Second Chances and Deadly Consequences: The Darnell Collins Story

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A series of vicious cycles. They
can be usually found littering the lives of

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convicts, addicts, and misfortunate people
trapped in the conditions they were born into.

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But one life in particular would be
marred by these vicious cycles and result

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in a crime spree much unlike any
other. His name was Muanza Camu,

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otherwise known as Darnell Collins, and
he was born April fifth, nineteen sixty

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two. His father was killed in
combat during the Vietnam War, leaving Darnell

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in the sole care of his mother. But soon after Darnell would find a

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new role model or role models to
shape his life around the other inmates in

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the juvenile detention center he'd just been
sent to, sometimes referred to as Khan

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College. Darnell didn't show up on
the steps of Juvie with only petty crimes

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under his belt. He was there
for assault, shop lifting, larceny,

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and it was there that Darnell's life
turned a dark corner he seemed never to

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be able to come back from.
Darnell was in and out of Juvie his

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entire childhood, and when he grew
up too old to be allowed back in,

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he stood at a cross roads.
The next time he was caught breaking

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the law, he would go to
prison, adult prison, a place far

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harsher than any institution Darnell had been
to before. Now as an adult,

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Darnell attempted to pay the bills by
buying pictures and paintings in New York and

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selling them on the streets of Atlantic
City, where he'd grown up. Maybe

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there'd been a future for him in
this once, a future where Darnell would

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never need to break the law again. Maybe it was simply that Darnell had

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no idea how to behave as a
law abiding citizen. He was arrested again

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in nineteen eighty four, and this
time he had six charges against him.

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Convictions for armed robbery and burglary saw
him sentenced to twenty years in prison.

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Ten years later. Darnell parolled out, now officially institutionalized, like you hear

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the characters in Shawshank Redption talking about
and simply waiting for his next brush with

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the law. It came only six
months later, in an event that will

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forever be deemed as the turning point
for him, a point of no return.

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In the summer of nineteen ninety four, Darnell tested positive for drugs,

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which was a direct violation of his
parole. If his parole officer had followed

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the law, Darnell should have been
sent back to prison to serve the rest

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of his sentence. But his parole
officer gave Darnell something that would change so

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many lives irreversibly. He gave him
a second chance. It was shortly after

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Darnall came a hair's breadth from going
away to prison again, that he met

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April Gates, a thirty year old
blackjack dealer at the Trump Castle Casino resort.

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It was like the lights had come
on for Darnall. What he saw

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in April was a future and a
home, one that he was seemingly incapable

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of treating right. He grew violent
and possessive, and he was slipping back

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into a life of crime. And
April had more to think about than just

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her feelings for Darnell. She lived
with her young son and her mother in

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a house in Atlantic City, and
she simply couldn't risk bringing a life of

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criminality in danger into their home.
So April broke up with Darnell, and

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Darnell was furious. He began stalking
April. He'd show up at her workplace,

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at her home and follow her on
the streets. Eventually, April had

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enough and she got a restraining order
against Darnell, and that ticked Darnell off

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even further. The harassment continued,
and, not seeing any other way out

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of her situation, April called Darnell's
parole officer and reported that Darnell had violated

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the conditions of his parole yet again. Darnell quickly got wind of his impending

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arrest, and in his mind there
was only one person to blame for his

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fate. April Gates. Enraged and
determined to see justice done, Darnell rode

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his bike over to April's home on
the night of June seventeenth, nineteen ninety

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five. Just two days later,
April's restraining order went into effect. Darnell

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wanted April, but what he got
as her fifty one year old mother,

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Shirley Gates. Shirley was home alone
when Darnell burst through the door of her

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house, and she was home alone
when Darnell tied her up. He then

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shot her twice, once above the
ear and once below the ear, with

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a gun that was believed to be
Shirley's very own, but Darnell stole one

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more thing from Shirley that night,
her car parked outside, and with it

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he went on the prow for the
person he was really after. April was

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at a birthday party only about three
blocks away and had no idea what had

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already happened to her mother when she
spotted the uninvited guest. April was sitting

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in a chair and called to Darnell, only for him to then shoot her

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then and there. The shot hit
April in her head, but she was

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still able to stand up and stumble
towards him. Darnell then shot her twice

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in the stomach, sending April to
the ground while he shouted why you tell.

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By then, the investigators presumed that
April was already dead and couldn't have

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answered Darnell. Darnell then fled the
scene and raced towards the Star Motel on

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Black Horse Pike, where he made
a quick pit stop. Many believed that

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what Darnell was after at the motel
was what had fueled his sudden burst of

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violence and deadly activity to begin with, and that it was the very same

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thing that had soured his relationship with
April in the first place drugs. Living

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at the Star motel was forty one
year old William Dawson, otherwise known as

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Darnell's drug dealer. William had been
there about a week with his twenty seven

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year old girlfriend, Stacy Smith and
her four year old son when Darnell came

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looking for more. It was unclear
if Darnell got what he was after in

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that motel room that night, but
there would be no disputing what he did.

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Right after he arrived. Darnell shot
William in the chest, killing him

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almost in and then he shot Stacy
through the neck. All that was left

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now was Stacy's young son, but
for whatever reason, Darnell spared the child

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before fleeing the motel in William's car, probably thinking that he'd left no credible

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witnesses behind. But Stacy fought despite
being shot in the neck. She survived

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long enough to be rushed to the
hospital, where she later recovered from her

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wounds and lived to be reunited with
her son. Darnell, however, had

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no way of knowing that Stacy was
alive as he rocketed down the streets searching

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for his next fix, presumably still
under the influence of narcotics and running low,

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Darnell pulled into a gas station and
had in Township. The very next

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day, he got ten dollars worth
of gas, picked up some orange juice,

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chips and a chocolate bar, and
approached the counter there. Instead of

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paying for his goods, he whipped
out his gun and demanded money. Instead,

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give me your money. The attention
it remembers Darnell saying, I had

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eighty or one hundred dollars in my
pocket. I gave that to him.

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He pushed me with his gun in
my back. Then I said, no

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money in the cash register. I
pushed his gun and he hit me in

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the head and face. After pistol
whipping the attendant, Darnell raided the cast

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register and stole over eight hundred dollars. His actions had put him firmly on

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the police's radar, but they still
had no idea where Darnell was or where

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he would strike next. Thinking it's
where he would be headed, units were

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dispatched to his aunt's home and Haarlem, but it wasn't until the next day

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that the authorities would be able to
place him anywhere. Darnell cornered another gas

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station attendant in the parking lot and
demanded money. Thirty eight year old Jose

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S. Carpetta refused, even with
a gun in his face. Darnell retaliated

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by firing three shots, killing Jose
on the spot. He then took off

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on foot and darted into the elevator
nearby of a building. Trapped in there

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with him, not knowing who Darnell
was or what he had done, was

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twenty six year old computer graphics designer
Jeffrey Rourke and fifty four year old architect

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David Roth, who both worked in
the building. As the elevator climbed to

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the ninth floor, Darnell took out
his gun and shot both of the men

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and the head. The elevator doors
opened up into a scene of carnage and

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Darnell pointing his gun at another potential
victim. How do I get out of

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here? He demanded, and the
man on the wrong end of Darnell's gun

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guided him toward the freight elevator.
The investigators believed that it was only because

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Darnell was probably out of AMMO at
this time that he didn't kill this man

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or the other witnesses on that scene. Now back on the streets again,

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Darnell found his next victim not knowing
who he was, Norma Acosta took Darnell

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back to her home, where they
took drugs and got high together. It

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was when he was under the influence
that Normous said Darnell became paranoid and very

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suspicious about her. He then shot
Norma in the head and fled before realizing

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that she had miraculously survived her wounds. The next were Reverend Robert Gathers and

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Deacon Joseph Johnson, who were fixing
a car outside their church. Darnell approached

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them and demanded money. Reverend Robert
handed Darnell about three hundred and fifty dollars,

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and it was because of this that
Darnell claimed that he spared them before

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taking off in their car. Two
days later, Darnell was in a taxi

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when something inside him snapped all over
again. This time it was over a

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dollar one literal dollar. Darnell wanted
to pay five dollars for his ride,

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but the driver wanted six. In
retaliation for what Darnell deemed to be an

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offense, he shot the driver,
Emmanuel Milan, in the head during the

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ride. This time there would be
no miraculous recovery. Emmanuel died over dispute

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of a dollar. All of Darnell's
victims were either known to him, like

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April and Shirley Gates, or simply
in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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But within the next few hours of
killing a Manuel, it would be

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Darnell who found himself tripped up by
fate. A woman concerned over three men

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with guns threatening another woman outside her
house called the incident in to the police.

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As the responding officers approached the scene, they spotted Darnell and began to

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pursue him instead. Darnell realized that
the cops were onto him and began to

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speed down the streets in another car
that he had stolen. He managed to

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keep ahead of them for about twenty
minutes before he lost control of the vehicle

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and crashed into a nearby home.
Still determined to get away, Darnell ran

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from the scene and took cover behind
a wall, where he and the police

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got into a shootout. Seizing an
opportunity to get away, Darnell then got

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up and ran and continued to run, making it to a river, where

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he laid down in the shallows and
reloaded his gun. The New York Police

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Commissioner William J. Bratton described what
happened next. It was a quick ending

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to an extraordinarily violent episode, he
said. And what happened was that Darnell

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was struck fourteen times in the head, neck, and torso when he opened

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fire on the responding officers and those
officers returned fire. Darnell's crime spree left

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seven people dead and three injured,
a spree that many people believe wouldn't have

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happened if Darnell's parole officer hadn't thought
he was doing something good and given him

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that second chance. The courts agreed
and stripped John Goodman of his position and

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title only about six months after those
horrific and deadly shootings. That's ten minute

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Murder for today brief and binge able
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be sure to subscribe right now while
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Also, connect with ten minute Murder
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whatever reason, if you need to get

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in touch with me personally, emailing
Joe at ten minute Murder dot com.

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And I feel the need to mention
this every once in a while. The

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volume of messages I get is pretty
large. As you can imagine. So

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I'm not able to always respond to
everyone, but I do eventually read every

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single one as I can get to
it. So you aren't just sending an

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email loud into the abyss, never
to be seen again. I'll see it,

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so don't worry about that part.
But be nice. I'm a real

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human person and I'm doing the best
I can. I'm kind of killing.

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Ninety nine point nine percent of the
emails I get are nice, and I

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really appreciate that. Even those of
you that don't like something and feel the

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need that you want to tell me
about it, you're nice about it.

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So thanks for that. Okay,
that's it. That's your episode for today.

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Thank you for listening to ten minute
Murder.