“Weirdos’ Audiobook Club” presented by Audible – Blue Beard with Special Guest, Spencer Henry | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash I'm Elena and I'm Spencer and we are having another uh installment of our weirdos audio book
club so thank you for being here today everybody we're grateful for you so grateful
[Music] if you didn't know we have Spencer Henry from morbid Network's cult leader
obituary and their newest baby show gossip Bridal hi everyone I'm so excited to be here we're excited to have you I
feel like you're the perfect fit for this cuz you love like old timey True Crime mhm love it there's a lot of
reasons as we go into this title today uh why it resonated with me and I just loved it so much o I'm excited to hear
that makes me excited I know well before we dive into the title we want to thank
audible again for the partnership and for bringing this special little bonus to all of you guys uh Blue Beard is an
audible original so if you haven't already listened head on over to audible to dive into this title our lovely
friends are sweethearts at Audible and they they're still offering that free trial for you guys so you can take hold
of that Nifty gifty at audible.com weirdos for your free trial and of course we also covered this case on uh
morbid it was episode 626 so if you need to refresh your memory at all or if you
want to listen to that for your next morbid listening Journey it's there for you it's there for you we're there for
you this title is there for you we're all everything is there for you it's true do it it's a crazy case like this
case I went into cuz it was my episode when we covered it on morbid it was my episode it was my
episode not yours it was mine and when we went into it I was like oh I think I've heard of
this I don't know if I like I don't know the details but I was like oh this is like one of these guys that just like
abandons women and takes their money like you know the classic tale like an HH homsy Style guy so much deer and it
it did kind of feel like he had those vibes to him just because of all the fraud and [ __ ] he was committing like
across borders and [ __ ] and the aliases alada the Alias ey like this guy's Bonkers oh he is wild and organized and
I'm like rip Walter you would have loved Tinder oh my God truly yes that would have made his scheme so much easier cuz
like thinking about like the log books and [ __ ] that he had to keep to keep his
different wives straight keep track of them yeah and like letters he wanted to he would absolutely like he had to keep
like his like communication with them straight what he told one what he told the other like the different stories he
was telling them about why he was out of town all the time like I can't remember
what I had for dinner last night that's a lot to keep up with yes stressful I can't imagine what his
nervous system looked like oh it was riddled it was riddled with anxiety yes maybe it wasn't though maybe he was just
totally cool as a cucumber I mean yeah H I think he just riddled our nervous system exactly yeah well I think he just
was really good at probably compartmentalizing all of that definitely kind of like dissociating
from all of it like yeah he had to it's a good point he and he probably learned that in childhood cuz like if you go
back and listen to the episode where we cover the real case like he definitely had a narly childhood yeah so that's a
good point Spencer oh I listened oh I listened you better believe but yeah I mean because a lot of times it's like
survival tactic is learning how to compartmentalize all those separate areas of your life and kind of
dissociate from them a little bit and that's probably how he was able to do that and not have these really strong
emotional ties to definitely he was never really taught to have a strong emotional tie to anything CU his own
parents treated him like [ __ ] and his mother really treated him like [ __ ] and
then I mean once he finally got out of there what was he 12 years old I think when he got out of there and went on his
own it's like then the world treated him like [ __ ] and obviously that's no validation or like justification for
what he did it's just I think this is why he was able like you said to just like shut it off cuz he was like well no
one's ever had any connection to me so why should I have a real connection to anyone else I think you're I think
that's exactly it yeah everyone used him for what they could get out of him so he
just decided that that was the life he was going to live and he did it in the awful life exactly and he have gone the
other way plenty of people have plenty of people have tragic backgrounds plenty of people get treated like [ __ ] and they
go on to be amazing people who are like I'm not going to continue this cycle but
he's an [ __ ] go to therapy exter go to therapy get a gratitude Journal yes be grateful these are all
steps do some self work well before we get into it even further I just want to talk really quickly about the writers
for this title and the process because it's really this is an interest one it is so one of the names you're definitely
going to say wait a second I know that name Jim Clemente is one of the authors of this he's a former FBI profiler who
was part of the team that cracked the DC sniper case which is wild yeah that's a
big deal he's been part of like huge cases like this guy has Flex on Flex on Flex he's a former New York prosecutor
he's a writer and producer for Criminal Minds oh love that show yep he's a podcaster for real crime profile best
case worst case FBI profilers and criminal archives he's after our own heart with all those podcasts he is and
he's also a consultant for law enforcement and for Creative projects that involve his like massive expanse of
expertise and he's just like wildly impressive and he had like a really tough like beginning to life as well he
has a lot of like things in his backstory that he could have turned the other way and he went this way so he's
like also very inspirational if you read up on him definitely and he was a first
responder at 9911 so wow yeah so he's just I how how do you even lift that resume like I don't even know how he
carries it around with him he's done it all and then his co-author was Peter mcdonal who is an author with 43 books
like damn 43 books that's insane like what that's that's all the books I can't name 43 books like wow
truly he's also a podcaster and a journalist so together this was the perfect team I think to do something
like this yeah 100% yeah a good Duo really the duo of the century well what's interesting is they went into
this actually thinking that they were going to make a documentary series oh yeah and then it turned into this title
which I I love knowing like how a project started and evolved and I feel like I mean this still could make an
excellent documentary series but I'm glad that they did the title that makes so much sense if you listen to the title
that it was laid out that way because my favorite thing about it was like just listening to it like you can fully have
visuals on everything that's happening at the time they did such a good job with Translating that yes 100% they
really did and it reminded me a little bit of your new show gossip Bridal with the soundscaping and everything the like
immersive experience of it all like oh Spencer's going to love this I no I truly all of it I was like obsessed
listening to it the whole time I felt like I was like in an old detective novel yes you get transported when you
can hear the music like the old timey like I just give me a cigarette babe yes and let me just
let's give me a cigarette and a fedora and I'm ready to go baby go you're sure well it all got started when Jim
Clement's friend he was helping this elderly woman just clean out a storage locker like most inconspicuous thing you
could ever think of you know yeah and she they were like clearing out random boxes and this was in LA right in La yes
and she told him oh you can just get rid of that box over there and he was like okay like maybe we should check inside
first just you know make sure nothing important is in here and um something important was in that box it contained
this leatherbound to home and that contained Blue Beard Watson's confession inside which is insane I just got CHS
yes he confessed to the murder of 10 wives and to think that that leatherbound to was in there containing
that confession full confession like three days worth of confession and this to actually belonged to the one and only
JB Armstrong who's the pi that was hired by Catherine when she suspected that her
husband was just cheating Miss Wacker was Mrs Wacker exactly so just literally opening that up and sifting through the
pages must have been Bonkers wild bananas yes imagine finding that oh and Jim Clemente has it now in his personal
collection has that leatherbound to yeah our producer Mikey got to talk to him and he showed him on the zoom and we
were all Mikey was showing us afterwards we're like oh my God je Jim on the horn
let's get Jim on here show me your book show me that leather bound toe gy I want
to see your book I'm trying to see it well obviously they were uh immediately interested in this story once they heard
about this discovery and once they you know sifted through this Tome of theirs so they researched Watson even more to
find out about his crimes his detailed confession and when I say detailed like I said it took this guy three days to
get everything out and it was that confession that really voiced The Narrative of Watson in this title mhm so
it's very true to to who Watson actually was yeah for sure and you can tell like
he does cuz it's Joseph fines that plays him he does a good job of making him like unlikable unlikable but you could
see why women like would be drawn to him in a way almost yeah because if you were
going walks the line if you were going into this story blind I think you would be like oh I like this guy like what's
this guy's story but if you know the case and you go into it you're like I don't like you
you're kind of like toying with yourself of like I kind of want to like you but I
know what you do you know for sure but after working up the whole story Clemente and McDonald pitched this story
to our our friends over at Audible and they suggested maybe converting it into a radio style drama actually and
ultimately it um ended up being directed by a Canadian director and this is interesting Canadian radio style dramas
continued way past the point where they did in us like when we transitioned over
to TV so he was really well versed in that type of production because you know they experienced them way longer but to
talk more about the production let me hand it over to my girl Elena cuz this is really interesting like Spencer said
it's like a super immersive like you feel like you're there experience and that definitely goes for some of the
actors like Katherine played by Karen David Watson's played by Joseph feines and JB Armstrong our guy is Adrien
pazdar I think the three of them did an amazing job um but what really set this whole thing into a different realm I
think is that how they recorded this so they recorded live in three different time zones first of all each recording
space for each actor it was set up and movement was choreograph so the actors would move through the space while the
microphone was set in the middle of the room so all of this would impact the sound so audio was like 3D immersive you
heard the movements that they were making cuz they were physically making those movements in a room like it wasn't
put in later or something like that so you heard them in real time like very organically wow Isn't that cool it is
cool and I feel like that's a very different and unique style of doing something like this definitely and just
the fact that people in three different time zones were able to collaborate like
this I'm like damn I can get a meeting on the books with East Coasters literally that's the thing you know like
we were trying to we can barely get time to hang out with friends like just us trying to all get our
schedules meanwhile they're like let's soundscape this [ __ ] and record the entire title all at once in three
different time zon wow that's incredible yeah it's crazy so what I think also makes like takes this one and kind of
like separates it from a lot of titles is the way that the this is obviously inspired by a true crime case and they
kept a lot of it very true to what happened and the way that they kind of like fictionalize parts of it to me
didn't impact the case in a way that was like negative I think I think if anything it only made it easier to
follow you know I definitely agree the plot it just added to the story but it didn't add anything unnecessary you know
exactly totally and it's just an engaging way to tell the story like with this radio style and 3D audio it like we
said pulls you into each scene you feel like you're there you feel like if you close your eyes you can just like hear
all the cuz it's like we were talking about before like the the music in the background and you can hear someone
lighting up a cigarette and you can hear so you feel like you get this everything
happening all around the room kind of feeling and I it's also cool that this narrative definitely places it in that
specific time and place like it has nods to the formation of the Bureau of investigations which is like blowing
that would that blew my mind just like being in a place that you're like oh that didn't exist yet like [ __ ] and it
was also like the end of the Spanish Flu that they have a nod to the beginning of
prohibition I think all those things being tapped at during this really placed you in that time plac you and
like little reminders along the way like this is where we are you know like we're
not in 2024 right well I kept thinking of other like Infamous crimes of that time like
the wineville chicken coop murders and all of these Los Angeles crimes that happened I mean not the same year but
like within that time realm and it's just I don't know it's so fascinating to see how everything was handled yes in
those days in comparison to now and it's there's a lot of things that you look back and you're like why would they do
that why wouldn't they do this but a lot of what they were doing is still really
Advanced given the tools that they had at the time yes absolutely we we're always talking about that how in these
time periods it's like we don't have a camera on every street corner we don't have someone with a phone recording it
we don't have a digital footprint we don't have this and that even like fingerprinting was still it infancy you
know it took a lot to solve these crimes which makes it more fascinating in my opinion yeah for sure yeah well it makes
you wonder too certain crimes that happen today you're like how they not figure that out everyone has their house
cuz it's like true how are they catching these people with literally just like boots on the ground detective work here
like that's what this is and I mean and also like speaking to how they they were
able to solve this stuff one of the great themes in this whole thing is women not being passive and seeking out
answers which I love because you think of this case as a whole and I mean women are the ultimate victims in this case
but they're also the hero of this case absolutely like cat is a [ __ ] boss yeah you want to talk about feet on the
boots on the ground let talk about Catherine wab Baker because let's talk about her damn cuz she was also the one
first of all she wouldn't let anything she wasn't letting that go in the beginning she was like I'm pretty sure
he's having an affair [ __ ] him we're going to catch him I'm getting my divorce yeah just to think that she
needed to have like a a straight up reason to get divorced and like a very comp in one not just like somebody had
to be her husband had to be guilty of a crime for her to be granted the divorce you should just be able to have a
divorce if you don't like his ass anymore yeah it's so it's so complicated because even now there's I mean it's a
lot easier to divorce somebody now but it's still like this personal battle that I think a lot of people have where
there's so much back and forth so I can't imagine doing that and on top of that having to have like a good reason
in the eyes of the court or the law in it right and that like even cheating was barely sufficient yeah you can tell cat
is having that like personal grapple because even when she knows how terrible he is and she's like working with the
private investigator when when Walter calls her and talks about wanting to knock her up
she's like well maybe I should call this whole thing off and I was like girl no don't
do but it shows that she still was kind of like battling with thoughts of whether or not she should just kind of
ignore everything and put it on the back burner she was a product of the time yeah I was just going to say Society was
influencing her big time and being like maybe I should just have a baby with him
and we can have that you know classic family and I'll just ignore everything you know what fixes a toxic
relationship baby yeah that'll fix things well and like to to prove your point even further like to add to it she
he went after older women like widows people who had previously been married and lost somebody you know like these
women did want to have families and for a lot of them it was like their quote unquote last chance to have a family
yeah they're vulnerable they're susceptible they're kind of like backed into a corner Again by societal norms
and societal pressure but yeah absolutely 100% yeah I want a high five cat from the future exactly like girl
you did it and while cat like in in the in the actual case she didn't like you know team up with the and like go to the
extents that she went to in in the title she did not it wasn't her just sitting back and not doing this stuff like she
like we said was the one who was like I'm pretty sure he's having an affair and I'm not letting it go so JB
Armstrong like let's get going and she even provided additional information and documents to further prove like once it
started unraveling she was like oh here's all this [ __ ] if that's going to help you nail him like here it all is
like I found some more [ __ ] for you guys and that's her in real life like that
she really did do that like she was vital in unraveling this whole thing because she wasn't even as a product of
that time and society around her at the time she wasn't a woman who was going to
sit down and just be comfortable passively letting these things happen to her she knew something was a miss right
off the bat she took action right off the bat and of course she had no idea like no way of knowing how a miss things
were what exactly she was unraveling here and what she was up against and it's like once she found out that there
was like way more [ __ ] than just an affair that she was like he could possibly be murdering these women and
like he maybe he was going to murder you instead of like like just falling apart
which he had every right to do hearing that kind of news about your [ __ ] husband she turned around and was like
how can I help how can I make sure that he doesn't do this to anyone else and they're like what a badass 100% she like
followed her intuition yeah and I mean it's the ultimate like going through his phone Behavior but then it like leads
you down this crazy Rabbit Hole where you're like oh okay this is much deeper than I thought yes I love that her
version of going through his phone is trying to get into his briefcase y his duffel bag that he carried around
everywhere the classic which I'm like could you be more conspicuous I know just caring around a duffel bag of
marriage certificates and being super weird about said said briefcase SL duffel bag you're G to carry around a bunch of
[ __ ] don't be so weird about it yeah listen she is a victim in this situation but there were several red flags
especially like when you're listening to her narrative in the title I mean well first of all I was laughing in the
beginning because she's talking about meeting Walter for the first time and she's talking about how he kind of
catfished her and she says no one would accuse him of being handsome which is diabolical that is diabolic a read that
is the biggest read also in the book she's talking about like you know how they got married
after four weeks and she's like I couldn't think of a reason I shouldn't I'm like girl I can I can think of 10
yeah I could think of 22 different reasons why let me list them up for you cuz he was described as being like a
gnome looking [ __ ] ug absolutely paraphrasing but it was like he was like a gnome like man that's how they
described him he this little alala too in his mug shot that I just want to rip off take it right off I mean I don't see
it I don't I mean who knows what was going on with otherwise who knows looks wise I think he had Charisma working for
him unfortunately that can work Charisma I can do the trick uniqueness nerve and
talent and she said too when he moved in he moved in with little possession and that is also the goal that's ideal don't
disrupt my space yeah yeah we don't need you have four things great your collections here okay yeah we don't need
that got your briefcase fist over there everything else got to get rid of yeah I
think he was just a master manipulator definitely master manipulator and he was a Char he was playing a character so
it's easy to make somebody like a character at all times he was playing a character you're playing a role I do
love one of the things I love that they did do in this title is for a brief period of time while I was listening I
was like uhoh are they going to make cat and detective Armstrong fall in love because I will not be pleased with that
I was worried it felt like that might have been the direction they were going and I was like don't you dare take away
her agency like that but nay but they didn't do it they did not do it and I have to say from coming from two men
authors thank you yes thank you for making this girl a standalone badass yeah and just letting her have her own
agency and being her own character that was just like being a badass and wasn't trying to fall in love with another guy
what was the test that we were talking about they passed that test the Beck doll test they passed the Beck doll test
it did because it's not just having this woman be completely in relation to what
she's doing with a man a damsel in distress like please help me I don't know what to do she's like yeah here's
what to do here this is what I want to do put your cigarette out it's gross and let's go go don't be dumb did you guys
have a like a favorite badass be moment of cats I mean I'm a real sucker for any
sort of library scene or imagery in a book they're talking about like going through the records and she's in the
library I mean I get chill's thinking about it right now but when she was going through all the different Lonely
Heart ads and yes this under different names but the same comparing them all yeah comparing them all and seeing that
it was clearly all written by witer I just had a moment where I was like oh my God she's corrected the code like she
got her confirmation and how chilling too to come to that realization and the amount of people who tried to convince
her that these were just other men stealing that Lonely Hearts ad oh the gas lighting the gaslighting was
outrageous wait people trying to gasl light a woman that's crazy I've never heard that never happened you guys no it
was that's why it's fiction you know you women you're hysterical you're so crazy that's us we're just cooky that's
us what was yours Elena my badass [ __ ] moment was definitely I loved when she was like hiring JB Armstrong and he was
like being like whoa whoa whoa at first and he's like cuz she's like all right so what do we need to do what do you
need me to start working on and he was like no no no you're my client like I'm the detective here I'm the investigator
and she was like actually no you're my partner now we're working together if you're not willing to treat me as a
partner I'll go find someone who will and I was like Snap Snap Snap baby I was like yes she was like I don't need to be
here I'll find somebody who actually respects the partnership and doesn't treat me like a little peon cuz this
needed to be a partnership she had so much of the information that they needed yes 100% And I think going back to like
when she cracked the code I think it was just like I I loved that she figured it
out on her own like she didn't have anybody else really helping her nope other than the Hillary the
librarian who I love were like becoming friends and at the end of the book when there she walks into the courtroom and
she sees Hillary from the library there and Hillary's like I'm here for you I was like oh God I love that that's the
thing I love that one she didn't fall in love and two she found another female friend to about us with yes love that
and again two like male authors like snaps to them that was great female friendship and bonds they did a great
job with it did you have oh yes this is small but I love the way that she handled that hotel owner when she was
trying to use his car she was like I will not be swayed thank you like uhuh like I'm
not not happy she was so confident that she was just like yeah no she's like I will be taking her car thank you thank
you very much thank you so much I just I feel like they gave her her flowers in this story like showed off her badassery
and again especially given the time period it was very brave of her to do what she did and she obviously faced a
lot of adversity while she was doing it but look what she [ __ ] did yeah without her it could have kept going on
and on and on for a long time and to think how many more people he could have killed absolutely okay so obviously I
live in Southern California I live in Los Angeles and I used to live in Signal Hill which is this small unincorporated
area where the body of n Lee tone was found oh [ __ ] I was going through newspaper archives trying to do my own
little sleo thing to see if I could uh figure out where in relation it was to I used to to where I used to live but I
was just finding like old press photos that didn't have any exact addresses but I was like damn oh that's
spooky that's wild I know being in La must be weird that way cuz so many things have happened there you're just
like surrounded by well they just get publicized more I feel like yeah that's true no it's true and you know the
locations of a lot of them mostly yeah so you can just be like I'm surrounded uhhuh 100% yeah also at the end of this
whole title when she speaks the names of all the victims in the court scene that
was chilly putting that in there was iconic and it was so perfect like ending on that was like yeah I love the nod to
to the reality and in the the true part of this crime making sure that they were
H as well because obviously cat was the focus of The Narrative of course but the
fact that they didn't forget about the other victims along the way that was nice that was great yeah yeah we
recommend this title 10 out of 10 if you haven't listened to Blue Beard on Audible you got to go listen and it's a
quick listen too it's a quick listen it's a 3our you will more exact yeah it's 3 hours long you could I mean if
you have a long commute you could get that done in a day babe yeah there is one scene of them eating just be
forewarned yeah if you don't listen to that it's less than 3 hours so there you go it's quick but
just warning and there's also one of them um you know what you'll get there so anyway um if you haven't listened to
this title don't forget that our sweetheart friends over at audible are offering you guys a free trial at
audible.com SL weirdos audible head over there for your free trial thank you to Spencer for joining us today we love
hanging with you thanks for having me and we love Spen we love you and if we all want to end this on just maybe a
title that we're listening to or recently listened to that we recommend so my recommendation for a title to
listen to is sleep tight by JH marer uh I recommend all his titles and all his books in fact because I think he's a
brilliant horror author um it's a perfect one it's got like a creepy little fictional town in it he's
really good at infusing like some Supernatural elements but they don't even feel they feel like they're just
reality in it I haven't listened to that yet yeah and he's got you know a serial
killer in this one in a small town he's it's just he's a great author I highly highly recommend sleep tight I have two
recommendations I just finished and actually so did Elena Wayward oh so good uh listening to that title was so
Whimsical there's three female points of view and they have three different narrators for each one and all of them
just have the mo I say this all the time about people but I think I just listen to audio titles with narrators who have
the most soothing voices and these three women I want them to read me bedtime stories every single night so good and
um obviously I have to recommend Elena's butcher in the Ren and the butcher game
duh oh my God I know the author and she writes a mean book baby truly there's also the big hot book of death I've
heard of that one have you heard of that one Spencer Spencer Madison I have heard
of that you that's also a great one she's pretty good and they got I love their their voices too those narrators
true I think the guy is annoying but one that I love is well I've been I'm like halfway through it right now but it's
the crime of the century Richard Speck and the murders that shocked a nation that's an interesting one Dennis albo
and William J Martin love that amazing so you guys have a bunch of titles to catch up on
and again you have your your free trial if you head over to that link that I've said 40 times so we love you we're
grateful for you we love you we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but also weird that you don't
check out these titles today read and listen bye [Music] h [Music] [Music]

Weirdos!! It’s our third SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE brought to YOU by our friends at Audible!

Today we’re joined by a member of the PodFam, Spencer Henry from Cult Liter, Obitchuary & Gossip's Bridle! Join us while we chat about Jim Clemente & Peter McDonnell “Blue Beard”! Join the “Weirdos’ Audiobook Club" AND the conversation as we talk about the Title that dramatizes true events in a radio style drama! Hear about the productions origins, as well as the immense effort put into creating such an immersive experience. Haven’t listened yet? Don’t worry about it, friend! Go to Audible.com/weirdos for YOUR free trial! And don’t forget to click the episode post on Instagram to comment YOUR favorite aspects of the production, and discuss with other Weirdos who enjoyed the title, as well!

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Audible original "Blue Beard," focusing on Walter Watson's crimes and the strong female characters involved.

Key points

Introducing Spencer Henry. Spencer Henry joins the discussion, bringing his expertise in true crime.
The Discovery of a Confession. A leatherbound tome containing Blue Beard Watson's confession is discovered.
The Unique Production Style. The audio drama was recorded live across three time zones for an immersive experience.
Women as Heroes. The narrative highlights women's active roles in seeking justice.
Catherine's Determination. Catherine Wab Baker takes action against her husband's infidelity and potential crimes.
A Badass Revelation. The protagonist uncovers deeper truths about her partner's deceit.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This title is there for you!

Ash emphasizes the availability of the title for listeners.

1:50WatchDec 18, 2024

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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