Halloween Show /// Episode: 59 | Forensic Files

Hello and happy happy Halloween. Welcome wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your
host Nick and with me as always is the ghost with the most, but don't say his name three times. Ladies and gentlemen,
the captain. I won't. I won't do it. Can't do it. Won't do two shows in one night, babe.
It's good to see you and it's good to be seen. Thanks so much for telling a friend.
Make sure you tell all your friends. Run around screaming at your neighbors. Give
me some candy. Listen to True Crime Garage. Tonight at the Halloween party, we are
drinking Oktoberfest by Brooklyn Brewing from Brooklyn, New York. That's the garage grade. How about we
give it four and a half bottle caps out of five. This rocking Brooklyn Oktoberfest was brought to us by some of
our ghastly garage nasties. First we have Noel in Grove City, Ohio. Hmm, that sounds like a wonderful little
community. We also have Lauren in Spokane, Washington and there's Elaine in Vestal, New York. Elaine says, "Nice
jib." Nice jib back to you. Also, don't know if we should call them our nasties.
I don't know how nice that is. It's a Halloween party. It's They're ghouls and ghosts.
You got a nasty jib. That's right. Also, we want to say hi to Stephanie in Indianapolis, Indiana, who
says, "Keep up the good work, guys." Next, we have Gwenna in Long Beach, California.
Also, Jason in New York, New York. He says he wants to buy us a keg, and he also says that his favorite thing is
heading to Upstate New York with his dog and listening to True Crime Garage at night because it scares the hell out of
him. I want to know more about this keg that he's going to buy. I wonder what it costs to ship a keg.
And last, but certainly not least, we have a very happy Halloween to The Acid Cherry. Apparently, that is one of
our listeners' code name. So, thank you, Acid Cherry. Sorry, The Acid Cherry. And
if you want to buy us a round for next week's show, go to truecrimegarage.com and click on the donate button. Yeah,
and while you're there, might as well sign up on the mailing list while you're at truecrimegarage.com.
And so, you may have guessed it, tonight is our big Halloween party, and we are going to take a little break from the
Halloween action. I know you're probably going to hear this a couple days afterwards, but we couldn't get it out
on that night. We're traditionalists. We had to have the Halloween party in the garage on Halloween night. So, but
tonight, we're also going to talk about our favorite true crime documentaries of
all time. So, we're going to get to that right after this. Oh, good one. So, grab a chair, grab a
beer, and let's talk some true crime. Maybe grab two. Maybe grab some candy. When it says take one, take five. Say
Help yourself. Thank you so much. You've earned it. Thank you. Let's get in the garage.
This is True Crime Garage. And this is the Halloween show. He was guilty of capital murder. This
doesn't change anything. Our son was still murdered. Our son And he was tortured to death by three
murdering bastards on a ditch bike. He was 8 years old. Damn system stinks. It's a great tragedy that your kids was
killed, but it's also another great tragedy that American citizens, anybody today's public can just be picked up for
a crime they didn't commit. Everybody in the town and in the courtroom and on the
jury are all blinded by their fantasies about satanic cults. There it is, your corn.
You're right, of course. I can't imagine. Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain.
He's dead. Hiring me is not like hiring an attorney. It's not to protect you. My
job is to find the truth. All kinds of red flags started popping up. She starts telling us these things
that just didn't add up. Save the American icon, Tom. That was suspicious to me. And this
woman's husband had just been found dead, and there didn't seem to be any sadness whatsoever.
If I'm guilty, it means that I am the ultimate figure to fear. Because I'm not the obvious one.
The girl known as Foxy Knoxy. Everyone is talking about it. As long as I remember,
I wanted to be someone else. We had no idea what kind of person we were getting.
He had changed so much. There was just something wrong about it. About 15 buildings here have been
abandoned for quite some time. They did a lot of searching for the kids here. Specifically for Jennifer and I believe
Holly Ann. Growing up on Staten Island, Barbara and I had often heard the legend of Cropsey.
He was supposed to have a hook and an axe. Knife about this big. Cropsy was the escaped mental patient who lived in
the tunnels beneath the old abandoned Willowbrook mental institution who would come out late at night and snatch
children off the street. 10-year-old John Gosch had been delivering papers in this affluent
neighborhood of West Des Moines. That was the last time he was seen. The parents believe the boy is alive and has
been kidnapped. Johnny, we love you. We're waiting for you to come home. We're doing everything in our
power to get you back. Take care, babe. Thousands of people have been searching for the boy, but nothing
All right. This is some Halloween party we're having here tonight, Captain. Yeah, can
I get anybody a drink? Maybe some candy? Uh the Captain made a uh scary hairy buffalo. I tell you, I had a I had a sip
of that a few minutes ago and I fell right over. there were going to be more people in
the garage, but there's just me and you. It It's always just me and you. Well, and you know what? I was surprised
that I sent a few invites out to some celebrities and uh I'm really surprised not to see them here. You know, Johnny
Depp, I I talked to him and he said, you know, I'd love to make it out to the garage for your Halloween party, but I'm
busy with the Hollywood Vampires on my tour. he kind of talk like he has a a little bit of a British accent?
Well, I couldn't tell if he was can't make it tonight. I couldn't tell if he was just putting me off, you know,
that if he was just like kind of trying to be nice, but not really being nice. Well, Rachel McAdams, the invitation is
always in the mail. I also sent a Facebook invite to your good friend Anderson Cooper, but in
traditional Anderson-like fashion, he didn't even bother to respond. I can't I mean, come on.
he said "F off." That's what he replied. Well, Anderson Cooper, maybe next year.
Okay, so what we you decided to do since we're we talk about a lot of creepy cases and it kind of gets us down
a little bit. And these are some creepy cases, but what we're going to be talking about today in the garage is our
top 10 true crime documentary list. Yes, and originally we agreed that we would each come up with our own list and we
would mesh them together and we would, you know, come up with an ultimate garage list, but of course we could not
agree on any of these things. So, we're just going to go with our different lists.
we agreed on some of them. up pretty close, I think. Yeah, but then there there was some that
were not on my list because I never seen that I haven't seen them yet and there's
some that you haven't seen or some that you didn't remember while you're making the list. And uh so,
it's not fair to make this complete list. So, we're going to have your list, my list and and a bunch of
honorable mentions. Yeah, so if you are listening at work, we want you to encourage you to join in the Halloween
party with us. Put a little vodka or a little whiskey in your coffee or something and get
tiny bit. Yeah, and stop working. Just get like a pad of paper and a pen and write down all these true crime
documentaries. how about you pull a George Costanza and get underneath your desk?
And just relax a little bit. Yeah, and pull out your little alarm clock. Enjoy yourself.
bed. Sit back and relax. All right, without further ado, how about we do our top 10 list? All right, but let's start
with uh some honorable mentions. Mhm. So, this is this is a This is a great show
cuz one, through our social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all that stuff, if we missed a documentary,
please let us know about it. Mhm. Uh mean, obviously we can't list all of them. We're just kind of going over some
of our favorites. But please let us know about some one that we might have missed because I
mean, this is how sometimes we get um involved into case. As we watch a documentary or through a recommendation,
uh somebody says check out this documentary on Netflix or whatever and then we do a two-parter like last week.
This is what happened with the uh Johnny Gosch case. If you haven't listened to part one and part two, uh just stop this
one. We'll finish this one and then go back and make sure you listen to both of those. Those are great
episodes, I think. Do you have any honorable mentions for us, Captain? Yeah, hold on. Somewhere Where are my
notes? Uh the first one which we you hear in the trailer, this one I find to be pretty
interesting, The Jinx. Yes, of course. That was a widely popular one that HBO covered not too long ago regarding uh
Robert Durst and uh did he kill them all? You know, is what it left us all asking and Yeah,
this is this is where the documentaries are going to be I believe in the future going to play a bigger part in the
actual case itself. I mean, most of the time like and you'll see this throughout the list.
A lot of times these documentarians get involved and because of that and because
of the hype and because of the public pressure, you actually get some results that you want to got before and in in
this in this documentary famously, he's he's wired for sound. Well, we got to try not to uh Yeah, we
don't want to give away the We got to watch out for the spoiler. The the Well, I'm the king of the spoilers. Uh
Anyways, it's an interesting documentary and if you haven't checked that out, I recommend that.
the gist of it is this. I mean, we have this guy who's he's he's raised in a wealthy family and he he is somewhat
successful himself. Uh their family's involved in some kind of real estate in New York. And but throughout his life,
people around him keep dying. And you know, you got to figure out the jinx. That's why it's
called the jinx. Is this some kind of curse? Is this a curse that he carries with him or the people around him are
cursed? Or does he have a hand in this? So, check out the jinx. That's a good honorable mention. We also have Cocaine
Cowboys. Yeah, I have I've only seen clips of Cocaine Cowboys, but I've heard good things.
I saw the first one. I I think this came out in 2006. This was about the Miami drug wars from the '70s and the '80s.
And I believe that they did a follow-up Cocaine Cowboys 2, but I've not seen that one. And the one that I have not
watched yet and it's been on my list to watch for a long time is The Staircase. I have heard a lot of things. I've heard
a lot of good things. But to give it credibility, I've seen it and it's it's a really good one. There's the the
situation is this. So, there's this there's this gentleman. Well, you can decide if he's a gentleman
or not. He's a retired military. And I I do want to point out we're going to talk about each one of these
documentaries a little briefly. That way you can decide which ones you want to watch.
But however, we are going to go off of memory because obviously we didn't have time to sit down and watch 10 or 12
documentaries just to tell you all about them. So, this gentleman, he was in a retired military. I believe he may have
served in Vietnam and he became an author. He wrote something you know, wrote about some of his war stories.
Uh-huh. And he had a wife that that dies accidental death on the stairway, but it's they're trying to figure out was
this an accidental death or was this a murder? So, Right. Um Yeah, I mean I've just heard a lot of good things and it's
that like I said, it's been on my radar to check out for a while. that was an eight-parter and I want to
say that may have been uh like a Sundance Film Festival some kind of award winner. That's That's the problem
is sometimes these documentaries are so long that it's like people go have Listeners will say, "Hey, have you
checked this out yet?" I go, "No." They go, "Well, it's only eight parts." It's like, "Well, but we got to work on a
show for next week." Yeah. Yeah. But for the for everybody out there, a lot of these are easy to kind of binge through,
you know? Um I think I watched The Staircase, even though it's eight parts, I think I watched it in two nights. Uh
We also got um Into the Abyss and Central Park Five. Yeah, so Central Park Five is about an old case from uh
Central Park, New York. Um and that was, you know, years ago there was something
with the teenagers. Um and there was They were kind of rioting um loosely rioting and terrorizing citizens in
Central Park. Mhm. And a a woman uh I believe she was jogging, uh and she was attacked or or raped by this group of
teenagers. But it's it's been speculated over the years, are they innocent or did
they actually commit this crime? So, that's That's a good one. And Into the Abyss as well is a good one, and that is
about a um uh the aftereffects of of a person having committed a crime and uh the the
prison sentence and and life in prison afterward. All right, let's get into our top 10
list. Starting with number one. No, of course that's not how you do these things. Starting with number 10. Mhm.
What's your number 10? Number 10, I have Cropsey. Have you seen Cropsey? Yes, I No, I haven't seen it all. I've seen
parts of it. Uh because I feel like I missed something. Like I started it, then I
started again, but I think I missed about 15 20 minutes. Okay, but did Cropsey make See, here's the interesting
thing here, Captain, is we've not fully reviewed each other's list. So, we may have some on on your top 10 and mine as
well. So, as we go through these, you you mention if if that made your list as well. Did Cropsey make it somewhere in
your top 10? made my list a little higher. Um What would you give it? Well, I'm not going to give that away
right now. We'll We'll go your top 10, my top 10. Leave us in suspense. I love it. Yeah, so anyways, it got uh 90%
uh on Rotten Tomatoes, 62% from the audience. So, kind of a drop off there. So, 90% from the critics, 62 from the
audience. Yeah, so Critics loved it. The half the audience loved it. I loved it. I was in
that half that loved it. Uh this was This was a story about uh well, we have Joshua Zeman who grew up in Staten
Island. He is the uh documentarian that uh He did Cropsey and he's done a couple
others. Mhm. Um he grew up on Staten Island and he had always heard this story about Cropsey. And well, what was
Cropsey? Well, Cropsey was the last name or the name given to a maniac who had escaped from a
uh mental hospital and he was out snatching kids off the street and killing them. And Josh grows up and he
he learns that, you know, actually when he was a child or when he was a teenager, there was a girl taken from
his neighborhood. So, this it as he grows up and he realizes that there was a uh man named Andre Rand uh
who had actually been on trial for killing a couple of kids. And what Josh wanted to figure out was
kind of the old chicken or the egg scenario. You know, what came first? Was it Was it the legend of Cropsey that
came first or was it uh Andre Rand who who was the, you know, the real-life monster? Yeah, and I think a lot of
times with uh documentaries, for me at least, it's you like the idea of the story,
maybe not so much, uh you know, the the filming of it, the soundtrack and all those stuff they play a part. Mhm. But I
think it's really more the idea or the case itself if you whether or not you like the documentary.
Yeah, and it's neat too when there's somebody that's from the area can tell you stuff about the area that you would
not have known that that some other guy or girl couldn't have just walked in there
and and presented it in that way. So check out Cropsy. What was number 10 for you, Captain?
Uh Capturing the Friedmans. Okay. This was done in 2003 and Rotten Tomatoes rating of uh 97% and
89%. It's rated R. The running time is uh 107 minutes. And what's fascinating to me is I I believe that this
documentary's done by one of the older sons. Uh it's basically uh this documentary about this the uh the
dad and the youngest son get charged with these heinous crimes and then it's like going through the whole scenario.
It's fascinating. What I find about it is it's it's very unnerving. It's like once you see this documentary, you can't
unsee it. Okay. Um but I just remember I you know, was studying jazz in college and I had
this guy that uh would just come in to every rehearsal just going on some rant about whatever. And he was ranting about
this documentary just watched and I just remember like writing it on my arm. Like
I need to find this documentary. So it it it was fascinating. If you haven't seen it, Capturing the Friedmans is a
definite uh one that I think you should check out. not and I'm going to go ahead and jot
that down on my arm to make sure that I watch that. Uh number nine for me, I have The Imposter.
Yeah, this is a this is really good uh film, good documentary. This is shot really well. Mhm. Uh it's very
cinematic. They actually reenact a lot of the events using the actual characters from real life.
So, they'll take scenes that happened that don't they don't have footage for and they reenact them using the actual
people. And this has a lot of twists and turns in it. What just, you know, you think you're heading down one path and
they take you down another way and then they take you another direction. So, uh this was uh The Imposter. This was the
story of Nicholas Barclay. He was Barclay. He was a uh a young boy that was has gone missing
um and they've not found him, but then 3 years later they think that they found him in Spain. Yeah. Um and this this
person comes forward that's about 3 years older and they start talking to him and he's reunited with the family
and I'll just let you I'll let the the the listeners check it out from there. We
don't want to go too far. it was It was done uh 2012. It's been making a a big buzz because it's on
Netflix now. You can check it out on Netflix. 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, 78 from the
from the audience. Rated R and the running time is 95 minutes. I'll tell you what, it's probably one of the most
recommended ones that I as far as people recommending uh true crime documentaries
to me. Like every couple months somebody's like, "Oh, have you seen The Imposter? Oh, you have to see The
Imposter." and Yeah, yeah. I I think it's definitely it's uh it's definitely worth checking out if
you haven't done so already. Number nine for me is Amanda Knox, which was done in
2016. Had a big buzz because it was a Netflix I believe it was a Netflix original. I'm
not Don't quote me on that. Well, it's on Netflix. Yeah, it's on Netflix now. Uh no uh
rating on this one. Runtime is 92 minutes. Uh 89% and 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. I like this.
Visually, it's just beautiful. Tons of scenes and this is a case that has been recommended to us a
bunch. Over Amanda Knox, Amanda Knox. Is a case that I'm not really familiar with.
This is one of those cases, you know, Anderson Cooper. Nancy Grace, a lot of people when this
case blew up when it did. Tons of news coverage. Those to me cases like that, Amanda Knox um
a million other ones, OJ. When they become this like pop culture nonsense to me, I normally start tuning
out. So, I didn't know much about the case. So, for me it was it was a great documentary to watch. I have a really
good understanding of the case now, I think. And also when people suggest these cases after watching this document
documentary, I don't feel like I have much to bring to the conversation. Do you find that you that you end up having
a better experience when you have no idea about the case and then you sit down and watch a documentary or do you
find that it's a better experience to be to know of a case and be excited that there's finally a documentary about it?
Uh I think for me it's just not knowing anything. And then when you go in you know, then you start learning about what
you will learn through time and time again. Uh there's always holes in the story. And look, they're putting
together a hour and a half documentary on this on some kind of crime. Just like our
shows, people will constantly say to us, "Oh, you missed this part or you missed
this thing." Well, we're putting together a hour and hour show on a case. I mean, we are going to miss some
things. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes there's a lot more to cover than just 1 hour. And we do have to skip over some some of the
smaller details. Yeah, so number nine for me is The Man Who Knocks. I think it's you know, it visually they did a
great job and like I said, I have a better clear understanding of the case. So number eight for me would be
um the case of JonBenét Ramsey. This is the three-part mini series that was done
by CBS, I believe. Uh this was done in 2016. This was just recently and very recently
and not only within like the last what 6 weeks or 2 months maybe? Yeah. And this was kind of funny because you
and I had recommended this to each other at almost simultaneously. You know, I said, oh there's some new JonBenét stuff
coming out and you said, oh you got to watch you got to watch this one that and neither of us had watched it before
recommending it to the other. And as far as cases go, I mean, if somebody asked me to do my top five cases or even top
three cases of all time, cases that I've looked into over and over and over and over again,
this would be one. JonBenét Ramsey case has always really uh you know, baffled me. You have some
really interesting characters in this mini series. You have Henry Lee, which is has some connections
with the OJ case. Yeah, Henry Lee is the he's been involved in a lot of the forensics as far as physical evidence
goes and and how a crime could take place and the movements of the people and why there's blood here and not blood
there. Sure, if you've had to have seen Henry Lee before. Yeah, I think the thing
about this mini series or documentary, I mean, 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, 16% with the audience, so it's very low. I don't
know if that's because they just don't believe the theory that they came up with, but I thought what was bold was
this it's this panel of people, you know, experts, panel of experts. They come up with this theory, which is not
original theory, but they add a lot of details to it and then they make some pretty
damning claims. So much so that there now lawsuits. If you have not seen this, I would recommend this for sure. Yeah,
it didn't make my list, but I loved it and it didn't it you know, sometimes when you watch something on TV and it's
a three-parter like such as this, you kind of forget that it's actually a documentary, you know. Well, that's my
thing is I kept on thinking well, it was a it was a mini-series. It was a TV show
technically, a TV series. Should it make the list, but it is by definition a true crime documentary.
I think you picked a good one. Uh number eight for me was the very famous ever popular making a murderer.
Yes, which I still have not seen. Which is the Steven Avery case and and I'm sure there's people sitting in their
garage at home booing you right now, but you don't need you don't need to boo the
captain because you know, like we said, he's seen some that I've not. Uh this one I liked this one a lot.
and I've also listened to a lot of podcasts about the case. And and and here's the thing for me. This I think it
was uh cinematically, it was well done. Um it it looked good. Uh the music was great, you know, the way that they put
everything together. It's kind of a collage, you know, uh and I I found it extremely entertaining.
I kind of begrudgingly liked it because I disagree with uh with their theory. Um and it it made
me put off watching it for quite some time, but I did enjoy watching this one because I thought it was so well done.
Right. Uh it's a little skewed in my opinion, but um uh This is still on my list to get to. I
mean I mean we started a true crime podcast. I don't know if you know about this. Uh true
crime garage. And the biggest true crime podcast probably of all time is Serial.
And it took me uh at least a year or so to dive into Serial, which which was bad for me. I mean, it took
weeks off my life of researching the case over and over. So, that's probably one of the reasons why I've stayed away
from that documentary, but I probably should watch it. Making a Murderer on Rotten Tomatoes it got 98% by the
critics and 95% by the audience. Of course, this came out in 2015 and they are making a second
go around of this. Yeah, second season of Making a Murderer. Again, yeah, this is technically
technically classified as a a TV show and not a documentary, but as we all know in the true crime world, it's a
documentary. Yeah, we're very loose about the rules here in the garage. All right, let's get
back to the list right after this quick beer break. All right, we're back. Cheers, everybody.
Cheers. How about another Oktoberfest, Captain? Because you know what? These things expire
as soon as as soon as it turns November. So, you have to drink them all up before
the end of October. It's the last Don't think that's how it works. That's how it
works. We have like 3 hours until my Cadillac turns into a pumpkin. All right. All right, so what number are we
on? We're num- number seven. We're at seven, sir. Go I'll start with mine. Mine was The Imposter. So, I had it a
little higher than yours. Um Again, we don't really need to talk about we already talked about it. So,
that's my number seven. Your number seven, sir, is Me, I had an old one. This is a oldie
but a goodie. It's called The Iceman Tapes: Confessions of a Mafia Hitman. And on Rotten Tomatoes it got 84% by the
audience. This one came out like in the Don't quote me on this. I want to say early 90s. Uh but this one I saw on
cable when I was younger and and it was like very eye-opening to me because this
guy was a true psychopathic killer in every sense of the word. It's a it's about Richard Kuklinski. Mhm. Um say
that fast. fast after all those Oktoberfest. Yeah, let's let's not say it again.
Uh but he was a worked for the mafia as a hitman and he offed Sometimes he just offed people that he didn't like. Uh but
it it was it was crazy to me because when I was younger I always thought that, you know, you had serial killers
and I understood that there was a mafia out there, but I saw this when I was probably
11 or 12 years old and I was like I was like, "Oh my goodness, there's this guy that that's his job. He's He's He just
has no problem killing people. Like lots of people." turned his hobby into a living. Maybe
that's what it was. Could be. He's a I mean, he's That's why he's the Iceman. He is cold. He's a
cold-blooded killer. Yeah, I've seen this before and I've actually listened to a bunch of
interviews. I believe they had some stuff on Coast to Coast on this back in my days of traveling around and
listening to Coast to Coast at night. I believe they talked about the Iceman before, but I believe I've seen this. I
didn't have it on my list, but again, like you said, it's this weird thing where it's like sometimes I mean, it is
a crime. It is a true crime. I It didn't register in my brain, but it it's definitely I definitely recommend
it as well. So, let's get to my number six, another one that we don't have to talk about cuz
we already did, Cropsey. I you know, like I said, to me it was just the idea of you know,
a small town boy hears some rumors, is there some truth to it, and dives into it.
A little bit of armchair detective type stuff. I just like the whole premise of the whole thing. And if you have not
seen Cropsey, it is on Netflix. So, go check out Netflix with the Cropsey. All right, your number six is The Devil
and the Death Penalty. This is a This is an interesting one. This is about Roy Norris and Lawrence Bittaker.
They were known as the Toolbox Killers. They were serial killers in the '70s. These were some of the worst of the
worst. they call them tool-toolbox killers? Well, because they they would travel
around in a van and they would abduct these teenage girls and they would torture them using things in from their
toolbox. Okay, I shouldn't have asked you that. You should not have asked because it
Yeah, you're you're stuck thinking about that for a while. But this beer is tasting great now. Um but the other part
of this, you know, it it's just as much about the two killers as the kind of the
failed death penalty in California. You know, these guys have been on death row for so long. I think Now, forgive me
because it's been a few years since I've watched it. I'm not certain. I think Norris might have passed away due to
like natural causes or something like that while he was But I know Bittaker is still on death row to this day and he
was like convicted and these crimes took place in the '70s. Uh and all that tax money to keep him alive and all that tax
money to all the um the legal processes they have to go to through the appeals and everything.
And I think that when this, you know, the the guy that created this documentary, he grew up somewhat where
in the area and he had returned to his hometown and he kind of like started asking people about, "Oh, do you
remember Lawrence Bittaker?" And he just assumed he would have been executed by then. Right.
And it it blew his top to figure out that they've not killed the guy yet. The state The state that I live in that
could that condemned him to death has not killed him yet. And we're talking about I think at the time when this came
out, there was like 7 or 800 people in California, in the state of California, still on death row for for
crimes they've committed a long time ago. Yeah. Uh I have not seen this documentary, so
it being so high on your list is something I definitely want to check out. lesser known one.
All right. So, number five for me. Uh I think that's where we're at. This beer is getting in the way of me keeping
track. Uh I have Who Took Johnny, which we covered the John Gosch case uh last week, a two-parter. I was
surprised to find out that this was uh done in 2013. It was 2013? Yeah, I mean, it's it's
seen a kind of a resurgent with it being on Netflix, but unless that's a typo, uh this you know, basically this kind of
set around for 3 years, but now it's getting some buzz. Like I said, we did a two-parter on that. It doesn't have a
Rotten Tomato meter, like overall I believe it's just the audience. That's 84%. This is pretty short. This is uh 76
minutes. So, you can you can kind of dive into this. Uh the reason why I like this one so much
is I It's kind of Here's what's tough. Did I enjoy watching it? I don't know. I And
then now I know that sounds ridiculous. But it's like I immediately watched it, immediately started diving into the
rabbit hole. Oh, see. I see what So, it's like did I love the documentary? I don't know. Like the
story didn't end for you when the documentary was over. You went immediately into Sherlock Holmes mode
and like Googling things and look Trolling the internet. had a 3-hour long conversation about
this case last night on the phone. It's like it just keeps going and going and and there's there's so much that the
documentary actually misses. Uh we weird things. Again, the documentary 76 minutes. We did a
two-parter on it. There's a lot of weird stuff to talk about, and even in our two-parter we missed some weird little
things that happened. Whether they're true or not, I don't know, but we we missed bringing those up. Yeah. You
know, but uh I think it's such a fascinating case, and if you haven't heard of the case, it's a great
way to dive into it. I have a little higher on my list. It did make my list as well. But one of my
favorite things to do, I don't watch a lot of TV or a lot of movies. But but one of my favorite oddly enough, even
though it's one of my favorite things to do, I enjoy watching things with other people because I like to get their
perspective afterwards. I like to have the little conversations afterwards. And so I asked somebody to watch this
documentary with me who took Johnny and I was a little worried because when you when you sit down and you're interested
in something and you know you're excited to watch it. You want the other person to have a pleasurable experience as
well. And you know me Oh, not me. I want to watch something and I want somebody to be bored out of their mind. Well, get
up and leave but leave me the popcorn, right? Go go get me a sandwich while you're bored.
That's all I'm That's all That's That's what you want out of life. No, no. I'm just messing up. But what I
want is the other person to be entertained Yeah, of course. I was a little worried because you know
me, big true crime dork. I knew I was going to be entertained. And I asked this person to watch it with me.
And I True crime dork. At some point like halfway through I'm the kind of person I
can get up from a movie or from a documentary as long as I keep an ear out and can hear what's going on. I don't
mind walking away from the screen for a second. I went to the fridge to grab an Oktoberfest and in the process I stepped
in front of the the screen. Yeah. How dare I? I the other person was so into it. I got I I kind of got a little got a
little yell there. They're like, "Hey, hey, come on, dork. Move out of the way. Yeah. They should have hit you.
No, no. It's uh it's a it's a good film. I definitely uh check that out. What is
your number five? My number five is Dear Zachary, a letter to a son about his father. Uh this came out in 2008. I
watched it on vacation uh a year or so ago. What a nice thing to watch on vacation.
True crime the the sun went down and I decided, "Hey, what a good night to pop some popcorn and and have a couple beers
and true crime it up. Uh it was 2008. True crime and chill, I think they call that. Running time is about I think it's
95 minutes, and this got a critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 94% and an audience rating of 96%. So, the audience
was was even better than the critics here. Now, this one is a I'm not going to lie to you, Captain.
It's very entertaining, extremely entertaining, but it's also it's probably the saddest one on my list. Uh
this one I can't remember if I choked up, I can't remember if there was a tear rolling down the cheek, yeah, uh but
there was definitely the old lump in the throat was getting me a few times. And this is about a guy that grew up uh with
with another guy, and they were friends, okay? Good friends. The one guy goes on to be involved in in
Hollywood or in film somehow. Yeah. So, when he's growing up, he's always he's always behind the camera, you know, and
he's asking his friends to be, you know, act out a skit for us, do something funny. So, he's
Dawson's Creek. Yeah, he's always he's always interviewing or filming his friends doing things, and one of his
friends grows up to he's unfortunately becomes a murder victim. And they have a lot of old footage of this of this guy,
I don't have his name in front of me, but he has a son, uh and his name is Zachary, and so
as an adult, he wanted the young son to know his father. Yeah. And so, he started piecing together
uh things that he had filmed about his father, as well as documenting the crime itself. Um and the the thing that one,
it's I mean, it's interesting, uh not I wouldn't say as much from a true crime perspective, uh just from a documentary
perspective. It's it's extremely entertaining, and the victim in this crime is he
I I he could have been a I think he could have been a movie star. He had a great personality. He He was very
charming. He was naturally funny. Like the captain. Yeah, he was good He was just great on camera. So, I recommend
Dear Zachary, a letter to a son about his father. All right, let's get to number four. Let's start with your
number four. My number four was one that you had already mentioned, Who Took Johnny.
All right, so you had it one one spot higher than me. Yep. Uh so, definitely check that out. Again, like we said,
it's on that list. somewhat of a general consensus there. You have it five five I have it four.
Yeah, and I think, you know, as people are yelling and screaming, "Oh my god, that shouldn't be 10." Right? Mhm. The
thing is is the list I mean, if I woke up tomorrow, the list would change tomorrow.
The list is going to change 6 months from now. I mean, as far as like it's always like when you just look back on
it. And so, when when I was going over my list, I kept on thinking like what was the anticipation?
Yeah. What did I feel right afterwards? And that's kind of hard to remember. Uh again, I have it so high
and I couldn't even tell you if I liked the documentary. I just dove into the case so hard.
Well, for me, my top three were pretty set in stone. Like I It was easy for me to write down my top three. And after
that, I knew of seven others that I that I loved. Right. But But they're like you said, they're
almost interchangeable with one another. If I, you know, a week from now, they could You could flip my my number 10
Cropsey with number four, Who Took Johnny. was actually surprised by my number my top three. I surprised myself.
leaving us in suspense in suspense I'm at number four for me is uh Finding Emma Fillipou, which another case that we
covered. Mhm. Uh this is a case that I recommended. Uh we get listener you know, listeners will uh recommend
cases to us through social media and the website and stuff like that. You can also give us a five-star rating on
iTunes and and leave us a little a recommended case for us there. But there are times that, you know,
you'll present a case to me. Hey, I I know of this case. It's really interesting. Let's talk about it. Uh
this is one that I actually um brought to the table. Mhm. Um and and it was actually on a list, like this
master list of one of my friends said, "Hey, here are some interesting cases." And then I also found it again. It was
on like uh mysterious disappearance cases. Again, if you haven't listened to our episodes
on that, go do so. But, uh documentary, I don't know if this is a documentary or not. It's by Fifth
Estate. I watched it on YouTube. That's the only way I know how to watch it. Um it's like 45 minutes. It's pretty It's
almost like a Dateline special. Um I couldn't find any uh raining uh rankings or ratings on it. Mhm. So, um but
again, it was one of those things as I'm watching it, quickly wanted to dive in to the case. And uh it's one of
you know, one of a case that still fascinates me today. And And one of those things where if I see anything
posted about this case, I immediately start, you know, clicking forward and trying to check out. Still baffled by
it. So, that's my number four. Uh number three. Well, start with mine? Sure. Okay, I have West of Memphis. This
was done in 2012. Um 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, 87. That's the audience. Uh it's rated R. Um runtime is about
hour and uh or 146 minutes. Now, this is a film about uh the West Memphis 3. And to me, it's part two of the famous
documentaries, Mhm. the the Paradise Lost. To me, it's just the fourth installment.
Got you. Um but is it is done very differently. Uh, Damien Echols and and some of the other members of the
West Memphis 3 are actually involved in the production of this and then they're producers of the case. So, there is
definitely an argument that the opinion of this is uh askewed. But, like I said, um
that I was reading some reviews on it and one of the guys said, "It's you know, wasn't watching a film.
It was kind of just more like watching a TV show." Hm. Um, that was his opinion.
I could see that. I thought it was good. I thought it was done nice. But, again there's some skew viewpoints, you know,
but it's just such a fascinating case to me that to me it's the it's the part four, you know, after the
trilogy. It did it did not make my list uh and not because it wasn't good. I mean, it it's just you can't you
wouldn't allow me to squeeze uh 13 documentaries into a top 10 list. tell the viewers what happened, right?
And tell the viewers what happened, right? So, we we we decided that we we knew about a month back. This was your
idea. You said, "Hey, let's give the listeners two episodes and Hal- for Halloween."
Mhm. So, we had cases lined up and then we started talking about this who took, you know, Johnny Gosch case because of
the documentary. And then we kind of moved some things around. So, we were supposed to we were
going to release it uh the Halloween special on the Monday, but we decided well, we'll do John Gosch one John
right? Right. And then we had a a producer friend of ours say, uh "You should have
did your Halloween episode on on on Monday and then did part two on Wednesday." I thought one, that's a cruel joke cuz
you get you all you're waiting for a part two and then you see that we put out a show and it's not part two.
The other thing about it, too, is anytime that we're diving into a case, you got to really stay focused on that
case. And a lot of times, a lot of my friends will tell me, you you're you're documentary ass, is what
they say, because they'll say, "Check out this." And I say, "I can't." Yeah. And it's And it's not because I didn't
want to My My buddy told me to check out Who Took Johnny for weeks. Mhm. But I couldn't. We're on cases. We're on to
the next case. And sometimes, if you watch this documentary and you go down a rabbit hole,
it's going to affect the episode for next week. So, um Anyways, I'm losing my train of thought
for this. went you went you went way off topic. and going. were talking about what had happened. We
talked to We set this up about a month ago that we were going to come up with a top 10 list for
Right. Okay, yeah. And so, the thing was, we said we're going to do a top 10 true crime documentary list. Top 10.
Yeah. So, then Nick tells me uh texts me over the weekend or whatever, "I sent you my documentary list." Yeah.
Top 15. Top 15? I'm like, said top 10. Top 10." I couldn't stop. I started writing the
list and I was like, "Oh, this one. This one." Cuz when you get to 10 and you're
like, "Oh, that's the final part of the list." But I got like three other things, you know, four or five other
things. Well, we get asked a lot what documentaries we like. We get asked a lot what our opinions of those
documentaries. So, we just thought it's be kind of a fun thing to do. And then, we wouldn't have to dive into a case and
uh you know, for Halloween and stuff. Give us a little break from the the goriness that we have to deal with.
Well, and my quick take on the West of Memphis documentary was I Like I said, it didn't make my top 10
list, but I liked it a lot. And you're exactly right, the fourth installment. That's the That's the best way to
describe it. I don't know that we really need to tell a whole lot of people about
this one. I assume it's been watched by the masses. Um but for me, my first takeaway is it's kind of a
more updated bigger budgeted version of the Paradise Lost trilogy. doesn't have the same charm, I don't
think. So, what's your number three? My number three came out in 2014 and it's called Killer Legends. Have you heard of
this one? Uh this is done by the same guy that did Cropsey. Yeah, Cropsey, yeah.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of uh Joshua Zeman and uh this came out in 2014, Killer Legends. It's uh 85 minutes long.
Audience score only 50%, which is very surprising to me. You said Zeman? Yeah. Yeah, I think he needs to drop a little
bit of money into the beer fund. Cuz we're promoting all his movies on our show. Well,
Just drop a little money into the beer fund. Well, I actually I spoke with him about
uh a couple of his documentaries and one that he has coming out. Uh he has a a show coming out called The Killing
Season, which will be on A&E and it starts uh November 12th. Uh but I wanted to get his take on some of his
documentaries, specifically, you know, Cropsey and Killer Legends. And and Killer Legends
uh I filled out this list before I knew I was going to talk to him. Uh and after
I saw my list, I thought, well, you know, I I should I should ask him about uh some of his his documentaries. And
he, you know, this one is great, Captain, because I'll tell you why. Mhm. You grow up and you hear about all these
different urban legends. You know, there's the we spoke about when we covered the uh Phantom Killer, you know,
the the man with the hook, you know, the hook hand guy. Uh we also talked about uh
um What what's famous right now in the in the news? We have these clown sightings.
right, yeah. That's a weird thing, right? With all these clowns that are scaring children
or they're in parks or they're in the woods and they're scaring people. So, what Joshua did was he set out to to
explore these different urban legends and he wanted to see if there was any truth to, you know, was there a crime
that happened somewhere a long time ago and at some point the the real life story manifest itself into this urban
legend. Right. Right. Yeah, and Kind of like with Cropsy. I mean Similar thought, yeah. And and
But it's a different urban legend he covers on this one. Yeah, he's able to track some things back like, you know,
the the the poison Halloween candy or razor blades in the Halloween candy. blades. He was able to to to track that
back to a case that took place in Texas. Uh the old babysitter You know, the baby
The babysitter's watching the kids and she gets a strange call and all the the calls coming from inside the house. You
remember that urban legend? He traces that back to some real life crime. When I was a banker
uh I had this lady that would come into the bank all the time. Little old lady. She's maybe like 4'5"
and she had a pink walker. And uh she always Well, I can't I'm not going to say my She would but she called me "Mr.
Edward." Okay. "Mr. Edward." And I go I go I understand what she was saying ever, but she told me one time she goes,
"Oh, you have a nice trick or treat and and watch out for the razor blades in the candy." That's strange that she
called it Edward cuz your last your Captain Jones. I It's not even close to Rogers. Captain Rogers Jones. But the
thing was is so every time I would see her all I could think was you got to watch out for that the razor blades in
the candy. Anyways, I hope Ruthie is doing okay out there. All right, where are we at? I just gave
my number three, Killer Legends. Okay. And that one's on That one's on Netflix as well. I have not I'm going to write
that down on my arm. You're going to love that one. That one's cuz you're kind of you're into conspiracy theories
a little bit. Theory Jones. You you love the rabbit hole traveling and this is Rogers. This is a very This is very
Captainish. All right, so let's do your number two. Okay. Cuz this is another one that I want to check out that I have
not seen. Your number three and number two, right when I saw your list uh I actually wrote these down cuz I
thought if they're so high on your list and I haven't seen these, I'd probably enjoy them.
My number two came out in 2004 and it's called Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. This is about Aileen
Wuornos. Uh she was a female serial killer in Florida. She's known as Monster, right? Yeah, they made
the the theatrical version of her life was was Monster with Charlize Theron. Yeah. Um and this this one is incredible
and I can't remember the the guy's name, but you'll see him in the film and you'll recognize him. He's done a bunch
of documentaries and Ken Burns. No. It's not him. He went and did jazz and he did baseball and then he went right
to true crime docs. I believe Aileen Wuornos killed six men according to the court system. Mhm. And uh this is filmed
after she's in prison. She's on death row in Florida. And but there's it's crazy because there's all kinds of drama
that's not involved with her crimes. There are people that are trying to get close to her because she is be she's
become famous Right. because she's a serial killer and there's all these people that want to
make movies and write books about her. I mean, they the people came out of the woodwork and they were just throwing
money around like there's no tomorrow. And she had a uh a you know, she had an attorney who was probably taking money
from different people to sell her story. She had somebody a friend that that uh that she didn't know until she was on
death row who adopted her. Um and she had a she had a adopt her? Yeah, you can you can be a
legally adopted in some states even if you're an adult. Mhm. Um Well, the Captain's off. If you want to adopt the
Captain, just uh write into uh contact page at truecrimegarage.com. But only if your garage is bigger than
this one. We're not moving into a smaller garage. That's right. We need to adopt the captain, Roger Jones. So check
out Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Yeah, now what did you think of the movie Monster? Did you enjoy that? I
did. I liked the movie Monster, but this this is this for me is I mean it was tough. This
by far, you know, this is a great number two. And it's it's a documentary that I've
watched a few times. It's the kind of it's the kind of movie or film that if you turn on the TV, if you're flipping
through the channels and you see it, you kind of have to you just stop and you end up watching it again. So I don't
know how many times I've watched half of the the documentary or the whole thing.
What was number two for the captain? Um one that did not make your list. A Soaked in Bleach. Mhm. Again, maybe
because I I I do like the conspiracy side of things. Mhm. Um this was done in 2015.
Uh I think this is what's so weird. So the Rotten Tomato meter is at 30%. Unless I wrote Unless I wrote that down
wrong, but it says 30% and 77% from the audience. So a big jump. Um this is not rated.
Run time is about 90 minutes. Now, basically what's happening here is Courtney Love a couple days before Kurt
Cobain's body is found. Uh she hires a private detective. And one of the things I really like about
this story is it he answers the phone on on a holiday. Mhm. And he's writing the stuff down and he
doesn't know who Kurt Cobain is. It was Easter, I think. He answered the phone on Easter Sunday.
Yeah, but it's like he doesn't know who he is. Now, and this is uh you know a Yeah, the reason why I I enjoy that part
that he doesn't know who Well, first of all, he doesn't know who he is. He's probably the most famous
rocker at the time, one of the biggest icons, you know, that generation's John Lennon. You know, a lot of people were
just idolizing this guy. Doesn't know who he is. And uh having a father you know, that was in law
enforcement and stuff and and didn't know who celebrities were or famous musicians, people that were making a
mark on on people. So, the fact that he didn't know who he was and then it became the biggest thing in this guy's
life. This guy he's never heard of. And and the other thing that I really like about this Okay.
I want to try to sell it too much on why it should be number two, but there was a lot of hype and I would
constantly see this in YouTube feeds for years. The They were talking about the making of this this documentary.
I mean, years beforehand I knew this movie was coming out. And so, as it got closer and there was actually a
definitive date because like for a year and a half beforehand there was no definitive date.
And uh when it was coming out I believe I paid for it on pay-per-view, but I had
some friends that were really interested in checking this out. And the the other
thing I love about this is he takes all these tapes as he's hired by Courtney Love. He takes the you
know, they have phone conversation. He records them. And then they reenact the tapes. Now, I was listening to Joe
Joe Rogan actually talk about this and he said, "Well, I don't know if you can believe it or not. They have actors
doing whatever and they're reenacting um little scenes." No, they're not reenacting the scenes. Those are actual
tape recordings of the scenes and then there's actors portraying those characters. And there are some scenes
that are reenacted. but for the most part, you're actually getting to see this footage or to hear
this audio footage. Now, the problem is is there's you know, hundreds and hundreds of hours
of audio tapes, and they're just they're picking and choosing what you get to listen to. But, I wasn't
necessarily a huge Nirvana fan by any means. Um I thought you know, they were good band and everything, but it wasn't
like, you know, he was like the second coming of Christ for me or anything. Or Lennon, you mean.
And he wasn't Well, and he wasn't the second coming of of Lennon Lennon for me. Um
but I've just always been but I don't know be I think once people started And I think when it happened when I was a
kid, I didn't understand like, okay, he killed himself. And there was some rumors that maybe she was involved, but
I didn't really care or look into it too much, but for some reason this Soaked in
Bleach was always on my radar. And so, I was really excited when it came out. Uh
didn't disappoint me. Uh one of my friends wouldn't not shut up during the whole movie. They kept on going, "That's
fake rain. It's fake rain." Uh duh. But, if I But, if I watch scenes back, but no,
even the outside scenes. There's outside scenes that it's like CGI rain. Right. I
Yeah, I could tell. Yeah, but I was like, but it wasn't until she started bitching about it that it like just
threw me off, and I was like, I wish they wouldn't have had that, but uh it's a it's definitely an interesting
case, and I believe if you just think that he committed suicide, it's enough to start making you think, oh, possibly.
Possibly. It made me second second guess the whole suicide. I'll be honest with you, and
part part of it for me, and probably maybe why it gets sometimes these things get a low rating, as you said, if the if
people don't agree with their with the theory that's being presented. Yeah. Um and for me that that was kind
of the situation here. I thought it was well put together. Uh it was entertaining to watch. The fascinating
part of it to me was just what you said, the tapes of Courtney Love talking. And
she's this with is Some of these recordings are within days of Kurt's death. And so you're getting a um
you're getting a very quick reaction to to maybe one of the biggest tragedies in
her life. And it's Well, and it's authentic, too. to hear if you, you know, you're you're
When you're listening to her, you're trying to decide is she being legit here or am I supposed to be reading between
the lines? You know, is she is she just putting this on? Because at sometimes she does sound very guilty of something
uh in on those tapes. And other times she just sounds like a grieving widow. Uh but it but it is definitely
interesting. It came very close to making my top 10. Yeah, it's definitely if you have a evening and
you're and you haven't seen it, uh I definitely recommend Soaked in Bleach. That was 2015.
Uh is that one on Netflix? I believe so. Well, I don't know. See, it's weird with
the Netflix cuz I just got Netflix. I just got hip to the Netflix. And there you know, you can search. And
there's tons of stuff. But I kind of just always just browse what they're kind of recommending. Except for that I
they had this stupid kangaroo movie that I like Kangaroo Jack that I didn't Oh. No, here's what happened.
What else are you watching that it recommends Kangaroo Jack? No, no. I I I was looking up the documentary called
Jaco. It's on this famous jazz bass player. It said Jaco. I hit play and it started playing this
Kangaroo Jack, which I stopped within like a minute. But it's on my playlist that I played and it recommends me some
ridiculous stuff because of Kangaroo Jack. The people at Netflix are having fun with you.
I keep I've sent them 300 emails. Can you please take this off my playlist? I was really proud of my playlist. I
thought it was, you know, pretty I mean, other than like the New Girl, I'm I'm pretty proud of of the shows
that are on it. Excellent. Number one, have we reached number one? It's time. It's time for the number one.
Time for number one. Drum roll. Hold on. I don't have a drum. Wait, wait. We actually both had the exact same
number one here. We Yeah. Uh which Weird. Well, you know what? I don't know that it's entirely weird. I kind of
suspected that that this one would be up there pretty high for both of us, that it would fall into the one or two slot
for both of us. Uh But the other the other advantage that this one has is it's a trilogy. You know, it's kind of
it's kind of teamed up on ganged up on the other ones, you know? It's it's one documentary versus three. In one case,
it's always fascinated us and and every all the listeners know, West Memphis 3. Wars
trilogy. Uh well, West Memphis 3 has always been one of our favorite cases and we discussed it on this show, of
course. But so the Paradise Lost trilogy is the number one for the both of us. And the first one came out in 1996. That
was the um the first one. It was the child murders at Robin Hood Hills. Uh Revelations was part two, which came out
in 2001. And then Purgatory was the third and final installment in that trilogy. And
that came out in 2012. Right, the same year that West Memphis you know, West of Memphis
West of Memphis came out, which you could lump that together with all this and call that the part four. So,
Paradise Lost 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. By critics or audience? By critics. 93% by critics again. That's a pretty high
number cuz this is a a case that there's a big division. Mhm. And the fight there's a big division, but it
constantly goes back and forth. You got constantly have these and look, I'm guilty of it, too. You watch a
documentary and you go, "They're innocent." You watch something else, you go, "They're guilty." Yeah. Then you
hear something else and you go, "They're innocent." Uh so, no no rating ranking not ranking. Rating. rating on
that. And this beer, man, it's a really good Halloween party. It's funny, too. I wish they could see
our costumes. We dressed up. It's just we you know, but anyways, Yeah, you're Kangaroo Jack and I'm
Batman. Uh the the the the Paradise Lost for me, man, it's it's it's my favorite. I can
watch it 100 times. I may have watched some of these close to that. Uh you know, when we did the when we
discussed the case about 3 weeks beforehand, I I ventured back and and watched these again. Uh the first one,
it grips you right away. Like as soon as as soon as you hear the Metallica music
in the background. Uh and and for me, there's a couple of Metallica songs that I cannot hear to this day without
immediately my mind going to some of those images from the Paradise Lost trilogy. Yeah. And I will say though,
for for someone that if there's anyone out there that's not seen these before, uh I think the third one was quite a bit
less watched than the first two, but if there's anybody that's not seen these before,
it's not I it's not a lot of investigation. You know what I mean? It's it's it's more of you are being
introduced to the parents of the victims, you're being introduced to the accused.
And it's a lot of their personalities, especially the first one. You're you're seeing the the initial reaction to a
horrible, heinous crime. And but at the same time, you're wondering are the are these teenagers that are being accused,
are they are they actually innocent or are they guilty? And and why are they being accused? You start asking yourself
why at some point. Well, in the little trailer that I made with the different clips of the
documentaries. I mean, Damien Echols says it pretty I think brilliantly is yeah, there's a
tragedy. There's a horrible tragedy of three kids being murdered. The other tragedy, if it if if that's
the case, is that anybody in this country could be arrested for a crime that they didn't do.
Uh now, these guys claim their innocence. Again, a lot of you got to look at is there evidence?
This documentary doesn't do that. I think the I think West of Memphis kind of makes it more about evidence and and
some other speculations. But I think some of it is um I didn't I don't think I I think I
watched maybe parts of one when I was younger. I didn't watch it in 1996, but when we started going to talk about
this case, I've always seen a bunch of clips, but to actually sit down and watch all three
of them. Mhm. And I think a lot of it is just nostalgic. I mean, 1996, I I was roughly
uh Damien Echols and and and three the West Memphis three, I was roughly their age, you know, uh
big into Metallica and stuff like that. So, I think there's a lot of nostalgic to it.
Uh and I think that's what makes me so interested or fascinated with those documentaries. I'll tell you what, I
could watch 20 hours of Mark Byers. Uh you know, just take away everything from the case. I could sit and watch Mark
Byers for hours and hours. Uh But yeah, the uh Well, they're fascinating to watch now
because you know, it hindsight is 20/20. I mean, these these three boys get out, you
know, it on an Alford plea. But to go back and watch what happens, and then go back and to watch not only
um all these parents, what they say about these three boys, but how that changes over time. I mean, and some of
those documentaries, they're claiming, "Hey, you know, I'll be at your grave. You're
a You're a son of a [ __ ] You're all these things, right?" But then years later, we know that some of these
parents with because of evidence, they're on the side of the West Memphis Three now. There's a big
big culture shift, you know, with because of these documentaries. Well, and with it being Halloween, too, we
should point out that there is the famous scene with Mark Byers shooting a pumpkin. You know, he's got this big
giant pistol, and he's standing about 20 ft from it, and he's just shooting bullets into a pumpkin. Yeah, and
screaming, "This is for you, the West Memphis Three." Yeah, and I "This is for you." But the
cool thing, the the great thing, not only the Metallica music is great, but the but the other great thing is it's
like grainy and gritty, and it doesn't look like overly produced. It's not that Hollywood.
Right. It's not Hollywood at all. And I The first time I watched it, I watched it when it was on HBO when I when I was
younger, and it it blew my mind. I couldn't stop watching it, and it it it it felt like the first uh reality TV
thing that that I had seen. You know what I mean? The the first one that had sucked me in like that, and I couldn't
quit watching it. But yeah, grainy, gritty, it's uh the best. Yeah, like you said, there's not going
to be tons of information about the case. I I'd really argue that if you watch it, like once I did the research
for our episode on the case and then I watched it, I kept on thinking there's no information.
There's about 10 minutes of evidence in each one of the three movies. Right. So, it's kind of confusing. It's
not like with um the Amanda Knox case and and some of the other cases that really kind of or the
case of JonBenét Ramsey. Those documentaries really lay out a solid timeline, some solid evidence,
what it what you could argue as far as what evidence is, um and what is speculation.
Um these documentaries don't do that, you know? So, uh but I think they're fascinating.
And I and I I think even a year from now if you ask me what my favorite I think that'd probably be
Always maybe number one. Yeah, for me. Because it was the one one of the first ones, you know, the first
one that really um brought brought this subject to my attention. Well, and while we're on the
subject, I'm same for me. It's still going to be my number one for for maybe forever. And but uh recommended reading,
we can't do recommended reading after we talk about all these documentaries you should watch. So, for this week we're
going to do recommended viewing. Go to our website and you can we we're going to have the uh Paradise Lost trilogy.
They have a little three-pack box set that you can get. You can get that through our Amazon banner. Pick that up
today at no extra cost to you. It helps the garage and the captain really wanted
candy corn, but it was not in the budget for this year. Uh so, pick that up through our website
truecrimegarage.com. Nobody likes candy corn. Yeah, you can get anything through Amazon and they
just give us a little kickback on the website. So, again, thanks. I hope everybody enjoyed the top 10 list.
Do you want to run them down real quick? Yeah, go ahead. All right. So, mine is Capturing the Friedmans,
uh Amanda Knox, number nine, number eight is the case of JonBenét Ramsey. Number seven is Imposter, number six is
Cropsey. Uh, number five is Who Took Johnny, number four is Finding Emma Fillipoff by
Fit the State. Number three is West of Memphis, number two is Soaked in Bleach, and number one
is The Paradise Lost Trilogies. Captain, I enjoyed your list. I'm going to check
out uh, you had a couple on there that I have not seen. I'm going to check those
out. My list, number 10 Cropsey, number nine Imposter, number eight Making a Murderer, number seven The Iceman Tapes,
number six The Devil and the Death Penalty, number five Dear Zachary, number four Who Took Johnny, number
three Killer Legends, number two Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, and of course number one is The Paradise
Lost Trilogy. I hope everybody had as much fun at our Halloween party as we did, and I hope you enjoyed our list. If
there's any on there that you've not checked out, make sure you check those out. Uh, I do want to give a
another thank you to Joshua Zeman for taking time to discuss his documentaries with me, and remind you to check out his
new show The Killing Season, which is about the Long Island Serial Killer case. Yeah. Uh, and it's starting on
A&E, and that takes place it will start November 12th. It's a um, it's an eight-part series, so check that
out. Yeah, that's going to be a really good one. And hopefully maybe we can follow
it and do uh, you know, kind of a, you know, recap like what we thought of each episode or
something. He said he he told me watch a couple episodes and give him a call back. He'd be he's he said we're going
to have questions. He goes, "This is going to blow your mind what you're going to see with this case." Yeah,
yeah. So, I'm interested in it, and we got to get back to our Halloween party. I know that a little bit later the
Captain is going to karaoke the Monster Mash. It's been requested. It's a mash. It's the Monster Mash. Uh, but thanks
for listening. Thanks for telling a friend, and we'll see you guys next week in the garage.
hope everybody had a happy and safe Halloween. Don't forget to get out there and vote next Tuesday.
And until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.

Halloween Show /// Episode: 59 Original Release: 11-1-2016

Halloween Show ////// 59

Truecrimegarage.com

Tonight we are throwing a big Halloween party right in the garage and you are officially invited. Halloween is the perfect time of year for taking in a really great horror film or hearing your friend tell a scary story. The truth is when you have True Crime who needs fiction. Tonight we party but we also discuss our favorite True Crime Documentaries like "Making a Murderer," "The Jinx," and "Who Took Johnny." Join us for drinks and much more but make sure that you come to party!

Cheers, Nic & The Captain

Beer of the Week - Octoberfest by Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, New York

Garage Grade - 4-1/2 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

Hosts Nick and Captain discuss their favorite true crime documentaries while celebrating Halloween with beer and listener interactions.

Key points

Halloween Party Kickoff. Join us for a spooky Halloween celebration with drinks and true crime discussions!
The Jinx Mentioned. A popular documentary about Robert Durst raises questions about his involvement in multiple deaths.
The Man Who Knocks. A visually stunning documentary that provides a clearer understanding of the case.
JonBenét Ramsey Mini-Series. A recent three-part mini-series that dives deep into the baffling case.
Making a Murderer. A highly acclaimed documentary that explores the Steven Avery case.
Dear Zachary. A heartbreaking documentary about a son learning about his father's tragic fate.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

If I'm guilty, it means that I am the ultimate figure to fear.

6:18WatchJun 25, 2025

Tension

40/ 100Low tension

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