Principled Uncertainty: A True Crime Podcast

This is the newest episode of Music City Murder, my newest podcast. The PUPodcast feed is currently not active, so if you want to hear NEW episodes from me, go subscribe to Music City Murder!

Consider this the send-off for the Principled Uncertainty Podcast, something I've worked on—off and on—for the last ten years. End of an era! I'm sad, but it was time. In the interim, I've been formulating an idea for a totally new show. It's a true crime podcast called Music City Murder. I've been thinking about doing something like this for a few years now, and I finally made the jump. The show revolves around murder and crime, yes, but it is also filled with a TON of history. I'm excited to see where the show goes, and I hope you'll make the leap with me. So, I'll be turning out the light on Principled Uncertainty—for now—but in the meantime, check out Music City Murder. Apple Podcasts Spotify Podcast Stitcher Podcasts

An interview with author of The Black Dahlia Avenger and son of Black Dahlia suspect, George Hodel, former LAPD detective Steve Hodel.

Think you know the story behind TNT's 'I Am The Night?' Think you know everything about The Black Dahlia? Think again. A few years ago, I recorded an interview with Steve Hodel, son of George Hodel, shadowy figure in I Am the Night and potential Black Dahlia suspect. Based on the surge in popularity of that episode, I'm re-releasing BOTH episodes—over 3 hours—in celebration of the show and renewed interest in the case. Steve Hodel, a retired LAPD detective, shared his fascinating upbringing with me, as well as the details he believes proves a link between his father, George Hill Hodel, and the murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947. This true crime episode revolves around more than just the most significant unsolved murder in LA's history, it delves into the seamy underbelly of the world of LA in the 1940s, and I feel honored to be able to present this interview, nearly unedited, to you, the public. I'll be re-releasing the second part in a few days, but if you just can't wait, here's the link to Episode 202 with Steve Hodel.

This is the third and final installment of the life and crimes of Paul Dennis Reid (AKA The Fast Food Killer). Here are links to Part I and Part II of the trilogy. As mentioned before, the entirety of this true crime series is based on the book When Nashville Bled: The Untold True Stories of Serial Killer Paul Dennis Red, by Judith A. Yates.  Paul Dennis Reid—or PDR, as he is often called in the podcast—ups the ante in his reign of terror in Nashville by kidnapping two women from a Baskin Robbins in Clarksville, TN and butchering them in a nearby state park. This true crime saga is as brutal as it is heartbreaking. As far as Nashville goes, Paul Dennis Reid is evil to the core, as is evidenced in his horrific crime spree and (thankfully) sudden downfall. It's hard to determine whether or not Reid is best described as a serial killer or a spree killer, given the motive for his crimes—money. Either way, he's a brutal, unfeeling murderer, and his story makes for a true crime legend the likes of which Music City has rarely seen. The next series after the Paul Dennis Reid Trilogy will be based on the groundbreaking book A Murder in Music City: Corruption, Scandal, and the Framing of an Innocent Man, by Michael Bishop. If you like the podcast, please do rate and review the show. The ratings help us get seen in the ocean of true crime podcasts out there. Below are the usual links to help you get your fixes: When Nashville Bled, by Judith A. Yates. This book is the whole basis for the series you are listening to. You can pick up the new T. Blake Braddy novel, Suicide Blondes, on Amazon for just $4.99 on Kindle.  Join my monthly newsletter, and get the first novel in the Rolson McKane series absolutely FREE. Lobo Loco: "All Night Long." This is the podcast's slide-y theme song. Enjoy it many times over.   The Principled Uncertainty Podcast is written and produced by me, T. Blake Braddy. The theme song is “All Night Long,” by Lobo Loco. You can find them all over the internet, but I’ll also include links in the show description. Follow me on Twitter @blakebraddy or the podcast @pupodcast. You can email the podcast at principledu@gmail.com or me at tblakebraddy@gmail.com. Check out my instagram feed @tblakebraddy, and just for good measure, find all the information you need at principleduncertainty.libsyn.com. Thanks for listening. Bye.

As mentioned in the show, here are the links to join the newsletters for both my books and the podcast. I'm trying to make one of the best true crime podcasts of 2018, and I need your help. Be sure to rate and review on iTunes and join the Uncertain Nation: The T. Blake Braddy Newsletter. Get 'Crystal Queen,' the prequel to 'Boogie House,' absolutely free when you sign up. When Nashville Bled Paperback Giveaway: As advertised, here is the link to the giveaway of Judith A. Yates's wonderful book! Lobo Loco: "All Night Long." This is the podcast's slide-y theme song. Enjoy it many times over. When Nashville Bled, by Judith A. Yates. The book that is the basis for all the wonderful research for these episodes. If you would like to contact me or the podcast, feel free to at the following locations: twitter.com/blakebraddy twitter.com/pupodcast instagram.com/tblakebraddy Hey, folks. Before we begin, I just want to let you know that I am running a giveaway for the podcast right now. If you go to the show’s webpage at principleduncertainty.libsyn.com, there is a link to a giveaway for Judith A. Yates’s book ‘When Nashville Bled,’ about the crimes of one Paul Dennis Reid. All you have to do is click the link, join the newsletter, and BAM!--you’re done. I’m running the giveaway from now until the next episode airs, and I’ll announce the winner on that podcast’s episode, so you’ll have to tune in to find out if you’ve won or not. One more time, all you need to do is go to the podcast’s main page, principleduncertainty.L-I-B-S-Y-N.com and click the ‘When Nashville Bled Giveaway’ link. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Anyway, enough of that. On to the podcast. PUPodcast, Episode 264: Paul Dennis Reid Hello, and welcome to the Principled Uncertainty Podcast. I’m your host Tyler, and this week’s episode will be the second chapter in a multi-part exploration of one of the more infamous series of crimes in Nashville’s history. If you haven’t listened to Ep 263 -- part one of the series -- back up and listen to that one. This one will make much more sense, if you do. If you aren’t aware of the case of Paul Dennis Reid, hang tight. We’ll be going into great detail about not just the crimes but also the killer’s history. I found a wonderful book called When Nashville Bled, by Judith A. Yates, which is a super detailed account of the whole ordeal that gripped Metro Nashville in the late 90s. There will be links in the episode’s description, as well as a PDF transcript of this entire ep. I’m starting a newsletter for the show, just to let people know when new episodes are coming out and whatnot, so if you’re interested in that, check out the show’s description to sign up. Now, on to the show. [Date. Location. Set the scene] History of Hermitage. Hermitage, TN, is an area of Metro Nashville named for the plantation estate of the nation’s seventh president and Tennessee native, Andrew Jackson. It’s located east of Donelson, which itself is named after John Donelson, Jackson’s father-in-law. The house was built in a meadow chosen by Rachel, Jackson’s wife, in the early 1800s. Andrew and Rachel Jackson lived in that area from 1804 through Jackson’s death in 1845. It’s a popular tourist destination, and plenty of schools still visit the location. Jackson himself is a problematic historical figure, and that’s being charitable. Though a strong supporter of the U.S. government during a chaotic time, Jackson contributed to the suffering of thousands of Native Americans during the Trail of Tears. In his own personal life, Jackson was a slave owner, which was not uncommon at the time, and by his death, the Hermitage Plantation was “home” (in quotation marks) to more than 100 enslaved individuals.   The Hermitage is about 10 miles away from downtown Nashville, and though it was once merely the rural area where Andrew Jackson hung his hat, it has become a more viable commercial and residential area for its 40,000 residents. Crime has risen in Hermitage over the last few years, for some disconcertingly so, as is the case in Nashville proper, as well. Just as an anecdotal example, over in Sylvan Park, my wife and I had our car stolen the first week we moved into our house. It’s just kind of the way things go when a town explodes the way Music City has over the last decade or so. But back in 1997, neither Hermitage nor Donelson was prepared for the violence it endured at the hands of its very own mass murderer. The Murders March 23, 1997. McDonald’s, in Hermitage, TN. This particular Mickey D’s is about 3.4 miles from the location of the Donelson Captain D’s where the first murders occurred. After all the employees working the night shift are done cleaning up, they slip outside and into the chilly, early spring evening. There is Andrea Brown, a high school student who has just used the money from working at McDonald’s to buy her first car. She is looking forward to getting the tag for said car the following day and has been telling everyone about her recent purchase. Robert Sewell is six years older than Andrea Brown, but to hear him talk, you’d think he was just a kid himself. He has been excitedly talking about going to see the Star Wars 20th anniversary re-release in the theaters the next day. The new employee in the group is Jose Gonzalez. This evening, Robert Sewell (he of the Jedi) has been training Jose on kitchen responsibilities. Jose doesn’t speak English very well, but he’s learning it as he goes along from his coworkers in the store. And finally, there is Ronald Santiago, who is filling in for the night’s scheduled manager. In a grim coincidence, Ronald stopped by earlier in the evening and saw that the manager working that night did not feel well. Telling her he’d fill in, he encourages her to go home. A tall, dark-haired man — the same from Captain D’s not even a month ago — steps out of the darkness and into the path of the employees. He’s holding a gun, and he tells Ronald Santiago “Call them” — the other employees — “back over, or I’ll kill them.” “Hey guys,” night manager Ronald Santiago says shakily, “come back here a minute?” Employees Jose Gonzalez and Robert Sewell turn to go back to the restaurant’s location. When employee Andrea Brown sees the man with the gun — especially the gun — she begins to cry. Robert comforts her, placing an arm around her shoulders and telling her everything will be okay. The tall, dark-haired man — whom we all know to be Paul Dennis Reid — follows them inside, where he forces them to the back of the store. Ronald Santiago pleads with him to take what he wants but leave them be. As a result, the man with the gun demands money and is then shown to the safe. Ronald, continuing to calm everyone around him, kneels and shovels money into a bag, just as he is instructed. In a move that is reminiscent of the robbery at Captain D’s, he forces the group of fast food employees into the restaurant’s storage room. What they must have thought, in those moments. Did they think they were the follow-up to the Captain D’s murders, or were they just hoping it was an average, run-of-the-mill robbery? Did they think if they were compliant enough that they would survive, or were they acutely aware of the danger they were in? [Start playing music. Slowly raise it through the next paragraph.] The gun-wielding monster with the bag of money instructs them to lie down, telling them he will leave them and go away. They all pile into the back room and struggle into place. Paul Dennis Reid leans down and whispers something into Robert Sewell’s ear before shooting him twice, once in the back of the head. Reid then turns his attention to Andrea Brown and whispers into her ear, too, before killing her with two more rounds. Finally, he turns the gun on Jose Gonzalez, who has the unlucky distinction of listening to his friends’ and coworkers’ final, gasping breaths. However, when the stranger pulls the trigger on his handgun, the weapon merely goes click. [Let’s take a quick commercial break. We’ll be back in a moment with more podcast.] If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you probably already know that I’m obsessed with true crime, particularly stories set in the south. What you may not know is that I’m also an author, with four published books on shelves, both physical and digital for your enjoyment. My Rolson McKane series follows a former cop who is severely flawed but somehow manages to do the right thing when needed. The first novel, Boogie House, is available for FREE in the Kindle store. I spent several years writing that book, and from there the series has blossomed into its own strange beast. The second and third novels, The Devil Came Calling and Dirt Merchant, take Rolson from his humble beginnings in the small Georgia town based on the one I grew up in. There’s a fair amount of violence and murder, and just enough horror to call it southern gothic. There will be a link in the show description to sign up for my author newsletter, and if you decide to join, you’ll receive a copy of the prequel to Boogie House, Crystal Queen, absolutely free. Just go to http://principleduncertainty.libsyn.com/ -- that’s P-R-I-N-C-I-P-L-E-D-U-N-C-E-R-T-A-I-N-T-Y.L-I-B-S-Y-N.COM -- stands for liberated syndication -- and click on the newsletter link. If I’ve done my job on the digital side, the instructions should be mighty clear. Now, back to the podcast. [Lower music.] [Play the music.] When he realizes his weapon has misfired, Paul Dennis Reid backs up and tries to snatch something from the shelves. This is when the story gets out of control. Seeing his opening, Gonzalez leaps up and attacks the man who killed his friends, grabbing him around the waist and trying to knock him over or pull him to the ground. He thinks he’s making some progress, but it is short-lived. Jose feels first an intense but acute pain, and it isn’t until the second, third, fourth strike that Jose Gonzalez realizes he is being stabbed by his attacker. I’m just going to quote from When Nashville Bled here, because it is so absolutely brutal. He could hear the swish of the blade and each stab felt like a hot poker jutting through his skin. He tried not to cry out, but the pain was intense and horrific. The blade struck him in the skull, in the shoulders, in the torso, sending a spray of blood each time. Twice the knife plunged through his back and exited out of his lower chest area. The man was screaming obscenities. He could not count the stab wounds: three, eight, eleven. Eventually, Gonzalez drops to the ground, and he is covered seventeen stab wounds. According to the book, quote “one of his fingers dangled by a shred of skin.” His only option at this point, he feels, is to pretend to be dead. He thinks maybe the stranger will go away, if he only stops breathing. He waits there, breathing shallowly only when he absolutely has to, praying for the man to go away. He hears him rifling through registers and other things, and when he finally does take a chance at looking the opposite direction, he sees his coworkers lying cold and still on the floor next to him. Gonzalez, using his elbows to drag himself, crawls toward the nearest phone. He is losing a gargantuan amount of blood, at this point, but nevertheless, he perseveres, managing to drag the phone from the nearby table and dialing 911. The call is made at exactly 12:01 am. Since he does not speak a whole lot of English, he can only plead for help when the operator answers, but over the course of the stunted back-and-forth between them, she is able to pinpoint the location of the call: 3470 Lebanon Road. When he hangs up, he calls his home and asks his family for help. The traced call is forwarded to Metro PD, and South sector police officer Traci Holmes is the first to arrive, just under three minutes later. Holmes approaches the drive-thru window with her weapon drawn and peeks in. Upon seeing the trail of blood on the floor, she pulls her baton and smashes the window of the locked side door and steps cautiously inside. There, in the back of the store, Holmes finds three bodies packed together, and a fourth -- Jose Gonzalez -- next to a phone. When the “all clear” is given, EMTs rush in to help those in need. They find that one of the victims, Andrea Brown, still has a pulse, and so they get her on a gurney and rush her to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Between calling 911 and the arrival of the ambulances, Jose Gonzalez -- the real hero of this situation -- had succumbed to his injuries, and EMTs could initially feel no pulse. However, after initiating CPR, they manage to get a weak pulse out of him and rush him, too, off to Vanderbilt. For now, the horror show of Paul Dennis Reid is over, but it’s just beginning for Jose Gonzalez and Andrea Brown. The others present that night, Robert Sewell and Ronald Santiago, are not so lucky. [Phew! After that, I’ll need a quick break, and I hope you do too. Be back with more podcast in just a moment.] Okay, so Stephen King is releasing a new book in a few weeks, and if you’re anything like me, you are STOKED anytime The King of Horror releases anything new. To celebrate the book’s release, I am giving away one hardcover copy of ‘Elevation,’ the new book by Stephen King. To enter, all you need to do is find the ‘Stephen King Elevation Giveaway’ link on the show’s description, and you’ll be able to enter right away. Just go to principleduncertainty.libsyn.com, and the link should be there. This only runs until October 27, so if you listen after that date unfortunately, you’re out of luck. But I will be doing more giveaways in the future, so feel free to follow the newsletter anyway! [Now, back to the show.] At the hospital, surgeons are able to re-attach Jose Gonzalez’s finger and stitch up even his most gruesome wounds. Since none of the stab wounds pierced vital organs, it looks like Jose will survive. He continues to fight for life, as the remaining families deal with the outcomes of this pointless and barbaric event. Andrea Brown’s parents each learn of the attack at the Hermitage McDonald’s and rush to Vanderbilt University Hospital to see her. They are admitted under the code name ‘Moby Dick’ -- don’t ask me why -- and see a broken and bloodied version of their daughter on the gurney. She is alive, but barely, and by dawn the next morning, she is found to be clinically braindead. Having made the decision to pull her from life support, Andrea’s parents agree to donate her organs. She’s wheeled into an operating room, where her organs are removed and transported to where they could have an impact on someone else’s life. Andrea Brown is pronounced dead on March 24, the latest victim of one Paul Dennis Reid. On the other end of things, Ronald Sewell’s father is obliged to pick his only son’s truck up from the site of his last working shift and his murder. Robert had only been working there about four months, he tells the reporters lingering at the crime scene. He then takes the red pickup truck to a family member’s residence, because Ronald’s mother cannot bear to see anyone else pull into the driveway behind the wheel. After being fingerprinted, Ronald Santiago’s body is shipped first to the morgue in Nashville and then down to San German, Puerto Rico, where it arrives on a Friday. At the funeral home, Ronald’s brother, Wallington, meticulously cleans and preps the body for the memorial service, to be held the following day. He cleans the ink from Ronald’s fingers and clips and grooms his hair. He dresses his brother in a navy blue suit and silk tie. He is laid to rest on Palm Sunday, with family and friends filling the pews of the funeral home to say goodbye to a man known for his kindness and generosity. In the wake of this second horrendous attack, the press dubs the monster in their midst “The Fast Food Killer,” and Nashvillians are forced to confront a new and dangerous reality. The Metro PD establishes a hotline designed to seek information leading to the arrest and conviction of the crime’s perpetrator. City Council members in Donelson request a new police precinct “as soon as possible.” In addition, a $6,000 reward is offered for information related to the shootings is offered, and a $25,000 memorial fund is set up for the victims’ families. Eventually, the memorial fund will nearly double, in the amount of $46,000. The manhunt for the brutal and elusive killer then begins in earnest. The officers involved work 16/7s, which means 16 hours per day, 7 days per week. There are no holidays, no vacations. It is all fast food killer, all the time. They barely have time for sleep, let alone their families. The mood in and around the Donelson area is the police equivalent of a four alarm fire, so the cops are placed under extra pressure to solve this one quickly. Even though the hotline yields nearly 1,000 calls, nothing of substance ever really comes out of this gesture. And in spite of the similar circumstances of each crime, investigators announce that “no hard evidence” links the Captain D’s shooting to the one which happened at McDonald’s. Despite that, Detectives Pat Postiglione and Mike Roland ultimately decide that the crimes most definitely have been committed by the same person. The circumstances are just too similar to be mere coincidence. For example, look at the crimes themselves. A man approaches a fast food restaurant off-hours -- once in the morning, once later at at night -- and forces his way in. The victims are all young -- each is under thirty -- which compounds the senseless misery of the crimes. Once inside, they are all shepherded to the back cooler, where they are forced to lie down as the killer brutally executes them, one-by-one. Honestly, it’s like something out of the Blair Witch Project, which wouldn’t be released for another few years. The fact that the killer isn’t just a killer but is also taking thousands upon thousands of dollars from each establishment muddies the motive. Is he a vicious murderer, using robbery as a pretext to satisfy his dark desires, or does he believe killing his victims is a mere consequence of trying not to get caught? Detectives Postiglione and Roland visit the single living victim of either attack -- Jose Gonzalez -- at his hospital room at Vanderbilt. A translator is needed, and Jose can barely speak due to the severity of his injuries and the tubes running in and out of him, but they are able to establish a few important facts to help guide the resulting investigation. First of all, Gonzalez reveals that it is a single man who committed these atrocities. Second, he is able to ID the killer as a white male and gives them specific details about his physical appearance, which the cops use to make a composite sketch to be released to the public on March 29th. It soon becomes the largest manhunt in Nashville’s history -- definitely since the 1964 Metro Nashville merger -- and as a result, the investigation quickly ramps up. The investigators set up four special phone lines to handle incoming calls, and they follow each lead as it comes in. Detectives surveil nearly 500 fast food restaurants in the area, trying all the meanwhile to decipher a pattern of some kind. In Mt. Juliet, PD officers encourage fast food employees to sticker their cars so cops can keep an eye on non-employee vehicles in the parking lot after hours. Cops in the area even secretly go undercover as cooks and dishwashers in an attempt to catch the killer. Very soon, they get a small break in the case, when they discover that a business across the street from the McDonald’s has a video camera which is angled in such a way to get a glimpse of the action at the fast food location. They resolve to check the footage for any kind of action that might clue them in to the killer’s as-yet unknown identity. On March 31, 1997, the Hermitage McDonald’s reopens, and a portion of the proceeds from that day’s business goes to the families of the victims. Andrea Brown’s family uses the money to donate books to Hume-Fogg High School. Robert Sewell’s family pays off their son’s truck so they can keep one lasting memento of their slain child. And two weeks later, on April 14, stabbing victim Jose Gonzalez is released from Vanderbilt hospital and is placed immediately in protective custody. Meanwhile, despite the police department’s best efforts in the case, a third brutal crime is brewing in Nashville, and nothing they’ve done will be sufficient to stop the next installment in Paul Dennis Reid’s savage murder spree. And that’s where we’ll pick up for part three of this exploration of the Fast Food Killer, Paul Dennis Reid. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, or rate and review it for me. That will sincerely help the show gain a new audience and more visibility among the scores and scores of true crime podcasts out there in the world. I sincerely thank you for listening. See you next time. The Principled Uncertainty Podcast is written and produced by me, T. Blake Braddy. The theme song is “All Night Long,” by Lobo Loco. You can find them all over the internet, but I’ll also include links in the show description. Follow me on Twitter @blakebraddy or the podcast @pupodcast. You can email the podcast at principledu@gmail.com or me at tblakebraddy@gmail.com. Check out my instagram feed @tblakebraddy, and just for good measure, find all the information you need at principleduncertainty.libsyn.com. Thanks for listening. Bye.

In this episode of the podcast, we will be covering the mass killer, Texas native, and wannabe country star Paul Dennis Reid. If you look up some famous serial killers from Tennessee, Paul Dennis Reid will 100% turn up on that list. I used research from the book When Nashville Bled by author Judith A. Yates to bring you the first in a three-part true crime series about the Tennessee serial killer. Paul Dennis Reid was convicted of the murders of seven fast food workers in the 1990s and is known infamously as the "Fast Food Killer."  He spent over a decade on Death Row in Tennessee before dying in 2013. This series of episodes attempts to focus on the crimes and the victims, rather than following the serial killer from start to finish. As mentioned in the show, here are the links to join the newsletters for both my books and the podcast. I'm trying to make one of the best true crime podcasts of 2018, and I need your help. Be sure to rate and review on iTunes and join the Uncertain Nation: The T. Blake Braddy Newsletter. Get 'Crystal Queen,' the prequel to 'Boogie House,' absolutely free when you sign up. The Principled Uncertainty Newsletter. Get a PDF transcript for the episode when you sign up for the newsletter. Lobo Loco: "All Night Long." This is the podcast's slide-y theme song. Enjoy it many times over. When Nashville Bled, by Judith A. Yates. The book that is the basis for all the wonderful research for these episodes. If you would like to contact me or the podcast, feel free to at the following locations: twitter.com/blakebraddy twitter.com/pupodcast instagram.com/tblakebraddy This episode will be the first in a series about a serial killer many in the community have overlooked. I'm looking forward to the discussions over it. Thanks for your support!

PUPodcast, Episode 262: Bradford Bishop Mar. 2, 1976. 12:40 pm. About 5 mi. south of Columbia, NC, which lies in the far eastern stretches of the state, out near the coast. A NC forest ranger on Highway 94 named Wilma Swain observes smoke in the distance and calls in authorities to help locate and contain the fire. Thinking it to be no more than a disposal fire, Ranger Ron Brickhouse goes in search of it. Initially, he finds a pile of dirt, a shovel, and a red gas can, as if someone had started a fire and just left it to burn. However, in the hole near the implements, Brickhouse finds an arm, a leg, and shoes visible amidst the flames. It looks as though there is a human body in the fiery pit. As investigators extinguish the flames and begin to extract the body, they find another body underneath. And then another. And so on. They keep going until they reach the bottom, and by then, they have pulled five human beings from the fiery wreckage. The state medical examiner finds the cause of death for the family members to be “blunt trauma to the head.” No one can immediately identify the victims, and without a driver’s license or some other form of ID, the authorities struggle, at first, to get the investigation going. Judging by the ladies’ hairstyles — which do not match the ‘dos of the rural population — the investigators (correctly) assume they are from a more urban area. The only item that have anything to go on is a shovel left at the scene. At the base of the shovel, down near the blade, is a sticker with partial name for a hardware store on it. The only letters visible on the handle are OCH[space]HD, which meant it was a hardware store whose name ended in OCH. This partial name was the only actual clue they gather to identify either the killer or the victims, and so they begin there. Off to a bad start. Unhelpfully, not a single hardware store in NC ended in OCH, so Agent Lewis Young and another agent, travel up the NC coast into Virginia, looking for hardware stores matching the name from the abandoned shovel. Mar. 7, 1976. Agent Young approaches the Metro Police in Washington, DC., and they are able to identify a store in Potomac, Maryland named Poch [like 2Pac] Hardware. They post a flyer of four of the victims in the hardware store (one of the victims was too badly damaged) and then, having no sufficient leads, eventually return to NC. March 8, 1976. Bethesda, Maryland. The Bishop family — a mild-mannered “DC” family consisting of William Bradford, who is a foreign service agent, his wife Annette, Bradford’s mother Lobelia, and three sons Brad, Brenton, and Geoffrey — hasn’t been seen in days, and neighbors become suspicious after the front lawn piles up with newspapers. Montgomery County MD Mike McNally receives a call to basically do a welfare check for a family living on Lilly Stone Drive in Bethesda, Maryland. Officer McNally gets inside the residence and finds a scene nothing short of horrendous. Not a single member of the extended family is present in the home, but the excessive amount of blood speaks to the obvious presence of foul play. There is blood on the front porch, blood inside the home, blood leading up the stairs to the second floor, and gouts of blood cover the walls in the kids’ bedrooms. Meanwhile, dental records from the crime scene are used down in North Carolina confirm the identities of the bodies in the fire pit. The five victims are the members of the Bishop family, which brings up two important questions: where is the husband, William Bradford Bishop, and how did the bodies end up on the coast of North Carolina? A little background on Bradford Bishop. Though on the surface his life appears to be perfect — a Yale graduate with multiple degrees, a prestigious job, and a beautiful and caring family — the cracks beneath the facade reveal a much different picture. While it is true that Bishop was a foreign service agent, with multiple posts across the world, it seemed as though his light was dimming. He’d recently been brought home from his most recent post and was being reassigned to a desk job, ostensibly ending the glamorous, jet-setting career he had been fostering since the mid-1960s. Living abroad, the Bishops had been able to live for free on the government’s dime, with limos and chartered cars spiriting them to all their destinations. That all came to a crashing halt when the family returned to America. Bishop’s $26,000 salary — along with the fact that Annette, Bradford’s wife, was barred from working — was not enough to make ends meet. They even had to take some money from Lobelia, Bradford’s mother, in order to buy their home in Bethesda. The relationship, too, seemed to be under enormous strain at the time of the murders. Bradford had engaged in two extramarital affairs, and the difficult personality he brought to his coworkers in the State Department rose into prominence at home, and he and Annette began to have extreme disagreements over their quickly separating lives. It was yet another piece to add to the puzzle of what would come on that horrific night in March of 1976. Lastly, the final piece that seems to send Bishop into deadly action: On the day of the murders, Bishop finds out he is not to receive a much-envied promotion — one that would seemingly put him back in the game — and he ducks out of work early as a result. On the way out, he meets a colleague who commiserates with him about not receiving a promotion, and that man would later testified that Bishop appeared fraught and nervous about his current circumstances. After leaving work on March 1, sulking from his lost promotion, Bradford Bishop withdraws $400 from the family’s checking account, effectively zeroing it out, and goes home. He takes the family’s station wagon to a nearby SEARS and purchases a short-handled sledgehammer and a two gallon red gas can. He drives the car to a Texaco station and fills both the car and the can up. My research is a little unclear on this point, but I’m pretty sure he then travels to a spot called Poch’s Hardware and buys a pointed shovel and a pitchfork. He then returns home and arrives at around 9 pm. The family has already eaten dinner and begun the process of winding down for the night. Bradford’s mother, Lobelia, puts a leash on the family dog, a retriever named Leo, and heads out for a late-evening walk. A neighbor sees her walking up Lilly Stone drive around 9:30 pm, so we can be assured the time frame of the attack occurs sometime in this window. Back at the Bishop residence, Bradford begins a step-by-step bludgeoning of his family. He descends to the basement family room, where he strikes his wife repeatedly in the head with the mini-sledgehammer. She has been studying art for a class she’s been taking and is unaware of the attack until it’s actually happening. As he reached the ground floor, his mother Lobelia returns with Leo the Retriever. She seems something — maybe the blood on her son or the hammer dangling from his grasp — but she sprints for the bathroom and locks herself inside. He manages to get the door open and kill his mother right there in the bathroom. Afterwards, he treks upstairs and visits the same indescribable violence upon his three children. He goes first to his eldest son’s room — this is Brad III — and bashes in his head while he sleeps. Bradford Bishop then moves across the hall to the bunkbeds where his two youngest children — Brenton (10) and Geoffrey, just 5 years old — and kills them too. Here is a quote directly from the book A Killer in the Family: In what must have been a blind rage, Brad so violently attacked Brent, 10, in the top bunk that the coroner not only noted “multiple fractures” of Brent’s skull but “pulpefication of brain.” The furious backswing left scrape marks in the ceiling just above Brent’s head. Little Geoff, 5, lay below in the bottom bunk. Asleep in his football-player pajamas he cannot have known what hit him; the coroner said any single blow of the hammer could have been fatal. Geoff’s blood ran into a blue pillowcase with white stars on it. With the worst of the deed done, Bradford Bishop disposes of his bloody clothes and likely takes a shower. He then carries each of the five bodies — on different floors of the multi-level home — out to his Chevy Malibu station wagon and loads them in there, covering them with blankets when he is done. It should also be noted that besides himself, the only other living creature in the car is Leo, the family dog. Inexplicably, he’s left the family pet alive after this macabre and violent act. Then, in the middle of the night, Brad Bishop drives away, setting forth on a 300-plus mile journey that will take down a good stretch of the eastern seaboard, through DC and down I-95 down into North Carolina. He reaches the town of Columbia at around 9 the next morning and veers off the beaten path onto State Road 1103, where this grim and senseless crime will become very public very quickly. He digs for nearly three hours, giving up around noon, after he’s created a hole just under three feet in depth. He decides this is good enough and begins the process of dragging the bodies to the pit, beginning first with the smallest child, Geoff, and working his way up through the children, his wife, and then finally his mother, Lobelia, whom he places on the top of the pile. He pours nearly a gallon of gas on the bodies and throws a match on top. It’s unclear how long Bradford Bishop stands there, watching his family burn, but by the time the forest rangers respond to the call, he is long gone. He stops at a shop called Outdoor Sports in Jacksonville, North Carolina, just outside Camp Lejeune and buys a pair of Converse sneakers. What’s weird about this financial transaction is that the owner, John Wheatley, also reports having seen a woman with Bishop, whom he later describes as “about five-six, medium heavy-set” and “Caribbean.” After that, he goes off the grid until March 18, 17 days after the murders. On the 18th, Bishop’s Malibu is discovered at a campsite on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, just outside Gatlinburg. According to locals, the car had been there for nearly two weeks. In the car, they find some dog biscuits -- presumably for Leo -- maps of the US, including brochures advertising hikes, and lots and lots of blood. The trunk area had been soaked through in the stuff. Three Credible Sightings In July 1978, a Swedish woman, who said she had collaborated with Bishop while on a business trip in Ethiopia, reported she had spotted him twice in a public park in Stockholm during a span of one week. She stated she was "absolutely certain" that the man was Bishop.[3] She did not contact the police at the time because she had not yet realized he was wanted for murder in the U.S.[21] In January 1979, Bishop was reportedly seen by a former U.S. State Department colleague in a restroom in Sorrento, Italy. The colleague greeted the bearded man, whom he personally believed to be Bishop, eye-to-eye, asking the man impulsively, "Hey, you're Brad Bishop, aren't you?" The man panicked suddenly, responding in a distinctly American accent; "Oh no." He then ran swiftly out of the restroom and fled into the Sorrento alleyways.[3] On September 19, 1994, on a Basel, Switzerland, train platform, a neighbor who had known Bishop and his family in Bethesda was on vacation and reported that she had seen Bishop from a few feet away.[3] The neighbor described Bishop as "well-groomed" and said that he was getting into a car.[22]   Motive Here is a quote from A Killer in the Family: Did Brad want the bodies to be found? Did he want the world to know that he had killed them? A tree falling in the woods is an unknown event. “He could have covered them up, thrown some branches on them, and it would have been years before they were discovered,” said Montgomery Co. Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Sean Songco. “He wanted them found.” A Michigan forensic psychologist, Richard Walter, agrees. “It doesn’t count unless somebody sees them,” he told the CNN television show The Hunt with John Walsh. Twitter: @blakebraddy Podcast Twitter: @pupodcast The Rolson McKane Novels (Amazon)

I'm back! The hiatus for the Principled Uncertainty Podcast is OVER! Time to get back to work. There will be an episode in the coming days, so get ready for some true crime!

Hey, folks! I talked at length about the 'Boogie House' giveaway going on on my site right now, and I promised I would provide the link to it so you can get in on all the free giveaway action! The giveaway ends July 30, so enter today for a chance to win a SIGNED copy of the first Rolson McKane Book. Click here to enter... Now, on to the episode. From 2012-2014,  Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy III texted each other thousands of times. They met, as it were, through absolute happenstance. In 2012, both families were vacationing in Florida, when Carter and Roy met. Turns out, they lived less than an hour away in their hometowns in Massachusetts. Still, being high school students, they rarely saw each other, and instead fell into an intense online relationship, trading FaceBook and text messages. Roy’s parents separated and then divorced. Roy fell into a deep despair and then tried to commit suicide. It was Carter who helped him through these difficult times. Carter encouraged Roy to receive treatment for his depression. His past battles resulted in four failed suicide attempts. Carter herself struggled with emotional issues. She fought depression, too, as well as eating disorders and extreme insecurities. She often cut herself when she was overly distraught. She craved the attention of more popular girls in school and became despondent over their lack of personal attention. Then, after a time of being Roy’s sort of personal sounding board, in which she kept him from veering to the dark side of his mentality, she then took up the cause of convincing him to kill himself. Why, exactly, she shifted is up for speculation. However, the evidence points to a perceived complex on Carter’s part regarding her insecurities of being unpopular. This is where the story gets a little bizarre, so bear with me while we delve into it. Of all the thousands and thousands of messages passed along between Carter and Roy, several happen to relate very closely to the TV show Glee, which ran from 2009-2015 and followed the exploits of high school students with a propensity for leaping into song. Okay, a little backstory: So, one of the show’s stars, Cory Monteith, died of a drug overdose in 2013. He was dating co-star Lea Michele at the time. The show, to give Monteith a proper memorial, filmed an episode devoted to the young star. The episode, entitled “The Quarterback,” aired on October 10, 2013. Carter, it appears, seemed to have drawn inspiration from this series of events, up to and including the idea that she take on the “grieving girlfriend” role after his death to elicit sympathy from other people in the classroom. In the wake of Roy’s death, Carter communicated with several friends, and a few of the text messages have an eerie closeness to the script from “The Quarterback” episode of Glee. Here’s one example. It’s a text message to friend Samantha Boardman six days after the death of Roy. I had it all planned out. He was gonna graduate Fitchburg and then when I graduated the college I'm going to, we would live happily ever after on the ocean somewhere, with our son Conrad the 4th. He knew too I didn't have to tell him. Now it's gonna be something different, maybe something better, but I just don't think that that's possible. He was my person. And another text the next day, this time to a different friend, but the wording and message is ostensibly the same. I just had it all planned out with Conrad. Now I have to do something different, maybe something better, I just don't think that that's possible. He was my person you know? Now, here’s the script from Glee. Rachel: I had it all planned out. I was gonna make it big on Broadway and maybe make a Woody Allen movie. And then when we were ready, I would just come back and he'd be teaching here and I'd walk through those doors and I would just say "I'm home" and then we would live happily ever after. Will: That's a good plan. Did you tell him? Rachel: I didn't have to. He knew. Will: And now what? Rachel: I don't know, something different. Will: Maybe something better. Rachel: I just — I don't think that's possible. He was my person. Play the video: https://youtu.be/9bMuEQxwkR0 Here’s another one. In a text to Boardman mere days after Roy’s death, Carter said: He was the greatest man I ever knew and I literally lived every day feeling like the luckiest girl in the world when I had him. In a December 2013 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Michele had this to say about Monteith: I was so happy. He’s such a private person, and I literally lived every day of my life feeling like the luckiest girl in the whole world. I just thought he was the greatest man. A final example. In the same conversation with Boardman, Carter writes: One of the hardest parts is feeling like I'm gonna forget everything. And I don't want to. I can still hear his voice so clearly.   And the corresponding lines in Glee. Rachel says to Will:   I can still see his face and I can hear his voice so clearly. Do you think that I'll ever forget it? Because I'm afraid that one day I will.   Though a few others deal tangentially with Glee, the vast majority of text messages, especially the ones on the days of July 13 and 14, are harrowing for completely different reasons. July 12, 2014   He parked his truck in a KMart parking lot.   Conrad Roy III got out of the truck, trying to back out of the suicide attempt, when Michelle Carter -- an hour away at the time -- told him to get back in and finish the job. This moment, the judge concluded, is what made Michelle Carter’s actions a crime.   The trial took a week. Carter waived the right to a jury trial.   The defense argued that Carter’s reaction to antidepressants had affected her to a dangerous extent. Dr. Peter Breggin, who testified for the defense, “said Ms. Carter was ‘intoxicated’ by antidepressants, which she first started taking at 14, causing her to become unhinged at times and to show intense anxiety, irritability and psychoses.”   Carter, 20, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and will be sentenced August 3. She faces up to 20 years in prison. The defense team is suspected to appeal the decision to a higher court.   Controversy   The ACLU argues that words alone cannot be responsible for someone else’s actions. NYT: “This is saying that what she did is killing him, that her words literally killed him, that the murder weapon here was her words,” said Matthew Segal, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which raised concerns about the case to the state’s highest court. “That is a drastic expansion of criminal law in Massachusetts.”  

The Manson Family had one last horrific day in the spotlight in September 1975, with the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, CA. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme walked up to President Ford at an event where he was scheduled to give a speech and pointed a Colt .45 at him. I won't reveal the ending of that story, but you probably can guess, since Ford died in 2006. (Spoiler!) Charles Manson spent most of his adult life preaching about a revolution, though his was mostly about racial hatred and professional jealousy -- Manson wanted to be a rock star -- and yet this random event would be the closest he or any of his members would get to creating a watershed in American politics. Squeaky Fromme was one of the earliest and most ardent supporters of Charles Manson and the Manson Family. During the trial over the Tate-Labianca murders, Fromme set up media appearances and interviews for the Manson Family and its members. She and other Family members camped outside the trial, where Charles Manson and the other girls made a complete mockery of the justice system. Squeaky Fromme would later go on to write a 600-page unpublished manuscript about her time with the Manson Family. She was paroled in 2009 for her attempt at President Gerald Ford's life, the first in two assassination attempts that September in 1975. This episode corresponds with the shooting today in Washington, DC that injured Rep. Steve Scalise and three others, as members of Congress practicing for an annual baseball game. A lone gunman upset about the election of Donald Trump opened fire on the senators and congresspeople with what appears to be an assault weapon. The gunman was shot and killed, and the four victims shot by the assailant are, at present moment, alive and doing well. I hope this event does not become typical, and I also hope it does not prevent our elected representatives from doing their jobs. Plug! My third novel, Dirt Merchant, on sale now!

A grand majority of this true crime podcast episode comes from the Michael Capuzzo book, Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916. It is a wonderful resource about not just these specific shark attacks but the overall history of shark attacks in American and elsewhere, as well. The more you read, the more you will realize that the events in New Jersey act as a precursor and an inspiration for Peter Benchleys novel, Jaws, and the subsequent Steven Spielberg movie by the same name. I'm providing, rather than a comprehensive list of sources for this episode, the notes I took in preparation for the recording. Feel free to read below about the stories of the various victims and near-victims of the New Jersey shark attacks: Charles Vansant, whose parents watched in horror as he was dragged under water; long-distance swimmers Robert Dowling and Leonard Hill, who barely escaped with their lives; Charles Bruder, a Swiss captain whose hubris ended up getting him killed; and Lester Stillwell and the other Matawan Creek victims. There is so much to uncover here, I feel like I could have done a whole series on the different locations, people, and misconceptions which allow these events to occur. Feel free to check out Capuzzo's book. It's a masterful bit of reporting, and I couldn't recommend it more vigorously. *** This story begins off the southern coast of New Jersey, just beyond the front door of the majestic Engleside Hotel. It was 1916, and the U.S. hadn’t quite stepped into WWI. In fact, Woodrow Wilson was running for re-election based on his promise to keep America out of the Great War. The Engleside was well north of the more famous Asbury Park, but it was also no slouch, either. Americans had begun to discover the idea of leisure. The Victorian era was over, and people sought to be in the sunshine for more than mere backbreaking work. People in the upper middle and middle classes “vacationed” in the summer, and the Engleside was a nice place to do so. The 1915 summer season led the owners of the hotel to believe 1916 would be record-breaking. Off the shore, a horror was brewing. A female great white shark had been knocked off its course and ended up near the shores of New Jersey. And even with the fervor of Victorian scientists like Charles Darwin, little was known about carcharodon carcharias. Sharks, in general, were not considered the man-eaters of today. On July 1, a 25-year-old man named Charles Vansant was swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, alongside his dog. His parents -- his father a doctor -- watched from the shore. Onlookers were horrified to see a giant beat leap into the air and drag the younger Vansant under the water. **Not knowing what to do with shark attacks back then **Died on the operating table -- literally a door **Beaches stayed open. People weren’t overly alarmed.   **Ex-Pres. William Howard Taft Hated giving speeches as much as being president Gave a speech at the Essex and Sussex Not too long later, there was a commotion down by the ocean about potential sharks   **Locals tried to dispel the idea that a shark had even killed Vansant. There were lots of rumors going around, and some even believed he had drowned, or that the newspapers had grossly overestimated his death. In other words, no one was aware of the dangers of sharks.   **Robert Dowling and Leonard Hill Two long-distance swimmers Leonard Hill was a druggist on vacation with his family Robert Dowling, the real estate scion, was a long-distance swimmer He was the first man to swim around Manhattan Island They came within dozens of feet from the shark. They swam through the feeding zone of the shark. No one quite knows why the shark ignored them, but it did Both vowed to never step foot in that ocean again “Never again,” Dowling said. “At least not here.”   **45 mi. North. Charles Bruder. Spring Lake, NJ. Swiss Bell Captain. He was eager to reclaim his reputation after the unexpected exploits of Downing and Hill July 6 He did not fear sharks. Did not think they were dangerous. Bit him in the stomach / legs. Severed them. He was pulled into a boat. Bled to death. **Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, SF Chronicle All put the second shark attack on the front headline **Sunbathing decreased by 75%, and cancellations caused $250,000 in lost revenue at resorts   **July 8: American Museum of Natural History: Press Conf. feat. scientists Frederic Augustus Lucas, John Treadwell Nichols, Robert Cushman Murphy Stressed a third shark attack was unlikely Nichols, an ichthyologist, warned bathers to stay close to the shore   **The US House of Reps. appropriates $5K to stop the shark problem **Pres. Woodrow Wilson meets with his cabinet over the attacks The basic point is, the shark attacks are national news, at this point   **July 12 Attacks **Matawan Creek (30 mi. N. of Spring Lake) **Thomas Cottrell, local sea captain, spotted the shark in the creek People dismissed him **Lester Stilwell and other boys were playing Before he could get out, Stilwell was pulled under **The kids ran to town. Watson Stanley Fisher, local businessman, also bitten. They were afraid to touch the wounds, because they thought that shark bites were poisonous, at that time. Fisher claimed to have wrestled Stilwell’s corpse from the fish’s mouth. He died while on the operating table from massive blood loss. **30 mins later. Joseph Dunn. Bitten. Survived. Rel. Sept. 1916.   **John Nichols became involved. He drove down to the coast and looked for the shark. Though he had been initially skeptical that sharks were man-eaters, the new attacks all but confirmed it. He expected a Killer Whale. The creek was too small for a KW. Witnesses contradicted him.   **A group of shotgun-wielding locals load up on dynamite in order to kill the shark. They run a cage across the river and overreact to sightings of any fish. They foolishly think they can blast the shark and cause it to float. Little do they know, a shark doesn’t work that way. This is highly reminiscent of the scene from Jaws.   A storm broke out, and men kept throwing dynamite into the water. Nichols tried to convince them that bullets would not affect the shark.   About the time that they decided to give up, the body of Lester Stilwell floated ashore. He was barely noticeable. One ankle had been chewed off. His stomach ripped open, his right side chewed away.   **James Fairman Fielder was besieged by requests to have the shark killed. He requested every major town to construct shark nets.   **Woodrow Wilson even had a meeting about the shark attacks at this point. Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo, in a press conference Declared war on sharks Said the US Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries   July 14. Barnum & Bailey Lion Tamer and one of the foremost taxidermists in the nation, Michael Schleisser and his friend, were attacked by the shark. The shark leaped onto the back of the boat, Jaws-style, and attempted to rip the boat to shreds to attack them. They managed to beat the shark to death with an oar.    

This week's episode features a massacre, though not necessarily the kind you would expect from this particular show. It relates indirectly to the presidency of one Donald Trump, but that's about as political as I would like for it to be. President Richard Nixon managed to avoid impeachment by resigning just before the articles of impeachment made their way through the House of Representatives into the U.S. Senate. The basic story is this: President Nixon wanted to prevent some damning audio tapes from being introduced into the investigation into the Watergate break-in and cover-up, so he tried to coerce his Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. The resulting scandal is known as the Saturday Night Massacre. A lot of people are making connections between Nixon firing Archibald Cox and President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey, so I thought I would give a primer on the case. Here's a brief re-telling of that situation: Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox asked for several of Richard Nixon's dictabelt recordings in lieu of the investigation. Nixon turned down Cox's request for tapes featuring John W. Dean, citing "executive privilege" because he didn't think it was anybody's damn business. Richard Nixon, at first, tried to get AG Richardson to get Archibald Cox under control. Alexander Haig, Chief of Staff, met with AG Richardson to try to influence him to calm down Archibald Cox. At the same time, there was an investigation into VP Agnew regarding taking cash payouts. After a meeting on the subject, Nixon basically said to Elliot Richardson, "Now we have to get rid of Archibald Cox." Judge Sirica ordered for all of the subpoenaed tapes to be turned over. Nixon really wanted to get rid of Cox after that. He had his lawyer, Fred Buzhardt, to meet with AG Richardson and present a two-pronged plan: 1. Nixon would listen to the tapes and oversee transcripts being turned over. 2. Cox would have to be fired. Attorney General Richardson said he would rather resign than fire Archibald Cox. The compromise failed, and yet President Nixon attempted to persuade Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson ended up resigning and so did the acting Attorney General, William Ruckleshaus. The third-in-command, Robert Bork, ended up doing the dirty deed. The result ended up being called the Saturday Night Massacre. The Saturday Night Massacre was notable in and of itself, but it also signaled just how corrupted President Richard Nixon would be. If you're interested in checking out my books, please do. You can pick up a signed copy of my third novel, Dirt Merchant, at my personal Selz page or the local bookstore that's treated me SO well, Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN.

The curious, lurid, shocking case of billionaire sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein is not the normal brand of true crime normally covered in the Principled Uncertainty Podcast, but it is both true and full of crime. Jeffrey Epstein's net worth allowed him the kind of life one could only hope and dream for. He owned his own private island and private jet. He rubbed elbows with the likes of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and Prince Andrew. It also afforded him the ability to prey on dozens (or maybe hundreds) of underage girls under the auspices of hiring them for "massages." It worked like this: he'd hire a teenager to come to his palatial estate on Brillo Way in Palm Beach, Florida. Then, once Epstein had scandalized that one young woman, he'd offer a "finder's fee" to that girl to recruit other girls so that he could receive a "massage." Jeffrey Epstein 's troubles began when a few of his former victims became police informants after minor run-ins with the law. The West Palm Beach police force secretly began building an airtight case against the billionaire financier as Epstein continued his manifold exploits in Florida. He was convicted of soliciting sex from a minor in 2008 and served a paltry eighteen-month sentence, after which he continued his hobnobbing, despite having to register as sex offender. The fact that he was a serial molester / sexual predator had nothing to do with the fact that he had lots of money. Lots and lots of money. It allowed him the kind of defense team that only billionaires could get away with, and as a result, he received the equivalent of a slap on the wrists. This episode of the Principled Uncertainty Podcast is a little different from most, in that it deals with crime but not murder. Still, it's a fascinating tale of deception and horror, even if no one was killed. And to think: Jeffrey Epstein is still walking the streets after only serving thirteen months in jail. 

Few guitarists can hold a joint to Dimebag Darrell, Pantera's insanely talented axe man from Pantego, Texas. He was a singularly talented human being, and if you've heard of Pantera, you've no doubt considered giving up a normal life's pursuits in order to be more like one Darrell Abbott. I spent my teenage years emulating Dimebag Darrell, but I never got beyond chugging along to the riffs from 'Far Beyond Driven.' I was a bit of a metal-head, and along with Metallica's James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, Dimebag was my hero. If you're not astounded by this dude's guitar playing, you and I can never be blood brothers. When Dimebag Darrell was murdered on December 8, 2004, I literally punched a tree down in my backyard. It was inconceivable that someone so full of life and joy be struck down at such a young age. (He was 38.) Despite the band's dark themes and messages, Pantera was a band that focused on joy. Pure, raucous, hellacious joy. Dimebag Darrell represented youthful love of metal, and his death was an augur of a different age for me. It's one of the strangest and most bizarre true crime scenarios to play out in a public setting, especially where a heavy metal band is concernded. A crazed fan named Nathan Gale ended Dimebag Darrell's life at a Damageplan show in Columbus, Ohio in 2004. He was angry over the band breaking up and possibly by Pantera lead singer Philip Anselmo's fiery words in an interview mere weeks before. Due to that and some degeneration in his mental capacity, he jumped the fence at the Alrosa Villa Club and rushed the stage, pulling a 9mm Beretta in the process. He shot Dimebag Darrell in the head at point-blank range. He fired into the crowd and tried desperately to find Dimebag's brother, Vinnie Paul, in order to end his life as well. It was a local cop who ended the horror by shooting Nathan Gale with a police-issue shotgun. Despite the horrific circumstances of his death, 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott's legacy lives on in the wonderful music he created with his friends Rex Brown and Phillip Anselmo, and his brother, Vinnie Paul. You can find Pantera's albums anywhere you steal music. Check out the Pantera Behind the Music for more information.

On April 8, 1994, an electrician looking to install a security system at Kurt Cobain's Seattle, WA residence saw what he thought was a mannequin through a greenhouse window. Upon further inspection, he came to regard the figure as a human being, and a few minutes later, unknowingly made one of the most profoundly disturbing discoveries in rock-n-roll history. Kurt Cobain, the heralded lead singer and creative force behind Nirvana, was dead. He was found in his greenhouse with a shotgun and a stash of heroin nearby, so Cobain's death was initially ruled a suicide. Immediately, the news of Kurt Cobain's death set off shockwaves in the music world. He was very often considered a premiere voice in the Grunge movement, and Nirvana was one of the cornerstones of the Seattle sound (along with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice-in-Chains). There were public outpourings of emotion in Seattle, and several copycat suicides occurred in the days following news of Cobain's death. In the midst of all this, Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, had hired a PI named Tom Grant to track down her husband, who had fled from drug rehab in LA several days before. After news of Cobain's death reached him, Grant gradually became convinced that Cobain had not, in fact, killed himself but had been murdered. He was concerned with several details that didn't seem to add up, and so he began a decades-long push to get Kurt Cobain's death to be re-investigated. A few pieces of evidence are always cited when presenting Cobain's death as a potential murder. First of all, there's the fact that one of Kurt Cobain's credit cards was used in the hours following his death, before his body was discovered. Then there's the amount of heroin in his system. (He had nearly three times a normal fatal dose in his system.) There's the lack of fingerprints on any item in the greenhouse. There's the weird shenanigans involving Courtney, Dylan Carlson, and a guy named Cali in the days leading up to Cobain's death. Building a case from all of the disparate pieces of evidence, though, always struck me as bizarre. Nothing ever plays out like a TV show. Even in clear-cut suicide cases, some threads never quite get tied up, so how can you tie them all together, if you're only doing so to prop up your already-reached conclusion. This podcast episode explores the issue from the inside out. First, I start with the proposition that, Okay, Kurt Cobain was murdered. Why? Who benefits? For me, the issue becomes transparent when you take all of these issues at face value. Hope you enjoy, and I'll be back with a new one soon.

For this week's podcast, journalist and author Bob Kolker joins me to discuss his investigation into the Long Island Serial Killer case. He is the author of Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery. Here is a brief description of the influential and superbly-written true crime work: Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker delivers a humanizing account of the true-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island, and presents the first detailed look at the shadow world of online escorts, where making a living is easier than ever and the dangers remain all too real. A triumph of reporting, a riveting narrative, and "a lashing critique of how society and the police let five young women down" (Dwight Garner, New York Times), Lost Girls is a portrait of unsolved murders in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we keep them. This brief interview focuses intently on how Kolker became involved with this unsolved serial killer case. At the time, he was a writer for New York magazine and became interested as more bodies were discovered off Ocean Parkway on Long Island while looking for a young sex worker named Shannan Gilbert. Rather than report on the story as just yet another unsolved serial killer case, he dove headlong into the human element of the story, focusing on the victims as individuals and women, instead of as statistics. Also, I have to mention at this point that, if you haven't read Lost Girls, you must. It's one of the most human stories about crime I have ever read, due in large part to the fact that Kolker approaches the subject with so much care and humanity. Very often, the victims of serial killers remain in the shadow of the monster who took their lives. In Lost Girls, though, the lives of women who took to Craigslist to make money are treated with such deliberate and thoughtful writing so as to render them as real people. It's a welcome departure from a great number of pulpy true crime books.  

[ORIGINS OF XMAS] December 25 is coming up, and everybody is getting geared up for their Baby Jesus celebration. However, Christmas is not the only wintry celebration to come in the month of December. Due to the winter solstice, December has always been host to a number of pagan festivals, and some believe the date of Christmas was chosen to offset the many, many pagan rituals of the time period, including Saturnalia and Natalis Invicti. Similarly, if you’ve ever heard of the Yuletide, then you’ve at least passively acknowledged a Norse tradition. The reason for the season, historically, outside of the Christian religion, has to do with the re-birth of the sun gods and the celebration of the returning of light to the world. The winter solstice represents the shortest day of the year, and getting the sun back is definitely a reason to celebrate. But today’s episode isn’t about Christmas, not really. It’s about a half-goat, half-demon who punishes all the bad little children of the world, so if you were naughty this year, perhaps you should put off listening until the dawn has lit upon a post-Christmas day. Yes, I’ll be talking about Krampus. [KRAMPUS OVERVIEW] Krampus is a “half-goat, half-demon” with long horns and killer beard whose name comes from the German ‘Krampen’ for claw. He is the dark yin to Santa Claus’s yang. While Saint Nick brings joy and happiness to the good children of the world, Krampus punishes the bad children in some pretty deviant ways. He is a myth figure in middle and eastern Europe, including Austria, Bavaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Northern Italy. Basically, anywhere in the Alpine Region, you’re bound to run into the horned goat creature. If you travel over to Iceland, you’ll find a whole host of these Santa figures, known as the Jolasveinar. There’s the ‘Door Slammer’, ‘The Window Peeper,’ ‘The Sausage Snatcher,’ and ‘The Doorway Sniffer.’ December 5 is considered Krampusnacht, which I assume translates to Krampus Night. On this night, he travels from house-to-house, like Old Saint Nick, and leaves bundles of sticks for bad children. Doesn’t sound that bad, huh? Like coal in a stocking. However, if Krampus deems the child to be bad enough, he might bag up the offending child and toss her in a river or take her straight on down to Hell and save himself the trouble of trying to redeem the little bastard. He is sometimes depicted as having one cloven goat foot and one human foot, perhaps to bridge the gap of his half-human, half-devil form. The chain he carries may be a vestigial holdover having to do with binding the devil and whatnot, but today it just makes for one hell of a terrifying legend. The next day, after Krampus has whipped or damned all the evil kids, is Nikolastaugh, or St. Nicholas Day. The Dutch name, Sinterklass, eventually became our modern Santa Claus. It was his job to bring presents to all the good little boys and girls who missed the wrath of Krampus. [HISTORY] Nicholas himself became popular in Germany in the 11th Century, and though it is unclear when, exactly, Krampus came to popularity, it goes back as far as pre-Christian times. He is believed to be the son of Hel from Norse mythology, but whether that is exactly true is anybody’s guess. Either way, he is totally a pagan symbol. By the 17th century, Krampus had been incorporated into Christian celebrations. Over the course of a few hundred years, he melded together with the Santa Claus myth to become something of a dark, violent companion to the fat old gift-giver. And just as the legend grew, so did the list of punishments bad ole Krampus would mete out. This next part comes from a site called The Robot’s Voice: According to a series of very popular 1800s postcards, Krampus enjoyed: ripping pigtails out, leading children off a cliff, sadistic ear-pulling, putting pre-teens in shackles, forcing children to beg for mercy, and throwing youngsters on an Express Train to The Lake of Fire (making no local stops). And then there’s my favorite: drowning children to death in ink and fishing out the corpse with a pitchfork. In fact, today people can participate in the Krampuslauf (Krampus Run) in which young men dress up and participate. Other festivals include people dressing up as the goat-devil and attacking poor, unsuspecting party-goers, usually chasing them down and beating them about the legs with the birch sticks Krampus is known to carry. I’m not sure if this is still true, but some homes in the Alpine region were known to leave the bag of birch sticks hanging on the wall all year as a reminder to be good, lest Krampus make his visit the next Krampusnacht.  

December 24, 2008. All over the nation, parents are dressing up as Santa Claus, donning the red suit to amaze their children with the prospect of a wonderful Christmas morning. When I was a kid, family members would call and pretend to be Saint Nick to get me excited for the next day. Still happens, I suppose, all across the country, and even the Federal Aviation Administration even gets in on the action, posting a Santa Watch every year for captive youngsters. The same thing happens in a suburb of Los Angeles called Covina, California, only with very deadly consequences. This is a true crime story of violence so personal and so without conscience, discretion is heavily advised. At 11:30 PM local time, a man walks into the home of his in-laws dressed as Santa Claus. That man is 45-year-old Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, and he is visiting his family for Christmas. Only, instead of unloading a bag of presents for everyone, Pardo unveils a gift-wrapped, homemade flamethrower. He draws a semi-automatic 9mm pistol -- he also has three others on his person -- and fires into the face of his ex-wife's eight-year-old niece as she runs to greet him at the door. As the first rounds echo through the house, the group of 25 people flee, but many of them are not lucky enough to get out. Pardo fires into the group and (authorities think) kills as many of them, execution-style, as he can. When Pardo is done firing into the group of partygoers, he uses the homemade flamethrower to soak the home in racing fuel before setting the home ablaze. Nine of the 25 people in the house would perish from either gunfire or the resulting flames. Three others would be wounded. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back, and a 20-year-old broke her ankle leaping from a second story window. The eight-year-old, as fate would have it, survives. It is both a horrific curse and a perverse blessing that she lives. While she has the rest of her life ahead of her, she is going to be confronted with the reality of being shot in the face by the symbol of the season every December 25 from now on. Once Pardo finishes his rampage, he shucks the Santa suit and leaves the residence in his street clothes. He drives his rented car thirty miles away, to neighboring Sylmar, California, where Pardo's brother lives. There is some confusion at this point about what, exactly, Pardo's plan turned out to be. It is believed he contemplated fleeing to Canada. Police find $17,000 cling-wrapped to his legs and a plane ticket in his name. However, despite flying with Air Canada, the itinerary stated he would be traveling to Illinois, where a high school friend he had visited in October of that year lived. The complicating factor are the burns Pardo sustained while setting the resident site of the massacre ablaze. He purportedly suffers third degree burns on his arms, and it is rumored that some of the Santa suit melted onto hi flesh, which would make a flight just about anywhere an unlikely, painful scenario. None of these details about Pardo's intentions can be known, because Pardo decides to take his own life in the wake of this tragedy. Using a gun from the attacks, he places the barrel against his temple and pulls the trigger. The horror doesn't end there. In his home, police find the following: five empty boxes for semiautomatic handguns, two shotguns, and a container for high-octane fuel. According to reports, they also found "a virtual bomb factory," and one can only wonder what sort of carnage he might have been capable of inflicting had he taken all of that with him. Back at the in-laws' home, the fire rages on. It takes 80 firefighters nearly 90 minutes to put out the fire. The bodies inside the Ortega home -- Ortega was Sylvia Pardo's maiden name -- are so badly burned, they must be identified using dental or medical records. As if to punctuate the horrible affair, the day after, a pipe bomb explodes in the car rented by Bruce Pardo outside the home where he had committed suicide. He had rigged a Santa suit to explode if taken from the car's backseat. The final death toll related to Pardo's rampage is nine, including Pardo's ex-wife, both of her parents, two of her brothers, their wives, and one of the nephews. It's the sort of event that can devastate not just a family but the surrounding community. Every day is sacred, if you value life, but the holidays stand for something, even if you're not religious. If you're like me, and church is but a distant memory of childhood, the Christmas season represents a kind of renewal of your faith in humanity, a time to reflect on your successes and failures so that you can attempt to change and influence the world in some positive way. To be more forgiving of others and hope they might, too, forgive you. To do something so vile during this season begs the question: why in the hell someone would perpetrate such a barbaric, inhuman act like this? Well, the answer is probably one you've been able to ferret out by now. Bruce Pardo and his wife had been going through some trying times in their marriage, and Pardo's divorce with his wife, Sylvia, was finalized on December 18, roughly one week before the attack. Reasons get even more specific, though, in the ensuing investigation. The problem, as it turns out, night not have been scorned love, after all, but money. Pardo had made the comment that Sylvia was "taking him to the cleaners" in the wake of their divorce, and so it might have been his wrath over the financial repercussions of their divorce that drove him to commit this heinous crime, rather than his passion for their lives together. Is it better? No. Does it cast a reflection upon most people's feelings over the season? Hell yes. Most people I know find Christmas to be a season driven by money, rather than giving, family, community, or the like. So, yeah, it might seem that this is a horribly sardonic end to an even more unsettling crime. Here is a news report from the wake of the shooting: Bruce Pardo Kills 8 in Covina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7u0T8sRDA This is not new to true crime. A simple Google search reveals this happening days and weeks and months ago, so these incidents are not isolated. But on Christmas? It is unspeakable, though not rare, and so it is with this heaviness on my mind that I come away from this hoping that you all have a wonderful holiday, that you think not just of the people you love and admire this holiday season, but those you might disagree with. Those you might have hoped to forget about for the weeks leading up to 2016's end. Now is the time to make the rest of this year what you can, and what you will. Check out other true crime at the site, tblakebraddy.com

In honor of hitting a quarter-thousand episodes, I decided to reflect upon the lessons I had learned about podcasting and provide the audience with a how-to guide for some easily-avoided pitfalls and problems associated with hosting a successful podcast. I was lucky enough to score Jeremy of Lopez Radio for this, especially since he worked in terrestrial radio for several years before starting his own podcast. Below, we came up with a list of tips for how to jumpstart your success in podcasting. We also cheated a bit and came up with TEN lessons instead of five, so just consider it a bonus, just from us. The tips are broken up into two sections, Technical and Philosophical. We hope this guide is clear enough! Thanks for listening. Technical Do as much of your podcast live as possible. It may seem like an obvious tip, but the more you do on-mic, the less you will have to edit once the show is over. Editing is fun and novel at first, but eventually it becomes a job just like everything else. Avoid burnout by doing your music and introductions live. Invest in a microphone and pop filter. Spend the money. This one is as simple as that. You need to get a mic that will sound good and invest in a pop filter to cut out your sibilants and plosives. A podcast that is difficult to listen to won't get anywhere. Bank episodes as often as possible. If you are a busy person -- and we're all busy, aren't we -- consider scheduling your guests for longer than normal and breaking your podcast into two chunks. Aircheck yourself, listen back. Equipment can go bad and not function like it once did.  Also listen to see if you’re making any sense. Not only that, but you should do a quality check on your episodes every few weeks in order to get a sense of whether or not you are coming off with the right tone and tone of voice. Build an email list or customer funnel FROM THE BEGINNING. This one, I am convinced, is the most important. You may be able to track listeners through their downloads, but if you want to keep them apprised of what you and your podcast are up to, you need to have a database, and that's where a mailing list comes in. Go right over to mailchimp and get started. Philosophical Anticipating people’s opinions can backfire. Over-planning is as bad as under-planning. But planning is absolutely necessary. Find a community to interact with, and make that a priority. Life is a fluid system. Let your podcast change with you. Have fun. [Do topics that interest you.]

Saturday, July 4, 2009. A relatively quiet Independence Day for the US. The Statue of Liberty crown reopened after being closed for 8 years due to the attacks on the World Trade Center. North Korea tested ballistic missiles of their own to rattle the saber of their military at the United States, but nothing extraordinary. Seemed like it would be just another quiet celebration of America's Independence. At 1:35 p.m., a man named Robert Gaddy called 911 and reported finding two bodies in a residence at 105 Lea Avenue near downtown Nashville, TN. A 300-plus pound lineman for the Nashville Kats Arena Football Team, Gaddy was known around town as "Big Daddy Gaddy." He is perhaps most well-known for being a friend and teammate to NFL legend and local hero, Steve McNair. The first officer appeared just four minutes later, at 1:39 p.m, and found that one of the victims was the former football star. The other appeared to be a woman, whose dead body lay at his feet on the floor of the living room. The man turned out to be Steve McNair and the woman his girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi. McNair sat on his couch, Kazemi on the ground at his feet. The officers found two bullets in the walls almost immediately; one was attributed to McNair, the other to his girlfriend. The 9mm used in the murder-suicide was then found underneath Kazemi's head during the investigation. Here is a brief synopsis of what the officers found upon entering McNair's place: McNair had a gunshot wound (contact) to his right temple, and an exit gunshot wound to his right temple. McNair also had a gunshot wound (non-contact) to his left temple and two gunshot wounds to his chest that both exited through his back. Kazemi had a contact gunshot wound to the right side of her head and an exit wound on the left side of her head. Due to a lack of any defensive wounds or defensive posturing from McNair, police believe McNair was asleep on his couch when he was shot and killed early in the hours of July 4th, 2009. According to the case summary, McNair's Blood Alcohol Level was 0.15%, nearly twice the legal limit at the time, which may have contributed to his drowsiness. A few more details on what police believed happened the night of McNair's death (from the case summary): The totality of the evidence leads to the conclusion that Kazemi shot McNair in the left side of his head (non-contact), shot him twice in the chest, and then put the gun to the right side of his head and shot him again (contact wound). It is concluded that Kazemi sat on the sofa to McNair's left in such a way that she would fall into McNair's lap upon committing suicide by shooting herself in the head. The blood stains show that Kazemi's upper body was in McNair's lap before she slid down his leg and onto the floor. 105 Lea Avenue, Nashville, TN The Life of Steve McNair This isn't a sports blog, so I won't spend a whole lot of time writing about Steve McNair's career, but here are the highlights: he won the Walter Payton Award in 1994 and was drafted by the Houston Oilers the next year. He didn't really become a superstar player in the NFL until the Oilers migrated to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans. He participated in the Titans' lone Super Bowl, losing that game by about a foot-and-a-half. (Sorry if this is triggering you, the long-suffering Titans fan.) He took the Titans to a few more playoff appearances before being traded to the Ravens in 2005. He played a few more seasons and then retired in 2007. I remember intensely respecting his on-the-field heroics. He was tougher than most quarterbacks, and he put a nice touch on his passes. Being a Falcons fan, though, I never followed 'Air' McNair's career with the fervor that I would now. His personal life plays much more of a role in his ultimate death than his football career. First of all, he was married, and many of his friends were surprised to know he was involved in a secret relationship with the waitress, Kazemi, before his death. He had two sons with his wife, Mechelle McNair and two sons by two other women. The Fourth of July Timeline A few key events lead up to Steve McNair's death. On July 1, an African-American male (who was not Steve McNair or Adrian Gilliam) showed up at the Opry Mills Dave & Buster's where Sahel Kazemi worked and hung out without eating or drinking. Kazemi spent an hour talking to him on her shift, disappeared for two hours during her 30-minute break and was sent home after that. Also, the Thursday before his death, July 2, McNair was out with Kazemi and chef Vent Gordon when Kazemi, driving an Escalade registered to the couple, was pulled over. According to a Hollywood Gossip timeline, the traffic stop occurred between 1-1:30 a.m. early Thursday morning. She was arrested for DUI but not before McNair and Gordon left the scene via taxi. Kazemi apparently asked McNair to talk to the arresting officer, but McNair, perhaps fearing a public controversy over the matter, refused. McNair then went to Free at Last Bonding and arranged to bail her out. According to Fowzi Ali, a cab driver, McNair went to Loser's Bar in Midtown Nashville for 15-20 minutes before requesting to be taken back to the residence on Lea. Later that evening, Kazemi, having been bailed out by McNair, ventured to meet a convicted murderer named Adrian Gilliam to purchase a semi-automatic 9mm pistol. (More on that later.) This would prove to be the gun used in the murder-suicide. That Friday, Kazemi went into work at the Dave & Busters at the Opry Mills Mall, just outside of Nashville, and sent a series of texts throughout her shift and beyond. Judging solely on the content of the texts, she merely appeared to be in love with the former quarterback, not veering toward some form of psychotic break. However, according to an article in ESPN, there are some signs that she was not quite herself in the hours leading up to her death: A shift manager at Dave & Buster's who worked with Kazemi on the last night of her life told police that Kazemi was normally upbeat. But in the hours before the murder, something was different. She rolled her eyes when asked about McNair's promise to divorce his wife, Mechelle. Kazemi, according to a police statement, told her manager, 'My life is just shit, and I should end it!' Here are some other highlights of her social media and personal communiques from Friday, July 3, 2009: She called a handful of friends that day, making Fourth of July plans that wouldn't be kept. She tried to sell some furniture on craigslist [sic], went to work and clocked out early, and texted McNair that she had to be with him that night. One of her final calls was to Lakresia Polite, a friend she had planned on going out with that night. Polite said that she was in Memphis and that she couldn't go out. Kazemi, Polite says, told her that's OK; she'd call Steve and see what he was doing. It's extremely possible to come to the conclusion that Steve McNair AND Sahel "Jenni" Kazemi  would still be alive today, had she only been able to go out with someone else -- anyone else -- that Friday night. Later testing concluded that Kazemi was the sole shooter. There was powder residue on Kazemi's left hand, indicating she had fired using both hands, and none on either of McNair's. The Discovery Remember Robert "Big Daddy" Gaddy? Turns out, even though he made the initial 911 call, he was not the person who discovered the bodies. That distinction goes to one Carless Wayne Neeley, a friend of McNair's who co-rented the property at 105 Lea Avenue with the former football star. July 4th, at approximately 12:40 p.m., Neeley dropped by the residence and saw McNair's cars parked outside. He had been talking to McNair about speaking at a local Little League game and figured he would drop in to ask about it. He unlocked the doors and went inside. He saw the both of them in the living room but thought they were asleep and walked right past them into the kitchen. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and returned to the living room. Upon seeing blood and shell casings in the condo, he fled the residence. He said he didn't recognize the victim on the couch as McNair and tried multiple times to call the former football player. When he couldn't get ahold of McNair, he did the next best thing: He called McNair's best friend, Gaddy, who showed up 15 minutes later. Gaddy and Neeley went inside and identified McNair's body, but here's the weird thing: they didn't go outside and immediately call the police. First, they called General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland. Moreland, of course, told them that they should call the authorities and admit to everything they knew. The 9mm Pistol A thirty-three-year-old convicted murderer named Adrian Gilliam sold Sahel Kazemi the loaded 9mm pistol she would later use to murder Steve McNair and kill herself. He purportedly wanted a romantic relationship with Kazemi and exchanged 49 texts and phone calls in the days leading up to the murder. He later stated he sold her the gun because she'd told him she was worried about prowlers in the area. However, it was also speculated that she was angry over the possibility that McNair was engaged in other extramarital affairs, in addition to the one he was having with her. Despite that, she was also purportedly seeing other men at the time, including one of McNair's former teammates on the Tennessee Titans and a Vanderbilt University football player. Timeline Leading to Steve McNair's and Sahel Kazemi's Deaths Thursday, July 2, 2009: Two Days Before McNair's Death Kazemi is pulled over for DUI in Nashville while driving a Cadillac Escalade registered to both McNair and Kazemi. McNair and Vent Gordon, the chef at one of McNair's restaurants, are in the car at this time. McNair refuses to get out and talk to the police, but he still bails Kazemi out of jail. Weird irony: the officer who arrests Kazemi for DUI is the same one who, six years earlier, arrested McNair for the same charge. Later that evening, Sahel Kazemi purchases a 9mm pistol from a convicted murderer she met while trying to find a buyer for her Kia. (Wikipedia) There is also speculation that Kazemi was with her ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet, in the hours following being bailed out of jail for DUI. Friday, July 3, 2009: The Day Before McNair's Death 10:05 AM -- Kazemi texts McNair. "Baby I might have a break down im so stressed." She also states she needs to pay "the cell phone bills n the hospital." 04:00 PM -- McNair tells Kazemi that $2,000 is being transferred to her account. She later texts that she "can hardly breath [sic]" and "I just want the pain in my chest to go away." McNair texts back, asking if she would like for him to see about her. 04:04 PM -- Kazemi texts McNair: "Baby I have to be w u 2nite. I dnt care where." 08:34 PM -- Kazemi again texts McNair: "baby where u gonna be at when I get off." 11:00 PM -- McNair puts his children to bed. Saturday, July 4, 2009: The Day of McNair's Death 12:38 AM -- McNair texts Kazemi: "On my way." [Presumably, this is the condo where the two of them met up.] 01:14 AM -- Kazemi tells McNair the door is open. 02:23 AM -- There is one more text sent to McNair's phone at 2:23 AM. "im going to the store." It was sent approximately 23 minutes after the Metro Nashville Police Department believes Kazemi killed Steve McNair and then herself. According to Sammy Saltman in a 2009 article, "T-Mobile Subpoena Compliance Specialist Melanie Cadwell told Nasvhille authorities that it is possible this message, which was received by McNair's Blackberry at that time, was delayed in transit, and was actually sent earlier. The Lingering Questions in Steve McNair's Death Although the official investigation into Steve McNair's death seems pretty conclusive, a few lingering questions remain. Former police officer Vincent Hill believes Kazemi did not, in fact, murder McNair and turn the pistol on herself. His main evidence comes from the fact that McNair, who very often carried thousands of dollars rolled up in a rubber band, only had $6 in in his wallet when his body was found. A more minor but nevertheless credible point relates to Adrian Gilliam's uneven testimony. Gilliam claims that he avoided the truth in his initial interviews because his fiancee was present, and he didn't want her to know about his amorous intentions with Sahel Kazemi. We can't really cast aspersions on Gilliam purely for his past, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if he had something to hide about the whole murder/suicide. The last point Vincent Hill brings up is that Kazemi purportedly hated guns. I mean, honestly, that doesn't really matter, since plenty of violent ends have come at the hands of people who abhorred violence, but it is definitely an avenue worth exploring. Kazemi's family has requested the investigation be re-opened, and though I doubt that will ever happen, it doesn't hurt to think about all of the angles in this case. Final Thoughts The more I've read about Steve McNair's death, the more tragic the whole thing seems to become. I've got to admit, I first thought the whole case had to do with a jealous lover and revenge. Now that I've paid some actual attention to it, I have to admit it just appears to be a horrible, random, absolutely senseless crime. Steve McNair was no worse than any other professional athlete, and he appeared to have a really quite generous streak that set him apart. From what I've read, he was a good man, an absolute legend, one who embraced Nashville with the whole of his life. Sahel Kazemi didn't have a chance to establish herself, so the legacy she leaves behind is tied almost exclusively to her tumultuous relationship with Steve McNair. However, the horrors associated with the events of July 4, 2009 can't erase the joy she brought to friends and family. She very obviously suffered a psychotic break, which may explain what eventually happened in the wee hours of her final night. Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/adrian-gilliam-man-who-sold-gun-that-killed-mcnair-wanted-affair-with-his-mistress-sahel-kazemi/ http://www.nashvillepost.com/business/legal/article/20403306/who-are-the-other-people-in-the-mcnair-case http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/policereport/mcnair,%20steve_police%20report.pdf http://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-doubts-about-steve-mcnair-death-probe/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-girl-the-gun-and-the-dead-nfl-star/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sahel-kazemi-and-steve-mcnair-final-texts-show-worries-of-love-and-money/ http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=5347315 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyrQQai0BUEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaRndcqaQtQ

'The Killing Season' on A&E is one of the most engrossing true crime documentary series I have ever watched, and I was lucky enough to interview the series creators, Rachel Mills and Josh Zeman.  We discussed their experiences investigating the Long Island Serial Killer, the Daytona Beach Serial Killer, and the Chillicothe, Ohio murders. In making 'The Killing Season,' Josh Zeman and Rachel Mills encountered The Outlaws motorcycle gang, pimps, sex workers, and vigilante websleuths seeking justice. This podcast episode is not an in-depth discussion of the various theories of what went on in each of these serial killer cases, but what both of the show's producers came to feel about what they were documenting. The world of serial killers and true crime can be scary, soul-draining work, and Zeman and Mills worked like investigative journalists embedded with soldiers in a war-torn country. First, they started with the bizarre murders in Long Island, starting with the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, which may not be tied to the LISK case but may actually have led to the discovery of 10-11 victims over the course of the months following her discovery. (PS: If you want to read the DEFINITIVE book on the Long Island Serial Killer [AKA The Craigslist Killer], then check out Robert Kolker's Lost Girls.]) Their investigation then drew them south to Atlantic City and later to Daytona, where a series of serial murders seemed to follow a bizarrely familiar pattern. It's something that became increasingly unsettling as I watched The Killing Season, but I had no idea there could be any real, literal connections until I saw what Mills and Zeman had managed to uncover. This episode is a great introduction to the cases and also a kind of behind-the-scenes discussion of a fantastic piece of art about the modern world of crime. It's horrifying, scary, and totally compelling to watch. Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

Anyone who knows me should be aware that I LOVE Metallica. (I've even name-dropped them in the Rolson McKane novels.) What's weird is that the death of Cliff Burton was something I had to mourn retroactively, well after the event. See, I came to Metallica, really, when the Black Album was released. My stepbrother owned Master of Puppets, and I would jump around the room whenever the One video came on MTV, but I didn't know to any large degree about Metallica. Even when I got into the band and started to dig into the back catalog, I didn't really learn much about Cliff Burton, the band's original bass player.  He was by all appearances a well-liked dude. Calm and even-tempered, he didn't even really seem like a metal bassist, which made him stand out during the 'Metal Up Your Ass' 80s. He was more like a 70s, let's-hang-and-smoke-a-doobie kind of guy. Perhaps that's what set Cliff apart from most other players at the time. He did things his way, just like Metallica, and he helped to lift metal bass beyond just setting time for the rest of the thrashing instruments. He had a real sense of melody, which came out in songs like Anesthesia -- Pulling Teeth (Kill 'Em All) and Orion (Master of Puppets). The bass part at the beginning of For Whom the Bell Tolls still gets me. So epic. If you didn't know, he died tragically. Horribly. A horribly tragic death. I decided to do a brief episode of The Principled Uncertainty Podcast to discuss the untimely demise of one of metal's most talented musicians. You might be surprised how this story turns out. It's not your basic story of a rock star gone awry. Cliff Burton did not fall prey to drugs or booze, nor was he driven to his death by circumstances within his own control. He literally happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and because of that, he ended up paying with his life.    

The Maura Murray missing persons case is one of the most labyrinthine and fascinating true crime stories of the last fifteen years. The expert on the topic is journalist James Renner, who published his book, True Crime Addict, this past year. The book is a detailed examination of the Maura Murray case through the lens of James Renner's then-volatile life. He had just been fired from his job as a beat reporter for uncovering some untoward information about a state politician.  That said, the story kind of fell into his lap, and he got up and ran with it. And there is plenty to run with here. Maura Murray, at first, appears to be yet another case of a pretty young white girl who disappeared into the wilds of New England. However, peeling back the thin veneer of Murray's then-existence reveals a series of circumstances that make her disappearance that much more bizarre and mysterious. Without these details, her case would fall through the cracks of "yet another disappearance."  Turns out, she was not just another pretty gone girl. She had some minor trouble with the law. She might or might not have been connected to a hit-and-run three days before she disappeared. There is a chance she was on her way to getting a DUI the weekend before her disappearance. One of the assistant track coaches at her school, UMASS, admits to having had an affair with her. She googled information about how much one can drink while pregnant. She'd contacted a ski resort about renting a room with more than one bed, and she emailed her professors about a nonexistent death in the family. There's. SO. MUCH. Anyway, James Renner was kind enough to come onto The Principled Uncertainty Podcast and give a brief overview of the case, his investigation, and the weird 'rabbit holes' inherent to the Maura Murray disappearance. If you dig true crime in any way, please come and listen to the podcast. Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

I have to be completely honest here. Book research is not something I do terribly effectively well, and it's one of the reasons I spoke with mystery author Jeffrey Eaton. His Dalton Lee mystery series has a phenomenal hook. His protagonist is an architect, and so each book revolves not just around the murder but the art and architecture of the city, as well. The first book, Murder Becomes Manhattan, takes readers through the major buildings and structures in the city, which provides the book with a veritable TON of texture. As someone completely ignorant of how buildings came to be, I feel smarter after having read the Dalton Lee books. The same thing is true of the second book, Murder Becomes Miami, which examines the major art deco architecture in The Magic City. Here's the thing: Jeffrey Eaton is NOT an architect. This is not some pet project for him, where he crams his expertise into some hackneyed mystery. He is a journalist first, and so this book series has forced him to do some pretty intensive research to get both the history and the architecture right. The result is a set of books filled with lush details and wonderful facts. Not just that: they are kick-ass mysteries, too. Luckily for all of us, Mr. Eaton sat down with me to share some of his most helpful tips for getting started with research. If you are overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea of trying to put some time in the stacks, fear not. This podcast episode will take some of the heat out of your efforts.  Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

The disappearance of Tara Calico back in September of 1988 remains one of the most bizarre and unsettling true crime cases of the last forty years. It's one of those situations that shouldn't lead to someone going missing. Calico, a 19-year-old student at U of NM, went for a typical 36 mile bike ride. Only, she didn't return. Her mother was supposed to go look for her at noon if she didn't return, and when her daughter didn't turn up, Calico's mother called the cops. All they were able to find in an ensuing investigation was Calico's Walkman. Other than that, nada. Eyewitnesses who saw her riding on the usual path also noticed a light-colored Ford truck with a camper on top following Calico, but no one witnessed an abduction. Theories abound as to what happened to her, but almost literally nothing was found...Until June of 1989. A woman leaving a convenience store in Florida found a Polaroid photograph on the ground. In the picture was a young woman and boy bound and gagged, looking very frightened. The photograph ended up in the hands of TV show A Current Affair, which broadcast it nationally in 1990. The resulting firestorm reached all the way to Tara Calico's family, who became convinced the woman in the picture was their daughter. Listen to the episode for the full story of the disappearance of Tara Calico.  Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

Betsy Aardsma was a young, talented, socially-conscious woman in 1969, when her life was cut tragically short in the Pattee Library at Penn State University. It was the Thanksgiving holidays, and most students had gone home to be with family. Aardsma was working on a paper and had ventured to the library to get some research done. Between 4:45 and 5:00 in the evening, Betsy was approached from behind in the stacks of the library and was stabbed a single time in the chest with a hunting knife. She died minutes later, before she was even discovered, and the weird thing was: nobody heard anything whatsoever. Two men were seen leaving the library shortly after her death, and one even told the desk clerk, "Somebody better help that girl." Betsy Aardsma was pronounced dead on arrival. She will forever be known as the girl who was killed in the library at Penn State, and her murder, to this day, remains completely and utterly unsolved.  Here is the most complete resource on the death of Betsy Aardma.   The Man Under the Bed A 16-year-old in Chester, England began receiving texts from her stalker on what would have otherwise been a normal night in 2014. The man, 18-year-old Kyle Ravenscroft, was obsessed with the 16-year-old victim, and began telling her how he was going to hang himself from her window. At midnight, he said he was "inside her house." The girl, understandably, freaked out. She went to go stay with her mom, and when she came back to the bedroom, she found some shoeboxes she normally kept by her bed disturbed. Under the bed, the victim found Ravenscroft, who had been hiding there the ENTIRE TIME. He was charged and sentenced pretty lightly, given the fact that his victim will forever have to check under the bed before being able to get any sleep at all. A really great article goes into depth about the whole situation. Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

The Hinterkaifeck Murders remains one of the most famous unsolved murder cases in the modern (or modernish) era.  Six people, including two children, were murdered on a farm in Germany in 1922, and yet that alone does not make the case bizarre. The fact that it was never solved doesn't even make it bizarre. The fact that the murders were perpetrated with a pickaxe almost does it. But no, the weird thing about the Hinterkaifeck murders has to do with the fact that the killer appears to have snuck into the house and hung out for several days leading up to and in the fallout after the murders. It is truly strange, and begs the question: Who in the hell would do this? Almost a hundred years later, and no one really has an answer to that last question.   Below are my notes for the podcast episode, if you dig the sausage-making aspect of podcasting. The notes are totally unedited. Hinterkaifeck: 43 miles north of Munich March 31, 1922 Six residents were killed with a mattock (like a pickaxe with one flat edge) Andreas Gruber Cazilla Gruber Their widowed daughter, Viktoria Gabriel Cazilla Josef Victoria’s children The Maid, Maria Baumgartner   I hate to throw shade at the dead, but here’s some gossip about the Gruber family. From Mysterious Universe: The father, Andreas Gruber, was an abusive monster who beat his wife, Cazilla, on a pretty regular basis. He is also rumored to have fathered his daughter’s youngest child, the 2 YO Josef.   A few days prior to the murders, Andreas Gruber told neighbors about seeing footprints leading from the forest at the edge of the farm to the house but none leading back out. He also purportedly heard footsteps in the attic and found an unfamiliar newspaper on the porch. I can imagine nothing more horrifying. none of it was reported to the police prior to the murders. He checked the house and never found the purported intruder. He even checked the attic and saw nothing. It was like the person had disappeared. But when he ventured out to the shed, he saw scratches that seemed to convey that someone had tried to force his way into the shed. The Maid Unfortunate timing; the previous maid quit because she thought the house was haunted. The new maid, Maria Baumgartner, showed up the day of the murders and was killed two hours later.   Fast forward a few days. On Tuesday, April 4, 1922, neighbors ventured over to the farmstead because they hadn’t heard from the family in a few days, and Viktoria’s eldest child hadn’t been showing up for school. They did an initial search and found nothing. Just a really, eerily silent farmstead. When they opened the barn, they made a ghastly, ghastly discovery Andreas, Cazilla, Viktoria, and Viktoria’s eldest child were stacked upon one another in a pool of blood, covered in hay. Josef was found dead on a cot in his mother’s bedroom. Maria, the maid, was found dead in her bedchamber. They had all been killed with blows to the head with a pickaxe and were still in bedclothes Viktoria had been strangled, as well, but the cause of death was still a pickaxe blow.   Investigators came to the conclusion that they had been led, one by one, into the barn and murdered. Very Blair Witch. Another weird detail: All the bodies had been covered somehow, even Josef inside the house. They also figured out that the date of death had been Friday, March 31, but neighbors had seen smoke coming from the chimney all weekend, which meant the killer had just sort of hung out all weekend. Also, the cattle and other farm animals had been well-fed throughout the ordeal, and the dog had been tied up and cared for, as well.

Boy, is this story a doozy. The Mysterious Deaths of the Sodder Children on Christmas Eve, 1945, is one of the most bizarre cases you'll ever hear of, guaranteed. At first, it seems to be a pretty straightforward case. A house fire in Fayetteville, West Virginia ends with the unfortunate deaths of five children. However, if you only dig a little bit further -- unintended pun -- you'll come up with the facts in a story that just never can be squared up with reality.   Here are the Outline Show Notes for this Ep: Christmas Eve, 1945 Fayetteville, WV There were 10 Sodder children. Sodder was Italian-American. Fayetteville had a vibrant Italian-American population. TEN CHILDREN. George and Jennie -- Parents Maurice, 14 Martha, 12 Louis, 9 Jennie, 8 Bettie, 5 Around 1AM a fire broke out. George and Jennie and four children escaped (one was off in the war) House layout: the parents lived downstairs; the kids lived upstairs.   The ladder was missing. Neither of the two vehicles would start. The ‘phone tree’ that the fire department used was slow, and they didn’t show until 8AM. By that time, the Sodder house was ash and rubble. A search of the Sodder homestead on Christmas Day revealed no remains of any of the five children. The fire was attributed to faulty wiring. After four days of intense grief, George Sodder covered the house / basement over, even though he was told to leave it for an investigation. This is where things start to get weird. An itinerant worker, a few months before, claimed that the house would catch fire. Some time later, a man tried to sell the family life insurance and became incensed when George didn’t take. He reportedly told them that their house would burn down. “Your goddamn house is going up in smoke,” he warned, “and your children are going to be destroyed. You are going to be paid for the dirty remarks you have been making about Mussolini.”   Death certificates were issued on December 30, 1945. The Sodders became convinced their kids weren’t in the house. Jennie Sodder soon became confused about the circumstances of the fire. No bones? She began doing her own experiments. A crematorium employee told her bones would remain after burning for 2K degrees for 2 hours. The wires, a phone co. employee told them, had been cut not burned. Contradicts the narrative. Recalled a thud on the roof just before the fire. People reported seeing the kids be carried away the night of the fire.   In 1947, the Sodders hired a Private Investigator named CC Tinsley, who found out that -- get this -- the insurance salesman who had threatened George was a member of the coroner’s jury that deemed the fire an accident.   It continues to get bizarre. FJ Morris, the fire chief of Fayettville, claimed to have found no remains, but a rumor circulated that he’d found a heart in the ashes that he kept in a dynamite box, which he buried at the site. It. Gets. Weirder. The family convinced him to show them the spot. They dug up the box and had it analyzed. Turns out, it wasn’t even a heart. It was a beef liver, a liver, I might add, that the chief admitted to burying himself, supposedly to put the family at ease.   The family becomes frantic, searching for any answers at all. They eventually brought in a pathologist from DC, who managed to find some bones in the scene.   When analyzed, however, the bones turned out NOT to be from any of the children. They had come from someone else altogether, someone older. So NO bones from the kids were found. The bones that were found had not been exposed to fire at all, so no dice.   Fast forward twenty years. The Sodders receive a photograph in 1968 that looked very much like their Louis. It had a cryptic message on the back, and they sent a PI to check it out, but never heard from him again.   George died shortly after and Jennie in 1989. The last surviving child, Sylvia, refuses to believe they were in the fire.   Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast  

This week, The Principled Uncertainty Podcast will be releasing one episode per day to celebrate Halloween, and to kick things off, we present: The Mysterious Death of Elia Lam. This one is really bizarre. Elisa Lam, a Canadian tourist, checks into the Cecil Hotel on January 26, 2013. She's originally paired with someone else in a hostel-type room, but due to some odd behavior, she is moved to her own room. Lam disappears shortly thereafter. A few weeks later, guests at the Cecil Hotel begin complaining of the smell and taste of the water coming from the taps. An investigation leads to the discovery of Lam's body. In the Water Tank. That people had been drinking from. Yikes. Okay, so here's where it gets really weird. Lam's body was found floating in that tank on the hotel roof. She was nude, and her clothes were floating beside her. It seems really inexplicable, given how difficult it is to reach the roof.  During the investigation, surveillance footage of Lam's last known moments was uncovered. This is perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the whole case, as Lam's movements are so...just...weird. She hides in the corner of the open elevator, pressing herself against the wall. Eventually, Elisa Lam works her way out of the elevator and begins half-convulsing in the doorway, making alien movements as she appears to have a very insistent conversation with...no one. It's one of the most bone-chilling stories I have ever seen, and I go into all the known details in this brief episode. Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

William Desmond Taylor was a big deal. A director in the pre-talkie era of Hollywood, Taylor was a giant in the film industry. He worked with the likes of the greats of that time: Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford, Jack Pickford, Wallace Reed, and Douglas MacLean.  In February of 1922, the houseman found William Desmond Taylor murdered. He had been shot to death, and the resulting furor over his passing went well beyond the tabloids of the era. In context, the murder of William Desmond Taylor was yet another bargaining chip for the growing moral majority of the time period to argue against films as a valid form of creative expression directed at the youth of America. See, Hollywood -- Tinseltown, as it was widely known -- was not the innocent place one might imagine. There were plenty of scandals, even back in the Roaring Twenties. Not only did you have the death of William Desmond Taylor, but there was also the Fatty Arbuckle rape trial to contend with. Stars were going to secret rehabs to dry out of their cocaine addictions. People were ODing and ending up cast aside.  It was a wild time. And William Desmond Taylor's murder was at the center of it all. To make matters worse, the crime was never officially solved, so this podcast episode is all to do with the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor. However, there's a twist to this story that I would rather not spoil for the casual listener. It's the thing that makes this particular Hollywood murder something of an anomaly, and it's almost fit to be put on screen. The William Desmond Taylor book from which I've drawn most of my research is, of course, William J. Mann's 'Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood.' It is a fantastically-researched book, on par, in my opinion, with Erik Larson's 'Devil in the White City.'

You wouldn't believe how many people would like to start a podcast but absolutely don't know how. Of those people, the ones who actually get to the point of hitting 'Publish' have no idea how they got there. Me, for example. I started podcasting in 2010 after discovering The Nerdist Podcast, the Giant Bombcast, and the Gamers with Jobs Podcast. I was in grad school at the time, and I suddenly decided I wanted to do it. I had no idea what I was doing, so I made A LOT of mistakes. Lots and lots and lots of mistakes.  I think that's why I'm qualified to talk about how to launch a successful podcast. Listen to this podcast episode, and you will be guaranteed to avoid the major pitfalls people fall into when trying to start their own show. If you want to start a successful, rewarding, and ultimately enjoyable podcast, give this episode a listen. We have five kick-ass tips for the beginner podcaster -- or those looking to refine your podcasting process. I'm joined this week by Jeremy, the host of one of my very favorite shows, Lopez Radio. He's a great guy, and he actually was the person to give me a swift kick in the ass about getting the right equipment for podcasting. For this episode, I leaned heavily on the work of John Lee Dumas, who is the host of the DAILY Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast, as well as the author of several books on the subject, including Podcast Launch: How to Create, Grow, & Monetize Your Podcast. Visit him online at @JohnLeeDumas on Twitter.

A brief introduction to what is to come from the Principled Uncertainty Podcast in the looming months.

The yearly re-imagining of the marathon episode.

This week, Tyler managed to score an interview with Stuart Thaman, writer of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fiction, for a discussion about marketing and advertising self-published or small publisher books. Stuart is the author of The Goblin Wars Part One: Siege of Talonrend, The Goblin Wars Part Two: Death of a King, For We Are Many, and Vatican Massacre. He's also a constant presence at book and / or sci-fi fantasy conventions, and he's written several helpful guides on how to market books, which can be found on his website, stuartthamanbooks.com. You can also track Stuart down on his Amazon Author Dashboard. Stuart was kind and generous with his time, and he provided plenty of insight into the publishing process, marketing how-tos for beginning authors, and how to approach the convention scene. He's a wonderfully talented guy, so be sure to check him out online. Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun You can find my books on Amazon, as well. Here are the links to the first two works in the Rolson McKane tetralogy: Boogie House: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) The Devil Came Calling: A Rolson McKane Mystery (by T. Blake Braddy) Here are the other links to find both the podcast(s) and my own thoughts and ramblings: Web site: tblakebraddy.com Amazon Author Dashboard: T. Blake Braddy Facebook: Rolson McKane Official Page Twitter: @blakebraddy Instagram: @tblakebraddy The Principled Uncertainty Podcast Web site: principleduncertainty.libsyn.com Twitter: @PUPodcast

Tyler and Tommy get together to chat about the newest Ghostbusters trailer. Recriminating Twitter blasts have labeled the film as being chock full of stereotypes, and so the PUPodcast crew discuss whether or not the charges are based in reality or not. Theme: "Ten" by DJ Sun.

The fact that a Kurt Cobain murder conspiracy still exists 22 years after the singer's death / suicide / murder is kind of confounding and kind of amazing. It's an interesting hypothesis, backed up mostly with circumstantial evidence about one detective's interactions with an aloof and largely drugged-out Courtney Love. Tyler discusses the issue in-depth, offering supporting evidence and counterevidence to combat the documentary's main thesis. Either way, "Soaked in Bleach" is a really quite interesting and well-produced documentary about Kurt Cobain, and that is something we can stand to see plenty of in our lifetimes.

This one gets weird. Tyler, all by himself, discusses his impressions of the "so wonderful you can't be hyperbolic about it" The Staircase, which details the trial of novelist Michael Peterson. It's a 10-part series available for streaming on  This ain't your normal murder trial. It has so many interesting twists and turns -- all of them bizarre -- that you won't be able to quite believe everything about it. But it's all true. In 2001, Michael Peterson was accused of murdering his then-wife, Katherine Peterson, by pushing her down the staircase of their home. What begins as a pretty standard murder trial then becomes something else entirely. Sundance.tv In addition, we have a new theme song! The tune 'Monday Drive (Presto Remix)' can be found on DJ Sun's Bandcamp page.

Just Tyler this week. He drinks club soda and discusses some of the finer points of self-publishing, though not in a listicle sort of way. If you want to hear about his personal issues in self-publishing, you can. Tyler discusses Createspace, KDP, Amazon Kindle Self-Publishing, KDP Kindle Countdown Deals, and pre-orders and how they may be affected by your decision to self-publish. He also discusses the game Oxenfree, now available on Steam for PC. The PS4 version will be released somewhat soon. Theme: Dropping Out of School (Brad Sucks)

Tyler and Tommy (@thisisastub) discuss their top video games of the year. What starts off as a discussion of Mortal Kombat X and Evolve turns into a wide-ranging talk about mobile games...and a whole lot of Super Mario Maker. Other games discussed: SOMA Pillars of Eternity Alto's Adventure Adventure Capitalist Her Story

Jeremy (@lopezradio) stops in to discuss the mega sleeper hit, Star Wars. Or was it Star Trek? Either way, they talk about science fiction, among other things. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already toppled Titanic and Jurassic World at the box office and is looking to be the highest grossing movie of all-time. Recommendations include Netflix's groundbreaking documentary series "Making a Murderer," which Tyler thinks about pretty much non-stop these days. (Note: There be spoilers in the 'Making a Murder' link.) Jeremy also recommended Jon Ronson's 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed,' which gets discussed during this topics-filled episode of the podcast.  

Jeremy (@lopezradio) joins the podcast to discuss his decision to forgo the console wars at this point in time. He was thinking of buying an XBox One but decided to hold off. We discuss why. We also talk about the Rousey-Holm neck kick. As is always the case when Jeremy is on, the podcast goes into deeply uncharted territory, and the duo discusses plenty of brain-stretching topics. Check out Lopez Radio on the site or elsewhere online. Dude has a corner on the MMA market right now, so if you're interested in hearing commentary on people kicking the hell out of one another, Lopez Radio's the place to go.

Tyler finally joins the ranks of the, well, not the masses, really, but the medium-sized ranks of Wii U owners. He discusses his relatively short time with both Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, along with some FallOut 4. Tommy talks BattleFront, and he's got a better opinion of it than most, which gives Tyler an inkling to get with the force. That's the saying, right? May you get with the force? Either way, it's a solid episode, but it's not Episode VII. Theme -- "Dropping Out of School" (by Brad Sucks)

Tommy and Tyler discuss the ins and outs of Comcast's new attempt to gouge consumers via ridiculous data caps.  There's also some Walking Dead: Season Two discussion and other video game talk. In addition, this episode, recorded before the release of Fallout 4, manages to discuss what it might be like to play a game that's already out. Theme: "Dropping Out of School" (By Brad Sucks)

A little late but otherwise intact. The newest episode of the Principled Uncertainty Podcast tackles a few topics that are weeks late. Still, Tommy and Tyler have a good time, so no harm, no foul.  Theme: "Dropping Out of School" (by Brad Sucks)

The podcast took a small sabbatical over the last few weeks, but the Principled Uncertainty Podcast is BACK! Tommy and Tyler discuss idle games, like AdVenture Capitalist and Time Clickers, along with Until Dawn and a few other games.  It's actually kind of a "lost" episode, because Tyler thought he had released it, but it was found "in the vault" after the recording of episode 227. Theme: "Dropping Out of School" (by Brad Sucks)

Hey, the podcast is back! We've taken a momentary sojourn, but we'll be back to our normal weekly shenanigans.  Great thing, too, because this episode is a special one. Friend of the podcast Shannon (@SideShowShan) joins Tyler and Bryan (@bryncntr) this week to discuss all things Faith No More. You see, Shannon is THE Faith No More fan. If Faith No More were a astrophysics, he'd be its Neil Degrasse Tyson.  We discuss not just the newish album, Sol Invictus, available on Amazon and elsewhere, but the band's history, quirks, squabbles, and successes. The vocal range of one Mike Patton also makes a pretty substantial topic of conversation this time around. Enjoy! Theme: "Dropping Out of School" (by Brad Sucks) 

The podcast is back! We recorded this episode a few weeks ago, but it's just now coming out. The crew talks Bloodborne, the Sony / SNES mashup that almost was but wasn't.  Theme: "Dropping Out of School" (Brad Sucks)

Tommy and Tyler discuss comic book movies and lots of other weird things. They talk about Tyler's book, Boogie House -- shameless plug -- and the infinitely interesting game 'Her Story.' There's also talk of the horror element of Five Nights at Freddy's, which Tyler can't seem to stop talking about. Theme: "Dropping Out of School," by Brad Sucks.

This week, Tyler is joined by his good friend MK (@mksisco) to discuss her experiences at Comic-Con 2015, which included the famous Star Wars panel with the after-party of a lifetime. It turns into a Star Wars lovefest, which turns into a discussion about the ins and outs of fandom in all its forms. The Force Awakens comes up a few times, as does the Suicide Squad and Deadpool. Comic books and Star Wars and nerding out, holy geez. Theme: "Dropping Out of School" by Brad Sucks  

Finally, a new episode! Jeremy (@lopezradio) and Tommy (@thisisastub) join Tyler to discuss Vegas (baby), Rocket League, Her Story, and why boxing isn't that popular anymore.  Recommendations: Tommy: Next Draft (from Dave Pell) Jeremy: Ex Machina Tyler: The Scenesters Theme: "Dropping Out of School," by Brad Sucks