The Halloween Love Triangle and The Mysterious "L" Word
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Get to Smoothie King today and try the new blueberry, raspberry, or watermelon lemonade smoothies. They're all made with real fruit, real juice, and no bad stuff. Just check out the no-no list at SmoothieKing.com. Try the new lemonade smoothies at Smoothie King today. Hi guys, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday!

Every Monday I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin.

And I do my makeup at the same time. For the month of October, I thought it'd be fun to just sit down and like do Halloween makeup, just kind of. I mean, I'm not really like going crazy. Cool, I'm glad we're all caught up. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button. So this week I'm gonna talk about Peter and Betty Fabiano. Have you heard of them? I didn't think so. I haven't heard about them either. And I even went onto YouTube to see if there was any videos about it. Nothing.

So let's start with Peter Fabiano, okay? Peter was a former truck driver and during this time in his life is when he met a woman named Betty. And Betty had two children from a previous marriage, but she was single at this time. And

When they met, they just kind of hit it off and they started dating. And this was in the 1940s. He continued working as a truck driver while they got married and lived in Kingston, New York. And then in 1956, the couple moved to Los Angeles. The both of them opened up like two beauty shops, hair salons, which is so random. Like it's so opposite of a truck driver.

I don't know how Peter got to like opening beauty shops because this was his idea but he got there and his wife Betty helped him manage these two beauty shops. I don't know if he went to like school for beauty or what but hey man follow your dreams. So October 31st 1957.

But kids are out, Halloween night, trick or treating. All the kids are trying to find where the full-size candy bar's at. As the night ended, 35-year-old Peter Fabiano, his wife Betty, and teenage stepdaughter Judy, they all decided to call it a night, get ready for bed, and they were just all gonna go, go Mimi's.

So they all get ready for bed and they go lay down and they turn out the lights. They're ready, they're going to bed. 11:00 PM comes around and the doorbell rings. Betty kind of rolls over and looks at Peter and is like, are you going to get that? I'm not going to get that. Peter gets up and he's like, okay, like I'll go get the door. And Peter's thinking these must be just late night trick or treaters. I mean, like I'll just get up, but there's some candy left. I'll just give him the leftover candy. Not a big deal. So,

Peter gets up, grabs the candy bowl and goes to answer the front door. Now Betty's laying in bed and she hears Peter opening up the door and she hears Peter say quote, "Isn't it a little late for this?" End quote. Now Betty heard two other voices but she didn't recognize them and she described them as sounding masculine but more like men trying to sound like women.

She just thought it was kind of strange. Then a few seconds later, Betty just hears a loud pop. I mean, it was loud. So Betty and her daughter, Judy, they get up out of bed and they like, they just hurry to the front door where Peter was at. Now, when they run to the front door, they find Peter just laying on his back, just inside the front door. There's blood, he's not responding. They both start freaking out. That's when Betty kind of puts two and two together. And she's like, "Oh my God, that was a gunshot."

So right away, Betty goes to the kitchen, she grabs the phone and she calls 911. Now Judy, the daughter, she just ran like two doors down to her neighbors because her neighbor was a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. So Judy just ran over there and she's knocking on the door and the neighbor answers

and Judy's telling them what happened. She heard a loud pop. Her dad is like what seems to be dead on the floor. This neighbor was just called LAPD and then the police arrived within minutes. Now, Peter was taken to a nearby hospital, but sadly he passed away due to bleeding, well, massive bleeding from the gunshot wound. So, okay, what the F? What the F happened?

So detectives go to the home. Well, okay, look, first they ask Betty, they're trying to ask Betty, like what happened? Do you know somebody that would wanna hurt him? Can you tell us anything? And Betty's just really struggling. I mean, she just lost her husband. She's really upset and she can't seem to, she's not any help. So detectives just go over to the home and they're gonna search the home or just search where they found Peter.

Now when they're there, they don't find like any of the shells, spent shells, ammunition shell. They don't find that. They don't find any of that. But they also don't find any evidence, like any clues. They don't find anything, okay? So then they're looking thinking, okay, well maybe this was like an attempted robbery because what the hell? They didn't know. So they're looking and it doesn't look like the shooting was a part of any type of attempted robbery.

So it said like two days later, I think it is, Betty's able to, obviously she's still grieving, but she's able to give some help, maybe some clues or something, I don't know. But Betty just tells them that she and Peter, they ran two beauty shops. They've been married since 1955. Their shops were very successful. And as far as she could remember, he had no enemies. Like she couldn't think of anybody.

Detectives have nothing and they're like, okay, let's just interview friends and relatives. They gotta figure something out, right? That's their job. But after interviewing a bunch of friends and relatives, they just came up with nothing. It's just sounded like this Peter guy was a really nice guy. Like nobody disliked him. He was hardworking. He loved his job. He was very nice, very friendly. Nobody had anything mean to say about him.

Suspish. There are people who are too nice and it's like, hmm. Hmm. So you're saying nobody dislikes you? Okay, sure. Sure, Peter. Sure. So they come back to Betty again and they were like, Betty, Betty.

Betty, can you think of anybody, anybody who would want to harm Peter? And Betty's like, okay, okay, let me think, let me think. So Betty's thinking, thinking, okay, and then she comes up with a name, Joan Raybell. We're just gonna call her Joan, 'cause I don't know if it's Raybell or Rebell, or yeah. Names are hard. Okay, so Joan, she was a friend of the family. I don't know, maybe she would want to do something to Peter.

So police they go and they look for this Joan girl and they're like, who the hell is she? Okay, let's go bring her in and question her and whatnot and figure out what her deal is. So they find this Joan lady and they bring her in, they ask her some questions but they let her go because there's just no evidence that points the finger at her. Now police just kind of keep investigating but they don't have any leads. Now,

A month goes by. The police station gets a mysterious phone call. Now someone calls the station. They wanna remain anonymous, but this person says, "Hey, you gotta go to this rented locker. It's in a department store in downtown LA. I believe it's linked to the murder of Peter

What was his name? Fabiano. I believe it's linked to the murder of Peter Fabiano. So because police really don't have any damn leads, they're like, "All right, let's go check out this locker." Now it was in a department store. You can like rent a locker to store items in. I've never heard of that, but I guess it's a thing. Maybe it isn't anymore, but it was at some point. So that's good. Okay.

So police go down to this locker and they're able to get inside of this rented locker and guess what they find? Inside this locker, they find a gun. Now not just any old gun, it was the same gun that was used in the murder of Peter Fabiano. We need to figure out who's renting this locker because they obviously know something.

or they're responsible for this, right? Like, hello? Okay. Police look up who's renting this locker and they come up with the name Goldeen Fizer. Goldeen, huh? Okay. So who the hell is this Goldeen person? So they do some researching on Goldeen.

and they see that she was born in Illinois to German immigrants and she moved to Los Angeles by 1940. She worked as a secretary, currently. I think she was working in like some kind of lab as a secretary, but regardless, she was working. But the thing was, it's like she didn't,

work with Peter or the family at all. So it's like, what did she want with this family? They see that she was married briefly in 1994, but the marriage didn't work out. It's like only lasted a couple months and then they divorced. After her divorce ended, Goldeen was known to date women, which was very taboo at the time, okay? This was in the 50s. Nope. But Goldeen was out here

So because they find this weapon that was in a locker in Goldeen's name and it's the same weapon that was used to kill Peter, police go and arrest 43 year old Goldeen and they take her in for questioning. Now Goldeen just is, I'm laughing because Goldeen's funny. She just like wasted no time. She was under arrest and within I guess just a couple minutes she was like, okay, I did it.

It was me, you got me. Like she didn't even try, which I wish all of these cases would go. That'd be great. She wasted no time. She's like, "Oh, you got me." And then she tells police officers, quote, "It's a relief to get it off my mind." That's good, that's great. So police are like, "All right, cool, we caught the killer." So like, why'd she do it? We don't get it. Goldeen is just ready to spill the tea, as you kids call it. So Goldeen instantly says,

"Look, a friend of mine, her name is Joan. She told me to do it." And police are like, "What the hell? We already questioned her. Like she, what? Tell us more." So Joan was a former employee of one of Peter Fabiano's beauty shops. And Goldeen said, "Joan is the one who talked her into committing the crime." Goldeen said that she and Joan, they were friends for a couple of years. Goldeen and Joan, they planned the murder for three months.

Which, side note, that's like three months too long. If you're planning a murder for three months, maybe you should just like let it go and move on with your life. You had three months to think about it and realize that it wasn't worth it. Like, you know, three months you planned it? No, no.

No. All that they would talk about was Peter Fabiano. I mean, Joan was just obsessed with this guy. Now, Joan is the one who described Peter as a vile, evil man, and he would just destroy anyone who was around him. Anyone who was his friend, he just...

was a terrible human being. This is what Joan told Goldeen. So Goldeen's hearing this and just like, oh my God, like, wow, he sounds awful. So Goldeen is thinking, okay, this Peter guy is just,

he just ruined Joan and Joan's my friend, she's been a friend for a long time. Why would she lie to me about this guy? So she's painting this picture that Peter's just awful. And Goldeen said that she just was developing a deep hatred for him. So on October 21st, Goldeen purchased a gun from a shop in Pasadena, which is like,

It's not far from where she was at, the town over. Goldeen told the guy behind the counter that she just needed a gun for home protection. So the guy is able to get her the gun. And then Joan is the one who actually pays for the gun. And she also gets two bullets.

Joan is the one who tells Goldeen, just keep this at your house and then I'll meet up with you on Halloween night. Goldeen takes the gun home, she keeps it in a safe spot and waits for Halloween night.

So when Halloween night comes, Goldeen says that Joan came over to the house. She has some blue jeans, khaki jackets, hats, eye mask, and they decided to put the gun in a paper bag as if they were going trick or treating. So they got dressed up, outfits, I don't know what they're supposed to be, but okay.

the lame costume and they drive to Peter's house. So they get to the home at about 9:00 PM and they just kind of park a little bit down the street, but not too far, just where they can see the house and wait for like the lights to go out. So they're just sitting there and they're waiting. And eventually the lights to the house go out.

and that's their cue. So Goldeen says, okay, they both go up to the house. Goldeen rings the doorbell and nothing happens. So she rings again or she knocks. And then that's when Peter answers the door and he asks, isn't it a little late for this? So Goldeen says she holds up the paper bag, which had the gun in it, remember? And then she fires it and it goes off and it hits Peter off and it kills him.

So once they shoot Peter, they go running off, right? And they get back into their car and then they drive off. So once they get back into the car, they drive off to a lady named Margaret's house. And the reason that they drove back to this lady's house is because they were actually, they were borrowing her car

Jesus, I'd be so pissed if I was Margaret. Really? You're gonna use my car to kill somebody? Fucking dicks. Anyway, so they borrowed this car from Margaret. So they drive down to Margaret's house 'cause they're like, we gotta return the car. Okay, so they're driving back to Margaret's house. They get there. I guess at some point they burn all their clothes, but it's kind of unclear. Like if they burn it and then get into the car, it doesn't matter, I guess. But they burn their clothes at some point, evidence.

So once they drop off the car, Joan turns to Goldeen and tells her, "Forget you ever knew me." And then just walks off. Now Goldeen was upset by that. That little comment is like really made Goldeen just stop. What, what do you mean? So who's Joan? Who is this lady?

Well, why did Joan want to kill Peter? I mean, what was so wrong? So it all started when Peter hired Joan to work at his hair salon in Los Angeles. Now Joan was a 40 year old freelance photographer. She was also a writer, I guess, but I think she was hired for her photography skills. I'm not even sure like what she was hired for, but regardless she was hired. Okay. She was focused.

Peter liked her, whatever, and he starts to introduce Joan to everybody in the salon. He introduces Joan to Betty, his wife, because Betty works there as well. She comes in and she helps out from time to time. Cool.

Now, Betty would quickly become Joan's obsession. So as time goes on, Joan becomes really close with Peter and Betty, and she just overall was really enjoying working for Peter, and she just really liked when Betty came in and worked as well, like at the same time as her. She just liked her.

She was like, "Yay, Betty, yay." Now the friendship between the two of them fell apart when Betty and Peter, they began to have marital problems. So Betty thought it would be best for the two of them to split and for her to move out of the family home. I guess it was just really bad. They weren't getting along. I'm not sure what it was over or anything, but they were just a bit close.

And Betty's like, okay, I'm just gonna move out because I need some space by myself. I'm gonna take my kids, don't worry. And then I'm just gonna move out. They're fighting and guess where Betty moves? She ends up moving in with Joan.

Oh yes, oh yes. So this is in 1957. Now, it was heavily frowned upon, remember, to like do anything to breathe. When newspapers reported on this story, they would describe Joan and Betty's relationship as abnormal because the papers would never dare, dare, dare to use the L word. The L word is lesbians.

Oh nay, nay, nay. They don't use that word. Uh-uh. No such thing as lesbians. Even like when researching this, it's like you can't ever figure out if Joan and Betty were like a couple or they were having sexual relations or anything. Not that it's our business. They just were living together.

but I think it's safe to say that they were lovers. So it was never confirmed nor denied if the two of them were in a relationship, but Goldeen said that they were indeed lovers, Betty and Joan. So Betty and Joan were living together

for a little bit, it didn't seem like it was that long. Some of these older cases, it's hard to find information on. I mean, they couldn't even say if they were in a relationship or not. The dates are a little confusing. Yeah. So Betty and John are living together for not even that long. And I don't know, you know, Betty just decides that, you know what?

I miss Peter. Peter and Betty decide, let's work on our marriage. Let's try and fix this and be together again. Peter was like, we can be together under one condition. You can no longer see Joan.

So Betty's like, "Well, shit. Thanks, Joan. It's been real. I'm out." So Betty then moves back with Peter. As you maybe are putting the pieces together like a lifetime movie, but this ain't a lifetime movie. This is real life. Joan is hurt, but she is pissed. She is heartbroken and she became fixated on removing the problem. The problem that was preventing her from being with Betty

And that problem, baby girl, was a man named Peter. Now when you break up with somebody, somebody leaves you for another person, of course that's heartbreaking, that's really hard. And it hurts, it hurts really bad. It does. I know. But you can't let yourself go to that

crossed that line to just becoming a little too obsessed. And Joan started to just become obsessed with Betty and getting her back. She was in love with Betty and Betty didn't know what she was missing because Betty could be treated so much better if she was with Joan. I just have to show that to her. Joan is a little selfish asshole. When Betty moves out,

That's when Joan is like, dude, I'm lonely. I need somebody. Let me call up Goldeen. Ring, ring, ring, Goldeen, hey it's Joan. And they became very close. Now you see, Goldeen and Joan, again, they had known each other for a couple of years. Goldeen had like a major crush on Joan and Joan, she was aware that Goldeen liked her, but she wasn't really interested in her. She wanted Betty. She was in love with Betty, right? So Joan is just,

feeling lonely and she just kind of needs somebody and that's when she calls up Goldeen and then they start hanging out and they start officially dating. Now the relationship between the two of them, it was moving really fast, but it was becoming more clear to Goldeen that Joan was clearly not over her previous relationship.

So Joan would constantly talk about Betty, constantly talk about how Peter was abusive towards Betty and towards the children. Joan then would go on to say that Peter was doing drugs, he was also selling drugs out of his house and that's how he like had so much money to run these businesses. Convinced

Goldeen that Peter was pure evil. Now Goldeen had never met Peter or Betty, but she just felt so bad based off of what Joan was telling her. And she was like, oh my gosh, poor Betty, she's just really stuck in this marriage, she's being abused by this awful man. I just couldn't imagine being in her shoes and Joan just wants to help her.

Goldeen was just allowing herself to believe everything that Joan was saying. And she then was just becoming controlled by Joan's personal agenda. So when Joan brought up the idea that maybe they should, you know, they should shoot and kill Peter, that way he'll stop abusing people, he'll stop abusing his children. Like that's the only way to get Betty free.

We have to kill him. Goldeen just followed all of Joan's instructions. She didn't.

Although Joan gave Goldeen money to buy the gun, technically Goldeen was the one who purchased a gun and it would be later traced back to her, but it was like under Goldeen's name. Also, Goldeen technically purchased the bullets. And then lastly, Goldeen was technically the one who pulled the trigger and killed Peter.

Peter. Now Joan was a smart little cookie, okay? She knew to have Goldeen put the gun in her name. She knew to have Goldeen put the bullets in her name. She knew to have Goldeen technically pull the trigger so if anything came back to them, she could be like,

It wasn't me, it was all Goldeen's idea. Joan was smart in that sense, kind of. I mean, not really, but you know. That part was smart, I guess, but it's not smart. And I would suggest you don't do that. So once the murder was done, remember Joan says to Goldeen, "Forget you ever knew me." And Goldeen, that really stuck with her and it just left her with so much guilt. Guilt for killing someone, grief because she was officially

being dumped by Joan and now she was stuck with the gun, Goldeen was. So they didn't think of a plan of what to do like with the gun or like how to get rid of it or anything like that. Or maybe Joan just didn't give two shits to really even care to get rid of the gun and just left it with Goldeen was like, peace out, thanks.

So that's when Goldeen rented a store lockbox and that's why she put the gun in there. It just became very clear to Goldeen that Joan was just using her, that their relationship wasn't even real and that Joan didn't even really love her. Goldeen was really hurt by this. Do you blame her? No. Should she have killed somebody? Absolutely not. But like...

I feel bad for her. Joan just wanted somebody to do all of her dirty work and then toss her to the side like trash. All of this anger, sadness, guilt, and grief is what led Goldeen to confessing. Why would she be loyal to Joan now? I mean, Joan just threw me aside and was like, thanks.

I bet you if Joan didn't dump Goldeen, maybe it would have led to her not doing that. Police arrest Joan as well, I don't know if I mentioned that. And Goldeen was arrested and put in jail as well. Goldeen pleaded insanity and stated to one of her psychiatrists, evaluating the case, that she had no motive and whatever motive she had, it was because of Joan. She also went on to say that she was easily influenced

and that she's always been very impressionable and trusting, which doesn't sound like insanity to me. It just sounds like a lot of people. Goldeen was just looking for a way out. Goldeen's psychiatrist later wrote that the only thought Goldeen had was that she had to save her friend Joan from an evil person. Joan pleaded innocent. Okay, Joan.

which no comment by Joan ever, ever suspish. But both women were sentenced to five years to life in prison after taking a plea deal to reduce their charge from first degree murder to second degree murder. Now their case landed in history as the trick

retreater murderer and was frequently cited as an example of women receiving softer treatment in the courtroom. According to the LA Times, Goldeen was eventually released and remained in the Los Angeles area. In 1971, she was made an officer of the Miracle Mile chapter of the Professional Women's Club.

Goldeen died at the age of 83 in 1998. She seemed to live like a long happy life. She never like gave any interviews or anything. Like girl, come out with a book or something. Write a lifetime movie. Come on, anyways. And then Joan, Joan was released at some point and there is little to no trace of her after 1957, just gone.

off the grid. Nothing. There's nothing on her. It's just like, what the hell? It's also been mentioned that possibly Joan changed her name, which I guess would make sense, but it was weird. She never said a peep, nothing. Now, Betty went on to live a very full life.

and she ended up passing away at the age of 81 in 1999. Now I know what you're all thinking, did Betty love Joan? Did the two of them ever reconnect after Peter's murder? Did Betty play a role in her husband's murder? Was it her idea? These are questions we will probably never get an answer to. Actually, we will probably most likely 99% never get an answer to.

None of them talked and nobody knows. Nothing. Nothing. So before we sign off here on today's episode, final thoughts, I have no idea. I think Joan was just truly obsessed with Betty, right? But then I was thinking, 'cause nobody knows if Betty and Joan ended up together after Peter passed away.

So we don't know, like do you think Betty was in on it? I don't know. I really don't know. Nothing pointed to Betty. I don't know. What do you think? Regardless, yes, I do think that their sentence was way too light.

They got to live like happy long lives. So what the fuck happened to Joan? I don't know, but she did not deserve to get out of prison. Goldeen, I kind of felt bad for her 'cause I do think she needs to be held accountable for what she did. She got played, you know, like that sucks when you just like are being used to get back at an ex or whatever. I hope you have a good day today. You make good choices and please, please, please be safe out there. Don't get played. Don't fall into anybody's little trap.

Okay, if somebody tells you to kill someone, you say no. God damn it, that's not okay. Anyways, have a good day, make good choices, and I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.