This is exactly right. Hello and welcome to my favorite murder, the coronavirus years. That's right, we're in year 16 of Marsic going 20 20. My sister sent me a text the other day that said, don't forget, it's March ninety seventh.

I saw I saw me and said, thirty days has September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31 except for March, which has eight thousand. Yeah.

Yep. That's the old rhyme. Yeah. It's still quarantine time. Yeah.

How are you doing on yours. No one needs that update now. Everyone knows. I'm just think about the people in the future who are like listening to this and like they're in the whole new world that we're hopefully in too, you know. Yeah. Oh my God.

My mom, to tell you, my mom watches ancient aliens. She's obsessed with it.

And I was on the phone with her the other day and she goes, well, I saw in ancient aliens this morning that there is definitive proof that there are no aliens that have come to visit. And she said it like it's a provable fucking thing.

She's watching ancient aliens like the news now.

And you've seen the screen grabs of, like, the fucking commentators on that show. They're psychotic. I mean, look, I watch that show. I in admitting that on this show, lots of people have written back and saying it's a super problematic show because they basically discount all ancient knowledge as like it'd be impossible that the Sumerians knew this. It must have been aliens, which I completely get. It's super offensive in that way. But as a spectacle, which is what most entertainment is turning into, especially for me these days, there are people on that show, I would say eight of the ten men.

And it's almost always men that speak to you about how, you know, the the Great Pyramids of Giza are lined up along Orion's belt. And that proves that the Mayans actually visited them, you know, crazy shit. And the people that explain this to you always have the ugliest necklace on. Like they go to the most tragic gift shop in the weirdest place they can find and buy a Grand Canyon.

Yeah, it's like yes, everything seems Grand Canyon based.

There's turquoise, there's eagles in forged in silver. They're always leather, always beads, cacti, gems and things.

Yeah.

That's how, you know, you're watching ancient aliens. The necklaces are out of control and the hair of course.

But speaking of purely entertainment or spectacles, we now need to talk about Tiger King. Oh. That everyone is obsessed with right now. Oh, hey, spoiler alert, everybody. We're about to ruin this whole series for you.

It's the perfect again, it's the perfect show. It's a Netflix series. It came out right when the quarantine started in California anyway. And it was the kind of thing where we talked about it last week. You and I both resisted it because so many people we're talking about it on social media.

Yeah, it makes me sad. I gotta be honest.

It's a very sad, as I was saying to my friend, who was like, what do you like? Because I was saying they were they were saying the person they like the most or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, I'm team get me away from these people. There's not a favorite.

But he was like, oh, are you saying you didn't like it?

And I said, No, no, no. I binged the whole thing. Yeah, but there's no one to cheer for now in that entire thing. It's the darkest.

And then, I mean, it's a Roumain story when that fucking crazy person, Joe Exotic, was pulling the brand new tiger cub away from its mother's teat and through the bars of the fucking cage that it's living in its whole life.

I was just out. I couldn't finish it.

Well, and you you knew then that the idea of caring about those animals was not true, right? Oh, my God.

That's the whole study of that personality. It's just like it's fascinating. Yeah.

That there's this group of people that are studying each place, each little big cat reserve is its own mini colts', totally crazy.

And they're like everything at every place. There's like, well, we found these girls that didn't have a place to stay and now they're part of the team and a fucking cult.

And they're like, well, I work eighteen hours a day and I'm super tired, so I don't know what I like anymore. But I do know that I got breast implants. So many dark moments, as I said, text you the other night while I was watching it.

Team Carol, hash tag team Carole. I don't think she. Kill her husband, sorry. Oh, I don't think she killed him. I think that motherfucker split on her split and went to the bottom of the swamp, which he's like, goodbye, I'm going for a deep dive.

They're ancient aliens, made the swamp.

And I'm going to live amongst them because I feel like anything goes with any of those people, because there's something going on with the power structure of a person involving animals in their day to day and using animals like tools. It's the same reason I don't like putting costumes on my dogs. They choice, they have no control and they don't want to do it. Even when people people give us very nice presents are like I may I stitched a scarf for George.

I'll put it on for like four minutes. I'll be like, you don't want this on, right? You don't like people clothes because you're a fucking dog.

Yeah, I'll put her in hats for a quick photo and then it's off and they never have to do it again. Yes. You know, but they do it for their Instagram account. It's their influencers. Well, and same with these people. Like what I started to realize as I was watching that show is they're all filmed all the time. You watch them performing for the camera, performing for sometimes two cameras at a time.

Well, that's one thing I do like about the show is that they show the outtakes of the people being like, I get that again. That one guy show. You guys want to get that again? Why don't you get me walking in like there's just I like whoever edited it. I put those, like, really telling moments and of just them being real and terrible.

Well, and I bet you it was that director who had to be there and get directed by a guy that basically has tigers jump on a chair.

But he's like, here's what we're going to do. You're going to meet me at the front door where it's like, what if that's a shitty idea?

What if me ringing your doorbell and you opening the door like, hello, welcome to the Tiger Woods thing. It's totally, completely fake person and kind of scary with a fucking soul patch is not the best know for TV.

Maybe you're not the creator. Everyone's looking. Oh yeah.

Maybe they're soul patch needs to take a seat.

And also that's the guy that has like six wives. Yeah. I mean, it's just but here's the thing. In times like these where things feel so extreme, this is extreme extreme entertainment.

It matches and then subdues. Big feelings with even bigger, crazier feelings of like, oh, my God, at least I don't live there, work there.

That's a good point. My life didn't take that turn.

I didn't thank God I get a big cats like you thought I was going to.

I mean, I love cats, and I'm sure Stephen agrees with me. I love cats more than any like lots of things. Yeah, family, friends, money. But I don't want a fucking tiger even I want a tiger. Stephen Right. No, I. I respect them too much. They would be good.

And they. Kennedy and they're right there, right. Yes.

And like how many times with the regular house cat have you had a sweater that you almost brought you to your knees. These are Iscar Pound Tiger.

It's crazy. You know what I hate about footage of I think maybe what it is, is I'm always waiting for the tiger attack. The one caretaker who lost their arm. It's you know, I'm just waiting for that to happen because it's inevitable. I did. I have to say, I did like that part because it was so badass that he was just like, yeah, I got my hand bit off, but then I'm just back to work.

It was just like, please don't focus on that. We're trying I'm not trying to talk about that. There's other things to focus on. There's a couple people that really were bright, shining stars. But for the most part, that was a study in depression. Absolutely.

So maybe we keep trying it, but I don't know if I need any extra studies of depression right now at this.

You know, it's like the reason we avoided it in the first place. I just found it insanely jarring just as a kickoff. But then the more people talked about it and it seemed like the more people want to talk about, I was like, well, I should know what's going on. Yeah, me too. There is a series I watch also on Netflix called The Valhalla Murders. I don't know if you watch that wow takes place.

It's in Iceland and it's a female like detective. It's really good, but it's one of the one it's subtitles. So you can't I can't do other things besides watch the show.

It's really just good. It's actually very good. It's the kind of show you want to focus on, like it pays off. I need that. I need more true crime shows. I think there's one I want to watch about the West Memphis Three. And it's more focused on the victims that I really want to watch. I haven't heard of that. That one. This one sounds good. What's it about? Hollow murders. Valhalla Murders is also on Netflix.

And I think and I just watched one. So I finished that really fast because it has first of all, it has really good shots of Iceland. So there's this kind of escapism. They're always like weirdly running in snow. It's awesome for me anyway. But then there's another one. So I binge that. And then I started another one. This was these two bookended. Tiger King is called the Bay, which I just finished recently. And that one's really good, too.

It reminds me of it has just feelings of Broadchurch in that way, where it's a little bayside town that's it's very satisfying and calming and yet still procedural. But you don't you like more of a documentary.

You're right. As opposed to a scripted series. Yeah, but I can't watch any that are too dark because Vince won't handle it. He can't handle it. Quick Correction's Corner. And I think I heard about this last week from so I mean so many people who are like this story when I said I thought the person they said the health care provider, I assumed that meant the insurance company. Oh, yeah. And one thousand nurses wrote back to say no.

That usually means the doctor or the person that's actually treating you. So chances were it was the doctor. So, of course, nurses on it, taking care of business, fixing corrections, saving lives on the daily. Please, if you get a chance, donate to any anything that will help nurses and doctors on the front lines right now, if you can.

Everyone supporting them, a man.

Yeah, it's it's amazing. And they truly are giving risking their lives and some giving their lives to fight this fucking pandemic. And it's insane, especially without a central government really fucked up. Yeah, well, I guess the good news that we can start with is that our new podcast on exactly right network, the trailer is up Bananas. It's hosted by our friends Kurt Braunohler. And in Scotland, US, these are two people that when you go to an awkward party or a bar and you see them and you're like, thank God they're here because they're the coolest dudes.

Yeah.

So if you follow comedy at all, you know, Kurt Braunohler from he's got tons of comedy specials on Comedy Central one or he's been on a bunch of things on. Comedy Central, he has a comedy special called Trust Me, but he's also been a voice on Bob's Burgers on. He's acted on Black Monday on Showtime. He's in the movie The Big Six. So you've he's very stalwart of the comedy community. And then, of course, Scotland is your favorite horror movie from last year.

Ma, he that was his idea. And those guys have been friends for years. Scotty is a writer on Workaholics and Adam Divines House Party. So like they've known each other in the comedy community and. Yeah, so they're just two dudes hanging out and reading each other. Weird news stories. And it is especially now in a time like now, weird news stories don't get covered because everything is so fucked.

It seems like it'll be a really nice break from when you need something lighthearted and something to kind of just take your brain away from what is going on in the real world and listen to some insane stories and just weird news from around the world, which will also give a listen to that and of course, to all the great reviews subscribe.

I think it's going to be really good. And meanwhile, I don't know if you've tried out I said No Gifts by Birger Wenneker yet, but that's also another podcast that's up. And his new episode is with actor and comedian Langston Kerman, who's on Insecure on HBO. And that episode is up Tuesday. Yeah, April 2nd.

So at the end of this episode, we're going to play the trailer for Bananas as well. So we'll get to hear it at premieres Tuesday, April 21st. And you can follow bananas on Instagram at the Bananas podcast that I say this last week, that I'm going to have really great skin at the end of this, but I'm going to be depressed because I'm going to have no vitamin D. Yeah. Oh, take your vitamin D. That's another one.

Yeah, I've read about what I'm doing and vitamin C, anything for immunity.

I think this is the new corner of vitamins.

Corner vitamin can't. Curcumin is a great one. Take your tumeric. Yeah, it's really great with inflammation. There's lots of like LGT that's echinacea or like for immunity you can get any kind of like hepatis that just say immunity on the front. I did that.

They taste great mushroom types, community herbs, take mushrooms and of course LSD in large doses, trip out, videotape yourself doing it and send it to us, please.

You know what I did?

I did the thing where it had been enough time had passed. So I was like, it's time I have to make another grocery store run. So I did it really early in the morning. I just got kind of what was in front of me.

But I did buy two big packages of like chicken filets, like the ones that are there already processed. So they're kind of like already cut and basically half chicken breasts. Yeah. And then I cooked I put one package in the freezer and I cooked the entire other package all at once. So then I just have stand by chicken breasts kind of hanging out because with your hand you grab one with your hand and eat it just like a walrus at the zoo.

It's like a fresh animal. Feed it to myself like I'm a big cat.

I just think I figure because I buy stuff, I don't make food every night. I don't I don't have any kind of a system to rely on. So yeah, I got that. I'm like, just make it all at once. Then it's just sitting there and you can do it your way. I guess the point is you don't have to become a chef or like all of a sudden you don't have to be good in the kitchen. Just do the thing that like doesn't waste food and gets your stuff taken care of.

Do you have any little things that make you happy around the house?

The cats are great. My plants that I haven't killed yet made me really happy. I have I mean, I'm not depressed at all. It's it's nice. You're you're just trying to keep your eye out for it. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, that would normally upset me and I just being aware of it. Yeah. What about you. Oh I was just going to brag that I have an orchid that I haven't killed yet.

Oh that I think because I'm there all the time staring at it, I keep it perfectly water because I'm monitoring it moment to moment.

That's what I'm doing too. I'm like, oh, you're drooping a little. I should water, you know, because all I'm doing is staring. Yeah, but three drips of water in like this perfect way where you're just meeting it out exactly as it's needed. I love it. Powerful feelings. Oh. On the other hand, I did kill the plant in my bathroom terribly by like watching it die of thirst and not taking action.

It was really odd. Isn't that the worst. It's really strange. Ah, just like I kind of sat back like, well there's nothing I can do. It's like water it. Bonanos, an innocent man, gets hit by a flying pickle bananas. A Texas woman wakes up with a British accent, Bonanos a duck, enters a pub, drinks a beer and fights a dog. I'm Kurt Braunohler and I am Bananas.

I'm Scotty Landis and I am bananas.

On each episode of the world famous Bananas podcast, Scotty and I serve you a steaming hot pile of the silliest news stories from around the world.

It's a lighthearted look at our big stupid planet, and we invite you to laugh with us and add us as we try to make sense of it all. But wait, there's more.

We have guests, glorious, talented, hilarious guests who give bananas its pizzazz.

I might get sued from here to kingdom come for saying this, but the Bananas podcast has more pizzazz than any other podcast since 1992 and I don't care who knows it.

So whether you're bored at work or in your car, bored at home or buying boards at a lumber yard, it's time to stuff your ears with bananas. New episodes of Banana Slip on to Apple Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen every Tuesday to put down your tacos and pick up our bananas.

Now with more pizzazz, bananas. Hey, all, we are Wendy and Beth, she's Wendy and I'm Beth, and we want to tell you about a podcast that we host called Froot Loops Serial Killers of Color, Froot Loops as a podcast about true crimes committed by people of color and the victims that we don't hear or know much about. Contrary to popular belief, not all serial killers are straight cis gender white dudes. No, ma'am.

Join us at Froot Loops as we tell fascinating stories of true crimes committed by people of color and their victims that often go untold by the mainstream media. As we dive into these cases, we get into the historical and cultural context of the crimes and the criminals in order to get a sense of what might have influenced the perpetrators and led to the crimes.

Well, that's right. New episodes drop every Thursday on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcast from. So until then, look, Olivia, it's crazy out there.

OK, so I was for my story this week, I was inspired by your story last week, which is the death of Natalie Wood and my friend Carrie O'Donnell, who is a sometime co-host of the sexy, unique podcast, actually suggested this story to me in a text. And I'd never heard of this, even though I've covered half of this story before.

So this week I'm doing the death of Grace Kelly, and it involves a colts', one of the weird theories that, of course, because Grace Kelly died, the tabloids exploded. It was an accidental death. She was young. Her daughter was in the car. It was all this whole thing. And there was such a huge hit, the tabloid for tabloid papers and and the way people just could not get enough of this story. They wanted to know everything about what happened and why.

So basically, the tabloids, after her death, even though everything was proven to be an accident and they knew why everything happened, the stories just kept coming out and they got weirder and weirder and the theories were crazier and crazier.

So I didn't know that. So let's see. There was a book called Rainier and Grace, an intimate portrait by an author named Jeffrey Robinson that was written in 1989. And that's where a lot of the kind of insider information comes from. Also, the Chicago Tribune, The Irish Times, The Scotsman biography, dotcom, of course, Wikipedia. And the other reason that we are talking about this is because if you haven't seen the movie Rear Window and you are suffering through quarantine, it is the best movie about somebody being stuck in their house and basically witnessing a murder.

It's such a good movie. So if you haven't seen it, definitely, definitely watch it. And that way, if you are a youngster and you have never heard of Grace Kelly before, you don't know who Grace Kelly is. You don't you've never heard of Princess Grace of Monaco. You will get the perfect introduction to her. She is a gorgeous actress who I'm going to tell you about right now. So here is in the main. Here's what happened to her on Monday, September 13th in 1882, glamorous actress turned Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly is getting her youngest daughter.

Seventeen year old Stephanie, ready to go back to Paris for the first day of school, which is on Wednesday. So they're sure their chauffeur is standing by to drive their metallic green rover. Thirty five hundred from their Royal Farm in the hills above Monaco down to the station to catch the train to Paris. So the women are filling the backseat of this car with dresses and hat boxes and suitcases. And then they find when they're done packing, they realize there's no room left for them to sit in the back.

And so that's when Grace tells her chauffeur she's going to drive them both down to the train station instead, even though that's not something she normally did and it wasn't something she was necessarily comfortable with because they lived.

It's the Cote d'Azur in, I think, southern France. But, you know, it's like a crazy, windy, mountainous west.

And then probably you have, like, your vision blocked because of all the bags and stuff, too, right? Like, if it's a small car.

A little. Yeah, it's a it's like a Range Rover. So it's kind of a mountain car. But yes, they've filled the whole thing up. So so basically the chauffeur insists he's like, I will, you're royalty. I'm going to drive you to the train station and then I'll come back and get your clothes and bring them. And she's like, Yeah, don't worry about it, forget it. I'll drive. I'll do it myself. So they leave the farm around 10:00 a.m., they drive away.

It's been a very busy summer. Grace Kelly has been working. She has all her royal duties. She has so much to do all the time. She was very tired. You know, the summer was finally over. Some say she was very cranky. She'd been complaining of a headache all morning long. So essentially, when they turn out onto the road at 10 a.m., they follow it down into the nearest village of Lockerbie is the guess of how you pronounce it.

Then from there, they get onto a road called the thirty seven. So two miles down the D thirty seven there is a hairpin, one hundred and fifty degree turn to the right. And this is according to her daughter, Stephanie. Somewhere along the way, Princess Grace gets a shooting pain in her head.

And it's potentially blacked out for a second, loses control of the car, and when she comes back, she tries to slam her foot on the brake, but instead she hits the gas and the car sales instead of stopping it just sales straight off the edge of the cliff. It flips end over end.

It falls hundred and twenty feet through trees and branches and it crashes through a retaining wall and into a resident's backyard down below.

Holy shit. Yeah, there's a gardener that was working in that backyard who would later tell reporters he ran over to the wreck and pulled Stephanie out of the driver's side window.

Hmm. Some ancient astronaut theorists suggest that that means that Stephanie was driving and that she caused the accident. She was too young to drive or she was inexperienced or whatever, but she directly refutes that claim. And later, the police will directly refute that claim. She explains that in the crash, as the car was flipping over, she ended up underneath the glove box on the passenger side. And then when the car landed, the passenger side door was to damage to open.

So the reason she ended up coming out of the driver's side was because that was the only way to get out of the car. Meanwhile, her mother had been thrown into the back seat and was basically pinned there by the steering column.

So somehow they both lived through this crash.

And basically when when the authorities and the first responders get there, they realize they're alive. They rushed him to the hospital. It turns out Stephanie only has a hairline fracture on her vertebrae, which, although very serious, is pretty amazing considering that, unfortunately, Grace Kelly is in a coma and she's on life support. And basically, when the doctors determine that she's not going to recover, she's taken off life support and dies on September 14th, 1982.

I mean, it's almost a miracle in a way that like that instead of flying off the cliff and, like, ending up in brush and like wilderness, they went into someone's yard who was there so they could get immediate attention. Otherwise they both might have died, you know? That's right.

Also, dog, hear what you just said for later.

Oh, uh huh, aliens. So then the day that ancient accidentally areas suggest.

So Grace Kelly was 52 years old when she died. Her funeral is held for days later on September 18.

It's watched by around 100 million people. Wow. And this is 1982.

Yeah. So it's it's like it's there aren't a million channels and there isn't 24 hour news coverage. So this was a really big deal. Doctors report that the cause of the accident was a mild cerebral hemorrhage that Grace suffered while driving along the cliff Saturday. But the tabloids take the tragedy and they do their best to bend it into a scandal. So once the shocking news of Grace Kelly's death begins to die down, the tabloids begin printing fantastical follow up stories of stories that involve cover ups, fixed breaks and mafia hits.

And the public cannot get enough. So even after it's proven that Stephanie was not driving stories about her being responsible for the crash and for her mother's death, 17 year circulate.

Yeah, it's horrible.

And the stories about that, it could have been a mafia hit or that an unknown assassin fixed the brakes, even though they they later the forensic, you know, they they check the car out entirely. And they were like, no, that that wasn't actually hit. The brakes were fine. But, you know, the world was obsessed with Grace Kelly and they were as obsessed with her death as they were with her life. So let's talk about her life for a second.

So Grace Kelly was born. Let's go back to her early life. She was born on November 12th. Nineteen twenty nine in Philadelphia. Her family was very wealthy and like high status. They're Catholic. And they she had very high expectations put on her. She had a very stuffy, restrictive upbringing. And so she kind of became a bit of a rebel. So she was always in school plays and she danced and against her parents wishes, she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in 1947.

So the only way her father would let her move to Manhattan is if she stayed at the Barbizon, which was a strict women only hotel. So you. Had to there was a code of conduct that you had to agree to, there was a dress code. It was like a strict lady living. No men were allowed above the ground floor. Like there are all these rules.

Yeah, hoity fuckin toity right now.

Grace Kelly finds a way around these around these rules because she wants to date and she wants to have an active dating life. She's drawn to older, rich men. And she gets a reputation for being a very modern woman who is like a trailblazer. And also she's one of the most beautiful women ever. She looks like a drawing of a pretty face. It's crazy.

She's she's like magical looking, how beautiful she is and that like. You know, Hollywood starlet, perfection kind of way, yeah, beyond so I'm sure at the old Barbizon, she's like, I'm going to need these dudes to be coming up to my room. I can kind of get what I want. Yeah. Yeah.

So in nineteen forty nine, she gets into a play on Broadway and then from there it just takes off. She gets a bunch of shows roles on TV shows. She gets her first feature film in 1951. It's a movie called 14 Hours. She's 22 years old. And then in 1952 she gets a part in the movie High Noon and that's her big break. Then she in nineteen fifty four, she stars opposite Bing Crosby in the Country Girl, which is a huge deal back then.

And then she ends up getting nominated for an Oscar for that part in the country girl and she beats out Judy Garland for Best Actress. Yeah. So she is now a full on, like successful movie star.

So when she goes to the Cannes Film Festival in 1955, in April of 1955, she the the the magazine Perry match, they want to set up a meeting between her and the prince of Monaco, Prince Rainier, the third.

And they're supposed to, I guess, have a photo shoot. The timing's bad that it's delayed. They don't meet up at the time. It's all delayed for a month. But then on May 6th, 1955, the two are finally introduced and they hit it off immediately. They end up dating for the next year and they get married on April 19th, 1956. And this wedding is a fairy tale, star studded guest list of 700 people.

Yeah, and they and now it's just like she's gone from the hugest thing you could be in America, which is like a leading lady movie star to the princess of Monaco, a fuckin real life princess. It's just absurd. Yeah. Her and Megan Markle are the two that did it. Yeah, I'm sure there's others. I don't know. I don't know royal the royals by heart.

And I should Prince Rainier and Grace go on to have three children together. Caroline was born in 1957. Albert is born in 1958 and Stefanie's born in nineteen sixty five. Basically, Grace retires from acting all together and it's just purely so she can take care of her royal duties and the family.

But once the kids are growing up, she's starting to really feel confined by the restrictions of the royal lifestyle and she's looking to be to figure out other ways to become spiritually fulfilled.

And this is where allegedly the order of the Solar Temple comes in.

Do you remember when I talked to the owner of the Solar Temple? It's from episode one of four. It'll come to you as as I tell you. All right. I just laughing because the name of episode one of Forced Garden Party, which made me laugh.

So I don't know what I mean. What is it?

What is it about? So this is basically, if you don't remember, order the Solar Temple in 1984 in Geneva, Switzerland, a homeopathic doctor, a New Age lecturer named Luke Zarei, he partners up with a guy named Joseph Joseph Dambrot, and they form a cult called The Order of the Solar Temple. Jerry is the front man and he's like the main guru. Dambrot manages all the behind the scenes logistics. Both of them have been involved in different versions of cults, kind of escalating intensity of cults over the years for about a decade.

So the order of the Solar Temple is kind of based on the Knights Templar, which is, you know, as we all know, what the Freemasons are based on in The Da Vinci Code and all that stuff. This is the part where you break off now and go watch The Da Vinci Code film starring Tom here. And that does all the homework for you. But essentially, Knights Templar fought in the Crusades. They developed early forms of banking.

They quickly became very powerful with their with their treasures they got in the war. The pope and the king at the time didn't want them to have that power. So the Knights Templar were they were disbanded in thirteen twelve by Pope Clement, but they just went underground. They didn't break up.

So there's been numerous sects, sects, church dirty, got under different names with those same tenants over the years. So the Knights Templar legacy has has basically continued on like now it's what the Freemasons based their whole thing on is the Knights Templar.

So the difference they order the Solar Temple, although it's based on that. The difference is as opposed to say. Like chivalry or protecting the Holy Grail in the order, the Solar Temple, their primary goal is to prepare their members for the apocalyptic second coming of Christ, which they believed would happen sometime in the mid 90s with the arrival of a sun. God King, does anyone any of this?

Brad Pitt, Brad Pitt back in the 90s.

It's the little guy called Thelma and Louise, and he was the sun God king in that van.

Yeah. This cult believes that he can elevate its members to become a super group of people who can withstand the coming apocalypse because they're on a higher plane, a higher spiritual plane than everybody else. That's the whole that's the promise of the order of the Solar Temple. And they target rich athletes, too, to join them so that they can get their money. And then that also always brings in other rich athletes that poor athletes.

Do you think I mean, in their mind, but it doesn't count.

The membership is secret and they join in private lodges across Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Martinique. So everything's going well with this apocalyptic cult until October 4th, 1994. This is the part you might remember.

Local authorities respond to a call about a chalet fire, a chalet that's on fire in Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada. And inside, they find that former member of the Solar Temple, Tony Deux Trois, and his wife Nikki, and their three month old baby, as well as two other adults, Geri and Colette Jinno have they're all dead, but it's not from the fire. Tony's been stabbed 50 times in the back, has been stabbed six or seven times, and their baby was stabbed with a wooden stake.

And then it turns out Jerry and Colette were sent by Dambrot to kill the family because they were telling other members of the cult that Joseph and Luke were frauds.

The leaders were frauds. So basically they convinced the Juneau's that that baby is the Antichrist and they're so in this cult that they're like, OK, we have to take care of that. So the genos go and kill the whole family and then take their own lives.

Oh, my God. And then a few days later, the two leaders tell the remaining cult members the apocalypse is upon them and they orchestrate mass murder suicides at the Shayla's across western Switzerland because they have to find their salvation through fire. So all of these shelters are set up with incendiary devices and then more more mass death events occur on December 15th and 16th, December. Twenty third and March and then March 20, 30 years later of nineteen ninety seven.

And by the end of all of it, 74 people are dead, including the founders Luke Zeray and Joseph Dambrot. So the total number of members during the cults height was between four and six hundred people.

And these were like, you know, the rich elites, the media elites and families and children. And they were in their prime. This cult was worth about 93 million dollars. Oh, my God.

Yeah. So, OK, so that's the if you want to learn more, there's plenty of plenty of podcasts and different things about the order of the Solar Temple. But essentially what happened after all that went down in 19 around 1997 to producers named David Cohen and David Carr, Brown were making a documentary about the order of the Solar Temple. And at right as they're finishing up, they get a tip from an anonymous French man that there's more to the story.

So after speaking with this man over the phone and confirming a bunch of his claims or at least the facts around his claims, they agree to meet him in person. We don't know this informant's name or who he is. I'm saying he could be issue we Nuna. We do know they were the head of security for Joseph Dambrot, one of the leaders of the order of the Solar Temple. So these filmmakers had been told by other former cult members that they interviewed that if they could just get an interview with this head of security, he was the one who had all the inside information.

And so they finally do talk to this guy. And during this in person conversation, the informant mentions Grace Kelly's name a couple times. And basically, according to this single anonymous source, which.

She's right there kind of the end of this, because it's not it's not corroborated in any way. Well, not in any meaningful way. That and this is also how tabloids work, is single, anonymous sources that are unproven. Right. But essentially, in the summer of 1982, a few months before her death, Grace Kelly, it's claimed by the source that Grace Kelly became a member of a very early version of the order of the Solar Temple.

And so here's the head of security is retelling of the events. So this single anonymous source says a driver in a Jaguar goes and picks up Princess Grace from her home in Monaco, takes her on a four hour drive out to an ancient priory, which is like a nunnery or a monastery in France, just north of Layal. Security checkpoints monitor her journey. And apparently when she arrived, bouquets of white ornate flowers are arranged to welcome her.

And then she's escorted from her car to a, quote, disrobing chamber. And there she receives an acupuncture treatment that relaxes her.

OK, so right now I'm on board. So you're on board. But this is right at the point of the story where everything devolves into the plot of eyes wide shut. So this is how it started.

You know, when you're hearing a story that sounds like it's being narrated by a sixth grade girl at a slumber party, that maybe it's not the truth.

OK, but this is this is basically they say that once that treatment's done, she's given a drink that may have a tranquilizer in it at seven p.m. She's put it. She's dressed in white robes with the signature Templer Red Cross them. And she's led downstairs to the Priories crypt. She's laid on a round altar surrounded by, quote, Kabbalistic signs and pictures of the 12 apostles. I'm still on board.

Sounds relaxing during Wagnerian music is playing and the Colts higher ups are around the room and they're all deciding whether or not they think that Grace should be accepted as the, quote, high priestess of the order. They all say yes. And so she's basically supposedly made the high priestess of the order. And then when it's all said and done, she's driven home to Monaco in the wee hours of the morning.

You're completely right. It sounds like a 66 or sorry, a 12 year old playing with Barbies. Yeah.

And this is the story they make up and it's like on an altar and then they disrobe her and robe her.

It's like really dirty. Yeah, it's salacious and dirty and scandalous.

And, you know, it's not like it doesn't happen because we all know that these secret societies really do exist. Totally weird things happen. And also rich people, God knows what they get up to my super yachts. Who the fuck knows?

I mean, they do have the time, basically.

In this conversation, this informant says that after this initiation ceremony, the order asked her to donate 20 million Swiss francs to their cause.

This is where the cult part, where it always at that they always get.

But like acupuncture three, that the acupuncture is free, but the robes cost 20 million Swiss francs.

Sorry.

And you spilled your margarita on it. Yeah. You know, it was that that was what her tranquilizing drink was just to Margueritte. Really strong Margarita.

So apparently they ask her to give them 20 million Swiss francs.

She counters with 12 or you can't bargain with a cult also.

Again, this is this tells me that Mackenzie's sixth grade Mackenzie is the one making up the story where 20.

She said 12. Isn't that a used car lot?

Yeah, but apparently they got into once once they got into the argument about it, she was like, I'm not giving you any money. That's so much money. I'm not giving you any money. And she and Joseph Dambrot got into a big fight. And so this informant says, quote, Grace threatened to expose to mambos demands for money and her attitude spooked him. She was, after all, not the only person of influence in the order. Yeah.

And Dambrot could not afford to alienate his rich patrons. So the fear was that she was going to be like, this is a scam, everybody, and they're all going to be like Princess Grace says no more, which is also how sixth grade works. You get one girl to be like, no.

Princess Grace said that this is stupid.

We're not wearing leg warmers anymore, you guys. So then basically the intrigue is it was only a few months after this alleged argument she had with Dambrot that Grace Kelly's car drove off a cliff suspicious.

Yeah.

So in December of 1997, this documentary airs on Channel four in the U.K. and it includes this part about her alleged connection to this cult.

And it is immediately met with skepticism and denial. Grace Kelly's estate promptly denies her involvement, chalking the whole thing up to sick fantasies, which is exactly what it sounds like. Does Mackenzie. Yeah, yeah. Mackenzie author David Sporto, who wrote Grace Kelly's biography High Society. He does. He denies the possibility that she was ever a member of this cult. He says he's heard the rumors. There's simply no concrete evidence to prove it. Yeah, the biggest argument against this theory being true is that the order of the Solar Temple formally began in 1980 for Grace Kelly died in 1982.

Oh, shit.

So the theory is that it was like this early version, right, when they were starting to you know, they were going to use her as like the magnet famous person to get a bunch of other people in.

It's believable that that that that could happen because both Lucja and Joseph de Mambos, extensive backgrounds. They started several cults before the order. The Solar Temple was the one they landed on. Dambrot was in a couple. So it's plausible that they were just kind of shaping it toward her. And, you know, they were just hoping other stars and royals and all these other people would would join. But it's widely accepted in the and the the the most believable theory is that Grace Kelly had a stroke while she was driving her car and that's how she lost control and drove off the cliff.

But this circumstantial evidence that ties her to the order, the solar temple, it complicates things, as does the story that the backyard that her car ended up in.

Oh, my God.

I was at the home of a of a member of the order of the Solar Temple.

Is that true or is that a I mean, not. That's what they say.

So I don't know if that's verified. It seems like a very verifiable thing. Yeah, I love it. It's like the person. Do they belong to that cult and is this their backyard?

So would would be wild. I think that that even if it were a crazy coincidence, because that's the area where. Yeah. That cult was getting popular, that's probably not that populated over there either. If you're if she's living there, it's probably not like a big town. Tons of people.

Here's the one thing I just thought of, though, huh?

How were they a member of the order of the Solar Temple in 1982 if it didn't start till 1984? But great question. So they could have been it could have been like another person at that ceremony the night that she was chosen to be the high priestess, but was someone who liked robes a lot.

Maybe there she was in a robe party and the robe was happening.

Convention. Could there be? Like a Tupperware party, but for ropes, because I go and I join, yeah. So, yeah, it sounds like a lie. It probably is. There always has to be intrigue and salaciousness, you know, connected to things like this.

It's a cool it's a cool, you know, way to think because it's it's more fun than tragic.

Just pure tragedy. Tragedy, tragedy.

But yes. Well it sells more papers. It's just more you're able to talk about her a little bit more and be like, what was her life like? But I think we're also coming to find that, you know, whether you're like that the super rich are living these super weird lives that regular people don't really know about. And I think that's especially these days, why those kinds of theories are believable, because then you have a story like the Eppstein story where you're just like, oh, my God, he has a whole island, like out of control.

These people go unchecked and they do whatever they want.

It's also this thing of like Grace Kelly was probably so many people's like, you know, fantasy of what life could be like if, you know, if they were her or whatever.

And then for her to just die from a tragic car accident is not is not enough, you know, like doesn't make enough sense.

So they it it's it feels better for her to have died some mysterious way because it's just so awful because people can't deal with this.

The cold, hard facts of like. Yep, people get ripped out of our hands all the time.

Yeah. You can't escape a car accident not going out well.

And here the you know, so that chances are that this this whole concept was just more fiction for people to feed off of because they weren't ready to let her go.

Prince Rainier once himself said in an interview, quote, They did their best to keep the story running. And it didn't show much human compassion for the pain that we were suffering. It was dreadful. And that's the story of the tragic death of Grace Kelly, princess of Monaco.

Wow, how sad. I have no idea. I wouldn't have guessed it was 82 either. I would have guessed it was like the sixties. Well, the eighties are like the sixties now that we're in the twenties. That's true, right? So long ago. Great job, thank you. This one is I'm doing the death of Kendrick Johnson, so and I got info from a Grantland article by Jordan Ritter Köln, an article from the website Talk Murder to Me by Jeff Coleman and all that's interesting article by Natalie DeGroote and of course, Reddit and Wikipedia.

And there's just tons of articles out there about this case. And I first heard about this and I saw this really disturbing photo that goes with it. And when it happened in 2013, and I was completely perplexed by it and I've been keeping tabs on it ever since. And on the surface, it seems like a murder mystery, especially when you factor in the like, arguably shoddy crime scene handling and the fact that there's a history of racism in this town and this area around the country.

And there's just a lot of unexplainable factors, but a lot of people just think it's a tragic accident. So, OK, so in 2013, Kendrick Johnson was a 17 year old high school student at Lounds High School. He lived at home with his family in the town of Valdosta, Georgia. And it's so it's on the Florida Georgia line. And someone wrote when I looked at our Gmail, someone wrote it and said, yes, the Florida Georgia line is real and it sucks just as bad as you think it does.

So that's what that's like. Everyone called Kendrick, the 17 year old. They called him KYAY. And both his family and friends describe him as a sweet and quiet boy. And he was like handsome football player, high school student. And if you look at his pictures, his is like sweet baby face. We can tell he's like trying to look older, but he still has a baby face. He's the youngest of three kids to Kenneth and Jackie Johnson, and he's a good athlete and he dreams of playing professional football someday.

So just normal kid. On January 10th, 2013, just a couple of days after the holiday break had ended, CJ's mom gets worried when her son doesn't come home from school when she expected him.

And he's the kind of kid who always called if he was going to be late. And so when he's not home by nine 30, she starts to worry. And after she drives around town and drives to the school, doesn't find him, comes home and at twelve thirty in the morning calls the police and reports him missing. And of course, the police are like he is just out having fun with friends and you know, he's just being a typical teenager.

Don't worry about it. But by the next morning, K.J. still isn't home. And so Jackie goes to school to look for him and she's sitting in the office talking to his counselor. She finds out that he missed the last of his classes the day before, never went to classes, which wasn't like him. And she's talking to the counselor about making missing flyers when suddenly someone comes into the lobby of the office and says that a body has been found in the gym and the school is on lockdown.

And the mom wasn't supposed to hear that. It was like phone was turned to high or something so poor she freaks out. So that morning at about 10:00 a.m. earlier, a group of students had arrived for class in the school's gym and their students milling about, doing whatever. And someone notices a pair of white socks sticking out of one of the upright rolled up wrestling mats. You know, those like blue mats. Yeah, it's stood upright instead of laid down horizontal.

It's vertical. It's got a strap on it.

And it's the match are like six feet tall. So one of the students has to climb up onto the bleachers to get a look inside because they're all confused about why they're socks sticking out and they look in and see they're attached to a person. And these are high school students. They see it's touch to approach the person. They think the person must be fucking around. So, like, you know, hey, what's going on? And they notify the coach and he starts to overturn the mats while another student calls 911.

One, the coach tries to pull the person out of the mat, figuring it's a joke or something, but then smells the composition and realizes what's going on, leaves it as it is. Everyone calls 911 and wait for the police and medical personnel to arrive. And this is the photo I saw is just the feet in the mat. And I still remember it from twenty thirteen. Being like, this is going to be something. I'm going to follow this, you know, it's it's so bizarre.

Yeah. So weird.

So weird. So police immediately set to work. They tracked down, they interview students who went to the gym that day and the day before. And from statements and security footage, they're able to confirm that Kendrick had been to classes earlier and walked into the gym at 1:00 or nine p.m. the day before. And but there's no security cameras positioned at the mat, so they don't see what happened. But other students show entering the gym just three minutes after him and.

I didn't see him, so it's really confusing as to what happened. Police discover from other students that some of the kids use those wrestling and cheerleading mats to store their, like, P.E. clothes because they the school charged for lockers. And so some kids would just like didn't want to spend the money on a locker, would just throw their shoes behind those mats, grab them when they needed them. And Kendrick was one of those kids that he shared a pair of shoes with another kid that they would keep in the mat.

So the wrestling mats were actually usually stored on their sides, lying on the ground. So usually probably was easy for Kendrick to get to them. He would just reach in and grab them. But over the Christmas break, someone had set them up to be vertical, maybe to clean the gym or something. So the day that day when he went to find his shoes, they weren't where he normally just grabbed them from. Kendrick's body is barely off school property.

Later that day before the sheriff's office makes an official announcement saying that Kendrick had climbed over several vertical mats to reach the one with his shoes and being unable to tilt the mat. He had instead reached down inside and tried to get the shoes by going into a mat and gotten accidentally stuck, his feet sticking up and his head pointed down. And because he was stuck in a tight space with no way to get out, he suffocated. And that's horrible.

And this theory, I know, is further corroborated by the fact that when the mat is unrolled, he had one arm stretched above his head and the other one down around his waist as though he was reaching for something. Hmm. So this confirmed the initial autopsy that reveals that Kendrick died due to what's called positional asphyxiation. So what that means is that he suffocated as a result of being stuck upside down in an enclosed space for an extended period of time.

Just 24 hours after being found, the investigators ruled Kendrick's death an accident. So positional execution, it's a controversial and difficult to diagnose cause of death. And there's only been 37 known cases of it since the term came around in the early 90s. Oh, yeah, it's not a normal thing. It's usually used to explain a death if literally everything else has been ruled out and they're not quite sure exactly what happened. According to the Internet, positional fixation is then brought into play.

Hmm.

But right from the start, Cage's parents refused to accept the police's version of the events, and they demand more answers. They demand to see Kendrick's body before his autopsy, and they're not allowed to they don't believe that their young athletic son could have, you know, died trapped inside a rolled up wrestling match. And then that cage is found in is six feet tall and he's five nine. And the diameter of the hole inside of this mat is 14 inches when it's rolled up.

But CJ's shoulder span is 19 inches. So it's almost hard to believe he could even start to go into that mat. You know what I mean? Yes.

And it doesn't make sense that, like, it's almost the suggestion that he would just kind of dive into a thing. That's right. Too narrow for him simply to get shoes that were on the other side that if you just knocked it over, they'd be right there available to you.

Right. It doesn't it doesn't feel like a thing that someone would actually attempt know that the claustrophobia.

You wouldn't even have to have claustrophobia. Yeah. To be like, no, I'm never doing that like that. Nothing about that seems like a good idea. I'm just thinking of this, too. But like, he had tennis shoes on, so it almost would make more sense for him to be like, oh, the shoes, I can't grab them. I'm just going to wear what I have on. It's not like he can flip flops and needed those tennis shoes badly, you know.

Yeah. I mean, like what what are the circumstance? Wouldn't you just be like, I'll take my F for the day and pee and not deal with it? I mean, who knows?

Right now it's very it's very odd to me. This is that's the oddest part of the story, is someone even doing that. So and because of his size, it seems impossible that he gone to the mat by himself at all. His parents maintain that his size versus the size in the mat alone is enough to debunk the police's theory or at least cause some more investigation. You know, I think the discrepancy, yeah, it's a discrepancy. Cage's parents are suspicious of the investigators from the beginning.

They believe that the sheriff's department is too quick to rule out foul play. The John, the Johnsons are also sure that their son's body hadn't been properly handled at the scene, which I think it's hard to argue with them.

It really wasn't a great crime scene. According to Georgia law, police must notify the local coroner or medical examiner or a medical examiner immediately after discovering a dead body. But the local coroner isn't called to the scene for six hours after he has found six sets of additional mishandling.

That's the actual mishandling.

That's no bullshit. And law enforcement and everyone at the scene, they also didn't put on the like those little shoe covering the booties that are supposed to be used so that you don't contaminate the evidence. There's photos of their actual shoes in the crime scene photos. Cage's parents also believe that their son's death isn't being taken seriously because of his race car is black. And the Lounds County Sheriff, Chris Prinze and his entire staff of investigators, they're all white.

And the Johnsons family attorney assert that AKG had been why the case would have been handled differently.

Yeah, when the family finally gets to access CCWs body, they take pictures of him post-mortem and they're insanely graphic photos like even me, who can handle crime scene photos. This is not that. And they post them all over.

And as soon as people see how horrific these photos are, they are like drawn to act and to find out what happened. It looks like he's been beaten up. And there's a huge outpouring of support from the black community for the Johnson family. And they all believe an injustice has been done. Then the photo gets people taking a closer look at the conflicting evidence found at the scene. So one of the most controversial pieces of evidence, and there's quite a few some I'm not even talking about right now, is the black and white sneaker that's found underneath K.J. in the mat.

So if he were actually doing what they said he did, which is reaching for a sneaker, it would be this sneaker. And the thing is, it's sitting in a pool of blood, which is what happens when you are inverted like that. And dye is eventually fluids leak.

But the shoe and there's a crime scene photo of it doesn't have a drop of blood on it.

So if he were in that position and the shoe is where they said it was in this fucking puddle of blood, why wouldn't the shoe have any blood on it? So the puddles around the bottom of the shoe, but there's nothing actually on it. Nothing. Wow. Yeah. Maybe it was moved by a sloppy crime scene technician or maybe it was staged by somebody. You know, it could have even been the teacher who initially found it, like tried to throw things back the way he thought it was.

But, you know, if they had said that it all these things keep like leading up to a conspiracy because nobody is acknowledging how fucked up everything was, you know. Yeah. And so it points to the Johnson family. It points towards a cover up. Another thing that's odd is the shoes he was wearing that day aren't on his feet.

So you look into the there's the photo I saw the first time is you look into the mat and you see his feet in the mat and in his white socks and his shoes that he was wearing that day are kind of tucked next to his legs. So his shoes aren't on him, which is weird to me when I first saw it. And being a total amateur is that it looks like someone threw the shoes and afterwards after him as a way to get rid of them.

Oh, but it could be that he was you know, if the theory is true that he got stuck down there, he could be trying to back out of the mat that was vertical and his shoes came off in his struggle.

And I see if you want to see the photo. Oh, no. Those look like they've been thrown in, doesn't it? Yeah. Keep in mind, though, that that is the mat after it was turned on its side by the teacher originally was standing straight up. So maybe the teacher they tumbled out with when the teacher turned it and he threw them back in to maintain the crime scene or whatever the fuck. But it's it's suspicious, don't you think?

Yeah, because I feel like any especially in this day and age of like CSI and whatever is like you wouldn't throw them back in if they came out, you'd leave them where they occur. It's like, yeah, that idea is odd.

And doesn't that all that space that he's in look tiny, impossible to to like wiggle yourself into? And why the fuck would you even do that also?

I mean, the point of that he's already wearing tennis shoes, right, is because I completely assumed it was I have to get these shoes, I will get in trouble. I'm not going to get you know, it's like that whole thing were sometimes like high school kids do weird stuff because of the weird high school rules that like when you're an adult, you're like, oh, yeah, that's right. It's in your brain isn't fully formed. And so you make bad decisions.

But I don't think no, this doesn't look like any of that. It doesn't look like, oh, I got myself into a weird like pickle and. Yeah. And and then really unfortunate things happen because that's that kind of like I don't I mean, this is just from basically what you've presented to me, but it doesn't it's not like he was stuck somewhere in trying to get er he were supposed to believe he went down into a thing to get shoes he didn't actually need.

Right.

So yeah. Why would you risk that being in that tiny space also. It makes it just doesn't make sense that anyone would dive down into something or, you know, not even fast but like headfirst into a thing. I nobody would do that.

Like, you wouldn't risk being upside down because that would be so taller than you. You sound like it's a three feet foot thing that your arm gets stuck in.

No, it doesn't. That doesn't make sense at all to know. There's so many arguments for this being an accident, but I just can't get past that. This doesn't seem like something someone would do.

There's also a hoodie and a pair of orange and black random gym shoes that are found lying on the gym floor, as well as visible blood drops on a wall nearby.

But the investigators don't take any of those that the hoodie or the shoes into evidence. They just are like, oh, it's unrelated. Don't take them into evidence. They test, they test the blood. And so the night before, there was like a cheer or, you know, flag practice going on. And this girl said, I got hit in the nose with a flag, my blood, and that's why there's blood. So they take swabs of the blood they tested against Kendrick.

It's not his blood. And then they do nothing. They don't test it against anyone else. They don't corroborate that it's her blood. They just are like, oh, it's not it's not relevant.

Oh.

Um, so the Johnson family petitions for a second autopsy of his body with the help of the Valdosta Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP and a county judge grants them permission. So five months after the initial investigation, a second autopsy is done and the. They do this by exhuming his body, which I'm sure is just so traumatic in itself. The family hires a private pathologist, Dr. William Anderson, and when he opens up the body he finds inside of his body instead of his organs, which are missing, he discovers that the body's been stuffed with newspapers.

What? What? Yeah. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation claims that when CCWs body was sent to the funeral home after the first autopsy that they had sent along CJ's organs, it was all like signed for that. Everything is here and where they were supposed to be. But the funeral home said that it received the body without the organs. And they said it's common practice to replace organs with paper or sawdust while embalming. And according to the Georgia Bureau of Funeral Services, to do so is not best practices, but it's also not illegal and doesn't violate any laws.

But then that means that it didn't the communication was never like there was no through line of communication, so that when they went to exhume the body, no one said, hold on, there's no point because there's no organs in there.

We can only. Yeah, you can't see any of the organs. You can look at the superficial body and see if there's anything they missed.

But but why would you, like, let a family exhume their own child if you knew somewhere along the line who knew that the organs weren't in the body? Why was that not conveyed so that that exhumation never took place? That that by itself is horrifying. But then what that actually points to is not good. Right. And it could have nothing to do with the case itself at all.

It's just such a it's like another level to this nightmare that's worth taking a look at and just hold on.

It's indicative of the way these these different departments handle their shit, because that's that's very important, obviously. And one of the departments should know whether or not the organs are in the body when they go to the next place. So there's somebody in between those to the sheriff's department or whatever you said and the funeral home. Yeah, that should get figured out.

Right. It might just be the funeral home. But of course, the people who think there's conspiracy going on just think this is another layer of it, understandably.

And the other thing that never made it to the funeral home or did and then got discarded is the clothes he was wearing that day.

So there's a there's a list of his clothes, his shorts, his t shirt, all this stuff, it's gone. So that can't be tested either for touch, DNA or blood or anything gone. Rumors are spread that there's some kind of organ harvesting ring going on. And the Johnsons did try to do the funeral home for mishandling their son's body. But the case is dropped and the organs are lost so they can't be tested. The other thing, too, is that during his autopsy, all his fingernails were clipped and his family is like he liked to keep his fingernails long.

So we know that this isn't how he wore them. And I I don't think there's any fingernail clippings to be tested, which is a red flag. Despite the missing organs, the pathologist concludes that Kendrick's death is not an accident. On the second autopsy, he finds bruising around CCWs neck caused by blunt force trauma. When confronted with the new findings, the federal investigators commissioned a review of both both autopsies. And they determined that the first autopsy carried out by the GBI is more credible.

So they discredit the second autopsy that was brought on by the family. The Johnsons request a coroner's inquest in the hopes of reopening the investigation, but the request is denied. But as a result of this new evidence and weeks of protests by the Johnson family, Matthew Moore, who's the U.S. attorney of Georgia, announces a formal review of the case. At the same time, the South Georgia judge grants his family access to the high school's surveillance video, which they hadn't seen before.

So there's a lot of controversy around the video footage itself, because a lot of people think it's been altered. Of course, all the cameras at the school are motion detectors. So so when someone comes in to frame, it starts. So something far away isn't really going to get picked up always. It has to be kind of close. And when you watch it together, it looks like, you know, kids are appearing out of nowhere. It doesn't really make a lot of like a linear sense.

And also the timestamps on each, because they can show CJ walking through the high school to get to the gym. They show him go in the gym, they show him walking towards the mats and then that's all they captured. But between all those different video camera like video systems that caught him, some of them are timestamp wrong. So there's one that's twenty minutes fast. So there's no great way to show where he actually was, but there's also whole entire hours from the footage in the gym that's missing right at the time that could have shown what happened that day.

And of course, this just feeds into more conspiracy theories.

Well, yeah, I know. Yeah, that's not a conspiracy theory, though. In fact, that's a theory based theory. Why the fuck would in all that be there? Right. Also, what's the what's the point?

I get the idea that you can't just be rolling surveillance footage constantly, but you do need a system that if if something needs to be checked, it makes sense. Like why would you have a thing that just starts and then you kind of don't know, like nothing about that? No.

And the next one is 20 minutes off and then this one's back at the normal time. And, you know, what's the point? Don't have them.

If then they just there aren't going to they are going to actually tell a linear story. It's very easy.

And it's also like, you know, if you had cooperated or at least had some kind of empathy for the parents and walked them through, what happened? You know, which you can argue is because of their race, then maybe they would have been accepting of the idea that maybe this was an accident.

But instead, you know, it's this complicated situation where there's a lot of blank spots and it was complicated and mishandled because then it's not they're not investigating to the full.

They're coming in and going, here's what happened. Here's why. Meanwhile, not collecting all the evidence, like not looking into the story, telling the story and then saying you have to be happy with this story being like, no, it's not Kendrick's blood.

Whose blood is it? We didn't test it when you don't have an answer. Right. That's an answer. So in 2014, Cage's parents file a wrongful death suit against the school's officials alleging that KYAY had been harassed by a white student and his actions had been neglected by the school and according to the family. So this is the big theory of what happened, of what everyone thinks happened. This is alleged. I'm not saying any names because no one's an actual suspect.

But Kendrick had got the theory is that Kendrick had gotten into a fight about 14 months earlier with another football player on his bus that used to be friends. But people said that the two of them got in a fight because maybe Kendrick hooked up with his girlfriend. And they say over the past months before his death, there was all this tension between Kendrick, this white kid and his brother, and that they were the ones who killed Kendrick in the gym.

That day, CJ's parents posted the kids names on Facebook and thinking the boys were connected. The two brothers that they're accusing, their father is an FBI agent. Oh, yeah. So and I think he's somehow involved in the case as well. So that obviously is going to stoke some conspiracy theories. And so they theorize that the FBI guy is controlling everything and covering it up because his sons did it. And then that family, the two sons and the FBI agent ends up being subject to and they have an early morning raid.

The brothers phones, laptops and cameras are seized. Police don't find any evidence that they had anything to do with Kendrick's death. They also both had pretty strong alibis. But even though they're not officially suspects, the brothers names get out. They start getting cyberbully. They're written about in articles as if they're real suspects and their names become associated with the case. And one of the brothers, this causes one of the brothers to lose his full ride scholarship to university.

You know, it just impacts their lives like this. A judge later orders the Johnsons to pay for the family's legal fees, which totals nearly three hundred thousand dollars because of everything that was brought in based on this case.

So basically because the Johnsons published the names. Yeah, there they were then basically held accountable. Yeah. Hmm.

Yeah. So in January 2015, the Johnsons filed a 100 million civil lawsuit against thirty eight people, including three of their son's classmates, the school, the local crime lab, state and federal officials, five agents of the GBI and FBI agent and more. And the parents say that the son of the FBI agent killed KYAY and used their connections to cover it up. But they don't really have any evidence for this. And so the Johnson family ends up dropping the suit.

Meanwhile, the ACLC and the NAACP had been conducting their own investigation into his death. Both organizations had initially supported the Johnson's theory that Kendrick's death was suspicious. But the more they investigated, the more they realized there's no actual evidence pointing to foul play. And so speaking in twenty fifteen, Reverend Floyd Rose, who's president of the ACLC, said, quote, Over 100 people would have to be lying and telling the same story for two years, risking the loss of their jobs, their retirement jail time.

I think the murder theory is not only false, but also ridiculous and based only on wild speculation and outright fabrications over the next year. Lawyer after lawyer drops the Johnson family as they continue to file more lawsuits against all these people. And in 2016, Michael Moore, the D.A., officially closes the case and rules that CCWs death was accidental. And the Department of Justice can't find enough evidence to support federal criminal charges. And, you know, they can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this wasn't just a tragic accident.

In June of twenty eighteen, after supposed a witness testified that KYAY was killed with a forty five pound weight or dumbbell and that the surveillance video was edited. So it looks like an anonymous source wrote a letter and saying this. I heard from someone that this all happened. Kendrick's body is exhumed for a second time and a third autopsy is performed. The family believes that the body showed signs of beating and. They hired Dr. William Anderson again, he finds blunt force trauma on CCWs Thorax, you know, he finds more evidence that K.J. was killed.

So seven years, multiple investigations, dozens of lawsuits and three autopsies later. The Johnsons are still convinced that there's more to CCWs death than what is being told to the public. And they're not giving up the search for his killer. And on the anniversary of death, the family released white balloons in his memory and organized a march for him. I looked up on our email account to see if anyone had gone to high school at the time. And I got an anonymous email.

It said, I will never forget the moment of hearing a dead body was found at the high school. This is someone who went to a school adjacent.

I remember going home and crying because it was the first time I realized that you weren't safe at school. A lot of kids transferred to private schools in the area or went to different school districts. The next year, when it came time to attend that high school, my school expanded there. So then she ends up going to this high school and she says, my school expanded their band room into the old gym, kind of tore down this gym that he was found in.

And the first day we transferred into the new band room, one of his friends said no matter how much money they spend to make the room look different, I can't forget what happened in here. She says the case has become almost a political debate in my hometown. Most conservatives believe it was an accident and everyone else with a brain knows it was murder. So I don't think they're ever going to come to a consensus about what happened. Well, the part that you said where that the whoever said it, where it was like this is just wild speculation.

Mm hmm. It's not it's not wild speculation.

Like whoever did that kind of summery thing of like this is ridiculous. And there's no proof of of foul play. I it seems to me with just the two things you showed me, there's absolutely proof of foul play. And it's not wild speculation. It's an incredibly suspicious death that was processed incorrectly. Right.

I mean, like with with some serious problems, like there's nothing worse than when someone comes in, like in the end and like, you know, sums it all up like and it was ridiculous that they ever had doubts in the first place. Yeah. It's like absolutely. There's this is suspicious and bizarre. This is one of those cases where I feel like if I were at a bar with someone and they were like, debate this case, I could take either side and debate it.

Well, you know what I mean? Like, sure, I even if I believe one thing actually happened and I don't believe it's another thing, I could debate it on either side because it's just so complicated.

It's super complicated.

The problem, the reason that you can debate both sides is because the police did not process that scene fully. So there's a bunch of question marks where there should absolutely be final answers. I should know whose blood is around that room. They should have taken the time to actually give a shit about that crime scene. They should. It is it's you know, from what you said, what year was it?

Twenty. Thirteen. Yeah.

There's no excuse why that crime scene wouldn't be completely locked down, completely processed and taken care of.

So, yeah, the rules fall to the like. Followed to the letter. Yeah. This is how you process a scene, whether it's a crime or not, it's a dead body and you need to process it in a certain way. Yes.

Because how can you go from how can you if you assume it's an accident, it is your job to prove that it's an accident and you can't do that by standing back and going, yeah, we kind of think it is. So quit asking questions.

Yeah, that's almost suspicious. And then when they announced twenty for less than twenty four hours later, that was an accident. It's like please put more time into it. Yeah. We're in these cases. Yeah. It's just, I mean there's trouble.

Whoever, whoever made the wild speculation speech is so deeply wrong. And what they should be talking about is when like when scenes aren't processed correctly and evidence isn't taken entirely, you can't tell the whole story. You can't.

And at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it's just I, I remember seeing that photo I showed you in twenty thirteen. And either way that kid suffered. And yeah, either way this poor kid suffered and deserves a definitive answer. His family deserves a definitive answer and closure, whether it's, you know, justice because someone murdered him or it actually being a tragic accident. And it's just doesn't seem like they're ever going to get it will.

And I think they're right to be mad because we all know for a fact that if it was a little blonde cheerleader found dead, I'm one of those rolled up gym mats that they would have locked that whole school. I mean, they would have done everything they could and pulled everybody in.

And, yeah, I think we everybody has heard this story so many times where it's just like we we understand how things like this get priority. Things like these get prioritized. And the hand the hand that kind of like even subverted racism has in it, where it's just about priorities and it's you know, and it's also a year this happened a year after Trayvon Martin was murdered. It's just there's a lot of. Yeah.

Rightful indignation, you know, understandable. Yeah. And so that is a better work. Right.

So that's the story of the death of Kendrick Johnson. Well, you know, it's weird. I've never heard this story. It's not it's very much a redit deep dive late at night thing, you know, which I've been doing lately. Right. And you kind of just checking like I remember seeing it and being like, I'm going to check in on that. It's one of the stories that you just never hear about again because it never comes up again.

But the photo is so disturbing that I always kind of checked in on that. Yeah, I know. I wish I could have done it with a definitive answer at the end of it, but it's just not there.

Yeah, well, and it sounds like with the way they've processed it, all the answers that those are the answers, the answers that have been given are the ones you're going to get because. Yeah. Man, that's so disturbing about the autopsy and the not processing who has the organs, I mean, like that, that these people are in grief and then they're having to deal with stuff like that and they're right about it, like anyone to take, not finding out until the second autopsy is done instead of finding out before the body, you know, before his body is exhumed.

It's it's unconscionable to go through that and have it not even be worth it. I mean, just.

Yeah. Thank you and apologies to Lily for doing the research.

I feel like I sent her down a real dark hole. Yeah. Should we do fucking her.

Oh, and just a quick reminder that stay tuned. At the end of this episode, there is a trailer for our brand new weird news podcast starring Kurt Braunohler. And Scotland is called Bananas. You're going to love it. Get a sample. It's coming to you soon. And we're so excited.

OK, Segovia's sure this is from watermelon, but it's spelt flour.

I don't know why I'm so tickled by that. Underscore water Emilion underscore and Watermelon says great episode. I want to tell you all my fucking hurry. Today I live in Nashville and we had a big tornado at the beginning of March.

Do you remember how long ago that was? There was that awful tornado that ripped right through Nashville. Yes, really scary. And that's seems like it was four years ago and it was the beginning of this month. Unbelievable. OK, I mean, last month my neighborhood was already reeling from that.

And when we we all started to realize how serious this pandemic was, I was couch surfing due to damage to my apartment. Here's the part. I decided to move back into my apartment, even though it still doesn't have most amenities. I know that sounds silly, but just being in my home has made all the difference. It's not perfect, but it's mine. And I have had a smile on my face ever since I got back. Thanks for all that you do.

I've thought about couch surfers during this time. Yeah. How hard that must be. Yeah.

To be kind of weirdly in between or. No, it's horrible.

I'm glad you got your home back. What a fucking double whammy of bullshit. Oh, this one spoke to me personally, so I wanted to read it. This is by Kay Epstein from Instagram. So glad these podcasts are still rolling out. My personal fucking hurry right now is the realization that struggling with anxiety for my entire life has prepared me for this exact moment. I have been feeling oddly calm about everything going on and thinking I'm usually an anxious mess.

What gives? And then it hit me that I have been working for years to manage my fear around uncertainty, lack of control and unexpected change. While many people are facing those fears for the first time in a significant way. I'm so grateful for the skills I have learned through therapy and the chemicals I have gained through medication which are helping me ride this current shit show with relative ease.

I was like, Why does this feel normal?

Oh yeah, I'm always scared to go in a grocery store, not just now. Yeah, kind of makes you feel a little less alone now. Everyone's on board. Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't like this.

I don't want anyone to get sick, but fuck. So the subject line of this one is Teddybear Hunt. This is from the fan called Forum. It says, My fucking her is to all the neighbors in my Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago who have placed teddy bears and other stuffed animals in their windows so kids can look for them when the parents get them out of the house for a walk. My sister told me about this. They're doing it, too.

It's called the bear hunt. We're just little kids have something to do as they walk around their neighborhood.

It says the list is up to 294 homes who have done it, including mine, fucking her to all the parents at home with their kids. So have some fun on your walk.

That is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. I had chills.

Sorry, that's from V Theal one. I didn't know that.

That's a you know, your sister. Text me the other night, by the way. Oh, what she saying. What did she say. Something about the Tiger King.

I think that's hilarious because, you know, she does not listen to this podcast. So she didn't do it just to be cute.

But I didn't tell her what we talked about. I love it. I'm so I love getting the best. OK, this one is from Rainbow Meow Shine.

Wow.

OK, did Mimi send this email to you? Lu my hashtag fucking her.

Oh that's another thing on Instagram. If you just find the hashtag fucking right and follow it, you'll see people's comments, which is really uplifting. My fucking era is that my nurse mom overcame covid-19 this week.

Oh no I know. No more fever breathing normally upright. We haven't seen her or my dad for almost a month because that's how long she's been sick. She was quarantined before covid-19 officially cancelled the world. So happy my mom is getting healthy. Can't wait until I can actually hug her.

So I feel like one of the worst things about getting sick with this is not being able to go to your family's bedside and hold anyone's hand. And that must be like the hardest part. It's horrible.

Our family friend Jen, my friend Jen had a baby and hurt no one in her family could come in. I think she I think her husband, the father of your child, got to be there. But but the rest of the family had to wait in the parking lot.

Isn't that horrifying now? It's terrible. And that's I mean. Yeah, across the board, it's yeah. It's terrible. But here's a fucking horror that might turn it around for you. This is from little little Lisa.

It looks like Lilly SSA. OK, after four years of living apart and one year of long distance marriage, my husband and I finally purchased a home we can live in together. He's currently deployed and due to covid-19, his scheduled time to come back home has been pushed back. And he is he has to be quarantined for two weeks once he gets here. However, I am so excited to finally start this new chapter in our lives, no matter how many hiccups we've experienced along the way.

I get to live with my husband in my dream house in just a few months. Whoo hoo!

Oh, cafs. Beautiful. Your service in the military? I don't remember.

Yes. They at her husband's in in the military but can't come home on time because of a coronavirus.

What we're living in and walking talking history right now. I mean so be so crazy beyond OK here. This one mate made me almost cry.

This is from Franni Underscore Mercal. Hi, my fucking Ray is this. My mom's a nurse near Westchester, New York, and she's been working a lot tonight. We decided to play cards her with her mask on and me six feet away on the other side of the table.

And we both reached to get a card and she took my hand and was like, I love you, and I proceeded to cry because I haven't been able to touch her in weeks. And she's literally risking her life for others. Yeah, I can't believe I have a supermom shout out to all the medical professionals out there who are running headfirst into the storm. Thanks for reminding us that being afraid is OK, but it's not a fuck. Thanks for reminding us that being afraid is OK.

But it's not OK to be sorry, but it's not OK to be crazy. No, it's better than that. Thanks for reminding us that being afraid is OK, but it's not OK to be a crazy asshole. That's right. Love you ladies. Stay sexy and clean.

Fran, Fran and France mom. Thank you, Fran's mom for kicking ass.

But you're unbelievable. I hope she won that gin rummy. Yeah, really.

I hope she won all the all the bottle caps and all the pieces of candy.

It really is true.

The medical professionals are running into a storm every day. There really are. Every single day. It's beyond it.

I saw a video of the medical professionals giving a round of applause to the janitorial service people who are serving those hospitals and medical facilities. Yep, I'm in and risking their lives to clean those facilities.

It's heroic. You think any fucking billionaire CEO would do that shit? No fucking way. No.

They're all out on their boats and Micronesians. Also, when I watch that video, the first thing I thought of was there's this video is 90 percent women. It's female doctors, it's nurses, female doctors. There was one dude in the back that I could see and the cleaning staff were women.

And just just a note, this is a little this is a little turn, but it's on the same theme. It's from at least Achelen. It says, hey, murdering I was about 12 years ago. I inherited all of my grandpa's home photography equipment when he passed away. There are about twenty five carousels, a 35 millimeter slides full of memories, everything from trips he and my grandma took around the world to whom photos are preserved in these slides.

My mom was estranged from her family from before I was born, until I was in first grade. When I finally got to meet my grandparents, I had a whole lot of love to give and they did to Grandpa showed Grandpa loved showing me these pictures and tell me all sorts of stories to accompany the pictures during the quarantine. I've been working on digitizing these slides and uploading them to a shared space where everyone in the family can see them. I just hit the one thousand picture mark and I'm not even halfway through.

Yes, I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to help Grandpa get his pictures to the whole family. I wish he was still here for the storytelling, but his pictures do a pretty damn good job telling their own story. So fucking hooray for Grandpa and these beautiful pictures stay safe and healthy murderousness. The world needs you, Ali. That's so beautiful. I love the thought that she has time to do these emotional.

You know, chores that you would we're never going to get to in our day to day life, you know? Right. Yeah, and I'm sure as she does them, she's discovering how amazing, you know, like we look at stuff like that. It's like, oh, it's so emotional. It's too hard. But I bet once you actually dig into the reality of it, it's like this full other experience.

It's amazing. Yeah. Like to have somebody that was a big photographer in your family. So there's all kinds of stuff that's captured. Remember when I had my Christmas tree and it was a white Christmas tree with the word red balls. And I told you it was for my aunt Kay Anton Giovanni, who always made her Christmas trees like that.

I found this little photo album in a box in my garage when I was going through stuff. And it was my it was my grandma's old photo album. And it was basically purse, a purse sized photo album that held those perfect Kodachrome 60s pictures that were squares. Yeah. So it's like basically a square a tiny square photo album. And in that photo album, there's a picture of my Aunt Kay holding my sister in front of her Christmas tree. And it's the exact same fucking Christmas tree.

Oh, my God. And I would have never like I was like, oh, that just reminded me of that. But then there was the actually the picture of like, oh, this is the reason I remember that tree.

It's from this picture. Yeah. And like you've seen your whole life laying around. Yeah.

I like there's pictures all around you right now that you could go through and, and have a whole journey.

You know, if you, if you dare go through the shoebox of pictures, do it of life, the shoebox of life. Do it. I love it. You're fucking her eyes on Instagram, on Twitter and the email on the phone call wherever you want. We'll keep reading them because they're really making us happy. And I hope they're making you happy to. Thank you for listening, you guys, they're great. It's my fucking race that we still get to do the show, even though it's super weird and it's far away, which I don't like.

And the timing is off, which is irritating because our timing is the most fun part about us doing this podcast together. But I still love that we get to do it. And and I love that Stephen set it up so that we can do it remotely now because it's really nice that we get to. Yeah, we're we're very lucky people. I, I count my blessings every day. Count those blessings, girl. One day three.

Am I supposed yay. Well then stay sexy and don't get murdered by. Elvis, do you want a cookie?