Philadelphia's Shoemaker Killer: How Joseph Kallinger Turned His Son Into a Murderer

Philadelphia's Shoemaker Killer: How Joseph Kallinger Turned His Son Into a Murderer Sometimes the most disturbing true crime cases are the ones that show us exactly how monsters get made. Joseph Kallinger's story starts with a father who vanished...
Philadelphia's Shoemaker Killer: How Joseph Kallinger Turned His Son Into a Murderer
Sometimes the most disturbing true crime cases are the ones that show us exactly how monsters get made. Joseph Kallinger's story starts with a father who vanished when his son was four years old and ends with that same son terrorizing families across three states with his own twelve-year-old child as his accomplice. This is what happens when trauma doesn't get healed, it gets passed down.
We're talking about a man who went from being tortured by his adoptive parents to torturing his own children in a basement lit by a kerosene lamp. A man who made his daughter pick horses at the racetrack and punished her with heated spatulas when they lost. A man who took out life insurance policies on his sons and then killed them. But here's the thing that makes this case absolutely haunting: when his children reported the abuse to police, they later recanted their stories, and he was released. That decision cost multiple lives.
This is the story of Joseph Kallinger, known as "The Shoemaker," who became one of Philadelphia's most disturbing serial killers. But it's also the story of how generational trauma works, how the system failed to protect vulnerable children, and how one twelve-year-old boy became his father's willing partner in murder. It's a case that asks uncomfortable questions about nature versus nurture and shows us that sometimes the most dangerous predators are the ones who create more predators.
Fair warning: this episode deals with child abuse, sexual violence, and disturbing family dynamics. But if you want to understand how cycles of violence actually work and why early intervention matters so much, this case is a masterclass in everything that can go wrong when a damaged child becomes a damaged adult.
#truecrime #serialkiller #truecrimepodcast #philadelphia #generationaltrauma #childabuse #fathersonkillers
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What happens when a four-year-old's father just disappears one day, leaving behind a broken
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family and a child who gets adopted by people who think burning a six-year-old's hands on
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a stove is appropriate discipline?
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Well, sometimes that child grows up to be Joseph Callinger, Philadelphia's most disturbing
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serial killer who turned his own 12-year-old son into his accomplice.
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This is a story about how trauma gets passed down through generations like a family heirloom
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nobody wants, and it's about to get really, really dark.
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[Music]
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You know how some stories make you wonder if evil came really get passed down through
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generations?
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Well, Joseph Callinger's life reads like a case study and how darkness can literally
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transfer from parent to child.
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Born in December 1935 in Philadelphia, Joseph was third in a line of men carrying the same
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name, and that's where the trouble started.
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His father, Joseph Lee Brenner, Jr., had what you might call "commitment issues."
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When little Joseph was only four years old, his dad basically pulled a disappearing act.
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One day he was there, the next he was gone, leaving behind a wife and a child with no explanation
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and no support.
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Joseph's mother Judith found herself in an impossible situation.
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Single motherhood in the 1930s wasn't exactly a cakewalk, so she made the difficult decision
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to place Joseph in a Catholic orphanage temporarily while she figured out how to make
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ends meet.
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The temporary became permanent, and Joseph ended up being put up for adoption.
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Enter Stephen and Anna Callinger, Austrian immigrants who seemed like they could provide
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the stable-home Joseph desperately needed.
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They were devout Catholics, strict but caring, and for two whole years Joseph experienced
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something resembling a normal childhood.
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He shed the Brenner name and became Joseph Callinger.
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But here's where things get messy.
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Judith decided to resurface and demand compensation from the calendars for adopting her son.
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Her audacity is astounding.
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The calendars naturally refused to pay what amounted to be ransom for a child she'd already
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given up, and the adoption proceeded anyway since she'd already forfeited her parental rights.
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At age 6, Joseph heard a neighborhood friend drop the F-bomb.
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Like any curious kid, he didn't understand what it meant and he repeated it at home.
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Stephen and Anna's reaction was absolutely disproportionate.
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They grounded him for a week, and during that time both parents took turns beating him
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with a leather belt and a wooden spoon.
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The really messed up part, they never explained what the word meant or why he was being punished.
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Joseph learned that making mistakes resulted in prolonged physical and emotional abuse,
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but he had no framework for understanding why.
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This became the template for every interaction in that household.
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The beatings escalated to a level that can only be described as torture.
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Joseph was forced to kneel on jagged rocks and sandpaper.
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He was made to eat feces.
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He was locked in closets, starved, and burned with hot irons or forced to place his hands
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over the stove.
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When he was 6 years old, one of Stephen's beatings was so severe that Joseph required
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herniacirgery.
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At 9, Joseph was sexually assaulted by a group of older boys.
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When the abuse at home and the trauma outside, this kid never really had a chance to develop
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a normal social connection or coping mechanisms.
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Joseph's behavior started showing the classic signs of a deeply damaged child.
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He became withdrawn and difficult to get along with.
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He had no real friends and no one at home he could trust.
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The incidents started small, but escalated quickly.
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When he didn't receive a birthday present, he cut up his classmates' coats.
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He carved a hole in his bedroom wall for sexual purposes, keeping pictures of both men and
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women nearby along with a knife.
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The knife was an optional.
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He needed it to become aroused, and eventually he needed to stab or slash the pictures to reach
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climax.
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Joseph also began stealing money from his parents, believing he could buy friendships
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by taking other kids to the movies.
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Each time he was called Stephen and Anna would force him to burn his hands on the stove
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as punishment.
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This created a vicious cycle where Joseph continued to rebel and his parents continued
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to escalate their brutal punishments.
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At 15, Joseph found what he thought was love with a girl named Hilda Bergman.
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Their relationship included Primeraidosex, which absolutely infuriated his devout Catholic
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parents.
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When they ordered him to stop seeing Hilda, Joseph made a decision that would define the
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rest of his life.
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He dropped out of school, moved out, and got a job at his father's shoe shop.
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This job would later earn him the nickname, the shoemaker, and despite his parents' disapproval,
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he married Hilda at 17.
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They had two children together, but within three years Hilda left him.
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The official reason was another man, but the real reason was that Joseph had become physically
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violent toward her and their children.
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During the divorce proceedings, Joseph was hospitalized with severe headaches and loss of appetite.
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The doctors couldn't find any physical cause for his symptoms and concluded that he was
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undergoing stress from the divorce, making him physically ill.
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This was probably the first documented sign of his deteriorating mental state.
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Within seven months, Joseph was married again and would go on to have five more children
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with his second wife.
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His behavior continued to deteriorate as he cycled through hospital stays for memory
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loss, suicide attempts, and arson on his own properties to claim insurance money.
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In 1972, three of Joseph's children walked into the local police station and told officers
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exactly what their father was doing to them.
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According to the children, Joseph had created a punishment room in the basement, lit only
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by a caracene lamp.
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He would take them there whenever the itch in his hand told him they had misbehaved.
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The room contained rope for binding victims and once they were restrained, Joseph would
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beat them with shoe soles, leather straps, rubber hoses, and a cat-a-nine-tail's whip.
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His daughter, Mary Jo, whom he called the bright one, endured this treatment five times
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a week between the ages of 10 and 13.
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Joseph's twisted logic was that Mary Jo had to pick winning horses for him to bet on
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at the track.
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When the horse is lost, she had to be punished.
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Some punishments involved him throwing needles at her while she stood in front of him.
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Once while she was tied up, he held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if
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she moved.
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Another time, he pressed a heated spatula to her leg, leaving a permanent scar.
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Every family member lived in constant fear.
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Everyone was in bed by seven or eight in the evening because they knew at least one of
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them would be woken up at midnight for a trip to the basement.
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The punishments were so severe that Joseph's son, Joseph Jr. tried to run away from home.
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Joseph chased his son with a gun, brought him back, tied him to the refrigerator, and beat
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him with a hammer for about a week.
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The level of cruelty was beyond comprehension.
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When police arrested Joseph based on the children's testimony, they noticed that he was hallucinating
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and having conversations with someone named Charlie, who wasn't there.
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He also claimed that God was sending him messages about healing 40,000 people through their feet.
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Psychological testing revealed Joseph was a paranoid schizophrenic, with an IQ of 84.
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Everything was in place to keep Joseph locked up or committed to a mental institution.
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But then his children recanted their allegations, and Joseph was released.
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This decision would prove catastrophic.
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Shortly after his release, Joseph attacked 10-year-old Jose Colazo, a Puerto Rican boy.
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He tortured the child, cut off his genitals, and killed him.
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Because there was no apparent connection between Joseph and Jose, the murder went unsolved,
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and Joseph remained free.
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Joseph then took out massive life insurance policies on all of his sons.
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When Joseph Jr., the same son who had tried to run away, was found dead in an abandoned
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construction building, the insurance company found the death suspicious and refused to pay out.
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But by then, Joseph had found something more compelling than money, a willing accomplice.
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Joseph's 12-year-old son Michael became his partner in crime.
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Every sick thought or urge Joseph experienced, Michael seemed to share and enjoy.
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This represents the most disturbing aspect of this entire story.
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The darkness being passed to yet another generation.
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For six weeks in 1974, Joseph and Michael terrorized people across Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
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New Jersey.
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They would appear at people's doors, pretending to be salesmen, and once they gained entry,
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they would rob and abuse their victims both physically and sexually.
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During one incident, they interrupted a bridge game and found themselves with eight victims.
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Each person arrived one or two at a time, giving Joseph and Michael the opportunity to deal
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with them methodically.
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They ordered everyone to strip and bound them with electrical cords.
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When 21-year-old Maria Fashing, the last person to arrive, refused to follow Joseph's orders,
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he stabbed her in the neck and the back.
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During the commotion, one victim managed to escape and scream for help.
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But by the time police arrived, Joseph and Michael were long gone.
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Thanks to eyewitness reports, police were able to track down Joseph and Michael.
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Joseph was charged with three counts of murder, or Jose Colazo, Joseph Jr., and Maria Fashing.
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Michael was sent to a Reformation facility until he became an adult, then changed his name
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and disappeared from the story entirely.
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Joseph tried to claim insanity, but was found competent to stand trial and sentenced to
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life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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He made several suicide attempts over the years and was transferred to a mental hospital.
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He died of heart failure and seizure in 1996 at age 59, having spent his last 11 years
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on suicide watch and at least five of those years in solitary confinement.
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Joseph Kalinger's story demonstrates how trauma can perpetuate itself across generations.
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From his father's abandonment to his adoptive parents' extreme punishments, to his own abuse
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of his children, each generation passed down their damage to the next.
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The fact that his son, Michael, became his accomplice shows how this cycle can create monsters,
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who then create more monsters themselves.
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Would make this case particularly disturbing as how many opportunities there were to intervene.
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The children's initial allegations had been properly investigated and prosecuted, multiple
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lives could have been saved.
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If Joseph had received appropriate mental health treatment instead of being released,
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the killing spree may have never happened.
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Joseph Kalinger's legacy serves as a sobering reminder of how childhood trauma left untreated
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can manifest in the most horrific ways.
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His story proves that monsters aren't born.
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They're made, often by the very people who should protect them.
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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.
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My name is Joe, I'm the host, and right out of the gate let me be transparent and honest
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with you, I ate a muffin right before I did this and it was mistake.
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I know better, I don't eat right before I do these episodes because as one does, you
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have food particles in your mouth and it makes it hard to sound okay.
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You know, I mean don't make me feel gross about this.
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You eat and talk at the same time, but the difference is, and that's fine by the way,
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that doesn't bother me, but the difference is, I am doing podcasts and you're just talking
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to your family and your friends.
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It's not important that you sound clear and easily understandable because they can just
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say, what'd you say?
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But for me, I had to go back and redo some parts because chocolate muffins from Trader
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Joe's.
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They get me every time, I know better, I know better, I'm sorry.
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Anyway, if you're a brand new listener to the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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you're listening.
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If you're an OG listener, I love you.
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Make sure you share this show with your friends and family, rate and review wherever you can
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do that.
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Quickly let's get to an email, subject question for the pod.
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Hey Joe, been binging 10 minute murder on my commute and now I think people on the bus
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are scared of me because I'm always nodding along to murder stories with earbuds in.
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Here's my question, by the way, you might need to turn it down or get earbuds that don't
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leak out.
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Here's my question.
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If you could sit down and interview one killer you've covered, who would it be and why?
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Also follow up, would you be scared or secretly excited?
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Big fan of the show, I appreciate how you keep it respectful but still human.
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Marcus and Minneapolis.
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Marcus, thank you for the email and my answer to this question is different than it used
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to be.
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I've been asked this before two or three years ago and I answered it and I said, no one,
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I don't want to interview anyone ever, no killers ever.
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Once I've become more and more interested in the psychology of what makes a killer, the
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childhood, the mental health aspect of it all and I think that just that part of it would
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be something I'd want to bring up and discuss with a person.
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But the one that I think I would like to interview and it's impossible because they're dead, it's
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Charles Manson.
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And the reason is, have you seen an interview with Charles Manson?
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He says some off the law stuff and I think that could be interesting.
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And part two of that is, would you be secretly excited or scared?
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Oh, for sure scared.
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Shitless.
208
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I wouldn't do it with just me in the room.
209
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There'd have to be a team of guards, armed guards in the room at all time.
210
00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:35,160
Thank you Marcus for the email and thank you for listening to 10 Minute Murder.
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I'll see you next time.