
This week, in Kerby, Oregon, a feud between neighbors boils over, when one of the neighbors ends the whole thing, by killing the other man. This is ruled self defense, so the man gets some new neighbors, who he doesn't like much better. Dogs barking,...
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James Petrigallo
Audible's best of 2024 picks are here. Discover the year's top audiobooks, podcasts and originals in all your favorite genres, from memoirs and sci fi, mysteries and thrillers. Audible's curated list in every category is the best way to hear 2024's best in audio entertainment, like a stunning new full cast production of George Orwell's 1984 heartfelt memoirs like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's lovely one. The year's best fiction, like the Women by Kristin Hannah and Percival Everett's brilliantly sub. Right now I'm listening to Starkweather by Harry N. Maclean about the murderer Charles Starkweather. It's pretty good. I can recommend that to you as well. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Go to audible.com smalltownmurder and discover the years best waiting for you. Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about Shutterfly. Shutterfly allows you to create truly personal and meaningful GIFs for your family and friends. With custom photo GIFs, you just upload your photos from your ph or social media or whatever to the Shutterfly app to start creating GIFs in minutes. You get photos off your phone and into a photo book. Like I have an idea for. I got a brother who's got some kids and they, they tend to like those kids. So I'm gonna put some stuff. Yeah, I got some ornaments I think I'm gonna make for them. I think that's the way to do it here for them. I think that's gonna be a good gift. Explore gifts like blankets, mugs, photos, books and calendars@shutterfly.com all easy to customize in minutes with your favorite photos. Enjoy 40% off your Shutterfly order with the code Small Town and make something meaningful this year. Get free shipping on qualified orders C site for more details.
Jimmy Wissman
Now back to the show.
James Petrigallo
Have you ever found the house of your dreams only to learn it has dark secrets? Netflix new series no good deed follows three families vying to buy a 1920s Spanish style villa that they think will solve their problems. But as the sellers discover, sometimes the home of your dreams can be a total nightmare. No Good Deed, starring Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, is now playing only on Netflix. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.
Jimmy Wissman
Yay and choo choo.
James Petrigallo
Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co host.
Jimmy Wissman
I'm Jimmy Wissman.
James Petrigallo
Thank you so much for joining Us today on another crazy edition of small town murder Express. Ten pounds of murder in a two pound bag. All aboard the murder train pulling away from the station. Here we go. Before we get started, just want to let you know, head over to Shut up and give me murder.com not only can you get, if you're listening, before these happen, tickets to the Boston and New York live shows. Tarrytown, by the way, is being filmed. So yeah, we're gonna use it for a bunch of different stuff. So get your voice heard.
Jimmy Wissman
They're pretty close to sold out, so they're pretty.
James Petrigallo
That's what I mean. I don't know if you're gonna.
Jimmy Wissman
It's literally like two.
James Petrigallo
But get in there also because we're gonna be announcing very soon here like next week we're gonna be announcing the 2025 tour dates and they're gonna go on sale. So be there so you can get your good tickets because people complain I'm two days late and I'm in the B. Yeah, we're happy. Thank you for buying them. So thank you. We're real excited. We're gonna go to a bunch of places we didn't get to this year. Shut up and givememurder.com also patreon.com you want that? Patreon.com crimeinsports is where you get all of your bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you are gonna get everything. Whole back catalog full of backup back stuff you've never heard before and new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder and you're gonna go, why is it patreon.com crimeinsports that's our other show that you should listen to, by the way. And your stupid opinions for that matter. This week what you're going to get for Patreon is for crime and sports. We're going to talk about this gross English football, soccer, sexual abuse scandal. It's pretty gross. It's think Penn State with a British accent. Penn State with T. Think that that's what we're going for there then for small town murder. We're going to talk about this cult baby murder trial. Not really going to talk about the trial. We're mainly going to talk about these people's insanity of their lifestyle, polygamy and drinking pee and it's real weird stuff, man. We're gonna talk all about all sorts of strange medical beliefs they have. It's real weird. We'll talk all about that and more. Patreon.com crimeinsports that said, I think it's time, everybody.
Jimmy Wissman
There we go.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, let's do this. I think it's time to clear the lungs. What do you say here? Let's all arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me mur. Let's do this, everybody.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
Let's go on a trip, shall we? All right.
Jimmy Wissman
We have to.
James Petrigallo
We are going to Oregon this week. Yeah, out to Oregon, which is very nice. And I think Portland is on our touring schedule next year again, which we love Portland, so that'll be fun. But we're not going to Portland for this episode. We're going to Kirby, Oregon. Kirby with an E. Nintendo guy. K. E R. Like Derby with a K. Yeah. So Kirby, Oregon, Southwest, like extreme southwestern Oregon, near the California border. Coastal, not quite to the coast. It's inland. It's very close to Cave Junction, which we did an episode there. That was the Pollinator. Remember that guy? Oh, yeah, the pollinator here. That's Cave Junction. It's real close to that. Like their post office, I believe is Cave Junction technically here. So this is about four and a half hours to Portland. If you take a straight shot up along the ocean, it is eight hours to Ontario, Oregon, which is our last Oregon episode. It's literally like as far away as two places could be in the state of Oregon. Eight hours across Oregon, because one is Ontario's at the extreme northeast and this is the extreme southwest. So it's just this long, long trip. That was episode 503, my dead mother Told Me to, which was obviously crazy. You can tell by the title. This is in Josephine County.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
Which we've never heard before as a county. Wyatt's wife population. And I don't know if this is seasonal or how this. But it's anywhere from 201 to 628 somewhere in there. Either way. Real goddamn small. Yeah, It's a census designated place. It's not a big place at all and doesn't have a lot of, you know, municipal things happening. It's kind of like that sort of thing. Median household income here, way lower than the national average. It's 69,000. In the rest of the country here, 37,219. But yeah, median home cost is 330,900 bucks. So how do those two things.
Jimmy Wissman
Retirees.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, some retirees, some people who kind of go out here to do their own thing kind of a thing. It's a lot of this is do your own thing territory. This is a place you go when you're Tired of people, essentially. And. Which is kind of coincidental and ironic because that's the problem today that we have is people with other people that they tried to get away from. Little bit of history here. It's often listed in tourist guides as a ghost town. Even though there's people here.
Jimmy Wissman
Sure.
James Petrigallo
Because of the number of historic buildings left from back in the day. From the 1800s. They're just there. Kirby came in existence in the 1850s. It was named for James Kirby. And there was a gold mining. That's why they were here. Originally. It was Northern California. Yeah, it was Northern California. They went up and.
Jimmy Wissman
Who's Mr. Kirby?
James Petrigallo
James. James Kirby. No, he's just a guy who was here. Yeah, just a guy hanging out. He had a business here, I guess and came here early. Important to the area here. The original county seat was a place. They wanted it to be the county seat, basically.
Jimmy Wissman
Of course they did.
James Petrigallo
That's what they were doing. Because as we know, you gotta have those records. Important to have the records in your town. We had no idea. The original county seat was a place called Sailor Diggings.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
Which they eventually renamed Waldo. Somehow a less attractive name than Sailor Diggings. One of the polling places was listed as Kirby's Ranch when they were doing this. Voting for this. So I guess James Kirby and Samuel Hicks were partners in a general mercantile and supply business.
Jimmy Wissman
Hell yeah.
James Petrigallo
They were running a hardware business. They were.
Jimmy Wissman
I know a couple of guys like that.
James Petrigallo
Seth and Saul and Deadwood, basically. Then they called the town Kirbyville for the county seat race. And it was selected as the county seat in 1857.
Jimmy Wissman
They win the drawing?
James Petrigallo
Not anymore. Then they changed it from Kirbyville to Napoleon because the county was Josephine and they wanted Napoleon as the town. Josephine Napoleon. Okay. The new name was a stupid name and obviously not popular. Being that you're thousands of miles from France. It's probably not going to be that popular.
Jimmy Wissman
Kind of a dick.
James Petrigallo
And he's kind of a dick. So they changed it back in the next legislative session. Here they called it Kirbyville. They called that years. And then finally they just called it Kirby. After a while they gave up. That's it. And then they lost the county seat to Grants Pass. So there you go. That's how this went. So this really hasn't gone well.
Jimmy Wissman
They really fumbled everything.
James Petrigallo
Yeah. They started out with high hopes and it just all went downhill from there. Shit did not work out. Reviews of this town. There's only one review of this town that I could find. Because there's nobody here. I Was shocked there was one review. It's five stars, but yet it doesn't seem like five stars when you read it. It's weird. Lived here my whole life is the first sentence that says a lot. It's sketchy during the day and creep tastic during the night. Both of those five stars. Yeah. It's not even nice during the day. Creepy.
Jimmy Wissman
Never gets better than sketchy. That's fucking scary as shit.
James Petrigallo
Sketchy. Anywhere from sketchy to creep tastic anywhere in that narrow window is what we're talking about.
Jimmy Wissman
Dreamtastic. Kind of sounds like dangerous, but fun.
James Petrigallo
Yeah. Like, oh, look at them go. Like crackheads are like having sword fights in the street, you know, like. But good ones are like, they're trained, you know, on guard. And they start. They're having sword fights, but they're only.
Jimmy Wissman
Using that roll inside the wrapping paper.
James Petrigallo
That's it. But they put like capes on and shit. They really, really get into it. Wrapping paper for the cape, obviously. Yeah. So they said there are many lovely bridges under which to pump drugs into your veins. That's. And the friendly convenience store owners know that most of Kirby can't just drive into Cave Junction to get cheap groceries. So they price accordingly. It's okay. It's crackheads and gougers now we're talking about.
Jimmy Wissman
And there's gougers because people can't afford a car because they've pumped all their money into their.
James Petrigallo
Into their veins. Yeah, obviously. We've got a bus stop right in the middle of town which is convenient. And you might even meet a homeless person or tweaker while waiting for said bus. Pretty river view.
Jimmy Wissman
That's great.
James Petrigallo
Five stars. How is that five? They said one thing positive. Pretty river view. The last sentence. Everything else negative.
Jimmy Wissman
You might get a great river view as you stare at it and get a great story from a horrible human.
James Petrigallo
Being as you watch a man pump $12 worth of meth into his veins. Things to do here. The Acorn Festival.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
Oh, boy. Now, what do you think happens at the Acorn Festival?
Jimmy Wissman
I imagine there are chipmunks and that's.
James Petrigallo
That would. Exactly.
Jimmy Wissman
Chipmunks sing.
James Petrigallo
That is. Dude, I'm laughing because that is exactly what I pictured. I thought this shit was going to be based around squirrels for some reason. I don't know why Alvin and the Chipmunks sing Squirrels and turkeys and chipmunks and shit like that. It's not though. It's a family friendly, kid friendly festival, obviously. Of course. No. The Acorn Festival. That's where all the tits are out. Everybody just gets horny going on there. Balls out, everybody. Acorn festival time. It says fun and educational event celebrating acorns. Okay. Learn how to process acorn. Into what? Into what?
Jimmy Wissman
They make acorn butter or something.
James Petrigallo
Maybe. I don't know. My woods is all fucking giant acorns. I've never thought to process them. I just go, the turkeys are gonna love these. Yeah, Red oak. Well, any oak. But I have red oaks in my yard and I will, like gather them up and put them on the food pile for the deer and shit. And they eat them. I don't know. I never thought to process them. Taste. Traditional acorn mush cooked in a basket. What? Okay, could you have any less attractive way to say something as we're making acorn mush in a basket? In a basket. Not the thing I want to eat out of either. Acorn mush in a basket.
Jimmy Wissman
It's just the takeaway size of a trough.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, I'm disgusted by this. A scarecrow. Scarecrow contest. Couldn't say that for some reason. With a hundred dollar prize. Oh, you're gonna probably put more than 100 bucks into the materials to make him. Then there's an acorn feast and more.
Jimmy Wissman
I didn't know that you could roast.
James Petrigallo
I don't know, deep fry.
Jimmy Wissman
What do you do?
James Petrigallo
A basket weaver named Lena Heard will cook acorn mush in a basket that I assume she weaved herself. That's all I can imagine Here. That's it. And then there's also the Kirbyville Museum, which I read a review of it, and they said it's basically a house with some old shit in it. And it costs $6 and it's really not worth it.
Jimmy Wissman
There's a saw blade and.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, there's that. Yeah, they said it looked pretty neat, but they said $6 per adult. But they were nice to them anyway, very friendly. So that's good to know. That said, let's talk about some murder, everybody, shall we?
Jimmy Wissman
Let's do it. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
All right. Talk about a man first here. Donald Lee Easley. E A S L E Y. Easley. He's born in 1949. He is. He was in Vietnam. Vietnam vet. He did two tours, as a matter of fact.
Jimmy Wissman
Went back.
James Petrigallo
Went back. Yeah, he's. He's disabled at this point. Technically. I mean, I think he gets, you know.
Jimmy Wissman
Sure.
James Petrigallo
It seems like everybody in this neighborhood is disabled. Like, not disabled. Like they can't do anything disabled. Like that's their job is getting. They get a. They get A check. So. And I mean, I don't know if that's from war things or other things, because everybody's also an ex truck driver here, which is another.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
Everybody's an ex soldier slash truck driver in this town.
Jimmy Wissman
A lot of truck drivers are disabled, but by way of sitting on their fucking.
James Petrigallo
It happens. No, it's true. Yeah. They get all sorts of cardiovascular problems and clots and shit.
Jimmy Wissman
Deep vein thrombosis.
James Petrigallo
Oh, you will be thrombost to the max. Forget about your thrombosis. You have no idea.
Jimmy Wissman
All kinds of horrible shit.
James Petrigallo
So Donald's an army veteran. Two tours. Disabled. He's a little guy, too. 5, 530 pounds. Little guy.
Jimmy Wissman
Wow.
James Petrigallo
Little tiny guy. Here. Come. We'll start about 2009. Ish. He's living with his elderly mother. I believe her name is Clarice. Her father's been dead for years, and so he takes care of his mother here. So, you know, 2009, that would make him in that area 60. So she's got to be in her 80s. So it's. We're talking about, you know, an old lady here. And they live. It's a very rural area now. He's got a couple of issues with the law, but nothing major. Well, till 2009. One is, I found. This is crazy. I don't know what this means. Violation of basic rule. He was arrested. The golden rule. Was he not nice to somebody? Like. Yeah, what is that about rule? He didn't puff, puff, give. Like he was fucking bogarded.
Jimmy Wissman
Some lost his manners. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
I don't know what happened, but that was in 1999. He had the loss of manners. So it took him. Took him 50 years, but he. Manners. Went out the fucking window here.
Jimmy Wissman
Let that door drop on somebody behind him.
James Petrigallo
I don't know. Then he was arrested for violating maximum weight limits. That has to be trucking, right? I would imagine. Yeah.
Jimmy Wissman
Didn't weigh something like that.
James Petrigallo
2001. Then in 2004, again, violating maximum weight limits. And then he was in trouble for failure. What is this? Failure to carry PUC permit.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
PUC regulates transportation industries such as taxis, limousines, charter services and more. They. It's a. They also license Trucking. I think it's trucking. So I think he was another trucking thing. Then he has some speeding problems a little bit in like 2007, but that's no big deal. So the guy is. Hasn't been like any kind of menace to society.
Jimmy Wissman
No, he's just bending the rules so that he can make his cash, which.
James Petrigallo
I mean every trucker, if you looked at their.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh God, their log can't be perfect, right?
James Petrigallo
Well, if you're driving constantly, there's got to be some infractions. There's just has to be. You can't get away scot free forever.
Jimmy Wissman
So you drove a few minutes over your fucking 15 or whatever it is.
James Petrigallo
They tell you something. Yeah. So he's living here with his mom and his mom said he's terrific. The best guy you could have. He takes care of her, takes care of the house, takes care of everything. In his 60s and around. Yeah, he's doing just fine. And I mean, he's got to be healthier than her. I would think so he's.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, but 60 and still managing that. That sounds terrible.
James Petrigallo
I don't want to be doing that. But yeah, a lot of yard work. He's doing like a lot. Yeah, way too much 60s.
Jimmy Wissman
Doing my own shit is going to be hard enough. And doing somebody else's too. That's a lot.
James Petrigallo
He lives with his mother, so he's just doing his. Okay. He lives there too, so he's doing all that. It's only one house. He doesn't have to go to his mom's house and cut her lawn too. That would suck. That would suck. So everybody in the neighborhood says he's kind of the neighborhood watchdog. Like he keeps an eye on shit. You know, if there was some weirdo there, he'll tell everybody there's some weird guy over here, he'll call the cops all the time on bullshit and. Which is annoying. Way to hear how many times he called the cops in a five year period. You're going to be. I'm surprised they didn't come to his house and take his phone away. Like that's how many fucking times. Like give me that and smash it on the ground.
Jimmy Wissman
No, just abusing it.
James Petrigallo
You stop that. That is not okay. So 2009, here, he's got a next door neighbor right next door. The houses are not that far away, named Kenneth Vaughn. Now basically they're fighting over a three or four foot area of property. This is mine. No, it's mine. No, it's mine. That's in between their houses, a fence is erected at some point later that we'll talk about.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, wow.
James Petrigallo
Because this, this property line is an issue. Okay. Apparently now Clarice here, Donald's mom, says that Kenneth the neighbor stopped taking his medications and he was crazy. That's what she says. Other neighbors didn't really say that. Like Half the neighborhood thinks Donald's an asshole, and half of them think he's a good guy.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
There is no consensus as to whether Donald's a problem or his neighbor's a problem. Like, everybody's like, well, I don't know. That guy's kind of an asshole. Yeah. But that Kenneth's a good guy. And they all kind of go back and forth, which is odd. So there's no clear good guy, bad guy scenario here. It's just two neighbors that fight all the time.
Jimmy Wissman
Their relationship has the town divided.
James Petrigallo
It is. The whole street's divided. Apparently some people think that Donald is jealous of Kenneth for some reason. Say he's just jealous. I don't know if he's got a nicer truck or a. I don't know what he's got that's.
Jimmy Wissman
Doesn't have to take care of his mom.
James Petrigallo
I don't know. They live in the same. They live next door to each other. So how. How much better can anyone else be than anybody else who lives next door to him, you know?
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
Generally everybody's neighbors are about similar.
Jimmy Wissman
Generally, even. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
Yeah. You might go, oh, man, that's a nice car he just got. I like that. But you're not like, I will kill that motherfucker. That's.
Jimmy Wissman
Fucking guys got shutters instead of blinds.
James Petrigallo
Look at him. Look at him with his fucking wooden shutters, like he's one of those plantation. Plantation shutters the guy's putting up. Jesus Christ.
Jimmy Wissman
Why do we have. Why do we have blinds, babe? This is bullshit.
James Petrigallo
Look. God, look how poor we look. God damn it. So anyway, in 2009, in November, there is a. Apparently an argument that they have in the side yard that escalates to the point where we're not sure who draws first. Oh, but we're dealing with two armed men, gunfire, having a gunfight in the yard. But only Donald gets a shot off. So it's. But the other guy had a gun on him.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
And had it out and everything. Yeah. So Donald ends up. Or Donald ends up shooting Kenneth Vaughn and killing him.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, no.
James Petrigallo
Kills him, shoots him to death.
Jimmy Wissman
One shot, several shots.
James Petrigallo
We're not sure. I'm not sure the amount of shots here because this didn't get a ton of play because Donald ends up saying, well, he had a gun too. It's self defense.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay?
James Petrigallo
And in the end, it goes through the courts and everything like that. And the grand jury, they bring him to a grand jury to see if Donald's gonna be charged, and the grand jury says that he acted in self defense.
Jimmy Wissman
So we move along.
James Petrigallo
Well, we move along when he shot his 60 year old neighbor. God damn self defense. Moving on. Okay, okay. So now the house is empty next door, which he was probably thrilled with.
Jimmy Wissman
Can't take care of himself.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, well, no, no, I mean he's in the. He stays with his mom.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, okay.
James Petrigallo
Kenneth Vaughn's house is empty. Kenneth is dead? Yeah, Kenneth is dead. So he's fucking dead and he's gone. So Donald's living there with his mom and then new neighbors move in.
Jimmy Wissman
God damn it.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, they're going to move in eventually.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, I suppose. But that realtor better tell them the guy selling this.
James Petrigallo
They don't. That's the thing. They don't know for a while why that house is vacant.
Jimmy Wissman
Is that right?
James Petrigallo
They have no idea that. Yeah, your new neighbor killed your old resident here. So be careful that you're buying this.
Jimmy Wissman
From is an estate because the guy's dead.
James Petrigallo
Maybe. Don't worry about that. Three or four feet of property over here.
Jimmy Wissman
We've settled that beef.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, that beef was settled with gunfire. So this is Larryn L A R O N Laren. He pronounces it Larryn Justin estes Estes. He's 59 years old and he's got a common law wife, I guess you could call it here. Her name is Barbara Hicks and they're. They say they're married but they're not technically married. They've been together forever. Now. Larryn is also an army veteran.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, that should be great.
James Petrigallo
Also an army veteran. He is a former, he's a trucker and he's a former industrial welder. He's done hard shit war trucking, industrial welding. Yeah. This guy has lived a life and at this point he is also disabled, technically. You know, he fucking should be. Yeah, he's done way more work in any five year period of his life. He's done more work than either of us have ever done with our hands. Like, you know, combined. Combined. Combined, yeah, obviously combined.
Jimmy Wissman
This guy's laying down thick industrial beads of weld.
James Petrigallo
That's crazy impressive shit.
Jimmy Wissman
Eight, eight hours a day or more.
James Petrigallo
Or more. Yeah. So yeah, Larry said he's a, he's a trucker also, as we'll find out. And that. So you would think they would get along. And he and Donald at first, they do get along.
Jimmy Wissman
Pals. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
Oh, they get along. Number one, they're both in the army, they're around the same age, they did the same things. So they start getting along like I Mean, the wife here, Barbara, she makes strawberry jam from scratch and gives it to all the neighbors. And, you know, everybody thinks they're nice people. And he hangs out, socializes with Donald. Or they're between the properties. Yeah, they have a good old fucking time here. Now he has some criminal record as well. Here we'll talk about Larry. We'll start in 2011 and go backwards. 2011, possession of more than an ounce of marijuana.
Jimmy Wissman
I mean, that's Oregon.
James Petrigallo
That's Oregon who? You're in the middle of the fucking nowhere in Oregon. Who gives a shit Unless you have, like a. Even if you have a garbage bag.
Jimmy Wissman
Over your back, I wouldn't give a fuck if you have a speedboat packed with it.
James Petrigallo
Go ahead, knock yourself out. But I guess over an ounce you're not allowed to have was the thing. The way it worked. Then in 2011, right before that, this was the same day, I think he got pulled over is the problem. Operating a vehicle without driving privileges. So just no license, Just out driving around players?
Jimmy Wissman
Not allowed.
James Petrigallo
Nope. July 2011, operating a vehicle without driving privileges. 2009, failure to obey traffic control device. So blowing a red light. Yeah, is what that is. Then in 2008, operating a vehicle without driving privileges, again, he just doesn't have a license and drives. He doesn't give a shit. Then 2006, criminal driving while suspended. Then I think they revoked it, and he just kept driving. From the sounds of everything in 2004, assault in the fourth degree. Not sure the details of it.
Jimmy Wissman
How many times are there?
James Petrigallo
I didn't know there was four. That seems like a lot. It's a lot of degrees.
Jimmy Wissman
That's way down the line. That's like. What is that?
James Petrigallo
I was just gonna say spit. Did he flick a booger at him? Maybe. I don't know what he did.
Jimmy Wissman
Kick dirt.
James Petrigallo
Did he? I fuck somebody kick dirt on him. Like a manager who's upset with a call at home plate, you know, like, I have no idea.
Jimmy Wissman
Got a gander at somebody's titties, something.
James Petrigallo
That's weird. Assault in the fourth degree. 2003 in April, driving under the influence of intoxicants. 2001, speeding. Then we'd see, I think when he was in his trucker phase, 2000, exceeding maximum speed for trucks. So I think that would be.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, yeah, yeah. There's a rule there.
James Petrigallo
There's a trucker there driving uninsured in 1999, 1992, failure to use seatbelts, whatever the fuck that. 87, DWS misdemeanor I don't know what the hell that. Driving while.
Jimmy Wissman
Driving while.
James Petrigallo
Suspended, maybe misdemeanor, I don't know. 87.
Jimmy Wissman
Shit Faced is that face.
James Petrigallo
Driving while shit faced.
Jimmy Wissman
Is that bigger than influence?
James Petrigallo
Yeah. What's worse, influenced or shit faced? So that's. You know, these guys have both had their dumb. Nothing big. Obviously. There's nothing in there that would give you a lot of traffic infractions, A lot of traffic. A lot of just kind of flouting of. I don't give a shit about conventional shit or whatever. I'm gonna move to the middle of nowhere in a town with 200 people in it and live here and do whatever. Fuck it. I'm not dealing with it anymore. Because he lived in Cave Junction before he moved here. Cave Junction's a little bit bigger of a town. Not too much now. Okay. Now the problem is, once they start having beef, Donald and Kenneth, or, I'm sorry, Donald and Larry, it's over the same three to four feet of property.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, God damn it.
James Petrigallo
It's over the same. Apparently whoever the fuck shows the person who buys lahren in Kenneth's house what their property is, they say it's in one place and Donald insists that it's in a different place.
Jimmy Wissman
I mean, you can solve this with a.
James Petrigallo
With a surveyor. Yeah, I don't think anyone's doing that. It's more fun to just argue, is it? No, that's what I mean. These people are nuts. They're all assholes, everybody.
Jimmy Wissman
Donald doesn't give a fuck. Now he thinks he's right because he went to court about it and they justified him.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, they let him go, apparently. Okay. Donald put up these security lights. And this is before Kenneth moved in. It was like a prison yard, basically. The whole house had crazy huge lights on. The big square ones, the big fucking spotlights everywhere. So it was for his mom. His mom was very paranoid about people coming to the house and whatever, so she wanted to be able to see the entire yard at night. So they basically put these lights in. So it was like daylight at their house at night. Now one of these lights would go right into Lauren's bedroom, Lauren and Barbara's bedroom. And they couldn't fucking sleep. Basically. They tried to put up plastic over their windows, but it was just getting blasted by these floodlights every night. So apparently they asked Donald could he please maybe point them in a different direction.
Jimmy Wissman
Do me a solid.
James Petrigallo
I get the security, but one of them is going right in our window. So can we please not have that?
Jimmy Wissman
I don't give a fuck. Just that one.
James Petrigallo
Yeah. And apparently that didn't happen. So Larryn went over and just unplugged the lights one night, which he couldn't. I can't take it anymore. You laid there and you went, I can't not sleep like this anymore. And you went out and went, duh. I probably felt so good to do. Hey, everybody, Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you more about our safest sponsor, Simplisafe. If you ever worry about the safety of your home and family, there's no better time to act than right now. Simplisafe is the home security that we trust. That is a fact. We've been using it for, I think, seven years now. And it brings great peace of mind. It's fantastic. You know your stuff is protected. You knowing your home is protected 24. Seven by SimpliSafe is a huge relief. Get 50% off today just by visiting simplisafe.com small it's your last chance to protect your home at Simplisafe's lowest prices of the year. Simplisafe's active guard outdoor protection changes the game by preventing crime before it even happens. If someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously, those agents see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights, and even call the police before anybody's had a chance to get into your house. That is awesome. Simplisafe is extending its massive Black Friday deal for our listeners this week only you can get 50% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is your last chance to claim their best offer of the year. Head to simplisafe.com Small that's SimpliSafe S I M P L I safe.com Small There is no safe like Simplisafe.
Jimmy Wissman
Now back to the show.
James Petrigallo
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Jimmy Wissman
Now back to the show.
James Petrigallo
I'm surprised he didn't shoot them out.
Jimmy Wissman
So I was gonna say, wouldn't a BB gun have solved this?
James Petrigallo
That's totally. Well, he. Don't worry. He has a BB gun and he'll use it later for other purposes now. So. And this is again the same thing as Kenneth. Donald has his supporters in the neighborhood and Larry has his supporters in the neighborhood.
Jimmy Wissman
Who the fuck would support Donald on this?
James Petrigallo
Even after Donald shot a guy, half the people were like, Kenneth kind of deserved it. So the people who are pro Donald are still pro Donald. And all the people that were pro Kenneth have now moved their loyalty over to Lahren. Is how this has worked. So shit's fucked up. Larryn and Barbara, they were just so annoyed. They considered why don't we just move?
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
But they looked into things and they had just moved into their house and they bought it. And it wasn't financially. They couldn't do it. They would lose their asses. So, you know, it's just Donald never thought of moving once he was staying there. He's not moving shit. So the. Apparently Barbara says that and tells a lot of people this at the time and writes in a journal too. And everything else that. But apparently Donald regularly would walk the property line back and forth like a century or some shit. Like a rifle over his shoulder. I picture like he's guarding something. Yeah. A century. He's a fucking. Absolutely. So they would. And he would be yelling, cursing and threatening to kill all the neighbors. I'll kill all these fucking people. Because what she said. He'd be yelling because they would not be his friends.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh my God.
James Petrigallo
So he is really taking being left out wrong. You didn't invite him over for Your barbecue. This is how, this is how he chooses to express that dismay is to.
Jimmy Wissman
Walk back and forth full of people like him. Because we have a friend in Oregon, you and I. Oh yeah?
James Petrigallo
Yeah.
Jimmy Wissman
Who dealt with this exact same thing minus the stalking and such.
James Petrigallo
Absolutely.
Jimmy Wissman
Aiming lights right at his fucking house.
James Petrigallo
Yes. People lose my shit, dude. People who live in rural areas sometimes move to the rural areas like this, like real. I'm not talking. I'm talking a 200 person town in the middle of nowhere. They do this to get away from people, but they buy a house still near other houses, but they don't want those people.
Jimmy Wissman
They leave their lights in their window. It's like you're doing what you fucking hate.
James Petrigallo
Yes. You moved here to be antisocial and now you're going to be actually that other antisocial thing. Yeah, totally. Now Donald calls the cops constantly too. So he walks back and forth on the property line yelling, screaming, cursing that no one wants to be his friend. And then he calls the cops. Throughout about a five year period here, a couple years with Kenneth and then coming up here with Lauren or Larryn, Donald called the Sheriff's department over 200 times. 200 times.
Jimmy Wissman
That's several a month, man.
James Petrigallo
Think about that.
Jimmy Wissman
That's so many.
James Petrigallo
I swear to God, if I was a fucking sheriff I would come to his fucking house and say, listen, unless somebody is dying, you do not call me or I'm going to come here and beat the shit out of you. Every time.
Jimmy Wissman
Almost a week, man.
James Petrigallo
Think 200 times. That's ridiculous, man. That's. That's an asshole. I'm sorry.
Jimmy Wissman
When you're calling the cops and saying, hey, it's me again. Yeah, it's fucked up.
James Petrigallo
When you say hello and they go, Donald, yeah, that's a problem.
Jimmy Wissman
I know you. Yeah, you can't, you can't.
James Petrigallo
And they're taking the phone away going, it's that fucking Donald again. Jesus Christ. Hey Donald, how's it going? Oh, your neighbor's doing something. Big shocker. Okay, so Donald even told the cops that I hope I don't have to kill this guy. What about Larry? And he said, I don't hope I don't have to kill him like I did with Kenneth. I hope that doesn't happen. I hope he doesn't push it to that point.
Jimmy Wissman
Hope he doesn't make me.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, he told the cops that. So that's kind of a foreshadow that you don't really want to give the cops. I would say, why would you hope I don't have to commit a fucking horrible felony. So 2013 is what I like to call the year of escalation here. This is when it really. 2012. You got some lights unplugged, people calling the cops, marching up and down the property line. 2013 is when the gauntlet is thrown down and it is like, listen, what happened? Lahren isn't taking. Oh, there's several events. Larry isn't taking Donald shit. Donald ain't taking Lahren shit anymore. So apparently one thing that pretty much all the neighbors agreed on is Larryn. They didn't like his junk pile.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
He is redoing a lot of the house. Larryn and his wife.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, he's doing a lot. So he's pulling crap out and pulling junk out and doing stuff like that. He's digging a koi pond.
Jimmy Wissman
Like, how much room does this guy have?
James Petrigallo
Apparently a good amount. Good amount of land here. So he. He's doing all this and he's. While you're in a remodel, you have shit. Basically, a lot of people will have a dumpster brought to their house to throw all the shit in. So their house doesn't look like the fuck Beverly Hillbillies and.
Jimmy Wissman
Or back behind the fence on the.
James Petrigallo
Side somewhere like that.
Jimmy Wissman
Fucking vanities and old tile.
James Petrigallo
He just has a massive junk pile in the yard. Wow. It's just a massive junk pile that just grows by the fucking day. And the neighbors are not thrilled about that. Like, we have to look at Laryn's shit junk pile.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
So that annoys everybody and Donald especially. Good God. Oh, my. You're. You're.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, he's right next door.
James Petrigallo
You're besmirching him for sure at that point. Now, Larryn, at some point, also, there's an apple tree that is, I guess, somewhere near the property line. We're not sure exactly where the tree falls on property. If a tree falls on a disputed property line, does anyone hear it? You know what I mean? Does it make a sound?
Jimmy Wissman
It makes an argument.
James Petrigallo
It makes an argument. So apparently Larryn cut the apple tree down for no apparent reason. It wasn't dead or, you know, he just cut it down, didn't want it.
Jimmy Wissman
It's on his property.
James Petrigallo
We don't know. That's the thing. It's kind of straddling. So we're not sure he cut it down. The mom here, Donald's mom, super pissed, said it made nice apples. Why'd he cut it down? So they had a huge argument over that. He Cut down my apple tree. No, it's my apple tree. No, it's my apple tree. Okay. Apparently Donald would use his leaf blower at odd hours of the night.
Jimmy Wissman
That's instigating.
James Petrigallo
Two in the morning, you just go out with his leaf blower and the.
Jimmy Wissman
Only reason to do that is to piss off your neighbors.
James Petrigallo
That's it.
Jimmy Wissman
This is the worst yard utensil on the planet.
James Petrigallo
It's the loudest thing ever. It's impossible to sleep through.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
Have you ever seen AP Bio with Glenn Howerton? Okay. When he's fighting with his neighbor Christopher Lloyd, and he's. Glenn Howard is in there trying to Mac on this girl in there and you know, put a movie on and they're gonna get it going. And then Christopher Lloyd's just in the front leaning against his car with his fucking alarm in his hand, just turning it on and off all the time. He goes, just testing out my alarm. Because they're in a big dispute. And that's what this reminds me of. It's just being petty pissing match. Yeah, yeah. Doing shit on purpose to piss the other person off. Now Larryn has dogs that bark all the time.
Jimmy Wissman
Second worst sound on the planet.
James Petrigallo
Well, yeah. Reason is when you hear what kinds of. They're Chihuahuas too. Chihuahua barks.
Jimmy Wissman
They're so rapid.
James Petrigallo
Not only that, Larryn and Barbara, to get some extra income because they're on disability, Social Security, that sort of thing, they decided to start breathing, breeding and raising and selling Chihuahuas for some extra income. So there's points where there's 30 Chihuahuas over there.
Jimmy Wissman
Jesus God.
James Petrigallo
Imagine that cacophony of 30 Chihuahuas barking.
Jimmy Wissman
Slingshot and Drano meatballs can't be acquired fast enough.
James Petrigallo
Oh my God, no shit. So anyway, it pisses obviously Donald off a lot.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, there's gotta be a conversation happening.
James Petrigallo
Well, they also have pet problems we'll talk about. So what they do, they didn't have the proper permits to be breeding Chihuahuas.
Jimmy Wissman
Of course not.
James Petrigallo
Now when Donald calls the cops on them and the people come out, they find that they are in perfectly good conditions, they're not being bred in bad conditions. They probably could have got a permit if they like. They're doing everything by the book. They just don't have a permit for them. So the animals aren't being abused or anything, but. But still they don't have. You have to have a permit to breed fucking Chihuahuas. Yeah, so there's that. So now Donald's like, haha, yeah, I got him in trouble, right? Now, Lauren doesn't like cats. Donald's mom has somewhere in the neighborhood of between 20 and 30 cats. Of course, nobody's normal in this neighborhood. That's the point. So she's got 30 cats now that's being abused.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
It's too many cats, I would say, for anybody. You shouldn't anyway. I would say. I mean, you can gather as many as you want. You can gather as many as you. As you can hold out a can of tuna for as long as you want.
Jimmy Wissman
Probably they can. They have that many down at the Humane Society. So you can do it.
James Petrigallo
You're here, allowed.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
So apparently only a couple of them are outdoor cats and. Oh, God, only a couple of them. So that's. Imagine the litter boxes in there. Hopefully. Hopefully the litter boxes. Now what Larry would say. The cops. The cops. The cats keep coming. It would be really funny if it was the cops for what I'm gonna say. The cops keep coming onto my property and shitting in my vegetable garden. It would be very different than the cats come over and shit in my vegetable garden. Yeah, I just pictured a guy in full uniform, pants down, squatting like utility.
Jimmy Wissman
Belt around his ankle.
James Petrigallo
Yeah. Like holding it up by the belt. That's what I figured. So that's. So Larry and Barbara would complain that they have so many cats. They get into the garden. And then Donald and his mother would say, that's not true. These cats don't go on your property. Meanwhile, they're outdoor cats. They go wherever the fuck they want. There's no. They don't know of a property line.
Jimmy Wissman
Cat shit in my vegetable garden. Your cats are coming in my vegetable garden.
James Petrigallo
It's happening. That's no other way it's happening. And he sees them too. They see them wandering around their yard and shit like that. And. Yeah, so they would do that. They get into the garden all the time. So this. There's no legal thing here. So that just escalates the argument. Larryn at one point put up a giant plastic, like black plastic barrier to block the light coming from the security lights. Because unplugging it wasn't a permanent solution.
Jimmy Wissman
Apparently that just got plugged back in, I guess.
James Petrigallo
So he puts up like 20 foot high black plastic. Like a giant fucking wall between the two houses of black plastic. So they can see that. Yeah. So then Donald installed another light that shined around that to get onto the property. Yeah. Just to be a dead. So Donald would start. He'd go out. He had a diesel truck that was very loud. Yeah, he'd go out in the middle of the night and just start it up and leave it running for an hour. Just an hour. Yeah, well, he leaf blows probably, you know, like.
Jimmy Wissman
Damn it.
James Petrigallo
So they're obviously trying to piss each other off. Especially Donald is definitely trying to piss Lahren off. I don't know if Larin's trying to piss Donald off or just retaliating when things get done. That's.
Jimmy Wissman
Or trying to save his own sanity by blocking him out.
James Petrigallo
That's what I mean. And that's the dispute in the neighborhood is whose fault this is. And you know, when there's two grown men involved here, this is grumpy old men taken to a fucking extreme.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
I mean, you know, those two were just put a fish in the car and they joke around and hey, asshole. And hey, shithead. And you know.
Jimmy Wissman
And break up the ice on his roof. So when he knocks or slams the door.
James Petrigallo
Yeah. It all falls down. Yeah.
Jimmy Wissman
Hose up there, right? Yeah, yeah.
James Petrigallo
That's all. Yeah, just. She sprayed the hose up there. So they were doing like 12 year old pranks. These people are trying to make each other's lives miserable. Someone then shot out Donald's lights.
Jimmy Wissman
There you go.
James Petrigallo
And he suspected Larryn did it. No shit.
Jimmy Wissman
Good guess.
James Petrigallo
Good guess. The guy who unplugged them and put plastic up to hide from them, he probably lost it one night. Couldn't take it anymore. So Donald calls the sheriff on Larryn again. And Larryn says, I didn't shoot out the lights.
Jimmy Wissman
Prove it.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, there's no way to prove it. So that's that. I mean, it's his word against his word. Who knows? Could have been anybody. A lot of people pissed off at him. And those stupid lights. These are. Donald had 13 security lights aimed at Larryn's windows at one point. All just aimed at. He was just going on Amazon fucking buying. Ooh, that one's strong. How many watts is that? Holy shit.
Jimmy Wissman
How many lumens? Let's get it.
James Petrigallo
Wow, look at that. I could land a plane with that fucking thing. Awesome. So apparently someone don't know who wounded two of Donald's mom's cats with a pellet gun. Not killed them, but wounded them with a pellet gun. So obviously they blame Lahren for that because.
Jimmy Wissman
And that's a dick move.
James Petrigallo
You don't shoot people's animals with a pellet gun. It's not their fault. They're cats. They're gonna go where they go if they're let outside. They're gonna go wherever they go, and especially if there's nice soft dirt to shit in, that's where they're gonna go. Shit. There's no way of avoiding it.
Jimmy Wissman
You've had a sandbox in your backyard. It's just full of cat shit.
James Petrigallo
Full of cat shit. Cats from everywhere will find it.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, yeah.
James Petrigallo
Oh, yeah. I remember in elementary school, it was like. That was before anybody went in the sandbox. You better fucking sift that shit first and throw the cat shit out of it because it's gonna be wherever there.
Jimmy Wissman
Are little drag marks and a mound, there's shit beneath.
James Petrigallo
There's for sure shit. I think in elementary school there was like a little shovel by it, like a little plastic shovel to like get cat shit out of it. I think it was. I think they learned like one of those, like, rake things, like a. Like a sand set, like a beach set, like a beach set that comes in a bucket. Basically. It was like one of those next to it so you could fucking pull.
Jimmy Wissman
The shit out of it before you play, before you go down the slide and land.
James Petrigallo
Amount of cat shit. It's a giant mountain of cat shit. So, yeah, you don't do that. You go after the people, not the animals for doing that. Larryn denies harming animals because he loves animals. He goes, I'm an animal lover. I wouldn't shoot fucking animals. I wouldn't shoot cats.
Jimmy Wissman
I got so many Chihuahuas.
James Petrigallo
Look at all the Chihuahuas I got here. Now, who knows too, if they were letting the cats wander around the neighborhood, maybe the cats, maybe they were shitting in somebody else's idea. I feel like none of the neighbors here are super friendly or whatever. Maybe they might be friendly, but I feel like all of them are going to be standoffish when pushed, you know, Possibly.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
What it feels like here. So, yeah. Animal control is called again about Larry not having licensing to breed dogs. Donald contacted the media and Animal Control to try to, like the local media to try to shame Lauren. Apparently Animal control took some of the dogs and Lauren was fined for ordinance violations. And he couldn't breed dogs anymore because now they were, you know, they were watching him. So.
Jimmy Wissman
And he's got too many on his property at once. There's probably a law for dogs, but not for cats.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, I don't know.
Jimmy Wissman
There's gotta be a law for cats.
James Petrigallo
Too, I suppose, but I guess they don't bark, so you don't know they're there.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
If you walk into a house, it's so loud. If you walked into a house with 20 cats. Besides the smell, you'd probably see four cats. The rest of them would be hiding in places looking at you, you might.
Jimmy Wissman
See four cats and 12 eyes.
James Petrigallo
Yes. So anyway, yeah, he gets fine Larryn. Apparently, at one point there was some kind of argument. And Donald's mom was outside, and she was over on the other property and arguing. So Larryn sprayed her with a hose, which is the equivalent of spraying a water bottle at a cat. To me, you like cats so much, there you go. I'll treat you like one. He hit her with the hose. So Donald came over, threatened to kill Larryn for that, okay, you can spray my mom with a hose. Donald would talk shit about Larryn every fucking where he could, to everybody he could. He called not only the sheriff's department, animal control. He called every government agency he could get to try to get him in trouble. He called the newspapers, the fucking television station, everybody. He called the EPA about a polluted well on Lahren's property. He called the epa, for Christ's sake.
Jimmy Wissman
I wouldn't even know how to get their number. I mean, I guess you could probably Google it, but is there a branch in every state?
James Petrigallo
I don't know. He said, hello, epa. My neighbor's got a polluted well. Yeah, okay. And then at. At one point, I guess, someone removed a property stake from Laron's land. Obviously, probably Donald here. By the way, the polluted well, the reason why it's still polluted is apparently the way it works is Larryn would need to use Donald's property to get shit out of the well. Cause it's their shit in the well. But Donald won't let Larryn use his property, so he won't let him use it. But then he'll call the cops on him and say it's polluted. So it's important. Someone removed a property stake. So a surveyor had to come out to redo it. Yeah, and while the surveyor's out there, he goes, man, he goes, yeah, your neighbor. That's some kind of something there, huh? And he goes, oh, yeah, that guy's a pain in the ass. He goes, well, hopefully you don't end up like the last guy. And Larryn went, huh? They didn't tell. Nobody told him.
Jimmy Wissman
This is how he found out.
James Petrigallo
Nobody. None of the neighbors, none of the fucking real estate agent. Nobody said, hey, last guy who lived here had beef with him, he shot to death. No one said that to Larry. So Larry was like, what the fuck? Are you kidding me? He goes, oh, no. Yeah, he shot this Kenneth Vaughn fucking shot him to death, man. He goes, but he said, they claim self defense and all that. So Larryn was a little scared. Puzzled.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
Little puzzled, little put off. He didn't realize. Then right after that, he receives a letter Larryn does from the VA Hospital. The Veterans Administration Hospital.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
It is from a psychiatrist at the local Veterans Administration Hospital. Now, you ever gotten a letter from a psychiatrist at the VA before? I haven't.
Jimmy Wissman
A cold letter from a psychiatrist is weird.
James Petrigallo
This isn't someone he's seeing or anything like that. This psychiatrist is sending Lahren a letter cautioning him that, hey, there's a guy named Donald who apparently is your neighbor. Basically, when he talks to me, Donald. Because Donald goes there for therapy, he just threatens to kill you the whole time. That's all it is. It's just, I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch for an hour. So you should probably.
Jimmy Wissman
He just laughs of him just hating motherfucking you.
James Petrigallo
That's it. No, no. Threatening to kill him. Not just motherfucking him. Talking about ways he's gonna kill him. Should I blow up his house? Should I shoot him? Should I do like. So, yeah. So much so that a psychiatrist actually has to go outside of the confidentiality to. To warn somebody about it. Now, I don't know if the proper thing is to warn the actual person or if you're supposed to go to the authorities with that. But I'm not a doctor, so I don't know.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah. When you're gonna harm others like that. I mean, if you're threatening, especially specific. I think it's authorities. I don't think it's the person. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
I don't think you're supposed to send an unsolicited letter to the person.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
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Jimmy Wissman
Christmas is coming up, James. Did you know that?
James Petrigallo
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Jimmy Wissman
How can you fix that?
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Jimmy Wissman
Now back to the show.
James Petrigallo
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Jimmy Wissman
So sometimes something happens in the car and you gotta get it fixed.
James Petrigallo
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Jimmy Wissman
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Jimmy Wissman
Now back to the show.
James Petrigallo
Hey, Just to warn you. And this guy, the psychiatrist, though, advised him to contact the police immediately to try to get a restraining order. Because he said, this guy. It's escort.
Jimmy Wissman
No, that's your job.
James Petrigallo
That's what I mean. He told you they're gonna believe you. He said, but I would try to get. Well, he said, I would try to get a restraining order against him, he said, because he goes, this guy, it's escalating how much he's talking about you. So just to let you know, you know, you got issues here. Yeah. So Lahren goes to the court to try to get a restraining order with this letter going. I got a letter from a fucking shrink saying, you know this, blah, blah, blah. The judge wouldn't allow the letter from the VA into evidence.
Jimmy Wissman
Hipaa. Is that why?
James Petrigallo
Due to rules of evidence, I guess. I don't know what those rules were. And psychiatrists couldn't be at the hearing. They couldn't make it there. So the restraining order was denied.
Jimmy Wissman
Wow.
James Petrigallo
So, yeah, he can't get a restraining order. Okay. So what he does instead is Larryn gets a big giant piece of plywood.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
And fucking writes the word murderer on it with an arrow pointing to fucking Donald's house.
Jimmy Wissman
And he's got it on his own property.
James Petrigallo
He puts it, like, on his house with a fucking arrow pointing over there. Murder that way. So I don't know, maybe that'll keep him from murdering me. So that seems like kind of angering the hive, I would think, but okay.
Jimmy Wissman
Certainly pissing on it.
James Petrigallo
Donald extremely pissed about the sign. Real mad about that. Doesn't want to be called A murderer. Yeah. He reached out to the media again and asked for help. Hey, will you shame this guy? They're like, but didn't you kill your neighbor that lived there?
Jimmy Wissman
Aren't you. Technically.
James Petrigallo
I mean, you're murder a killer. At least murder's a legal term. Yeah, that's not really. That's not a technical term. But you killed him for sure. How about killer? Why don't we make it.
Jimmy Wissman
Because murder is like a charge, right?
James Petrigallo
Yes. Murders a description. Yeah, exactly. Murder's a legal definition. Whereas a killing is just, you fucking person was alive, and now they're not anymore. You fuck that up because of your actions. Yeah, because of your actions. Then there's the fence from hell, as they called it.
Jimmy Wissman
What is it? Okay, no man's land out there. Some fucking barbed wire.
James Petrigallo
That's. And it's. It seems like no one knows who put this fence up, by the way. One side says the other side put it up there, one side says the other side put it up back and forth.
Jimmy Wissman
So they had to have contributed to it.
James Petrigallo
Both.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
I think they're building it from, like, both sides. I really believe that that's what's going on. It's like the Berlin Wall. There's different shit going on both sides of this shit. It consists of, in addition to mainly black plastic, but to hold the black plastic altogether is pallets, chicken wire, barbed wire, whatever shit they can find to make a barrier. Basically, a bunch of shit that if.
Jimmy Wissman
You crawled across it, you'd get cut up.
James Petrigallo
Exactly. Now Laren says Donald built it, and it's on his property. So he tells him, move that fucking fence onto your property. And Donald said, no, not doing.
Jimmy Wissman
It's your fence.
James Petrigallo
So Lahren started to fear for his life because he got that letter. He's starting to get freaked out. August 30, 2013. Local police still haven't taken any action. They just come out there and they go, these two idiots again. Cut it out, assholes. And then they go back. They get back in their car. A physical altercation breaks out here. Apparently, they get into an argument, and Lahren, this is according to documents here, grabbed Donald by the hair, punched him in the face, and kicked him in the head and the sides. He beat the shit out of him is what that is.
Jimmy Wissman
What he did is win.
James Petrigallo
He grabbed him, punched him, knocked him down, then stomped him. That's what he did. Kick the piss out of the guy. Apparently, this caused pretty good injuries to Donald here, taking an ass whooping and made him fear for his life. He said, Donald, he was terrified.
Jimmy Wissman
Now he lost the fight.
James Petrigallo
Mixed matches what he did, for sure. When you're five, five, a buck 30, you should probably not be starting physical altercations with people. With industrial welders, maybe not don't fight union members. Yeah, no. And he's like. Larryn's like a fucking hippie, too. He, like, smokes weed and he's digging a koi pond. I don't think this is normal behavior here. So an attorney told Donald to get a restraining order. And they were. Basically. They ended up getting a restraining order, Donald did. Against Larryn because they were successful using the elderly laws. Because he was like, you can't punch old people. He was like 64, and Larryn was 59, so he wasn't that old yet.
Jimmy Wissman
So I think he's a year younger than him.
James Petrigallo
I think it's. This would be 60 in 2000. He'd be like 63 at this point. He was born.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, He's a year younger than him. So that makes it. That makes him.
James Petrigallo
He's three years younger than him.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, is he?
James Petrigallo
Okay, but it's on. One guy's on one side of 60, and one guy's on the other side of 60, which makes it. Meanwhile, one was a sophomore while the other was a senior. What are we talking about?
Jimmy Wissman
They both went to Vietnam. They're the same age.
James Petrigallo
They fucking ate in the same cafeteria. This is crazy. Yeah, we's legal. So anyway, this. He gets a restraining order, and now it's even worse now. So Larry wanted one, couldn't get one. Donald got one against him.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
And like we said, the neighbors here are like, Jesus Christ. You know, this is nuts. Like, the whole thing is crazy. And they're starting to just blame Donald because they're like, okay, well, this is two guys in a row, right? And it's the same.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, yeah.
James Petrigallo
There's one common thing here, and it's the same.
Jimmy Wissman
The common denominator is 1, 1 asshole.
James Petrigallo
So Donald started carrying a gun whenever he was outside of his house on the property so he wouldn't get beat up again. He said, yeah, okay. There was different times where both of them were pointing guns at each other from over the fences, making threats at each other. Okay. September 7, 2013. Okay. Now the fence is the issue. The fence from hell. On this day, I guess Donald said that he's working on the fence on his side of the fence, working on it while on a ladder, installing more barbed wire. Okay. Now his mother, by the way, is in the house, even though she'll back up his story 100% later. She's in the house. Barbara, Laryn's wife here, says that Laryn had taken his truck over to the fence and was in the bed of his truck making repairs to his side of the fence. So they're both doing shit over there, and he's using his truck as a ladder.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
Apparently, out of nowhere, Barbara was outside. She heard a gunshot, and it was Donald firing at Larryn as Laryn was running away in the opposite direction.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, my God.
James Petrigallo
Yes. Apparently he was trying to. Lahren was trying to tape over holes in the plastic and whatever. Now, Donald claimed that Larin was trespassing and called the police. Then he shot him three times while he was running away. He shot Laryn three times in the back, by the way, from a decent distance. He claims that the reason he did this is because Larin, he was just repairing the fence. And out of nowhere, like, this is ridiculous, dude. This is like a fucking horror movie. All of a sudden, a hole burst through the plastic, and Larryn came through the plastic to kill him. He just. Here he was. So he's like, oh, my God. My only recourse is to pull my gun.
Jimmy Wissman
Kool Aid man the fence.
James Petrigallo
Yep. He said he took his gun and he shot. He said he fired two shots in self defense. Meanwhile, he shot three times, by the way. So he definitely didn't fire twice. Barber said that Larin was attempting to abide by the restraining order. She said he was happy about the restraining order because that kept Donald away from him. Effectively the same thing as us getting one.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
It just kept us apart. So he said that he fell down. He was reaching over. He fell into the fence. From the bed of the pickup truck. He said. She said he fell into the fence. He didn't go through the fence. He just fell into it. And that apparently set Donald off. She said she had just walked away to get something from the garage. And she said Larryn was running away when she was watching him run away while three shots were fired. And the third shot struck him good, I guess. I think he got shot twice, though. Yeah. Donald fired his weapon, hit him in the back, and Lahren bled out and died. On the property.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, my God.
James Petrigallo
Right there. Yep, on the property.
Jimmy Wissman
Two neighbors.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, two. And from the same fucking house. Donald's killed.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, my God.
James Petrigallo
So now Barbara Hicks, the Lahren's wife, saw the shooting and told investigators there was no fight, there was no anything. He fell into the fence. And then Donald Threatened him, and Larin tried to run away, and Donald shot him in the back. There's really. No.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, you can't do anything about that.
James Petrigallo
A shot in the back is hard to defend. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Jimmy Wissman
You can't. There's no. Yeah, there's no defense for that.
James Petrigallo
So he had. Donald talked to the cops, obviously, and he told the investigators he was putting barbed wire along the fence when an intoxicated Laryn lunged through the plastic and grabbed his shorts, like, tried to take him back to, like, poltergeist through the TV and pull him into the other side here. So I guess easily said at that point, Donald said, I dropped my hammer and grabbed the pistol I was wearing in a holster and I just fired toward him. I just didn't even think about it. He said, if I didn't have a pistol, I'd be beat up, maybe dead on his side of the fence.
Jimmy Wissman
Oh, he's going to drag him over there.
James Petrigallo
He's going to drag me over and kill me over there. You know what I mean? That's what he has to do. So this is from Detective Brian Scott, who's working this case. He said Mr. Easley's explanation for shooting Mr. Estes is that he was defending himself after Mr. Estes grabbed him and attempted to jerk him over the fence. Okay, wow. Ms. Hicks, that's. Barbara states that there was no altercation between Mr. Easley and her boyfriend prior to the shooting, and that Mr. Easley stuck his hand through a hole in the fence and shot Mr. Estes in the back as he was attempting to get away from the property line. Okay, wow. That is wild. The next day after the shooting, Barbara files for a stalking protective order against Donald, and she's granted it. Okay, he already killed my husband, so maybe now I get it. So now they're thinking, do we arrest him or not? He's not immediately arrested, Donald.
Jimmy Wissman
Is that right?
James Petrigallo
This shit goes on for, like, a month where they're trying to figure out what to do. Investigators said they needed to look at the situation, and I don't know. He's shot in the back.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah. There's no.
James Petrigallo
That's open and closed, period. And it's not even on your property, where you could do some kind of castle doctor and stand your ground, all that. He's on another property.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
Fleeing from you.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
There's not a lot of legal legs to stand on here for him. So they said because he's shot in the back, that means that Laryn was running away from him, not toward him. His self defense is really. It's hard to beat someone up as you're running from them.
Jimmy Wissman
It's not good. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
So he is arrested.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
He is charged with murder with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon. With a firearm. So here's another strange stat. Okay, this is crazy. Barbara. This is the fourth husband that's died. She's a quadruple widow. Wow. What are the odds of a guy with multiple victims shooting the second neighbor who also happens to be the fourth dead husband of somebody? What are the odds of that? How often has that ever happened in this world?
Jimmy Wissman
I think you ever meet a woman and date her after three husbands are dead and then you move in to a house and the guy next door shot the guy that used to live?
James Petrigallo
She's just bad luck.
Jimmy Wissman
Fuck. Out of that relationship.
James Petrigallo
She's just bad luck.
Jimmy Wissman
Out of the.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, it's not even. It's not her fault. She's just bad luck. You're a jinx. Fuck off. I don't want to be around you. Wow. She said, I'm lost. I'm lost without. I love him and I miss him very much, is her statement. Maybe I'll find somebody else. That is crazy. So the investigators state from the beginning that the Vaughn shooting, the first one, Kenneth Vaughn shooting four years earlier, had not influenced the investigation at all. Although how would it not take that into account? It's not. It's too big a coincidence otherwise. You know, he's held on no bail here. He's denied bail. Barbara said that the weight. She's got some. A little breath there, a sigh of relief that, you know, he's not going to be next door while this is going on. She said, I'm very grateful to know he's not going to be released, that we can all rest easy. And yeah, she said that everybody for the week before he's arrested, she said that her and other neighbors she talked to feared for their lives too.
Jimmy Wissman
Right.
James Petrigallo
So, yeah, yeah, she said that she'll. At least she'll feel safe. She said it's in God's hands. It's in the justice system right now and he'll pay for what he's done. So yeah, she supported. She came to all the court shit here now est. His mother and brother would also come there and, you know, watch everything they said. This is her, his mother. This is Laerryn's mother. There's a four letter word that describes Laryn.
Jimmy Wissman
What is that?
James Petrigallo
L O, V, E. Yeah. When someone says that, you go, what? Which One. Which one?
Jimmy Wissman
Shit.
James Petrigallo
Oh, shit. So the trial comes up, basically, and they're trying to. A lot of it kind of centers around the fence from hell, like a lot of this beef did before trial. Donald moved for an order to instruct the state to refrain absolutely, from making any reference whatsoever about his involvement in a prior altercation with his previously shot neighbor.
Jimmy Wissman
Sure.
James Petrigallo
Don't bring up my prior here. Which resulted in the death. That he argued that any evidence referring to that incident would be inadmissible because the evidence is too unreliable to meet the threshold for admissibility. Well, did you shoot him and is he dead? Pretty reliable.
Jimmy Wissman
Is he still here?
James Petrigallo
Yeah. That the evidence is not relevant and therefore not admissible. I don't think there's any evidence on earth that could be more relevant than this. And he did the exact same fucking thing. That the evidence is improper character evidence and admissible under. Basically, only if he takes a stand and makes character an issue, then it's admissible. That's a character issue, not a prior, is what he's saying.
Jimmy Wissman
All right.
James Petrigallo
And the prejudicial effect of the evidence outweighing its probative value to the jury. In other words, you don't let them know I shot another guy.
Jimmy Wissman
Right?
James Petrigallo
Obviously. So the state responded that although the evidence that he shot Kenneth was not independently relevant, it was made relevant by the evidence that the defendant stated on a number of different occasions to a number of different people that Lahren was at risk of beating the same fate as Vaughn. Hope I don't have to shoot him like the last one. That makes it relevant. The State said that without knowing what happened to Vaughn, the jury would not recognize the defendant's statements as threats to kill Estes. So you have to let him in. The State argued that the evidence of the threat spoke to his state of mind and therefore were admissible. The court ruled that the evidence was relevant for the limited reasons articulated by the state to explain what the defendant meant when he told people what happened to Vaughn might happen to Estes. They're going to be a bunch of witnesses come up. He said that Same thing that's going to happen to that guy. They won't know what that means. And further, the evidence that the defendant had made those threats was relevant to show his state of mind and negate his claim of self defense. Donald also moves at trial to introduce a range of evidence of Lahren's character and his propensity for violence and aggression to show that Donald had a reasonable belief that he needed to shoot Estes to defend himself. The evidence consisted primarily of testimony from eight witnesses regarding Estes reputation for violence and aggression and the witnesses opinion of essence Estes violent and aggressive behavior as well as some evidence regarding specific circumstances of violent and aggressive conduct. The court admitted some of the evidence, but ruled that Donald had failed to establish an adequate foundation to allow for the admission of most of the testimony regarding Estes reputation and other people's opinions of his character. The trial they exclude an audio recording the trial judge of a conversation involving Donald, a neighbor of his and two unidentified persons in which one person stated she believed that Larryn had fired a shotgun into the air and another person said that he saw Laryn with a pistol.
Jimmy Wissman
Okay.
James Petrigallo
Okay. The court reasoned that absent testimony from the defendant about what he was thinking at the time of the shooting, it would be speculative to infer that the instances of Estes conduct discussed on the tape bore on his belief. So basically, if you want to put that in, you better get on the stand and tell them that that's what you thought. We're not just going to put a tape in and let you not testify, but let you basically testify from an audio recording. Not going to do that. The judge said. So they also ruled that the neighbor could not testify regarding specific instances of conduct by Estes. They apparently would have testified that she observed him possess and use a gun. Okay. Also excluding testimony from another witness that said that Lahren had once tried to poke her with a pitchfork. He's just a little devil, that's all. Okay.
Jimmy Wissman
So that's so, you know, sometimes you gotta kill a guy.
James Petrigallo
Sometimes you gotta kill a guy. A prosecutor said Estes backed his truck up to the fence to make some repairs. Was standing in the bed of his truck. Estes realized easily had a gun. He started running and he said Mr. Estes was shot in the back while retreating at a distance. The defense would argue that when calling 911, Barber didn't mention that Laryn fell into the fence. Then. Oh, they also she was too worried about. Can you get an ambulance here so my husband doesn't die. They also pointed out she had apparently stated that she heard easily yell out not Larryn probably don't shoot me.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah, yeah.
James Petrigallo
Put your gun away. They admit evidence that Donald shot his neighbor. Prior shot Vaughn like we said for a state of mind. Barbara corroborated the evidence that Donald intentionally killed Larryn. She testified that Donald started shooting at Laryn through the fence dividing the neighbor's properties as after he slipped at the fence. So verdict comes Up. This could go. I mean, you get some rural Oregon people, they might go. I mean, shit, he beat the shit out of him last month. Who knows? Anything could happen. Everybody should leave everybody alone. They find him guilty of murder. Yeah, you can't do that, shoot a.
Jimmy Wissman
Man in the back.
James Petrigallo
Can't do it in the back. That's if he shot him in the front, he could have said anything he wanted. Can't shoot.
Jimmy Wissman
He's feasible. Yeah.
James Petrigallo
If he's 30ft away with a gunshot wound in his back. That's not self defense ever. You took the gun out, that got him away from you. That's it. End of story. Yeah, it worked.
Jimmy Wissman
You solved the problem.
James Petrigallo
You don't have to use it every time. So during sentencing, he makes a rambling sentence, a rambling statement here. He apologized to the family. He said, not Barbara, though. Nope, she can fuck off. Not Barbara. And he repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
Jimmy Wissman
Awesome.
James Petrigallo
He stood there and he just rambled and rambled. Blamed everybody else. This guy's an asshole. And this one and Barbara's a twat and my mom's got cats. All this shit here. He accused Barbara of lying and would basically, while he is asking for mercy, he is just talking shit about the victim and his victim's wife. There are pieces of shit and all this stuff and everything. The judge said, well, number one, you're blaming everybody here but yourself, taking zero responsibility, no responsibility. And to that I say, you, sir, may fuck off. Life in prison with parole. No parole for 25 years. He's 65. Yeah, so I don't think so.
Jimmy Wissman
90.
James Petrigallo
Come on. 90. Yeah, I don't think so. You might get out as you're dying in your 80s with that, you know, whatever they do now, geriatric consideration. He's also ordered to pay over $4,000 in restitution to Barbara as well, which, you know, that pissed him off a lot.
Jimmy Wissman
That's a big deal.
James Petrigallo
Yeah, yeah. He appeals in 2018. Basically it's all bullshit. He's saying they should have let in that he's reputation and opinion of character evidence. They should have not let his in. And they should have let more of Laryn's in is what he's saying. That audio recording that was excluded, saying they said that should have been in there. And also the specific instances of conduct of basically he wanted to bring in. Anytime Larryn ever told someone to fuck off in traffic, he wanted to bring that person in and say, see how bad of a guy he is? And that really isn't relevant here. So his Appeal is denied.
Jimmy Wissman
Yeah.
James Petrigallo
He is currently residing at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution near Two Rivers, which sounds lovely, but I'm sure it's beautiful. Two river. They come together. This is nice. He is in there for a long fucking time. Obviously. Like we said, he started his sentence in September 2014. So 25 years from then, we're talking 2039. He'll be dead. That's that. That, everybody is. Kirby, Oregon.
Jimmy Wissman
Good night.
James Petrigallo
What a fucking wild shit that is. Holy Christ. Neighbors, just chill.
Jimmy Wissman
Everybody get along with each other.
James Petrigallo
Ignore, man. Yeah, just try to go. I mean, the lights. I get it though. It just escalates. Anyway, if you like that story, if you like any of our stories, get on whatever app you're listening on, give us five stars. Say something nice, Tell everyone. Get on social media. Tell your friends, tell your. Tell your neighbors when they're yelling at you, go. You should listen to small town murder, cocksucker.
Jimmy Wissman
Maybe we won't fight anymore.
James Petrigallo
Maybe you'll understand why this is a bad idea for us to fight. So do that. Hang out with us. Shut up and give me murder.com tickets for live shows. Tarrytown couple left. Boston couple left. New tour being announced very soon. Within this week. When you're listening to this, it might already be up. So check that out. New cities come in there. Patreon.com CrimeAndSports is where you get all of your bonus material. Anybody $5 a month, you get every. All hundreds of back episodes. You've never heard new ones every other week. This week, one crime in sports, one small town murder. You get it all Crime in sports. We are going to talk about some disgusting English soccer sex scandal. It's just gross pedophiles and weirdos and fucking creepy people and oh my. And then for small town murder, we're gonna talk about the cult baby murder trial, people, which is polygamy and pee drinking and all sorts of weird shit going on there. And fucking culling teenage girls from bus stations. Weird stuff. Patreon.com Crime and Sports. Follow us. You get a shout out at the end of the regular show to keep hanging out with us. You want to follow us on social media, it's all at. Shut up and give me murder.com drop down. Menus abound. Keep coming back and seeing us. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure.
Jimmy Wissman
Bye.
James Petrigallo
If you like small town murder, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey@wondery.com survey behind the closed.
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Summary of Podcast Episode #552 - "Too Many Dead Neighbors - Kirby, Oregon"
Hosts: James Pietragallo and Jimmy Whisman
Release Date: December 14, 2024
Podcast: Small Town Murder
Timestamp: [05:05]
James Pietragallo welcomes listeners to another episode of "Small Town Murder" and introduces the setting: Kirby, Oregon. Located in the extreme southwest of the state near the California border, Kirby is a small, rural community with a population ranging between 200 to 628 residents. The town is often mistaken for a ghost town due to its numerous historic buildings from the 1850s when it was established during the gold mining era. Kirby is characterized by its low median household income of $37,219 and median home cost of $330,900, attracting retirees and individuals seeking solitude.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Kirby, Oregon, Southwest, like extreme southwestern Oregon, near the California border... it's just this long, long trip." [05:05]
Timestamp: [13:58]
Donald Lee Easley, born in 1949, is a Vietnam War veteran who served two tours in Vietnam. Post-war, Donald became a truck driver and later an industrial welder. He is disabled and resides in Kirby with his elderly mother, Clarice. Donald has a history of minor legal issues related to traffic violations but has not been a significant menace to society until recent events.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Donald is a little guy, too. 5, 5:30 pounds. Little guy." [14:15]
Timestamp: [23:08]
Larryn Estes, 59 years old, is in a common-law marriage with Barbara Hicks. Like Donald, Larryn is an army veteran and has a background as a trucker and industrial welder. He is actively involved in renovating his property, which has led to tensions with Donald.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Larryn is a former trucker and industrial welder... he has lived a life and at this point he is also disabled, technically." [23:08]
Timestamp: [18:37]
The tension between Donald Easley and his neighbors began with disputes over property lines and the installation of security measures. Donald installed extensive security lights aimed at his property, which inadvertently shone into neighboring homes, disrupting the lives of Larryn Estes and others. Attempts by Larryn to mitigate the light disturbances, such as unplugging the lights and installing black plastic barriers, only exacerbated the situation.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Donald would use his leaf blower at odd hours of the night... to piss off your neighbors." [38:55]
Timestamp: [02:37]
In 2009, Donald Easley shot and killed his neighbor Kenneth Vaughn during a heated argument over a disputed property line. Despite Kenneth having a firearm, the grand jury ruled Donald acted in self-defense. This event set a precedent for escalating conflicts in the neighborhood.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Donald ends up shooting Kenneth Vaughn and killing him." [21:14]
Timestamp: [31:03]
The ongoing feud intensified when Larryn Estes began significant renovations, increasing the clutter with junk piles and breeding a large number of Chihuahuas. Donald perceived these actions as provocations, leading to frequent calls to law enforcement against Larryn for various minor infractions. The situation reached a boiling point on September 7, 2013, when Donald shot Larryn Estes three times as Estes attempted to make repairs to the disputed fence.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Donald fired three times in the back as Larryn was running away." [63:09]
Timestamp: [70:14]
Donald Easley's trial focused on determining whether his actions were justified as self-defense or constituted murder. The prosecution highlighted Donald's prior threat statements and the pattern of intimidation, challenging his self-defense claim. Evidence from the first murder was deemed relevant to establish his state of mind. Despite attempts to introduce character evidence about Larryn's aggressive behavior, the court limited its admissibility.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "Detective Brian Scott stated that Donald's explanation was he was defending himself after Estes grabbed him and attempted to jerk him over the fence." [63:40]
Timestamp: [75:16]
Donald Easley was found guilty of murder with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon. During sentencing, Donald denied responsibility, blaming others and reiterating his innocence. The judge sentenced him to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years, considering his age and the severity of the crime.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "You can't do that, shoot a man in the back. That's if he shot him in the front, he could have said anything he wanted." [76:03]
Timestamp: [78:47]
Larryn Estes's wife, Barbara Hicks, became a quadruple widow after Donald Easyley's actions. The community of Kirby, Oregon, is left divided and traumatized by the violence. Barbara expressed relief that Donald was incarcerated, ensuring her safety and that of other neighbors. The "fence from hell" remains a symbol of the extreme conflict that plagued the community.
Notable Quote:
James Pietragallo: "How often has that ever happened in this world? She's just bad luck." [68:31]
The murder of Larryn Estes by Donald Easley in Kirby, Oregon, underscores the destructive potential of unresolved disputes and escalating conflicts in small communities. What began as petty neighborhood disagreements over property lines and security measures ultimately led to tragic violence, leaving the town grappling with its dark secrets and the enduring impact on its residents.
Final Thoughts:
James Pietragallo: "Everybody should leave everybody alone." [78:55]
Additional Notes:
Advertisements and Breaks: The transcript contains multiple advertisement segments for sponsors like Audible, Shutterfly, SimpliSafe, Aura Frames, Rocket Money, Chime, BetterHelp, and Wondery. These have been omitted from the summary as per the user's instructions.
Tone and Style: The podcast hosts maintain a conversational and often humorous tone while discussing the serious subject matter, blending comedic elements with the recounting of grim events.
Engagement: The detailed narrative provides listeners with an in-depth look into the interpersonal dynamics and legal complexities of the case, offering insights into how personal conflicts can escalate into fatal outcomes.