Donuts, Death, and the Devil: The True Story of the Chicago Ripper Crew

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Edward Spritzer was just a kid working at a donut shop living in a crappy motel life going nowhere fast

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Then he met Robin Gecht. Robin seemed like he had it all together, steady job and a family

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What Edward didn't know was that Robin had trained under John Wayne Gacy

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And Robin was building something twisted a crew of lost guys who'd follow him anywhere

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Even into an attic where they turned murder into ritual

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This is the story of how a donut shop employee became part of one of Chicago's most disturbing killing sprees

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Before we dive in if you like your true crime brief and bingeable you're in the right place

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Hit follow now for at least two new episodes every week

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This is 10 minute murder. Let's get into it

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[Music]

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Edward Spritzer wasn't a horror story from the start. He was born in 1961 in Chicago to a teenage mom and dad

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Who mostly showed up to be disappointed

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Teachers said he was quiet and slow to catch on

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More into sweeping hallways than learning anything in them

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He fell behind landed in the same grade as a younger sister and then gave up school entirely

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By 18 he'd wrecked the family car and gotten kicked out. He ended up at the briar rabbit motel

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And got a job at Wenshul's donuts scraping by on whatever he could

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His family still tried pushed him toward a trade something with structure

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Wiring or plumbing maybe a future that looked like stability

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But then he met Robin Gekt and everything went off the rails

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Robin Gekt seems put together

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Older steady job a family to Edward stuck at Wenshul's and living in a motel

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Robin looked like someone to follow they met at the shop

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Robin gave Edward a ride when his car broke down that turned into a friendship

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Robin had trained under John Wayne Gacy

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Edward didn't know that or he didn't care. He saw guidance what he got was manipulation and a path straight into violence

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Robin looked ordinary

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But the rumors about him were anything but he was accused of abusing his sister and sex workers said

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He asked them to mutilate themselves for his pleasure

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Some believed his wife had it even worse

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This was the man that Edward admired the one who offered advice and rides after work

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Robin didn't just manipulate he built a world where he controlled everything

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After a shift at the donut shop Robin Gekt offered Edward a ride

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But he had other plans he told Edward to hide in the back of the van

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Said they were going to pick up some horrors

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Robin explained the setup he'd bring a woman into the van drive somewhere isolated then knock twice

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That was Edward's cue to come out and help

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With what?

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Robin didn't say

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That night they picked up 29 year old Linda Sutton mother of two

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When Edward stepped out she was drugged and slumped in front of the seat

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Robin dragged her into the woods

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What Edward saw next was beyond comprehension

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Robin had raped an open wound where Linda's breasts had been

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Then cut off the other with a wire

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He showed Edward how to do it like it was part of some sick routine

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10 days later her decomposed body was found behind the briar rabbit motel

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She'd only been dead for three days the trauma had accelerated the decay

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This was Edward's initiation and he didn't walk away

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After Linda Sutton's murder

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Robin Gekt started building something that looked a lot less like a friend group and more like a cult

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He brought in two brothers Andrew and Thomas Cokerayless

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Both had backgrounds that mirrored edwards rough childhoods low test scores and not a lot of options

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Edward and Thomas each tested with an IQ of 75

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Andrew scored a 74

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That cut off for intellectual disability starts at 70

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The minimum to get into the US army is 83

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These were men who could easily be manipulated and Robin did not waste time doing that

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They all stayed at the briar rabbit motel except Andrew who briefly lived with Robin's family

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Robin claimed Andrew was there to help with the kids a grown man with no child care experience suddenly playing nanny

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Knowing questioned it at least not enough

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With the four of them now orbiting Robin they moved together

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Thought together acted together the press eventually named them the Chicago Ripper crew a reference to jack the ripper

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But this was not Victorian London

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This was 1980s Chicago and what they were doing was far worse

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They were not robbing they were not looking for power or revenge

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This was about violence about ritual about control

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And Robin's obsession with mutilation shaped everything they did

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He was leading this group of lost men shaping them into followers and at the center of it all was an attic

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A crude altar and an obsession with mutilation that turned murder into ritual

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After their attacks the crew would bring their victims severed breasts back to Robin's house

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In the attic surrounded by candles and symbols they performed what can only be described as a staged ritual

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Each man took turns masturbating into the remains

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Robin would slice off small pieces and pass them around

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Thomas Cook Arrayless later said that at one point the box on the altar held 15

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There's no real evidence that any of them believed in Satanism

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This was not about religion

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It was about domination

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Robin choreographed every part of it the violence the humiliation the group dynamic

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For them killing was not the end point

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It was just the beginning of something they repeated and re-adnacted until it became a routine

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It was not just a belief system it was theater and Robin was running the show

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Until this point the Chicago ripper crew had focused on sex workers

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But that changed in May of 1982

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Lorraine Burowski was 21 working at a real estate office in the Chicago suburbs

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One morning she parked her car a few feet away from the front door and never made it inside

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Edward sprites her at Andrew Cook Arrayless spotted her on the street

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abducted her and drove her to a secluded spot

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What happened there was brutal

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She was beaten, stabbed and assaulted

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The autopsy revealed broken bones and stab wounds from both the knife and something sharper

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likely an ice pick

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Her body was not discovered until five months later

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By then the evidence had mostly been erased by weather and time

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But the violence still spoke for itself

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Lorraine didn't match the profile of their other victims

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She was not a sex worker

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She was on her way to work going through a normal day

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That may be what makes this case even more terrifying

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They weren't looking for a type they were looking for a chance

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And Lorraine happened to be there

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Two weeks after Lorraine Burowski was killed the crew struck again

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This time the victim was Shui Mac, a 30-year-old woman walking home after her shift at her family's restaurant

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Robin pulled up the van and offered her a ride

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She got in

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Shui fought back hard but it didn't matter

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Robin beat her while Edward held her down with a wire around her neck

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Then Robin mutilated her body the same way he had done with Linda Sutton

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There was no ritual this time, no attic, no altar

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They was fast, violent and chaotic

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Shortly after the crew changed course

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One night Robin spotted a group of men near a phone booth

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He grabbed two guns and opened fire

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Two men were hit and of the two one survived

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There was no clear reasoning for that shooting

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No pattern, no logic

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It looked like the group was unraveling

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Their attacks had started as calculated

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Now they were unpredictable

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And then they targeted Beverly Washington

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That decision would end up costing them everything

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Beverly Washington was 30 years old and working the streets

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When Robin Gecht pulled up the van

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He offered her a ride

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She accepted

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Once inside the script played out just as it had before

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Robin forced her to swallow a handful of pills

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As she lost consciousness he raped her

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Then he mutilated her and dumped her near the train tracks

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Assuming she would die before anyone found her

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But Beverly didn't die

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She woke up bleeding, drugged and somehow still alive

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She got help and was taken to the hospital

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Where she gave police a detailed statement

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She remembered everything

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Robin's face, the inside of the van

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The way he acted

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Her memory became the backbone of the investigation

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With her description

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Police had a suspect, a van and an address

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They traced the vehicle back to Robin Gecht's home

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When they arrived he walked out and agreed to talk

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Calm, detached

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Like this was no big deal

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He claimed he had been with Edward that night

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Trying to create a cover for both of them

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It didn't land

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The detectives knew something was off

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They arrested Robin

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And once he was in custody

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The rest of the crew started to break

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The rest of the crew

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Confessed

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Edward Spritzer

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And Andrew Coca-Railess admitted to 17 murders

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And blamed Robin for all of it

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Thomas Coca-Railess joined them

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Leading police to an altar in Robin's attic

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Edward got life in prison

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Andrew was executed in 1987

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That sparked a nationwide shift away from the death penalty

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Thomas was sentenced to life, cooperated

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And was released on parole in 2019

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Robin, despite being at the center of it all

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Was never charged with murder

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He was the only member of the gang to maintain his innocence

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He was never tried for any of the murders

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Due to lack of evidence

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In 1983 he was convicted of attempted murder

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Aggravated kidnapping, deviate sexual assaults

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And rape for the non-fatal rape and assault

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Of Beverly, Washington

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He was sentenced to 120 years in prison

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And could walk free in 2042

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[Music]

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder

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Bingeable True Crime Stories

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I'm Joe, I'm the host

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And if you're a brand new listener

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Make sure you hit subscribe

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Wherever you're listening right now

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Also, welcome

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Super Pump that you're here and you found the show

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Good job by you

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If you want to know more about the podcast

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You can go to 10minutemurder.com all kinds of stuff there

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A blog, photos, a way to contact me

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And speaking of a way to contact me

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It's been a while since I've read an email on the podcast

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Let's do that now

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Subjects Hello Old Friend

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Good morning Joe

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Hope this email finds you well

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I've been listening to your amazing podcast since about 2021

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I appreciate how quickly the stories are told

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And keep me coming for more

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Quick question

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Have you been personally affected by a murder

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And if you have

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Would you consider telling the story

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Sincerely, Sebastian to coma, Washington

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Two things

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First, let's answer Sebastian's question

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The answer is no

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No one in my immediate bubble of people

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Have ever been murdered

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But if you mean if I've been personally affected by murder

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Then the answer is yes

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Because I do so much research for this podcast that

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It keeps me up at night

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It gives me nightmares

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I've mentioned this before in the podcast

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It's difficult to deal with sometimes

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Because I research and read so much about true crime

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And specifically murder

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So if you're asking in that way yes

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But if I've had family

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Murdered or friends murdered

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No, thank goodness

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And part two of this is full disclosure

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I know Sebastian

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For a couple of years in my childhood

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I lived in Germany

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Sebastian and his brother Christian

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And their family they lived in Germany at the same time

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lived a couple of streets over

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And they were like a second family to me

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Anytime I walked out the front door

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I was either going to their house

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Or going somewhere where they would be

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We did everything together just about

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We're on the baseball team together

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We swam at AquaTold together

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Which was fun

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We also rode horses through the vineyards

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And one time they got really mad at us

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For running the horses and getting them all sweaty

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I don't know exactly what they said

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Because I don't speak German

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Sebastian and Christian

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They do

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So they got the brunt of that

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I just kind of stood there and tried to look innocent

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But anyway thanks for reaching out Sebastian

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I love you and your family

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Hope you're doing well

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And yes definitely we'll continue to stay in touch

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And that's going to do it

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That is your episode for today

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Thank you again for listening

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To 10 Minute Murder