#520 - Taking In The Strays - Benton, Kentucky
01:13:35 Share

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about one of my favorite things in the world, Audible. Oh, audible.com or that app. Oh, I give that app a workout. Let me tell you something. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. You can listen to anything. There's so many genres on there. There's more to imagine when you listen. And let me tell you something that makes my imagination soar in a terrible way. I've been listening to Secrets in the Cellar. Oh, boy.

Which is by John Glatt, and it's about Joseph Fritzl and locking his daughter in the basement for decades. And it is... You want to talk about imagination of who's the devil in a human skin? That's the guy. So check that out, or a whole bunch of them. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases.

Audible's the best. Let's be honest here. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash smalltownmurder or text smalltownmurder to 500-500. That's audible.com slash smalltownmurder or text smalltownmurder to 500-500. Now back to the show.

Hey, Small Town Murder listeners, have you heard? You can listen to your favorite gripping investigations ad-free. Good news! With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your Prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to amazon.com slash ad-free true crime. That's amazon.com slash ad-free true crime to catch up on the latest episodes without the ad.

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little more about Philo. We've noticed, and I think everyone on Earth has noticed, TV's really complicated to try to watch now. Yeah.

Thankfully, Philo has changed all of that for us. One service, all the stuff we need. And it's great. Philo's got current seasons of shows that you don't want to miss on live networks like A&E, MTV, Discovery, TLC, classics like The Office, Martin, and Friends that I never got sick of and you won't either. And all of the incredible originals on AMC Plus from Mad Men to Orphan Black.

And don't forget their library of more than 75,000 movies and shows, all of which we can save and rewatch anytime for a whole year. Never miss a minute of shows like Love After Lockup, you know that one, Married to Evil, and Death by Fame, and many, many more. Best of all, with Philo, you get all of this for just $28 a month. No contracts, no hassles, just one subscription and a world of entertainment. Mm-hmm.

Get in there and do it. Philo's amazing. So go to philo.tv slash smalltownmurder and check it out for a free seven-day trial. That's philo.tv slash smalltownmurder to start watching. Now back to the show. ♪♪♪

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, choo-choo! 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 absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. You know these are crazy because we only have an hour, so we have a lot of murder to cover.

Yeah, and we're still going to find a crazy murder, so we've got to cram a wild murder into a small space, and that's what we're going to do here today. Very quickly before we get started, shutupandgivememurder.com right now for tickets, and the tickets are not only for live shows. We have September 20th, Minneapolis State Theater. Get your tickets right now to that and be a part of the biggest shutupandgivememurder that's ever happened. Yeah.

We can't wait. It'll be our biggest show ever. Also, the next night in Milwaukee, we're releasing our holds and comps. It's a few tickets. So if you've been trying to get tickets and can't, wait a little bit here. They're coming and keep an eye out. We'll post on social media when it happens. So follow us there at Small Town Murder. And then also for sale right now, virtual live show tickets. Oh, boy. Oh, baby. The Halloween virtual.

A virtual live show is back again. Costumes, a wild murder, all the pictures, all the craziness and insanity of a virtual live show and some surprises as always. Right. We can't wait. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you get all of that. Also listen to our other shows, crime and sports and your stupid opinions. Of course.

They are hilarious. And if that's not enough for you, we have even more. Patreon.com slash Crime in Sports is where you get all of the bonus material. It's the best bargain you're going to get. The entire back, hundreds of episodes of bonus stuff you've never heard before and new ones every other week. Anybody $5 a month, you're going to get all of that this week, which you're going to get.

the new ones for crime and sports. We're going to talk about the entire Duke lacrosse scandal, which has nothing to do with lacrosse and everything to do with frat parties and strippers. So we'll talk all about that. Then for reasons to stay out of frats and don't, don't do any of that. So a small town murder. We're going to talk about this Brian Koberger guy in Idaho with that whole thing. The trial hasn't happened yet and all that, but I have a particular justice. I have a particular disdain for this guy's smugness.

to be that smug when there's DNA evidence. I just feel like no innocent human would do that, I feel like. It's one of those things. You wouldn't be like, I'll be smug about this. Your face would be, holy crap, help me, please. Please help me. Anyone help me. Oh my God, they're saying there's DNA. So we'll talk all about that. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. And before we go any further, I think it's time

To sit back. What do you say, everybody? Get started here. I think it's time to clear the lungs. Arms to the sky, everybody. And let's all shout. Shout out. Give me.

murder let's do this everybody okay hey let's go on a trip shall we but we shall we shall we shall we are going all the way to kentucky this week oh yeah we're going to benton kentucky is the b-e-n-t-o-n this is in western kentucky it's gonna outside of paducah would be the best way to put it which is also a small town so when you say a town is outside of another small town it's

It's not good. It's interesting here. This is in western Kentucky, like we said, about two hours to Nashville. That's kind of the closest big city here. And about four and a half hours to our last Kentucky episode, Highland Heights, Kentucky, which was Never Sing Your Confession. Remember that one? Don't do it. That was, don't go, I did it, I did it, in the interrogation room while they're videotaping you. That was a gal. Yes, it was. Yes, it was. Oh, yeah, yeah. She was singing, I did it, and dancing. She was doing like an I Killed Him dance. It was wild. Yeah.

This is in Marshall County, Kentucky, area code 270. Population here of this town, 4,734. So pretty small. The entire county only has 31,000 people in it.

All of Marshall County. So this is a rural area here. Median household income here is about $55,000. Median home cost here, $137,100 today in 2024. That's where we're all going. Well, there's not a lot to do there, as we'll talk about.

When I tell you the things to do in the reviews, a little bit of history. Benton was founded in 1842, and it was named for Thomas Hart Benton, who was a senator, not from Kentucky, from Missouri. Really? Don't know why they decided that was the best...

I don't get it. He's got to be who they named everything Benton after, right? Because I think there's an Arkansas Benton. I think everybody has an Arkansas Benton. Yeah, there's one of those. Benton was incorporated in 1845. Now, in 1908, Benton became a sundown town.

Oh, boy. And so did the entire Marshall County in 1908. I'm not sure how. Nice choices, guys. Yeah, I'm not sure how long that lasted, but it's, yeah, it was 1908 is when that happened. In 2018, on January 23rd, a mass shooting occurred at Marshall County High School, resulting in 19 injuries and two deaths.

That's not good. Then, in 2021, the town was hit by the 2021 Western Kentucky Tornado, which was an F4 and fucked everything up, too. So...

This town has had just bad karma since 1908, I feel like. That's so fucked up that 19 people died and I don't know anything. 19 injured, two died. Oh, God, okay. Even still, I should know that. But we have like 150 school shootings a year is why you don't know. It's crazy. Yeah, it's a lot. Reviews of this town, five stars. Benton is an amazing small town.

Amazing. Everyone knows each other. We have Tater Day in the beginning of April. Tater Day? We'll talk about that. Tater Day is the thing to do. That sounds great. Oh, it's not. We'll talk all about it.

The safety of Benton is excellent, they say. It's named after a guy named Tater, isn't it? No, no. It's just a celebration of Ron White all day long. That's all it is. They put his jokes. They have children act out all of his jokes is what it is.

It's like a nativity scene, but about Ron White. Three stars. I've lived in Benton, Kentucky my whole life. I do like it here because it's a small town. Everyone is friendly and you know your neighbors. The only downfall is there isn't much to do here, which that's why you know everyone. It's just the Tater Day. You just wait all year for Tater Day.

Three stars. When it comes to crime in Benton, you rarely hear about it. There is mostly just drugs and racing, but nothing too serious. Drugs and racing. Hopefully not at the same time. Don't do drugs and then race. Although that does sound fun. Probably dangerous. Two stars here. People are nice as long as you're a tourist.

Oh, as long as you're getting the fuck out of here. Yeah. How you doing? Yeah. They're going to hide their true feelings. If you wasn't born and raised in Benton, you wasn't born here. If you wasn't born and raised in Benton slash Marshall County for generations, you're what they like to call a transplant that most residents do not welcome with open arms.

Yeah, transplant. That is what you're called. That's what you are. That's what you are. But I think they mean like if your parents came here, you're still a transplant. You're right. Even though you were born here. Weird. You still can't be. Generation, otherwise. Where was your great grandpappy is what they want to know here. You're temporary around here. Yeah, you're going to leave. We know it. And things to do, of course, Tater Day. Hell yeah. Started in 1843, Tater Day. Wow. As a celebration of spring.

and a time when all of the townsfolk would get together and trade in sweet potato slips used to grow the plants.

Sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes, I guess at the time. I don't like sweet potatoes, as we've discussed a lot. They're gross. Neither of us care for those very much. I hate the fries. That's fucking awful. Oh, when they say, oh, sweet potato fries for an extra dollar, I'm like, you could say it's half price and I wouldn't want it. I'm definitely not paying more for it. If you get sweet potato fries, we don't charge you for nothing. Oh, really? It's all free. I'll take the regular ones still. Please take my money. Do you have any crinkle cuts? Just regular ones, please?

Get those orange things off my plate. It's the oldest continuous trade day in the United States in which goods such as guns, coon hounds, tobacco or livestock are swapped and sold. It's a fucking swap meet. It's their giant swap meet and they call it. And they're like trading dogs, which is a very strange thing.

Yeah, this boy down at Tater Day. If you're not from the United States and don't know what a coonhound is, it's like a hunting dog, a raccoon hunting dog, and they hunt small things. They're cool dogs, too. They're great dogs. I love those dogs. Tater Day brings to town carnival rides, games, a market, a potato-eating contest, sports,

Sweet potatoes, probably. I think it's regular potatoes now. I think we've moved past the sweet. They found out there's other ones? Yeah. There's also pony and mule pulls. Do you know what a pony pull is? No. You play tug of war with a pony. That's not okay. It's not a pull. You're not going to win. It's not a pull. That's just losing all day. And then a mule, too. There's also a biggest potato contest, which attracts large potatoes from across the country.

Or county, not country. County, it says. I thought it said country. 30,000 people wide. Oh, man, it's wild. The biggest part of the festival is the parade, which completes one circuit around the town. So they just do a little loop around the town. That's the biggest thing they got. Oh, boy. It includes political floats, which I'm sure is just lovely. That's just what you want to see. So that's diverse as fuck. Yeah.

Well, also, just while you're in the street eating a fucking potato, you don't need to argue with your neighbor over politics. Can we have one day that's just about potatoes and not fighting in the streets about politics, please? Something tells me there's not a lot of arguing about it here. No, that's probably true. Probably not a whole bunch of it. The Marshall County High School Marching Band, Horses and Buggies.

This is a nightmare. Political floats and clowns. I want no part of this fucking parade. Those are the same thing. Wow. Yes.

Fuck me. Vintage cars, horses, Miss Tater Day. Gotta have a Miss... Who's the hottest tater broad here? Gotta have that. Let's judge the chicks. Let's go. There's also a Junior Miss Tater Day for the youngins. Gotta bring them in there. That's for little girls age 5 to 12 and also a Little Mister and Tiny Miss potato. It's not just all...

Old women judging that, it's not okay. And I'm sure even that's just weird. I'm sure it is, old women, but still. You know, there's that one old guy going, I don't know, she ain't as pretty as the other one. And also, baby Miss Tater Day pageant as well for, obviously. For the super creeps. For babies, yeah. There's also an annual Tater Day Derby that's hosted at the Dirt Track.

That I'm into. This is exciting stuff. That said, let's talk about some murder here. Okay. Let's start out with a guy here. George Anthony Luna. L-U-N-A. Luna. He's born in 1970. First thing you got to say about him is he's a little guy. Oh.

Not like medically little, but like... Like me, little guy. No, no, no, no, no. You would be like, what's up, tiny dick? He's 5'4", 130. Oh, God. He's a tiny little man. He's a little... He's a jockey, basically. He's a tiny, tiny man. We should have a parking space for those guys, right? No, they fit everywhere. They should have to park way in the fucking back because they're comfortable. Fuck people that are 5'4", 130, all fucking luxuriating in coach. Sick.

sitting cross-legged on their seat. Suck my dick. Fuck you. Give me a parking space. I'm sore. Yeah, I don't care. I'm sore from cramming my fucking self into everywhere. I get a parking space. He's sore from self-pleasure. Well, good. That's his own fault. Get out there.

And that's not true because he's non-threatening. Yeah, that's true too. You find little guys like that, there's a bunch of ladies that like them. Really? Yes. It's like a fetish. Wow. I think they're non-threatening is what it is. I missed those ladies. I could take him in a physical fight. I skipped the two. You're not small enough. Yeah. You're not small enough to be like, oh, he's tiny. I can put him in my pocket. I skipped the novelty dick. Yeah. Exactly. That's what it is. You're in the middle. It's a tough place to be. God damn it.

Now, he lived in Illinois is where he's from and where he lives all over the place here. As far as recently as 2002, when he was about 32 years old, he was living in Collinsville, Illinois, which I think we've done an episode, a bonus episode about. Yes. And his father lived in St. Jacob, and that's where he was living before that. Now, after that, after 2002, when he's living in Collinsville, I just found a plethora of

driving things that he did. He's a terrible driver and never has a driver's license. He's like a crime and sports guy. He's like a crime and sports guy with his driving. I found 2003 driving on a suspended license. The

That's 2001. I'm sorry. August 2002. He's speeding and his registration's expired and he has no license. That's not good. September 2003. Driving while license privileges suspended again. July 29, 2004. Criminal trespass. Huh?

And also to residents and a persistent presence. So he keeps trespassing. And at the same time, also, he did damage to property on that same offense in the $300,000 to $10,000 range. So somewhere in there. Okay.

That's a pretty wide... That's a window to torch in the place. Yeah, no, that's a barbecue grill or a used car. One of the two we destroyed. Damage, that's like breaking a window or burning half the fucking place down. Or just breaking the garage apart with a sledgehammer. One of the two. Or turning the water on and stuffing up the drain. Also, in that same...

Well, fences there obtaining cash and or merchandise by bogus check as well. So he was trespassing, breaking shit up and also writing bad checks. He's like, oh, I know I broke that. I'll take care of it. And then he wrote a check for it. And that wasn't good either. September 16th, 2016 is driving 30 miles an hour above the speed limit there. That's not great. And at the same time, he had no register, no registration whatsoever.

no license, and was driving under the influence of alcohol as well. And a DUI. And a DUI. He didn't give a fuck. He was just going all in on this one. At least he was wearing a seatbelt, it sounds like. I mean, he at least put it on as the cop was coming up. He wasn't that hammered.

So February 11th, 2007 is also known damage of property again. And during this too, people have restraining orders out on him. He's a mess. Like he goes to court a lot.

Some frustrated man. Court is a part-time job for this guy. He's always in court and always out of court. He's on probation. Yeah. He's got restraining orders against him. This is, you know, 2007. Terrible paperwork, too. He's a fucking mess, this guy. An absolute mess. And...

If he's caught that many times, the amount of times... He's always driving. He's always driving. And always speeding. He's like a crime and sports guy who were like, how the hell do you get pulled over that much? Just don't give a shit and drive. But this guy doesn't have an NFL contract to pay these fines off. He's just an idiot.

He's a, like a, he does, uh, construction work and stuff like that, but he doesn't have a job a lot of the time, probably cause he's shit faced, I would say. Right. Yeah. Um, so this is, like we said, his last offense was in, um, February of 2007, the damage to property thing. Then by spring of 2007, he's found a living arrangement, uh,

Because he has no jobs, I'm sure a mountain of court fines and fees and everything else and restraining orders. He finds someone that lets him live in their home rent-free. Wow. Rent-free place to live in Benton, Kentucky. It's awesome. It's in a nice trailer. So he's moving in rent-free to a trailer with Debra Hendrickson.

So that's who he's moving in with. She is 46 years old at the time, so she's a few years older than him, 10 years. Yeah, nine years or so. Now, a little bit about Debra. She grew up with four sisters and two brothers. She has been living in this area for about the last seven years because she works at the Benton Walmart for the last seven years. Yeah.

She's the manager of the infants and girls departments. Oh, not of the store. Not of the store. Of those two departments, though. Infants, girls. She's like, I'm looking at taking over at least homes and crafts pretty soon. I'll get young men's in a sec. You give me tires, it's over. I'm telling you right now. It's fucking over with. I'm done. I'm taking the store over.

So, yeah, she lives in this trailer and it's in a rural area. It's not no it's not a trailer park like with, you know, trailers all around her. Her trailer is just kind of sitting out in the middle of nowhere and there's other trailers out in the middle of nowhere. It's a wild style life here. And so she lets this guy move in. She's going to let Luna move in with her. George, how did she meet him?

Well, this is the thing. They met a few months earlier, and in just a few months, she invited him to move in. Now, it doesn't look like – I don't think there's a romantic relationship here. Oh. But there might be. That's the thing. Maybe there's some motherly shit happening? Yeah, she's pretty private, and he tells people that it's not a sexual relationship.

But their relationship, when you hear about it, sounds an awful lot like a relationship. It doesn't sound like roommates. Now, she had a husband named Jerry, but he died.

So she's a she's a widower. Yeah, she's a widow. And it's tough. She also had cancer a few years back. Holy. She's had it tough, man. She's been in remission for about five years, though. She's been doing better. Her health has been better and everything. She's a big supporter of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.

And all that kind of shit. Like she has a Walmart team that participates in it. She's big into that. So she met George Luna, like I said, winter of 06, 07 into there. And from what everybody says, and this is the quote people say all the time, she likes to take in stray people.

There are people like that. She takes in strays. I know so many people like this that will let anyone come and they feel like they're helping somebody. And if they help one person, it's fine for 10 to fuck them over because they helped one, which is a beautiful... I mean, if everyone was like that, holy shit, we'd have a wonderful society. But it's a hard life to live right there. It's also been proven time and time again that that's...

Never works out. Doesn't work out. No. For every one, there's nine assholes. That's the problem. George is a journeyman bricklayer by trade. So he's got a trade. That's a good trade. You can make decent money doing that. Oh, yeah. Anywhere you want to go. He's also a lazy drunk that people don't like him. That's a bricklayer. They don't like him. Yeah. No. Drunk for a bricklayer. I mean, if you can't get bricklayer work. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I know tons of guys that do construction and stuff like that. They're a mess. They're drunk all the time. So, yeah, you have to be extra drunk for them to go. You're a problem. That's too much. So he had to travel as jobs required. And he started when he was working a little bit while he's living with her. He would kind of go for the job, stay where they were for a few days, then come back to the trailer and live with her for a while. So it was kind of sporadic. And mostly he's there. He's there on the weekends when he's not working always. Yeah.

Now, the mobile home, by the way, is 1349 Scale Road in Benton. That's the address of it. Now, George isn't even allowed in. He shouldn't even be in Kentucky. Number one, never mind living. No, no, no. He's a convicted felon in Illinois. And the terms of his probation prohibit him from leaving the state of fucking Illinois.

Even to go rest his head for the night. So he's like, I'm going to set up shop in Benton. That's a good plan. Kentucky. So yet he came to Kentucky regularly and he they had a lot of issues. These two. It's weird because they're not like married or together. They fight. But yet he still comes back on the weekends and she lets him stay there.

Which is very weird. It's strange to fight with a roommate when you don't fucking pay rent here. That's the weird part. You don't have any arguments to make. Well, he's going to court. He gets an exemption in June 2007 that he's allowed to leave the state of Illinois for work purposes. So now he's got a little bit of leeway. It's not just like if we catch you in another state, you're automatically under arrest. Now you're here for work or whatever. In the same month, June 2007, he was ordered because he has kids to

He was ordered by the Illinois Division of Health Care and Family Services to pay child support in the amount of, are you ready for this, Jimmy? The princely sum of $19 a week.

$19 a week. Did you say plural children? I don't know how many kids he has, but either way, that's not enough for one kid. That's $76 a month. That's not a lot. He's killing it. That is. That sounds great. What the hell are you going to get for a kid in 2007 for $76 a month? You know what? Never mind. We'll take him to McDonald's twice, and thanks a lot.

Now, Deborah and George, according to what he tells everybody, he tells everybody that Hendrickson, Deborah's always coming on to him, but they never had any romantic involvement. But she would like a romantic involvement, but he's not interested. He's just living there, you know, for the free rent and shit. So the relationship had a lot of conflict. Deborah's family and friends described various instances of physical abuse inflicted upon Hendrickson by George.

Even though they're not together, which is strange. But he also says that she would abuse him. And we'll get into exactly how. Because what he claims isn't just like normal physical abuse. It's.

You know, you could have died very easily from that. It's a lot. Now, George is also he's also involved in a lot of schemes in 2007. He's in the final stages of his involvement in an arson of his residence in Illinois. He burned his house down in Illinois. That occurred in December 2004, and they were still investigating it. This was the same fire for which the Progressive Insurance Company would obtain a civil judgment against him for later on.

So it was something he owned. So he owned a fucking house and burned it down to collect the insurance money. He also set fire to his firebird. He took it a little too literally, his Pontiac Firebird in Marshall County in order to collect money for insurance.

Wow. The judgment obtained by Progressive Insurance stemmed from the fire at his residence in Illinois, and Progressive paid under the policy shortly after the fire, but later filed a civil action against him saying, pay us back because it was arson. So eventually, in July of 2007, Progressive obtained a judgment of $11,527.72. Wow.

Because they were the insured parties were not entitled to coverage because of a misrepresentation during the policy application. So they fought them on paperwork. They said, we can't prove arson, but we can. We can't prove you lied about this. You didn't dot your fucking eyes and cross your T's here. So the misrepresentation was made by his then fiance. And so the date of the judgment is interesting because the date of the judgment is the day before he sets his firebird on fire.

So he gets a judgment against him on July 13th. On July 14th, his car's on fire all of a sudden. That's weird. That's very interesting. He tried to pursue the claim on the Firebird through Deborah Hendrickson because it happened at her trailer. So he tried to do it like as a homeowner's insurance type deal. Like, oh, this car burned here. So on July 17th, he called Progressive to claim that the Firebird had been stolen. He burned it, but he said it was stolen.

On the same day, he reported that the Firebird had been stolen from her garage the previous weekend. That's what he said. He goes, it's been gone a week. Okay. And then they brought it back to set it on fire in her driveway or some shit? No, he set it on fire in the driveway and then said it was stolen from the house, so that's how you'd get the insurance from her home shit. Okay.

Now, he also tried to get her to falsely state to insurance claims adjusters that she was the owner of the Firebird and the car had been stolen from her, you know, because progressives kind of got beef with him because they...

they just fucking sued him and got a civil judgment a couple days ago. So he's like, it's not mine, it's yours. This is 2007. He thinks the insurance companies don't just check up shit? Like, they just start, they just send checks out? He's so dumb. He's an idiot. This isn't Belle Ganesse here. This is like, you know, this isn't 1855. It's not H.H. Holmes. Just...

It's a dumb man. Progressive was suspicious and did a closer investigation of the claim, obviously. They do with thousands and thousands of dollars. Now, this upset Debra because she's not a criminal. So she is not used to this type of thing and she doesn't like it. She's a nice lady. So she, on July 18th, contacted Progressive herself. Oh, and apologized? Sobbing and crying. And she told the agent she was so upset that she couldn't go to work that day.

The girls and infants are going to have to fend for themselves today, guys. Sorry. She told the agent that the Firebird had not been stolen, as previously claimed. In fact, George Luna had taken it from her home on Saturday, July 14th, the day after the judgment came in against him, by the way, and returned the same day without it, claiming the car caught on fire. It's just gone.

So Deborah then told the agent that George had coerced her into filing a claim with Progressive by stating she was purchasing the Firebird from Luna and it got stolen from her.

She said she didn't want to pursue the claim, but that Luna had taken her insurance card and reported it. She just took it and called. He just grabbed the card and called. Finally, Deborah told the agent that George was present when she made the original call to Progressive, but had left midway through the conversation. She also informed Progressive that Luna had taken her Chrysler 300M to Illinois, but

And that she did not wish to pursue the claim on the Firebird. She's like, but by the way, I might be getting another claim because he stole my car. The notes taken by the agent during the call say that Debra had a fear for her life and recounted informing the agent that Luna had physically assaulted her as well. She's telling this to the progressive guy. They're not used to that.

They're like, whoa, this is well above my pay grade. What year Firebird did you say it was? That's where I'm at right now. You got the VIN? You got the VIN on that or no? August 8th, 2007. Okay. Luna is pulled over in Illinois while driving Debra's Chrysler 300M and charged with, of course, driving on a what? Suspended license because he has never had a license. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a little bit more about SimpliSafe.com.

Oh, SimpliSafe.com. S-I-M-P-L-I-S-A-F-E.com. That's right. And maybe you felt this. You ever felt a sense of unease when you leave your home? Wondering if everything's going to be okay if you're away. Maybe you'll be out of town for a while. Did I close the garage? Yeah, we have. I do it when we go out of town. Every day. But it wasn't until I had my house broken into and a man destroyed my plumbing that I was able to get out of town.

that I realized security is needed here. Need a security system. Paramount. SimpliSafe, thankfully, is there to help, and they are amazing. We did, and I'm a research guy, you know that, so I did all the research, and SimpliSafe is the best, and we've loved, both of us, having SimpliSafe protect our homes and our studios for years. We've had it for years now. It's been like six years we've had SimpliSafe, and the security and the service

They're great. They're better than you could ever expect for, honestly. Protect your home with 50% off a new SimpliSafe system plus free indoor security camera when you sign up for Fast Protect monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash small. That's simplisafe.com slash small. S-I-M-P-L-I safe.com slash small. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Now back to the show. ♪

This show, Small Town Murder, is sponsored by BetterHelp. It's the season of fear. Maybe you have some fears. Maybe you're not Halloween-based. Maybe you're not scared of Dracula. You're scared of real-life things like us. We're both terrified of flying, and we have to fly all the time. So things like that can help with therapy. Honestly, you need it. You're going to hold yourself back with that stuff. So if you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.

We recommend it. It's entirely online. It's designed to be, and it is very convenient, flexible, and especially, this is the important part, suited to your schedule. There it is. It's great. You just fill out a brief questionnaire. Couldn't be any easier. They match you up with a licensed therapist, and you can switch therapists at any time. No additional charge. No.

They want you to get help. That's what's the important part here. So you should do it. Overcome your fears with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash SmallTownMurder today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, BetterH-E-L-P dot com slash SmallTownMurder. Now back to the show.

As a result, he's ordered to appear in court on September 11th, 2007. And based on the charge, the prosecutor is now seeking revocation of his felony probation and an arrest warrant for him. So now he's got an arrest warrant for him on August 28th, 2007.

That's when that happened. A habitual offender of bad driving and no license. Yes, it's fucking wild. But back to August 15th, Luna contacted the progressive agent here to pursue the fraudulent claim related to the Firebird, having no idea that two days later, Debra was going to call and say, never mind.

He called up, then put Hendrickson on the phone. He was like, yeah, you got to talk to her here. And they said she was audibly upset and uncontrollably crying on the phone on the first call. He told the agent that she told the agent that she was uncertain about what to do. Now, back to the 300 M. He then after this, this is after he's pulled over and all that kind of thing. He takes it again and wrecks it.

'Cause he shit-faced driving somewhere, so he destroys her other car now.

He's like a swarm of locusts that just comes into your house and destroys and eats everything. Everything. He's just a tiny little ball of mischief. Yeah, all this coming from the little tiny motherfucker. Like, you're not big enough to do this, bro. Sorry. You're not big enough to be such a problem. No. So he wrecked it, then proceeded to enlist her in pursuing a false insurance claim for the damage.

Specifically tried to have her say that to tell the insurance company that she was driving the car by herself when she wrecked it. Not an uninsured, unlicensed drunk man. Me. Tell him you did it. Tell him you did it.

Her insurance rates are going to go through the fucking roof. This is crazy. Everything. I got Firebirds, 300Ms. This is all in the course of a month. They have to go, what has been happening with you? You had no claims, no nothing for your whole life, and now your life's falling apart. She's not going to be able to insure an American Airlines ticket, for Christ's sake. No shit.

She went along with this at first, but then felt bad about it and told her friends. I can't do this. This isn't me. She's not a criminal. That's the thing about her. She's just not. So she then informed both progressive and the Marshall County Sheriff's Office that George had instructed her to lie.

And George found out about this, by the way, that she had told them because then they came and questioned him. Yeah. Now, here's some other unrelated and related and nonrelated issues they have. Janice Hendrickson's sister said that Deborah informed her of various problems that she was having with George Luna, that he had threatened her and was just overall abusive to her.

A friend of hers, Bridgette DeHart, said that Deborah told her that George Luna wanted Hendrickson to report the Firebird to her insurance and that Luna forced her to drive him to Illinois at knife point. What? That's kidnapping is what that is. Interstate. Aggravated. Yeah. Wow. And that Luna assaulted her by pushing her into a coffee table and into a potted plant another time. Yeah. He is...

Wow. How is he not in prison? It's fucking. That's what he's supposed to be. There's his his shit is revoked. People are looking for him actively at this point. Jerry DeHart, who is Bridget's husband, I believe, testified later on that Deborah told him about Luna pushing her into a coffee table and a potted plant and also testified that he worked on Hendrickson's truck. Once she told Luna when she told him Luna had driven it and found that the fuses had been removed. That's why it didn't work.

He's yanking fuses out of shape. He's yanking fuses and going, I don't know, your truck doesn't work, I guess. Yeah. Judy Brown, who's Debra's friend and co-worker at Walmart, said that Debra told her that George was dangerous and scared her. And Debra also told Judy that coming up here in September that she wanted to buy Judy's truck for...

so that George Luna would stop trying to get her vehicles and just go back to Illinois and leave her alone. She was going to buy a truck and just give it to him and say, just take the car and fucking go. Take the car and drive away, which is super sad. Jesus Christ. Also, the progressive insurance agent, Caleb McGrath, said that he talked to Hendrickson about the theft and all that and that she then told him that George Luna had coached her

to tell him that the car was stolen and to report the claim and that Luna got her insurance information and reported the claim without her knowing it. And also progressive insurance agent, Will Purdue. I assume not the old center. I assume that's where he is. He's the biggest progressive insurance agent in America, seven foot tall,

fucking doofy non-fucking basketball playing he's gonna hire bill weddington oh no jesus that's just gonna lead to luke longley we can't have this so he said that very boring and they're they'd be boring for insurance sales yeah hey let's get four huge white stiffs and just play them at center what do you say okay

It won't matter. We have Jordan. So this guy said, Will Perdue said that Deborah told him George Luna told her to tell the police she was driving the Chrysler at the time of the wreck here. Another progressive employee who worked on Deborah's Chrysler claim said that she told him that George had physically abused her and forced her to drive to Illinois at knife point. So she told this story to other people. He also says that Deborah showed him a bruise and said that George hit her. That's how he got it. She's showing this to Will.

Wow. Yeah. Showing it to Gary. No, this is Gary Siovich. Then Deputy Jason Ivey, Marshall County Sheriff's Department, asked Deborah about filing charges about the Firebird, which was stolen and burned. She refused to file charges. And they said, why? And she said, because I'm scared of him. I don't want to file charges.

Now, another officer said that he went to Deborah's trailer looking for Luna on an unrelated matter, obviously, because the cops are always looking for this asshole. And he observed injuries on Deborah and asked how she got them. Deborah told him that she'd been assaulted by George and...

and said that she already reported it, which she didn't. She was just scared of him. So this is not, the fact that she is willing to tell anybody about the abuse means she's not a woman, A, also that's used to being abused. Right. This is not someone who seeks out abusive relationships. Yeah. This is someone who doesn't understand why the fuck this guy's beating her up for no reason. She needs a dude about five foot eight that won't stand for any of this. Don't stand for none of this shit. Jesus. So August 29th, 2007, uh,

a Marshall County Sheriff's Office officer visited the trailer to speak with her on that, to speak with George. And that's that at that point. And that's when she had the visible injuries. August 30th, 2007, Deputy Brett Edwards said that he called Deborah to follow up on a previous 911 call by Deborah. Good God. On the phone, Deborah told this deputy that if her trailer were to burn, George would be the one who did it.

That's what she called 911 to say, just to give you guys a heads up. Yeah, she also told this cop that Luna told her to vacate her trailer. She owns it. Yeah. She works at fucking Walmart to pay for this. This is ridiculous. He doesn't even rent here.

and threatened to burn her trailer down if she didn't oh god and then progressed that we want to talk about progressive he progressed to making threats to not only will i burn the trailer i'll burn the trailer with you in it if you don't get get out and give me this trailer um that's what he wants her to leave and get he told her to get the fuck out of the trailer vacate your premises that's what i mean he's trying to get he's trying to steal her house from her

Wow. Trailer or not, it's her house. Leave it. What the fuck, man? This 911 call served as the purpose for the reason why the deputy came to the house there. And it states that she got on the phone very calmly and said, this isn't an emergency. I'm calling 911. I realize it's not an emergency, but I'm calling just in case something happens to my trailer while I'm at work the next day.

Just to let you know, if my trailer burns tomorrow, it's because of George. I didn't do it. He didn't. No. So that was August 30th. Now, September 7th, 2007, I guess this is when George finds out that she has been turning him in left and right to the insurance people. I guess he overheard her talking to somebody and all that, and he was very pissed off about that. Now, September 8th, 2007, this is the afternoon.

George goes with Debra into Paducah, which is about a half hour away from the trailer. They visit a couple of bars. They ate and they drank beer. And before returning home, they stopped at a liquor store. Hell of a day. George is going to drink an impressive amount of liquor this day. And I know that because in the court documents, they describe it as an impressive amount of liquor. Literally...

The court document calls it impressive, which I said, wow, that's something. That's a lot of liquor. That's a lot of liquor. So according to Luna here, he said that Debra encountered a potential boyfriend, and she told Luna that this guy is going to come over later tonight. That's what George is going to say. I need to not be here.

So, Deborah drove Luna home in her truck, and this was in the truck that Luna, by the way, claims that he's in the process of trying to buy from her, which isn't true. Meaning her truck. Her truck, essentially, yes. In the process of trying to buy means I have gotten no possession of this truck. I've moved zero.

Yeah. Now, according to George, when they got home, he was eager to go see his daughter in Illinois. He's got to get his 19 bucks a week worth of FaceTime with this kid. Yeah.

So upon returning home, he started packing up his clothes and tools to get on the road. He said he he said that as he drove away, Deborah waved at him from the front porch. Beer in hand. Just oh, bye, y'all. Just having a good old night. Everybody's happy. And that's as he pulled out of the driveway. He said he got to Paducah before he realized he left his level in the garage.

And he said, you got to have a level for bricklaying. So he had to turn around his tool. He had to turn around, drive all the way back to the trailer, uh,

He said upon arrival, he didn't enter the trailer but went directly to retrieve the level from the garage. Sure. Which I assume is a separate building because it's a trailer. And as he returned to his vehicle, this is amazing. By the way, he shit-faced through all of this. Hammered. He says he, quote, thought he saw flames through a window in the trailer. Thought. Thought. So what did he do?

Drove away. Probably nothing. Probably just, you know, trailer, normal little trailer living room fire. It's cold out. She's probably got a candle going. Those woodwicks put off a pretty big flame. It's a pretty good one. They're not bad.

He said that he supposed he was just drunk and seeing things that weren't there. How much do you drink to get there? Well, his solution for this is, I'll just drive away. I'm so drunk I'm hallucinating. I'm seeing house fires. I'm so drunk. I gotta get out of here. Put it in drive and get the fuck out of here, boy. The only thing that's going to clear this head up is some driving. I'll tell you that.

You know what I could use right now? A long drive. That's what I could use. I need the wind in my face. Interstate travel is what I'm looking for. While driving to Illinois, he called 911 several times to report a potential fire. Maybe repeat, there's a drunk man careening down the road. At 625 p.m. By the way, he's driving her truck and using her cell phone to make these calls. Wow.

While on the phone with the dispatcher, he's unable to provide the address of a place he's lived for six months, by the way, or even Deborah's last name, which he claims he doesn't know. A lady named Deborah lives in a trailer, but I don't know where it is, but it's on fire. You should find it. Bye. Get after it. You should find it. Bye. Hold on. There's traffic coming up. I got to pay attention. Okay, bye. He fucking hangs up.

So apparently, eventually, he was belligerent with this dispatcher because they were asking things like, what's the address? Yeah. And who's inside? Where are we going? Things of that nature. He got mad and hung up on the dispatcher. Oh.

Who would then call him up seeking more information. He'd go, God damn it, I fucking told you, you bitch. And he'd hang up on her. I hung up on you, so don't call on me. So over an hour, that's 625 he's saying this. Over an hour later, they never got any clarification. 911 didn't know where to go, so they didn't do anything. They thought it was a drunk guy just doing a prank. So 734 p.m., he is pulled over by a state trooper in Illinois, declared

Clock going more than 100 miles an hour. Cooking. Shit-faced. More than 100 in a truck. He's arrested there. This is on Interstate 57 at the 46-mile marker near Marion, Illinois. He'd been wanted on warrants charging him with violating his probation and criminal damage to property. And he was also charged with speeding, driving on a suspended license, being shit-faced, and intimidating an officer. We'll get to what that is.

He tried to muscle him. He did. Now, at 8 p.m., a neighbor arrived home. One of Debra's neighbors arrived home. This is an hour and a half after he called for the fire. They arrived home to find her trailer fully engulfed in flames. Debra's trailer. You could see the flames, so they drove over there. By the time the firefighters arrived...

an hour and a half, two hours after the fire started. The flames were so widespread they couldn't even enter until water was applied. They couldn't do anything. They just had to let it burn and try to put it out. That shit is red hot. There's nothing you can do. So they said it was a fully involved fire. The neighbors observed that Debra's truck was gone. So everybody assumed she wasn't home. So everyone was like, that's good. At least she's not home for this. Jesus Christ. So an hour after they get the fire out, they finally go in.

Everything cools down a little. So this is three hours after the fire started. Inside, they notice Debra's in the living room and she's dead and burned to a crisp. And it looks like she is where the fire started, by the way. Oh, what? She is the source of. So either she spontaneously combusted or there's a problem here. Yeah.

Yeah. Most people don't spontaneously combust when they die. It doesn't happen too often. So the Marshall County coroner said that he noticed compression skull fractures different from heat fractures caused by a fire. Yeah. The flame was too hot. This was bashing. This is blunt force trauma, they said. Almost immediately upon entering the trial, the trailer, he could see that her head was fucking crushed in basically.

He said that the force of death is blunt force trauma to the head and the autopsy bolsters that her body had several indicators of blunt force trauma, skull fractures, subdural hemorrhaging and bruises to the brain away from the location of the skull fractures as well.

They said it was blunt force trauma, not fire, that caused her death. Her body was just burned. The autopsy also revealed an absence of a soot deposit, any soot deposits in her airways. So she didn't breathe in. She was dead already. That means she was dead. Yeah.

So they said there's no evidence that she was breathing when the fire was in close proximity to her. Also, the location of the bruises were consistent with being struck in the skull with significant force while the head was free to move.

Meaning she was not lying on the floor when she was struck. After being struck, physics takes over. The head continues to move as a result of the force. Eventually, the head's motion comes to an abrupt end. However, the brain continues its movement until encountering the skull. It's a movement concussion in football. You see a guy get tackled and he never got hit in the head. And how the fuck does he have a concussion? Because he stopped too short and his brain hit his skull. Right.

So they said that's why there's bruises on the brain or away from the skull fractures. And the force was to the back right side and the bruises were to the front of the brain. So that's how hard she was sitting still. Now, George is at the Illinois police station there because he's been taken into custody. While handcuffed, he rose from his chair and began approaching a trooper who was seated in front of his computer. Yeah. Another cop saw this and told him to get back.

The trooper, the seated trooper turned around to find George standing over him. The trooper shoved him away from him because he was like right on top of him, apparently. So he shoved him away from him. Luna lost his balance. And as a result of the shove and he tumbled backwards and hit his head on a bench.

Okay. So now as he got up, he was highly agitated and began demanding to be bonded out. You sons of bitches hurt my head and everything else. You assaulted me. He then threatened the trooper physically. And on top of that, I'll kill your family, he said. He threatened the trooper's family if he were not bonded out. So if you don't let me out or I could harm your family, then I'll harm your family even though I'll be in jail. I'll get out and harm your family. Yeah.

He was later transported to the hospital where he received four staples in his head to close his wound. Oh, fuck. It was a big wound. It was a good one there. Also, the evidence indicates that he consumed, this is from the court documents, an impressive amount of alcohol on the night in question. His blood alcohol content, they took his blood alcohol content at like 1030. So this is four hours after he was really putting it away, was a .209. Holy. Which is really drunk.

That has been a 0.3 at that. Yeah. He was like fucking blackout level. I think that's a fire. Maybe not level of drunk. You know what I mean? Yeah. His breath is flammable. Is that a fire? That's a, that's a level of drunk. So they said that, um, uh, they said reading the reading was taken after Luna finished off a bottle of liquor when unable to find Hendrickson's pulse. He said he continued to drink alcohol and all of that. So that's how that works. Um,

That's a lot. So he's really shit-faced. He definitely had motive to kill her because she's been reporting him for criminal activities all over the place. And also, he wanted to get her truck. She's dead, then it's his truck. Then they bring up, they find out all of his fires from the past.

He's had multiple fires at residences in Illinois there. He's a fire-setting son of a bitch. Yep. There's a garage fire, a car fire, all these fucking fires. So tons of fires. They even asked him about an apartment fire that occurred in the early 90s where he was living. Oh? Fires follow this guy. Wow. That fire occurred at Luna's building, but he denied having anything to do with it.

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. We're excited. New season coming up. We're going to have fall and winter and trade in these short sleeves. Yeah. Pop on some nice sweater. Get you some flannel. Yeah. That's right. Get me some cashmere maybe. Maybe I'll step it up and upgrade. Maybe a nice leather jacket. Something like that. But I'm going to get it from Quince. That I do know. Because Quince offers...

Highly affordable and high-quality essentials for any wardrobe, including seasonal must-haves like Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $60. And that's what we found. Jimmy got some nice linen pants, some summer pants. I got some stuff like that. I got some sunglasses. Now I'm looking for...

I'm looking in the leather jacket range now. Get some warm stuff. Get some fall stuff. And I'm going to be on Quince and I'm going to hit it up. And I'll tell you that right now. And you can do it too. Upgrade your wardrobe with pieces made to last with Quince. Go to quince.com slash smalltownmurder for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.

That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash smalltownmurder to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash smalltownmurder. Now back to the show.

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about Angie. Oh, Angie.com. A-N-G-I.com. Absolutely. Angie. Good stuff. Angie's List is now Angie, the nation's largest home services marketplace, and they're here to help homeowners get all their jobs done well.

Angie, yes, they've helped over 150 million homeowners care for their homes. Whenever the project, big, small, indoor, outdoor, come to Angie, you understand, we both own homes and projects are difficult. And they pile up. They pile up and Angie makes tackling the project simple from start to finish. Get started on the app or you can go to Angie.com. That is A-N-G-I dot com. Get your job done well with Angie today. And now back to the show.

Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two-year contracts, they said, what the f*** are you talking about, you insane Hollywood a**hole?

So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes per detail. He also denied having anything to do with all the other fires at his house, with the exception of a garage fire, which he admitted to accidentally starting after he dropped a cigar in some spilled gasoline. So he set the whole joint on fire. Yeah.

He did acknowledge receiving insurance proceeds, and so there's that.

Wow. That's a lot. Now, an ex-neighbor, I guess here, there's a neighbor who in Illinois who he offered who was having a problem with one of their neighbors. And he said, well, I know how to burn their house down if you want to get rid of them. Who doesn't know how to burn a house? Yeah, it's pretty easy. Well, he says, like, and I can get you insured. Like, they won't even know it's burned down. Yeah.

So he's a flamer as it goes there, like Patrice. That's what he is, yeah. So his story, what's your story? Here it is. He said that, okay, this is what happened. Deborah concocted an idea to burn down her trailer for

So that they, they, not her, they could put a double wide on the property instead. Oh, this thing's just not enough leg room. That's what it is. Okay. So that was, I guess, he said that another time they've had some problems. He said, well, she's crazy, man. He said one time she shot me in the leg.

Yeah. He said that the allegations that he was abusing her came out around that time because she was worried about getting in trouble for shooting him in the leg. So she started telling people this shit. Okay. That makes sense. That happened a few months earlier. Now, they said, what happened the night that the fire started? He said, well...

She got mad at me when I refused to go along with her plan to burn the trailer down. Because, you know, he's a man of principle, obviously. There's some integrity around here. Yeah. She then stabbed him in the leg with a paring knife. He's been shot and stabbed, James. Well, that's not all that she does this night, apparently. After which he retreated to the bathroom and bandaged up the wound and changed his jeans, you know, with a hole in them and all.

He said, but the stabbing was just the beginning of my harrowing ordeal this night with this woman. He said when he exited the bathroom, she was looking through his cell phone and now was enraged. He came out to her, his cell phone in her hand, eyes wide, full of fury. She then came over, punched him in the face, bloodying his nose, and grabbed him by the hair, which might be possible because he is a tiny little man, as we said.

She just go over whooping his ass, grabbed him by the hair and said, what are you doing, bitch? Like she was really abusing him. He said that he was somehow able to wriggle free from this poor cat, from this cancer survivor who's 10 years older than him and works at Wal-Mart from the manager of the Little Miss department.

And returned to the bathroom to clean up blood again. Now I have to clean my face off. Just constantly cleaning blood. He then heard her ranting and raving that she will burn this place down. I'll burn it down. And he heard lighters going like she was trying to burn it down. But she was just lit candles. But then she said then it got crazy because the lit candles, she then wrapped them in an Afghan and dumped vodka all around.

Oh. He said, then she snapped after that. That wasn't snapping. Now she's about to snap. That was her under control. Now it's bad. He said, Debra retrieved a handgun and tried to fire it at him. She was pulling the trigger, but the gun wouldn't go off. Oh.

He said he went toward her and they struggled over the gun and it went off. And he said there was ringing in his ears. It was so loud in a single wide tin trailer. He said that at this point he was so scared. He said all he could think about was not being with his kids and having them grow up without their dad. Them. Multiple children, $19 a week. $19.

That is a bargain. You could sponsor a starving African child for less than that or more than that. It costs more to sponsor. And they're just giving like a sack of rice and that's...

You could get mosquito nets for an entire village for more than it costs for him to support two children. So this poor man is just, oh, she's an animal, this one. She's threatening to burn the place down. She's stabbing him. She's trying to shoot him. And all he wants to do is get home to his poor, poor kids. He said, what a bullshit artist. He said as he continued to struggle with her.

He said that he because, you know, it's a real physical fight here. He grabbed a nearby whiskey bottle that she had thrown at him earlier. He was like, I'm going to get you back. And she rose up. And after that, he grabbed the bottle and she rose up and said, I'm going to kill you. And the gun went off again, but missed him.

So he, in a wild swing for just to try to save his dear life, he swung the whiskey bottle and, oh my God, miraculously connected with the back of this psychopath's head. And she collapsed to the floor motionless. Like an O2 pitch. He got her. Got her. I mean, you swing from the heel sometimes and that's what happens. Now they went, that's quite the tale. You're still there. It must've been a rough night for you. Wow. That sounds awful. Yeah.

So much so you had to drink that much. They said, well, would you be willing to take a polygraph examination? That way we can just lock this in and we know that this horrible woman is dead and we don't have to deal with this anymore. And he said that he didn't know if he'd submit to the test, but he said, I'll think about it.

Why not? Later in the interview, he said, well, what am I being held for? And they said a probation violation as well as a whole bunch of shit we arrested you for tonight as well as more to come. We got a lot of driving infractions, sir. Oh, shit. Now, also another friend, Judy Brown, the co-worker there, said that night, the evening of the fire, she received a voicemail from Hendrickson's phone saying,

But the voicemail just contained the muffled voice of a man muttering threatening curse words. Oh. So he must have butt dialed her and was just like, fucking bitch, I'll fucking kill these motherfuckers. So he's indicted on charges of first degree murder and first degree arson, obviously, here. Wow.

Because his story is... Downtown Judy Brown riding around. Yeah, I'm telling you. I've never heard a worse story, by the way. No, that's crazy. That's a wild... This woman just... She went wild, man. I know it's never happened in her whole life. She's been real stable and I set things on fire and abuse everybody. But man, am I a victim.

This is what happens when you treat people like this for so long. That's what happens. We can only take so much. A friend of hers, by the way, said that she'll be remembered for her big heart and her deep love for children. Even though she had none of her own, she's been a widow since she basically got the job at Walmart after her husband died.

Which is terribly sad. Her friend said if she had a fault, it was that she was really big hearted and trusted everybody to be as good to her as she would be to them. I think that's what happened with this. She was just trying to do the right thing by somebody and it didn't go so well. That's an understatement. They said that she was her one family member said she was prone to take in strays of all kinds.

And that is that's fucking crazy. And her friend Bridgette DeHart said that she wishes she would have been more aggressive in trying to stop George from harming her friend because she kept hearing about all this stuff. 2008 is his trial. OK, next year. Now, here is I'm going to give you a conversation between the judge and a potential juror.

Judge, now have you read, seen, or heard anything concerning Mr. Luna, the defendant? Juror, I read something in the paper. And anything specific about that, any specific information? And the juror says, uh-huh. Or uh-uh. Uh-uh. I'm sorry. The judge says, what are your thoughts, beliefs, or feelings about the information you've received about Mr. Luna? The juror says, well, I mean, if what was in the paper was correct, the lady was really nice and helped him out a lot. I mean, you know, that's a poor way to pay her back.

And the judge says, I'm sorry. And the juror said, I said, that's a very poor way to pay her back. And the judge said, OK, based on what you've read, have you formed any opinions? And the juror said, no, I don't think so. And the judge said, have you read or seen anything concerning Deborah Hendrickson, the victim? And he said, well, the letters that people, her friends wrote about it, how they thought. I mean, she was mistreated, obviously.

And the judge said, OK, any other specific information? And he said, no. The judge said, OK, what are your thoughts, feelings and beliefs on the information you've received with respect to her? And he said, I mean, it was sad that it happened. I don't have a particular way of thinking about it. The judge said, do you feel like that what you've heard or heard or read so far that you understand the charges and all that? Do you have any opinions, any preconceived notions as to the innocence or guilt?

And the juror said, well, just reading the paper, I mean, I would just assume that he was guilty. Jesus Christ. And the judge said, OK, do you feel like you could be a fair and impartial juror? And he said, it would be hard, but yeah, I think so. And the judge said, all right. And they let that guy on the jury.

We're going to test you. That is fucking wild. How do you do that? And also, while they were doing the jury questioning here, Luna's sister testified that in the judge's chambers following the lunch break, she overheard two men outside the courtroom talking. One said to the other, well, they better hope I don't get picked because I believe in the death penalty. If you take a life, you give a life. You'll do. And the prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty in this case, by the way. So at trial...

the arson investigator. They talked to him a lot. Obviously he's going to be a big part of this whole deal. Um, they try to discredit him saying that, uh,

His hydrocarbon detector wasn't blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Give me a fucking break. They said that the investigator looked at the debris in the path traveled by the fire, the lack of significant fire load in the area where Hendrickson's body was found and the severe and localized damage to the floor where of the to where she was found says that it's, you know, it's a fire that was intentionally set, obviously. Yeah.

Now, the court allows the admission of the police station incident as well, of him intimidating the officer, not listening and coming back. They allow that in. The jury is six men, six women, and they find him guilty of all charges here. He doesn't testify in the first trial here. First, I said. Yeah, I got that.

During sentencing, you, sir, may fuck off life in prison with parole, he gets. Oh. Okay, so it's like 20 years is his minimum. 2010, he appeals, and they said they failed to excuse the juror who said that he...

He thinks he could maybe be impartial. The juror that said, I don't know, I'd like to give him death. And they're like, well, that's not on the table. He's like, I'll do it anyway. I'll do it anyway. I'll kill him myself. Me and my brother will take him out and do like an iced tea surviving the game type thing and just set him free in a field and hunt him. I hate that man already. He's guilty. Oh, man.

And I'm going to show you a picture of his mulleted face, too, because it's hilarious. He's got this mullet. It's really good. It's not like I'm going to be like trendy mullet. This is my haircut from 1983, and I've just never changed it. I ain't cut it yet. Nope.

So remanded and reversed. Okay. 2002 or 2012, they do a retrial. Here's his picture, by the way. I'll show that to you. Look at that. Oh, for heaven's sake. Who the fuck is that? That's the George. That's George Luna. What? That's him. That's our guy here. He's like, I grow my hair long because my legs are short. You know what I mean? Now, the-

And now they're saying maybe we'll go for the death penalty this time. Oh. What the hell? But they don't, actually. Now, there's no evidence indicating both opportunity and motive. Luna sought to admit evidence that one of Hendrickson's former boyfriends committed the crime. Oh, okay.

that her relationship with this boyfriend ended a few months before Luna moved in. And according to this, the former boyfriend physically abused her and even threatened her life at one point. And he says that the evidence, you know, this is a big deal. We should do that. But they don't allow that in because he has no evidence of it. They said in a homicide case, a defendant is not entitled to parade before the jury every person who bore some dislike for the victim and go, well, they could have killed her. Yeah. You can't do that.

You can talk about anybody. It's about evidence at that point. He testifies in this trial. Really? Okay, yes. He said, all right, this is an exchange. Here's George. I went to hand her the phone, and Deb was upset about the fact that her car had just been wrecked and about the fact that, you know, I was, my leg was infected and I was going to have to go or had gone to the doctor or going to have to go. And they said, go on, you can go on. And he says, oh, I'm done.

They said, tell your side of the story. And that's what he said. And they went, okay, go on. And he said, oh, that's all. That's it. So the prosecution says, so she's uncontrollable. She's crying. She's sobbing. And he said, George said, no, she wasn't uncontrollable. But he writes in his notes that it was he can tell that story if he wants. I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but that's his quote. Okay.

So the state says, all right, well, between Caleb McGrath and the guy who's on trial for murder. OK, that's her former boyfriend, by the way. I think the guy on trial for murder has incentive to kind of bend things his own way. Wouldn't you agree with that? George says, um, shoot, I'll tell you, maybe Caleb McGrath has a reason. He's a progressive agent. I'm sorry. He's not her boyfriend. He's the agent. I've had I've had problems with progressive.

So you say maybe the insurance agent tried to set him up by murdering his living. Okay. Sometimes they, sometimes it'd be like that. Don't burn your shit. Don't burn your shit. It happens. Fucking like a good neighbor. We'll burn your shit to the ground. So that's the state. It is. I don't care. It's insurance.

We'll send the Geico caveman to burn your shit to the ground because we're good neighbors. You know what I'm saying? We'll mix them all together. I don't give a fuck. Allstate's the guy from fucking... Good hands, people. Yeah, that's the guy from Major League. Yeah, it's... Pedro Serrano. Pedro Serrano. It's number 13. Joe Boo will burn your shit down. The state says it's amazing. And George says maybe they have a biased opinion because maybe there's some bias.

And the state guy, the prosecutor said, amazing. He's just like, I'm just going to let this idiot talk. You're wonderful, sir. Then George says, as a matter of fact, which you know something good's coming after that, in his policy, they said that they had a previous policy with me with Progressive, which is the one that I was sued over, so he did know about this. Yeah. And the prosecutor said, right. And so George said, so, so, was what he said. Yeah.

So, you know, that's how he is. Oh, I'm good. So draw your own conclusion. I mean, you know, so the guy said everything need to be said. The prosecutor said, you're a suspicious person because you keep filing fraudulent claims with Progressive. It's a reasonable assumption here. Yeah. And George says, I've never filed a fraudulent claim with Progressive.

No. And the prosecutor said, you filed a claim on the shed fire after lying on their policy. And George said, I never lied on anything. I never. You have the paperwork, you know. He didn't say he didn't set the fire. No, no, no. That's the thing. Because it was denied because of the paperwork. And his ex-fiance's name was Marsha, by the way, because the state then says, Marsha lied. Everybody lied. Everybody's always lying but you, right? Right.

And he said, yeah, well, you know, I didn't speak with people. You have the paper. So I had to be here. So they said, is everybody lying but you? Yeah. And he said, I don't know what everybody's doing, which is the best line ever. I don't know what everybody's doing. I just know me.

So they go on to say that DeHart's Bobby Davis, these officers, Detective Hillbrecht, everybody coming into this courtroom. And then the defense objects and, you know, that goes like that. The court overrules the objection. And then following that, they ask George. So everybody, all these witnesses, I mean, we have...

I don't know, man. I don't know what he said.

Verdict comes in convicted, shockingly, of first degree arson and first degree murder here. Amazing. Amazing. Now, unlike the first trial, the state seeks to find statutory aggravators this time. And robbery is the aggravator because he took her truck and phone. Fuck yeah. They didn't put that in there last time.

So that's very interesting here. They said that his employment dictated a method of transportation was critical, so that's why he needed to steal her truck. So they found the aggravating circumstances to be relevant and sentenced him to...

By the way, Luna wants them to an intoxication instruction. Tell him I shit faced and I didn't mean it. Tell him I was drunk and seeing shit. The judge went, nah, you're just an asshole. Get a drunk or sober. You're a dickhead. Yeah. You, sir, may fuck off life in prison without the possibility of parole. You shouldn't have left it alone. Chief plus 20 years for the arson to run consecutively, by the way. So once you die, you're in for 20 years.

He appeals about allowing the police station incident to come into court. Number one, the altercation. Can it be first degree arson also? Because first degree arson is to start a fire or cause an explosion with the intent to destroy or damage a building. And the building must be inhabited or occupied by the person responsible.

By or by inhabited or occupied or the person has reason to believe the building may be inhabited or occupied. Yeah. So you have to be trying to cause physical injury with a fire. You got to know that there's a body in his argument was she's already dead in there. That ain't first degree arson. Sir, don't say that. I done killed her already. That's what they said. So.

That is insane. So they say that the Commonwealth failed to present sufficient evidence indicating he was she was alive occupying the trailer. Therefore, the sentence for first degree murder will stick. But first degree. But the arson is tossed. The first degree arson. They toss that. So he's in for life without parole. That's it.

2018, he starts writing stuff. He writes this long thing on prisonwitness.org, and it is from Johns Hopkins University American Prison Writing Archive. So this is a thing they collect with all prisoners.

He said, I am Kentucky DOC inmate George Luna currently serving life without parole sentence. Here it is. I came to prison at 38 years of age, a skilled journeyman bricklayer who had been in the masonry business since I was a kid. I worked and supported a family my all my adult life until prison. Seven. Nineteen dollars a week is not supporting your family.

Right.

The deputy warden, Paige McGuire, ordered me back up on the roof without a harness and threatened to place me in segregation for refusing to complete a work assignment or refusing a direct order even after safety's instructions.

While working, the wind caught me and I fell 35 feet off the building. It's because he's a little guy. He's a little guy. The wind can take this man. A stiff wind will throw him around. I had a baggy t-shirt on. It just took me away. You know what I mean? He should be grateful he wasn't around when that F4 came through town. That's what I'm saying. He'd have ended up in fucking Kansas. He'd have traded places with Dorothy. That would have shot that little man to London. Shit. Shit.

Wow. He landed on a pile of bricks nearly killing me. I broke my pelvis, ribs, both bones in my jaw and my wrist jaw and crushed my left eye socket and had a massive hematoma on my left on my left temple.

I'm not. I don't feel bad. You should have had that when you crashed a car. Fucking unreal. Too drunk. He just went with it. Yeah. He said that the doctors here told me I would have issues due to these injuries for the rest of my life. One in particular told me in describing what was in store for my future, that my body was like a China plate dropped and left with a bunch of cracks in the skeletal system that would worsen over time. Incredible.

Yeah.

For years, I kept this pain well under control and was capable of living a fairly normal life. In the summer of 2015, I started to fall apart. My life began to change. The pain began to become very real and crippling at times. I didn't understand it.

Medical worked with me to get my pain under control. I went through and still at times was going through pain, crippling at times, but I managed to live as normal a life as possible. In August 2017, I was taken off Neurotin and in September taken off Mitramidol, supposedly because they were scheduled five narcotics now as well as inmates abusing them. Mm-hmm.

So since August 2017, I've struggled like I never have before. I've come to know pain in such severe and frequent abundances that my entire life has been turned upside down. You'd norm when someone's a huge murderous asshole, you normally don't get to hear them describe the horrible pain they're in that we all wanted them to be in to begin with, which is he goes on to describe. It's ridiculous. His whole, I mean, it's a paragraph the size of him, of all of his ailments.

He said, I cannot continue to live like this. I've begged, literally begged for months to have effective relief help. I no longer live anywhere close to a normal life. I fear the pain. I never know day or night when, where, how long the pain will last, how severe it'll be. I can't hardly think anymore. Can't concentrate or focus or anything, uh,

on anything or even read or comprehend. I can't function. I'm a mess. I'm miserable. I'm to a point. I hate life. I'm struggling so bad with this pain and can't get moments of relief. So I think he wants drugs is what he's asking for. He's asking for. He sounds like it. Yeah. He said that he's depressed. And he said only through death will I escape the pain.

I'm looking forward to it, bud. Please help me receive the effective relief I need instead of leaving me to suffer. I filed grievance after grievance with absolutely no help. I now bear a miserable, painful death sentence in the Kentucky DOC. Well, if only you wouldn't have fucking appealed all that, you'd be getting out pretty soon. Yeah, you got some parole coming up. So there he is. He is in, he is DOC number 222876. That's nice and easy to remember here. Yeah.

And life without parole he's in there for. He is fucked. There you go, everybody. That is Ben. Awesome. Ben Kentucky and a crazy-ass fucking story. Absolutely awesome. Fucking wild. And a satisfying ending. I don't feel bad for this dickhead. He's an asshole. I feel so bad for Debra for just being a good fucking person. What a sweet woman. Jesus. She tried. All that comes home from work at Walmart and has to deal with his ass. So there you go. This time we're all fucking causing problems in our house. Fuck.

There you go. Leave that or that's there. Leave a five-star review on whatever app you're listening on. Help us out with that. Say something nice. Shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets. Virtual live show. Halloween edition is back. Get your tickets right fucking now. Also, September 20th, Minneapolis, Minnesota State Theater. Be a part of the biggest show we're ever going to have, and we can't wait. So do that. Get your tickets for those. Shut up and give me murder.com. Patreon.com slash...

crime in sports gets you five dollars or above gets you everything we have on Patreon hundreds of episodes new ones every week this or every other week this time this week which you get crime in sports which you'll have access to Duke lacrosse scandal strippers and frat parties and then for small town murder we're going to talk about Brian Koberger and what a smug fucking twat he is

Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. Plus, you get a shout-out at the end of the regular show. Listen to your stupid opinions. Listen to Crime and Sports. Keep coming back and seeing us, everybody. And until next week, it's been our pleasure. Bye.

If you like small town murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harbored a deep,

There wouldn't be a girl on pit count once they reached the age of 10 that was still a virgin. It just happens to all of them.

I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.