Fatal Fantasy | 5. The Infestations Of Evil

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Listen to all episodes of fatal fantasy, add free right now by subscribing to the binge. Visit the binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit GettheBinge.com to get access wherever you listen. The binge feed your true crime obsession. This episode contains extremely violent content. Some listeners may find disturbing. Thanks to a tip from witness Patrick Hauss. Detective Greg Locke found a treasure trove

of information from Clara Schwartz's computer and her journal. The darkness of her writings

is astounding, but also incriminating. I look at Christians and see them as infestations of evil. That line from Clara's journal illustrates just how deep Clara descended into the more sinister recesses of her mind in the years following her mother's death as the relationship with her father eroded. The root of this she had written was tethered to her having been forced to go to church by a certain family member. Jesus' disciples are extreme followers. They drank his blood and

ate his flesh which makes them all vampires and cannibals. I look at satanic cults and see the future, bright and promising. This darkness, Clara Traffington, does tale perfectly with where Kyle Healberg was at psychologically when the two of them met. I've already told you he was obsessed with being a samurai wielding knight who fights for the weak and dispossessed. He's also

“a practicing pagan who dabbles in the occult. But there's one more thing you should know about”

Kyle. He thinks he's a vampire. A real one. And that belief, let's Clara manipulate him even more. One night a few weeks before Dr. Schwartz's murder, Clara realized just how dark and twisted a world existed inside Kyle's head. Kyle, Mike, Katie, and Clara are inside her dorm at James Madison University. It's late. Mike, Katie, and Clara are sleeping. Kyle is dozing in and out. When, suddenly, he not only hears something, but smells something. It's pitch dark outside.

Kyle is lying near the door, the protector watching over his flock. Something to understand here, at least according to Kyle, is that he believes his sense of smell is almost superhero-like. At some point Kyle said he could smell something odd outside. He sensed danger. I don't ever heard something outside and I went out and I started walking around.

“I remember that there was this idea that there was something with there. And somehow it's said”

into the idea that Clara was in danger. I remember fighting rifle vampires. At the time, it was real to me. It was deadly real. It was, you know, this is why I forgot. To put that into clearer perspective, Kyle is wandering around the campus with his sword.

but coming for Clara.

I remember one of the ones that I stayed and left out and just walked to my was,

because I didn't want to be too far away from the door. He is convinced that he's killed a rival vampire. Put a stake, his sword, through the man's heart. And in the next morning when me and Clara were walking, we saw a fire drop stuff at that point. I brain was, hey, that's where I was last night. I got, I didn't even know what to call fire. You know, so of course, you know, he started to fire, being an overtly person. The flame of the sun came up.

Whoops. And then that knocked out into, well, of course, I'm going to say it was like an electrical

fire or something. They can't admit that it was a vampire over there to die.

Everything kind of fits into your psychosis, what's going on in your head. Yeah, and then that's kind of the nature of it. You know, anything, any piece of information that comes to come to you, you can find the way it'll, and it's not even, it doesn't take effort. It just fits.

“Did Clara feed into it? I think she recognized what was going on with me and she said into it,”

because it worked for her. Please, she had made a comment to Katie. I told you the one at all the idea, you know, he would be coming. And that's, and that he wasn't turned out to be me. This vampire business for Kyle wasn't simply confined to a dream state. He had taken it next level outside the underworld. Kyle had, for some time, been going to underground vampire clubs in Maryland, where he met other like-minded people and suckled on each other's blood,

via pricking or cutting the skin. Kyle found most of the people at these clubs

second-rate wannabes unwilling to undertake traditional teeth on neck blood sucking. The Hollywood

“version, in other words, which was what he preferred. I think people who use RPGs as a scapegoat for”

their crimes or idiots and cowards. Because he reads vampire books, he thinks he's a vampire. No, I'm a part of this actually, and I asked you to get sexual throughout a drinking blood. It's hard to hear in that clip, but Kyle is saying he gets a sexual thrill from drinking someone else's blood. I asked Professor Joe Leicoc, what he made of all of this. It was kind of hard to wrap my mind around. Kyle is saying, "I'm a real vampire, and all of you people are not.

All of you people are- are- are poses, only pretending to be vampires." So what this says to me is even within this very verified subculture of people who identify as vampires, Kyle is still an outsider, even within that group, Kyle still did not belong. Kyle, the outsider, dark and unafraid of taking orders, profoundly wrapped up within his delusions is exactly what Clara Schwartz had been waiting for. The submissive assassin, willing to do

“whatever she asked of him. What is remarkable to me every time I think about the story of Kyle”

stalking a rival vampire on the campus of James Madison University that night, is that Kyle did not randomly thank goodness. Kill a student. My name is M. William Phelps. I'm an investigative journalist and the New York Times best selling author of dozens of true crime books. From Sony, Music, Entertainment, and M. William Phelps, LLC, you are listening to Fatal Fantasy. Episode five, "In Festations of Evil."

Can't get enough of the story of Margo Freshwater? Do you need more than the episodes can provide? Real quick, we just launched a free true crime newsletter and community page to go along with our binge shows, including the Crimes of Margo Freshwater, and you can access it at the link in our episode description or at patreon.com/thebench. You'll get behind the scenes

The newsletter comes out twice a month, it's totally free, and it's where the story continues.

“I'll see you there. Just hit the link in the description or head to patreon.com/thebench.”

I want to tell you guys about a podcast that is near and dear to my heart, and I can't believe it already came out a year ago, and you can all go listen to it, add free by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. What podcast current tell us? It's called "Blink J. Candle Story." I created it about a man named Jake who I met who is the only survivor of a terminal brain illness brought on by heroin use, but there is a lot of mystery and medical malpractice

and true crime elements that are very shocking and surprising, and even some supernatural elements.

So, it is definitely an amazing story as your unique did such an incredible job telling the story

and sharing it with the world. So, if you have not listened to it, my goodness,

“where have you been because "Blink" is so freaking good. Thank you. Search for "Blink" wherever you”

listen and subscribe us to the binge. We'll get the entire season ad-free. Plus, you'll get exclusive access to the over 60 other true crime stories on the binge podcast channel. Hit subscribe on Apple podcast or head to GetTheBinge.com. At the end of the last episode, Kyle Eulbert left his friends, Mike and Katie, at the top of the shorts driveway. He began walking up the rocky path to Dr. Schwartz's farmhouse, determined to confront him. Just the previous day, Clara had called

him to say her father was going to kill her on their upcoming family vacation. Mike and Katie watched Kyle disappear up the driveway, while they both said a silent prayer for Clara's father's soul. While Kyle told me he did not go there with the intention of killing Dr. Schwartz, it seemed to everyone around him, that was specifically what he had planned. All I'm thinking right now is how the hell is conversation to play out? What's going to happen?

I remember walking through the dark, and I'll follow in the past. Even though it was personal, it was driven very well. It was like nesting would be the better work for it. There's

no street lights in the yard. It's a long driveway. I've never had a problem being in a, I'll

go and walk around a night, so we're kind of metaphor for my life. The tattoo's under my feet,

“I walk, I, what happens? I'll deal with it when it does. I think it's important to keep in mind”

that Kyle fashion himself a writer today, and so he leans on the more dramatic, even purple side of things. I stayed up late from the house, past a little slippery, and I get to the door, and I knocked, and he answers, you remember kind of looking up at him and thinking, "Yeah, this is a big guy." And I asked him if Clara's home, and he says, "No, just kind of steers at me." I asked him if he had a specific take that's in notebooks and asked

if he had a number where I had to reach her. So he writes me and just, "Come on." You know, that's a ton of voice people have when they just want to get something. They know it's easy to just get this over with and you don't make a fuss about it.

That explanation has always seemed revealing to me. Going back a few weeks, Clara was home

and inside the house, if you recall, and shorts didn't ask Kyle to come in, but now she's not home, and he invites him in. Several sources have claimed Kyle forced his way in. Others have claimed that Kyle understood then that a vampire, as fantastic as it sounds, needed to be invited in. We follow him in a kitchen area. He has something cooking on the stove, it's big, you shaped the aisle and kind of set up. Still when the last kitchen sink of stuff,

the only flight on the far side and then on the right is like counter dining area in a type area. And then that leads into another big open space with a dining table, computer. So he's writing something on the iPad and asking, "What's your relationship with Clara?" Trying to be cool and casual and getting in my heart is a hammer and like the goddamn track hammer on my chest, excuse me, that cliche sound, I mean, it's just like it was a living thing

thousand times, he told me. I asked him why he's really shit this with Clara. And he said,

"I can look so pretty shoulder and just kind of like this fuck you kind of look," you know, I was like, "What business is that to you could yours?" And he goes back to writing and like, "When she's a friend of mine, I care about her." And he just kind of stopped, he stopped, he just like turns around and just one hand on his head and just like, "I want to just look on a face." It's like, "Oh, something he's freaked off his bottom of his shoe and

was very unhappy about it." He said, "Not look 20 times." And Noine said, "It was end." And then just just the way the way he turned around and we just kind of froze me for a second and he turns back and he got back to me and kind of stepped up and this is the moment, you know, the low voice, the hiss, this was sure to chill the soul and you know, make sure that nothing ever happened to her. I know what you've been doing the plaro.

He is referring to the alleged sexual abuse here, abuse that never happened.

I know I even heard her and do not go here, not going to get away with it. Then something happens according to Kyle and it changes everything. That's when my head decided it was taken to take a spin to the to my right because has one might expect to, he's back into the holy shit out of me.

“And let me just ask, is there any rage or anger inside of you now? Is that part of this?”

Right now, no. Right now it's up to this point, it's everything is, everything is very quiet.

And he slaps you. Yeah, and then he hits me. And that's when things

now it's not so much anger as it is. They hurt what I was with you. It's fear or anything else. And does the slap validate that he hurts people? Yeah, it makes everything real in that moment. I just told him I know his secret and he hit me. I just told him I know that he's accusing his daughter and that I know he's finding one hurting her. He knows all the things he said,

how he knows all the things I don't know that he said to her. But I just told him I know about it. He just hit me. Now it's real, now it's now it's, this is what it is. Does he know you have the sword with you? I hadn't brandished it or anything. It's not like it's hidden. It's, you know, it's

right there. All my hip words can be seen.

“I remember when he hit me, my right hand flops down and the handle of my sword isn't my hand.”

He hit me hard enough that the sword was loosened the scabbard. He hit me so hard that my body twisted and it, the, the sword just, you know, was meaning under momentum. The sword's in my hand. It sounds as though Kyle is saying that the sword just somehow wound up in his hand without him reaching for it. In my view, maybe justifying what is about to happen next. Keep in mind, there are only two of them in the house and Dr. Schwartz does not make it out

alive as we know. So Kyle can, in retrospect, say whatever the hell he wants. I draw up the rest of the way out and I bring it back and I just, I just attack. So with all my head is, I was the fuck, you know, he's gonna kill me here, you know, he's gonna kill the players and danger. I, this is it. So let's get this straight. Kyle is holding a 27-inch

“razor-sharp sword and claims he feels threatened as if his life is in danger.”

I last y'all, I catch a minute calls the back of the neck and there's some, some thought in my fucking head that I was aiming for the back of his neck because that was doing a paralyzing. From there, they begin fighting. We struggle. He manages to get behind me. And now for all my talk of all my thoughts of being a badass

chest going on. I'm not a big intimidating guy, I'm a lanky, scorny, little fucking teenager

with really, really big solutions. If you guys, this is, let's handle back my neck. He's got his right hand on my sword.

“I remember seeing the way his hand was gripping the blade. So I, I see it and he's trying to”

force the blade out of my hand. And I remember thinking, what idiot grabs the naked blade. I use the blade to his hand, flip it around and drive it over my right hand. It's fine to sway him. It goes in. He goes, you know, he lets go on my neck. I pull out, spin around, and if he's double in over, I catch him with blade again across the back.

But what I want to do is, I don't want to show you guys the whole studio.

The master-by-tack leapt up the head of the internet. He's like, "I'm so sorry, you can't do that." You're a master-by-tack, right? But you don't do that. Exactly. The man is jealous. He's just like a master-by-tack. And if he's done working,

“he's catching. -That's right. -Safe. He's like a master-by-tack.”

Now, let's try it out. I'm proud of myself to find witnesses who could point to a killer. She thought she was going to be a hero. But that's not what happened. The lies, the lot of lies.

What were Susan's real motives? She was in the internet and found the killer. Why then did the cops take her seriously? Was known that she was getting funds from them? Susan's son is wrestling with his mother's legacy to this day.

I mean, my mom was, I used to wear diabolical. And perhaps the biggest question of all is, "Did she help convict an innocent man?" "I do feel like that they got the wrong people." From Sony Music Entertainment and Message Herd, this is my mother's lies, coming April 1st to the bench,

search for it, wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Subscribers to the bench can listen to all episodes all at once, add free. As if describing a scene from HBO's Game of Thrones, Kyle Yulber just told me how he struck Dr. Schwartz with his sword and made several slashes across the back of his neck on the evening of December 8th, 2001. He's depicting a fight and struggle while placing himself in the position of having to defend

his life after Schwartz backhanded him. Remember, Dr. Schwartz was stabbed more than 30 times, suggesting a frenzied overkill, which when asked, Kyle either does not remember or glazes over. I bring up those strikes on the back of Dr. Schwartz's neck, looking very much like a deliberate "X" Kyle carved on the man.

Was that on purpose or did that just happen? That just happened. The first part of the first part would have come from the from the first hit that was called the back of his neck, and then when I stabbed him in the gut after pulling the blade through his hand, he doubled over, I spun around and kind of overhand

“chopped. That's what the X would have been made. Kyle has just told me that the X on the back of Schwartz's”

neck happened randomly, except I do not buy any of it for one minute. I have seen many photos of the X on the back of the Drs' neck, and there is no chance it could have happened by accident. Plus, Kyle's story evolves with additional violent details, suggesting to me he is revealing less

than the whole story, which is normal in a situation like this. Because killers always minimize

their role after the fact. We break apart, and he's between me and the door, and there's no fight

This is done. Because of course, you know, of course, that's where I all land, you know, if I

didn't tell you, "Hey, I did my hits, you did your hits, you know, now we know, now we just live here, we know what we stand." My point above, Kyle is the one who is scared. He blames Schwartz for blocking the door. He speaks of hits as if Schwartz had a chance against an 18-year-old boy with a damn sword. Kyle seems to be suggesting that this is some honorable battle between two warriors.

Just like one of his fantasies, and he just smiles at me. You know, you see that kind of bullshit

in a thousand movies, and he charges, and that's the moment where it's, I'm going to die here tonight.

“We catch him with an elbow. I taste blood. Now, Kyle is the one who is afraid of dying?”

And I'm not sure what's going on after that, because as a part of me that feels that I should feel all of this, remember how horrible it is. I haven't seasoned the work for it, but it's the closest one I can give you. I should feel this pain. I should feel what I did. But I can't, I can't, this part is just a lower emotion and rage, and just, I remember saying it clears my mind more anything else is the thought of my blade hitting the, the hardwood floor on the other side of his body.

He's faced down on the ground. I'm standing over him, and, you know, my blade is stuck in the floor.

“Dr. Schwartz was not a small person, and I put this blade all the way through him according to”

our toss of course. I, I, that perfect is inspired by three or four times, and I can smell blood. More than as, there's a, there's almost sweet smell from the blood caramelizing in the frying pan, a little on the stove. I went into kitchen area, and I can smell it, and I can hear everything just so clear. I mean, everything's in. It's all at once, and there's too much of it. Just too much of everything. In this moment Kyle explains, one of his voices suddenly begins to talk to him.

Nicky Davis says that Dr. Schwartz is last, and we need to leave too.

“I find it ironic that the only thought from beginning to end with this irrational violent episode”

that even approaches a sane response comes from one of the voices created by mental illness in

Kyle's mind, a fictional voice who never wanted him to go there in the first place.

And stupidest thought crosses my mind. I'm looking at my hands and I'm looking at the blade and I'm thinking, "Wow, that's, I got to clean this." I mean, I'm not even thinking about the fact I just killed him, and I am not even nothing else is just, my blade is starting to add to clean this. I went to the hospital and she was my sword and at least, I don't even, I don't even take that I'm there for you. While Kyle expresses a feeling of disassociation of not being present,

for the dreadful things he has done, he is present enough to feel sorry for himself and try to present himself as some sort of a victim. As if the act of murder itself has already punished him. We're going to get slapped in the face a couple of branches. Now I've moved from Mania to almost Catatonia in my way I'm feeling like nothing is registering

Mike's vehicle stuck in the mud and Mike and Katie trying to get the vehicle unstuck.

“This is the moment where he resets his brain to start moving and working with the others”

to get the car out of the driveway and away from the scene of the crime. He seems quite capable of pulling himself back into reality when he has to. While leaving a man, a good man, bleeding to death inside his kitchen. And then within just 10 minutes, the killer will be sitting with two elderly neighbors of Dr. Schwartz's drinking tea and eating crumpets chatting about every day

things while waiting for a tow truck, like it's just another day in the life.

Listening to what Kyle is telling us and the play-by-play recollection of something so horrible, I can't help but feel that this all might somehow have been avoided.

“Kyle had a history of aggression and disassociative behavior and a lot of people knew about it”

and in fact, his sister Natasha had a feeling of absolute dread as soon as Kyle was emancipated by the state of Virginia. Dr. Schwartz was stabbed to death three months later.

I just started having this feeling horrible feeling that something terrible with Kyle

was coming and I didn't know what it was. I just knew something was coming and something was going to happen. When she heard the news of his arrest, Natasha could not hold back her disappointment. She felt social services could have done more. I told you guys something horrible was going to happen and something horrible was coming and nobody wanted to listen. By you guys, Natasha is referring to the court system as a whole and the judge who allowed Kyle's emancipation.

Why didn't you guys want to listen to me? I told you something was coming but all you guys told me was it was all in my head and look what happened. Kyle committed murder. What's more, Kyle's own father had warned the court on the day of his emancipation, quote, "You let him out on his own, he will kill someone. But nobody, listen." Kyle's confession was a watershed moment in the investigation.

It was chilling and ruthless and expressed in a tone once described as "the banality of evil." Even with his confession, lead investigator Greg Locke needed more. He didn't know if Kyle had acted alone or if the murder victim's own daughter was involved. Her old boyfriend Patrick Kaust had explained how Clara had tried to coerce him to kill her father. Locke wanted answers from Clara. In December 2001, Locke had Clara, along with family members,

come into the station for a chat. The meeting was under the pretext of seeking more information from the whole family. Locke began by simply using the evidence against her. Quizzing Clara, about the $60 check, she had overnighted to Kyle a few days before the murder.

“This check not only became an important part of the investigation in showing her involvement,”

but also the fact that she overnighted it, indicated her desire to have this occur expediently. Locke pushed Clara on the reasons for sending Kyle the money in what it was for. Her primary response was for his phone card, but as we spoke more about it, was divulged that it was also for a do-rag, and I asked her what a do-rag was, and she said, "Well, that was to prevent any hair from being dropped at the scene."

Then she mentioned that there were gloves also purchased with the money that was set, and this was also to prevent any evidence being left at the scene.

and not leave any forensic evidence behind. Plainly positioning herself is being involved.

Locke dug deeper. So when I questioned her in more detail about her knowing the fact that Kyle had gone there to kill her father, she stated that she really didn't believe it, and didn't think that

“that was what was going to happen, that she honestly thought that it was for the phone card.”

But as we spoke in more detail, she eventually said that in her heart of hearts, she believed that Kyle was going there to kill her father. That was all locked needed to hear to know that Clara played a role. Maybe the main role still was hatred for her father, the only motive. So once the interview concluded with Clara, and I was escorting her and Michelle back to their

grandfather who was waiting in the break room, when we got to the break room, Clara said, "Can I speak to you alone for a minute?" and I said, "Sure, that's fine." So we stepped into a vacant hallway, and it was at that point Clara asked me, "Can she cut me out of the will?" and I said, "What do you mean?" and her response was, "Michelle is the executor of the estate. If she's pissed at me, can she cut me out of the will?" and I told her that

that would be a question that she would have to speak to an attorney about that that was not part of my purview, and she actually gave me a hug and thanked me. Incredibly, Clara just gave Lock her main motivation for killing her father. Greed. Lock now had more than enough evidence to get a search warrant for Clara's dorm room, which was when they were able to get their hands on Clara's journal.

Opening it up, glancing at it, Lock is stunned by one particular entry.

Regarding her father, Clara wrote, "He never loved me. I hate him. I feel no love only hatred,

“pure white hatred, and he deserves to die." Yet, there was one more piece of important evidence”

they recovered from her dorm. The computer became a wealth of information in the iM platform that she utilized to communicate with the other individuals. Clara's journal became a very important part of the investigation, specifically one entry stated, "I could kill someone and not care, but be glad I released the tension." And as early as 2000, she was stating, "People are smart, they'll figure it out, and she followed that up with suck it up and do it."

It took several additional months, but the loud and county sheriff's office was able to collect enough evidence to prove Clara Schwartz was the driving force behind this extremely brutal crime.

Absolutely, with this information in our minds, she had set this up and basically prompted

Carl to kill her father. The information that Clara provided also added great credence to her involvement, including the statement where she said, "In my heart of hearts, I knew that he was going there to kill my father." They arrested Clara Schwartz for the murder of her father in February 2002, but her case was not so clear-cut. Sure, they could place Kyle and Mike and Katie at the crime scene, allow them to testify against their leader, the Lord

of Chaos, but the evidence against Clara had some problems. Clara's was more circumstantial because Michael and Katie were cooperative and provided information that subsequently implicated Carl, as well as themselves, having gone there on that night. But Clara's was certainly more of a circumstantial case in some regard that was supported by the journal entries and computer

“items that she had. The question now was, would they be able to get a conviction against Clara?”

The alleged "mastermind" or did she have a plan the entire time, a rabbit up her sleeve perhaps,

Next time, in the final episode of Fatal Fantasy, was Clara actually suffering from mental illness

all along herself. Well, she thought he was trying to poison her or somehow killer, but you don't know whether that was a delusion? While the experts see a diabolical criminal "mastermind." In my opinion, Clara has the largest pandoneness and she's very narcissistic.

“I think she was afraid of father and might be getting ready to cut her out of the will,”

which made her want to hurry this long. Well, will a surprise witness prove to have

the most damning statement of all? The dark day is when, unfortunately, "Mr. Swartz" was killed. Clara had called me and she was talking to me, I guess, to create an alibi for herself. Don't want to wait for that next episode, you don't have to. Unlock all episodes of Fatal Fantasy,

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Check out the Binge channel page on Apple Podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn more. Fatal Fantasy is a production of Sony, music, entertainment, and, and William Phelps, LLC, written and executive produced by me. From Sony, music, entertainment, the executive producers are

“Jonathan Hirsch and Katherine St. Louis, our production manager is Samantha Allison. Jeremy Adair is”

my senior producer and script consultant Matt Russell my sound engineer. I use Epidemic Sound from Music and SFX. Sabrina, Karen. I have been listening to a new show from the Binge called Fatal Fantasy. I am obsessed. I need to know more. Tell me everything. It's a very shocking. It's like ultra weird crime story of a murder for a higher plot that, yeah, wait for it, leverage the dynamics

of the underworld and underworld being a medieval fantasy game. Wait, so it's live action, role playing gone wrong, horribly wrong. And you can binge all episodes now. Oh, my, that sounds so good. I know what I'm doing on my drive home today. Search for Fatal Fantasy and subscribe to the Binge Podcast channel on Apple Podcasts or at getthebinge.com. And then once you're done, you can listen to one of the over 60 true crime and investigative

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