Episode 6 - The Sixth Episode

After a brief absence, Charlie returns to Shady Grove to find the town is growing restless due to lack of progress in the investigation. Interim Acting Chief Branigan’s main stumbling block becomes interference from the Governor – who is also the mother of Amanda’s estranged and widowed husband, William Hart. Branigan makes an astonishing discovery about Margaret Mandragora-Jones’s lineage. And a new finding by a second forensics team justifies - at minimum - three more episodes.

Thanks for listening. Check out the TMK merch at:

https://the-murderer-killings-a-true-crime-podcast-shop.fourthwall.com/

Transcript

Charlie Incarica: 0:00

I'd been away from Shady Grove for six weeks. I was home and restless. I tried to explain to my manager at Best Buy where I'd been since late March, in hopes of picking up some shifts, which proved less than successful. I also tried to patch things up with Amy, which proved less than less than successful. As for Shady Grove, like the rest of the nation, the 2020 July 4th weekend was a relatively muted affair. The town's usual plans for Independence Day, a parade in which Uncle Sam would hurl cups of pudding at the crowd, was scrapped in favor of a salute to Shady Grove's healthcare professionals. While unquestionably a noble idea, it was a disaster on every level, from Mayor Lyon's ill-advised lung costume to the large float that carried the town's doctors and nurses, which, while an impressive and moving tribute to these brave healthcare professionals, also left the hospital unstaffed for 13 hours. But perhaps worst of all, the murders remained unsolved. And the town was growing increasingly frustrated with the police's lack of progress. Taylor Branagin and I kept in touch via email, and though at the time she couldn't reveal much about an ongoing police investigation, she hinted at some frustration, alluding vaguely in one email to the investigation not having moved, quote, one fucking inch since I'd left. Taking that as a covert plea for my return, I packed up my car and once again headed to Shady Grove. To the people who had started to feel, if not like friends, then at least like the cast of a long-running TV show that had started to feel like friends. Oh great. I'm good. When Estelle told me that the mood of the town had shifted in the last month and a half, I started to get the sense that the town's emotions had altered somewhat in the last six weeks. I said shifted. Oh, right. How has it shifted?

Estelle Hayes: 2:11

Well, people are getting angry that there's been no movement on the case. There's a real streak of good old-fashioned sexism and misogyny in this town, too. There are some who think the case isn't going anywhere because a woman's leading the investigation.

Charlie Incarica: 2:25

That's awful.

Estelle Hayes: 2:26

Well, by and large, it's not a very progressive community. Some of them have started to march in front of the police station with signs demanding she resign and quotes from the Bible saying how police work is a man's job.

Charlie Incarica: 2:38

The Bible says that?

Estelle Hayes: 2:40

Probably.

Charlie Incarica: 2:41

I called Taylor the next day to let her know I was in town, and told her I'd heard the town's mood had shifted or altered. She sounded tired.

Taylor Branigan: 2:50

Yeah, I mean it's just the governor's really handcuffed us. No judge will sign off on a warrant to search Teddy's home or office or shopping cart. Same thing for Margaret and her hotel suite. I mean, obviously I I shouldn't even be sharing this with you. This is off the record, right?

Charlie Incarica: 3:08

Um I reached out to District Attorney Teresa Nolo, but she declined to be interviewed, saying she didn't want to say anything that might disrupt the case. Governor Hart also repeatedly declined to be interviewed about the murders, though she did speak once in front of a socially distanced gaggle of reporters. But even then, she was evasive. This is from April 9th, 2020. The occasion was a ribbon-cutting ceremony, at the opening of a factory that manufactures giant scissors for ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Governor, it's the one-month anniversary of the murder of your daughter-in-law and two other people, and yet you haven't issued any statements about it.

Governor Hart: 3:48

Well, I'm holding these giant scissors, so it's possible I didn't hear the question correctly. But let me just say I've always felt quite strongly that the aftermath of a murder isn't an appropriate time to talk about it. I think it's important to respect the privacy of grieving families, and as you rightly point out, that includes me. I'm focusing all my emotional energies on processing my son's and my own deep trauma. And with that out of the way, I say, let's cut this ribbon.

Charlie Incarica: 4:26

And while D.A. Teresa Nolo wasn't talking, that didn't mean she wasn't acting. Under state law, she had the authority to hire an outside medical examiner to look over the official coroner's report, which she had done early in July. And what she found sent this case in, if not a whole new direction, then certainly not in an old direction.

Taylor Branigan: 4:47

Well, obviously when that independent report came out, it threw the whole investigation for a loop.

Charlie Incarica: 4:52

Dr. Glenn Elwood's report didn't differ in the conclusions of the county coroner. He agreed they had all been stabbed. Where he differed was in the details. For example, Elwood observed both Chip Bing and Michelle Quincy had their throats cut at the jugular need a second there. Talking about blood always makes me Oh boy. Even just saying the word now oh the room is spinning a bit. Um, okay.

Estelle Hayes: 5:20

Um, Estelle okay, I'm just gonna Hi, um people or listeners or anyway. Charlie has asked me to read this bit because, well, it'd be cruel to say he's not quite man enough to read about blood and violence, but on the other hand, it'd be dishonest not to say it. And I believe in being honest. Anyway. Dr. Elwood noted that Bing and Quincy's throats had been cut at the jugular and at the Adam's apple. Chief Ebner's death happened the same way, though without any subsequent stabbings. Jesus. Only person I've ever heard of needs a trigger warning for his own podcast. Just cover your dainty little ears, it'll be over soon. The nature of these wounds means the killer was likely looking to kill them silently. Those wounds typically produce a swift and nearly noiseless death. Also, the blood splatter patterns weren't consistent with all three of them being stabbed in that room.

Charlie Incarica: 6:28

Oh my god. Branagin immediately called forensics back to the scene of the crime. But they couldn't get the whole team down there, as Shady Grove's forensics team, like many therapists and Europeans, take the month of August off. However, they did send one of their summer interns. And stunningly, the intern was able to show that Michelle and Chip were likely in separate rooms when they were um when they when the thing happened. But there was something else about the murders.

Taylor Branigan: 7:01

The stab wounds were very deep. They would have required an unusual amount of strength to accomplish them. Several of the thrusts pierced easily past bone. This suggests it was not only likely done by a man, but by a man of far greater than average strength. Which posed a good news, bad news scenario. We finally had a probable characteristic of the killer. But that characteristic didn't match any of my main suspects. Charles?

Charlie Incarica: 7:26

Glenn El Wood's report also had another revelation. That thing with the knife and the necks that happened to Bing and Quincy did not happen with Amanda Putnam Hart.

Taylor Branigan: 7:37

The killer clearly had the knowledge and technique to sorry, I I forgot the euphemism we decided on so you wouldn't pass out.

Charlie Incarica: 7:44

He had the knowledge and technique to sort the laundry of the victim's necks.

Taylor Branigan: 7:49

Yeah. Uh right. I'm not gonna say that. Point is, he didn't slice Amanda's throat, which suggests that he, because the evidence strongly suggests it was he, wanted her to suffer.

Charlie Incarica: 7:59

That's just awful.

Taylor Branigan: 8:01

Charles, have you ever thought that maybe the whole murder podcast thing isn't for you? Maybe you should just go home.

Charlie Incarica: 8:09

Meanwhile, Taylor wasn't going home from suspecting Margaret and Teddy were still very much involved with the murder. However, the apparent strength of the stabbers' stabs on the stabbees didn't seem a natural match with either Margaret or Teddy. The Elwood report concluded that the murderer's murder of Amanda, of all the murderings done that day, was the one murder in which the murderer seemed intentionally sadistic, or the most sadistic. None of them were nice. Stabbing seldom is. And so Taylor continued to drill down, working 16-hour days, following leads, gaming out scenarios, looking at paint swatches, in a word, relentless. And then, as August turned to September, she decided to do a little digging on a hunch. And what she discovered.

Taylor Branigan: 9:00

Well, it blew my mind.

Charlie Incarica: 9:03

What was it that blew acting interim chief Taylor Brannigan's not easily blowable mind? You'll have to stay tuned to the next the murderer killings. Sentence. Margaret Mandragora Jones is also a Putnam. She's Walter Putnam's granddaughter.

Taylor Branigan: 9:39

Because it was just tough for me to imagine even a parent's love would be that binding for someone like her. And it turns out, his first wife was a geography teacher in a small town called Majamberkun, New South Wales. It turns out, Walter's widow moved the girls to Canberra, Australia, where she fell in love with a Swedish diplomat. And while her maternal aunt, Erica Hobbes, the elder, went back to America to confront her uncle, her mother chose a quiet life, becoming a teacher and marrying an idealistic young barrister named Thomas Jones. They had a daughter, Margaret, but divorced when she was young. And Thomas Jones moved to Sydney, having opted to lose his idealism for tax purposes. Margaret moved to Sydney at 18, following in her father's footsteps. And then I checked up on the whole sister city thing with Shady Grove. It was originally Majambler Coon and not Sydney who reached out to Shady Grove to entice it to become Sister Cities. My guess is Margaret was behind that the whole time.

Charlie Incarica: 10:37

Why would Margaret go through all of that trouble only to switch it at the last minute to Sydney?

Taylor Branigan: 10:43

I reached out to the city council in Majambler Coon, and when I mentioned her name, I hadn't even hit the drag part of Margaret McDragar Jones when this stream of expletives came back at me. I'm assuming they were expletives because most of them sounded like random long vowels smothering one another with pillows. So clearly, they'd met her. And I'm thinking she wasn't well liked.

Charlie Incarica: 11:04

Because they'd met her.

Taylor Branigan: 11:05

Precisely.

Charlie Incarica: 11:07

So Taylor had every reason to suspect Margaret, despite her endless complaints about Shady Grove, had chosen to go there all along.

Taylor Branigan: 11:21

Okay. Interview with Margaret Mandragora Jones, September 4th, 2020. The time is 9.08 AM. Present with Miss Mandragora Jones are myself, acting interim chief Branagan, and her attorney, Ellen Newberry.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 11:34

And still, inexplicably, the Muppet babies. I know you're a putnam. Damn it! Looks like I owe you $100, Ellen. She thought that you'd get there before the end of the lockdown. I thought she was being wildly optimistic. So you've learned to Google. Why did you lie to us, Margaret? You mean my white lies like good morning or it's nice to see you? It's called good breeding.

Taylor Branigan: 11:57

I mean about your connection to Shady Grove.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 12:00

I never lied. Or am I required to tell you everything about my life? Is it a lie that I haven't shared with you that my blood type is O negative, the universal donor, but I refuse to donate because of that label's presumptuousness? Or that I've had recurring, lightly perverse dreams about former Vice President Dick Cheney since I was at university, or that I'm trying desperately not to comment on the positively baroque vulgarity of my solicitor's top. Damn.

Taylor Branigan: 12:24

I mean that you were responsible for the Shady Grove Sister City thing.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 12:28

Is it a crime if I did?

Taylor Branigan: 12:30

You clearly had ulterior reasons for coming here. Well, I confess to that.

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 12:34

You may indict me on the charge of ulterior motives. But that's not a thing, is it? And more importantly, it doesn't make me guilty of murder. Though a few more trips here just might tempt me to give it a go. Let's get going, Alan.

Charlie Incarica: 12:47

I just want to let you know there's about a minute left in the episode. But keep listening. Because just as Branigan goes to stop the recording.

Taylor Branigan: 12:55

Okay, interview terminated at What the hell? You just ripped that door off!

Margaret Mandragora-Jones: 13:01

Sorry, didn't realize it was locked. Although the locks on your doors are more or less decorative, apparently.

Taylor Branigan: 13:10

We had all thought it had to be a man who did the stabbing. But seeing Margaret rip the door off its hinges with one hand changed everything.

Charlie Incarica: 13:18

So you could say you discovered someone from down under might have done something downright underhanded.

Taylor Branigan: 13:26

No, I don't think I could ever bring myself to say that.

Charlie Incarica: 13:28

It'd be a cool soundbite, though.

Taylor Branigan: 13:30

That's gonna be a hard pass.

Charlie Incarica: 13:33

So, there seem to be more layers to this bloom and onion of murder. We'll dip the pieces into the sauce of this mystery on the next episode. I'm Charles and Karika, and this continues to be the murderer killings.

Country Singer: 14:49

These things make you manage.