546 - A Superstar of the Early 70s

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the burden of guild season 3 podcast.

This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It's a scorched earth war that shows just how far someone will go to get what they want. Cindy said, I had to choose between the truth and my family, and I had to choose the truth. This into season 3, a burden of guilds on the iHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, it's me, Anna Sinfield, the host of the Girl Friends. I'm back with more one of interviews with some truly kick ass women on the Girl Friends Spotlight. I'm going to climb it! It's badness, heredit tree.

Let's see how we can stop healing. I'm not too intimidated by her. What are you talking about? Listen to the Girl Friends Spotlight on the iHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Chelsea Hamlet from Dear Chelsea. Every week the news gets worse. The world gets crazier and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

“Do you know I just found out who Cindy Sweeney was?”

If he got a bunch of women, then I shall have a bunch of men.

Do better, or do less, so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out, listen to your problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the iHart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to my favorite murder. That's George a hard start.

That's Karen Kilgareff, and we're just casually podcasting for your entertainment. Can you see that I have a nap crease in my in the face as I'm podcasting on Netflix? Is it a vertical or horizontal? It's what's that way? Horizontal.

Thank you. Like the horizon. It's as wide as the horizon across your cheek. That's how, together, my shit is. Is that I just show up with a fucking nap crease?

I mean, I was literally at Sephora 7 minutes before this show started in a kind of wild attempt to like, maybe this will help, maybe this lipstick will solve it. Absolutely. And I feel like I need to just say a public generalized apology to people who work at Sephora, I couldn't be rude or really.

I don't want to be rude at all. I want to look at lipstick. I want to touch foundation.

“I want to see all the new things that all my friends on the internet talk about, and”

I want to interact with them. And I don't want to interact with anybody else. How come, though, when you need help, you can't find anybody. Is this the stand-up routine? This is the funniest stand-up routine we've ever written on this show.

But then when you ask them for help, then they use their brushes on you. And I don't want your brushes on my face. You've got to find the person that works there. And for me, it's usually the woman that's closer to my own. Yeah, for sure.

Completely.

And she's always kind of looking at me and like, almost efforts it.

You know what? Still don't need help. But if I do, absolutely, that's the person I'm going to, or it's like, hey, help me fix this and that. It's like when you see those videos, our influencer is going tips that made me look as

good as I did in my 20s in my 30s, and you're like, "It's fucking college, bitch." And you. It's not. There's no tip. You're not special yet.

No, you haven't hacked anything. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that.

You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You haven't hacked any of that. You don't know.

I don't know that her day. What if she doesn't do it today? God, can you imagine that?

I mean, here's the thing.

Yeah. Just have fun with it. Yeah. I just have fun.

“I have a curiosity which I think is smart and important.”

Yeah. That's new corner shit. That's yeah. Was there something that that like inspired you in a positive way you want to talk about? Yeah.

I mean, every quit book, every quit memoir that I've read by a chick. That's just like me or totally not like me has helped me so much over the 10 years that I've been listening and reading them. Yeah. And over and over and over again. Right.

And then going to Italy and drinking every fucking day with every meal. And then turning 46 followers there was like, all right. Let's not wait until it's dire. Yes. Let's do.

And I saw something that was like, just one in one of those books that said, I don't want to die and addict. And I was like, whoa. I hit me and both my siblings have quit alcohol, which I'm so impressed with. And competing with. Oh, always.

Always. You will not be competitive. So bright. That's the way to go. That's your new genre.

And you're also did I gamify it in my calendar every day at night when I haven't had a drink. I get a purple day. Yeah. Or whatever your favorite color is. And then you see them all in a row.

It's exciting. Yeah. It's like a material.

“Because I think our brains have a tendency to minimize real serious accomplishments.”

Yeah.

And always be focusing on the lack or the other.

Right. Instead of like, hooray for me. I did this thing. Totally. So hooray for you.

Yeah. You did a thing. I did. I just thought it was a regular Thursday. But we're getting real and deep on this show.

Deep. And disgusting. What? Speaking of which. We've done it.

That's not a good one. It's called exactly right media track. Here are some highlights. This week on bananas. Curtin Scotty are joined by Christine Schiefer.

Host of Beach to Sandy water to at the podcast. They all talk about the usual humanoid robots working at a school in New York. A Pennsylvania man who briefly was the world's first quadrillionaire. What?

And the guy who hiked six miles after impaling himself with a pole.

Man. And speaking of Scotty Landis. He is the guest this week on dear movies. I love you. I'll see talk about his area of expertise, which is actors playing sports.

Terribly. Plus they review the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon. Yeah. Also, if I don't know if everybody knows, but co-host of bananas Scotty Landis is the screenwriter for the movie Ma.

Yeah. If you like that horror movie, that was Scotty's idea. So him being on dear movies, I love you. It's so perfect. Then over on the knife, Hannah and Patia are joined by our very own Paul Holtz.

There's a lot of cross-pollinization happening on the network. Paul, cross-pollinization. No. You did it. It's like I'm doing it.

I don't know I'm doing it. So Paul goes on the knife to discuss his audio book, Finding The Lost Girls, which is all about the investigation of the serial killer Joseph Nassau, which we did cover on the show, and Paul's ongoing effort to identify the victims of these murders. Then breaking news over on free free sessions.

All over on the Instagram, sounds so excited. So he's haven't heard Michael Foot, the fucking just darling of all darling. So it's going to be on this new coming season of The Traders, new blood. So this week, he and Melissa answer all your questions about that. Plus, they cover recent election results of viral ice video and cash per tell announcement of an indictment

involving the Southern Poverty Law Center where Michael used to work. Yeah. Lots of fucking crazy good stuff happening over there. I love free free sessions. It's one of my favorites of the new shows that we have right now. Melissa, of course, genius.

But Michael is the kind of person who can be an immigration lawyer in New York City for real. Yeah. Be able to tick talk about it in a way that makes people love and support him. Totally. And then do this podcast and then go on traders.

It's like, I don't understand. He does it all. He's in his 30s. Is that true? Yeah.

We used to do that. We used to defend the innocent. We used to do things. Yeah. Yeah.

That was back in our 30s. That was good. Listen. We have done. We have done a lot of things.

Take nothing away from Michael foot. No, no, of course. But we ourselves. We've done things.

“And we actually make podcasts where we remember the things that we've done.”

I've found so many things in my 30s. Yeah. But so we're good. A lot of them take place in rewind with Karen and Georgia, which is our show. Yeah.

This week. I was doing a little bridge. We recap episode 110 this week. It's our live show in Columbus.

Foil.

“And it turns out our writer, Allison Augusti, found a copy for us to look at and hold in our hands”

once again. Look at that meat substance on the cover of it. It's a drink of some sort.

It kind of is like, you think at first glance that that is a chicken.

Right. But then you look at the shape. And you're like, that's a starfish. Yeah. What's there's a stine of warm beer.

There's some kind of shredded mayonnaise based salad. And then here is thankfully Alice in bookmarked it. Tuna tempies. Yes. Which sounds so disgusting.

And does involve dill relish. Here's one for you. It's called Way to Wild Potatoes. I'm not fucking making that up. That's where you throw them in the oven for eight hours until the kids come home.

I think just take a couple of uppers. Back home. Back home. I love the food both on back here. Okay.

So yeah, rewind with Karen and Georgia. That's really fun. You guys check it out.

If you haven't fucking my favorite murder all week long.

Good.

“Just go inside the frame and inside the frame.”

That's right. In the March corner. We still have some wheat. Whistles available. I've never had we.

I don't think we ever have prepared. Aristotle. And these are just great whistles to have on your keychain and the proceeds benefit. The National Immigration Law Center. So grab yours while they still last at exactly right store dot com.

It's in one Michael foot. We will. Absolutely. Here's this quietest. This can be.

Okay. That's something you can't whistle there. Which is like one of my great shames in life. Does it should be? I know.

I hope that doesn't knock you off the wagon. I appreciate those. You know, many dogs haven't come to me because I couldn't whistle at it. We will. We will.

Here's your answer. That's right. Okay. Okay. What?

Carrying. Carrying. Carrying. You could not. It's just for the show.

It's just for content. Because I'll fucking do it. It's all right. Fucking. I'll go now.

What pushed you over the edge. I'll Karen Maming do it.

“I had to walk down under the overpass and go to the secret bar.”

Everyone goes to at this office. I'm Nancy Glass. Host of the burden of guild season three podcast. This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It started more than seven years ago when Cindy and Kenny were two forty-somethings

who had just gotten engaged.

Days later, they walked into a scorched earth war they never saw coming.

Turn it over to your hands find your back. The cops give it to my house and threw me in jail. And to Cindy's surprise, her fiance Kenny was charged with abuse in one of her children. I never once doubted Kenny. And I always doubted the accusation.

On season three, a burden of guild. You'll hear a story about the length someone will go to in order to get what they want. This case has got to be one of the most despicable. Listen to season three, a burden of guild. On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Georgia goes first. That's me. What are you doing? Oh, I'm sorry. We put this on before every show and I forgot.

Oh, shit. That's why it sucks so bad. Yes, that's why it's not working. Oh, let's start over. It's just 98 degrees outside with a hot wind blowing and so moisture.

A hot like burbank, like smoky airport winds. Yeah. So everything feels like it's got a little like thin layer of asphalt. Yeah. It's a thick, gritty wind that blows today.

America. In Burbank. In beautiful Burbank. There's a train site. I think so for those ones.

Our Wi-Fi. Yeah, trees. Oh, yeah. Let's get serious. Let's start talking about the things that people are actually here to hear about.

True crime. True crime. Aloha, Georgia. Speaking of gritty cities that are covered in asphalt today. We are in Edlama.

I really want to make a joke about how if you're going to talk gritty cities. You must be talking about Philadelphia. But that's kind of a sports reference. Oh, I don't get it. You know, gritty, the big mascot.

Oh, that one is named good one. Yeah, he's fun. He's from Philadelphia, right? Yeah. He has a scrunchie.

It was a belly button. That is facts to know about Philly. This whole projection is gone out the rail. That's right. That's right.

Today's story is about a serial killer in the 80s. And the main source is for the story is reporting from the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the rest can be found in our show notes. So I'm just going to get into it. So it's the mid 80s and ran Atlanta, Georgia.

Crime in Atlanta at this time is bad. Yeah.

There's urban decay. Of course, the impact of the crack cocaine epidemic can be understated. Statistics ranked Atlanta among the top major US cities for violent crime, including robbery, aggravated assault and homicide. Just a couple years before the story takes place in 1982, the Atlanta child murders, or at least 29 black children teens and young adults mostly boys were murdered or went missing during a two-year spree.

And that had finally been allegedly solved by police who had been very slow to act on this spree. And they tied all the murders together and tried one man on two of the cases. Of course, we've talked about the podcast Atlanta monster before.

“Check that out if you want to hear more about it from our friend, Payn Lindsay.”

And season two of mine Hunter, which actually centers those black mothers that had to fight and fight and fight. They're the reason.

Just to be heard, it's really powerful and amazing.

Yeah, there's a really great documentary about it as well. So one telling fact that I found well researching Atlanta back then and what it was like and how not safe it was, is that the residents had a trend of nick naming their neighborhood Croger stores. The way we have like rock and roll routes and Hollywood and hipster routes for, you know, the neighborhood grocery stores.

So there's our Croger grocery stores. So there's a disco Croger, a kosher Croger because it's in the kosher neighborhood. Also nicknamed Croger, a stinky Croger, a gay Croger and which is in the gay town. Yeah, and also there was a Croger in the Ponzi Highland area that's been known for decades. And it's still known for good reason as murder Croger.

Whoa. There's just a murder Croger. Wow.

“And yes, they have merch, not them, but there is merch of murder for murder.”

Some smart neighbor was like, you know what is needed here. And also, I want to make a note that I want to cover murder Croger because it's a story on it. And it's not about to do that. No. Don't waste my time.

Sorry. God, I don't shit. Okay, sorry. Don't you do it. You'll do it.

I'll definitely do it sometime. But this story isn't about that. Today's story is about a serial killer in the 80s in Atlanta who went under the radar. You know, another one. And part because his victims came from a marginalized community again.

And it took two Atlanta homicide detectives, also from marginalized communities, to put together the pieces and realize they were looking for a serial killer. This is a story of Michael Terry and the two detectives who tracked him down. Wow, not a cold case. So this brings us to October of 1986, where two homicide detectives have each been assigned a separate case.

The detectives are Sheila Comberworth, who had been one of the first three female homicide detectives in Atlanta

when she was promoted four years earlier. And then also Marcellus had who had been in homicide for six and a half years. So Sheila's 39 and Marcellus is 43. And before becoming police officers, they're a little older. Each had had other careers.

“Sheila had been a key punch operator at a freedom lay factory.”

And Marcellus had been a bus driver in Cleveland. But both had moved to Atlanta in search of warmer weather. She lives with her sister and her 16 year old niece. And Marcellus is married and has an 11 year old son. So here's a photo of the two of them.

But they don't work together just yet in the story. It's mentioned in stories about this case that Sheila had been one of the first female homicide detectives in the city. But other than that, the fact that she's a woman and Marcellus is black. It doesn't seem to come up very much.

Atlanta had hired its first black police officers 40 years earlier.

Though their roles were severely restricted. And at times a large proportion of Atlanta police officers had been members of the KKK. By the 80's, the Atlanta police force has more black officers who have the same responsibilities as their white colleagues. But internal investigation done right around this time shows that the department is deeply divided along racial lines. So it seems relevant to mention this as it is these two officers specifically who are going to connect the dots in a rush of murders.

And which the victims are from a marginalized community. So by this point, Sheila and Marcellus would both be considered fairly experienced homicide detectives. And at first their respective cases are upsetting. But not particularly out of the norm for Atlanta at the time. In each case, the young victim both of their young victims is a black man and had worked as a sex worker.

They had basically identified as street hustlers. That point of view is is so from the patriarchy like, uh, these sex workers try to hustle me out of my money. Totally that I am exploiting. They're not tricking you to paying for sex war. You started it, sir.

Truly. So at first, Sheila and Marcellus are each individually investigating these cases without knowing any of the bigger picture about what anyone else is working on. So separately, as I've said. So the most recent victim had been discovered on October 20. His name is Darrell O. Williams, and he's a drifter and just 20 years old.

Prior to that, the body of a 30 year old man named George Willingham had been discovered in a vacant field just east of downtown off Ponce de Leon Avenue.

“Both men had been shot in the back of the head.”

George Willingham also had three knife wounds. Few days after the discovery of Darrell's body, the homicide division comes together for a meeting where all pending cases are discussed. And this is where Sheila and Marcellus are each presenting their own cases and they realize that there's a lot of similarities between their cases. And then, as they compare notes with their colleagues, they realize that there are other cases that are very similar to the ones they have that have come up in the past year.

In fact, Darrell's body had been found pretty much just a few steps away from where another young man's body had been discovered in December of 1985 almost a year earlier. So after reviewing the cases, Marcellus and Sheila find a total of six cases they believed to be linked. Four of had that feeling of just like you keep on finding that. Yeah. And that might not even be all of them for all they know.

So four out of the six victims had been shot and two had been stabbed. Five out of the six had been found undressed from the waist down. All six had been young, black male sex workers. Most had been discovered in areas where at least one other body had also been found. Marcellus and Sheila get permission from their boss to take on all six cases between the two of them. You know, when I was doing this research and kind of refreshing my knowledge of the Atlanta child killers part of the fucking huge horrible issue of that case.

Is it took so long and so many victims for the police to actually even say that it had anything to do with a murderer or not kind of blaming the victims before they even would look into these cases and saying they're related in any way.

“So I think this point and the city got a lot of black for that, you know, correctly. So I shouldn't get this point and they were like, go ahead.”

We don't need to make your connections. Yeah. Let us know what you think is going on. Yeah. And they're, you know, trying to get tourists and business to come to their town.

They want to side of the way. Yeah. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the burden of guilt season three podcast. This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It started more than seven years ago when Cindy and Kenny were two forty-somethings who had just gotten engaged.

Days later, they walked into a scorched earth war they never saw coming.

Turn up at your hands find your back. The cops gave it to my house and threw me the jail. And to Cindy's surprise, her fiance Kenny was charged with abuse in one of her children. I never once doubted Kenny and I always doubted the accusation. On season three, a burden of guilt, you'll hear a story about the length someone will go to in order to get what they want.

This case has got to be one of the most despicable. Listen to season three, a burden of guilt on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On boxing day, 2018, Joy Morgan was last seen our secretive church. Six weeks later, she's reported missing. I'm Charlie Brunkhouse-Coff and after years of investigating Joy's case, I need to know what really happened to Joy.

This is the missing sister, the true story of a woman betrayed by those she trusted most. Listen to the missing sister on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Chelsea Emla from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse, the world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

“Do you know I just found out who Sydney Sweeney was?”

If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better, or do less, so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to you, the problem with Yamanika starting on July 15th on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The first known victim who fits this pattern is a young man named Richard Williams, who had been killed almost a year earlier in December of 1985.

He had been found in a different abandoned building, very close toward Darrell, the final victim had been found. So Richard had been 24 years old, he had been shot in the back of the head, and also had two knife wounds on his body. The second known victim had been discovered about a week later on December 14th, his name is Curtis Lee Brown, and he was 21, and his girlfriend had filed a missing person's report. He was discovered in Dean Rusk Park, which has a big pond and wooded areas, and is south west of downtown right next to the Morehouse College campus.

The third and fourth victims had been killed about three weeks apart from one another, but both in the same location.

Alvin's body is discovered on March 20th, 1986, and Jason's body is discovered on April 6th, and they're both discovered in the same alleyway behind the same apartment building on Ken saw Avenue. And it's sometimes described as an apartment building, it seems more like a boarding house, it's described as that as well, it's basically a house with a bunch of rooms, and they're rented individually, there was bathrooms in kitchen is shared. So about six months passed until Darrell and George were killed, and those were the cases that had been initially assigned to Sheila and Marcellus.

And as they dig into these cases, they realized that Darrell and George had been killed with the same gun.

And Richard and Curtis, the first and second victims, had been killed with a different gun than the one used in the most recent murders, but had likely been the same weapon in both of those cases.

Alvin and Jason, the two found behind the boarding house, had been stabbed. So unfortunately, there's not much information in the news articles about who these victims were and about their families. Mostly just know that they were young black men who were alleged sex workers, but as Marcellus and Sheila start to talk to people who knew them, they realized that even though all these men were discovered in different parts of the city,

“they all tended to initially meet clients in two specific areas, either by Georgia Baptist Hospital or near the intersection of Ashby Street and Martin Luther King Drive, which I think is just, you know, neighborhoods for that kind of activity.”

So Sheila and Marcellus start interviewing witnesses in these two areas. They ask about who these men had been last seen talking to and who came around often. And potential witnesses described seeing an overweight stalky black male known only as Mike as the last man they saw with each respective victim. So they find out that his name is Michael Terry. He's 26 years old and works at a local tire shop. He's known to be quiet and to not approach people, but he just hangs out and then when the street hustlers approach him, then he'll often accept Sheila and Marcellus decide he's worth tracking down.

And when they look up his address, they realize he lives in the boarding house in front of the alley where Alvin and Jason's bodies had been found. That's not good. No, that's not a good sign. I wonder if this case would have been more well known if it had blasted longer if it had gone cold, but these two incredible detectives come in quickly put it all together. They do what we wish everyone could and would do.

“It's only it could be this right clear for people and fast exactly Marcellus later tells reporters quote,”

"We got the name and a photograph and we had two victims in the backyard at the Reaming House and that was too big of a coincidence." It is enough to get two warrants, one for Terry's arrest and one to search his room at the boarding house.

And there they find multiple guns that never say that Michael almost always carried a firearm.

I don't know if that's legal or illegal back then. I'm guessing it's legal in Atlanta in the 80s. Yeah, maybe, right, but still notable. And one sounds like it was necessary. Right. I mean, one says quote, he didn't even go downstairs to the kitchen without his gun. Oh, and quote. Other than this one unsettling habit, neighbor say that Terry appears to be pretty quiet, aka quote, strange loner. Little is known about his personal life, but after dropping out of 10th grade, Terry evidently began committing small crimes.

“A mass in convictions for burglary robbery, simple battery aggravated assault and carrying an unlicensed firearm.”

Michael Terry is arrested at his job on Wednesday, November 26th. And shortly after his arrest, he confesses to all six murders. Wow, just like that. Though he claims that he murdered these young men due to arguments over money and they weren't premeditated. The investigate or think this is unlikely to be the case six people in a year. No, sir. We don't accept that right.

That's very strange. And given Michael Terry's large size and his victim's smaller builds seems unlikely that they would have messed with him in the first place.

Or physically been that threatening to him. Exactly. Right. Terry's charged with all six murders. He's tried for the killings of Richard Williams, Curtis Brown and George willing him, which I guess the prosecutors wanted to save the other convictions in case he ever got bail. You know, was let out. Michael, Terry, then please guilty to the rest of the murders and asserving multiple life sentences. So detective Sheila Comberworth works for the Atlanta Police Department for about another 10 years after this.

Having served a total of 27 years in the department, she dies at the age of 65 and 2021. Detective Marcellus had also has a long career in the Atlanta Police Department and eventually works as the mayor's personal security officer. Here's a photo of him. That's an older man. Oh, so cute. That guy is buying around a drink at the at the pizza parlor.

And you just carry out gear. And you hope he starts telling you a story of his past. Yeah. He passes away, unfortunately, in 2024 at the age of 83. And then I checked her email, or my favorite murder at Gmail email to see if anyone had written about this. One person had named Selena.

Oh, really? Yes.

“Really wanted us to know about murder croaker.”

Wow. But only one about this case. And it's from a murdering known name Selena. And part of her email just reads says quote, It's the 1980s and the then US murder capital of Atlanta, Georgia.

My dad's cousin has decided he wants to go back to college to be a psychiatrist.

Due to the price, though, he needed to find a job first to save up money.

With some support from old professors and friends, he was able to snatch up a job working at Georgia's forensic crime lab. And his time there, he helped out on a lot of cases, but none shook him more like the string of rapes and murders between 1985 and 86. Thanks to some fantastic work by the Georgia crime lab, and it says wink wink, they were able to tie the murders of Williams to a third murder using ballistics.

So tying those bullets together is this chick's fucking cousin. Her dad's cousin. Oh, wow. Yeah. My dad's cousin as a gay man living in Atlanta at the time really fixated on this case.

He took it personally and helped work on matching the forensic evidence. He grew up at a time when gay bars had to black out their windows and hire security to protect themselves from assholes. In the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, he wanted to work medicine. Murderers like Terry reminded him of the very danger of life pose.

In the end, he found that the people focused more on the sexuality of Terry than the fact that he was some sexual sadist who was hurting real victims who were gay. Yeah. And quote. And that is the story of the two Atlanta homicide detectives who brought down serial killer Michael Terry.

Wow, right? I found this email today.

That Gmail. I know. Teen's multitude. And true treasure. Yeah.

Thank you, Selena for writing that in. Yeah. And thank you, Georgia, for doing the murder. Croker's story that you would be doing in an upcoming episode. Stay tuned.

“Also, you have to do all nicknamed grocery stores.”

From now on. I'm not just. I want to know what's going on. I think disco, Croker has a disco ball. Yeah, I've heard.

Or just the place everyone goes after hours. That's. I heard that would too. But I thought they also have a disco. That has been literally do have disco ball.

Oh, that's hilarious. I love to get to know a town through details like that. That's the point. And that's like, you know, those videos people make of like how I think I'm going to be in a party. And it's all fun.

And it's how I really am. And it's one dummy to talking about. I want mine is. Where are you from? Oh, Atlanta.

So did you know about the Atlanta serial? Like, just immediately have you been to murder Croker? Yeah. Exactly. What do you like?

I don't want to like parties. That's what we think we're like. But especially sober. Oh, we're a fucking not. No.

Now you get to go. And here's the thing.

“You've built this nice true crown wall for yourself.”

Yeah. Then now you get to just reside solely and comfortably on the other side of people know this about you. Right. It's just who you are. There's no more anxiety about that.

No. Can you stop talking about that? Actually no. No. It's like literal career.

Go get me a mocktail. No. Make this party more fun for me. Go get me drugs. Because it's just alcohol.

Do the work. Call to the drugs. You're California so far. Exactly. You know what I'm going to say to you about that one is so satisfying the inverse of a cold case story.

Right. A fast soft story. Yeah. This is a whole new area that you could get into. Yeah.

And don't worry about it. Because Marcellus and Sheila were on the case. And they took care of business. They started the end. Yeah.

Love that. I'm Nancy Glass. Most of the burden of guilt season three podcast. This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It started more than seven years ago when Cindy and Kenny were two 40 somethings who had just gotten engaged.

Days later, they walked into a scorched earth war they never saw coming.

Turn on the light your hands find your back. The cops give it to my house and threw me in jail. And to Cindy's surprise, her fiance Kenny was charged with abuse in one of her children. I never once doubted Kenny and I always doubted the accusation. On season three of burden of guilt, you'll hear a story about the length someone will go to in order to get what they want.

This case has got to be one of the most despicable. Listen to season three of burden of guilt on the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black.

It scared the hell out of me. Evil wake up. I'm the woman. Saw the murder. Take place by crevents and the people.

Anthony DiPipo showed no signs of remorse. Appearing unfazed after being sentenced to the maximum. I said I'm not guilty. I'll take it to the grave. Listen to the devil's quarre in the bone valley feed on the iHeart Radio app.

Hello, it's me, Anna Sinfield, from the girlfriends. The number one hit true crime show that puts women right in the center of their own stories.

“I'm back with more one of interviews with some truly kick ass women on the girlfriends spotlight.”

I want to introduce you to Sylvia. I'm going to climb it. And then there's Versaucca. Let's see how we can stop killing and see our lives. Layler, dare to ask the question.

His badness, hereditary. And finally, will meet Rosamund. If it wasn't for the air, where Ella lived, she wouldn't have died on that fatal night.

You'll even get to meet my mum in that one who I can always count on to keep my feet on the ground.

I'm not too intimidated by her. What are you talking about? Listen to the girlfriend spotlight on the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm back to you.

Well, we're going to go a little very much in a different direction, a little very much. Because we're going to go all the way back to 1972. And this is a story about a respected 48-year-old Mexican anthropologist named Santiago Genoevas. And he's a passenger on a flight from Monterey to Mexico City in Mexico. When halfway to their destination, this plane is hijacked by a radical guerrilla organization and diverted to Cuba.

It's an act meant to pressure the Mexican government into releasing their imprisoned comrades and it eventually works, actually. Are the good news is no one has killed during this hijacking, although it is probably safe to say, most of the passengers on that plane would classify this as a traumatizing experience. But, Santiago Genoevas sees it as a gift. And that's because he has spent his career researching violent human behavior.

He will later be quoted as saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Oh, that's painful. Yes, exactly. I've been researching that since I was 12. It's horrible with the help of Stephen Hens.

The drinking. It's so much to blur out. So he will later be quoted as saying, "I was lucky to be hijacked on a plane and taken to Cuba.

“I think I'm the only scientist studying a aggression, violence and friction,”

who has really been kidnapped." Wow. And quote. So he is particularly struck during this hijacking by how he and the other passengers behaved. Things that would normally divide them in daily life, like age, ethnicity, gender, or faith,

all fell away in this life-threatening moment. Wow. And this phenomenon makes GenaVez ask himself whether we as a species are more apt to use violence or to use cooperation with others when we're trying to survive. GenaVez thinks that if he can answer this question, he could work toward a more scientific understanding

of how to stem conflict and work towards peace all over the world. So he begins to design an experiment that would enable him to study a small but diverse group of people that similarly isolated volatile setting. Oh no. Okay.

No, no. It's too late. It's already starting. But instead of an airplane, he decides the setting of this experiment will take place on a raft in the open ocean.

This is the story of how that experiment went. It's been called the Ecoli Expedition. It's also been called the Peace Project. But we're going to call it by its real name. This is the story of the sex raft.

I've never heard of the light thought we were going full.

I thought we were just in a what's it called? Like a laboratory like a scientific experience. I'm playing getting hijacked. I thought it was going to be a hijacking story. Going back, no, no, no.

And I was like, what a great idea to think of. Next time you're in a panic situation, think of it as a experiment or as observation. Yes. Call it down. Becoming the observer is the trick.

Totally.

“Because you suddenly are like, oh, well, if I have to remember all this,”

I have to get out of experiencing it and start looking at it. Pretend you're a journalist. Like you hear about all these these people who get attacked and they're like, just focusing on the little things. So they know what to tell.

Yeah. And getting through it that way. But no, we're on a sex raft. But it's we're doing the sex raft thing. So the main source for this story today is a 2018 documentary called The

Rraft by director named Marcus Lindine. The rest of the sources are in our show notes. But I found out about this story because, of course, I was scrolling on TikTok in the middle of the night. And I saw a video by this creator as named Dexter MP4.

He's very funny. Tells crazy stories. And it was this video that made me go. Wow.

I've never heard this about the one and only sex raft.

Oh, yeah.

So the word raft is used here. But this vessel. No.

“It's more like a houseboat that center part, right?”

Yeah. It's covered. It's railing on the outside.

It's basically a floating square that is roughly the size of half a tennis court.

Okay. Yeah. Looks like something you'd take from one island to the next really quickly. It's not like a cruise or nice boat. It's just like, right.

Get you over there. They've got one big sail on the front. It's not down in this picture. But that's where that mask is. And mask.

Right. Well, it's, you know, Maran told me. But for the listener, it's like a big square that's red and white. Yeah. And it's essentially like, let's see what happens on this thing as we go across the ocean.

Because you'll notice that middle squares too small for like individual cabins or anything. It's tight. Oh, there's no motor on this. Oh, hence the sail. It is relying solely on the wind and the curve.

I don't even know what's happening yet. Tell me everything. Okay. Because I might not care if we're going just to Mack and I. Yeah.

That's right. Just floating around. How long are we going to be gone for it? Well, we'll, I'll tell you. Tell me everything.

Yeah. John of as names the raft, the acoly. And that's from the indigenous Mexican language. No, water. And acoly means the house in the water.

Yeah. So the plan is to sail the acoly from the Canary Islands, which is off of Africa's northwestern coast. You need that. Sure. So did I.

To cause a male Mexico. It's a dangerous month's long journey. That's far. That spans thousands of miles across the open ocean. There's not enough room for food on that.

I'm not going. It's not a realistic plan on. And, but in the very real open ocean, which I don't know why anyone goes out there.

Do a short run first, so that if it goes horribly wrong, you could just turn it around.

Right. Don't do it. Not from the Canary Islands.

“That's how about from Cosimel to the neighboring port of fill in the blank that I don't know.”

I was going to be so right. It's not been amazing. Okay. To find participants, Dr. Jennifer's place is adds for volunteers in severance. And volunteers in several international newspapers.

About a hundred or so people apply, he wittles them down to the final ten. Six women and four men. They represent all different ethnicities, all different nationalities, and all different Fates. They speak different languages.

But they do have some things in common. They're all in their 20s and 30s. They're all hot. They're all hot. The four real.

The original love island. It is. This guy was a fucking visionary. And he was trying to be all scientific about it. And what he should have done was been like, and I'll get my super eight camera.

Yeah. Guys do your thing. It's sponsored by fucking white claw. What's 1973? It's sponsored by James.

It's sponsored by Five. Partle's in James and Virginia Slum. My dad has the most epic cult 45 t-shirt in this one picture from my childhood. And I realize the reason I love it so much. It's the t-shirt.

Spakoli is wearing when the robbery comes into the 7/11. Wow. Look, you marred it whatever. That's epic. Back to what's really important here.

Hot people on a boat. Yeah. So these are all the kind of people that are like, Oh, sure. I'll do this fun thing. They're either adventurous or they're looking to make big changes in their lives.

Many of them are married and have kids. And all of this is basically intentional choices by Dr. Jennifer. Hey, honey. Real quick.

I know we have children take care of, but I'm going to real quick. I'm just for fun for a eight to maybe 14 months. I'm calling it the sex crews, but like not, you know, it's scientific. So it's probably more about gender than anything. Oh, yeah.

It meets love Island. And you don't know what that means 'cause it's 1973. But you will have another bottle of James while you're pregnant in the Virginia Slum. And I'll see you. And I'll see you when I see you.

Yeah. I'll see you when that kids in kindergarten. Basically, Jennifer has hypothesized that sex and violence are closely intertwined.

“So he wants to basically fuel sexual desire frustration and tension and have that be some of the main features of this experiment, right?”

He's going to love Island his own people and then see what they do. skeptical face.

Well, so here's the thing.

He assigns everyone a job at sea and he deliberately puts the women in charge. And he's self-proclaimed and has been described as a show of an est, basically. It's, you know, a kind of real, a superstar of the early 70s. The raft will be capped in by a 30-year-old sweet name Maria. The navigator is 36-year-old American, whose name is Mary.

The doctor is a 32-year-old Israeli woman named Edna. And for all matters underwater, like maintenance of the vessel itself, they have a 32-year-old French scuba diver named Servan, who's also a woman. There are two other female participants. An American radio operator named Fay, and an Algerian named Rashida, who conducts a separate study on ocean pollution.

So she's a scientist that's also there to do something while at the same time being the subject of an experiment.

At 23 years old, both Fay and Rashida are the youngest volunteers on board. And now we go over to the men's side. So there's 29-year-old Asuke, he's from Japan, and he's the ship photographer. There's 37-year-old Charles from Greece, who is manning the radios along with Fay. He's the future. He's the son of one's and two's.

Then there's 34-year-old Jose from Uruguay, who's an anthropologist, and he was also GenoVez's former student. And there's also an Angolian priest named Bernardo, and he's been chosen to be there

to basically amplify the feelings of guilt or shame around what GenoVez is anticipating

will be the hot hot sex happening on this tiny strange boat. That's bowls of condoms doubt it. I mean, there's nowhere to put them because we're on half a tennis court. It's so small. Of course men serving the supporting roles to the women and leadership roles.

That's going to be a problem according to GenoVez. No. And he claims that he got this idea because of hearing about the women's liberation movement. I was excited, but you pause when you said he's of showveness. I thought you were going to say feminists.

“And be like the only way this will work is if women are in charge because clearly men have had their”

chance for fucking eons and have really, really screwed it up. Right. No. It's a funny joke on everyone. That women are sure he thinks he's kind of like planting the TNT.

Yeah. Right. It is an interesting experiment at the end of the day. I still want to make fun of it. Okay.

Also, there's Dr. GenoVez himself.

The oldest passenger onboard at 49, of course.

He mostly wants to date 23 year old yoga instructor. He's there to document the results of this experiment with the presumption he will be a neutral participant. Obviously. Okay. Because you can't oversee your experiment and also be involved in it.

Just kind of watch the fucking right down some stuff. Yeah. Oh, and here's the group. Oh, they are attractive. Look at these sexy youngsters.

Is that him with the beard? Look at those tiny little skinny bottoms. He's got it on. It would make sense. But everybody else is like, I'm seeing serongs.

Yeah. Right. They look like United Colors of Benetons. Yes. And also just on the good days.

Like they're out there on this beautiful open ocean just like, yeah. And they're like, I'm away from my kids for three months. I don't give a fuck. That is for science. For science.

The escaping children for science. And that is Santiago. Wow. You were right. Good guess.

That was him. As played by Brendan Walsh. Or that Irish guy in Bridesmaids. And he's the nice dog. Yeah.

Yeah. Chris O'Dowde. Definitely. And you're so right.

“If you want to know who's the troublemaker, just look for the tiniest”

Speedo. He's the only one with gray hair. You know, they're all everyone's gone in happy. Yeah. That's right.

And he's like, where's the hatred? I need it. Okay. So it's May of 1973. The volunteers all traveled with the Canary Islands.

And hours before they're set to disembark together, they meet for the first time.

So they're all just like, oh, I didn't mean are you an adventure or two? I'm also hot. When they board the acolye, they are seen off by a very large crowd that includes Members of the international press. So people are following this story.

It is already night time when the raft is taken by tugboat. Out into the open ocean and left there. Hi. The volunteers are now just on deck in the pitch black with the roar of the ocean all around them.

No motor. Sales away. They experiment as begun. And the waters, of course, refer than anyone anticipated. So many of the volunteers are immediately seasick.

Yeah. And this is one ever sexy.

“Well, because this is one everyone finds out about the bathroom.”

What about the bathroom? I'll tell you this right now. Volunteers realize that they have to relieve themselves using a toilet like contraption built off the back of the raft. Uh-huh.

Out in front of everybody. How? The assumption of a closed door bathroom. Definitely. If it's going to be anything else, you've got to specify.

Like, okay. Turn around. Can't be the extent of the privacy. Turn around, Brian. Everyone turn around, Brian.

Every now and again. I take a shit. [laughter] Like a way. Like a way.

Okay. Okay. They also have to bathe, change clothes, all of it out in the open. And while everyone is put off by the fact that there is no privacy, once they get their sea legs, everyone stops throwing up, things actually start to run kind of smoothly.

They all know there are assignments, and despite speaking different languages, they're communicating well. They get weather reports radioed in every two days. They use those to navigate, of course, and plot the course. And all the wild, genivez regularly makes them fill out questionnaires or answer questionnaires

to him about the experience. Yes. So sex crews has homework? Yeah. Because it's an experiment.

Sex crews. So they haven't worked out all the kinks of just sex crews.

Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Get on that kink toilet. Get on that kink toilet.

There's nothing scarier in the world than the phrase toilet-like. That's horrifying. A hundred percent. You know, things are going to be bad when something is toilet-like.

“How many nightmares have you had of going to the bathroom out in the open?”

Like, yeah. In the middle of the mall. I always looked.

That was always the thing where I'm like.

So in my bathroom last night, or in my dream last night, the bathroom. It was my grandma's school bathroom. But instead of individual stalls, the toilet was up on a throne. Or you just like, yeah. Let's break it down.

You're reminded, like literally the other night I had one. You're reminding me. It's a common nightmare. It's humiliating. Yeah.

So they start doing the work and just sailing and getting it done. Now, we're a month in, and while a couple of the participants have had sex, it isn't happening at the level that Dr. Janvez was hoping it would. Yeah. And when it does, there's no lingering tension or jealousy or unrequited desire leading to an explosion.

Nothing like that is happening. It's chill. Okay. But Janvez is certain that this easy-going energy is going to dissipate as time goes by. But once they're into the month of June, everyone's just still managing fine.

They actually tell stories about their lives to keep kind of entertained because books were not allowed on this trip.

Like, basically, you had to interact.

Yeah. They also sing songs. Like, they're just doing whatever they can to kind of get through. Okay. Fay, the radio operator, will later say, quote, "We became a very tight tribe."

That doesn't happen in normal life, especially when you have so many different cultures. So many different languages and so many different religious groups. But we became a group almost like a pod of the same animal. I thought when you can't speak the same language, it's like more difficult to get into arguments about nuanced stuff. Like politics and religion, right?

Because there's no words. Because you're just like... I like everything is like a smile in a hay, right? Are we doing this? Yeah.

“If you had to put you on a sex raft, who would living or dead?”

Yeah. I think mostly dead. So the synergy and lack of drama on the sex boat, on the sex raft, is clearly a problem for Dr. Jennifer's. It's testing his ability to stay neutral. So now his questions are becoming increasingly more pointed.

So he's asking people questions like, "Who would you get rid of if you could get rid of?" Okay. Now we're just throwing people off of the boat. Yeah. Great.

And also who's the most attractive? Like, it's turned into a seventh grade slam book. Very quickly. And it still doesn't work. So even though people do answer.

Yeah. And the answers are given what he wants. Yeah. He's being given the answers. But it's not dredging up the bad feeling that he thinks are the tension or anything.

Things are just tumbling along. Yeah. Although there is a problem. The captain Maria is becoming very frustrated by how slowly they're moving and basically how shitty this raft is. And she knows that if they can't speed up, they could hit the Caribbean during hurricane season,

which it could have lethal consequences. So in one of Genevieve's questionnaires, Maria tells him that she "hates the ecology." She hates it. And this is when things start to get tense because that statement, Dr. Genevieve finds very offensive and he gets really pissed off at her, the captain.

Yeah. Mary will later say, quote, "Santiago did not want to accept that answer from anybody." He said, "Our raft is beautiful." And quote. So now Genevieve has pissed at Maria and his bitterness begins to simmer.

Suddenly, the rudder breaks. So they go from bad to worse. Yeah. And this is clearly a job for Servan who is the French female diver who's just going to go down and fix that rudder. But suddenly Genevieve declares himself the boss and demands to step in and do it himself.

He's the problem. Yeah. Oh my god. The whole thing was inside. She wanted to fuck everyone on the plane.

I got hijacked, doesn't he?

“It was like, how could I get a 23-year-old took me?”

Right. How am I going to explain that? I really wanted to fuck my seatmate on that hijacked plane who was an 80-year-old woman. How do I? How would one justify that?

Trying to get it more into the non-judgey? Right. It's okay if you want that area. I know. Science.

Okay.

It's never believes in science.

That's kind of everything. So Maria the captain will later remember quote, "Santiago jumped in, but as soon as he got into the water, he had problems. He had a big beard. So his water started to leak and do his mask and he almost drowned.

He couldn't do it. We had to drag him back up." And quote, "So the women wait until Genevieve has fallen asleep and they go fix the rudder themselves. That's a great metaphor for being a woman in 1973.

He had to make him think that it just got fixed."

Well, he was sleeping. Right. Exactly.

“The guy with the big beard is going to get upset.”

If you do it better than him.

So Vain says quote, "It was a really small job. It was quickly done and we just didn't say anything. You had it word for word." Yeah. But of course when Genevieve wakes up and puts two and two together, he's furious that

it was repaired behind his back. And as I did do, it doesn't improve much into July. It is still not getting the heated social scenarios that he was planning on. And on Day 51, when the acolye is about halfway across the Atlantic, he laments the lack of sex and violence taking place on board.

He writes in his notes, quote, "I can feel that the group has lost interest in the experiment. They clearly don't understand what I'm trying to do. Instead of supporting me, they behave like a bunch of children and they're getting lazy."

Oh, my God. Stop being lazy about casual sex. That's anger and violence. Yeah, just try to hit somebody. You're not doing what I'm trying to get you to naturally do.

Yes. You don't have these instincts and I'm furious. Okay. So now we're in August. It's day 84 this trip.

And the acolye reaches the Caribbean. It's just a few weeks away from their expected kind of arrival date in Mexico. They're ETA. And around this time, the crew learns that some newspaper reports on the experiment have been gaining

traction since they first left the Canary Islands.

They learned that the majority of the coverage has gone with the nickname the sex raft or the raft of love. And this sends Jennifer's into a spiral. He writes in his notes, quote, "What if the experiment doesn't lead to anything?" And I risked all of our lives for nothing.

I can feel that the others are starting to sense my insecurity. I am tired and sad. And I feel completely misunderstood. I'm crying to your beard. I'm crying to your 49 year old beard.

Start all over and just go completely clean shaven. Of course, he's not going to keep those feelings in his diary and say, "Hey, hey, hey, it's a bigger person and keep zip it." Instead, he decides to call in all hands meeting where he reads answers aloud from everyone's past questionnaires. A little bitch. What a fucking diva.

And guess what, Georgia?

“I think that this, say, wants you off this raft.”

And she said, "She's better looking than you." Like, he's asking questions that he can only get fucked up answers from. Right. So he's like, "Everybody sit down." You can hear some bad news.

Get ready. Who finds who attractive? Who finds who annoying? Who wants whom banished to the deepest depths of the ocean? Who's a slut?

Et cetera. That's all me at the end.

But here's the thing about this team.

They don't care. Yeah. He tells them, like, this is your experiment. Like, you banded them together because they have one common enemy. Yes.

You're doing a little bitch. And, like, also the time period of, like, this whole generation. That's, like, summer of love and, like, accept people. He's basically doing a generational fucking experiment for his old ass. Yes.

Come on. Where's that hate that we used to love so much back in the 30s? Everyone could have.

“We're doing our best to get rid of that shit.”

Also, my thing is, did he go through, did he? I'm, like, a translation book for every language on that. Right. And now the bad news in French. And now I translate for you.

Right. Okay. So it doesn't phase this team. They truly are BFFs. So, Jennifer has won quit.

Surveign the French diver later says quote. He was provoking situations for something to happen. Santiago only had ulterior motives. He really wanted things to happen. And quote, which is like, it is his experiment.

He is the scientist, but he's not letting it go. Right. Mary, the American navigator, remembers quote. One time Santiago threw a bucket of water at my face. It was like shock treatment.

What an end quote. Yes. Bitch. And Fay, the other American, who was just one of two black people on board, adds quote.

He called me a primitive, a thief, lazy. All the stereotypes he threw at me. And quote. Yes. You're the problem.

Well, he's trying to be the problem because no one else will be a problem. Because no one else needs to be the problem. Because there is no fucking problem. Right. We know these people.

Yeah. But all of his insane behavior. Of course, just bonds the group tighter. And against him. Edna, the Israeli doctor, will say quote.

Before our colleague Santiago said that out at sea, we would be freer than ever before. Then at sea, he started behaving like a dictator. Wow. So this is when they get the news that there's a tropical storm, a ruin in the Caribbean.

They're rightfully terrified. Everybody except for Janvez, who writes quote, "I can't help but feel excited. A dangerous hurricane might be exactly what we need for the experiment to evolve." And quote.

Oh, wow. Can't grab.

And then it's all justified. Yeah. His weird outdoor toilet.

“As captain, Maria understands that everyone's lives are in her hands.”

So she announces that she will steer the accolade to the nearest Caribbean island to right out the storm. But Janvez intervenes insisting that they stay on course. He argues going at the port would contaminate the experiment. And he tells everyone, quote,

"For the sake of science, we must continue no matter what." And quote. What happens next goes very fast. Maria refuses to comply with that, saying that the safety of the crew must take priority over this experiment.

And Janvez then fires her and says, quote, "From now on, I am the captain." "I am up." And put him on a dinghy, like traveling alone. Yes.

This is the classic Southwestern Airlines. Electritioners tape around the mouth and then around the sea. So as he's making this announcement,

basically storm clouds are gathering in the skies above the ship.

The sky has now gone dark. Rain drops begin to fall. And the waves start getting bigger and higher. So it truly is like when they make the movie of this. This whole thing where he's like,

“"No, I am the captain and as I go on, crazy."”

Oh my God. A storm is a ruin. They now realize it's too late to argue about this. The team braces for the worst. But somehow, the storm makes a miraculous change of course,

and the Eccalia is spared. So everything kind of settles back down. But of course, the emotional and psychological damage has already been done. Maria is so furious that she cannot even look at Janvez. And she later says, quote, "I was angry and sad and depressed."

I mean, there is a really special law at sea. And this, what Santiago did to me, was mutney. Yeah. The penalty is death. And quote.

Okay. So we're getting somewhere. Now they're in the last stretch of the journey. And Janvez has ironically become not a dispassionate observer of the group's tension. But the absolute center of it.

I suke one of the men will say, quote, "His psychological violence was difficult to bear. It was very hard on me." And quote. So it goes from bad to worse.

And it gets so intense.

“The group actually has a meeting one night.”

While Janvez is sleeping. And they discuss killing him. Because he's so bad. They entertained throwing him overboard. Maybe giving him an overdose of medicine that's on board.

Faith will later remember quote. You could feel the electricity start. We were thinking it all together at the same time. And having the same thought. Should we do it?

Should we do it? Should we do it? Murder. Like. Wow.

He's pushing them to this meeting. Basically, they secured something out with his science experiment. But not what he fucking wanted to do. Well, right, because he wanted them to murder each other. Yeah.

Not him. It's so crazy. So before any of that can even be entertained in a real way. Another bigger emergency arrives. Volunteers working the overnight steering shift one night

realized the raft is in the direct path of a massive freighter. And the freighter can't see them. And it is not responding on the radio. And if they can't change course in the ecology, they will almost certainly be sucked underwater

and crushed by this massive shift. Which is my fear.

And why I've never seen Titanic.

That doesn't happen. But at the end. When it's going down. There's something. It's so big.

Yeah. Those volunteers wake everyone up. Panic consumes the group. Especially Geneviz. Who I suke describes as, quote,

"just running around on the raft, shouting oi oi loudly." So he's the captain, right? Maria takes over and she does what any captain would. She restores a sense of calm. And then she orders everyone to light and wave flares on the deck.

At the very last minute, the freighter spots the acali and is able to change course. And misses them just barely. Wow. After this very embarrassing public failing during a near disaster,

Geneviz becomes a different person. He's deflated, lefthargic. He holds up in his cabin for the remaining days of the trip, claiming he's sick. But no one buys it.

And they're happy that something has finally shut him up. But from Geneviz's notes, it's clear he's developed some self-awareness, writing quote. I realize that the only one who has actually shown any kind of aggression or violence on the raft is me.

Can we all, let's more of this, right? Please. It's not that hard, no. It's not that bad. You can do it.

In the end, the group's anger towards Geneviz never once manifests

into physical violence, not once. I see a gay will later say quote. What was so great about our group is that we didn't do that.

I'm happy that no blood was spilled and quote me too.

“On August 21st, 1973, after spending 101 days at sea,”

101 days on one side of a tennis court with waves. No, some block, by the way. There's no way. And no bathroom stalls. Oh, no.

Some block, no. The only one my dad had C and ski back in 1973. But that was it. The acolye, after all this time, and all those days, safely arrives in Mexico.

And despite everything that's happened, it's actually a bittersweet ending with Servan saying quote, "I could have stayed another three months at sea." If it hadn't been for my children and other applicants. Remember that?

Remember that? They must be so loud. I could have carried on living under these conditions for sure.

For some, it's back to the same house,

the same family, the same job when it's all over. But others reroute themselves entirely, leaving their older teens and setting out on a new path. And for his part, Jennifer's publishes his findings on the acolye experiment,

“concluding that humans don't inherently turn”

to violence and intense claustrophobic and dangerous situations. Though these findings mostly land with a whimper and won't become foundational scientific texts by any stretch in the imagination. But Dr. Jennifer's continues to study peace and aggression

for the rest of his long career. For what it's worth, Maran notes here, modern observers have criticized Jennifer's methods on the raft as heavy-handed on scientific and psychologically harmful. But it doesn't seem like any of that got much attention

at the time because the study itself had been reduced down to the sex raft. Right.

So that's all anybody kind of wanted to know about it.

They could have actually been something taken from it. Right. So in 2018, when the acolye group is brought back together for the production of the documentary, the raft. Wow.

The fondness that they had felt for each other during the experiment is palpable. Some of them, of course, unfortunately had passed away by the time the filming started, including Dr. Jennifer as himself,

“who died in 2013 when he was in his late '80s.”

But volunteer faith encapsulates the entire experience best when she suggests that Jennifer's obsession with creating friction almost caused him to miss the whole point of his own experiment, which, again, had the lofty goal of studying

how world peace might be achieved. Faith says, quote, "We could talk to each other with sophistication and depth and understanding and love and isn't that the answer to violence?

It was the opposite of violence. It was true peace. He was so focused on the violence and the conflict but he had it right in his hands because all over the world and all the conflicts

it's always them and us. And we started out them and us and we became us." Wow. And quote, "And that's the story of the sex raft

aka the accolade expedition." Wow. It's a very timely lesson about I will just make the metaphor. The raft is the internet

and the hatred that that guy is trying to turn up is all those fake bots and all the bullshit and the troll people love to fall for. The trolls and the rage baiting. And the dead internet theory

which is that it's a lot of its fake. It's just a bunch of fake shit. Totally. So you're going to do that next time. I'm going to do murder her again next time.

We're going to duck and be so of the time. We're going to be so good at podcasting. Pretty soon. So soon. But until then, thank you guys for listening.

Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Ah!

[music playing] This has been an exactly right production. Our managing producer is Molly Smith. Our consulting producer is Kate Shelmbach. Our creative lead is Allison Gosty.

Our associate producer is Tessa Hughes and our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Leonis Boulacci. Our researchers are Marin McLashon and Ali Elkin. Email your hometowns to my favorite murder at gmail.com

and follow the show on Instagram at my favorite murder. Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeart Radio app. Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Or watch new episodes every week on Netflix. Search for my favorite murder.

Add us to your list and hit the double thumbs up button. Goodbye. Goodbye. [music playing] I'm Nancy Glass, host of the burden of guild season 3 podcast.

This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It's a scorched earth war that shows just how far someone will go to get what they want. Cindy said I had to choose between the truth and my family

and I had to choose the truth.

Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

“Hello, it's me Anna Sinfield, the host of The Girl Friends.”

I'm back with more one-off interviews with some truly kick ass women

on The Girl Friends Spotlight.

I'm going to climb it. It's badness, hereditary. Let's see how we can stop keeling. I'm not too intimidated by her. What are you talking about?

“Listen to The Girl Friends Spotlight on the iHeart Radio app.”

Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Stephanie Young. The hit podcast LoveTrap is back with new updates in the case of Laura Owens. This is CR 2025 State versus Laura Owens.

“I think she really believes that she still hasn't out.”

I'm quite confident that they're up to something.

We're following the case live as the criminal charges finally come to a conclusion.

Trust us when we tell you as the victims of Laura Owens. She will not stop. Listen to LoveTrap. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.