Agent 47695 The Manchester Teen Who Incited A Murder

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A teenage boy in Greater Manchester starts getting messages from a woman who says she

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works for British intelligence.

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She types everything in capital letters, and she has very big plans for him.

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She also has this odd habit of spelling the word maybe as "MYBYE".

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Keep that in mind because it's about to solve an attempted murder.

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Mark is a teenager in Greater Manchester, and by every account he's a pretty ordinary

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kid.

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Mark started spending time early in 2003 in an online chat room built for Manchester

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teenagers.

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Mark meets a girl in that chat room named Rachel.

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Every time Mark tries to meet her in person, the plan for some reason falls through.

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He's also pretty withdrawn, and he'll disappear into his bedroom for days at a time.

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John and Mark start hanging out, like in real life.

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Then a new name starts showing up in the chat room, a guy called Kevin, who calls himself

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a stalker.

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Kevin says he has kidnapped Rachel, and he says he'll rape and kill her unless Mark performs

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a sexual act on his webcam.

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Mark is so terrified for this girl he does exactly what Kevin tells him to do.

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Rachel gets released, supposedly, and then she drifts out of the chat room.

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You can't really blame a scared kid for believing it.

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Meanwhile, this chat room is eating into Mark's whole life.

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Mark gets up to around 12 hours a day online, and he still has that part time job.

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And then Janet arrives.

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Janet Dobinson says that she works for British intelligence, and she's a married woman in

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her 40s.

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And she tells Mark that the whole reason that she's hanging out in a Manchester teen chat room

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is to recruit him into MI5.

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Janet types absolutely everything in capital letters.

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And if you've ever had a boomer and two forward you a chain email in 2003, you know the energy.

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Janet reads like she's shouting at him from across the parking lot.

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And she has this other strange habit too.

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Janet spells the word maybe as "MY-BYE".

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Janet starts giving Mark loyalty tests.

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She tells him John's life is in danger, because John knows the code to a secret safe at the

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bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that only a few countries know about.

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That code is in John's head supposedly, and it makes him the most important person in

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Britain, which is why Mark has to get him out of school.

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Mark tells John's school that John has a dentist appointment, and it works.

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It's 2003, and a teenager says the word "Denist" and the door is swing open.

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This is well before you have to give them two forms of ID and a blood sample to check

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your kid out of school.

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The safety of the nation now hangs on a fake trip to the dentist, and the woman running

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the operation still hasn't found her caps lock key.

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Some of Janet's tests are sexual and humiliating, and Mark does every single one of them, because

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by now he's in love with her.

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He also gets a code name.

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He's agent 47695.

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Janet gives him an abort code in case a mission gets called off.

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The abort code is 6969.

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The prosecutor told the court the whole thing played out like an internet soap opera, with

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every character in storyline more fantastic than the last.

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And then the storyline turns.

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Janet tells Mark that John has a brain tumor, and he has about a week to live.

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Janet says John needs to be put out of his misery, and if Mark won't do it, she'll lose

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her job and the country will be in danger.

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And all of this is landing on a kid who a few months earlier was just chatting with a girl

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named Rachel.

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But he's not being asked to do it for free.

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His reward is enormous.

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Mark has promised 500,000 pounds.

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He's promised a gun and a meeting with the prime minister.

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He's promised a relationship with Janet.

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The married 40-something elite spy that he's fallen for.

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If you're a teenager in love with a spy, that list…

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I guess it sounds reasonable and real?

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I don't know, maybe I'm more skeptical.

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Janet asks Mark if he could stab someone.

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Mark says he hasn't really thought about it.

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Janet tells him to think, please.

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Mark says, "Okay."

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The final order comes through on the night of June 28th.

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Janet warns him to avoid the CCTV cameras.

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She tells him to wait 20 minutes before he calls for help.

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She promises she'll turn up, disguised as a detective, and make sure that he does not

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get arrested.

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Mark gets a hold of a kitchen knife the next day.

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Then he walks with John into an alley behind a row of shops in Al Trincham.

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Mark stabs John twice in the chest and the stomach.

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Nobody sends the abort code, which in case you forgot is 6969.

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Some accounts say Mark waited the full 20 minutes Janet asked for, and others say he called

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much sooner.

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I don't know which version is true, but the police did get called just before 8 that night.

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Mark tells them a hooded stranger stabbed his friend for no reason, and then he ran off.

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He describes this made-up attacker in such a precise detail that detectives believe him

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and they start hunting for this man that does not exist.

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Janet, of course, never shows up in her detective disguise.

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She never shows up at all.

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One of the wounds pierces John's kidney and tears into his liver.

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Doctors remove his gallbladder.

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He's critically ill in the hospital for a week, but he does survive.

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And they never mention this brain tumor that he apparently has.

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Police appeal for witnesses and they pull the CCTV footage from around the area.

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A few days later they watch the footage from the entrance to the alley, and only two people

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ever walk in.

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Just Mark and John.

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They show Mark the footage, and he breaks.

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He admits that he did it, and then he tells them the truth about Janet and MI5.

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This sees the computers.

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There are about 58,000 lines of chat.

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That's a lot of reading.

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It takes a while to break it all down, and the analyst on the case told Vanity Fair that

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if you printed it all out, the stack would reach about 46,000 feet.

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Somebody at Greater Manchester Police had to read every line of it, including the teenage

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chatter about football and clothes, and girls, and whatever else they talk about.

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And at first they thought they were hunting down a grown man, a predator hiding behind Janet.

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And then the analyst spots it.

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Janet spells maybe as M-Y-B-Y-E.

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John spells it that way too.

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Every character Mark trusted in that chat room was John.

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John built the whole thing.

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He built it so that Mark would kill him.

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Every caps lock letter that Janet ever typed came out of John's bedroom.

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The abort code was his to send.

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He never sent it.

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Mark could barely believe how gullible he had been.

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So why would a 14-year-old do this?

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John's barrister told the court that it grew out of infatuation.

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He said John wasn't sure whether he was gay or straight, and that he'd fallen in love

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with his new friend.

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The court also heard that John was depressed.

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He'd fallen out with his friends at school, and things were hard at home.

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The court heard the plot described as an extraordinary suicide attempt.

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One theory, and it's only a theory, is that John believed Mark could never love him back,

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and this was the only ending that he could picture, and building a whole world of spies

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and stalkers let him stay close to Mark right up until the end.

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Nobody knows exactly what was going on in his head.

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Mark pleads guilty to attempted murder.

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John pleads guilty to inciting his own murder and to perverting the course of justice.

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The prosecutor said that he wasn't aware of any other case in the world where somebody

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incited another person to murder them, and he called the case a stark warning about the

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internet.

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The judge said skilled writers of fiction would struggle to dream up a plot like this.

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Both boys walk out of court free, because the judge decided these weren't normal circumstances.

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Mark gets a two-year supervision order.

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John gets three years of supervision.

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John is banned from chat rooms, and he can only go online with an adult watching.

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The judge orders the boys to never contact each other ever again.

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Both men are now pushing 40 years old, and there's been no public reporting of any new trouble.

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You can stand behind either them in a check outline and never even know it.

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And the whole impossible thing came apart because of the way that some lonely kid spelled

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"maybe."

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But for listening to 10-minute murder, bingeable true crime stories.

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Hello, I'm Joe, I'm the host, and here's an email, subject something I appreciate.

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Hey, Joe, I don't think people realize how much work goes into making something sound

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effortless.

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I've worked in media before, and I can tell when somebody has put thought into the pacing,

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writing, and editing.

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Your show has that feeling.

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Anyway, from one media person to another, I appreciate the work.

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Chris and Columbia, Missouri.

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Chris, thank you for listening, thank you for the email, and you're right.

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I do try to make this sound like it is effortless, and it is 100% not effortless.

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More so today, though, unrelated to the writing, and the editing, and the pacing, and etc.

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The things that you just said, it's my voice.

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And if you're an OG listener, you know I go through this about two times a year, where

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I just sound like if a grizzly bear could talk.

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It's usually at the beginning of spring and the beginning of fall.

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And here we are, we're doing it again.

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And the frustrating part is, I feel mostly fine.

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Like when it first started, I didn't feel that great, but now I feel completely fine other

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than just being stuffy and sounding like I chewed glass for breakfast.

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But usually it'll last, you know, like a week or so, and then it'll disappear, and then

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pop back up, in about six months.

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Alright, if you're a new listener to this podcast, make sure you do me one huge favor.

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And that is to subscribe where you're listening right now.

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If you're an OG listener, been listening for a while, I want you to do me a huge favor.

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That is, today, or this week sometime, tell at least one friend or family member about

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this podcast.

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I don't give you homework very often, but I'm doing that today.

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So think of a person that you know could be into brief stories about true crime, and

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just mention the podcast to them.

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Tell them where they can listen to it.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.