197: Memphis Serial Killer: George Howard Putt-part 2 of 2

WEBVTT

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Southern for a true crime covers cases
that are not suitable for young listeners,

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and there may also be some explicit
language used. Listener discretion is advised.

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Serial killers are more rare than popular
culture would have us believe. Most murderers

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know their victims. Their deaths are
not random. They haven't been unlucky enough

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to cross paths with a monster.
They were unlucky to know a person who

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wanted to hurt them. But books
and movies especially perpetuate the myth of the

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everyday boogeyman, and the fictional victim
is the archetypal beautiful damsel in distress who

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was stalked and hunted until a final
showdown. She will either meet her fate

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with a serial killer and die,
or some criminal probe filler will identify the

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monster just in time to save our
damsel. But life isn't an episode of

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criminal minds. Real serial killers cannot
always be put in a box and figured

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out, and let's face it,
local law enforcement don't want to figure them

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out, they just want to stop
them. So in that brutal Memphis summer

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of nineteen sixty nine, police were
at a loss. They worked with the

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press and the public and details of
the murders were in the papers in a

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way we no longer see, making
the Boogeyman real, in a way that

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was beginning to feel personal to Memphians. Instead of being scared, they were

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getting angry. Welcome to episode one
ninety seven Memphis serial killer George Howard Putt

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part iiO. From nineteen sixty two
to nineteen sixty four, a serial killer

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had a death grip around the bustling
Matre Propolis of Boston, Massachusetts. This

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killer was accused of sexually assaulting and
murdering at least eleven women in the Boston

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area, and he had several distinct
imas. All of his victims were female,

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most of them were between the ages
of sixty five to eighty five.

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He'd usually convinced them to open their
door willingly, so there were no signs

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of forced entry, and he often
strangled them to death with a pair of

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nylon stockings. Afterward, he would
sometimes tie those stockings in a beau around

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his victim's necks. Youth probably heard
of this killer before the media dubbed him

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the Boston Strangler, and for two
long years Massachusetts was plagued by his threatening

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presence. In nineteen sixty five,
thirty four year old Albert DeSalvo confessed to

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the crimes of the Boston Strangler.
He claimed that he had sexually assaulted and

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killed Anna Slessor's, Mary Mullen,
Nina Nichols, Helen Blake, Ida Erga,

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Jane Sullivan, Sophie Clark, Patricia
Bassett, Mary Brown, Beverly Sammons,

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Evelyne Corbin, Joe Ann Graf,
and Mary Sullivan. Only five of

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these women were around twenty years old. The rest of the thirteen victims were

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ages sixty five to eighty five.
It's not clear if Dessalvo actually committed all

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of these heinous acts. Many believe
he was lying about committing at least some

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of them, but at the time
of his confession, DeSalvo was already sentenced

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to life in prison for being a
serial rapist. As a result, he

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was never formally tried or convicted of
any Boston Strangler related crimes. DeSalvo died

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in prison in nineteen seventy three.
Later, in twenty thirteen, his DNA

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was definitively linked to the rape and
murder of the last known victim of the

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Boston Strangler, nineteen year old Mary
Sullivan, who died on January fourth of

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nineteen sixty four. Five years later, in nineteen sixty nine, another serial

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killer would walk the streets, but
not the streets of Boston. This time

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it was Memphis, Tennessee. Over
a span of twenty nine days, the

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perpetrator killed five people fifty eight year
old Roy Dumas, forty seven year old

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Berneline Dumas, eighty two year old
Laylah Jackson, twenty one year old Glinda

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Sue Harden, and the focus of
today's episode, fifty nine year old Christine

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Pickens. And this Memphis serial killer
had some notable similarities to the Boston Strangler.

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He also primarily targeted older women.
He also always convinced his victims to

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open their door willingly. He also
strangled them to death, and he also

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chose stockings as his weapon of choice
for most of his murders. There were

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so many similarities between the two serial
killers that experts on the Boston Strangler helped

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the Memphis police with their investigation.
The Memphis newspapers constantly made comparisons between the

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two killers, and the author of
the nineteen sixty eight book The Boston Strangler,

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Gerald Frank even wrote a criminal profile
on the Tennessee copycat for the Memphis

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Press Simitar. The police went so
far as to investigate any person who had

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checked out Frank's book on the Boston
Strangler from the public library, though a

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journalist from the Commercial Appeal did point
out that the paperback of the same book

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was available for a mere ninety five
cents at any newsstand, not to mention

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a movie had been created about the
Boston Strangler too. It felt like history

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was repeating itself. And I guess
in a way, history was repeating itself,

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but not in some big grand way, like how newspapers used to frame

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serial killers. The Boston Strangler,
Albert DeSalvo was just an evil man.

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This serial killer from Tennessee was just
one more evil man, and like all

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evil men, he fell flat on
his face when a woman was given the

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smallest chance to fight back. I'm
going to pause now for a short commercial

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break. Mary Christine Pickens was born
on September eleventh, nineteen ten, to

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her parents, William and Mary Pickens, in Tiptonville, Tennessee. Since Little

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Mary was named after her mother,
A Mary Junior, if you will,

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she primarily went by her middle name
Christine. Her friends and family called her

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Chris. Christine had three half siblings
from her father's three previous marriages. Christine's

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mother, Mary, was William's fourth
and last wife. Christine's father, William,

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was a reverend and a pastor.
He worked at a variety of churches,

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including the Lambeth Memorial United Methodist Church
in Jackson, Tennessee, about seventy

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miles south of Tenptonville, where Christine
was born. You won't be shocked to

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hear that Christine, a pastor's daughter, was also very religious. She attended

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church every Sunday and was involved in
all church activities her entire life. Christine

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spent most of her childhood and adolescence
in Jackson, Tennessee. She graduated from

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Jackson High School in the nineteen twenties. After that, she attended the University

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of Memphis Lambeth Campus, which was
also in Jackson. But when it came

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time for Christine to find a job, she knew that she needed somewhere different,

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somewhere with opportunity, so she moved
from Jackson to Memphis. The two

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Tennessee cities aren't terribly far away from
each other, about eighty five miles total.

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An hour and a half's drive with
traffic, But I bet to a

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young woman who had spent her whole
life in Jackson, the journey to Memphis

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felt immns, but Christine was brave, and like all brave women, she

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figured it out. I'm not sure
what Christine's life was like in her twenties.

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The information just asn't available, but
I can tell you that Christine's father

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passed away in May of nineteen forty
one. He was seventy nine years old.

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Christine was thirty, and I'm sure
that was a challenging time for her.

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Two years later, on November twenty
eighth of nineteen forty three, thirty

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three year old Christine Pickens married a
man named Thomas Butler in Marion, Arkansas.

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At the time, Christine was the
manager of the book department at Lowenstein's.

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She had worked there for several years, and Thomas was in the Navy.

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He was a machinist's mate first class. The young couple honeymoon in New

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Orleans, Louisiana, and then they
moved to San Francisco, California to start

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their lives together. That's where Thomas
was stationed, and then one month later,

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Thomas died. Based on contact clues
and a few mentions of Thomas in

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the papers, he was probably overseas
serving his country in World War II.

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Following her husband's untimely death, Christine
reverted to her maiden name. That's why

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she's Christine Pickens and not Butler.
But even though Christine preferred to use the

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name Pickens, she always maintained her
status as a missus and she never married

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again. In the early to mid
nineteen fifties, Christine worked as a receptionist

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at the Methodist Hospital. Her boss
was a radiologist who always remembered how kind

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and sweet Christine was. She had
a sharp sense of style, a quick

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wit, and a compassionate heart.
When Christine's colleagues would bicker, she was

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quick to step away from the conflict. Around nineteen fifty nine, Christine left

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her job at Methodist Hospital to become
a receptionist for doctor Robert Armstrong. He

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was a dentist. She would work
in his dental office for the next ten

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years, and I'm sure Armstrong was
very appreciative of that Christine was an asset

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to his team professionally and personally.
He told the Commercial Appeal that Christine was

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incredibly supportive of the people around her. In September of nineteen sixty nine,

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fifty nine year old Christine lived alone
in a one bedroom apartment that she wasn't

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actually alone. She had friends,
good friends. One such friend described Christine

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as helpful and funny. They told
the Commercial Appeal, I remember her sitting

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up with a friend all night when
her friend had surgery. She was just

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a good Christian girl that everybody loved. And the people who weren't Christine's friends,

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well, she still treated them like
they were her friends anyway. One

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of her neighbors told the Commercial Appeal
she was one heck of a nice person.

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She was the kind of person who
would bring you a bowl of soup

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if she knew you were sick.
A man who worked across the hall from

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Christine said, I used to go
get cokes for her. She never let

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me pay for them. She was
a lot of fun, sharp and on

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the ball. On Thursday, September
eleventh, nineteen sixty nine, it was

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Christine's fifty ninth birthday, but she
had taken the day off. That wasn't

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her nature. Of course, she
went into work like always. She walked

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into armstrong and armstrong dental office at
eight thirty that morning and waved at her

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apartment neighbor, who happened to work
in the same building as Christine, sat

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in her office chair. Everyone wished
her a happy birthday, and she graciously

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but excitedly thanked them for the well
wishes before getting straight to work. After

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all, Christine had a lot of
patients that day. They always did on

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Thursdays. Since the dental office closed
at noon and wasn't open on Fridays,

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Christine didn't have time to grab a
proper lunch she was so busy, but

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that was usually the case at this
fast paced job. She would just sneak

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quick bites in in between patients.
At noon, the office closed and Christine

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left her desk. A colleague asked
her if she was headed home, and

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Christine replied, no, I've got
an errand to run. I don't want

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to be in a hurry. You
go on. Apparently Christine was going to

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get a gift for doctor Armstrong soon
to be born grandchild, you know,

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just doing something nice for the people
around her on her own birthday. Typical

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Christine things. Approximately one hour later, Christine was found dead at her home.

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There was no sign of forced entry, and there were three locks on

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her doors. One lock on her
back door was brand new. She had

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added it in response to the murders
of the Dumases, Laylah Jackson and Glinda

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Sue Harden. After the news of
Christine's death broke, a receptionist who worked

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in the same building as Christine told
the Memphis Press Simitar, she had such

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a friendly smile. The last time
I talked with her, we were talking

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about the murders. She said she
wouldn't let anyone in her apartment that she

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didn't know. And a longtime friend
of Christine's, Claude Jen, lamented to

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rapporters about how he teased Christine about
her caution. He joked, by the

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time a prowler gets in the front, you can get out the back.

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Funeral service was held two days later
at the Griffin Funeral Home in Jackson,

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Tennessee. She was buried in the
Hollywood Cemetery in Jackson, just like her

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parents, and Christine's gravestone was inscribed
with these words she loved God, she

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loved life. I know what you're
thinking, where's the big to do?

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The police, the investigation, the
dusting for fingerprints. The quotes from our

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repeating guest stars, Fire and Police
Director Holloman and police chief Looks. Well,

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you won't be hearing any of that
because they caught the guy. It

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was twenty three year old George Howard
Putt, and his long awaited arrest was

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all thanks to Christine. I'm going
to pause now to hear a word from

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of June Parker. Discover your inner
detective when you download June's Journey for free

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today on iOS and Android. George
Howard Putt was born on March fifteenth,

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nineteen forty six, to parents Ruth
and Clifford Putt, in New Orleans,

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Louisiana. His nickname was Buster,
and he was the third oldest child out

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of at least six siblings, including
four brothers and one sister. George's childhood

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was, by all accounts, terrible. It doesn't excuse the monster he would

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become, but it's definitely a part
of his history. In nineteen forty three,

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three years before George was born,
his father, Clifford, was drafted

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into the military at age twenty four. He was supposed to serve his country

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in World War II, but we
don't know if he did. We do

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know that, according to the Greensboro
Record, Clifford was investigated for being an

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army deserter, but I guess they
found evidence indicating that he had been properly

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discharged. Later that year, Clifford
was convicted of assault. He was fighting

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with his wife and George's future mother, Ruth. When the situation escalated,

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a man had stepped in. Clifford
pulled a rifle on him and shot twice.

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Luckily the rifle filled both times,
and then he tried to flee the

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scene, but was apprehended by police. In nineteen forty six, the year

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George was born, his father was
charged with cruelty to a juvenile in New

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Orleans. We're not sure who the
juvenile was in that case, but it

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could have been baby George. According
to George's grandfather, Clifford would beat his

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four month old son with his belt. Clifford was sentenced to one year in

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jail, but it was suspended so
long as he underwent treatment, and it

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appears that he did undergo treatment at
the VA in North Carolina. In July

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of nineteen forty seven, when George
was one year old, Clifford played guilty

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to fraud. He had knowingly made
false statements about payments related to his service

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in the army and somehow gotten money
out of it. A few months later,

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in November, Clifford was caught forging
checks and About thirty days later,

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in December, he was charged with
larceny. By the time Clifford turned forty,

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he was accused of check fraud in
six cities. So, yeah,

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George's dad was a bad guy,
But what about mom? Unfortunately, Ruth

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was just as bad as Clifford.
For a time, they were partners in

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crime. Clifford would give Ruth money
for bus fare, and then Ruth would

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take all the kids to different cities
in the area. In each city,

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she would pretend she was going to
buy an item when the check made out

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for more than the item cost.
For example, she paid eighteen dollars for

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a watch and handed the clerk a
check for over fifty Then she got the

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watch and the remaining balance in cash. According to Ruth, they ran this

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scammon at least a dozen cities,
and when she was caught, she said

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the whole thing was Clifford's idea.
She said he forced her to forge checks

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day in and day out. I'm
not sure I believe. The court certainly

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didn't. Eventually, Ruth was sentenced
to three to five years in prison in

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Greensboro. After that, she was
to serve another sentence of up to ten

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years for a different forgery conviction.
By nineteen sixty four, Clifford and Ruth

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divorced. They probably couldn't see each
other anymore anyway, they were too busy

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serving prison sentences. Meanwhile, George
and his siblings were shuffled between relatives,

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friends, and foster homes for the
majority of their childhood. There are records

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of him living in New Orleans,
Texas, North Carolina, Mississippi, and

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Virginia. And as you can imagine, that unstable, transient, no parent

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childhood didn't go well. George started
his ripe sheet very early. At age

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eleven, he was cost stealing an
air rifle in Texas. Okay, you

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might be thinking that's no big deal, no harm, no foul, and

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normally I agree it was just an
air rifle. But this was just the

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beginning for George. On July twenty
sixth, nineteen sixty one, fifteen year

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old George sexually molested a ten year
old girl. On January thirteenth, nineteen

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sixty two, George, who was
still fifteen, was accused of kidnapping a

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woman, holding her at gunpoint,
and forcing her to drive to a secondary

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location. That woman, thank god, purposely wrecked the car and escaped.

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George was arrested two days later.
George crawled through the second story window of

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a home he had seen two women
enter. He woke one of these women

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up and said, don't scream if
you don't want anything to happen to your

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children. Then he forced her to
dress and get in his car. Police

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caught him when George ran a red
light. Luckily they put a stop to

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him this time. I can't emphasize
this enough. George was fifteen years old,

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and these are just the crimes we
know about. If teenage George was

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stalking women this boldly, these probably
weren't his first violent crimes. He was

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definitely aware he could get away with
it. The courts certainly weren't stopping him,

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not in any meaningful way. It
wasn't until George was days away from

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turning seventeen that the courts finally committed
him to the Gatesville School for Boys in

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Gatesville, Texas. He was released
four years later, on March fifteenth,

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nineteen sixty seven, his twenty first
birthday. In a perfect world, George

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would have spent those four years reflecting
and rehabilitating, but he did not.

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Instead, he tried to escape the
school and was accused of trying to rob

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the librarian with three other boys.
Sometime during George's teen years, a psychiatrist

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determined that he was a psychopath.
According to the commercial appeal, the psychiatrist

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said George was capable of committing almost
any type of crime. As I was

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researching this case, I almost lost
my damn mind reading articles that framed George

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as a product of his upbringing.
It is difficult to feel sympathy when you

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know the brutality of his crimes.
George made choices, he made decisions,

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and many people have rough childhoods.
We are all products of our upbringing,

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good or bad. When twenty one
year old George was released from the state

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school, he got a job as
a hospital orderly in Houston, Mississippi.

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Then George moved to Tupelau, which
was his father's hometown. His paternal grandparents

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still lived there and George stayed with
them for a while until he got on

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his feet. George was actually hired
at the Tupelau Medical Center, but then

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he was fired. He had stolen
the wallet of the director of nurses.

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He was forced to give the money
back and no charges were pressed. When

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folks at the Tupeleaux spoke to reporters
later. One woman recalled that George tried

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to wear his sunglasses during his interview. They had to ask him to remove

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them. While in Tupelau, twenty
one year old George married an eighteen year

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old woman he had met through family
named Mary Mary Ruth. By nineteen sixty

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nine, twenty three year old George
and twenty year old Mary Ruth had a

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son together, but they weren't a
happy little family. Mary often complained that

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George was lazy and that he physically
abused her, in addition to all that

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the couple was in dire financial straits. In May of nineteen sixty nine,

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George was arrested by the Mississippi police. He had robbed someone. He pled

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guilty, and his charge was reduced
to trespassing. They fined him five hundred

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dollars and sentenced him to six months
in the Hines County Penal farm in Jackson,

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Mississippi. But apparently George didn't think
that his reduced sentence that he had

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literally pled guilty to was fair.
So one day, when George was assigned

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to work detail outside, he just
left hopped in a truck and drove off.

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He wouldn't be seen again by the
legal system for several months. At

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this time, Mary Ruth was pregnant
with her and George's second son. They

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made their way to Memphis and stayed
with George's brother, Clifford Junior. Then

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George found a job working at the
Hudson Oil Company as a service station attendant.

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He was also receiving money from the
Aid to Dependent Children program in Mississippi.

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I'm going to pause now for a
short commercial break. Cut to August

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of nineteen sixty nine, the start
of twenty three year old George Howard Putt's

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murder spree. George had escaped from
a Mississippi prison three months before and fled

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the state. Now he was working
at a gas station in Memphis, Tennessee.

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And according to George's own confessions to
all five murders, court documents,

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eyewitness statements, and over one hundred
newspaper articles, here is what probably happened

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next. And I say probably because
George would later redact his multiple confessions confessions

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that he had signed. On August
thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine, George murdered

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a fifty eight year old Roy Dumas
and sexually assaulted and murdered Roy's wife,

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forty seven year old Bernelin Dumas.
According to George's confession, he had chosen

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the Dumases by complete chance. That
day he had gone to sell a pine

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of blood, then he had a
few beers at the Ok cafe, and

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after that he found a random apartment
building. At least one person saw George

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sitting outside this building, with the
apartment picked at random. George knocked on

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the Dumas's door. Roy answered,
and George pushed small statured Roy back into

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the apartment and demanded money. Maybe
Roy had argued with him or said he

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didn't have any money, because George
tied him up and searched for the money

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himself, and he found about thirty
bucks in total, which would be about

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two hundred and fifty in twenty twenty
three money. At one point, according

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to George's initial confession, Roy freed
him from his bindings, but then George

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caught him and tied him to his
bed once more. In the midst of

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all this, Roy let it slip
that his wife, Bernolynne, would be

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home at about three pm. So
George waited for Bernoline in her bedroom when

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she came home from work, George
jumped her with one of Roy's hunting knives

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and tied her up, and despite
what the medical examiner would say in a

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nineteen seventy three trial, George himself
explained that he raped her and then he

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mutilated her with Roy's knife and strangled
her with a stocking. Then he strangled

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Roy with a stocking. George took
a few minutes to wipe the apartment clean

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of his fingerprints, then he took
Roy's knife with him and left. Eleven

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days later, on August twenty fifth, George killed eighty two year old Laylah

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Jackson. George never went to trial
for Layla's murder, just for the murders

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of Roy, Bernoline, and Christine. We'll get to that later, but

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just say, you know, that's
why we have fewer details here. But

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it's likely Layla was also picked at
random, especially since it didn't appear that

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she ever crossed George's path. On
the same day that George killed Layla,

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he went to a used car dealership
called Amco Transmission Company. The company owner

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remembered selling George a nineteen sixty one
white Buick station wagon. George told the

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owner that The buick was for his
wife, Mary Ruth. The car didn't

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actually run, but that was all
right with George. He and his brother

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Clifford Junior could fix it up.
George gave the car dealer fifty dollars as

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a down payment on August twenty fifth. It's not clear if he bought the

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car before or after he killed Laylah
that day, but since Layla always said

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she didn't keep money in her house, it wouldn't shock me if he had

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bought the car after he murdered Layla. It would make sense that he couldn't

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buy the car outright since he wasn't
able to find too much money in Layla's

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home. Four days later, on
August twenty ninth, George killed twenty one

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year old Glinda Sue Harden. As
I mentioned in Part one, there are

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suspicions that Glinda Seue had left her
car unlocked and that George had used that

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as an opportunity to get in her
back seat. But maybe that's not what

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happened. Maybe George simply saw Glinda
Sue cash her paycheck at the bank around

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lunchtime that day, and then followed
her until she was near her parked car.

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Like Layla. George would never go
to trial for Glendasue's murder, so

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the details are hazy. After George
robbed, raped, murdered, and mutilated

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00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:38.160
Glinda Seue, he was seen driving
her car to the parking lot, where

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it was later discovered at some point
he stole Glindasue's money and several of her

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belongings, including her sunglasses case,
which was later found in his home.

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Three days later, on September second, George returned to the used car dealership

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and paid off the rest of the
station wagon, and nine days after that,

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on September eleventh, George killed fifty
nine year old Christine Pickens. According

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to George's confessions and the testimony of
several witnesses, George sold a pine of

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blood that day, just like he
had before the Dumas's murder. Then he

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drank some Budweisers at a bar from
about ten forty five am to twelve thirty

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pm. This bar was the same
one George went to before the Dumas's murders,

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00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:30.000
the Oka Cafe, and it was
walking distance from Christine's apartment. The

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waitress who served George chatted with him
about the serial killer running loose, who

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was killing people with stockings. The
waitress had no idea she was talking to

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the serial killer himself. She told
the Commercial Appeals reporters quote, I was

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teasing him about whether he had a
stocking in his pocket. He just smiled.

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People were always kidding about things like
that. After George left the Oka

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Cafe in his car, a woman
later saw him walking near Christine's apartment.

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According to court testimony, George first
knocked on the door of the apartment next

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to Christine's. The resident of that
apartment, Grace Oldham, testified that George

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said I'm here to collect on a
bad check from Oldham. When Grace asked

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for more information, George said it
was Johnny Oldham. Grace told George to

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go away, and she heard him
leave. Then she peeked out her door

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and saw him go into Christine's apartment. According to George's confessions, he had

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seen Christine walk into her building while
carrying some packages at one o five pm.

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He followed Christine inside her apartment.
Once inside, he tried to snatch

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her purse, but Christine wasn't having
it. She began screaming bloody murder.

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Literally, she yelled, murderer,
murderer, George stabbed her at least fourteen

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00:31:51.119 --> 00:31:56.559
times and slashed her throat, and
despite these gruesome injuries, Christine fought back

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00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:00.119
and screamed as loud as she could
she could be heard cleary to her upsur's

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00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:06.200
neighbor, Emma Gross. Emma was
fifty seven years old, a grandmother and

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00:32:06.279 --> 00:32:09.039
a nurse. She was getting ready
for work that day and making herself a

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00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:15.599
sandwich, but upon hearing Christine's screams, Emma dropped everything and sprinted to the

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source of the sound. She immediately
spotted George holding a bloody knife, the

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00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:24.839
same knife that George had stolen from
Roy Dumas. George tried to act calm

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00:32:24.839 --> 00:32:30.480
as Emma approached him as if this
was a normal situation, but Emma told

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00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:34.160
the Commercial Appeal, I was so
close to him. He showed me the

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00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:37.880
knife and blood fell off the blade
onto my uniform. Emma tried to grab

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00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:42.799
George, but he pushed her away
and ran, and she followed right behind

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00:32:42.839 --> 00:32:46.799
him. As Emma took off after
George, she saw another neighbor, fifty

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00:32:46.839 --> 00:32:52.359
seven year old Wayne Armstrong. Wayne
was a liquor store clerk who lived across

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00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:57.440
the hall from Christine. Emma yelled
to Wayne, come, Christine's been killed.

400
00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:00.960
Wayne burst out of his apartment,
worrying nothing but his boxers, and

401
00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:07.640
whipped out a pistol. According to
one eyewitness, George paused and said he

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00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:10.960
won't shoot me in the back,
to which Wayne replied, I'll shoot you

403
00:33:12.039 --> 00:33:14.480
in the back the same as in
the front if you try to run away.

404
00:33:15.160 --> 00:33:17.920
But then George ran and Wayne did
fire six shots at him, but

405
00:33:17.960 --> 00:33:22.160
none of them made contact, so
Waine and Emma both ran after George while

406
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:28.200
yelling for onlookers to call the police. Multiple people heard Wayne and Emma's please

407
00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:30.680
and joined in their pursuit of George. In a way, it was kind

408
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:37.160
of poetic. George had terrorized the
citizens of Memphis, and now Memphis citizens

409
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:42.720
were getting their shot at terrorizing George. But still he nearly got away.

410
00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:45.119
He was a fast runner, and
he managed to hop a fence and go

411
00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:51.559
under a construction expressway. I'm sure
by that time many people had called the

412
00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:53.839
police, but there was no way
the authorities were going to make it in

413
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:59.359
time. Through a sheer stroke of
luck, George happened to run into two

414
00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:05.079
police office R. G. Noblin
and P R. Scruggs. They stopped

415
00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:08.360
him because they thought something weird was
going on. One later admitted that at

416
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:12.719
first he thought George was an artist. Why else would someone have so much

417
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:17.239
red paint on themselves. Quickly the
officers realized George was covered in blood,

418
00:34:17.480 --> 00:34:23.800
not paint, and finally he was
caught. It was over. He was

419
00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:28.199
strip searched, arrested, and charged
with five counts of murder. At one

420
00:34:28.280 --> 00:34:34.440
twenty one pm on September eleventh,
nineteen sixty nine, only fifteen minutes after

421
00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:39.760
the Son of a Bitch murdered Christine
Pickens on her own birthday, Police Chief

422
00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:45.480
Henry Lux said of Christine, meantphisows
this woman a dead of gratitude. If

423
00:34:45.480 --> 00:34:49.159
she had not put up a fight
and screamed, sounding the alarm for others

424
00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:52.760
to hear, she might not have
been discovered until long after her death,

425
00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:57.760
and the killer would have had the
chance to escape. It may sound trite,

426
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:00.039
but in a sense, she gave
her life so that others could escape

427
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:07.039
this terror. Police Chief Looks also
publicly thank the efforts of Immigrose, Swayne

428
00:35:07.159 --> 00:35:13.079
Armstrong, and the other concerned citizens
who had helped chase George down. Shortly

429
00:35:13.119 --> 00:35:16.000
after capturing George, the police were
able to recover the murder weapon, which

430
00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:20.400
he had tossed while he was running, and they also found his bloody white

431
00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:23.840
shirt, which he had taken off
during the chase. Two. When his

432
00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:29.400
arrest was announced on the police radios, the officers cheered over their walkies.

433
00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:34.159
Later, George would be indicted for
five counts of murder in the perpetration of

434
00:35:34.199 --> 00:35:37.960
a robbery, two counts of carrying
a hunting knife, and he was held

435
00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:43.320
without bail. The next day,
on September twelfth, the papers announced that

436
00:35:43.400 --> 00:35:46.639
the police had charged twenty three year
old George Howard Putt, an escaped convict,

437
00:35:46.679 --> 00:35:52.599
with the murder of five people.
The police highly suspected that this twenty

438
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:57.800
three year old was their notorious,
cunning sex killer. George admitted to killing

439
00:35:57.800 --> 00:36:01.800
his victims at random when he needed
money. Now that police knew George was

440
00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:07.119
the killer, finding the evidence to
prove as much was easy. According to

441
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:12.119
the FBI, his fingerprints were on
Christine's apartment door, his pom print was

442
00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:15.000
on her purse, and of course
he had been caught in the act.

443
00:36:15.800 --> 00:36:20.320
It's not clear how much George's wife, Mary Ruth, and his brother Clifford

444
00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:24.480
Junior knew about George's serial killing.
They both claimed to be extremely shocked,

445
00:36:25.079 --> 00:36:30.159
but Mary Ruth had recently paid up
their rent for several weeks, and according

446
00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:34.719
to witnesses, Clifford Junior had spent
time with George every single day for weeks

447
00:36:35.079 --> 00:36:39.800
that summer and fall of sixty nine. Naturally, Clifford Junior had claimed that

448
00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:45.119
he had rarely seen George during this
time, but he did admit that he

449
00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:49.559
noticed George had been acting weird about
the recent stream of murders. In an

450
00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:52.360
interview with the Memphis Press, Simitar, Clifford said, I had a bad

451
00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:57.360
feeling. Every time I would see
him, he would say there was another

452
00:36:57.440 --> 00:37:00.559
murder, and I hadn't heard it
on the news report for anything. It

453
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:05.039
seemed that he wanted to tell me
what he had done. I knew something

454
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:08.880
was wrong. He'd show me the
houses where those deaths occurred. He pointed

455
00:37:08.920 --> 00:37:14.719
them out, and another weird thing. Less than a week after George was

456
00:37:14.840 --> 00:37:19.599
arrested, Clifford Junior packed up and
left for Richmond, Virginia. But in

457
00:37:19.639 --> 00:37:22.360
all fairness to Clifford, he said
he'd lost his job at the service station

458
00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:29.760
due to the case. In October
of nineteen seventy twenty four year old George

459
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:34.800
Putt's first jury trial began. He
was accused of murdering Mary Christine Pickens in

460
00:37:34.840 --> 00:37:39.079
the first degree. The prosecution had
chosen Christine's murder because they figured with the

461
00:37:39.079 --> 00:37:45.239
eyewitnesses and fingerprints, it would be
the easiest to get a conviction, and

462
00:37:45.400 --> 00:37:49.239
they were seeking the death penalty,
so hopefully they only have to do this

463
00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:54.519
process once. During the trial itself, the prosecution presented an airtight case against

464
00:37:54.519 --> 00:38:00.880
George. After all, the police
had literally caught him red handed, and

465
00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:05.880
there was so much more evidence against
him. George's fingerprints were at Christine's apartment,

466
00:38:06.119 --> 00:38:09.199
his palm print was on her stolen
purse. He had used Roy Dumas's

467
00:38:09.239 --> 00:38:15.400
knife as the murder weapon. The
defense's arguments were not so air tight.

468
00:38:15.840 --> 00:38:20.800
They said George couldn't have confessed because
he was too drunk from his beers at

469
00:38:20.840 --> 00:38:24.239
the Ok cafe, but for the
record, the waitress that had served George

470
00:38:24.280 --> 00:38:30.199
said he seemed fine. The defense
also insinuated that the signatures on George's confessions

471
00:38:30.519 --> 00:38:37.320
were falsified by the police, but
that rationale didn't stick well either, especially

472
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:45.280
since the prosecution read aloud George's very
specific, very accurate confessions. By the

473
00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:47.960
end of it all, George's defence
team realized the only leg they had to

474
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:53.239
stand on was George's mental health.
George had pleaded not guilty by reason of

475
00:38:53.280 --> 00:39:00.000
insanity. Now his attorneys had to
convince the jury. Multiple psychiatrists testified to

476
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:06.039
George's distorted views of women, his
mental health diagnoses, and violent behavior.

477
00:39:07.079 --> 00:39:09.519
George's mother in law testified that he
once walked in on her while she was

478
00:39:09.559 --> 00:39:14.880
having a bath. He put his
hands on her shoulders and said, sh

479
00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:20.239
I won't hurt you. But even
though the defensive psychiatrist said George was legally

480
00:39:20.360 --> 00:39:25.559
insane, the prosecution's expert witnesses said
otherwise. They argued that George knew right

481
00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:30.800
from wrong when he had killed Christine, he just hadn't cared. I bet

482
00:39:30.840 --> 00:39:36.719
this entire trial, from opening statements
to closing, felt more like a formality

483
00:39:36.840 --> 00:39:40.719
than a debate. On October twenty
seventh, after two weeks of trial,

484
00:39:40.760 --> 00:39:46.280
approximately fifty witnesses, and forty seven
minutes of deliberation, the jury found twenty

485
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:52.039
four year old George Howard Pytt guilty
of first degree murderer. He was sentenced

486
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:55.960
to death in the electric chair.
Less than a week before George's conviction,

487
00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:01.800
his wife Mary Ruth, gave birth
to his second son. Following the trial,

488
00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:07.800
George's lawyers immediately moved for a new
trial, that was denied, and

489
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:13.880
then they started the appeals process.
Despite the win on Christine's death penalty case,

490
00:40:14.360 --> 00:40:19.400
prosecutors decided to try George for the
Douma's murders lest his conviction be overturned

491
00:40:19.400 --> 00:40:23.920
on some technicality. The second trial
began on April twenty third of nineteen seventy

492
00:40:23.960 --> 00:40:30.039
three. George was twenty seven years
old. The prosecution simply presented George's confessions

493
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:36.480
and rested their case, and the
defense once again argued that George was temporarily

494
00:40:36.519 --> 00:40:43.199
insane when he committed the murders,
but this didn't hold up well. Multiple

495
00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:47.920
medical experts took the stand saying George
was absolutely sane during the murders. Some

496
00:40:49.039 --> 00:40:52.679
even indicated that George purposely tried to
appear mentally ill so that he could avoid

497
00:40:52.679 --> 00:40:58.960
the death penalty. On April twenty
seventh, after ninety minutes of deliberation,

498
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.360
Howard Putt was convicted of murdering Roy
and Bernel and Dumas he was sentenced to

499
00:41:04.360 --> 00:41:08.480
four hundred and ninety seven consecutive years
in prison, the longest sentence ever given

500
00:41:08.480 --> 00:41:15.039
in Memphis, Tennessee. But what
about George's death sentence? While In June

501
00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:20.000
of nineteen seventy two, the United
States Supreme Court determined that the death penalty

502
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:24.800
was unconstitutional. As a result,
George's original sentence for the murder of Christine

503
00:41:24.800 --> 00:41:30.719
Pickens was changed to ninety nine years
in prison, which was included in his

504
00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:36.440
total of four hundred and ninety seven
years. The United States later restored the

505
00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:42.199
death penalty in nineteen eighty eight.
By nineteen seventy four, George's appeals had

506
00:41:42.199 --> 00:41:46.559
been dismissed and his convictions upheld.
He had never shown remorse for killing Roy

507
00:41:46.559 --> 00:41:52.599
and Bernel and dumas Leyla Jackson,
Linda Sue Harden, or Mary Christine Pickens.

508
00:41:52.360 --> 00:41:57.639
He told a Memphis magazine around nineteen
eighty nine, I think where I'm

509
00:41:57.639 --> 00:42:00.719
at now is where I'm supposed to
be. To get where I'm at,

510
00:42:00.960 --> 00:42:05.639
I'd do it all again. At
one point, years after his conviction,

511
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:09.599
George requested a new trial yet again. He claimed that his defense council was

512
00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:17.599
ineffective. This appeal was also denied. On October twenty sixth, twenty fifteen,

513
00:42:17.880 --> 00:42:22.679
sixty nine year old George Howard Putt
died in a prison hospital in Davidson

514
00:42:22.719 --> 00:42:29.039
County, Tennessee. To date,
his burial details remain unknown, but if

515
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:31.679
you look on his find a grave
page. One person left him poison ivy,

516
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:38.239
where folks usually virtual flowers. George
Putt killed five people over a period

517
00:42:38.239 --> 00:42:43.760
of twenty nine days. He is
still a serial killer rather than a spree

518
00:42:43.840 --> 00:42:50.519
killer because there were cooling off periods
between the murders. During that hot summer

519
00:42:50.559 --> 00:42:54.760
of nineteen sixty nine, Putt terrorized
Memphis, Tennessee, and a combination of

520
00:42:54.880 --> 00:43:00.079
robberies and sexual assaults. He prayed
on older, morelvulnerable women, with the

521
00:43:00.119 --> 00:43:06.480
exception of one victim, Glinda Sue
Harden, and even she seemed to be

522
00:43:06.519 --> 00:43:10.639
a murder of convenience. He needed
money. He saw Glinda Sue and followed

523
00:43:10.639 --> 00:43:16.559
her to her car. Since at
least the age of fifteen, George Putt

524
00:43:16.559 --> 00:43:22.199
had been brutalizing women. By the
summer of nineteen sixty nine, he was

525
00:43:22.360 --> 00:43:29.519
escalating the mutilations of his victims.
Showed a rapist who had graduated in his

526
00:43:29.639 --> 00:43:35.639
savagery, while also seemingly pairing his
robberies with the sexual assaults for convenience.

527
00:43:37.159 --> 00:43:40.320
And who knows how many unsolved rapes
and murders could be attributed to such a

528
00:43:40.400 --> 00:43:46.159
violent man, A man who was
assaulting women before he was even eighteen years

529
00:43:46.199 --> 00:43:52.760
old, A man who never showed
any remorse, A man who deserved to

530
00:43:52.800 --> 00:44:00.360
die in prison. Southern Fried True
Crime is hosted in produced by me Erica

531
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:06.199
Kelly. Today's episode was researched and
written by Andrea Marshbank, with additional writing

532
00:44:06.239 --> 00:44:10.320
by myself. As usual, all
editorial comments are my own. Southern Frid's

533
00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:15.159
original music is by Rob Harrison of
Gamma Radio and the original graphic art is

534
00:44:15.239 --> 00:44:19.800
by Koly Horner. Today's episode was
edited and mixed by Brandon schuck Snyder of

535
00:44:19.840 --> 00:44:23.079
Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. If
you have any case suggestions, please go

536
00:44:23.119 --> 00:44:27.920
to my website and click on the
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537
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:30.719
way for me to get those little
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538
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539
00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:39.440
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540
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we swap recipes, worship Dolly Parton, and share means. We do,

541
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of course, discuss true crime,
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542
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543
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544
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545
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If you enjoy today's show, don't forget

546
00:45:00.639 --> 00:45:05.119
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547
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548
00:45:10.159 --> 00:45:13.679
thanks so much for listening. Y'all, take care