MFM Minisode 480

Summary

My Favorite Murder Minisode 480 – Women's History Month “Badass Women” Spectacular

Hosts: Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark
Release Date: March 23, 2026
Theme: Listener-submitted true stories about the badass women in their lives, in honor of Women’s History Month

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Episode Overview

This Women’s History Month minisode features Karen and Georgia reading listener emails celebrating courageous and trailblazing women – from daring great-grandmothers who escaped the Nazis, to relatives facing down notorious criminals, to internet-viral grandmothers. The stories highlight grit, resilience, humor, and the everyday heroics of women throughout history and family lore.

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Notable Stories & Key Discussion Points

1. The Great-Grandmother Who Escaped the Nazis & Invented Barre

[04:16 – 07:38]

• Summary:
  Listener Vanessa shares the tale of her great-grandmother, Lottie Burke (née Lisa Let Himson), a wealthy, Jewish classical pianist and dancer from Cologne, Germany. Lottie defied Nazi oppression, snuck onstage under SS surveillance, and managed a daring escape with her family to the UK. In Britain, she pioneered the exercise method now known as Barre.
• Quotable Moments:
  • “She was showered with flowers and shouted back to the crowd, ‘Thank you. Thank you for not being Nazis.’” — Listener email ([06:09])
  • “At forty, she invented a new exercise... Bar. If you know, you know. Everyone knows Bar.” — Georgia ([07:06])
• Hosts’ Reactions:
  Shock and awe at Lottie’s boldness and her legacy.
  • “Legendary. I mean, like people with books.” — Karen ([07:38])

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2. Meemaw & Al Capone: The Mobster Connection

[07:38 – 11:57]

• Summary:
  Caitlyn describes her great-grandmother Mae (“Meemaw”) from Michigan, who knew Al Capone as a teenager working in a mob-laden dancehall. Capone protected her, giving her safe rides home and cash when he learned her real age.
• Quotable Moments:
  • “She not only knew Al Capone—she in fact had been quite close with him when she was young.” — Listener email ([08:57])
  • “Her final request was that we not hold a funeral because she considered herself ‘not worth the fuss over.’ She threatened to haunt the hell out of us if we didn’t respect her wishes...” — Listener ([10:45])
• Impact:
  Caitlyn credits Meemaw’s courage for inspiring her to move from the Midwest to NYC and succeed in arts and publishing.

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3. Badass Great-Great Aunt Survives Joe Palzinski

[16:53 – 19:18]

• Summary:
  Listener Kathy recounts her great-grandmother’s sister, Aunt Dolly, who survived an encounter with criminal Joe Palzinski in 2000. A World War II Army Corps nurse, Dolly stayed calm while being handcuffed, convinced Palzinski to release her, packed him a lunch, and was more upset about the bullet holes in her returned car than her own safety.
• Quotable Moments:
  • “She kept the door unlocked... He handcuffed her to the bed, Aunt Dolly talked to him and he ended up uncuffing her…Mom said she was all right and more pissed off about…her car, which she got back riddled with bullets from the shootout.” — Listener ([18:23])
• Hosts’ Thoughts:
  • “A combat nurse...when all of a sudden there’s guns and threats and men acting crazy, she’s like, ‘Yep, I’ve seen this before.’” — Karen ([19:36])
  • “It’s incredible.” — Georgia ([19:42])

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4. Scotland’s Pioneer Woman Doctor, A Grenade Souvenir & The Scottish Women’s Hospitals

[19:46 – 23:07]

• Summary:
  A listener shares the saga of her great-grandmother, the first woman to earn a medical degree from the University of Sheffield. She served in the all-woman Scottish Women’s Hospitals on the front lines of WWI, performing surgeries under dire circumstances and almost accidentally brought home a live grenade as a keepsake.
• Quotable Moments:
  • “…proceeded to, quite rudely, she thought, grab one of the trinkets, get out of his chair, and walk briskly out the door…The man then proceeded to throw the trinket into the lake…what she thought was a fun little souvenir was actually a live hand grenade.” — Listener ([21:56])
  • “Stay sexy and don’t take lethal weapons home as souvenirs.” — Listener ([22:41])
• Inspiration:
  The great-granddaughter is set to become the first woman doctor in the family since.

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5. The Infamous Olive Garden Columnist: Marilyn Haggerty

[32:09 – 37:35]

• Summary:
  Anna, Marilyn Haggerty’s granddaughter, recounts the viral explosion after Marilyn’s 2012 review of the local Olive Garden. Marilyn’s sincere style went viral, leading to national media attention (Anderson Cooper, Top Chef), Anthony Bourdain publishing her collection, and a legacy as the “kind, good-hearted reporter” who chronicled Middle America’s food scene.
• Quotable Moments:
  • “In her own words, ‘I’ve been a lot of other things, but never viral.’” — Marilyn Haggerty via listener ([34:45])
  • “This book kills snark dead.” — Anthony Bourdain’s praise for Marilyn ([35:32])
• Hosts’ Reflections:
  • “The lesson everybody learned in 2012 was the beginning of the end of Gen X 90s snark... like, hey, we’re not gonna treat a Marilyn Haggerty like this.” — Karen ([36:57])
  • Discussion of how her body of work, aided by Anthony Bourdain’s endorsement, is an example of kindness triumphing over online cynicism.

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6. Trash Sister Story: Limewire, FBI and Sibling Betrayal

[28:01 – 31:25]

• Summary:
  Abney shares a lighter, funny story about her Trash Sister Stacy using Limewire to burn illicit CDs, which escalated to an FBI piracy investigation. Younger sister Ansley inherited the laptop and took the fall, serving 40 hours of community service.
• Quotable Moment:
  • “We just kept telling Ansley ‘I mean, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.’” — Listener ([30:36])
• Reflection:
  Humor and sibling dynamics shine as the story moves from family tension to cherished memories of their dad’s laughter, especially poignant amid his dementia.

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Notable Quotes

• “Thank you. Thank you for not being Nazis.” — Lottie Burke, via listener ([06:09])
• “Her final request was that we not hold a funeral because she considered herself ‘not worth the fuss over.’ She threatened to haunt the hell out of us if we didn’t respect her wishes...” — Caitlyn about Meemaw ([10:45])
• “Stay sexy and don’t take lethal weapons home as souvenirs.” — K from Canada ([22:41])
• “I’ve been a lot of other things, but never viral.” — Marilyn Haggerty, via Anna ([34:45])
• “This book kills snark dead.” — Anthony Bourdain on Marilyn Haggerty ([35:32])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:16] – Nazi-Era Escape and Barre Method Origin Story
• [07:38] – Al Capone’s Kindness to a Young Waitress
• [16:53] – Aunt Dolly vs. Joe Palzinski
• [19:46] – Scottish Woman Doctor on the WWI Front and Grenade Souvenir
• [28:01] – Sibling FBI/Limewire Piracy Mishap
• [32:09] – Marilyn Haggerty, Viral Olive Garden Review and Anthony Bourdain Connection

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Hosts’ Tone and Style

Throughout the episode, Karen and Georgia sustain their trademark mix of humor, curiosity, and warmth, delighting in the wild energy, heroism, and sometimes ridiculousness of the stories:

• Casual banter and riffs (“What size is that fur coat—child’s fur coat?”)
• Joyful reactions to each new historic woman
• Moments of serious reflection mixed with jokes and “stay sexy” reminders.

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Standout Theme

Nearly every story centers women bucking expectations and surviving with wit and guts—whether on literal battlefields, facing the Mob, becoming viral at 90, or even in the battleground of mid-2000s file-sharing. The menacing, the mundane, or the simply odd: these women handle it all, and the episode serves as a lively, heartfelt celebration of Women’s History Month.

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To submit your story:
As the hosts remind, email “[e-mail]” with your own family legends.

Signature Send-off:

• “Stay sexy and don’t get murdered.”

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Credits:
Produced by Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts. Senior Producer: Molly Smith. Associate Producer: Tessa Hughes. Editor: Aristotle Acevedo. Mixed by Liana Squillace.

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For more on Marilyn Haggerty, check out her book Grand Forks, published by Anthony Bourdain, and for Scottish women's hospitals, see The Woman of Royaumont by Eileen Crofton.

Transcript

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Goodbye. Goodbye, My fav. Hello and welcome to my favorite murder, the minisode.

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We read you your stories and they're from emails. Email stories.

[A]

You know, those digital stories you love to tell so much?

[B]

Imagine that.

[A]

Do you want to go first for this Women's History Month spectacular?

[B]

Okay, let's do it. I have a really good first one that I love.

[A]

Okay, great.

[B]

My badass great grandmother escaped the Nazis.

[A]

Oh, hell yes.

[B]

Classic by what a kickoff here. I know, gets pretty crazy. Hi, team. Every time I hear a minisode that has a brilliant grandparent, I shout at myself for not writing in. So today instead of shouting, I am writing in. Yay me. My incredible great grandmother was brilliant and terrifying and one hell of a woman. Lisa Let Himson was born in Cologne, Germany in 1913. Her family was all caps rich. I mean, being driven to school by a chauffeur whilst wearing furs.

[A]

Rich, do you think that child being driven to school was wearing furs?

[B]

I hope the car was wearing furs. Like everyone had a fur on the chauffeur.

[A]

The principal of the school. Everybody's decked out in fur, covered in furs. Here's our new line of child furs. That's right, Nicole we have a whole new merch idea.

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She started off as a classical pianist and then decided to retrain as a dancer and learned modernist ballet. Whilst dancing, she met her soon to be husband, Ernest Burke. They fell into a wild kind of love. They started to make a name for themselves as dancers and became pretty famous in Germany. They. And then the Nazis came. Unfortunately for Lottie. Oh, that's what she calls her great grandmother. Unfortunately for Lottie, her rich family were Jewish. As defiant creatives, Lottie and Ernest tried to carry on, but the SS made it impossible. There was a time when Ernest was dancing. He wasn't Jewish, so wasn't banned in a famous venue in Cologne. And he was dancing a dance that usually involved Lottie. The SS were surrounding the hall. Think the final scene in Blues Brothers, looking out for Lottie to see if she would break the rules and dance on stage. Lottie was hiding in the wings and started to hear the crowd shout her name. She defiantly went onto the stage and the crowd went wild. People shouted, dance, Lottie, dance. The SS edge nearer. But she stayed on the stage. She was showered with flowers and shouted back to the crowd, thank you. Thank you for not being Nazis. The next week, Lottie, Ernest and Esther, their young daughter, my grandmother, fled Germany on fake British passports. They had nothing. They slept in a cold room along with other refugee families. Britain wasn't ready for their modernist dancing and Lottie and Ernest struggled to make ends meet. There are some old tapes somewhere of Lottie talking about sneaking back and forth to Germany throughout the war to smuggle jewelry and money back into the UK for them to survive on. I could tell you so many stories about Lottie. Some are on her Wikipedia page. Yep, she's even got one of those. I checked it out. She does Lottie Burke, if you want to check it out. At 40, she invented a new exercise which is called bar. If you know, you know. But it's bar. Everyone knows bar.

[A]

The bar method.

[B]

She was the most inspiring woman to me. She retained her strong German accent, wore red lipstick and Chanel Number five. Every day I have one of her fur coats. Is it a child's fur coat?

[A]

Yeah. What size?

[B]

And even 25 years after her death, it still smells of her. So stay sexy. Love your brilliance. Combined of humor, true crime and mental health. All my favorite things. Vanessa from Shrewd Shrewsbury, uk. And I looked her up. It's like she's fucking totally legit. Her daughter, the grandma, wrote a biography about her called My Improper Mother and Me.

[A]

Wow. It's all real all right, Legendary. I mean, like people. People with books. All right, so. Well, here's another. This is another badass great grandma story. I won't read you the subject line. It says, hi, ladies. I grew up in southwest Michigan, near a little tourist town called St. Joseph. It sits right along Lake Michigan's coastline, a short boat ride to Chicago. So throughout the peak era of Mafia re, it became a known hotspot for mobsters to escape the city. There used to be a popular dance hall and amusement park right on Silver beach that high ranking members were known to frequent. But it's long since been leveled to a single carousel with a small history museum in the back dedicated to the site's heyday. Side note, it's also where I had my senior prom. I learned. I learned. I learned a lot about the Chicago outfit. That title case. Chicago outfit when I was in high school. Which is definitely where my love of true crime came from. But my favorite story didn't come from a history book. Picture me roughly 16, sitting on the floor of my great grandma's trailer beside a crocheted doily covered coffee table, picking the orange gumdrops out of a forever full crystal candy jar. My Meemaw, as we called her, is chain smoking in her Lazy Boy, when in between drags, she shares that she not only knew Al Capone, but she in fact had been quite close with him when she was young.

[B]

What?

[A]

And then an asterisk, it says pause for jaw drop. So then it says a little context. Mima grew up one of 14 siblings and wasn't all that close with her parents. She ran away from home when she was very young, and her mother's parting words to her were, you'll end up a knocked up alcoholic. Heartwarming, right? Being the stubborn badass she was. A trait I can proudly say all of the women in my family have. Mima was determined to never drink a lick of alcohol and to save herself from marriage. Not that I would necessarily follow such resolutions myself, but I do give her major props for the oh yeah, we'll see about that attitude. She had to lie about her age to get a job that would support living on her own and eventually landed a gig as a waitress at the Shadowland Ballroom, the epicenter of Chicago gangster frivolity on Silver Beach. Most young girls would be terrified in that environment, but not Meemaw. Through whatever bravada she surely was giving off at the time, Mima earned the attention of none other than Scarface himself. Al Capone.

[B]

Holy.

[A]

Now I know the man was responsible for horrible things. But when he caught on to my Memaw's real age, he began slipping her envelopes of cash at end of the night, no questions asked. Not only that, but knowing she was living alone downtown, he had his men escort her back home each night at the end of her shift. I tried to pry for more details because holy shit. But Mima only added that she knew the sheriff too, so she was never that concerned for her safety. I like to think hard knocks recognize hard knocks. And maybe Capone just had a sweet spot for my gritty great grandma doing what she needed to to get by. Not hard to imagine, as Capone would frequently donate to Chicago charities as well, earning him a Robin Hood like Reput. Meemaw sadly passed in 2019. We have no idea how old she was.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

Right before the world would have become unrecognizable to her. Her final request is that we not hold a funeral because she considered herself, quote, not worth the fuss over. She threatened to haunt the hell out of us if we didn't respect her wishes, so we begrudgingly obliged. But it breaks my heart to this day that she didn't see how much she was loved by so many and how much we would have appreciated the opportunity to celebrate her life. She had her flaws, same as anyone, but her door was always open to this once angsty teen whenever I needed to drop by and vent or just listen to her stories over a can of Coke and a handful of gumdrops. Oh, her name was May M A E and I hope she gets to hear her story from wherever she's puffing her Marlboro Light one hundreds nowadays. Hearing how she fearlessly left home no doubt gave me the confidence college to move from my small Midwestern town to New York City to pursue my dreams. I've since relocated, but against all odds, I put my dual English and dance degrees to use and became a professional dancer and a literary editor for a Big Five publishing house.

[B]

Jesus.

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Stay sexy and know your worth. Caitlyn and then it says, PS Here's a pic of the legend herself.

[B]

Oh, what a cutie with a tiny horse.

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Al Capone took an interest in me.

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[A]

So good.

[B]

Okay, this one's my badass great great aunt survived Joe Palzinski who I talked about in rewind episode 80. So good morning friends. I'm taking a break from murder cleaning. My Saturday morning ritual of catching up on the week's MFM episodes while resetting the house to offer up some background and additional details for the rewind of episode 80. My great grandmother's sister was the 81 year old who survived Joe Palsinski. In the show she was mentioned as a carjack victim, but there's more to it. Aunt Dolly lived up the road from Ma, Mom, Ethel and pop pop bill. Late 70s, early 80s. Mom took us up regularly to visit and my older brother and I would immediately run over to Aunt Dolly's because A she was no nonsense, cool as and didn't treat us like to not be seen, slash heard annoyances even when she began butchering a chicken while we watched B she had the greatest dog, Duchess who looked just like Sandy from Annie. Oh C she let us help collect eggs from her chickens and D there was no screaming at hers. Pop Pop would turn down his hearing aid for peace. So there was a lot of yelling down the road. Fast forward to 2000 and there's a manhunt for JP. I read or saw something on the news about an elderly woman who was briefly held hostage before JP stole her car. But since I'd never known Aunt Dolly's act name, Anna Eder, I didn't know it was my relative until my mom shared the story.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

It was also when I learned that Aunt Dolly was an Army Corps nurse in World War II, clearly the source of her level headedness and ability to deal calmly with chaos and children. JP showed up at Aunt Dolly's house. She kept the door unlocked when I was younger, so he probably let himself in. He handcuffed her to the bed, Aunt Dolly talked to him and he ended up uncuffing her. She packed up some food for him and he left with her car. Mom said she was all right and more pissed off about learning that neither the police nor her insurance would cover the damage to her car, which she got back riddled with bullets from the shootout at the motel.

[A]

Holy.

[B]

Thanks for distracting me from the dregs of choring and for the occasional delight of hearing my 19 year old tell her father to stay sexy when she leaves the house as a reminder to lock the door behind her. Kathy.

[A]

I mean, Kathy, that was a great story, but it really built at the end.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Like a hard finish or a strong finish?

[A]

Strong finish. Strong finish. With a teenager telling her own dad to be to stay sexy. Yeah, that's the. I mean, here's the thing. It makes perfect sense. A combat nurse.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

When all of a sudden there's guns and threats and men acting crazy. That's. She's like, yep, I've seen this before.

[B]

Totally. I know how to handle this. This. It's incredible.

[A]

Incredible. Dolly. Okay, well, here's another. This similar, but like a little left turn from there. And I won't. I won't read you the title. It says, hi, friendly murder fans. I've been meaning to send in this story for a while now, partly because it's inspiring and badass, and mostly because my friends are sick of hearing it and I need another outlet. My. My great grandmother was a true icon. She was born in 1891 in a small fishing village in northern Scotland. In 1916, she became the first woman to graduate with a medical degree from the University of Sheffield. Then, because why not? She immediately volunteered her services as a physician and surgeon on the front lines of World War I in a Scottish women's hospital.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah, these hospitals are too cool. Not to expand on further. After being rejected for her services by the British army because she was a woman doctor, Elsie Inglis decided to form her own hospitals to serve Allied nations during the First World War. These hospitals were all CAP's, sole, run by women. Women nurses, women physicians, women orderlies, women secretaries, even women ambulance drivers. These women all banded together to form hospitals on the front lines in France and Serbia. My great grandmother served at the hospital set up in France at Roymond Abbey, Royal Abbey. She operated on injured soldiers and often had to make the incredibly difficult decision of who they would try to save when too many casualties came in the door while the work was taxing and the hours were incredibly long. She reportedly often said these were some of the best years of her life. After the war, when all the soldiers had left the hospital and everything had been packed up, my great grandmother took a few things she found around the abbey as souvenirs to take home on her trip back to Scotland. She was staying at an inn in France and she showed off her souvenirs to a local man who served in the war. He proceeded to, quite rudely, she thought, grab one of the trinkets, get out of his chair, and walk briskly out the door. My great grandmother, who I'm sure was quite annoyed, followed him out. The man then proceeded to throw the trinket into the lake. In my head, she yells at him. Some old fashioned form of what the fuck? But then he explains that what she thought was a fun little souvenir was actually a live hand grenade. Oh, my God. Well, this is cute.

[B]

Excuse me, sir.

[A]

Oh, my God, I love this eggy shape.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

I'll just put this up on the bookshelf.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

Remembrances. So it says yes. My great grandmother, who had survived the first World War working on the front lines, operating on wounded soldiers, almost got herself blown up because she wanted to take home a few cute souvenirs. Although I never got to meet her, my great grandmother has always been a huge inspiration to me, and she's a big reason why I decided to pursue my own career in medicine. In two years, I will graduate medical school and become the first woman descendant of hers to become a doctor.

[B]

Wow. Yeah.

[A]

If I do even a very small portion of the good in the world that she did, I will be a very happy person. Stay sexy and don't take lethal weapons home as souvenirs. K she her from Canada. And then you can look up information on the Scottish women's hospitals from World War I in the book the Woman of Royal A Scottish Woman's Hospital on the Western Front by Eileen Crofton.

[B]

Wow. Legendary. Literally.

[A]

Right great grandmother with a book under her her belts.

[B]

Damn.

[A]

Come on.

[B]

Just love like you're in the train and then you have a grenade in your pocket. Oops.

[A]

That soldier who himself made it all the way back home, he's like, and then I'm talking to this bird in a bar.

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Lady pulls out a grenade. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace.

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[A]

Yeah.

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Goodbye.

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My last one is actually a Trash Sister Story.

[A]

Sweet.

[B]

She's a Woman for Women's Month Hey MFM Famous Sam She's a Woman like

[A]

any other woman,

[B]

I inherited the inability to tell a short story from both parents. So buckle up. Do y' all remember Limewire? Great, because I have a trash sister story for you. Limewire was where you stole music from the Internet in the very beginning before they had like free music. Spotify.

[A]

Yes, exactly. It was the original. I'm not. I'm going to burn this onto a CD and and fuck the man.

[B]

Right? But it was illegal. Yeah, exactly. My parents were extremely strict about music growing up. My dad was an Episcopalian priest, so my approved playlist was gospel, musical theater. And my parents music. The Beatles, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Motown. All great. But for a seven year old it was not exactly hitting when Britney Spears was out here changing lives. The only place I could listen to the music of my generation, Britney, Destiny's Child, NSYNC was D class and I lived for it. Enter my sister Stacy. She knew I loved music and had caught me watching MTV approximately a million times. So when she went off to college, she became my underground music dealer via a little website called Limewire.

[A]

Hell yes.

[B]

Anytime I visited I'd bring blank CDs like it was a drug deal. That's such a cool sister. My sister would have Never done that for me.

[A]

I know.

[B]

My favorite one she made me was labeled Holy hip hop pop, which was how I discovered Tupac and Biggie. I listened in secret on my portable CD player so my parents would never know I was absolutely not listening to church approved content.

[A]

It's amazing.

[B]

Turns out I wasn't the only one benefiting. Half her dorm used her computer to burn CDs and her IP address eventually landed on an FBI Internet piracy watch list. Ooh, then it says Casual Best 4. Stacy studies abroad in Australia and hands the computer down to our other sister, Ansley. Since I knew the login info, I naturally used LimeWire a few more times before Ansley took it to college. During Ansley's sophomore year, the FBI started cracking down hard. They tracked the computer, knocked on her door, and seized it. Ansley, who barely used Limewire, kept saying, my sister gave this to me. Unfortunately, she was the current owner and ended up with 40 hours hours community service girl.

[A]

Oh my God, I would kill my sister.

[B]

Yeah, my parents were livid she didn't do it. Stacy and I just kept telling Ansley, I mean, don't do the crime if you can't do the time. She did it.

[A]

Remember the commercial that was like, there are victims in piracy or whatever.

[B]

It's not a victimless crime. Oh, my God, it's her sister. Ansley is the victim.

[A]

Yeah, actually of her sister sister's stupidity.

[B]

Right. And then it says, you know, as trash sisters do. Since my dad has dementia, we've been sharing a lot of family stories lately. And laughing a lot. When he heard this one, he cried from laughter and said, now that was funny. Mean, but funny. I miss my dad. But moments like that, getting to share stories and hear his laugh, give me the little glimpses of the dad I've always known. Anyway, stay sexy and legally purchase music. Abney. Abney.

[A]

Abney and Ansley.

[B]

Yeah, great names.

[A]

They're just improvising over there. Oh, that's such a classic. Like the frustration of the youngest sibling of. Oh, being the clearinghouse of fuckups that everyone else does and is good at pinning on you.

[B]

Totally, totally. Like you get away with more as a little sister, but she knows how to get away with more.

[A]

Yeah, the reason you get away with more is because you had to learn your lesson when you were 4 years old, not when you were 12. No one carried you to the to junior high.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

You were in the game way too early. Okay, not bitter. This email may be my favorite email we've ever gotten.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

And how fitting for Women's History Month. Okay. You'll see, it just says hello. This might be a long one, so I'll get right to it. My grandma on my mom's side is famous in her smallish town in Grand Forks, N.D. she's been writing columns for the Grand Forks Herald since the 1950s, where she is known for her straightforward attitude and quick wit. While only a fraction of her columns were restaurant reviews, these columns skyrocketed her from small town legend. Yep. Yes, it's her. To viral Grandma of the Year. It's her.

[B]

Oh, my God, It's Olive Garden.

[A]

Yes. Yes.

[B]

I love the story.

[A]

We're getting the Olive Garden journalist's granddaughter to tell us her story.

[B]

This made the past 10 years all worth it. Everything that happened, it's our.

[A]

Our lives have been leading up to this email. Yes. Okay. The national attention began in 2012. I just love this story. I've read and reread this story online so many times. Cause I love it so much.

[B]

But we get it. Okay.

[A]

This all began in 2012 when she wrote an overall positive Eat Beat. The name of the column was Eat

[B]

Beat and what works it's so good.

[A]

Of the new Olive Garden in town, I believe she said something along the lines of, quote, a warm meal on a cold day, end quote. She was absolutely torn apart by the millennials of the Internet. Going viral as the old lady in the middle of nowhere saying nice things about a mediocre chain Italian restaurant. She quickly went from writing her weekly columns to being interviewed by Anderson Gooper and Piers Morgan. Following on all of this attention, Anthony Bourdain himself published my grandma's book, Grand Forks, which is a collection of the local Eat Beat columns she wrote over the years. She went on to be a guest judge on Top Chef, where she called it tamale a taco. And then a parenthesis in parentheses, it says white people. Am I right? And then it says, and continued the media frenzy until the attention died down. As a kid, my siblings and I always knew Grandma M was kind of a big deal around town when we'd go up to North Dakota and spend a few with her every summer. Oh, she'd take us to restaurants and ask our opinions as she jotted down notes. My mom passed away in 2011, only a few months before my grandma walked into the Olive Garden. That started it all. My mom would have had the time of her life if she were here for it. Probably the first in line to shake Anderson Cooper's hand in her long career. I can't imagine the glass ceiling she has shattered. All while raising three kids who became became a judge, a lawyer and a Wall Street Journal journalist.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And then the words of Marilyn Haggerty herself, quote, I've been a lot of other things, but never viral. Thanks for the hours and hours of stories to keep me company during my weekly panic cleaning sesh. Stay sexy and long live never Ending Soup, salad and breadsticks. Anna, she hurt. And just here's a little note that Allison added in that it says, marilyn Haggerty passed away on September 16, 2025 at the age of 99. Wow. Her last column for the Herald was published on October 26, 2024. Over her nearly 70 year career at the Herald, she wrote approximately 2,000 Eat Beat columns. And that's just her food column output.

[B]

Oh God, my.

[A]

And in the opening of her book, Anthony Bourdain writes, quote, Ms. Haggerty is not naive about her work, her newfound fame or the world. She has traveled widely in her life. In person, she has a flinty, dry, very sharp sense of humor. She misses nothing. I would not want to play poker with her for money. This is a straightforward account of what people have been eating, still are eating, in much of America, as related by a kind, good hearted reporter looking to pass along as much useful information as she can while hurting. No. Anyone who comes away from this work anything less than charmed by Ms. Haggerty and the places and characters she describes has a heart of stone. This book kills Snark dead. End quote. What an honor. What an honor to get an email about Marilyn Haggerty.

[B]

Incredible. And I will say, as someone who married into an Olive Garden family, I have never been disappointed by what I've had at Olive Garden. You know what I mean? Like, it's always what I thought it would be. It's never bad. Yeah, it's exactly what it is.

[A]

It is what it is. Fuck everyone. But also, I'll point this out too. I feel like Marilyn Haggerty and that column and then what happened there. And the lesson Everybody learned in 2012 was the beginning of the end of Gen X. 90s snow.

[B]

Toxic.

[A]

Like everything from, let's say 1990 up until the Internet started. And it was almost like the Internet was doing its own little purging of like, hey, we're not gonna treat a Marilyn Haggerty like this.

[B]

Like, everyone who tries doesn't get like fucking torn down. That's not what we're doing here anymore. Right?

[A]

And also, if you can stop being snarky for One second. Because she's praising Olive Garden. You could actually take a look at the body of work and who you're talking to. Yeah, and. And just the idea that all these people rallied for her, including Anthony fucking Bourdain, it's just so badass.

[B]

Okay, you know what we need? I'm requesting a very specific thing. We need the granddaughter of the woman who did the touch up of the like, reproduction of that painting years and years ago and just completely, I don't wanna say ruined it, but changed it. We need the granddaughter.

[A]

Wasn't it turned into something they called like Monkey Jesus or something? I have a T shirt of it. I bought a T shirt of that picture.

[B]

We're requesting her family. I think they're like Italian, so maybe they can't. But whatever. We want it viral.

[A]

Grandmas.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Tell us your story.

[B]

My favorite murder at Gmail. Thank you guys for listening and happy Women's History Month.

[A]

Happy Women's History Month.

[B]

Stay sexy and don't get murdered.

[A]

Goodbye.

[B]

Goodbye, Elvis. Do you want a cookie?

[A]

This has been an exactly right production.

[B]

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

[A]

Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[B]

This episode was mixed by Liana Squillace.

[A]

Email your hometowns to my favorite murdermail.com

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follow the show on Instagram at My favorite murder.

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

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And now you can watch My favorite Murder on Netflix.

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And when you're there, hit the double thumbs up and the remind me buttons. That's the best way you can support our show. Goodbye.

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