Murder Of The Queen - Madisonville, Kentucky

This week in Madisonville, Kentucky, a bloodbath is discovered in a quiet home causing detectives to go through several unlikely suspects before finally setting their sights on a man who was living a double life and fooling everyone in the whole town. Welcome to Small Town Murder! Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder! Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today. We have an absolutely crazy edition of Small Town Murder. As usual, I'll just say it's not a surprise. It's not like, well, it's kind of real boring today. Nothing much happens. No, no, we'll find the crazy and we will give it to you. Before we give you that, though, definitely head over to shutupandgivememurder.com. Tickets for live shows, the two in this week in Philly and Newsy are sold out. But next year, full slate on sale right now. And I'm going to give you the dates real quick here. February 21st, Nashville, March 6th, Durham, North Carolina, March 7th, Atlanta, Phoenix, Arizona on the 20th of March. The 21st of March is your stupid opinions live show in Phoenix. We have May 1st in Salt Lake City, May 2nd in Denver, May 29th in Buffalo, May 30th in Royal Oak. That's in Michigan. If you're there, you probably know that. September 18th, Milwaukee, September 19th, Minneapolis, October 3rd, Dallas, October 16th, San Jose, October 17th, Sacramento, November 13th, Territown, New York, and finally closing it out with November 14th in Boston, everybody. So a couple new ones on there. Get your tickets right now. They are available. Salt Lake City's about sold out, though, I think. I don't think there's any tickets left for that. So get your tickets quick if you want them. So do that. They make great gifts for this holiday season. Do that. Shut up and give me murder.com. Also get yourself Patreon or get somebody else Patreon. Want to give a nice gift? Patreon.com slash crime in sports. All you need to be is $5 a month or above and you get so much. You're getting hundreds of backbonus episodes you've never heard before immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week as well. This week we're going to finish up Charles Stark weather for crime for small town murder and you get all the crime in sports, all the small town murder hundreds of those new ones every other week. Then you get everything that we put out regularly crime in sports, your stupid opinions and both episodes of small town murder all add free with your pay. Add free and and you get a shout out at the end of the show too. So it's all we can give you. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Get in there and do that. Now that said disclaimer time. Here we go. This is a comedy show, everybody. This is a comedy show. That doesn't mean that the facts are not 100,000% real. Right. Everything is real. Nothing is embellished for comedic effect or any garbage like that. You don't have to. That's the thing. You don't have to. There's plenty to make fun of without doing that. You make fun of a small town because we're all from somewhere that deserves to be made fun of. That's just fun. We make fun of maybe a bumbling police force that lets a murderer go free to kill again. That's that's all easy. We make fun of murderers because what else are we going to do? Right. What we don't do is we don't make fun of the victims or the victims families. Why is that James? Because we're assholes. But we're not scumbags. There you have. And that's how it works. And that's how we think it should work. So if you think that that sounds good to you, you're going to hear a great show. If you think true crime and comedy should never ever go together. Maybe this show is not for you. Maybe. Maybe it is though. Give it a shot. Yeah. Either way, we warned you. No complaining later. That said, I think it's time everybody to sit back. Here we go. Let's all clear the lungs and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Yes. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We are going to Kentucky this week. All right. Here we go. We are going to Madisonville, Kentucky. It is in Western Kentucky. It is. Probably James. Yeah. You trailed off there. Yeah. I was waiting on you to finish it. We'll get into it. It's in Western Kentucky. It's about an hour and 40 to Nashville, which by the way, February 21st, we will be in Nashville. I'll see you there. Yeah. Get your tickets. Two hours and 15 minutes to Louisville, Kentucky, and about 55 minutes to Cadiz, Cadiz. How did we say that? I don't remember. I think it was Cadiz. Cadiz, I think. Yeah. That's episode 610, our last Kentucky episode, Murder Soup, that was called. Yeah. Quite a mess. I remember that. So this is in Hopkins County. Area Code 270. They also have 364. That's not good enough for you. And here are the mottoes here. They have a couple of them, kind of a nickname and a motto. Yeah. Here is their, I guess, nickname. And they use this everywhere. Best town on earth. Oh, on earth. Not in the county, not in the state, on earth. Not in the country. No. There could be somewhere, a tiny village in Samoa, we're better than them. I don't care if it's a tiny village in Norway. Up in the, we're better. So also, where small town warmth meets infinite possibilities. Infinite. Infinite possibilities are here. So I mean, can't go wrong with infinite. So the history of this town, Madisonville was founded in 1807 and named for James Madison, Secretary of State at the time. Was he? Not even president. Yeah. Secretary of State. That late he was? Yeah. That's with 1807. Yeah. Because Thomas Jefferson was president of that. Oh, okay. 1807. Yeah, that's starting like Lewis and Clark and all that. Yeah. It was like fifth or sixth president or some shit, right? Oh, I don't know. Yes, something like fourth, fifth. So it was named the seat of Hopkins County in 1808 and incorporated in 1810. So it's a county seat here. Hopkins County and even the town of Madisonville. Best town on earth or not. Yeah. Yeah. Divided by the Civil War. Kentucky was a border state. So was it? Yeah. You had, there was no, it wasn't all or one, all or the other. Really? Yeah. This was one of these ones where there'd be people that lived in the same house that were fighting on different sides. Wow. Yeah. This is one of those kind of a joint there. I had no idea. Yeah. Union supporters joined a regiment recruited by a guy named James Shackelford and then a guy named Al Fowler recruited Confederate troops from the town. So, okay. And this town itself was divided? Yes. That's what I mean. It went, it went, it went all the way to the houses were divided. Literally have brothers fighting on different sides of the, of the line. Very familiar. It's wild shit, man. So farming was the major deal here for most of the 1800s. Tobacco was the crop that they were mostly doing here. They did find coal in 1837 and opened up a coal mine in 1869, but mining wasn't a major industry till the railroad came in. So that's how it works here. From 1892 to 1912, the hustler, which was originally called the Madisonville hustler, which both of those sound like newspaper. Those are the newspapers. Those sound like like LA weeklies. Like you'd get weird, you know, like ads for a third in there and shit. That's where you find in the hustler. That was the hustler. I know. That's what I mean. That was the newspaper, though, serving Madisonville back then. Now 1960s manufacturing and service industries came and kind of changed everything a little bit here. Now on November 15th, 2005, a tornado tore through the city, of course, and destroyed a bunch of it, including the home of the former Boston Celtic star, Frank Ramsey, which was destroyed there as well. Did the hustlers live? The hustlers was, has not served around since 1912. Yeah, that makes sense. It slowly died of syphilis. It was very sad. It is a newspaper that died before the New Zebra industry. No shit. Yeah, died when it was booming, actually. Real progressive. So here are some reviews of this town because we've been there. Here is five stars. Madisonville is a very productive, active small town. We have all sorts of events that happen, such as Return to Bethlehem and Oktoberfest. Oh boy. Return to Bethlehem. I really love that Madisonville is excellent at supporting small businesses. We have so many that are thriving. My favorite thing is the community of people. Is that right? Favorite thing. Here's five stars. I love the peace of the small town Madisonville. Everyone is friendly and it's nothing like the it's nothing like the where there is too much going on. I don't know. You guys can try to figure that out and translate that from Madisonville, Kentucky to English and we'll figure it out. Here's two stars. There is nothing to do in Madisonville and it's a very small town in the middle of nowhere. To be able to do anything, you have to drive at least an hour away. There's not many play options of places to eat. Okay. Now here's two stars and they're going to tell us what those restaurants are. Here we go. We have two McDonald's, two Burger Kings, Wendy's, two Sonics, a few other fast food restaurants. If you want a bar, the only options are Tumbleweed or Applebee's. Oh yeah, Applebee's bar sounds depressing. That's it. You don't want to be there. And then finally one star. Oh my goodness. This person is angry. One of the most corrupt places I've ever been. Oh, come on. How many places have you been? What are we talking about? Are you really a world traveler? This is corrupt. Come on. School board is run by crooks that are friends with all the judges. Cross the wrong teacher with the right last name and you could lose your kids or spend months in court. Did you say? What did you do to your kids? How bruised were your kids? What long sleeves in fucking June bullshit were you trying to pull? You're going to blame the teachers for you beating the shit out of your kids? Jesus Christ. Your kid came to school with a pocket full of fentanyl and now you're complaining to these people. If you don't belong to the 1% of Hopkins County, you will be treated as lower class while your children will be assaulted in schools and teachers cover it up. Oh, well now we. Wow, this is getting deep now. Now I got questions. Stay away. This should be our story for the week. Stay away. Do not bring your families here. Well, unless you got the money to buy the football team some new uniforms, then you will be fine. There's some real specific shit going on there. I can tell you what. And then one more. We got to do one star. Madisonville is a corrupt and twisted town. Twisted. Twisted their law enforcement set people up the task force and all they are all at task force and all they are all awful. All right. Okay. I don't know what's going on here. People in this town, 19,533 people at the mercy of these powerful teachers. It is more women than men, 50.6% women, 49.4% men, average age, median age here, I mean, is actually lower than the national average by about a year. It is 36 and a half. We have about 50, 50 married just like the rest of the country, but a lot more people are single with children. Oh, that's a thing. It's about double that here. Race in this town, 80.4% white, 11.1% black, 0.9% Asian and 3.4% Hispanic. Religion in this town, plenty of that. 50, 50 is the average here, 58% religious and no surprise here. The vast majority are Baptist. 31.9% of the people here are Baptist. As we know, Baptists are the Catholics of the South. They're going to be everywhere. Not a lot of Catholics, 1.7% of those. So 0.0% Jewish. Unemployment is average. Median household income is low. Oh, the rest of the country, it is, you know, 69,000 in change. Here it is $46,816. That's low. That's not great. You really want it to be super cheap. Luckily here, as we look at the cost of living, 100 is regular average. Here it's 72 for cost of living. That's not bad, but the housing is the low thing. Median home cost here, $132,800. That's wonderful. That is very low. Yeah, it's extremely low. I like it. That is wonderful. Unless it's here. That's the problem. Now, so let's find out what you have to go here. Damn it. You are the 1%. You have got to do it. New uniform, money, all set and ready. We have for you the Madisonville, Kentucky real estate report. The average two bedroom rental here goes for about $810 a month, which is about a third less than the national average. That's pretty cheap here. House number one, just reduced 500 bucks. They reduced it $500. What's the point? It's a house. Unless it was $600. That's what I mean. It's a four bedroom, one bath, 1040 square feet. I don't know how you fit four bedrooms into a thousand square feet. I mean, the living room and the kitchen are both bedrooms. I'll show it's just this little house. There's no fucking way there's four bedrooms in here. It's like wedged in these trees too. It looks like the trees. It might fit four beds in the house, but it's not bedroom. They just have four of cots in the living room. This house, yeah, not no land or anything, $48,000. Like I said, just reduced yesterday as a matter of fact. 500 bucks. 500. Here's a nice little brick house. Nice little, it's a three bedroom, one bath. That's cute. 1644 square foot house. It's a nice little brick house, little front porch, detached garage, .33 acres. So not really neighbors are kind of on top of you, but that's okay. It was built in 1953. Inside it looks clean. I see fireplaces, hardwood floors. Okay. Nice little joint, 129,900 bucks for that. That's not bad. No, that was just reduced $10,000 as well. Oh, now you get the deal. It's on sale, everybody. Yeah. And then finally here, we got this big house, five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, T-Bull for each and every beehull. Wow. 6,244 square feet. Holy shit. It is a monster. Look at this joint. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's deep. Yes, it does. Look at that curved drive. That's a fucking road. That's your driveway. That's awesome. Wild. Problem is it's built in 1987. Doesn't look like it's been updated since 1987 is the issue. 4.6 acre lot as well. So big lot, lots of woods, 695,900 bucks. Whoa. For all that house and almost five acres of land. In Kentucky, though. In Kentucky. Well, yeah. And that house needs a lot of work. I mean, just the tiles themselves. You're like, holy shit, those are old. But if you put a hundred or 200 grand into that house, you've got a great place. You could do a lot with that. Now, things to do here. Let's find out what we got for things to do. What do we have? We have the a free concert. It's praise fest, everybody. Oh boy. The city of Madisonville is proud to announce the fourth fest and praise in the park lineup at Madisonville city park. What the hell does the fourth of July have to do with religion? Nothing, but we can make it. Yeah. Have that. Have it on Easter, right? Jesus lived through 32 of them. Jesus likes lighten off bottle rockets. That's what it is. The annual event is the largest three day outdoor music festival in the region. That's very specific. Largest three day outdoor music event in the region. The region in the western Kentucky hill east of not not all the way to Louisville now, not all the way up to there or all the way down to the mountain. If you go east of Louisville and then south of us about 20, that's the region, just in that it's the biggest three day outdoor. There's a four day that's much bigger, but we can't compete with that. South, the indie west. Very specific. It's like Steve Martin and the jerk between this eraser, this right anywhere in this little tiny region, anywhere, anywhere in here in this, this, this, this divider. Yeah. Anywhere between the erasers and the, what was it? The army men army men army men. It's free to attend. Basically you're getting fucking tootsie rolls. That's it. That's all you're getting. And you have one. That's all and it's anywhere in there. Free to attend. We'll feature world class concerts, food trucks, various vendors, a beer garden and fun for the entire family. Okay. The 20, I'll give you the last year's lineup and this year's lineup. Oh, great. Last year's lineup, Tracy Lawrence. Country, country, person. Oh, you don't know him? Paint me a Birmingham. He's terrific. I love how you asked me that. It's a prized way. Oh, you don't know him? No, I don't. He's great. As a matter of fact. How many El Martino songs do you know? There you go. Does he sing time marches? Exactly. So we've got Tracy Lawrence, treacher of naughty by nature. Oh, how are those two doing the show? It gets weirder. Don't worry. So treacher without fucking without the rest of them. Yeah. Without what's his name and the little guy. Vinnie. Vinnie something. Yeah. Vinnie. I don't remember. Doesn't matter. Desk guitars. Yeah. Digital underground will be there. Minus the one that matters. Yeah. And the guy with the nose. He's dead too. Shock cheese dead. I'm positive. I don't think so. I think he's fucking dead. Right. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. It's dead in 21. And who the hell is dancing around? He's the only person. Tupac didn't even wrap when he was with them. It was just him rapping. Okay. Shock cheese gone though. Then came CAIN. That is all caps. Not Big Daddy. Not Big Daddy came then consumed by fire, which sounds religious. I think from CAIN on down, it's not good. That's not good. Then this year's lineup was Morris Day in the Time. Get out of here. How are they getting these people? That's awesome. Ruben Stuttered from American Idol. American Idol. The fact. Yep. Chris Jansen. Yeah, he's a country singer. Chase Matthew. That's a country guy. I tell you that right now. Just by his name. Brian. What is it with the two first names of all these country guys? It's not for just like comedians. They take their first and middle name. They just drop the last name. They all do that. Stop doing that. I know. It's stupid. Brian Martin and Chase. It's so annoying. Torrin Wells, I don't know. And Josiah Queen. Okay. Those are going to be local guys. As I think so. The mayor, Kevin Cotton said with three nights of diverse music, including country, hip hop, praise and worship, there's something for everyone to enjoy. In other words, no one will enjoy this show completely. Everyone will enjoy one small part of the show. We got everything from praise to worship. Praise to worship. Everything from these erasers to this praise, right here. Everything in there. From the worship to the praise. Right? Anything inside the praise. How did Mayor Cotton know we were doing that? I don't know, but he nailed it. Mayor Cotton set us up. Lovely. Thank you, Mayor Cotton. Nice job, Mayor Cotton. Thank you, Mayor Kevin Cotton. And then finally, crime rate. We're interested in this town here. Property crime slightly below average. Almost there, but slightly below. Now, violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and of course assault, the Mount Rushmore of crime is about half the national average. So that's good. That's good. That's praise and worship music. That's all it is. I think it's the remaining members of digital underground that are keeping it safe. It's keeping them confused going, that's not digital underground. What is going on? It's doing that for 365 days. Sing about the Burger King bathroom. Can you? No? Yeah. What songs do you do? Is everybody from the time still in there too with Morse Day? I don't know. I hope Morse Day's still alive. Otherwise, it's just the time. And it's that Morse Day in the time. That said, let's talk about this murder. This is a wild case here. That festival's got me. It's wild. It's a crazy time. Let's talk about a lady first here. All right. Anna May Winstead. We're going to talk about here. She goes by Ann and she is born November 30th, 1917. Oh my. Yeah. She is going to be a, she perseveres. We'll just say that. Incredibly. Yeah. Tough lady. She was, she's from this area, the Madisonville Hopkins County area. Her parents are William and Lily Winstead. And we won't even talk about them. No. They're father's. So I mean, they're, they're back before social security numbers here. Yeah. As is Anna. As Ann, she had to get one issued because she, that didn't come until the 30s. Now she's got a large family locally. She's one of several siblings, including a brother here that we'll talk about named Earl Winstead. He'll come up quite a bit in this. Now these people grew up in the depression. So I mean, she was 12 when the stock market crashed. So they, yeah, shit was rough when they were teenagers. Real rough. They had nothing. I mean, this is, people now, I mean, people are poor now and it's terrible, but compared to depression, poor. Yeah. Poor now is like depression, poor people. They didn't even have food. Oh, they didn't have, yeah. Depression poor was, they were making their clothes out of flour sacks. Literally. That's not good. We're in a, they had dirt floors and we're totally different. Like I said, not taking anything away from modern day poverty, but this is, this is another level of they bathed in a, in a wash pot, in a bin. Yes. He had a bowl of water that they heated up on the stove and somebody got to use that last. Yes. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater because that happened. Cause you can't see him in there. Right. Cause it's filthy. And that happened. So this is a whole other era, man. So she ends up like a lot of people did, and it makes sense back then too. She marries her high school sweetheart in 1935. And that is just to get, to be off of your parents payroll basically to get a, they don't know that's one less mouth to feed. So that was like doing your family a favor. She's going and getting married. Now you're, you know, an adult and someone else's responsibility and you know, she marries a guy named Carol Gooch Branson, the Gooch. Love it. The poor little Gary Coleman running from him. Different strokes show the Gooch. So Carol here, they, they were married in 1935. They're going to be married for 59 years. Yeah. That's incredible. No, no biological children they'll ever have. What? Don't know if someone can't have kids because this is pre birth control and stuff. So if you could have kids and you fucked at all, you were having kids back then. That's just the way it went. And nope. She has fucked for 50 something years. 59. Yeah. There are a couple years they didn't. I hope, I hope, I hope they were, I hope not. I hope they were really going out. I hope they fucked till the day somebody filed for divorce. Yeah. Well, no, no, they don't file for divorce. Carol eventually dies. Okay. Well, yeah, I hope they fucked that day. I hope she fucked him to death. This is blood in blood out this marriage. There's no getting out. You get, you, you die out of this marriage, man. So she has a lot of nieces and nephews and is very kind to all of them. She's that cool aunt that never had kids that like gives you money when you're a kid. I had an aunt and uncle like that who were a great aunt and uncle who never had kids. And so they had money, you know, because they never had kids to spend it on. Yeah. Just spending on, right. So even though I was little every time you go there, like my uncle would like give you like 10 bucks and he'd be like, Hey, here you go. You know what I mean? Like, that was the best. So that's cool as shit. She does even more than that though. She goes above and beyond. Now during the, during their early years of their marriage, this is still the great depression. And they are two young kids. So it's not like they have great educations or, you know, great job prospects. So they were so poor for years. They were eating beans four nights a week beans, just beans. And probably not even cancer. Probably had to boil water for those. That's what I mean. I assume, yeah, they probably got dried beans from the store and did it because they were cheaper. So I mean, that's how you get some protein, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Beans in you. Now during World War II, Anne jumps right into the workforce as far as she is, and the Riveter. I mean, she's all about her nephew, Jack Branson, who we'll talk plenty about in this story, said Anne was a Rosie the Riveter during World War II, working on fighter planes. Okay. After that, she liked business and she stayed in the business world. Nice. Yeah. She was like, I like working. I'm going to stay doing this. Yeah. In 1950, here we go. All hell the Dairy Queen, everybody. She buys a, she opened one. She opens a Dairy Queen franchise. Brilliant. And slaying those cheeseburgers. Get it out there. The first one in Madisonville in 1950 is when the whole kind of drive in burger in a shake culture is floating. I mean, this is, so all through the 50s, every teenager in town is hanging out at the Dairy Queen. It's the first one in town. Money hand over fist. Hand over fist. She's, she's just making so much money. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you about the best, easiest holiday gift you can possibly get an aura frame. AuraFrames.com. Oh, that's right. You got there last minute shopping. You're going to find empty shelves and you don't have any ideas. You're, you're in trouble is what's going on there. We have the solution for you. We're going to solve it all right now. Get them all an aura frame. It is the solution. It's a gift that's personal. It's great. I've given everybody in my family one of these and they're all prominently displayed and everybody stands around and talks about the pictures. They're so good. I'm terrible at shopping, first of all. I don't know what to get people. I want to get people something personal and I want it to be, you know, something lame or whatever, but this is, you know, this is it. This is everything. It's personal. It's, you can give you, you're giving your whole family all these pictures you can upload. It's amazing. You know, don't be running around on Christmas Eve. Just do this. It's great. You just download the aura app and you connect to Wi-Fi. You can keep adding photos before you can preload the photos before it ships. You can keep adding them any time, anywhere. It's great straight from your phone all year long. They all come. Every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box. No price tag ready to give to somebody. You can do it too because it's so good. You can't wrap togetherness, but you can frame it. That's what you can do here for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off aura's best selling Carver Mat frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code small town murder at checkout. That's AURAframes.com promo code small town murder. This deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast. So order yours right now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us a checkout terms and conditions apply. Now back to the show. They said this is another relative of hers, Mary Branson. I think this is Jack's wife, Mary said the center of town was the Dairy Queen and everyone went there for date night. Miss Anne as a boss was a demanding person, but she also made you feel like you were part of the family there. So that's kind of how it works. Now she takes all this money that she's making in ice cream and burgers and she ends up later on investing that in real estate. She becomes an investor, she flips some houses and she also has a bunch of rental properties that she has. So she's like building an empire while her and Carol together here. It's a damn shame they don't have kids to help with the family business and then pass it on to, but instead they just get to save tons and tons of money is what they do. They become millionaires. Absolutely. They become millionaires and they do great doing real estate. In Kentucky. Yep. There is money in, there's always money in the Dairy Queen, not the banana stand at the Dairy Queen. Not always money in Kentucky, but sometimes. At the Dairy Queen. Yeah, if you do it right. They're there. Yeah, that's where all the money's going from Kentucky. So now she is described as, she's like really flamboyant. She's like her, she wears like mint coats with like the head still on and she has like jewelry. She's really glamorous for Kentucky. We'll put it that way. Like she is like, I am rich with the head on. I have a picture. I'll post it on social media of her from like the sixties with a thing with a, it's got a fucking, I saw eyes. I was like, this is crazy. I don't mind seeing her. Yeah. His eyes, man. You know, goat, but those eyes out homie. Yeah. Just lop the head off. I realize there's more skin and fur there, but I don't want it to resemble the animal. That's a statement you're making. Yeah. It still has a head on. Oh, it's a statement. All right. So she's also extremely generous, extremely generous. I mean, lends money to everybody, her face. She is the family's bank, essentially football helmets and shit. Oh, forget about it. She's the whole team. The whole team. She's the family's bank though. If anybody's in trouble, they go right to her and she'll lend the money. That's the way it works. She's always very well put together. She's got bright red hair and she's been dying for years and years and years. Her nails done, clothes are immaculate, high, high heels, even into her eighties. Is that right? High heels, hair done, make up, elaborate, piece jewelry, covering her, everything to go out of the house. She's known, by the way, all of her loans for people, no interest on these loans. Just pay me back. Oh, it's just pay me back when you can. Yep. It's crazy. So 1994, her husband dies. Oh, Carol. So poor Carol dies and she though is still full of life. Yeah. She's in her seventies and she's not ready to rest yet. She's got millions. Yeah. She lives on a large brick home as well. She's doing very nicely for herself. She is flipping houses and kind of carrying her family basically. She's everybody kind of knows they can depend on her, which is wild if you're depending on someone who's in their eighties. Yeah. That is a, that's a rickety bridge that you're trying to cross on. Yeah. That's, don't depend on someone who could be dead any second. Any second. Any second. I won't give out her address. We had somebody, hey, one thing, if there's an address that we give out for like a murder scene, don't drive by the house a million times. We had somebody message us that we had mentioned an address and it's because it was in every newspaper article and it was a very public record. It was the only reason why we put it in. And they said they live in the house now and there's tons of people driving by their house all the time. We're like, hey, that's not cool. I mean, I mean, it was out there. It was out there publicly. It wasn't like it was, and I'm, it'll go away in a week, but it's still, be cool. You know what I mean? The house, if you see a murdered house that was 30 years ago, it's, it's, you're not going to see any blood or body parts or like crime scene. It's all over. It's just people living in there. So, you know, don't worry about it. There's one three blocks from me. There's one three blocks from you. Leave it alone. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. So now she's flipping houses, by the way. She gets herself really into real estate. She sells the Dairy Queen franchise at some point and really just makes real estate her business. She buys shitty houses, flips them and rents them out. Doesn't flip them. She fixes them up and then rents them out and then eventually sells them if their prices are up. So she's got a big portfolio. She's making millions of dollars. She's doing amazing. Jack, her nephew said, everyone knew that they could borrow money from Anne, but that they would have to pay it back. Yeah. She will get on you. She kept a ledger. She kept a spiral notebook that she wrote everything in her purple gel pen that she liked. Oh, just specific pen. Yeah. Pen she liked to write. I know the ones. I know what it is. Absolutely. It's a clear one. Yeah. It's so good. But she likes that purple pen. Yeah. It's more her personality. Little doodles in the margins of her thing. But she keeps track of everybody's loans. She keeps meticulous records of loans, of payments, of missed payments, everything. Mary Branson said Anne was so much of a business woman that she kept a ledger with information about people that owed her money. And she also, she doesn't like throwing people out. She owns all these properties, which means she has dozens of renters, which you're going to get everybody, you know, some people pay on time. Some people are late. Some people don't pay at all. One of the, her relatives said, Anne knew people sometimes had it rough and couldn't pay the rent. It was not unusual for her to let the rent ride for two or three months. Some she purposely carried longer. It was very difficult for her to put someone out on the street. Yeah. Which is tough. If you're in that business, it's, you're going to have to be ruthless, I guess, to make money. And that's to make any, but she doesn't have millions making money anyway on it. It's just a, it's just to help her family and friends. Yeah. If you're making tons and tons of mo, this is just renters. These aren't even family and friends. These are just people are renting her places from her. It's just, She's putting loans out on that. Not loans. She's letting their rent ride for a couple months. Yeah. You know, okay, I understand things are tough. Oh, that's a loan already. That's, that's a lot, man. Eventually you got to get those people to fuck out. That's your, that's your income. That's tough. I guess she figured she was older and had a lot of money and could, could let, could stand it. You know what I mean? Sure. Now as, as of 2003, she finds herself a new man. Get out. She is in her 80s finds herself a new man, which is pretty awesome. She's like, If he's in his 40s, get the fuck out of here, sir. No, no, no, he's an older guy too. He's a retired ophthalmologist from Evansville. Oh, he's got a little bit of cash too. Yeah. So a professional guy, not some, not some poor guy who's, scheming 45 year old trying to bang an old lady to death or some old guy who is like surviving on cans of kidney beans. And now he's going to hook himself up with some old lady that'll supplement his social security payments. So I'm hoping he'll outlive her. And then he gets all. I don't have to eat cat food anymore. This is great. No, this is Dr. Robert Fenneman, Dr. Bob over here. That's what everybody calls him. They met through mutual church circles and got along splendidly. That's funny. One of her relatives, Mary here, said when she and Dr. Bob first started dating, she said, well, I've got a boyfriend at like 84 years old, which is adorable. That is great. I like that. My grandmother was always like looking. I remember we took her to the Chinese buffet we were talking about. She got all dressed up too. I mean, she had her makeup on. She was all dressed up, took her out. And at the end of it, she's like, well, this is nice and blah, blah, blah. We're like, why, what's, what's up? She goes, you know, I think maybe I'll meet a man. She says, I thought maybe I meet a man, but no, it's like, okay, maybe we'll both reach for an egg roll together. We'll spend the rest of this. You're going to meet another 86 year old guy at the Chinese buffet. And you guys are going to fall in love over a hot plate of chicken and broccoli. What are we talking about? My 82 year old aunt rode the fucking train from New York to Benson, Arizona. It takes a week, mind you. She rode it with the same guy and he wouldn't leave her alone. So they got married when they got off the train. He goes, can we keep in touch? She goes, no. I heard plenty from you. Plenty. The man cried. Oh my God. Well, seven days is a relationship by that point. Yeah, he thought we're just going to stay together. She told him he doesn't make enough money. That's hilarious. Oh man, my grandmother looking for somebody who liked sushi apparently. So he, she gets engaged to Dr. Bob. Engaged. So they're going to get married in 2003. All right. A couple of people in their 80s going to get married. That's adorable. We've waited our whole lives for this. Oh my God. Now she's not kind of a typical old lady. Her nephew, Jack said the very last thing Anna May acted like was an old lady. She gets her hair, her hair gets done every week. She goes every week to get her hair done. Wow. She wears expensive clothes. She has three carat diamond rings on multiple fingers. Like she is a, she's a show. She's a show, man. Yeah. She looks like, she looks like, like if you, if you took a show girl in Vegas and then aged her 65 years, like on the spot, like some, some machine that just aged her. That's what happened. Really interesting. One of the people in town said, when Miss Branson dressed up and went out, she was absolutely gorgeous. Her hair was always perfect and her eye makeup and everything. She was one of those that you would expect to see walking off the page of a magazine. Yeah. Elder care weekly. She's 85. What magazine, what 85 year old people are stepping off a magazine covers besides the AARP monthly magazine. L. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. There is now this. Yeah. L dirt. L D L L E D E R dash dirt. So Monday, January 13th at nine AM. Dr. Bob gives Anna call. No answer. He calls again and again. Now it's going straight to straight to voicemail now. No answer. Straight to voicemail. And he, this is very odd because Ann always answers the phone. She's a business woman and she might have, there might be a problem with a property. She's always on the phone and she loves it. She loves her business. She loves what she does. She can't wait to get her phone call if we'll solve a problem. So Dr. Bob drives about 50 miles from Evansville to Madisonville. So from another state and knocks on Ann's door because you don't just say, ah, maybe they're doing something when someone's 85, you know, she might be dead. I better check on this. This is or worse in the process of it. Yeah. Who knows? Anything could be possible with this, you know? So he drives all the way there, knocks on the door. Nobody answers. Yeah. So he's like, fuck, okay. He's very worried. So he has Ann's brother's Earl's phone number. Yeah. So he calls up Earl. Earl lives pretty close by. So Earl drives over. They look for the spare key under, which is hidden under a bush and they unlock the door and they enter. Now there are, there are different, different tellings of how this happened. There are some tellings that say they called the cops, the cops got there, then they found the key and they all went in together. Then there's also say, there's also recitations of it where it's, where it's the Dr. Bob and Earl went in and then call the cops. So we're not sure which, but this is from a detective, detective Duncan. He says Dr. Bob Fenerman was looking around and Earl Winstead, her brother, went down to the basement. When he got to the bottom of the basement steps, he said, oh, I found her. She was laying, just lying face down on the concrete floor with her legs out and her arms at her side. So Earl thinks she fell down. He goes, hey, man, oh shit, she fell. No wonder why she probably broke the goddamn hip. You know what I mean? She's stuck down here. So as he starts to walk over to try to help her up, that's when he sees, it's so weird how your fucking brain processes things that you can be in a room with shit and not see it for a minute. Your brain will focus on one thing in the room and you don't see other details around the room. You know what I mean? That happens. It's so strange, but that's what happened here. He just saw her and he's like, oh, let me walk over to her and help her up. Then he sees there's blood everywhere on the walls, on the freezer, pooled under her body. I mean, he was looking at her and didn't see that she was in a pool of blood. Wow. Till he started walking over to her. Oh no. That's how your mind works and it's horrifying. So one of the police officers said it appeared at first that she could have fallen, but then upon seeing all the injuries to her body and all the blood, it was obvious that Ms. Branson had been murdered. So Earl screams, Dr. Bob comes on, neither of these guys are spring chickens, they're both in their goddamn 80s too. So this could kill these guys. And now they're fucking up a crime scene. That's the thing. They're going, oh shit, Dr. Bob comes running, he sees Anne's body, he collapses into the wall. These are two old guys trying to hold each other up. So we don't need, the morgue wagon and an ambulance. So none of these guys fall and break their hip. So Earl calls 911 and says, quote, my sister, she's dead. She's been killed. Oh my God. They said, where are you located? He gives the address. He says it's Anne Branson's house. She's, somebody killed her. The dispatcher says, officers are on the way. Do not touch anything. That's important. And stay on the line with me. Well, they didn't touch anything. They just started walking into the basement like, oh shit. So I mean, they could have messed something up, but nothing around the body. They didn't touch her body or anything. So the police arrived very quickly. And by the way, this town hasn't had a murder. And this has been a theme lately in our towns. It's been 20 years since the last murder in this town. 20 years seems like way too soon. Seems like put all of these towns lately have had, I haven't had a murder in 20 years. Seems like someone's gone, what's it been 20 years? Well, I guess I got to do it. If no one else is going to do it, I guess I got to do the murders around here. Christ's sake. Every 20, we got to have one. It is fascinating how sometimes that does line up where in the electric industry, it's every five years, there's a fatality and it's fucking clockwork, man. It happens. It's just every five years, somebody dies. It's unbelievable. Every 20, an old lady's got to be sacrificed, apparently. That's terrible. That's awful. Yeah. So when there's an officer walks into the steps, walks into the basement and sees the scene and this officer has to step outside to compose herself, because it's bad. Yeah. She said it was unlike anything that we'd ever seen or even heard of before. Yeah. I don't know that I could walk into a scene of an elderly woman murdered and be like, all right, now let's take this dead serious and investigate like crazy with zero human emotion to this. No, no. And the cops often say that you get homicide detectives and they all say, like even from the David Simon homicide book, the old people they don't seem to have a problem with for some reason. I don't know why. I guess because they die all the time anyway. And if you deal in death, because every death has to be investigated by a homicide detective, even if it's an 85-year-old lady in her bed, they have to check it. So they see so many dead old people. I don't think it affects them. They always say it's children that fuck them up because that's less common and that's something that they all have kids and they're like, holy shit, Jesus, I just saw a five-year-old. Yeah. Compartmentalized and 85-year-olds. Yeah. Well, they had a good run. They had a good run. That's a terrible way to approach that. But they look at it as I walk in and find the murdered, if I didn't, I'd have found them in their bed in the month anyway. You know what I mean? That's the way they look at it. Whereas a four-year-old, they go, holy shit, I have one of those at home. Which I'm not saying that's how you should look at it, but I think when you see so, because old people die a lot, obviously, when you see so many dead old people every day, it's probably, it probably gets a little bit less, you know, you're not that crazy about it as far, even though it's sad. For us, walking in off the street, not being homicide detectives, I couldn't deal with this. No. And it stings to me too, because as you age, you regress into being a toddler again. So it's like, see an old person to me dead from a goddamn savage beating. It's the same to me as a two-year-old, because they can't defend themselves. Also, I always say, like, I hate it when somebody, imagine what this person's been through. They live through the Depression, they live through World War II, they have all the different things, they've done everything, they've been in car accidents. Only to be beaten with a crowbar in the fucking house? Surgeries, all this different shit for all for this, you know what I mean? This bullshit, that sucks. That's fucked up. It's fucked up. So here is an excerpt from a book that will, will have excerpts from this book throughout the show here. The book is called Murder in Mayberry, as they always say, this is like the model for Mayberry, this town, basically. And it is by Mary Kinney Branson, who's a relative, obviously. She says, when small town police officers come upon a murder scene, in which the victim is a prominent millionaire, with multiple blows to the head and nearly 100 stab wounds, what? Unnecessary. Do you think an 85-year-old survived the first 40 stab wounds? Or no? Probably not. You know what I mean? What are we talking about here? I mean, one stab wound may as well be 12 and that skin just falls apart. Yeah. So blows to the head and nearly 100 stab wounds, they're in unfamiliar territory. Throw in lies, gossip, greed, international struggles, and a conflicted federal agent, and the result is murder in Mayberry. That's what's coming up here before you. The basement was a slaughterhouse. Blood spattered on the walls, tools scattered like weapons from a frenzy, and lay at the foot of the stairs, her nightgown torn, her face unrecognizable from the blunt force that caved her skull. And that's a relative, wrote that. Wow. So the homicide detectives are obviously called. The Kentucky State Police are called. And since she's super rich, they bring the FBI in also. They as well. Yeah. Might as well. So they bring the FBI in. Like I said, it's, you know, if you just found some regular dude dead, I don't think the FBI is coming in here. So this is, she's rich, I think is the reason why. So her wounds are 97 stab wounds, 97. Think about that. We've done, we've reenacted before, but think about how long and make a stabbing motion. Like a hard stab that'll go through, you know, rib cartilage. Do that 97 times and how your arm is sore. Like you can't, this guy, you're gonna feel that in the morning. Whoever did this had to take fucking Advil in the morning because they were like, man, my shoulders. Oh, yeah, all those stabbings. Yeah, that's right. Stabby stab. And it's got to be someone young, because an 87 year old can't do that. Well, they could. It just might take them a minute. They might have to come back for more. Yeah, they might have to stop. They have to rest jeopardies on. Maybe a few episodes of Judge Joe. They come back, they watch some antiques road show, they go back to it. You know, the medical examiner, look at that. The medical examiner said this person was so enraged that they just kept stabbing and kept stabbing and kept stabbing. Most of the wounds are postmortem. So unnecessary. She was way dead. They said she was probably dead in the first 15 or 20 stab wounds. This knife went through her back, through her ribs, through her organs and came out the other side, leaving marks on the concrete floor beneath her. Wow. So think about the rage that is. To get through a body and into concrete. All the way. 97 times. You have got to be, imagine having to catch your breath after that even. So they said the weapon not only was not only going through flesh and organs, going through bones and was coming out on the floor underneath her. That's a quote from the detective. Her skull was mashed. I mean, destroyed. The medical examiner couldn't count or even guess and estimate how many times she'd been hit in the head because the bones had been shattered into fragments. Wow. Think about that. Yeah, if you put a Christmas ornament in a bag and broke it and just bashed it against the ground and then said, how many times was this thing hit? That's what that's what her skull is. That is horrifying. Wow. So the blood spatter on the freezer was next to her body. The freezer's next to her body. There's blood spatter on it. There is a pattern that's a striking motion, motion like chopping wood that you can see where the spatter came from. There's another pattern that's different. It's more like a golf swing motion where the weapon was lifted high and brought down with full force. So they have multiple spray patterns from different attacks basically. So two different attack patterns and these are just sustained attacks long after she was dead. I mean, think about it. A couple of stab wounds or a couple of bashes to the head and this lady is dead. It's over. Yeah. They made, you know, dust of her skull and stabbed her 97 times. She's not even moving. There's no reason to keep doing this. No. So the detectives work the crime scene. They spend hours in the basement. They find no signs of forced entry. So that's something. At first they think it must be a robbery because she's wealthy. Everybody knows she's wealthy and she's an easy target to knock her out, knock her off and take some shit, but they find nothing wrong. Nothing missing at all in there. Her fingers are still full of very large diamond rings. So I mean, even if the laziest, shittiest robber would have taken the three carat, three carat rings off her fingers, you know what I mean? Her purse is in the kitchen. Tons of cash in there. So this is not, if someone was robbing her, they did a terrible job. But that way. So they found defensive wounds on her arms, meaning she tried to fight back even at 85. She's got spunk to her. The time of death is estimated sometime after 7pm, the day before Sunday. This is a Monday morning. So sometime between seven and possibly eight o'clock on Sunday night, this is based on stomach contents. Oh, that's how they're doing this because she had a pork chop dinner that was partially digested. Still there. They know from phone calls she made, they know about what time she ate, so they know how long it would take for it to get to that state. Now they don't find any murder weapon, no knife, no blunt object. They don't find that. So they took it with them. Yeah. Somebody took it with them. They find no foreign DNA or fingerprints. Huh. Only, only Anne. Okay. So somebody cleaned up pretty well. Yeah. Now the detective on this, Duncan said, we didn't have any idea who would have committed such a violent act on an 85-year-old woman. What kind of animal is this person? Great question. That is a very good question. So yeah, first they did suspect robbery, but nothing is missing. They said that she apparently would set off her security alarm all the time by accident. So cops would have to show up at her front door often. So they all knew her basically. And they said though, she was so careful, and this is very important because there's no forced entry. She was so careful she would not open the door for a male police officer. Oh, pull it up in the car, Madisonville fucking, you know, decal, badge gun radio. Don't trust here. Don't trust. Yeah. They knew to send a woman out there or else she wouldn't open the door. And that's why the woman showed up first to the crime scene. There you go. Exactly. So they said she had to have let that person inside and had to have known them because she would not let a male stranger inside. It might have been a female, but that's, could be a woman. That's all they're thinking, but they wouldn't let a guy, she wouldn't let some dude off the street in. No transient's going to knock on the door and go, Hey, can I use your phone? She's not, she's not doing that shit. So, um, yeah. So they look at, it must be somebody she knows who has a motive. Now, after the house has turned back over to the family, they do a whole sweep for the evidence, and they process it. And after a few days, they give it back to the family. What are you going to do? You know, you have to. So Earl, her brother described assisting police and entering the home and finding the body. Um, he said that after the home had been turned back over to the family, money was found in several locations, including bags of old bills and coins in the basement. And money doesn't age well, by the way. You have to really keep it in very airtight or else it rots basically. Yeah. She treats it like milk and she, when it's spolt, she throws it into the basement. Into the basement. Yeah. Like, like, like some kind of, like an old chair or something that's got new furniture. This one's been here a while. Yeah. Uh, they found her gun there. She's got a gun. They find that they find, uh, Earl said he found also an empty money box was discovered, but they, she, he didn't said he didn't know if there was money in it to begin with or if that's just a box she kept. Uh, he said that he called the police after what, uh, what might have, what he saw is maybe blood on some bubble wrap being used to protect the picture. Um, because he called them to say that, like I also found more blood on this picture. Yeah. He said, so you might want to look at that because that could be the perpetrator's blood. You know what I mean? Um, he said the cops never called him back on that one. He called and said, I found more blood. Come check it out. And he said they just never called back. Never called back? Yeah. He claims they never called back. So, all right. We don't know. Um, so the investigation here, right away, first person they're looking at is who do you think? Uh, new Dr. Bob. It's Dr. Bob. Yeah. Yeah. Boyfriend set to get married in two weeks. He's the one who was over there first by himself. It all, Dr. Bob needs to, he better watch his ass here. So phone records though, place him in Evansville, making calls from his landline at 715, 730 and 745 PM. That is the night before, which is the hour that she was killed between seven and eight and he is 50 miles away on the phone the whole time. Okay. And they said, plus when we interviewed Dr. Bob, he was emotionally distraught, not faking, genuinely destroyed, they said. So Dr. Bob is cleared. He was on the phone for sure. Yeah. For sure. Cleared. So then they go to the next obvious candidate for this. I mean, you can't get more obvious than her 82 year old cancer-ridden sister. She did it. You know, she did it. Gotta be. Look at her all jealous and, and, and, and tumorous. Look at her. So her sister. She'll make you do wild. Oh yeah. Especially make you real violent. You have lots of energy on chemo and you just gotta get it out. Make it lose all your hair, drive down your immune system and make you mad murderous. Oh dude, totally. Everybody knows that. You lose all your weight. Oh yeah. That's, that's what it is. She got down and we're fighting weight. That's what it was. She's ready to go. This is horrible. So this is a 80, 82 year old. Oh, I'm sorry. No, she's not. She's in her 60s. I apologize. Either way, and even when I wrote this, I wrote 23 years her junior. So she's 62. So she's very capable at 62, but she does have cancer. It's terminal cancer. Yeah. She's, she's going through treatment. She is losing weight every day. There's no way she's a murderer, right? Well, the problem is all of their relatives said, I would look at Grace. Really? She is super, she's really, really angry and she's literally dying. And she has a sister who's 23 years older than her, who's in great health and is a millionaire. And everybody said that's literally all she talked about was how Mary and how fucking looking at she, I'm super young and now I have to die a young woman and this fucking bitch is doing all that. That's what she was saying. So they were like, you know, look into that. But when they go to talk to her, because all the family is like, you want to talk to Grace, she's pretty much on her deathbed. She couldn't do it. Not capable of stabbing down through the body into the concrete. Vitriol via words, but not energy. Yeah. I mean, she might have wanted to do it with her mind, but her body was not willing. Yeah. Not willing. And she passed away four months after and as well, she was literally dying. I mean, it was sad. So then they look at brother Earl. His brother Earl came over and found her and he has access to the house and all that kind of thing. He knows where the key is. But he was with his family, multiple people the whole night, the night before, multiple witnesses confirmed, not just his wife or anything like that. He was with a bunch of people. So he's cleared too. Okay. So now there's a tenant that she has. Now they start looking into people that she knows, but aren't related to her because they clear kind of her, her close family, you know what I mean? The people who have the most access to her. So then they go, okay, look at this guy. Now, this guy, by the way, I don't know if he's been called two different things and I don't know which one is the pseudonym. So either Robert Prince or Joseph Kaye. Not sure what his name is. It's one of the two. Either way, this one they like, they're like, this guy looks right. He's a tenant in her place that was behind on rent with a history of violence. This seems like a good place to start. So he lived in one of her rental properties. He had mental instability and multiple assault charges on him all the time. So yeah, the lead detective said Robert Prince had characteristics of a mentally unstable person. He would actually call her in the middle of the night and say that he had ghosts up in his attic. And would she please get rid of the ghosts? So what you're saying is he's mentally unstable. I think that shit crazy is the way to put that. It's a good one. Yeah. It's one thing to not be able to sleep because you think there's ghosts. That's fine. It's another thing entirely to call your landlady to say, hey, thanks for fixing the sink last week. Now can you please exercise the ghosts from my house? Can you call the pest control? What picture are you having trouble with? The ghosts. The ghosts. I have attic ghosts. I have mice in the basement and ghosts in the attic. If you could get somebody over here to take care of that. So this guy is definitely a suspect and had been trying to evict him too. She'd been going through the process of trying to evict this guy. So they're like, he could have just snapped and went over here and said, well, fuck it. I got nothing to lose. So detectives go to his house. They search it. They didn't find any murder weapons or ghosts either. They found nothing. Ghosts? No ghosts. Nothing. They bring him in for questioning. And turns out though, he has a very solid alibi. He was in Tennessee over 200 miles away and there is a convenience store video surveillance footage to verify that he was 200 miles away during the time of the murder. It was like seven o'clock he was there. So there's no way he's making it 200 miles and committing a murder in less than an hour. Not possible. So not only that, right before the murder took place, he had just had elbow surgery on his dominant hand and would have been pretty hard for him to inflict those wounds. Yeah, no good. So they're like, okay, shit. We're running out of suspects here. Who else? Okay. What about Wayne Shelton? Who's that? He's a handyman that works for her because if you have tons of rental properties, you definitely have a couple of handymen on your payroll to go around and fix shit. So the police sent him down for questioning and oh boy, it doesn't go well for old Wayne Shelton here. He not only owes her money, but he's got some shit in his past too that's pretty shady. So they are, they are awfully interested in him. So looking into Wayne, I'm going to read from the book, the murder in Mayberry book here. Okay. Wayne Shelton agreed to be interviewed and polygraphed Saturday evening that, that, you know, few days after he drove to a nearby motel where our investigators were staying Shelton, a frail, slightly built man of 48 showed up dressed as if he was checking the motel's electrical wiring instead of proving his guilt or innocence in a high profile murder case. But he was on time and the three men quickly began a formal interview. How long did you work for Ann? He said about five years. When I first started working for her, it was kind of off and on. But for a long time now, I've been working just for her. She had plenty of work with all her rent houses and all. Yeah. They said, what kind of work did you do for her? He said, anything they needed doing. I did heating and AC, plumbing and electrical and some carpentry. Odd job guy is always suspect. Yeah. Oh yeah. Odd job guy. Oh, he's got tools laying around. He's got like sheds that he keeps shit in and all sorts of weird stuff. No. So they said, well, when did you hear about Ann's death? And they said, Wayne concentrated carefully on his response again. Weird. He said about two 30 on Monday. Then the next day, a woman detective named Kelly Rager talked to me, then another detective named Scott Troutman. He said, why do you think they talked to you twice? And he said, quote, I can see it. What? I was there nearly every day. People knew I used to drink a lot. I quit three years ago, but most people don't know that. I sure could have been the one, but I wasn't. There's a lot of reasons why I should be suspect. Pardon? Here's a bunch of reasons not to clear me from this list. Wow. Wayne stood and began to pace the small motel room, not with a guilty nervousness, but with the restlessness of someone to whom physical labor was so natural that he couldn't sit still for long without feeling a twinge of guilt. Yeah. But his pacing was slow and his skin was ashen. He continued talking as he paced the 15 foot room, quote, they told me to come in and take a lie detector test. And I went in like they told me to, but I got a heart problem and I had that balloon surgery and I have poor circulation in my legs because I'm a heavy smoker. The police sent me home. They said they couldn't do a lie detector test on account of my balloon surgery. It's a balloon surgery. I think that's a stint. A stint. Yeah. To open up a artery, I think is what he had here. So this doesn't sound good. No. He thought, well, I'd love to take a lie detector, but you know, I'm just not real healthy and my legs don't circulate, right? So I didn't do it. We're good, right? Okay, bye. That's not good. They said, when was the last time you saw Anna live? Wayne realized the importance of the question and he stopped walking and looked squarely at the investigators. I saw her Saturday, January 11th, about 11 in the morning. Wayne responded. She and this friend of hers were on their way to Evansville to see her boyfriend. Yeah. They said, did you owe Ann any money? And he said, yeah, sometimes she'd give me an advance on my paycheck and I borrowed $1,400 from her two years ago this March. Oh, they said, when did you repay her? And he said, never did. Oh, still in debt. Yeah. Still in debt. Those are money. He's got bad circulation. None of this is adding up. They said, when's the last time you saw Russell Winstead, which is his nephew, Earl's, her nephew, I'm sorry, that's Earl, her brother Earl's son. Okay. And he said, I seen him at Ann's place on Thursday. They said, January 9th. And he said, yeah, he came over twice that day when he left the second time. Ms. Ann was really mad. She said he owed her money and he only came around when he needed more and he wasn't getting done anymore because he owed her too much already. So they said, all right, we're going to circulation aside, balloon surgery aside, we're going to go ahead and hook you up to a polygraph there, Wayne. So from the book, they said, as they prepared for the actual polygraph, our investigators asked Wayne to tell them what he did on January 12th. Immediately, Wayne began moving around the room like a caged animal sensing a weak spot in his confinement. That's that's a bad sign. Yeah, you're trying to get away. You're poking a sore. Yeah, you're poking a sore and they're they feel it. Finally, he could squeeze through a hole in the fence and escape to freedom. Convinced he had the answers that would open the cage, he began his narrative. Oh boy. I dropped my daughter off at her mama's. It's in town a little over an hour away. I dropped her off at six 15. What is in town? What town? What are we talking about in downtown in the fucking commerce area? I guess we don't know what town they town might mean the city. Town might mean Nashville or Louisville or Evansville or something. Who the hell knows? So anyway, he said I dropped her off at six 15 and I got back to town around seven 30. I went to my mother's house. She fixed me some chili and biscuits. That sounds good. And wasn't it sound good dipping biscuits in the chili? Yeah. That sounds great. Cornbread is better, but I'll take biscuits. Biscuits, cornbread, fucking Italian bread, French bread. I'm dipping it. Wonder bread is great. Dipped in fucking chili. It doesn't matter. And I stayed with her until 830 or 930. Then I just went home for the rest of the night. So he's got some time unexplained in there pre seven 30. And then after he left his mom's house there, then he was alone home for the rest of the night. Wayne breathed audibly as he finished his alibi speech. Take it or leave it. That was his full story. Our investigators asked him if he was involved in any way in Ann's death. He emphatically emphatically denied he was that he was. He said, uh, then here is a, uh, one, a retired FBI agent says, look, Wayne, I'm a retired FBI agent and I was the bureau, uh, polygrapher for years. Kentucky has a law that their police officers can't give a polygraph examination to anyone who's had an angioplasty. That is a, that's a law. Really? Apparently that's a law. They got to look into your medical history and no polygraph for you. But that's a Kentucky law that only applies to their law enforcement officers. I'm not a Kentucky law enforcement officer. I'm a retired FBI agent. I can give you the polygraph if you're willing. And then we can do it that way. So Wayne said, fine with me as long as it's not dangerous or nothing. Yeah. Yeah. It gives you an electrical shock if you lie. That'll, we're looking these electrodes up to your penis. That's that's how it is. And you don't want to believe me, son. You don't want to tell a lie. Don't you lie. Don't you lie to me. Um, so he said, fine with me as long as it's not dangerous. I gave them my blood and hair samples. I'm not afraid because I'm telling the truth. Truth shall set you free. So they asked him, are you having any chest pains or any other heart problems now? Wayne said, nah, not right now. Sometimes when I've been working hard and it's cold outside, I have a little chest pain, but nothing right now. So this guy set up his portable computerized equipment and he explained the procedure. Said polygraphs have been around since 1924. Yeah. Polygraph combines a number of different reports to give an overall picture of your truthfulness, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're breathing heart rate, perspiration rate, all that. So the cop says, the other guy, not the retired FBI, the cop, he says at first we'll ask you to answer some questions correctly and some incorrectly. This will show us how you respond when you're telling the truth and how you're lying. So get a baseline. That should make sense. You know, you are this name. Yes, I am. You're from the planet Melmac. No, I'm not. Yes, I am. Okay. So they said, okay, we're going to answer you those. And he said, well, then we'll ask you two specific questions and we'll ask you to tell the truth on those questions. We'll ask you, did you stab Anne on January 12th and did you hit Anne in the head with anything on January 12th? Wayne nodded and sat straight in the chair by the motel desk. They fastened small metal plates to some of his fingers to record sweat gland activity and blood pressure cuff on his arm to measure, measure heart rate. They fastened rubber tubes around his chest and abdomen to measure the breathing, all the lie detector shit. Sure. Everything's connected to a laptop. Now they said when the polygraph equipment was operational, the XFBI agent asked the preliminary questions saying answer, you know, answer this truthfully or untruthfully basically. They found Wayne to be a capable reactor as he responded to preliminary questions. And so they proceeded. So when they asked him a lie, it showed it. So they said, did you stab Anne on January 12th? No. Did you hit Anne in the head with anything on January 12th? No. So they calculated the responses and they said, everybody said that he showed no signs of deception on the polygraph. Okay. Okay. So Wayne has cleared pretty much. Yeah. Which is, he was the guy, Wayne Shelton. Yeah. He's, he's got all the reasons and all the, all the opportunity. Everything. So, and also tools too. They figure he's probably got a knife, a box cutter on him. He's got knives. So five days, this is like five days after the murder, once he's cleared and they have nothing. They've interviewed every suspect they have and gotten shit from it. The town is terrified, shitting themselves scared. This is, now they think this is a random act, just some violent one. Really? Yeah. Because nothing was taken. Okay. And the police have nothing. They figure if it's someone, and these are, you know, simple, whatever, to use the blazing saddles. These are, these are simple, simple people, you know, people of the land, you know, morons. But they, no, regular people don't know. So they just hear that they've interviewed a bunch of people, all the suspects, they don't have anybody and nothing was taken. Oh my God. It's a bloodthirsty killer. He just wants to, wants the blood of an elderly woman. Oh my, not even kidding, because it's a vicious, vicious slang. It's, yeah, it's horrifying. So they said everyone in, everyone in town at this point was a suspect and everyone was scared. That's somebody, a quote. Now, here is a conversation, this is from the book. They said that the phone into the police would ring periodically with people who were sure they knew who the killer was. Everybody calling all the time. Uh, Jack Branson's cousin Brenda called to say she overheard a short man talking about the murder at the pantry, which is a small grocery store. He was discussing facts about the murder that hadn't been released yet, that Anne had was stabbed and that she was wearing her rings. Brenda was Anne's niece by marriage. She and her brothers are related on Carol's side, her dead husband, her mother Margaret Branson stopped by to say that Joseph Knight, the crazy renter, whatever his name is, had come to their house Sunday, the Prince guy is what they're talking about, the Robert Prince, they called him this in the book about 4pm. Apparently this woman, Margaret Branson, that's the Brenda woman's mother called to say that this guy, the crazy renter had come to their house that Sunday afternoon of the murder about 4pm trying to sell a DVD player. Oh yeah. He said he was leaving town fast and would sell it cheap, which that makes him look incredibly guilty. He was a friend of Anne's great nephew who'd been in and out of trouble as well. Police get a phone call from a guy named Jeff Hibbs. Yeah. Okay, Jeff Hibbs is a local mine worker and he's friends of some of Mary or some of Anne's family, including a nephew of hers named Russell Winstead who we mentioned earlier. That's Earl's son, her brother Earl's son. Now, he called and the lead detective said Jeff Hibbs believed that Russell Winstead had some involvement with the murder of his aunt, Anne. Okay, so this Jeff Hibbs tells detectives about gambling with Russell Winstead on Friday, January 10th, two days before the murder. And he said Russell told Jeff that he had gotten a loan from his aunt and that he had to repay by Monday morning and that he had $9,700 when he came into this night and had lost every single penny that night. He lost $9,700 and now he can't pay his aunt back. Okay. This guy, Jeff, also goes on to say that Russell told him that they're all going to know about his gambling addiction because his aunt is going to expose him for borrowing money from her on a regular basis and not paying it back. Okay. Then Jeff said he was reading the newspaper Monday morning, Old Lady Murdered in Madisonville. He sees in the newspaper and he says, holy shit. So the cop said, Jeff Hibbs reads about this old lady that got murdered in Madisonville and he's like, oh, my gosh, this is the aunt and that this is the aunt that Russell had to repay by the first of the week. Holy shit. So they go back and search Anne's house again. Okay. The first time they're looking for forensics. Now they're looking for other shit. And this time they look even deeper and they find her ledger. They weren't looking for it the first time. Now they've got it. They find her purple inked spiral notebook and they find page after page of loans to Russell Winstead. Oh, page after page. March, 2002, $5,000, June, 2002, $8,000. Thousands upon thousands. October, 2002, $12,000. Oh, sir, we are at 25 grand in three loans. As of January 11, 2003, his total was $97,386. Russell, that is insane. And you can see here is her actual, look at that. This is the actual ledger. Brilliant, lady. Russell Winstead, 6,500. Russell Winstead. It's scratched out. Looks like it was scratched out. That's paid back. Yeah. This is her whole, whole thing here. That's Wayne Shelton, $1,600 minus 100, minus 100, minus 100. So, you know, that he's been paying or she's been taking out of this thing. Next page it says, so you go over. So she's got everybody's, it's by month, it's like a diary. So by 2003, she had loaned out over $200,000 to various family members and friends. This book has a, $200,000. She's like a bookie. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, legal. Yeah. Most paid her back, some didn't. And Anne really didn't seem to give a shit. No. Either way. Seemed like she would keep track of one of people to pay her back. But if they didn't, it wasn't the end of the world. She didn't need the money. And she didn't really, wasn't worth fighting over to her, basically. One of those things. But over and over the name that's in there the most is Russell Winstead keeps coming up. So who the shit is Russell Winstead besides her nephew and brother, Earl's son? Okay. He is Russell Eugene Winstead, born in October of 1962. He is married to Tammy Rainwater Winstead. They got married in 1986. They were high school sweethearts. They have three children. Yeah. Or they have two daughters and he has a son from a previous relationship, I think here. Now looking him up and going through everything and going through newspaper archives, he was a race car driver. Really? Look at this. Look at this. That's Russ. That's his, check this out. And it says Russell Winstead of Madisonville. Standing behind the new racing machine. He is driving on the asphalt this season. Winstead attended the NASCAR driving school over the summer to prepare for the faster circuit. Nice work. So yeah, going into this, it looks like he was like an up and coming race car driver in nine, 10 years earlier, nine years earlier. The headline in this newspaper article is Russell Winstead takes big steps in racing career. So he said, Russell Winstead feels like he's starting all over again as a race car driver. After two years of racing at area dirt tracks, Winstead has moved up in competition this year and is now behind the wheel of a powerful ASA V8 at some of the fastest asphalt speedways available. It's the latest development in the racing career of the 29 year old Madisonville resident who attended the famed NASCAR driving school in Atlanta this winter to prepare for his step up in the racing world. You know, you're in a small town when the newspaper announces that somebody went to NASCAR school. Yeah. And after that Winston Cops School. Wow. So Russell said it's just like starting over all over again. He debuted his new 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix at the super fast Salem, Indiana Speedway by finishing, it was his ninth out of 28 starters. He said driving on asphalt is so different than dirt. Yeah, you stick to it. He said dirt racing is pretty much a slide around the track from start to finish, but when the rear end gets out of whack on asphalt, there's a wall waiting somewhere. He said, I managed to get it backwards when we first tried to qualify the car the first time. We didn't tear it up too bad, but you can't go sideways like you do on the dirt. It's really a huge difference. So they're talking about, you know, basically his whole career and how he's, they talk about his father, Winstead's father, Earl Winstead helped put the car together and did the perfect paint job on the sleek black racing machine. The elder Winstead is well known around Hopkins County for the incredible work he does in restoring old cars to their natural beauty. Always a restorer too. Yes. So they said that, by the way, who do you think Earl paid for all this or Russell paid for all this? No way. He's borrowing it, right? Yeah. And, and has been helping out a ton with this. So yeah, he went to the NASCAR school where for two days he was instructed by some of racing's best teachers while driving Winston Cup cars. He said, getting inside one of those Winston cars and driving them around the track at over 160 miles an hour is nothing like you see on television. You get such a sensation of speed. It was really a lot of help. They spent a lot of time talking about how the car is set up and what to do with it. It was quite extensive in what they taught you. He says, you know that they say that you change something major on a dirt car. You might get a little change, but you make a little change on one of these and it's a major change. Oh boy. So he's got races coming up. He said, the longest he's gone is 50 laps, but we ran so bad one day we probably didn't go 10. He said, it's very demanding physically and mentally to drive those 200 and 300 lap races. He's going to apparently drive one in Nashville and he said the 300 lap race in Nashville is the one Darrell Waltrip and Michael Waltrip racing. I really am looking forward to that. I've even heard of those guys and I don't know shit about NASCAR. He said, of course, he's thinking about competing full time on the Winston Cup circuit. He said, that's been a dream of mine all my life. We'll just have to wait and see. I'd love to do it. So they're talking about how at that moment in time he also has a wife and they have nine month old twins at that point. Now they said, I've heard he has daughters and this newspaper article says he has nine month old twin boys. They're twins. So I don't know if it's either way they're twins. So he says, Tyler loves to go racing already. In fact, he, in fact, racing is really a family thing with us. We really enjoy going together. So far it's been a lot of fun with the new car. Yeah. Okay, great. He said, I guess racing has become a major part of our lives. I know it would be hard to live without it for any of us. Nine years later, there's no mention of racing. Literally, racing is nowhere in his life. He obviously failed out of that. We'll call it crashed out of that. He quit. Yeah. He spun out and he spun into the wall on that fucking deal there. And Anne helped out. Earl described his son's relationship with Anne as very close and said that Anne had supported her nephew's racing car career. He said that Russell Winstead at the time had owed her $35,000 from that. But it wasn't a problem. You know, she didn't mind. Anyway, now after racing, Russell apparently is a coal mine equipment salesman. Oh, really? Which is a lot different than racing gas car. Exactly. The early 2000s. And he also, I think, sells farm equipment on the side. Okay. Well, he should switch those. Yeah, that would be better. Now, he's living a stable middle class life with wife and kids and all that kind of thing. And he is very known as a very steady guy in town, Russell. He's not some crazy whack job. He's a church deacon at the first Christian church, which is where Anne goes to church as well. He's a little league coach. Really? Yeah, one of the other parents said, he's a family man. That's it. Family man, everyone loved Russell. They said he's the guy that, if you needed help with something, you call Russell and he's there in two minutes and he's even, you know, brought you a beer. He's a good guy. He fixes your lawnmower for you, helps his neighbors out. He shows up at the church fish fry to help set everything up and then stays late to sweep and mop and shit and going above and beyond the fellowship. He even teaches Sunday school at the first Christian church. So he does, he's known as a very extremely upstanding member of the community, not a guy that is a, you'd expect and you'd say, oh, we should look into him as a murder suspect or anything like that at all. So he's the opposite of the other guys they looked into. Um, but he's in a shitload of debt to her. And when they find this ledger and say, oh, it was $96,000 or whatever, that's a $97,000 is motive for anybody. Sure. So we got to look at him. They said upon the financial investigation, it was determined that Russell was basically shifting money around to cover the loans from his aunt and kept track of every penny. She knew Russell was in a lot of money, but she kept lending him money. She figured eventually he'd get a shit together and pay it back. You know, who knows. So, uh, the problem is they also find out that he loves to gamble. Oh, he visited casinos in the previous year of 2002. He had visited 236 times to casinos in one year. That's a lot. That's almost every day. That's every two days, right? Every three days. Absolutely. Two out of every three days is what he's at. Two out every three days. He's at the casino 236 times and he's lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it doesn't affect his everyday life. He still goes to church, teach a Sunday school, he's real upstanding all that shit. So yeah, they said that he's shifting money around. Now the last ledger entry in Ann's book was Russell. $1,200 check received January 11th, 2003. So that was the Friday that the dude saw him over there. $1,200 received. So she got a check from Russell for $1,200 is what they're saying. So the detective subpoena Russell's bank records and it shows that the $1,200 check never cleared, which if she got it on a Friday and was dead by Sunday, she can get to the bank probably to put it in. So that makes perfect sense. The problem also they find is that whether it's the 11th or the 13th or the 14th, Russell never had $1,200 in his bank account to cover this check. That's the thing. He was overdrawn. So they're, you know, they're looking into that. Now none of the family thinks, all the family thinks this is a dry well. They're like, you're going down the wrong path. This guy did not kill her. You know, it's crazy. So he had had some problems the previous year apparently Russell, when he worked for the mining company in April, he had pleaded guilty of violating an emergency protective order. We don't know against who. I assume it's his second wife because they were divorced in June. So I'm assuming her. And he spent jail time and a little bit of jail time and it was suspended for two years. So here's Jack Branson. Now Jack Branson and Mary Kinney Branson, she's the one who wrote Murder in Mayberry and Jack believe they're married here. So enter Mary Kinney Branson, wife of Ann Branson's other nephew, Jack Branson. So that's her husband's nephew. He was a U S Treasury special agent at the time. Oh, so he's a guy with a badge and a gun. Yeah. So from the book, she says, so in a sense, this is a story about the contrasting lives of these two men of Russell and Jack. Mary Branson tells the story from some distance because she's not a blood relative. And as she says, Madison, in Madisonville, Kentucky, quote, blood matters. Well, that's what the reviews said to all over this fucking everywhere. That's what their blood spatters is what it is here. Yeah. So that's what the town, the reviews said to yeah, it matters who you are and what, you know, who's vagina fell out of basically. So they said Jack's federal expertise clashed with small town loyalties turning family ties into a web of suspicion and heartbreak. Okay. So from the book, this is Mary and Jack here, driving to Kentucky early the next morning with a snowstorm hours behind us. We spent the six hours going over every possible suspect. So they're coming to town to figure this out too. Yeah. And they're going over the suspect list as they're coming into town, even though they're not officially, you know, on the case, quote, I'm both of just relatives with law enforcement experience. So they said Jack's years as an investigator taught him not to rule anyone out. Earl had told Jack that and security system wasn't activated. So he concentrated first on people and new if she had known her killer, she would have turned off the security system to let them into her home because it was off at the time. We pieced together what we knew of Ann's last hours. She'd walked across the street to attend the evening worship service at her church. That service ended at seven. Sometime after that, the killer entered Ann's house and murdered her. The next day, Monday, Ann was scheduled to have lunch with her fiance. When she didn't answer the door of her phone, Bob became alarmed. He could see her in the, uh, he could see her car in the garage and was concerned that she was inside and hurt. He walked across the street to the church and called the police since Ann had told him Earl had a key to her house. Bob suggested they also call Earl. So they're going along. They say as the miles past, Jack and I made a mental list of possible suspects. The crazy renter, the night guy, or prince or whatever he is, he could have become enraged if, if she told him she was evicting him. Um, he said actually any renter could be a suspect. She had a lock box outside where they dropped off their rent. I guess one of them could have forced their way inside and someone was always behind in the rent. As we move down the mental list of suspects, Jack paused. It's hard to imagine a family member could have done it, but we have to consider the possibility. And Mary said, I can't believe that. And Jack said, one thing I've always learned, never rule out anyone. And the first suspects are always family. So he said, we drove for a while in silence, mentally dark, digesting our conversation. Thus far, I looked over at Jack's profile. His jaw was set so slightly that only someone who had known and loved him for 35 years could detect the stress. He said, um, they, there, she's looking at him. She said he could be intense, but not loud, but he is a fast talker and all that. Um, she said, so Jack said, speaking of family members, I don't think we can eliminate grace. That's the cancer in the sister. Jesus Christ. They really want her for it. They want her. And Mary said, you're kidding. And Jack said, on Saturday, Anna May said, grace's cancer had spread to her spleen and possibly her brain. She's gotten so hateful. No one can stand to be around her for long. She's never gotten past the anger stage of dying. She's angry because she's the youngest sibling and she's dying first. Um, yeah. So Jack said, she actually told Anna May a couple of weeks ago that she should be the one dying, not her. You should be dead, not me. The thought of a family member hurting Anne was more than I was ready to consider. Mary says several exits blurred by, I closed my eyes and listened to the hum of the good year tires, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Um, I could smell Jack's after shave. Um, Jack didn't trust change. And if something worked, then good enough, he's been wearing brutes since high school. You bet. Oh boy. Um, so that's funny. Uh, they, they talk about this. Jack's voice interrupted my musings and had two employees, a handyman and a housekeeper. I don't know much about either of them, but they'd have access to the house and she'd have opened the door for them. They said, is there anyone we're ruling out? Mary said, and Jack said, honestly, only the family members who live out of town and mother, everyone else is a possibility. Oh, okay. January 23rd, 2003, they bring old Russell in for questioning since he owes her the most. He sits in the interrogation room, looks calm as shit. Yeah. You'll see if you watch interrogations, watch enough of them. The ones where they show like 20 minutes of the guy just sitting there before the cops come in, those are great. Oh yeah. It seems like it's boring, but it really isn't. There's a lot of tells what the difference between what a guilty person does and an innocent person does are very different. The look of stress, the look of everything. He is calm as shit, arms folded, smiling. All right, guys, you know, I understand you got to talk to everybody. Let's get it over with. So Detective Duncan says, Russell, we found your aunt's ledger. He said, okay. They said, she's got you down for almost 100,000 in loans. Is that true? And they said, Russell paused and said, I borrowed some money from Ann over the years. I don't know about 100,000. 97. I mean, you know, maybe 97, but not 100. I'm not crazy. You know, so they said, and you gave her a check for $1,200 on January 11th, two days before she died. Russell says, I don't remember writing a check. But it's in her. They don't find the check in her house either, by the way. But they find in her ledger that she received a check for 1200 and they're like, I don't know why she'd write that. So the cop says, your aunt wrote it down in her ledger in her handwriting. Oh, he shrugs and says, yeah, maybe I did. I don't remember. Okay. It's a week later. You don't remember writing a check. I don't know. Look in your checkbook. Yeah. The carbons. You can, I mean, back then too, you wrote a lot of checks. Well, maybe I mean, look at the carbons though. You can see if you're just look through your checkbook. You'll have a copy of it right there. For sure. We're talking about. So they said, you know, he said, maybe I did. I don't remember. They said, were you at her house on Sunday or where were you on Sunday night? January 12th. He said, went to church, came home, watched TV with Tammy, went to bed. Okay. Right. They said, what time did you get home? He said, about 725. And they said, you're sure about that. And he said, yeah, Tammy, he'll tell you. By the way, I think Tammy's his second wife, if I'm not mistaken. I think he was married to someone else who was his high school sweetheart and Tammy came around later. If I'm not mistaken, not that this matters, but just to keep, keep track of the tree if he was drawn one, keep your branches straight just to tell you. So they said, Russell, your aunt was murdered between seven and seven 30. You're telling me you were home at 725. They said, that's what I'm telling you. That's what Russell said. That's it. So they go, all right, yeah, we'll check your story out. So they interviewed Tammy. They said, Tammy said, Russell got home at 725. We watched TV together. He went to bed early. Okay. That's exactly what he said. So they're like, okay, but they said there's just something wrong here. It's 725 is just too, too specific. It's too specific for them both to say it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Somebody would have just rounded up to seven 30. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So they're just, it's so exactly matching that it's suspicious. You know what I'm saying? So they just feel something's off. So they get a search warrant for Russell's house. Now what they find in there, first of all, is two burner cell phones hidden in Russell's workbench. Oh, oh yeah. Russell's got a whole double life he's got going on here. Two burners. One is a specific burner for one person. Oh, who's a specific, it's like on the wire. Like only I'm going to call you on this and I'm just going to ring twice and hang up and you call me back. One calls, one only calls or I'm sure it can call others, but the only person on the call logs are a casino cocktail waitress he's having an affair with. What? Oh yeah. He's banging some waitress from a casino as well. Okay. Well, I mean, if you go there, nine months of the year, you're going to meet somebody. You're going to meet somebody, Christ. You might as well get a goddamn job there. You might as well give you a vest for f*** sake and a name tag. You're there and up anyway. Please greet people, Christ. Say hi. What are you doing? Deal some blackjack. So they look around, they find that they're like, okay, that's very interesting. Then they look under his mattress and find a custom made heavy blade serrated edged hunting knife. Wow. Under what adult keeps that under their mattress? Uh, no money. Yeah. How do you get under your mattress when you're trying to protect yourself? That's just hard. So they end up looking into him and they find that all the 236 casino visits, they show that his loss is totaled over a million dollars in 2002. Oh, really? And they're like, well, yeah, why is he borrowing so much money? He's not helping some like poor South American child get reconstructive surgery after a junkie mom spilled boiling water on her face or something. This is compulsive f***ing gambling. Not good. He is gambling like crazy. Oh, by the way, the knife very consistent with the wounds on Ann's body as well. The knife is consistent with the wounds. That winds up perfectly. There's no DNA on it or anything, no blood on it, but it's, it's the knife that would have been used, you know. So they said about him gambling. He drives 50 miles to casinos in Evansville, Indiana, and Metropolis, Illinois, which is probably not a Metropolis. I'm sure it's not multiple times a week and loses six figures a year. Jeff Hibbs told us that Russell Winstead had an extreme gambling habit, Detective Duncan. I would f***ing well say so. Yeah, you have like a Charles Barkley level gambling habit, except he was making millions of dollars a year. Yeah. Well, any of the income to back that sh** up. 236 visits in a year. I imagine going anywhere 236 times in a year. Anywhere. I can't. I mean, besides your bed or the gas station, if you drive a lot. Even they, yeah, 236 times two out of three days, you're getting gas. That's crazy. Unless you're like a delivery person or something. I don't know. That's crazy. So, um, his favorite casino was the riverboat. It was a riverboat called the Casino Astar, which has now been remodeled into a Jesus Christ in New Orleans. It's a Cheeto themed casino with a giant thing of chest of the Cheeto coming out from the middle of it. I swear to God, I couldn't make that up. Cheeto themed casino. The Chester Cheetah right in the middle. Chester Poppin. Now, they also found out Russell was having multiple affairs. How? Multiple affairs all over the place. The one with the cocktail waitress at the casino, that's a long term relationship he's been in. That's not even an affair really. So, his burner phones, his wife knew nothing about them. Yeah. So, they said, we recovered a couple of burner phones that his wife didn't even know existed, the detective said. One of the cell phones was used only to contact a waitress at one of the casinos. So, they bring Tammy back in and they talk to her and see if they can get something out of her now. And they said, Ms. Winstead, did you know your husband had burner phones? Do you know what a burner phone is? That's what I mean. In 2000, she said, what? No. Yeah. What is the, yeah, what? What now? They said, did you know that he's been having an affair with a woman at the casino? She immediately starts crying and says, no. She's telling the truth, obviously. She just broke that to me. Yep. They said, did you know Russell went to casinos 236 times last year? She said, he gambles sometimes, but not that much. Yes. Then why is he there? 236 times. That's pretty fun. They said, on a bad night, what do you think he loses? But it's just if we're asking, on a bad night. She said, I don't know, maybe 2000, 3000, which that's way more than a bad night. That's a destructive evening. If I lost $3,000 in a night, I would never get over it, literally. This is why I can't be a gambler. I would, for 20 years, I'd be thinking about why did I do that? Oh my God. I lost 1,800 in Vegas one night in 2003. Oh my God, you're out of your mind. I've never gambled again. Yeah, that's horrible. You got it. You're not a gambling addict. That's why it's because you fucking destroyed me. I cry. It's what I mean. You could have went the other way. You could have said, I got to get that money back tomorrow. No, no. That's what a lot of people with that gene do instead or whatever it is. I was furious. You went, oh my God, they robbed me blind. Fuck this place. I'm never doing this again. It was unrelent, James. And as I lost the final $100, the guy, is he a dealer? What is that guy? The guy who spins the fucking ball? He spins the ball and goes bet on black, bet on black, and then black popped up. I was like, I'm walking away or I'm going to fucking murder that man. Oh man. As he just laughed at me and then told me what to bet on. Oh my God, I've never lost more than like $40. Really? If I lose $20, I'm like, I'm like, that's $20. I just threw in the garbage. I can't do that. I'm so, no, oh God, I'm going to be poor any minute now. I don't know why I did it. It was my whole paycheck. Because you thought it was happening. That's, people get that urge. They throw money someone takes it. You're like, I'll show you. I'll put even more money down and show you what I'm doing. As soon as I lost the last 100, I was like, I deserve this. But I wanted to die so bad. Who the fuck on roulette betting red and black? That's all I bet on. That's all you're not even number 1800 gone. What the fuck? Wow. On a 50-50 shot, huh? I guess it'd be a little less because there's the other square. I mean, there's a little bit of green, but it's 50-50. Green came up one of the times and I almost kicked the table. That's a nightmare. You even picked the one with the worst odds. Yeah. Yeah. No skill involved. None. You could have played blackjack and at least had a chance. You know what I mean? At least you had a chance. You did a slot machine, essentially. But worse arts. Way worse. Way worse. 50-50 just came off losing. Oh man. So they tell her maybe, she says maybe 2000, 3000. Yeah. They say try 38,000 in one night. One night? One night. Holy shit. I would drive my car into a wall if I lost 38,000 dollars. I would skip the car. I would pay some. I'd tell somebody to keep the car and run me over with it. Never again. Yeah. Take this. Run me over and then keep driving. You can have it. It sure works. So Tammy completely breaks, I mean loses it at that point. I know nothing about who I'm married to. He's fucking people. He's losing our whole everything. So they said she started bawling, the detective said. Yeah. So the detective said, Tammy, I need you to think very carefully. What time did Russell get home on Sunday, January 12th? Now you don't want to protect him so bad. She gives a long pause and then says the most telling answer of all time. Quote, he told me to say 725. Oh no. Oh boy. They said, but what time did he actually get home? Yeah. She said it was later closer to nine. Oh. Uh oh. So they said, why did you lie? Yeah. What the fuck? She said he told me to. He said if I didn't, I'd lose everything. The house, the kids. He said I'd be the one going to jail. How would she be the one going to jail for telling the truth about a murder? Wow. So now Russell has no alibi whatsoever and has a completely unaccounted for, unaccounted for on whatever window in the exact time of the murder. Shit. So they give him here is they're going to offer him a polygraph here and this is from the book again here. So they said that they met, they met him at the church auditorium and they tried to concentrate. They said, but our minds were 350 miles away in the motel room in Madisonville where the son of Jack's favorite uncle was undergoing a polygraph. Apparently Earl is Jack's favorite uncle to see if he had bludgeoned stab somebody. So this is the deal. Russell had arrived at nine AM for his polygraph. His attorney accompanied him cramped into the tiny motel room. I don't know why they're doing all this in a motel room by the way. Makes no sense. Sam and Bert, these are the detectives began their efforts to get to know Russell and put him at ease. They asked Russell some questions about his habits, his behavior and whereabouts. They said, our PIs asked Russell when he had last seen and alive. He said, I saw her on Friday at six 15 PM. He said, I went to her home to borrow $9,700. Okay. They said, what did you do with the money? And Russell was obviously resigned that his gambling habits would soon become public knowledge. He said, the next day I went to Caesar's palace near Louisville, added $300 of my own money and lost the entire $10,000 that evening. Holy shit. Wow. Um, they said grand that night. Grand that night. Like nothing. 10 grand of borrowed money. It's not even his money. Right. He's in the hole 10 grand out the window. So they said, and didn't keep that much cash around the house. So she would have had to have written a check, which Russell would have cashed at a bank or at the casino because of Jack's experience with financial crimes. We knew that Russell probably asked her for the unusual amount to avoid filing a fulfilling out a CTR or the casino completing form, which is form 8,300, both reports of cash transactions of 10,000 or more. There's a law in this country that if you spend 10,000 in cash on anything, for any reason, the government knows about it. If you go buy a car with cash, they're going to have to fill out a whole separate form and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because God for fucking bid. God for bid, you enjoy your own money. But yeah, sometimes it works out in these situations and these situations. It's for drug dealers is how they're trying to do it. It's for money laundering people that are trying not to report it. Exactly. So they said, Russell spent his Saturday night in Louisville and returned to Madisonville at about 2 p.m. on Sunday. It's just a noise because it's cash, so that means it's for drugs, but you can have fucking stocks and this and that and all sorts of swipples and nobody fucking cares if you can rich in fake money. Bank us all right in the ass. Fake money that only exists on the internet and that we don't fucking care about. But God forbid if you want to spend 10,000 of your own fucking money, you got to fill out a government form. So Russell said he spent Saturday night in Louisville, returned to Madisonville about 2 p.m. on Sunday. Russell said he went to his ex-wives and picked up one of his sons. They went to Russell's house until approximately 545. Then he and his family drove to church. He and his son took separate vehicles so he could drop his son off at his ex-wife's wives while Terry, his second wife, got their children ready for bed. They were at church by about 710. Russell took his son home at 720 or 725. He returned to the home no later than 740 where he stayed for the rest of the night. That's the story now. Russell said he first learned about Ann's death at 3 p.m. Monday, January 13. They said, our investigators questioned Russell about his gambling habits. He admitted owing Ann between or Ann between 65 and 75,000. He admitted he borrowed money from her on a number of occasions, paid back part of the money, then borrowed more. He said that the money he borrowed was always for gambling. So they're talking about where he was. He told his, the investigators he'd never been barred from any other, any casino. He doesn't know the money or anything. They said, how many times did you frequent casinos in the past year? He said, the police said that between Evansville, Metropolis, and Louisville, I'd frequented casinos 236 times in the past 12 months. That sounds about right. They said, what about the $10,000 you borrowed from Ann to buy a piece of mining equipment? That's what he told her he needed it for. He said, there was no mining equipment. I used the money to gamble. They said, you must be in a hawk up to your eyeballs. And he said, yep. He said, I am. And they said, you know, you're the prime suspect in Ann's murder. And Russell said, it's because I owed her money, but I didn't kill her. The Madisonville police said that I failed the Kentucky State Police polygraph, but it was because they questioned me so hard before I took it. I'm glad to take another polygraph because I'm innocent. Okay. So he's saying they worked as polygraph a little. So the cops said, yeah, no one knows better than them in their minds that polygraphs produce false negatives and false positives. Happens all the time. Very common. That's why they're not allowed in court. They critics claim the polygraphs about 70% accurate. And really, it's kind of an art to reading polygraphs. It's more of an art than a science. Proponents claim a success rate is high as 92%. Even the higher estimate allows room for error. Bert eliminated a significant degree of inaccuracy by using the Lafayette computerized polygraph. The computerized scores greatly minimize subjective and often biased readings by those administering the tests. Yeah, because they'll say I can make it however you want it to be, basically. So they said Bert acknowledged the possibility that the previous polygraph could have been faulty. He said, sometimes if you're emotionally involved with someone just hearing their name can alter your responses. He explained to Russell, he said, when I administer your polygraph, I won't use Ann's name. That should put you a little more at ease. So he's just going to use like your aunt or whatever? They're just going to say, yeah, her or something like that. So they said they did everything possible to provide a safe and comfortable environment for Russell. They began the polygraph with preliminary questions that established that he was a capable reactor. Again, they have to see if when he lies, it reacts. No physical or psychological problems. They asked him two questions. Did you hit her in the head with anything on January 12th? He said, no. They said, did you stab her on January 12th? He said, no. So anyway, the results of this, this is Mary talking about Jack here saying, when I reached Jack, he put his arm around my shoulder and looked into my eyes. The last time I've seen that look of loss was when he was carrying Ann's coffin. We learned that the following the examination, Bert conducted a numerical evaluation of the polygraph charts and asked Sam to conduct a separate numerical evaluation. The results of the two evaluations were on Russell were consistent. In addition to the computerized scoring and all that, an algorithm, which is a polyscore, they call it, the combination of the scores are two objective, for these two objective tests provide significant accuracy. The results of the calculations were three times the threshold score needed to fail the polygraph examinations. Super failed. He failed miserably. He failed hard. The results on the polyscore were 100% probability of deception on the question about stabbing Ann and a 99% probability of deception on the question about hitting her on the head. So, fucked basically. And that, I mean, speculative, it feels like he probably was 99% not, he probably wasn't a certain there because he knows that that hitting her on the head probably didn't kill her, but that stabbing 100% killed her. What did they, they hit her, that was the first question was the stat, so the 99% then 100 on the other. So, they go on from the book here, Ann's body would be ready for viewing in the afternoon. There was some concern about whether Ann's injuries could be adequately disguised, as they're talking about the funeral here. Oh, yeah, a fucking poor head. But the women of the family seemed determined that there would be an open coffin. Maybe they needed to see Ann's body looking normal so they can imagine she died peacefully. Jesus Christ. I assure you she did not. No, a wig would cover the gaping holes in her skull, but would have to come down far enough to camouflage the parts of her neck that were missing or concave. Lord. Jesus Christ. They sorted through Ann's many wigs and found one they thought would work. The ladies in her family communicated throughout the day with the mortician. So, here, so they talked about that and they said the funeral home instructed the ladies to choose a pair of heavy gloves to cover Ann's hand injuries. They found black leather gloves and from Ann's well stocked claws that they chose a gray suit with a mink collar, probably with a head, I assume, to match them. So, they said that only a portion of her face would be visible. Okay. So, they said that they never saw her so plain. It's a gray suit. They said normally, when she wore a gray suit, she would have bright pink earrings and floral shoes or something like that. She has a lot of oranges and purples and tropical prints and colors. She likes that kind of shit. So, they go to arrest Russell. They indict Russell. And they don't arrest him right there. They have to go get an indictment and an arrest warrant and they arrest Russell. They're going to arrest him. They go to his house, knock on the door. He's fucking gone. Where'd he go? He just ran. He took off. Wow. Tammy said he left earlier that morning with a packed bag and his passport. And a passport. He's gonna leave the fucking country. And he's out. So, by the time they scramble and figure out where he went, he is already in Costa Rica. What? Yep. Very specific. This is from the book. They say, as summer approached, the messenger was again our method of discovering news about Russell. That's the newspaper locally. We learned that on June 6th, Terry was granted a divorce from Russell. They said that Russell showed up at a Father's Day family picnic and that was the last time anyone had known or seen him, basically. So, that was in June. Jack and I drove to California in July, a combination business trip and vacation. On Tuesday, July 15th, Penny called my cell phone while Jack and I were at Knott's Berry Farm. She learned that Russell had been indicted, finally. We celebrated for two days. We were driving on the Interstate 5 North from Long Beach to San Francisco when Jack got a call from Captain Randy Hargis. Russell hadn't shown up for his arraignment. His attorney had promised that he would, so police went to Russell's last known address to arrest him and learned he'd left the country. They said that Russell had attended a family gathering in mid-June and the detective seemed surprised. Jack surmised that the police hadn't known where Russell was for a long time. They said, we'll always regret that we allowed the doors closed by the NPD to keep us from calling Hargis two months earlier when we learned Russell was working in Henderson. Jack closed the cell, shook his head and talked through clenched teeth. He spoke very precisely and slowly and said, I can't believe they didn't keep him under surveillance when they knew he was about to be indicted. Why would you do that? Six days later, Jack and I were in Oklahoma and we heard that there was an article that had run of the messenger stating that the insurance company was holding the sibling's insurance policy benefits until they were all clear to suspects. We'd received the money from the policy and had for Jack several months ago, but we hadn't realized that the other policies had been held. So this is crazy. So Jack tells his mother, I'm telling you that you won't have to pay legal fees and someday I'm going to say I told you so. I don't believe I believe I've ever heard Jack say I told you so before. So they're saying, believe me, you're going to get insurance money. It's not going to get held up because I know who did it and it's not you guys. So when we arrived home, Jack called the Commonwealth Attorney, David Massimore, to ask for details of Russell's flight. The attorney said that Russell had applied for a passport in Chicago in May. The FBI has looked into this. He applies for a passport in May, knowing he's under investigation for murder and there's no red flags. He was good on leaving already and they don't have something set up to where somebody that's under investigation can just get their passport and get a passport. Yeah. He thought he's thought to be in Costa Rica. Jack shook his head and hung up the phone and said Costa Rica wasn't a random choice for Russell. It's popular with American tourists. San Jose is that San Jose Costa Rica is crowded with casinos and they have the highest table stakes in Central America. That is going to gamble? If you're a high stakes gambler, Costa Rica is where you want to be. Oh, and by the way, Costa Rica does an extradite for capital crimes. Is that right? Yep. So Russell had planned this perfectly. So Costa Rica Russell, here he is. He landed in San Jose, checked into the Hotel Del Rey, which is a spot in Central America with a casino on the first floor. And the bar doubles as a pickup spot for sex workers. So this is where if you were an American tourist looking to do some sleazy shit in Costa Rica, this is where you'd go to gamble a bunch and pick up people to fuck. Does the Del Rey sponsor this show? Because you just did a hell of an ad for him. It's a good ad. And the rooms upstairs, they have some rooms that rent by the hour upstairs, too. So this is, if you're looking to party, this is like Tijuana with a plane. This is wonderful. So beaches. Yeah. And beaches. So Russell loves it here. They said he was living under a pseudonym. The detective said he was still bouncing. Of course, he is from female to female, and he was living the lifestyle that he was trying to live here, except without having to go home and pretend to be a family man and go to church on Sunday and all that. Yeah, that double life stuff. He just cut out the front part and just go right to the back room there. Every night, blackjack tables, pound and whiskey, picking up women doing his thing. Great time. Now, how did he get there? You might wonder, well, he got his passport in May in Chicago, then flew through Nashville, Tennessee, then to Dallas, then to Texas, or then to San Jose. That is three flights, four flights. Yes. That's too much that you can get caught on. I don't know if that was his way of like washing himself from this or I mean, he'd have to fly. They didn't have a Nashville to Costa Rica direct flight probably, so they had to get it out of Dallas. I'm not sure. So, launderous flight logs here. Now, this is what they think happened after putting all the evidence together and everything. They figured it out here. Russell needed another loan. He was $9,700 short on a payment he owed and he begged her for another loan. She writes him a check for $9,700 trying to show good faith. He writes her a check for $1,200 as partial payment of a nearly $100,000 debt. So, she writes Russell check received $1,200 January 11, 2003. That's Saturday. That same night, casino surveillance cameras capture him at the high stakes blackjack table in Illinois losing $10,000 in a session. He's overdrawn and he knows it. He's fucked. That $1,200 check is going to bounce and when it bounces, Ann's going to know what's going on and she's going to tell everybody and fucking blow his entire double life and you know, next thing you know is burner phones will be out in the open. So, all of this shit. So, Sunday, January 12th, 6.30pm, 1st Christian Church in Madisonville Sunday evening service. Ann attends as she does every Sunday. She's wearing a blue pantsuit, diamond rings on three fingers, freshly clothed hair. Yeah, she looks amazing. Russell's there. He sits three rows behind her. After the service, they chatted in the parking lot briefly, just a pleasant conversation and had mentioned to him and a couple other people she's making pork chops for dinner. 7pm Ann leaves the church, drives the six minutes to her house on North Main Street. A neighbor sees her pull into the driveway. 7.05pm Ann arrives home, enters the home. She doesn't lock the door because she has this alarm and won't open the door for people, but apparently there's not a lot of door locking in Madisonville. Okay. Here. She goes to the kitchen, makes the pork chop. She prepped them earlier. Now she heats them up. She eats dinner standing at the counter like she does. Yeah, I do it all the time. Whenever Dr. Bob isn't there, she just eats at the counter. You're by yourself who gives her shit. So, 7.15, a neighbor sees a man. Oh, this is Mrs. Patricia Henderson, glances out her window and sees a tall man in a dark jacket walking up Ann's driveway. She doesn't think much of it because Ann has family visiting all the time. There's constantly people coming and going, but later that she'll remember the man later on. 6ft 1 dark hair around 180 pounds. Russell is 6'1 180 with dark hair. Pretty good job. Not bad. So, they think about 7.20-ish and Russell arrives at Ann's house, probably knocking, and probably lets him in because why not? It's her nephew and he's been there all the time. They go to the basement. Now, why they would go to the basement? I'm not sure. He might have had to say something to get down there as far as there's a weird noise. Let me check your water here. Some way because he wouldn't just go, I'm going to talk to you in the basement. We're the only two people here. Whatever you can say. Where's your sump pump? Show me. Yeah, let's do that. So, they think that in the basement, that's when Russell probably said, listen, I need you to not cash that $1,200 check. Ann probably says, what are you talking about? And says, I'm not tearing it up. That's you owe me money and you gave it to me. So, they think Russell must have just snapped. He had two choices. He could either get the check from her, everything's fine, or he could do it in a way that has to be done apparently. So, he thinks he attacked her from behind based on the evidence with a heavy object, later determined to be a mining hammer or similar tool. Holy shit. Like a rock hammer? Like fucking something like that. Like a pickaxe. Shawshank? I don't know. Yes, exactly. Strikes her in the back of the head and collapses. She's still conscious because then you have defensive wounds. She tried to fight back. The detective said she had defensive wounds on her forearms. Then she was knocked down. That's when the perpetrator really went to work. So, it's the hunting knife they think that he had under his bed there. Stabs her in the back 97 times all over her. All over her body. I mean, she is, I don't know. I don't know. She must have said something to him. I don't know what she could have said. I'm going to tell your wife or I'm going to tell everybody or, you know, why can't you get your shit to go, whatever it is. This isn't just, I'll kill her to get her to not cash this check. This is a fucking, he killed her 20 times over. It's really bad. Yeah. You know, allegedly here. So, he doesn't panic. He doesn't flee. He cleans up. This is a very big crime scene. The detective said you think about someone leaving the area dripping blood from their arms and to not find any blood on the door frames or handrails. It was surmiseable that this person had taken the time to clean up the crime scene. And we know he's not home till nine. So, he spends about an hour cleaning up the crime scene. They think he finds the check because the check is never found in the house. So, they think he puts it in himself and leaves. He thinks he took it himself and leaves. Now, about 730, him leaving the house, he drives home. They think he must have disposed of his bloody clothes somewhere along the route, but they're never found his clothes. No idea where they're at. So, it could have been some dumpster, some Dairy Queen dumpster. He calls it back to Dairy Queen and he walks into his house at 9.05. Tammy says, where were you? And he said, had to take care of something. I'm tired. I'm going to bed. Okay. And then he hides the knife under his mattress and that's that. So, how the hell is he surviving in Costa Rica if he needed that? Great question. He's got no money. In Kentucky. Well, Earl, Ann's brother is sending him money. Really? Russell's father is sending him money, money that he inherited from Ann's estate. She is still paying for this asshole to gamble now on another continent. She's paying for him to fucking gamble. Still. Jesus. Still. Because Ann had made Earl co-executor of the estate. He had access to all her accounts and he is just sending wire transfers via Western Union to Russell and Costa Rica. What the fuck, man? Yep. They said, the detective said, we had a guy come forward that said Earl was actually paying him to wire money via Western Union to Russell and Costa Rica. He put a middleman in them so it wouldn't go back to Earl. The family's insanely pissed, as you might imagine. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Jack Branson said, it really struck us all by surprise. What really hurt us deeply was the fact that we knew it was Ann's money that was paying for her murderer. Yeah. So, the detectives set up a sting operation. They wire up the Western Union clerk as a confidential informant and they catch Earl red-handed two different times. Oh. Twice. Just in case so that he can't say it was a one-time thing. Right. So, March 2003, he's arrested too. Earl? Not March later on in 2003 because he was got down there in June. He's arrested. He apparently hired others to covertly wire several thousands and thousands of dollars to his son. They said that at Winstead's home, police reported finding $2,800 in cash, a brochure for Costa Rican resorts, maps and receipts for wire transfers. Oh. So, yeah. He is charged with seven counts of hindering apprehension. Mary Branson, the author, said, I remember Earl being let out in handcuffs. It was devastating. Now, Earl eventually is going to plead guilty. Yeah. And he is going to be given, originally, he sentenced to use, sir, may fuck off, one year in prison with the sentence being conditionally suspended for two years. And so, it's suspended for two years and he's given seven years of probation and some house arrest. Wow. And this is all be, it's conditionally suspended for two years, his sentence. Oh, so he's got to jump through some hoops through this? That condition is if he contacts Russell at any point, he goes right to prison. And for anything, right to prison. Yeah. It doesn't matter if one of Russell's kids dies. Can't contact him and tell him someone else is going to do it. Now, Jack Branson, Ann's nephew and the retired treasury guy, he said, Mary and I walked over to Earl's house to see how he was dealing with the grief and his son, Russell, took us to Sierra. They were talking about the last time they saw Russell. And they said, even then, Russell was playing the concerned nephew. We'll be glad when we find out who did this, saying all that kind of shit. But yeah, he said, for Russell to have fled the country, it was shocking to all of us. An innocent man doesn't flee like that. So Jack, due to his career in federal law enforcement, has connections and he has connections at America's Most Wanted and he contacts America's Most Wanted and gets them interested in the story. Okay. You know, someone killed the Dairy Queen. We got to find out who. So February 2005, America's Most Wanted airs an episode on Russell. They show photos, they show the Hotel Del Rey, they talk about where it is, they show Russell's face. Everything. Everything. Nice. Yep. So this is from the Murder in May, Barry book, quote, as seen on America's Most Wanted, even more so was the identity of the killer whose flight from the law made him one of the FBI's Most Wanted. Winstead fled across borders, leaving a trail of false leads leads and desperate calls home. The small town cops overwhelmed, called in federal help, Jack Branson's old contacts lit up the tip lines. Greed had turned neighbor against neighbor and now the world watched as Madisonville's dark secret unfolded on national TV. So in Costa Rica, he is a mighty comfortable life down there. Sure. He started using the name Jeffrey Dan fish for a while. Dan fish. Dan fish. Now you'd say that's a stupid name. No one's named Jeffrey Dan fish. Jeffrey Dan fish is actually an American citizen living in Costa Rica that he met. So it's a real guy. Dude's name. Yeah, they don't know or they don't know if they met or not, but he knew of him apparently, which is amazing. Apparently the messenger, the newspaper said that the black market for lost or stolen passports is very active and it wouldn't be difficult to get one, especially in Costa Rica. Also Russell lived in a carriari, which is a gated community, right? Nice, real nice place. He's also using aliases, Russell Smith and Russell Johnson. And he lived in and around Jose San Jose, which is the capital, spent most nights at the hotel Del Rey, which is a pink neon lit place down there that we talked about. And if they it's described as quote legendary among American gamblers and sex tourists. Gross. He's gambled heavily chasing women. The FBI has a flyer seeking him. They call him a quote seasoned gambler who likes to frequent casinos and gaming businesses. They should call him a terrible gambler who is really fucking bad at it. Not a gambler at all really, just a donated a casino. Yeah. A guy who loves to throw money away to people who don't need it. So they said the police in Kentucky said they don't know when he'll ever be arrested. The one cop said, I do not have a timeline on his arrest, but those of us who have worked on this case have had a stressful and emotional year and we're anxiously awaiting that day. Now, while this is happening, his episode of America's Most Wanted is running and repeats. reruns are going on. So it aired repeatedly and even was picked up by satellite for these cable packages, satellite packages throughout Latin America and all of this. Now, one night in April or May of 2005, an American tourist is sitting at the bar inside the hotel Del Rey's casino. He looks up at the screen where America's Most Wanted is playing on mute and he goes, holy shit, the guy in the segment looked exactly like the guy who was playing Blackjack two tables away. I know that guy. He's right there. Right the tall, thin Kentucky accent. He goes, there's not a lot of guys with a Kentucky accent walking around Costa Rica right now. So he goes, it's gotta be him. So the tourists called the tip line the next day. Yeah, he's still gonna party that night, but the next day, a Costa Rican, Costa Rican judicial investigation organization. It's their version of the FBI and agents from the US embassy moved to try to figure this out. They put the hotel Del Rey under surveillance and confirmed through photographs. It's definitely Russell. Okay. Now Costa Rica had already issued a provisional arrest warrant in anticipation, so they didn't need to wait. Now Thursday, May 5th, 2005, 12 30 a.m San Jose, Costa Rica here. Okay. Like I said, they've been watching him for a while now. And they said that day he entered the casino earlier in the day. The detective said during daylight hours, which was unusual for him, he departed the casino and returned later that evening. So they said that they were all, you know, await anxiously awaiting his return. They said that he left the casino dressed with a man described only as a North American. Now there's differing reports of whether he left with a man or a woman. We're not sure. Either way, that person is let go. It's fucking pointless. Doesn't matter. So he walks out of the casino after a long night at the tables, steps onto the sidewalk in downtown downtown San Jose and plain clothes agents and uniform police surround him. He's slightly drunk. And here we go. They say Russell Winstead and he says, yeah, which isn't the best answer. He was handcuffed less than 50 yards from the casino's enterance. So they said that he didn't resist offered no struggle. A struggle. He just said, quote, how did you find me? He might as well have said, what took you so long? He gave a son a Sam. How'd you know it was me? How'd you know it was me? So the Winstead case was thrilling that this is, he's caught. Everyone in Kentucky is thrilled. One of the detectives said there, I know for a fact that he continued gambling almost on a daily basis. He hasn't changed his motive. He just changed his territory. And this cop said that he was identified by fingerprints and photographs, and they sent them to Kentucky. And this detective said he's been so close to this case for so long. He always refers to Winstead by his first name. He said they sent me a series of photographs. It was almost like seeing a long lost family member. I've grown to almost treat Russell like a family member. I've been so fixated on his capture. I've dreamed of this day. When I looked into his eyes and these photographs, I saw a tired man. He's been running for years. And Earl said the same thing when he was told, this cop called Earl to tell him that he was captured. And he said there were a lot of, there were some people that felt I deserved to hear it. That I just, I felt some people who I felt deserved to hear it from me. The cop said, Earl mentioned that Russell had been tired for a while. So Earl knew exactly where he was and all that shit. People are happy with the situation. Really? Yeah. One of the family members says you may get some small closure, but the trial could take a long time. A state senator said, justice delayed is better than no justice at all. The family could feel safe and secure that he'll be brought back here to face charges. This is great news for the family. I'm sure they're delighted. Now, Dr. Bob, when told, said, quote, he's in jail and he was all happy. And he said, I'm just tickled to death to hear that. That's wonderful. Oh, you wish you were tickled to death instead of what happened to her. He said, I'm in shock, but I'm very delighted with the news. I've had my doubts sometimes if the authorities were doing enough, we'd go for long periods of time without hearing anything. That was just a horrible way for a great woman to die. I was going to marry a great lady. This does bring some closure, but it won't be over until he's been brought to trial. I commend the authorities for sticking with it. Another nephew, Tom Branson, which if you've ever seen Downton Abbey is the chauffeur who married the youngest daughter, Tom Branson. Tom Branson's his name, which is funny. He said, we're all still numb over the whole matter. I'm not excited he was captured. I feel very, very sorry for him. We lived to block away from my aunt and her memory is still very fresh. And he said, I'm sure if he's brought here, the court system will flush out the truth like a turd. He also said that the person who committed the crime has not been brought to justice. So we're all waiting for this process, just however long it takes. He said, Christmas time was sad because every Christmas morning, I would walk over to her house. We just looked forward to seeing her at Christmas time. I missed her smile perhaps more than anything. I know she's with God now and I know she can't be hurt anymore and that brings comfort. Glenda Seton, a 19 year old Dairy Queen employee who didn't work directly for Branson for Anne, but knew her and described her as a good person and said in some ways, it is a happy and sad situation. You may get some small closure, but you never know how long it could take. So extradition, not so goddamn fast. Not gonna happen, huh? Costa Rica has a constitutional prohibition on extraditing anyone who might face the death penalty. There's a bunch of countries like this, bunch of countries, and they're not crazy, a bunch of normal countries like that. They're like, yeah. So the United States had to formally promise in writing that capital punishment would be taken off the table. One of the detectives said, quote, Costa Rica is a Catholic country and they would not have agreed to make the arrest if we were seeking the death penalty. That's why we ain't got no Catholics down here in Kentucky. Trying not to kill people. We like to kill them down here. From the messenger, they said it is our intent to secure Russell Winstead's capture and return to Madisonville. Progress has been made at the federal level in recent weeks in regard to official filings needed by international agencies so that they may proceed with their part. So the deal is no death penalty and the maximum sentence can be life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. That's what the countries agree to. And we have to agree to that and sign off on it. Costa Rica has to agree to it and sign off on it. So February 23rd, 2006, U.S. Marshals finally escort him off a plane in Louisville, Hancock. Finally. Now, he seems insanely guilty. No, it certainly isn't good. Yeah. Let's not rush to judgment so fast. Not so fast. There's a twist. While he's back here, there's a guy named Fred Roulette. Who could be a, what could be a better name for a compulsive gambler to hang out with than a guy named Fred Roulette? Fred Roulette was charged with murdering an elderly woman also. Was that right? Yeah. Fred Roulette sent a letter to prosecutors that said, I killed Anne Branson, Russell's innocent. Why'd he do that? He said, this is to, I believe this is a letter to Earl. Mr. He wrote letters to a bunch of people. By the way, look at his handwriting. Look at the way he does his eyes with like the, yeah, the Curly's. The Curly's on the bed. Like this is good handwriting for a murder. He has handwriting of a 16 year old girl. Yeah, he sure does. Of every chick I copied off of in science class in the 10th grade. This is what it would look like. Mr. Winstead, I'm writing you today to ask for forgiveness. I'm the reason you have lost a sister and three years of your son's life. I have no way to replace what I've took from you and your family, but I can help make things right by owning up to what I have done. I know by doing this, it's not going to bring her back, but maybe I will give some peace back to your family. I have been living in a complete nightmare and now it's time to, that's time I confront this nightmare by letting everyone know that I'm guilty of killing Anne Branson. I hope you believe me when I say that I am deeply sorry for the pain you all have endured. If you have anything to say, please write me. Sincerely, Fred Roulette. Why? Why would he do that? Well, yeah, he said that's it. We did it. And he had, he had information that only the suspects Why did he do that? He had details of the murder. No, I mean, why did he do the murder? That's what they're trying to find out. They're like, what the fuck? Why would this guy do that? So the detective said, here comes this guy out of the blue telling us he's the one who committed the murder. I was like, how could we have gotten this, this wrong? Yeah, we fucked up bad. We fucked up bad, bad. Um, so the prosecutors are like, we got to look into this when they dig deeper. They found this out. They found out that Fred Roulette came forward after he and Russell were cellmates for a couple of days. He paid him to make a confession. He paid this guy to do it. Because this guy was going down for his murder anyway. So they said, I'll pay you, at least you have commissary. So, wow, Trussell's going to trial now. Good try, Russ. Yeah. Prosecutions case is obvious. He owed shitloads of money. He went over there, tried to get the check back. She refused. He attacked her. The witnesses lined up how he lied about his, you know, everything you name it, lied about his alibi, the physical evidence, the bed, the knife under his bed matches 97 stab wounds. No forced entry suggested, you know, familiarity. The flight, he fled to Costa Rica, which looks guilty of shit, still gambled and used aliases and used money from the dead woman to gamble. Yeah. And also, now Fred Roulette and another guy are both saying that, that Russell tried to coerce them into writing false confessions via letters. So they tell that now the defense case, there's no forensic links. There's no DNA, no fingerprints, no blood on, on him or the knife. Okay. They found none of Anne's blood anywhere near him or his house, his stuff, his knife. They argued that the evidence was piled high, but thin. That's what the defense attorney said, pointing to other suspects like the handyman or the crazy tenant that was initially investigated. They also challenged the wife, his wife, Tammy's credibility, claiming her recantation was motivated by spite from the divorce. She tried to put him in jail for murder out of spite. Okay. That'd be pretty spiteful. They moved for a directed verdict of acquittal, arguing no reasonable jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And the judge was like, get the fuck out of here, go sit down. Shut up. Denied. Shut up. Yeah. Now they said the false confessions attempt, the false confession attempt as desperate innocence, not guilt. That's how they put it. That's desperate innocence. The prosecutor in the openings said, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is a simple case. A man who owed his elderly aunt $100,000 went to her home and asked her to tear up a $1,200 check. She refused. He murdered her. Stab 97 times, stole the check and fled the country. Pretty simple. Defense attorney Tom Osborne, the longtime coach of the Nebraska cornhusker football team, said, quote, this case is entirely circumstantial. No DNA, no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses. The prosecution wants you to convict based on debt or debt and suspicion. That's not how justice works in America. Now during the trial, they bring up Tammy, the ex-wife here. They say, Ms. Winstead, did your husband ask you to lie about his whereabouts? She said, yes. What did he tell you to say? He told me to say he got home at 7.25, but that wasn't true. What time did he get home? 9 or 9.05. Why did you lie? He said, if I hadn't, they'd have the kids taken away from me and I'd get in trouble. The defense comes to do cross. Mrs. Winstead, you've admitted to lying to the police. How can this jury trust anything you say now? She said, because I'm telling the truth now. I was scared then. I'm not scared anymore. First, I was afraid I was petrified. Now, Detective Larry Duncan on the stand, the lead investigator. They said, detective, did you find any DNA? This is on cross-examination from the defense attorney. Did you find any DNA evidence linking Russell Winstead to the crime scene? No, Duncan says. Any fingerprints? No. Any eyewitnesses who saw Russell Winstead at Anne Branson's house that night? He said a neighbor saw a tall man fitting Russell's description in the driveway at around 7.15. They said, but she didn't positively identify Russell, did she? And he said, no. Here's Jeff Hibbs, Russell's friend who called the cops on him, basically. They say, Mr. Hibbs, tell the jury what Russell told you on January 10th, 2003. And he said, Russell said he owed his aunt a bunch of money and that she was going to expose his gambling problem. He said he had to pay her back by Monday or everyone would know. They said, did Russell seem worried? And he said, yeah, real worried, desperate even. Oh, oh boy. Medical examiner, 97 stab wounds, multiple stab wounds to the back combined with severe blunt trauma to the skull. They said many of the wounds were inflicted after she was already deceased. So they said, so this person just kept stabbing her after she was dead. That's correct. They said, in your expert opinion, what does that indicate about the attacker's state of mind? And they said, this person was enraged. This was a crime of passion. Then they bring in his Costa Rican girlfriend. What? Melinda Perez Castriot. Gives himself a gal. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She's a Costa Rican high school biology teacher. Costa Rican biology she teaches. She is there traveling to testify against her. She had been living with her with him, by the way. Really? Yeah. She said, because the defense had talked to him about he's a peaceful man. He's nonviolent. This isn't him. She described outbursts of temper in which Winstead threatened to kill her and her family if she didn't follow or if she followed through on a threat to alert authorities that he was there. When they got into a fight, she'd say, well, I'll call the fucking Interpol. Yeah. I'll call Interpol. And he said, I'll, yeah. She also said he hit her. She described a stormy relationship in which Russell would disappear for periods at a time. She said that Russell told her he was a suspect in his aunt's murder. She helped him. She picked up money from his father, sent through Western Union. She assisted him in obtaining false identification papers. The witness said she searched the internet for countries he could go in case the police got too close. Places like Brazil and Cuba that wouldn't allow extradition if the death penalty was possible. Yeah. She said that he spent her money too, gambled that away. He never worked. She said he was quote always gambling. She said he was very violent, always upset and angry. They had an argument and she said she told him she had written a letter to her family telling them about her just in case something happened to her. Winston, Winston grabbed her by the arm and said, are you fucking crazy? He then hit her by and she demonstrated several rapid punches. Oh, he punched her a bunch. Yeah. When she threatened to go to the police, she said that he told her his father would send someone to kill her. She said, Russell, she said also threatened to burn her house down with her family inside of it. With you inside it. Yeah. That's nice. She said, he said to her quote, if I killed my aunt, why wouldn't I kill you? Oh my God. Jesus Christ. Sometime in 2004, he told her his father would pay her $1 million to disappear, not pay to get her disappeared, but pay her $1 million to disappear somewhere. Under cross examination here, she said that he was with a lot of women and she had learned that he even got married while he was down there living with her. Holy shit. Living with her, spending her money. He's also married on the side. This guy, it's like four lives by now. He just wants to do whatever he wants to do and we'll have no words about it. Nothing. No forms of just morality. Is he hot? Not even morality. Just, no, just a really average guy. What the fuck is going on? A real average guy. I don't get it. Must have some charisma to him or something. So, I mean, I don't know, he's, he's ballsy. He's a race car driver. So that's, if you're, which is the same kind of, I think the same trigger mechanism in your brain that gives you pleasure as gambling does, probably. Yeah. Similar type of thrill. Yeah. All or nothing, babe. Either I lose all my money or I win or I drive real fast or I crash and die. But there's nothing in between. That's it. There's very few guys that have gotten in car accidents in NASCAR and they've just been disabled. You know what I mean? They died. Yeah. They're dead or fine. One of the two. So they questioned her, whether this angered her that he'd gotten married and she said that she was quote, tired of everything. I wanted my money back. She admitted she lied to FBI agents during her first interview and said that after that, she'd been honest though. A neighbor witness, Pierre McNary, or I'm sorry, is Denise Gilmore is the neighbor. Pierre McNary is his attorney, attacked this neighbor on Wednesday saying that she saw Winstead outside the home on the night of the murder. She's the witness that saw him. The defense attorney said that this Gilmore woman told him that the man ran to the side of her car and that she gave him a ride. This is a different person, not that other neighbor. This is somebody gave a ride. He also said Gilmore told him that she's the man she saw was black. McNary said he sometimes drove Gilmore's car for her because she had trouble seeing it night. He called her deceitful. Commonwealth attorney noted McNary is a convicted felon. Okay, that's not the lawyer. That's the guy. A convicted felon currently got confused there. I got confused with who the lawyers are. I tried to remember their names and I thought he was one of them. Noted that McNary is a convicted felon currently facing drug related charges. Then they said that there's a letter from someone said that he had received from McNary indicating he would not testify in the trial if this other guy would help him with his charges. So he's been trying to play, you know, with his testimony, trying to earn something. Fred Roulette is interviewed. He testifies. They said, Mr. Roulette, why did you confess to killing Anne Branson? That's the million dollar question. Fred said Russell told me all the details. Said if I confessed, his family would take care of mine, pay my kids way through college. Oh, they said, so you lied? And he said, yeah, I lied. They said, are you lying now? And he said, no, Russell Winstead killed his aunt. He told me every time. Hell no, not lying at all. So they're like, okay. By the way, he had already pleaded guilty to the murder of Billy Cochran of Dawson Springs. This roulette guy here, he said, Winstead offered to set up trust funds of $20,000 for each of Roulette's sons and provide roulette funding for his commissary account while in prison. You keep me in ramen noodles and honeypuns and we got a deal. So Winstead made good on part of the promise, Roulette said. He bought roulette a new pair of tennis shoes and gave him money for the jail commissary. Roulette wrote letters to five people, including defense attorney Mark Wells and Hopkins circuit judge James Brantley, claiming he killed Branson. Imagine the absolute two messes of that defense attorney's cock when he got a letter in the mail from somebody saying, I actually killed her, your client's innocent. Oh, he must have. Oh, this is a great day. Holy shit. However, after he learned he could get the death penalty, he recanted. He's like, well, I didn't know you killed her over money. It's a death penalty case that he had. I don't want to get that penalty. So after being transferred to Christian County jail, he wrote Winstead a letter at the request of law enforcement officials asking for the money he'd been promised. Winstead did not reply. Instead, Roulette received a letter from Daniel Morseman, Winstead's new cellmate. While the letter made no reference to money, it said, you still have friends here. Be patient. It contained a poem with references that help is on the way. Oh my God. What the fuck? So cross on roulette because he's a murderer. So he's going to get attacked here. He is a murderer. The defense attorney, whose name is William Deathridge, by the way. Really? It's death rage with an E between the death and rage. Oh, what the fuck? I am William Deathridge. Here's my innocent client. He killed no one. He attacked Roulette's credibility, calling him a pothead, quote unquote. He's a pothead. That doesn't matter. And saying he smoked marijuana since the age of seven. He'd been a habitual drug user, an alcohol user. Death rage, said them, calling him death rage from now on, said that Roulette stabbed, you know, this woman to death, or the woman he killed. He said, you stabbed an old woman to death, right? She was elderly woman who liked Branson, lived alone. He suggested Roulette fabricated the story in hopes of working out a transfer to the Christian County Jail, where he would be allowed to smoke cigarettes and be closer to his wife. And perhaps he could smuggle in some of that weed. Some of that weed. Death rage also laid out a scenario in which Roulette might have killed Branson. Roulette claimed, or he said that he admitted killing Cochran and will be paying for it for at least the 23 years. He said, but I did not kill Anne Branson. Okay. Sorry. Now, other interesting child notes. There's other family members. Jack Branson, who's the guy with the wife with the book. He expressed devastation at the betrayal. There's also a juror misconduct, kerfuffle here, during the penalty phase deliberation. Some jurors use cell phones for personal calls, like checking on their kids and shit. The defense moved for a mistrial, but the judge questioned the jury collectively, all denied discussing the case and the motion was denied. Like, yeah, I checked and saw, if my kid came home from school, I didn't ask if you have any information on this murder case. I'm working now. So the defense also objected to four instances of alleged misstatements from the prosecutor, exaggerating the knife fit, meaning it was a perfect fit for the stab wounds or hair evidence, but the judge's admonitions to the jury cured any prejudice. Also a spousal privilege dispute. Winstead argued that Tammy's testimony violated privilege, but the court ruled the alibi coercion wasn't confidential because it's, you're lying. You can't get someone, you can't force someone to lie and call it confidential. The Kentucky Supreme Court later, we'll talk about that too. Closing arguments, prosecutors said, ladies and gentlemen, Russell Winstead is a liar, a gambler, a cheat and a murderer. That's something on your headstone that you want, right? He owed his 85 year old aunt $100,000. He wrote her a bad check and when she wouldn't tear it up, he stabbed her 97 times, then he cleaned up, went home, slept on top of the murder weapon and fled to Costa Rica, where he knew we were coming for him. This man is not at the church deacon, not the little league coach, not the devoted husband. This man is a killer and I'm asking you to hold him accountable. So, yeah. So they're talking about the fact that apparently there's some confusion in the cause of death where they have another expert that says the cause of death could have been later, like 10 o'clock, whereas he's already home, which cause of death is the least, there's no, it's the least accurate thing. It could have been anything other than the stab wounds and the blunt force trauma. Anything but that. So they say that evidence of Russell's deal with roulette other than tennis shoes and some commissary snacks, the defense had asked roulette what proof he had of a deal. He said the trust funds weren't set up any more than there was a 56 Chevy in the driveway. He said he concluded his closing arguments by reminding the jury of the where's Waldo drawings that were popular several years ago. He said Russell said he was with his gambling friend, but his friend was with his honey. Russell said that he was with his wife and their children, but they've testified he wasn't home till nine. So the question you have to answer is where's Russell Tom Osborne, defense attorney said this case, this case is built on suspicion. Debt doesn't make you a murderer. Gambling doesn't want to make you, doesn't make you a murderer. The prosecution wants you to believe Russell did this, but they can't prove it. No witnesses, DNA, fingerprints. Yes, Russell made mistakes. He gambled, he cheated on his wife, he fled, but fleeing doesn't mean guilt. It means fear. Fear of being convicted, right? But he thinks fear that you're caught for the thing you're doing that you just did. Yeah. He's saying wrongly though. Yeah, wrongly. Like, like Scott Peterson and OJ. Russell Winstead is not a perfect man. He's not a per, but he's not a murderer and you can't convict on suspicion. So there is six hours of deliberation. Wow. Seems like a lot. They find him guilty of intentional murder and first degree robbery. Okay. He's fucked. Jack, the cousin there said when they announced the verdict, release relief washed over me like Niagara Falls. Now the jury recommended life imprisonment without parole for 25 years on the murder count and 20 years on the robbery. Here comes the sentencing. Oh, boy. You, sir. May fuck off. He does keep those recommendations, but imposes them consecutively. Oh, boy. Line them up. Totaling life plus 20 years. Oh, effectively life without any hope of parole till at least age 67, which to me is not near old enough. Go in a casino. It's full of old people. They love to gamble. And all he needs is a little bit of social security. Don't keep going. That's it. He will blow it. The judge told him, quote, you will spend the rest of your life in prison. He showed little emotion and maintained his innocence too. He said, you've really done the wrong thing here. Now in 2008, that's when Jack and Mary Branson there, Mary wrote the book. She's the listed author, a murder in Mayberry 2008. They still live in Madisonville and are active in victims' rights advocacy. Now he's going to appeal a couple of times. We'll go through these extremely fast. The defense attorney wants a new trial. Yes, based on the fact that a couple different reasons. They said the sentencing is not what it should be. Also, the fact that he must serve 42 years before anything's done. He said that that was not what the deal with Costa Rica was and all that kind of They also talk about, he says, the court considered evidence and testimony during the hearing on the motion for a new trial, which was not available at the time the instructions were given to the jury during the penalty phase of the trial. This information, which was subsequently presented to the trial court, was germane to the sentencing issue. And they're also talking about the spousal privilege. They'll argue that testimony given by Terry Rainwater, now Rainwater was, instead, should not be allowed because of spousal privilege. She said, we believe it was confidential. So that's what they're saying. They're saying that once you get rid of that and the other shit, you don't have any case at all. All right. So yeah, they said that, and also the jurors with their cell phones, they deny his shit. Okay, good. They say no. By the way, that goes to the state Supreme Court who makes sure to tell the fuck off. Yeah. 2010, the sentencing laws changed. The Kentucky Supreme Court vacated the consecutive sentencing offer in 2010, ruling that sentences must run concurrently. They have to. You can't just line them up, especially if they're from the same. If he killed five people, I think you can line those up consecutively, but you can't line up a bunch of sentences from one act. All right. I believe that's what it is. I'm not sure because I read it. I briefly read the law, but like, I'm not a lawyer, number one, and number two, I had a lot of other shit to do, so I didn't get into it. Didn't think it mattered. So the effect of sentences life without, with parole eligibility after 25 years. Okay. Okay. Now, either in 2015 or 18, there's disputed, disputed reports, Earl dies. Oh, Earl. I'm sorry. So Earl's dad. Oh wait, fuck Earl. Earl's his dad. Yeah, Earl's his dad, it was wiring him money. Fuck Earl. Yeah. So the Dixie chicks were right. God damn it. Goodbye, Earl. Goodbye, Earl. So Tammy here, the ex-wife, she's remarried living in Southern Kentucky. Doesn't like to talk about the case. No. Raised all the kids as a single mother, and she changed her last name to get away from this. Dr. Bob, he lived until 2011 when he finally died. He never remarried, never married anyone else. He visited Anne's grave every week until he died. He died at 91 years old? Something we don't know how old he was exactly. Well, he was her age, nine years later, fucking guy almost lived to a hundred. He's old as shit either way, and he visited her grave every week until his death. So he really loved her. In December, of as of December of 2025, I should say, so as of right now, Russell is in prison. He is inmate number 180379 in the Kentucky State Reformatory at LaGrange, serving life with parole after 25 years. He's eligible for parole in 2032. Wow. Not very long, far off here, but six years off of that here. Now, Anne is buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery. That's a social club back east thing. I remember our little league had an Odd Fellows team. Odd Fellows in Madisonville. So she's there. Her house, which is a nice little house, still sits there, still looks nice, and it's, uh, the zestimate on it is 97,000. Wow. So there you go. She was living by herself. She was living buried here just by herself, so she didn't need to, she showed off in her appearance rather than that kind of thing. It's a 2000 square foot house though. It's a nice size house for an older lady. So there you go, everybody. That is Madisonville, Kentucky. And one goddamn wild, weird, crazy story that is. Quickly here. Definitely head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Actually, before that though, go on the app you're listening on and read or and review the show. It helps a lot. Give us five stars. It really drives up the visibility of the show. So thank you for doing that. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you get the tickets for live shows, merchandise too, tickets for live shows for 2026. The ones in December this year are sold out this weekend, but I'll give you a quick rundown of 2026. Get your tickets. They're available right now at shut up and give me murder.com. We have February 21st in Nashville. Nashville's a drive-in too, so people come from everywhere. Get those tickets. They'll sell out. We have March 6th in Durham, March 7th in Atlanta, March 20th in Phoenix. March 21st in Phoenix is your stupid opinions live show. We have May 1st in Salt Lake City, but that's already sold out, so never mind that. Wow, thank you guys. Thank you so much. May 2nd in Denver, May 29th in Buffalo, May 30th in Royal Oak, Michigan. September 18th in Milwaukee, September 19th Minneapolis. October 3rd Dallas, October 16th San Jose, October 17th Sacramento. San Jose, California, not Costa Rica by the way. November 13th, Territown, New York, just up from New York City, and on the 14th of November back in Boston at that theater we were at last in the Chevalier. So that is good stuff. Come see us. Get your tickets right now at shut up and give me murder.com. We're so excited for those. Get yourself Patreon as well, damn it. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus materials. Anybody $5 a month or above, first thing you do is you're going to get immediately upon subscription access to hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before. So you've got a big binge in front of there. Then new ones every other week, one crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get them all this week. We're going to finish up Charles Stark weather part two. We're in the middle of his crazy murder spring. It's so interesting. His description and his girlfriend's description of what happens together is so wild. So it's so much fun to do. We can't wait for that. So yeah, do that. You get on top of all the episodes, you get everything we put out crime in sports, your stupid opinion, small town murder, all ad free on your Patreon as well. All ad free and you get a shout out at the end of the show, which hey, at the end of the show, Jimmy, please do me a favor and hit me with the names of the people who would never go $100,000 into gambling debt with us and then murder us in our own basements. Hit me with them right now. This week's executive producer, Gary Howard in Seminole, Oklahoma. Jared Marnin, Jennifer CRPL. Oh, it's not English, it's something else. Reese Proben. He's down the cape and he knows a bunch of crazy murders up there. Great. We'll hear some more about it. Other producers this week, Peyton Meadows, Yukon Cornelius, Kelly Thursk, Merry Christmas Yukon, Georgia LipTac, Ryan Bender, Happy Hour, Checking In, and Bliss, Idaho. Anything but Bliss, it sounds like. Janice Hill, SM Mainer, Jennifer Harmon, Trisha Barrage Watts, Flounder with no last name, Bailey Herndon, Peregrine, Rusker, Riga. Thank you. Thank you, Janice Hill, by the way. Here, Janice Hill, every goddamn week. She's been doing this for eight years too, Janice Hill. And all I hear is Rossy, four R, every time. You're the best, Janice. Thank you so much. Aaron, Aaron's son, Megan Cook, Sanaa with no last name, Lauren with no last name, Arlene with no last name, Dan Johnson, Deaklyn Ruley, Stephen Rash, RR, Robin, nope, that's Rob Klingler. Klingler, oh boy. Oh, oh Juliano, that's Joe Giuliano, Subab Skirrah. Subab Skirrah? What is that? Subab, the sexiest of the white family. Subab with the titties. Thank you, Subab. Get on that trampoline, keep yourself in shape. Darlene Costello, Corey Moore, Danielle, or it's D'Neal, I don't know. Stashia. Curtis Black, Christopher Quinn, Tim with no last name, Jay Kaufman, Adina Smith, Melissa Tenorio, Wayne Wood, Adam Scott, Adam, A-T-O-M, not that other guy. Samantha Rawlings, April Gordon, A-Q, Latoya, Wendelboeboe, Wendelboe, Wendelboe, Jareena, Jareena Silva, Andy Denton, Stuart Everett, Sydney, Josephiak, Josephiak, K with no last name, the letter K, the guy from Men In Black, K. Oh, nice. Thank you, James Earl Jones, but not Tommy Lee Jones. I say James Earl Jones. James Earl Jones is, Men In Black would be, those are very opposite. We would be in a lot of trouble. That's a slow, slow man. Plus it'd be weird if Darth Vader was in Men In Black. He is in black. That'd be the weirdest thing in the world. So strange. James Earl Jones does wear black. Wait, is that the one we're talking about? Yeah, James Earl Jones. I think we got lost. What's Earl Jones' is it? It's Tommy Lee Jones. There he is. Tommy Lee. Not Tommy Earl. No, Tommy Earl is a totally different guy. Tommy Earl Jones is just in jail in Texas somewhere. James Earl Jones, fuck Tommy Lee Jones. You'd have Tommy Earl Jones. That's not good. And he's a bank robber from 1780. Yeah, absolutely. Samuel Beck, Alberta Crowley, Connor Sawickley, Savannah Scaffidy, Samantha Cywack, what is this? Maria Say's, S-S-E-E-S, Samson, Moni Penney, Chad Little, KT, Jay with no last name, Joel Rickett, Sharon Robson, Nate Seymour, Dan Badoe, B-Day, Bouday, Erica Miller, Stephanie Poffal, Poffal. It's probably just fall. Robin McGivorn, Jeannie Patsch. Superfluous P. Yeah, it's an extra P for no goddamn reason. Shannon with no last name, Ben Swanson, Holton with no last name, Kim Stahey, J.K.S., Jeff Carter, J.K. is the first name, S is the last name, Ashley Grasso, Cameron Fogel, Lisa Kroerza-Kawa, Lauren Coleman, Jana Boner, Boner what? Boner what now? Bonerfeind, Fiend is the, Bonerfeind, I don't know, she's a Fiend for him. To eat, she's his own, you know? She itches for it. Crystal Taitham, the Eric Spoolstra, I fucking doubt it. Maybe. But that would be amazing. Jackie with no last name, Hayden Ritter, Heidi Parrot, Sierra Groves, Cortside, Eric if you can handle it. Charissa with no last name, Sierra Groves, I say that. Daniel White, Guy Ron, Megan Tague Johnson, Kerry Samson, Sansum, oh boy. Autumn Allen, Jason Laborta, Ray Harris, Roger Lynn, Robin Nuttall, Chris Bedard, Bedard, Rob with no last name, Jody, Pettengill, Tyler T., Lindsay Vickers, Melissa Snyder, Jacqueline Barzinski, David Brighton, Sophia, Sophia, no it's Sophia, with no last name, Sophia, Kim Hart, Audrey Mollies, Alec Lucas, Foster Webb, Brandon Cooper, Alicia Robinson, Heather Steprow, Steve Prow possibly, Elaine Pappard, Carolyn Peterson, Anna, who is he? Peterson or Pappard? Pappard. Norm's kid would be Peterson. Anna Varnell, Brittany Bright, Rugged Doctor. I'm the Rugged Doctor. What was that from? It's from Anchorman. I'm the Rugged Doctor. No, it's not even that. I don't know what it's from, but it made no sense. Pasha Hannaway. I can see that dickbag, Pharrell, Colin, no. Will? Will. Those are very different people. Incredible. Colin Farrell and Will Farrell. I can see Will, look, he's on the Rugged Doctor. I don't know why he's, I don't remember what it's from. I'm dying. He calls somebody, he says he's the Rugged Doctor or something. Greg Staten, Shannon Macklin, Casey Rath, Bria, McCabe, Ed would know last name, Harlop would know last name, Ali Colleen, Pasha Hannaway, I said that. Cyan, Cian, Angela Thomas, Shannon Macklin, did I say that? Cnm? What is C-Y-A-N? What does that mean? Oh, C, I'm not sure. I don't know either. Is that Sean? Cyan, pepper. That might be Sean in some weird language. Shannon would know last name. Tina Pilkington, O'Neal Maldon, Susan Kilbride, D-Pack Chohan, like Chopra, I guess. Michael U, Adam Vermillion, Carissa Rowland, BR is the first name and C is the last name. I don't know. Maria Derivan George, Adam Windell, Courtney Vasquez, Eric Hyde, Eric Ahide, it's a gal. Robert Johnson, Sarah Rogers, Kristen Sullivan, Jamie, or Jaime Mack, C and S Slinde, Slindi, Slined. Sarah would know last name because Castamom, whoever that is, Sterling Smith. Oh, not the, is that, no. Ovi, O-V-I, I think. Judy Beam, Troy Babs, Eric Schneider, Alex Casale, Kasselie, Sarah Fish, Stacy Boyd, Valerie Farrand, Chantel Lopez, Wendy De Leon, and every single person that patrons this show, you're the best. Thank you. Thank you so much, everybody. God damn it, you're awesome. We appreciate everything you do for us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for doing Patreon and all that. That is the best way to support the show. It's just right to us. So thank you so much for doing that. Thanks for all that you do. You want to follow us on social media. Very easy to do that. Head to shutupandgivememurder.com when you're buying those tickets. And check out the drop-down menus and we'll take you where you need to go. Keep coming back and seeing us. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye.