507 - Adult Woman

[MUSIC PLAYING] This is exactly right. She's a Johnny. The kids didn't come home like that. Along the central Texas plains, teens are dying, suicides that don't make sense, strange accidents, and brutal murders. In what seems to be a plot ripped straight out of breaking bad. Drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The courtroom isn't just about justice. It's about power and money, and some truly bizarre loopholes. I'm Michael Foote. And I'm Melissa Malbrunch, and we've got a brand new show called Brief Recess, A Legal Podcast. Every week, we talk about wild tales from court, trials gone wrong, and cases and rulings that shape our world. Today we're going to be talking about stolen antiquities, all the weird things Melissa found out in a state sale of the crazy conversations I had with a bouncer and JK Rowling. We make the complicated clear and mysterious, surprisingly fun. From the exactly right network, new episode to Brief Recess dropped every Thursday. Watch Brief Recess on YouTube. Listen to Brief Recess on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whenever I got through the window, I tried to pick them up in his body to stiff. I'm Ben Westoff, and this is The Peacemaker, a true crime podcast about a string of mysterious suicides at a Missouri university, and the fraternity brother tied to them all, brand and gross time. The lawsuit says gross time was one of the last people to see each victim before their death. Was he profoundly unlucky or was something much darker at play? Listen to The Peacemaker podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Unghosted by Rose Hernandez, the scariest thing isn't always the ghost. Sometimes it's the gas. Like when Bob, the drag queen, stopped by to talk about a bedtime visitor. You kind of look like the girl from a grudge. Sleep paralysis is terrified. From haunted houses to alien encounters, celebrities and comedians share their creepiest, weirdest and funniest paranormal stories. Light a candle. Hold on to your Ouija board and join me every Monday for Ghosted on the exactly right network. Listen to Ghosted by Rose Hernandez on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - Hello. - And welcome. - To my favorite murder. - That's Georgia Hardstar. - That's Karen Kilgara. - And this is a solo episode. - It's a solo episode. Just me, because we're still on tour as of this recording. - In recording world. - We're going to New York this week for our last live show. - That's right. - Brooklyn, King's Theater. - Rapping it up, saying goodbye. - Yeah, it's gonna be crazy. And so sad that last episode, I'm gonna cry. - Yeah. - I have a book real quick. Can I, I've been waiting to, I've just been waiting to tell you about this book. So I'm so obsessed with it. - Great. - It's a book with a tour and I cried. So it's a memoir called "A Mother's Reckoning" by Sue Clebold. - Dylan Clebold's mother. - Yes, wow. - It is the most powerful, intense, beautiful, memoir I've ever listened to. It is so powerful. She talks about grief and shame, loss, and a lot about mental illness and how we treat it here in the US and what can be done to change things and what she knew and what she didn't know and what she wishes she had known. I was just in awe of this book. - Wow. - Yeah. So a mother's reckoning. I feel like every parent of a teenager needs to read this because it's also about hiding, being a teenager and hiding stuff from your parents. And I think knowing those signs and knowing and they'll recognize the little tells that they do give is so important for parents. And she really hits on that and takes responsibility for not knowing what to look for 'cause you don't know what you don't know. - Yeah. And as a parent, that's the weight that I'm sure is on her that it's just horrible that idea of having to take responsibility for a thing that, you know, if you're the mother, you're gonna get blamed first anyway. - Absolutely. And it was like the 90s, so it was just toxic. - Toxic and she talks about all of that. So a mother's reckoning by Sue Clebold. I highly recommend it. - Okay, should we do a quick, exactly right media? Check in. - Let's do it. Hey, we have a podcast network called exactly right media. Here are some highlights. - Well, it's very exciting. Our brand new limited series, Hell in Heaven, the finale is now out. This series has been doing incredibly well. It's a blanchored house production. They're the best in the biz. In today's last episode and contemplates, leaving Costa Rica for good. A drug bus changes everything. And those closest to the Bender family, reckon with the mystery that refuses to die. It's an unbelievable series if you haven't heard it yet. And if you're making your list and checking it twice, we've got good news. Our holiday merch is now live in the merch store. This is some good shit. You guys, it's exciting every year to pick the stuff. I think this might be the best year. Visit exactlyrightstore.com for all the new items from your favorite shows. And be sure to order by Sunday, December 14th to guarantee holiday delivery. And while you're out there just doing our bidding, why don't you go over to YouTube and hit like and subscribe on all of our channels on YouTube at my underscore favorite underscore murder and also over at exactly right media. And please go support our newest always on legal podcast at ReFreces. It is going to be a hit. We talked to Melissa and Michael on this show. It was so much fun. - I love it. - So go support those guys, please. - Oh good. - And she's a Johnny, the kids didn't come home last night. - A small town is only as safe as the secrets hidden behind closed doors. - When the murders happened, nothing like that had ever happened in weather for before. - During the 1980s, along the central Texas plains, teens are dying. All these years later, some claim that the people put in charge of stopping the madness are the same group behind it. - Then all of a sudden I heard him say we killed those kids. - In what seems to be a plot ripped straight out of breaking bad. - Drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people. - With two courageous women leading the charge to see justice served. - There are people out there that absolutely know what happened. - My name is M. William Phelps. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders. - On the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. - We come to this legal system for justice. - But we don't always get it. I'm Melissa Maubrand. - And I'm Michael Phelps. You might know me as everyone's favorite lawyer from TikTok. - I'm sick of this whole life. My life is separate from my job, it ain't. I'm a fear Steven, the courtroom as well as at home. - Every week on our podcast, free free session, we take the legal world out of the courtroom and it's a real life. Like, can your boss actually fire you for what you post online? - What happens if ice knocks on your door? - But what should you do if you get arrested at a protest? - We break down insane headlines, answer real questions from listeners and share wild stories about what really happens in court. - Friends, please remember, while Michael is a lawyer, he is not your lawyer. - Unless you wanna hire me. - I mean, that's a different thing. - I am everyone has a price. And I'm actually pretty cheap. - From the exactly right network, new episodes of free free sessions shop every Thursday, watch free free sessions on YouTube. - Listen to free free sessions on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. - Whenever I got through the window, I tried to pick 'em up in his body to stiff. - I'm Ben Westoff and this is The Peacemaker, a true crime podcast investigating a string of mysterious deaths at a prestigious Missouri university and the fraternity brother at the center of it all. - A few years back, two fraternity brothers died by suicide, just weeks apart, in shockingly similar ways. Both were discovered by the same student, brand and gross time. - I laid him down. - How much did I tell to his head back and presented him not to not the CPR? - At first, people gave brand and the benefit of the doubt, but when three more acquaintances died the following year, the tide turned. - The lawsuit says gross time was one of the last people to see each victim before their death. - Was he profoundly unlucky or was something much darker at play? Listen to The Peacemaker podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. - All right, solo, all right, solo. Okay, this is a real one and it was suggested by a murderino who emailed in April of 2023. Just gonna reach a little bit of it. It says, "Hi, when I was about nine years old, I was being nosy, digging through random stuff at my dad's house and found a scrapbook full of old newspaper clippings. I asked dad about it and he proceeded to blow my tiny little mind by dropping the bomb that his uncle murdered a bunch of people in the 1940s and was executed by electric chair. It goes on and on. I have photos of the chair where he was executed and his death mask that are kept at a state museum and would be happy to email them in." - That's okay. - Good, thanks for getting me through my commute to work every day, Abby. So Abby suggested this and I'd never heard of it. - Wow, family murdering, that's just crazy. - It's disappointing when you haven't heard a serial killer because it just means there's so fucking many of them. - There's so many. - This is a story of highway killer James Weibern Hall. The main source for this story is a book called the Arkansas Hitchhike Killer by Jamie Nezbit Jones and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. Okay, so on January 17th, 1945, the body of a man named C.F. Hamilton is found on a road in Arkansas. Hamilton is a barber and also a bootleger. Though prohibition has long been over and there are plenty of liquor stores as we know, bootlegers still do good business in the area. - Yeah, you know. - That it driving around real fast and as souped up cars. - Right, that homemade liquor. And homemade NASCAR, that's how NASCAR began. - Yeah. So C.F. Hamilton has been shot with a 45 caliber bullet and the scene looks like a robbery. Hamilton is black and this is Arkansas in 1945. So the police officers basically don't investigate the crime much and unfortunately this also means that we know less about him in his life than we know about some of the other victims who are discovered shortly after, who are white, who are white. - Yeah. - About two weeks later on February 1st, another body is found. A deputy sheriff is driving along a road about 80 miles south of Little Rock. When he sees an abandoned car at the turn off for a dirt road and it's still there and he makes his return trip about 90 minutes later so he pulls over to inspect the car. The glove compartment looks like it's been rifled through and the papers are shrewd on the passenger seat. The deputy sheriff then looks at the dirt road and sees two sets of footprints going into the woods and only one set returning. - Wow. He follows the footprints and after a short walk finds the body of a man who has been shot. This man is identified by police as EC Adams. He has been shot with a 38-calibre bullet. Adams had been on his way to a new job and a new home at a naval plant where his wife and newborn daughter were supposed to join him later. After speaking to his wife, police believe he was killed by a highway man or a robber who steals from travelers. She gives him a long list of the items he had with him including razors, a shaving mug, a watch and two alarm clocks 'cause he was moving and these items are all missing from the car when they inspect it. Captain Earl Scrogan. I'm a double-breed-through woman. I'm an adult, it's spelled like you can't help it. Just say it. No. Captain Earl Scrogan of the newly formed Arkansas State Police believes the same highway man, probably hitchhiking. May have killed both Adams and Hamilton even though they were shot with different guns. They backtrack Adams route to Little Rock where they believe he picked up the hitchhiker and they alert Little Rock police. About a week later on February 9th, a meat truck driver named Doyle Mall Hurrin leaves on his typical route but doesn't make it to any of his stops and it's very out of character of him. So people begin searching for him immediately and a grocer who's also the mayor of the town of Stuttgart, Arkansas, finds his truck at the edge of town. Are you gonna say something? Just that the grocer would know that the meat I didn't show up and be like, that's not like him and what's happening. Like the first person. Little Rock's a tiny town now. But back then, 45, it was probably just like everyone knew everyone. Right. And this is outside of Little Rock, right? So that was probably the big town. Totally. I mean, yeah, God, that's sad. Yeah. The next day, two fishermen find Doyle's body about 25 feet away from the highway. The state police determine that he's also been shot with a 38 caliber bullet and the money from all of his collections that day is missing. While retracing his steps, the state police speak to another driver whose route route is the reverse of Doyle's. What do you say, route or route? I think, well, it's like route 66 in the song, but then if I was reading it, I'd think I'd say route. Yeah, same. The two men usually wave when they pass each other in their trucks, but this driver says that on the day Doyle died, he didn't wave at him and seem distracted. That he had a passenger with him. The passenger was a young man with wavy red hair. Can you imagine the state you're in your driving past you're trying to signal to the guy that you always waved to that you know that something is wrong? So you don't wave. Like, it's the absence of the normal thing that's going to hopefully let that guy know. Totally. And like, make him pay more attention so he can give information. It's so upsetting and also just that idea of like, there was their gun in his ribs. I mean, like, this threat of, yeah, there's so many of those stories that we've heard over the years of like a girl in a car with someone trying to get the cops attention or whatever. That's why I love this, that there's the hand gesture that you can do now that we all know and all should know. We just kind of hold up four fingers with your thumb on the inside of your palm. I'm in danger. I'm in danger. Yeah, amazing. In early March, a man named JD Newcombe Jr. is reported missing. He's the state's chief boiler inspector for the Department of Labor. I know, I don't even, I mean, boilers are a big deal back then. They did be inspected a lot. And they needed people to be at certain levels of boiler inspection because you had to be able to come and be like, this one is about to blow. I can tell something's wrong with it. So he was the chief. He was the guy and it was a prominent position. Yeah. So Newcombe had been on his way back to Little Rock when he disappeared and he was known to offer rides to hitchhikers. So fucking ominous, right? 'Cause like, we always think of hitchhiking as being so dangerous. Yeah, but this is like the mid 40s. Yeah. So it's like, I bet you it's like after the depression, people being used to people just, hey, look, I'm just trying to get raw in place to the other. Yeah. I mean, like doing a favor for your fellow man was probably the thinking. Totally, totally. On March 8th, a badly burned body is found in the back of a burned Osmobile, which matches Newcombe's car. The car is found in a clearing. And from the way the blood has sprayed backward, it looks like it was driven quickly before crashing. Dental records determine that the body is Newcombe's and police find that his wristwatch is missing as is his blue gray overcoat. The police ask the public for tips. A bus driver reports picking up a young man near where the car was found and the driver says that the man was wearing an ill-fitting blue gray coat. The driver can't remember where the man got off, but that his bus was headed to Little Rock. On March 16th, a woman calls the state police and tells them a man she knows had loaned his car back in February to a friend who had business with a bootlegger outside of Little Rock. The car's owner kept a 45 caliber pistol in the car, and when the car was returned, two rounds were missing from it. Remember the guy in the beginning of the story was a bootlegger? The man who owned the car had heard about the murder of C.J. Hamilton, the black man who was a barber, and fearful that he would be implicated, sold the gun. - Oh. - Didn't call it in, sold it. So this woman calls it in, thankfully, and is like, "Yeah, hey." - Hey, missing piece here. - Yeah, I don't want this guy to get away with it. The woman says that the person who borrowed the car is a cab driver named James Weber and Hall. The state police bring this information to the Little Rock police who take James in for questioning. James has wavy red hair like the person that was spotted in the truck. When police searched James Wallet, they find a receipt from a parcel service, and the parcel service had delivered a package to Little Rock from Camden, Arkansas. Near were Adams, the man with the new Navy job had been found. Police go to the address from the parcel receipt, which belongs to a woman named Corine Franklin. Franklin admits that she's a friend of James, and she produces the contents of that parcel that had been sent. Razors, a shaving mug, and an alarm clock. So it looks like James had mailed himself through this woman stolen items from Adams' car. - So basically making federal witnesses out of the postal service. - Right. - Basically, and this woman whose name and address are on it. - Yeah, they were just like, "Here's my things." - Yeah. - And the government's now involved because it's the postal, oh my God. - Surprise. - Surprise, federal fucking. - Poor man's trademark. You just trademarked your murder cash, basically. - Yeah. - It proved that it was yours. - Kind of. - Put your name on it. - Yeah. I took these. Don't give them to anybody else. Just one alarm clock, not both. - Yeah, I don't know. He liked to sell items. - Oh, sure. - Right. I thought he kept two, 'cause whoever originally had them like needed to wake up. - Oh. - You know, remember before you could snooze your alarm. - Yeah, you'd have to put one like in the hallway 'cause otherwise you would not get up. Drunks. - Remember when those alarm clocks came out that jumped off, they had wheels and they'd jump off your dresser and like roll around the house, you'd like chase it. - So you couldn't snooze it. - So you couldn't snooze it and you had to chase it to turn it off. - We need the commercial for that. - Brilliant, right? - Yeah. - And there was one that was like a boggle machine, like a puzzle that you had to put back together. So it would be able to snooze it. - Yes, incredible. There was a real oversleeping problem in the 80s, 90s. - Sounds like. - Yes. - So police also searched James's room at a boarding house where he's been living for the last few months. Oh man, boarding house is just like, give me the creeps. - It's, you know, a lot of back then, especially. - Yeah. - Transient, you know, hey, do you not want anyone to know your name? - Yeah. - Is your last name Smith for some reason? - Did you just get off a box car? - Yeah. - Come here. - What's that? Blood on your neck? A small, fine mist of blood on your cheek. And at this place, they find JD newcoms missing watch and a blue gray overcoat that matches the description of the one he had been missing. They also find a box of 38 caliber bullets and a 38 caliber pistol. It turns out that the Little Rock Police had just arrested James a few weeks prior for assault when he badly injured another man in a fight. And they also tell their colleagues at the Arkansas State Police that they had questioned James six months earlier about the disappearance of his own wife. When the police go back to James with the evidence from the package and from his room in the boarding house, he says, quote, okay, I'll tell you all about it. I killed them all. - Oh my God. - Straight up Jinx style. - I killed them all. - Oh. - If you were the copy he was talking to or whoever it was, that's feeling in your stomach where do you mean all? - Yeah. Also, he's 24 years old at this time. - Oof. That's like a child. - A child with probably like kind of evil eyes. I mean. - Well, okay, let me tell you about him. James, Weber and Hall is born in 1921 and Happy Valley, Arkansas. He's the fourth of 11 children. Though one dies in infancy. And from childhood on, James is nicknamed red, because it was red hair. - You know every man in my dad's family is nicknamed red. - Right. - They all call each other that. - I always forget your dad has red hair because I've never seen him with red hair. Not since the late '80s, yeah. So his father, Samuel Hall, is a farmer and also a preacher in the local church. And as we've heard time and time again, James's childhood contains two of the common threads we might have seen in the childhood of serial killers, abuse and head trauma. From the outside, the halls appear to have a pretty idyllic life. The children are looked after by a caring grandmother. James, his siblings and his cousins roam the outdoors together most days, but behind closed doors, James's father, Samuel, is abusive. And he focuses most of his anger on James. And his early teens, James starts leaving the home for long intervals, finding work on farms. When he's 14 years old, he's hit in the head with a metal fence post. Although the stories that he ran into it, or it fell on him, we're not sure, it knocked him unconscious for about an hour. And some people who know James say that he was never himself again after this. Although some people also say the fence post story is completely made up in that it was actually James's father who gave him the head trauma. - Oh my God. - I know. So around that same time, James dropped out of school and starts writing the rails to Oklahoma and Kansas doing farm work. He was six foot five, so he was very large man. He had weighty red hair. And he also had a limp that made him very recognizable and people called him Big Jim. - Just the idea of like, it's one thing to get a head injury by chance. Have your father give you a head injury that changes your life forever? - Totally. - It's like, we love to talk about trauma, but that's next level. It's so horrible. James meets his first wife in 1938, a woman named Walcy McKee. James is 17 and Walcy is two to five years older, according to different accounts, 17. They get married, doesn't last long, and he blows in and out of town. She doesn't see him often. They have two children, but the first dies shortly after being born. The second is a healthy boy born in 1943, but James and Walcy divorce shortly after he's born. James is then drafted into the army, but after six weeks of basic training, he's given a dishonorable discharge for quote in difference. - Oh, no. - Yikes. - Get eyes, that's very full metal jacket vibes. - I think within six weeks, getting discharged for that means. - They were like, we can't. - Yeah. - We miss this guy in the mental health evaluation. Something's going on. - Right, yeah. - So that's him, your James winds up in Little Rock where he meets his second wife, listen to this name, Faireen Clemens. - Faireen. - Faireen. Alabama, you say? - Arkansas. - Arkansas. - Hey Faireen. - Hey Faireen. - Faireen. - Come on over here. - Come here, let me do your hair, my dear roots. She goes by Faire and they meet in December of 1943. He's 22 years old, and by March of 1944, they're married. And Faire is very different from Walcy, his first wife. When James gets the urge to travel, she wants to come with him. He doesn't want her to because it's true love. - Right. So by the summer of 1944, just a few months after their marriage, Faireen confides in her family that she doesn't think she can stay married to James. And the family thinks that he's being abusive towards her. On Thursday, September 14th, James is back in Little Rock after another period on the road and he takes Faireen, a friend of hers, dancing at a club called the Rainbow Garden. They leave the club at about midnight, at which point, the friend says he and Faireen began fighting as James Faireen and the friend walked to the car, Faireen tells James that she wants to leave him and moved California. He slaps her across the face and they all get in the car. And when they drop the friend off at her house, Faireen and James are still fighting, and that is the last time anyone besides James sees Faireen alive. - Oh, that friend. - I know. - So sad. - When your friend is dating someone or married to someone that you know is fucking terrible. And you're like, she's about to get beaten up and I'm getting out of the car. What do I do? - What would you do? - Go get a guy that's six foot six. I mean, that's the problem with someone big and abusive. Those kinds of bullies are hard to fight if you don't have anybody around to fight them. - Yeah, they don't listen to reason. - Oh, women. - Or women. - Or reason, meaning women. - Three days later, some of Faireen's cousins come by to see her or James tells them that she left him three days before the cousins tell Faireen's parents about this and they come to look for her. Of course, Faireen's clothes are all in the closet. It doesn't look like she's gone anywhere, but they give it some time, hoping that maybe Faireen, she said she wanted to go to California. Her friend heard that. Maybe she just fucking booked it and they're about to hear from her. But when a week goes by, they go to the Little Rock police. James tells the police that he last saw his wife on the night they came back from the Rainbow Garden. And that she left for California blah, blah, blah. So shortly after that, James moves out of the apartment he and Faireen shared and goes out on the road again. We don't know James' exact route between September and December of 1944. We do know of several murders of middle aged men in this time period in Kansas and Oklahoma that some people will later tie to James, similar MOs. Then the next few months, James stays closer to Little Rock and commits the four murders from the beginning of our story that will eventually lead to his arrest. And that brings us to where we started in the story and him saying, yes, I killed them all. When he finally confesses to those murders, he tells police that the first murder was only supposed to be a robbery. He says that he intended on stealing the whiskey from Hamilton and that James ended up shooting him with that 45 caliber pistol and then using Hamilton's gun which he stole from the car to commit the rest of the murders. When the police asked James where Faireen's body is, James says he took her to remote road along a riverbank and beat her to death. Oh my God. I know. James brings the police and several press photographers to the site, but they can't find anything. Then a woodcutter named Cecil Foster who lives nearby walks over. Cecil tells the police that he found part of a skull a few weeks back and then he thought it washed down the river and he took it home. He says he also saw what he thought was part of a jawbone on the riverbank. Cecil looks in the spot and it's like, see, it's still there. James himself who's there to show them where her remains are says, quote, that's Faireen, right? And points out the characteristic front tooth in the jawbone. So sinister. It's so gross and also this idea that they, and maybe it wasn't him particularly, but that idea of like, I'm going to get the press to come to, right? It just is all those ways that I think back then nobody knew you're feeding right into the psychopaths calling and that ego. Let's let him control this. Yeah, so awful. James ultimately confesses to killing Faire and the four other men and to multiple other murders. When he was 17 in 1938, he killed a woman in Salimus, Kansas. He kills a man in San Marcos, Texas in 1944. And then he admits to killing 10 migrant workers from 1938 to 1944 in Arizona. And then he offered off some clues and declined to talk about them. He also says he killed a Bible salesman in Texas. Because of his itinerant lifestyle, he suspected of several more murders. There are at least three similar murders and cities where he was likely to have been, but there isn't enough evidence to charge him still. This is so odd as tool. Yes, but real. But real, but then also can they prove it's real? It sounds like he's not making this shit up. Yeah, you know, I mean, it all fits the M.O. Otis' tool shit was all like, right? All of the words they brought him. He was like, yes, he was right. But God, it's just so, I know. It's so evil, it's so scary. And he's 24. Yeah. With red hair and he's like, hey, can you give me a ride? I'm a friendly guy. Can you give me a ride? I have a limp. Fun times. Oh, Bible salesman. I love Bibles. And 24, which imagine is like, if he hadn't been caught right then, that woman hadn't called and said, this gun that my friend had, I think it's the murder weapon, if she hadn't called in, what would he have ramped up to when he was 30 and 35, you know? I mean, maybe he would have gotten the car and then been like, it'll be faster if I'm picking people up. Right. Like that, I mean, who knows? I know. True crime. James is arraigned in the spring of 1945. He's charged with first degree murder only for the killing of Fay, his wife, because this is thought to be the strongest case against him. And it's a possibility that he'll get the death penalty in this case. So they want to try this one first. James's trial begins on the same day Germany surrenders and World War II ends in Europe. And because of that, the case didn't get as much national attention. But still, there are murderinos back then. The courthouse is packed to the gills for the two-day trial. Two days, that's it. On the first day of the trial, James takes back his confessions. And instead pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. Blah, blah, blah. James's first wife, Walsy, testifies at the trial and brings their two-year-old son. James's entire relationship with Fay, her murder, and at least four others, but likely many more, have all taken place within less than two years. Oh, my God. That was all two years. James has found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed a few days before his 25th birthday in the electric chair on January 4th, 1946. Fay's father attends the execution and says, quote, "May God have mercy on your soul. I can't," end quote. And that is the story of the Hitchhike killer, James, Weber, and Hall. Literally, I've never heard anything about this. I know. Thank you to Abby for sending this in. She says that he was her grandmother's older brother. Mm. I know. Wow. Oh, yeah, 'cause there's 10 kids, or by the time-- Yeah, 10. Nine kids. Yep, with him. Wow. Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah. She's a Johnny. The kids didn't come home last night. A small town is only as safe as the secrets hidden behind closed doors. When the murders happened, nothing like that had ever happened in Weber for before. During the 1980s, along the central Texas plains, teens are dying. Then all of a sudden, I heard him say, we killed those kids. And what seems to be a plot ripped straight out of breaking bad. Drugs, alcohol, trafficking of people, with two courageous women leading the charge to see justice served. My name is M. William Phelps. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. We come to this legal system for justice. But we don't always get it. I'm Melissa Mabranj. And I'm Michael Foot. I'm sick of this whole life. My life is separate from my job. It ain't. I'm a fear Steven, the courtroom, as well as at home. Every week on our podcast, free free session, we take the legal world out of the courtroom and into real life. What happens if ice knocks on your door? Oh, what should you do if you get arrested at a protest? We break down insane headlines, answer real questions from listeners, and share wild stories about what really happens in court. Friends, please remember, while Michael is a lawyer, he is not your lawyer. Unless you want to hire me. I mean, that's a different thing. I am everyone has a price. From the exactly right network, new episodes or brief recess shop every Thursday, watch brief recess on YouTube. Listen to brief recess on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Ben Westoff, and this is The Peacemaker, a true crime podcast investigating a string of mysterious deaths at a prestigious Missouri university, and the fraternity brother at the center of it all. A few years back, two fraternity brothers died by suicide just weeks apart in shockingly similar ways. Both were discovered by the same student, Brandon Grossheim. I laid him down, and of course, dude, I had tilted his head back and presented him not the mouth and CPR. At first, people gave Brandon the benefit of the doubt, but when three more acquaintances died the following year, the tide turned. The lawsuit says Grossheim was one of the last people to see each victim before their deaths. Listen to The Peacemaker podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Should we do a quick hooray? A tour hooray? A tour hooray. OK, do you have one in mind? No, go. Well, I mean, the experience of this tour has been so incredible. And the murdering notes have just shown up in every way possible, every way we've asked them to. So my hooray, I think, would just be all of our listeners, all the people that have actually gone to the shows, told their stories. We've had some incredible hometowns. Just incredible participation. It's been so cool to be able to be out there with people. Have I, when you kick that stuffed animal back into the audience, though? You guys, we had a gift of a very large, very scary-sized, stuffed animal thrown at us onto the stage from the dark. And it scared everybody, but especially me in Georgia, so I then kicked it back out into the audience and the audience went insane. That was a pretty good one. That was good. What about, I think, there's also the very first night of Denver, night one night show one. I don't think I expected the volume and the reception. Getting a reception like that was such a lovely gift from that Denver audience. Totally. Nothing-- I completely forgot what that felt like. What it sounded like, how incredible and overwhelming it was. And I'm going to miss that after New York, because it's very magical to be able to get something like that from a room full of people. Yeah, it's life-affirming. You forget that people are listening when you're recording in a studio and then to walk out there and be like, there you are. These are all the people that are not emailing in complaints in some way, shape or form. They like it. They like it. They want you to have stuff in animals. And we say no. No, thank you. No, thank you. Yeah, thank you for everyone who's calm. Thank you for all the incredible gifts you've given us. I think we're going to go through them in a video for the fan call soon. Oh, yeah, we're going to go through. We're going to unbox our boxes of gifts that we basically get to go through like raccoons real fast and then have to box up and ship them. I can't wait. Yeah, it's going to be really good. That was a great story. This is a great solo. Thank you for your patience as we are on wrapping this tour up, which has been an incredible amount of work for our team on the podcast team. So thank you to the MFM production team led by Seemolly Smith, the great producer. Yeah. And everybody else made it possible for us to like leave and not worry about what's going up. She was on it. And our supervising producer, Jess Kek, who worked with Molly and they basically made the grids that made it all possible. That's right. Thanks to everybody for making all of these things that we're able to do simultaneously. It's only because we have this incredible staff. Totally. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. Well, stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? [SCREAMS] [MUSIC PLAYING] This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Molly Smith. And our associate producer is Tessa Hughes. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Leonis Kualaci. Our researchers are Mary McLean and Ali Elkin. Email your hometowns to my favorite murder at gmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram at my favorite murder. Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or you can watch us on YouTube, search for my favorite murder, then like and subscribe. Goodbye. She's a Johnny. Listen to paper ghosts, the Texas teen murders, on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The courtroom isn't just about justice, it's about power and money, and some truly bizarre loopholes. I'm Michael Foote. Every week we talk about wild tales from court, trials gone wrong, and cases and rulings that shape our world. Today we're going to be talking about stolen antiquities, all the weird things Melissa found out in a state sale, the crazy conversations I had with a bouncer and JK Rowling. From the exactly right network, new episodes of Brief Recess drop every Thursday. Listen to Brief Recess on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Whenever I got through the window, I tried to pick them up and it's about your stiff. The lawsuit says gross time was one of the last people to see each victim before their deaths. Listen to The Peacemaker podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.