#530 - Dark Swamp Death - Tomah, Wisconsin
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and 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 crazy edition of Small Town Murder Express. Ten pounds of murder, two-pound bag, yes.

You know how it works. So I hope you've been enjoying all the other small town murders over time. We've done some wild ones, especially the New Jersey one that came out this week, too. It's really crazy stuff. But this time we're going to Wisconsin. It'll be a lot of fun. Before we get there, just want to say shut up and give me murder dot com. Get tickets to live shows for the rest of the year, especially for the virtual live show.

for Halloween and it's available for two weeks after that too. You can purchase it. You can watch it a hundred times just like a regular live show except we're wearing costumes. It's Halloween and you are watching it from wherever the hell you want to. No parking. No anything. No. Free booze at your house. So do that. Enjoy it. Come join us. Shut up and give me murder.com. We also have more stuff if you'd

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We'll be right back.

neither of us are fans of hot air ballooning. So this will be interesting. Then for small town murder, we're going to talk about a documentary that has had both of us just twisted for like 13 years now. What's are, there's something wrong with aunt Diane it's called. And it's just mysterious, crazy story of, of death and destruction. And we got to tell you all about it. Cause it's so weird. Can't wait for that. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show as well. That said, uh,

Let's do this. I think it's time, everybody. What do you say? Let's dive in and let's all clear the lungs. Let's give this arms to the sky and let's all shout. Shut up and give me love.

Murder! Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Here we go. Let's do it. We are going all the way to Wisconsin this week, and it's Thomas, Wisconsin, did we say? Thomas? I think it was Thomas, Wisconsin, right? Yeah, Thomas. We just did the pronunciation of it. We looked it up. I believe it's Thomas. I believe it's Thomas. So, Thomas, Wisconsin, T-O-M-A-S. If it's not, no need to tell us, because...

We'll have moved on long on by then. So don't worry about yourself, a spotted cow and have a nice day. Enjoy. Enjoy your curds. So this is in West central Wisconsin. It's about an hour and a half to Madison, Wisconsin, uh, about two hours ish to Milwaukee and, uh, two hours and 45 minutes to Phillips, Wisconsin, which was our last episode, the serial killer tapes, which was man, that was bonkers. I remember that just horrible, awful descriptions as this guy had. So, uh,

Gross stuff. Population of this town, 9,515. Teeny tiny. Yeah, not an itty bitty, but not a big town by any stretch. Median household income here, $51,661, which is well below the national average of almost $70,000. Median home cost here matches it, though. It's also low. $200,700 is the median home cost here. So a very affordable town.

Kind of a joint. And it's kind of rural out here. Let's be realistic. If you're an hour and a half from Madison, you're out there. So a little bit of history in this town. It was founded by Robert E. Gillette or Gillette, whichever one, in 1855. This is they incorporated as a city in 1883, but there was no charter issued until 1894.

So they put like some paperwork together, then sat on it for a decade or so, and then turned it in. Like, did anybody mail that? No, I didn't mail it. Shit. The charter, guys. Jesus. Jesus Christ, we got to do that. We're not even a fucking town yet. What are we? Day one. It's 11 years it's taken us to do this. Lazy bastards. They're just full of cheese. They can't get there. That's how it works. It was named after Thomas Caron. K-A-R-C-A-R-R-O-N.

who was a trader at Green Bay. This is in the 1700s and early 1800s, who had integrated into the Menominee tribe.

Okay. Wow. Which happened a lot. People would do that. Really? Yeah. The Native Americans, they're pretty accepting. It's a welcoming group. They're pretty fucking accepting, man. Yeah. They would just, if you were cool and could contribute, they would accept people. You're not trying to shoot anybody around here. Come hang out. Let's do it. Yeah. That's what I mean. You're not, you haven't taken a shot at us. I don't see a musket, so let's do it. They pronounced the name Toma or Tomau, and he became known as Chief Toma.

Wow. Yeah.

So they promoted him to most important. They said, fuck it. He's I guess he's I don't know if he had the biggest gun or what, but he must have built a hell of a fire. Well, a lot of times what they would do is a lot of these guys would say that I should be in like the management because I can go talk to the other white people for us. And I can go talk to the quote great father and tell him how wonderful you people are. And then they won't come and kick you off your land, basically. So most of the time that was pure bullshit.

They're just trying to be in charge of shit, but it happened. So that they don't have to go hunt and gather and shit. This became the site of significant lumber and railroad industries as well. It became a center of agriculture, especially cranberry growing.

Is that right? We're going to hear cranberry bogs in Wisconsin. We're going to hear more about cranberries today than we ever thought we'd know from small town murder. Yes. The fuck out. Also milk watering. Do you know what that is? Cause you will, by the end of the show, you will, by the end of the show, this is the most Wisconsin show ever. It's awesome. Uh, reviews of this town very quickly. Uh, here's five stars. Very interesting little town. Uh,

Very fun, has a spirit for sure, just love it. Very strong sense of community for such a small little town.

Yeah. Okay. That sounds nice, I guess. They're having parades and shit. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to back those claims up, but all right. Got to do it. Three stars. Born and raised in Tomah, Wisconsin. It's a fairly average small town. Not much to do, but near enough to areas like Wisconsin Dells and La Crosse that it's not too boring. Oh, well, if you can get to La Crosse, obviously, then you're going to be...

You're going to be partying it up there, clearly. I mean, that's like a hot spot. They are known. La Crosse is known as the Bourbon Street of the Midwest. Yeah, it's known. Everybody knows about it, man, La Crosse. Here's three stars. I don't understand why this is under a town review on a niche, which is a website about cities. I work in fast food. Okay. I feel that I should get more respect for the job I do.

That's the whole review of the town of Tomah, Wisconsin. Everybody that works in fast food wishes that same thing. People are a dick to the guy at Wendy's. That's his review. Yeah.

Two stars. People seem to be stuck in the olden days around Tomah. It's olden days. It's both nice yet tiring. Places do not stay open long enough for students and those who work to enjoy. Most businesses in the area, other than fast food, close down around four in the evening. That's not evening, by the way. Nope. That is afternoon still. We don't hit evening till five, I believe, in my book. Yeah.

The sky ain't even changed colors yet. No, unless it's winter. Then it's pitch black by four in Wisconsin. Yeah, good point. Other than that, holy shit. That's four. Four? You get out of school, we got to rush to the store before they close. Like, Jesus Christ, it's four o'clock.

Guys, stay till five at least. Banker's hours, for Christ's sake. What are we doing? Unbelievable. He said there's also very little to do in the small town, as there is only a movie theater that shows a small selection of films and a Walmart.

So like a two-screen movie theater in a Walmart. Playing four months ago's movies. Yeah, I'm sure. Like a $2 theater. There are a few parks in the area, but no one is ever at them. Tomah is more like a truck stop rather than a town. That makes sense. It's probably more of a stop on the highway here. And finally, we'll do one more because it's just funny. Why is the title of this one?

One star. I cannot understand why someone would want to live in Tomah. Perhaps if you like to drink too much and owned a tavern and did some favors for people, it would make sense in a convoluted way. Okay? Sure. Convoluted way.

And then quickly, things to do. We have Toma's annual Freeze Fest, which is happening whether you fucking want it to or not. I'll tell you that right now. Right around January? It's in December, I believe. And you go, basically you just go and freeze your ass off. Right. And the only cost to the event is $1 for a Freeze Fest button.

One dollar and your toes. That's it. Oh, well, it's up there. They don't care. They're up there in T-shirts and shorts, those people. It's so fucking cold. I've been in Minnesota where it was three degrees outside. I was looking on my phone and there was chicks walking by with half shirts just like and skirts on coming from the bar. I was like, what the fuck? I had three parkas on. Good for you people. And there's also the Squirrel Fest. Oh. The North American Squirrel Association. Oh.

What? That's a thing. Just squirrels? It's just a bunch of squirrels with hats on that hand you think. Squirrel Fest is a free family festival held the first Saturday after the 4th of July in Winnebago Park in Tomah. Great food, live music that we're not going to talk about. A free raffle for kids. I don't know if you win a squirrel or what here. And there is a citywide scavenger hunt for the golden acorn.

So $250 will be awarded to the winner. If you can find that golden acorn. That's a golden acorn, baby. I hope a squirrel steals it one year and buries it deep in a tree. They actually took it. With clues posted on our Facebook page beginning July 1st. So for like a few days after that. And under, by the way, the North American Squirrel Association of Tomah, the fucking...

logo here. It says helping the elderly and physically challenged enjoy the outdoors. Do they mean elderly squirrels or people? Handicapped ones. Handicaps, little squirrel wheelchairs. Yeah. That'd be fun.

Be good. That said, let's talk about some murder that happened here. Let's do it. Okay. This is so weird. Let's start out. The whole thing is going to take place in 1986 we're going to talk about. So we're going back quite a bit. The regular show this week was 2016. So we're going to 86. 1986, Tomah, Wisconsin. There's like 3,000 people here. Yeah, I think there was. I looked it up. I think there was like 6,000 people at the time or something. It's grown steadily. So let's first talk about Tracy George.

That's a man, by the way, Tracy George. His name is 21 years. He's 21 years old. And Tracy here works. He works on these farms. OK, it's like dairy farms. There's cranberry bogs. There's all these different shits. Everyone involved here is going to be like these farm workers. Some of them own like our families on the farm. Tracy's like works at a farm. OK, now, Tracy, by the way, was kind of a hot shit high school kid. Is that right? Yeah. Really popular. Uh huh.

A student and the star of the basketball team. Hell yeah. So he was... Well, not really, because he was big man in small pond, and then as soon as you graduate, that pond gets a lot bigger, and you're working on a farm at that point, even though you wanted to be a basketball player and all this shit. Instead, he's a farmer who's not going to college, so...

Not exactly what he had in mind, so you can take whatever you will from that. Guy he hangs out with name here is Richard Sherricks. So Dick Sherricks here. S-C-H-E-R-R-E-I-K-S. Sherricks. Yeah. Our old Dickie Sherr here. Old Dick Sherr. So we got Dick and Tracy.

No shit. Dick Tracy here. That's amazing. I just realized that Dick and Tracy, uh, he's 26 years old, Dick here. So he's a little, a little bit older now. Uh, George and Richard worked on a farm owned by Helmut Sherricks, uh,

Helba? Helmut. H-E-L-L-M-U-T. Helmut Sheriff. Helmut. Yeah, these are very German people here. No kidding. He's 66, the guy who owns it. That, I believe, yeah, Helmut is Richard's father.

Okay. Now, and he's also the grandfather of a guy named, a kid named Andy, who's 18 years old, Andy Sherrick. So we'll talk about. Who the hell is he? He's the nephew of Richard, Dick's nephew, Andy. We'll talk about him in a minute. He's only just a few years younger than him. Okay. Yeah.

And all three of them, Richard, Tracy, and to a lesser extent, Andy, are all involved in a bunch of crimes in the mid-'80s here. Is that right? Crimes that—none of these crimes take place on the wire. Put it that way. These are the most rural crimes I've ever heard of. You couldn't commit these crimes if you wanted to because they're just not available. Tractor tire theft? No, that you could do. Richard and Andy are accused of—

Of vandalizing a cranberry marsh and causing a half a million dollars in damage. Half a million? For a bog. They fucked a bog up to the point of that. Would you pour diesel in it? We'll talk about what they did, but it's a huge bog. It's giant. These aren't like a little, you know, like a koi pond in the yard. This is a big...

Owned by Ocean Spray or some shit. Yeah, well, owned by these people in the area today, probably owned by Ocean Spray. But I guess this was in 1985. It was the Gordon Valley Marsh Cranberry Bog in Monroe County is what they all vandalized. Now, this is Richard, Andy, and Tracy, all three of them. And we'll talk about Andy in a second. But Richard...

But Richard was the one who had caused the extensive damage to the bog. It was a neighbor's cranberry bog. This was a neighbor beef that they had that this is where their bog trash. I'm going to trash your bog, motherfucker. What's up with that? What did he do? That's some rural shit there. I guess the neighbor whose name was Lester Gordon had tried 20 years earlier to buy the sheriff. The sheriffs owed money in back taxes.

So he tried to sneak in under them and buy their farm and back taxes. And since then, there's been mad fucking tension between these people. Because he's trying to get it mad cheap, I'm sure. He's trying to steal it from them, basically. Their neighbors steal it out from under them. I mean, you know, in a savvy business move. But if you know these people, Jesus Christ, let them try to get their farm back. Yeah, that's the rural version of a corporate takeover. Yeah.

Yeah, but they always say, these rural people always say how we take care of each other out here. Your neighbors are like this and that. You can steal your neighbor's land just like anybody else. Are you kidding me? Just to pay their tax bill and tell them to get lost. Get the fuck out of here. Don't act better. Plenty of nice people everywhere. Shitty people everywhere. So Richard...

What ended up happening is he, I guess George here, George, the other guy here, Tracy George, had stolen several snowmobiles and a trailer from

From that, from a different farm. Not from that one, from a different one. From the Warren's firm. I guess it was a company he stole it from. Also. Thousands of dollars worth of shit. Snowmobiles, a trailer, a bunch of herbicides. So, you know, weed killers and motor oil from a shed. Okay. They took all this stuff. This is at the cranberry bog. Yeah. Now I am guns also. And a video cassette recorder from Andy Sherrick's home.

Now, Andy's Richard's nephew. Right. Yeah, which is interesting. Richard's brother, Heinz...

German, German much. Heinz is Andy's father. So that's how that works. So they stole shit from Andy and Heinz's house while they were out of the house. They were on vacation and they burglarized it. So Richard helped Tracy George conceal some of the items. He said some of them he took to Crawford County where his father lives and stashed it there.

He then said that they stole motor oil and herbicides were found in the home of Rodney George, who's Tracy George's father. So they knew that he did this. OK, both were involved in the threats and the thefts. And in addition to that, Andy Sherricks will talk about he's 18 years old. He helmet is his grandfather.

And he's whatever. So there you go. Richard's his uncle. So Andy knew about all this and was involved in it enough to when a criminal charge came up from this in June 1985, Andy agrees to testify against his uncle and Tracy for

to get out of it. Okay? So, because he was like 16 at the time. Yeah, he's a kid. 17 or something. So, the criminal damage charge of the bog, that was, those are burglary charges. That's a separate thing. But he's also going to tell them about the bog damaging as well. He's going to spill everything. Well,

So this happened in June 85, the Gordon Valley Marsh Cranberry Bog owned by Leo Gordon of Tomah in the town of Byron. In the criminal complaint, Gordon is quoted as saying that the, quote, bulkhead at the upper and lower reservoirs plus six inlets were opened, resulting in a loss of water for frost prevention and irrigation with a potential loss of the whole crop at approximately $125,000.

They dropped the water straight the fuck out of it. Out of there. So it's not a bog anymore. It's just shit sitting there drying out. Dry field of cranberries. Yep. And then it'll frost over, too. Yeah. Kill them all. So when asked why it was done, Andy said, quote, because we had planned to flood the marsh. And they said, well, what's the motive? And Andy replied that Richard-

Old Dickie there wanted to damage the marsh because Mr. Gordon would not sign the papers so he could irrigate the farmland. Apparently, there's some water property disputes and water disputes and all that kind of thing. And he wasn't clear in his testimony which what farmland that Richard wanted to irrigate. But that's why they were mad at him. So they're like, we're going to fuck up his cranberries. Yeah.

Which is, I've never thought to do that to somebody. So in a response to a question about damage, he thought that the bog owner would suffer from flooding of a cranberry bog during blossoming season. And he replied, I'm not sure, but it wouldn't grow right. And he said it just wouldn't have as many berries as far as I understood. So it would fuck him over.

Andy also admitted his involvement in the thefts as well of the snowmobiles, the trailer, the herbicides, all that shit. He said that, quote, I helped Tracy George steal them and I told Mr. Ron Pearson about it. OK, so a condition they arrest Tracy and Richard and a condition of their bail. They're let out is that they have to stay away from Andy, not allowed to fuck with Andy because he's testifying against them at the trial upcoming. Now, September 8th, 1986 comes along.

In October, there's going to be the hearing and the trial where Andy's going to testify. So on September 8th, 1986, they decide they this is Richard and Tracy decide they need to intimidate Andy a little bit here. Yeah. Tell him to knock it off. Well, Tracy George broke into his home, kicked his fucking bedroom door in, like literally broke into the house like like the Kool-Aid man coming into the house.

forced Andy into Andy's own car, took the wheel, and drove him to the Helmut Scherich's farm where they worked and lived. The incident occurred right after Andy agreed to testify against both of them at trials. He said at the time George went in his home, ran after him, kicked the door in, and cornered him in a bedroom. The kid was probably terrified for Christ's sake. Yeah.

According to transcripts here later, Andy said George forced him into the car, drove him to the farm. There, he said, both George and Richard Sherricks suggested that he, quote, might die if he testifies against them. It could be bad for your health. They literally said, hunting season's coming up. Accidents happen all the time. Like, literally, they were doing that, like mob shit. You never know. You know what I mean? This guy could fucking fall in a hole.

Who knows? He could fall down a manhole. So, yeah, Andy said he agreed to testify at the hearing for all this shit. Now, they claim that obviously he was terrified and they both threatened him with death if he did not lie and change his story in the proceedings against them. So Andy did change his testimony four days later in a hearing involving Richard Sherricks.

He said that Andy Sherricks later told police about the threats to his life, and he was supposed to testify again later on. So that's how that went. So they said that George conceived several ways. I guess Richard Sherricks and Tracy George then sat around going, how do we get Andy not to testify? How do we do this? How do we get rid of him from around here or whatever?

Yeah. Because, you know, they told him, and now he told the cops we've been threatening him too. So they said they could shoot him and make it look like a hunting accident. That's a thing to do. He said, then we can put him in the manure pit where no one will ever find him. Oh.

That'll be perfect. And Andy backs that up by saying, quote, they said they had buried an animal bigger than me. And within a week and a half, there was nothing left in the manure pit. Oh, he thinks that there's so many microbes and shit. It'll eat the fuck out of a body. Yeah. There'll be bones in there. You'll see a skeleton. There's going to be a lot left. Meat probably will get eaten up pretty quick by things, but not the rest of them.

So once at the farm, Andy said Richard and George made threats about killing him, saying the hunting season comes up. Accidents do happen. Yeah. Yeah. You know how that goes. So Andy said he agreed to lie. And he said that on the September 12th hearing, four days after this, he did lie. He said, we figured out that I was supposed to act like my facts were mixed up, get a couple of facts screwed up. So it was looking like I was making up the whole thing.

Make a jackass out of yourself on the stand so they won't believe your testimony. Yeah. So he was still alive and everybody's alive. So who cares? So he said that before the hearing, September 12th in the courthouse, George came up to him in the restroom and said, keep lying.

We'll pay for your perjury. We'll pay your fines and everything. Just keep lying. You're doing great. Keep up the good work on the lies. You're just lying and lying and lying. So October 30th, 1986 is the day that Andy is supposed to go testify against Tracy George at his trial. Okay. This is a big deal.

Now, Heinz Sherricks, who is Andy's father, Richard's brother. Yeah. He says that his son, Andy, had developed a habit of not being home alone in the mornings after his parents and his younger sister went to school. Heinz said Andy would drive off in his car at the same time his sister left for school. So that was his habit. Everybody left at the same time because he goes to work. But on that morning, Andy...

didn't do that. Heinz said that his daughter reported that Andy was not dressed at the time she left the house. Now, um, he's so Heinz was interested in that. Um, and then from there he leaves the house and,

They leave. He's there. And then they never see him again. He disappears. He never shows up at the hearing to testify. Just poof into the ether, basically. So Hines is trying to find him at that point. And Hines is like, I don't understand it. He says, I don't understand why he would leave the area. His checking and savings accounts are untouched over a couple days. Yeah.

And he also said Andy had two paychecks coming that were not picked up. And he didn't take any of his clothing from the house. He didn't pack a suitcase. No money, no clothes. Yeah, you need both of those things. In addition, he said Andy's car is still in the driveway of our house with the keys locked inside of it. Keys locked inside? He didn't take money, clothes, or his car, which are the three things you need to take off. And you can figure everything else out. Yeah.

So very weird. His cars, keys are locked in the car in the driveway. So he said that they asked Heinz, how did the keys get in there? And Heinz said, I have no fucking idea how the keys are locked in his car. I don't know. We have no idea. So Richard, they talk to later on. They're going to talk to Richard. Richard has a little bit more of a window on it. Now, Heinz said that because Andy was 18, he didn't want to appear to be a domineering parent anymore.

And give him too many suggestions about how to handle the legal situation he was in. Sure, sure. If you're 18 and in this situation, you really need advice, though, you know.

Might need some guidance. I get what he's saying. He's trying to keep out of it. Maybe Andy's one of those kids who's like, don't tell me what to do all the time or, you know, let me live my own life. Who the fuck knows? Oh, boy. But the father said, yeah, the father said he was concerned about how Andy planned to make arrangements to get to the where he's supposed to testify against against George. So Hines says,

said he approved of Andy's plan to meet the deputy chief deputy, Ronald Pearson in Monroe County at 1 30 PM and drive with him to the court appearance. He said, I don't want you driving there alone. So he said, yeah, drive there with the deputy chief or the county chief or whatever the fuck. So, Hey everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit more about simply safe.

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They said that Andy did not show up there, though, either. So he's just gone. He was supposed to testify and didn't. He didn't keep his appointment, so they didn't understand what was going on. So that's October 30th. Halloween comes. They're just looking for Andy. Where the fuck did he go? We can't find Andy.

October, November 1st, November 2nd. No, no, Andy. November 3rd. No, Andy. Where's Andy? So finally, on November 6th, 1986, Patricia Sherricks, who is Richard's wife, said that Richard Hines and Kathy Sherricks, Andy's parents came over to the house. They're all related. They're brothers, Hines and Richard.

Came over to her Toma apartment here. They came over to Richard and Patricia's house to ask if Richard might know where the hell Andy might be. Right. Even though he was going to testify against him. So after Andy's parents left, Richard said, I have no idea. I don't know where he could be. I haven't talked to him. I'm not allowed to talk to him legally, so I don't know. After Andy's parents left, Patricia said that Richard broke down crying and threatened to kill himself.

That seems strange. I know it's your nephew, but Jesus Christ, calm down. You know what I mean? He's worried about him, yeah. I guess so. She said that he then told her that Tracy George killed Andy and put the body in the swamp.

What swamp? Yeah. Patricia was like, what the fuck? So Patricia told her husband, contact your lawyer and turn yourself in for this. Knowing this shit. This is crazy. You can't. Someone's dead. You'll get out faster. Tell him. So November 7th, you would think so. So November 7th, 1986, Richard decides to go. He goes to the police station and he's overwhelmed with guilt.

Or something. And goes to the police station and says, I got a story to tell. Biggie style. Fucking yeah. He said that. That's it, man. Getting dick off a player on the New York Knicks. He told his story to the sheriff's department and said, you know, he said that he helped George plan this, too. He said, I helped plan the murder.

But he claimed that George did the killing. I didn't do it, he said, because that was the day that Andy was supposed to testify against George. So in the burglary case. Oh. So he goes, he did it on the right day. He said he wasn't testifying against me that day. He was testifying against him that day. They're separate trials. So Richard said that he and Tracy George planned to have Tracy George force Andy to write a note saying he was leaving the area.

And then Richard said that he was to pick Tracy George up at the Tomah Bus Depot after Tracy George drove Andy's car there and parked it. So it looked like he got on a bus and took off, even though you have a car, so you don't need a bus. Which form of transportation would you rather drive away in your own car or a fucking bus? It's not a train. Depends. A train would be one thing. A bus who drives to the bus. That's insane. No one does that.

You just keep driving your car if you're in the car already. You walk to the bus. You walk to the bus. Yeah, you get a ride to the bus. You hitchhike to the bus. That's how you get to the bus. So Richard said the plan failed when Andy locked his keys in his car on purpose.

Oh, he's seen this movie before when they kidnapped him. And this is the second time they tried to kidnap him with his own car. Yeah. Right. So he threw the fucking keys and locked the door and shut it. It's like we're stuck now, bitch. Gotcha. Gotcha. So that's what it was. So then Andy thought he was getting away with something here. Instead, George Tracy, George just dragged his ass deep into the woods, into a swamp.

A huge swamp area. Okay. Richard Sherrick said he drove to the bus station in Tomah as planned but didn't see Tracy George. He's like, what the fuck? So he just went back to his family farm, which is the farm that this happened on. Right. He said then he saw George and asked him if he had decided not to go through with it. And he quoted George as saying, I've got him laying out there in a swamp. I already did it. Yeah.

Dick's here. That's Midwest Ringo right there. That is... Yeah, I got him laying out there in a swamp. Yeah. I already did. Okay. Shit, yeah. I already did. So...

Richard said, you know, out of all this, he said that George arrived early that morning at the home with the intention of killing Andy. That's why he went over there. George told him what happened. And Richard said that he and George discussed killing Andy to prevent his testimony before. So this makes a lot of sense that he would kill him now. He said that on October 30th, Tracy George was determined to kill Andy.

and went to his home between 6.30 and 7 a.m. to accomplish this, which you set an alarm. You are very much wanting to do some murder. I don't hate anybody that much.

I don't have time for that. If you see me at 6.30 a.m., you've done something very wrong to me. Very wrong. Steve Jobs did not put that app in my phone. No, no, no. Fuck it up. So Richard Sherrick said that Tracy George told him that he went to Andy's home, forced him to go to the swampy area after the kid locked the keys in the car. Then Tracy George told him he knocked Andy down,

beat him up a little bit, scuffled with him, and Andy then pulled a knife and cut Tracy here, Tracy said. So he said that he then got the knife away from him and then choked him and drowned him in the water at the same time. Choked him out under the water of a swamp. So under swamp water, which is horrible. Now Richard is quoted as saying that he, at that point, he said that he

got some plastic bags for Tracy and said, do you need these to dispose of the body? And Tracy George said that no. He got on a tractor and said, I'm going to bury him in the swamp further out. And he told authorities there later that he said that Richard said that he took Tracy George's muddy clothes and washed them for him because they were full of mud and swamp water.

And he said he didn't want the plastic bags because the body would deteriorate better without them. He wants it to break down and go. He thinks that if you just put it in things, it just disappears. Yeah, it disappears. Bones take a long time to break down. Even in acid, they take a long time to break down. They're not easy.

When you burn them at 4,000 degrees, there's still big chunks of them left. Yeah, they're made of calcium. Even when they cremate somebody, they put what's left through a machine. Yeah, to make it dust. To make it sand. Otherwise, you're getting half a jawbone of your grandpa. Nobody wants that. You don't want the mandible of your grandfather. No, Jesus. Nobody wants grandpa's mandible. So-

This, Richard then says that George decided against using the bag so the body would rot faster. Richard says that he told Tracy George, we made a mistake. We should have done nothing to him. And George replied, quote, it's too late now. We've done something to him. We done did it. He's already laying up in the swamp. Yeah.

Then Richard went in on November 7th and surrendered, and he said he'll plead guilty to whatever they want. He's very, very malleable here. In the agreement between the state and Richard here, Richard will plead guilty to being a party to second-degree murder, a party to it in the death of Andy, and plead guilty to being a party to intimidation of a witness, which is about the burglary and the bog shit.

He faces a possible sentence of 27 and a half years in prison for this. Now, why?

Yeah. Why did he turn him? Number one, why'd you do it? But then you've done all this. Why'd you just turn yourself in, too? What's the deal? You fold fast, man. Yeah, he's faster than fucking, wow. So when asked why his client had decided to cooperate, his lawyer said, quote, I think he did some soul searching. Yeah, big Kenny Rogers fan. Got to know when to fold him, man. Got to know when to fold him, and he does. But that might be true because they...

Or he might have said they're going to track this back to us eventually and I'll look better if I'm the guy telling them about it than the guy making excuses about it later. So they end up arresting Tracy as well, obviously. And so both Tracy George and Richard are both being held in county jail on kidnapping and tons of other charges. Yeah.

Tracy George ain't saying a fucking word. And Richard only knows the body is, quote, up in the swamp. Right. They can't find him, by the way. Wow. It's winter in Wisconsin, and they're trudging through swamps trying to find a corpse. He didn't give near enough information. No, it's very difficult to find. Now, I guess Richard has a $300,000 cash bond. Yeah.

in cash bonds required for his release, while George is only $210,000, even though he's the guy who is the actual murderer, according to the state. So Tracy says he didn't do anything.

No, he claims that he didn't even leave the farm till about 1 30 PM when he had to go for that hearing that Andy was supposed to be a witness at. And he was surprised Andy didn't show up. He said, no, where body is that guy's telling you? He knows where he is. He said, Richard, on the other hand, left a couple of times during the work shift.

So they're looking for Andy. December 18th, coming up on Christmas. This was Halloween this happened, and we're coming up on Christmas. Search is still on for the body. They say the Monroe County Sheriff Timothy Donovan says the search is being limited to a swampy area about the size of two city blocks, which is a huge problem.

area for a swamp to search through in the town just north of Tomah. The search for Andy, who's been missing seven weeks, is concentrated. This is right near his home. This is within tractor range of his home.

He was reported missing on the 30th. They've searched a total of about 14 days for him. They said the time spent in the search varies, noting that sometimes searchers are on the scene for four hours, other days up to seven hours. They said that four, Donovan, this guy, Sheriff, said that four or five of his officers have participated in the search. The most recent effort was a couple days ago when they used metal detectors to search the area. They said that the search will continue depending on whether

And now Andy's a little guy. And this is why it sounds like because we don't talk about Tracy George dealing with him. It sounded like a father dealing with like a kind of abusive father kicking his son's door and he's cowering in a corner. And he's five foot four, 115 pounds. Oh, Jesus. I mean, he is very physically intimidable person. That's a very small person. So that's a lot, man. Yeah.

Now, so there's charges, like we said, of including kidnapping and murder and all this type of shit, although they have not found the body and they're looking for it. So the Monroe County Sheriff said the search for the body was met with no success on the last one. They said that they had to stop in the last weekend because of wind chills of 35 to 40 degrees below zero. Oh.

Oh, dear. So they had to pack it in for that day before half the sheriff's department drops dead in a fucking swamp. Freezes solid. Everybody loses a nose. Look like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining, all these guys.

So Donovan said, this is the sheriff, that the waist-deep water is starting to freeze over, too. It's a waist-deep swamp, which is disgusting. It's starting to freeze over to the point where the searchers can walk on much of the icy surface, which is not good if you're trying to find a body. No.

So they said he hopes that a predicted warming spell this coming up weekend will prevent a heavy freeze and allow them to keep searching. They said the type of area that we're in pretty much prohibits the use of boats, although we tried boats at one occasion. It's just you have to trudge through the swamp feeling for shit and using a metal detector. Oh, God. Which is horrible. December 31st, 1986, New Year's Eve.

They end up... This is fucking amazing. They take a couple of tracking dogs. Okay? This is awesome. A couple of tracking dogs from Minnesota. Lily is one of the dogs' names, and the other one is... I'll find it in a minute. It doesn't matter. Okay. They take these dogs. They use... They sent the dogs with Tracy George's Monroe County jail uniform. Uh-huh. And then the dogs...

The dogs lead the police directly to Andy's body. What? Right to his body from the jail. Directly. Straight line. Here's Tracy's smell. Yep. Where's he been? Over here with his body. Right there. Yep. That's, first of all, amazing smell to do that. These are bloodhounds they bring in from Minnesota. And yeah, it's a bloodhound named Lily and a gas detector. Another dog that detects gas. Wow. Like gas leaks and shit like that. Yeah.

They said that searchers found his body under a log in a frozen swamp. That's the other thing. Tracy weighed it down with a fucking log. He put a log over it so it wouldn't float back up. At 1240 p.m., it was found right off in that swamp, four miles northeast of Tomah out there. Now, they said that the spot was more than a half mile into the swamp from the highway. A half mile of swamp this guy went through to do this.

They said the land on which his body was found is near the boundary of land owned by Helmut Schering. So it's all land that he would have known very well. He said the lack of fences in the area and all the swamps make it very difficult to determine where – on whose property. They said they don't know which property the body is on. They don't know who owns the swamp. No one is really claiming that's my swamp. No one cares about that area. I'm a Shrek, but that's it. Yeah.

The only person ever. And I don't think he lives here. So they said a backhoe, which was used in the search for the body, had cut a path nearly 100 yards long. They said chunks of ice six to eight inches thick were scattered everywhere. There was a backhoe smashing ice, basically. And they said they smashed it near there. They said the body was well preserved because it's been in cold, freezing fucking water.

So easily identify it. It just looked like Andy was underwater. Like, hey, there's Andy. Guy thought the water was going to destroy it. Meanwhile, it made it stick around. Preserved it. It was frozen. He preserved great. It was like, man, look at that. Not bad. He was like a real cold can of beer floating in some recently melted ice. So the beer is super cold still. That's what he's like. Yeah.

So they said there's going to be an autopsy, obviously, to find out what the fuck happened. They said the two bloodhounds were from Bloodhound Investigations, Inc. of Minneapolis. They helped find the body along with a gas detector. They said that the Minneapolis firm had called and volunteered their services. They're just trying to get publicity for themselves. They're a new company. Yeah.

So basically you pay their travel expenses. They'll bring the dogs in and try to find somebody. And the cops said we were really running out of things to do. We had used manpower, aircraft, anything we could think of. So there's a fuck it can't hurt.

Sure. So they brought in Lily and Harriet are the two bloodhounds and they immediately picked up the scent, went right to the body. They said Lily in particular following scents from items used both by Andy and George indicated several areas where they said it appeared promising.

And so they said that all these detectives then used ice augers, the kind used by ice fishermen, you know, big auger, big fucking whatever drill bit. Ice drill, yeah. And bored about 50 holes in the swamp ice within a 30-yard radius of what appeared to be the most promising spots that the dogs were indicating. Yeah. Then they used a gas detector, which has a metal hose. The dog's not a gas detector. They have a...

I don't know if it was a gas-detecting dog. It's got to get the gas that's coming off a body, right? That's what they were hoping. They said it's two or three feet long attached to an upside-down funnel. They put it over each hole and turned it on. They thought that maybe they could use that to detect gases emitted from a decomposing body in the same way they use it as a ruptured gas line. The difference is he's not decomposing.

No, because he's frozen. It's too cold. Yeah. So they said they put bright orange ribbons on the trees near the spots that appeared promising by either the dogs or the gas detection. And they said that they formed a nearby circle and they figured out where the fuck he was under a log.

So, yeah, the backhoe, they said, is wide-tracked and equipped with a snow plow blade and a scoop. It dug a swath through the swampy area, building its own road as it went, pushing all the dirt and ice aside. Pretty good piece of equipment there. They said that Andy's legs were spotted first as the backhoe neared the area where the dog's activity was most pronounced.

He was underwater approximately three feet from where Lily was. The fucking dog nailed it. Went from the jail to three feet from his body and stood there. Through ice. Through ice. That is amazing. They said the dogs had tracked a body in Texas that had been missing for 11 months. So these are good dogs, basically. The medical examiner says what happens to happen to Andy here is.

He says the autopsy showed Andy died of strangulation and a blow to the skull. He got jacked up by fucking Tracy and then he choked his ass. They said he also might have drowned, but that couldn't be proven because of the situation. They said that it was not possible to determine how many blows he received either. So they definitely ruled the death a homicide, obviously. Yeah.

So Richard definitely helped, though. He helped cover this up. He helped a lot. The sheriff, though, said his conscience, his conscience led him. That's why he came forward.

He said maybe it was the fact that he was Andy's uncle and his brother came to him heartbroken. Maybe he snapped at that. And he had also because Richard even volunteered and they took him up on it because he knows the land better than the cops do. They took him out of the county jail several different days to help in the search for the body.

Really? Yeah. He was because he said, I know the area at least. So they took him out there and, you know, they didn't find it though. They said it would have been virtually impossible to find the body without the aid of Richard because he told them it was out in a swamp. They wouldn't have known that at all. They said we spent 61 days looking. So that's a lot. So Tracy George is going to go to trial, obviously. Sure, sure. This is correct. They killed an 18 year old tiny child kid in

Because he was going to testify about cranberry fucking destruction. Like, what? This is insanity. They drained a bog. Well, if he says that, he's going to die. Wow. Yeah, he's going to die. So they informed George that the possible in court, Tracy George is told that he possible maximum sentence he faces on all 10 counts would be life imprisonment plus 62 years in prison and $80,000 in fines.

OK, so, yeah, first degree murder and eight other charges, as we talked about. Now, the funny thing is they thought this was going to be like a big deal in town. So they put up metal detectors for the court to make sure nobody would like try to kill this guy while he was on the stand. Turns out like three people showed up. No one even showed up.

So they were like, didn't need the security whatsoever. It was like two old ladies that normally come watch court because it's warm in there. And like, you know, somebody who knew the guy in high school or something. Town's mad at this guy and don't give a fuck about it. It's fucking. Yeah. Fucking ridiculous. So. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit more about our friends at Quince. Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com. Absolutely.

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to go head-to-head for the last chicken wing. Shop Game Day Faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders. Offer valid for a limited time. Other fees and terms apply. The defense opening in the trial, the defense attorney says that Richard, not Tracy, had far more motive to kill Andy.

Okay. Richard pleaded guilty to second degree murder, by the way. Smart. Or accessory to whatever the fuck it was. So he said that Richard had far more motive to kill Andy than George. He said that he claimed that Richard had not been able to negotiate a plea bargain and turn state's evidence. Had Richard not done this, he would have faced conviction in the Cranberry Bog damage charge and a possible lawsuit of over half a million dollars for damaging the bog damage charge.

He said Richard's wife left him because of his involvement in criminal acts. Meanwhile, the wife was there up until he turned himself in. The criminal act she was upset with was murder. That's the guy she left. And that he faced losing any chance of inheriting his father's farm or keeping it if he did inherit it.

So Tracy, the defense says he will testify that he went nowhere near Andy Sherricks the day that supposedly he was killed. But he can't account for the whereabouts of Richard, though. So Richard might have been there.

George's lawyer made those remarks in his opening statements here. The statement obviously counters what the prosecutor said here, but he'll say George will testify he was working with Richard Sherricks at Helmut Sherricks Farm. He said George will testify that he kept working that day until it was time for him to leave for his court hearing, but that Richard had left earlier in the day without saying where he was going.

Suspicious. Mysterious. Mysterious. George said he will testify. They said that George will testify that he was a little bit surprised that Andy didn't appear to testify against him.

Wow. And they actually have Andy testify from beyond the grave. Is that right? Yes. This is this is wild how they do this. It would be one thing just to put his words up like in a transcript. That, I think, is enough. But they do this a completely different way. They this is the part of a transcript with which Andy described how he had falsified testimony in the hearing on September 12th because he had been threatened with.

With death by fucking Richard and Tracy. So they bring in a kid named Dirk Helgemo, who's 17 years old, and he's a very good actor. Oh? He's like in the drama department. What the fuck? He's going to read Andy's testimony and be Andy, which I don't think that's legal anymore. You cannot have a – like that's – That's not okay. That is wild.

Here's a Juilliard trained actress. Yeah. And the whole time on it, they had a big color picture of a picture of Andy and his high school graduation smiling back at them in a big picture while he's reading from this shit. It's crying. Oh man. About how they're going to kill me and all this stuff. Like it's Andy. So in that transcript, Andy said, Richard and George intended are hinted at various ways to kill him, including a hunting accident and all that kind of shit. Yeah.

Andy's dad, Hines, he testified that his son was afraid of his uncle and George because they continually harassed him. This is great. Andy's father, Hines, not afraid of these guys at all. I think he's the older brother, obviously. If he's got an 18-year-old son, he must be. And there isn't an older brother alive who's afraid of his little brother, even if his little brother is like Brock Lesnar or something. Brock Lesnar's still like, I'm not going to piss my older brother off. He might smack me around. Yeah.

And if you're a party to your older brother's kid's murder, he's going to be pretty upset. He's going to be pissed at you. This is way different than when you crashed his fucking dirt bike when you were 13 or some shit. He's a little madder than that. Yeah. So he glared over at Tracy George here, Hines, and they wouldn't look up at him and said that the two did not bother Andy when he was home. He said, when I was there, they never came and bothered him. Yeah.

He said, quote, and he pointed at them and said, those two yahoos know when I'm gone. Which, yahoos is a great, that's what you call the murderer of your son, a yahoo. Yahoos. Well, other times. Very midwest. Very midwest. Those two yahoos over there, like they, yahoos. Like, just like into some, you know. Trivializing a murderer. These two yahoos. You see that crazy giant inflatable Santa Claus he puts in his yard for Christmas? What a yahoo this guy. Yeah.

So he fucking wing nuts. Yeah. He also described how he spent nearly two hours on October 30th with the family Beagle Snoopy in search of Andy.

He was not successful and nobody was. What kind of useless piece of shit is that dog? He wasn't looking in the swamps. Did you give him a jail uniform? Maybe he would have been better. Better sell that motherfucker. Richard testifies to everything I told you before that he said, everything that happened, so I don't need to go over that again. Then they get a guy who's in jail with Tracy, a guy named Timothy King.

He's in jail facing a charge of damage to property, which seems like that'll get dismissed if he does a good job here. Share a cell with him? Yeah, because he fucking took a baseball bat to his girlfriend's hood of her car. Because he kicked the screen door in of her house. Sitting with a murderer.

Jesus. He was his cellmate. Oh, my. He said that several days before Thanksgiving, he and George overheard a conversation in an adjacent cell. King said the conversation, which came through the jail vent. Hell, yeah. They listen through toilets in jail. They flush the toilet a bunch of times to get no water so they could talk to each other and indicated that police found Andy Sherrick's body. That's how they found out about it.

King testifies that George, quote, laid on his bed, rolled around, and swore. Like, God damn it, they found him. In response to a question, King repeated a statement that George had made. He said George told him there's no way they would find him. That was hid too good. That was hid too good. That was hid too good.

Is it too good? He's laying up in the swamp. Heard a lily, obviously. Yeah, no shit. So Tracy testifies, too, and he's got it because they keep saying he's going to. So he does. And he denied Sherrick's claim and court testimony that he and George left the farm before 7 a.m. to murder Andy, then returned and all of that shit. He claimed that Richard Sherrick's not he who was preoccupied with figuring out ways to kill Andy.

He's like, we both left and Richard took off and I don't know where the hell he is. So he did it. He said that Richard left his father's farm shortly before 9 a.m. on the day Andy disappeared and did not return until about 11 a.m. So he spent about two hours in the travel and killing.

He said much of Andy's testimony in the preliminary hearing on October 6th on George assisted Richard Sherricks and hearing on how George assisted Richard Sherricks and threatening Andy if he testified against them were not true. So none of that was true. All this shit Andy said was a lie, too. And the dead guy's a liar. We're going to throw that in there. He claimed that that this is fucking crazy.

He claimed that Sherricks, Richard Sherricks, had a temper which resulted in animal abuse very often. Oh. He said Sherricks used metal pipes and his fists to assault cows. Why? What the fuck? Why would he want to...

He was salting a cow. They don't give a fuck. Leave him alone. Yeah, they had killed a cow and put it in the manure pile at one point. He also testified that Richard Sharks enjoyed that Andy's parents worried about the fate of their son.

Which I don't believe because he turned himself in when they came over there and talked about it. George testified that Richard Sherricks – and that could have been all for self-preservation. It could have been like nets closed and I'm going to be the first to get a deal. George testified that Richard Sherricks blamed Andy and Andy's father, Hines, for a decision by Richard's wife, Patricia, to leave the farm along with the family's five children last September. And she had come back. So –

This is the quote that George attributes to Richard. Quote, I love the pain they're going through. Makes him sound like a monster, obviously. George said he spent his very innocent morning of October 30th doing chores and grinding corn, as one does.

As we did before this show, had to get the corn ground. That's how it works. It's a big Wednesday. Yeah. He said he did not leave the farm until about 2 p.m. when he went for the preliminary hearing. Now, in the closing arguments, the defense here, the defense lawyer, Gregory Lundell, claimed that Richard is the real killer.

He refuted Richard's testimony, which they said that George did everything and, you know, choked him and strangled him and all that. He also challenged Richard Sherricks testimony that George then confessed to what he had done to Andy. He said Richard Sherricks is a confessed murderer. He's also a confessed liar. Right.

Yeah. He said that the D.A. had nothing but Sherrick's word that George had committed the murder. That's all we have. There's no physical evidence. It is. It's everybody's word. He said, quote, they have no physical evidence. The prosecution said, get the fuck out of here.

He said it's ridiculous to place the blame on Richard Sherrick. This is a weird thing because one's 26 and one's 25 or one's 21. There's a big difference between 26 and 21. True. And Richard is the older one. But yet the prosecution says, quote, who is going to pull who around by the nose?

He said, Richard's a dipshit and a dummy. He said he'd be lucky to pick cranberries for a fucking living. He said George is an A student in high school and was a big popular basketball star. I think he'd be the one in control. Sure. And he's a bigger guy, too. He's a big guy. So he said he's the one who's conjuring up the story to avoid responsibility for his actions. He would say anything to walk out of this courtroom.

Not Richard. So the verdict comes in. Nine women, three men on the jury here. They were brought in from a different county because of publicity. So they did that. So much publicity that three people showed up. They started deliberations at 3 p.m. on a Friday and reached their verdict at 9.50. Jesus, they kept them there until 10 o'clock.

The verdict was announced at 10.20 p.m. after they reassembled everybody on a Friday night. Half these people are—it's Wisconsin. These people are hammered. How many of this courtroom were shit-faced when they came in there? Your Honor, we're ready to proceed. You order a Bloody Mary there, they give you an eight-ounce beer with it. Yeah, just as a backer. You know you'll want that. They don't care.

You're thirsty after all that sodium. Yeah, you're going to need this. Trust me. So they are going to find him. This is Tracy George here. Yeah.

Not guilty of murder. Is that right? Not guilty of murder, yeah, even though it all lined up. It was hid too good. They did find him guilty of burglary, intimidation, and extortion for breaking into Andy's home on September 8th and threatening to injure him if he testified. He could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison. Oh, my God. But at one time, he faced nine charges, including murder. So, not bad. He did pretty well for himself. Not bad. Not bad.

Not bad for him. I mean, he, wow. Tracy George's mother and his girlfriend were all there and they were sobbing and hugging each other. They should have been high-fiving. He got fucking acquitted of murder when he clearly probably did this. Smacking people on the ass, screaming good game. This is fucking, yeah. The attorney, good job there. Fist bumps.

So Tracy is going to make a deal, a plea bargain for the four counts of theft being a party to perjury in his efforts for September 12th. Because he's got all those charges hanging over him, too. So for some reason, they make a deal with him. I would think they'd want to hold his shit to the fire and get every year they can since he got acquitted of murder. It's like, oh, they're going to put him in longer or something. They're afraid that they can't get it because they couldn't get him on murder.

I may be. Yeah. So in return, maybe he'll get away with everything in return for the plea. They drop four burglary charges against him. And Vernon County agreed to drop charges in the burglary and theft case there because he's been stealing shit all over the place. Yeah. So they asked if the judge approves. They said if the judge approves the agreement, sentencing on all the charges will be all together.

And, yeah, for which if he faces trial, if not convicted, involve theft and burglary. OK, there you go now. So he's charged with the party to perjury and all that kind of shit. They urged a the prosecutor urged a severe sentence saying the public needs protection from people like George. Tracy George felt he was too smart to get caught for what he was doing.

Tracy speaks. Anything to say for yourself? He goes, hell, something to say. All right. He said, I realize I've made some big mistakes and I have to be punished for them. I know I have made a mess out of my life. Not your life that we're talking about. You took another. Fuck. I mean, he's not in trouble for that, so.

No, not at all. He said that he wants a chance to change his ways. So please give me a light sentence. He said, I want to be an aid to society, not a detriment. Okay. He won't be, by the way. We'll talk all about it. But his lawyer urged a maximum of two or three years in prison for him. Oh, wow.

The judge, on the other hand, here, he says that he didn't think George showed any remorse for his crimes previous to the sentencing. He said the remorse seems to be more directed toward the situation in which he now finds himself. Like, he needs to be remorseful.

He said he's a manipulative person. He's sometimes a very arrogant person. He also called George very intelligent, but probably an academic underachiever whose high point in life came when he was a basketball star in high school. You're being deemed legally fucking peaked in high school. You legally peaked in high school, sir. You've been adjudicated a high school peeker.

He suggested that George may have become bitter because his life seemed to go downhill from that point. He said, I sense a lot of hostility in Mr. George and what I've observed in the courtroom. He also brushed aside a defense attorney comment that George had never smoked, drank or taken drugs. The judge said that he'd have an excuse for his conduct if he had been on drugs and alcohol.

Drunk, I can understand. I've been drunk. An arrogant, sober lunatic that I've never had before. Not okay. He says, you, sir, may fuck off. 32 years in jail, he gives him. Oh, my God. Not two, 32. 32 for a non-murderer. But he will be eligible for parole in eight years. Okay. All right. Now, Richard gets sentenced. Yeah.

for his part in all this, and he is sentenced to, you, sir, may also fuck off, 22 and a half years. Okay. He might as well have just gone with the flow. They would have got away with it. If neither of them said anything, they wouldn't have known who to convict. So that's why he testified and got that. Now, very quickly before we end here, there's an article from the La Crosse Tribune. This is November 13th, 1988, and it says, massive milk watering scheme,

Probe centers on same farm linked to two-year-old murder case. Sure. A John Doe investigation into milk watering reportedly has ended, but the Monroe County District Attorney David Shudlick would not comment, and such investigations are kept secret. However, a compliance officer in the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, who said he testified twice in the investigation, told the La Crosse Tribune that in September...

They had an investigation centered on a collusion between a dairy man and a milk hauler. Okay. Oh, my God. They're watering down their milk from a dairy farm. You've got to be kidding me. No. They said the case could involve hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of watered milk, making it the largest case of its kind in his 30 years with the department. Unbelievable. And puts the, quote, reputation of Wisconsin's dairy products at risk. They said this in court.

How dare you besmirch Wisconsin's dairy rep here? They're not taking that shit. Is that how they make it 1%? That's it. The suggestion of widespread abuse is contained in a complaint here where they say a milk hauler, it accuses a milk hauler, Paul H. Felber of Tomah, with failing to take samples of milk picked up at the Helmut Sherrick's farm. Wow.

In 83, 84, 85 and through November of 1986, you know, when there was shitloads of cops on the property, then they stopped. On that date, a field man for Wisconsin Dairies tested milk picked up at the Sherricks Farm. The milk was found to contain 37% added water, well beyond the natural water content. Golly, 37% added water.

Now, his lawyer, Helmut's lawyer, said Helmut Sherricks is a 68-year-old dairy farmer. He purchased his farm in 1961 and operated it as a family farm for 27 years. He received numerous awards for producing excellent quality milk. He's proud of maintaining grade A milk status and has never watered down his milk. The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, though, said to have they pulled milk hauler Felber's license from

Got his rid of his license. Heinz says he isn't 100 percent sure, but his recollection is that Andy had told authorities at least something about the milk watering because he did. He said 37 percent. Sure. How sure are we? We two percent. One percent. Are we skim shore? Sure.

He said, Andy knew about it and was questioned about it before he turned up missing. I know one thing. It sticks in my mind. Andy wanted to quit the place six months or longer before he turned up missing. I talked him out of it. I wish I hadn't. Maybe alive.

He said how the milk was watered was described by the Tribune by a farmer here saying that this happened. George was accused in Andy Sherrick's. This is Tracy George, too, because Tracy George is involved in this as well. Apparently, after the cows had been milk and the milk pumped into a bulk tank, the water used to rinse the milk line was left running into the tank for 20 to 30 minutes each night, adding extra water.

They said Rick or Helmut would run the wash cycle. That's what Tracy George said. So that's Richard or Helmut. That took anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes depending on who did it and how much of a hurry they were in. He said, I'd come in, hang up the machines used to milk the cows, scrape down the barn and let the cows out, and I'd walk in the milk house and the discharge pipe would still be in the bulk tank.

George said he became curious about the operation. One night he measured the milk before the rinse operation and again right afterward finding a big difference in volume. Yeah, about 40%. About 40%, yeah. After that he said he kept an eye on it. He said watered down milk sometimes weighed 16,000 pounds or more every day but usually came in between 11,000 and 14,000 pounds.

He said figuring an average of 12,500 pounds, 30%, 7% added water would have increased the value of a single pickup by $551.

Every time. That's an extra $8,548 a month, more than $102,000 a year. In 1985, six months. That's some shit. That's a lot of money. And that's an amazing living in 1986. You're rich if you make $100,000 a year. No kidding. So George said he once asked Helmut if milk watering was how he solved his farm's financial problems. He goes, this is how you solved it?

He said, quote, he didn't say yes or no. He just had a sly grin on his face. And two other sources agree. This is Helmut's son, Heinz, who's 41 and obviously Andy's father. He said that, yeah, there was a lot of problems, financial problems on the farm. A loan from the FHA helped save the farm. He said, but Heinz, who's in a dispute with his father over ownership of a very small piece of land,

said that milk watering began on a small scale 27 years ago when he was a high school freshman. Been watering it for years. Years. He said his son Andy also knew about it and said, what I knew, he knew. I know how things went. So Andy knew too. So now you can add another part of this fucking conspiracy to get rid... Everybody wanted rid of Andy. He knew too much. Hines said he was asked by...

He knew too much. He knew too much about cranberry flooding and milk watering. There's a lot of things to kill over.

It sounds like shit someone would want to kill Charlie over in fucking Olay Sunny or something. I know about the milk watering and the crab bogging and the cranberry bog shit, man. This is big, Dennis. The motor oil and the snowmobiles. Jesus Christ. So they said, are you going to testify, they asked Hines, against your father? And he said, I would, yeah, not to discredit him, my dad, but to tell what I knew. It's the law. Yeah.

He said they said, you know, what's going to happen to your father? And he said, I'm sure he's going to lose everything. Right. So George's account of milk watering is and is substantiated to a lesser degree by another source. He told his George had told the story to his probation agent more than a year ago. And George was sentenced for all the thefts and why he's in prison. Yeah.

So Felber, by the way, has been doing that route for 20 years. So he's been doing this a lot in recent years. They said Helmut's financial difficulties had magically straightened out. He kept his farm. He built a new barn in the early 80s, bought new tractors and drove a Lincoln Continental. Yeah.

Because water's cheaper. Water's cheaper than milk. One of his neighbors said, I always wondered how he got a lot of milk out of his cows. Yeah. Yeah, weird, right? Not a lot of cows out there. A lot of milk coming out of them. Strange. A lot of milk. Now, Richard, I think everybody's out of prison by now. Yeah, they've got to be. They're all, I mean, eight years and whatever. Richard, I found, had a couple of minor infractions here. A failure to stop at a stop sign in 2015, and then a failure to obey a traffic officer in 2017. Oh.

Oh, my God. Not a big deal there. But then also I see Richard claimed Chapter 13 bankruptcy in October of 2023. Uh-oh. So he's in some...

He's in some trouble. He lives in Green Bay at this point, I believe, there. And Tracy, don't know where he is because fuck that guy. So there you go, everybody. You don't know where he is? Don't know where he is. Right around the corner, man. Watch out. I have no cranberries around here. I'm checking behind every door. Let's do it. Yeah, when we leave here, let's fucking do a quick Tracy George sweep. Quick walkthrough.

And the poor little fuck just knew too much. It's amazing. He had way too much knowledge for his tiny body, and it didn't work out.

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about it a little it's gonna be fun shit check that out patreon.com slash sports and you get a shout out at the end of the show also fun shit there keep following us follow us on social media tell your friends yeah and keep coming back every week and until next week everybody it's been our pleasure

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