We kick off our first full episode of the 2021 with a life catch up for the Murder Friends. Hannah tells us about the Zodiac Killer cypher being cracked. We review the podcasts “Bed of Lies” and “The Piketon Massacre”. Finally, we hear about an really unconventional place to keep a samosa.
BED OF LIES
Bed of Lies is the 8-part podcast hosted by Cara MaGoogan from The Telegraph.
The story begins and we meet 4 different women (Rosa, Lisa, Alison and Lindsey – not their real names). They were all part of activists communities between 1990 and 2010. The groups they were active in were groups that protested animal rights, environmental activism, anti-racism or anti police brutality. They all tell their stories of meeting a man and following in love and their subsequent years long relationships with the men they met who were also active in the groups. Some of the women were in these relationships for 4 or 5 years and one even had two children.
The women in Bed of Lies were all seduced, misled and manipulated by undercover police officers; they were victims of what has become known as the “spy cops” scandal. As women such as those in this podcast went public about their experiences, it was discovered that at least 139 officers infiltrated left-wing groups in this way. A public inquiry, announced six years ago, finally began taking evidence on 2 November; the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill – which would seek to limit undercover police powers to prevent cases such as these – recently passed its third reading in parliament.
THE PIKETON MASSACRE
The Piketon Massacre is a 10 part series from IHeartRadio. The podcast dives into the Piketon Massacre, which took place in April 2016
8 people – all belonging to the Rhoden family – were shot and killed in four separate homes in Pike County, Ohio.
Almost all of them were shot execution-style in the night, most likely while they were asleep. Three young children, including two babies, were left alive during the killings.
The ensuing investigation soon became the largest in Ohio’s history.
This case is not finished! Which I wish I realized sooner. There is a lot of discussion about facts but there is a TON of gossip and “guessing” in the podcast. The podcast is done from the journalists perspective and naturally, they do not know everything yet. So a lot ends up being speculation.
There are some facts that are brought up, including that the Ohio Attorney General’s office confirmed the presence of a hefty amount of marijuana plants and discussion on whether this was drug-related goes on for quite awhile.
In November 2018, four members of the Wagner family, known to the Rhodens, were arrested in and charged with the eight murders. Edward “Jake” Wagner was an ex-boyfriend of victim Hanna Rhoden and father of her three-year-old daughter. A large part of the motive brought up in the podcast was custody of the child between Hanna Rhoden and Jake Wagner – but can you justify killing 8 people just for that?
Because there are 10 episode they really have a lot of time to dive deep into different aspects – from corruption with the local politicians, to the possible drug gang element, to just general drug issues in the area. For me personally, I wanted to know more about evidence, about police interviews, about facts and the investigation. Maybe we’ll hear more about that whenever a trial happens.
One thing to note is that every episode, even the first one, starts with an ad for hair dye. Which I found quite surprising! You want to hook a new listener so you pop an ad right at the very beginning.
In general there are a lot of ads, but I appreciate that they were say “we’re going to take a break now” so at least it was separate to the story. Some podcasts just plop the ad in and when it’s a gruesome story like this one, that can be really jarring.
Hannah’s True Crime News Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Killer#Final_Zodiac_letter
Hannah’s Weird Crime Time Sources:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/the-sheer-cheek-it-hilarious-19549347
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/man-samosa-between-buttocks-among-19547925
