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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk, and I am absolutely loving it.
I love all the Audible. 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.
I am absolutely obsessed with a sweet treat after dinner, and my favorite sweet treat right now is my mochi.
It's mine now! Not yours. Just kidding.
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It's like a sweet little ice cream dumpling or ravioli.
I'm obsessed. It's pillowy. It's satisfying.
I feel indulged. I just love it so much.
I really am obsessed with the strawberry flavor right now.
My mochi is only around 70 calories per piece, which like, hello, that's amazing.
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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid.
It is Morbid on a Sunday. Morbid on a Sunday.
Wow. Is that what he says? Like, does he say on a Sunday afternoon or sunny?
I don't really know what you're talking about, so I'm not going to be of help.
It's like an 80s song. It's like... Oh no, he's hungry like the wolf.
I'm an idiot. I'm leaving. laughing laughing I'm like literally having a hard time talking I can see that I
Maybe I want you to know. You know what?
Hold on before you say anything. No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think I'm thinking of another song too and I think I morphed them together.
I'm offended. I'm not easily offended. But I'm offended.
Because this is like one of those moments that we usually have when we're not recording and I'm like, don't ever tell anybody that I said that.
Do not say that on the podcast. literally Elena will always be like I can't wait to tell everyone you said guys Where are my fellow Duran Duran heads?
Where are my fellow Simon Le Bon lovers?
To be fair are you all just as offended were you speechless along with me however On the contrary, in conclusion.
We're in this together. I think that I like negated the lyrics of that song from my head because Diane Downs did kill her children to that song or attempt to.
Yes, but one, the words aren't that even a little bit.
I know. Like the Sunday. And then two...
Like the tune didn't even make like, so I don't even know.
I still think, can you turn my headphones up a little more?
I still think that I morphed two songs together.
That's perfect. Thank you. Wow. This is the beginning of the episode, guys.
So it's a Sunday afternoon. Yeah. Sing that to the tune of Hungry Like a Wolf.
Maybe that's, I think maybe that's just what I did.
I don't know. I didn't get coffee coffee today.
I had coffee from home and it's never the same.
It's true. It's true. It's not. I'm just really glad that's where we are.
I also just am who I am. You are. I was going to say, we don't need to make a lot of excuses here. we can just say, you know how it is.
You know, it's really funny. Before this, we were like, do we have any business to talk about?
Like, do we need to make any announcements.
And we were like, no, no. And then that just became... a PSA yeah like this is who Ash is like the whole beginning of the episode is just us talking about what the hell song you were trying to sing yeah Well, after, you know, now that we've primed you, now that we've gotten y'all...
You might be angry. You might be offended.
You might be laughing. The amount of tweets that I'm going to get.
I hope so. I might need to take a social media break.
You deserve it. I do, I do, I do. This is worse than Nin.
That's... It's right up there with Nin.
It's worse. It's worse than Nin and System of a Down.
And if... Guys, go listen to those listener tales if you didn't hear Ash say System of a Dawn and then...
Everybody heard that. I am still, I got tagged in something like last night about that.
That's honestly one of my favorites. Oh, and I laugh.
I'm like, I laugh at it. It's hilarious.
I'm not like offended at all. Please continue to do that.
Harass my sister. Harass her. I just couldn't let you blaspheme the way you just did.
Blaspheme. In the house of Duran. You're dumb.
All right. Guys, it's Sunday. It's the end of the week or the beginning of the week.
However you look at it, it's totally okay.
What do you look at it like? I look at it as the end of the week, actually.
And I think maybe I look at it as the end of the week because I work. at the morgue on sundays so yeah i think it's like it doesn't feel like you know the end For you, it would feel like the beginning because you're going to work.
Well, because I've worked all week. And then I end up working on Saturdays for the podcast, and then I work on Sundays at the hospital.
So it's like... Then it's like the end.
Yeah. I start my week on Monday again and it's like the same thing over again.
Sunday is like usually my day off because it's my day of leisure.
In fact, I just started watching before I came here with Drew, the new Woody Allen documentary that's on HBO.
Oh yeah, I've heard a lot about that. I only got to see the first 10 minutes because then you were like, hey, want to come over early?
And I was like, I do actually. because now I can have my Sunday night.
There you go. But yeah, this was a long intro about nothing and I'm sorry.
Yeah, we're bringing it back to the old I'm like earlier today.
Let me tell you about my salon. And it's funny because the last time I was saying that we're going to redo a couple of older cases because we just feel like we can do a better job with them.
And like fix the audio and like some of it.
And we mentioned that there was a couple that I was like, whoa, that was a long tangent.
But see... Here's the thing. I feel like the tangents used to just have nothing to do with anything.
Yeah, they didn't. These tangents still kind of have nothing to do with anything, but they feel different.
And also, you know, it's in the beginning.
We don't we don't really we don't do long ones in the beginning anymore.
So this is like a fun little throwback. Yeah.
And I think it used to be more like in the middle of the episode, I'd be like, oh, my God, you know what?
I just remembered. And everyone would be like, Ash, like, where did where did that come from? i love it though it is fun to look because i've been listening to all of them like oh god to go back and uh figure out which ones we want to remaster and all that i mentioned it on a on an episode a couple episodes ago but i've been listening to them and like just listening to Like how green we were.
Yeah. It's fun. I mean, I still feel green at times, but I feel like we've gotten the hang of like, where you should end that random tangent much better much better I think it's right here.
I think it's at six minutes and 26 seconds.
I swear we should end it. Well, this week is gonna be a bummer, as usual, because we cover some pretty shitty, sad stuff.
But we like to bring you up, then bring you back down.
Exactly. So this is actually a case that I looked like slightly into when we were doing our Halloween shows and I
During our Halloween shows, I covered the case of the curse of the poltergeist films.
And it was like a case within a case that I was like, oh, I definitely want to get into that part of it. and for a regular Morbid episode.
And here we are. Because Dominique Dunn was in the Poltergeist films and Some say that she fell victim to the curse.
That whole case of the curse is nuts. Yeah.
It is truly, truly terrifying. It's scary.
And it's real. It's definitely real. I think that.
Dominique Dunne, because of the situation that she was in, maybe some of it was the curse.
Yeah maybe it didn't help. But I also think that the human being that murdered her was just a curse in and of himself.
I was going to say, I think there was a curse in her life.
Yes. So with that, let's get into it. Dominique Dunn was the daughter of Vanity Fair writer, producer, and investigative journalist Dominic Dunn. and Ellen Beatrice Griffin Dunn, who went by Lenny.
So her mom was Lenny and her dad was Dominic.
And obviously she was named after him. What a cool couple name.
I know. I love them. Lenny and Dominic. I don't want to hang out with them.
They ended up getting divorced, but they remained friends forever and ever.
Cool. They had a really cute relationship.
Dominique was born in Santa Monica. She was the baby of the family.
She had two older brothers, Alex and Griffin.
P.S. I love the name Griffin. That is a really cute name.
It is for like a little boy just running around like, hi, I'm Griffin.
Yeah. Shut up. But Lenny had actually given birth to two other daughters before Dominique, who sadly passed away very shortly after they were born. from hyaline membrane disease, and it's a lung disease that used to be really common in C-section babies.
Yeah. Wow. I didn't know anything about that.
Yeah. It's very sad, but I think it basically is just like a complication.
Yeah. So Dominic said that Dominique to her parents was like three daughters in one.
Because they had lost the two before her.
And then they had her. So she was all of them wrapped up into one human being.
She was their rainbow baby. And he said that she was triply loved.
Oh my goodness. their relationship oh my goodness Dominique and her father and just her whole family the family relationship is they're such a close-knit family and like very clearly just loved each other so much Dominique herself was very loving, very kind.
She loved animals and was especially known to collect strays.
Yes. I'm going to link it. The Vanity Fair article that Dominic wrote about his daughter and the whole entire ordeal.
He said that she had a cat that had a lobotomy.
And I think it was like a dog with like stunted legs.
Those were like... two of her favorites yeah I was like wow I love that Loving and kind seem like the two best words to describe Dominique, but she could also be described as extremely determined.
Because once she decided that she was going to become an actress, she started getting roles almost immediately.
And she was super good at it. She was in a lot of different shows.
She was in Lou Grant, Chips, Fame, Heart to Heart, and obviously, like I said, the movie Poltergeist. which, like I said, a lot of people think is cursed because there are so many deaths surrounding not only the people who were like actors and actresses in the film, but also people that just worked on set.
Yeah, anywhere around that set it seemed.
Yeah, it's nuts. You weren't getting away from it.
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Now, Dominique met her boyfriend John Thomas Sweeney at a party in 1981.
He was working as a sous chef alongside Wolfgang Pops.
Pup. Wolfgang Pup. Wolfgang Puck. As Wolfgang Pup's dog that actually cooks.
Yeah, it's the nuttiest thing. No, he was a sous chef to Wolfgang Puck.
That's badass. I was at this super exclusive hoity-toity restaurant, Ma Mason, I believe is how you say it.
Love it. They were so... like exclusive that they didn't have their number listed like they had an unlisted number That's like those places that don't have doors and you have to find a way in.
Just to speak easy. Yeah. There's a speakeasy in Hudson that me and Drew went to one time, and it was...
The coolest place I've ever been to. Speakeasers are... Speakeasers... Are we okay?
It's Sunday. Speakeasies are so much fun.
They are. So much fun. Yeah, and the bartenders are usually just like... like very like zany oh yeah they're like salt of the earth people yeah but that has nothing to do with anything It's a throwback episode, guys.
It's because it's Sunday. It's a throwback.
Yeah. Now, the honeymoon period for this couple did not last long at all.
John Sweeney, who was seven years older than Dominique actually, started showing a very different side of himself very early on.
He was super jealous, super controlling, and not only like mentally, but physically abusive toward Dominique.
Asshole. He had been raised in a house like this when he was younger.
He came from Pennsylvania. And he grew up with his alcoholic father just regularly beating his mother.
It's a terrible cycle of violence. It is and it's really sad.
Now, like we always say, feel bad for the kid version.
Exactly. I feel bad for the kid version of John Sweeney.
But I do not feel bad for the adult version in any way, shape, or form.
It seemed like he was somebody that just kind of wanted to... He was desperate to fit into this Hollywood lifestyle.
Yeah. And... It was like a meal ticket, like Dominique was his meal ticket.
Yeah, like he could get into the, you know, he could get the money, he could get the experience. exposure yeah and get the lifestyle excuse me she's like this up-and-coming actress it's like he's hitching his ride too I hate to say it it's perfect for him exactly you know And Dominique was on to his whole thing too.
Like she wondered and even came right out in letters that were later found.
She was like, John Sweeney doesn't love me.
He's obsessed with me. And, like, she said that to people in her life.
Like... He does not love me. He loves the idea of me.
Yeah. What I can give him. That's so sad and terrifying.
Yeah, it is. Both, exactly. Now, there were multiple occasions where John showed his true face not only to Dominique, but to the people involved in her life and their life as a couple.
There was an occasion where they were out with her brothers and a fan came up to Dominique and I think he yelled one of the lines from Poltergeist at her and was like, Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. And he was just really excited and just wanted to say hello.
And John happened to be in the bathroom when this was happening.
And when he came out of the bathroom and saw this guy talking to Dominique, he stormed over to to him, lifted him up and just like shook him violently.
Without having any kind of read on the situation at all.
Like this could be her fucking cousin for all you know.
Wow. Yeah. He was just completely overtaken.
That's unhinged. It's nuts. It's nuts. There was another time where they were joining Dominique's father for lunch and they showed up super late.
And Dominic was like, it was very clear that Dominique had been crying.
Oh, that makes me so sad. Yeah. And her father.
It's awful. Do you know how badly he probably wanted to just like... Oh, I can't even.
I remember the Vanity Fair article. I cried reading it.
It's like super long, but it's one of the best things.
Not one of the best things I've ever read, but it's just so well written.
Yeah. And he said he knew that it was going to be hard for her to get out of this relationship. and it was something that he thought about and was worried about.
Because the only thing you want to do is protect your child.
And it's like when you can't, and he was probably racking his brain trying to think of ways he could get her out of here.
Right, but at this point, she's like 21, 22.
Yeah, what can you do? Like, there's nothing you can do.
She's an adult. Ugh. it's awful and i can't imagine that feeling as a parent just oh i can't imagine because you're in in charge of your child for so long.
You're in charge of the people in their life. take care of them and keep the bad people out of their life.
But now they're an adult, and if this is who they want to be with, There's literally nothing you can do.
The scariest thought you can have as a parent is that they're going to go out into the world...
And terrible people can come into their lives and you have no control over it.
Right. Like you have to just let them out into the world and hope that they are able to not be around those kind of people.
And it's like, I don't want to think about it.
No, it's horrible. So yeah, that was another occasion where her dad was just like, I don't know what to do.
Yeah. There was another occasion where friends were over the couple's home and they started arguing and these friends witnessed John pull Dominique's hair straight out of her head, like from the root of her scalp, like literally yanked her hair out of her scalp.
No. Like what? No. There were a lot of times that Dominique. tried to get away from him.
There was one time she escaped through a bathroom window and after her friends saw John Sweeney literally trying to kill her with his hands around her neck.
And she ran to the bathroom, escaped out the window, and jumped into her car.
The fear she must have been living in before her murder.
I can't imagine. Yeah. It's awful. And so he had asked her on this occasion when she ended up escaping through the bathroom.
He was like, oh, come back to bed. And she was like, okay, like, sure.
And that's when she crawled out and got into her car and was like... leaving to go to her mom's house but john threw himself onto the hood of her car trying to like halt her from getting away and then knew that she was going to her mom's house.
So showed up at the mom's house and was banging on the doors and the windows trying to get her to come outside or let him inside.
That's a nightmare. an actual nightmare and then as her mother like what because all these people are in a position that like when you actually think about it you're like how do you get out of that right like there's there's very few options and she tried to so many times.
And so on this occasion, he finally gave up and went back to the apartment and he thought Dominique would come back.
But that was the final straw for her. She had had enough.
And she was surrounded by so many people who loved her.
They knew what was going on. They wanted to help her.
You know, there was actually one time where she had a guest appearance on a show called Hill Street.
Blues where she was supposed to be acting as like an abused girl whose mother was the one who was abusing her.
But because Dominique was suffering at the hands of John Sweeney, they didn't even have to use makeup to fake her bruises.
Her face and neck had already been bruised so badly that you can see the picture of her acting in this show.
And all the bruises are real. There's a lot of layers to that that's disturbing.
One, the fact that she was so bruised they didn't need makeup, and two, the fact that they were like, Well, roll cameras.
Yeah, let's go. No one's like, hey, do you need a second?
Should we postpone this? Can we help you?
Can we call the fucking police? Can we do something? to help like this is bad and I don't know maybe they did and maybe she was just like it's okay like Why are you rolling cameras on that?
That's really fucked up to have for posterity later.
That's... absolutely i mean hollywood is holy shit that's something i feel very confident yeah yeah But it's like, but like I said, it just proves the point that people knew what was going on, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. And that it was like right out in front of everybody.
It's just right there on the table. Like, you say the only thing you could do is call the police, but if she's, if they're not going to... you know press charges or anything you can't really that's all you can do And I think the thing is like she was an up and coming actress.
She loved acting. So it was probably an escape for her.
And at this point, she called John and was like, no, we're not together anymore.
So at this point, I think... she probably was like, this is where it ends and I'm gonna move on with my life.
Yeah, and again, it's easy to say when you're outside of a situation, like, I would do this or I would do that, but it's like...
You don't know. You have no idea. And we also don't know every single thing that was going on around her in her life, you know, or what she was thinking.
No, but after the last strangling incident, like I said, she had enough.
She called him. She's like, you need to get your stuff out. and I'm done living this way.
And surprisingly, he did. He moved his stuff out of her house and whatever, like, went away for a little bit.
Now, Dominique was determined that she was not going to go back to her place until he was completely moved out, and she didn't.
And then once all of his things were gone and he was settled somewhere else, she moved back in and she changed all the laws.
I was literally just going to say, I hope she changed all those locks.
She's a very smart girl. She knew what she was doing.
She was like, let me... handle this. I got it.
And she was just, like I said, ready to put everything behind her.
But it wasn't going to be easy with a classic abuser and a guy like John Sweeney. and it wasn't long until he started calling again, showing up randomly, Please talk to me.
I can change. It'll be different. Classic.
Classic abuser stuff. So on the night of October 30th, Dominique got one of those calls while she was home and rehearsing with actor David Packer. for a miniseries called V. Now, Sweeney called her from work and asked her if he could come over just to talk.
It's so manipulative, too. I just want to talk.
It's so manipulative. It is. That's because so many people know what that feels like to know that you shouldn't talk to them, but they just.
Right, but like I said in the beginning, the two main words to describe her, loving and kind.
She's not going to turn her back on somebody that... i mean i don't think at this she probably did love him in some capacity and at some point she had strong feelings for him I mean they were living together you know like it's it's hard to like love or like caring about someone in that like kind of romantic way is not, we all know.
It's not easily quantifiable or like understandable.
It doesn't like... lay down to every rule of like, well, he's a dick, so you can just stop caring about him.
No, like that's... Your emotions don't work that way.
They're not logic, unfortunately. I wish they were.
You're thinking with your heart. your head exactly and it sucks it does also if you guys hear like some crazy wind it's straight up uh tornadoing it's Straight up monsooning.
Not really monsoon. Well, monsoon mixed with blizzard outside and it...
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Oh, wow. Yeah. There's a lot going on outside.
It's like the freaking Dust Bowl. Yeah, we just happened to look out the window and we're like, well, okay.
And it happened out of nowhere. So if you hear some like crazy howling wind, you know, it'll just add.
Or if this just like stops abruptly because I feel like the power lines are going to go out.
Cool. Well, yeah, we gave you fair warning.
So he's like, I just want to come talk to you.
Like, please let me. So she's like, OK. So he shows up.
He's knocking on her door like, let me in.
And apparently he had downed two martinis at his job before he walked over to the house.
Oh, boy. Yeah. So Dominique finally agrees to go out and she starts talking to him on the porch. but just a few minutes into talking remember her friend David is there rehearsing with her yeah David hears a fight start between the two of them.
He heard the sound of smacking. He heard screams and he heard a loud thud.
I... Would not know what to do. Well, so he did.
He called the police and the police told them that it was out of their jurisdiction.
So it's like, okay, can you contact the other police department for me while I handle this?
They're just like, yeah, sorry. Sorry, we can't get out there.
Can you connect me to the other people or just like call them for me and send someone out here?
I'm not sure exactly what happened. I don't know if like they did connect him or whatever, but I mean, eventually police got there.
But because he was so terrified, he actually called a friend and left a voicemail saying that if he died that night. it would be at the hands of john sweeney holy shit he was like should anything happen to me here's who did it Because you're listening to a man beat a woman on the front porch.
He's unhinged. He's like, I don't know if this guy has a gun.
I don't know if he has any kind of weapon.
And obviously he's an unhinged motherfucker.
And he's... beating a woman in the middle of the fucking street.
Right. And he's been friends with Dominique.
He knows what's gone on. Yeah. Everybody, all of her friends knew what was going on, unfortunately.
So David then went outside because he's like, I have to help my friend, you know?
And he finds John Sweeney standing over Dominique, who was laying on the ground by some bushes.
John looked at him and said, call the police.
Oh, when the police arrived, like chills.
Yeah. So the police arrived. John Sweeney's still there.
And he puts his hands in the air upon their arrival and says...
And I quote to the first responding officer quote, man, I blew it.
I killed her. i didn't think i choked her that hard but i don't know i just kept on choking her i lost my temper and i blew it again I blew it again.
Who else have you done this to? It's so So I was hoping you would say that or like I was hoping we could get into that because Dominic in that Vanity Fair article.
Later on, this comes out at the trial that the officer who he said that to ended up testifying and was like, this is what he said to me.
And Dominic was like, so does that mean that he had killed somebody before?
Or does he have, he clearly has girlfriends that he's done this in the past, like we'll learn later.
But what does again mean? I blew it again.
Again? To me means I killed someone accidentally again.
Because of my rage. I mean, maybe. I mean, yeah.
To me, that's what it sounds like to me.
Obviously, I have no physical or any kind of evidence to back that up.
No. But something to point out was... That's a weird statement to make.
And Dominic, her father, felt the same thing.
And it's interesting to point out that he didn't have a driver's license.
And like... It was just it seemed really strange for somebody that like and Dominic literally said he was like, this person like relied on wheels like needed to get around with a set of wheels but couldn't didn't have a driver's license and like there was apparently a woman like back in the day that there was like rumors that something like this had happened Oh, yeah.
It's definitely it's a strange thing to say.
I blew it again. I blew it again. At first I was like, does he mean like I strangled her again?
Right, because he had strangled her in the past.
Like, I don't know if... But he's not saying like, oh, she's unconscious.
He's saying, I killed her. And I blew it again.
Like, that's... It's pretty, like... I don't know.
That's a weird thing to say. It's something that you could analyze probably for hours.
Definitely hang your hat on that for something.
Yeah. So Dominique was rushed to the hospital, and she was not dead yet.
She was put on life support for five days.
They unfortunately had to shave her hair and put a bolt into her skull to relieve the massive pressure that was on her brain.
And her father remembered seeing her like that with bruises on her neck.
There were huge marks made by the hands of John Sweeney.
And again, in the Vanity Fair piece, he said that it was nearly impossible to look at her, but also impossible to look away.
Yeah. It's so sad. Because, I mean, she's gone through this.
She's suffered. You don't want to negate her suffering by being like, Like I can't suffer by looking at you, you know what I mean?
Like you almost feel responsible. And they were really worried about her mother, Lenny, going to see her because Lenny had multiple sclerosis.
And that is a disease where it is greatly affected by stress.
Like if somebody is suffering multiple. sclerosis is going through a stressful time in their life they'll get more flare-ups and they'll get more sick yeah absolutely so they were like we don't like we don't you don't want to yeah And also, I said you almost feel responsible.
I didn't mean that. I meant you almost feel a responsibility to look at.
Oh, yeah. I didn't mean responsible. No, I knew what you meant.
I just wanted to clarify that. Yeah. um but they were really worried about it but lenny was like no she was like i'm going yeah like that's my child yeah i was gonna say she's a mom Yeah, so unfortunately Dominique had to be taken off life support on November 4th. and it was I believe 19 days before her next birthday she was 22 years old when she died her kidneys were donated to two different people in need of them at that specific hospital. and her heart was donated and sent out to a different hospital in San Francisco.
That at least is always like a silver lining when you hear like, obviously there's no good thing about this, but like when something good can come out of it, like... three different people were probably saved because of her like that's something I hope that like brings Parents, I know that like it's probably a small feeling, but I hope it brings some kind of, you know, to know someone.
Her heart is beating somewhere. Yeah, and I think it did make her family feel better because Lenny was the one that said, this is what Dominique would have wanted.
Become an organ donor, guys. Yeah. It's important.
Now, John Sweeney at this point is facing more than attempted murder because now he's a murderer.
He's killed her. He could be facing charges of hopefully first degree, at the very least, second degree murder.
So unfortunately he is one of those people.
We all know people like this, like terrible, awful people.
They just walk through their freaking lives like a cat with nine lives.
Of course. That is who he is. There's so many people like that.
That hoity-toity restaurant that he worked at seemed to be totally on his side.
The owner said actually that he would get John Sweeney the best legal representation that he could.
That's fucked. Like, nice. That's awesome.
He called him a dependable young man. It's like this isn't one of those cases where it's like...
Yeah, like, we're not sure what happened here and blah blah blah.
Like, there was one, an eyewitness, and he literally told I killed her when she arrived over her dead body.
I killed her. Right. Like, let's stop with this.
He's a dependable young man. I don't give a fuck if he saves bus fulls of orphans on a regular basis.
Right. He just murdered a person in cold blood in their front yard.
And also, he's a dependable young man. Okay, so he shows up on time at work. yeah that's great that's that's awesome that's a great quality to have slap a gold star on him You know what like kind of overshadows that is being a murderer.
Murder. Usually like kind of overshadows being timely.
Yeah. Just in my personal opinion. Tardiness and murder, not on the same level.
No, held to very different standards. One's inconvenient and one is murder.
Yeah, like straight up murder. Let's just take that.
So Sweeney ended up actually getting a court-appointed defense attorney named Michael Adelson, and then Joseph Shapiro, who worked with the restaurant La Mason. regarding legal business hopped on the team too.
So he had a good team, unfortunately. Michael Addison had a reputation for being a pretty like nose to the grindstone type of guy.
Like he would get shit done. And Joseph Shapiro was the same kind of guy.
So as a team, they were... not only intimidating, but they were ready to go to great lengths to get him off of this.
Which is just absolutely fucked. Which is great.
Yeah. Wonderful. Now, Judge Burton Katz was going to be the judge on the trial, and at the end of this, we're gonna really just have a deep, deep dislike for this man.
Because that turned out to be pretty awful for the Dunn family.
Essentially another tragedy in their lives.
Now, the trial started in August of 1983 and it quickly became clear that Judge Katz had more of a relationship with the murderer's defense team. like literally he was cracking jokes with the two lawyers and like trying to make a murder trial, some lighthearted experience for the jury.
Yeah, which it should be. Yeah, it should be like a walk in the park. for sure it should be a fun time like okay like maybe let's take our job a little seriously Yeah, talking about someone's child who was ruthlessly ripped away from them.
We should definitely make this a lighthearted experience. the entire research process for this had me red in the face like pissed off it's like dude this is a courtroom It wasn't.
It was a media circus. And he this is a judge.
He was voted like fourth worst judge at one point.
Cool. And he is somebody that just wanted to be involved.
He loved being involved in high profile.
I was going to say he just liked it because it was a Hollywood starlet.
Good coverage. His parents came to the trial one day to like see him in action.
Oh, come on. Yeah, like it's just messed up.
He also consistently called Dominique Dominic. which is her father's name which she was named after you should probably know how to pronounce the name of the murder victim in the trial that we're going over here Yeah, you are the judge.
Yeah, and he never... You are wearing the robe.
He never made an effort to correct himself.
That's absurd. And actually, this is just like a weird thing to point out.
Strangely enough, he worked on the Charles Manson case as the deputy district attorney.
Wow. Yeah, like nuts. That's a weird connection.
It's a very strange connection. Now, one of the biggest things that the prosecution had was that they had tracked down a woman who dated John Sweeney right before he and Dominic met.
Excuse me, Dominique got together. They had dated a little over two years from 1977 to 1980.
And she testified. Her name is mentioned in like a lot of news outlets, but. personally i just like didn't want to mention her name yeah you know so i'm just gonna say she She testified that there were 10 occasions where John Sweeney put his hands on her, and there were two separate times where she had to be... hospitalized for the injuries that she suffered at his hands.
Jesus. The hospital stay was four days long and the next day was six days, or excuse me, the next time was six days.
Those are both long hospital stays. She suffered many injuries.
A collapsed lung. What? A perforated eardrum.
A perforated eardrum? Sorry, I meant to correct myself.
A perforated eardrum and a broken nose. Oh my God.
Like a perforated eardrum. Like what happened there?
What did he do? I have no idea. Oh that's horrific.
Now when she tried to escape from him he would literally throw rocks at her.
Yup. Or smash furniture around and like throw like pictures and anything around the house that he could.
And she said while he was he would do this while he was quite literally foaming at the mouth.
Holy shit. We are talking about a man that is an actual animal.
Like, actually unhinged. Like terrifying.
Like I literally picture the guy in Split just like going off.
He is fully untethered. It's not okay. Now, the entire time she gave her testimony, John Sweeney wouldn't even look at her.
Like, would not look up at her. The defense tried to paint her, and this is just so messed up, they tried to invalidate not only this woman, but... also Dominique and just tried to paint them as like women who drank a lot and did drugs and just invalidate their entire lives.
Of course. You've got to take away their credibility.
So they try to say that during these fights she was drunk or she was high, this woman who was testifying.
And they were just basically saying that she got herself into this.
Yeah, like this is her fault. I don't know what to tell you. oh yeah uh but the prosecution was ready to show exactly who john sweeney was like i said He came from nothing.
He desperately wanted to be rich and famous.
So when these women rejected him, that's when he lost his mind.
Okay. And the prosecution knew that. Because he can't get it himself.
He needs them. He actually reminds me a lot of Andrew Cunanan, who killed Versace and the other men that he killed.
Yep. It's somebody who needs to be notorious and use people along the way to climb up the ladder. ladder, so to say.
When they start losing their sources of that, then they start getting more and more desperate.
And then it becomes... their options for how they become notorious or infamous or famous or anything become less and less and less and less.
And finally, they're like, well, I'll do it this way.
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Because Andrew Cunanan had like sugar daddies and stuff like that.
And he would like lie about who he is. where he came from and everything.
And he had these socialite friends. But one by one, they started learning who he actually was and they started falling away.
And that's when. Yep, everything happened.
When the veil falls, that's when they get desperate. was happening here he met Dominique and I'm sure it was great in the beginning but then he couldn't handle yeah having a relationship i guess because he's an animal yeah so when it was time for the prosecution to talk to the woman they said to her quote do you come from a well-to-do family That was the question.
At that moment, John Sweeney basically ejected himself out of his seat like a fucking rocket.
What? through the Bible that he carried into the courtroom every day across the room.
And stormed toward the doors that led to the holding cell.
Like he was like leaving. Like he didn't want to sit there.
Oh, like this is a Real Housewives reunion and you can just get up and leave?
Yes. Honey, no. Like, no, you're on trial for murder, motherfucker.
You can't just leave because it's getting uncomfortable because shit's going to get a lot more uncomfortable from here on out.
Are you kidding me? He stormed out of the room.
Two bailiffs and four armed guards had to tackle him down and bring him back to his chair. which he was then handcuffed to.
Yeah, as he should be. And when he apologized, Judge Katz looked right at him and he said...
We know what a strain you're under, Mr. Sweeney.
Oh my god. We know that you're the one here who's really under a great strain.
You're under strain. I'm sorry. Why don't we talk about what a strain that this woman sitting next to you on the stand was under? or what strain Dominique was under when John Sweeney's hands literally stopped air from coming into her lungs.
Wow. And killed her. Like, are we kidding here?
How is that? I'm so sorry for the strain that you're under.
Yeah, I'm so sorry for him. This will just take a little while longer and then you can get past it.
Yeah, let's coddle the murderer. Yeah. So obviously any jury that saw the ex-girlfriend's testimony and saw him explode like that would have probably called it a day at that point and been like, yeah we've seen what we need to see yeah clearly this man with an explosive temper that was set off by something as small as a pointed question That wasn't even about him.
Literally, like he knew where it was going.
Of course, it was like indirect, but it's like he's just asking her questions.
And that's the thing, because what really he was pissed about was that the prosecution saw him exactly for who he was.
It was proving a very valid point. Mm-hmm.
But unfortunately, the jury would never hear a word of this woman's testimony. or see the monster at work, because Sweeney's defense attorney, Adelson, had asked that while this woman give her testimony, the jury be out of the room so that they could decide whether or not it was like credible enough or important enough for the jury to hear.
So when this all went down, the jury was not in the room.
What a fucking shark. What a shark. They had no idea this woman even existed and they never saw that. knew that happened i will give it to these defense attorneys they are doing their job it's like how do you even i don't even understand how that happens that's absurd And they came to the decision that her testimony was not worth showing the jury.
So they never knew that he had been a known abuser before he even met Dominique and they never got to see it with their own eyes.
Which most of the time, it's like, come on, guys.
They know he's probably done this before.
Or nine times out of ten, you don't just suddenly out of nowhere start brutally abusing the person you're with.
Yeah. Like, usually you've had a pattern of this behavior for a little while.
And he did. And if you did it enough that you killed a woman, you've definitely done it before.
And how is establishing a pattern not allowed in a trial?
Like usually that's one of the main things.
That they do. Dude was found standing over her body.
There was an eyewitness there that saw the entire thing.
And it's like. He admitted it to... I don't understand this.
Neither do I. The judge also wouldn't let Lenny testify about all the times that Dominique... fled to her home trying to escape John Sweeney.
Yeah, because that's not important. Nope.
And he wouldn't let Dominique's friends testify about all the times that they had literally firsthand seen him, like, over her on a bed strangling her or ripping her hair out of her head.
They said the reason they wouldn't let her mother testify or her friends who had experienced this entire ordeal, their statements were hearsay. oh my god how how are you gonna say that a mother's words about her daughter are hearsay Like, this is just, I feel like this should be just like witness testimony.
I don't understand why. No, like. I mean, again.
These defense attorneys are really doing the job.
It's bananas. And this is not even the worst thing that was going to happen to the family during the trial.
Because so like I said, Dominique's mother had multiple sclerosis and she was in a wheelchair.
So you can only imagine what she was going through.
Like I said, the stress that somebody endures when they have a disease like that it makes it worse yeah unimaginable So she's already in a bad place, to say the least, because her daughter has been murdered.
Now she's sitting at a trial. She's not allowed to even speak. her experience no and like what now that's not the end of it Adelson didn't really care what the mother of this murder victim was going through.
He was just worried about her presence in the courtroom because he thought that it would lead the jury to feel bad like have some kind of extra sympathy toward her and that it would sway the verdict he did not want honestly he fucking demon He did not want her allowed in the courtroom.
That's some demon shit. How do you lay your head on a pillow at night?
Yeah, that's the kind of... I... I understand defense attorneys have a job to do.
I understand that some people. are innocent and need a defense attorney to do their job and overdo it. but that kind of shit, you know this man is guilty.
You know he's guilty. Everybody does. And it's like, you're just trying to lessen the charge at this point.
That's exactly what they were doing. That was their main point.
What the fuck are you doing telling this woman in a wheelchair who...
Whose daughter just died. To see her daughter be, like, get justice?
Like... Come on. Her only daughter, the baby of her family.
No, I can't understand. I don't know how you lay your head on the pillow after that shit, because it's like this isn't to get him off.
This is to get him a lesser sentence. Like, you don't need to go that hard.
No. Calm down. No. I mean, we're allowed to, like, the Golden State Killer all of a sudden was in a wheelchair at his farm.
Yeah, that lying sack of shit was pretending that he was like ailing the entire time.
And we allowed that. We're allowing that.
But somebody who actually is in a wheelchair because of a disease that they're suffering? reason we give these like assholes a pass I don't understand like it's like nobody would what they should have done is prop that dumb ass up I've been like, stand on your two feet.
You were fine, like, what, a few weeks ago when we got you outside of your house?
You were literally riding your fucking motorcycle.
You were riding a motorcycle. Like, fuck.
Fuck the Golden State Killer. Oh, fuck everything.
Fuck every murderer. Fuck you, murderers.
So, like I said, he didn't want her allowed in, but he had no way of kicking her out.
Like, how the fuck are you going to sway that?
I mean, Judge Katz, I'm surprised, didn't go for it, but...
He he like thought about it. Adelson also moved to the judge that, quote, Quote, Eye rolling and or making any type of exclamation would result in their being ejected from the courtroom.
So yeah, her family members couldn't cry during her murder trial or they would be ejected from the courtroom.
I've never heard of something like this.
This is like truly outrageous. In my life.
I've just never heard of this being a thing.
The judge is like fully like shitting upon a mortar victim's family.
I've never heard of that. Or the, the. defense attorney was I've never heard of this being like a thing and the judge granted the motion well that's what I it's like and the judge is going along with it yeah You can't tell a murder victim's family they can't cry.
What? I'm sorry what like I understand the like no bursts of emotion like you can't jump up and scream or like charge people or anything I understand that You can't tell people they can't cry.
Right. No. What? So one day, no matter what, their child is dead. nothing changes that fact the jury isn't going to be like huh I wonder if Dominique really is dead because they're not crying yeah right Like, it's no.
It doesn't make any sense. So one day, one of Dominique's brothers had tears in his eyes and Adelson tried to have him thrown out.
And there was another time when Griffin and Alex, Dominique's brothers, moved seats Because at this point, John Sweeney was on the stand testifying, so they moved seats to be in his eyesight.
They were like, good, you can look right the fuck at me.
For sure. And Adelson tried to have them thrown out.
They weren't thrown out, but then Alex told Dominic that he was like, I can't do this anymore.
I can't go. and be in the same room with John Sweeney and be treated the way we're being treated like I can't I would lose it I would lose it on this guy So the blows to the family kept coming from all angles, the judge, the defense, the hopes that something huge would be admitted as evidence, and then last minute was taken off the table, labeled hearsay or just like unnecessary.
Now, another blow came on August 29th. when Katz granted a motion saying that there was insufficient evidence of a charge for first-degree murder. and that the jury would only be able to deliberate on charges of manslaughter or second-degree murder.
I had a feeling that was going to be the end result.
Like what? And then there was when... John Sweeney took the stand himself and tried to make excuses and paint himself like the real victim here.
It was him. Oh, of course. He was the victim here.
He was, yeah. So this is his version of events.
He said, just everybody hold on to your butts.
Yeah. Oh, God. He said that he had gone over to Dominique's place that night because they had actually been talking about getting back together, even getting married and having kids.
Yes. Like everything was great again. And she told him that she changed her mind and she didn't want him back and that she was sorry for leading him on.
And so when she said that, he lost it and he blacked out. okay remember anything even if that was the truth that's her fucking prerogative yeah People can change their goddamn minds, especially when you're an asshole who has beaten the shit out of her your entire relationship.
She can suddenly go, you know what? No. I actually don't want to.
He thought it was her fault. She shouldn't have done that.
It's her fault. So crazy. He blacked out.
Yeah, they all do. And when he came to, he realized that Dominique was unconscious.
So he tried to do CPR because he's a hero.
But when he did that, it made her throw up.
And then because he's such a soft, emotional teddy bear, he threw up too.
And then when he saw that Dominique wasn't coming back, he ran into the house.
But it's so weird because David didn't see that happen.
I was gonna say. And he downed two bottles of pills.
Which is so weird because those were not found in his system.
Okay. Wow, magic. Super nuts. And also they were literally not found anywhere.
Well, very lucky. And then he took Dominique's tongue from the back of her throat so that she wouldn't choke on it if she came to.
Because he knew that was the right thing to do because he had always helped his epileptic father.
He's just very smart. He's just such a fucking hero.
He's a quick thinker. Yep. John Sweeney.
Yeah. that he's just everything. Thank goodness he was there.
He actually had a cape on at this very moment.
Thank goodness he was there to save her from the murder that he just committed.
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And then when all that taking care was done, he lied next to her just like Romeo and Juliet.
Of course he did. Super cute story. None of that fucking happened.
That is a steaming pile of horse shit. Survey says, that's a lie, motherfucker.
God, I hate this guy. Like I said, there was absolutely no evidence that he had taken two bottles worth of pills.
And the officer, like I said, that arrived on scene first said that as soon as he got there, He looked Sweeney or he looked the guy in the eyes and I'm going to say it again.
He said, quote, man, I blew it. I killed her.
I didn't think I choked her that hard. But I don't know.
I just kept on choking her. I lost my temper.
Blew it again. I don't know how any of this is confusing to any.
So you're telling me. That you downed two bottles of pills and you had the wherewithal to say that to the first responding officer.
Yeah. And it's like, I thought you were lying next to her.
Right. In state. Yes. But no, that's not what the police officers say.
I don't think he was confused. He was not.
No. and he knew exactly what he had done.
And to further prove that, the medical examiner said that there was evidence to show that this is horrific.
Dominique had been strangled between four and six minutes.
The amount of rage and just... Lack of soul you have to have to hold on to someone's neck with the pressure it takes to actually choke them out.
For four to six minutes. And that's like full face fronting, looking in the eyes.
Absolutely. And you are watching someone.
In complete panic. You are saying exactly what I wrote down.
Am I really? Like that's word for word. Four to six minutes to look in someone's eyes, know that you're killing them.
Obviously, she would have been struggling to get away.
This was not an oopsie. Oh, yeah. I mean, you think of anybody... if you like choke on something or for a second you can't breathe, it's the panic you'll see in someone's face.
Imagine that's four minutes of that panic in someone's face that you are supposedly love.
He was blacked out. You're blacked out. You don't black out and hold somebody's neck for that long with that and it takes a lot of pressure yeah you have a lot of pressure the hyoid bone yes And that's not what happened.
No, you're a liar. None of that happened other than the fact that, yeah, you put your hands around... the woman that you supposedly loved throat, for four to six minutes.
No. It's absurd. And deprived her of oxygen.
It's truly absurd. So now it was time for the jury to decide. when they were finished hearing the closing statements in which Adelson took the time to speak as Dominique.
Like, literally spoke as her and called herself a liar.
Like, he was like... I, Dominique, lied to you, John Sweeney.
Like, what? Yeah. Are you kidding me? No.
No. This gets worse and worse. It somehow gets worse and worse, so they went to deliberate.
When they came back, they handed two envelopes to the judge and the verdict was read by the clerk. guilty on voluntary manslaughter.
Voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter. not second-degree murder, and also guilty on a misdemeanor assault because there was a previous time that was... during the trial that he had choked her.
Yeah. Yeah. So all in all, the man who continuously beat Dominique through their relationship, grasped her neck for four to six minutes, ultimately killing her. would serve only a maximum sentence of six and a half years.
Six and a half years. Now, that's not what he would serve because he also had the potential to get out once without even going in front of a parole board after serving half of his sentence, which would include time served.
I cannot with this. I truly can't. And also, quick little side note.
I know. I said like we were saying that like the hyoid bone has to break for strangulation.
That only happens in like one third of strangulations.
Just wanted to point that out. Oh, interesting.
It doesn't always happen. It doesn't always break.
I just wanted to point that out. Okay. Now, so in a strange twist of events, Judge Katz just condemned the jury and told them that quote, This was a case of pure this.
Excuse me. He said this case was a case pure and simple of murder.
Murder with malice. So he's yelling at them that they didn't come to the right conclusion.
You got it wrong. You got it wrong. Now he still thanked them for their time and thanked them on behalf of the family.
And when he did that, Dominic Dunn said back to him, Not for my family, Judge Katz.
What a badass. So they exchanged words and then Dominic turned around and led himself and Lenny out of the courtroom. room before he turned around in front of everyone there and said, you have withheld important evidence from this jury about this man's history of violence against women good for him and then he turned around and walked out Judge Katz was like, I'm going to have to throw you out if you continue.
And he was like, no, you won't. I'll get up and get out myself.
But let me make sure that they know what just happened.
Dominic. Yeah. Hell yeah. So later, the jury foreman named Paul Spiegel said that if the jury had heard all the evidence, like John Sweeney's ex-girlfriend's testimony...
Lenny or Dominique's friend's testimony or seeing John Sweeney lose absolute control. they 100% would have convicted him of murder.
100%. These are the things that, like, the justice system is just so fucked.
Because it's like that... Doesn't make sense.
No. And he also said... That this is allowed to just be.
Oh, get this. He also said that there were four... one, two, three, four separate occasions where the jury was like confused about certain things and they tried to ask the judge and he wouldn't answer their questions And every time they came to him, he was like, all your directions are in the paper I gave you.
Like read the instructions. Wow. Yeah. This is so mishandled.
Yeah. This trial was an absolute shit show.
Now, Teresa Saldana actually staged a march outside of the courthouse with the victim advocate. advocacy group that she put together called Victims for Victims and she protested against the verdict but like nothing came of it.
Ugh. what was done was done. John Sweeney was sentenced to six years and he would be out in Three and a half, because he had already served some of his time between his arrest and his sentencing.
Three and a half years. for looking in the eyes of the woman you supposedly love and strangling her from anywhere between four and six minutes.
For like brutally abusing a woman for your entire relationship.
When she finally gets away from you showing up on her door...
And strangling her while looking into her eyes in front of her home while her friend sits inside.
Mm-hmm. And then admitting it when the police come and saying that you did it before.
And you get three and a half years. Yeah.
That's a lot of sense. Yeah. Super justice.
Yeah. So when he got out of prison, he was hired actually again at like a super upscale restaurant.
So Dominique's family was like, fuck that.
We're not going to let that happen. So they stood outside the restaurant and they handed out flyers that read, the food you will eat tonight was cooked by the hands that killed Dominique Dunn. good like can i get a hell yeah yeah that you don't murderers like can be cancelled Absolutely.
Let's do that. 100%. So John Sweeney left that job pretty quickly.
And then Dominique's family learned that he was engaged to a woman.
Now, I've seen two variations on what actually happened.
Some sources say that when he found this out, Dominic Dunn called the woman's father to let him know what had happened to Dominique. it was like just so you know like the woman I'm a father you're a father The man that your daughter is engaged to killed my daughter and is known to have a history of violence against women.
Wow. But I also saw that the woman's father called Dominic to find out if it was Sweeney who had killed Dominic.
But either way, they talked. But they talked and he found out.
Now, it's unclear if the engagement went through or not.
Because John Sweeney ended up changing his name.
And you can find his name, but there's nothing really you can find out anymore about him.
Yeah, of course. It's like a Carla Homolka thing.
You can only find out so much. Yeah. to end this in Dominique's voice because she was the only one who wasn't there to defend herself throughout the trial.
And Dominic included this letter in the Vanity Fair piece that I've talked about.
Now, it's a letter that one of Dominique's friends found at her place when they were clearing out the house after her funeral.
And it was a letter that was clearly meant for Sweeney.
So she wrote to him, quote, Selfishness works both ways.
You are just as selfish as I am. We have to be the two individuals to work together as a couple.
I'm not permitted to do enough things on my own.
Why must you be part of everything I do?
Why do you want to come to my writing lessons and my acting lessons?
Why are you jealous of every scene partner I have?
Why must I recount word for word everything I spoke to Dr. Black about?
Why must I talk about every situation? Oh, excuse me.
Why must I talk about every audition when you know that it's bad luck for me?
Why do we have discussions at 3am all the time instead of during the day?
Why must you know the name of every person I come into contact with?
You go crazy over my rehearsals. You insist on going to work with me when I have told you it makes me nervous.
Your paranoia is overboard. You do not love me.
You're obsessed with me. The person you think you love is not me at all.
It is someone you've made up in your head.
© transcript Emily Beynon and then you're faced with the real me.
That's why arguments erupt out of nowhere.
The whole thing has made me realize how scared I am of you.
And I don't mean just physically. I'm afraid of the next time you're going to have another mood swing.
When we're good we are great." But when we are bad, we are horrendous.
The bad outweighs the good. Wow. So that entire letter, it tells you everything you need to know.
That he was, like, not letting her go to work without him?
Like, 3 a.m. discussions? That's, like, waking her up in the middle of the night to, like...
That's probably ridicule her. That's a lot.
It's horrible. That's a lot. Now, that letter was actually read during the trial by the prosecution, and it somehow didn't sway the outcome.
Jesus. and actually i guess the jury was like deadlocked for a little while and the reason why excuse me, the reason why they broke was because some jurors were like getting too hot and just wanted to leave.
Oh yeah you're too hot. I understand. Yeah we don't want you to be uncomfortable.
Yeah so sorry about that. For sure. So that is the absolutely tragic tragic case of Dominique Dunn and the tragic case really of her trial. yeah that trial is one of the worst I've heard it's absolutely one of the worst wow I had no idea it was that bad And I've never, like you said, I've never in my research found a trial as bad as that.
That's so bad. And we've gone over some pretty bad ones, but this one, not allowing the family to cry.
Wanting the mother out of the courtroom because she has a disease.
Because she's in a wheelchair and it will make people feel bad.
Like what? People should feel bad. Yeah.
She lost her daughter at the hands of the guy who's sitting right there walking in every day with a fucking Bible that you didn't get to see him throw across the room.
Oh, my God. That's... Woof. Woof. Wow. So, yeah.
All right. Happy Sunday. Thank you for that.
You're welcome. Man, RIP, Dominique Dunn.
I'm going to link that Vanity Fair article. as well as I used two other articles for the research on this.
But please, if you read any of them, read the article that her dad wrote.
It is. I read it when I did my research for the Halloween show where the cursed poltergeist and I was crying by the end of it. yeah and i read it again for this and i was like choked up i'm glad he had like the ability to like write down in words that kind of i hope it was like cathartic to him i feel like it probably was because he was a writer exactly like that's how he probably would process that but like To be able to do that and like put all that into the world is like really impressive.
Yeah. And there's some stuff that obviously I left out because I'm not going to like say everything that he said.
Yeah. So definitely. definitely go read that yes absolutely and we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it Weird.
But not so weird that you're a judge on a trial and you just suck ass.
Yeah, be a good judge, please. Be a good person.
Wear the robe right. 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.
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