The Vancouver Child Killer

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
minuted murder. Wesley Alan Dodd began sexually

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harassing the other kids in his neighborhood
in nineteen seventy four, when he himself

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was only thirteen years old. At
first, he was just exposing his genitals

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to them, causing them to feel
uncomfortable and go and complain to his parents.

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At first, he was just exposing
his genitals to them, causing them

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to feel uncomfortable and go to his
parents and complain. Wesley's father, Jim,

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later admitted that he was aware of
Wesley's harassment of the other kids,

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but he decided to ignore it.
His reasoning was that, apart from the

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indecent exposure, Wesley was quote a
well behaved child who never had problems with

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drugs, drinking, or smoking.
So I guess let's just ignore the other

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deeply troubling and completely inappropriate behavior on
Wesley's part. Right, So, Wesley

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never saw any consequences for his actions, and it allowed him to begin to

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escalate his crimes. By the time
he was in high school, he had

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started to molest younger children. He
began with his cousins and his father's girlfriend's

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young children and then made an effort
to advertise his babysitting services around the neighborhood.

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At his babysitting gigs, he would
assault the children that he was paid

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to look after. Now, being
a parent myself, I don't know how

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you can entrust Wesley with looking after
your kids, knowing that he's the neighborhood

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flash. So you have to think
that these parents had no idea that this

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was the kind of kid they had
looking after their children. When Wesley was

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fifteen years old, somebody called the
cops on him for exposing his genitals in

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public. Yet again, he was
arrested, but then quickly released with the

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recommendation that he should attend some counseling
sessions. And Wesley's crimes continued. He

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tried to kidnap two young girls a
few years later, but the girls escaped

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and contacted the police. Once again, there were no legal consequences. A

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month later, Wesley joined the Navy
and moved to Bangor Base in Washington,

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where he quickly began targeting the children
whose families lived there. At one point,

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he tried to pay some young boys
fifty dollars to come up and play

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strip poker with him in a nearby
motel room, and finally his actions resulted

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in an arrest, but even though
he told the officers that he had intended

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to molest the boys, the police
decided to release him without filing charges.

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After he was caught once again after
that, exposing himself to a child on

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the base. Wesley spent just under
three weeks in jail and was ordered to

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attend counseling and was dishonorably discharged from
the Navy. From his early teens,

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Wesley had stopped viewing young children as
human. Instead, he viewed them as

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targets for his sexual perversions. His
whole life revolved around hunting down his targets.

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He chose his jobs based on how
easily he'd be able to gain the

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trust of children, and chose to
move into a block of apartments because he

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knew that families with young kids lived
there. He molested the toddlers of a

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family who lived next door, but
after their family found out, she refused

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to press charges, believing that the
process would only add to the victim's trauma.

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In nineteen eighty seven, twenty six
year old Wesley approached a child and

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tried to convince the boy to follow
him into an abandoned building nearby. Sensing

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that Westley was not to be trusted, the boy said no and he ran

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to the police. At this point, Wesley had a lengthy list of past

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sexual offenses, and the prosecution suggests
that a sentence of five years behind bars,

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But he was able to escape justice
yet again because while there was no

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doubt he'd intended to molest the boy, he had not actually committed a crime.

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The next year, Wesley's hunt for
potential targets continued. He identified David

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Douglas Park in Vancouver as being an
ideal spot for hunting. The park covered

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a large area, was full of
dense woodland, and had a collection of

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isolated trails where he knew he wouldn't
be interrupted while he was with his victims.

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Over the next three years, Wesley
was arrested on multiple occasions. Each

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time he served minimal time behind bars
and attended court ordered counseling sessions. One

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of the psychiatrists who examined him stated
that he believed the the man was a

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sexual psychopath. By now, Wesley
Dodd had molested or exposed himself to and

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estimated fifty children, most of them
were male. Several were toddler age,

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and every single one of them was
less than twelve years old with minimal repercussions.

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Wesley began to consider escalating his crimes. He now didn't just want to

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molest and release his victims. He
wanted to abduct and kill them. Quote

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the more I thought about it,
the more exciting the idea of murder sounded.

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I planned many ways to kill a
boy. On the fourth of September

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nineteen eighty nine, Wesley went to
his favorite hunting ground, David Douglas Park.

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He was armed with a knife,
and he was determined to commit his

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first murder. Soon after, he
met two boys, eleven year old Coal

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Near and his younger brother William.
He convinced the two boys to follow him

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into an isolated trail. He then
tied them both to a tree, took

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the clothes off, and sexually assaulted
them. Once the assault was over,

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he used the knife to stab them
to death and then ran away. Despite

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Wesley's belief that the large park would
allow a body to go undiscovered for some

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time, the boys were quickly found. Cole had already died from his wounds,

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and William was still alive but passed
away during the drive to the hospital.

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After killing Cole and William, Wesley
became obsessed with the murders. He

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kept a collection of newspaper articles about
the case and his scrap book. The

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following month, after traveling to Portland, Oregon, he killed again. While

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scoping out a small park, Wesley
saw four year old Lee Isley playing on

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a slide while his older brother,
Justin watched nearby. After Justin decided to

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walk back to the house, Wesley
told Lee that he would give him a

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ride home. Instead, he abducted
Lee, driving him back to his Vancouver

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apartment, where he tied him to
the bed and repeatedly molested him. He

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documented this abuse overnight, taking photos
and writing diary entries about his crimes.

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When morning came, Wesley was reluctant
to kill the boy, but to prevent

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Lee from telling anyone about the crime, he ended up strangling him to death.

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Wesley waited until November nineteen eighty nine
to strike again. This time,

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he traveled twelve miles east to a
theater in Chemis, Washington, where he

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saw a young boy, six year
old James Kirk the Second, in a

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public restroom. He tried to abduct
James but the boy attracted attention by kicking

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and screaming, and the employees came
running. Wesley attempted to carry the boy

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out to his car, but the
employees followed behind him, so he put

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James down and fled the scene in
his car. When James's mother's boyfriend,

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William Ray Graves was informed that James
had almost been kidnapped, he set off

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in pursuit, armed with only a
description of the attacker. As luck would

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have it, Wesley's car had actually
broken down less than a mile away from

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the crime scene, and he was
desperately trying to restart the engine. Ray

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didn't want to make the man suspicious, so he offered to help Wesley with

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his car troubles. Then, as
soon as Wesley's guard was down, he

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put him in a headlock and marched
him back to the theater. The police

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were called to the theater and quickly
realized that this man might be the killer

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they were looking for. After three
days of interrogation, Wesley broke and confessed

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to killing Lee, William and Cole. A search of his apartment revealed a

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collection of newspaper clippings about the murders, as well as a photo album full

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of pictures of Lee being tortured,
a detailed handwritten diary about the crimes,

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and what officers described as a homemade
torture rack. Wesley was charged with three

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counts of aggravated first degree murder,
as well as attempting to kidnap James Kirk.

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At his trial, quotes from his
diary were read to the jury alongside

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the photos he had taken. The
evidence against Wesley was gruesome and damning.

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It was clear that he'd taken great
pleasure in his crimes and that if he

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was ever released, he would not
hesitate to continue. In nineteen ninety Wesley

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Allen Dodd was sentenced to death.
He seemed to agree with the judge's verdict

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and refused to appeal his sentence,
saying quote, I must be executed before

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I have an opportunity to escape or
kill someone else. If I do escape,

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I promise you I will kill and
rape again, and I will enjoy

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every minute of it. Wesley Dodd
was executed by hanging on the fifth of

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January nineteen ninety three at twelve oh
five am, while the family members of

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his three victims looked on. He
was the first person to be hanged to

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death in the US in almost three
decades, and the American Civil Liberties Union

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tried to take legal action that execution
by hanging violated the Eighth Amendment. However,

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the lawsuit did not change the outcome
of Wesley's execution for one simple reason.

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Wesley had requested to be hanged to
death so that he could die in

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the same way that Lee had.
That is ten Minute Murder for today Brief

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and bingeable True Crime. My name
is Joe. I'm the host, and

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thank you for listening to today's episode. If you're new, welcome, happy

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that you're here. Make sure you
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Murder is gonna be right there,
staring you in the face and welcoming you

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to listen to all of the back
episodes. Connect with me on social media

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see the pictures of what we talk
about here in the podcast. It's never

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grossing graphic stuff though. A quick
email from one of you that listens,

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Hi, Joe Marina from Tacoma.
Here hope all as well. Really love

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your podcast. My husband Austin and
I listened to your podcast on Spotify.

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Have you ever heard of Sylvia Likens? We just watched the movie based on

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her life in American crime. It's
bizarre. I also had a quick email

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question, if you had a chance
to meet a serial killer in real life,

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who would it be? I ask
because I just saw an episode of

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Peters Morgan interviewing Amber Wright. Happy
Friday, Marina, And first of all,

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Marina, thank you so much for
taking the time to reach out,

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and also thank you and your husband
Austin for listening to the podcast. So

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first, Sylvia Likens, Yes,
I've heard of that. I've seen that

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movie and I've done an episode on
it, probably a couple of years ago.

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I did an episode on Sylvia Likens
extremely disturbing case. So if you're

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listening to this now and you go
back and you have no idea what the

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case is about, and you go
back and find the episode, just know

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as disturbing as to Day's episode was, it's even more disturbing than that.

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And secondly, if I had a
chance to meet a serial killer in real

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life, who would it be?
None of them? I just don't have

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the desire to meet or talk to
them. To me, I'm not a

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psychologist, I'm not a profiler with
the FBI. I don't have any valid

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questions to ask them. It would
just be me insulting them, I guess,

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like calling them names, telling them
how pathetically I mean. That would

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be The interview is me asking zero
questions, just telling them what I thought

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about them, and they would never
agree to that, so what's the point.

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But I wouldn't want to sit down
and ask them questions because that's been

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done by people that are qualified.
I'm not qualified to do that, so

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it's already been done. I don't
want to do that. I would be

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more interested in talking to and interviewing
the people behind. Would put them behind

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bars, like the detectives, the
forensic people, the criminal profilers. They're

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way more interesting to me than the
actual killer themselves. Anyway, again,

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thank you Marina for listening, and
thank you for your email. That's going

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to do it. That is ten
minute Murder for today. Thank you so

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much for listening, and if you
have a question, by the way,

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you can email me Joe at ten
minute murder dot com. Thank you for

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listening. Have a good night,