Hey weirdos, before we unleash today's macabre mystery, we were wondering, have you ever heard of Wondery Plus?
It's like a secret passage to an ad -free lair with early access to episodes.
You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.
Whether you listen to stories, motivation, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive changes in your mood, your habits, and, ultimately, your overall well -being.
Audible has an incredible selection of over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals all in one easy app.
Find the genres you love and discover new ones, explore bestsellers, new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all all they want, with more added all the time.
Right now I am listening to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix and I just cannot get enough of it.
I never want to pause it.
I'm literally like loading the dishwasher listening to it, on the treadmill listening to it, constantly.
It's so awesome. I love being able to listen anytime, anywhere I want to.
And there's more to imagine when you listen.
Sign up for a free 30 -day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.
Visit audible .com slash morbid.
you guys I tried my mochi ice cream the other day and I was lifted off of this planet into just another galaxy entirely it is a cool creamy scoop of ice cream wrapped in a soft chewy dough it's literally like a little sweet ice cream dumpling it's pillowy soft d to the e to the l -i -c -i -o -u -s and it just feels very indulgent I loved it I tried the cookies and cream flavor and I still have the mango flavor to try.
I'm so excited to try the mango because if it's half as good as the cookies and cream, I'll probably just like fall on the floor and start crying.
Tears of joy. My Mochi is only around 70 calories per piece.
My Mochi is gluten -free and each box has six perfectly portioned mochi snacks.
And guess what? My Mochi is the original mochi ice cream.
The founder of My Mochi invented mochi ice cream.
That makes My Mochi the mochi OG.
Feel joyfully chill this summer with every bite of My Mochi ice cream.
Look for the purple box of My Mochi ice cream at Walmart or visit mymochi .com to find a store near you.
Hey weirdos, I'm Elena.
I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
hi we were just talking about dorinda medley from uh new york housewives always and forever uh because i'm watching the old episodes oh again they're so fun they're constant in my house if we don't know what to watch we just put that on and this is old new york housewives Jewels forever Jewels forever Jewels should have gotten When Wheny more I was gonna say Way more And then I said many So wheny more seasons She should have I loved her I liked her personality She was great Yeah Yeah Carol I didn't like her husband But I liked her No and that's why She should have stayed on Because they ended up
divorcing And I'm pretty sure She like might have He got his Yeah Which like Nobody should Nobody should Hit anyone No That's probably not.
No, don't hit people.
Yeah, don't do that.
Did she hit him? I think there was some allegations.
I'm not saying that I know what happened, but it was a little bit of allegations.
So keep your hands to yourself.
Well, anyway. He was a turd. Yeah.
How do you segue away from that?
How do you get out of that?
Where do we go from here?
Anywhere. Maybe I've had like not enough and too much coffee all at the same time today.
I haven't had enough.
Because for some reason last night I couldn't fall asleep, which I rarely have trouble falling asleep.
I'm usually a hit -the -pillow kind of gal.
I know. It just, I don't know.
There's nothing really going on that's like keeping me up at night, you know?
Maybe it's because like we got some sickies in my house and I think I'm just on high alert.
Oh, my God. Your kids are sick again.
Oh, my God. They're actually on the mend, everybody.
John's on the mend as well.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
isn't that such a fun thing to say it is i like that it's good because it's just it's very aggressive it's so aggressive yeah i like that i like being aggressive sometimes put that in your pipe and smoke it but yeah everything's you know things are things are here you know spring is springing in new england it is i'm about to plant a little bit i actually i'm you know my witchy class we planted um we got to pick what flower we wanted to do and we did like a little um ostara celebration oh cute and i planted a little moon flower and it's starting to bloom oh yeah so what we did was we got like
a little pot and we painted it and then you put a little um affirmation or like wish in the jar and in the pot and you put the soil over it and then you planted it so like you're it's like as the flower grows like your wish is growing oh i really dig that yeah my wish is growing everyone a lot do you know what flower sabrina picked i don't i she might have picked a moon flower i feel like she would have i feel like that's very yeah me and my girly sabrina from two girls one ghost are taking the class together go listen to two girls one ghost too they're awesome they're really great what are you
doing if you're not listening to two girls you gotta go listen to them be an idiot they're a great podcast and great ladies put two girls Rolls one ghost in your pipe and smoke it.
There you go. I like that.
Aggressively supporting our friends.
Aggressively. Oh, you know, I think I'm tired.
You're like, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I don't know.
Did I say that already?
No, you just said you didn't have enough caffeine, but too much all at once.
That's what I said.
That was different.
Yeah. We, yeah, I don't think we have a whole lot more business to attend to.
I can't really think of anything.
thing and i'm trying to think of any fun life updates that some people will like to hear but what's going on i know there's some people that are like just get to the fucking case yeah i don't really i get it i don't really have much life going on right now it's really only if i have exciting things i like to say it but it's like we said spring was coming but it's also sort of that weird transitional transitional period yeah so it's like spring is coming but also it's fucking cold so you can't do much yet yeah but it's not super cold it's like that we're We're getting into that place where we're
in the 50s now, which is New England summer.
That's true. So everybody's wearing shorts and t -shirts.
Not me. That's too cold for me.
You go outside and it's shorts and t -shirts everywhere.
Oh, Drew is fully in a shorts mode.
Which is fun. So we're almost there.
Yeah. We are going to cover – this is going to be a two -parter because it's a little intense.
There's a lot. This is somebody who kind of got, like, swept under the wave of serial killers that were were in the Los Angeles, you know, that area of San Francisco, that kind of area in California in the 60s and 70s.
Kind of like what you were saying when we talked about Herbert Mullen.
Exactly. I'm kind of hitting that wave of these killers and a lot of them got swept under each other because there were other bigger ones, I guess, like bigger, you know, victim counts or like more, some reason some got more like coverage than others, which is a little wild to me because they're all equally gnarly.
It's just what the media wants to put out at the time.
It's very strange. Like you just don't know what people latch on to in the media.
But we are going to cover David Carpenter, the trailside killer.
We have covered other quote -unquote trailside killers.
This is not the same, so don't worry.
But even I looked at it and I was like, we've covered somebody who would like do this on like trails.
I think we briefly talked about him on Crimes.
Non -crime countdown.
Exactly, which sometimes throws me off.
Yeah. But David Carpenter is really rough.
Trigger warning, he is, like, a sexual sadist. He's...
He sucks. He sucks a lot.
And we're going to be talking about, like, some rough stuff, so just so you know.
But again, we're going to break it into two parts.
A little more palatable.
Yeah, so you can kind of just, like, you know, absorb all the information in small doses.
this um so again we're talking about the 60s and 70s you know from los angeles to san francisco at this point californians were literally terrorized like i was saying by multiple killers you know we're talking about the zodiac killer the hillside stranglers herbert mullen ed kemper all of them were in different parts but like near each other around the same time And the decade between the 60s and 70s definitely ended with a lot of these killers either just disappearing, Zodiac, or being apprehended.
But the terror and the near constant threat of violence and murder was kind of just simply moving north at this point.
So David Carpenter terrorized Point Reyes in Santa Cruz County for a decade, which is where Santa Cruz is where Herbert Mullen was also hanging out a lot.
Right. Right. He assaulted, he kidnapped, and he killed at least eight people, and he was suspected of more.
Wow. Yeah. Now, who is David Carpenter?
Tell me. Because unfortunately, we got to know who this dumb fuck is.
So, David Joseph Carpenter was born May 6, 1930, in San Francisco.
He was born to Elwood and Francis Carpenter.
Elwood? Elwood, yeah.
Close. Both of them suck.
Yeah. So I'm just going to say that right up front.
Don't get attached to either of them.
I won't. They were a postal worker and a homemaker.
By his own accounts, his early life was quote unquote hellish, due in large part, according to him, by what he described as his mother's quote, unloving, inflexible and exceedingly domineering stance.
Damn. According to Carpenter himself, his unhappy home life and constant fighting between his parents led his father to move out for a year while David was 14 years old, leaving David and his sister Anne alone with his mother.
That's a rough time for your dad to move out.
I mean, it's always a pretty rough time for your dad to move out.
I feel that. But like, yeah, I feel like that would be rough no matter what.
So the biggest issue that was affecting his relationship with his parents was, and this is this is sad, again, feel bad for the child.
It was his pronounced stutter that he had, which he developed at a very early age.
One probation officer later wrote, quote, his parents and siblings were not fond of him at all, being somewhat ashamed of his speech impediment.
What the fuck? Yeah, they're just pieces of shit.
Yeah, don't help him with it at all or anything.
On top of this, David also had really bad eyesight and was left -handed.
Both of these things were viewed by his mother as being failings.
The work of the devil.
Yeah, just complete failings.
I love that being left -handed is a fail.
Yeah. That's like, what?
Wow, that's like kind of cool.
Yeah, that's different, man.
Yeah. But even seeing what she deemed to be big issues and failings, Frances refused to seek treatment for her son's developmental problems, choosing instead to address the problem in the home with very aggressive discipline.
Oh. Because that always works.
No, it doesn't. That doesn't turn people into angry adults.
It does. That's totally fine.
done. When those attempts strangely failed, Francis made a series of appointments, finally, at the University of California Medical Center, which when I first read this, I said, okay.
But then the day of the appointments would arrive and she would drive to the hospital, sometimes get as far as the door, and then just turn around and go home.
That's a waste of time.
And whenever she was asked about the missed appointment, she would just blame him.
Oh, okay. But she was just like ashamed.
Blame the child. And didn't want to do it.
Neglectful. Yeah. So while Frances was, you know, she was verbally abusive, she was emotionally abusive towards David.
She was also known to be very physically abusive.
Like very physically abusive.
According to Yvonne Carey, who grew up a few houses down from the Carpenters, she said it was common knowledge in the neighborhood that Frances Carpenter was abusing her children.
At times it would be so bad that they would have to be kept out of school for a day or two.
Oh my god. Yeah. Why have kids?
She later recalled then when he would come back meaning David he would be covered with bruises from head to toe.
He wore short pants so you could see the black and blue marks on his legs as well as painful welts on his arms and face.
It's crazy that back then that didn't cause anybody to was CPS even a thing back then?
I don't think I think it was literally I mean this is the 50s so I think it's fine to beat the shit out of your kids.
It's just expected keep them in line.
Oh my god. which is a lot to be your kids ever and then to the point where they have welts and bruises like oh my god also again you have to be a literal sociopathic monster to hit a child to harm a child like that you simply do and i will take no arguments to be like i just no i mean i will never understand that kind of behavior with a child i will never understand it nope i just won't and especially like in the 50s it's like oh yeah that was just like the thing okay cool that was the the thing you still have to be a fucking monster to be able to do that to a child well it's like I think people
get confused because it's like in the 50s like spankings were normal yeah hitting you're you know like using a belt even that is fucking awful but this is like beating this is literally like punching a child in the face like what is wrong that shouldn't have been normal for it definitely shouldn't have been but I don't think it was I think it was one of those things people just looked the other way yeah and it was so it wasn't just his mother Carpenter said that that Elwood was equally distant and abusive when it came to David, but his abuse was mostly verbal.
Okay. I mean, still, that's awful.
Decades later, when he was evaluated by psychiatrists, David would minimize the abuse he suffered from his father.
Huh. And he would focus instead on his mother as the instigator of all his problems. I mean, she was beating the shit out of them, so I get it.
Sounds like she was fucking terrible.
It sounds like the dad was fucking terrible too.
Now, if David's home life was hellish, his experience at school was not much better.
um he was very intelligent and very capable of doing well in school but if you're dealing with that at home as a child i'm sure that is difficult yeah uh his teachers struggled to work with him they said he was largely disengaged which of course he was um one teacher said i tried and tried and i just couldn't get through to him that's sad david stutter and his poor social skills made him a frequent target for bullying and he endured years of physical and emotional proportional torment from his peers people suck yeah and again you can feel bad for the child no child deserves to go through that no um
and it also teaches you like not that this is like people go through shit like that and they come out and they're good people and they don't do this you know what i mean like i'm not saying this is the like you do that then that's cause and effect but you can see how you can also sit there and go maybe i shouldn't treat people like shit yep like like, do think about it the next time that you want to, like, ruthlessly bully someone.
Because this guy, like, if they are slightly unstable, if there's something slightly off chemically, then you have just lit the match. And it's like, just don't treat people like shit.
It's just a weird thing to do anyway.
I just, don't bully people.
If you're a bully, go fuck yourself.
Like, honestly, if you're like, if you're a bully out in life, if you're a bully in your job, if you're a bully on the internet, go fuck yourself like you're gonna get what you deserve i agree like this is just like i don't understand treating people like this it's unhappy people treat people that way yeah and oftentimes it's easier to see that as you grow older yeah i think like kids just don't see that no you just you kids automatically think it's my fault what did i do what's wrong with me but it's like damn just the older you get you're like i'm awesome exactly like let's go yeah so in one
evaluation written by Dr. Ralph Allison, a psychiatrist. He wrote, at school he was always made fun of because of the stammer and inability to get answers out, even though he was brighter than most children in the school.
And additionally, it looks like David's kind of like unusual and disturbing behavior sometimes made him a target because he would also do things, because again, he's being abused at home, so there's going to be some emotional issues here.
He would regularly do things like pull the wings off of flies eyes to try to shock kids.
And if a kid is doing that to something smaller than him, that is a big red flag.
But again, we're in the 50s.
Hey there, my weird weirdos.
I want to take a minute to recommend another podcast called Who Took Misty Copsy?
In September of 1992, 14 -year -old Misty Copsy leaves the Washington State Fair with her best friend and is never seen again.
Her body is never found.
At the time, Western Washington is home to prolific serial killers like the Green River Killer, which leads to different theories on who's responsible for what happened to Misty.
Over the course of eight episodes, host and cold case investigator Sarah Kalin speaks with Misty's friends and family, looks at police records and different anonymous tips to try to figure out if misty's disappearance is the work of a serial killer or someone who knew her no suspects are ruled out after 33 years sarah kalin hopes to answer the question who took misty you guys are gonna love this if you listen to morbid we know that you love a cold case and we always tell you a cold case is never cold so definitely give this a listen definitely look into the case listen to who took misty copsey
wherever you get your podcasts.
Life doesn't happen bi -weekly, so why should Payday?
The money that you earn can be in your hands today with Earn It.
Earn It is an app that gives you access to your pay as you work, up to $150 per day with a max of $750 between paydays.
Just download the Earn It app and verify your paycheck, then access up to $150 a day as you work, and leave an optional tip.
Any money you access plus tips are automatically repaid from your next next paycheck.
I feel like you should have your money as you earn it, and EarnIN makes that possible.
You want to go out for a little date night and spend your money.
You know, sometimes things pop up unexpectedly.
I would hate this for you, but you might have to go to the vet and drop some cash there.
You need the cash when you need the cash.
Download EarnIN today, spelled E -A -R -N -I -N, in the Google Play or Apple App store.
When you download the EarnIN app, type in Morbid under podcast when you sign up.
It will really help the the show.
Morbid under podcast. Earnin is a financial technology company, not a bank.
Cash outs are based on your available earnings.
Standard cash outs take one to two business days with no mandatory fees.
Option to expedite your transfer for free tips are voluntary and don't affect the service.
See the cash out user agreement for detailed services not available in all states.
So that's just boys being boys, just boys being boys.
Now, on the rare occasion that that David would make a friend in school or in the neighborhood, Francis, his mother, would inevitably interfere in the relationship, not allowing any children in the house or putting very strict time limits on her son's socialization with other kids.
The fuck? It's like you don't want him at home.
Well, that's what I never get with these kind of parents.
It's like, so you're abusing your kid.
You clearly don't like them.
You don't like being a parent.
You don't like the responsibility of being a parent.
But then you won't allow that kid to go out of your responsibility, let him go play.
Go out of your house so you're not responsible, yeah.
but instead you that that to me shows that you are like you're a monster yeah that just likes hurting this child absolutely it's not that you are not capable of being a it's like you are just you're getting enjoyment you are evil yeah and you just enjoy hurting something smaller than you and it's like and you should be fucking locked up so david's friend robert gorabik said francis and elwood had lain down specific rules it was like you had to make an appointment before you could go over and see him the fuck instead francis would make sure to fill david's afternoons um she signed him up for violin and ballet
lessons which at this time made him a bigger target for bullying because we're in the 50s again and these are seen as two very unmasculine activities to do but you almost wonder if that was like another layer of her cruelty yeah i mean putting him in ballet in the the 50s was pretty cruel like putting your kids ballet now fuck yeah everybody put everybody in but back then but like everybody had it had yeah it just we're in the 50s where masculinity is looked at in a very different way yes and it's like that's he's gonna be targeted and you know that and if he's not passionate about ballet which it
doesn't sound like he was then you're really doing a detriment here it's like if he's passionate about ballet about ballet then yeah Yeah, like show them that it's okay.
Yeah, but otherwise for what purpose?
But you're just doing this to kind of like get him one out of your hair but making sure he's not doing something that fulfills him or makes him happy.
Yeah. While he's out of your hair.
Yep. Which is like another layer of fucked up.
Now, these were exacerbated by how she would dress him as well.
She would make him dress in like very formal outfits.
His friend there said they always dressed him up like some fancy pants.
And the kids on the block were always pounding the hell out of him.
Which is so shitty because it's like he's obviously not choosing this.
No, and it's just like fucking A.
This woman has a strange pathology.
No, it's true. And it's just like, God, just stop being mean to people.
Now, obviously due to a variety of factors, David struggled to develop positive social skills.
You don't say. And developed a reputation for now inappropriate and cruel behavior because he is also being shown cruel behavior.
You show a child cruel behavior, they will then show others cruel behavior.
That is cause and effect.
Like that just is. So unable to bond with boys his own age because that wasn't working, David would socialize with the girls in the neighborhood.
They were often in the beginning very sympathetic and like pitied him a little bit and were like, you know what, let's just like try to help him out.
You know, just girls being girls.
Girls being like, come on, let's take care of you.
Yeah. But while the neighborhood girls were definitely more patient with him, even their sympathy had limits, obviously.
Yeah, everybody's does.
One girl recalled, he usually had my sympathy, but then he'd do something cruel like twisting the head off of some girl's doll and he'd get that stupid smile on his face like it was a prank.
So it's like he's doing things like that and they're like, dude, we're trying to help you out.
And you're like, not.
Yeah. Like, don't fuck with my dolls.
like i feel like he's acting out like a typical boy he thinks like taking the head off a doll or like you know doing some kind of prank like that but it's like not because he's not been socialized to know what is of his age you know what i mean what a typical prank of his age is well and if you're ripping the heads off of dolls that's like alone that's one thing like that's a very annoying boy thing to do yeah but if it goes hand in hand with you also pulling the wings off flies i'm I'm gonna be a little scared of you.
Yes, exactly. You know.
Now his, and it gets, and it started getting worse because his cruel and inappropriate behavior started getting increasingly sexual in nature.
I had a feeling that was coming.
And soon he found that the girls around him were perfect targets.
Or nor. Years later, he told psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Allison, I pulled down a little girl's pants for the first time when I was eight years old.
Oh Christ. Eight years old.
That's a baby. be. Mm -hmm.
In Allison's estimation, by the time he was 10 years old, David had, quote, learned to take out his anger sexually.
And that was by the time he was 10.
Yeah. Which would eventually become one of the driving forces of his personality as an adult.
I'm sure. You start that at 10 years old.
And it was never addressed.
Like, it's like, it was not addressed Until he saw the law for it.
Yeah, he should have. Like, it was never addressed in any kind of, like, medical way.
Yeah, they should have gotten past the doors of the hospital.
Yeah, when he was a child, this should have been taken care of.
Yeah. By the time he was 14 years old, he had committed his first sexual assault.
Wow. Against one of his younger family members.
Oh. The assault resulted in him being committed to the Napa State Hospital, and he was housed with other sex offenders there.
um upon his release he returned to his parents house but everything just kept going downward when he wasn't in school he started spending a lot of time alone in the woods oh god before long he was suspected of committing burglaries and homes in and around santa cruz the next year when david was in the 10th grade he ran away from home and hid out for a few days in the family cabin in redwood grove and this disappearance was the last straw because so the school um expelled him him because he stopped going to school.
Oh, okay, okay. Now, a year after being kicked out of school, he was in trouble with the law again, and this is awful.
After he committed a sexual assault against two cousins, not his cousins, but they were cousins.
A pair of cousins. An eight -year -old and a three -year -old.
Oh, God! He met them at Diamond Heights Park, and according to Dr. Allison's evaluation, he threatened the two with a knife, which marked the first time that he used a weapon in an assault which indicates a very severe escalation in violent behavior.
And this again, this was when he was 15, maybe 15 or 16 around there.
He was quickly arrested for the assault and sentenced to the California Youth Authority at Preston.
Do you remember that?
Yeah, we covered the Preston school.
Yeah, Preston School of Industry.
Yeah, go back to that episode where he He was held until his 18th birthday.
Oh, fuck. After he turned 18, he was transferred to Napa State Hospital for observation, and after 90 days, he was determined no longer a threat.
I don't know about that.
This is a story of many failures.
It usually is. He could have been stopped many times.
And incarcerated. No one had to die.
Yeah. No one had to die here at all.
I fucking hate that.
Now looking back, his juvenile record, which contained a number of incidents that if we looked at now in 2025, they would be the most giant red flags.
Five arrests for sexual assault, one escape from juvenile detention, a long history of bragging about sexual assaults to other inmates.
All of that would now be looked at as like, oh no, this is going to escalate in a big way.
Yeah, like let's keep him locked up.
And his personal history included several experiences and characteristics that are now associated with antisocial personalities and serial murders in particular, including a history of bedwetting and cruelty to animals.
So it's like he's got all the red flags.
He's ticking all the boxes.
If psychiatrists had known then what we know now, they would have had every reason to believe that David Carpenter would pose a severe threat to those around him.
And it kills me that they didn't.
Now in 1950, so actually most of what he was going through when he was younger it was in the 40s so I was wrong about the 50s even worse um in 1950 when he was 20 years old carpenter found work as an office assistant and messenger for the H .B.
Thomas company on Battery Street in San Francisco one day in midsummer he ended up picking up a girl he knew who was hitchhiking to a friend's house and he offered to drive her the rest of the way so he knew this girl uh -huh as they drove he said do you actually mind if I make a quick stop at my house Yes, I do.
And she was like, yeah, totally.
Yeah, why would she take anything of that?
Once inside the house, though, he started to become sexually aggressive with her.
And she was like, no. And then she was like, I want to leave. But he said, no, you're not going to leave. The girl only managed to escape after fighting him off and locking herself in the bathroom and climbing through a very small window that left outside.
That's literally what nightmares are made of.
And she had to run somewhere and contact the police.
Now, he was quickly picked up on a charge that he, quote, willfully and feloniously made an assault upon a female under the age of 18 with the intent to have and accomplish the act of sexual intercourse upon said female.
He pled not guilty and was taken to trial, where he was acquitted.
What the fuck? Hello, 1950s.
For real. Hello, now.
Now, Ralph Allison's notes, though, indicate that David, quote, made no attempt to deny the allegations against him and had been quite cooperative and asked only that he be placed in a facility where he could receive help.
So he even asked for help.
But 1950s, they were like, nah.
You're good. Just get on.
Get on out of here.
Yeah. Yeah. In 1955, David ended up dating and then marrying a 19 -year -old woman named Ellen Heidel, I believe it is.
The pair met in Daly City a few years earlier, and when they met, David was briefly dating her sister, Wilhelmina.
Oh, no. Yeah. When she broke off their relationship after After only a few dates, he turned his attention to Ellen.
And within a few months, they were married.
That is not girl code.
No. That is not sister code.
No. Sister code goes above girl code.
It certainly does. And they were married at San Francisco City Hall.
Less than a year later, Ellen gave birth to their first child, Michael.
And the family moved to a small house in Westlake.
And David found a steady job as a shipping clerk there.
Two years later, Ellen gave birth to their second child, Gabrielle, who was followed in 1960 by their third child, Circe.
By this point in his life, his attitude towards women was pretty fucking clear.
He, without fail, portrayed himself as the victim of women.
Like women were to blame.
His mother was to blame.
Therefore women were to blame.
He basically said everything he did, it was going to fall upon women as being the problem here, not him.
He was never to be placed blame upon.
It wasn't him. And it's like, fuck you, dude.
Yeah. You're your own person.
Plenty of people. I'm not saying he had a great, he had a terrible life.
No, but you can't make excuses for your behavior once you become an adult.
No, it's like based on your childhood.
I'm sorry. You got to look at people who make that.
And again, he's in a different like time period.
So I don't know like what's going on here.
And all the resources that we have now are not available.
There are still people who went through like, you really do, like you can't just blame how you were raised on how you act as an adult you like you can't if you're you can't hurt people like that's not it just it drives me crazy and it's like so many of these guys will be like well i kill women because of my mom get get over it like really you're gonna kill women because of your mom not all women are your mom and you should be able to make that differentiation exactly now unfortunately like we've said before medical understandings of personalities like his were very poorly understood in 1950 so they
weren't exactly like analyzing david's symptoms right instead like his psychiatrist ralph allison who we've cited here before he was focusing more on like finding effective treatment yeah which yeah that's good but like you also need to figure out what the fuck is going on here when also there's just not treatment for everybody exactly as we know now there's not treatment for people like this really no no and And from Allison's perspective, Dr. Allison, he said he thought it came down to David's stutter.
I think it's a lot more than that.
If he could get proper therapy for the stammer, we might be able to prevent further catastrophes of this sort.
I think that's a wild point of view.
Yeah, I also think that is a very wild point of view.
I think that's absolutely bonkers.
I think that's the most 1950s point of view I have ever seen in my life.
A psychiatrist just being like, I think if you could just speak clear that you wouldn't want to kill people.
It's like, no, I don't think that's the driving force.
I think that's part of his struggles.
Sure. And especially that that was not taken as something that like they worked through with him or made him accept and be able to, you know, work through.
Right. It was treated as like, we're ashamed of you.
Like, that's awful.
Of course that's going to affect somebody.
Not to this extent.
I think there's other things here at play, and I think we should maybe look at them.
I agree with you. You know what time it is?
It's time for a fresh approach to dog food, and that's where The Farmer's Dog comes in.
Developed by board -certified nutritionists, which is pretty impressive, The Farmer's Dog is human -grade dog food that's made with real meat and veggies and gently cooked to preserve those nutrients.
Traditional pet food is highly processed and difficult to portion correctly, but the farmer's dog, it's changed that with their freshly made food.
They take the guesswork out of serving sizes by precisely portioning your dog's food based on their very unique nutritional needs.
Sydney and Blanche are eating the farmer's dog right now, and we absolutely love it.
What's really fun is each packet has their name on it.
So it says Blanche's food, Sidney's food, which is just fun.
They love it. They can't read, but I kind of pretend that they do.
Maybe they can. Maybe they can.
Who am I to say? Get 50 % off your first box of fresh, healthy food at thefarmersdog .com slash morbid.
Plus, you get free shipping.
Just go to the farmersdog .com slash morbid to get 50 % off.
That's thefarmersdog .com slash morbid.
summer is in full swing whether you're traveling taking kids to summer camp or heading to the pool we are all looking for ways to stay healthy and save money this summer with go to rex you can save up to 80 percent on prescriptions for you and your family pets too check go to rex before every single trip to the pharmacy for big savings on both brand and generic medications go to rex is free and it's easy to use just search for your prescription on the website site or the app, compare prices, and get a free coupon to show your pharmacist. Use GoodRx to save at over 70 ,000 local pharmacies nationwide,
including Walmart, Walgreens, CBS, Publix, Kroger, and many more.
And now you can enroll in GoodRx Rewards and earn points every time that you use a coupon at the pharmacy.
Remember, GoodRx is not insurance, but it works whether you have insurance or not, and it could even beat your insurance co -pay price.
Today, I saved $5 on a prescription for my grandpa because I pulled up the GoodRx app and I said, look at this.
So you could save too.
Save at the pharmacy this summer with GoodRx.
Go to GoodRx .com slash morbid.
That's GoodRx .com slash morbid.
Between the responsibilities of his new job and now his growing family, he was feeling like he was under a lot of pressure, which left him with a lot of rage.
Oh, goody. Because this is not a man who can handle even the slightest greatest inconvenience in his life the only thing that seemed to keep his anger in check according to ellen his wife at the time was his need to have sex at least three times per night oh honey your face i'm not laughing at this no she's laughing at his face never yeah that's i was like whoa that's wild and it's like fucking poor ellen she has three children has three children and she's dealing with this fucking man child who is like abusive uncontrollably angry and i i just like wonder what what he presented to her i know
you know to to get like to get him to marry her you know what i mean like it is so weird how we hear about these men who have these awful childhoods and they have a lot of issues with girls and women and then they they find one woman who they are able to woo yeah you know and i think it's because they see that there's an end result where they can have the control they want so they so they're they're cunning enough to know that they have to put some effort in in the beginning to you know like the the means justify the end yes kind of thing yeah um and like and vice versa so i think it's like But the mask
falls. That feels like it was probably the scenario.
And I feel so badly for Ellen because, like, it sounds like she was just completely entrapped in this.
Well, and remember, this wasn't a time where she could even seek a divorce.
Exactly. That's the other thing.
Or have her own credit card. And she's got three kids now.
But there were times that even that wasn't enough for him, and he would become explosively violent with her.
And then he would claim to have no recollection of it.
So he's like blacking out.
Or he's just lying about it and being like, I don't want to take responsibility for that, so I'm going to pretend it didn't happen.
I'm sure probably, like I'm sure that accounts for some instances, but I do believe that some people are so scary that they do black out.
Oh, I'm sure, yeah.
But I don't think it accounts for every instance.
Now in mid -July 1960, he ran into an old friend, Lois D 'Andrati.
Lisa Rinna's mother.
I was just going to say, I don't know if that sounds familiar to you.
Lisa Rinna, you guys like, you know, she's been a soap opera actress forever.
Days of our lives. She's on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
She was. I haven't watched it in forever.
But she was on it. She dances on TikTok.
You might remember her mother Lois.
Who passed away recently, I think.
Yeah, a couple years ago.
She was adorable. I loved Lois.
Lois was the cutest. And they seemed like they were wildly close.
So like, Like, I'm sorry.
And Lois went through a lot.
Yeah. Yes. Lois did go through a lot because you might be saying, I'm sorry, back it up.
Why are we mentioning Lois in this story?
Yeah. And why are we mentioning her as an old friend?
She was. They worked together, I think, right?
Yeah. So they had met through mutual acquaintances a few years earlier.
And again, they had gone to coffee together a couple times in the past. Yeah, they knew each other.
You know, they just knew each other.
Like, they were friends.
Yeah. It was whatever.
Lois had been on her way to work one morning when David offered her a ride.
That's what it is. Again, they're friends.
Cool. David's offering me a ride.
It's just no reason not to accept it.
Why the fuck would I care?
As he'd done a few years earlier, David asked whether Lois would mind if they made a quick stop.
But this time, he said, hey, Lois, I got to pick up my wife Ellen and my new baby.
Disarming. So, of course, Lois is like, of course you can.
Man, that sounds lovely.
I'd love to see the babe.
But the more they drove, the more Lois began to wonder whether they were actually going to pick up his wife and baby.
Finally, David pulled over on a side street, and Lois immediately knew something wasn't right.
She later said, By then I was really nervous, so I started to get out of the right -hand side of the car, and I started to run.
Wow. Now, Carpenter managed to reach Lois before she had gone far, and he dragged her back to the car.
and she's unable to move and he pulled out rope and a knife from the glove compartment and threatened her to keep quiet and later she said he told me to be quiet and if i was quiet he wouldn't kill me but if i made any noise he would now the entire scene was fucking terrifying and completely confusing to lois who'd known carpenter for years and she was like i'd never seen him and behaved violently right his violent shit was contained yeah to his home right behind closed doors just gonna say everyone else saw this pretty normal like guy yeah like they're just David like what so I I can't imagine
knowing someone for years yeah and then having them snap on you like this that must be uh and like it would be paralyzing yeah and she said it was she was like I literally didn't know what to I was like what are you talking about you'll kill me like Like what?
So she later said she thought perhaps David went crazy.
That's a quote. I was so terrified I don't think I moved after that.
Yeah. And although she wasn't planning on moving at that point because she was terrified, she was looking around and scanning her surroundings, trying to look for anything that could help her get out of this situation.
So she's desperately searching for a sign of anyone around her, and David reached into the back seat and grabbed a hammer.
Oh. At the same time that he was doing that, Lois spotted a car a few dozen yards away.
And without thinking, she threw her hand out and slammed down on the car horn.
That's the only thing she could think of.
But Carpenter immediately slashed at her with the knife he had, slicing into her hand.
He ended up lacerating tendons in two of her fingers.
Now, despite that injury, which is a pretty fucking massive injury.
That's gnarly. Lois managed to get the door open And she tumbled out and hit the ground Running David Carpenter got out and fucking Chased her at full speed This must have been horrifying Absolutely He caught up with her He's right behind her running after her And he raised the hammer To hit her in the head But just as he came down with it She threw her hands up to deflect The blow from the hammer and the hammer struck a watch she was wearing and shattered it.
But there was only a brief moment of luck because he raised the hammer again and brought it right down on her head and it made contact.
So she knocked it right to the ground and he struck her five more times in the head with the hammer.
I didn't realize that.
Oh, yeah. I thought she got out of this like unharmed.
Oh, no. She got ruthlessly beaten in the head with this hammer.
Holy shit. barely conscious she managed to scream for help which caught the attention of a military police officer jewel wayne hicks who happened to be driving down the narrow street at the time whoa what are the odds and also a military police officer caught this man doing this but we have eight stories of murder to tell yeah huh that should be your first knowledge of how many times this is a failure to keep an absolute animal locked up.
Ticking box number one.
Whoa. So Hicks, the military police officer, slammed on his brakes, got out and ran in the direction of the car in the screams, and he was holding a riot baton in one hand and a .45 pistol in the other.
And that's the way we got out of the car, folks.
That's how we get out of the car for one of these scenes.
At first, he couldn't see the two people on the ground since there was a car door in the way.
Right, right. But he could hear the sounds and he said he immediately knew what was happening.
By the time he made it to the car, Carpenter was on top of Lois, still hitting her with the hammer.
Jesus. And Hicks said, even when he saw me coming down the hill, he kept hitting her.
So he saw this man and just kept hitting Lois.
So that makes you like, honestly question if he is in a blind rage at this point.
It's so scary. Because that is.
And I think it's how you define a blind rage.
I still think he knows what he's doing is wrong.
But you're looking at a police officer and you're not stopping?
I think he is singularly focused on his rage.
He's an animal. And the focus of his rage.
Yeah. And it just doesn't matter.
But that's so wild to think of somebody's thought process.
Because then Officer Hicks shouted for him to stop, obviously.
and that caused david to jump up and run but he ran at hicks swinging the hammer at him he's a madman and he said he was quote screaming in rage oh that's horrifying so he's just an animal yep and when the officer finally managed to successfully fend off the hammer with his baton carpenter pulled out a quote fountain pen tear gas gun and fired it in hicks's face bitch what So he came fully prepared to incapacitate someone.
I had no idea that this was this.
That this was this.
I also didn't know that.
They briefly discussed this at a dinner on Housewives.
Briefly. Over sushi, I believe.
Holy fuck. The gun produced a large plume of smoke, which confused Hicks momentarily.
But he wasn't quite sure what happened.
He just got hit in the face with this tear gas pen.
Which is nothing new for a military police officer.
And he said he recognized the sound of a gunshot.
Oh, fuck. And instinctively raised his pistol and fired in the direction of where Carpenter was.
And Hicks didn't know where he was at the time, but he still managed to hit Carpenter twice.
Once in the abdomen and once in the leg, which knocked him off his feet and caused him to shout that he surrendered.
So he got shot twice.
And surrendered. Hello?
No, I want to be good.
So when you guys hear this, that he was on top of this woman, hitting her in the head with a hammer repeatedly, what would you say is the end result that he was probably looking for by doing that?
Either rape or murder.
Both, I would say. You don't hit someone five times in the head with a hammer and not assume that they're going to die.
Yep. He was trying to murder her.
Yep. 100%. Yeah, definitely murder.
I was just questioning.
I'm sure he was also going to do that.
But this is a murder that he failed at.
Yep. This isn't assault.
No, this is attempted murder.
This is a murder that he failed to commit.
And you guys know how we feel about attempted murder.
So with Carpenter incapacitated, Hicks went back to his car and radioed for backup, which arrived very quickly.
Lois was taken to the hospital.
She was treated for a fractured skull, which was broken in two places.
Her skull was shattered in two places.
It's remarkable that she survived this.
Yeah. And she also had severe lacerations on her hands and face.
After multiple surgeries, during which metal plates were placed in her skull and tendons were grafted in two fingers, and nearly two months of hospitalization, she recovered.
Unreal. But she never regained full use of those fingers.
In her statement to police, Lois detailed what happened from the moment Carpenter picked her up, including that he had told her, quote, quote, I have a sex quirk, just moments before attacking her.
A quirk? A quirk. Babe, that's not a kink.
Like, a quirk? David Carpenter was taken to Letterman General Hospital, where surgeons removed the two bullets from his body.
Why? I know, unfortunately, before he was cuffed to a bed.
And he recovered there before being transferred to San Quentin, like a little over a week later, I think it was, to await his hearing.
Okay. This, it turned out, would take much longer than expected because due to his injuries and his claims of mental illness, it was going to go a lot longer than just, like, charge him, let's go.
They do a test, blah, blah, blah.
In the two months that followed, he was evaluated twice by psychiatrists before finally being indicted on September 22nd, where a grand jury returned four counts of assault that, if convicted, would have put him in jail for 30 years.
Question mark? Which, like, cool.
Cool 30 years, but that's not just assault.
Where's the attempted murder charge?
Right. Like, are we really pretending that he wasn't trying to kill her?
He fractured her skull in two places and hit her over five times with a hammer.
And sliced her hands open.
Like, he attacked her with a knife and a hammer.
Yeah. Are we all okay?
At his arraignment in October, Carpenter pled not guilty.
And his lawyer indicated their intent to plead insanity as a defense.
But you already got evaluated.
Yeah. It's not gonna work.
Just as they were preparing to go to trial, he accepted a plea deal from the prosecution and pled guilty to one count of assault with a deadly weapon.
I'll say, I understand plea deals for certain things.
They piss me off, but I get them.
This? Yeah, I don't see this one.
I feel like they would have got him on all those four counts.
Well, and Judge Oliver Carter wasn't certain he would accept the deal.
I don't blame him. And instead, he ordered Carpenter to a 90 -day hold in federal prison where he was going to be examined thoroughly by psychiatrists.
And on March 9, 1961, Carpenter was back in front of a judge after having been evaluated many times at San Quentin.
And after reading the reports, which diagnosed Carpenter as a sociopathic personality, the judge deems David Egg, quote, quote, personality who should be locked away in the interests of society.
That's completely correct.
Thank you, sir. Given the brutality of the attack and his past offenses, he sentenced him to 14 years in federal prison.
Okay. Like I wish it was the full 30 then.
Yeah. But then for some reason, the judge kind of like softened somewhat after announcing the ruling.
Oliver. And recommended the parole board conduct routine evaluations and release Carpenter, quote, at any time he is considered rehabilitated.
all of her like i'm sorry what the fuck you literally said he's a threat to society and they're like hey pearl board like keep it keep tabs on that check it out if you feel like it's cool that day just let him out yeah just be be cool man don't be all uncool he was diagnosed as a sociopathic personality yeah and tried to kill this woman yeah and this officer tried to kill lois and this officer yeah so after the sentence was passed ellen filed for divorce oh good uh listing their separation as July 12th, 1960, the night of the attack on Lois.
Wow, good for her. That is women supporting women.
Hell yeah. And she cited extreme cruelty as a reason and wrongfully inflicting upon her grievous mental suffering.
I guess you could file for divorce back then as a woman.
The divorce was finalized on August 27th, 1962, and Carpenter was ordered to pay $1 per month in child support and $1 per month in alimony.
They got three kids.
Yeah. She was awarded the couple's assets, including the house.
That's good. And they granted her request for a restraining order to prevent David from, quote, annoying or molesting the children.
Oh, God. Yeah. I don't know if that means what that word means.
There's terms, legal terms, that that can mean, like, bothering.
Which is weird. I know.
No, but I'm not sure where, how that one was used.
Belasting is what I'm talking about.
Okay. But he is also, he has like pedophilic tendencies.
So it's like I, that couldn't be that.
Who knows, right. But I am not positive.
Yeah. In 1920, a broke immigrant in Boston became one of America's richest, most infamous men practically overnight.
night. He swindled the modern equivalent of a quarter billion dollars and etched his name into history as the mastermind behind one of the most notorious scams ever, the Ponzi scheme.
Hosted by Maya Lau and featuring award -winning comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco, this is Easy Money, the Charles Ponzi Story, an Apple original podcast produced by Atwill Media.
Follow and listen on Apple Podcasts.
now in the meantime david was sent to mcneil island's correctional facility and began serving his sentence on april 12th 1961 now he applied for parole in 1964 but it was unanimously rejected good in april 1969 however he came up for parole a second time and his petition was granted bad on the grounds that he'd served the minimum nine year sentence what about the maximum though we don't want to talk about that today and also like okay we're not gonna like so he just served his minimum sentence so you're gonna let him out so it's all good regardless of what kind of person he is so now he's a free
man christ and he moved in with his stepbrother william and began taking welding classes at the local vocational school i feel as though we shouldn't offer people like that welding classes let's not give him tools i don't think yeah in his free time he started Started attending group therapy on the recommendation of his parole officer, and it was there that he met Helen.
Bad question mark? David and Helen began dating that spring, and on August 8th, 1969, they were married at City Hall.
That was quick. He gets that woman to marry him quickly.
Yeah. William Carpenter, his stepbrother, was the witness to the marriage.
It appears little is known about this period of his life.
He remained in regular contact with his probation officer at this point, and he was meeting all the conditions of his parole for a while.
He was probably laying low at this point.
Yeah. Then rather suddenly, he cut off all communication with the probation officer and the parole board that December.
Huh. And he had like years left on his probation, so there's no reason for this.
And around the same time, Helen, having been driven to what author Robert Graysmith referred to as, quote, the edge of a nervous breakdown, left California on a long trip to Hawaii Hawaii and just left her husband behind.
Damn. Yeah. Who knows what that poor woman endured?
What was going on? The fact that she left the entire state of California tells us everything we need to know.
Yeah. Now, without anyone watching over him, it didn't take long before David Carpenter began losing control of his rage.
On the evening of January 27th, 1970, he went out for a drive on Highway 280 towards Santa Cruz.
And at some point, the driver of a a passing car who was a young blonde woman caught his attention and for no explicable reason she became the focus of his fucking rage oh no uh without any warning to this driver david sped up beside her and forced her car off the road oh that's so she's just driving that is so scary terrified she jumped out of the car and ran into the underbrush quickly losing him and he stood at the side of the road and called out to her in threatening voices what the fuck but when he heard no sounds he got back in his volkswagen beetle and steered the car back onto the highway
that poor girl holy shit i just can't imagine later in life being like that would have happened and did she ever even realize that it was him i don't know you know yeah that's the thing it's It's like that's why.
Imagine thinking back to that and being like, oh, my God.
Like, and you just read this and you're like, holy fuck.
A short time later, a little past 10 p .m., he found himself driving on Highway 9 towards Boulder Creek, where the only other car on the road easily caught his attention again because he's pissed.
Determined to relieve his tension and anger, he pressed the accelerator and rammed his car into the other driver, who was 19 -year -old Cheryl Lynn Smith.
thinking the man was drunk she shouted at him she was like fuck you dude yeah but carpenter ignored her and they they pulled over to the side of the road and he started like a quote -unquote evaluating the damage oh my god so smith got out of her car and was looking over the damage as well and then carpenter's hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck oh that's awful he grabbed her by the neck and said i want to rape you i'll have to kill you if you don't come with me oh god Oh my god.
Like what the fuck?
So, and this is like graphic, I apologize.
Carpenter dragged her into the brush where he literally tore off her clothing and violently sexually assaulted her.
As Cheryl tried to get out of his grasp, he sliced her arm with his knife, partially severing the muscles and rendering it temporarily useless.
priceless. Oh my God.
The, the force that would take.
Yeah. And she said, so she's trying to get away from him.
He does this. And then she said, she finally was like, I'm just going to look at him.
Cause she wasn't looking at him.
And she said, she looked at him and she said she was stunned because she said, all I had seen up till that point was this like violent, scary man.
And she was like, suddenly he looked totally different.
What? Suddenly she said his features had softened And he spoke to her with a pronounced stutter suddenly, which he didn't have before.
And she said to her bewilderment, he looked at her and said, look, you're hurt and bleeding.
Let me follow you home and I'll bandage you up and I'll promise not to if you promise not to call the police.
That's so scary. And like said it like, look, you're hurt and bleeding.
Not like, oh my God, I hurt you.
It was like, oh my God.
Like, how did that happen?
But it It softened into like, oh, no. Like I didn't mean like what you violently raped her.
Like what do you mean?
And Cheryl was like, no, I'm good.
Like it's good. And then she managed to get back to her own car and drove away.
And he just let her.
Oh, that poor girl.
19 years old. But as she's driving home, she notices that he's driving behind her.
Oh, no. And he was keeping distance, but he was behind her.
And so she saw a large hotel in the distance, so she drove in the direction of what she was hoping would be help, and he was driving behind her the entire way.
So she gets into the very well -lit parking lot, and he sped off.
So he was planning on following her right to her house.
Yep. But she managed to write down his license plate.
Smart. She immediately reported the attack to police and gave them the license plate number, And she described her attacker as white, 30 to 35 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches, 160 pounds, and brown hair.
That same night, an anonymous caller reported witnessing what appeared to be a fender bender accident on Highway 9, which is that.
So later, it was discovered that Cheryl was the second woman that he had attacked that day.
The first was a woman named Wilma Joyce.
Now, this isn't the blonde woman who ran away from him.
This is another one.
Oh, so they think it's two.
Really, it was three.
Yeah. So far. Yeah.
That afternoon, Joyce had returned home from a shopping trip to find Carpenter waiting in her house with a shotgun.
Nope. Nope. Yeah. Walked in from shopping to him sitting in her home with a shotgun.
Do you know, that's one of my biggest fears.
That is the scariest thing I've ever heard. That's...
Oh, fuck. That's literally horror movie shit.
That is horror movie shit.
And he forced her to leave with him in her car and the two drove for a short time before he sexually assaulted her and then let her out of the car.
What? This is awful, too.
In the days after that, he kidnapped and assaulted two other women, one of whom had a toddler in the car with her.
Oh. And stole a car from a third woman.
Why was he not stopped?
This is crazy. When they were interviewed by police, all the women identified David Carpenter as their attacker.
Like they knew his name?
Unanimously. they were able to identify him oh okay now carpenter was arrested at a motel in modesto on february 3rd 1970 after a week -long manhunt conducted by the santa cruz county sheriff's department and this is when he should be put away forever because he has a violent past that he's now continuing he has just assaulted numerous women numerous women after assaulting lois to the police officer and just dodging parole.
Yeah. Yep. So at the time of his arrest, the district attorneys in Santa Cruz County and nearby Calaveras County filed charges against him for attempted rape, rape, kidnapping, and assault.
And because he had been on parole at the time with four years left on his sentence, he was placed in Calaveras County Jail pending a transfer to a prison where he could serve out the rest of his sentence.
So he has now also violated parole.
roll. These are all huge charges.
Massive. David was held at Calaveras County Jail for two months until he managed to escape on the night of April 26th.
According to the press, he was being held in a cell with four other men and they managed to cut through the bars and all five of them escaped out of a skylight.
And that's why we don't let prisoners just hang out together in their cells.
Also, they were unsure how they cut through the of bars.
But a spokesperson for the sheriff's office said they may have used a hacksaw blade.
I'm sorry. Where the fuck did they get a hacksaw blade?
My question exactly.
These violent prisoners had access to a hacksaw blade.
Oops. We forgot the hacksaw blade was in there.
I'm a normal bitch. I don't have access to a hacksaw blade.
Yeah. I've never committed a violent crime.
The fuck? And how were they They, one, have a hacksaw blade, and two, have enough time to hacksaw through bars.
Like that's going to also make some noise.
No one was looking at them?
No one was checking?
I wonder if they like bribed a guard or something.
Now, the good news is all five of them were rounded up the following day.
That's good. And while the other four were returned to jail to await their trials, David Carpenter was transferred to Soledad Prison.
prison. On July 17th, a grand jury in Santa Cruz indicted Carpenter for rape, attempted rape, kidnapping, and assault.
District Attorney Peter Chang told the press, right now Carpenter is serving a minimum five -year sentence.
If we can make the aggravated kidnapping charge stick, the term will be increased to life.
Let's go. Already serving a sentence of one to 25 years for the charges in Calaveras County on October 8th, Carpenter pleaded guilty guilty to one count of rape and one count of armed robbery.
And in exchange, he was given a sentence of five years.
That's bullshit. They should be ashamed of this.
Absolutely, they should.
All these deaths are on their hands.
100%. Now, despite Peter Chang thinking that he would be able to lock him up for life, David would only spend nine years at Soledad Prison until being paroled to a halfway house in late May 1979.
You guys did this before, though.
Yeah, you did it before and it didn't work out.
You just failed. What?
And just like the last time he was released out on parole way too soon, it didn't take long before he returned right back to his old habits.
Yeah, I bet. Yep. Now, on May 21st, 1979, he was released on parole, and by that time, Helen had divorced him.
And he was to remain on probation until 1982.
So he was sent to live at Reality House West, which was a halfway house for federal prisoners transitioning back into society, which is not something he should have been.
As part of his parole conditions, he was required to find a job.
So he started taking classes at the vocational center and eventually began participating in courses in computer repair.
Okay. Around this time, he also took up hiking around Santa Cruz.
No. And developed a particular fondness for the trails on Mount Tomalpais, which is, which I think they call it Mount Tam for sure.
Oh, I've heard of Mount Tam.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a popular hiking spot in Marin County, about 10 miles outside San Francisco.
At the foot of the mountain was a small community of renters, including John and Etta Kane.
Now, on the morning of August 19th, 1979, Etta Kane was preparing for a four -hour hike that the couple had planned to take together that afternoon.
Unfortunately, John's arthritis Ritus was acting up that morning so he was unable to take the hike with Etta.
She was a very experienced hiker so she just decided to go alone.
Several hours passed and Etta had still not returned home.
This caused John to be very anxious.
His wife was very skilled but it was getting dark.
So he called the sheriff's department and reported it and deputies were sent out immediately to look for Etta.
Now sheriff's deputies along with a search and rescue team and packs of dogs combed the mountain all night but by dawn they still hadn't found Etta.
And her car was still in the parking lot where it had been all night.
Ah, it's chilling. The only other car that John noticed in the parking lot that morning, other than the members of the search team, was a Volkswagen Beetle that had been there since the previous evening.
Why is it always a Volkswagen Beetle?
Yep, and he drives one.
Around 1 .30 that afternoon, one of the dogs discovered Etta's body.
It was a short distance off Rock Springs Trail.
It's very chilling.
She was in a kneeling position and her body had fallen forward, face down, with a large bullet hole in the back of her head.
Oh. Sergeant Rich Keeton said, when we finally came across Miss Cain's body, all items of personal nature of hers had been removed, with the exception of one sock.
Oh. So she is nude, except for one sock, in a kneeling position with her face down.
That's awful. The discovery was shocking for Cain.
about a million reasons, not the least of which was the fact that while sheriff's deputies had found many bodies on Mount Tam, to their knowledge, Etta was the first person to be murdered on the mountain.
That alone made the press immediately take notice and start reporting the story.
Now, in interviews with those who'd been at the mountain that day that Etta went missing, several people reported seeing a single man hiking around the same time Etta was.
Lieutenant Robert Godini told reporters we are by no means certain the man murdered Etta Kane but investigators were just trying to come up with a composite sketch of this man from the witnesses descriptions otherwise there was very little evidence that could point investigators towards any suspect there were rumors that Etta had been having an affair with a younger man so detectives did wonder whether he might have been involved or whether John might have killed her out of jealousy that was like their initial thoughts Yeah.
They got to go to like that.
Yeah, they have to.
John Cain was quickly ruled out.
That's good. But police shifted their attention to the younger man that Etta had allegedly been seeing.
Although he denied seeing Etta that day, the man still couldn't account for his whereabouts.
So detectives couldn't rule him out.
A sergeant working the case later said after Etta's death, John Cain just withered away without her and eventually died.
Oh, that's so sad. As for the young man, he killed himself while we were investigating him.
oh wow that must have been so strange yeah that's bizarre yeah so that is where we're gonna leave you in part one all right but um yeah it's a lot and it um it's gonna keep going that's a crazy lead up yeah uh and he he this is only the first murder I was just, yeah, that's what I mean.
We have seven more.
We had a full part one with one murder.
Yeah, but his assaults are enough to.
They're gnarly. His assaults are basically attempted murder.
Yeah, they are. All of them.
But yeah, he's a horrible, horrible human being.
He really is. Like, very horrible.
He really is. And he somehow gets worse.
Well, with that being said, we hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. Weird but not so weird that you don't tune into part two.
Oof. Thank you. Thank you.
If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad -free on Amazon Music.
Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery .com slash survey.
Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American Scandal.
We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U .S. history, events that have shaped who we are as a country and that continue to define the American experience.
American Scandal tells marquee stories about American politics, like the break -in at the Watergate Hotel, an event that led to the downfall of a president and raised questions about the future of American democracy.
We go behind the scenes looking at devastating financial crimes, like the fraud committed at Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
And we tell stories of complicated public figures like Edward Snowden and Monica Lewinsky, people who found themselves thrust into the spotlight and who spurred debates about the future of the country.
Follow American Scandal wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen ad -free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.
