558 - Eat the Wrapper

This is exactly right. In New Orleans, truckers kept getting sideswiped the exact same way. When a man is found murdered under questionable circumstances related to these accidents, that's when the rubber hits the road. And what the feds uncover is a complex scheme of staged wrecks, financial fraud, and a pair of conspiring lovers behind it. This is a story about fake accidents that led to real consequences. Listen to Over My Dead Body, Operation Sideswipe, wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Goodbye. Hello. Hello. And welcome. To My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hardstark. That's Karen Kilgareff. I dressed up for prom today. A little mermaid prom? It's a prom under the sea? Yeah. It's beautiful. Thank you. It's sparkly. I did my makeup, my eye makeup, like crazy sparkly for Halloween. Yeah. And loved it so much, it like brought me back to going to raves in high school. Yeah. That I was like, why can't a 46-year-old woman go fucking crazy with eyeshadow? She can. And so I did a bunch of like tutorials on Instagram, bought some crazy ass fucking makeup that I had never owned in my life. Yeah. And that's my new thing now. Okay. You're going to do just a strong lid. Yeah. And like in crazy colors and weird eyeliner. Like, fuck it. I'm fucking bored. And I don't want to keep fucking not doing it. Do it. Do whatever you want. I did what I didn't want, which was I was doing my makeup thinking I was almost done and then grabbed a lipstick. A lipstick, a lip velvet that I thought looked good. And I put it on. Of course, it was fully brown on me. It turned the whole palette on my face kind of to an orangey brown. And then they're like, everyone's waiting. So it's just like, okay, here we go. Remember in the 90s when brown lipstick was like the hottest trend? Like MAC medium brown. Yeah. There was like a spice. Remember, what was the spice one? Spice and toast. Fucking, they loved that. That's right. Toast of New York. Yeah. That was real good deep one. Oof. Meanwhile, I would put it on and be like, hello, I'm a young vampire that doesn't have a job. That's what I always looked like. That's like, that's your type, actually. It's my type and it's my. And you're dressing as your type. That's right. Dress like the man you want. I saw like a Halloween party on Instagram where people dressed as their sexual awakening. It's like whatever was hot to you when you were a kid and you were like, oh, so whether you're now gay, straight, whatever you are. Like people were just really hilarious things. And I was thinking like I would dress and maybe that's what this is as David Bowie from the Labyrinth. Yeah. Oh, you saw that and you're like my loins. What's happening to me? That's so funny because mine was the movie Summer Lovers with Peter Gallagher. And I believe. With the eyebrows? Daryl Hannah. Uh huh. I don't know that one. They basically have a three way in Greece. They're like a couple. That's like we're young, beautiful, sexy couple in Greece. But then they meet this other lady and then whoever the girlfriend is, I think it was Daryl Hannah, is all jealous. And then he's like, you don't have to be jealous. And me and my cousin Nancy are watching it at like midnight. Everyone else is asleep. And we're like, there's no way we should be watching this. We can't stop watching it. All right. Well, we'll do that. So next Halloween. Next Halloween. David Bowie and Peter Gallagher. Peter Gallagher. Okay. With the eyebrows. With the eyebrows. All right. Yeah. We planned that. Okay. See you next year. So sorry. You have to be the person. Yeah. Like the woe person. The one who did it to you. Yes. Got you. So whoever that is. I can grow my eyebrows out by then. If I be here and I can take supplements. Yeah. I'll get it done. I was going to tell you, this was very exciting. My sister and my cousin Kim came down and Nora and all the girls. And we went and saw the chicks at the Dolby Theater. No way. And they did the first one. The first half of the show was them talking about the I'm Not Ready to Make Nice and that whole situation, cancellation album. That whole thing happened because she said, I'm ashamed that my president is from my country. Yeah. And they like. It was basically, I'm ashamed of my president. Yeah. Yeah. And they rolled clips of like, it was the old kind of news cycle. It wasn't just Fox News, but it was other places. And the way they got absolutely. Absolutely attacked. And in retrospect, it's so psychotic. It is. Well, because you can't not be able to criticize your country and your government when they're doing like abhorrent things. It's called fascism. Yeah. And dictatorship. And that's bad. And we don't live in one of those and we don't want to treat it like one of those. But it was right after 9-11. So they were kind of playing on those emotions of if you are against us. You know what I mean? Like just to see them. Kind of tell the story was so incredibly powerful. And then there was an intermission. So that was like that, you know, a bunch of the hits from that album intermission. Then they come back. Earl's got to die. Cowboy, take me away. They just go into this cavalcade of hits that didn't even pause between songs. They are such a good band. Natalie Maine's voice is so incredible. It was just like we were just standing there just like, wow, it's too bad that we didn't just get to have them all of these years. Oh, my God. And watch them build and grow because they had to be sacrificed. Right. They had to be sacrificed. At the altar of. Of women being too powerful and speaking up. Totally. That's what it was. God forbid. God forbid. That's a similar experience to your eyeshadow experience. Yeah. The chicks. Eyeshadow. However you get yours. Yeah. It's time to tap in to the thing that's going to make you rise on up. Powerful. What's your power? Mine right now is eyeshadow. Yeah. Eyeshadow. You know, scream singing. Earl's got to die. Whatever. It's up to you. Yeah. I have a quick podcast to recommend that I listened to and loved. And then something kind of similar happened in the news. So remember, you know, the podcast Cold. Season one, it was about the disappearance of Susan Powell and her children and her murder. I just listened to season five about a cold case missing person, a woman named Nancy Perry Baird. And the season was called Blamed on Bundy. Because her disappearance just was overall like just kind of brushed aside as if Bundy did it. And then in the news, like at the exact same time I was listening to it, it turns out Ted Bundy's DNA matched a 1974 cold case murder of a young woman named Melissa Ann Smith in Utah. So it was a crazy good podcast, Cold season five. And just like that Ted Bundy still on our fucking radar to this day. Yeah. What a monster. Yeah. That's it. That's my recommendation. Good one. Thanks. Should we go into our highlights? Let's do it. Come on. We have a podcast network. It's called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights. Well, if you don't know, you can watch brand new episodes of this here show, My Favorite Murder, and also Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Hull's show, Buried Bones, every week on Netflix. That's right. You want to see her new haircut and my eye shadow? Go to Netflix. There's a visual of this. That's right. And if you're more of a seafaring type, Buried Bones and Disgraceland are taking true crime to the high seas with Virgin Voyages in March. Booking is open now at virginvoyages.com. Let us know if you're going. That's going to be crazy. Yeah. We would love to hear about that. Also, if you haven't heard yet, there's a new Apple original podcast from Plan B and our amazing friends at Blanchard House. It's called Heart. It tells the extraordinary story of two men who are connected by a heart transplant and who die in strangely similar circumstances. And guess who's hosting it? It's our own Karen Kilgara. Hey, that's you. We wrote this line for you, but I guess we're out of order. You can listen now on Apple Podcasts, and I think we're going to do a little special feed drop. I'm very proud of it. They do amazing work. I just get to read what they do. But it is an unbelievable true crime story, unlike anything I've ever heard. Amazing. It's called Heart. And in Merch Corner, we've got some brand new items at the Exactly Right store. So check out the new Black on Black. It's a black murderino hat. Say it, but you don't have to yell it. I love the black on black. So good. It's featuring 3D embroidery of the word murderino, so you can let everyone know without being obnoxious about it. That's right. And then our favorite Panther design by Daphna Sabane is back, this time on a zip-up hoodie and crew neck. Nice. That was a fun reveal. I love this one so much. I know. So perfect little hoodie. For fall and winter. Check that out at exactlyrightstore.com to shop now. It's so soft. I'm literally putting it straight into my big purse. It's so soft. Oh, Karen's got the crew neck. I'm planning on shoplifting the zip-up. Then I'll take the crew neck. Here's the crew neck. Okay. Here's the crew neck that I'm going to steal. Oh, yeah. That's freaking cool. It's so good. That's so cool. Also, the blanks that Nicole picks are so cozy and very quality. I know that these days, especially, merch is an expensive thing. It's definitely attractive. It's a great treat for yourself. But this one, if you pay the money, it's worth it. Yeah. We don't. We don't get the shitty stuff. I love that this was described as 3D. Well, it's like. Because it is. It's like the stitching is up off of the material. Yeah, it's stitched on, not printed. Right. That's cool. And, okay, so finally, we asked you to vote for all these people because the Signal Awards were coming up, and we had a bunch of hosts and shows that were nominated, and they won. A bunch of them won. That's right. Disgraceland, Two-Face, John O'God, I Said No Gifts, The Knife, and Brief Recess earned eight awards across seven categories. Incredible. That's so awesome. We are so proud of them. You heard exactly right. A huge thank you to everyone who voted. We obviously couldn't have done any of this without all our amazing listeners. Yes, that's right. Thank you. You put them there. Thank you so much. Good job. All right, I'm first. You are. I've got a story for you. That's what this podcast is. That's right. Let's hear it. All right, let's just get into this. It's early 1980s. 1987, and we are in Millbrook, New York. It's a, quote, picturesque, historic village. It's kind of a tony village in the Hudson Valley. I looked up what famous people live there. Bette Midler, Sigourney Weaver, Mary Tyler Moore had lived there. So it's like a cute but really nice place. I've been there. Have you? Yes, I went to Cold Spring one time, and I'm almost positive that's in the Hudson Valley. Yeah. Oh, my God. It's New Yorkers. They're going to eat me alive. I have that here, where some people are like, it's not. It doesn't count. Right. Well, I have seen pictures, though, of, like, the view onto the river and everything. It's so gorgeous, especially this time of year. And there's actually a house that's up for sale right now called the Hitchcock House that you should definitely buy. Timothy Leary did some experiments there. It's only $65 million. Great. Just a little weekend place. Some people would refer to it as upstate New York, but, of course, that's a debatable thing with New Yorkers, and so I'm not going to get into that. No one wants to debate a New Yorker? No, we're not. They talk so fast. No, that's not this podcast. But the beautiful, blonde-haired 24-year-old who the story is about, named Sherry Orofino, lives in Millbrook, New York, but is originally from Queens, and it's likely that she herself would refer to Millbrook as upstate. Here's a photo of beautiful Millbrook. It just seems like a little picturesque Hudson Valley upscale neighborhood. So, Sherry and her husband, Paul, had only recently moved from Manhattan. to Millbrook, and they've been married for about a year. New York's crime rate is still peaking, and so they wanted to start a family out where it's supposed to be safer. Also, Paul, the husband, is a music producer, and he's just opened a recording studio in Millbrook, where it's much less expensive to do than in Manhattan, and it's a beautiful setting for artists to come in and record. And he has recorded in his studio bands like Blue Oyster Cult and The Cars, and also Luscious Jack. So, it's possible that Kate Schellenbach knows him, or knew him. So, at the end of February, a band had booked the studio for a solid month, and so Paul is up working with them until around midnight every night. And so, because of this, Sherry decides she wants to go back to Bayside, where she's from, in her neighborhood in Queens, to visit with friends, so she's not home alone every night. Let's take a look at a photo of her. She, to me, it screams Vanna White. She's just this beautiful 80s blonde. Yeah. With a big smile. So, on February 28th, 1987, after a few days away from home, Sherry tells her friends she wants to go back up to Millbrook so she can meet Paul for dinner that night. She calls Paul and tells him the same thing, but she never makes it home. This is the story of the murder of Sherry Orofino, which some would call unsolved, but many would simply call unresolved. The main source for this story is reporting from the Journal News by Jonathan Bandler, and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. So, Sherry is, by all accounts, a very cool girl. Paul describes her as saying, quote, she was easygoing, everybody loved her, she was just a lot of fun, end quote. She drives a sports car, it's a black 1987 Toyota MR2, and her drive back home to Paul should have taken around two hours, probably less, since Sherry had set out from Queens at around 3 a.m., so there wouldn't have been a lot of traffic. But a few hours later, on the morning of March 1st, when she hasn't made it home, Paul calls around, calls her friends, they confirm she had left hours ago and should have been home by then, and so he calls the local police in Millbrook and the police precinct in Bayside. And there's a lot of jurisdictional issues with this case, which obviously, especially back in 1987, when jurisdictions didn't want to share information, just made it harder. Yeah. It feels like in the future, when all the other horrifying things get cleared up, which they will, that idea of, like, actually passing laws, about how jurisdictions have to share information, that idea of, like, keeping things from other people so that it's your case or that kind of territorialism is just, like, story after story we tell where it just screws everything up. Right. Exactly. So Sherry's route home would have taken her across northern Queens, into the Bronx, across southern Westchester County, and then north, eventually putting her on the Taconic State Parkway, which is a stretch of land. Stretch of road that links Westchester County to just south of Albany. So it's how to get upstate. So the Taconic is really at the heart of the search effort that ramps up later in the day on Sunday, March 1st, and Monday, March 2nd. But on Monday morning, Sherry's car is found just off the Taconic on Route 134 in Yorktown. The car is found under the overpass for the Taconic, so it's right off the exit, but it's still about an hour south of Millbrook. So something happened on her way home, and her car is empty, abandoned. The other thing about Sherry's car, aside from it being in a weird spot, is that it's locked, and it's in perfect condition, and Sherry is not in it, obviously. There's not much information available about what, if anything, is found inside the car, and that might be because this case is still considered technically open. Not technically, it is open. Investigators set up roadblocks around the area of the Taconic where Sherry's car had been found, and they're hoping to get information from people who were on the road at the time Sherry went missing to see if anyone might have seen anything. And several witnesses report seeing a blonde woman being pulled over by a police officer right in that area that night. Sherry's family and Paul say that makes sense because Sherry, who is a product of New York in the 1970s and 80s, was very street smart and cautious and would have never pulled over for just anyone, rather than a cop, if she were driving alone at night. Right. Holiday parties come with plenty of uncomfortable moments. But your bra shouldn't be one of them. Stay comfortable throughout. With Third Love. Third Love has spent 13 years figuring out what makes a bra fit well. They've worked with millions of women to refine their designs, and they offer more than 60 sizes, from AA to H, including half-cup sizes you don't usually find elsewhere. For your day-to-day, check out their 24-7 Classic Wireless Bra. It's soft and lightweight with no underwire, but it still gives you shape and support. And if you're getting dressed up, their 24-7 Classic T-Shirt Bra works under everything from T-shirts to cocktail dresses. Because this holiday. 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Unlike traditional security systems that alert you after a break-in starts, SimpliSafe is designed to help stop intruders before they get inside. These days, you're worried about your house, you're out of town, and then something comes up. And you get to look on your phone, and SimpliSafe is going to show you not only the video of like, it's a raccoon at your front door, but also that they have staff that's sitting there they already know. And if it was something different or worse, they would have already been on it. Yeah, I really think that's invaluable peace of mind that just like relying on your neighbors paying attention is not going to give you. We've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer our listeners their biggest savings of the year, 70% off your new system with professional monitoring when you visit SimpliSafe.com slash M-F-M. That's SimpliSafe.com slash M-F-M. And when you order, write in M-F-M at checkout, and it tells them we sent you. And it really helps the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of crime in real time. Goodbye. We've all had moments where dealing with health care or insurance feels completely overwhelming. You're sick, worried about someone you love, trying to understand what comes next, and suddenly you're spending hours on hold filling out paperwork and trying to figure out who to call. Research shows patients spend the equivalent of an eight-hour workday every month. Coordinating their own care. Nobody hands you a roadmap when you're dealing with a diagnosis or ongoing health issues. That's why there's Solace Health. Solace provides personal health care advocates who average 16 years of health care experience and can help you get answers fast. Think of them as someone in your corner who understands the health care system and can handle the logistics while you focus on your health. They can help with appointments, insurance denials, medical bills, treatment options, and understanding doctor recommendations. Research shows 92% of patients report a positive impact, on their care from working with an advocate. improves outcomes and solace advocates are covered by insurance nationwide. Eligibility varies by insurance plan. Advocates do not provide medical or legal advice or services must be 18 years or older. Go to solacehealth.com slash murder to see if you qualify. It takes about two minutes and it's covered by insurance. That's S-O-L-A-C-E health.com slash murder. Goodbye. Six agonizing months pass and Sherry's parents, Joan and Nathan Letweck, her brother Scott and Paul, the husband, are beside themselves. In the days immediately following the disappearance, Paul, the husband, is looked at and obviously thoroughly investigated and ultimately ruled out completely as a suspect. Then in August, a horrifying discovery is made by a man fishing with his sons. Sherry's body is found at the bottom of a steep embankment in Yorktown, not far from Route 134, where her car was found. The embankment leads to the Croton Reservoir, which is a water storage basin. It's basically just a really beautiful lake. It's just so out of, you know, left field to find something like that there. It's just really sad and heartbreaking. According to some reports, Sherry's remains are skeletal and no cause of death is able to be determined. No clothes are found with her body. And again, not every detail is shared, but police refer to the case definitively. as a homicide. So here's a photo of where the Taconic crosses the Croton Reservoir. It's just this beautiful Hudson Valley location. And so that's where her body was found. Investigators are already aware that some sort of law enforcement official might be involved in Sherry's disappearance because of the information they obtained at the roadblocks. And so because of this, they go around to all of the municipalities along the Taconic to find out who was on duty near it that night and question all of the officers. They find one who they suspect of giving false statements during this questioning. He's a police officer. And Allie and I debated on whether or not to put his name in this because he hasn't been charged with this crime. But he is, you'll see, charged with some other crimes. Like his name is public record. Yeah, you'll see. So his name is Ronald Langer from a town called Briarcliff, which is along Sherry's route on the Taconic, a little south of where she was found. So during the same time period when Sherry had gone missing, he was found in a town called Briarcliff. And he was found in a several women come forward and tell investigators that they had been stopped on the Taconic State Parkway in the same stretch where Sherry's car had been found by a police officer who had then sexually harassed them. In fact, one of these women was an off-duty NYPD officer, and she made sure to get his name and which town he worked for and made a complaint about him. This woman, whose name was Fran, said, quote, If I was a man, he would have let me keep going. But I was a dirty blonde driving a sports car so he came right out behind me, end quote, which is the exact description of Sherry. He lets her go when she flashes her badge at him. And then a weird thing about him being there as well is that none of the cops from these small towns along the Taconic have any jurisdiction on the roadway. The Taconic is exclusively monitored by New York State Police. So not only was this man stopping women without cause and harassing them, but he didn't even have authority to stop them at all. And like nowadays, we know, never pull over when you're alone. I mean, it's just. Just drive to a police station. Yeah. The investigation into this man winds up being reported in local papers around 18 months after Sherry's first disappearance at the end of 1988. And at this point, a young woman named Jennifer Hummel reads the newspaper and has a sinking feeling. So in the wee hours of the morning of February 28th, 1987, one day before Sherry had gone missing, Jennifer, who was 21 at the time, was driving home on the Taconic. She was pulled over by a state trooper who thought she was borderline intoxicated, but that trooper let her go. It sounds like maybe she had a drink at some point, but would not have failed a breathalyzer test. So he let her move on, but then she stopped again, this time by the officer, Ronald Langer, who would ultimately become a suspect in the murder of Sherry. And reporter Jonathan Bandler writes, quote, He said he didn't believe she could drive and had to get her into his patrol car. She said he drove her to a wooded area. Along the reservoir where they sat for more than an hour, he began telling her about himself, how he felt underappreciated in the police force, how everyone mistreated him and how he had once been shot in the line of duty, but hadn't gotten the recognition he thought he deserved for that. So you're sitting in the middle of the night in a cop car where he's put you in it ostensibly because he's saying for legal reasons. Yeah. Then he drives you somewhere and just starts ranting to you about himself. Yeah. Drives you to a secluded location. Starts talking to you like you're on a date or something. He told her how pretty she was, how he'd like to go out with her. Her fear mounted, especially when he moved closer. She described how he leaned over her, put his hand in her hair and pulled her face to his lips. And then it says, quote, I pulled back, but I didn't want to seem disgusted and make him feel angry, which is just what we do is. But it's smart. Yeah. That's the smartest, smartest thing. She said, quote, If I had said I'm going to report you, I felt I'd be dead. He insisted on taking her to a diner for coffee. He brought it to her in the car. She finished it quickly and asked again to be taken back to her car. He complied. As she was opening her car door, he grabbed her, pushed her up against the car and forcibly kissed her. She pulled back, but not away and didn't kiss him back. And then she says, I just kept repeating to myself, it's just a few minutes and then I'll be free. I'll be alive. She recalled, end quote. It's just such a specific. A specific experience that it feels to me like when people are like, don't make a big deal about it. Women are dramatic or whatever. The men who might engage in that kind of talk. And I did get this from somebody else's TikTok and it's so brilliant. This guy was going, well, just think of it. What if it was a bigger man doing it to you as a man? Would you be saying those same things? Would that be your energy? How would you feel if it and that kind of thing where it's just like, it's not that big of a deal. You know, she might've been into it, all that kind of stuff. It just goes out the window when you're like, you're absolutely trapped by an authority figure with a gun who can put you in jail or worse. Totally. Jennifer says her mother told her not to report the incident, possibly out of fear that the police would rally around their own, which they do, or retaliate against her, which they do. But once she reads about the other complaints against the suspect and the fact that he's being investigated for Sherry's murder, she's like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. She comes forward and tells her story. And especially because it happened the day before Sherry went missing, which is just, there's no coincidences. And just spine chilling for that woman. Absolutely. Ronald Langer, the officer, claims the only part of the story that's true is that he brought Jennifer Coffey to help her, quote, sober up. Jennifer says, quote, he's a bald-faced liar. He knows what he did. Where's the other cop to say she actually wasn't, she didn't need to sober up? I mean, it's almost lucky that she got pulled over before to corroborate that this happened. Like, did they have that? I probably, I'd imagine. It just would be nice to live in a world where that cop would immediately show up and be like, no, no, no, that's not true. You'd think there would be a report saying I pulled someone over and let her go. So hopefully that was part of it. Officer Ronald Langer resigns and in 1990 is arrested on federal charges of violating multiple women's civil rights. At the same time, Sherry's family urges the Westchester DA to bring a grand jury investigation against him to look into charges for Sherry's murder. But for some fucking reason, these charges are never brought. Ronald Langer is found guilty in the civil rights case after eight women testify against him and serves two years in prison of a six-year sentence. For his part, he says he'd never pulled anyone over illegally. He also claims to have no knowledge of the area near the Croton Dam where Sherry was found. But his ex-wife refutes that. There's not a lot of information and not a lot of reporting at the time on this. So, can't say more about that, but that's what Allie was able to find. A longtime investigator on this case says that every woman who complained about Ronald Langer had long blonde hair, just like Sherry. About 10 years after Ronald Langer finishes his sentence in the civil rights case, somehow he winds up getting a job in the unemployment office at the New York Department of Labor. So despite his arrest and his incarceration for violating the civil rights of women as an officer, he gets a job with New York State. In 2015, he was one year away from getting his pension. So it's, we're presuming he's retired by this point, but you can't really find anything about him online. So Paul, the husband, has moved his recording studio to Nashville and only gives occasional interviews about this awful time in his life. Back in 1990, he said, Sherry wasn't anybody famous and her parents aren't wealthy, or have ties to powerful politicians. She was a beautiful woman who led an everyday life, and her murder should be given the same priority as anyone else's. Her killer should pay for taking her life, end quote. Sherry's brother Scott passed away in 2013, and her father Norman died two years before that. It's from what we could find, Joan, her mom, still might be alive. When he was pushing for a grand jury investigation, Sherry's dad told reporters, quote, only a parent who has lost a child in a murder case can be a killer. And he said, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't in such a violent way can ever know the feeling I have. It was emptiness, horror, pain, and anger boiling inside me. Now I want the man, the person, police believe did it to pay. This is still considered an open case and as of six years ago was being handled by the New York Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Courtland. Any tips or information perhaps about genealogical DNA can be directed there. And that is the story of the murder of Sherry Orofino. Wow. Such a small amount of information, but such a clear suspect. Well, also the sinister part of when people with power can do whatever they want, that somebody with a tendency potentially to serially harass women and maybe assault women or more, that's why they get into positions of power so that they can do that and that they get defended in doing it. And there's no way that like people in his office didn't know what he was like and maybe even what he was doing and didn't. They didn't say anything. Maybe they did and nothing came out of it. I mean, it had to be an open secret that he did that. Right. You know. Or he kept it a secret like a serial killer. Right. Because maybe that's how intense it was, like that it was more than just he's the office creep. Totally. Maybe he's like the Jekyll and Hyde person, because that's also one of the really bad ones is when those stories of like, you would have never suspected he was such. It's the Ted Bundy thing. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's why it's so important that we don't forget that he's the person who did it. Unlike traditional security systems that alert you after a break in starts, SimpliSafe is designed to help stop intruders before they get inside. These days, you're worried about your house, you're out of town, and then something comes up and you get to look on your phone. And SimpliSafe is going to show you not only the video of like, it's a raccoon at your front door, but also that they have staff that's sitting there, they already know. We've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer our listeners their biggest savings of the year, 70% off your new system with professional monitoring when you visit SimpliSafe.com/MFM. That's SimpliSafe.com/MFM. And when you order, write in MFM at checkout and it tells them we sent you and it really helps the show. Goodbye. You don't have to worry about what's going to happen next. Think of them as someone in your corner who understands the healthcare system and can handle the logistics while you focus on your health. Research shows 92% of patients report a positive impact on their care from working with an advocate. Advocacy improves outcomes and solace advocates are covered by insurance nationwide. Goodbye. You know a favorite M word? Magnesium. Like the kind that's in Dr. Teal's magnesium spray. Made from a proprietary blend of topical minerals powered by pure Epsom salt and natural Dead Sea salt, it's designed to help you relax and get in the right state of mind for a good night's rest. 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So here's the thing I know that you have said hundreds of times at dinner parties. When can we talk about Route 66? And my answer to you is right now. Oh, thank God. Finally. Right? My day has come. Right? I think of you when I put these stories together, when Maren and I and Molly and everybody put these stories together. So as you well know, yesterday, as of this recording, yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Route 66. Wow. Yeah. A route has an anniversary. It does. It was born. It has a birthday. Actually, Maren kept referring to it as the birthday of a person where I'm like, I don't know, it seems a little, it's a little personal. It's a little party hat on. Highway with a diaper. So if you don't know what we're talking about right now, there is this stretch of highway that goes from Los Angeles to Chicago. It's 2,500 miles long and it connects the two. It spans eight states and it opened November 11th, 1926. And essentially it was one of the first big highways in America. Before that, it was like old pioneer trails and stuff. So it became the pathway for the Great American Road Trip. And Route 66 is now dotted with like kitschy themed motels and quirky roadside attractions. That's how you get things like the biggest ball of yarn and a whole building that's shaped like a chicken and stuff. And you pull over and you get some postcards because you have to do something when you're driving all that way. But in 1928, Route 66, it was its second birthday. It was just two years old. It was hardly even a highway. It wasn't even fully paved until the late 30s. But it's, you know, it was still there. It had its sign, the very famous sign, Route 66, that you can see like throughout California. Oh, yeah. They let you know that you're on this historic road. So kitsch. Right? And knowing that it wasn't really paved in 28 is why it's so crazy that at that time, one enigmatic sports agent will come up with an idea to hold a foot race across America with a prize that for the time is a life changing amount of money. The runners who sign up will face grueling conditions, brutal injuries, and then that sports agent will quickly get in way over his head for this big plan. This is the story of the 1928 Transcontinental Foot Race, which is also known as the Bunyan Derby. Ew! I don't know this at all. Okay. The main sources used for this story are two books. One is called Bunyan Derby by Charles B. Kastner, and the other is called C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race by someone named Jeff Williams. So we can take a little look at the program. That's what went out into the land. Cute. Essentially, just to kind of give a little context to this, in the 20s and the 30s in the U.S., there were these weird like endurance stunts that became massively popular. And we've all kind of heard them a little bit. Like in 1927, Charles Lindbergh had the transatlantic flight. Right. That's very emblematic and kind of best case example of one of those, of this area. But people started competing all the time to see like how long they could do something and how far they could push themselves. They were throwing dance marathons that would stretch on for weeks where couples could only take a few breaks to eat or sleep or use the bathroom and then they would have to go right back to dancing. That's been featured in a couple of movies. It was in Happy Days, the TV show, and then there was also when they shoot horses, don't they? There was also, of course, endurance bowling tournaments because you just want to bowl when you're bowling. This is what happens when you don't have social media. That's right. You just do boring, dumb stuff. Instead of stopping to look at pictures of yourself doing stuff, you just keep doing it for money. Scrolling and scrolling. They also had a very kind of famous weird one called flagpole sitting, where men would climb to the top of flagpoles and sit there for weeks, sometimes months, to set new records. There was also the Wrigley Ocean Marathon that was held off the Southern California coast in January of 1927, and participants swam 22 miles from basically L.A. to Catalina Island, hoping to win a $25,000 prize, which would be how much in today's money? $27,000. $1927, $25,000, $150,000, $300,000. Half a million dollars. Holy shit. Right? That money was put up by chewing gum titan William Wrigley, who had just bought Catalina, and the whole thing was like a publicity stunt, right? It's like, get out there any way you can. So he taps into this endurance frenzy, but also the prize money is so big that it itself generates publicity. So that brings us to the man C.C. Pyle. That's short for Charles C. Pyle, although the joke at the time was his initials stood for Cash and Carry, which is not funny. So clever. what are you talking about? But it's just he's a man that's looking to make a buck all the time. So Pyle is an Ohio native. He's tall. He has piercing blue-gray eyes. He's the son of a Methodist preacher. His parents hoped he'd follow in his father's footsteps, but he actually goes into business instead. And he's clearly like a natural salesman. He starts out selling clocks. Then he runs a travel agency. Then he manages vaudeville theaters and tours. And then he finally strikes gold as a sports agent. Damn. The man has range. Actually, he's said to be America's first sports agent, representing A-list athletes at the time. Of course, like your favorite football star, Red Grange. The Grange. The Granger, we called him. Love the Granger. Red Grange was actually credited with popularizing the NFL. So God bless everybody who likes stuff like that. Thanks for nothing on Sundays when I have to sit there while Vince watches. Football. And you have to listen to grown men say things like, we just got to move that ball down the field. Right. By the 20s, Pyle is in his 40s. He's famous. And he would have been filthy rich if he didn't have the habit of absolutely constantly hemorrhaging money. He lives very lavishly down to the expensive spats, cane, and fancy suits he's always wearing. But he also craves fame for himself and spectacle. He fancies himself the P.T. Barnum of athletics. He would have killed it at podcasting. Yes. He would have fucking. He would have slid right in here. 2015, he would have been like, you know what I'm investing in? Podcasting. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go speak on a panel. I'd love to speak on a panel. That's all I've ever wanted. It's the most fun thing of all time. So in April of 27, when the Wrigley Ocean Marathon is still fresh in everyone's minds, it was actually just three months before, C.C. Pyle holds a press conference announcing a foot race across America that will start in L.A. and in New York City and stop. each night in a pre-selected town along Route 66. Runners will complete a new eastward leg of this race every day, and then they'll stop in the evenings to eat and sleep in a furnished tent, and if they complete that day's race the fastest, collect individual daily prizes. So there's the overall big one, but then you're running for the money every single day. Got it. Pyle claims this race will last three months, and whoever has the lowest cumulative time at the end is going to take the grand prize. But he ups the ante here announcing there will be 10 prizes total. So second place gets $10,000, third place gets $5,000, fourth gets $25,000. But this is like $10,000 is $200,000 today. $5,000 is $100,000 today. That's just worth it. Big money. Yeah. And it's basically a shot at a huge payday at a time that's really hard in this country for people. But it does require running. Over 3,400 miles on foot. Jesus. So it's basically Route 66 is 2,500 miles, and then the additional to get to New York. Yeah. And that's over scorching deserts, through steep mountains, through all kinds of weather. And to stay on schedule, Pyle expects the runners, who will become known as bunioneers, to cover 50 miles a day. So daily double marathons. Oh my God. Right. Like no talk of insurance. Like he's just not responsible for anyone's injuries and death. Girl, there's not even talk of like good shoes. Yeah, right. There's no talk. There's no running shoes. It's just kind of a context. Like, can you come and do this? The other thing is along Route 66, they're sharing the road with cars. Oh, fuck. Yeah. It's not cleared out and there's no cops driving in the front or whatever. And of course, no one really knows anything about like long distance running at the time. Obviously no tennis shoes. How stupid it is. No. I'm kidding. How bad it is. You can see why it's called the Bunion Derby. But also at the time, even, professionals give dire warnings. Writer Jeff Williams reports that, quote, one prominent medical expert predicted that five to ten years could be shaved off of the runners' lives. Wow. Right? It's not a good idea. Luckily, women aren't allowed to enter. Hooray. But any man who shells out $125 for the entry fee. Which is $2,500 in today's money. Wow. can participate. Anybody. And it's basically a deposit because if a runner drops out, they get $100 of that back. So they only really pay $25. And C.C. Pyle keeps the rest and puts it like in a pot toward prizes and also toward operations. But he also has this plan to make even more money off the spectacle and the event itself because he's going to bring a traveling circus along the way. Jesus. And then it's set up at the daily stopping points. And he plans to charge, like, the crowds that come to watch it admission. And then, of course, there's hot dogs, candy, you know. It sounds like someone's cocaine-fueled night. And they just said yes to all of it. C.C. might have, like, tightened his spats up too tight. Then they got some big ideas in his head. C.C. stands for cocaine cowboy. And they fucking did it. Cash and Carrie was what you called cocaine back in the day. He spends a year promoting this race. So he. Gets the word out. Then on March 4th, 1928, 199 men congregate at L.A.'s Legion Ascot Speedway, which used to be right on Route 66. The men that show up are of all ages, of all nationalities, ethnicities, occupations. There are students. There's carpenters. There's even an amateur wrestler. Some of them are experienced runners who have run marathons before, but most of them have never done anything like this. Including a 20-year-old named. Andy Payne, who is a farm boy from Oklahoma and a member of the Cherokee Nation. And he chose to run simply because he loves to run. He shows up wearing shorts and leather shoes. It turns out to be the most common sense running outfit of anybody. The other bunioneers have no idea what to wear or what's appropriate. One man shows up in a business suit. Another in red long johns. Another one wearing logging boots. So it's a little messy. Just from the kickoff. At 3 p.m. that day, a smoke bomb signals the start of the race. Not ideal. It doesn't bode well. The men set off running out of the Speedway and swarming into Los Angeles. Spectators line the streets to watch them go. And ahead of them is a caravan of 61 race-related vehicles. They're carrying the supplies, the workers, the circus performers, and the animals. Like, it's a legit circus. Yeah, it's weird. Plus. Plus there's members of the media. And there's even a mobile shoe repairman. Because they've thought of everything. The shoe-shying guy. Yeah. And C.C. Pyle is there, too, in his own very fancily tricked-out camper. He calls it the America. It's incredibly over-the-top for that era. It costs more than $25,000 to build, which, again, is half a million dollars. Dude. It's all cocaine. It's all cocaine ideas. It truly is. Because it's like, I'll just. We'll spend it here, and we'll make it on the other end. So this thing has blue mohair upholstery, hand-finished mahogany paneling, reclining chairs, a bed, hot and cold running water, air conditioning, an observation deck up top. Like, it has it all. Zillow gone wild over here. Yeah. So writer Jeff Williams says, quote, One paper referred to the America as the most pretentious land yacht ever built. And, of course, C.C. Pyle loved that quote. So, the first night of the race. The bunioneers run 17 miles, and then they stop in Puente, California. It's outside of L.A., obviously. Instead of getting the hearty dinner as promised, they get, basically, gruel. And then they're all assigned a cot with scratchy sheets in one of the 15 communal tents. So there's 15 tents. There's 199 men. And they all. Don't make me do math. Yeah. You can just imagine. They're just all shoved around. Yeah. Also, these are not assigned cots, and they're not assigned sheets, either. No. It's like bad army, essentially. That's supposed to good army. Well, in the army, you get your own cot. Your own stuff. And they don't feed you gruel, as far as I know. But please write in. Tell us. So, essentially, they run for 17 miles all day long. They come to lay down in a tent where there's, like, a circus next door. So, the circus and all the people and all the things. Like, a carnival would sound like and be like is right outside. Oh, God. Plus, Pyle has a full band playing, but he's also encouraged the visitors to try to mingle with the runners. So, they're not done when they're done with the race. Oh, my God. They have to be, like. They have to do it all. Yeah. So, the visitors, they can mingle with the runners, but they can also go see a two-headed chicken, a five-legged pig, a glass eater, a snake charmer. There's some belly dancers, but they end up getting fired because they're too. Too sexy for the family-oriented circus that C.C. Pyle was trying to put together. Shh. Pyle's star client, Red Grange, is also there, as is, and you'll remember this name, the corpse of Elmer McCurdy. Oh, wow. No way. Yes. Wow. Because that was when that idea of, like, oh, here's this body. Yeah. Like, here's this old prospector. An actual skeleton of a. In the kind that. So, what a weird, like, roundabout way to get to an old episode. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's all I wanted to do. talk about my old story, but he had borrowed McCurdy for the length of the race so that there would always be that exhibition of you can come and see this old guy. If you want to hear about what we're talking about, it's episode 145. And it's our Halloween show. Oh, weird. The live show at the Microsoft. Oh, nice. So this kickoff night is a very long one for the bunioneers. The next morning, they set out for Bloomington, California, which is 35 miles away. But now it's raining heavily and it's cold. It only gets worse over the next few days as the runners scale the Cajon Pass. Like so, and we've all driven like from L.A. to San Francisco where it's like, it's this thing where it's like just slowly but surely incrementally getting steeper and steeper and the elevation gets higher and higher. By day four, 70 men drop out of the race. It leaves 130 runners, but many are already nearing their limits. And that's not great for CeCe because he needs every cent he can muster to keep the whole thing afloat. Every dropout means he has to return $100 to that person. And of course, the rainy days are affecting his ability to draw the big crowd to the running circus. Fortunately, he has enough seed money from the Highway 66 Association, which exists purely to promote Route 66. They have given him $50,000, which is almost a million dollars in today's money for the promotion. But the prizes total $47,000. And then he has a very large logistics staff performers and then months of food and supplies to pay for. So all that cash is basically immediately spoken for. So within days of the race beginning, CeCe Pyle is already making spending cuts, mostly, of course, at the expense of the bunioneers. Food rations are cut. The daily prizes just very quietly go away. And worse, he sometimes switches the designated stopping points to higher bidding communities at the 11th hour. One day, this results in runners, suddenly having to reroute as they cross the Mojave Desert, completing 57 miles in scorching heat before the day is over. 57 miles in the Mojave Desert. Yeah. And like, how did they even do it? How long is a marathon? 24? Six. Six. Fuck. Isn't it? Yeah, that sounds right. Six and a half. Yeah, there's a.4 in there somewhere. Oh, I've seen it on the bumper stickers. 26.2. 26.2. Thank you. And find the four. Wait. Do you run marathons, Molly? Absolutely not. A bunioneer named Frank Johnson of Illinois remembers this, quote, The nights were terrible. Each tent sounded like a hospital ward after a big train wreck. Men groaned and moaned, and many of them wept over their bruises and aches. Your fascia is just like fucking throbbing. You can't feel your feet. Oh, my God. I mean, every time a man turned over during the night, it hurt so bad, his groans awoke everyone near who happened to be. Yeah. Yeah. Oy, oy, oy. So, as they press on, they get into Arizona on day nine. Then they make it to New Mexico on day 21. The Texas Panhandle on day 32. This is. So, there's. Men are just doing it. They're just getting it done. Yeah. Like, anything for that money. And, of course, there's a growing number of injuries and illnesses. People are breaking the arches of their feet. Their Achilles tendons are snapping. There's intense. There's intense. There's intense sunburns, of course. Yeah. Men are losing toenails. Of course, there's huge blisters. Oh, the nipple. The nipple situation. You know what I'm talking about? But if you're wearing a business suit, you're all protected because you've got your undershirt. Andy Payne, the Oklahoma farm boy, who's delightfully emerged as a frontrunner, comes down with a nasty bout of tonsillitis. It's a dangerous condition in a pre-antibiotics world, which is where we are. But he doesn't quit. No. He just struggles through tonsillitis, like, sometimes I don't get off the couch to get the food I ordered at the front door because I'm like, I just need, like, five more minutes. Not because of tonsillitis and running fucking two marathons a day. Not because my Achilles tendons have been snapped. Just because I'm like, I don't know. I don't want to. What about my phone? So, meanwhile, there's no place for the runners to go at the end of the day. The sleeping situation gets worse and worse. As I said, the bedding's communal. And it's also not washed. On top of which, no one's really showered. They couldn't have had, like, high-quality shower facilities. No, because CeCe invested all of that in the little, like, shoot the thing and blow up the balloon and get a prize. In his own weird RV. Yes, where he's, like, touching mohair and just loving life. Thank God I paid for this extra for this blue mohair. Because otherwise this would have been a whole mess. Because this is what I can bite down on when they come to kill me. Okay, so what adds stress to all that filth is the air. The ever-present threat of new illnesses and new injuries, including ones coming from the fact that the bunioneers are running on active roadways, which is very dangerous in bad weather and in the higher-mileage running days that stretch past sunset. Jesus. Yeah, so Route 66 at this time is not well-lit, obviously. And then car headlights were much weaker at the time. So many bunioneers are hit by cars. Oh, my God. A man named Mike Bays of California, breaks his leg because he's hit by a car. Another man from California named Pat Mahoney is knocked unconscious, and he's found in the middle of the road by other runners after he's hit by a car. They shake him awake, which, please don't ever do that to anybody that you find hit by a car in a road. But that's what they do. They stand him upright. I know what you're going to say, and I don't want to fucking hear it. And he keeps running? They're pleasantly surprised when he starts to run, like nothing's happened. Okay. The Great Depression was a terrible thing that happened to many people. So also there's dehydration. Yes, they were not drinking water. People didn't like water back then. They resented water back then. There's often not a place to stop and get water. The best option is usually a soda at one of the sporadic gas stations on Route 66. One runner named George Rahine is known within the group as the Singing Dutchman. He's German, and he likes to belt out songs while running. Now, he thinks he has a smart workaround for having no water. He drinks from the water buckets at gas stations that are supposed to service radiators. No. One day, he drinks from a bucket and doesn't realize it's filled with gasoline. What? He becomes violently ill, of course. This list of horrors just goes on and on. At different points in the Southwest, white racists descend on Route 66 because there are black bunionistas that are running in this race, and they come to, like, chase them and basically violently torment them. In other cases, the runners are dealing with hostile animals. Frank Chavez of California, for example, he slips into a pair of red swimming trunks one day to beat the desert heat. He draws the attention of a loose bull who then chases him. One sports writer reports, quote, for a few minutes that day, Frank made the best time that's been made during the race. Jesus. It's all becoming cartoonishly, like, wacky races. By mid-April 1928, a month in, and the gang has accumulated over 1,000 miles of running, but they're down to just 81 runners out of 200. They leave Texas beleaguered and beaten. They arrive in a cold, wintry Oklahoma on day 36. But for farm boy Andy Payne, this is a really exciting stretch of the race because he's overcome his tonsillitis, and he's maintained his position at the front. He's a hometown hero by this point, so other Oklahomans are reading about him in the newspapers, and there's such an eruption of pride and joy that spectators go and run alongside him and beg for autographs. Okay, Forrest Gump. I mean, right. So on April 19th, 1928, it's day 47. The runners leave Oklahoma. They cut through Kansas and end the day in Missouri. By St. Louis, just 70 miles away, 70 runners are left. Meanwhile, CeCe Pyle's money problems are, of course, getting worse, but now for an unexpected reason because in certain cities, the traveling circuses have generated such big crowds that they're robbed. Like, basically, everyone in town goes to the circus, and then people go rob the empty houses because they know everyone's not home. Ah, come on. And then, separately, pickpockets descend on the circus itself. Wow. So they know there's just kind of, like, every time they stop, all the people in town will very innocently be like, an event, and then it's like, here we go. In a town where they never got a chance to pickpocket before. Right. This gets written up in the papers, and word starts spreading to the towns farther down the line. So suddenly, towns are deciding that hosting this thing is more trouble than it's worth. Yeah. The race publicly has made CeCe Pyle easy to track by his creditors. He owes one Illinois bank around, $40,000, which is $800,000 today. And the bank is dead set on collecting. They figure that Pyle's luxury camper is a great start. So what they don't know is that the America took a tumble off a bridge in Texas. It now has smashed windows and a hole in the side. It still runs as a car, but it doesn't look great. Pyle refuses to surrender it, and then he goes on the lam as the race continues. Oh, he's just out. He's just gone. Runners exit Route 66 in Chicago on day 63. They run through Illinois into Indiana on day 64. Then they're in Ohio on day 68. Briefly into Pennsylvania, day 73. I mean, they're making it across America. Yeah, I'm impressed, honestly. It's unbelievable. But their bodies are breaking down. They look haggard, unkempt. They're so hungry that one bunionier named Guisto Omec of Italy is handed a candy bar by a spectator. And he eats it, including the wrapper. Oh, God. Bro. I'm so sorry. It's like a cartoon. I haven't read through this book. That was the best reveal of all time. I'm so sorry. Yeah, that should be the new Snickers commercial. It's like when you're super hungry. When you're running two marathons a day. Yes. Why don't they make, it's like, you know, Botan rice candy, that candy where you eat the wrapper. Oh, I get it. I get it. Because it's rice paper. Yeah. They should do that with candy bars. Totally. On May 16th, Day 74, the remaining runners cross into New York. This is the final state. They make it. I'm impressed. It's incredible. Yeah. CeCe Pyle, meanwhile, he's still hiding. But while he's off the grid, he goes into full fundraising mode. He doesn't have any hope of turning a profit at this point. Yeah. But he needs to pay his staff. He needs to lock down the prize money. And he convinces someone named Tex Rickard. There have been, before Madison Square Garden's build, Tex Rickard built the third one. And he convinces Tex to let him conclude the race at Madison Square Garden instead of the pre-planned Yankee Stadium. Got it. So everyone's like, hey, you scratch my back. Yeah. And I'll stop feeding gruel to these men who are dying of running. This change, like so many others that Pyle has made, of course, hits the runners hard because it adds a surprise 20 more miles to this journey that they, I think, is almost over. Like, just one more marathon before you stop. And half of those 20 miles, they're supposed to run inside Madison Square Garden. No. Yeah, just like run around. God damn. Okay. Pyle hopes to charge the public $1.25 each to come and watch this, which would be, in today's money, $150. $25. Great. The bunioneers are furious, but they're also days away from the race's end, and they want the money. Obviously, they've stayed in this long. On May 26th, day 84, with just 55 runners remaining. 55. Yeah. Men made it through this. A lot. They run into Madison Square Garden for this final leg. The crowd is just a fraction of what the venue can hold, and, of course, what CeCe Pyle hoped for. Taylor Swift is like, I did that 16 nights in a row. He didn't really have a lot of time to promote that it would be at Madison Square Garden because it was, it was such a last-minute change. There's about 2,000 people there. It can hold 15,000. One reporter calls it, quote, the flop of the century. Ooh. That can't be true, but okay. Very true. You're like, did you hear about the Great Depression? Because it's been a long century for these poor people. At the end of that day, those 55 runners have finished this race, covering more than 3,400 miles of the United States on foot. The first-place winner is Andy Payne. He ran the race in 573 hours, 4 minutes and 34 seconds. Jeff Williams writes in his book, quote, He and his father celebrated the victory the next day by taking a sightseeing excursion of New York City, a walking tour. You know, those fitness people, they just never stop. They never quit. So winning this race actually really does change Andy Payne's life. He becomes a national star. He's honored by, and today in Oklahoma, half marathons and 5Ks are still run in his honor. But some of the men quite literally can't stand still, and they are seen still jogging around Madison Square Garden days after the finish. Oh, my God. So they've been running for months for, like, so long that they're just, like, in this mode that they can't snap out of. Wow. A bunionier from Arkansas named Wildfire Bill Thompson, who finished 50th place, says, quote, Oh, my God. When all the misery's gone, you kind of feel lonesome and lost. Wow. End quote. Okay. Wildfire Bill. CeCe Pyle, meanwhile, increasingly becomes known as Corns and Calluses Pyle instead of Cash and Gary. CeCe Corns and Calluses Pyle. That's so insulting. It takes him, it's kind of a good slam. It takes him about a week post-race, but he does manage, thankfully, to scrounge up that cash to pay Andy Payne and the other winners. Then just one year later, CeCe Pyle hosts another cross-country race with a slightly different route, and by its finish, he is once again bankrupt, and those winners do not get their prizes. Oh, no. Yeah. Pyle's bank account and his reputation take over. It takes a huge hit, and the nation sinks into the Great Depression. So this was almost like the prequel to it. Right. The late 20s. But you will not keep CeCe Pyle down because within years, he's on the rebound. Oh, wait, sorry. We have pictures. Oh, he's being coy. Boys, gather round. I'm going to tell you about a little race I see us all running. I won't be running it. You'll run it. Do you like gruel? I love gruel. Blue mohair. Picture it. And belly dancers. Sexy belly dancers. Oh, also, here's Andy Payne. Okay, the winner. Uh-uh. The winner. Kind of ironic his last name's Payne. Yeah. And then that's what Madison Square Garden looked like when they all ran in there. All right. Come down and see. These running zombies. Three people running. So crazy. Ugh. Okay. Within years, CeCe Pyle has rebounded, and now he's managing the Ripley's Believe It or Not show at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Right. Then he pivots to a radio show. In 1939, he dies of a heart attack when he's just 56 years old. Wow. Author Jeff Williams writes that through the Bunyan Derby, CeCe Pyle sought to create the, quote, mother of all endurance contests. Of course, whether he succeeded or not is up for debate. I'd never heard of this at all. And I've heard of the dance contests thanks to the Fonz. I've heard of flagpole sitting. Yeah. Like all those things when they used to shove everybody in the phone booth. Yeah, it's funny. Like, I didn't think about how into this everyone was until you named them all together. Yeah. It's like a real trend. Right. And I think it was also just like a way for people to make money. Make money and be distracted. And today they call it reality television. Whether or not he did create the mother of all endurance contests is up for debate, but it is funny in a pretty great quote from CeCe Pyle that he said back in 1928, we are just entering the golden age of the foot. At CeCe Pyle. But today, as you and I both proudly celebrate Roots' 66th, 100th birthday, why is that so hard to say? We also celebrate CeCe Pyle's unabashedly American passion for money and spectacle and shamelessness and bunions. And most importantly, we celebrate those 199 men who actually had the grit to run across the nation chasing the world. And I think that's the American dream. Wow. And that's the story of the Bunyan Derby. Wow. I had never heard of that and I never want to hear it again. But Molly basically saw that the 100th anniversary of Roots' 66 was coming up. And then, did you find this story or did Maren? This is a Maren find. Wow. So then Maren was like, hey, here's a little something. Can we make anything of this? And Maren's like, yes, I can. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. Yeah. That's another classic of, I think you've told a few like marathon stories that are just like classic tales of fucking endurance and woe. And why? And why? Woe and why? Woe and why? What are you doing? Sit down. Go take a nap. You can't. Take a nap. What are you running from? Get a therapist. Well, great job. That was our little marathon. That was our marathon. That is this podcast. It's, marathons are, you know, it's subjective. And lots of things are hard, especially podcasting. That's right. And the bunions. And bunions. And staying sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Mwah. This has been an Exactly Right production. Our managing producer is Molly Smith. Our consulting producer is Kate Schellenbach. Our creative lead is Alex Schoenberg. Allison Agosti. Our associate producer is Tessa Hughes. And our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squilacci. Our researchers are Maren McGlashan and Allie Elkin. Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com and follow the show on Instagram at myfavoritemurder. Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or watch new episodes every week on Netflix. Search for My Favorite Murder, add us to your list, and hit the double thumbs up button. Goodbye. Goodbye. Cheap Caribbean Vacations Get more sin for your dollar Cheap Caribbean's Black Friday sale is making waves. Right now, save $500 site-wide on vacay packages to your favorite beach destinations. Dreaming of sandy toes, poolside drinks, and the ocean breeze? Your next beach vacay is calling your name. Head to CheapCaribbean.com to save $500 and get more beach for less money. Cheap Caribbean Vacations Get more sin for your dollar It's the season of green. This year, RYOBI has the deals you've been waiting for and the perfect gift for everyone on your list. 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