MFM Minisode 462

Summary

My Favorite Murder Minisode 462 — Creepy Neighbors

Podcast: My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
Release Date: November 17, 2025
Theme: Listener-submitted stories about unsettling and bizarre neighbors

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Episode Overview

In this themed minisode, Karen and Georgia share "Creepy Neighbors" stories sent in by listeners. As always, their signature mix of true crime intrigue, listener tales, quick-witted banter, and practical advice is front and center. This week’s stories span from bizarre neighborly behavior to brushes with notorious criminals, and surreal close calls — all underscored by the eerie reality that you might not truly know who’s living next door.

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Key Stories & Discussion Points

1. Virgin in a Pear Tree — A Neighbor Running a Meth Lab

[01:22 – 04:08]

• Listener’s Story: In college in Alabama, a woman lives alone thanks to a last-minute roommate change. Her neighbor — a self-proclaimed virgin Vietnam vet — begins to act disturbingly, leaving cigarette butts, strange notes, and lurking around her home.
• Escalation: The situation peaks when a detective informs her someone tried to break into her house. SWAT and DEA soon storm the neighbor’s apartment — he’s running a meth lab.
• Memorable Reactions:
  • Karen, on unwanted neighbor comments: “Sir, that’s your private business. Take it to your pastor.” [02:23]
  • Georgia, on the protective actions of other women: “Girls of the world calling the cops...” [04:35]
• Takeaway: Even seemingly innocuous weirdos can harbor much darker secrets; trust your instincts.

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2. The Cranky Clipper — Living Near the Golden State Killer

[04:46 – 07:54]

• Listener’s Story: A woman chats with her sister about a cantankerous neighbor obsessed with trimming his lawn and yelling at passersby. Years later, discovering news coverage of Joseph D’Angelo, she learns that their neighbor was the infamous Golden State Killer.
• Karen’s Reflection:
  • “So she lived on the same block as this guy. It sounds like the freakin’ Golden State Killer yelled at my sister.” [07:24]
• Impact: The realization that a notorious serial killer was just a few doors down — and interacted with her family — was chilling.

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3. Creepy Notes and Confrontation at Work

[08:41 – 12:08]

• Listener’s Story: A young woman receives ambiguous, intense notes about her eyes left on her car. She discovers the sender is a much older man who owns a business below her apartment — and he ambushes her in the stairwell.
• Resolution: She enlists her bartender coworker’s support at work, who confronts the man and ensures he leaves her alone. The listener reflects on being desensitized due to past abuse, and finally learning to “fuck politeness” and ask for help.
• Notable Advice:
  • Karen: “Saying stuff like ‘fuck politeness’ is the kind of thing you develop when you’re in your 40s and 50s... that’s great advice coming from you... get someone else to help you.” [12:08]
  • Georgia: “Totally. It’s hard to do, ask for help.” [12:31]

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4. Hero Senior Dog Saves the Day

[13:01 – 16:39]

• Listener’s Story: Responding to a call for “hero senior dog” stories, a listener recalls her Newfoundland, Boo, who scared off a creep trying to enter through the backyard. Boo, usually “a gentle giant,” goes berserk and deters the neighbor — later revealed to be involved in abuse.
• Karen’s Admiration:
  • “It just goes to show, always trust your gut and more importantly, trust your sweet old dog’s intuition.” [16:36]
• Georgia’s Sentiment:
  • “Nothing has ever made me feel more safe than having a dog with me at home.” [16:39]

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5. The Accidental Voodoo Doll Curse

[16:58 – 20:59]

• Listener’s Story: After a messy college breakup, two friends use a joke voodoo doll in response to a bad neighbor. The neighbor’s life quickly unravels: heartbreak, identity theft, illness, and being deployed. The women worry they “cursed” him, but soon experience their own streak of bad luck, leading to the lesson: don’t put negativity in the world.
• Memorable Quote:
  • Listener: “We looked at each other in horror as we both remembered the voodoo doll. It was still where we had left it all those months before, in the teeth.” [19:59]
• Moral: Karmic backlash is real — don’t curse, send good vibes instead.

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6. Babysitter Locked In & 911 on the Parents

[21:22 – 25:18]

• Listener’s Story: In the 1980s, an 11-year-old tasked with babysitting her younger siblings locks all doors for safety. That night, she’s terrified by loud banging — fearing the creepy neighbor. It turns out to be her parents, locked out, and she unwittingly calls 911 on them.
• Host Banter:
  • Karen ponders: “I think you need to be at least a freshman in high school... 13, 14.” [22:46]
  • Georgia muses: “I want people to email us about... how old is okay to babysit?” [25:18]
• Reflection: The sometimes blurred line of childhood independence and responsibility, and the difference between past and present standards.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Karen: “We trusted him. We trusted that virgin.” (on the meth-lab neighbor) [04:15]
• Listener: “That grumpy bastard was Joseph D’Angelo.” (on Golden State Killer) [07:02]
• Karen: “Always trust your gut and more importantly, trust your sweet old dog’s intuition.” [16:36]
• Listener: “...I believe now, at the age of 27, I have the strength to fuck politeness.” (on drawing boundaries) [12:08]
• Karen: “Saying stuff like ‘fuck politeness’ is the kind of thing you develop when you’re in your 40s and 50s.” [12:08]
• Listener: “We looked at each other in horror as we both remembered the voodoo doll. It was still where we had left it all those months before, in the teeth.” [19:59]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:22] — Creepy “Virgin” Neighbor Story
• [04:46] — Cranky Neighbor & Golden State Killer
• [08:41] — Eyes-as-Windows Note and Confrontation
• [13:01] — Hero Senior Dog Boo
• [16:58] — Accidental Voodoo Doll Curse
• [21:22] — The Babysitter and the Locked Out Parents

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Episode Tone & Style

Karen and Georgia balance the chilling nature of the stories with warmth, humor, and candid reflection. They validate listener experiences, reflect on their own brush-ins with creepy neighbors, and reiterate the importance of trusting instincts and seeking help — served, as always, with signature wit (“We trusted that virgin”) and a sense of community. The tone moves seamlessly from eerie (Gold State Killer!) to heartfelt (hero dogs) to comically relatable (babysitting fails).

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Final Thoughts

This episode is a quintessential “MFM minisode,” mixing jaw-dropping true neighbor tales, supportive host insights, and that unique “Murderino” humor. It’s a reminder to listen to your gut, find allies, and—sometimes—just let your dog handle things.

SSDGM! (Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered)

Transcript

[Karen Kilgariff]

This is exactly right.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No one brings out your inner monster.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like a bad neighbor.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys find that out for themselves in the Beast in.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Me, a new eight episode drama from.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The team that brought you Homeland.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Baines plays Aggie Wiggs, a grieving writer. Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, her new neighbor and possible murderer.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But who's the monster and who's the bad neighbor?

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's another story.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

It's a game of cat and mouse that sets them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The Beast in Me now playing only only on Netflix.

[Guest or Contributor]

You will not want to miss this. Goodbye, Goodbye.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder, the Minisode.

[Guest or Contributor]

We're doing a themed episode this week, Creepy Neighbors. Some of you guys need to move.

[Karen Kilgariff]

My God, these are not funny stories. There's a lot of people up on other people's porches for no reason.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yep. A lot of people leaving things for you that you did not ask for and do not want.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Let's get into it.

[Guest or Contributor]

Let's.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You want to start?

[Guest or Contributor]

Sure. Okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That was almost like we rehearsed it.

[Guest or Contributor]

I know. That was too smooth. We're just. We're on the road and we're just killing it now.

[Karen Kilgariff]

We're just locked in.

[Guest or Contributor]

Okay. This one's called A Virgin and a Pear Tree. Hello, MFM ladies. I have been wanting to write this in for quite some time, but it's a long one with a lot of twists and turns, so it's taken me a moment to get my thoughts down in what I hope is a cohesive manner. When I was a sophomore in college in Alabama, I lived alone in a two bedroom house, thanks to my roommate transferring the week before school started. Hell yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Wow.

[Guest or Contributor]

It wasn't in a bad neighborhood per se, but there were some creepy apartments next door that resembled an hourly motel. It's like everywhere in Los Angeles.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

In my backyard, my landlord had so lovingly planted a pear tree that would cover my car in such thick SAP that I would have to hand wash my car in order to see out the windshield.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, Jesus.

[Guest or Contributor]

One afternoon while washing my car, a neighbor from the creepy apartments came outside to drink a beer. He started talking to me innocently enough in the beginning, but then shit got weird. He began to tell me he was a Vietnam war veteran and devoted himself to the service and therefore had never had a wife. His problem? He was saving himself for marriage.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Sir, that's your private business. Yeah, Take it to your pastor.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yes, this Lord knows how old man started talking to me about how he was a virgin and then starts commenting on my looks. I quickly created an excuse to get the fuck away from this conversation and locked myself in my house. Because fuck politeness. I wish I could say that's where it ends. But it gets weirder. From then on, a flower pot full of cigarette butts would magically appear every time I walked out my front door. As if someone were watching me go in and out of my house house. Just fucking chain smoking and watching her.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like he was standing out there watching.

[Guest or Contributor]

I think so.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

Weird notes would be left in my mailbox and when I passed the virgin neighbor outside, he would ask if I had checked my mail lately and laugh uncontrollably. The worst was when my friend and I were sitting on my front porch eating boozed up Italian ice and a detective approached. At first I thought I was about to get in trouble for my delicious treat. How did he know? But I quickly lost my buzz when he told me. Some girls down the street called 911 when they saw a weird man trying to break into my home earlier that day. Good for those.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, for real.

[Guest or Contributor]

At the end of spring semester, on the day of my last final, I was sitting at my kitchen table eating breakfast. The window faced the creep apartments, and to my shock, they were quickly surrounded by SWAT teams and DEA officers. This perked me up quicker than any cup of coffee could. And my mouth hung open as they dragged my creepy neighbor out of his apartment in handcuff. Ladies and gentlemen, this man was running a full blown meth lab in there.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh my God.

[Guest or Contributor]

I'm not sure whatever happened to him because needless to say, my mom was ready for me to get the fuck out of there. I ended up transferring that summer and it was the best decision I ever made. Stay sexy and don't plant that pear tree. Aaron.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So was he even a virgin? I mean, was he lying the whole time? Dang.

[Guest or Contributor]

We trusted him.

[Karen Kilgariff]

We trusted that virgin.

[Guest or Contributor]

A meth lab, like, that's so dangerous.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh my God. In an apartment?

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. That's insane.

[Guest or Contributor]

Ooh.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And also just that idea that then she's like, yay. I get this house to myself. Now I'm trapped in this house.

[Guest or Contributor]

Every time you walk out the door, there might be some. That's. I've. We've all done that. It's just.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's like you're being held hostage and just united. Girls of the world calling the cops and. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

Love it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay, well, we're in it now.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yes, we are.

[Karen Kilgariff]

We're in it. I'm not gonna read the subject line of this. It says, hi, MFM crew, you asked for crazy neighbor stories. So I decided it was finally time to write in. My sister and I used to talk on the phone every week or so. She would mostly chat about her pets or her spouse. And then in parentheses, it says in that order. But a couple of times, she mentioned a particular neighbor who gave her hell, along with a strong dose of both the heebies and.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And the gbs.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Apparently, it was not unusual for him to curse loudly or yell at passersby, so naturally, he was pretty much outside in his garage or in the yard all the time. And then in parentheses, it says, why can't cranky people stay indoors and yell at the TV like normal folks? What's so funny is it reminds me of we used to, you know, live out in the country, so it was like country roads, and people would literally go 85 miles an hour. As my sister and I are out there on our bikes. My father yelled at every car that sped.

[Guest or Contributor]

I was picturing your dad. Like, there was something in your voice that was like, I'm familiar with this.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes, this is. And it.

[Guest or Contributor]

Well, he wasn't wrong.

[Karen Kilgariff]

He wasn't wrong, but I don't know how effective it was. I'm sure it was very soothing for him, though. So on several occasions, my sister and her dogs were the target of this yelling. This prickly grump would yell at her for her dogs, doing a normal dog thing like walking in the grass or breathing too loudly. A few times, she even saw him on the ground trimming the lawn with scissors and muttering to himself. Weird. But I guess if he's muttering to himself and not yelling at her, it's okay. I said something to the effect of, well, he sounds like a real delight. Then suggested it might be a good idea to consider a different route for her dog walks, lest she get stabbed in the foot with his lawn scissors. We laughed, and she agreed it would be best to avoid further confrontation and just let the crusty old timer live out his life with his perfectly edged grass. My sister eventually moved to a different city with much nicer neighbors, none of whom used kitchen utensils on their lawns. And I never thought about the crotchety clipper again.

[Guest or Contributor]

I have a feeling I know what it is.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I think you do. Oh, my God, tell me that is until 2018, when a massive story broke and I heard the name of a familiar street on the news. Oh, wow. Someone has been arrested in my sister's old neighborhood. Wait, did they just say that? The neighbors called him cantankerous, and he was known for swearing at people and crawling on the lawn to hand cut the edges. Holy shit. That grumpy bastard was Joseph d'. Angelo.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh, my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I remember the scissor. Lawn scissor cutting.

[Guest or Contributor]

That's so wild.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I scoured the articles until I found one with a photo showing the house number. And then in parentheses, it says, don't dox folks even serial killers. And then it says. And pulled up a map to compare my sister's old address with this one. It was less than 10 houses away.

[Guest or Contributor]

Holy shit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So she lived on the same block as this guy. It sounds like the freaking Golden State Killer yelled at my sister.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh. Oh, how fucking terrifying.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, my sister was not a murderino and would probably have lost her mind if she knew she lived so close to an actual monster. But perhaps fortunately, she died before Jeann caught up with her asshole of a neighbor. At least the world knows how intensely vile this man is, and I can only hope he gets everything he deserves. Stay sexy and avoid the creepy neighbor. Em.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh, my God.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Don't miss. Netflix new series the Beast in Me.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's a riveting psychological thriller from the team that brought you Homeland.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

The Beast in Me follows acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs, played by Claire Danes, who has withdrawn from public life after the.

[Guest or Contributor]

Tragic death of her young son.

[Georgia Hardstark]

She's unable to write and is a ghost of her former self. But Aggie finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Niall Jarvis, played by Matthew Rhys.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Niall is a famed real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife's disappearance.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth, chasing his demons while fleeing her own.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

It's a game of cat and mouse that sets them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The Beast in Me now playing only on Netflix.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

You will not want to miss this.

[Guest or Contributor]

Goodbye. Goodbye. Okay, this is just called Creepy Neighbor. Hi, murder friends. I will be keeping my name out of this, but shout out to my sister, who also loves this podcast, and then says their sister's name and then, like, goes on to do a lot of, like, details that I think. I'm not gonna say the sister's name essentially. Cause, like, if you want to be anonymous, this is not the way to do it. Your sister has a very unique name. Okay. When I was in college working on my master's degree in architecture, I was employed at a restaurant that was walking distance from my Apartment. I lived on a main road in a town on the water where there was commercial space below and apartments above. One day when I was on my way to my car to go to school, I saw a note had been left behind on my windshield. It said, quote, ever look into someone in the eyes and instantly feel there is much depth, the kind of depth that can stop you in your tracks. Most days I see shortsighted emptiness in people's eyes, but not you. Eyes are the windows to the soul and yours runs deep. Question mark. I find it very rare these days and I thought it was worth sharing. End quote.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You're reading this note next to your car and then you're just looking around? Seriously.

[Guest or Contributor]

I immediately took a picture of it and sent it to my boyfriend and was like, look at this note with no name left on my car. My partner said, oh yeah, I found one on your car last week and threw it away so you wouldn't be scared.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Sir, sir, get it together.

[Guest or Contributor]

Like, what the fuck? I of course, was confused and the detective in me started to think about who it could possibly be. I had no idea. A few weeks later, I was walking down the stairs of my apartment and a man popped out of nowhere, blocking my exit and standing in the landing inside, where only the tenants should be. It was the renter of one of the commercial spaces below my apartment who would come into the restaurant with his daughters. His business was not open to the public yet and I didn't know him. Besides that, he did look to be almost 40 and I was 22 at the time. He asked me on the spot if, quote, I ever wanted to hang out sometime. I have plenty of wine in my unit and you could just knock on the door. I sleep there most nights. I said no thank you with an awkward smile and left without further incident. I was working that month and got assigned to his table and told the bartender to please take his table. I told them what happened and showed her the note and how I thought he sent it and felt very uncomfortable. She said he was a townie going through a divorce and she had known him her whole life and agreed it was creepy. Thank God she went over to talk to him and I'm not sure what she said, but he pretended I didn't exist after that and I was fine with that. Fucking tell the bartender when you're uncomfortable.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, that's very smart advice. Yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

Nonetheless, it is very scary to have a creeper who knows where you work, live and what your car looks like. Thank you to all those strong badass Bartenders and others who can stand up for those who are not good with confrontation, even in dangerous situations. I usually told myself, well, that was weird. But they didn't physically hurt me. Like that time when a kid held a knife up to my wrist and I did not tell my mom. But my friend who was nearby me at the time told her mom later, crying and the police were involved. Story for another time. My mom sent me to therapy to help me understand why I should have told somebody. I was in it for the candy, I guess, at therapy and barely talked during my session. But now as an adult, I know that I was desensitized from the abuse I suffered from my father. That blurred my lines. Sorry, this is a bit long. Love you guys. And please ask for help even if it makes you uncomfortable. I believe now, at the age of 27, I have the strength to fuck politeness. Yes, thank you for all that you guys do. SSDGM Anonymous Anonymous.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I just wanna say that for myself. Saying stuff like fuck politeness is the kind of thing you develop when you're in your 40s and 50s.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like you get, you live through life and you live through those experiences if you're in your 20s. And that's not something that's familiar or comfortable for you. That makes a lot of sense. And that's great advice coming from you saying like, get someone else to help you.

[Guest or Contributor]

Totally. It's a hard thing to do, ask for help.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But it also, the more you practice it, the more you realize a lot of times a creep like that or somebody that's like, they just have the wrong idea.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And it's just like, it's whether you set a boundary, which is everybody has hard times doing. Totally A hard time doing that sometimes. Or you find a bartender. Yeah, yeah, Smart. Okay, we'll change the temperature a little bit right now.

[Guest or Contributor]

Right. There's gotta be some good neighbors, right?

[Karen Kilgariff]

No, actually that's not what's gonna happen here.

[Guest or Contributor]

But we asked for creepy.

[Karen Kilgariff]

The subject line says, karen asked for a hero senior dog. I give her a hero senior dog. Yes, Karen, exclamation part. Georgia, exclamation point, the whole gang, exclamation point. Longtime listener, first time caller. Let's get into it. I've always lamented how I never really had a good hometown. But it turns out after listening to Minisode 318, I do. You asked for a hero senior dog story. And boy do I have one. I was the youngest of my family and my mom was a stay at home leg. So me her and my sweet big Newfoundland dog, Boo would spend a lot of time home alone together. I'm gonna show you this dog now.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh my God. Please.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Boo.

[Guest or Contributor]

Holy. My God. That is just like a ball of giant fur.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Are you familiar with Newfoundland dogs?

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Not really.

[Guest or Contributor]

Drool. A lot of drool.

[Karen Kilgariff]

A lot of drool. They're gigantic and they're big babies. My parents took us to the San Francisco dog show when I was like 8 years old.

[Guest or Contributor]

Amazing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And you get to walk through as they're like grooming the dogs and see every kind. And my sister and I got to the Newfoundland T. We were like, we begged our parents. We're like, it's good for the country. And it could run around in fields.

[Guest or Contributor]

It's like a sheepdog.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes. But like a small horse.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And they're from Newfoundland, Canada. And they swim in the ocean is what I heard. So they're.

[Guest or Contributor]

That's a kind face too.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know. They're so sweet.

[Guest or Contributor]

They swim in the ocean and they, like you and your sister did all this research to like present to your parents.

[Karen Kilgariff]

We're like, we could bring her to the ocean and we could. So my Sweet Baby Angel 10 year old dog would never hurt a fly and was well known in our neighborhood as a gentle giant. We also had this old creepy neighbor who we used to joke about being involved in anything weirdly dark. We could think of one particularly dark winter night. Creep neighbor had decided to, for reasons unknown, come over to our house while only me. I was 15 at the time my mom and Boo were home. He also, for some reason, decided to walk around the back of the house to our sliding glass door, even though our front door was much closer. When my dog noticed someone at the back door, she perked up. And when she noticed it was him, she lost her goddamn mind. When I say I've never seen my dog flip her shit like this, I mean it. She hopped up from her deep slumber, teeth showing, hackles raised near foaming at the mouth. She was barking so intensely and her face was pressed up on the glass. Me and my mom were so shocked since we'd never even seen her chase a squirrel. So we just stood beside her and stared at him, not doing anything to make her stop. Need to say creep neighbor turned and left in a fucking hurry. My dad went over that night after work and berated him for coming to our back door in the pitch black and for alarming me and my mom as well as our sweet old dog. After that episode, my dog would bark incessantly at his Car every time it drove by or at him if he got too close to the property line.

[Guest or Contributor]

Wait, is this the Golden State Killer again?

[Karen Kilgariff]

One of every star this dog caught. Joseph DeAngelo.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

She said, not today or any day. Crete. Years later, my parents moved into the city, but did hear some intrigues. Interesting news. It turns out that creep was involved in some gross creepy church activities, including some abuse claims as well as general thievery. It just goes to show, always trust your gut and more importantly, trust your sweet old dog's intuition. SSDGM Bell and then it says, P.S. i've attached a photo of my sweet guardian angel dog. She passed away almost nine years ago and I think of her every time I choose to say fuck that to something that gives me that hell fucking no gut feeling. She was just really cute and I wanted to share. Shared that with you and the MFM team. Isn't that cute?

[Guest or Contributor]

That's so sweet. Honestly, like, nothing has ever made me feel more safe than having a dog with me at home. Yeah, like, you know, Cookie's not gonna fucking attack anyone, but she's gonna bark her head off.

[Karen Kilgariff]

She knows what's going on.

[Guest or Contributor]

She lets me know. It's. It's priceless. Like, you can't. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

Okay. We accidentally cursed the neighbor. This one's long, but. Hello, MFM crew. I thought you might like this story from my college days. Way back during the first Bush administration when. What I know. My friend and I lived together in an off campus apartment in a complex that was almost entirely college students. We all kind of hung out together and my roommate had a fling with one of the neighbors. We'll call him Josh. Things ended really all caps. Badly. I don't remember exactly what happened now, but she was very mad and upset, as 20 year olds are. And we never hung out with him again. A day or two after they split up, I was at Barnes and Noble and in the Chachki section where they had all the mini kits, mini Zen rock garden, mini Fashion emergency kit, et cetera. Remember those? I found the Mini Love Voodoo Doll kit. Remember those? Oh, yes, Mini Love Voodoo Doll kit. I thought it would be hilarious to give it to my roommate. And indeed, she thought it was hilarious. Let's pour some 7 and 7 and use it. Because what harm can a mini Love voodoo doll really do? We were to find out. Ooh, I think we had a note. He had written that she folded up and stabbed the doll with some pins, then put it in a mold of her teeth she had from some Dental work, so teeth were biting the doll's neck. We had a good laugh and promptly forgot about it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Uh oh.

[Guest or Contributor]

Josh avoided us until he moved out a few weeks later. I heard through mutual friends that his Army Reserve unit was called up to active duty not long after that, but never really heard much else about him. One day, almost a year later, I was homesick and he signed on to AOL Instant Mess, which he hadn't been on in a long time. Remember first Bush administration?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Ding, ding.

[Guest or Contributor]

This seemed weird because last I had heard, he was deployed in Iraq. This was not long after the Iraq war started, and in 2003, 4. Having access to AIM while deployed seemed insane. I messaged him because, well, why not? It had been almost a year, and I was curious how he was doing. Josh responded and told me quite the tale. Apparently, right after he ended things with my roommate, he met a girl and they started dating and then got engaged. But she cheated on him and dumped him, and he was completely, completely heartbroken. He had been the victim of some sort of outrageous identity theft where he lost $6,000. I'm gonna guess they put how much in today's money, which I love.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes, 6,000 in the early 2000s. $6,000? Would it be like, close to $9,000?

[Guest or Contributor]

10. 10 and a half? Oh, yeah, yeah. And had to sue his bank. Then he got deployed to Iraq, where he contracted meningitis and had to spend his 21st birthday in a field hospital. He was actually still in the hospital recovering, which is how he had Internet access and was talking to me.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, whoa.

[Guest or Contributor]

My roommate came home while I was talking to him, and I called her into my room to hear the tale of what happened to Josh. She arrived right when he wrote, quote. It all started when I ended things with roommate, and I feel like maybe it was punishment for being such a jerk to her.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Ooh, he knew.

[Guest or Contributor]

God, that feels so good, right? Like I was an asshole.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It so rarely happens. Yeah, yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

We looked at each other in horror as we both remembered the voodoo doll. It was still where we had left it all those months before, in the teeth. We ran out of the room to grab it, remove the pins, and get rid of it. How did the voodoo doll have such power? We had just thought of it as a funny thing that was a little cathartic for my scorned roommate, but not that it could actually curse anyone. But do you think we could curse Josh, even accidentally, without having it come back to us? No, we could not. As it happened, this was shortly before Valentine's Day. And both my roommate and I got dumped by the guys we were dating out of nowhere just a few days later. Since then, we have both avoided any curses, voodoo dolls, or sending bad vibes to anyone. It's not worth the karmic backlash. I heard Josh got married a few years later, but we have lost touch with him and most of the friends we had back then. I talked to my friend slash ex roommate before sending this email and we both hope he is doing well and send him good vibes now. Stay sagas again. Don't curse anyone, even accidentally. J. Wow.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's like if you had taken out the voodoo doll part, would those things have happened anyway? And then it's just kind of the focus of life or just like. But it does make sense where it's like putting bad vibes in the world isn't a good idea.

[Guest or Contributor]

No, just try to avoid it. But when you're 20, that's all you do is like send bad vibes to people.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You just. You have experiences, then you feel so wronged, and then you want to change it.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah, whatever.

[Karen Kilgariff]

All right, here's my last one. The subject line is child of the 80s. 9, 11, trash parents, creepy neighbor. This story has everything. And it says, hello all. You're the best. Let's do this. I grew up in a St. Louis suburb that was generally safe and quiet. But we had a neighbor across the street that creeped out all the kids. His house was run down, his yard was overgrown, and he had a giant bush with bats living in it.

[Guest or Contributor]

What?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Okay, Dracula. There were rumors among the kids on the street that he had a giant dog living in his basement that was trained to attack anyone that walked into his yard. As a child of the 80s, I babysat my younger siblings, often, usually just while my mom ran to the store. My parents decided that at 11 years old, I was seasoned enough to babysit my two younger brothers, age 4 and 7, for the evening. As they went out around 9pm I made sure all the doors to the house were locked. An 11 year old.

[Guest or Contributor]

I don't know, though. I feel okay about it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

You do?

[Guest or Contributor]

Maybe not. Yeah, no.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Sixth grade.

[Guest or Contributor]

Let's see, my nephew's 10 and my other one's like five. No girls, though.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Girls, maybe. But then I think about, like, Nora back then, or just like, I would just. And I'm sure my sister was like this where it's like, you could go out to dinner all you want, but you're just like, what's gonna happen?

[Guest or Contributor]

I don't know. I've got that weird, like between is it okay and is it not okay vibe. Like, I don't know.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I think you need to be at least a freshman in high school.

[Guest or Contributor]

Okay, 13. Let's go. 13.

[Karen Kilgariff]

13. 14. Yeah, because I think you have to. Well, you'll see.

[Guest or Contributor]

Okay. Sorry. Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Around 9pm I made sure all the doors to the house were locked. Just that alone was so scary. And we piled into my parents bed. My little brothers quickly fell asleep, but I lay awake with the TV on, nervous to be the official adult of the house.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah, you're right. It's too fucking young. Cause something could happen. That's the thing I'm not thinking of.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Right. It's something happened for the hang. It's great.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But then if like, oh, a small fire starts over there. Now what are we doing?

[Guest or Contributor]

Totally.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So around 10 o' clock, I heard banging on the front door. No, this was not normal knocking. It was pounding and banging. The banging started at the front of the house and then it was moving closer to the back of the house where we were. As it was getting louder and louder, in my heart, I just knew it was my creepy neighbor trying to get in to murder us all. The phone in my parents room was a rotary phone.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh geez.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Remember rotary phones where you had to spin for each number?

[Guest or Contributor]

Yes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Let's hold onto that magic for a moment. I misdialed my neighbor's number at least three times. Then I just went for 911. The 911 operator could hear the banging over the phone. That's how loud it was. She stayed on the line with me as I waited for the police to come to save us from my creepy murderous neighbor.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

By this point, my brothers had woken up and they were also terrified. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably five minutes, the dispatcher told me that the police have arrived in front of my house. That they were shining a spotlight and it was my parents. I had locked the screen. I had locked the front screen door, which had no key and chain locked the back door so my parents couldn't get in. The police found my very pregnant mother sitting on our front porch reading a newspaper while my dad was banging on the door and all of our bedroom windows, thinking we were asleep and that he just needed to wake us up. Because waking up your young children by pounding on all their windows is a super great idea. Dad.

[Guest or Contributor]

Yell their names. It's dad.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

Hey, hey, hey, hey guys.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Hey.

[Guest or Contributor]

It's your friendly neighborhood dad. Oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I was so embarrassed that I made my 7 year old brother go unlock the door to let my parents in. They thought this was hilarious and told me that I did the right thing by calling 911 because if she got.

[Guest or Contributor]

In trouble, I was gonna be fucking furious.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know. It's like you, you did this. This event did not stop my parents from using me as their free babysitter for many years to come. Stay Sexy and don't call 911 on your parents when you're the one who locked them out.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh my God. I want people to email us about how old is okay to babysit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes.

[Guest or Contributor]

And I want parents of young kids now to tell me why they would never leave their fucking child alone to babysit.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, talk to us about how you're breaking the generational curse of you babysitting your 3 year old brother when you were 9 by now not letting your 17 year old leave the house without location services.

[Guest or Contributor]

I babysit an infant with my friend, a neighbor, when I was like 11.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Guest or Contributor]

An infant?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yes. I babysat an infant and fell asleep on the couch. Cause I had to get up at like 7 in the morning to go. It was like a summer job. And it was like a two year old that was just sitting there playing with stuff and I was watching and then I just went like that and then like woke up. So like high pressure, but at the same time you just don't get what the consequences are.

[Guest or Contributor]

Totally. I wanna hear about floods. I wanna hear about fires. Why did you never get to babysit again?

[Karen Kilgariff]

Ooh, yes.

[Guest or Contributor]

We'll still cover these. It's not too late.

[Karen Kilgariff]

No, we have to. Creepy neighbors can go on forever.

[Guest or Contributor]

Oh, for sure.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And stay sexy and don't get murdered.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Goodbye, Elvis.

[Guest or Contributor]

Do you want a cookie?

[Georgia Hardstark]

This has been an exactly right production.

[Guest or Contributor]

Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[Guest or Contributor]

This episode was mixed by Liana Squill.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Email your hometowns to my favorite murdermail dot com.

[Guest or Contributor]

Follow the show on Instagram at My favorite murder.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Listen to my favorite murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

[Guest or Contributor]

Get your podcasts or Watch us on YouTube. Search for my favorite murder and then like and subscribe.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Goodbye.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No one brings out your inner monster.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Like a bad neighbor.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Claire Danes and Matthew Reese find that out for themselves in the Beast in.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Me, a new eight episode drama from.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The team that brought you Homeland.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Danes play Aggie Wiggs, a grieving writer. Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, her new neighbor and possible murderer.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But who's the monster? And who's the bad neighbor?

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's another story.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

It's a game of cat and mouse that sets them on a collision course with fatal consequences.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The Beast in Me now playing only on Netflix.

[Guest or Contributor]

You will not want to miss this. Goodbye. Goodbye.