The Monster of Atwater Village: The Timothy McGhee Case

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A woman gets pulled over by the police near the scene of a shooting in Los Angeles, and

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hiding in the cargo area of her vehicle is a man who lost his cell phone at that shooting

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and wants it back very badly.

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Before any of that, he was a chubby kid in at-water village getting picked on by the neighborhood

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kids.

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That kid is Timothy Joseph McGee, and he was born in Los Angeles in 1973.

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He grows up in and around at-water village, a working-class neighborhood on the LA River

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next to Glendale.

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He was a mother of big, extended family.

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His dad was white, and his mom was Mexican-American.

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And that's about where the solid information his parents run out.

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We don't know much more beyond that.

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His family did say that years later he was a heavy, light-skinned kid who got picked

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on by the neighborhood kids and sometimes he'd come home from elementary school with dirt

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all over his clothes and a bloody nose.

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They also said that he would help take care of his mom and his grandma when they got sick.

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On the streets they called him "Huerro", which is slang for light-skinned guy.

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At some point he ends up in Tunerville, a Mexican-American gang that's been in at-water for generations.

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Nobody knows exactly when it is that he joined the gang.

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Their big rivals were Frogtown across the river and a gang called the Rascals.

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And if you were in any of those gangs, you'd know the other side's nicknames and their tattoos.

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The first shooting, or at least the first one that ends up in court, is at a gas station

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in October 1997.

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Two guys from the Rascals are outside when somebody opens fire.

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One of them gets hit in the back and the leg and he's paralyzed.

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The other one runs into the mini-mart and the shooter keeps firing right through the glass

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at him.

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Four days later that same gun turns up again.

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A Frogtown guy named Ronald Martin gets shot 27 times.

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A former Tunerville member told the jury, "Temethy admitted to being a part of it."

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He said that they asked Ronald where he was from, which in that world means "What gang are

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you in?"

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And then they made him lift up his shirt and there was a Frogtown tattoo.

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And that's when Timothy and another guy started shooting.

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That witness was on meth when he says Timothy told him this.

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And he testified with immunity.

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Another witness said this same guy once took credit for the shooting himself.

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That aligning drug user is a pretty shaky witness.

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The next one is a kid from the Rascals named Ryan Gonzalez.

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He's 16 years old.

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In June 2000 he's walking by himself through a rival territory.

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The driver that day told the jury that Timothy had him get off the freeway and they passed

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by Ryan several times.

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Then Timothy borrowed the driver's own gun and got out of the car.

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And now you've got a grown man chasing a teenager down a side street on foot.

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The driver said that Timothy kept on pulling the trigger after Ryan fell.

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Police had their own idea about why Ryan.

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They said that he went by the same street name as Timothy.

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At trial prosecutors leaned on the territory angle.

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About a month later some tunerville guys robbed somebody and the police chased their Honda.

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A former member told the jury that Timothy and a few others were listening to the chase

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on the police scanner so they grabbed guns and went outside to help their buddies.

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The patrol car gets shot at from different directions and a bullet goes through an officer's pant

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leg.

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Neither officer is hurt badly.

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There's a kid around there named John Perez.

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He's 17 and he's an LAPD explorer which is a program where if you're a teenager you can

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get inside and learn how the police work.

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John is scared of what happens to people who talk.

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So he keeps it to himself.

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Everything that he saw that day, secret for a long time.

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Then years later he gets on the stand and tells the jury that he saw Timothy on the sidewalk

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firing at that police car.

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A tunerville member gets killed one evening in November 2001.

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Later that night Dwayne Navidad is driving with his girlfriend Margie Mendoza and a friend

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and somebody opens fire on that car.

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Margie dies, Dwayne gets hit and survives.

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A woman named Monica Miranda sees one of the shooters and she notices a tattoo on the

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back of his head.

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She holds back the rest of the information from the police because like John, she's scared.

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Christina Durand, a friend of Timothy's told detectives that he got a hold of her after

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the shooting and said that he'd been in a gunfight and he lost his cell phone and he was

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scared that phone could tie him to a murder so he wanted it back.

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Police stop her near the scene and you've got Timothy hiding in the cargo area of her vehicle

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like he's groceries.

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Police did find the phone by the way before he could get back to it and it was Timothy's

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phone.

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Christina gets taken in and she gives detectives a recorded statement.

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They let her go and within hours there are warrants out for Timothy.

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Then there's a birthday party and Christina goes.

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Years later prosecutors argued in front of a jury that Timothy arranged for her to be at

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that party so some of the guys could confront her about ratting him out to the police over

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Margie's shooting.

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And left that party.

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She was found dead in her car.

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Somebody shot her five times in the head at close range.

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A neighbor heard the woman screaming to be let go.

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Then the neighbor heard men's voices and then gunshots.

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Timothy was never convicted of Christina's murder.

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By now if you ask the LAPD, Timothy is tied to as many as a dozen killings.

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Police said that one of them was Carlos Velasco.

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A man Timothy didn't recognize working in Tunaville territory and they said Timothy

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ordered him killed for being a stranger.

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None of those other killings were ever proven in court.

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The US marshals put Timothy on their 15 most wanted list and he turns up in Bullhead City,

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Arizona, out in the Mojave where somebody recognizes his picture in a local newspaper

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and points authorities to an apartment in town.

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Officers watch the place and in February 2003 they grab him and he gives up without

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a fight.

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And a side note here, he had a couple of t-shirts that made fun of the cops.

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One of them said fugitive can't see me.

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Another one was giving a tip for when you're running from the police and that tip was to throw

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out a donut.

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While he waits for his murder trial, Timothy sits in men's central jail in LA and prosecutors

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said he was the shot caller on his row.

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Deputies pull an inmate out in January 2005 and Timothy starts shouting at the other guys

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to throw stuff and they throw apples and oranges and urine and bleach and then some of them

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break porcelain sinks into chunks.

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A chunk of that porcelain hits one of the deputies in the hand.

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Timothy himself threw a milk carton and an apple at a deputy and he admitted to throwing

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some porcelain.

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A jury convicted him on conspiracy and assault charges.

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He already had two strikes.

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Under California's three strikes law, that riot got him 75 years to life.

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The murder trial happens in 2007 and the witnesses come with baggage.

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Duane says he's got memory problems.

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John and Monica both get up there and say that they definitely saw Timothy.

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His lawyers showed the jury that detectives had long conversations with witnesses before

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they ever turned down a tape recorder.

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So you'll never know exactly what God said first.

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And some witnesses said it was the cops who brought up Timothy's name.

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After about 10 hours of deliberating, a couple of jurors sent the judge a note about

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juror number five.

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He thinks the witnesses were coached.

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The four person said he told the room, "I'm not changing my mind.

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I can convince you people to change your minds."

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Judge Perry questions the jurors and some say juror number five is irrational and doesn't

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like the cops and some say deliberations are going fine.

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Juror number five tells the judge it feels like the others are ganging up on him.

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Judge Perry removes him and puts in an alternate in his seat.

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Then they start over.

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That new jury convicts Timothy on all three murders.

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Plus trying to kill both officers and both survivors from Margie's car.

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They do acquit him on the gas station shooting though.

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The first penalty jury deadlocks.

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So you get a whole second penalty trial.

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And that jury hears about Christina and from Timothy's family.

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His relatives tell them about a heavy little boy who came home from school with a bloody

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nose.

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And the grown man who helped take care of his sick mom and grandma.

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That jury chose death.

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Judge Perry said that Timothy treated murder as some kind of perverse sport as if he was

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hunting human game.

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Timothy spent the next 16 years under that death sentence.

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Then in April 2025, the California Supreme Court threw out his convictions and the death

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sentence because the justices all agreed Judge Perry had no solid basis to remove juror

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number five.

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Whose doubts lined up with the problems the defense actually showed in court.

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He's still in prison on the riot sentence.

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Prosecutors are allowed to retry him.

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The DA's office said that it was reviewing the ruling and as of now, you can't find any

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public record on a decision.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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Hello.

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I'm Joe.

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I'm the host.

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subject.

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Question from a mom.

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Hi, Joe.

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I have three kids under eight.

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I listen to your show while folding laundry, which is the only 10 minutes of the day that

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truly belongs to me.

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My question is probably one that you get a lot.

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Do you ever worry that listening to this stuff makes people more afraid than they need

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to be?

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I catch myself being weird about my kids in ways my mother never was about us.

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We rode bikes until the street lights came on.

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I don't let my oldest even walk to the end of the block alone.

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I don't know if it's the podcasts or the news or just being a parent in 2026.

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Not blaming you for the record, I just think about it while I'm folding.

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Thanks for the 10 minutes.

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Steph and Kansas.

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Steph, thank you for listening while you're folding a laundry.

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I do appreciate it.

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And I'm sure your family appreciates the folded laundry.

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I don't think that podcasts like mine contribute to people being more afraid than they need

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to be.

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What I think is it makes people be more aware of their surroundings.

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Not so trusting with strangers.

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You can be polite and you can be nice to people in public, but just know that you never truly

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know what their motives are, what they're doing at home.

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You've got a creepy neighbor.

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They could be a nice person and just maybe socially awkward or it might be a whole serial

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killer living on your street.

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We just don't know.

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And I think that the news and true crime should be kind of making you a little more cautious

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about these types of people.

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And it goes to what you said about you being more protective of your child than your parents

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were of you.

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Same.

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I grew up the same way I suppose.

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In the 80s and the 90s, I could ride my bike and go out around the neighborhood and I

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had to be back when the street light came on.

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But I think the invention of the internet for all of its good has also emboldened a lot

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of these people with the tendency to want to act on these things that are in their brain.

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Just before you could have communities of these sickos, but they were much smaller and much

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further apart.

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But on the internet, any disgusting group that you want to find is right there at your

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fingertips.

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And you can find community in that.

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And that community will give you confidence.

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And confidence makes you act on things.

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Anyway, this is another one of those subjects that I think I could talk about for a long

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time, but I will not.

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Because that's not what this podcast is about.

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Hey, if you're brand new to listening to 10 Minute Murder, welcome.

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Make sure you do me one huge favor though.

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Hit subscribe wherever you're listening to 10 Minute Murder right now.

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You can also go to 10minutemerter.com and see links to where you can follow the show on

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social media.

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You can email me.

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You can read the blog.

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You can also find other places that you can listen to 10 Minute Murder.

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And that's all at 10minutemerter.com.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thanks again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.