Homicidal Bloodthirsty Energizer Bunny - Cape Girardeau, Missouri

This week, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a wild and scary scene unfolds when a jealous boyfriend shows up at his ex's new boyfriend's trailer with a gun in each hand. This leads to cold-blooded murder and a race to find the kidnapped ex, hopefully still alive. And that's somehow just the tip of this horrific iceberg. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, for joining us today on another, this is a wild episode of Small Town Murder, let me tell you. Not like they all aren't, but this seems extra crazy to me just with all the stuff going on here. Before we get to that. Definitely head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com, what you need there. First of all, all your merchandise and everything like that, but your tickets for live shows starting out at the end of the summer, September 18th at the Pabst in Milwaukee. Get your tickets now. There's not a lot of those left, so if you want to get in there, get them right now. Also, the next night, September 19th at the State Theater in Minneapolis, get those tickets right now. Minneapolis is actually losing to Milwaukee in the ticket race at this moment. And I know Minneapolis doesn't want to lose. They don't want to lose to anything in Wisconsin, so get in there, get your tickets, everybody. Do that. And then also October, we have Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, and November, Tarrytown in Boston. So there you go, everybody. Get your tickets right now. ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com, as well as listen to our other shows. We just finished up the Yahweh Ben Yahweh cult series on crime and sports with all their murders and everything like that. So I feel like you'd enjoy that. And then also your stupid opinions. If you like to laugh, that's the show you want. So get in there. Then get yourself Patreon. That's important. P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Patreon.com slash crimeinsports, just like the name of our other show. And that is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get every damn thing that we put out, every stitch of it. As soon as you subscribe, you are going to get hundreds, almost 400 back bonus episodes that you've never heard before. That's a whole separate feed to binge there. That's a lot. And then you get two. And then you get two every other week. So one crime and sports, one small town murder. And you get it all this week for crime and sports. It's part two of hostages because we found those fascinating, those hostage situations. So we'll get into more of that. And then for small town murder, it's prisoner dating game time, everybody. There we go. It is back again by popular demand. And line up four bachelors and four bachelorettes in front of Jimmy. And the only thing they have in common is they are all convicted violent felons. And Jimmy gets to pick one of each based. Sure. Sure. So we're going to go solely on what they say about themselves and their profile. And then the fun begins when we start to find out what they did to end up there and how bad of a decision Jimmy's made. So that's a lot of fun. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all that. And on top of that, you get everything we put out. And I mean everything. All you have to be is $5 a month or above. Everything we put out all ad free as well. Ad free. You can't beat that. And then you get I'm talking crime and sports to your stupid opinions and small town murder. Then on top of that, you get a shout out at the end of the show, too, where Jimmy will mispronounce your name. So because what I think that there is, I think I think we're trying. Yeah, we're we're giving it our best effort. So Patreon dot com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. Disclaimer time. Now we're talking. It's a comedy show, everybody. This is a comedy show. We're comedians and we're going to make nice to meet you. And we're going to make jokes and people are going to die because the show's called Small Town Murder. And you go, well, how do you do that? And we say tasteful. Tastefully is how you do it. That's right. Real tastefully like it's real simple. You basically what we never do is we don't make fun of the victims or the victims families. Why, James? Because we're assholes. But we're not scumbags. There you have it. Real simple. That's the way you do it. There's plenty of other stuff to make fun of a small town because who cares? We're all from somewhere that deserves to be made fun of. Don't get all crazy and uppity about your own place. You'll make fun of somebody else. We'll make fun of a small town police force that lets a murderer go free because they're not doing their jobs. We'll make fun of murderers because fuck them. That's all there is to it. So that said, if you think true crime and comedy should never go together, maybe we're not for you, but we might be. Either way, no complaining later. But you should check it out because we think you would like it and will like it. So that said, I think it's time, everybody, to sit back. What do you say here? Clear the lungs here. Arms to the sky. And let's all shout. Shut up. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Yeah. Let's do it. All right. We're moving along. We're going to Cape Girardeau. How did I say that last? Girardeau? Girardeau, yes. Cape Girardeau. He's Rico Suave is where we are. Yeah. Rico Suave, Missouri. Girardeau, I believe, is how you say it. Girardeau. Girardeau, yeah. Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which is G-I-R-D-E-U. G-I-R-A-R-D-E-A-U. So why are you confused about the pronunciation? Because it's French. That's why. It's in southeastern Missouri, way down there. It's about an hour and 50 minutes up to St. Louis, if you go all the way kind of up the border there. And then it's two and a half hours to Memphis in the other direction. And it's six hours and 50 minutes to Maryville, Missouri. Our last Missouri episode is a long time. It takes forever. That was episode 666. The Killer, the Kitty, and the Combine. That was a wild episode. This is in Cape Girardeau County. Girardeau. Girardeau. Cape Girardeau County. Also in Scott County as well, this town. Area code 573. And it's got several nicknames, most of which have been taken by many other cities. Let's see. First of all, Cape. Which? Cape. Cape. We go to the Cape. That's Cape Cod. That's, you know, lots of capes. River City, which is, there's a million cities that call themselves River City. Everything that's on a river. There's a lot of rivers. And then one that's taken by many other cities, including a big one, the City of Roses. Oh. Yeah, Portland, right? Yeah. You want to call yourself the Queen City too? Take Charlotte's shit and somebody else might as well. What about the one that doesn't sleep? Yeah, why not? The city is named. A little bit of history here. Named after Jean-Baptiste de Gérardot. Spelled completely different, by the way. A different, is that different Jean-Baptiste too, right? Yeah, I'm sure. He established a temporary trading post around 1733. So, yeah, this is later. He was a French soldier stationed at Kaskaskia. Wow. Kaskaskia between 1704 and 1720 in the Louisiana colony of French whatever the hell. So, the cape in this name is referring to a rock promontory that overlooks the Mississippi River. Oh. So, there's this beautiful spot, this scenic spot that was later completely destroyed by railroad construction. So, that's nice. Turned right back into mud like the rest of that fucking river. That's it. There you go, everybody in Missouri. The great mud river flows here. On May 21st, 1949, a large tornado ripped through the city. Sure. Killing 22 people. That's a lot. 22 people, hospitalizing 72 and injuring hundreds. Wow. It became known as the City of Roses because they had a nine-mile stretch of highway that, quote, was once lined with dozens of rose bushes. Not anymore. We can drop that name now, I think, since they don't exist anymore. Because there was a place that had some rose bushes. Not even, they didn't sell them. No, they just, as you drove. That was there. And there used to be a lot of prominent rose gardens around the community. That was like the thing to do was to have rose gardens. But hardly any of them exist anymore, too. So, it's pretty sad. It's an interesting bush that everybody's proud of when most of them look like dog shit. Yeah. For a little while, they look real nice. It's a hard plant to keep going. It is. My grandfather had rose bushes. Yeah. That would come back every year, no matter what. Yeah. Yeah, I had a neighbor that tried so hard she'd put eggshells in coffee grounds. All kinds of shit in there. She'd just have more or less a garbage disposal full of shit in her yard. And they looked nice from time to time. But for the most part, they looked like a tangled fucking mess. Interesting. Maybe it's too much care. Because my grandfather, I think, used scotch and palmol ashes, I believe. That was his fertilizer. He spilled a little scotch in there while he was drinking it. Ashed his filterless cigarette on it, I think. And they grew beautiful. Reviews of this town. Yeah. Here's five stars. I like the art. The all-around atmosphere of the city. Growing up here, I have fondly come to like the place from the people I've met to the restaurants I've been. Oh. Yeah. In other words, I just don't want to go anywhere. I'm happy. I eat, and then I stay home, and everything's great. And it's great. Here's three stars. Cape has both its good and its bad. It depends on the area, really. Let me write that down. Hold on. Yeah. So you're saying in different parts of different cities, things are different? - Yeah. - Wow, that's weird. There could be a nice part, James, but then there could be a bad part. Well, let me write that. I'm going to write bad parts. Yeah, don't forget. I'm just going to put BP for bad parts. Yeah, that's a really good idea. And then GP. For good parts, yeah. I'm going to put that down. That way we, yeah, there. Don't forget. Now I'll know that for later in case I'm confused. That's helpful. Areas around Legends Cape Girard do bring lots of crime and trouble, but other areas can be nicer. Yes, you've mentioned that. You've mentioned some areas are bad. Some areas are nice. The bars aren't that exciting, and there's only one club to dance at, but it could be worse. You can shake your ass, but that's about it. I love when someone complains, and they go, but it could be worse. I've seen worse things. It could be worse, and specifically in those other areas. Yeah. Yeah. It's just very bad in those areas. To me, it could be worse is the non-Italian way of saying, you know me, I can't complain. Can't complain. That's the non-Italian way of doing it. Brash. Here's one star. Don't come here. Okay. Okay. It's not like it was. Narcissists, druggies, drug dealers, killers, thieves, and don't. Thieves, not thieves, by the way. Thieves, apostrophe S also. So, I don't know. You can make up that what you will. Killers, thieves, and don't come here. And don't come here. No peace. All of those really awful things and narcissists? And narcissists. That's the really bad part. Killers and thieves and druggies, okay, but oh my, but narcissists, now we're pushing it. No peace, no love, no empathy. Empty eyes, no souls, no respect, no care. Ruthless. You won't be able to leave if you come here. Why? Why can't you leave? I don't get why. There's thieves. They'll steal your car. You can't get out. And you will have babysitters. I don't know what that means. They're going to watch you to make sure you don't go? I suppose so. It's like Widow's Bay. You can't leave if you're born here. One star, not as good as it once was. Crime, drugs, killings, shootings, harassment, fighting, no good jobs. How about the narcissists? Are they there? What about them? He hasn't experienced them yet. City won't fund enough law enforcement to combat overgrowing criminal activity. We'll be the judge of that. We have crime rates. It has a college, and they try to sweep all the negative news under the rug. City needs to put casino funds into things that will help the city, not in things that are a waste of money. Meaning the money. The money they get from the casinos. Right. Okay. People in this town, 39,415. It's grown quite a bit, this place. More women than men, which is kind of typical in college towns. Southeastern Missouri, I believe, is here. The college. So there's 52.2% women. Median age is much lower, too, because of the college. 33.9 is the median age, which is lower than the national average by about four or five years. Less married people. It's still almost 40%. 40% married here, though. Wow. Which is still pretty high, considering that many kids. 18% are single with children, which in a college town, that's like that. Race in this town, 79.4% white. 14.3% black. 2.3% Asian. 1.9% Hispanic. And religion. This is, I don't know if that's a Christian school or what, but it must be because the religion here is as high as, like, Utah. It's wild. 78.3% of the people here are white. Religious. That's a lot. And the top one, it's 15.5% Pentecostal. I don't even know what that one does. That's the snake handlers. Well, that's the hardcore version of that. The nutty one. But everybody with a snake is a Pentecostal, for the most part. Tongue speaking and shit? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's. You get all that shit there. Running into walls. Whatever the hell's going on there. Yep. Close Baptist is a close second here. Unemployment is low here. Median household income is also low, and that's typical of a college town as well. 69,000 is the average for the country here. It's $48,055 median household. Cost of living, which can say a lot here, 100 is average, regular. Here it is 84. Still high. A little bit high, yeah, for what it is, where it is. The housing is the lowest thing there is here. Median home cost here, $180,400. Very affordable. For a median. But it's out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, this is. There's not. Unless you, like, are a professor at the college. I don't know what you're doing here, working here. So if we've convinced you. Here we go. Narcissists and druggies and killers and thieves and everything else doesn't drive you away, we have for you the Cape. Oh, Cape Girardeau. I think I said it right. Missouri Real Estate Report. Your average two-bedroom. Your average two-bedroom rental here goes for $880 a month, which is well below the national average, about a third below it. Here is the first house. It is a smoking deal. Needs a lot of work on the inside. It's a three-bedroom, one-bath, 1,500-square-foot house. It's got, like, a grass hill going up it with the concrete steps. It looks like it's in Pittsburgh or something, this house. It's a brick house. It needs a lot of work inside. There are rooms that are just stripped. There's nothing. But it's $45,000. So. That's amazing. Put some work into it, and you got yourself. I don't know if it's in a shit neighborhood, one of the bad areas. Right. I'm sorry. BP, bad parts, I believe is what we call them. Next up is a three-bedroom, two-bath, 3,543-square-foot house. Good-sized house. It's good-sized. From the outside, it's not a lot to look at. It's yellow vinyl siding, two-story, with, like, a porch that looks like it's going to fall down. On the upper deck there, it's not a big lot or anything like that. But that's a lot of house. If you have a few kids, it's a place you can store them. $164,900. And that is after a $10,000 price cut as well on that one. And then finally, you're, I don't know, you're the dean of some horse shit. I don't know what jobs there are at colleges. I didn't go to college. You're the coach at CMU. You are doing it. Here's a four-bedroom, four-bath. T-Ball for each and every b-hole over here. 5,724-square-foot house. Wow. It's a big, nice brick, really nice house. It's on three acres as well. A lot of trees. Some privacy to your neighbors. Real nice. $895,000 for that. Holy. Yeah, in Phoenix, that would be $17 million. How many acres? Three. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's not bad. That'd be $17 million in Phoenix. Or Westchester. One of the two. Pick them. Either part of the country that we live in here. Things to do in this town. Oh, baby. It's the Barrel and Brews. Barrel in Brews, you know. And Bourbon and Live Music Festival. Oh. Let's get drunk and watch local bands. Yeah. Yay. Okay. Now it says, join us in the heartland. Experience two unforgettable days of luxury spirit tastings. When I think of the heartland, that's what I think about. Luxury spirit tastings. That's America. That's your luxury. That's real America right there. That's, you know, that's the real blue-collar America. That's what it's about. Live music and delicious local food. Okay. They said they're excited to host a premier event celebrating fine spirits, supporting local vendors, and enjoying live music outdoors. Now, the music. We got DJ Noon, Nun, Nunny, Noon-yay, N-U-N-E. Uh-huh. Could be anything. Call it, this is the description, call it funky, jazzy, or whatever you want. But DJ Noon-yay's seamless blend of horns, electric sounds, and vocals forms an explosive combination. Oh, boy. Then there's Ed Callison and company. I'd like to, I'd like you to concentrate on picking up trends here, by the way. Music isn't just something Ed does. It's who he is. Oh, he is. Yeah. With a voice that can slide from rock to R&B to country in a single set. He brings heart and energy to every performance. Like rock. Yeah, he does. Yeah. Ed draws inspiration from a wide variety of legends, including Rod Stewart, The Beatles, Don Henley, Paul Rogers, and then Bad Company. That's their singer. Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, John Mellon. Alan Camp, Hall & Oates, Steve Perry, Leonard Skinner, Aerosmith, Foreigner, and many more. He just listed every band. He went through, like, his collection of, he was like, well, I got these guys going through his phone. Well, I got a bunch of their songs. I should put him in there, probably. This is all the shit he listened to in high school. That's it. So, he took inspiration. Next is My Posse in Effect. Hell, yeah. Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no. This is a bunch of middle-aged white people in jogging suits. It looks bad. Oh, that's not. You can't do. You can't do Sir Mix-a-Lot and Rex in Effects. Oh, you can if you're these idiots. Oh, boy. Taking you through the decades of their unforgettable hits, this seven-piece live band replicates the authentic Beastie Boys experience with three MCs, a world-class DJ, and visuals from their iconic video collection. What? The crowds get to relive carefree times and always sing along word for word in a party atmosphere. You're doing karaoke. Yeah. I don't get it. I get it. beats me next up andrew lee an american country singer music artist from kentucky musical influences like john prine hank williams jr alan jackson george straight tyler childers and morgan wallen okay you had me for a minute no and then you lost me ethan carl is also there he's a singer songwriter born and raised outside of st louis with influences such as parker mccollum john mayer and travis tritt how do you have those for this incredible event 45 a day stop it 80 for two days or you can get the two-day vip package which is 195 wow she gets eight drink tickets per day you're gonna get tanked jesus 195 to listen to that shit but you get a branded glass to take home i mean that seems worth it it anyway crime rate what we are interested in here and uh what people are so freaking out about in this town property crime there's a reason it's almost double the national average so i don't know they got crackheads and you know people but that's also college towns it's always higher yeah the property crime is definitely yeah you get people doing dumb shit you bring a fucking event like bourbon and bones what was it and you get you give people eight drink tickets per day you're gonna get some property crime that's gonna be a problem violent crime murder rape robbery and of course assault the mount rushmore of crime is only slightly above average it's pretty close so not bad that's probably it was probably at average and then you add in all of the like frat party uh non-consensual fucking weird shit that goes on there and it goes way up uh straight dick comes out and it's all over that's right uh that said let's talk about some murder here okay now that we're done talking about uh the the impact of the date rape on the crime rate we'll uh move on to this here okay let's talk about a murder let's talk about a woman first man what a journey she has here uh stephanie lynn now i believe she's born pruitt but then later on she goes by stephanie ray and then she's back to pruitt so for the majority of the story is when she's going by stephanie ray so we'll call her stephanie ray for now um she's born june 29th 1974 and by the midnight of the night she's born and she's born in the middle of the night and she's a single mother of three dang by 21 22 years old yeah she's got three kids she's single same thing my mom did it's tough that's a tough thing to do um and everybody she's very nice um she she's very into gardening by the way and really really into gardening i mean you know what it is out there james real roses quiet yeah maybe uh she puts angels all over her house too real into angels and gardening she sounds like she's a 73 year old lady is what she sounds like but she's looking for solace in her early 20s here uh but she's a very nice and kind everybody says about her um by the mid 90s she's in another relationship not with the father of her children but with somebody else a guy named russell bucklew b-u-c-k-l-e-w yep uh now russell goes by rusty of course fuck yeah he's russell earl buckley and he's a very nice guy and he's a very nice guy and he's a very nice guy and he's a very nice guy and he's a very nice guy and he's a very nice guy born may 16th 1968 so that's six years older than her old rusty bucklew okay now rusty is born with a strange illness that does not affect a lot of people uh it's a it's called can uh canaver or cavernous cavernous heman uh hema heman geo giama heman giama cavernous cavernous wow heman giama okay sounds like uh it's gross it sounds like something that attacks the oompa loompas i believe it does actually if you mess with the vicious canid if you mess with the with the uh with with the chocolate river it'll it'll happen so now this is clusters of malformed weak walled blood vessels that grow into and this might be the grossest uh four words we've ever put together and this is a murder show yeah that grow into spongy blood-filled tumors yikes jesus christ god damn it i was hungry um oh that's the thing uh in him in different places for different people for him it's mainly his face head neck and the inside of his throat the uvula which is a little dangly thing there in the back everywhere visible and the dangly thing and the dangly thing oh yeah it's pretty rare uh it occurs in about two-tenths of one percent of the general population and then the ones that manifest everywhere your driver's license shows well the oral slimmer the oral cavity version meaning the lips tongue palate and uvula is even more rare with two thousandths of one percent of people are affected by this this is poor guy it's so fucking exceedingly rare like this is you really got delta shit genetic hand if you got this this is fucked it's all fucked out so spongy blood-filled tumors it's think about spongy blood-filled tumors unbelievable now we'll have we have contradictory kind of uh accounts of his young life now we know that he came from a stable home meaning they didn't weren't moving all the time weren't getting like foreclosed on or evicted uh decent parents meaning they worked and the kids were like had clean clothes on and shit like that so they have that but there's also a lot of uh uh talk about his dad robert bucklew um being kind of uh having a big temper and uh you know alcoholism and abuse and trauma allegations and all that kind of thing did his spongy blood filled tumors manifest as at a young age or was this something that he got yeah no no he's born with this oh my god this is something you're born with and it develops all the time you're born with all the time um there's also a claim later that he his house was filled with lead paint as a kid because he was born in 68 and that he had a lot of lead i don't know if he was eating it or what but he had a lot of lead paint exposure that left him developmentally delayed sure and that's a lot of lead paint um this is janna kramer from wind down with janna kramer i had this moment the other day where i thought why am i waiting for my next vacation to enjoy life i don't need a week off just a day to rest and recharge would be amazing and so i went to resortpass.com there are hundreds of hotel resort pools spas and private beaches that you can be enjoying today without spending the night i booked a one-day pass at the four seasons hotel in spa nashville and i'm like wow why am i just learning about resort pass i may have only been 15 minutes from home but it felt like a whole different world i found myself settled into a cabana just smiling umbrella drink my favorite book lunch brought right to me and i'm thinking this is exactly what i needed luxury resort day passes start at just 25 it's a great deal go to resortpass.com slash janna and use my code janna to get 20 off when you spend a hundred dollars that's code janna at resortpass.com slash janna he also by the time he's an adult and hooking up with stephanie he's has a son already that i don't think he sees ever at all uh with a woman named cindy boy and she's going to be boyer now he's not a good guy you would you would think with your fate your whole head full of tumors spongy blood-filled tumors that you'd be like i'm going to be nice to people because i'm gross yeah humility might be purchased with that right no no no no no he's one of the narcissists he's one of the narcissist killers and thieves by 1996 he's got 21 prior convictions and charges i mean yeah it goes either way you either deal with it and you feel yeah you feel humble or you fucking lash out big time and this would tells me that maybe his childhood wasn't such a great time because it's someone with a medical problem like that and if they had good loving parents i can't imagine they'd be doing things like burglary theft grand theft felony stealing um oh also attacks on previous girlfriends physical beatings that he put on two different girlfriends in 1992 and 1994 two years apart didn't even learn someone is willing to suck his spongy tumor-filled cock and this guy is fucking beating them up is he out of his mind about it he should be so thankful and just so happy about that can you imagine so he's got a lot of problems um and on top of that if if there's anything that could make him more irresistible yeah it's that he's also completely hooked on opiates for years as well because right these spongy blood-filled tumors are painful oh they're not comfortable they're they're a little uncomfortable oddly enough which i could see if all of his things were you know like grumpy things like you know he punched a guy at the 7-eleven or something like that i would understand but all these other things it's doesn't make sense i guess he would be grumpy with this type of shit so he is dependent on these opioids for a long time before march of 96 and this whole time when all this is going to go down oh yeah he had it for a long time he was in it now and this is before like oxycontin even came out yeah it came out way before the florida hillbillies ruined the whole thing absolutely uh this is probably giving him more for Christ's sake, back then, or something like that. Something ugly. So, Stephanie and Rusty. Let's talk about old Steph and old Rusty here. Now, they lived together for a while in a mobile home in the county. It was not a healthy relationship. Shocking. He's beat two. Now he's really figured it out. You know, that's what it is. No, he's beat up his ex-girlfriends, and it's not good. He's real possessive. Oh? Real jealous. Are you going out with a guy who's not filled with spongy, blood-soaked tumors? Is that what's going on? Are you seeing. Who are you talking to? Yeah, you. Is his face not filled with disgusting, blood-filled tumors? Is that why? If you found another guy exactly like me, I swear to Christ. Oh, God. What are the odds? They're so small. This is bad. So, Stephanie tried to leave him, and there's an early breakup attempt where she tried to end things, and it did not go well. He didn't allow it? You could say that. That's one way of putting it. He tied her to a bed with dog chains. Oh, boy. And put a knife to her throat and told her he was going to kill her. Uh-huh. That's an option. Or flowers. One of the two. Those city women. Wow. That's insane. She talked him out of killing her and talked him into letting her go. And the moment. She got let go, she went right to the police. Okay. And a warrant was issued for his arrest. Okay. Now, during one of these tumultuous times. Because remember, she has three kids with her, too. Right. So, in tow. So, during one of these tumultuous times, she needed a place to stay during one of these breakups. And a co-worker offered her. You know, you guys can stay at my house. Sure. At his house, I should say. Oh, boy. Which is. That's going to go real well. That's going to go real well with Spongy Tumor Face. So, this is Michael Houston Sanders is his name. It's a pretty cool name. Michael Houston Sanders. It sounds pretty badass. Sounds like he can cook some meat. Cook some meat or, yeah, something. I don't know. Born December 1st, 1968. He's from Granite City, Illinois. Oh. And he's the son of Jerry and Dorothy Jo Sanders. Sure. And he is also. He's also a single parent as well. Oh. He has two small boys, John, Michael, and Zachary, who at this time are like four and six. Yeah. And he's been raising them completely by himself in a trailer. You know, just working and doing that. His wife left and is. Just left him completely. Left the kids. That's rare, right? High and dry. It's not normal. Yeah, there's something wrong there when the woman leaves kids behind and doesn't. Let's give a second thought. You can say that's as sexist as you want. That's just nature. Yeah. They literally have chemicals inside of them telling them not to do that. We don't. It's a miracle that any. Guys do that shit all the time. It's a miracle that any guy stays around because biologically, that's not how we're set up. Biologically, we're set to go, great, we put one in you, who's next? That's biology. You got this one taken care of. Hang on to that one for 18 minutes. Yeah. For us to stick around, it actually takes some thought control. Yeah. For women, I think it's, you know, obviously they have the stress and everything like that too, but there's like biology telling them don't let anything happen to this baby. There's nothing attached to me with that thing. Nothing at all. No. You look at it, you go, whoa, what is that? Jesus, that's. I did that? Oh, shit. Okay. I mean, if you say so, sure. You had to cut that thing off of you, for Christ's sake. Yeah, it was. Even when it came out, it was still attached. Yeah. So, now, he waited two years after she left to file for divorce. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, because he wanted her to come back, essentially. But he's very much a good father. He said, you know, he sewed homemade Halloween costumes for the kids. Atta boy. That's all he could afford and enrolled them in a daycare where the workers would marvel at the single father dropping them off and picking them up after work. Look at him, marveling. That's the other thing. The standard for us is so low. He dropped. He dropped his child off, then went to a place, worked, and then came back and picked them up. But you know what's even more impressive? Amazing. Before he did it, he filled out some paperwork and paid a bill. He paid a bill. I can't believe it. They show up with, like, lunchboxes every day and their shirts are on the right way. Shoes on the right feet. It's incredible. Yeah. One of the workers said they came before everything. No matter where he was, he had them with him. So, that's. They're a little, you know. It's kind of the way it goes here. Tight-knit group. Well, you have to be. You have to be at that point, you know? Now, are they together, Stephanie and Michael? That's the question. Yes. That's the thing. Yeah, they are. They're co-workers. They work together. But people, basically, some people from work go, oh, no, they're just work friends. But then other people who know them better at work are like, no, they're hooking up also. They're work friends who became more, you know? So, somehow, she ends up on Valentine's Day, 1996. She is back at the trailer that she has with Rusty. Uh-oh. So, she was just there for a couple days and then she's going back and forth and, you know, how these relationships work. And when I tell you the rest of Stephanie's story and everything, it's. She is. She. I don't know what kind of background she came from as far as who her father is. Her mother seems pretty solid. I don't know who her father is, but he must have been a giant gaping asshole because no one who had even a fucking remotely decent father, even one you saw once a year who sent you a birthday card, would put up with the shit that she puts up with for the most part. But then. It's a lot. So, on Valentine's Day, 1996, she ends it with Rusty. Done. On Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day. Romantic. Yeah. So, he moved out of the trailer that they shared and went to live with his parents. Oh. So. Left her with all the kids? He's going to be thrilled, as you can imagine. Yeah. Well, she. They're not his kids, so he. Oh, he has kids from another relationship. He has a kid from another relationship, but who knows where that kid is. I assume with his mom, but not with him. Probably for the best, honestly. So, kids, you know, they're weird. They don't want to look at some sponge-filled tumors. No. Dad's growing flowers on his neck. What's going on? No, thank you. It's sticking out of him. Yeah. So, he moves back in with his parents, and there's that. Okay. So, a few weeks go by, nothing happens. Uh-huh. Nothing. About three weeks go by where he left. Nobody. He's not banging on the door. He's not tying her to beds with dog chains. Yeah. Nothing's happening. Then, on March 6th, 1996, here he comes. Okay. Here comes Rusty. He goes back to the trailer, and he finds. Michael Sanders there. Yeah. This is the trailer that he shared with her. Oh, boy. So, he considers this his house, even though it's not. But for him, everything's his, you know? I used to live here. Yeah. So, he sees what's going on, and he's like, oh, she's fucking this guy, and I'm pissed off about it. Okay. So, then, this is what happens. He gets there, sizes all this up, and then, quickly, I'll read from later court documents. Quote, Bucklew returned to the trailer he had shared with Ray, meaning Stephanie, found Michael Sanders there, and concluded that Sanders and Ray were romantically involved, put a knife to Sanders' throat, and threatened to kill Sanders if he ever came back to the trailer. Oh, kicked him out of. Her trailer. Somebody else's house. Yeah. I don't know if she hired him as a temporary bouncer or what, but, yeah, he kicks him out at knife point. Mind you. So, you know, that's how that went. Later on in the same evening, and then, Rusty left after that. With the knife, got him out of there. He's like, you keep him the fuck away from here, and then he left. But later on that evening, he comes back again, Rusty does, and finds Stephanie alone now. So, Michael Sanders didn't come back. I mean, that's what he wanted. And I'll read again. Quote, Bucklew returned to the trailer, found Ray alone, threw him out of the trailer, threatened her with a knife, cut her jaw, and punched her in the face before leaving. What? He sliced her. He sliced her with the knife, like, put it to her throat and sliced her a little bit, and also punched her in the face. She called the cops. Good, yeah. So, by the way, she's gonna have a scar on her jaw after that. Forever. There's a picture of the cut and the scar afterwards, and I'll post it on social media as well. Okay, so she calls the cops. Now, Rusty, the next day, March 6th, 7th, 1996, Rusty calls Stephanie at work, which is a place called Ceramo. I don't know what they do. I tried to figure it out, and I can't. So, and he made the threat here. He makes a threat and says, well, this is a quote at the time from Stephanie. Quote, he said that he knew I'd been cheating on him and that he would if he ever seen Michael around me again. He said he'd kill him and me and all the kids. And all the kids. He said he'd kill us all is what he said. said yeah i'll kill you two and all the kids you're three and his two we'll make this a seven pack here lucky seven um after that call stephanie stopped going back to the trailer she's she basically she never went back again because she was terrified so she moved in with michael sanders full time because she couldn't i mean that's one way to force them somewhere else yeah yeah you're pushing her right in right at this guy um like i said well i mean if he hadn't at one point tied her up with dog chains and wasn't an abusive monster to begin with maybe he could have won her back with some niceties but it is fascinating how a tumultuous toxic relationship like that with a jealous person oh that behavior literally forces them to do exactly what it is that you're terrified they're gonna yeah it's the same thing if you tell you know if you have a teenage daughter you tell her you're gonna kill her you're gonna kill her you're gonna kill her yeah you can't ever see that boy again she's gonna run to that guy you're just forcing it unless you can you may as well be holding his hips yeah while while he thrusts he doesn't have to thrust let me let me roll that down for you let me let me roll that down your shaft for you there big guy i want to make sure his sunroof and help you out jesus christ man yeah you're doing that though you're pushing people into shit unless it's like a kid that you can physically say you can't leave this area if it's an adult you cannot force an adult into shit you can't it's impossible and you shouldn't try it's about what eight to ten is about the threshold there because after that depending on the child and how willing they are to fucking rebel you could really start a problem unless you have an insane kid it's up to pretty much through the time they get a car is pretty much you can tell them where to go and what to be unless you're one of these kids it's like fuck you and runs out of the car and you're like oh my god i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die i'm gonna die out the door it runs away but then you probably abuse them that's why they do that there's 13 year olds to go get pregnant though oh absolutely yeah they don't have good home lives for the most part that's not something you know for the most part i'm sure there's a three percent but for the most part that's an escape from something so it's fucked up um calm the fuck down i would say so she's living at her parents house uh her mom's house mom and her mom's boyfriend and russell is living at his parents house so they've gone both gone way backwards and and shit uh from the from his bullshit now the charges from the attack here he is that he came to the house and did all this he's going to be charged with burglary assault stealing false imprisonment and unlawful uh unlawful use of a weapon so that's a lot those are a lot of charges he's looking at some and especially with his priors 10 to 15 right he's looking at some time here yeah um march 21st 1996 comes along yeah okay now russell here rusty yeah senua rust rustolium here he steals a car his nephew's car yeah so you know sort of stealing borrows his nephew's car without permission we'll say makes his nephew let him take it yeah then his brother by the way and i feel bad for this guy's brother after all this is a jefferson city police officer shit he's like yeah my jerk off brother yeah that's great um and which is a lot of times this is what happens if you have an abusive background you have one kid who's a complete criminal fuck up and the other kid's a cop like that's yeah that's kind of how it goes that cop ain't so exactly cop so he also in addition to stealing his nephew's car he steals two of his brother's pistols oh and his two sets of his brother's handcuffs oh and his two sets of his brother's handcuffs oh and his two sets of his brother's handcuffs okay now i don't know where he keeps all this shit but he stole it all and he also takes a roll of duct tape and two knives you've already got so i've got handcuffs he's got two pistols two sets of handcuffs a roll of duct tape two knives and a stolen car from his nephew wow that's what that's his uh his inventory right now sure now before leaving the house his parents house or his family's house whatever with all this shit he sits down and writes a note to his own family family and he asked them among other things in the note asked them please not don't report the car stolen to police i took it i'll bring you know it's fine stolen i'm borrowing it i'll bring it back it's i'll bring it back yeah chill out um so in the afternoon he drives from the troy area down to cape juridu county yeah and he finds stephanie because you know that's where he's going and what he's up to yeah where's she at well he finds stephanie but he does not approach her he stalks her for the day nice yeah uh he began this is from uh court docs here buck lou began surreptitiously following ray as she left work and ran errands following her watching her ultimately discovering where she lived by then following her back to michael sanders trailer yeah so he's got a lot of stuff to do and he's got a lot of stuff to do and he's got a lot of stuff to do so that's what she did she knew where she worked so he went there and then she didn't recognize that car because it's his his nephews yeah and he followed her and stalked her all day so he follows her back to the trailer she's inside and obviously so is michael michael and stephanie are inside plus four kids are in the trailer um michael's two sons and two of stephanie's children are in there don't know where the third one is but two of stephanie's children are in there stephanie's kids are there i think the third one was possibly at a friend's a nearby neighbor's house or something playing so at the trailer uh rusty arrives but he doesn't follow her up to the door or follow right in no he lays back and waits for a while a period of time sits stews watches just sits builds exactly builds not now this could also be taken you could also cool down in a time like this or you can build up and he's building up yeah and then he gets up and finally gets up the balls to go up and knock on the door oh jesus why what is it nothing good's coming from that nothing's good so nothing good could come of this so one of michael sanders little boys the older one opens the door oh shit and he uh now michael sanders saw buckle saw rusty coming through a so he knows what's going on he sees this guy's coming over last time he saw this guy the only time he's met him he put a knife to his throat so threatened to kill him so what he does is he grabs the kids yells for his son moves the kids into another room all four small kids toward a back bedroom and he also throws them in a back bedroom grabs another goes in another back bedroom and grabs a shotgun so now michael's got a shotgun now rusty when he came through the door he already had a pistol in each hand that's how he that's how he crossed the threshold fucking guns blazing duck holiday style okay he came in as a cowboy right out of the gate right out of the gate kick it okay i see him i know the little kid opened it not as cool but kicking open the door and just wow yeah so it's wild um he's got a pistol in each hand might be a little bit more powerful but he's got a pistol in his hand and he's got a pistol in Michael Sanders steps into the hallway holding a shotgun. Here we go. So now we have at this hallway, we have the kids in a back bedroom. And this is a trailer hallway, so small. Very narrow hallway. Yeah, this isn't a big, giant hallway. Very narrow hallway with walls that echo and shit. And if you do a chicken dance, you're whacking funny bones. Oh, absolutely. So one at the end of the hallway with a shotgun, and then at the front of the hallway, you've got two guns pointing here. This is a standoff. Now, apparently, Rusty yelled, get down, and then without any other warning, just started firing his guns. So Michael Sanders is hit with two bullets, one of which enters his chest and rips through his lung. And he drops the shotgun. Drops the shotgun on the ground. It goes off and blasts a big hole in the trailer wall. Uh-huh. Okay. Now, Sanders is hit twice, once in the lung and, I believe, once in the leg. Shit. Not good. So he's down. Now, one of the kids, John Michael Sanders, the six-year-old, who was a first-grade student at the time, he described it as, you know, he was playing Nintendo and someone knocked on the front door. Oh, Jesus. I hope it was Sega, for at least his sake, by then. I hope he wasn't playing original NES in 96. That's rough. It's almost worse than this situation. It's bad. He's the one who unlocked the door and saw Rusty come in with a gun in each hand, and he said that, you know, he just saw the guy come in and he shot his father, basically. That's it. So Michael Sanders is on the floor, slumped down, holding his chest and bleeding to death. And, um. Then, Rusty aims the gun at his head to finish him off. He's got a final shot. here but he sees the six-year-old so you would think opposite oh it's gonna say no you would think i mean i've i've seen movies where killers can't kill people because yeah what the hell's the the oh what is the movie where the guy says oh it's it's fucking al swearingen in deadwood out the biggest he's gonna stab seth and he looks up and sees his kid and he goes the fucking kid unmanned me he unnerved me i couldn't do it he goes he just took it all unmanned me he said this instead he sees the kid pulls the gun away from michael sanders and swings it at the six-year-old and starts firing at him oh boy the six-year-old he's gonna kill as the kid is the kid running what's happening no he's in shock standing there and it's a trailer so i mean it's all pretty small uh he fires a shot at his head and misses wow luckily he's not a great shot terrible shot or he's on a lot of pills one of the two yeah now the kids run in and hide in a uh closet in a toy box in the closet all four kids are in this by then it's at this point where he turned back to sanders when the kid ran away he didn't chase him he turns back to michael sanders and now stephanie gets in the middle of it she's here too she's that she's been here the whole time she's in the middle of it she steps between rusty and michael as michael die is dying on the floor rusty orders her get down on your knees he says she says no okay well don't want to so leave pistol lips are in the face uh-huh uh real hard uh breaks her jaw or her cheekbone there's a little little uh discrepancy on which one but either way fucks you up her face broke her face and basically she drops to the kitchen floor half conscious after this he then whips out a pair of handcuffs handcuffs her behind her back and drags her out of the trailer as the children scream sweet jesus drags her out in handcuffs throws her in her his nephew's car and drives away wow well the imagine you're one of these kids could you imagine a more tremendous they were playing video games four minutes ago everything was fine being so innocent and children like snack pack fucking kicking it doing whatever and then not knock on the door bang put your teddy grams down you go fucking you know hey lots of people maybe it's one of their friends coming by yeah and here comes a guy with two pistols there's gunplay this is going on your mom smashed in the face this guy shot in the head and she's out in the car and now you're alone with a dead guy or a dying man what a horrible six 96 flavor of bonkers out too dude you're gonna get all sorts of shit here yeah you got uh you got a new flavor of bonkers which is much better they've already added the purple horseshoe to the lucky charms things are going well it's a good time it's a good time to be alive uh unfortunately for michael sanders he's not gonna find out exactly what a good time it is to be alive because he's bleeding to death on the floor of his trailer um now witnesses outside called the police because they said they heard shots from the trailer because oh man is that loud and then the wall opened up yeah inside a normal house a gunfire is muffled inside of a trailer it's like a speaker it's like a it's like i mean it's like a megaphone for gunfire inside the house it might be loud inside inside a house but from the outside trailer oh it is a speaker box it is from it makes it even louder on the outside right crazy loud yeah it sounds like it's a megaphone yeah sounds like a 96 accord just drove by trunk full of speakers trunk full of 15s so the they told uh they said we we heard shots and then we saw a man forcing a handcuffed woman into his car so we figured that we figured we should call probably where they came i would imagine they figured we should probably call the chances of it being two different places right now are crazy probably off yeah so he drives starts driving this is going to be a hundred mile drive they're going to take where are they going around just not not straight hundred hundred he doesn't have a plan oh at all um no during the drive rusty demands sex he says you're gonna have sex with me she said apparently she didn't comply with everything he wanted to do she said she didn't comply with everything he wanted to do from her uh-huh so with her hand still cuffed he drives to a wooded area in the middle of fucking nowhere pulls the car off puts her in the back seat and rapes her while she's still handcuffed okay if that's not bad enough then he gets back behind the wheel of the car and turns north onto interstate 55 towards st louis this is janna kramer from wind down with janna kramer i had this moment the other day where i thought why am i waiting for my next vacation to go to the interstate 55 i'm going to go to the interstate 55 and i'm going to go to the i don't need a week off just a day to rest and recharge would be amazing and so i went to resortpass.com there are hundreds of hotel resort pools spas and private beaches that you can be enjoying today without spending the night i booked a one-day pass at the four seasons hotel in spa nashville and i'm like wow why am i just learning about resort pass i may have only been 15 minutes from home but it felt like a whole different world i found myself settled into a community just smiling umbrella drink my favorite book lunch brought right to me and i'm thinking this is exactly what i needed luxury resort day passes start at just 25 it's a great deal go to resortpass.com slash janna and use my code janna to get 20 off when you spend a hundred dollars that's code janna at resortpass.com slash janna with a bleeding woman with a broken face who's just been raped with her hands cuffed behind her back while she's worried about her fucking kids back at the trailer and her dying boyfriend this is horrific okay so obviously so they do this um now it gets this is the craziest part of all i've said now it's crazy he's crazier now now he starts saying that he is not going to go down for this surrendering he's quote not going back to jail oh quote unquote and he says he's he starts telling her that he found it funny that he killed michael sanders and that he knew he's dead and he's gonna die even though he was still alive when he left because he used hollow point bullets and it's so far out in the country that they'd rip through him and it would kill him before anybody will have a chance to help him so he's not worried about that then he says he's not going back to prison and he's taking he will take as many police officers with him as he can okay imagine you're stephanie how terrifying this has to be already for this whole thing then he makes it worse yeah then he reaches down and over and over and over again plays the same song what is it bon jovi's blaze of glory oh over and over and over again in a blaze of glory over and over not even dead or alive in a blaze of glory no he wants this because this is he's going out in a blaze of glory this is how he puts it he's gonna have a gunfight with the cops at the over and over it would end fucking repeat back to one imagine dead or alive blaze of glory those are different songs right very different songs yeah it's more acoustic different different genres of bon jovi yeah yeah it's the one of dead or alive is more acoustic man it's yeah that's from uh from young guns young guns blaze of glory is on that fucking horrible yeah that's that's like better roses and shit yeah like hair metal bon jovi as opposed to like kind of pop rock bon jovi yeah there's before that's that's when you get into his wannabe like i'm getting real 80s man it's so hard because there there's a couple of good songs that he does oh god i i don't know i i don't even know anymore it's fine i mean you can listen to it we go yeah this was a time that i can i can hearken back to another time but bon jovi sucks right it's pretty much when we were kids bon jovi was a wuss band let's be realistic it was a wuss band oh yeah yeah remember like beavis and butthead they gave the kid a winger shirt they could have just as easily given him a bon jovi shirt nobody was cool at like bon jovi you know what i mean that was the that was like a chick music and like they they really had just the song from young guns and it was only cool because in the in the movie outside of the movie it sucks it's stupid he had that he had that crappy bad medicine song that was terrible he had so many bad songs there's so many more too like there's so many you'll hear and go is that that is bon jovi too that's right they had a lot of hits now i can't hate him just because he's a guinea from new jersey so there's something about that that i gotta i like his i like hearing stories about his family like he travels he doesn't have like an entourage he has like his brothers and dad and his uncles and they like rough people up for him and shit like i'm like that's awesome kind of he brings like his little goon italian family with him i like that that's it's fascinating that we collectively as a as a country and a world passed that as good. That was good. Great. His guitarist fucked the hottest woman on the planet. Married her. For a while. Yeah. For a while. Until she found other scumbags to be with. So she was like, oh, this is trash. I'm going to go fuck somebody's trash here. Bon Jovi's dad and brothers beat up Sebastian Bach, which is hilarious. He's huge. He's like six foot five, but he weighs like 86 pounds. Oh, does he? He weighs, back then especially, this was when Skid Row was opening for Bon Jovi because they're both from New Jersey. Oh, got it. Bon Jovi found Skid Row. Yeah, right, right, right, right. They were East Coast and everything was happening out in L.A. Exactly. They couldn't afford to go out there. No. So I guess he said something opening on stage that he didn't intend to be insulting, but that the Bon Jovi clan took as insulting. And he said he got backstage and all of a sudden here's every male relative Bon Jovi has fucking picking him up and throwing him in a room and beating the shit out of him and telling him to fucking watch his mouth. I was like, that's hilarious. Sebastian probably felt zero fear around him because he, Sebastian's dick is probably bigger than Bon Jovi is. Taller, yeah. Yeah. No, he said he was like, what the fuck? He was terrified. He said, I thought they were going to kill me and throw me in a fucking garbage compactor. He goes, this is crazy. I'm just in a room with a bunch of angry Italian guys. He goes, I don't know what the hell to do. They look serious. Did his family muscle his career into being legitimate? It's bad. It's bad, but it came up. Think about the 80s though. There was way worse shit than that. Way worse shit than that. I mean, that was great compared to others. But anyway, they're flying down the road while this poor woman is bleeding and he's saying, I'm taking as many cops as I can with me in a blaze of glory. Just fucking stringing along over and over again. Too much. Jesus. Not even, it's my life. I'll do, you know, all that shit. He could have done that one. 15. I don't know. Who knows? Trying to think of Bon Jovi's look. He said, wow. Now, there's cops everywhere looking for this car. Yeah. Everywhere. There's, a description had gone out over the radio from the neighbors and so they're looking and it's a 100 mile deal here and finally at 10.30 or 11 p.m. somewhere in there. Yeah. The highway patrol spots the car on the road on Interstate 55 south of St. Louis and several patrol cars pursue the vehicle north on I-270. The chase ends near the U.S. Highway 40, you know, going across when Rusty's vehicle hits a patrol, he rear ends a patrol car. They're trying to like box him in and he bashes into a patrol car. So down, I guess, near the Festus and Chris on the Crystal City stretch here as Rusty approached the St. Louis Metro, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, that's when they were all following them. By the way, when the car was stopped, when it's hemmed in by patrol cars after he rear ends somebody, they said they saw Rusty pointing a gun at Stephanie's head and gesturing for the police to go away. Oh boy. So now he's got a hostage. Yeah. In a car, which is fucking insane. So, then somehow through all of this, we're not sure exactly how it began, but gunfire starts to erupt. Oh boy. Now it's a shootout. Yeah. And they're shooting at him and he's trying to duck down and shooting shots out the window at them and they're firing at the car, which is crazy because there's a fucking hostage in there. Yeah. But he's firing at them. We think that he fired at them first is why they would fire into a fucking occupied car with a hostage in it. That's crazy. You don't do that. Don't they try not to do that? I would fucking hope so. But if someone's firing at them, I guess then they're like, well, I'm justified no matter what, even if I kill this lady, I suppose, which also you're getting shot at. So I don't know what the procedure is for that. Firing while taking cover is another thing too. I don't know. Something. Take cover. Yeah, I guess. Is she hit? Well, they hit him twice. Wow. They hit Rusty once in the chest and once in the head. Oh, but don't kill him. He's alert. When he is shot at some point, he accidentally shoots his gun and shoot Stephanie in the leg. Okay. He got shot in the gun and it was like bang, bang one of those and he hit shoot Stephanie in the leg by accident. That one wasn't even on purpose, but this is all happening from less than 10 feet away. By the way, there's like they got him hemmed in. There's a police car next to him and then they're outside the police car firing over here. He's firing back at that. Oh, Jesus. It's insane. Chaos. Fucking chaos. So Stephanie survives being shot in the leg, pistol whipped, raped, dragged around. Oh, fuck. It's insane. He, Rusty, took a bullet to the head but survived, which is crazy. And he began, I guess that's when he slumped over passing out. That's when he fired the bullet is what Stephanie said. He was like falling down. Basically, he got hit in the head and it was kind of, in and out of it there. Voluntary body movement. Yeah. Yeah. Her leg injury resulted in a pretty brief hospital stay. Not too, too bad for her. And he'll, he won't, he'll only be in the hospital for five days. He got shot in the head. Shot in the head? Shot in the chest? And the head. Wild. So the next day, police visit Rusty in the hospital. I'd like to talk to him. A police officer, this is a Missouri Highway, Highway Patrol officer named, Al Rail. He comes to the bedside and reads him his Miranda rights and asks him whether he'd like to make a statement and Rusty said no. Uh-huh. And then the cop stopped, got up and left. That's it. And he did his job. That's all he could do. But then on March 26, 1996, he's released from the hospital and transported to the sheriff's office. Uh-oh. Where the same police officer, Real, approaches him again and re-reads the Miranda warnings. Sure. And, you know, asks if he'd like to give a statement. And Rusty said, what charge do you guys have on me? Sir. You want the fucking full list? There's a lot. Do you want me to just go over the big ones or you want me to really run down the list? Reckless driving, you dumb fuck. I mean, you blew like three red lights at least back there. You rear-ended a cop car. That's a few, yeah, you know, gunfire, child negligence, safety issues, murder, you know, without insurance. Yeah, you stole a car. This isn't your car. Yeah. All right. So they said, you know, I'm sure they've got you charged with capital murder, first-degree murder, the cop said. I mean, I don't see any other way around it. So they asked, they hand him his medication and some water to take because he's all fucking shot up. He's in a wheelchair in the interrogation office still. And he continues to ask about the case against him. He says, what is that bring? The death penalty? Oh. And the investigator said it could, yeah, it could. Penalties at this point. Yeah, we're talking, hmm, yeah, well, he knows he's fucked. I mean, they saw him doing everything. How long am I fucked for? So, Rusty then said, yeah, but it would take a long time. Like, they wouldn't execute me tomorrow. Like, so it'd take a while. So I got some time. Then he signs the written waiver of his rights. And they said, I read you your rights downstairs and you signed the release. Is that correct? And he said, yes, sir. That's all on camera. And he sits there in front of the video camera for about two hours and spills it. Says everything that fucking happened. Really? Everything that happened. Video tape statement sitting there. He, in the two-hour tape, he refers to painful and inoperable tumors in his head that caused him to take a bunch of pain medications. He says he's frequently in pain. He's speaking clearly and without confusion for two hours, providing a lot of detail, including the fights with Stephanie, the beatings he had inflicted on her in the past, the threats he made against her on the 21st that day, on the 6th of March when he came over there and attacked her twice. He basically starts, they say what happened and he doesn't start with today. He starts with weeks ago. Starts with like Valentine's Day. Basically, we got kicked out. She broke up with him. She broke up with me. Wait, what? She broke up? Yeah. Yeah. He talks about his medical condition. He talks about the falling out with her. He talks about his first meeting with Michael Sanders when he returned to the trailer and he said, quote, I guess this was this Mike guy. I don't know his name. So I grabbed a knife and I put it to his throat and I said, you better get the hell out of my house or I'm going to kill you. If you ever come back, I'm going to kill you. It's not your house. Not your house now. He also admitted getting violent with Stephanie, punching her in the face during one fight and tying her up during another. This isn't even the dog chain incident. This is another instance where he tied her up. They said, what did you tie her up with? And he said, oh, they were like little plastic ties. So I don't know if they mean like zip ties like for riot police or what, but, and the cop said, oh, okay. They said, and it's crazy. You can see this, a lot of this interrogation. There's a video of it and he's real matter of fact. Just very little demeanor change. no, like, oh, this part, It's hard or none of that shit. Just here's what happened. Had some sex today. Simple as can be. Yeah. At one point when they offered him to rest, he said this. He said they said, well, I think we'll just let you rest now, Rusty, unless you want to talk some more. I mean, I'd be glad to sit here and listen to you. And Rusty said, quote, I'd like to talk some more. I'm not. I'm not sleepy. They gave him the out of we'll not talk about. He said, it feels good to get this shit off my chest. If you don't mind the shit, it feels good to get all this shit off my chest. This bad shit I've done for a long time. So that's when he just keeps going on about the relationship and all the terrible things he's done. And just the shit, the shit off my chest. Well, shit away. It's called murder and rape, man. I like to call it shit. It makes it a little easier for me to process. You know what I mean? That's funny. He says that he. Killed Michael. He says that he shot him again and again and again. She only shot him twice. Twice. Yeah. So, but he said again and again and again, which fired a lot in his mind to people when they fire guns like that in that situation, they don't remember how many shots they fired. They, they take cops that have lots of experience and they go, I fired two shots and they look at their gun. They fired six. Yeah. They didn't even notice they fired. And it was just a matter of his head, especially because if you've never shot someone or shot at someone. You likely just assume that everything that comes out of that gun hit that guy. Yeah. Well, I think he only took two shots at him. Oh, really? All the way. Yeah. I think that was all he took. If I'm not mistaken, um, was the two shots and then he fell on the shotgun went off and that was like, Oh, that kind of ended the whole thing and then fired one at the kid. So he's only out three rounds. I think that's when he came up and put the gun up to his head after that. And that's when he saw the kid fired at the kid and then it all escalated from there. Okay. So there's a stretch of tape. Where he talks about, maybe I should have an attorney. He says, well, do you think I should have an attorney present? Hello, police officers. It's like asking the Fox. Do you think I should keep the hen house door open or, or no? Should I close it? Yeah. Um, keep these eggs in the yard. What do you think? So the cop says, I can't tell you that rusty. Yeah. Like that ain't my thing. Uh, he said, how fast could you get an attorney here? I mean, a public defender is all I can handle. You know, I can't. I can't afford nothing here. Um, the cop said, if that's what you want to do, you just have to tell me that. And he's trailing off and rusty said, I don't know, man. I don't know. He says, I don't know. And then pauses for a second and then goes right back into the telling of the story. Just dismiss that completely. Um, so he said, yeah, I went there. I confronted him. Um, he said, Stephanie took the kids into a back bedroom. He said that Sanders had a shotgun. Shotgun when I opened fire. So, you know, he was pointing it at me, basically self-defense. He said, quote, and he moved and I shot. And then his gun, he turned and his gun went off into the wall and I shot him again and again and again, I guess, which no, you didn't. Um, and he fell back in the room and I'm like, holy shit. Understatement of the year. I'm like, holy. Shit. You just murdered a man. So what were your, what were your thoughts here? Well, I'm like, holy shit was my main. Well, I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, I hate, I hate that. Yeah. I'm like, in a, in a like serious shit. Yeah. That's if you're talking. Yeah. You're something silly. I was down at the, you know, at the store and then this guy, and then this other guy came over and he slipped and I was like, holy shit. That guy just slipped on the floor. Like that's, that's a holy shit. Whoa. The guy didn't, the guy didn't run a red light and T-bone, uh, a station wagon. You shot a man in the chest. That's not, I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, holy shit. So he said, then he tried, then he said, Stephanie wanted to leave with him. Oh, he's, you know what? I'm going to leave my kids here with a bleeding out corpse. And I'm just, let's just go out for a talk. Let's me and you go out for a nice dinner. I'm actively bleeding. Yeah. I got a broken. I got a broken face and all, but I just, I'm feeling a kinship to you right now. It's very close. Leave the house without the good handcuffs. That's right. Uh, and he admitted to handcuffing her even. Right. And worse, he said, quote, and she wouldn't get down. Remember he said, get down on your knees. And I had adrenaline pumping and I smacked her in the head with the pistol. Not real hard, but I smacked her. I love tap. I love pistol whipping. You know, it doesn't take much. Jesus. Those are real hard. Yeah. They're made of metal most of the time. Uh, she went down on the ground and I cuffed her. I got her up and ran to the car, got into the car and took off. Okay. Um, so he said, and at that point before he took off, he said, and the guy meaning Sanders, the guy said something. And I said, fuck you, motherfucker. I said, fuck you, motherfucker. I'll kill you. And he goes, I think you already did. And I said, well, I hope not. Gotta go. Gotta go now. Bye. Um, so they, they medically, they don't think that's possible or true that the guy was still talking. It is the bullet through his lung, right? It's filling up with blood. He's literally drowning gargling. Yeah. There's no way he's talking. So they said he was still talking to you then. And he said, yes. So then he continued to tell this version somehow. This is crazy. He has a bleeding, terrified, handcuffed woman. In his car. And he spun this shit. Like they had a picnic basket and we're going for a romantic country drive. That's how he spun it. Literally. He was like, oh, we had this long drive and we had an intimate moment together. Like he's, that's how he was describing this shit. Like, like it was romantic and like, oh, finally reunited, you know, and it feels so good. And it's beautiful, isn't it? A nice Jarlsberg and an app. Oh boy. I'll tell you what she had. The, she picked out the perfect. Perfect. Pino noir for the situation. I was amazed. Honestly, not too much. Yeah. Not too sweet, but also almonds. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Very, very nice. Okie. Okie. So then he gets into his shootout with, in St. Louis County. Yeah. And where he downplays that too, which is pretty funny. He said, and that's when the shooting started. And I just laid down in the, in the seat and shot out, uh, out. And then they shot me. I think right here. And then I started shooting out the window. You know, how you do started firing. Good. That's how you, I can't count the number of times I've done that with the guy. I'm just like, I don't want to talk to these guys and just lay down in the seat. You start emptying your clip. That's how you do it. License and registration. My, I don't think so. Yeah. Not today, pal. I'm not, I'm not going to let you arrest me. Yeah. Speaking of duck holiday and everybody else, uh, so now rusty showed some emotion. When he talked about the fact that he's still alive. Then he got emotional. He cried. Not really. He said, why didn't they just kill me, man? I told them I didn't want to be put on life support and they did it anyway. He thought he was getting, he thought he was going out. How Jimmy blaze of glory in a blaze of glory, baby. He's like, well, this is not how that song ends with me in a wheelchair. So disappointed. They're going to be so mad at me. Wasn't supposed to end with me in a wheelchair, pathetically sipping from a plastic cup of water. You guys have provided for me. That's not how the song ends. I don't think there was a soundtrack to, uh, the little Sheen, uh, being a terrible actor. There's a soundtrack to everybody making Lou diamond Phillips, the face of all native Americans for the rest of time. And that redhead side saddle riding out of there. That was a man. Oh, yeah, there you go. So he also kept asking about the podcast. He kept saying, you think I'll get the max and the cop goes, I don't know. You shot at police officers, you dummy. Probably. I mean, he killed a guy, raped a woman and then shot at cops. Like in front of, you did all the, like, there's an aggravator. That's real nasty to everything you did. Like it's a lot and asked for a tax funded lawyer. My man, you're in so much trouble, crazy. Then toward the end of it, he said, I thought Steph was it, man. Meaning the one, one for him. Yeah, I thought Steph was it, man. And she broke my heart and I killed her boyfriend. Wow. This is just real heavy, man. That's what he said. I'm just, I mean, you know, heavy because of you, like you, nothing is heavy except for what you've done. That's why people break up every day. And then he also emphasized that he didn't understand why. She didn't want to be with him. It's like, I don't know why she did this and made me do all this. He said, he said, I was good to her, you know, besides the dog chains and little plastic zip ties and things, beatings. He said, quote, I keep the house clean. I love to cook. And then there's a long pause and he goes, I didn't beat on the kids. Oh, well, gee, I, yeah, I don't know why she didn't marry it. That seems like your marriage material. I mean, sure. There's a, but he didn't even beat on the kids. I didn't beat on the kids. Hell of a soft pick. Bitch for a dating website. Yeah. I keep the house clean. I love to cook. And I didn't beat on the kids. Please message me. I'd love to chat. Oh, that's your boy. Wow. That's remarkable. That is a remarkable statement that that's what he said. And that's what he thinks. I mean, think about where he came from that he thinks that's, like, all of it. All of that, James, and squishy blood-filled tumors. And a head full of spongy blood-filled tumors. I got to make up for it by not even beating on the kids, who, by the way, weren't even his. Right. I didn't beat another person's children. I didn't beat on her kids. Don't say that. That's his brag. And to top it all off, a healthy dose of opioid addiction. Oh, that's what I'm saying. The guy is really. I can't believe nobody would want to date me. He's practically Valentino off the boat, this fucking guy. Like, he's eligible bachelor happening right now. How could she leave me? How could she leave this fucking Sir Walter Raleigh over here? This guy is a fucking. He's a classy, kind-hearted individual. I grow roses on my neck, for Christ's sake. That's why I moved to Rose City, because I fit right in. So, wow. About a week after. After the murder, he makes his first court appearance, being pushed in a wheelchair. He didn't enter pleas, but the circuit court judge declared him indigent and was appointed a public defender. That's what this was for, to see if he was poor. And they're like, you look pretty poor to me. Piss. In the story, I've heard there's three trailers involved. So, I'm going to go with public defender, as you're going to be needing, right? Everyone you know has a trailer. Trailer. Not just you. It's every fucking person in your life is a trailer. There's never been a location referenced where it's at somebody's home. Never. Never. There's not been one foundation in this entire story. Not one concrete slab. I've had nothing. A basement? God, no. So, another court appearance was scheduled for April 8th. And on April 8th, he appeared with his new attorney and pleaded not guilty. Unbelievable. Now, while all this was going on, poor Stephanie was also in the hospital here. Now, Barbara is Stephanie's mother, and her ex-husband is Stephanie's father, George Pruitt. They had driven to St. Louis the day after the murder to pick her up from the hospital. She was at the hospital being treated for her injuries, rape, pistol whipping, and shot in the leg. Mom, Barbara, entered the hospital room and looked at Stephanie's injury. She saw the large gunshot wound in her daughter's leg. You know, Stephanie pulled back the dressing and showed her. Barbara saw the bruises on her daughter's arms and her eye and her cheek. And obviously, you know, she's been raped, too, which isn't great. She also heard that Rusty had been shot, and he was in the same hospital. She was like, I'd love to pay him a fucking visit here. Now, when Stephanie's released. Released in a couple days from the hospital, Barbara takes her to her home in East Cape. On East Cape Rock Drive in Cape Girardeau, where she and her boyfriend live, Barbara and her boyfriend. And basically saying, Stephanie's going to stay here and heal for a while. Yeah. It takes a while. Gunshots are so gross. Oh, yeah, dude. That's brutal. So she's got to have recovery time and just basically a place to feel safe and to feel, you know, recovery. Recover and have her kids be around and all that kind of thing. It's really ugly. Now, while this is all happening, they bring her home, and the phone rings. Uh-oh. Okay. Barb picks it up, and it's fucking Rusty on the phone. Why? What is he doing? And they said, will you accept. It's a fucking collect call from jail. Get out of here. He said, will you accept the charges? And this bitch is, you know, she's like, Barbara is like, what the fuck? This bitch is calling me right now. Did she say yes? This bitch is calling me on the phone after this motherfucker tried to kill people. He's like, hell no. She's in disbelief. She was about to say no. And then she said, for some reason, she said yes. Let's hear what this asshole has to say. These are recorded. We'll take it. Why not? So he said, is Stephanie there? Is she all right? And she's like, what? He called me collect. This is from the hospital, not the jail. But he can't make phone calls because it's a prisoner room. You know, deal. So she said his voice seemed really cold. She said there was no feeling in it. She said that she just said, why did you do it? Why'd you do it? And his answer was, quote, she shouldn't have cheated on me. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's the answer. That's the answer. Yeah. Hurt my feelings. That's why. So Barbara says, you don't kill people for any reason. And then he says an amazing. He says, quote, I do. I did. And I will. Wow. It's my life. It's my life. And then he busted into a seven minute Bon Jovi medley. He could do it all day long. All day. There's so he knows them all. Yeah. Oh, my God. So can you imagine that? You can't kill people for any reason. I do. I did. And I will. Wow. Okay. So then she says that she said she never thought she would ever say this to anybody, but he made her so enraged. Yeah. I don't fucking blame her at this point. She said, I want to watch you fry. And he said, I want to watch you fry, too, which is just a shit comeback. And he's not really all that plan. I know you are. But what am I? Yeah, I will. I do. I didn't. I will. If it was in any other situation, it's kind of cool. If you were like, right, if you were in the right, that would be cool. In his situation, not cool at all. Pretty ugly. But I want to watch you fry back is just lame. And then Barbara hung up on him, slammed down the phone. Okay. So then June 17th, 1996. So he was shot up on the 21st of March. Now he's sitting in jail on June 17th, 1996. He's been in jail since he's been transported there. After the police interrogation. Now, what he's been up to in jail, the data log sheets from March 21st to June 17th says that he spent most of his time here, you know, in prison. And they have like the prisoner checks. Nine o'clock, subject appears asleep. Eleven o'clock, subject is reading a book. He appears calm and secure. Fifteen hundred hours, subject is given his meds. So there's a few entries that show that he's been refusing. He's been refusing meals. But he has tumors in his mouth. So they don't really think he just says my mouth hurts and I can't eat right now. Tumors in his mouth. Spongy blood soaked tumors in his mouth. What is that? How did he? So that's so he refuses a lot of meals. Yeah. Now, the county sheriff, John Jordan, is just about to he just filed for reelection. He's been he finished out the term of the. The last sheriff of two years. He's got to run for election this time. And, you know, this Jordan, obviously, he knows about who's in the jail, especially the biggest murderer in there and all that kind of thing and everything like that. He said, you know, this is Jordan. You know, you deal with whatever job this job gives you. Some days are diamonds and some days are stone. That's what he said. OK, now. This is a stone day for. For the one wanting to be reelected sheriff here. Lieutenant Michael Morgan, the jail administrator, did a prisoner count at the end of the shift. He did one earlier at the beginning of the shift, as they always do. Beginning and end of shift. And the earlier count, every prisoners accounted for the second count. We're missing somebody. Oh, no. They immediately called the sheriff and said, Sheriff, we're short a man. And then they did a second count. They did a second check on everybody and they said, it's Rusty Bucklew. He escaped. Oh, my God. He fucking escaped. We're short a man. That better be staff. And he called in sick. Yeah. Oh, we're short a man. Oh, that's all right. Call in one of the temps. No. Yeah. No, no, no. We're short the worst one. We're short the worst guy we have in here. Oh, my God. So the log shows 0900 subject is in court until 0844. Bucklew is talking to Lawson in his cell 1200 eating lunch at a table at noon at 3 p.m. The log notes that he talked to Kenneth Stone. Bucklew did. Stone was an inmate who had had made headlines the month before for holding a pillow over a man's head and shooting him while he slept. So these are like the two worst murderers they have in the jail and they've hooked up and decided to talk. The log doesn't know what they talk about. Unfortunately, I'd love to know the fucking it's just about, you know, what TV shows do you like? Bon Jovi's greatest hits. Yeah, the whole Jovi catalog and how they feel like he's just an extension of Foghat, man. Some horse shit. So in a few hours leading up to the escape here, the log seems to, you know, be interesting. 1,600 hours, so 4 o'clock. In bed appears calm, 1,700, 5 o'clock p.m. Given meds, 1,800, 6 o'clock p.m. Subject is at cafeteria table eating. The next log entry is scribbled and hard to read, and it says subject missing, not found for medication. Oh, that scribbles because they're fucking panicking. An hour later, the writing's even worse, and it says subject still missing. He's running, searching for him as he's writing that. An hour later, subject still missing. Oh, my God. How the fuck did he get out of here? Let's find out. Yeah. Well, he had a buddy in there who's a prison trustee. Named William Douglas Roth. And this guy helped him. He's not going to be a trustee very fucking long after this. Rusty slid into a trash bag and had it tied over his head. Oh. Rusty, it's not so much the tumors are the reasons he hasn't been eating. He's been losing weight on purpose. Trying to slim down. He was down to 5'7", 90 pounds by the time he escaped. That's so sad. That's so sick. That is skinny. He weighed 110 pounds when he showed up at jail. That's his walking around weight. That's his heaviness? A buck ten, yeah. But 90 is what he did to be lighter. 5'7", 110, you're fitting in teenage boys' clothes. You're fitting in teenage girls' clothes. For sure. That's crazy, yeah. You're shopping in the little missus section. Like, that's wild. Oh, my God. So he slid into a trash bag, had it tied over his head. And then. Roth, William Douglas Roth, carried the bag outside and tossed it into a 50-gallon trash bag. Because it's his job to throw the garbage out. So he's light enough for this guy to toss into the trash can. Now, a jail worker later said that he noticed the trustee was struggling with the bag a little bit. Like, it was heavy. But he didn't think anything of it because sometimes there's heavy shit in there. And he's not like, he's going to help him. He's like, well, that's your job, stupid. That's trash. That's trash. Yeah. So the officer said he watched the trustee toss the bag in there. And that was that. He just said, that's fine. So Rusty waited in the dumpster for a time. We don't know how long he's in the dumpster for. But at some point, when he figured it was safe, he opened the lid, crawled out, and fled. And that was that. That's how easy he got out. That's how. The trash can is literally outside the secure area. Yep. They took him outside, threw him in the dumpster. And they were like, all right, there we go. Trash. In the dumpster. No problem there. And then he just took off. What year? He just ran away through the park. 96. This sounds like 1956 or 46. But this is 96. The trash can is outside the secure area. Literally, somebody could throw a man away, and everybody turns their back on it. You would just think nobody's small enough to be thrown away. That's literally all it is. Wow. None of these guys are small enough. So he was free. He had planned it for weeks. He had dropped 15 to 22. A lot of log entries saying he refused to eat. They figured it was because of his mouth, but it's because he didn't want to burst the trash bag. He found out how much weight the trash bags hold, and he said about 100 pounds. So he said, okay, I got to get to 90. So that's what he did, which is fucking insane. So now they're searching for him, as you can imagine, frantically. This is Jana Kramer from Wind Down with Jana Kramer. I had this moment the other day where I thought, why am I waiting for my next vacation to enjoy life? I don't need a week off. Just a day to rest and recharge would be amazing. And so I went to resortpass.com. There are hundreds of hotel resort pools, spas, and private beaches that you can be enjoying today without spending the night. I booked a one-day pass at the Four Seasons Hotel in Spa, Nashville. And I'm like, wow, why am I just learning about resort pass? I may have only been 15 minutes from home, but it felt like a whole different world. I found myself settled into a cabana, just smiling. Umbrella drink, my favorite book, lunch brought right to me. And I'm thinking, this is exactly what I needed. Luxury resort day passes start at just $25. It's a great deal. Go to resortpass.com slash Jana and use my code Jana to get $20 off when you spend $100. That's code Jana at resortpass.com slash Jana. He broke out on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, they launch a massive, massive manhunt. No hurry or anything. We'll take in the morning, in the morning. It'll still be free in the morning. A lot of us have plans tonight and things like that. We'll get them in the morning. So they launch a massive manhunt. They have the Missouri State Highway Patrol, different personnel from like eight different counties. They have a emergency operations center. The area hospital lent its helicopter to the police to search from the sky. They have four bloodhounds tracking his scent along Hubble Creek after a 19-year-old veterinary assistant found a jail, his jail jumpsuit alongside the creek. So they set the bloodhounds off there. The officers combed the area, but couldn't find shit. So the helicopter pilot just saw nothing and the dogs lost the trail about three miles up the creek. So that's that. Jordan here, the guy in charge. This said we were doing everything we knew to do, but we were coming up with nothing. So, okay. He escapes on Monday. On Tuesday, they have a massive, I mean, all hands on deck. And then by Wednesday, there's no extensive manhunt anymore. Search called off. He got away. They said officers were still looking and calls were coming in, but they didn't have the helicopters and the bloodhounds and all that out anymore. He could be in fucking California. He's in California by now. Jordan said it's not over till it's over. That's what he's given a fucking Yogi Berra fucking cliche singing jokes. You got any? Wow. Yeah, not over till it's over. A murder charge is good forever. We will look for him until he's found, which sounds like if he turns up, he turns up anyway. Back to paperwork. That's what that sounds like to me. We've still got a charge on him. So if they find him, I mean, he gives his name. Uh, murder, stay murder. But, you know, we got other shit to do, which you find that motherfucker. What are you doing? He's 90 pounds of danger. I would say June 19th, 1996. He's still missing. Get out of here. Still missing. This is a great headline, by the way, from the Daily American Republic, which has a lot of newspaper articles. We got stuff from here from June 19th, 96. Big letters. Garbage can escapee is still at large. I don't know why. Garbage can escapee is a great title for a man to have. Yeah, it makes it sound like he was trapped in the garbage can. Yeah, like he escaped from the garbage is what it sounds like. Yeah, that's exactly what I thought, too. OK, good. It's not just me. This day, Jordan, the guy who's supposed to be in charge of finding him, said he would not give up the search, even though some suspect that he's made his getaway pretty far away. He goes, I'm still looking. He says officers are still in the area. Calls are coming in and we're responding to those. We'll keep looking. All right. He also said that he considers Rusty to be very dangerous. And they said if he, you know, he might resist arrest and endanger lives and he wouldn't hesitate. He said, I wouldn't hesitate to give my guys the order to shoot to kill on this guy because he's dangerous and he he'll take you down with him is what he's trying to do. He said that river runs to the Gulf of Mexico. Right. He could. I mean, you could. I mean, it goes that way, right? If you're Huck Finn, you can get out there on the river and float on down. But I think you'd be stringing a stick. You can eat all the way. I think you'd be. I picture a barefoot and overalls doesn't even have a real. It's just pulling it back. Get a bunch of string and pull hanging out with a black guy with a trouble. Some name just chilling. Fucking. So he said, this is a very bad scenario for a man like this to be out. I sure as hell hope to God he doesn't kill another person before we capture him. Sure as hell. Hope not. Speaking of where the fuck is he and is he dangerous? Let's go over to Barbara Pruitt and her boyfriend's house for a second here. Oh, no. Barbara Pruitt and her boyfriend, Ed Frenzel here. They needed to go. Home to get something. They weren't staying at their home while he was escaped for fear that he would come there and try to kill their daughter. So they had been staying at a motel that she he wants to watch her fry. And I do. I did. And I will. I will. Yeah. Well, they were staying at a motel, but they needed to go home and get some shit. So what they did is they called to have an officer do a quick sweep of the house first. So a cop goes in, looks around, doesn't see anything, comes out, says all clear and drives away and lets them go get their shit. basically. So they go in to get their shit Um, you know, it's, there's been a quick search of the house by an armed police officer, um, making sure Rusty didn't sneak in. So, um, okay. Um, for two days, Barb and Ed have been staying at a hotel and Stephanie's been taped, been taken into protective custody, actually by the police. They like took her in and I don't know where the fuck they're like, you know, standing outside her motel room door. Um, but they're separate. So these two, mom and Ed, Barb and Ed, um, you know, they, they come back to the house. Um, on Monday, Barbara had been at her job at Procter and Gamble when a security worker pulled her aside and said, you're supposed to go home. Ed's coming to get you. Uh, the police department just called Russell Bucklew has escaped. And she was like, what the fuck? Seriously? Yeah. The guy you just mouthed off to is out. Fuck. I just had a bad conversation with him. Yeah. Ed had picked her up. And they driven directly to the police station to see what was going on. And they were told that Rusty had escaped and Stephanie and the girls were in safe, were safe in protective custody. The cops said, though, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for you guys to go home unless you get an officer to search your house first. If you want to go in the house, get a cop to search it first. Don't just walk in willy nilly. Uh, so they were in a motel room and hadn't got home, but they said they wanted to pick up a few things. They were only going to be there for a minute. So officer comes out. All clear. Enjoy. So, uh, for about an hour, they, they're in the house. They put food out for the dogs or like outdoor dogs there. They put food out for them. They water a few of the trees in the backyard. If you left your house for three days, all the shit you'd have to do. I got to water that, took that, put that away. Things that happened. Um, then they take a break from their, you know, they've been doing housework. Basically they take a break and sit in the living room. Uh, Barb has to be to work in a few hours. So she says, I'm going to take a break. I'm going to take a nap, take a quick nap here. I mean, everything's fine. So let's just take a nap. So, um, but she walks back to the back door just to lock it. You never know. She should be safe. She wants to be safe. She locks it, um, there. Uh, now as she locks it, there's a large walk-in pantry with the door closed to her right, you know, pantry cereal and canned goods and shit. She turns her head back to the living room and out of nowhere, the pantry door swings open and hits her in the stomach. And she says, what the fuck? And at the same time, she feels something hard and metallic strike her in the head. Oh God. She gets a hit from someone in the closet. It's fucking rusty. He was hiding in the pantry with a gun and the cop didn't look in the pantry or a can of French cut green beans. We're not sure at the moment. Um, yeah, he was crawled into the dog food. Yeah. Here's some Alpo. Yeah. So she slams her body against the utility closet door, trying to force it closed to trap him inside. He's pushing on the other side. Luckily he's doesn't wave that much. Right. So it's actually a struggle. Sure. She screams, Ed, Ed, Ed. She can't stop him. The door, the door swings open and Ed who was in the living room comes in here and Ed sees Rusty's arm holding something going up and down. And, uh, it's, it's, he's hitting Ed. Uh-huh. Buckley's Buckley's hitting Ed. Now he's hitting him with something. And in the other hand, he's holding a knife. Rusty is. So Barb sees blood on Ed's head by his ear. Ed and Rusty are pushing each other around. They're trying to scuff. They're grabbing each other's wrists and trying to struggle. Ed backs up and Rusty screams, get down, get down. You're going to die. Get down. You're going to die. Okay. The back door's right there, but it's locked. So Ed manages to get his way in the struggle to the back door and unlocks the door and says, get out of there, Barb. Go. And like tells Barb, get the fuck out of here while we struggle. So Barb tries, uh, but she can't because she is on the wrong side of that open door that they're struggling against. She's like pinned against the wall by the door. So Rusty angles his way in front of her. He's got a knife and a hammer. That's what he's got. He's got a hammer. A hammer. And a knife. Barb is too afraid to move. Rusty and Ed are yelling at each other and, uh, all this type of shit. Something distracts Rusty and he looks away for a second. Just for a second. Don't know if it's a noise outside. Might've thought the cops were there, but it's just enough time for Barb to squeeze her way out and around the door and get outside. Okay. She then slams the door, trapping the two men inside the house. Oh, Jesus. She takes a look back through the window and sees that Rusty is laying the knife and the hammer down and then he disappears from view. So she runs to a neighbor's house. Ed was already there. Ed snuck out when he went out the door and said, come on, Barb, let's go and ran out the fucking door. But she didn't make it. She was trapped behind the door. All right. So that's all this happened. That's how this happened. Then he's got a knife and a hammer. She, he looks away for a second. She's able to sneak out the door. Got it. She sees him laying down the knife and hammer. And she runs to the neighbor's house. Ed is already there banging on the door, but it's a weekday afternoon and no one's fucking home. People are working. So Barb doesn't know what to do. So she basically staggers to the front yard and screams at the top of her lungs until somebody fucking notices her. It's a residential neighborhood. If you go to the front yard and scream as loud as you can, people will eventually look. That's what she did. That's exactly what she did. People looked. Somebody called the cops. And, uh, so we called ran, huh? We'll talk about red took off. Yeah. Rusty was in the house at the time. You leave her in there for Christ's sake. So lady, I'm going, let's go run, bitch. And then you just run out the door and you're like, Oh, she's not behind me. Where's my lady? So some residents along East Cape rock drive had called in and reported some screaming at the home of Barb Pruitt. Um, now the police. Police later learned that Rusty had attacked Barb and attacked Ed. And before that had apparently stolen a blue Chevy pickup from a home on County road, six 16 while the owners were out of town. So he has wheels now. Um, he, he thought Stephanie was going to be at that house. He went right to go kill her. That's what he was trying to do. So he was trying to do. Um, so, uh, apparently he had made his way to the back door, which was, that's how we got in, but that's how we got out to, we went out the back door. Just like they did and made his way to, he had hit his pickup truck in the next, in the next block, got in it and took off. Okay. This is, this guy's fucking crazy, right? We're in trouble. Yeah. In a blaze of glory. He's a problem. Living on a prayer, James living on a prayer. Here he is. So he got in the pickup and drove his car, his pickup here to highway one 77. Um, interesting. Um, so he wants to be shot. Basically he's looking for the cops to do it. He's looking for suicide by cop. And one of these cops here, Lieutenant Michael Morgan said, in my opinion, he has nothing to lose. Mr. Bucklew doesn't want to come back to jail. I've talked with Russell. He claims he wants to die. I really believe he's going to force us to shoot him. So, um, this it's, we're going to talk about deputy Richie. Walker, June 19th, 96, deputy Richie Walker's on patrol, driving around state highway one 77 South of Egypt mills, which is a small community, uh, in the same County. Um, he's there. Everyone's looking for rusty basically. That's what everyone's doing. Um, as his vehicle approaches County road two 63, he sees a blue Chevy pickup truck with a camper, which is exactly what he's looking for heading his way. They pass each other. And basically. They both, like he said, the guy in the truck was like, Oh shit. And he was like, Oh shit. At the same time, they both were like, what the fuck is they passed, looked at each other and we're like, he's looking for me. And he's like, I'm looking for him. It was, it was when, uh, Lieutenant Daniels passed by fucking Avon Barksdale in the first season of the wire. They both looked at each other and he gave him one of these. That's what basically happened. Um, and yeah, he said immediately knew it's him. Um, he's driving the pickup. Uh, so. And he, this guy wastes no time, basically, um, rusty tries to jam on the gas and get away. The cop does the same thing. Um, he hits his lights, does a U-turn and sees the pickup cresting a slight hill for a moment disappearing. But then he gets to the top of the hill and he sees it again. He notices the pickup trucks lights are brake lights are on and the truck has stopped. Now when he gets to the top of the hill, he can see it. The pickup truck had swerved onto a County road and pulled down. A few feet onto the road's right-hand side, and it's just sitting there idling on the side of the road, like just waiting for a confrontation. Oh boy. So this guy speeds up his cruiser to the truck and stops just short of it, leaving a slight gap between the two vehicles. Cause he says, if it comes to it, he wants to be able to use his car for cover. Um, as the cop here, Walker pushes his door open. He sees rusty fly out of the pickup door. Oh, here he comes. Yeah. Um. He said he lunged. That's the word he uses here. Um, rusty's momentum. you know propels him toward the cop and the wind and the wind anything could really get him tailwind and some momentum that's it so he doesn't know what's going what this guy is planning on um so he grabs his shotgun out of the car racks it yeah and uh says you know get your hands up now i will fucking shoot you like he said i if he didn't put his hands up right away he was done he was shooting him and all he did threw his hands up and turned himself in put his hands up did what he was told through all of this yeah that's he just that's the crescendo he decided i guess i don't want to go out in a blaze of glory yeah a blaze of glory sounds painful i guess not so much yeah it's a i think but i think it's cooler if you're bon jovi than if you're me i think he said you know so this is the best reaction to this whole thing stephanie ray's father george pruitt called uh rusty bucklew quote cunning he said you wouldn't know it to look at him but he's cunning which he looks like a moron but he's smarter than he looks cunning is what you call like an animal that's smart too by the way like crafty or you know yeah cunning i would say like a murder that wears disguises and shit uh that's cunning yeah that's convincing you know i mean yeah like that's that that uh baseline rapist in arizona was cunning kind of like a horrible burglar who like you know steals a bunch of art from all sorts of fate never gets caught that's cunning you know suction cups with glass cutters oh yeah he gets gets right from the ceiling he drops down on a yeah grappling thing and yeah he's done so the charges against him are obviously first degree murder kidnapping rape uh burglary uh you name it i mean there's so many charges it's not even funny it's insane now the trial is going to come up pre-trial publicity causes the case to be transferred to columbia on a change of venue here obviously this is i just told you all that happened imagine a lot of facts in a small area you've heard this crazy fucking story like wow so the it attracted a lot of attention but it's got a small kind of a small persistent following this case that people will drive anywhere to go to the trial yeah including um michael sanders parents his two aunts and his sister they all come and also uh rusty buckley's parents is also there yeah um yeah so now the jury in a death they're going for the death penalty here and the jury has to be chosen it's a death qualified jury that's a that's a big thing that's one of the reasons why i don't think that's a big thing i think the the whether you want to kill somebody or not fine whatever but i don't think it's very it's not a fair process because you have to have 12 people who are willing to give the death penalty which is not a jury of your peers because half the country more half the country doesn't believe in the death penalty so you can't say a jury of your peers is every single person is enthusiastically willing to give the death penalty that would be somebody you have a bunch of people on there that go i don't believe in it at all and you know would you say that would be yeah if you if you believe in it at all then you're definitely enthusiastically willing you've got that's what i'm thinking yeah i don't think they're not like yeah let's fry them but they're like i'd give the death penalty in a situation or whatever whereas some people wouldn't yeah yeah so the death penalty the death qualified jury is one of the reasons why i believe if you had everybody on there from all walks of life you have people that don't believe in the death penalty for any circumstance and the case was so fucking heinous you got all of those people to vote for death then i would say that's truly you have gotten sent to the death row by a jury of your peers we have all decided fuck you but if it's only a certain number of people who are predetermined to want to send people to death row anyway i feel like that's can't be fair you got a guy that doesn't under under under any circumstances believe in the death penalty to believe in the death penalty hmm you jubilee debated this motherfucker yeah wanting to murder you i am not a death penalty guy but there's some people where you go let's kill that guy it's it's rare but it's the one the the fucking real extreme ones are like why yeah we don't need this guy this guy's willing to to slip out of the bars this is a to go murder somebody yeah did he think that he was gonna go kill the witness and that's that was gonna stop that i mean i don't think he cared about that i think he wanted to kill stephanie period that's all it is that's all it is and he had a score to settle with barb too yeah they had a little exchange on the phone yeah she said she wants to see him fry well yeah um anyway so the defense here they can't contest that he has done these murders and kidnappings and shit he's admitted to it it's obvious everybody saw him there's multiple witnesses yeah um he never disputed he broke into the trailer shot him handcuffed kidnapped raped did any of that shit never really about guilt this is a about is he gonna get the death penalty or not he's gonna be guilty we know that so the defense is that basically his rap sheet from the past and all this rage traces back to a man medicating a painful disfiguring disease since boyhood with opiates that by his lawyer's account scramble his impulse control and make his temper run wild he's he's drugged so hard he doesn't know what he's doing drugs so hard yeah uh the absolutely that's it it said it's he's a he's just a guy who steals he's got an addiction problem and you know all of that so that's their defense is this is just a guy who is a fucking physical mess and doesn't know the wrongfulness of his actions and just put him in jail basically now one piece of evidence they bring in that is particularly the defense really fights to try to keep out um and that unsuccessfully is one of the kids blood-stained drugs drawings some blood from the dad spattered on the on this drawing that was on the wall so they have a children's crayon drawing with his dead father's blood sprayed all over it which is a my god exhibit 57 i think it is and it's a big it's a big deal uh the court the judge said quote gruesome crimes produce gruesome evidence it's in the dragon stays sorry yeah um stephanie is the star witness yeah yeah uh she saw everything testifies to everything the two pistols walking down the hall shooting the absence of any fight or argument before the guy opened fire being pistol whipped having her jaw broken being handcuffed the children crying as she's being dragged out to forcibly take a drive and then be raped and then be in a police chase where people are fucking shooting at her pretty bad this is a bad harrowing day you know day of testimony now the prosecutor asked stephanie about a phone call she received from rusty while she was at work the defense account the defense council objected and then they approached the bench and we have this from there uh this is the sidebar um the defense said i just want to specifically object to the contents of this phone call as evidence of other crimes and irrelevant to the charges that were trying and the prosecution said i expect the answer to be that he told her he was going to kill her and her children and cut her children up in court that the action was overruled so the question to stephanie is stephanie would you go ahead and describe for the jury what russell bucklew told you in that phone call on march 7th 1996 quote he said that he knew i'd been cheating on him and that he would if he ever seen michael around me again he said he'd kill him and me and the kids he so he said he'd kill us all that's what he said right so um this at the bench again another thing the defense says i'm sorry but i believed that statement that she just made included a threat toward mike and i believe that's contrary to the what the expected testimony was i don't think she said the phone call previously claimed that this phone call included a threat toward mike and the prosecution said well that's something you could try to impeach her about but i don't know basically do that um yeah so they said also uh they go on basically it's overruled anyway the defense asked for a mistrial and the court says no the the defense objects to something it's overruled then they ask for a mistrial like you didn't even get your objection sustained you're definitely not getting a mistrial but you got to have it on the record um so yeah she testified that um also about michael she said that the mother of michael's two children had abandoned michael and the children for at least four years and that michael had taken care of them by themselves and um all of that kind of shit so the court also later wrote that from stephanie's testimony alone a reasonable jury could find every element of first degree murder including deliberation everything yeah i mean yes she does everything with guns that's not good then they do a videotaped confession and play the entire two-hour tape of him confessing yeah and being pretty flip about the whole thing and everything like that um basically it all corroborated exactly what happened it's exactly how it went down and then they do a videotape confession and play the entire two-hour tape of him confessing The defense objected to the drawing again as gruesome. gruesome and um the kid drawing and the judge said the issue is not whether the evidence is gruesome but whether it is both legally and logically relevant sure now during closings okay now during closings uh the prosecution says russell earl bucklew armed himself to the teeth with two guns duct tape handcuffs and two knives and he went hunting for human beings he said he was hunting stephanie ray his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend they were his prey the defense said that he they're blowing this out of proportion basically the defense is like look look look look look they're acting like he sat around he thought about it it was he drew it up and you know all that he said he did not act with cool reflection he said this was just rage yeah that's all it was he said no matter how angry you may be at russell this is clearly not a case of first degree murder clearly i he took all that stuff that's all murder stuff that he took and he used it really need that to have a conversation exactly and if you take all that stuff and use it if he didn't use it that would i would say yeah it has nothing to do with premeditation but he used the pistols he used the handcuffs he used all this shit that he planned on using it makes perfect sense so anyway the jury needs less than two hours to find him guilty of first degree murder or murder myrtle first degree myrtle um they said the penalty phase will start the next day and that is to choose between execution and life in prison without parole so those are his options yeah during sentencing here okay now uh the aggravator here uh they say the aggravator is neither time specific nor cause specific it asks only whether the defendant was in the middle of a contemporaneous um multi-crime event that's one of the aggravators this was a multi-crime event he's in the middle of a spree the state also argued future dangerousness and victim impact he said it's not even hypothetical he has 21 prior convictions and charges including a fucking jailbreak where he rather than get away from the police he immediately went to the victim's house to seek retribution like this guy's dangerous wasn't like it wasn't like the door was open and he was like i'm gonna get out of here yeah he stopped eating to get out of here that's what i'm saying like ted bundy yeah same thing that's what ted bundy did to get out of the ceiling to go through the roof yeah yeah the state learned leaned on the idea that basically rusty had an anti-social personality disorder um there's a psychologist saying that he has anti-social personality disorder and that that means he would be a poor candidate for life without parole because he would cause trouble throughout the prison because of that so you gotta kill him basically i mean that's what they said now in mitigation his mom testifies what's she have to say old francis here um she told the jury that she loved her son and couldn't judge him for his actions she said i can't judge god has to judge but he has all my love he'll always have all my love okay the judge said luckily one of us has all my love and he's going to have all my love actually has to judge that's the point i mean that's me good thing i got this not here i'll take care of it i got this it's all good yeah so he um he his son's mother also testifies in the penalty phase saying basically don't kill my son's father even though he's a terrible father and he's never around don't kill him uh during the uh uh closings in the in the uh sentencing phase the prosecution here reiterated the nature of the crime and the fact that he was a poor candidate for life crimes emphasized his status as a repeat defender cited his attacks on previous girlfriends in 92 and 94 and then says the best line ever quote he's a homicidal and bloodthirsty energizer bunny he just keeps on coming yeah that was a very common reference then it's not a bad one for 96 that's pretty good yeah he's a homicidal bloodthirsty energizer bunny that is good shit um wasn't that thing in something where it was like blood-soaked and like it beat somebody to death or something and it yeah so is it in parody didn't stay tuned might have been stay tuned the john ritter movie might have been stay tuned that seems about right yeah that seems right because it's all hell things so the energizer bunny would be yeah that makes sense so uh the he tells tells the jury but by imposing the death penalty uh they'd be sending a message to other potential stalkers and aggressors that's a load of shit but that's fine he says quote someday ladies and gentlemen john michael sanders and zachary sanders will be adults now they're seven and five but someday they'll be adults and i submit to you that they will want to look back was justice reached this uh this man took their father and i'm asking you to make the punishment fit the crime and give him the death penalty then he says he took two knives at least 34 bullets two guns handcuffs duct tape he stalked this woman he killed michael sanders he raped her terrorized her ladies and gentlemen if this crime does not deserve the death penalty then what would who deserves the death penalty if not this sociopathic killer yeah which is a weird argument because that assumes that anybody deserves a death penalty that's it that takes that as a concrete like in a philosophical argument you took that as a concrete yes not just statutory like that's a a definite in stone thing that some people need the death penalty that guy obviously needs it maybe that guy that trims hedges too that's what i mean that's a very funny too short who fucked up the roses where's he let's find his ass why don't they still grow around here jesus christ so um now the defense argued that there's nothing to be gained by imposing the death sentence he said the saddest thing about this whole case is you can't bring mike sanders back you can take a life but you can't bring one back so the jurors deliberated for a little more than three hours on this one yeah which is longer than it took for the penalty for the guilt phase and um they said that um they also by the way uh the prosecution said that a man who escapes jail while awaiting trial would not suffer confinement well probably oh yeah he's gonna keep trying so it comes in you sir may fuck off death penalty for rusty yeah they all agree on that one um some of the jury actually left the courtroom crying because it's not normal for regular decent people to say let's kill a guy that's not a normal is that a normal thing to impose upon citizens to tell them that they they have they're now responsible for that that's i'm a law-abiding citizen and i would appreciate the ability to murder today yes that causes some people to have emotional reactions that they didn't count on let's all let's all perform the death sentence the purge one person one guy though that's it it's a one-man purge so um the prosecutor's reaction he said i called him a homicidal energizer bunny you could shoot him you could put him in jail and nothing's going to stop him from coming and trying to kill the people he was mad at that really is a good point the guy got shot in the head two months later he's escaping in a garbage bag coming to these people said this guy just keeps coming and coming and coming he's exhausting and he'll do it at a rate of like he doesn't need the easy route he'll do it with a fucking hammer and a knife he'll hide in your pantry with a fucking hammer and wait just eating your checks mix in there just fucking waiting for you pretty hungry so that was a pretty good hiding oh yeah hide me in my pantry i'm i don't have a pantry but hide me near my pantry door thing and i'll starve me enough to lose 20 pounds and then put me in the one room in my house that has all the full of food all those dry goods are gone my mouth is gonna be all that cereal i'll eat all that cereal dry right from the box i don't give a fuck tear my gums up i'm gonna i'm gonna surgically take these tumors out with all this basic four in here with uh two boxes of captain crunch will do it two boxes of captain crunch will take everything out of your mouth yeah those fucking uh apple jacks have little pieces of razors attached to them that'll cut all that shit out of your mouth and then you're gonna have to cut all that shit out of your mouth right off right out right out so here are the reactions stephanie um who's obviously been through it here uh said that she would not have been satisfied with any other sentence but death she said he can no longer hurt anybody else um after the verdict dorothy sanders who's michael's mom said she was pleased with the decision and said i feel that justice was served my heart goes out to his family but i have no feeling whatsoever for him nothing nothing um now there's appeals he's gonna get some new lawyers for these appeals here yeah um now these lawyers are the ones that reinvestigate his background find tons of unpresented mitigation um they're gonna fight the method of execution thing and everything like that um basically uh their story is this is a man who had a ruined childhood and a terrible disease who was condemned by a jury that never got the full picture that's what it is that's all it is their attorneys are cheryl uh plate and jeremy weiss and they said that also in their they said, Rusty's very remorseful for his crimes. Don't you worry about that. He's real sorry. So they're arguing that, well, let's start with their arguments. Let's find out. First of all, mitigation. At trial, Rusty's family presented something, basically an idyllic childhood narrative. His later attorneys said that this was the opposite of the truth and the real childhood was chaos with a father with a volcanic temper, abuse and trauma, and lead paint exposure caused developmental delays. Yeah. Okay. Lead paint oxy defense. That's right. Now, none of that reached the jury in the court. None of those mitigating factors were told to the jury during the death penalty case. So that's a lot. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a line of cases starting in about 2000, held that a capital defense lawyer must thoroughly investigate a client's history precisely so a jury can weigh in on things like trauma, addiction, and impairment. And the original lawyers that Bucklew had, their new lawyers said they just didn't do that work. Period. They just didn't investigate anything to know. Also, the addiction. The discovery at the time of the murder that Bucklew had reportedly been addicted for years to the opiates prescribed for his death. Okay. And that those medications drove him into rages, and that's the exact kind of mitigation that the jury would have been likely, you know, would have been good to tell the jury, basically. See, the problem is, no matter what you told them, a woman got up there with a scar on her face and told the worst fucking story that anyone's ever heard. Doesn't matter. You heard it coming out of. Not killing her, probably, is what. Sealed the death penalty for him. Because the jury got to hear it. Yeah, because then she could tell. Yeah. The jury got to hear in her own words, through her tears, what the fuck happened to her. Yeah, I think he really knew what he was doing in that regard, is that I think he was going to get her because. Oh, yeah. He thought that that would. He thought he was going to get everybody. That that would fix a lot of his problems if she can't talk. And he didn't know where she was, that she was in protective custody, any of that kind of shit. Then, also, the state is going to lean on the idea that he had antisocial, antisocial personality disorder, which is actually, they use to say that he's a bad candidate for prison. But the psychologist who originally made that diagnosis, according to the clemency materials later, admitted he'd been wrong. That's what he said. The scientific keystone of the state's case of this man is irredeemable argument wasn't really there anymore because that diagnosis is off the table. Then, there's this other scumbag. Later. These lawyers found out that one of Rusty's own clemency attorneys had taken thousands of dollars in loans from Rusty's elderly parents and not repaid them. What? Not fees, loans. Okay. These people loaned this man money and then he didn't pay them back. All right. Now, I don't know what that has to do with him and the death penalty or whatever, but that's a. Pretty shitty thing for an attorney to do. Absolutely fucked up. I'll save your son, but I got to be able to pay my rent. You know, that's wild. He took out. But is that the. That's the lawyer from the. That guy's taking money from the defendant? The defendant's parents, one of his clemency lawyers, one of his post-conviction lawyers, was taking money from the parents. Not, like I said, not above the fees. Yeah. They said for. The man whose job it was to plead for Buckley's life on that account was borrowing money from the family he's supposed to be serving. So, yeah. That's. Can't do that. They said these are claims made by a defense team with an obvious interest in the outcome, litigated late, and the courts ultimately did not find them sufficient to overturn anything. That's a decision later. So, those didn't matter. The Missouri Supreme Court's post-conviction opinion went through the uncalled witnesses, as we'll talk about. A corrections expert named James Aiken, who would have testified that Buckley wasn't an escape risk, which I don't know how you testify to that when he had already escaped. A psychologist also that said that basically the lawyers are saying that it was indefensible to not call them. And the first courts say it was actually fine that they didn't call them. They said basically, fair enough. You're good. Fuck off. May 98 is the. Direct appeal. The Missouri Supreme Court in a unanimous decision here affirmed the conviction and death sentence in full. It conducted the statutorily required proportionality review, comparing Buckley's case to other Missouri death cases where a victim was killed in his home in front of his children with multiple shots and found the sentence neither excessive nor the product of passion or prejudice. It's the summary of the man. They said this, quote, Buckley was a violent prior and persistent offender. With an abusive past. The nature of this crime, the history of the defendant, and the strength of the evidence support the sentence of death. That's the 1998 decision. The post-conviction appeal was, and again, now they're going to talk about ineffective assistance of counsel and things like that. It all gets affirmed across the board. Okay. They set an execution day of December 4th, 1998. Wow. That's quick. Yeah. November 20th, though. 1998. His execution was stayed while he sought relief in various state and federal courts. So 2000, 2001, we got some more court stuff. And on February 8th, 2000, Buckley's notice of appeal from the judgment overruling his post-conviction relief motion was filed. And on January 31st, 2001, they affirmed the overruling of his post-conviction motion. In March of 2001, the court overruled. The court overruled his motion for a rehearing of that decision, according to court documents. Okay. So there's a lot going on. Now, here's what they're looking at and all the other ones. First of all, the confession. The two-hour videotape confession. Where he didn't ask for a lawyer? His lawyers attack it on two fronts. First, that the police had not honored his right to remain silent. Because if you remember, they went to his hospital bed. They went to his hospital bed on March 22nd, read him his rights, and asked if he wanted to talk. And he said no. So they said from that point, they should not have tried to talk to him again without an attorney. But he just said he didn't want to talk. He didn't say without a lawyer. That's the thing. He didn't say, I want a lawyer now. He just said, I don't want to talk. He said, I don't want to talk to you. I say that to people all the time. Constantly. All day. And then the cop came back on March 26th and asked again. They said, second, that the confession wasn't. Knowing and intelligent because of his injuries, his pain, and all the medication he was on. That's a better argument to me. That one. On the first front, the court applied a test from the 1975 U.S. Supreme Court case, Michigan v. Mosley, where they do an analysis of whether the suspect's invocation of silence was honored. Did the police stop immediately? Yes. He walked out the moment that Bucklew said no out of the hospital room. Did they wait? A significant. Amount of time and reworn before trying again. Yes. Five days. And they gave him fresh Miranda warnings. And also the other thing is, were they trying to wear down his resistance, which is another one of these things, hurdles you have to go over. And they said, no, they weren't. They weren't like they were coming at him 50 times till he finally said, OK, fine, I'll talk to you. So they said they only tried once and it was about the same crime. So that's that's all fits into the court's deal. They said. The court waited all and held that asking a suspect whether he's changed his mind days later after fresh warnings isn't the type of badgering that the Constitution forbids. That's not what they were talking about. On the second front, his medical state made the waiver invalid. The defense said the court reviewed the tape and found a man who was articulate and alert and throughout nearly two hours speaking clearly, giving details, offering his own reasons for talking. Didn't seem like a dude who was fucked up. To me is what they said. Look pretty far. Look like he was plenty lucid and knew what he was doing. Also, they said a deficient medical condition or mental condition. The court noted doesn't by itself make a statement unintelligent. There's no constitutional right to confess only when you're perfectly rational. Which is interesting because a lot of cops, if they see a guy's fucked up, they won't interrogate him then because they're like, this ain't going to fucking fly in court. He's going to fuck up. And even if it does, he's going to. On appeals, fight it. So whatever. And that goes back to the 80s, reading in the homicide book. They wanted to talk to some guy about a murder and he came in all coked up and they were like, come back tomorrow. Holler tomorrow. Before you start partying because they were like, we can't fucking talk to this guy. Under the Supreme Court's rule from Edwards v. Arizona, you have to make an actual unambiguous, unequivocal request for counsel to shut down questioning. I don't know, man, is not that. No. And that's what he said. Also, the threat that wasn't disclosed here. They said there's a here's the strange thing here at the trial stephanie testified in the march 7th phone call that buckley threatened to kill her her children and michael sanders the defense objected uh the state they said had violated its discovery obligation by not disclosing that the threat included sanders oh remember that argument at the sidebar uh the prosecutor's response at the bench was he said that essentially it's the first i've heard of it too and you can impeach her on it if you want try that the court's ruling was logical uh here they said the discovery rule requires the state to disclose what it has not what it doesn't know this is what we have it can't they can't disclose to you we don't know this this or this that's not part of it the prosecutor couldn't disclose a detail he hadn't been told and and anyway the court found that buckley suffered no prejudice he was on the call he knew it was said and getting phone records wouldn't reveal the content of the conversation um but this defense is really trying to figure it out they're doing a good job exhibit 57 oh yeah the the dragon picture with all the blood on it all the blood on it here um the defense fought to keep it uh out um saying it's gruesome and uh they said that not really um there was already there was already an admitted close-up photograph of the same drawing in the surrounding bloodstained carpet so yeah um now the uh verdict form the jury's paperwork is even involved in this the penalty phase jury was supposed to find that the murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in kidnapping and burglary um what they actually wrote was that he committed the crime of kidnapping during the murder and committed the crime of burglary during the murder they didn't say engaged in oh very ticky tacky shit right the the defense argued the wording was backwards so the jury never actually found the statutory aggravator and without it there's no death penalty okay okay yeah while the defendant was engaged in is not interesting okay now the court compared it to an older case where the jury's verdict form had been genuinely they said nonsensical they said by contrast here the court found the jury had clearly addressed the right question whether buckley was in a buckley was in the middle of a contemporaneous multi-crime event when killed and the aggravator doesn't care which crime came first or which he intended most sure so they tried to get it on grammar which is pretty impressive as far as the lawyers got i mean um both crimes are committed at the same time we're gonna we're gonna parse which one came first i mean i'm just impressed with the intellectualness to find that and call that out that's pretty impressive you know what i mean to me it's not to me that's just that's smart i'm shocked that that matters it's it doesn't the court said it doesn't but there was a good it was a valiant effort you know what i mean um so then there's the witnesses nobody called um this is interesting um the argument that buckley's trial lawyers fucked up in the penalty phase by failing to call witnesses that might have saved his life um here's james aiken is the corrections expert that would have testified buckley posed no significant risk of escape or harm um the problem they said was when he got caught if he was to be cross-examined his own report listed numerous disciplinary infractions and negative comments about buckley and he couldn't testify with certainty that buckley wouldn't escape because he already did sure okay dr michael gelbort a clinical psychologist who would have testified based on the day of neuropsychological testing that buckley couldn't form the intent to deliberate but his findings were summarized almost verbatim by another expert who did testify and they said that doctor would have also confirmed that buckley had traits of antisocial personality disorder the exact thing the defense did not want emphasized so that strategy they deemed that not a fuck up on the defense attorney's part and also the family and friends they said deanna buckley ron buckley mike walton jean road kimberly nichols relatives and friends who would have testified that buckley treated stephanie and her kids well that he was non-violent a good friend and kind okay the court said quote this is amazing every one of them would have disintegrated on cross-examination about buckley's actual record of violence and road's claim that buckley was honest would have collided with his convictions for burglary stealing and theft calling them uh might have hurt more than helped the court said that buckley was honest and the defense even put on the killer's mother the killer's son's mother cindy boyer to testify he was a good father failing to pile on uh cumulative or self-defeating witnesses the court held is not effective is not ineffective assistance so that was fine so this is what they're trying to put through the court for now and then they'll have another one to pop up with later that's kind of a better argument um by 2006 here um he's out of ordinary appeals so they're going to set an execution date and they're going to put him on trial and they're going to put him on trial and then he's got to try to do federal shit and all that okay then jesus christ june 8 2009 yeah stephanie we remember stephanie poor stephanie here stephanie uh ray pruitt she got remarried in december of 2005 good for her yep she married a guy named john shuffett yeah sounds like shove it s a s s h u f f i t um he'd been married previously uh they lived in saint mary from about from uh let's see for about a year in 2007 some of her children were active in the saint mary's youth baseball league that year and um according to friends stephanie expressed interest in becoming involved in city politics while living there look at her she's really maturing here she's 35 now you know um so now the problem is her and john's marriage doesn't go too great shuffett ain't a great guy huh no records indicate that he filed for a legal separation or annulment of the marriage in january of 2008 the case was dismissed though and because they can't they're not going to give him an annulment so neighbors and friends that know stephanie said that stephanie was a was planning to divorce if they couldn't get that they were trying to get an annulment but if not they do the divorce uh she was managing a restaurant at this time and very much into gardening still really working on her garden outside of her trailer they all still live in trailers though now about 7 15 p.m this evening in june of 2009 um this is according to the sheriff stephanie is outside of her home trying to fix a lawnmower and one of the neighbors was trying to help her fix a lawnmower something was wrong with this she had it tipped over doing everything according to them out of nowhere uh her 53 year old husband john pulled up to the home the neighbor was helping the repair like we said he drives up to the mobile home gets out of the vehicle carrying a rifle the husband yeah the neighbor left the yard and ran behind the trailer and then reported hearing a brief verbal exchange and then a gunshot and then a car driving off he returned and found stephanie on the ground shot in the chest with a 30 30 rifle good lord dude her picker is off this poor woman yeah that's why i said her phone is off she's on the ground she's on the ground she's on the ground she's on the ground whatever it seems like he's okay had to have been not great when she was growing up two men that are willing to kill you over this jesus um so the county sheriff's department deputies were called to the home mobile home at 7 15 the call was placed by one of stephanie's children who said her mother had been shot by uh her his mother had been shot by his father is the way he put it um when deputies arrived they found stephanie lying on the ground outside the home she suffered a gunshot wound and uh she dies at the scene yeah that's it killed her um um now neighbors tell police which direction john drove off in and he's later finally located by a deputy about 10 miles away near silver lake where they find out when they approached that he had already shot and killed himself of course he did what blew his fucking brains out in the wow yep um the children at home were shot and killed by a deputy about 10 miles away near silver lake where they shot and killed himself of course he did what blew his fucking brains out in the wow yep um the home at the time of the shooting were 11 through 16 years old and uh they weren't threatened or harmed because they were inside the whole time none of the children were injured uh two of stephanie's children and one of uh and one of the children's friends were present at the home during the mobile during this whole thing and they said they believed the children did not see the shooting uh the woman's third child was at a neighbor's house so she leaves behind uh two daughters and one of the children's friends were present at the home during the mobile during this whole thing and they said they believed the children did not see the shooting uh two daughters and one of the children's friends were present at the home during the mobile during this which is horrifying those poor kids have been through so fucking much and she's just trying to make a life for herself and that sucks man so such dicks to her it's fucking ridiculous one local resident who knew stephanie uh said quote this is very sad she had already lived through a terrible situation and now this happens i feel for her and especially for the children which is exactly the right thing to say then the prosecutor from the buckloo case that always chimes in. This is a – it's just – it's so silly. I don't think this is her main concern. Quote, it always made me sad because she wanted to be there at the execution because she wanted to be the last thing he saw before he died. She was proud of the fact that she testified against him. That's not her main concern probably. That's what makes you sad. Not that she's got three fucking children without a mother who have had two horrible traumatic things happen in front of them. That's not the sad part. Not that you don't get to prosecute a man for doing something terrible to – Not even that. Three children's mom. The sad part is nobody gets to watch a guy die by spite. She doesn't get to – That's the real tragedy here is spite won't get to be thrown onto a condemned man. That's the tragedy. Think the tragedy is she's dead and her kids don't have a mom. That's the real tragedy. I think there's a lot of tragedies here and what he just said isn't one of them. Not one of them at fucking all. I don't see that as tragic. Who knows if by then she would even want to be a part of that at all. Maybe she'd want to put it behind her. You don't fucking know. Here's a tragedy, sir. That piece of shit with all the flowers in his mouth got to outlive her. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy right there. He gets to dance in his jail cell that she's dead. Yep. And John, his relatives and friends described him as nonviolent and active in church. I disagree. Seems like he's pretty violent. Yeah. Just basically. Seems like a very violent man. Seems like a bad guy. 2011, Michael Sanders' son, Zach, said he's moving on with his life. He took the armed services vocational aptitude battery there. The ASVAB test that all of us kids who didn't have good grades were given. How'd you do on it? None of the kids. You know what's funny about that? I got it back at the end of the day, put it in my fucking backpack, said I'll look at that shit later. Went out, was doing shit with my friends, fucking around, walking around, left it behind a Sears service center where we were smoking weed on their loading dock, and never found my backpack again. So I have no idea how I did on it. Oh, your whole backpack. Whole backpack I left. It was gone. I have no idea how I did on the ASVAB. None. I went to the recruiting station and evidently did pretty well. Enough to make a recruiter come to my house day after day until I broke my lease. Yeah. Never saw him again. They came to my house day after day, too, just because you existed and you were doing shitty in school. Yeah. But the test has nothing to do with that shit. I don't know what it said. We took it in school, I remember, and it was- Did you? I went to the recruiting station to take it. Yeah, it was in school, at the library. It was like a, you could get out of class for it. So I was like, sure, I'll fucking dick around with a fucking test. Why not? Wow, they're recruiting hard up there. Oh, they're recruiting everywhere. Yeah, this was in the 90s. Nobody wanted to join the fucking military in the mid-90s. Who the fuck wants to join that shit? Yeah, not bad. I had to go down to- To the place. Oh, I wouldn't have done that. I had no interest in that shit. This was just- 2000, I did it? Fuck, man. But yeah, that test, he said he's enlisted in the army. He said he's just waiting for the call to go to basic training. He plans to make a life in the military. He says that he doesn't mind if he has to go fight overseas. He says he just doesn't want to be defined by what happened 15 years ago to his dad. What year did he take that he's doing this in? 2010? Wow. Yeah. He said, it's life. You can't change nothing. What's done is done. He said if he could tell his dad something, he'd just say, I hope you're proud of me. So that's nice. 2013, 14, the Supreme Court of the United States denies his petition, Rusty's petition, for a writ with respect to his federal claims. So 2014, his execution is nearing. Oh, boy. The governor, Jay Nixon, told him, told the AP that while he was considering Bucklew's clemency request, he hadn't seen a reason to intervene. He said, this guy committed very, very heinous crimes. And while it's difficult and challenging, this part of the job will continue to move forward unless a court says otherwise. I ain't going to be the guy to pull the plug on this one, he said, basically. In addition to the stay request, a federal court is considering a request to allow Bucklew's lawyers to record the execution on video. Say, say again? They want to record it on video. They want to go, hey, you do it behind closed doors. Let's show people how gross it is, basically. Oh, boy. Now, they said the Department of Corrections works very hard to make sure this challenging responsibility is handled as humanely as possible. That's what the governor said. The AP and four other news organizations filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections claiming the state's refusal to provide information on the execution drug violation, which violates the public's constitutional right to have access to information about punishment. Which, yeah, we bought those drugs, no matter what they are. Tell me what you are. If your tax dollar paid for it, that shit needs to be public. Absolutely public. If you're putting Drano in them, we have to know. That's it. So, yeah. There's the Missouri Supreme Court they go before, which consists of a man with a corncob pipe, Nelly. Yeah. A man with a corncob pipe, Nelly, and one of those wavy-armed car dealership things, but of Patrick Mahomes. Those are the three members of the Missouri Supreme Court. And they all have lots of sweet baby rays on their fingers. Tons of it. Tons of it. So, they set a new execution date of May 21, 2014. On that day, the Supreme Court issues a stay of execution, which later expires. Now, the big thing. The big thing the lawyers are fighting over is his medical condition. His treating physician at the Department of Corrections considered the bleeding risk serious enough that Bucklew was. This is while he's on death row. He's issued his own biohazard bags and gauze to keep in his cell so he can, quote, mop up his own hemorrhages. He's just bleeding? Just. His face is just exploding and body's got problems. And they're tired of cleaning up after him, so. They can't. They keep going in there. He just gets his own medical shit. Oh, my God. He has to sleep on his right side, propped up at a 45-degree angle on pillows because lying flat lets gravity drag his swollen uvula across his windpipe like a curtain. He's going to suffocate. Yeah, he's going to suffocate. And he starts most mornings by cleaning all the blood off his face that's collected over the night. That is terrible. This is almost better just to keep him alive if you hate him, isn't it? If you want him to suffer, this is way worse. Make him do this till he's 90, that would be awesome. Fuck him. Good morning, blood face. Here's your towel. What's up, hemorrhage fucking chin? Nice to see you. Oh, God. So, the Missouri's standard method of killing people, this is one of the appeals here, is to lay them flat on a gurney and run a needle into a vein. Russell Bucklew could not safely lie flat, could not reliably offer up, and carried a tumor in his throat that the act of dying might rupture. The execution chamber and the disease were on collision course with this, basically. So, heading to the Supreme Court. Yeah. But he gets sick while that's going on. He contracts bacterial meningitis. Fuck! Which is a nasty, fast-moving infection, and he's hospitalized for close to two weeks. The infection collapsed his airway. Yeah, that'll fuck you up. He had to be intubated. He was put on a ventilator to breathe for him, and before he was discharged, surgeons performed a tracheotomy. Nice. Cutting open his windpipe and putting a breathing tube right in his neck. Well, good news! Now your uvula doesn't. There you go. The tube was still in place at the time of the Supreme Court argument, which was handled here. Now, they said if he breathed through a tube in his throat, did the choking risk still exist? It's a crazy question. That's the legal question. His lawyer said the tube could come out at any time, and the disease underneath had only worsened. The body kept finding new ways to almost kill him, so just let him die. There's also Drs. Joel Zivitt and Dr. Antognini. These are anesthesiologists. Zivitt is for Bucklew, and the other guy is for the state of Missouri. They had competing affidavits here about suffocation, wind, whether a vein could be accessed without a cut-down technique. They do this thing where they have a backup technique with the lethal injection. If they can't find a vein, then they will cut into your leg and find a vein in your leg that they cut open and stick it down there. That's the cut-down technique, and that's a backup plan, basically, if they can't find your arm fucking veins. So, they said his medical expert, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Joel Zivitt, described the airway, if you touch it, it bleeds. Gross. That's what he said. So, by 2017, he believed the tumors posed an imminent risk of catastrophic, life-threatening hemorrhage. During the years his execution was being scheduled and rescheduled, he survived the bacterial meningitis and all that kind of shit. Basically, it's lay this guy down, jab repeatedly at his shitty heart, hard to find veins and basically the rising blood pressure will likely rupture the tumor in his throat they said even if everything went according to plan the pinobarbital would shut down his ability to manage his own airway while he was still conscious and he would feel himself choking and suffocating possibly drowning in his own blood for a window his expert estimated at 52 to 240 seconds anywhere in there and that's the the legal argument is in this even the supreme court says that if he's drowning you that that wouldn't be an approved method of execution drowning or that sort of thing so the state's expert said 20 to 30 seconds that's not that bad 20 to 30 um so the fight wasn't even about whether he would be hurt it was about how long would he be awake while he suffocated that's what they're arguing over okay um then there is a one-page summary and that's by the sworn testimony of the department of public health and the department of public health and the department of corrections official not buck lou's treating physician or anyone that's ever actually examined him just the the official from the department of corrections um then they even say in it that it is not a complete medical record it's a summary and the form said it noted that buck lou had had the disease on his face and lip they got that right but they did not mention the tumor in his throat and that's the whole point of the case so nothing in the record suggested that anyone would check it out the medical team would not be giving him mris or anything like that you know anything so buck lou's lawyer said when the team starts the process they're not going to be aware of his breathing issues because it's not in the in the form because that's exactly what happened the time before a one-page summary that listed a facial condition failing to mention the throat and indicating no breathing difficulty okay now on april fool's day 2019 the court ruled against him five to four and we know exactly which five and which four of those are by the way um the dissents here uh justice briar who is still around wrote the principal dissent joined by ginsburg sotomayor and kagan and argued that buck lou had produced enough evidence of tumors in the airway and expert testimony that his execution by lethal injection could be excruciating and that he could choke and suffocate on his own blood while conscious and that at the time he was in the hospital he was in the hospital and he was in the hospital at the very least the case deserved a a full outing of the facts rather than a summary dismissal they're not even saying we shouldn't execute him they're just saying we should go over it before we execute him to make sure that doesn't happen rather than just say we don't think it'll happen fuck it you know hit the gavel so buckley had twice been within hours of execution this is in 2019 only to have the u.s supreme court grant last minute reprieves over the concerns he might suffer now they go they have a clemency request to governor mike parsons that the tumor could choke him to death um and um russell buck lou wrote in this uh quote the law doesn't take into consideration that with age comes wisdom i'm absolutely a different person i feel terrible about what happened to stephanie ray and michael sanders i don't think that's really the issue here i've that's not really the issue anybody gives a shit about tumors are not i'm rehabilitated i'm fine guys you did it yeah you know it's good you should patch me up and let me out put a couple of band-aids on me now according to the concern with missouri's execution drug the state uses a single dose of penobarbital but refuses to say where it gets it they're getting like on the street like there's no legitimate company will sell it to them anymore so they don't they literally could be in a parking lock going hey you got any penobarbital penobarbital the guy goes i got a little bit yeah wow the source is believed to be a compound pharmacy since large pharmaceutical companies prohibit the use of their drugs for executions compound pharmacies are doing this oh man so the supreme court stepped in to halt buckley's execution in 2014 and 18 but then in april of 2019 they gave the go-ahead for the execution um now there's been other things in 2017 the execution of a twice convicted killer named alva campbell who suffered from smoking and related breathing problems had to be um halted in ohio when a usable vein couldn't be found to administer execution drugs he ended up dying the next year anyway at 69 in 2018 alabama halted the lethal injection of doyle lee ham when the execution team had trouble getting the intravenous line connected ham had damaged veins because of lymphoma hepatitis and drug use good lord so just let that guy die in a room who cares he's got three things working against him already who cares let him fucking suffer a doctor hired by ham's lawyer wrote in a report that ham had at least 11 puncture sites and bled heavily from his groin during the attempts to connect the line holy all those diseases bleeding from the groin i think we exacted our pound of flesh here let's let him die in a room who cares um three years later then in 2017 the court set a third date for buckley's execution and the court said that he was going to die in a room and he was going to die in a room and then they issued a stay again in 2018 finally 2019 is when they issued the opinion and the stay of execution expired documents said around one month later may 3rd the state filed a motion to set an execution date to which he filed another thing back and forth and the supreme court of missouri again corncob pipe nelly and giant wavy arm patrick mahomes guy all issued a warrant for the execution of buckley on june 25th 2019 um there's a huge protest by the way really and a big petition on this one um the advocates delivered a more than 57 000 petition signatures asking the governor to stop the execution that's a lot of people 57 000 i get you can do online petitions back then it's a lot more less impressive than if you went door to door but still it's based on the fact that this man is super sick and this is crazy right super sick there's a big at the st louis post dispatch there's a big editorial death is not justice missouri should should spare russell bucklau um if you stab him he might bleed to death if you stab him they said if you touch him he bleeds yeah um they said that this uh basically they go on to say he was convicted we do not ask that he be exempt from accountability of his crimes we only ask that missouri avoid its own horrific display of how the state can use its power to take life so inhumanely governor mike parson can choose to commute buck loose sentence to life without parole or move forward and carry out what would be a gruesome and torturous execution on thursday leaders and volunteers from the aclu missourians for alternatives to the death penalty will be on the ground delivering almost 60 000 signatures um that's what they say so they say that the death penalty is rife with errors and inconsistencies fails to deter crime that's mathematical fact and has a steep cost not only financial but in human terms fuck human terms it's expensive it's the most all this shit we just described do you know how much that cost the fucking state it's outrageous when you could just literally let this guy bleed out in his cell and he would die like yeah i mean i'm sure you guys would like your that going to your schools or your roads maybe anything anything else but that him blossom tumors for the good cause at him and saying put it in a bag and we'll collect it at the end of the day pass the red bag under the door yeah so october 1st 2019 execution day is here really and he is not too sick for one thing jimmy you know what that is last meal last meal everybody yogurt it is not what is it uh any guesses besides the fried chicken they always love fried chicken it's not actually did he get a steak uh he got a euro sandwich okay really in the mood for some tzatziki that's what he was interested in cucumbers tomatoes euro so that's one of those also a smoked brisket sandwich which is a good choice in missouri it sure is brisket's great yeah two orders of french fries this guy is not did he have a date so no this is all for him wow a coke and to round it out a banana split not a bad last meal pretty good doubled up on the sandwiches though brisket fries coke a banana split a year oh that's pretty good shit man how'd you get all that down past that tumor sir is the past your fucking uvula there yeah um so by the way in the last meal study that we saw here one of the authors uh said that um uh basically it analyzes 247 last meals all of them ordered by condemned prisoners in the united states from 2000 2002 to 2006 and we've done we've done the steak stats before because a lot of guys get steak the average meal came in at 2756 calories but four requests from texas and oklahoma before they stopped doing last meals were estimated to have gone beyond 7 000 70 of the prisoners order ask for fried food and many requested specific brands 16 ordered coca-cola and and three inmates wanted Diet Coke because they're morons. Diet. There are people that just love the flavor of it. They like the taste. Yeah, they've gotten used to it. There are three people. Yeah. So the one thing they said is the execution team here was extremely careful, way more careful than they would have been at any other time. Because to basically make everybody wrong as far as let's not fucking hurt him, basically. They sedated him with Valium beforehand. Oh. Also, so he wouldn't freak out. They elevated the head of the gurney, the accommodation that the defense had begged for. So if the tumor ruptured, it wouldn't go down there. And his lawyer acknowledged afterward that the steps taken to make the execution less horrific appeared to have worked. So he didn't do anything. He lay under a white sheet, looked around the room, twitched his feet, took a deep breath, and then that was that. So died at 6.23. What if? 8 p.m. This might be spitballing and a little optimistic. Hey, what are we doing here, Jimmy? Sure. Optimistic. What if we just did that every time? Well. Every time that there was. You mean prop him up? Yeah. Because it wouldn't matter to someone who isn't. Bad enough guy that deserves to be killed. Perhaps we put him in a sleep number. A little Tempur-Pedic, a little adjustable, craftmatic. Get their feet up. Make them comfortable. For most people, it wouldn't matter, though. Yeah. Put up a little Netflix in the corner. Let them watch a nice TV show. Or they don't even give them last meals anymore. No. That's what I mean. We've gotten to the point where we won't even do that for people. We're like, no, we're going to execute them. We're going to treat them like shit the whole way. You don't have any. Even back in the day, hundreds of years ago, when they're going to shoot somebody, they have a last meal and a cigarette. Treat them like a human being for five fucking seconds. Mainly for you. So you're not a piece of shit for doing what you're doing. Not to do with them. And the poor fuck that. Whoever passing laws for this stuff. The poor fuck that has to pull the switch or put the needle. They don't have any say in which way we do this. It's some fucking dickbag in a suit that's at home tonight with his wife cooking him dinner. Yeah. Has nothing to do. That's not even going to be here for this. No. It's complete bullshit. And the fact that the last meal thing is ridiculous. You can at least give a guy a fucking last meal. And if you can't give a guy a last fucking meal, then you shouldn't be shooting them. Or you shouldn't be injecting and shooting them up. Then shoot them in the face. Yeah. Or don't even do that. Or just let them rot in a fucking room. It sucks in there. And it's cheaper. Sorry. The only time I've heard of them taking it away is just because some dick ordered a bunch of food and then gave him the finger and walked away. Rather than saying, you're not getting all of that. You ordered ten things. We'll give you the first five you asked for. Fuck yourself. And everybody else gets it fine. Why can't we? Ralphie May ordered everything on the menu and threw it all in the trash. You can still order food at Stand Up Live in the green room. Yeah. No, but that's a very inside story. It's a great story. This is a fucking excuse. Because when you treat people bad enough and bad enough and have the death penalty and do all this, what more can you run on? What more can your ads be of how you fuck with people? Now you can even say, I don't even let them have a last meal no more. That's right. They can have what everyone else is having. I'm tough on crime. Jerk offs. Okay. Now the reactions. The Sheriff Jordan who shrugged. He shrugged his shoulders when he was missing for days out of the jail. Yeah. That guy who was like, I don't know. We'll find him when we find him. We'll get up bright and early, make up some coffee, and we'll get on the good foot and go find him. For one day, though. After that, I mean, we all got shit we got. We'll all have cruelers. Don't worry. He said, in my opinion, he should have died a long time ago. In my opinion, the world would have been a safer place when he is no, the world will be a safer place when he's no longer with us. And Captain David James with the Sheriff's Department. Said, quote, he had no regard for anyone's safety as well as his own. We'll all be safer when he's gone. Probably true. That is Cape Girardeau or whatever the fuck it is, Missouri. And a goddamn crazy fucking case. This guy was nuts all over. Crazy. So this this lady's luck. The poor Stephanie had it bad. Stephanie bad luck. Well, she wrong guy every time. Every time. She would have. I mean, if she just said after this whole thing, she said, I'm going to try ladies. I'm going to swear off dating. Swear. Just do it on my own. Yeah. Swear off guys. Yeah, dude. If I was a woman, I could make myself like women. If these were all these are my options. All these guys. I don't care. Tits are great. That's whatever. It's so figure it out. I'll figure it out. Maybe it's not my first choice, but it's better than getting murdered. Fucking beaten and raped. And certainly not my worst. Worst choice. Stalked. No. So anyway, if you like that show, get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. If you're on Netflix, thumbs up, help a fucking lot. So do that. All that shit helps a lot. So anytime you tell somebody, thank you. We're very highly rated on Netflix. Oh, well, thank you people for doing that. I don't know. I've never watched us on that. Somebody text me the other day and said hundreds of thousands of likes and four and a half stars. It's fantastic. It's going very well. I've never literally never watched us. I've never watched us on Netflix. You think I want to look at my fucking face? I can't. Well, I'm not going to watch myself. I want to look at it when I'm shaving the stupid head. That's like being a band and wearing your own shirt on stage. Like, that's just weird. It's beating off in the mirror. Why would you do that? Watching myself. Yeah, that's strange shit. So definitely do all that. Head over to shut up and give me murder dot com. Get your tickets for live shows. They're all coming out. And September 18th, we're going to be at the Pabst in Milwaukee. That's a beautiful venue. And there's only a few seats left. So if you want to go to that one, get in there right now. The next day, we will be in Minneapolis on September 19th at the State Theater. Also a beautiful place. And it's great. And get your tickets now because Milwaukee's beating you. Get in there, Minneapolis. What are you doing, guys? Come on. Show us how nice you are. Show us that damn Minnesota nice. We're ready for your hot dish, Al. October 3rd in Dallas. October 16th in San Jose. October 17th in Sacramento. And then November 13th in Tarrytown, New York at that beautiful Tarrytown Music Hall. So fun. And then love that place. And then the next day, we're going to be in Minneapolis. And then the next night, love that place, too. The Chevalier in Boston there outside of Boston in Medford. You don't even have to drive into the city. It's fucking great on the 14th. That is shutupandgivememurder.com is where those all are. Follow us on social media. Very easy to do that. We're at Small Town Murder on Instagram, at Small Town Pod on Facebook. And you can do all that. Then you've got to get yourself Patreon. I'm sorry. We'll also listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports and Your Stupid Opinions. I'm going to make this appeal to the camera here. Crime in Sports, you will like it. You don't have to like sports. Trust us. Jimmy, look at the camera. Tell them. Do you think I haven't been staring this whole time? Your camera's over next to me over here. So, yeah, you stare over here, and I'll stare at the one next to your head. Yes. Please do. It's great. We appreciate you all for being a part of it. It's the most fun you're going to have. It is the most fucking fun. Check it out. And we just finished a series on the Yahweh Ben Yahweh cult because one of their main hitmen, happened to play football for like two weeks. I mean, that's literally what it is. You're going to find crazy stories of insanity. And also, Your Stupid Opinions is just the funniest fucking show on the Internet. It's hilarious. Get in there. It's so much fun. So, do that. Check those out. Get yourself Patreon. Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get everything we put out. Every little thing we put out, including as soon as you subscribe, you're going to get hundreds of backbones. Bonus episodes. Hundreds. Almost 400. That's crazy. Immediately upon subscription to Binge. Then you get new ones every other week. One Crime in Sports, one Small Town Murder. How much do they get? Hundreds. All of it. Every damn drop. Not the question. We tried to be smooth on that one, but it didn't work out. Okay. This week, what you're going to get for Crime in Sports, hostage situations. Part two, because the first one was so nice, we had to do it twice there. We got done with Patty Hearst and everything. We were having too much fun. Then for Small Town Murder, Prisoner Dating Game is back, everybody. Four bachelors, four bachelorettes. Line them up in front of Jimmy, and the only thing they have in common is they're all incarcerated, violent felons. Delicious. And Jimmy's going to pick one of each based solely on their own profiles and what they say about themselves. And then we get to find out how bad of a choice he made by finding out exactly what these people did to get in there. And there's nobody good. It's basically avoid the pedophile is what he's doing there. Try to move it like a shell game. Yeah. Do that. That is Patreon. Sometimes there's two. Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports is where you get all of that. And you get everything we put out, all three shows, all ad-free with your Patreon. Ad-free! Ad-free! Then on top of that, you get a shout-out, which is right now, Jimmy, hit me with the best fucking people that are going right now. The people who support us each and every week. Jimmy, hit me with the names right fucking now. This week's executive producer, Jason Fuller. Hey, pal. How are you? Hey. Miss you too much. Todd Scott, Penny Boyce, Happy Hours in Fairfield, Utah. I didn't even know they had one. Sharon Jones, Christy Pack. Christy Pack, I want to say that correctly. Spooky Roads and Croaking Toads, whatever the fuck that means. And then Vladana Kocik, I imagine, is how you pronounce that name. And I think Vladana includes or insinuates female. I don't know. I don't want to go too far. But thank you all so much. Thank you. That's a great name. That's a very Eastern European, right? Is that what that is? Vladana Kocik? Kocik is an Eastern European name, yeah. Vladana. Sounds very tough. She sounds badass. Sounds good. She knows how to load a gun. Other producers this week, Liz Vasquez, Peyton Meadows, Deanna Snyder. Pickle something, either one. You can handle her booze. Scott Richard in Maricopa. Perhaps Richard, but I like to call it Richard. Makes him sound fancier. Ryan Bender. I don't want to call him a bender, but he put that in there. Oi, Bender! Frank the South African Bird Washer. Remember that one? Yeah, I do. I remember that very much. Janice Hill and Robert M. Mike M. also. Brooke Jacobson. Audrey McCraney. Heather Annis. All right. Sure. Erin with no last name. I'm sure she didn't get made fun of ever. Taylor Diamond. Tim Bush also never got made fun of. Taylor Simpson. Indiana Jim Jones. Devin with no last name. Devon, perhaps. Christed Sherman? Christed? Really? With a D. It's not a typo. Maybe it's a typo on their part, but not mine. Maybe. Sheston with no last name. Sarah White. Tam with no last name. Aria Peterson. Jesse with no last name. Junior Ayuso. Chicken Pecker Party. Gross. What does that mean? Wow. The weirdest thing I've ever heard. The weirdest thing ever. Teresa Gonzalez. I mean, we eat their breasts. We don't eat their pecker? They do peck, too. Do they have a. Is there a chicken dick? There's got to be a chicken dick. Kathy Evans. Jeff H. Kai with no last name. Megan Afonsov. Afonsov. Aaron Bayard. Brian H. A. Schwaller. Pimpachu. Like Pikachu, James, but he's a pimp. Okay, with a pimp. Veronica with no last name. Or she's a pimp. Pimp and Pokemon. I suppose they can be both. It's not a male. Sure. Yeah. Fuck it. Cynthia Doherty. Jenny McNeil. Amanda Neg. Oh, boy. Negrete. Negrete. Amanda. That's who it is. Joyful Johns. Noah with no last name. JC or Jace Kute. Kute. Dale with no last name. Andy Surley. Cyril. Xavier with no last name. Jennifer Bainey. CJ with no last name. Jennifer Briscoe. Ray Beach. Hiker Faith. The Coke. McCain King of Albuquerque, James. His name's Vinny Vishnicki. He's also a junior. The third. Happy to have him on board. Bill Stanfield. Savannah Stephanie. Candace Lewis. Mags with no last name. Bobby O'Brien. Crunch with no last name. Emily Corkhill. Sandy with no last name. Therese Colby. Laura Millenor. Mill. Milliner. Jean or Jeanne. Gribben. It's probably Jean. I don't know. It looks like Jeanne. Alejandro. Alejandro Cesaris. Daniel Post. Hope. Nicole Henneman. Henneman. Allison Dorsey. Jason Baldinger. Nope. Badinger. Badinger? Badinger, maybe. It's not Baldinger. There's no L. Raver. Interesting. No L. Raever. Sweet Cheeks. John. Joshua. Joshua Anderson. Michelle McComb. Andrew Holt. Heard. Darth Bubbles. Becky with no last name. Lindsay. Darth Bubbles. Earl Lickman. Earl Lickman. Judge. Jen Barrows. Kylie Brown. Crystal Ravenscraft. April with no last name. Dublin. Nope. Yeah. Dublin D. Joanne Kvalsund. Grundle. Grodal. Grundle. Grundle. Hannah Key. Jessica Roberts. Michael with no last name. Katie Criss. Jessica Jonick. Gina with no last name. Barry McOchner. That's definitely a real person. Leslie with no last name. Jake Loves Maddie. Also probably not a real person. Dylan Reeves. Nope. That's Dylan with no last name. And also Nolan Reeves. Bear with no last name. Jonathan Yoder. Cleve Pritchard. Jonna. Jana. Jonna Lee. Jeff with no last name. Alan. Elaine. Alan. That is not Elaine. That is Alan Logan. Kayla Collier. Yep. Emily Robinson. Glenna Suter. Luther Wade. Lizzie with no last name. Nicholas Gomez. Bubby. Bubba. Bubba Abernathy. Tiffany Brinkmuller. Ara. Ara with no last name. Kenneth Lutz. Jason LaForge. Bobby G. Ashley Grill. John Proctor. Rachel with no last name. Ocean Sullivan. Lowey. Or Lowey, perhaps. Charlotte with no last name. Natasha Henderson. The letter M. Frankie Rasmussen. Courtney Watson. Other letters get your shit together. Not O. We'll be next week. Or two weeks. Courtney Watson. Phil Paquette. Katie C. Megumi. Megumi Hack. Fascinating. Peter S. Christine with no last name. Paul with no last name. Heather Radford. Kathy with no last name. Loud Swimming. 420 Babe. Amanda Gonzalez. Kelly Davis. Amy Ward. Tyler Bennett. Melissa Baird. Teresa Martin. Trish Grant. Fig Jam. Krista Skaggs. Trish Hamill. David Hampton. Jenna H. Blaine B. B. Neona with no last name. Lisa Kelly. Kim Malone. Joshua Plummer. And every person that patrons the show. You're the best. Thank you so much, everybody. You have beautiful, fantastic bastards. We cannot thank you enough for all that you do for us. We hope that you had a blast in this episode. This was one of those crazy narrative episodes. You're just like, holy shit, what's going to happen next? So crazy stuff. Glad you enjoyed it. The homicidal energizer bunny is here. And so thank you so much. And if you want to follow us on social media, head over to Shut Up and Give Me More. GiveMeMurder.com. That'll take you anywhere you need to go. There's menus that take you all those places. And live. Oh, no, we're not going to. That's live. That's crime and sports. We're not going to do it like that. We're going to do. Until next week, everybody. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Bye. you