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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
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Download Thumbtack today. Hey weirdos, me and Elena have some exciting news.
Guys, it's going to be so fun. We're hosting a brand new podcast on the Parkast Network.
And it's called Crime Countdown. We wanted to let you guys know about it first because we love you.
You're our little loyal weirdos. We just love you.
So what it's going to be is it's going to be every Monday.
So mark it on your calendar. And we're going to discuss 10 super unsettling true crime topics.
It's going to be centered around a common theme every week.
And we're going to be ranking these in top 10.
One of us is going to do five. The other one's going to do five.
We're not going to know what the other five is.
It's a lot of fun to shock each other. We're going to laugh.
We're going to cry. We're going to scream.
It's going to be great. All of the above.
And we have the podcast research gods helping us out with this.
And sometimes we're going to yell at them.
I mean... when we say we, it's probably gonna be Elena.
It's definitely gonna be me. I'm gonna yell at them a lot.
She's like, I want to prove someone wrong.
I do. I love proving people wrong and we have that relationship now.
So we're going to debate things like who the most disturbing serial killer was, the top 10 dangerous moms, and even...
The top 10 stolen body parts. I personally can't wait to do that one because I'm like, what?
What? What? I'm real excited for that one.
The first two episodes are already out right now, so you can go listen to them.
Like, not for nothing. They're, like, really good.
They're real good guys. And you don't have to... You know, it's not going to be, like...
Super different from what we're doing on Morbid.
We still have the same back and forth. We get to joke around.
We get to riff. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
I think you guys are gonna love it. We're still your old pals.
So sit down and relax as we play you an exclusive clip from our episode on deadly cults.
And to listen to the rest of this episode follow Crime Countdown free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Everyone wants to be part of the club, the Girl Scouts, Phi Beta Kappa, the local golf course.
There's just something about the feeling of belonging, of being part of a group.
Sure, clubs bring like-minded people together, but unfortunately sometimes that leads to dangerous groupthink.
And sometimes, groupthink leads to murder.
Today's crimes were all committed by clubs, but you probably know them by a different name, cults.
Deadly cults, that is. We love a good cult.
The thing about cults is they're never initially supposed to be about killing, but somehow in so many cults, people wind up dead.
It's horrifying, but it keeps happening.
Like I said, everyone just wants to be part of the club.
Hey all you weirdos, welcome to the ParCast Original Crime Countdown.
I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. Every week we'll highlight 10 fascinating stories of history's most engaging and unsettling crimes, all picked by the ParCast research gods.
And today's topic is the top 10 deadliest cults.
Ooh, Ash, you were part of a cult once, weren't you, if I remember correctly?
Uh, not that I can remember. Are you sure?
Weren't you a high school cheerleader I remember?
Okay, that does not count. I'm just saying.
But for real though, what's your favorite cult?
You know I love the Manson family. I would have hopped right on that bus.
How could I forget? With flowers in your hair, you'd be on that van.
Exactly. Would you go into a cult, do you think?
Cults stress me out and I think it's just all the people involved.
Yeah, I could see that. You're like an introvert, so.
I truly am. I don't think I would thrive in a cult.
And I'd like to think, even though this is probably false since so many people end up in cults, I'd like to think because they are so predictable with their playbook that I'd be able to get away from it.
Like, no, no. That's true. I know what's happening.
I get that. Right? I would think so. I see that for you.
I see myself becoming part of one by accident.
Yeah. I mean, as soon as like Charlie Manson is like strumming a guitar and handing you a flower crown, I think you'd be like, well.
Well, okay. I mean, I'm a sucker for a Beach Boy wannabe.
The only bummer is I feel like all these cults, the same message.
It's like... It's the apocalypse, it's the end times, and that's just not fun for me.
They love a good doomsday, these cults. They do.
So the fun part about this culty countdown, like always, is that we only know half of the countdown.
So we're going to be learning half of the countdown right along with you.
Let's start the countdown. 10. I'll get us started with number 10, the Fall River Satanic Cult.
Specifically, its member, Robin Murphy. In 1980, Murphy, along with a man named Carl Drew... brutally murdered Murphy's girlfriend, Karen Marsden, as part of a satanic killing.
I've heard of this one. This one's like kind of a hometown-y kind of one.
I was going to say that. Let's represent, I guess.
Let's not. Let's not represent. So this was during that awesome satanic panic time of the 80s, early 90s, where everyone, including Geraldo Rivera, assumed you were the devil if you wore black You know, that fun time where we would have been arrested.
I was going to say we would not have survived to this time.
Definitely not. The murder of Karen Marsden was... horrific.
Yeah. It was horrific. It was gruesome. Remember Robin Murphy?
This is really gross. Cut Marsden's throat and then Karl Drew literally tore her head off her body.
Oh my god. Yeah, this was no joke. Yeah.
Carl Drew was a known violent turd. You don't say.
Yeah. And he was controlling a small group of local sex workers at the time.
Robin Murphy was one of them. She banked on that satanic panic thing and said she was possessed by Satan during the murder or she never would have done it.
Oh, what a good excuse. Yeah, it's a great excuse.
It was alleged that Robin Murphy also had a role in other murders and that these were also done as offerings for the soul of Satan.
Oh, good. Just really going for that satanic panic thing.
Murphy must have had something on her side because she ended up cutting a deal with prosecutors.
How? So she did this because she said that she would testify against Drew for a lighter sentence.
She got it. Are you serious? Yep. She got it and was released on parole in 2004.
I don't think I knew that part. Well, here's the good thing.
She quickly violated that pearl. Good, good.
Because all of a sudden you're looking behind you like, I'm like, where is she at?
Where is she? She ended up going back to prison, but she's eligible to apply for parole again in 2020.
2022. Too soon, sis. Too soon. That's next year.
Don't like it. No, thank you. No. This year's been good enough already.
Yeah, we're done. Nine. At number nine is a cult that famously had a deadly exchange with the federal agents at their complex near Waco, Texas. the Branch Davidians.
They were wild for sure. Originally, federal law enforcement agents went to arrest the group's leader, David Koresh, which sparked a deadly shootout that turned into a 51-day standoff, and that ended on April 19, 1993, when the members burned the building down.
Not a good outcome. Not a good outcome at all. all.
They were wildened from start to finish.
They had about 130 members that lived on a 77-acre compound.
Instead of starting a cult, they should have just used that acreage for something like a sick bocce ball tournament or something.
Or just like a little like, or like a huge petting zoo, actually.
Yeah. That would have worked. Lots of picnics.
Just something pure. While David Koresh, the leader of the pack, had about 250 weapons on the compound, which is why the ATF headed out there in the first place to arrest him.
Yeah, it seems excessive. It definitely does.
You don't need that much. Their visit sparked a deadly shootout, which killed four agents of the ATF and six of the Branch Davidian members.
The shootout ended up turning into a 51-day standoff that finally came to an end on April 19, 1993.
And that's when the members, including their leader, burned the building down.
That's intense. Right, like way too intense.
Way too intense. Well, because of the way the FBI handled this, the American people really changed the way they saw the government.
They thought that law enforcement had used poor judgment and excessive force.
And actually, the Branch Davidians still exist today.
Whoa. Yeah, isn't that crazy? That's terrifying, actually.
It's from the last nine that survived, and now they call themselves Branch, the Lord of Our Righteousness.
Okay, I know righteous has like another meaning and all, but every time I hear it, I just think of someone being like righteous.
Totally righteous, dude. I just think of like the Lord of our righteousness.
Yeah. Eight. Number 8 on our list of deadly cults takes us back to 1989, when authorities found several bodies killed as human sacrifices.
On a ranch in the Mexican city of Matamoros, near the US border.
When they questioned suspects about an American victim, Mark Kilroy, they led police to Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, the 26 year old leader of the cults.
Wow, that's young for a leader. I was gonna say, getting started real early.
Like, okay. The other leader was Sarah Eldredi. who was a student at Texas Southmost College.
She was known as, quote, the witch. Oh, same.
Yeah, which is a nickname I can totally get behind, but she is not a person that I can get behind.
No, definitely not. The cult took their cues from a film called The Believers.
I looked this up because I had never heard of The Believers.
I never heard of it either. It's from the late 80s and it's about a cult who sacrifices kids for power and success.
Casual. So you can already see that this is not awesome.
They literally organized screenings of this film for cult members.
Okay. This cult also looked at human sacrifices in the same way, as a method to bring them fortune, protect them from the police, bring them things they wanted.
Oh, there was a killing shack at the ranch where all the bodies were found and it was a nightmare in there.
A lot of decomposed bodies, decapitated, hanged bodies, throat slashed, shot, stabbed, missing organs, missing limbs. think of it and it was happening in there.
Yeah, that's like all the recipe. That's the full on recipe for a nightmare.
Yeah, that's just like, here you go. Sprinkle a little bit of each of those things.
Yeah. Just everywhere you look, you're like, oh, it gets worse.
Okay. The American victim, Mark Kilroy, was found in there, and he had had his brain removed and boiled in a pot.
No, thank you. Leader Costanzo specifically asked for a quote, Anglo male because they said, that it was going to add sacrificial powers.
It's gonna make it more strong. Okay. That's why they brought Kilroy in and killed him.
Okay, gotcha. So there were accoutrements of Santeria, which is an underground Caribbean religion, and black magic that were found in the shack. okay so there was a lot of things they were saying they were not dealing in in good stuff yeah doesn't sound like it yeah no joke Seven.
Well, at number seven this week is the infamous Manson family, who in the summer of 1969 committed a series of brutal murders in Los Angeles.
The murders were at the direction of Charles Manson, a wannabe singer-musician living in the desert with his, quote, family of devoted young women and men.
For some reason, he always gets lumped in with serial killers.
I know, he really does. He does. And he's not.
He's just like a dirty little murderous rat.
I know, I have to remember not to call him a serial killer in front of you so that you don't get mad at me.
So I don't get angry. Well, this one happens to be my favorite true crime case.
Manson really got full-on vicious after having a super messed up childhood and after his rejection from the music industry.
It's like everybody's been turned down for something.
Dude, just move on. Well, he was turned down by the Beach Boys, so that's kind of a big turndown.
Big turndown. Turndown for that. Yeah, turned down for that for sure.
Well, he would use the Manson girls to lure other men into the group until they formed this big family.
The family was living at Spahn Ranch, which at 55 acres used to be a movie ranch where they would film westerns.
They brought it way down. Yeah, as we all know, drug use was instrumental in Charlie Manson's control over this group. belladonna is a hell of a drug seriously don't recommend 10 out of 10 do not So as everybody was tripping, Manson would preach about Helter Skelter, which is what he said was going to basically be the start of a race war.
Imagine just being like, hey everybody, so this Beatles song feels like it's telling me to murder a bunch of people. and start a race war around everybody and then the world's gonna end and we're gonna be the only ones living.
Like, are you guys in? And then imagine everybody being like, Hell yeah, let's get it.
And just imagine people being like, I don't question that at all.
Absolutely. That's a cult. That's when you know you're in a cult.
Yeah. Call your dad, as My Favorite Murder says.
Yeah, exactly. Well, he thought at the end of this war, the Mansons would rule the world and-
The murder of Sharon Tate ended up bringing this case crazy media attention because she was a pregnant movie star at the time.
That's so sad. Yeah, it was really sad. She was so beautiful. it hurt.
Yeah, for real. So that is number seven.
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The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.
Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, and magic.
Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
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