April 30, 2025
Jeremy | Chapter 5 - Like a Little Kid
Meri is a housecleaner in North Florida. She didn’t know Jeremy. She just listened to Bone Valley. And she wrote him a letter.
Their friendship becomes a lifeline—something neither of them expected, and both of them needed. Through Meri, we see Jeremy as someone craving connection, terrified of being unloved, and trying to become a man his son might one day want to know.
When Jeremy finds out Justin wants to talk, it’s as if something inside him shifts. For the first time, there’s hope. A chance to become the version of himself he never thought possible.
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Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.
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00:00:16
Speaker 1: Well, because I clean.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: I listened to a lot of podcasts to get through the day, and I kind of exhausted all the good ones, of course Cereal, and went through all those pretty fast.
00:00:27
Speaker 3: Mary West has had many jobs and worn many hats. She's in her sixties now and living in northern Florida, where these days she cleans houses.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: I did it when the kids were in school so that I could go on field trips or go to their swim meets or whatever.
00:00:46
Speaker 1: I like cleaning, actually, and so I've just stayed with it. I was just.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: Googling one day for like podcasts set in Florida, because I really just wanted to hear about local stuff.
00:00:59
Speaker 1: I guess you know, you came up.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: Like I would even agree to do a house I didn't want to do because I'd have four hours of uninterrupted listening. You know. The part of the podcast really, and it's still memorable, it is when you played the clip of Victoria Avalon.
00:01:25
Speaker 4: Mister Scott, this man. My name is Victoria Avalon. I'm the prosecutor in the case.
00:01:32
Speaker 3: Victoria Avalon is an assistant state attorney who questioned Jeremy Scott after he confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in a twenty seventeen evident Charry hearing right.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: And she was questioning, Jeremy.
00:01:47
Speaker 4: Grandmother's dead right.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: Leave her out of this.
00:01:51
Speaker 4: Your grandmother's dead right as she is. She's the only one on earth that cared about you, wasn't she answer out loud? Yeah, no one's sending you any money.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: Correct, No, ma'am.
00:02:13
Speaker 1: You can't even afford to buy deodorant, can't you.
00:02:15
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, you can't even buy deodorant, can you?
00:02:20
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, she's just she was harsh. I thought, man, that's awful.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: I just felt so bad for Jeremy. So I thought, well, I want to send Jeremy some money, like twenty dollars.
00:02:35
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know, do.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: You remember the first letter what you said to him?
00:02:39
Speaker 1: I think it was right around Christmas, and I don't know.
00:02:44
Speaker 2: I just said he was that I thought he had done the right thing to confess what he had done.
00:02:52
Speaker 1: I knew it had to be hard, and that.
00:02:54
Speaker 2: I felt bad because he had said he felt like he slept with ghosts that night, and that was just wanting to help a downtrodden person. Really, I didn't have any plans to keep writing him like that.
00:03:10
Speaker 3: You know, do you remember the first letter that Jeremy sent to you?
00:03:17
Speaker 1: Well, I have it. Oh right here, let me see.
00:03:30
Speaker 5: You my mind, I have to have my feet sorrow step sorry this.
00:03:47
Speaker 6: In this vista see.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: To things.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: Things Bone Valley, Season two, Jeremy, Chapter five, Like a little kid. When Mary first decided to write Jeremy a letter, she wasn't sure how to reach him or where he was. In order to deposit funds into an inmates canteen, the Florida doc has to approve you. So I helped her navigate the protocols. She sent Jeremi a letter, got approved, then deposited a little money for deodorant and toothpaste. She assumed that would be the end of that, but Jeremy wrote.
00:05:09
Speaker 1: Her back January thirty first.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: Christmas had passed and it was the beginning of a new year, twenty twenty three. One day she was picking up her mail and there it was.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: I think it's on like a half a piece of paper because he didn't have any money to buy paper.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: It's torn at the bottom.
00:05:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead and read.
00:05:31
Speaker 1: It, okay.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: So January thirty first, twenty twenty three, Dear miss West, I just want to let you know that I received your letter and to let you know that you were approved. I've been trying to find out who you were. I even sent a letter to mister King, the one that did the podcast on me. I have not had anyone to write me in over ten years now since my grandma passed away, so I kind of give up on hearing from family. I hope that you can understand my spelling and writing. I haven't wrote for so long, and it's hard writing on paper like this because it doesn't have any lines on it. Oh and yes, I did like your Christmas card. You were the only one to send me one. Thank you.
00:06:22
Speaker 1: You said that you want to put some money in my account. Well, I'll give you my word.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: I will buy stamps and writing paper if you got me off podcast. You should know what I am in prison for. I've been locked up since nineteen eighty eight. I was nineteen and I went to prison in nineteen eighty nine.
00:06:45
Speaker 1: Have been here since. I'm fifty three.
00:06:48
Speaker 2: Years old now and right now I'm on cm IE Lockdown.
00:06:56
Speaker 3: As soon as she started getting letters from Jeremy, Mary agreed to send me voice memos talking me through them. What really struck me in those early letters was how surprised Jeremy was to be hearing from her.
00:07:11
Speaker 2: He says, can I ask you something? I ain't never had anyone to want to help me. And now, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to know. He didn't say why, but I'm guessing he meant to say why, but thank you, and I hope you are well in doing good.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: Something else that stood out. It seemed like Jeremy wanted to prove to Mary that he was worthy of her time, her letters, and her attention.
00:07:40
Speaker 2: In the beginning, he would send me exactly what he bought a canteen, you know, to show me that he was spending his money wisely.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: When Jeremy was a younger man in prison, his family was still writing and visiting, but then they stopped. Now, all of a sudden, he had someone new in his life, and it seemed important him to be accountable to her.
00:08:02
Speaker 2: Like here's that he sent a receipt of something. He said, I still have four dollars I can use. He said, I did buy degodurant and another bar of soap, and I just wanted to let you know that I use that money for the good.
00:08:24
Speaker 3: In those early letters, Jeremy and Mary are just getting to know each other.
00:08:30
Speaker 2: The third letter I got from Jeremy, we've talked about football, Gardner Minshew specifically because that is one person in football that I know about, because he's pretty hot.
00:08:46
Speaker 3: At first, he's writing once a week or maybe every two weeks.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: I got to say.
00:08:51
Speaker 2: His handwriting is really good at slants evenly and pretty consistently to the right. It's incursive for some who never made it through high school. He doesn't have a lot of misspellings, so my thought is that he puts a lot of time and effort into his letters.
00:09:15
Speaker 3: By April, Jeremy is writing all the time, sometimes every three days.
00:09:21
Speaker 2: I just wanted to drop a line so that you would have a letter from me, and then a little smiley face drawn on the paper.
00:09:31
Speaker 3: The letters get more personal.
00:09:34
Speaker 2: I hate being behind this door all day, but I'm doing everything I can to get off CM.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: And then he says.
00:09:43
Speaker 3: Mary asks him about his family and the people he used to know on the outside.
00:09:47
Speaker 2: He said, you ask if I heard from my son's mama, and I have not since my son was twelve years old.
00:09:57
Speaker 1: Her name was Jamie C. Allen.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: I learned she got married, so I don't know her last name. I still have family, they just don't write me. I don't know where they are. My own mom doesn't write me. My son justin m Allen, I don't know where he is anymore. It's hard to think about them, knowing that they are my blood family and won't even let me know how the family are. I just don't know what else I can do. I wrote my Aunt Debbie in May.
00:10:33
Speaker 3: The letters ramp up even more.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: He talks about Missus, his grandma.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: He asked me one time if I could get a picture of her gravestone.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: Mary wasn't able to find her gravestone, but she was able to find her Aleene's obituary. It had a picture of her. Mary printed it out and sent a copy of it to Jeremy.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: He wrote back, I was looking at that picture of Grandma and I used to have the same picture. When I was in prison in Miami. They lost all my stuff. I had another picture of me, Aunt Debbie and Grandma when they came to visit me once in some picture of my son and others as well, but now I have none. Thank you for sending what you could and finding out what you could. Again, he asked, what, I please find out his grandma's birth date, and I'm not sure I ever did, so I'm going to follow up on that. Then he said, I also understand that you found some news about my brother.
00:11:35
Speaker 3: Looking at Mary also did what she could to connect Jeremy with other family members, just like I did last time I checked. Royal Dean Scott was in prison himself in Alabama. In Alabama, Mary found his mugshot online and sent that to Jeremy.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: As well, that's my little brother. I would know that face anywhere.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: Exclamation mark, exclamation mark, And he said he had last seen him when he was about thirty five, and he must be fifty two or three.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: Now it's clear how much these family connections mean to Jeremy.
00:12:07
Speaker 2: Dated May sixteen, twenty twenty three, he thanked me again for sending the obituary, and he said he was looking at it again and rereading it.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the obituary.
00:12:19
Speaker 2: She was strong, never turn her back on anyone, always trying to help if she could. Sometimes we don't think about stuff that she did for us all, and I feel bad it took me thirty four years to understand what Grandma had been telling me. I will always remember the good times I had with her. If you find out anything else or get any other pictures, would you please send them? He said, you know you're really the only person that writes me. Basically, it was just me and mister King that were writing him.
00:12:59
Speaker 1: He says, I also want you to know that I really appreciate everything you have done for me.
00:13:10
Speaker 2: I still find myself sometimes looking for help. Sometimes it's good to talk. I hope that you've had a great weekend. Take care of Jeremy Scott.
00:13:26
Speaker 3: From his letters, Mary has learned even more than I have about Jeremy's childhood.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: He said that as a kid he used to have fun in foster homes, never staying long, always getting himself in trouble, and he said, I think that I might have been in more foster homes than any other kid growing up. Some were good and some were real bad. I just wish none of this had ever happened. I never met my dad, don't even know who he was. I asked my mom, but she would never tell me. My mom was a kid when I was born. I think she just turned fifteen years old. Then I was raised by my grandma and grandpa.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: I live with it.
00:14:14
Speaker 2: It does hurt, but I learned some time ago that you have no one to blame but yourself.
00:14:20
Speaker 1: But it still hurt. I never did grow up.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: Even now, I at my age, I still feel like a kid. I'm always thinking things like a kid. Maybe there is something wrong with my head.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: During the sentencing phase of the Donald moorehead trial, when he was nineteen years old, Jeremy listened to his aunt Debbie, describe him as slow, with a mind that wanders like a nine year old child.
00:14:49
Speaker 2: They always said, even in court, that I had the mind of a nine year old. He does say that when he looks back that he can see how stupid he was and he never did things the right way until it was too late. He did say, ever since he was six, seven or eight years old, he always felt like something was wrong with them in the head, and that he always felt like people were putting him down or making fun of him, and that it hurts real bad. That's one of the reasons that he doesn't go too many groups or anger management classes.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: He said he did try those.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: And it didn't work, and all it did was get him in more trouble, so now he just tries to work out his problems in his head. I'm sorry for my dog barking in the background. I have two dogs that don't get along. I had told him about I was dog sitting one of my cleaning clients, three rockweilers, and he said he was familiar with them and he liked having dogs when he was a kid. And he put a little smiley face, which he doesn't do very often.
00:16:16
Speaker 1: He comes around a lot.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: Then he says, oh, I really want to get an education, and education is printed in all caps.
00:16:25
Speaker 3: Jeremy was barely literate when he was sent to death row. It sounds like that's where he finally tried to learn.
00:16:32
Speaker 2: He mentioned the old man who taught him to read when he was on death row from eighty nine to ninety three, and he said, an old man was teaching me, and if school could teach me the way he did, I could have been a new person. I can't remember his full name. I always called him mister Jackson. He was good at helping, not just me, but others as well. He is a black man, about sixty five years of age, maybe sixty eight, and he didn't care what color your skin was.
00:17:10
Speaker 1: I never saw him again.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: I heard he got off death wrote someone told me that he had died, but he says that may not be true because he heard rumors that he himself, Jeremy, had died in two thousand and two. I had ordered him a ged study book, and he said that should really be fun, because I suck at everything. I only went to the sixth grade and I never got past it math. I don't know at all. I mean, I can add, and that's about all I've ever learned. The next letter, he said that he got the three books I sent, and he said, I don't know that I can do this. It looks really hard, but I'm going to try.
00:17:57
Speaker 1: He says.
00:17:57
Speaker 2: Remember I told you that I only went to the sixth grade. He said, really, I only went to the fourth grade, but they moved him up to the sixth because of his age. I sent him a math book on top of that, and that I had. I sent him one that was fourth and fifth grade math, and I felt bad doing it because it looks like a kid's book, and I didn't want him to feel, you know, embarrassed. I don't know what the other prisoners see, or you know, if they make fun of him for.
00:18:26
Speaker 1: Things like that.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: You know. When I'm more reflective about what is going on here about me and Jeremy writing letters, I kind of think, like, Mary, you're insane because here you are talking to him basically a mass murderer, and worrying about whether he's going to feel bad because you sent him a fairly childish kind of book.
00:18:57
Speaker 1: So who knows.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: Truthfully, I just don't think about it too much. I just just write the letters, you know, as if he's any other person in my life, maybe like a brother or something. Anyway, So he says he can't do the math, and he guess he's gonna have to just read it real slow and try real hard and maybe something will come to him.
00:19:30
Speaker 3: Between the ged books Mary sins and the paperback novels that I send him, it still sounds like he can't get enough to read.
00:19:38
Speaker 2: Mary, you told me that mister King is gonna mail me the Game of Thrones three four and five. Does he know how to order the books from the bookstore? You might have to let him know. The next letter I got was dated May ninth, two thousand and three, and insight on the very front he had written in big letters it said, Happy Mothers Day, Mary.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: Sometimes Jeremy's letters are just his stream of consciousness what it's like to spend day after day in prison.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: He said that the last two or three days it's been raining real hard, and it was cool for a while. I was just thinking about summer, and when it gets here, it will be really hot. The bad thing is we have to wear our blues all day from seven am to four thirty pm. I just wet my blue shirt and then put it back on and sit under the window and try to stay cool.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: He says.
00:20:39
Speaker 2: He washes his own shirt and pants because if he turns them in, they never come back clean, and they often just give you another pair, and they don't always fit the same. So he washes them himself and that way he knows they are clean. Then he writes, I try to write a letter like most people do, but when I'm done re read what I just wrote, it never sounds right. I just don't want you to think that I ain't trying. He says he felt pretty good right now, it's not as hot and he's clean. He's going to clean his floor, and he said, he takes off his blues and will lay right under his window and the rain comes in just a little bit and hits him in the face and feels good and cool. He said, I did this last night and then went to sleep. I hope everything is good and you are well and don't work so hard.
00:21:51
Speaker 3: By summer. Jeremy and Mary are also talking on the phone.
00:21:56
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's August. Well, shit, it's September twelfth.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: But my phone call with Jeremy, the last one I had was August fifteenth of twenty twenty four anyway, so I was not expecting a call from Jeremy because I had not written him in a while. He said that he was fine. That he gets two times a week he gets to go outside for an hour. But he said the cell was small. It was about eight feet long and seven feet wide. And he said he is able to shake hands with the cell MAT's next door to him, but that right now he has no neighbors on either side of him, which sometimes he likes because it's quieter. But sometimes, you know, you miss the interaction. And the operator was saying, you know, our time was running out, so that's how.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: We ended it. Yeah, I just I wonder what that's like for Jeremy. Just to know that somebody's going to be checking in. I feel like that has to be significant for him, probably, but it might be a I don't know.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: Not everybody wants to be, you know, micromanaged by a mother, So.
00:23:28
Speaker 1: Uh do you ever feel that, like you're just yeah, I do.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: I worry about him. It's like a it's like a parental thing. I'll ask him, has he easy versh in his teeth and taking vitamins and all that, you know, you know, has he been to a dentist or does he need glasses?
00:23:46
Speaker 3: In my calls with him, Jeremy always asks for updates on Leo's case, and when I let him know that Leo had a big hearing coming up that could lead to his release, he wrote to Marry about it.
00:23:57
Speaker 2: Mister King told me that Leo's parole here his next week and he is going to be there.
00:24:03
Speaker 1: I hope things turn out good for Leo.
00:24:06
Speaker 3: Jeremy will never see the day where he's actually par old. But he tells Mary how much it means to him for Leo to be released from prison, you know.
00:24:15
Speaker 1: Of his own accord, he said that.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: He had heard that Leo had been married and he was sure hoping they would let him out soon, and that he did everything he could think of to help him. But Polk County, it's just really bad. And he said it's hard to undo or right or wrong. And you know that's pretty profound coming from Jeremy, but also true life is so fucked up. Now look at Leo. They really didn't want to even hear Leo's case. No matter how much we try, they just they won't even listen. When will people just say stop, let's look at this.
00:25:12
Speaker 3: In the spring of twenty twenty four, Leo was finally released from prison. Mary talked to Jeremy on the phone not long after.
00:25:21
Speaker 1: Oh, I guess it's this.
00:25:23
Speaker 2: From that call, he said he met Leo's former roommate and he said he can't remember his name, but the man was coming around doing some kind of education thing with the prison and he said he had been Leo's roommate for seven years, and he thought that was really cool, and he asked the guy to tell Leo that he wished him well and all that. And I feel like I'm getting chills as I even say this, because.
00:25:50
Speaker 3: He's a murderer, but.
00:25:54
Speaker 2: You know, I really think he cares about Leo. And he seems very sincere when he said stuff like that, like he was really he was really impressed. He was talking to somebody who actually knew Leo.
00:26:06
Speaker 7: I just really get the feeling though he.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: Cares about Leo, and that's just I don't know.
00:26:11
Speaker 7: I'm not even stoned or drinking, but maybe I shouldn't be anyway. I hate the way this has turned out and wish it had never happened like this. I hope someday I will come face to face with Leo so I can look at him and say I'm sorry for what I did. Yes, I still don't sleep good at night and have bad dreams, but not as bad as they were once I have learned to deal with it.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: I just wish none of this had ever happened.
00:26:57
Speaker 3: Jeremy's not just concerned for Leo, shows a lot of concern for Mary, who is being treated for cancer.
00:27:04
Speaker 2: He thanks me for writing ask about my health, and I have to say that in my letters I sound like my grandparents talking about my pneumonia, my brusiitis and arthritis, and I really need to jazz up my topics just.
00:27:21
Speaker 1: A little bit.
00:27:23
Speaker 3: She shares her own health updates with him and how her chemotherapy treatments can leave her feeling exhausted. She shares a lot with him.
00:27:31
Speaker 2: Actually, I must have had car trouble and mentioned it because he said something about get your car fixed, because you don't want to be driving down the road in the middle of anywhere and it not work. Get it fixed.
00:27:45
Speaker 3: And sometimes in Jeremy's letters back, you can hear his anguish when he thinks about losing this connection with her.
00:27:54
Speaker 2: I didn't write him back right away, evidently because he said I'm glad to hear from you. I thought you just stopped writing me. I should have known better than that you ate like most people. I'm sorry for thinking that you would. What I did was wrong. I took a life and for that I will never get out almost thirty five years in here. This is my home. I have to learn to live with it. I just hope that you don't feel that way about me. I can't stop you or blame you for not wanting to write me. People really don't know me at all. I have tried to tell people about me, but they always looked down at me as a killer. Would you please do me a favor. I'm not saying you well but if you do stop stop writing, please write and tell me one day like talking about this kind of stuff though all these years, people just up and stop writing, even though they said they wouldn't. I don't blame anyone my family or friends. They all have their own life now out there and their own families. I just wanted to say this. It's been on my mind all week.
00:29:33
Speaker 3: It was around this time that they gave Jeremy some exciting news about his family.
00:29:39
Speaker 2: Dear Mary, Mister King told me something that it about knocked me out. Dear Mary, mister King told me something that it about knocked me out. He told me that he talked to my son Justin, and he said that Justin listened to the podcast and he wants to write me. I have lived for this day to come. I haven't wrote him since he was twelve or thirteen. I never understand why or what happened. I really thought that I would never hear from him again. I can't wait to hear from him, so much to say to him.
00:30:34
Speaker 1: Mary, I'm just full of it right now.
00:30:39
Speaker 2: When mister King told me that he talked to my son, I just lost it. I follow his birthday every year, March fifth from nineteen eighty nine. I don't even know what he looks like, how tall he is, how long his hair might be, if it's straight. I go to bed asking Justin to forgive me for my sins and for not being there for him all these years later, my son wants to write and talk with me. I'm sorry, Mary, I just don't understand this feeling I'm going through.
00:31:14
Speaker 1: I just needed.
00:31:15
Speaker 2: Someone to talk with, and you are my only friend, he said. I'm acting like a little kid.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: Sorry.
00:31:21
Speaker 2: I will write again. I hope things are good there and well for you. Take care of Jeremy.
00:31:33
Speaker 3: Justin is all Jeremy wants to talk and write about.
00:31:37
Speaker 2: Oh. He had started talking to mister King about Justin, and he said, the way mister King talks, he sounds like a smart young man.
00:31:47
Speaker 1: I guess I will find out soon.
00:31:49
Speaker 3: You can't stop thinking and wondering about his son and this family. He knows so little about.
00:31:55
Speaker 1: Dear Mary. It was good to talk with you.
00:31:58
Speaker 2: Evidently we had a phone call, he said. He got an email from mister King and missus Kelsey saying they were in Florida and that they had met Justin.
00:32:08
Speaker 1: My son and his son vow.
00:32:10
Speaker 2: You got a kount of slow. Why you ready? Why he is two years old?
00:32:19
Speaker 1: That makes me a grandpa. I didn't even know that Justin had kids. He listens to the podcast twice.
00:32:27
Speaker 2: Mister King said, I hope it doesn't stop him from writing to me. Mister King said that he wants to visit me, and he also wants to meet some of my family.
00:32:38
Speaker 1: I never thought I would be a grandpa.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: I hope someday that I will meet both my son and grandson. Mister King told me that he was watching Justin play with his son at the playground.
00:32:51
Speaker 1: He said, Justin is a dedicated father.
00:32:54
Speaker 2: Justin has a girlfriend who has three daughters of her own, so he.
00:32:57
Speaker 1: Is doing good.
00:32:59
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that he never fell down that bad, dark road that I did. I wish things weren't like this. I really want to know him, I mean everything. I'm gonna be waiting for him to write me. Oh you tell me here too.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: I can't be happier. Thank you. Okay, that's it for this time.
00:33:28
Speaker 3: Hearing how excited Jeremy is about Justin makes me realize just how much he's missed his son's entire life thirty five years Jeremy has never had to navigate a relationship like this, and I don't know if he has the tools to do it. What if he overwhelms Justin? What if he drives him away? What if in trying so hard to hold on, he ends up making things even worse for himself.
00:33:56
Speaker 2: Well, mister King is still in touch with my son, so I guess he's trying to put what he wants to say on paper.
00:34:04
Speaker 1: I know it's hard for him.
00:34:05
Speaker 2: He's he's going to write, I will be writing. I'm still working on a letter to him, so I know it's hard.
00:34:14
Speaker 3: I was hearing from both Jeremy and Justin that they were writing and rewriting drafts of letters to each other. Justin was unsure of how to find the right words for a father he'd never known, and Jeremy wasn't sure how to talk to his son he'd never held in his arms.
00:34:31
Speaker 2: I tried to do what you told me about writing my son. It's harder than I thought. I'm still working on it. I don't know anything about him. I don't want to lose him, not after all these years. I'm going to keep at it, Okay. I hope that I get a letter tonight from you or anyone. It feels good to hear from someone. Well, I just wanted to talk to you again. I hope to hear from you soon. Get your car fixed in capital letters and parentheses and then a smiley face, Take care, Jeremy all.
00:35:07
Speaker 3: Scoped with Mary's help. Jeremy is trying to be his best self, hoping Justin will recognize his effort and honesty. So you know that there's no possibility that Jeremy's really going to ever get out of prison.
00:35:21
Speaker 1: Right, and he knows it too.
00:35:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, what do you envision the rest of his life could look like?
00:35:29
Speaker 2: Well, I think it would be well. I would like to see him get a visit, a visit from his son. That would be like a big high point of his life.
00:35:48
Speaker 3: Finally, Jeremy managed to write his letter to Justin.
00:35:53
Speaker 1: He might not write me at all. I hope that he does.
00:35:57
Speaker 2: I ain't mad if he doesn't. He has a life to live out there. I'm just going over things in my head, that's all. And he says, I hate that. Sometimes I just get this feeling. Sometime I try not to let it get me down. I'm going to put my game of thrones down for a while and try to read these others about the dogs. And then he says, take care of Jeremy Scott. And then later there's a ps and he says, you're going to make me cry all over again, old Yeller. And he did tell me later in a phone call that he did, in fact cry because you know it's old Yeller and it's a really good story.
00:36:41
Speaker 3: Jeremy sent his letter for Justin to me so I could deliver it in person. He asked me to.
00:36:52
Speaker 1: Give you this. Is this like his handwriting or is it that's his? Everything?
00:36:56
Speaker 3: Is his handwriting? Next Time. Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One. Our executive producers are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wordis. Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Jackie Pauley and Hannah Biel are our producers. Britz Spangler is our sound designer. Marianne mcune is our editor. Fact checking by Dania Suleman. Jeff Cliburn is our head of marketing and operations. Our Social media director is Ismati Guardrama. Our social media manager is Sarah Gibbons and our art director is Andrew Nelson. Additional research and production by Kelsey Decker. Additional sound recording by James Johnson. Bone Valley is written and produced by me Gilbert King. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads at Lava for Good
Speaker 1: Well, because I clean.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: I listened to a lot of podcasts to get through the day, and I kind of exhausted all the good ones, of course Cereal, and went through all those pretty fast.
00:00:27
Speaker 3: Mary West has had many jobs and worn many hats. She's in her sixties now and living in northern Florida, where these days she cleans houses.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: I did it when the kids were in school so that I could go on field trips or go to their swim meets or whatever.
00:00:46
Speaker 1: I like cleaning, actually, and so I've just stayed with it. I was just.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: Googling one day for like podcasts set in Florida, because I really just wanted to hear about local stuff.
00:00:59
Speaker 1: I guess you know, you came up.
00:01:05
Speaker 2: Like I would even agree to do a house I didn't want to do because I'd have four hours of uninterrupted listening. You know. The part of the podcast really, and it's still memorable, it is when you played the clip of Victoria Avalon.
00:01:25
Speaker 4: Mister Scott, this man. My name is Victoria Avalon. I'm the prosecutor in the case.
00:01:32
Speaker 3: Victoria Avalon is an assistant state attorney who questioned Jeremy Scott after he confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in a twenty seventeen evident Charry hearing right.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: And she was questioning, Jeremy.
00:01:47
Speaker 4: Grandmother's dead right.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: Leave her out of this.
00:01:51
Speaker 4: Your grandmother's dead right as she is. She's the only one on earth that cared about you, wasn't she answer out loud? Yeah, no one's sending you any money.
00:02:04
Speaker 2: Correct, No, ma'am.
00:02:13
Speaker 1: You can't even afford to buy deodorant, can't you.
00:02:15
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, you can't even buy deodorant, can you?
00:02:20
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, she's just she was harsh. I thought, man, that's awful.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: I just felt so bad for Jeremy. So I thought, well, I want to send Jeremy some money, like twenty dollars.
00:02:35
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know, do.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: You remember the first letter what you said to him?
00:02:39
Speaker 1: I think it was right around Christmas, and I don't know.
00:02:44
Speaker 2: I just said he was that I thought he had done the right thing to confess what he had done.
00:02:52
Speaker 1: I knew it had to be hard, and that.
00:02:54
Speaker 2: I felt bad because he had said he felt like he slept with ghosts that night, and that was just wanting to help a downtrodden person. Really, I didn't have any plans to keep writing him like that.
00:03:10
Speaker 3: You know, do you remember the first letter that Jeremy sent to you?
00:03:17
Speaker 1: Well, I have it. Oh right here, let me see.
00:03:30
Speaker 5: You my mind, I have to have my feet sorrow step sorry this.
00:03:47
Speaker 6: In this vista see.
00:04:10
Speaker 2: To things.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: Things Bone Valley, Season two, Jeremy, Chapter five, Like a little kid. When Mary first decided to write Jeremy a letter, she wasn't sure how to reach him or where he was. In order to deposit funds into an inmates canteen, the Florida doc has to approve you. So I helped her navigate the protocols. She sent Jeremi a letter, got approved, then deposited a little money for deodorant and toothpaste. She assumed that would be the end of that, but Jeremy wrote.
00:05:09
Speaker 1: Her back January thirty first.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: Christmas had passed and it was the beginning of a new year, twenty twenty three. One day she was picking up her mail and there it was.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: I think it's on like a half a piece of paper because he didn't have any money to buy paper.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: It's torn at the bottom.
00:05:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead and read.
00:05:31
Speaker 1: It, okay.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: So January thirty first, twenty twenty three, Dear miss West, I just want to let you know that I received your letter and to let you know that you were approved. I've been trying to find out who you were. I even sent a letter to mister King, the one that did the podcast on me. I have not had anyone to write me in over ten years now since my grandma passed away, so I kind of give up on hearing from family. I hope that you can understand my spelling and writing. I haven't wrote for so long, and it's hard writing on paper like this because it doesn't have any lines on it. Oh and yes, I did like your Christmas card. You were the only one to send me one. Thank you.
00:06:22
Speaker 1: You said that you want to put some money in my account. Well, I'll give you my word.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: I will buy stamps and writing paper if you got me off podcast. You should know what I am in prison for. I've been locked up since nineteen eighty eight. I was nineteen and I went to prison in nineteen eighty nine.
00:06:45
Speaker 1: Have been here since. I'm fifty three.
00:06:48
Speaker 2: Years old now and right now I'm on cm IE Lockdown.
00:06:56
Speaker 3: As soon as she started getting letters from Jeremy, Mary agreed to send me voice memos talking me through them. What really struck me in those early letters was how surprised Jeremy was to be hearing from her.
00:07:11
Speaker 2: He says, can I ask you something? I ain't never had anyone to want to help me. And now, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to know. He didn't say why, but I'm guessing he meant to say why, but thank you, and I hope you are well in doing good.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: Something else that stood out. It seemed like Jeremy wanted to prove to Mary that he was worthy of her time, her letters, and her attention.
00:07:40
Speaker 2: In the beginning, he would send me exactly what he bought a canteen, you know, to show me that he was spending his money wisely.
00:07:48
Speaker 3: When Jeremy was a younger man in prison, his family was still writing and visiting, but then they stopped. Now, all of a sudden, he had someone new in his life, and it seemed important him to be accountable to her.
00:08:02
Speaker 2: Like here's that he sent a receipt of something. He said, I still have four dollars I can use. He said, I did buy degodurant and another bar of soap, and I just wanted to let you know that I use that money for the good.
00:08:24
Speaker 3: In those early letters, Jeremy and Mary are just getting to know each other.
00:08:30
Speaker 2: The third letter I got from Jeremy, we've talked about football, Gardner Minshew specifically because that is one person in football that I know about, because he's pretty hot.
00:08:46
Speaker 3: At first, he's writing once a week or maybe every two weeks.
00:08:51
Speaker 1: I got to say.
00:08:51
Speaker 2: His handwriting is really good at slants evenly and pretty consistently to the right. It's incursive for some who never made it through high school. He doesn't have a lot of misspellings, so my thought is that he puts a lot of time and effort into his letters.
00:09:15
Speaker 3: By April, Jeremy is writing all the time, sometimes every three days.
00:09:21
Speaker 2: I just wanted to drop a line so that you would have a letter from me, and then a little smiley face drawn on the paper.
00:09:31
Speaker 3: The letters get more personal.
00:09:34
Speaker 2: I hate being behind this door all day, but I'm doing everything I can to get off CM.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: And then he says.
00:09:43
Speaker 3: Mary asks him about his family and the people he used to know on the outside.
00:09:47
Speaker 2: He said, you ask if I heard from my son's mama, and I have not since my son was twelve years old.
00:09:57
Speaker 1: Her name was Jamie C. Allen.
00:10:00
Speaker 2: I learned she got married, so I don't know her last name. I still have family, they just don't write me. I don't know where they are. My own mom doesn't write me. My son justin m Allen, I don't know where he is anymore. It's hard to think about them, knowing that they are my blood family and won't even let me know how the family are. I just don't know what else I can do. I wrote my Aunt Debbie in May.
00:10:33
Speaker 3: The letters ramp up even more.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: He talks about Missus, his grandma.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: He asked me one time if I could get a picture of her gravestone.
00:10:47
Speaker 3: Mary wasn't able to find her gravestone, but she was able to find her Aleene's obituary. It had a picture of her. Mary printed it out and sent a copy of it to Jeremy.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: He wrote back, I was looking at that picture of Grandma and I used to have the same picture. When I was in prison in Miami. They lost all my stuff. I had another picture of me, Aunt Debbie and Grandma when they came to visit me once in some picture of my son and others as well, but now I have none. Thank you for sending what you could and finding out what you could. Again, he asked, what, I please find out his grandma's birth date, and I'm not sure I ever did, so I'm going to follow up on that. Then he said, I also understand that you found some news about my brother.
00:11:35
Speaker 3: Looking at Mary also did what she could to connect Jeremy with other family members, just like I did last time I checked. Royal Dean Scott was in prison himself in Alabama. In Alabama, Mary found his mugshot online and sent that to Jeremy.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: As well, that's my little brother. I would know that face anywhere.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: Exclamation mark, exclamation mark, And he said he had last seen him when he was about thirty five, and he must be fifty two or three.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: Now it's clear how much these family connections mean to Jeremy.
00:12:07
Speaker 2: Dated May sixteen, twenty twenty three, he thanked me again for sending the obituary, and he said he was looking at it again and rereading it.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the obituary.
00:12:19
Speaker 2: She was strong, never turn her back on anyone, always trying to help if she could. Sometimes we don't think about stuff that she did for us all, and I feel bad it took me thirty four years to understand what Grandma had been telling me. I will always remember the good times I had with her. If you find out anything else or get any other pictures, would you please send them? He said, you know you're really the only person that writes me. Basically, it was just me and mister King that were writing him.
00:12:59
Speaker 1: He says, I also want you to know that I really appreciate everything you have done for me.
00:13:10
Speaker 2: I still find myself sometimes looking for help. Sometimes it's good to talk. I hope that you've had a great weekend. Take care of Jeremy Scott.
00:13:26
Speaker 3: From his letters, Mary has learned even more than I have about Jeremy's childhood.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: He said that as a kid he used to have fun in foster homes, never staying long, always getting himself in trouble, and he said, I think that I might have been in more foster homes than any other kid growing up. Some were good and some were real bad. I just wish none of this had ever happened. I never met my dad, don't even know who he was. I asked my mom, but she would never tell me. My mom was a kid when I was born. I think she just turned fifteen years old. Then I was raised by my grandma and grandpa.
00:14:13
Speaker 1: I live with it.
00:14:14
Speaker 2: It does hurt, but I learned some time ago that you have no one to blame but yourself.
00:14:20
Speaker 1: But it still hurt. I never did grow up.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: Even now, I at my age, I still feel like a kid. I'm always thinking things like a kid. Maybe there is something wrong with my head.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: During the sentencing phase of the Donald moorehead trial, when he was nineteen years old, Jeremy listened to his aunt Debbie, describe him as slow, with a mind that wanders like a nine year old child.
00:14:49
Speaker 2: They always said, even in court, that I had the mind of a nine year old. He does say that when he looks back that he can see how stupid he was and he never did things the right way until it was too late. He did say, ever since he was six, seven or eight years old, he always felt like something was wrong with them in the head, and that he always felt like people were putting him down or making fun of him, and that it hurts real bad. That's one of the reasons that he doesn't go too many groups or anger management classes.
00:15:36
Speaker 1: He said he did try those.
00:15:38
Speaker 2: And it didn't work, and all it did was get him in more trouble, so now he just tries to work out his problems in his head. I'm sorry for my dog barking in the background. I have two dogs that don't get along. I had told him about I was dog sitting one of my cleaning clients, three rockweilers, and he said he was familiar with them and he liked having dogs when he was a kid. And he put a little smiley face, which he doesn't do very often.
00:16:16
Speaker 1: He comes around a lot.
00:16:17
Speaker 2: Then he says, oh, I really want to get an education, and education is printed in all caps.
00:16:25
Speaker 3: Jeremy was barely literate when he was sent to death row. It sounds like that's where he finally tried to learn.
00:16:32
Speaker 2: He mentioned the old man who taught him to read when he was on death row from eighty nine to ninety three, and he said, an old man was teaching me, and if school could teach me the way he did, I could have been a new person. I can't remember his full name. I always called him mister Jackson. He was good at helping, not just me, but others as well. He is a black man, about sixty five years of age, maybe sixty eight, and he didn't care what color your skin was.
00:17:10
Speaker 1: I never saw him again.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: I heard he got off death wrote someone told me that he had died, but he says that may not be true because he heard rumors that he himself, Jeremy, had died in two thousand and two. I had ordered him a ged study book, and he said that should really be fun, because I suck at everything. I only went to the sixth grade and I never got past it math. I don't know at all. I mean, I can add, and that's about all I've ever learned. The next letter, he said that he got the three books I sent, and he said, I don't know that I can do this. It looks really hard, but I'm going to try.
00:17:57
Speaker 1: He says.
00:17:57
Speaker 2: Remember I told you that I only went to the sixth grade. He said, really, I only went to the fourth grade, but they moved him up to the sixth because of his age. I sent him a math book on top of that, and that I had. I sent him one that was fourth and fifth grade math, and I felt bad doing it because it looks like a kid's book, and I didn't want him to feel, you know, embarrassed. I don't know what the other prisoners see, or you know, if they make fun of him for.
00:18:26
Speaker 1: Things like that.
00:18:32
Speaker 2: You know. When I'm more reflective about what is going on here about me and Jeremy writing letters, I kind of think, like, Mary, you're insane because here you are talking to him basically a mass murderer, and worrying about whether he's going to feel bad because you sent him a fairly childish kind of book.
00:18:57
Speaker 1: So who knows.
00:19:00
Speaker 2: Truthfully, I just don't think about it too much. I just just write the letters, you know, as if he's any other person in my life, maybe like a brother or something. Anyway, So he says he can't do the math, and he guess he's gonna have to just read it real slow and try real hard and maybe something will come to him.
00:19:30
Speaker 3: Between the ged books Mary sins and the paperback novels that I send him, it still sounds like he can't get enough to read.
00:19:38
Speaker 2: Mary, you told me that mister King is gonna mail me the Game of Thrones three four and five. Does he know how to order the books from the bookstore? You might have to let him know. The next letter I got was dated May ninth, two thousand and three, and insight on the very front he had written in big letters it said, Happy Mothers Day, Mary.
00:20:04
Speaker 3: Sometimes Jeremy's letters are just his stream of consciousness what it's like to spend day after day in prison.
00:20:12
Speaker 2: He said that the last two or three days it's been raining real hard, and it was cool for a while. I was just thinking about summer, and when it gets here, it will be really hot. The bad thing is we have to wear our blues all day from seven am to four thirty pm. I just wet my blue shirt and then put it back on and sit under the window and try to stay cool.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: He says.
00:20:39
Speaker 2: He washes his own shirt and pants because if he turns them in, they never come back clean, and they often just give you another pair, and they don't always fit the same. So he washes them himself and that way he knows they are clean. Then he writes, I try to write a letter like most people do, but when I'm done re read what I just wrote, it never sounds right. I just don't want you to think that I ain't trying. He says he felt pretty good right now, it's not as hot and he's clean. He's going to clean his floor, and he said, he takes off his blues and will lay right under his window and the rain comes in just a little bit and hits him in the face and feels good and cool. He said, I did this last night and then went to sleep. I hope everything is good and you are well and don't work so hard.
00:21:51
Speaker 3: By summer. Jeremy and Mary are also talking on the phone.
00:21:56
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's August. Well, shit, it's September twelfth.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: But my phone call with Jeremy, the last one I had was August fifteenth of twenty twenty four anyway, so I was not expecting a call from Jeremy because I had not written him in a while. He said that he was fine. That he gets two times a week he gets to go outside for an hour. But he said the cell was small. It was about eight feet long and seven feet wide. And he said he is able to shake hands with the cell MAT's next door to him, but that right now he has no neighbors on either side of him, which sometimes he likes because it's quieter. But sometimes, you know, you miss the interaction. And the operator was saying, you know, our time was running out, so that's how.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: We ended it. Yeah, I just I wonder what that's like for Jeremy. Just to know that somebody's going to be checking in. I feel like that has to be significant for him, probably, but it might be a I don't know.
00:23:23
Speaker 2: Not everybody wants to be, you know, micromanaged by a mother, So.
00:23:28
Speaker 1: Uh do you ever feel that, like you're just yeah, I do.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: I worry about him. It's like a it's like a parental thing. I'll ask him, has he easy versh in his teeth and taking vitamins and all that, you know, you know, has he been to a dentist or does he need glasses?
00:23:46
Speaker 3: In my calls with him, Jeremy always asks for updates on Leo's case, and when I let him know that Leo had a big hearing coming up that could lead to his release, he wrote to Marry about it.
00:23:57
Speaker 2: Mister King told me that Leo's parole here his next week and he is going to be there.
00:24:03
Speaker 1: I hope things turn out good for Leo.
00:24:06
Speaker 3: Jeremy will never see the day where he's actually par old. But he tells Mary how much it means to him for Leo to be released from prison, you know.
00:24:15
Speaker 1: Of his own accord, he said that.
00:24:18
Speaker 2: He had heard that Leo had been married and he was sure hoping they would let him out soon, and that he did everything he could think of to help him. But Polk County, it's just really bad. And he said it's hard to undo or right or wrong. And you know that's pretty profound coming from Jeremy, but also true life is so fucked up. Now look at Leo. They really didn't want to even hear Leo's case. No matter how much we try, they just they won't even listen. When will people just say stop, let's look at this.
00:25:12
Speaker 3: In the spring of twenty twenty four, Leo was finally released from prison. Mary talked to Jeremy on the phone not long after.
00:25:21
Speaker 1: Oh, I guess it's this.
00:25:23
Speaker 2: From that call, he said he met Leo's former roommate and he said he can't remember his name, but the man was coming around doing some kind of education thing with the prison and he said he had been Leo's roommate for seven years, and he thought that was really cool, and he asked the guy to tell Leo that he wished him well and all that. And I feel like I'm getting chills as I even say this, because.
00:25:50
Speaker 3: He's a murderer, but.
00:25:54
Speaker 2: You know, I really think he cares about Leo. And he seems very sincere when he said stuff like that, like he was really he was really impressed. He was talking to somebody who actually knew Leo.
00:26:06
Speaker 7: I just really get the feeling though he.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: Cares about Leo, and that's just I don't know.
00:26:11
Speaker 7: I'm not even stoned or drinking, but maybe I shouldn't be anyway. I hate the way this has turned out and wish it had never happened like this. I hope someday I will come face to face with Leo so I can look at him and say I'm sorry for what I did. Yes, I still don't sleep good at night and have bad dreams, but not as bad as they were once I have learned to deal with it.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: I just wish none of this had ever happened.
00:26:57
Speaker 3: Jeremy's not just concerned for Leo, shows a lot of concern for Mary, who is being treated for cancer.
00:27:04
Speaker 2: He thanks me for writing ask about my health, and I have to say that in my letters I sound like my grandparents talking about my pneumonia, my brusiitis and arthritis, and I really need to jazz up my topics just.
00:27:21
Speaker 1: A little bit.
00:27:23
Speaker 3: She shares her own health updates with him and how her chemotherapy treatments can leave her feeling exhausted. She shares a lot with him.
00:27:31
Speaker 2: Actually, I must have had car trouble and mentioned it because he said something about get your car fixed, because you don't want to be driving down the road in the middle of anywhere and it not work. Get it fixed.
00:27:45
Speaker 3: And sometimes in Jeremy's letters back, you can hear his anguish when he thinks about losing this connection with her.
00:27:54
Speaker 2: I didn't write him back right away, evidently because he said I'm glad to hear from you. I thought you just stopped writing me. I should have known better than that you ate like most people. I'm sorry for thinking that you would. What I did was wrong. I took a life and for that I will never get out almost thirty five years in here. This is my home. I have to learn to live with it. I just hope that you don't feel that way about me. I can't stop you or blame you for not wanting to write me. People really don't know me at all. I have tried to tell people about me, but they always looked down at me as a killer. Would you please do me a favor. I'm not saying you well but if you do stop stop writing, please write and tell me one day like talking about this kind of stuff though all these years, people just up and stop writing, even though they said they wouldn't. I don't blame anyone my family or friends. They all have their own life now out there and their own families. I just wanted to say this. It's been on my mind all week.
00:29:33
Speaker 3: It was around this time that they gave Jeremy some exciting news about his family.
00:29:39
Speaker 2: Dear Mary, Mister King told me something that it about knocked me out. Dear Mary, mister King told me something that it about knocked me out. He told me that he talked to my son Justin, and he said that Justin listened to the podcast and he wants to write me. I have lived for this day to come. I haven't wrote him since he was twelve or thirteen. I never understand why or what happened. I really thought that I would never hear from him again. I can't wait to hear from him, so much to say to him.
00:30:34
Speaker 1: Mary, I'm just full of it right now.
00:30:39
Speaker 2: When mister King told me that he talked to my son, I just lost it. I follow his birthday every year, March fifth from nineteen eighty nine. I don't even know what he looks like, how tall he is, how long his hair might be, if it's straight. I go to bed asking Justin to forgive me for my sins and for not being there for him all these years later, my son wants to write and talk with me. I'm sorry, Mary, I just don't understand this feeling I'm going through.
00:31:14
Speaker 1: I just needed.
00:31:15
Speaker 2: Someone to talk with, and you are my only friend, he said. I'm acting like a little kid.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: Sorry.
00:31:21
Speaker 2: I will write again. I hope things are good there and well for you. Take care of Jeremy.
00:31:33
Speaker 3: Justin is all Jeremy wants to talk and write about.
00:31:37
Speaker 2: Oh. He had started talking to mister King about Justin, and he said, the way mister King talks, he sounds like a smart young man.
00:31:47
Speaker 1: I guess I will find out soon.
00:31:49
Speaker 3: You can't stop thinking and wondering about his son and this family. He knows so little about.
00:31:55
Speaker 1: Dear Mary. It was good to talk with you.
00:31:58
Speaker 2: Evidently we had a phone call, he said. He got an email from mister King and missus Kelsey saying they were in Florida and that they had met Justin.
00:32:08
Speaker 1: My son and his son vow.
00:32:10
Speaker 2: You got a kount of slow. Why you ready? Why he is two years old?
00:32:19
Speaker 1: That makes me a grandpa. I didn't even know that Justin had kids. He listens to the podcast twice.
00:32:27
Speaker 2: Mister King said, I hope it doesn't stop him from writing to me. Mister King said that he wants to visit me, and he also wants to meet some of my family.
00:32:38
Speaker 1: I never thought I would be a grandpa.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: I hope someday that I will meet both my son and grandson. Mister King told me that he was watching Justin play with his son at the playground.
00:32:51
Speaker 1: He said, Justin is a dedicated father.
00:32:54
Speaker 2: Justin has a girlfriend who has three daughters of her own, so he.
00:32:57
Speaker 1: Is doing good.
00:32:59
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that he never fell down that bad, dark road that I did. I wish things weren't like this. I really want to know him, I mean everything. I'm gonna be waiting for him to write me. Oh you tell me here too.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: I can't be happier. Thank you. Okay, that's it for this time.
00:33:28
Speaker 3: Hearing how excited Jeremy is about Justin makes me realize just how much he's missed his son's entire life thirty five years Jeremy has never had to navigate a relationship like this, and I don't know if he has the tools to do it. What if he overwhelms Justin? What if he drives him away? What if in trying so hard to hold on, he ends up making things even worse for himself.
00:33:56
Speaker 2: Well, mister King is still in touch with my son, so I guess he's trying to put what he wants to say on paper.
00:34:04
Speaker 1: I know it's hard for him.
00:34:05
Speaker 2: He's he's going to write, I will be writing. I'm still working on a letter to him, so I know it's hard.
00:34:14
Speaker 3: I was hearing from both Jeremy and Justin that they were writing and rewriting drafts of letters to each other. Justin was unsure of how to find the right words for a father he'd never known, and Jeremy wasn't sure how to talk to his son he'd never held in his arms.
00:34:31
Speaker 2: I tried to do what you told me about writing my son. It's harder than I thought. I'm still working on it. I don't know anything about him. I don't want to lose him, not after all these years. I'm going to keep at it, Okay. I hope that I get a letter tonight from you or anyone. It feels good to hear from someone. Well, I just wanted to talk to you again. I hope to hear from you soon. Get your car fixed in capital letters and parentheses and then a smiley face, Take care, Jeremy all.
00:35:07
Speaker 3: Scoped with Mary's help. Jeremy is trying to be his best self, hoping Justin will recognize his effort and honesty. So you know that there's no possibility that Jeremy's really going to ever get out of prison.
00:35:21
Speaker 1: Right, and he knows it too.
00:35:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, what do you envision the rest of his life could look like?
00:35:29
Speaker 2: Well, I think it would be well. I would like to see him get a visit, a visit from his son. That would be like a big high point of his life.
00:35:48
Speaker 3: Finally, Jeremy managed to write his letter to Justin.
00:35:53
Speaker 1: He might not write me at all. I hope that he does.
00:35:57
Speaker 2: I ain't mad if he doesn't. He has a life to live out there. I'm just going over things in my head, that's all. And he says, I hate that. Sometimes I just get this feeling. Sometime I try not to let it get me down. I'm going to put my game of thrones down for a while and try to read these others about the dogs. And then he says, take care of Jeremy Scott. And then later there's a ps and he says, you're going to make me cry all over again, old Yeller. And he did tell me later in a phone call that he did, in fact cry because you know it's old Yeller and it's a really good story.
00:36:41
Speaker 3: Jeremy sent his letter for Justin to me so I could deliver it in person. He asked me to.
00:36:52
Speaker 1: Give you this. Is this like his handwriting or is it that's his? Everything?
00:36:56
Speaker 3: Is his handwriting? Next Time. Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One. Our executive producers are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wordis. Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Jackie Pauley and Hannah Biel are our producers. Britz Spangler is our sound designer. Marianne mcune is our editor. Fact checking by Dania Suleman. Jeff Cliburn is our head of marketing and operations. Our Social media director is Ismati Guardrama. Our social media manager is Sarah Gibbons and our art director is Andrew Nelson. Additional research and production by Kelsey Decker. Additional sound recording by James Johnson. Bone Valley is written and produced by me Gilbert King. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and threads at Lava for Good
