Hey weirdos, it's Ash.
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Hey, weirdos, I'm Alayna.
And I'm Ash. And this is Morbid.
morbid i had just like stretched one of those good strong deep stretches when i said that that's why it came out a little crackly that's okay i was yawning while you said it it all worked out it's early it's wedding week i'm tired it's just all of that we're working we're working i'm really trying to learn how to twerk i was just gonna say we are not twerking you could You can twerk if you wanted to.
You can twerk if you want to.
You can leave your friends behind.
No, Ash is on a quest. I am.
And I'm not going to interfere in that quest. I'm just going to be on the sideline and I'm going to cheer her on.
Thank you. The TikTok girlies say that you just lean forward and shift the weight between your heels, but I look like a duck when I do that.
But I was doing it the other day in my mirror and I think I'm getting somewhere.
Oh. I think I can't show you quite yet.
and I'm really perfecting the strategy, but I think I figured something out.
Good. I mean, I shall wait with bated breath.
I'm glad. That's me on my twerk journey.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Brought to you by...
Twerk journey. Ass.
We're silly goofy today.
We are. You know, it's a crazy week because Ash is going to be, you know, a married lady at the end of it.
Whoa. So that's fun.
That's cuckoo nuts bananas.
And then we just go back to...
Yeah. And then we just go back to regular life.
Well, for like a minute.
But then I leave again.
Yeah. But like first Thanksgiving, I wasn't going to leave for that.
I fucking love your Thanksgiving.
And last year I got the neurovirus on Thanksgiving, so I couldn't cook.
And then I tried to take over Thanksgiving and nobody wanted me to.
Because I've really put my stamp on Thanksgiving.
If I can't cook it, apparently it can't happen.
I mean pretty much actually was the answer that I was given but this year I the worst part was last year was I had all the stuff ready to go and I was right because I always have it like all laid out I have some things cooked the night before like at least prepared the night before and I woke up in the morning and started dying and got full -blown norovirus literally the morning of like woke up at 4 a .m and that was that yeah so nobody so you know everybody had store about thanksgiving that yeah last thanksgiving was the most depressing thanksgiving ever because last year was depressing last year
was so depressing drew's dad had covid last year oh so we couldn't even go to like his parents yeah thanksgiving so we literally just like sat at home and that was like the worst year anyways like we had a lot going on people were making our lives miserable not you guys trust me no never you guys the people who didn't know who they are and uh we're not gonna have that this year no because this year we said behold my field of fucks for it is barren I said you will not ruin it dave's eggs dave's eggs you don't know what that means but I do but yeah it was a rough it was rough actually my youngest
this year literally asked me last night she said um can you promise not to get the tummy bug this thanksgiving And I was like, you're like, let's not talk about it.
That was not my intention last year.
I did not ask for that.
I did not manifest it.
But you should start taking Airborne.
I'm going to. I'm going to do everything.
I'm like, because now I'm scared.
I like the, I like the, this is not sponsored, but the Elderberry, Elderberry Airbornes.
First of all, they taste delicious.
And second of all, Elderberry is like just one more punch to the food and cold season.
All right. You heard Ayer first. Okay.
Elderberry. Or Elderberry, if you're from Boston.
I know. Every time I say it, I'm like someone's going to correct me, but that's just like a original thing.
Elderberry, if you're nasty.
Respect your elderberries, okay?
Oh, gosh. I'm in such a silly mood, but I have to tell you a pretty rough tale.
Awesome. I do have a two -pata for you.
A two -pata, kid. Two -pata.
We're going to be talking about Sharon Kinney today, also known as La Pistolera.
Very familiar, that name.
Yeah. I actually like I'd heard her name before, but I did not know the details of this case.
I think that's where I am.
I've heard the name.
I don't know anything about what you're about to tell me.
Well, I kind of love that because this is a wild tale from start to finish.
Part one is pretty like fast paced, like we're going to get through a lot.
And then I will tell you part two is a little bit trial heavy in the beginning, but I have to make it that way.
Just like it makes sense for the setup.
up yeah once we get through the trial stuff in part two shit goes down okay like so just know that like bear with me through that in part two yeah and i know some of you like like really like going through the trial part yeah so you know you'll love that it's some people's cup of tea it's other people's not cup of tea personally it's actually not my favorite tea it's the trial part yeah it's like i would drink it but i wouldn't drink it it wouldn't be my first choice yeah i feel you you know what i mean yeah let's let's get into it we're gonna talk about sharon let's go but before she was sharon kinney
she was born sharon elizabeth hall on november 30th 1939 in independence missouri missouri missouri her father was eugene and her mother was doris hall eugene was a steel worker and doris was a homemaker and when she was young her father actually sharon's father hurt himself on the job and became unemployed due to that injury that he got so once he was out of work he started drinking heavily and he really paid no attention to his kids so dark from the start i was gonna say so we're killing it already yeah and we're not really going uphill at all because sharon's mother doris was equally distant
especially when it came to her daughter and as a result sharon started to develop a very creative imagination i think out of loneliness that makes sense you know and a former school friend told reporters she'd take us on explorations down through a sewer on the way home from school.
She'd talk about finding money and jewels that were hidden there.
We didn't even see the filth or know it was there until we got home and our mother started howling.
She was like, just join me in the sewers.
But I kind of love that.
She was such an adventurous, like, let's go find hidden jewels.
Yeah, I love that. That was me as a kid.
That was a cool thing about her in the beginning.
I was always making that shit up.
Oh, no. Yeah. You could like that about child sharing.
That's the thing. I don't know anything about this case so i didn't know if sharon was yeah i don't know what's going on she's the perp but either way that's that was me as a kid i used to want to do weird shit like that and you feel bad for kid sharon like her parents were basically just like fuck off yeah you know it's true now by the time she reached high school sharon's creativity had taken a more serious guarded tone oh okay another former friend said i think sharon was always strange and alone oh And as a teenager, I know it is, as a teenager her complexion was described as quote modeled and sallow,
sometimes pimply, which made her the target of a lot of bullying and shitty comments from people at school.
Oh, that sucks. And then when she was 14, the family actually moved briefly to Washington due to rumors that Sharon had secretly married an unnamed man who quote died when his truck plunged over a cliff in Idaho.
What? The wild thing is, there's not evidence to indicate whether these rumors are true or not.
But when Sharon did eventually marry her question mark first or second husband, James Kinney, she did list herself as a widow on the marriage license.
What? Yeah. That's just like so bizarre.
It just came out of nowhere.
Wow. And then when you learn about...
Like a secret man who plunged over a cliff in a truck?
Like what? Well, when you learn about like what Sharon is all about, maybe that did happen.
I don't know. Wild.
That is wild. Widowed or not, the Halls ended up moving back to Independence about a year later when Sharon was 15 and she resumed her increasingly solitary life.
In the summer of 1956, she met 22 -year -old James Kinney at a Mormon church function.
and even though she was six years younger than his 22 -year -old self...
Oh, do the math on that.
Yeah. James was instantly attracted to the 16 -year -old.
Unlike Sharon, who was smart, savvy, and emotionally mature, James was shy, he was deeply self -conscious, and he was a student who was home on break from Brigham Young University.
It makes sense that he was, you know, emotionally immature.
Yeah. Like not, you know, because, I mean, she's 16.
Exactly. Like what are you going to have to connect on if you're not emotionally immature?
Now Sharon noticed James was staring at her all night, but he didn't make any move to come over and talk to her.
So she actually took the initiative and approached him, instinctively sensing that his attraction to her kind of gave her the upper hand in the situation.
Now to James, a shy Mormon boy on campus surrounded by, you know, chaste proper Mormon girls, Sharon's boldness was very exciting.
And also, her unfamiliar, sarcastic, biting wit kept him off balance the entire time they talked, which was even more exciting to him.
In my opinion, also still wrong, because, you know, she's 16 years old and he's 22.
Yeah, this is not a cute moment.
No, it's not. But Sharon knew that she had the upper hand, like I said.
So she made it seem like she wasn't super interested, but she did end up giving James her phone number before abruptly walking away.
Now, in all reality, James, or someone like him, offered a potential escape from this small town life that she'd been dreaming of since her family came back to Missouri the year before.
She wanted out of here.
She's bored. She's lonely.
She's neglected. Exactly.
Author James C. Hayes wrote, Sharon maintained ambitious dreams. She wanted to find a prince who'd spirit her off to anywhere that wasn't Independence, Missouri.
She wanted to be a woman of glamour and wealth.
Now, James Kinney may not have been a prince exactly but Sharon saw that she could use his for lack of a better term naivete to her advantage and while she figured she might have been able to do better than him she definitely could have done worse.
Wow. What a dream. Ambition.
Yeah. So James did not wait long to call Sharon and despite the considerable age difference they did start dating very quickly and quickly they became became inseparable.
I'm uncomfortable. Me as well.
I also feel like it's it doesn't excuse this behavior but I feel like this was so much more common in like the 50s.
Oh yeah it definitely was like yeah there's no excuse for it at all but you're right like this was a much more common thing.
Yeah. That was just kind of like not side -eyed.
No it really wasn't.
That's the thing it's and it's so strange to look at now.
It really is. Because it's again I always think we're in the year 2000 here so I'm like you know like 50 years ago it was and that's a long time but I'm like no it was a lot longer than 50 years ago now so like that's a long time ago and it makes sense now that we're like oh like what the fuck what the fuck we're like that about a lot of things yeah but the more infatuated James grew with Sharon the more people around him became suspicious or uncomfortable with her there was something off about her okay for example just after after just just a few weeks, James' father, Haggard Kinney, had become
so uneasy around Sharon that he actually voiced his concerns to his son.
Wow. And he said he was worried about the way she, quote, played James like a marionette.
Ooh. He was like, I think she's got the upper hand here.
Yeah. And like, sure, that could be fine, but she's playing you.
Yeah. That's the thing.
It's like you want to have some balance here.
Yeah. Nobody should be the all -powerful being in your relationship.
Right. And James, he loved and respected his father immensely.
Like, they talked about a lot, they were close, but he did not agree.
He simply could not see what others saw in Sharon and dismissed their concerns without even a second thought.
I've seen so many people like this.
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So when the summer came to an end and James headed back to college in Utah, Sharon got really, really anxious about the fact that she might be losing her ticket out of independence.
She might not have been in love with James.
I personally don't really think she was.
And I don't really think he was in love with her at that point.
I think they were maybe getting there.
Yeah. But she did know that he was her best chance to get out of small town life.
It's codependence. It's codependence.
Exactly. And she was very, very worried that with him heading back to school, some other girl might take that away from her.
So playing into his religious sense of moral responsibility, Sharon sent him a letter at school in September saying, quote, the sins of summer have produced a child in my womb.
Shut the fuck up. But don't worry.
I don't expect you to sacrifice your education and return to independence.
I'll handle the situation.
That is so dark to do.
And so manipulative.
That's unbelievably manipulative.
and just like the way she phrased it the sins of summer the sins of summer have produced a child in my womb i gotta go uh -huh i gotta go uh the sins of summer had not produced a child in case anybody else out there was like wait is she right no she's not she's not she's not pregnant i don't even know this story and she's not she's not thinking about me that thought she was telling the truth no no but she knows what she's doing because he's deeply religious so her saying she's essentially saying i care this situation you know and he's deeply religious and obviously that would trigger something
in him precisely wow yeah wow she's like 16 i was just gonna say isn't she 16 that is high level manipulation sharon sharon operates at a higher level i'm not saying it's a better level but she operates at a higher it's a higher level of of depravity it is exactly that's that was a beautiful sentence thank you i like i like when you say depravity i like depravity yeah it's good yeah now james he didn't like depravity but he was a little shocked and not really sure what he should do like yeah he's he's a kid he's not a kid but for all intents and purposes he kind of is well and it sounds like his you
know he was emotionally very immature so it's like this is a lot and it's to me it sounds like he lived a very sheltered life but i'm also like you got you guys obviously committed some sins over the summer i mean yeah it's like so you can't have that you know you can't be that like that connected to those those thoughts that you have those boundaries that you have like it seems like they might be a little fake seems like it or it seems like sharon was like listen we're fucking doing this yeah but it's like but it takes two to tango but so he wasn't sure what to do so he showed the a letter to
a female friend and she was like you know she might be lying to you to trap you into a relationship she was like nothing about that is real she was like poetic but yeah like wow but garbage garbage and james was like no sharon would not lie to me and i don't think she would lie about this i don't think she's capable of that she would and she absolutely would and having being haven't been raised in a strict mormon family he just couldn't believe that a woman would lie to him especially about something like pregnancy but it's like you guys fucked before you were married like you're not super connected
to these ideals obviously that's the thing like the cherry picking here is really annoying it's just like okay well you can't be that upset about it because you guys fucked so I don't know it's one of those things though where like I know they are super connected to those like this seems very cherry -picked what you're gonna like be bothered by but it is it's just kind of funny I'm like okay but he came to to the conclusion that the only thing he could do was return to independence and make Sharon an honest woman marry her yeah I mean yeah Mormons pick that part why not yeah so in early October
of 1956 James took a leave of absence from Brigham Young University packed up the few belongings he had headed back to Missouri intending upon doing the right thing on October 17th James James, his father, and Sharon went to the Jackson County Courthouse to apply for a marriage license.
Now, having secured her future with James, Sharon's attitude underwent a noticeable change.
According to author James Hayes, who wrote the Sharon Kinney story, quote, she no longer shared complicity in the pregnancy, but blamed the child on him alone.
She angrily reminded him that his lust interrupted her college and hinted at having been through this before with another man.
What? Sharon has been around.
baby and she's just got so like i'm just like the high again the high level of manipulation here is just like really right sinister because she's a 16 year old woman running around like she has seen some shit been through some shit and it kind of sounds like she had been through some shit that's the thing and it's like and i know i'm like i was like getting on james here for like cherry picking what he was gonna follow in his religious and moral beliefs here yeah which i stand by that's very cherry -picked because like you were having sex with an underage girl so like there's your first uh moral
cherry first whammy and two you are uh fucking before marriage that's your second moral cherry picking but like whammy i also believe he is clearly being like high level manipulated here which is like a wild part so there's like a lot of things going on here that i'm just like this is all wrong oh it's wild it only gets wilder damn so she's she's saying like that she's gone through this before she's upset with him now that he's back when it seems like that's exactly what she wanted and as she's filling out her portion of the paperwork she starts mumbling all these kinds of shitty things about his father
haggard who is right there literally standing right next to her and she's openly berating james for allowing his family's beliefs about virginity and religious purity to rob her of the traditional church wedding that That she thought she was entitled to.
What? But it's like.
Isn't this what you wanted?
But now you're upset.
Because this is what she wanted.
But it's not her version.
She doesn't know what she wants.
I think she wanted him to marry her.
But I think she wanted it to be this big fucking bash.
In a church. Yeah she wanted all the.
She wanted attention.
But it's like you're in a fucking pickle right now.
You're 16. you're pregnant by this Mormon guy he's gonna keep this hush hush he's not gonna give you this big huge wedding that you think you're entitled to damn and we're gonna pretend like you got pregnant after this courthouse ceremony and it's like she's not pregnant and she's not pregnant so this is all just a lie so it's like the lie is keeping you from most of this the lie that you made up what the fuck she's reaping what she's sown and she doesn't like it but she thought she was she was selling exactly this damn it's wild i'm this is just like so much there's so many layers of just like
wrongness here oh just wait where but you know those like potatoes that people make where there's just like 60 billion layers of crispy potatoes yeah that's the story but not as scrumptious yeah this is a not delicious this is it's like um they've like like ratatouille no like they've gone bad at this point what did the cheese do yesterday it's coagulated coagulated oh yes yeah this is the coagulated version it is every layer is just yuckier yeah moldy even you know because you know the cheese goes on the potatoes but it's bad after a while yeah this is just because like the manipulation is wild
but it's by a 16 year old so it's like the power dynamic here is so weird because it's like she's a younger young lady she's who's six years younger than him who is much younger than him where they shouldn't even be in a relationship to begin with but not mentally like that's the problem there like the first problem and then it's like but then the manipulation is coming from the person who shouldn't have the power in that scenario like very strange it's a it's a weird i don't know i'm very upset by all of this you will continue to i think it's all fucked up personally it is but the next day the marriage
license was approved and the two were married in a small ceremony held in the Kinney home.
Oh, okay. Not the big wedding that Sharon had hoped for.
No. Now, believing he'd done the right thing, James packed himself and his new wife into the car and the newly married couple returned to Utah.
Of course they did.
Where he was like, I'm going to continue my studies because I have my future.
Yeah. And now he was more determined than ever to quote unquote make something of himself and support his new family.
Well, because now, again, he's got this strange set of ideals.
So it's like now he's being pulled in several different directions and he's probably feeling like, Like, okay, now I really got to finish this because I'm going to be the provider of this child that doesn't exist. Exactly.
Yeah. Now, when they arrived in Provo, James and Sharon moved in with James' friend temporarily while he worked to find a place of their own.
But unfortunately, any hope that James had of Sharon settling down now that they were married was immediately dashed once they settled in Utah.
Shocked. From the moment they arrived, Sharon complained about absolutely everything, from their temporary accommodation, which was pretty cramped, to the fact that he never had time to take her anywhere because he was studying.
Just everything. And her constant negativity and cruel comments made it impossible for him to focus on his studies because they were always fighting.
Yeah, it's just this is abusive.
Exactly. And in late December, after just two months in Utah, they ended up moving back to Independence, which is exactly where she wanted to get away from.
no and the second she got away from it she sabotaged that's the thing it's like that's why i mean she doesn't know what she wants i don't think she does she does not she thinks she knows what she wants she doesn't that's the thing she wants power she wants control but it sounds like she wants chaos as well so it's like well i think she's somebody that thrives in chaos without recognizing it yeah now back in missouri james and sharon moved into into a small house next door to his parents, which his father owned.
So, like, allowed them, like, gave them a home to live in.
And Sharon is constantly talking about how much she fucking hates this man.
Oh, man. She also hated living next door to the in -laws.
She looked down on them.
She constantly mocked them for their conservative ways and their deep -held religious beliefs.
Which is like, what the fuck is it to you, man?
Well, it's like, this is the person that you chose to trap.
That's the thing. It's like, this is the family you married into.
You know what you were getting into.
This is the beliefs they held.
They weren't hiding them.
No, like that's the thing.
Now, while James's father had already realized what kind of person Sharon was, and that's exactly why she didn't like him.
I was going to say that's why she didn't like him.
Because he had her number from the jump.
Yeah. But his mother refused to believe that any kind of young woman could be so cruel and calculating.
Believe it, girl. According to Hayes, James's mom, quote, believed in storybook relationships and thought that a mother and her son's wife should be close.
She sounds like a very sweet woman.
I was going to say, I mean, yeah, that sounds delightful.
And that is absolutely like the ideal.
Well, and Sharon's mom barely ever made time for her in her childhood.
And once they came back to independence, James and Sharon, Sharon's mom still wasn't involved.
But James's mom went out of her way to be kind to Sharon.
She offered to pay their bills when they fell behind.
She would take Sharon on shopping trips.
She'd take her out to lunch. She sounds like, that's like your ideal mother -in -law.
Are you kidding me?
Like she's acting like a mom, like stepping in, being like a mother figure to you.
And when you're not necessarily the nicest person to her husband or her son.
I was just going to say you've been a shit -tastic person to her son and her husband.
But she's trying. You're mocking their like religious beliefs.
You're mocking everything about them and she's still being kind to you.
I mean, that's the way that people, you know, are supposed to be.
Exactly. Be nice to people.
But Sharon, she was like, fuck you.
Damn, Sharon. The fuck?
Now, not long after they resettled and independent, Sharon started filling her days spending what little money James was making at the time which quickly turned out to not be enough to satisfy her spending habits so as a result she set out to find her own job to subsidize her constant need to spend money now even though she was very skilled at nearly every job she tried she worked in a print shop she was a babysitter at one point she was a legal secretary a hotel receptionist and she was great at all of those things but every Every time she started a new job, she just got bored easily.
And the second she got bored, she quit and, like, spent zero time at these jobs.
So she has no staying power for something.
Like, she's not going to stick it out.
Even if she's good at it, it's just mundane to her.
If she's bored, it's not going to happen.
Exactly. Even if it's a good thing.
Even if it is. And when she was working and making money, she also insisted that the money she made should not be considered family income.
income instead she thought of the money that she made as hers to use as she pleased and even with her own income she continued to spend money recklessly usually charge charging things to James's account instead of her own this is dysfunctional it's the definition of dysfunctional I mean you do what you want with your bank accounts in your own homes like that's your business this is dysfunctional this is not well bitch because everybody is not happy with this arrangement so because it started out on a lie yeah and it's not pregnant i mean isn't she still claiming to be pregnant and we're like that's
gonna come when there's no actual pregnancy or child yeah that's no she's gonna have to fess up no she doesn't no okay so well actually lord we're there okay guys and just uh quickly trigger warning for like mention of pregnancy loss oh one afternoon several months after they settled back in independence i think she realized like i'm not not pregnant I'm not gonna start showing anytime soon so I gotta do something about this she decided she was tired of the pregnancy ruse since it had served its original purpose of getting James to marry her so she was like man I'm done with this so James came
home that evening and he this is so sad he found her in a panicked state and she told him that shortly after he left work that that morning her body quote began to reject the baby so she's claiming she's making a miscarriage which is fuck this bitch i can't even yeah fuck this bitch honestly so james was confused and sharon used the opportunity to gain even more sympathy from him by making it seem like his high security job at the bendix corporation had put too many barriers in place for her to reach him and that's why she hadn't told him sooner so she's literally manipulating him by saying that it's
basically like your fault that she's saying i've had i'm like i'm suffering a miscarriage since you left for work this morning and the reason you don't know is because I couldn't reach you.
So this is your fault.
That's so fucking sinister.
If you are able to fake a miscarriage and like carry on that, that lie to the father, quote unquote, something is deeply, deeply wrong with you.
Like that's, fuck you.
That's on another level.
If you're faking a miscarriage, Fuck you.
Fuck you into oblivion.
Yeah, that's fucked up.
So in January 1957, not long after ending the pregnancy scam, if you will, Sharon learned that she was pregnant for realsies this time.
And in the fall, she did give birth to the couple's first child, a daughter which they named, I think it's either Dana or Dana.
Dana. It's two Ns. I would say Dana.
Dana was my first instinct.
Okay. Cute name. Now from the outside, Sharon seemed to be a devoted mother, constantly doting on her daughter really living up to every responsibility of domestic life she actually even started going to church with the family and if for a second it seemed like she was embracing the mormon lifestyle but like her attempts to hold down a job she quickly got bored with the life of a homemaker and just went back to spending excessively she's gonna stick to something girl she's something she sticks to scheming well there you go she's steady scheming She's steady scheming.
Now, by 1959, she'd given birth to another child, a boy which they named Troy, and the family moved into a newly purchased home in a subdivision.
And the new baby in the new house seemed to occupy Sharon's attention for a little bit, which made her at least temporarily less abusive towards her husband.
Oh, nice. That's great, yeah.
But the baby in the house also gave her a reason to spend more money.
And in response, James actually took a slightly higher paying second shift at the Bendix Corporation, separation, which left Sharon alone with the children in the evenings and put more emotional distance between her and James.
With James working in the evenings and the children having gone to bed, Sharon found herself with way more free time than she'd had in years.
So she said, I'm going to look up my old high school boyfriend, John Boldy.
Now, unlike her life with James, which was filled with constant arguments, emotional distance, you name it, her relationship with John John was exciting because it was the forbidden fruit, if you will.
Because it was not this one, that's why.
And she reveled in the thrill of infidelity, sneaking around behind her husband's back to meet John at cheap motels in the backseat of his car.
Girl. And where James had become increasingly immune to her domineering personality and manipulations, John was easy to manipulate and control because this was new and that made her feel powerful.
fearful now even though sharon eventually grew tired of john too and only turned to him when she couldn't find another man to entertain her for the night he was falling for it now by 1960 life in the kinney house had deteriorated to a near breaking point it seemed to james that sharon was never home which was mostly fine by him except that she wasn't really living up to her end of the domestic bargain yeah that he's working and she's not yeah doing anything remember this is a time where a man worked during the day and came home to a hot meal and his children were fed and blah, blah, blah.
So he could no longer expect a hot meal when he came home and instead she was just leaving him out frozen meals and that was not the only thing that she was absent in.
Yeah. She was absent from the children.
Yeah. They were being neglected on a regular basis.
Their basic needs were more often met by babysitters than their own mother.
Yeah, it's like, I'm sorry.
If you're going out to, like, fuck other men and leaving your children to be neglected, Like, that sucks.
Exactly. Like, that's not cool.
Yeah. And that's the thing.
James was being like, okay, you're not with the children.
I'm not getting hot meals.
Where the fuck are you?
So he caught on pretty quickly to the fact that she was cheating on him, but he had no idea to the extent which he was right.
And as a deeply, deeply religious person, he knew that divorce would have been discouraged by everybody in his community, and he was right.
Whenever he brought the subject up to his parents, his mom would typically encourage him to work out their problems. for the children's sake it's never the way to go no it's never better I understand that like that was just the way it was back then but I know it's like a religious thing it still is now a religious thing that like you don't get divorced you just suck it up and have a horrible marriage for your children and people always say like for the sake of the children the children are not going to thrive in an abusive household no they see everything kids know when you're arguing and when you're
not yeah like loving each other and not having a respectful discourse and if anything It's better to look at them and say, sometimes these things don't work out, and your father and I respect each other enough to not continue with this.
Yeah, just never for the sake of the children never really works out.
Yeah. Not that I've seen it.
Well, and it didn't here.
Yeah. It didn't at all.
Now, as the weeks went on, staying with Sharon seemed more and more impossible to James, and finally in mid -March he actually did bring up divorce to Sharon, and she agreed that their marriage had reached its end, but her her terms for a divorce i knew this was gonna come outrageous and unacceptable she would have bankrupt yeah there was i was gonna say there was no way she was just gonna be like let's amicably divorce no and honestly her idea of like the terms of this divorce are so disturbing to me at least according to hayes she was willing to go along with the divorce but only if james gave
her the house dana and a thousand dollars in cash fuck troy i was just gonna say only one of your kids I would like this one.
She wants her daughter.
James can have the boy.
Oh, I hate this. How fucked up is that?
I hate this a lot. Yeah, that's really fucked up.
And it's also like, oh yeah, you love Dana so much, you're leaving her in babysitter's care all the time too.
And James was like, uh, splitting the children up is out of the question.
They're siblings. Like, you're just going to split them?
That's so crazy. Like, this isn't the parent trap, girlfriend.
And so he was like, no, that's out of the question.
And with the idea of divorce seemingly being moved away from, his parents were relieved.
believed in fact after giving it some thought sharon herself even decided that she didn't love the idea of divorce because she wasn't gonna win oh guys come on everybody involved here except for james i'm like get out of here this poor man oh honestly this poor man yeah at this point it's like geez like he's he's given it his best shot here he is absolutely and the thing was so sharon at this they talk about the divorce for a little bit but then she's realizing he's not going to to agree to her terms and then she realizes that her terms aren't even really good enough for her it would get her out
of marriage but a thousand dollars was not enough to live on for very long and it definitely would not sustain her lifestyle and the salary that she was working for temporary jobs really gave her little pay so it wasn't going to be a win for her but there was another way that Sharon could get out of the marriage and it almost guaranteed that she would get everything she wanted and more.
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On Saturday afternoon, March 19, 1960, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department received a frantic call from Sharon Kinney, saying that her husband had a heart attack and she needed help right away.
Now, when sheriff's deputies arrived at the Kinney home, however, they found a very strange scene.
james kinney was lying on the couple's bed his target pillow excuse me his target pistol on a pillow next to him pointing toward the large hole in the back of his head at the time i feel like that's not a heart attack no it's very unclear why she says heart attack yeah i don't know if she thought they were going to come faster yeah i think they would still come pretty fast if you said said he was shot yeah i don't know strange i don't know if maybe she didn't want something recorded on the 911 call maybe not i don't know but at the time that they they got there he was still alive but unfortunately
he would die a short time later on the way to the hospital so it was not instant which is really awful now this is so fucked sharon told the officers that he'd gone into the bedroom a short time earlier to take a nap and then a short time later while she was in the bathroom getting ready to go to church like a good woman yeah she heard their her two -year -old daughter dana asked loudly how does this thing work daddy how does it work and then she said she heard the shot ring out i'm sorry she's blaming this on her two -year -old daughter she is blaming this on her two -year -old daughter and not only
that she's gonna get away with it shut the fuck up she's gonna get away with blaming it on her two -year -old daughter for a little while at least i'm without words without words now james had always had a fascination with guns and he would take them apart to clean them but sharon said that he was also forgetful and careless with them according to her he would sometimes leave them lying around the house that's fucked up it is on the kitchen table next to the television where the children could easily reach them and the officers did note that his gun belt and ammunition were lying next to the bed
which which did seem to support Sharon's claim, but then her statement was also confirmed by James' parents.
He was an irresponsible gun owner.
Oh, that's fucked up.
And that's just the truth of it.
But still, the death did seem suspicious.
Accidental shootings did happen, but not typically with a two -year -old.
Yeah. And investigators wondered why James would have laid down to take a nap with a loaded pistol lying next to his head.
Yeah. Like, you can be an irresponsible gun owner, but I don't think it goes to that extent.
That's pretty far. are now and you can't be like i'm saying there are irresponsible yeah now unfortunately there wasn't much evidence to prove or disprove sharon's claims yeah the 22 caliber pistol was taken from the scene but it was covered in so much gun oil that it was impossible to get any fingerprints off of it which is interesting then the lab technician also didn't bother to test either either Sharon or Dana's hands for gunshot residue what the fuck no idea why or excuse me I do know why they believed at that time this particular lab technician believed that those tests were unreliable
why wouldn't you just do it anyway couldn't tell you I feel like it's better just to do it and also how is that unreliable you either have gunshot residue on your hands or you don't and it's like it's better to do it and then argue about it later than to not do it and be like well I guess we'll never know well and if if you do test their hands and Sharon has it on her hands yeah boom there you go yeah what wow but the only other test that they did was to determine the pull necessary to fire the gun which was smart now knowing that the pistol required a 3 .25 pound pull they returned to the kinney house
with a similar disabled pistol to find out whether dana actually had the strength to pull the trigger and they did find out that she did she was able to in fact not only did she possess the strength to pull the trigger but she also knew how to release the gun.
Why the fuck did she know that?
A two -year -old. Why did this two -year -old girl know how to release a safety on a pistol?
I do not know. I'm just trying to think of my kids at two and I'm like, what is going on here?
This is wild. You would think of a two -year -old like, you don't want to think of a two -year -old gun, two -year -old with a gun, but when you do, you would think that they'd be like waving it around.
That's the thing, like you just, This is just so strange.
This is very strange.
It really is. And I don't know if it's a thing where Sharon taught her how to do it so that she could shoot her father.
Oh, my God. Or if maybe she just saw her dad shoot the pistol all the time.
And, like, that's why.
Yeah. I honestly have no idea.
I don't believe that Dana shot her father.
Seems highly unlikely to me.
I believe that Sharon did.
Yeah. Or that if Dana somehow did shoot her father, it was because Sharon made it happen.
She was set up to do that.
You know, she was set up.
But in their statement to the press, Sergeant Herman Davis of the Kansas City Police told reporters, quote, the bullet had entered from the rear and lodged just under the skin between the nose and the right eye.
Now, Davis continued that this was consistent with the position of the gun, which was, quote, lying flat on the pillow when it discharged, leaving a crease where it cut the cloth and powder burns were on the pillowcase.
So the press were also made aware Of the working theory that Two year old Dana Had accidentally shot her father While he was asleep And they did stress that Their test confirmed James could not have Fired the shot himself Yeah And the investigators actually Never bothered to ask Dana Whether she'd fired the gun or not Or any other questions About the incident I'm sorry what?
They just felt like the evidence Supported what Sharon had told them There was no evidence to the contrary jury and they were ready to rule the death and accident no one ever said to this two -year -old who they claim walked into a room and was like daddy how does this thing work daddy and then pulled the trigger took the safety off and pulled the trigger no one was like you know we should ask this uh prodigy if she actually did that like we just ask her kids will tell you shit oh yeah kids will tell you everything like any i'm sure any preschool or kindergarten teacher knows they know everything
about what happens in your house your kid's gonna tell them everything 100 % like have you ever seen that meme where it's like my mommy has two boyfriends yeah it's like literally like and it's like me like what yeah it's like it's why wouldn't you ask that child like did you fire this gun in your dad in your parents room like there's a way to ask where you're not like staring her making her feel like she did something they should have brought some kind of expert in yeah bring a psychiatrist in like a child psychologist that can ask in a proper way 100 % to get the proper answer like a real no it's
shoddy police work it's also you couple that with the fact that sharon called and said he had a heart attack and it's like why the fuck wouldn't she have said and an accident happened i couldn't find anything to say that they really ever questioned that this is so bizarre it is what the fuck maybe she was having an affair with somebody on the police force what the hell is going on she was having lots of affairs so yeah yeah that's complete speculation by the way but with the autopsy complete and the cause of death listed as accidental officially sharon was free to collect on the various life insurance
policies that had been taken out in the years before james's death including from the veterans administration life insurance and homeowner's insurance and with james dead the balance on the mortgage for the house was wiped out and transferred to sharon she received roughly roughly $29 ,000, which today would be like receiving $300 ,000.
my god so she cashed in on this.
now if it weren't for her reckless impulsivity, Sharon Kinney might have never become a suspect in her husband's death, but she was arrogant and narcissistic and constantly looking for something or someone to validate her and prop up her self -esteem, which is what led her to Walter Jones.
now after cashing out on all those insurance policies she wasted absolutely no time spending the money and actually long before james's death she'd been pestering him to buy her a ford thunderbird she really wanted a thunderbird and he refused because he was like one we have two children like yeah that's not necessarily a family car and not two those are fucking expensive and we don't have the money but now with james out of the way and her pockets flush with cash sharon went down to the rudy Fick Ford dealership on April 18th 1960 and she was helped by one Walter Jones.
Now Walter was said to be a handsome guy with a big friendly personality.
He had all the charm and persuasiveness necessary to succeed in car sales.
In fact at the time Sharon only intended to get the air conditioner in James's old Nash fixed but Walter quickly and easily talked her into trading in the the old car her husband her dead husband's car for the one that she had dreamed about her new car yep and soon she was making regular visits to the dealership if you catch my drift you know what i mean it's like globe motors and the sopranos now it turned out while walter may have been a good car salesman he wasn't really a great person no at the time he began his affair with sharon he was married married to his high school sweetheart patricia everybody
chill the fuck out no you're You're all too much. The most. They had gotten, him and Patricia, they had gotten married right out of high school just before Walter enlisted in the Marines and they relocated to California.
Now after he was discharged, they moved back to Missouri, but by then their marriage was doomed.
In fact, Walter's affairs began almost immediately after they married and continued up until he met Sharon in the spring of 1960.
And Patricia, her choice to stay with her husband was only because of their two children.
and her desire to work things out for their sake and that is that i mean that's still a thing and it's and it like we were saying like it never works out it really doesn't it i i haven't seen many things work out in that when that's the motivation no but you can also understand people's motivation for thinking that's going to be a good thing so i want to make sure you guys know like we know why people do it yeah it just there's there's a lot of evidence to prove that it doesn't work.
Right. And again, of course, there's an exception to every rule.
Of course. It could work out.
And this was a different time and that was much more the thing back then.
Yeah, divorce was looked down upon.
Now it's usually more to do with like morality things and like religious things.
Right. But that was like the norm.
Yeah, like back then, it wasn't just like religious people.
No, it was just like societal. It was societal, exactly.
Now, Walter's marriage was, of course, always a source of frustration for Sharon, not because she was in love with him but because as long as he was married she wouldn't have total control over exactly so now determined to break up the marriage sharon relied on a strategy strategy a strategy that had worked for her in the past and in mid -may she told walter that she was pregnant with his child and demanded that he end his marriage she's the worst she's not pregnant by the way yeah she's the worst she is and she'll only get worse fuck sharon so the news came as a a surprise to walter but he was hardly
ready to give in to those demands he was already cheating on his wife and two children you think he's gonna marry you and do the right thing exactly he's like please by that time his infidelity was actually not really that much of a secret to his wife which had led to several arguments between him and patricia who by then had threatened to leave him and take the children multiple times which like go girl and faced with the with the possibility of losing his wife and kids he actually started to reconsider his relationship with sharon sharon she was controlling manipulative she could be cruel and now
he'd actually begun to resent how dependent he'd become on her for attention and the money that she occasionally provided with all those life insurance payouts and to add to all of that during the week of may 27th while sharon had been away on vacation he spent more time at home like than he ever had while he was dating sharon and realized how much he actually missed his wife when sharon like when she was gone and he actually went to spend time with his wife.
What a guy. He was like, wow, I actually miss you.
I remember why I married you.
Romance. Can you fucking imagine?
What an asshole. So given that, he decided that when Sharon returned in a few days, he would end the relationship and really begin working on repairing his marriage.
Okay. But unfortunately, he would never get that chance.
Uh -oh. On the evening of May 27th, 1960, John Baldese, I'm sure you remember that name, Sharon's high school high school boyfriend and you know side piece called the jackson county sheriff's department to report that he and his lady had taken a drive out to the lovers lane area just off of phelps road a little outside of independence and they'd made a horrible discovery at first boldice told investigators the couple had thought the woman who was illuminated by their headlights had just fallen asleep in the wooded area but after getting out to investigate they had found four bullet in her head
stomach and both shoulders oh my god he was calling to report that he had found a body now when investigators arrived on the scene they found very little evidence to work with the woman who would later be identified as walter's wife patricia jones what the fuck had been shot four times and at least one of those shots had been fired close enough to leave powder burns on her skirt oh my god now there was a surprising lack of blood at the scene which led led investigators to strongly consider whether she'd been shot elsewhere and dumped in the woods and her clothes seemed to be disarranged but they
hadn't been removed okay and there wasn't any other evidence of a sexual assault she had not been sexually assaulted it appeared to investigators that patricia had been killed elsewhere and dumped in the woods and the scene had been staged yeah but as far as a motive they were lost now the next morning walter was brought into the sheriff's sheriff's office for questioning and he explained that he hadn't seen his wife the previous morning and actually he had filed a missing persons report when she failed to return home the night before he even offered to take a polygraph test to prove his innocence
damn no the case took a surprising turn when investigators learned that bulld's girlfriend was none other than sharon kinney Holy shit.
The woman whose husband was killed just two months earlier.
What the fuck? Sharon's explanation for the death of her husband seemed a bit suspicious at the time.
Yeah, it did. But without any evidence to suggest anything otherwise, investigators had no choice but to accept her statement.
But now, her proximity to two murders in a two -month span raised those earlier suspicions a bit higher.
and to add to those suspicions in his statement to the sheriff walter admitted he'd been having an affair with one sharon kinney for a little more than a month and also mentioned that one of his wife's friends had seen patricia and sharon together the day before share excuse me the day before patricia went missing what the fuck she was spotted with sharon sharon not by By just like a random eyewitness by one of Patricia's friends.
Sinister. This woman is sinister as fuck.
Truly. You have five new messages.
those receipts like last week please just tell me where they are are you by your desk right now finance teams you shouldn't be chasing down carl or anyone else with ramp expenses are sent with a text and reminders happen automatically switch your business to ramp .com today and love finance again so according to walter's statement he and patricia had actually argued on the morning of of Thursday, May 26th, and then they went their separate ways.
She went to her job.
She worked at the IRS, and he went to drop the children off with the babysitter before heading to work himself.
And when he got home later that evening, he expected to find her, but she was nowhere to be found.
So he starts calling all her friends and coworkers, one of which was the woman who said she had seen Patricia and Sharon together.
And then another friend told Walter that she'd He'd asked to be dropped off at an unusual location where, quote, they had seen Mrs. Jones enter a 1957 or 1958 Dodge driven by a young woman.
Huh. So upon hearing this, Walter said he called Sharon, who said that she had indeed spoken to Patricia that afternoon and told her that Walter was having an affair with her sister.
So that's a little bit confusing.
confusing so sharon contacts patricia and says i know your husband he's having an affair with my sister and i want to tell you about it because i think you deserve to know and that's how she gets into a car with her sharon sucks big time now walter's statement and polygraph polygraph my grandma that's an insider this polygraph examination didn't rule him out entirely But it did go a long way toward removing him from the suspect list. Sharon, on the other hand, did little to get herself off of that suspect list and pretty much everything to get herself onto it.
Yeah, that's not shocking.
Walter had agreed to that polygraph exam and he actually signed a written statement to his whereabouts.
Sharon made a verbal statement, but she refused to sign anything and refused to take a polygraph examination.
examination in her verbal statement she claimed she had only gone quote on about 12 dates with walter which like that's a lot he's still married with kids my friend and like your relationship has only been going on 12 dates two months yeah like that's pretty standard she said that she called patricia jones and met with her about thursday afternoon to break off the relationship with walter but it's like no you didn't you said that he's having an affair with your sister like You were like, what the hell?
You were setting her up.
Yeah, exactly. The officer who took her statement recalled Sharon saying, I'm very fond of Walt and I didn't want anything to happen to him and his family.
So she said she called Patricia and told her there was something she needed to tell her about her husband, but that she needed to do it in person.
So you're fond of Walt.
You don't want anything to happen to him or his family, but you're going to tell his wife that you guys have been having an affair.
You're going to blow up his entire family by saying that you, your sister and him have been having an affair.
affair. Now, Sharon's story was that she had borrowed her father's car that afternoon.
Ah, a Dodge, perhaps?
Mm -hmm. So that Walt wouldn't recognize her car when she dropped his wife off at home, and that she picked up Patricia at the location where she was last seen by her co -worker.
So that was Sharon.
Like, honey, you did it.
You're admitting it already.
Like, you're not getting out of this, I hope.
Please tell me. Once they were in Sharon's car, she told Patricia that Walter had been having an affair with her sister and she wanted her to know because she felt it was inappropriate and needed to come to an end shut the fuck up sharon shut up sharon now after they'd spoken sharon said you know it was awful i can't believe i had to tell her that yeah and then i dropped her about a block away from the jones house which why would you drop her off a block away you're in a car that he doesn't recognize that's the whole reason you had that car exactly but she said she then looked in the rearview
mirror and quote saw mrs jones talking to a man in a two -tone green 1957 ford so she so she got out of the car and immediately this other guy's like here i am absolutely that makes total sense yeah according to sharon it came as a total shock to coincidentally happen upon patricia's body where she and bodice were out at the lover's lane that evening yeah isn't that wild that you talked to the wife of the man that you've been having an affair with that day you dropped dropped her off.
And then, oh, my God, you just stumbled upon her dead body later that day?
You happen to be the one who discovers it?
Whoa. Buy a lottery ticket, Sharon.
Buy several. Now, as far as she knew, she said that Patricia was, quote, upset but not mad after she informed her of the affair.
So she couldn't imagine what could have happened to lead to her death.
No, of course you can't because nothing else happened.
You killed her. No way.
There's that. Also, you went to a lover's lane with your boyfriend.
Grow the fuck up. She's in her early 20s still.
But, like, grow the fuck up.
honestly well you have two children what are you doing shut the fuck up it's wild we went to a lover's lane like shut the fuck up dave makes like little notes sometimes and he was like i know it may seem weird that they're in a lover's lane but please remember that she is in her early 20s because it's also just crazy to be like she is in her early 20s and all of this has happened in your head you're like jesus christ you're 35 what are you gonna go to a lover's lane like grow up but she's she's young still she's done a lot yeah the autopsy determined that Patricia's cause of death was the gunshot
wound in her head and they placed the time of death around 8 or 9 p .m. on May 27th just a few hours before the body was discovered but unfortunately the three bullets that they retrieved from the shoulders and the head were so badly damaged that they couldn't be used for a match to the weapon and the fourth bullet had entered Patricia's stomach and exited out of her back and then presumably got lodged somewhere where she'd been killed so with no other leads detectives went back to the woods where the body was discovered and started searching with metal detectors hoping to find that fourth bullet
now a team of investigators spent all day searching the woods for that that fourth bullet that passed through patricia's stomach but they had no luck finding it or any other additional evidence i don't think could happen out there.
It gets a little hairy.
OK. And you'll see where in part two.
But in the meantime, Walter and John Baldese were both brought in for additional questioning and they both were given a polygraph examination, which they passed.
It was then that Walter admitted when he learned that Sharon had been with his wife the night she went missing.
He did not call her like he had said originally.
He actually went to her house and confronted her in person.
Oh, damn, Walter. Yeah, Yeah, it gets worse.
According to Walter, when Patricia's friend said that she saw her with Sharon, he went to Sharon and after putting a knife to her throat, demanded that she help search for his wife.
These poor children.
I know. Involved in this kind of shit.
You just hope that they weren't around for seeing any of this.
Hopefully they were with her.
The babysitter that's raising them.
Exactly. And James Kenney's parents were still very involved in their lives.
but within an hour of that incident sharon and boldies discovered patricia's body in the woods how convenient i love that walter shows up puts a knife to your throat tells you to go you like you better find my wife and you're like cool he leaves and you're like hey john you want to go to a lover's lane and just hang out and john's like yeah sure and he's like absolutely and then you you just stumble upon you're like wow good luck for me fortunately and it's like clearly she led you to a certain area in this clearly she killed patricia like we all know that we all know that so she clearly led you
to the location where she knew your headlights were going to of course like illuminate patricia oh my god that way she could like rid herself of the issue of walter being like find my wife right and also be like oh she's gone that's crazy yeah i saw her get into a car with some random ass man wow now the good thing investigation wise was that each new revelation seemed to lead to some other piece of critical information about the case because when bull dees was asked about walter's story he admitted that he and sharon had indeed gone out to the not for intimacy but to look for patricia i was gonna say
yeah so that's how that explains that and that wasn't all he told investigators according to him a couple weeks before patricia's murder charter sharon had quote talked him into going to the sheriff's office to try to get james kinney's pistol back but obviously they refused that request what the fuck but it's like okay is that the same police department like investigating this death because would you not have that on note that some random man was like i need james kinney's pistol back are the police okay here no the answer is no no the answer is not well bitch they are not well because like what You're
not even asking that.
The fact that they didn't even talk to that two -year -old to be like, hey, let's see what she says about whether she shot her dad or not.
Like, just give it a shot.
Not doing that. And then like this, they're like, oh, yeah.
How crazy. We don't have that on file.
It's like, what the fuck?
Like, this lady's obviously got a lot of shit going on around her.
Maybe like keep an eye when she asked for a pistol back.
You would think. That was involved in a murder.
Or when her like lover comes in and asks for it.
Like, come on. It's like, maybe make note of that.
up. But while the detectives continued questioning Walter and Boldiz, a team of investigators switched their attention from the wooded area where Patricia's body was located to an abandoned farm building across the street.
And on the morning of May 30th, investigators searching the barn found two blanks with bullet holes and powder burns, leading them to suspect that Patricia may have been taken to the barn and killed before being dumped in the woods.
Oh, that's fucked up.
And they believed that could account for the chunk of time where she was was missing between when she was last seen by co -workers and when she was discovered in the woods ah that was a theory now the search of the barn didn't give much in terms of new evidence but as investigators were starting to feel like they were losing momentum a co -worker of Sharon's from the photo processing plant that she was currently working at came forward to police with what he thought was vital evidence according to this co -worker a few weeks before Patricia's body was discovered sharon had pressured him into buying
a high standard 22 caliber pistol for her how does she convince people to do these things she has a way with she's manipulative she's got a way with men some women just do now when detectives confronted her with this information sharon quote explained she wanted the weapon for protection on her trip to washington that she'd taken with baldiz just days before the murder and claimed she left the gun with family in Washington.
Okay. Now, although their physical evidence was weak, the circumstantial evidence against Sharon Kinney at this point was substantial.
She'd been having an affair with the victim's husband.
She was the last person to be seen with Patricia Jones.
She was the one to find the body in an out -of -the -way location.
Yeah, she had to go and find it.
She had gone out of her way to obtain a gun and then lost said gun.
Yeah. She was refusing to make any sworn statement or submit a polygraph exam.
And on top of that, her husband had died under similarly mysterious circumstances just two months earlier, after which she collected on insurance policies that not only gave her a clear title to the house, but also solved any financial problems. It may not have been a slam dunk case, but she definitely looked guilty.
This is wild. And it's also so weird that we chose cases this week that had to do with insurance payouts right in the nick of time before financial ruin.
That is weird. Like, that's the exact thing with the OC seed case.
That is very strange.
Very weird. but on the evening of May 31st just hours after Patricia Jones's funeral deputies from the Jackson County Sheriff's Department served a warrant at Sharon's home and she was taken into custody and charged with the murder of Patricia Jones good get her and that's where we're gonna wrap for part one yeah I'm so sorry but in part two there is a lot to cover like I said part two is going to be a little bit trial heavy and you'll see why but once we get through the trial part of it which like if you're like me and that's not necessarily not necessarily your thing we're going to get through
it together and it's going to be worth it because then we go into a whole slew of other wild shit damn I don't know how this can get more well but here I am you know what I was saying the same thing as I was writing this and then I was just like it got more wild it got more wild it yeah yeah wow so we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but it's not so weird that you try to stage your husband's murder like your two -year -old did it because that's just really fucked up it's so wild i can't get over that just wait blaming it on her two years just wait it's wild If you like Morbid,
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