Brides in the Bath

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minuted murder. The concept of nature versus

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nurture is one that has been debated
for years. Are people taught to be

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evil or are they born that way? George Joseph Smith was born on January

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eleventh, eighteen seventy two, in
London. At nine years old, he

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was sent to a reformatory for his
behavior. After his release from the reformatory,

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he was in and out of prison
during his adolescent years for theft and

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larceny. In eighteen ninety eight,
Smith married Catherine Thornhill, and his marriage

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to Catherine was his only legal marriage, despite the fact that he would go

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on to marry many many more women. Smith taught Katherine into working as a

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maid for wealthy families and stealing just
enough so that her employers wouldn't notice anything

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was missing. They managed to make
their scheme work for a few months before

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she was caught. She served twelve
months for her crimes, but didn't take

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the fall alone. She turned in
her husband as her accomplice and the mastermind.

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He spent two years in prison and
was released in nineteen oh one.

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After Catherine was released, she moved
to Canada. However, there was a

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stint of time between when Catherine was
arrested and Smith was imprisoned, and during

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that time Smith met a new woman. In eighteen ninety nine, he used

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a fake name and married a woman
that he met in London, although her

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name is not on the records.
Even though he spent two years in prison,

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that wife waited for him to be
released. Upon his release, he

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returned to her. Unfortunately, he
only went back long enough to clear out

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her bank accounts and then disappeared from
her life. The next phase of his

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criminal career started in June of nineteen
oh eight. Smith married a wealthy widow

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named Florence Wilson under another alias.
After gaining Florence's trust, he cleared out

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her savings and disappeared. By July
of nineteen oh eight, he had already

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found his next bride. He married
Edith Pegler and actually used his real name

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this time. Although he seemed to
be happy with Edith, Smith relied on

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the system that he'd created for income, so in October of nineteen oh nine,

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using the name George Rose, he
married Sarah Freeman. Six days after

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getting married, he stole all of
Sarah's money and returned to Edith. Smith

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took another trip without Edith in August
of nineteen ten, and he used the

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name Henry Williams, Mary Beatrice or
Bessie Monday. Bessie had a rather large

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trust, but she couldn't access it. Smith took what he could from her

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bank accounts and returned once again to
Edith. Together, they bought an antique

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business. Not only did it provide
some legal income, but it gave Smith

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a legitimate explanation for his frequent trips. He would tell Edith that he needed

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to travel around the world to make
business deals with other antique dealers, and

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George Joseph Smith must have been a
pretty smooth talker because he convinced Bessie to

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take him back in May of nineteen
twelve. And not only did she take

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him back, but she had created
a will making him the sole beneficiary.

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She was worth in today's dollars about
one hundred eighty thousand. She created that

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will on July eighth. Smith bought
a bathtub for their place on July ninth

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and had it installed. Then on
July thirteenth, Bessie died while taking a

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bath in that bathtub. Quick to
recover from the loss of that wife.

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Smith married Alice Burnham in nineteen thirteen. Maybe receiving the money from the will

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after Bessie's death made him realize that
there was a faster way to make a

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lot more money. Shortly after his
marriage to Alice, he took out a

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life insurance policy on her. Two
months after the policy was signed, Alice

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died while taking a bath. Smith
cashed in on the policy, which was

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the equivalent of forty five thousand dollars
today. Not one to be alone for

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very long, Smith used the name
John Lloyd and married Margaret Elizabeth Lofty in

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nineteen fourteen. They looked at a
couple of places and then they found one

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that they wanted to rent. Smith
took out a life insurance policy and Margaret

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for what would today be sixty three
thousand dollars. Two weeks later, she

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died while taking a bath. A
paper named News of the World picked up

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on the story of Margaret Lofty and
ran a report about the woman that died

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mysteriously in her tub. Soon after, Inspector Arthur Neil of the Scotland Yard

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found a letter on the desk of
Joseph Crossley, and Crossley was a landlord

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from Blackpool. His letter contained two
clippings. One was an article from the

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News of the World about Margaret's death. The other was a coroner's inquest into

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the death of Alice Burnham. Crossley
owned the house where Alice died. He

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noticed that there were several similarities between
the deaths. Intrigued by the letter,

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Neil started to look into the cases. He talked to the responding officer at

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Alice's case. The officer said that
he found it odd that the husband didn't

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seem very upset about finding his wife
dead in the bathtub. He also said

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that the tub was pretty small for
a woman to accidentally drown in it.

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He talked to Crossley, who said
that not only did Smith not seem upset,

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he said quote when they are dead, they are dead, as if

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it was just a matter of fact. Even though Smith had received money after

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Alice's death, he spent as little
on the burial as he possibly could,

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placing her in a common grave.
Neil also looked into Margaret Lofty's case.

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She had married John Lloyd the day
before she died. He had talked to

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several of the local landlords and found
out the soon to be husband. At

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that time was only interested in apartments
that had bathtubs. John Lloyd had also

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complained about the cost of Margaret's burial
and went with the cheapest options available.

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Neil had a feeling that the crimes
were connected, but he needed to find

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proof. On February first, nineteen
fifteen, Neil located John Lloyd on the

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way to collect life insurance money for
Margaret. He took him into custody for

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questioning. Lloyd admitted that his real
name was George Smith. That was the

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name of Alice Burnham's husband. Now
Neil could connect Smith to both women.

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Smith maintained the story that he was
in fact married to both women, but

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just an unlucky widower. Neil was
able to charge Smith with making a false

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entry of marriage since he had used
a fake name when he married Margaret.

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With Smith in custody, Neil continued
to look for more evidence to charge him

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with the other crimes. He read
over the original coroner's reports, and they

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both stated accidental deaths. It was
also noted that the husband claimed that the

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women felt unwell. Shortly before the
deaths. Neil had Margaret's body exhumed for

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another autopsy. He thought perhaps the
women had been poisoned. Before entering the

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bath, he looked for the best
pathologists in England to examine the body.

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He found a man named Bernard Spillsbury. Spillsbury also wanted to exume Alice's body.

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They even brought in the bathtubs to
examine. Eventually, they learned about

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Bessie and exhumed her as well.
After examining all of the bodies, Spillsbury

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found no signs of poison or any
other foul play, although that also ruled

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out the theory the women had seizures
or fainted. Since there were no signs

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of bruising from a fall, Spillsbury
developed the theory that Smith would grab the

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women's ankles and yank them under so
fast that the water would flood their mouths

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and nostrils. They wouldn't immediately be
able to respond due to the shock from

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the sudden intake of water, and
lose consciousness in a matter of minutes,

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ultimately leading to death by drowning.
To prove Spillsbury's theory was possible, Neil

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had a female swimmer come in and
lay in one of the bathtubs. He

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tested the theory by yanking her ankles
and pulling her under. Within minutes,

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there was no movement and she appeared
to be unconscious. They immediately pulled her

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limp body out of the tub.
It took almost half an hour to resuscitate

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her. The unorthodox experiment had proven
the theory could hold up in court,

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but it was also a horrifying experience
for those involved because they thought they had

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just killed this woman that volunteered to
take part in this experiment. After recovering,

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the experienced swimmer said she felt the
water rushing up her nostrils and didn't

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remember anything else until she woke up
and saw anxious faces standing over her.

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Neil realized that Smith had married three
women, moved them to places where no

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one knew them, and then would
take them to a doctor to make it

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seem like they had a history of
headaches or fainting. All three women listed

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him as sole beneficiary on a will
or life insurance policy, and he was

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the one to find them all dead. Neil believed that Smith had murdered his

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wives and that he could now convince
a jury how he did it. The

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trial for murderers started on June twenty
second, nineteen fifteen. George Smith was

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convicted by a jury and sentenced to
death on July first. On August thirteenth,

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the forty three year old was hung
at the Maidstone Prison. His trial

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was one of the earliest instances where
the idea of a systematic killer had been

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allowed to be discussed in court.
The press called the crimes Brides in the

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Bath. The case cemented Spillsbury's reputation
as one of Britain's greatest pathologists, and

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Neil became one of the most famous
detectives in Scotland. Yard George Smith is

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remembered as a vicious predator of women. He quickly gained their trust, and

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just as fast he took their fortunes
and sometimes their lives. He married at

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least eight women, but only the
first was a legal marriage. The only

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marriage that seemed to matter to him
was the one to Edith. He actually

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wrote Edith a letter write before his
hanging, even though she testified in court

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against him. She testified to how
often he was away but always came back

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with plenty of money. Maybe George
Smith actually cared for Edith in some twisted

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way. She said. He once
told her to be very careful while taking

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a bath. Women often lost their
lives from fainting while in the bathtub.

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That is ten Minute Murder for Today
Brief and Bingeable true Crime. My name

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is Joe. I'm the host,
and thank you so much for listening.

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If you're new, welcome, make
sure you subscribe before you go, and

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also connect with ten Minute Murder on
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Twitter, I mean, I say
Twitter, it is it even it's not

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called Twitter now, whatever it's called. You can follow there if you want,

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but I don't really do anything active
over there. It's just stuff that

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gets pushed from the other social media
accounts. So if you're trying to reach

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me and you're trying to do it
through Twitter, I got bad news for

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you. I'm not seeing that.
The main ones to follow Facebook, Instagram,

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and TikTok. And speaking of TikTok, that's where the place where you

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can watch my newest favorite thing on
the internet videos of people going to these

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restaurants where the whole concept to be
rude to the customers, like they roast

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the heck out of you. Dick's
Last Resort is one of them, and

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then there's another one named Karen's Diner. And I've been to Dick's last resort

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once and it was something listen,
these people that walk in expecting Applebee's are

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Chili's or whatever, and they are
immediately roasted. I can't get enough of

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it. It's so funny to me, especially if it's like an older lady,

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and usually without fail, her mouth
will just drop open. She cannot

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believe that she's being talked to in
the way that she's being talked to,

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and they get like straws thrown out
them or paper towels. It is the

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funniest thing to me. I can't
get enough of it. And if you're

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thinking right now, it might be
kind of funny to take me mall to

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the dick's last resort without her knowing
what it is and record the react.

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Yes, do that? Police do
that. There aren't enough of them on

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the internet. I need to see
more of it. I think I've watched

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everyone that exists, so please,
we need more of those videos. All

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right, that's gonna do it.
That is your episode for today. Thank

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you so much for listening to ten
in its murdering