#496 - Too Many Knots Tied - Tallapoosa, Missouri
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Choo-choo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another 10 Pounds of Murder in a 2-Pound Bag, Small Town Murder Express. We have, again, a crazy-ass story for you today. Before we get started, though, just want to do a couple little housecleaning things at the top here, especially shutupandgivememurder.com.

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This week we have a banner week. This is fun stuff for crime and sports. We're going to talk about the OJ trial. Oh boy. You go, I've heard about the OJ trial. Yeah, but we're going to get in depth. I watched all 493 episodes of the trial on YouTube and they're like two hours of pop to the trial lasted eight months. How do you screw up a case with DNA? Complete incompetence. And we'll talk all about it for small town murder. Let's go inside Ed Gein's house and see what's in there.

Let's see the gross stuff. Let's pass the velvet ropes. Oh, yeah. You know it, baby. Well, the doorman, he charges a lot. And you got to be dressed properly, of course, to get in there. Those velvet ropes are made of vagina lips. They are. That's the disgusting part. They're made of breast skin. So you don't want to watch out for that.

So certainly we're going to check that out, all the stuff in there, Day in the Life of Ed Gein. That is patreon.com slash crimeandsports is where you get all that. And we are, by the way, creeping up on our 500th episode coming up. This is episode 496. So we're doing a little something. Research at smalltown, or is it? No, at shutupandgivememurder.com. That's it. Research at shutupandgivememurder.com. You can do that, or you can just hit me up with it because I'm going to be sorting through these rather than...

inundating Allison with it at the research. You can hit me up on Instagram or Facebook or whatever with your ideas because I'm looking for a special crazy 500th episode and if it's, you know, fan sourced, great, cool,

We want it to be something wild here. It's 500. It's huge. It's a milestone. So we're very excited for that. That said, I think it's time, everybody. There we go. Enough of this. Let's sit back. What do you say here? Let's all clear the lungs. I don't care what you're doing right now. It doesn't matter. You're a landscaper. Is that right? You're edging somebody's lawn. I would like you to take that weed whacker, throw it as far as you can into the yard, and shout at the homeowner,

Shut up and give me

murder. All right. Let's go on a trip, everybody. Here we go. God, that guy would be terrified. If you had lawn equipment and somebody was shouting that, you'd run in your house and lock the door. Oh, God. Even if they did it for free on Instagram, it's still a frightening man. Terrifying man. We're going to Missouri, everybody. Very small town this week. Extremely small. Tallapoosa, Missouri. Gross. T-A-L-L-A-P-O-O-S-A. It's got the word poo right in it.

And Pusa sounds awful. As we say on Your Stupid Opinions, our other show that you should listen to, by the way, because it's hilarious, there will be poop. And Tallapoosa, Missouri, it is in what I'm going to call severe southeastern Missouri. Barely Missouri. They call it the boot heel over there. Oh, is it? And that's where this is, in the boot heel of Missouri. I can see it. If you look at it like that. Two hours, the closest place anyone's heard of, two hours to Paducah, Kentucky.

That's the closest. Yeah. And it's two hours, a little bit over two hours to Memphis. That's the closest big city here. About four hours to Willard, Missouri, which was our last Missouri episode. Remember, that was the one with the old ladies. And that was a wild one. You should listen to that if you haven't. It came out right around Christmas. This is in New Madrid County. New Madrid, as opposed to that old town.

We love that as Americans. We reinvented it. This is new Madrid. I'm sure it's just as nice. I'm sure. Yeah. This is a town of 78 people, by the way. Yeah.

New Madrid. Brand new. 78 people is the population of this town. It's .45 square miles. It's a little tiny little town. Median household income here about $47,000 a year, which is way below the national average. And then the median home cost here, the median home cost here is below the national average for household income.

What? The median household income in America is almost $70,000. The median home cost here is $62,000. The average person with enough write-offs can buy a home here in one year's salary. Done. Here's my mortgage payment, $112. Have a good one. Wow. What the fuck? That is awesome. That's great. It's great. A little bit of history here. It was laid out in 1902.

Someone came out and just cold cocked it right in the jaw, laid it out. 1902. It was named after Tallapoosa County, Alabama.

Oh, yeah. Of course. I was going to say it sounds like something in Alabama. And there's also a Tallapoosa, Georgia. Is there really? I believe there's a Michigan as well. What is a Tallapoosa? Is it a Native American word? It better be. It is a name of creek origin, creek Indians. Many creek villages were located along the banks of the lower river before all the removal happened.

All those ugly. Yeah, Andrew Jackson did some stuff there. Alabama was named after the Tallapoosa River. Now they think Tallapoosa either means pulverized rock in Choctaw or grandmother town in Muskogee.

One of the two. I don't know. But they've had a post office since 1915, so good for them, I guess. I don't know. All right. Reviews of this town. Let's find out, because we've never been there. Hardly anyone has. There's only 78 goddamn people there. So here's three stars, and that's the best we could find is three stars. The community is small and tight-knit, which is often a good thing. However, if you're from out of town or different, it's very difficult to be accepted by some of the powerful cliques.

Oh, powerful. Powerful. It's 78 people. With no money. No. There was more kids in my high school cafeteria during any lunch period than is in this whole town, so I could see that. Money is generally where the power comes from, right? Yeah, I don't think anyone has any of that. I think it's just a matter of... The average American could ruin this whole town. We just all went in there and bought every house. For the price of one house, the average price of one house, you could buy five here, so...

That's a lot. Overall, I give it a three-star rating because it is quite the cute town and does have a lot of good people. Okay, here is three stars. Little quite. Everybody does quite when they mean quite. It's very. Yeah, what is that? It's so weird. In southeast Missouri, it's also known as the boot heel of Missouri. There's nothing at all to do here for fun. You have to go three towns over to watch a movie.

Three towns to get a movie theater. Three towns. This is like in the Dust Bowl they talk about that. Well, we'd go three towns over to watch a picture show. Three towns over. Wow. You watch a movie and they only play one featured film at a time. So it's a single screen too. It's not even multiplex. Truly it's the middle of nowhere and I'd like to move to a rural area a little closer to a city.

You know, a suburb. They like the rural shit, though. They just want to be near. They want to be able to drive, you know, in a reasonable... Yeah, you don't have to drive two hours to go to the multiplex. They have a choice. And finally, two stars. Over the last four years, the crime rate in my town has gone up. Mm-hmm.

there's 78 people. What the fuck could they be doing? It's got to be crazy around here after midnight. I would think you could clear out the bad element in like 15 minutes. It's three guys. With a phone call. Yeah. Call the guy. Billy, cut that goddamn shit out, you son of a bitch. There. Handle all the crime.

The younger generation thinks it's cool and fun to go out and shoot at others and put lives in danger. There's shootings in a town of 78 people. The younger generation? I mean, call their dad. You know who's doing it. They think it's cool and fun. Yeah. The younger generation here is 11 people. 11 people. Most of the crimes happen on one side of town. Oh, the bad side. They have like 36 bad people that live there.

On the other side of Bill's house is the best side of town. There's no tracks. No, there's no tracks that go through here. Police officers are always patrolling in that area, and the police station is not far from the area the crime takes place. I would assume the police station isn't far from anything in this town because it's a fucking .45 square mile town. What are you talking about? What the hell is hard to you?

Things to do here. This is fun. There's a town 10 minutes from here. They call that going to town. And that has 3,500 people in it, that town. Yeah, that's why you have to go past that for more movies. 3,576 for both these towns combined. That's it. That's Malden is this town. Okay. So they have Mardi Gras in Malden.

Tits everywhere, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure. It's very hedonistic. It says Fat Tuesday, or very popularly known as Mardi Gras, calls for a lot of scrumptious food and bright color costumes. It calls for more than that.

You can't just say, here's food and I put a costume on. It's Mardi Gras now. Do you think of food when you think of Mardi Gras in New Orleans? I don't. I never even thought of food, honestly. I think of booze and tits. Booze, tits, and the smell of vomit and urine permeating throughout the streets. That's it.

That's it. Beads. With all things green, golden, and brown, have a blast at the extravagant Mardi Gras parade. Witness huge floats and a mass of people at the street parties. There's going to be dozens of people there.

dozens upwards of 60 but maybe this is for us the festival is not all parades and costume here come the tits okay here we go you will find some of the greatest of events okay yeah ranging from paint parties that's not what i was looking for unless we're painting titties mardi gras walking tours yep no that's not it at all nope and also the malden autumn fest

which takes place at the Malden Industrial Park, where I want to look at the outdoors. Sure. The leaves changing there for a bad reason, for all the smoke being pushed into them. But there will be a petting zoo and pony rides, so yay. All right. There we go. That said, let's talk about a murder, or more than one. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

Holy shit. Okay, let's go here back in time a little bit. Not too far. December of 1996, let's go to. Okay, let's talk about a lady here. Shirley Niswonger.

N-I-S-W-O-N-G-E-R. Niswonger. Yeah, that's definitely how that's pronounced. It's the only way I can think of to pronounce it. Now, Shirley, she's about 37 in this time period, in the 90s. She's going out with a guy for about three years. And they're a terrible couple. Perfect. They're one of these couples that I'll show you when I look through it. When you look through the newspaper, they're constantly getting arrested together.

Together. Crackhead couple that gets arrested together. That's that. From 1993 to 1996, she is with a man named Cecil Barriner. V-A-R-R-I-N-E-R. Cecil. Yeah.

Cecil's a couple years younger. He was born in 1962, so he's about 34 and 96. A lot of run-ins with the law here. Now, Shirley has a son and a daughter. We'll talk about her family quick. She's got a 19-year-old daughter named Candice Sisk, S-I-S-K, and she goes by Candy. She's 19. She's also got a mother.

This is Shirley as a mother named Irene Sisk. She is 74 years old at the time. And Irene's dad, or I'm sorry, Shirley's dad and Irene's husband, Obie, had just died in April of 96. So 96 is, yeah, some transition. She breaks up with her boyfriend. It's a tough time. Now, her mom and dad, Shirley's mom and dad, she used to borrow money from them all the time. Oh.

Oh. She's a mess and a crackhead, like I said. There's all sorts of drug problems. She definitely has a chemical dependency, yeah? Absolutely. Oh, yeah. We'll go through the whole timeline of it through the newspaper arrests that I found of these two. So Cecil and Shirley, at least a few times, went to Irene and Obie's house to borrow money. But Cecil always waited out in the car because they didn't like him. Oh. For good reason, because he's a scumbag. Yeah.

That wasn't going to help. I brought my scumbag boyfriend here. Will you give me money? Cecil's with me. Cecil's with me. Hi, guys. And when you see the guy, too, he's such a dirtbag. So Cecil thinks that her parents have some money and like her family has some money, but she doesn't, obviously, surely. Now, their relationship, let's go over a little bit here. They get together in early 1993.

And their bond forms very quickly, which will happen when you start getting arrested together. That'll do it. That'll bond you. Yeah, as you're getting your rights read as one. We only have to say it once. You're either going to turn on each other and start going, I didn't know she had no meth on her. Or you're going to be like, don't you touch her like that. You leave him alone and you'll come closer. Let me out of my cuffs. Yeah, I'll kick your ass for cuffing my woman like that.

So Cecil here in 1993 and Shirley are arrested at 5.14 p.m. on a Saturday on a suspicion of peace disturbance. So disturbing the peace...

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday. That's a long afternoon. Dude, you can play music as loud as you want at 5 o'clock on a Saturday. Yeah. You can do anything you basically. What do you have to do to disturb? There's got to be screens, man. Oh, yeah. Cecil during this was also booked on suspicion of domestic violence and assault as well. Okay.

Yeah, there's the disturbance. There's the disturbance. But both of them were arrested because they were doing something. So she hit too. Yeah, I think the whole thing was just a mess. Then by August 9th, 1993, they're in a motel together. The Stadium Motel, which I'm sure is top tier. I'm sure there's no stadium nearby. There isn't. It's in this area. There's nothing nearby. Okay.

The Stadium Motel here, they're both arrested after officers serve a search warrant at 445 in the morning.

In their hotel room? In their motel room. Wow. They get raided at 4.45 a.m., which is when they think you're up to something. They get arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine, and they're both booked. Both are held in lieu of $25,000 bond because they don't have that. According to the records, this was in Poplar Bluff nearby, they served a search warrant on the motel room and found a quarter gram of meth.

Oh, that's all they said. That's not worth the raid left. That's all. Yeah. Well, it's, it's four 45 more. They've been doing it all night. You should have caught him at 10 o'clock when they just picked up. You know what I mean? Uh, they also found tons of drug paraphernalia, including syringes with drug. Oh, they're shooting. They're shooting us. Oh fuck. This,

This isn't good. They're so deep. So November 1993, they are sentenced for this. And they are each placed on, well, you, sir and ma'am, may fuck off, five years probation. They plead guilty to this for possession of meth. And Cecil is sentenced to three years in prison, but it's suspended. Okay.

And he has to do 300 hours of community service and be subject to 60 days shock detention, which I don't know what that is. Wow. I have no idea what that is. Surely –

Those conditions, he's fucked. He's never going to apply all of that. That's the thing. And they keep getting arrested because of this probation violation. We see this with crime and sports a lot. Once a guy's on probation or parole, then every time he's driving without a license, every time he's doing this, now it's another arrest. They just saddled a meth addict who already has a lifelong issue with eight years of problems. They gave him responsibilities and said, here, take care of this.

And if you don't do it, eight years hanging around his neck. That's crazy. So Shirley receives suspended imposition of sentencing as well. Her probation includes 250 hours of community service. Okay.

and a pay crime victims fund which i don't know what the hell it's a fine i imagine yeah yeah as i say that's where it goes it was like there's really no victims to this other than her kids maybe other than that there's a lot of victims hotel uh whoever has to clean up their shit they do that every day though let's say the stadium motel i think that's pretty standard they're used to it go ahead and do a syringe sweep would you okay thanks that's every morning

So July 21st, 1994, Shirley is arrested and booked into jail on a warrant for bad checks. She's writing. She's doing that too. Yeah. Well, that's, that's meth shit. Everything she's doing is meth shit. Yeah. But yeah, that's a, that's a heavy crime with those. Yeah. That's July 94, August 23rd, 94.

Oh, Jesus. We have Cecil is arrested here. Shirley as well. The two of them arrested together at the 800 block of South C Street following an incident at the Iron Horse Saloon. Yep. Jesus Christ. That sounds right. These two and a guy named Terry Chaney are all arrested together. Chaney was arrested on municipal warrants and suspicion of a fray and peace disturbance, so fighting. Oh.

Shirley and Cecil were arrested on suspicion of a fray and peace disturbance as well. So they're fighting at the Iron Horse Saloon. Jesus. We don't know with each other, with Terry, with somebody else. Who the fuck knows? Fighting at a saloon post, I don't know, 1889. Yeah. That's weird. Yeah. At a saloon, not a bar. No.

Not a sports bar or a strip club or something. That's the weirdest when guys get in fights at strip clubs. I'm like, there are tits out. Decorum, please, gentlemen. Jesus Christ. Put your hands back in your pockets. Order. Order in the court. There is tits out.

You respect that, goddammit. Show some respect for those nipples. Yeah, you stop trying to do fisticuffs here, now. Jesus, you should be trying to do different fistas here. Yeah, fisticuffs. You awful person. Yeah. Even that's weird. So, December 1995, again, Cecil, of course, is arrested for violating probation. Sure, yeah.

Obviously, he is admitted he was responsible for a burglary that occurred on August 7th, 1995. Yes. He's got to get the drugs. He also admitted to association with a known felon and admitted to using and possessing drugs. So he's in deep shit, by the way, at some point in his life. And I can't find when exactly it is, but at some point in his life, he is.

He is accused of murder and arrested for it and then released. And no charges end up being filed. Not enough evidence or...

Who knows? They found somebody else. We don't know. I don't know the details of it, but he was arrested. You're under arrest for murder, somebody said to this man, while they put cuffs on him. And they somehow hashed it out before he spent the rest of his life. Yep, and then he was free to do all of this garbage. So fall of 1996, Shirley breaks up with Cecil. She's had enough. Fuck. Yeah, it's just...

No, these two, the court should order you're not allowed to be with each other anymore. I wish we could court order people to stay the fuck away from each other when they're in relationships. Court order broke breakup. If we see you together, you're both under arrest. I'm so there's no, no one's going to be at fault. Everyone's going to jail.

We see you talking on Bumble. It's over. Yeah, it's over with. Email. Nothing. WhatsApp. We will fucking find that shit. We don't care. Get off the kick. Yes, they fight all the time. One of the fights that caused her to break up with him was the fact that during a fight, he threatened to, quote, take her son out in the woods and shoot him.

Oh, my. They're really fighting for real. That's a fight. That's a big fight. Wow. So Shirley ends up going back to jail right after that. So she's going to spend Christmas of 96 in jail.

So she spends, in the fall she goes in and she's remaining for a while. So her daughter, Candy, remember her? She's 19. She moves in with Irene to try to help Irene out a little bit. Okay. The 74-year-old whose husband died this year. So she moves in there. So Candy's living with Irene. So 19-year-old and a 74-year-old are going to live. That's a sitcom right there. That's an 80s sitcom. How is that not one?

It was. It's a lot of bad sitcoms. In the 80s, they made like 10 different sitcoms about old people moving in with young people. And there's one about Mickey Rooney going to college. It's fucking insane.

Literally, he's like in a dorm, like, you know, grandpa's dorm room or some shit it's called. It's like him with like a sideways hat on. Like, I'm one of the kids. I knew Greg Giraldo had a show, but I never saw it or knew what it was about. I just watched a documentary about him and I saw what the show was. I'm not shocked that it failed. It was him as a lawyer just because he was ethnic and a lawyer. Yeah. Get the fuck out. Yeah. That's not the best use of Greg Giraldo. It's just not. No.

It's crazy. It's a Mexican lawyer. Is it? Is it crazy? So. What could be more fish out of water than that? That's so stupid. Put it on the network right now. It's those old sitcoms, man. So December 1996, Cecil thinks he failed the piss test. Uh-oh. For probation here. So he's concerned his probation will be revoked. Yeah.

Now, he lives in Poplar Bluff and he wants to flee the area to get away from his probation violation. Oh, he's going to. Rather than deal with it, he's like, I'll flee. I'm going to go on the lam about my probation. Yeah. They'll never find me. Good choice. He was go. So his plan was to go to Candy and Irene's house here to try to get some money from them. Because she he knows that.

Irene has money. So he's going to try to get Irene to give him some money.

And hopefully she'll, you know, he'll be able to talk her into it. Some crackhead fucking bullshit. She's going to be able to afford to give him enough money to evade the law for the rest of his life. He thinks, by the way, do you know how much money he thinks will accomplish this task? Three grand. A thousand dollars. A thousand dollars will get him away from the long arm of the law. Forever. To live a comfortable life. Forever.

They'll never find me with a grand. I'm going to take it. I'm going to buy some land out west. Oh, I hear Wyoming's beautiful. I'm going to buy me some ranch. Does he think there's a fucking land grab somewhere that you can just... And then what? And then what? He just saw that Tom Cruise movie where they were going to whatever fucking one that was. I don't remember. Far and Away? Far and Away. Yeah, him and Nicole Kidman there. Before they hated each other. Yeah.

So at December 16th, 1996 at 845 a.m. Shirley's in jail. Candy and Irene are living together. Cecil's looking for a way to flee. He just needs a grand. I need a thousand dollars. He sounds like Stevie.

$1,000 cash. $1,000 cash. So Candy calls her Aunt Debbie up, who is Shirley's sister Irene's daughter. Okay. Debbie Dubois is her name. Oh, she's the French one. She's got all the money. I married a fancy Frenchman. What do you think of that?

Yeah. So Candy said a man came over to the house a little while ago and Candy said the man told Irene she just heard talking in the front. Yeah. Candy didn't see the man. She heard that the man was talking to her grandmother and saying that he had a Christmas gift for

for candy from her mother in jail, which is nice. When your mom's in jail for Christmas, you want a strange man to come over and bring a Christmas gift from her usually. That really helps a lot. I don't think my kids would ever get that because they'd never get that gift

because they already know that a strange man saying, your dad told me to do this for you, they will run like their hair's on fire. He's got a gift, though. No, he doesn't. I got some candy. Just tell her it's in my van and I'll be waiting for it. All right. So Candy told her aunt that Irene said that the man acted strangely and that the same man had been in Tallapoosa the day before asking for directions to this house.

Because it's such a small town, if someone asks directions to your house, someone tells you. There's a guy asking for directions to your house. Wow. It's just the way it is. And also, you can just go to the center of town and say, you know where the Sisks live? And they'll go, oh, yeah, it's right down there. Everybody knows. There's a man asking for directions to your house, and I gave them to him. I gave him, yeah. I figured, what the hell? It has to be in Nashville. Why would you do that?

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So Debbie tries to call a relative to ask him to check on Irene and Candy, but she can't get a hold of the guy. So Debbie then calls Candy and told her that, keep calling this guy. I'm at work. So Candy, you keep calling. If you can't get a hold of him, call me again at work if the guy comes back. She works at the elementary school. Yeah.

Several minutes after 9 a.m. that morning, so this is 15 minutes after the first phone call, about 20 minutes, a bank teller at a bank in a nearby Risco, which is a town, small town, attended to a man driving a Ford, a white Ford Taurus. The teller saw candy riding in the passenger seat and

dressed in a nightgown and wrapped in a blanket, which is usually not good, not banking attire. It's bizarre running around behavior. Yeah, they're in the car, though. It's drive-thru. Would she have the flu? What's the problem? She saw, the teller also saw another person in the rear seat of the car. Candy actually just had a surgery to have a disc in her back removed, so she's actually not supposed to be going anywhere for about six weeks. Oh, fuck. So Candy's in a lot of pain, and that's the granddaughter, not the grandmother. Her back's fucked up.

So, Grandma, help me. My back's fucked up. You don't usually say that very often. That's a tough sympathy getter. Yeah. You think your back's fucked up. So the driver gives the teller a check in the amount of $1,000 the man signed by Candy and to be drawn on her account. After having Candy sign the cash receipt, the teller gives the man $1,000 in cash with $100 in $20 bills as he requested. So $900 and $520 is what he wants. Okay.

So about 1045 that morning, Debbie Dubois tries to call back. She calls at least twice and nobody answers. Just rings and rings and rings. So Debbie was concerned because one telephone line had an answering machine. So why isn't the answering machine even picking up? Yeah, what's going on? What's going on with that? And Candy, she had surgery four days ago. She's not supposed to leave the house. Oh.

She's not even she's not even closed. Oh, she's on pain pills and shit. She's hurt. And so where the hell did they have gone? Relying on whatever's holding that incision together to keep them bleeding. Stitches and shit. So Debbie drives over to the house. And when she enters, she said she entered through the carport and into the kitchen from there. She saw a light coming from Candy's bedroom and followed it. Maybe they're in there.

Entering the room, she saw candy in there. Her body is in there. She is dead. She's lying across the bed. Debbie describes it as, quote, her neck was chopped up. Oh, Jesus. And a knife was sticking out of her chest. Oh, Jesus. Literally protruding from her chest, just stuck in there. 19-year-old kid. 19-year-old. Her nightgown had been pulled up, and she's not wearing any underwear either. Uh-huh.

And one or two drawers had been pulled out and dumped, she said also. And she said, I turned and saw my mother. I knew instantly she was dead.

Debbie said she saw cords in Irene's room and thought she had got I thought she had got the phone down. And she said she later realized that Irene's bedroom was catty corner from her granddaughter from candies. And Irene was lying in a pool of blood on the floor with her head facing the granddaughter's room. It's horrific. Debbie said, I just ran.

Right.

what's going on now the phones are missing this is terrible i'm going to turn around there's going to be a guy standing there with a big knife or something it's like a hard two phones ready to beat you two phones bashing on the side of the head yeah a new murder weapon we haven't had yet so she runs out the carport and notices blood on the inside of the door as she does that she didn't notice it on the way in she wasn't paying attention right and just going out so she's so she said i just had to be with someone so she drove to a nearby store where her brother worked and

told him what happened, and called the cops. So Candy's body was on the bed. Her hands were bound in front of her with rope. She was unclothed below the waist. A pair of sweatpants and a pair of underwear were on the floor nearby. Her neck had been slashed six to eight times. Yikes.

Horrible. A knife sticking out of her chest. A large knife, by the way. Not a small one, like a six-inch blade. Golly. The autopsy reveals that she bled to death from the neck slashes and that the knife was thrust into her chest after she died. So it was just a fuck you type of thing. Several bite marks are identified on her left breast as well. She also...

There is also, there is lacerations to her vaginal area. Jesus. And a blunt object has been anally inserted into her. Yes, a blunt object, which we will find out is a dildo, has been inserted. Yes. Did they leave it? Leave it in there. Oh, Jesus. Absolutely. Irene's body is on the floor next to the bed in her bedroom. She was hogtied.

Hogtie grandma. Very nice. Her wrists and ankles bound together with the same length of rope. Exact same length that

is used to tie up candy. Yeah. That's right. These are, yeah, these are exact lengths of rope. An autopsy revealed here that 17 superficial stab wounds in a localized area in her left chest, five of which penetrated the chest cavity and lung, and they were inflicted. She took her 15 to 45 minutes to die from this, to drown in her own blood. That's nice. Oh,

And three deep slashes in her throat also didn't hurt either. So horrible shit. They said the knife entered Candace's, the one in her chest, entered the body through her sternum, passed entirely through her heart.

And stopped next to her backbone. Five inch deep wound. Yeah, five inch deep wound. That's a strong person to do that. Fuck, they'd have to be. And her throat was slashed, like we said. They said in addition to the knife to her heart, her left jugular was cut, her trachea was cut through, and both the right carotid artery and jugular vein were completely severed.

Almost took her head off. Why would you? This is so much. They also said there were three abrasions to her left nipple, which were interpreted as bite marks. They said, obviously, they said...

the anal insertion happened at the time of or after death. So this is just... What is that about? Anger. Anger. Why are they so mad at her? That's fucking insane, man. I don't even know. So 17 stab wounds on grandma as well, five of which penetrated her lung.

Her throat was severed, both her carotid artery and her trachea, and three stab wounds in her left neck as well. These stab wounds are different than all the other stab wounds. These are consistent with the blade of a pair of scissors. So stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, leave the knife in candy, come back to her. Now I need another knife. Now I'll stab her off, finish her off with these scissors, I think.

So Debbie, like we said, she went to the brother. When the police arrive, they found the purses of Candy and Irene near their bodies. Each had been opened. There were two checkbooks lying near Irene's purse. One of the checkbooks in one of them was a check for a thousand dollars that had been made out to cash but not signed. A TV and a VCR were missing from Candy's bedroom.

They also found an empty box for the videotape of Independence Day, which just came out on video. Brand new. Just came out. Like, she must have just bought this shit. Welcome to Earth. Probably because she had surgery. Yeah, they still think it's a great movie. She's probably got something to watch while she's recovering. Yeah, they're like, oh, man, that Bill Coleman or Paxton or whoever he is, boy, he inspires us all. Couldn't get enough of Will Smith. Yep. I'll take a Will Smith movie with you. Oh, my God.

So multiple telephones in different areas of the house were either disabled or completely missing. Yeah, yeah. So who the hell steals telephones? Yeah, I mean, VHS tapes. That's so weird. Not the box, just the tape.

Oh, really? The empty box. They stole the tape and left the box. They found the box there, but they figured the tape's probably in the VCR. Oh, yeah, you're probably right. And he took the VCR. So she was watching Independence Day. A utensil drawer in the kitchen of the residence was smeared with Irene's blood as well. So somebody touched it.

Now, December 18th, two days later, police figure out they need to talk to somebody here. The sheriff said Cecil Barroner's name came up the night of the murder. People were like, have you talked to Cecil?

Yeah. Apparently he ran a check. This Hensley is the cop. He ran a check to get Cecil's address, which came back to his parents' house, which he no longer lived. So he drove by the house, though, around midnight to see if maybe Cecil was there. And he saw the white Ford Taurus that matched the description of the car driven by the suspected murder. Oh, they have the bank person. Yeah. So he finally gets a hold of him about 415 the next day. He gets a hold of Cecil.

And what he does is he's saying he's notifying him because I know you were going out with Shirley. Right. He says, hey, Candy Sisk is dead and Irene Sisk, they're dead. So can you come talk to us? Maybe you have something that can help us out because you know these people. There he was told, yeah, Irene's also dead. And they said his reaction, Cecil's reaction to both statements was nervousness. And he asked no questions.

Didn't ask a thing. He was just like, oh, oh, oh, shit. Looking at door. Just started looking at the door, basically. Mm-hmm.

So now here's how this goes. Why? This is a little bit of story they hear from people of why they pick him up. Not only the bank lady, but Cecil visited Daniel and Samantha Simmons, a friend who lived a few miles from the Sisk residence that night on December 15th. So the night before the Cecil told Samantha Simmons, he was going to Tallapoosa to collect some money and drove away in his white Ford Taurus. Okay. He returned shortly after and said no one was home.

And then Daniel and Samantha Simmons accompanied him to Tallapoosa in the Taurus, where he drove by the Sisk house three times,

That's stalking. Yeah. During the drive, he told her, he told them, quote, the girl was going to pay him some money, is what they said, and pointed to a note he left on the door. Now, Samantha noticed during the drive that Cecil had held in his hand and played with a purple Crown Royal bag. So there's like velvet bags that Crown Royal come in, but it contained something, but she couldn't see what it was because it was in the bag. So...

The day we'll find out the day of the murders here, he Cecil checked into a motel in Poplar Bluff sometime after the murders. He paid for the room in cash and told the clerk he wanted to be alone. Let me be. Let me be. Later that afternoon, he visited Kelvin Dennis and gave him a VCR for

There. And he also changed clothes while at the house. Came across this VCR. So they get him in. The Lieutenant Steve Hensley is interrogating him, knowing all this shit that they already know and talking to him. And Cecil told Hensley he'd been to the house only once before the Irene's house where he sat in the car when Shirley went inside and asked for money. So he said, yeah, it's the only time I've ever been there.

They said, okay. Then Cecil said, I spent the whole evening Sunday evening in room 219 at the Tower Motel in Poplar Bluff with some chick that I only know as Debbie. I don't know anything else about her. Just banging this chick named Debbie. When we check in hotels, do you ever tell the clerk, I want to be left alone? I want to be left alone. I assume they will probably. Yeah.

Why would they come? Fascinating thing to say. You want to watch TV with us? No, I'm in a fucking motel room. Leave me alone. So that's what he said. Now, when they go to the motel, they say he didn't rent the room till the next day. Oh, so, yeah, he's trying to give his alibi a day ahead of time. On the day of the murders, he said he borrowed his mother's white Ford Taurus at 8 a.m. to drive to another town to go Christmas shopping.

He said he drove toward Fisk, though, instead of going to the other town to go Christmas shopping. He drove toward a town called Fisk to see another girl. But when he got there, she already had a man with her.

Man, this guy's got gals everywhere. Gals everywhere. And this gal just picks up other dudes at 8.30 in the morning. So that's normal. There's already a dick in here. Sorry. Come back later. Sorry about that. So he drove on to Dexter, which is another town, he said. But then he returned to Poplar Bluffs to get his brother to go shopping with them. And then they drove to another town and returned by noon. Okay.

The sheriff or the lieutenant writing all this down and driving time said, well, that's impossible physically to do. You couldn't do it in that amount of time. You need like two more hours. Yeah. So he said, all right, fine. Look, I didn't want to admit what I was really doing to you, but.

I'm on probation. I shouldn't be telling you this, but he said, I didn't want to admit that I was actually buying and using drugs that Monday morning. And that's what it is. So that'll violate my probation. He said, I visited a popular bluff guy named Dennis or Kevin Dennis and bought $25 worth of meth. And then I did it. And then I hung sheet rock at Dennis's and came home about noon.

He's doing all the meth-y shit. That's what she does when she's saying, you do meth and then you steal a VCR and then hang some sheetrock and go home. That's exactly what you do. I was going to ask you if it was an SHL tourist. If it was, fuck damn, he could trim two hours off that drive. That SHL is a bad bitch. That's a fast motherfucker. So Dennis...

will say that Cecil did come over, but he came over his house at 6 or 6.30 p.m. and only stayed for 10 minutes. He hung one piece of sheetrock a month earlier, by the way. He said, no, they said he hanged sheetrock. He went, not that day. A month ago, he hung one piece and then left, which is another crackhead move. That's a very mathy thing to do. Very mathy. So they let Cecil go this night.

Then they interview him again the next day. Okay. Okay. This time they tell him that in the previous 24 hours, the officers now know a lot more. And he said, I don't even want to know that. You don't have to admit that you even did it now. We know everything. He just said, I just want to know why. Not who or what or when. Why did you do it, Cecil? And Cecil said that I want to tell the truth, but I can't.

He said, I just want to talk to my brother. I just want to talk to my brother. He lives with his brother. He's teetering on the edge, right? He said, please just let me talk to my brother. So he said, you know, he never asked to talk to a lawyer. He just asked to talk to his brother. Yeah. So he said, all right, let's do it. So at the time, there were other cops executing a search warrant in Cecil's room at the brother's house.

So they bring the brother in. Let's your brother wants to talk to you. Okay. They talked alone for a few minutes. Then his brother left. And then Cecil added once the cop came back, Cecil blurted out, quote, I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't mean to kill them. Okay. That is an assault of somebody that didn't mean it. Wow. That's a lie. Yeah. That's a not quite a weird accident. You did. Yeah.

So they were like caught totally by surprise. They didn't expect him to just give it up. Apparently the brother told him to. Cecil told them he went to the six house because he believed that he had flunked a recent urine test and he wanted to go get the fuck out of here before he got sent to jail. So I got to the CISC residence and he said that Candy and Irene argued about giving him money.

Irene started to write a check and stopped, and then Candy wrote one for $1,000, and Cecil drove them to the bank to cash it. Back at the house, he said that he intended to just tie them up and give them some time to get out of town, but as he started to drive away, he saw Irene looking at him through the kitchen window.

So he said, oh, hell no, I can't let this abide. So he reentered the house. He said he tied a rope from her hands and bound her feet. He hogtied Irene. Then he said he saw Irene start to reach under the bed covers. And they said, what was she reaching for? And he said, a goddamn knife. Irene's obviously the problem here. She's the aggressor. Old lady in her 70s, just really.

Armed to the teeth. And he said both Irene and Candace were screaming out of control. So Hensley said, well, what did you do? And Cecil said, quote, I shut them up. That's a cold motherfucker, man. No kidding. He said he wore gloves when he went to the residence so that his fingerprints wouldn't be found by the cops. He was thinking about that. He said he also threw from the window of his car a camouflage jacket he'd been wearing because it had blood on it. That was either on Highway J or Highway 53. It wasn't positive.

He said then he checked into the Tower Motel when he returned to Poplar Bluff because he was afraid he was being followed because he's on meth and he's fucking paranoid. So they said, well, why did you rape that girl? Why'd you do that? Could it be enough to kill her? He said, I never sexually assaulted her at all. I don't know what you're talking about. Someone else came in and raped her corpse and sucked something up her ass. She just wears that. All right. Yeah. So he said, absolutely not. He said, you won't find my semen anywhere around there, so you can't.

Never said that. And that's probably why a lot of guys like this, profilers, I'm not an FBI psychological profiler, but generally when an object is inserted after death, it's usually because the guy couldn't get it up. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. So that's usually, he's angry about that and that's the result. And it's just humiliation. And it's humiliation too. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm humiliated, so now you're about to be. Exactly. And especially kind of posed like that almost. So he denied. He said, quote, I just confessed to two murders. Why would I lie? I didn't take... I didn't do that. Okay. Okay, well, still...

He said then that, this is Cecil, that you know what the ironic thing about this whole situation is? What? He said that later on the lieutenant told him, you know what the ironic thing is, is you probably wouldn't even have been sent back to jail for failing one piss test. You probably could have talked your way out of it. Idiot. So this is not necessary.

So after the interview, they said, would you make a videotaped confession? Because this isn't videoed. And Cecil said he wasn't up to it right now, but maybe the next day. And then at the end of the whole thing, he said again, I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't mean to kill them. How can you say those words out loud? What was done to them is...

It's so on purpose. It's so on purpose. It's not you hit her with your car and they were on the side of the road. That could be an accident. This is like really focused. This is drop kicking a basketball into the second level and saying I was aiming at the hoop. What are you talking about? I was trying. Yeah, I was really trying.

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So the cops here, they get the search warrant, like we said. In Cecil's room, they find 32 ropes and cords in there. Yeah. He's got a thing that he likes here. What is this? Tests established that two of the ropes were consistent in color composition and construction with the ropes that had been used to bind Candy and Irene. In the room's wastebasket, they find several handwritten notes.

What did they say? One contains directions from his house to the Sisk residence. And the cops followed him in their good directions. They lead right to the house. MapQuest did it? Back then, 96, pre-MapQuest, he got directions. Then a second note said the name Candace on it, just the name Candace. Then a third note read this, quote, things for first entrance.

Yeah. Gun, and then in parentheses back, then handcuffs in parentheses pocket, 12 foot of rope in parentheses legs into six foot pieces. What the shit? It's the kit that he's planning on taking, and he's too dumb to remember to bring this shit. He had to write it down, get it all in his... Put it all together, then crumple it up and throw it out. Don't need it anymore. I got milk and eggs. I'm good. This message will self-destruct.

Also found in his room a purple crown royal bag containing handcuffs. That's what's in the bag. Yeah, and he's rubbing them? Then his red duffel bag, which is the bag of horrors. Yeah. It is, wow, it has ropes, dildos. We'll talk about how many dildos because it's a lot. What?

Homemade sex tapes, a bondage magazine, a videotape of the movie Independence Day with no box. He kept it. No box and his wallet, which contained $123, including six $20 bills and three telephones.

He ran through $700 already? More than that. Yeah. More than that. $875 he ran through. They seize his car, the Ford Taurus that he'd been driving, and find traces of blood on the driver's armrest and door handle, the steering wheel, and the trunk clasp. That's somebody else's car.

That's his mom's car, I think. God damn it. The blood on the steering wheel was found to be human blood. The other ones were mixed human and deer blood. What is that? Which is weird. The blood on the door handle was consistent with a mixture of a small amount of his DNA and a larger amount of Irene's DNA. He already cut his hand on the knife. You're fucked, mister. That's...

You're fucked now. You don't have your blood with a victim's blood. That's no, I've never been inside this woman's house, but I have her blood mixed with mine in my car. Okay. That's pretty fucking wild, I would say. Now, his trial comes up. Now,

Yeah. His attorney, his big thing is there's no audio or video recordings of his confession. So it didn't happen. That's what he says. And they asked Hensley, the cop, and he said it's never been his practice in 23 years to use either during an interview. Only when a suspect wants to make an official statement. But during an interview, they don't do it.

When they asked when asked whether or not Cecil became angry or not, whether Hensley yelled at him or abused him during the interview, he said or became friendly. He said these were all techniques. He said, I was prepared to do my job. You yell at him a little, then you coddle him a little. Let's say you get a confession.

The criminologist testifies that a cotton rope and an orange nylon rope were part of the bindings, matched the ropes of one of the 32 ropes that were taken from his room. He said, I can't say the two orange strands were originally one piece, but they could have been. Let's just say they were. It's a pretty big coincidence.

So I would say another cop on the stand displays ropes taken from the victims, actual ones there, as well as some of the things taken from his room. When they had a silver steak knife, the actual murder knife that had been stuck in Candy's chest, they passed it around to the jurors, and the jurors were horrified by it. They also passed around her bloodstained nightshirt.

Yikes. They were really freaked out by that. The court is going to allow some sexual stuff, some testimony to come in here. Oh, boy. To try to show that he likes a certain kind of binding during sexual activity. Oh, a specific knot? Specific knot. So they bring Shirley in because she knows all this shit. Yeah. Shirley testified that he once told her that he would take the son into the woods and shoot him.

Then they show, while Shirley's on the stand, they show a sex tape between him and Shirley. This woman had to sit on the stand and show an anal sex tape. Hey, I'm here to talk about my dead mom and daughter. Can we not show me getting pounded in the ass in front of the entire fucking town of 78 people? Thank you very much.

What's more embarrassing? That's what I mean. What's worse? Zero more. Everybody's seen it now. God damn it. So they have to show this videotape, which shows them, Shirley and Cecil, and engaged in various consensual acts of bondage, anal sex, oral sex, and sex toy use.

God, why? She said that the relationship involved him tying her hands and legs, her legs spread apart and her hands over her head or her hands in front of her, and that he would tie her with rope and pantyhose all the time. Oh, boy.

In the video, he anally penetrates Shirley with both a dildo and his dick. And Shirley states that he made the videotape of their activity. She remembers it and all that. They play an excerpt of it. Now, the excerpt is to show the knots, but it shows in the foreground a close-up of him pounding her in the ass. Now, if you see the knot here, which one? The balloon one? In the background, you can see it.

Oh, my God. Like blurry in the background. See that knot there? Look past where this. And this lady's just sitting on the stand going, that's my asshole. She's gone. Look at the knot, you guys. Look at it. Can you see all the knots? They're all there. So the prosecutor says, if you will watch the tying of the wrists of Shirley Niswonger, if you will watch, concentrate, everybody, on this anal pornography that we've given you.

Around the wrists. A couple of half inches back over the other wrist and around the other wrist. A couple of half inches. The wrists are apart. There goes another half inch and the third half inch and the fourth half inch. Stop the tape. See right there. See now balls deep. You can see it. He said, stop the tape. Quote unquote. You can look at these ropes, these bindings of the victims in the photographs, the ankles, the

Of Irene, you can see the half inches. They're showing they're the same bindings, but it's just ridiculous. That's the way you show it. How about one still of the knot rather than they show two and a half minutes of her getting pounded in the ass at the murder trial of her daughter and mother's killer.

And the guy's like, now stop the tape right there. Freeze frame. And then she turned to everybody and said. Drawn X's and O's. She turned to everybody and said, I don't ever want to hear anybody else complain about having a bad day. Okay? Compare it to this. I don't even want to. Nope. Sorry. Somebody died. Don't give a shit. Not worse than this. I'm having the worst life right now. Okay.

Then there's Bondage magazine that they found in his red duffel bag. And they said that the, uh, the magazine is called Bondage Fantasies and

And it depicts a cartoon of a partially clothed woman bound to a tree with her hands tied and genitals exposed. And the woman is held by one man while another approaches her with his erect penis. Oh, my God. It's a weird rape scene in the woods. So they say that satisfies requirements for admission under the signature modus operandi corroboration exception. So this shows M.O. is what they're talking about. Yeah.

video tape labels also video a label on a video tape labeled homemade sex that's what he labels this shit homemade sex and i got the kids don't get a hold of this what you do is when a new neighbor moves in yeah you bring them a homemade apple pie with this sitting on top of it and you go here you go welcome to the neighborhood a la mode you know what i mean it's a la jizz on my mode

It says May 7th, 1995 for us only is what one says. Don't read that one. Don't watch it. Then it says surely zero to 1159. So that must be a time code. Yeah. 12 minutes of that. He makes 12 minutes of pornography, by the way, which is not 11 is all he's got in him.

Then Rose, 11.59 to 12.10. That's 11 seconds. Yeah, what the fuck, man? What are you showing there? Did he just sneak a camera in while she was peeing or something? Like, ooh, look at that. Then Rose, 12.10 to end. So then he's banging her, I guess. Eight hours of her? Eight hours of that. So I assume it's probably a two-hour tape. Maybe, I don't know. Or an hour, who the hell knows.

So then there's the bag of dildos duffel bag. Here we go. And they said this red duffel bag contained over 30 dildos. I mean. In a portable thing. Like, I got to take all 30 with me at any time. At any given time, I got to run. This is my go bag. And it is. It had rope in there. It had his bondage mag, his homemade sex tapes. This is like if I need to go, I grab an extra pair of underwear and this fucking bag. Over 30. And I'm off.

107 is arguably obviously way too many. He's got over 30. 30 is a lot. That's so many. For a man, that is way too many. That's so many. Yeah, I would say. Put 30 on a bed, dude. You'll be like, what? That's how many? Well, we've seen 107 laid out, and it's a lot. 30 is also a lot. It's a lot of dildos.

I mean, a sex shop on a wall, 30 of them is a lot. When you start collecting things, though, it's just, oh, well, I don't have one like that. That's the problem. I can see that. When you're trying to have a lot of one thing, yeah. I'm lucky I'm not into collecting dildos because I'm a collector kind of guy. I collect shit. So I would be like collecting dildos. I have 186 dildos. That would be me. I'd be the dildo guy.

but I wouldn't keep them in a duffel bag here. So he asserts that the admission of the dildos was prejudicial since the prosecutor referred to a, quote, big dildo in his closing argument. He just called Cecil a big dildo. This big dildo over here. He got 30 of them and then the big one. Oh, my God. So the prosecutor said...

Who tied knots similar to those found on the victims? Cecil Barriner, the defendant. Who ties the same type of bondage knots? Who ties them at a rapid speed? Because in the tape it shows him tying Shirley up quick. The defendant. Then the prosecutor referred to the dildos. He said, is that because he over the course of the trial, his defense attorney said all the ropes were for roofing.

Okay. Because that's a mathy thing to do. Eight foot lengths? Six foot lengths of rope all cut perfectly for roofing. I don't know what you would use them for. And they brought in like a roofer to go, do you use lengths of six foot rope at all? And he's like, no, that has nothing to do with roofing. There's one long one. That's what we got for you. There's one long one around the ladder that secures it to the house. That's it. That's it. So he said that, is that for roofing in a duffel bag so he can go places with a big dildo in it?

Yeah. Okay. That's because he's a roofer whose case is disingenuous. It's the defendant, Cecil. Yeah. He says, I keep my ropes in my dildo bag for roofing. Just in case. So the verdict comes in four hours of deliberation. Not very much. Yeah. This is found guilty of two counts of first degree murder. Wow.

They have a confession, evidence, you know, blood, all sorts of shit, DNA. During the penalty phase, the state introduced his prior conviction for possessing controlled substances and, you know, impact and victim impact and all that here. So at the close of evidence, instructions and arguments by counsel in the penalty phase, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on punishment. Really? Therefore, the judge sentences him.

Were they like trying to do something creative? Like it was seven, five Hill or some shit. Yeah, no, it was seven, five for death penalty or life in prison. Yeah. So the murder was there. So let's do something creative with them. What do you say?

You know what? I heard of this bull one time. It's from Patreon. The brazen bull. Look it up. It's the worst thing ever. The screams sound like moos, y'all. It's so cool. So the murder was committed while he was engaged in another unlawful homicide, committed for the purpose of receiving money and other things.

things of monetary value involved torture and depravity of mind was committed while the defendant was engaged in the perpetration of burglary and also in the perpetration of robbery and kidnapping and were murdered these people because of their statuses as potential witnesses against him you sir may fuck off death penalty yeah you bet that's all deep dicks yep now the appeal comes in

And he says that you shouldn't have allowed the sex tape to be played and all my dildos in there. Yeah, I get it. But you're the dildo guy. You like sticking dildos up people's asses. You know, sorry, you have ropes. You have blood. So they said that the videotape, yeah, that shouldn't have been in. He also says the not evidence is.

Should be judged under general principles of relevance because tying a knot is not a misconduct or a wrongful act. So interesting. The prosecutor also, the record reflects that there's no testimony anywhere in the trial from any witness regarding the type of knots or the manner in which they were tied because they didn't know. That's what he says. The dildos.

The admission of the dildos themselves was error. By the way, I'm going to read a few sentences from a direct court document appeal. Outstanding. The state does respond to the appellate's contention that the admission of the dildos themselves was error.

I picture...

All the bewigged douchebags, just like everybody founding the country sitting around going, well, what if this dildos introduced in a court case? Well, they should be governed under the admission of prior uncharged misconduct evidence, of course. Obviously. All right. Then we agree.

Dildo law is squared away. That's incredible. The dildos were improperly admitted. The dildos should not have been admitted under the signature MO corroboration exception because there was no evidence that Candy Sisk was penetrated with a dildo first, let alone an identical one to those admitted.

In addition, this is fucking rude. So they go on to say dildo, dildo, dildo, dildo, dildo, which is amazing. There's like 10 more dildos here. Wow. The admission of dildos in this case resembles the improper admission of evidence in State v. Kitson in which the defendant was charged with sodomizing his son. It was alleged that he inserted his penis and a hot dog into his son and also had his son reciprocate the acts.

Why didn't we? What? In the instant case, admitting the dildo was improper because the prejudicial effect of the evidence substantially outweighed its probative value. Okay. The decision comes in, and they, in a five to two vote of the state Supreme Court, they reverse his conviction. Really? Based on all of this shit. They don't like the admission of dildos. They don't want all this dildo talk in their courtroom. Mm-hmm.

The nephew of Irene and a family person here said, I was really shocked that five of the judges stated there should be a retrial. I think we should have the best. I think we have the best judicial system in the world. But the judges erred in this case, sending it back for a possible retrial.

2002 retrial. Wow. Three changes of venue, by the way. Yeah. Three in one fucking deal here. Same evidence minus some the videotape and a couple other things. But DNA confession, all of that fucking guilty as shit. Two counts of first degree murder sentencing. You, sir, may fuck off death penalty again.

So much money spent. Dude, 2003 appeal. What? He argues the court should not have excluded exculpatory evidence that hair found at the crime scene and tested by the state did not match hair samples taken from either of these people. So someone else dropped a hair a couple months ago, so he's innocent now? What about her DNA in your car? Explain that.

Her blood in your car mixed together with yours. He contends the court should have allowed his attorney to cross-examine his friend about whether she was aware of or had heard of a newspaper article about a reward being offered in the case to show she was motivated to implicate him because of the reward. Also, an ex-girlfriend, meaning Shirley, also testified. He's saying that could be just, you know, getting back at him. So the court...

4-3 decision this time. 4-3. They say the jury was wrongly prohibited from considering potentially exculpatory evidence. Conviction reversed again. Do it again? A third trial. Imagine this poor family going through three fucking... Imagine Shirley going through three trials. Mm-hmm.

This is crazy. The third trial, same evidence. You can put the hair in. It doesn't fucking matter. It doesn't mean that's the killer. We know this guy did it. Seven hours of deliberation, by the way, to find him guilty of two counts of first degree murder. Sentencing this time, prosecutor says, obviously he believes in the death penalty and is willing to impose it on others. He said, he describes the crime and then he says, this man here enjoyed it.

And then he said, quote, mercy is for God. Unfortunately, down here on Earth, we have to deliver justice. That's what the prosecutors. Jesus Christ, that is some biblical shit right there. That man does not. And obviously, he believes in it. He delivers it himself. Wow.

Defense attorney acknowledged the jury would likely find aggravating factors required to impose the death penalty. Yes. But he asked the jurors to show mercy and reject the calls for vengeance. He said he's asking you to reduce yourselves to being the same type of person you just found Cecil Barroner to be. Seven hours of deliberation on the sentence. The jury comes back. You, sir, may fuck off life without parole this time.

I don't like that it gets weaker and weaker, though. This is not fair. But yeah, he is still locked up, though. Now he's not getting out anymore. And now they don't have to do all these automatic fucking appeals because it's a death penalty case. So now he's actually going to sit there forever and not cost the state fucking thousands and thousands and millions of dollars. Yeah.

So he is inmate ID 00517967. You can find that on inmateaid.com if you want to give him a couple of bucks so he can get himself some nice new dildos in there. I know he'll probably be needing them in there because, yeah, he is in there for fucking ever. Wow. He looks like a huge scumbag still. And there you go. That is Talapusa.

Oh, man. And the poo, they mean poo when they say talapusa. Yeah, emphasize poo. My God, man. What a fucking mess, right? Jesus Christ. I mean, next week we obviously do the one with the hot dog in the town. Obviously, yeah. I mean, clearly, it's obvious. What happened there? I need to know. That's one of those when you're searching for cases, you go, not that one. And never. And not that. Nobody wants to hear about it. Sounds terrible. We'll never talk about that.

Or any child being penetrated with a hot dog, really? Never. It's not going to happen. So there you go. If you like that, definitely give us a review. Get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. Get on other apps and give us five stars. We don't give a shit. Help the goddamn show out. We did our part. What the fuck are you doing sitting there? Just listening. Just having fun. Laughing.

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It's been doing it for like a year. It's an eight-month trial for this episode, for one Patreon episode. So it's going to be fun. Then it's pure incompetence. It's hilarious. Then for Small Town Murder, what's inside Ed Gein's house? So much. What went on in there? What was he doing in there all creepy and shit? So much. So much. We'll find out all the crap that Ed Gein's doing, all the vaginas and things that he has in there, what he eats for dinner, how he lives.

That's right. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. And also 500 episode is coming up. Episode 500. It's going to be a special thing. Don't fucking bother, Allison. Hit me up with the ideas. I'll check my messages. Do it on Facebook or Instagram. James Petrogallo either way. P-I-E. Find me there and give me ideas because I'm looking for something real weird for 500 and real crazy.

Doesn't matter where it is, but it can't be in a large city, obviously. And something that the other parameter would be, if you've heard it on 12 other podcasts, that's not going to be the one for us either. Just because you heard it and were interested doesn't mean that it's great. We're trying to find stuff you haven't heard 100 times. So definitely do that. Thank you so much for doing that. Keep coming back and hanging out with us. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye. ♪♪♪

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In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location. What happens next depends on who you ask.

Was it a crime of passion? If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia. Or a corrupt police cover-up. If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover-up to prevent one of their own from going down. Everyone had an opinion.

And after the 10-week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision. To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. Law and Crime presents the most in-depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen. You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.