaker 6 Phoenix came out on the offensive, throwing the first punches and launching himself at Wallow.

Speaker 36 Jones walks right into Wallow.

Speaker 18 That's what we want to do. No fear.

Speaker 6 But it's Wallow Wallow who gets the first takedown, picking Phoenix up and slamming him to the mat on his back.

Speaker 18 A beautiful takedown coming from Wallow in the red trunks. Phoenix Jones so far, not having a lot of success.

Speaker 6 Phoenix manages to get up, but then immediately gets taken down again.

Speaker 6 Beautiful finding, beautiful takedown. And then he said he continued to taunt Phoenix in the ring while they were fighting.

Speaker 34 I was like, this is not some drunk guys down in Seattle that you're beating up. Every time I was taking him down, I was like, oh, another one.
Every time I took him him down, I was like DJ Khaley.

Speaker 34 I was like, oh, another one. I was just balling him.
Take him up, slamming, take him up, slam him for 15 minutes.

Speaker 18 Coming up on the final 15 seconds of round number one.

Speaker 32 This one will go to a second round when we return to Connecticut.

Speaker 6 By the end of round one, Phoenix doesn't have a single takedown. He looks exhausted.
His mouth open as he gasps for air, revealing his mouth guard, which has vampire fangs printed on it.

Speaker 6 And then, before Phoenix can even catch his breath.

Speaker 18 This is round two of Phoenix Jones trying to figure out the puzzle that is Emmanuel Wallow and Swallow.

Speaker 6 The next two rounds don't go much better for Phoenix. He gets taken down again and again.
He spends most of the fight on his back, being dominated by Emmanuel.

Speaker 36 Phoenix Jones going to the guillotine.

Speaker 36 What a big uppercut.

Speaker 18 Phoenix needs an absolute miracle here.

Speaker 6 But but there is no miracle all three judges scored 29 to 28 for your winner by unanimous decision Emmanuel

Speaker 6 Phoenix hates losing and I'm sure this loss in particular stung It was supposed to be his grand comeback.

Speaker 6 But Phoenix takes things personally and he seems to have burned bridges in the MMA world as well as the superhero world.

Speaker 6 We reached out to a lot of people for this story and many of them declined to talk to us. But some responded with vague warnings like, Phoenix is a bad person and the attention just makes him worse.

Speaker 6 One person who knew Phoenix from the gym told us that we were violating journalistic ethics for even doing a story about him.

Speaker 6 But Phoenix's MMA career wasn't over after his loss to Manny Wallow, though he did go on to fight an opponent that got a lot of attention.

Speaker 34 He went on to go fight his own brother. Like, what kind of crazy shit is that? I don't give a fuck if me and my brother hate each other.
I'm not going to fight them to entertain people I don't know.

Speaker 34 Like, what, like, so it was a lot of demons that he has.

Speaker 6 Phoenix's brother, Karos Fodor, is also an MMA fighter. He didn't respond to our requests to speak with him.
But one thing we do know about him, his relationship with Phoenix, is tense.

Speaker 18 I hate my brother, and I hope that I hate him. He's a terrible person, Horrible person.

Speaker 18 Okay.

Speaker 36 I want to hurt him physically.

Speaker 29 I would like to hurt him now physically. If there was a legal way for me to hurt him, I would do it as we speak.

Speaker 6 In 2016, Phoenix and his brother agreed to fight in the ring and it was a media sensation, a real-life violent family feud.

Speaker 6 If this sounds weirdly familiar, the same thing happened to superhero Luke Cage, who publicly fought his half-brother and arch nemesis Willis Stryker.

Speaker 6 But unlike Luke, a fictional superhero, the outcome was a little different for Phoenix. Phoenix says Karos instigated the fight behind his back.

Speaker 27 I'm like, yo, you remember that time that you signed a cage fight behind my back to fight me without telling me because you were my coach, kicked me out of the fight gym I'd been training at while you had been training me, and then talked shit about me on the internet?

Speaker 6 In the lead up to the fight, Phoenix posted videos trying to talk Karos out of it.

Speaker 22 I tried to call you, but you didn't answer your phone, so figure I'd just one last chance.

Speaker 17 We don't have to do this.

Speaker 30 I know you want to do this, and I will do this, but we don't have to.

Speaker 40 It's your call. See you in a few hours.

Speaker 6 Karos told journalists at the time that his brother was only pretending that he had nothing to do with setting up the fight.

Speaker 6 Either way, it seemed like Phoenix was enjoying the attention and that it was a good marketing strategy.

Speaker 32 Karos is the older brother.

Speaker 18 Ben the taller brother.

Speaker 6 For all his posturing, Phoenix went forward with the fight.

Speaker 6 He wore his signature American flag shorts with the words, Ben Flat Top Fodor.

Speaker 41 So here they go. Well, adopted Foster Brothers.

Speaker 6 The commentators initially refer to Phoenix as Ben.

Speaker 41 Ben said he wanted to be called Phoenix Jones tonight. They are the Fodor brothers, but we will call him Jones in the red, white, and blue trunks.

Speaker 6 They both come out swinging, each landing a few quick punches. And then they lock arms, and Phoenix takes a few knees to the face.
Karos gets the first takedown.

Speaker 32 There you dig that is.

Speaker 41 He wanted to get it to the ground quickly, and he does less than a minute into it.

Speaker 42 From the get-go, it's a struggle for Phoenix.

Speaker 41 Phoenix Jones having all kinds of trouble trying to keep this fight standing up. He's not been able to do it so far.

Speaker 6 At the end of the final round, there's no decisive winner. So they go to the judges.

Speaker 5 Judges all score the fight 30 to 26 for your winner by unanimous decision.

Speaker 5 Keros, the future.

Speaker 6 In the end, Phoenix was no match for his brother. When we hung out, I asked him about the fight.
And even still, all these years later, he's not over it.

Speaker 25 He's like, it's all about good fun and making money?

Speaker 39 Yeah, not to me.

Speaker 22 The most insulting thing you can do to another human is look at them and say, I want to take something you love, like fighting.

Speaker 24 I would think I can beat you. I want to sell tickets to my friends and family to come watch me beat you up.

Speaker 22 Oh, by the way, we're just kidding.

Speaker 18 Fuck you.

Speaker 19 You're crazy.

Speaker 18 You are a crazy person.

Speaker 19 We're not going to shake hands. We're not going to be friends.

Speaker 18 I hate you.

Speaker 28 I absolutely hate you.

Speaker 6 Phoenix had been defeated again.

Speaker 6 But in videos he posted online, he decided to double down on his MMA career.

Speaker 33 I'm going to focus on becoming a well-rounded MMA fighter. I'm going to take some jiu-jitsu classes and I'm going to come back.
I mean, you guys deserve better.

Speaker 33 I'm going going to give this a good shot. So for the next two years, I'm going to give this MMA thing a real shot, 100% effort.

Speaker 6 At least that was the intention.

Speaker 6 In reality, he only fought twice more, and neither of those fights attracted nearly as much attention as the one with his brother.

Speaker 6 After a final loss in 2017, his career ground to a halt, leaving him to question his future.

Speaker 23 You get out of martial arts and there's nothing left. There's no more fighting.

Speaker 36 I have no skills that I think apply to the world I live in.

Speaker 23 I'm better off 4,000 years ago running a Germanic tribe of warriors.

Speaker 29 Like, I don't have a place anymore.

Speaker 25 The world evolved to where computer people and pushing buttons are more important than physical attributes. And who am I?

Speaker 23 And then you go, what am I going to do with that?

Speaker 6 Phoenix Jones was adrift.

Speaker 6 He felt like he'd lost his purpose.

Speaker 6 Who was he if he wasn't fighting crime on the streets or opponents in the cage?

Speaker 6 Meanwhile, back in Seattle, the members of the superhero community who had once been inspired by Phoenix were having to pick up the pieces and defend the innocent without him.

Speaker 6 That's coming up.

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Speaker 6 All right, it is about 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, and I am about to roll up on Justin's service and Red Ranger for my very first ever patrol with real-life superheroes.
Here we go.

Speaker 6 From the moment I started working on this story, one of the things that excited me the most was the prospect of going out on a crime-fighting patrol with some costumed heroes.

Speaker 6 And last year, when I was deep in the world of real-life superheroes, I met up with two Seattle superheroes in a parking garage downtown.

Speaker 6 I was greeted at first with a powerful stench of urine.

Speaker 6 In a far corner of the garage, I saw two superheroes unloading equipment from the back of a station wagon.

Speaker 6 Hey, you must be Red Ranger.

Speaker 18 David. Hey there, David.

Speaker 49 Are you recording video right now? Just audio.

Speaker 6 Okay. Am I snap some photos?

Speaker 18 Snap photos of us, cool.

Speaker 49 Just not the car just because secret identities are important to us.

Speaker 18 Thank you.

Speaker 6 Red Ranger was dressed in a black and red outfit, made up of the type of protective gear that hockey players wear.

Speaker 6 Plastic shoulder and knee pads, and he wore a menacing looking red mask with black mesh eye holes and carried a big metal shield with a peace sign made of red tape on the front.

Speaker 6 Justin's service was clad in green and white gear similar to Red Rangers with a bulletproof vest underneath his plastic armor.

Speaker 6 He wore a pair of goggles that he had accented with neon yellow tape and a gray mask that muffled his voice. They both had GoPro cameras mounted on their chests.

Speaker 6 I felt a little underdressed in my street clothes. I have a sort of practical question.
Where do you guys go with the guests go to the bathroom?

Speaker 18 I just to pee.

Speaker 50 We've got the setup.

Speaker 50 Without going into too much detail,

Speaker 31 make sure our seats are not just flashy, but functional.

Speaker 6 In the absence of Phoenix Jones, his old teammates had splintered into a few different groups that patrolled together.

Speaker 6 Red Ranger was a part of Echo, a group that El Caballero founded and sometimes patrolled with. Justin's service was relatively new to the Seattle superhero scene.
He'd moved to town in 2020.

Speaker 6 Tonight, it was just the two of them on patrol. They were getting ready by loading supplies onto a cart with wheels that they would tow behind them as we walked the streets.

Speaker 49 So we will start rolling around Pioneer Square with our supplies, doing our safety watch, and also looking for people who might be in need of some help tonight.

Speaker 18 All right, let's roll.

Speaker 6 And with that, we were on the move.

Speaker 6 Two armored do-gooders and an intrepid reporter in search of people in distress.

Speaker 6 We started out in Pioneer Square, one of the oldest parts of the city, home to a lot of historic buildings, old saloons, red brick streets, and several large homeless encampments.

Speaker 6 As we made our way through the streets, nearly everyone who saw us had some kind of reaction.

Speaker 18 Are you guys Transformers?

Speaker 6 There were double takes and wide eyes, and some people shouted things at us.

Speaker 6 And Red Ranger wasn't kidding.

Speaker 18 You guys want food, water, socks?

Speaker 31 Okay, you want some water?

Speaker 18 You all need socks. You want some water, my friends? You also got masks, hands and those.
You all need masks? You want a mask, ma'am? Oh, you got one.

Speaker 31 It's beautiful, too.

Speaker 18 Yeah, yeah, we got it. Okay, no worries.

Speaker 49 We're giving out free stuff tonight, including the beef sticks.

Speaker 18 Take a turn, man.

Speaker 6 The superheroes seemed unfazed by all the attention they got on patrol, and maybe even a little flattered.

Speaker 25 You guys look like you you want a video game to go.

Speaker 18 No, man, Seattle superheroes, brother.

Speaker 18 Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 49 Back in the scene, man.

Speaker 6 Along with all the water, food, hand sanitizer, and socks, the superheroes were also outfitted with some more hardcore supplies. What's on your belt and all the kind of gear do you typically have?

Speaker 50 We've got our ballistic gear and self-defense weapons in case anything happens.

Speaker 51 We employ de-escalation and non-violent tactics always as a primary intervention. I do like to carry medical supplies on me at all times.

Speaker 6 Red Ranger was the more formidable of the duo. He was a big guy.
In his civilian life, he works as a nurse in a hospital.

Speaker 6 He put these skills to use numerous times on the patrol, giving medical advice and first aid to many of the homeless people we encountered.

Speaker 30 I used to do some time in an emergency room. You know, I would see some things there.
like victims of gunshot wounds, things like that.

Speaker 30 And I would be there trying to help these people.

Speaker 30 And when you can't help them and they end up succumbing to their wounds, I just kind of made this resolve to myself that said, as long as I can prevent this happening, I'm going to do everything I can to prevent it from happening.

Speaker 6 Red Ranger came onto the scene at the tail end of the Rain City superhero movement. And he went on a few patrols with Phoenix and his team before the group disbanded.

Speaker 30 At the time, you know, I was still kind of getting to know all the drama.

Speaker 30 So I was a little bit farther removed. And at first I saw him as a really good guy.
I didn't really have any problems patrolling with him for a while.

Speaker 30 We kind of have a rule in the Subier community, you know, you take care of your own house first, right? Because you can't pour from an empty cup, right? You still have to take care of your own life.

Speaker 30 And if your own life needs work, you can't put yourself out there to try and help other people if you can't help yourself.

Speaker 30 He kind of got into this space where it was definitely not good for him to be patrolling for a while.

Speaker 30 And I think that's why he took several hiatuses and has been less active recently in the recent years.

Speaker 6 I got the feeling from patrolling and talking with Justin's service that Red Ranger was very much his mentor. Justin was younger, also smaller, a skinny guy who was relatively new to Seattle.

Speaker 6 He was soft-spoken and had a gentleness that I found endearing.

Speaker 50 I hate to brag, but I do have the better flashlight.

Speaker 18 You do tonight. I didn't bring my big one.

Speaker 6 Justin grew up in a small town in Idaho.

Speaker 42 I was just the nerdy kid that would avoid confrontation all the time and got beat up a lot.

Speaker 42 But courage is something you build on.

Speaker 6 He heard about the real-life superhero movement after seeing a documentary on HBO called Superheroes.

Speaker 42 They genuinely wanted to help and they had a creative way to do it. And I was like, I want to try that out.

Speaker 6 So he put together a costume and started patrolling the streets of his small town looking for crime to stop. It was nerve-wracking at first.

Speaker 42 I was just a guy in a costume wandering around in a very conservative area.

Speaker 6 And in small town Idaho, there wasn't a whole lot of crime to fight.

Speaker 6 It was also a particularly difficult time in his life.

Speaker 42 My dad was diagnosed with cancer and getting treatments and stuff at the time.

Speaker 42 So it was kind of hard and I didn't want to like, I don't know, put any extra on him.

Speaker 42 Uh he wasn't exactly the best father, but he was a good guy. So I alternated between like taking care of him and going out at night.

Speaker 42 But he uh he recently passed uh July 2019, so

Speaker 6 Justin had also lost his mom. And without his parents, he struggled to figure out what exactly he was going to do with his life.

Speaker 6 As he started looking into the real-life superhero movement, he met some of the Seattle superheroes, like Red Ranger Ranger on Facebook, and it made the possibility of becoming a hero more real.

Speaker 6 He decided to move to Seattle and join them.

Speaker 42 Red Ranger, Skyman, Spirit Fox, El Caballero, all of them, they welcomed me in and helped me out.

Speaker 6 Does Seattle feel like a dangerous place to you?

Speaker 42 Um, I wouldn't call it safe, that's for sure.

Speaker 6 As luck would have it, during Justin Service's very first patrol in Seattle with his newfound friends, they happened to run into Phoenix Jones. Well, technically, they ran into Ben Fodor.

Speaker 6 He was in street clothes, not on patrol.

Speaker 42 The first thing he said to me, he was like, hey, new guy, do your job or I'll kill you my fucking self.

Speaker 42 I was just kind of taken aback by that. I was like, geez, this guy's supposed to be a superhero.
When I first came out here, my mindset, I had watched the videos of Phoenix Jones and all that.

Speaker 42 I was like, stoked. I was like, oh, this is the guy, yeah.

Speaker 42 And then he says off the wall stuff like that. And I'm like, okay.

Speaker 42 That was my first time meeting the famous Phoenix Jones.

Speaker 6 When I asked Phoenix about this exchange, he admitted to saying it. He claimed he was only joking, but it didn't seem that way to Justin's service.

Speaker 6 How can you claim to be a defender of the innocent and be a bully at the same time?

Speaker 6 After spending time with Justin and hearing his story of losing his parents, I just felt this paternal instinct to protect him.

Speaker 6 And knowing that he was inspired to uproot his life and move to Seattle precisely because of Phoenix, only to meet him and have him threaten his life, it really angered me.

Speaker 18 We got like socks, we're not totally free. Seattle superheroes.
Not cops, I'm actually a nurse.

Speaker 6 I will also say that I'm very grateful for Justin's service because he ended up protecting me on patrol that night. I had not expected things to go down the way they did.

Speaker 6 I figured we'd help a few homeless people and maybe if we were really lucky, we'd find a bar fight to break up. Because the vast majority of the time, superhero patrols are pretty uneventful.

Speaker 6 Even if you patrol every night, the odds of encountering a crime in progress seems insanely low.

Speaker 6 But that's also one of the arguments I've heard for these patrols, that the presence of these crazy-looking characters can actually deter crime.

Speaker 6 I mean, would you snatch a purse from an old lady if a dude in head-to-toe body armor and a metal shield was glaring at you?

Speaker 6 What I was not prepared for was the profound mental health and addiction crisis that we were wading into.

Speaker 6 At one point, we were standing on a street corner, handing out food, when this guy with a crazed look in his eyes came running at me with a metal pole.

Speaker 6 Justin Service jumped in between me and the guy.

Speaker 49 So we just had a guy threatening other residents of this homeless camp with a pole, and Justin Service and I just put ourselves between him and the residents of this camp, and he walked away.

Speaker 18 He's coming back, though, so never mind.

Speaker 6 He ended up stopping short of attacking us,

Speaker 6 but he was clearly distressed, rambling incoherently.

Speaker 18 Oh, did you need something else my personality?

Speaker 6 So Red Ranger and Justin Service decided to try a different approach.

Speaker 6 They asked the guy about his weapon.

Speaker 18 It's a compressed in spots. It looks like a flu.

Speaker 18 Do you want some water or food or anything? We can give you that right now, brother.

Speaker 18 I'm sorry, it's just you guys were walking.

Speaker 49 Oh, yeah, we're going all around the city tonight.

Speaker 18 All right, brother, be safe with that thing tonight. It looks like it, okay?

Speaker 6 Red Ranger and Justin Service handled the situation extremely well. It was impressive.

Speaker 6 In fact, they were so kind and gentle with the man that he decided he wanted to join us, and he walked alongside us for several blocks, while Red Ranger deftly tried to get him to go off on his own so we could continue our patrol.

Speaker 31 All right, brother, take care.

Speaker 18 We'll play a role with you and see if I can learn some shit. It's alright, man.
We're going to be moving all around.

Speaker 6 There were other encounters that still haunt me. One woman came up to Red Ranger when she heard him say that he was a nurse.

Speaker 18 Are you a registered nurse?

Speaker 31 Yes, I am.

Speaker 6 She showed him her arm, which was covered in horribly infected sores from using intravenous drugs. Even Red Ranger seemed a little alarmed.

Speaker 30 That's a serious infection, and you need some antibiotics for that.

Speaker 31 Gotta make sure you get to a hospital as soon as possible, okay?

Speaker 49 Can you walk there? Can you get there? Are you hurting right now?

Speaker 18 No, I'm okay. I put my medicine in my needle, so.

Speaker 51 All right, dear.

Speaker 49 I understand that, but you gotta be safe with that, okay?

Speaker 31 Make sure we get clean needles and go see a hospital as soon as you can.

Speaker 18 Okay, dear.

Speaker 6 Maybe I was just paranoid, but we came across so many people who were clearly struggling with mental health issues.

Speaker 6 I was worried they would see the superheroes in their armor and think they were a threat and they would attack us. But no one did.
Instead, they accepted our socks and food and were grateful.

Speaker 6 Red Ranger administered first aid to several people who seemed to be in really bad shape.

Speaker 6 It was pretty remarkable to see the superheroes in action, and it was an experience that has stayed with me, especially after hearing the way Phoenix talked, specifically about Justin Service and the other members of the superhero community who were drawn to the humanitarian aspect of this work.

Speaker 6 Seeing Red Ranger and Justin Service changed my opinion of the real-life superheroes. Before going on patrol, I was a lot more skeptical of the good that these superheroes were doing.

Speaker 6 But I came away from my patrol with a lot more respect for them. I did wonder, though, how it affected them to wade into so much pain and suffering as often as they do.

Speaker 6 What is like your regular day-to-day life like when you're not fighting crime?

Speaker 42 I won't go into too much detail, but I am currently homeless myself and trying to work towards housing and all that.

Speaker 42 So fighting crime on top of all that is a little tricky, but I try and make it work. Even when I'm not in the mask and everything,

Speaker 42 I have an app called Citizen. Oh, Citizen, yeah.
Yeah, and so I use that a lot to find incidences near me and I'll rush right to it, armor or not,

Speaker 42 just to make sure everybody's safe. And if there is anything I can do to help, I'm there, you know? So.

Speaker 6 Yeah, it's pretty amazing that you do all this work and you're also like struggling to find housing yourself.

Speaker 30 What is that like?

Speaker 42 I suppose it's just a matter of I've experienced a lot of loss myself

Speaker 42 with my parents and

Speaker 42 being homeless and stuff. I just understand what it is

Speaker 42 to be struggling. And if I can help another person

Speaker 42 not struggle as much,

Speaker 42 that helps my life, you know.

Speaker 42 So yes, I'm homeless and I'm working towards finding housing, but I have ways to feed myself. I have ways to

Speaker 42 work with housing navigators and stuff like that. So I want to help the people who don't have those resources.
It's kind of the same with the armor.

Speaker 42 You know, if I'm the one with the armor, I want to take the damage, not the person who doesn't have the armor. I'm Justin's service.
I'm here only to serve, not to receive.

Speaker 6 I was shocked to learn that Justin's service was homeless. I think if anyone deserves to be called a real-life superhero,

Speaker 6 I'd like to nominate him, a guy who's struggling to find housing and spends what little money he has buying food and socks for other homeless people.

Speaker 6 And learning that he was homeless made me more angry at the way Phoenix talked about people like Justin.

Speaker 6 The way he labeled them with his trademark insult. Real-life sandwich handlers.

Speaker 42 PJ said that a long time ago, and it's like, you know, from my perspective of being homeless and all that, I wish that there were superheroes handing sandwiches on the times I was on the street and all that.

Speaker 42 I'm in a shelter now, but yeah, it's just crazy to think that helping someone is

Speaker 42 bad or ineffective in some way. Like, that's what heroes do.
We help people.

Speaker 42 It's not always comic book action and fighting kaijus in the street. It's

Speaker 42 helping people, first and foremost.

Speaker 18 Thank you for coming out here, Mr. Caba.

Speaker 6 Oh, thanks for letting me tag along. I hope I wasn't in the way at all.
Oh, no.

Speaker 6 It was time to bid farewell to my new superhero friends. It was the early hours of the morning.
I was exhausted, physically and emotionally.

Speaker 6 I got into my rental car and shut the door.

Speaker 6 For the first time that night, all the noise of the city went quiet.

Speaker 6 I sat there for a good while, feeling heavy with sadness after seeing so many people suffering.

Speaker 6 It was impressive to see the superheroes dedicate themselves to helping, but the scale of the problem felt overwhelming, and the need for housing and supportive services far greater than anything the superheroes could provide.

Speaker 6 Eventually, I started my car and headed back to my hotel.

Speaker 6 Meanwhile, all was not well with the city's most famous masked adventurer. Phoenix Jones was about to find himself in a mess he couldn't talk his way out of.

Speaker 6 That's coming up.

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Speaker 6 In the years after Phoenix's departure from the Rain City superheroes, his old teammates kept an eye on their old leader from a distance. And they noticed a pattern start to emerge.

Speaker 6 Phoenix would disappear for a while, then suddenly he would be back out on the streets patrolling.

Speaker 54 He always makes a comeback every six months or so when he's ready to like up his MMA career.

Speaker 6 This is Crystal Marks.

Speaker 54 He does a patrol, invites media along, and then all of a sudden he's like, oh, yeah, and I have a fight at, you know, Key Arena or wherever, Show Wear Center in Kent.

Speaker 54 Like, oh, okay, that's why you're doing it. You're no longer doing it because you care.
I think you still do, but it's because you want to promote your fight.

Speaker 6 The Rain City superheroes had moved on with their own lives. But watching from afar, they were getting indications that things in Phoenix's life were not going well.

Speaker 6 Here's Evakatis.

Speaker 40 I still remember the day I got a phone call asking, you know, can I speak to Benjamin Voder? I'm like,

Speaker 40 may I ask what this is in regards to without saying yes or no?

Speaker 40 And basically, there had been some altercation or crime or something, and he had put my contact information on the police report for whatever crime or whatever it was he got stopped for.

Speaker 40 I don't know what it was he did. She wouldn't disclose that, but used my name, my phone number.
And I explained that to the attorney that had called me.

Speaker 40 I'm like, no, this is, I used to be on his team. I don't know why he would do that.
No, I live in a completely different city. And she's like, yeah, you don't sound anything like him.

Speaker 40 I'm like, yeah, I'm, I, thank you. I'm aware.
I don't sound anything like it.

Speaker 40 She apologized and thanked me for my time, and that was that.

Speaker 6 Evo wasn't the only one.

Speaker 40 Almost everyone on the team at some point had been contacted by either the Seattle Police Department or someone within the King County court system asking for Phoenix Jones.

Speaker 6 Evo told me he and the other superheroes were still getting calls from the police in 2018, years after the Rain City superheroes had disbanded.

Speaker 6 Phoenix's former teammates had some theories about what might be at the root of Phoenix's unusual behavior and all of the run-ins he seemed to be having with the cops.

Speaker 56 He pawned a bunch of team equipment for drugs.

Speaker 6 Here's Midnight Jack.

Speaker 56 Phoenix Jones is a sociopath, is what I think. The only thing Ben cares about is Ben.
That's why he has no friends. All his friends have left him.
He's kind of got beaten down, started using.

Speaker 56 The man's just not in a good place, is what it is.

Speaker 6 This wasn't the first time there had been speculation that Phoenix might have a drug problem.

Speaker 6 Many of his former comrades told me they'd had suspicions for years, even back when the Rain City superheroes were still together.

Speaker 21 His proximity to drugs seemed to kind of increase with frequency.

Speaker 21 He'd keep going to more and more of these parties where he would be, air quotes, accidentally slipped something on the Lord knows what it could be that made him feel very woozier stuff.

Speaker 18 He was kind of gauging the water to see how people would react to him actually taking some kind of drugs.

Speaker 6 Evo said that Phoenix also repeatedly made excuses to be around drugs when it came to his crime fighting.

Speaker 40 Once a fellow team member said, hey, did you see his Twitter? I'm like, no, he said, no, no, no, his other Twitter. And he showed me a new profile he'd made talking about going undercover.

Speaker 40 He would dress up in just regular civilian clothes and try to do drug busts and things like that. But, you know, he had to get in real close to them first.
And

Speaker 40 it's like he had watched a couple episodes of Breaking Bad and... you know, got a couple light bulb moments there.

Speaker 6 But Evo said the stories Phoenix told didn't add up. The other superheroes had heard conflicting versions from Phoenix.

Speaker 40 He was trying to take down this crack dealer. And this other person, no, he's trying to take down this weed dealer.
No, he's trying to take down this meth dealer.

Speaker 40 And, you know, I had to earn their trust before they let me in. So I had to, you know, deal some stuff from time to time.
But, you know, that was just for the mission, right?

Speaker 40 And it would change so many times. I just kind of like, okay, well, there's a problem here.
I am not qualified to address this. I don't even know what to do.

Speaker 40 I'm just here to patrol man, and I I would just keep on with it.

Speaker 6 Evo said things got so bad that at one point, one of Phoenix's close friends, someone from outside the superhero world, called him up, worried about Phoenix's relationship with drugs.

Speaker 40 She had lost somebody to drug overdose who had had very similar tendencies.

Speaker 40 Like, oh yeah, I was just hanging out with some friends and somebody put something in my drink and I had no idea what it was. And it bothered her so much that she couldn't talk to him anymore.

Speaker 6 Evo told me another story from back in their patrolling days when Phoenix had been acting really strange.

Speaker 40 He just seemed like a non-responsive zombie, just kind of walking, but not talking to anybody. There were rumors of some kind of potential substance being in his system.

Speaker 40 We had two medics on our team at the time, and one of them could recognize immediately that there was something off and made some kind of sideways joke about, yeah, he would set fire to a urinalysis test right now.

Speaker 40 If we were to test for drugs or something like that and get a a urine sample, I said, yeah, that would probably combust.

Speaker 40 Now, mind you, that's rumor mill, and you know, I'm certainly no doctor, but the shoe would fit, and I don't think anyone would be surprised.

Speaker 6 Evo wasn't happy with the potential risk of patrolling with someone whose judgment might be impaired by narcotics. So he followed up.

Speaker 40 Right before the team had actually disbanded, I had purchased several urinalysis tests. drug tests.
It's basically urinate on a little strip.

Speaker 40 It detects like seven or nine different types of controlled substances and see if, you know, if the color shows up, that means you have something in your system, that kind of a thing.

Speaker 40 And I was, I bought all those and I intended to bring that and kind of spring it as a surprise on everyone

Speaker 40 on a patrol due to some of these rumors and such like that, but Phoenix had disbanded the team just before it had happened. So.

Speaker 40 No one ever knew, and I suspect that someone may have leaked that to Phoenix or had mentioned that, hey, just so you know, there's going to be what we call a whiz quiz coming up soon.

Speaker 40 So I can't verify whether or not he knew in advance or just he was having a temper tantrum and decided to take his ball and go home.

Speaker 40 There was enough rumor mill to substantiate me actually getting drug tests for the entire team ready.

Speaker 6 El Caballero was concerned too.

Speaker 57 I mean, it's something he had actually talked about quite a number of times. Like, I've never done drugs.
Like, I can't believe people do that.

Speaker 57 In fact, that was his coming-of-age of age superhero story is that someone high on drugs broke his window and his kid almost got cut with the glass coming in in the morning because a junkie or something broke his car window to steal his stuff and now he's doing these kind of party drugs it's frustrating because you know you love someone you care about them and you want them to do the best and then they do other things i mean you're a parent You know, you want the best for them, but at the same time, they're going to do what they're going to do.

Speaker 6 I also had an encounter that made me believe that Phoenix may have been involved with drugs over the years.

Speaker 6 One night when I was out interviewing strangers on the street about Phoenix, a guy told me that he had a ton of dirt on Phoenix.

Speaker 6 He said that Phoenix was not a good guy, and he had a lot of inside information on his dealings with drugs.

Speaker 6 This was around three in the morning, and the guy said he was heading home to crash, but he gave me his phone number and said he was willing to do an interview with me.

Speaker 6 But when I texted him to set up the interview, he said, quote, I don't really like the guy. I don't know how I feel about trashing his name in an interview.
I'd feel weird doing that to anybody.

Speaker 6 I told him he could be anonymous or even off the record, but he never responded to any of my texts after that.

Speaker 6 But the whole exchange made me believe there was something more to Phoenix's relationship to drugs than he was willing to admit to me.

Speaker 6 I was Facebook messaging with Minet Jack and I said something about how I met up with you and he was like, oh, he was probably on cocaine. And I was like, okay, like, is that a thing?

Speaker 6 Did you have a cocaine problem that I didn't know about? But like, that's hilarious. I'll never know.

Speaker 25 Because when I met Midnight Jack, he was a drug addict, and that's why he started patrolling.

Speaker 36 So his comments on me doing drugs is really weird.

Speaker 24 If I ever did do drugs, I would never do them with Midnight Jack.

Speaker 25 Like, I'm not talking about drugs in any direct fashion.

Speaker 36 But what, because I'm not going to.

Speaker 26 But what I'm saying is, like, even if I had a problem where I ate peanut butter every single day, I wouldn't eat peanut butter before an interview because it makes your mouth sound like.

Speaker 6 Well, no one's saying you would.

Speaker 37 No, but he is. But that's what he's saying.

Speaker 28 But think about what he said, right?

Speaker 37 He's like, he was probably on this for the interview.

Speaker 20 That's what he's saying. And not only that, I've been on USADA.

Speaker 58 Do you know what USA is?

Speaker 24 The United States Anti-Doping Administration. I've been a member of USADA since I was 16 years old.

Speaker 58 The anti-doping administration for the fucking Olympics.

Speaker 37 I'm a world-class athlete.

Speaker 58 And you think that I'm showing up on fucking cocaine? But just you saying it is so fucking stupid to me.

Speaker 38 You know?

Speaker 18 Yeah.

Speaker 24 17 years. I've never failed a drug test in 17 years.

Speaker 39 They're randomly done, but I know from

Speaker 24 2016 to 2019, I was actively being tested for USATA, right?

Speaker 36 Which is once a month testing and then a random one every three months, right?

Speaker 24 That leaves me eight days in every month that if I time doing drugs perfectly, I could do them, I guess, and be high for, I guess, two days.

Speaker 24 So there's 60 days in the last five years that I could have actively done drugs and not gotten caught.

Speaker 29 And you're telling me that those days are the days that I'm, one, scheduling an interview, probably with signal cocaine.

Speaker 24 And two, i have my life regimented enough when i can't even show up on time to patrols that i care about because i'm terribly late at everything and you think i've scheduled my life to the point that these random 60 days i could do all of these drugs yeah

Speaker 20 during my superhero career i was arrested 119 times every time you get arrested they take you to jail and you pee you have to because what if you're on drugs and you go in there and you start having like a come down right yeah only one person on our team has ever failed a p-test and it wasn't me so if we're gonna accuse people of things, somebody's on record has actually done that on record while you were supering with us.

Speaker 18 But I mean, if y'all want to come at me, there's records of you doing that while we were fighting crime.

Speaker 27 If I wrote a book about the fucking shit these assholes did, I mean, Jesus Christ, I think we're definitely on par with each other for being assholes.

Speaker 24 Congratulations, we're the biggest crew of assholes.

Speaker 28 Good job.

Speaker 18 But None of that has anything to do with chasing a gunman or

Speaker 58 stopping a crime.

Speaker 6 It's like everyone has such a short memory. Like I remember everything that I did and I wish you guys would just bring up one of the things I actually did wrong.

Speaker 20 I wish they would too. There's no mechanic about it, but you won't tell me.

Speaker 18 No, why would I ever do that? I get it.

Speaker 6 I get it. I mean, no, I don't, I'm not, no shade against you.
I wouldn't do it either. I wouldn't be like volunteering all the terrible things I've done to other people.
Right.

Speaker 18 But there are some.

Speaker 6 But it is ironic that they're talking all the shit about you, but then it's like, well, tell me the real things that he did so we can talk about it. But instead, and I see your point.

Speaker 6 like I would agree that it seems highly unlikely that you've ever had a drug problem. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 58 Yeah, I'm just so frustrated, just fucking irritated, just fucking furious.

Speaker 58 I just want to beat the fuck out of these guys, which I would not do because it's illegal.

Speaker 20 But if I could, I would.

Speaker 6 I tried to lighten the mood, but Phoenix didn't take the bait.

Speaker 6 Have you ever thought about doing like a charity fight against Midnight Jack or something like that?

Speaker 29 Has a lion ever thought about doing a sharity fight with a mouse?

Speaker 38 Midnight Jack has 12 to 20 crime stops.

Speaker 25 None of them are without me and none of them are hands-on stops. Never been in a fight in his entire life.

Speaker 28 I fought all over the fucking world as a professional fighter.

Speaker 37 And I'm going to take out my petty personal grievances by going out and punching these guys in the face.

Speaker 6 In the moment, I was skeptical that Phoenix had a drug problem. He's very convincing when he's talking to you directly.
And he was a professional athlete for a long time.

Speaker 6 But I wasn't able to verify his claims about his USARA testing, as he isn't listed in in their public databases. Now that I'm no longer in the room with him, I don't know what to think.

Speaker 6 Because there's also the elephant in the room. The moment where this whole series began.

Speaker 6 One day in 2020, Evo was at home with his family when the news dropped.

Speaker 40 I remember helping my little girl with some homework when I got messages from a former team member who said, get a load of this.

Speaker 13 The crime-fighting persona of Phoenix Jones has taken an interesting twist. Interesting twist.

Speaker 55 Jones, an MMA fighter whose real name is Benjamin Fodor, is in some very real legal trouble.

Speaker 6 Ever since Phoenix put on his super suit and took to the streets, he's claimed that the police have been out to get him. He said they arrested him 118 times, and each time he went free.

Speaker 6 But they had finally succeeded in nailing him. And this time, the charges would stick.

Speaker 40 Yeah, that was pretty hilarious. Not surprising, but just like, wow, he actually got caught.

Speaker 40 What do you know?

Speaker 6 Phoenix had made many transformations in his life. From bullied orphan to champion bowler, cocky breakdancer, and then champion MMA fighter.

Speaker 6 And now, he'd gone from real-life superhero to convicted drug dealer. So how does the great Phoenix Jones react when he's the one in the jail cell?

Speaker 6 Next time, Seattle's perfect crime fighter gets well and truly busted.

Speaker 6 The superhero complex is hosted and written by me, David Weinberg, and reported by me, Amalia Sortland, and Caroline Thornham. Production from Amalia Sortland and Caroline Thornley.

Speaker 6 Sean Glenn, Max O'Brien, and David Waters are executive producers. Fact-checking by Andrew Schwartz.
Production management from Cherie Houston, Frankie Taylor, and Charlotte Wolf.

Speaker 6 Sound design, mixing, and scoring by Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson. Music supervision by Nicholas Alexander and David Waters.
Original music is composed by Paul Housden.

Speaker 6 Special thanks to Peter Tangen, Willard Foxton, Matt O'Mara, Katrina Norvell, Beth Ann Makaluso, Oren Rosenbaum, Shelby Schenkman, and all the team at UTA.

Speaker 6 For more from Novel, visit novel.audio.

Speaker 43 Hello, and welcome back. Today's topic: Global Companies headquartered in rural small towns.
No one knows this superpower better than Sunoco president and CEO, Howard Coker. So, Mr.

Speaker 43 Coker, what's the secret in South Carolina?

Speaker 53 We're in 34 different countries, 300 different operations, and everywhere I go in the world, the values from Partsville, South Carolina resonate across the globe.

Speaker 53 The culture of this company would absolutely degrade, if not disappear, if it wasn't for the small-town values that that we get from this rape seeding.

Speaker 43 Well, tell me about your experience with South Carolina's pro-business government.

Speaker 53 You know, South Carolina Commerce Department pro-business policies are supported by job creation and retention and workforce development, and it's certainly well aligned and supported for Sunoco.

Speaker 53 They're incredibly responsive and genuinely care about our company's needs now and into the future. They're approachable and have no problem sitting down with us at any time.

Speaker 53 Business in South Carolina have a seat at the table.

Speaker 43 Visit SC LaunchThe Legacy.com.

Speaker 12 The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

Speaker 18 America, y'all better wake the hell up.

Speaker 41 Bad things happen

Speaker 7 to good people in small towns.

Speaker 12 Listen to Graves County on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 45 I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of Heavyweight.

Speaker 16 And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke.

Speaker 45 A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old. And a centenarian rediscovers a love lost 80 years ago.

Speaker 59 How can a

Speaker 59 and one-year-old woman fall in love again?

Speaker 7 Listen to Heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 60 I'm Ibilongoria, and I'm Maiter Gomez Rejoon. And this week on our podcast, Hungry for History, we talk oysters plus the Myanbi Chief Stops By.

Speaker 2 And if you're not an oyster lover, don't even talk to me.

Speaker 60 Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto oyster shells to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster.

Speaker 3 No way.

Speaker 60 Bring back the OstraCon.

Speaker 52 Listen to Hungry for History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 7 Join me, Danny Drejo, in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows.

Speaker 7 An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America.

Speaker 7 Listen to nocturnal tales from the shadows

Speaker 7 on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.