#563 - The Major Murders - Pembroke, Kentucky

Summary

Small Town Murder: Episode #563 - The Major Murders - Pembroke, Kentucky

Release Date: January 23, 2025

Introduction

In Episode #563 of Small Town Murder, hosts James Pietragallo and Jimmy Whisman delve into a chilling case from Pembroke, Kentucky—a small town plagued by a brutal triple murder. Combining meticulous research with their signature comedic flair, James and Jimmy navigate the intricate details of the case, exploring the town's dynamics, the accused's background, and the ensuing legal battle.

Background of Pembroke, Kentucky

Pembroke, Kentucky, a quaint town with a population under one thousand, serves as the unsettling backdrop for this murder mystery. Established in 1836 and named after a fictional character from Jane Porter's novel, Pembroke is characterized by its predominantly white demographic (78.5% White, 18.2% Black) and a strong Baptist presence (33.8%). The town boasts a median household income of $72,798 and reasonably affordable housing, with the median home price at $217,700 [12:00].

Who is Christian "Kit" Martin?

Christian Richard Martin, known as Kit, is at the center of the Pembroke murders. Born in 1968 into a military family, Kit's upbringing was steeped in military tradition, with his father serving a 30-year tenure in the Air Force and his sister also retiring from the Air Force after two decades [21:37]. Kit attended the University of Nebraska through an ROTC scholarship and later pursued a career in the Army Reserves, eventually completing Ranger School [25:49].

Kit's Personal Life and Relationships

Kit married Stacy in May 1991, and they had their first child, Megan, in December 1992 [31:21]. The couple moved frequently due to military assignments, settling in various locations, including Fort Lewis, Washington, and later Rhode Island for Kit's master's degree in National Defense from the Navy War College. In 2004, amidst financial strains and mounting personal issues, Stacy filed for divorce [42:44].

Shortly after the divorce, Kit began a relationship with Joan Harmon Guerra, who was already married to Carlos Guerra, making her a bigamist. Joan brought her three children into the relationship, leading to complex family dynamics and mutual accusations of abuse [46:33].

The Accusations and Abuse Claims

Joan accused Kit of severe abuse towards her children, including physical violence and inappropriate behavior. Instances cited include:

• Beating his stepson Elijah with a belt and bamboo stick after a porta potty incident [70:15].
• Holding his stepdaughter Alma by the foot and dangling her off a balcony [80:42].
• Performing nude baths with his daughters, allegedly to acclimate them to European norms [79:20].

On the other hand, Kit claims that these accusations were fabricated by Joan to tarnish his military career and secure a favorable court-martial outcome [97:02].

The Murders

On November 18, 2015, the bodies of Cal and Pam Phillips, neighbor to Kit and Joan, along with their friend Ed Denzero, were discovered in a burnt vehicle on Cal's farm. Cal was found dead in the basement with signs of both gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma, while Pam and Ed were identified as murder victims consumed by fire [99:36].

Investigation and Evidence

Initial investigations were hampered by inconclusive forensic evidence. Key pieces included:

• A .22 caliber shell casing found near the homes of Cal and Pam, linked to Kit's Glock 45 through inconclusive ballistics testing [124:31].
• Dog tags with Kit's name found on a bookshelf next to the victims' belongings, though Kit denied ownership [175:08].
• Blood evidence inconsistent with Kit, leading to theories of an alternate perpetrator, possibly orchestrated by Joan [122:08].

Despite the lack of concrete evidence initially, mounting circumstantial factors and testimonies from stepchildren began to paint a damning picture against Kit.

The Trial and Court-Martial

Kit Martin faced a court-martial for mishandling classified information and later for the murders. The defense argued that Joan Harmon orchestrated the murders to frame Kit, presenting evidence such as:

• Joan's continued relationship with Cal Phillips despite being married to Carlos Guerra.
• Financial gains and lifestyle changes in Joan's life post-murders, suggesting a motive for her actions [141:25].

The prosecution countered with testimonies from Kit's stepchildren, highlighting his abusive behavior and the improbability of someone else committing the murders without leaving substantial evidence.

Verdict and Sentencing

After intense deliberations, the court found Kit Martin guilty of all charges, including murder, arson, burglary, and tampering with evidence. He received three life sentences without the possibility of parole, effectively ending his military career and freedom [159:38].

Post-Trial Developments

Following his conviction, Kit attempted to maintain connections, reaching out to his family to retrieve evidence that could exonerate him. However, efforts to uncover further evidence were unsuccessful, leading to unanswered questions about potential additional perpetrators or conspiracies within the small community [167:12].

Conclusion

The Pembroke, Kentucky murders remain a haunting example of how personal vendettas and complex relationships can culminate in tragic outcomes. Hosts James Pietragallo and Jimmy Whisman provide a thorough exploration of the case, intertwining factual recounting with their comedic take on the dark realities of small-town life. The episode underscores the devastating impact of unresolved abuse and the relentless pursuit of justice in the face of community skepticism.

Notable Quotes

• James Pietragallo [09:01]: "This town was settled in 1836 and named for someone who does not exist."
• Jimmy Whisman [12:05]: "Median household income here is $72,798, which is not bad at all."
• James Pietragallo [25:49]: "He signed up for the army reserves at age 17 and later pursued flight training."
• Jimmy Whisman [43:44]: "One of the first women to contact him back was a woman named Joan."
• James Pietragalo [70:16]: "If my kid knocked over a porta potty, I'd be like, you fuckers are picking that up."
• Jimmy Whisman [84:57]: "They're tortured a lot."
• James Pietragalo [154:29]: "He is disgracing the image of me."
• Jimmy Whisman [177:06]: "This week's executive producers are Andrew Newman, Mark and Chrissy Such, and others."

Final Thoughts

Small Town Murder Episode #563 offers a gripping narrative of the Major Murders in Pembroke, Kentucky, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the case's complexities. Through detailed examination and engaging dialogue, James and Jimmy shed light on the dark underbelly of a seemingly peaceful small town, emphasizing the far-reaching consequences of personal turmoil and unchecked abuse.

For more information or to engage with the hosts, visit shutupandgivemerder.com and explore their live shows and additional content on Patreon at patreon.com/CrimeInSports.

Transcript

[James Petragalo]

Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about Shutterfly. If you're like us, you take a lot of pictures because you have a camera right in your hand all the time. How would you not take a lot of pictures? And we're taking all these pictures more than we've ever taken in the history of the world. But it's, that's the thing. You used to get a solid picture and then you'd look through them and you could enjoy them. Now they're like back on your camera roll. You can't even find them. You don't want that. That's why the cool thing you need to do and what I did, and I think it's pretty cool, is create a shutter photo book. Oh, what I did. And you're gonna enjoy this, Jimmy, because I haven't showed this to you yet, but took all of our pictures from being on tour this year, all live show pictures, us backstage, us on doing all that stuff and like some of the just the venues and things and made a little photo book out of that. Also, they have free 24 hour designer service as well. With their 24 hour designer service, a professional designer is gonna lay out the book for you for free in just a day. Make something that means something with Shutterfly. Enjoy. 40% off orders over $29 with promo code Smalltown C site for promotional details.

[Jimmy Whisman]

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[James Petragalo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

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[James Petragalo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[James Petragalo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another insane edition of Small Town Murder. And man, do we have a crazy one for you today as usual. Hope you've been enjoying lately. Definitely head over to shut upandgivemerder.com right now. Get your tickets for live shows. Pittsburgh, February 7th, you are on deck. First up for the year. Let's start the year off right. Pittsburgh next night in Columbus is already sold out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So unbelievable.

[James Petragalo]

Unbelievable. Thank you. And also the ones later on, Portland is like just about sold out and that's in November. So get that. Seattle's getting close. Get your tickets there. Also, Philly and D.C. in December are getting there. So seriously, if you guys want to go this year, get your tickets right now. Everywhere except Pittsburgh, they're flying out the door. So do that. Get in there right now. That is. Shut up and give me murder dot com. Yeah. And then our newest date, we just announced Madison, Wisconsin. Now, you know why we didn't announce it? Cause we announced like the day after they had a pretty bad thing happen in their town. So we didn't want to be like, hey, shut up and give me murder. Come into, you know, we're decent people, as we say, we're assholes, but we're not scumbags.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Let that simmer down a little bit.

[James Petragalo]

Let it have a little time to simmer on the back burner there. So definitely head over, get your tickets right now. Also listen to the other two shows that we do, Crime in sports, which I assure you, you do not have to like sports. We're doing China right now. Remember the rest of China. Joni Laurer doing a multi parter on her right now with Evel Knievel coming up next. That's a lot of fun then for definitely do that. And also listen to your stupid opinions, which is just goddamn hilarious. You can hear about me getting a concussion in a diner. It's a lot of fun. Check all that out. And then if that's not enough, check out Patreon. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all of your bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above. Not only do you get hundreds of back episodes of bonus stuff you've never heard immediately upon subscription, you also get new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get it all, baby. This week, what you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about Travis Rudolph, who was an NFL player briefly, but more importantly, just finished up a pretty well publicized murder trial, which is a lot of fun. So we'll talk about that. And then for small town Murder, West Memphis 3 Part 2, Talk a Little bit more about how the hell this all happened and how hbo, how he needed a documentary or three to talk about this and everything else. So all of that and more. Patreon.com crimeinsports and you get a shout out at the end of the show as well. Jimmy will mess your name all up while he really, really hopes to get it right. That said, disclaimer time. It's a comedy show, everybody. It's a comedy show. Now we're comedians, so there's gonna be jokes. But the murders are all too real. There's nothing made up about the murders. Nothing embellished for comedic effect. Nothing has to be embellished. There are crazy, crazy things that happen here. And we're gonna say there's gonna be murder and there's gonna be jokes. Those two things go together, but makes it a little more digestible, I think. You know, none of this dark. Her head was cut off and it's very. That's a little disturbing. Keep it a little lighter, you know, dance around the edges of it a little bit. And that's how we do it. And how we do it is we never make fun of the victim or the victim's family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why, James?

[James Petragalo]

Because we're Assholes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes, but.

[James Petragalo]

But we're not scumbags. See how that works? There you go. So if that sounds good to you, we have a crazy show for you. Can't wait to get into it. If you think true crime and comedy should never, ever, ever go together. Maybe we're not for you, but maybe we are. Either way, no complaining later. That said, I think it's time, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here we go.

[James Petragalo]

It's time to all clear the lungs. Let's go here. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we? We are going to Kentucky this week. Yes. Pembroke, Kentucky is where we will be. And Pembroke. Pembroke. And this is in western Kentucky, only over on the west side there. It's about an hour to Nashville. It's kind of the nearest big city to the area is Nashville. About an hour 15 in the other direction to Benton, Kentucky, which was our last Kentucky episode. Taking in the strays. That one was. I remember that one. That was a crazy one. This is in Christian County. Nothing subtle about that area code, but it was named after a guy. Area code 2 7, 0 and 3 6, 4. Both of them in this town. This is a tiny town, by the way. Yeah, Talk about another one of these towns that's under a thousand people, which is. Those are small towns. This town was settled in 1836 and named for someone who does not exist. Okay. This was named after a fictional character. It was named after Pembroke. Somerset, Esquire. Who's a character in Jane Porter's 1803 novel Thaddeus of Warsaw by Dr. Lunsworth.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You missed me.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, I didn't realize it either. You know, that was. It was on my list, and I just never got to it. It's one of those books, you know, I'm just.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's a lot of words in there that feel old timey.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, I know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You started it.

[James Petragalo]

First of all, Thaddeus of Warsaw. Would you read a book called Thaddeus of Warsaw right now? And who knows? Maybe it's a literary classic. We're dumb, so we don't know anything about that kind of stuff. So Dr. Lunsford Lindsay is the guy who named the town after this. So he was a local store owner. I assume they sold books there at the store he ran.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The Doctor has a store. It's.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, the Doctor has a store. Which. I mean, maybe he was a pharmacist, too, and who knows?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Or maybe he's just a doctor. Of literature. We don't know.

[James Petragalo]

We don't know. So the county is named for Colonel William Christian who is a native of Augusta County, Virginia. Not even from here. Who was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. He settled near Louisville in 1785 and was killed by Native Americans in southern Indiana in 1786. So he survived the British but not the Comanche. So reviews of this town. Okay. Here we go. Here's four stars. There's only two reviews. There's less than a thousand people. So four stars. Pembroke is a very nice town. Good way to start it. Very quiet. With friendly neighbors. I wish their pest control service was open on the weekends. As we woke up to a viper in our bedroom one day and no one to help us. Okay. This place is hell on earth now. A viper in your viper in your bedroom. Not even. Like, you know. I was in the yard in my bedroom. Just. You wake up, it's sitting on your chest staring at you. That's what I picture. Like Henry Hill waking up with a gun in his face. This is a viper. Wow. And I don't know really how you can take a star away from the town because the pest control business is closed on the weekends. That has nothing to do with the town. That's weird.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's more than a pest.

[James Petragalo]

That's more than a pest. It's a viper. Call animal control maybe. Then probably I would think or something. A poisonous loose snake in your house. I don't know. Here's four stars. I enjoy being in the country. Things to do are reliant on your own proactive participation. Which means there is shit to do. That's what that means. You have to come up with shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You want fun? You gotta have an imagination.

[James Petragalo]

You gotta be like 8 year olds without an iPad. Like you gotta make some shit up and figure it out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stick a shoestring and a fucking coat hanger. Get to work and make something fun.

[James Petragalo]

You're gonna make a game out of this. Do it. It is quiet and calming when the sun goes down. Yet close enough to many activities would certainly do all over again.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petragalo]

If I died and they said, you want to go back? Only if I'm getting sent to Pembroke is what they said.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Fine. People in this town. 791.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petragalo]

Very small town. That's extremely small. More male than female people here. Which is not usual. That's usually the other way around. Median age is 38. It's right around the national average. Otherwise it's all 56% married. Which is well above the national average. Also a lot of people, it's weird, you usually don't see a very high marriage rate and a very high single with children rate. But this, this town figures it out. Figuring it out, 56% are married and 25% are single with children. So incredible. That's wild. So that says that what, 25% are neither. Less than 25% or 20% are neither married nor have children.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's very low.

[James Petragalo]

That's very low. Race in this town, 78.5% white, 18.2% black. And then pretty much zeros through the rest of the rest of the way there. 2.6% Hispanic. That's about it. Religion in this town, 50, 50 is the national average here. It's 54.6%. And the definite motherload here goes to the Baptists. 33.8% Baptist. Baptists as we know, are the Catholics of the South. They're everywhere here, down here, only 4% Catholics. So that's how that works. The unemployment rate here is a little higher than the national average, but nothing out of whack. Now the median household income here is actually really good. Rest of the country, 69,000 is the average here to $72,798 a year, which not bad, not bad at all. Especially when you consider the cost of living is a little bit lower. 100 is average here it is 74.4. So not bad housing. The median home cost here is $217,700.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Which is also very doable.

[James Petragalo]

Very doable. Especially if, you know, 72 grand a year. It's not bad. That all equals out. So maybe we've talked genuine. Maybe you have a good imagination and you can come up with some shit to do for yourself.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You'll figure out fun if you can.

[James Petragalo]

We have for you the Pembroke, Kentucky real estate report. Average two bedroom rental here goes for about $840, which is. Well, yeah, it's about a third under the national average. Here's a three bedroom, one bath home here. It's 1052 square feet, so not a lot of room in there. And it's basically a shed house. I would call it a house shed.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's an apartment that is by itself.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, but it's. I mean it looks. It's a shed that they put rooms in. It's a metal building. Oh, it's all metal. It's just a metal sides, metal top. It looks like you put the lawnmower here and the kids room over here. Like it's a real weird shed house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There is this trend with barn dominiums.

[James Petragalo]

This may have been the inspiration for it. This is a shed where they were like, y'all could live in that if you really needed to. Someone said that some drywall set up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Some aluminum channels and built your wall.

[James Petragalo]

It's plain. The kitchen and bathroom, they actually did some nice work on it where it's not too bad. So that is $160,000. No, thank you. What? Yeah, it's a little much there, I think. Here's a five bedroom, three bath, 3,268 square foot house on two acres. And it's a basic suburban dwelling is basically what it is. You can see it, you know, and go, oh, there's a nice kind of bigger average home. Yeah, it's on two acres, which is nice. Inside it is very, very like early 2000s. It's. It needs a big time renovation. The carpets look a little sketchy in the bedrooms. It's one of those. It could use some help. $484,000 for that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This place doesn't sound that affordable.

[James Petragalo]

That's not that affordable at all. And then finally, four bedroom, four bath, tea bowl for each and every B hole. Right there, baby. 4,570 square feet. So a big house. 3.63 acres. It's a big house. It's fine. It's nice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's good.

[James Petragalo]

It's got pillars and stuff. I mean it's, it's fancy. It's got a lot of fancy stuff in it too. It's got a sauna and a tennis court and like, shit like that. Like somebody really fancied it up. Somebody that, like someone who's like pinnacle of high style was whatever was hot in 1987, decided to really do this place up 80s Beverly Hills.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Going to put it in Kentucky.

[James Petragalo]

Yes. But I'm getting a tennis court with a sauna next to it. $990,000 almost. You're out of your minds. Out of your fucking minds. No, no, no way. Things to do here. The Hopkinsville International Festival. International International Festival. Because obviously we got tacos. Obviously. What do you think of when you think of international culture? Kentucky, Western, rural Kentucky. That's what I think of. It says immerse yourself in global culture without leaving Christian County. Well, I mean, doesn't get more convenient than that, everybody. That sounds great. Hopkinsville International Festival has been rapidly expanding since the first event in 2009. Over the years it has evolved into a bigger venue and more variety. The event celebrates our vast. The vast cultural diversity found in Hopkinsville. I gave you the cultural diversity. It's fucking 80% white, 20% black. That's the cultural diversity.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very diverse.

[James Petragalo]

The Global village is an essential festival destination. You're invited to join in this exciting cultural exchange. They're like, it's like Epcot center, except in Kentucky.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We got Doritos in a bag.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Walking. Walking tacos. We are looking for people with an international heritage who are willing to set up a booth showcasing their country of origin. Please.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We don't have any that live here.

[James Petragalo]

We're looking for you. If you're out there, you don't have to be from here. No one said that. The international festival presents a variety of different cultural dance performances as well as musical groups. The variety is growing every year and many of the performers provide an interactive session so that attendees can learn the dances for themselves. Okay, now I looked it up. The 2024 festival was canceled. So they said they were taking a year off. They said, okay, we're going to regroup and come back. It's a once a year festival. We take this year off. It's a little too much for us. So I looked it up. There is. These are the bands they've had over the past. Let's see, we've had Travis Tritt actually headlined the fifth annual Hopkinsville Summer Salute. He did to the Limit. The Ultimate Eagles Experience.

[Jimmy Whisman]

An Eagles cover band.

[James Petragalo]

An Eagles cover band. Africa Nashville. A band that performed 2023. The Jimmy Church Band. A local band. Yep. There you go. A local band. I'm Jimmy Church. We knew the Jason Montgomery Band. Guess what? That is a local band.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All these people open for Travis Tritt.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, totally. That's how they got on the gig. Travis Turmion knew it. Clint Holmes, Nikki Harris, Keith Ganz. These are all jazz performers. Travis Tritt, Olivia Fay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What's the chances it's just a dude named Travis Tritt that lives there?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, well, they say it's a country music icon. Otherwise I would say Travis Tritt with one T probably is not an up and comer with a Y. Yeah. Olivia Faye is an up and comer from Western Kentucky who opened for Travis Tritt at the fifth annual. And Kyle Daniel, also a country artist from Western Kentucky who opened for Travis Tritt. So crime rate in this town. Jesus Christ. Property crime a little bit over half of the average. So almost half the average. So low is what we're saying. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery and assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is a little less than half the average also. So it's pretty safe here. I would assume, obviously.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What are you going to do?

[James Petragalo]

That's right. There's nobody here you'd know exactly who killed you. That said, let's talk about some seriously wild murder here. Let's get into this. All right. Let's talk about a guy first. Christian Richard Martin. Talk about first. He doesn't go by any of those names though. No, no, he goes. He goes by Kit K I T. Yeah. Which is exactly what you would think. Right. Wait till you hear how he got that nickname. Because it's fucking ridiculous. Yeah. It's a self given nickname, which is always great. Yeah. When you can't do that, you can't do that. He was born in 1968 and his family's a big military family. Everybody in the family is military. All the guys. His dad's a 30 year Air Force veteran, served in Vietnam. His sister served in the Air Force and retired after 20 years. So they're a hardcore military family. The grandfather was in the army. Cavalry.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Grandfather was riding a goddamn horse with a fucking sword and shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petragalo]

They still have the cavalry, but they're mainly. It's mainly ceremonial. We're not going into ground combat against tanks and fucking missiles and sending a bunch of guys on fucking horses. I would hope not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Like those shoulder things.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. With a big sword coming off and a plume on their hat. I don't think that's going on right now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

With a strap across their chest.

[James Petragalo]

Let's hope not. Let's just say that I hope we've come more. If we have stealth bombers and we're still like mount the horses, gentlemen. We got problems. We are not using our resources efficiently, I would say at that point. So yeah, there's even a. They would travel a lot. When he was 2, Kit's family moved to Europe. Oh, where is around. I guess he lived in Germany and other. They got transferred, I guess around a few times. They traveled throughout Europe and he got to experience all these other countries and maybe the international festival thing was his idea. He came here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's like all the flavors he knows of.

[James Petragalo]

You have no idea. Everything from Kraut to different kind of Kraut. It's great over there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. The French got a lot of desserts.

[James Petragalo]

So he lived in different parts of the world. And this didn't make him like the world more. It made him appreciate his own country more. He said. That's what he said.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've heard that too.

[James Petragalo]

Made me appreciate, I guess just makes you appreciate a standard toilet, I think probably.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. And the same outlet in the wall, the outlet.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And you can get like Cocoa Puffs, like, I don't know, like, whatever. You know what I'm saying?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just Taco Bell's helpful.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, yeah. They have those in England now and they are really excited about it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Are they?

[James Petragalo]

Oh, my God.

[Jimmy Whisman]

English people, Australian people are jacked about it.

[James Petragalo]

Fucking love Taco Bell. I was watching. There's these videos of these. They give American foods to these British, like high school kids. I've showed you some of these videos before and there's one where they give them Taco Bell. And the looks on these kids faces, it's like they. You gave them their first hit of crack. Like, the look is like, oh, I gotta get more of that. Like, the look on their face is crazy. Their eyes like. Like you could see the whites of their eyes all around. They're like, oh, my God. This is proper. This is amazing. Oh, my God. And they're just house in this shit. They love it. Wow. It's crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know, my kids eat it. They certainly like when I give them options of things that we. Because for whatever reason we're not making dinner. There's this, this and this nearby. Taco Bells, right? They all go Taco Bell.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right, well, that's what I'm making you eat then.

[James Petragalo]

All right. I guess. And then you eat it anyway.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I make them eat that too. Because then it kind. Like it's reverse psychology to me.

[James Petragalo]

I don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's me showing them what bad fast food isn't. But hopefully they don't want it. But I fucking love that.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And Taco Bell's actually like the least bad for you kind of out of all of them. Yeah. Because they're even. It's not even real beef. It's soy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nothing.

[James Petragalo]

They use real beef. Jack in the box uses soy in the tacos, which is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[James Petragalo]

I don't even care because they're delicious. It's some weird paste. I don't give a. I don't give a. Put them in my face. They're so good. I love a Jack in the box taco. Every once in a while I'm sitting in New York just craving a Jack in the box taco. Every time I go back to Phoenix, it's one of the first things.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tortilla. It's not meat. That's probably cheese.

[James Petragalo]

No, but their hot sauce is so good too. It's like actually hot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That taco sauce is amazing.

[James Petragalo]

Fucking. Oh, my God. Taco. Fucking Jack in the box Taco Sauce is crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God damn it.

[James Petragalo]

Okay, so one thing about Kit moving around a lot, and I understand this because I went to fucking eight different schools or whatever, is when you move around a lot, you have to keep starting over, which is hard. You know what I mean? Never in a place long enough to really settle down. Never like, you know, get on a baseball team or something for a couple years and have any lasting relationships or anything like that. He ends up before he graduates high school. He signs up for the army reserves at age 17.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. So he graduated high school, then went right into basic training at Fort Knox. After that, he did a. He enrolled in the University of Nebraska and joined the ROTC program at University of Nebraska. So he's in the reserves and the ROTCs. And he worked nights and then attended school and did the weekends with the Army Reserves. So busy, busy guy here. But the army ended up gifting him with a scholarship or gifting him or whatever. They guess he earned a scholarship because of all the shit he was doing. So. So they helped him out with his college. Here he meets a young lady named Stacy. Okay. Now, Stacy, he meets her at Fort Lewis, Washington. He is completing officer training for the rotc. And Stacy was in the ROTC program at Middle Tennessee State University. And they dated a little bit and all that kind of thing. He finished his degree in Nebraska. She was doing her thing in Tennessee. They have a bit of a long distance relationship that they're going to keep together basically. Here now Kit graduates from the University of Nebraska in 1990. He's got a degree in geography, which I did not know you could earn a degree in. I know where things are as of really strange college.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I memorized the globe. Good for you.

[James Petragalo]

Good for you. You can point out Ghana on the map without any countries being labeled. Terrific.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How many countries are there? It's like 144 or something.

[James Petragalo]

There's more than that. Yeah, there's 200 something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's not a gross of them.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, no, no, not 144. No grosses. So. Yeah. Geography, like I said, I didn't realize that was a. Like a. Yeah, that's wild. You could get a degree in that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It feels like a month of studying a globe. You should be done right.

[James Petragalo]

You should be. I don't think four years it takes to figure out where the countries are, probably, but who knows? I could be. I'm sure there's something more to it. And we'll get messages saying, you know, actually it's all this and there's like cartography involved in it and map. Who the hell knows? I don't know. So his scholarship came with the stipulation because the army gave him the scholarship to do this. But obviously the stipulation is once you're done, then you come full time in the Army.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Your ass is hours.

[James Petragalo]

That's how that works. So he does that. His first assignment was with the Signal Corps at Fort Ord in California. Fort Ord has come up so many times on this show, it's ridiculous.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a very common place to send people, I guess it's a very popular base.

[James Petragalo]

Really weird how many people on this show have gone. Had Fort Ord, like, you know, roots or whatever. So he's not real thrilled with this. By the way, this isn't his top assignment. He doesn't want to be a signal officer. So he applied and was accepted to Army Ranger School. So. Yeah, he said it was really bad. Army Ranger training? Yeah. My mother, back in the day, we lived with a guy who was her boyfriend, who was a Navy seal, and I.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Your mom dated a Navy seal?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, we lived with him for years. Yeah. Yeah. He, number one, told me a bunch of crazy shit. But also, like, they have a video. They had like a yearbook and a video when you graduate from the thing. So. Yeah, no, not like a video. Here's us torturing a fucking Saudi Arabian man. No, no. So he had, like, they made video of their training. It's fucking insane, dude. The shit that they make those guys do. So any of those Special Forces, it's wild. I mean, the stuff he told me about, like, they damn near drown them. Oh, they drive. They drop them out miles out. They. They run the boat in circles so they don't know where they are. They drop them off with nothing and they're like, find your way back to shore, assholes. Yeah. And they have to, like, make fucking flotation devices out of pants and shit while they're doing it. It's fucking crazy. So it's like. It's wild. And also, I guess that's to build a. You know, if one guy's drowning, help him and all that kind of shit, I guess.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And it teaches them how to lower their heart rate. So if they're just calm, what they do is teach them how to just be murderers.

[James Petragalo]

That and the tear gas they had to do is nuts. It was crazy. So anyway, that's what he does. He described this as really, really shitty, essentially. Here he said later that he had signed up for the Ranger course for more leadership skills. Saying, though that it took him about six months to recover physically from the Ranger training abuse. From the just, yeah, horrible abuse. So he ends up while he's at Fort Ord, he flew to Tennessee to marry Stacy. Okay, this is May 1991. He marries Stacy. He's 22, she's 25. They had a military wedding, like military, all in uniform and all that kind of shit. They said their vows, they walked through the, you know, sabers that they do the whole military thing and that was that. They walk off into the sunset here. Stacy ends up moving to California a month after that. She's done with her thing. They have their first child, a girl named Megan, in December of 1992. So then, you know, they, they liked California Kit and Stacy as a family. They like going to the beach all the time, a lot of hiking and that kind of thing. Because there's a lot of that there. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

So California's got the outdoor life, if you love it.

[James Petragalo]

Absolutely. So they hiking and doing all that beaching and everything. So. Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you all sorts of good stuff about Chime. That's what I'm talking about. There's so many extra fees you have to pay in life. Everything. You go to the airline, there's an extra ticket on that. There's extra fee on your every fee, hotels fees, all this type of stuff. We're trying to make progress. And the next thing you know, here comes another fee coming at you, and it's more money than you expected and your whole math is thrown off and it's awful. Learn [e-mail] SmallTownMurder Chime is great with that stuff. I mean, you can't beat if things are a little tight, especially around the holidays or after the holidays. You need that money a couple days early or go grocery shopping. You got a car payment due. There's so many things that don't cross over exactly how you want them to cross over. Make progress toward a better financial future with Chime. Open your account in two [e-mail] smalltown murder that's chime.com smalltown murder feels like progress. Banking services and debit cards provided by Bancorp Bank NA or Stride Bank NA members. FDIC Spot Me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible CHAI members enrolled in Spot Me and are subject to monthly limits. Timing depends on submission of payment file fees. Apply it out of network ATMs and.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petragalo]

This Show Small Town Murder is sponsored by BetterHelp every January. It's a. It's a whole new slate, clean. You bet it is. Blank pages all the way around.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Absolutely.

[James Petragalo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

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[James Petragalo]

Write your story with better help. Visit betterhelp.com smalltownmurder today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp. H E L p.com/small town murder.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petragalo]

Stacy, the thing that she doesn't like here, she's not from a military family, by the way, so she didn't move around a ton as a kid and all that. So all this moving around that they have to do, she's not used to and doesn't really like it now. So they moved to Fort Lewis in Washington and were there for a while. He had a brief stint on active duty during Desert Storm. That's. Or she did. I'm sorry. Then she resigned her position. And she said that the primary factor was the possibility of the two of them being deployed and they fucking do with her. Why? Okay. I don't understand. If you're the army and you have a married couple with a kid, you can't deploy both of them. There you go. Problem solved.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There it is. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Only one of the couple can be deployed. That's it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, you get rules for all kinds of other shit.

[James Petragalo]

I don't understand why that's even difficult to fucking. That should be like the easiest thing to deal with. Yeah. We can't send both parents over there to get killed. That's crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Unless there's like an obvious enormous conflict where everybody's involved then.

[James Petragalo]

Unless It's World War II. Even in World War II, though, there was no. You know what I mean? If you were the Breadwinner for the family. And you had four kids in send you over there so your family could starve. That was. That wasn't part of it. You know, saying like that was. There's certain extenuating circumstances. If they have a little kid, I would say, all right, well, yeah, only one of you. So, I don't know. Kid wants to fly helicopters. That's his ambition, to fly helicopters, which to me is the scariest thing in the world.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's. I don't know how it works, and.

[James Petragalo]

I don't like it at all. I'm terrified by it. And they just fly in a lot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No, I don't want to be in there.

[James Petragalo]

No, it doesn't make sense. I'd rather fly it than sit in it, put it that way. And I don't want to fly it at all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Doing that.

[James Petragalo]

I'm not doing that shit. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know physics, but if I did, I would say that doesn't make any sense. Yes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If something spins, anything attached to it is gonna fucking spin. I don't get it.

[James Petragalo]

Well, I mean, yeah, that's. That's a whole other. I mean, you're. You're bike, your car wheels spin, I.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Suppose, but they're not.

[James Petragalo]

The rest of the car doesn't tumble past it, like, with it. That's all right, but I just don't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Like how that does it.

[James Petragalo]

I just. I don't want to just see it stop and then we plummet from the sky. That's what I'm worried about, guys.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The big fan's gonna stop in a minute.

[James Petragalo]

It's fucking crazy, dude. I can't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The big fan's slowing down.

[James Petragalo]

I would never stop staring at it out the window. It's all I'd be doing is making sure. There it goes. Okay. I couldn't stop.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I knew it.

[James Petragalo]

I knew it. So he resigned from active duty and he returned to the Army Reserves, which would allow him to take up flying. That was his point. So Stacy and the daughter here go back to Tennessee and stay with Stacy's parents for a little while while he completes his flight training. And Stacy gets a real estate license and all that kind of thing. And she's got her mom watching the kids, so it's. It's an easier deal for her. He tried to. Kit tries to get jobs with different civilian organizations. While in flight school. He has a few little jobs just to make ends meet. The flight school's in Fort Rucker, Alabama, by the way. He worked at a casket Factory. How many of those could there be? You know what I'm saying? That's like, how many hearses are made a year? Like how many. There's a finite number of caskets that are going out every year.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know. I mean, you could really generate a shitload of them and then just sit.

[James Petragalo]

Back and as many as you want. They don't go bad or anything, Right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And they're in constant need, right?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And you know about how many you're gonna need every year, too. That's the other thing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cause it's.

[James Petragalo]

You can just chart the population, how many people die, and you can get probably within a couple thousand people of how many caskets are gonna be needed for a year, you know, so that's. That's interesting. He also worked part time as a karate instructor. So the two most weird jobs I can think of are karate instructor and casket factory worker. Those are so weird. Caskets and karate, this guy likes. And he eventually landed a job that paid a little better in telecommunications in Atlanta, Georgia. He tried to commute from Alabama to Atlanta, which seems like quite the ride, I would say, but it became difficult, and then he had to quit because he couldn't do it. If you're commuting two and a half hours each way, it's not worth it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why don't you get the job closer to home in telecommunications?

[James Petragalo]

Well, I don't think it existed. That was in the city of Atlanta. I think he was in Fort Rucker, Alabama. I don't think they had. They had a casket factory, that's what they had. And a karate school and four kids with rickets and scurvy that wanted to learn karate. That was it. So after getting his helicopter license, he took a job with Air Logistics, which would fly helicopters out to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And land the crew out there, I guess.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. To ferry people back and forth. Because if someone. If they need to. Yeah, exactly. If someone needs to get off the rig, they can't turn it around and take it all the way back to shore. So they get a helicopter.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That rig is. It's kind of anchored, right?

[James Petragalo]

It's out there. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's not moving.

[James Petragalo]

No one's making a pit stop for you. Like, if you. If you have to piss, do it now because we ain't pulling over. It's one of those things.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You don't go to shore for lunch break, you know.

[James Petragalo]

Definitely not. So this would spend a lot of time away from the family with this too, because you would basically have to go all the way down there and you'd be on for two weeks and then you get five days off. On for two weeks, you get five days off. So that's how they did it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Firefighter. But like.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A little more strenuous before you get your time off.

[James Petragalo]

No shit. So now Kit, how he got the name Kit? I guess his family called him Chris. No one ever called him Christian. That was never. His family called him Chris. Stacy, his wife, only knew him as Chris. But apparently because Chris is a very common name. Real common name. Apparently when he was in the guard, there were just shitloads of guys named Chris in his like class. Just tons of guys named Chris. So he felt, he felt. Not other people. They did all the Chris's should have got together and go, we all need nicknames. Give each other nicknames or something. He said, I need a nickname. I can't just be another Chris in the crowd. I'm not that kind of guy here. So he said that he remembered one camping and hiking trip as a boy scout where he visited the grave of Christopher Kit Carson. You know, the frontiersman Kit Carson.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kit Carson, yeah.

[James Petragalo]

And Kit Carson was also a cavalry scout and an army officer. So he said he just adopted the name. Just started introducing himself as Kit Martin and people just. All right, he said his name's Kit. How you doing, Kit? Which if you move to new places, you could say your name's anything and just introduce yourself as that. That's your name now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Big Kit Carson fan.

[James Petragalo]

That's it. That's fucking hilarious. You can't do that if you live somewhere for like 30 years. You can't just turn around and say, I'm this guy now. They're like, no, you're not. Shut up, Chris. Shut the fuck up, Chris. God damn it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We'll call you Chrissy until you're a grown man. Then we'll call you Chris.

[James Petragalo]

We'll call you Chris. Goddammit. We went to third grade together. Don't you tell me what your name is. So Kit and Stacy are going to end up having two more children, boys named Chase and Zachary. And Kit spent. He liked hanging out with his family and shit like that. Apparently he claims that he would, you know, help with all the chores and the dinners and all that kind of thing. That's just his words. Who knows how true that is. They. He liked to take the boys outside apparently to help them, show them how to tend to the animals they had on their property. They had chickens, horses and miniature horses. Oh, and the Little ones, aren't they ponies, I think. Yeah, that's a miniature horse. I think that they have maybe the real tiny horses.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, like the. Like, yeah, the ones that you.

[James Petragalo]

They have like the toy horses. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Rainbow colors and shit.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yeah. I think it may be one of those. But their relationship starts faltering here. They've been married 12, 13 years. And in March of 2004, Stacy asks for a divorce. Now. Okay. He doesn't know what to do with himself. They're gonna get divorced. They're gonna split up here. He's been in the military. He met her in the military.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Other than everything he knows is military.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. He doesn't really know how to date. He's never really, you know, gone out, met girls and dated them and done any of that kind of shit. Like, I'm sure I don't know if he's met him in bars and went home with him for a night or something, but he's doesn't know how to, like, get a girlfriend, really, unless he runs into them at a. At a work function.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So ball within your whites.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. But at this point, he was an Army Ranger. He had over a thousand hours of combat flying, including 500 hours while using night vision gear, which is a separate thing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a lot.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, you know, all that kind of thing. He flew an Apache attack helicopter and all that kind of shit. So he's got a lot of life experience, but doesn't really know how to date. So he married young, didn't do that. So he wrote a few words about himself and posted them on Yahoo. Personals, which is the greatest thing I've ever fucking heard in my life.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In 2004.

[James Petragalo]

In 2004. Yahoo personals. That's a very 98 thing to do, I feel like. Right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do those still exist? We have to find those, dude.

[James Petragalo]

I don't know. But they do have Yahoo. Answers, which are fucking hilarious. There's just ask any quest. They're so funny. Just it's the funniest people answer them. Oh, it's so funny, dude. Yeah, it's hilarious. We'll do it as a bonus episode one of these days. But Yahoo. Personals is where he posted. One of the first women to contact him back was a woman named Joan. And I guess her screen name was surfer girl. All right, so they meet in person for lunch at. Oh, Charlie's. Is that. I don't know if that's an Irish sports bar or that place in the mall with bad sandwiches in the food court. Which one is that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's just called Charlie's.

[James Petragalo]

Okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Steak are in there.

[James Petragalo]

All right. Okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All the time.

[James Petragalo]

It's not. Oh, Char, that shit is awful. That is so bad. It's so fucking bad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I gotta buy one, get one at your house. And I housed both.

[James Petragalo]

I remember. I remember.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I didn't even know that I was getting two. It just showed up with two. I was like, well, I'm eating all of it.

[James Petragalo]

I know. I was like, oh, man. And then what happened to you? I got sick. Yeah, you did. You got good and sick from that shit. You were like, I shouldn't eat that much. Charlie's. I remember. You were like, what is wrong?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That was a lot.

[James Petragalo]

Charlie's. I blame the hot mayo. Still.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes.

[James Petragalo]

That's exactly what they gave you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Put fucking mayo on it. And I was like, well. And I noticed it halfway through the.

[James Petragalo]

Section, just like, what? Well, that's that, I guess.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, I've already put all that in me. Whatever.

[James Petragalo]

When they cook it, like, bakes into the bread. It's not good. Can't get it out. You can scrape it off or anything. It's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Boy, did I get sick.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, yeah, that was a good one. I was like, I don't want to kick you while you're down, but you think maybe you brought this on yourself. Oh, Christ. So, yeah, Kit. Now the divorce is final, but Kit is still living at the house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

That's good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And awkward.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, I guess he. I don't know if this is true or not, but he's telling everyone that he was staying in the bonus room in their extra room while waiting for the house to be sold. So he's like, well, we can't afford to, you know, go get separate. Yeah. Places. So Kit said they were just roommates by this point. That's what he's telling everybody. So he has a date with Joan. He told Stacy he was leaving early to go to work rather than saying that he had a date. So Stacy said, hmm, I don't know about this. So she followed him. We're divorced. We are divorced. And this is why. So.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No, this is certainly an indicator.

[James Petragalo]

She. Stacy was very upset when she saw Kit be actually going out on a lunch date to. Oh, Charlie's with Joan. And.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don'T worry, they're gonna get hot mayo. And this will be a bad date anyway.

[James Petragalo]

It's all right. He'll be back later at home. Trust me. He's gonna want to stay next to that home base toilet later.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hope there's a bonus toilet.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. That no one Else has to use for that. A bonus shitter. So now Joan Harmon is Joan. Joan Harmon Guerra. Actually she was married to a guy named Carlos Guerra. Joan's parents were divorced. Her father who she accused of abuse also her father was a Navy officer. Okay, so this makes sense. This is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I can see but a lot.

[James Petragalo]

Of times the people who come from military families look for military people because they're just used to that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fascinating though. But if you, if you're, if your ex wife was. Or if your mom was a Navy officer and beat the shit out of you.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Would you look for a Navy officer woman?

[James Petragalo]

No. But also people get abused and then look for people with the qualities of the abusers. That's just, that's psychology. Until you get a shitload of therapy. That's how your brain works, you know, like you look to repeat cycles. So maybe that's. I'm not sure. Her mother was a nurse and yeah, she's pretty attractive here. She's described in a book as, quote, petite, but had a shapely figure and long blond hair.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Blonde with big tits.

[James Petragalo]

Very nice, big titted blonde girl. Yeah, that's gonna be. That's a tough sell.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're often single forever.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, that's a real tough sell. Yeah, you can't get them out there at all, you know, especially they just sit on the shelf, those gals, you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know, those are not in demand.

[James Petragalo]

No, no, no. No one likes big breasted blondes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Quite obsolete.

[James Petragalo]

Basically non existent at this point really. So she, she told Kit that she had three children. Oldest one being seven years old at the time. She's got two little girls and the oldest is a boy, by the way. She said that the father of her son had died in a logging accident and had been decapitated in that accident.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God damn.

[James Petragalo]

My son's father has been fucking beheaded in a logging accident. Which is a very odd. No matter what.

[Jimmy Whisman]

2004, that's a wild time.

[James Petragalo]

That's a wild. Yeah. If you heard that happen in 1876, you go, that's dangerous work right there. But decapitated in a logging accident probably.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Probably fell into that saw with that eight foot.

[James Petragalo]

Diane from the Patreon episode. Yes, totally, man. Yes, exactly. But this is like, I mean from what I understand, it's one of the most dangerous jobs actually logging.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Probably.

[James Petragalo]

It's very dangerous. But I don't know about decapitations if that's normal. That seems like they should probably work something out where people's heads stay on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Oh, she's get on board with that?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, yeah. So she said that was her first child's father decapitated. She said the two girls at that time, at the time they were two years old and nine months old. She said that husband, she was divorced from him. So she painted a negative picture. Didn't say that the said that her ex husband was pretty shitty and that she had concerns for her safety. She said that he used to stalker and threaten her and once they broke up, he broke into her apartment.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean it's only been at least 18 months since they stopped seeing each other. You know what I mean?

[James Petragalo]

At the most now, I don't know. Like I said, if this is just how someone she was like looking for, you know what I mean? Almost not consciously, but subconsciously, which your brain does here. So Kit agreed to rent a U Haul and help Joan move into a rental property that he owned. So you can move into my rental place. And he didn't charge her rent and even paid for her food and bills.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's an interesting choice.

[James Petragalo]

That's what he says. Yeah, that's what he did. He's like, yeah, I had to help help old Joan out here, get her away from him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's a rental property and he's staying in his ex wife's house.

[James Petragalo]

That's what I'm saying. And he's staying in the bonus room of his ex wife's house. How about I'll be at the rental property that we own if no one's there, if it's open and just ladies can just move in at any time. Now she apparently from what some people say, they say she had some inconsistencies in her stories about her parents and the fathers of her children and stuff like that. Kit said he broke up with her shortly after she moved into his rental property because he was unsure of her and what she was all about. But they got back together when Joan called to say that her brother died in Iraq. Like not just had a heart attack eating a falafel actually like in the military. So yeah. So Kit met with Joan after to offer his condolences. And then you know that's always going to lead to fucking death will get. Will lead to fucking every time. It's real weird.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's only so many rubs on the shoulders you can do in a real weird friendship way. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

It's impossible to not feel a little better. I think that's why, you know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And also eventually you got to meander.

[James Petragalo]

Around to the titties if you just come. You got to feel A little better, at least for a minute, you know what I mean? Just a little bit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There'll be regret in a little while, but, you know, for now.

[James Petragalo]

So at that time, Kit applies for the Aviation Captain's Career course at Fort Rucker, Alabama. So, yeah, and he's, you know, kind of getting into her family as far as, you know, the kids know him and all that kind of thing. He decided he was going to go back to active duty, and he was. They were saying that, you know, he'd probably be sent overseas somewhere. So they discussed getting married. And they. Do they get married, I guess. Oh. They showed up at the courthouse December 7, 2004 to inquire about getting a marriage license, but ended up just getting married on the spot, just getting the license and putting it through. And then they realized they got married on Pearl Harbor Day, which they were like, oh, shit, that was a dumb.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, it's the day they'll live in infamy.

[James Petragalo]

Damn. I guess we'll never forget it. I guess. Yeah, you can't forget it. What's your anniversary? What's your anniversary? Hold on a second. This day, December 7th. Okay, wait. Yeah, that's December 7th, 1919. No, 1941. No, no, no. I'm sorry. I almost said we were married in 41. My bad. So he is having money problems at the time. Here he is, I guess he's not making a lot of money in the army. And he was paying Stacy $1,728 a month in child support as well. God damn, three kids. So, yeah, he's not doing well there. Obviously, financially, that's tough. So 2005, he is assigned to go to Germany with the Army. So Kit and Joan took a belated honeymoon cruise of the Mediterranean before the move to Germany. Well, they must have had some money. Doing fine, you know, $5,000 it cost, they said. And it was. They basically put it in credit cards, debt just to do it, you know. So I guess, you know, there was some fighting between. The weird thing is they seem to get along, but Joan and Stacy would fight. Kit said, yeah, he said that. He wrote, quote, my daughter MacKenzie, that's Megan McKenzie, the first kid has always been very smart, a straight A student. If given the choice, I think she would prefer to live with us. As they were. He was trying to. They were doing a court thing here. And the. I guess the kid, Megan McKenzie there, I guess Kit wanted to fly his kids to Germany to show him. To show them where he lived when he was a kid. Stacy, though, the ex wife would only allow them to visit Germany if she was allowed to come along, I guess. So he couldn't keep them in Germany, I guess that's her fear. So Kit said Joan wasn't going to be okay with that. So Kit would end up having to fly back to the United States when he wanted to see the kids rather than that. Rather than have his ex wife come stay at the. Stay with you guys. That could be weird. So now during their marriage here, they end up moving back to the States, as we'll talk about. But during all this, Joan and Kit live with her daughters and also her son Justin. Elijah, who goes by Elijah. Nobody goes by their first name in Kentucky, by the way. Nobody does. It seems like we've had four characters. None of them go by their first name. Male characters. So Iraq now to kit served three tours of duty in Iraq. And then in 2010 is when they moved back to the States. They had to Rhode island, where I guess Kit pursued a master's degree in National Defense at the Navy War College. By this time, he reached the rank of major, by the way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a big deal.

[James Petragalo]

Pretty good up there. Yeah, majors. It's high up there. His first military assignment after war College was Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the 101st Airborne Division. So, yeah, moves to Kentucky.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And that's the first one, right? That's like the first deployed, right?

[James Petragalo]

The first deployment.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know the numbers in front of the. It's just to throw off the enemy. But that hundred and first, I think that's the first ones deployed.

[James Petragalo]

No fucking clue. I couldn't have any less idea about that. No clue. So they moved to Kentucky. Fort Campbell's in Western Kentucky. And Joan found a house online in Pembroke, Kentucky.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

That's where we are. So she told Kit she needed something to keep her occupied and fixing up an old house would work, so she wanted to get an older house. You fix that up, keep you occupied.

[Jimmy Whisman]

For five, 10 years.

[James Petragalo]

That'll keep your whole entire life, every second of your goddamn day occupied. And your dreams too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Y. You're. Unless you're hiring a contractor to do everything for you.

[James Petragalo]

And even then to it will take over your life and destroy it. Also, even if the just not doing the work doesn't help at all, your house is still destroyed and you can't live in it. And it's almost. I think doing the work would be easier. At least you know what's going on as a contractor. You're like never going to stop.

[Jimmy Whisman]

At least you know the stage you're at.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. They just keep showing up and I don't know when they're going to be done.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I keep hearing hammering.

[James Petragalo]

I don't know. I wake up to saws every day. That's all I know. I wake up to saws.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I thought that was done.

[James Petragalo]

I don't know. So Kit said, yeah, he liked an older home and he found, you know, one. He wanted some extra land too. He wanted some acreage and he wanted to get a couple farm animals, mini horses, you know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Those ponies.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Kid had lived on a farm before and he said caring. He thought that maybe caring for animals would also help the kids learn some responsibility. So they bought a house at auction for $60,000. Wow. Yeah. 60 grand at auction. So foreclosure. Yeah. And this was in 2010, I believe. So there's a lot of houses open. So their first job they did to it was to repaint it. And they did because I guess, you know, paint falls off and you gotta have good paint on there or else your house will rot away. So they paint it bright yellow, which is a quite the choice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That is.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, that's something. That's something. I.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's a few colors I will never do.

[James Petragalo]

And that's. No, no, no, no, no. Okay for like a weird sports car or something. Not okay for a house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not your house.

[James Petragalo]

Nope. There's a few yellow houses around me and they are hideous every time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've never seen a yellow house and been like, that's the ticket.

[James Petragalo]

That's the shit. We. I've showed you the school bus yellow one. That one house that you can see it from span. It's a huge, huge, like a 7,000 square foot fucking monstrous house. Bright, horrifying yellow. You can see it from miles away. Dude, it is. It really is. It's scary. So they. They're in Pembroke and this is when they actually get to spend some time together, Joan and Kit, because they're actually doing normal shit here, you know what I mean? Like living a normal life. And then he would get a military assignment and be gone for a while and he'd come back. And so obviously this is going to cause some strife in the relationship, as it often does here. And by the way, Kit claims that Joan lost interest in the remodeling efforts and caring for the animals and the garden just gave up right away. Gave up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't want to do this.

[James Petragalo]

That's overwhelming. She's probably just like, I don't know. I can't fucking do this all by myself. This is crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

These geese shit a lot.

[James Petragalo]

So much. Now, apparently Kit claims that Joan spends much of her day hanging out across the street with a married neighbor. A guy, by the way. Yes. Not another married woman that they discuss their shit with. Joan said that they were discussing business opportunities. You know how that goes. Obviously, lots of business they needed to be discussed all day long. All the time, too. Every day. Just, you know, lots of new stuff coming up all the time. So this neighbor's name is Calvin Phillips and he goes by Cal and he lives across the street from their house there. He was also a 17 year military veteran. And yeah, I guess they wanted to offer one of their business ideas. Joan and Cal was to offer concealed carry classes behind Cal's house because he has land so they can do shooting shit back there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. A concealed weapons class should only be on paper and in books.

[James Petragalo]

No, no, no, you do it in the backyard. No, no, you do it in the backyard.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, you do it in the backyard. In rural Kentucky. Don't you know anything, Jimmy? Jesus Christ. Sorry, I have to keep educating you about shit, Jimmy. No, that's what I mean. Just dangerous. Where the place where Cal's backyard is a little odd. So Pembroke does not allow target shooting within city limits. But Cal's backyard crossed the county line.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The county line runs through his property.

[James Petragalo]

Cal's backyard. Oh, my God. Ha. Fantastic. He was able to set up a shooting range just over the county line.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Over here, 50 yards from the house.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus Christ. They even held a class there. They had an instructor and everything like that. Joan took the class using a pistol that Kit had here. Cal's wife Pam worked at a bank in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Kit always suspected that Joan and Cal were having an affair. Kind of have to, you know, because they're home during the day and it took from day, every day, all afternoon. They came up with, we could put a shooting range in your backyard. Yeah. What were you doing the rest of the time, Guys? Jesus Christ. So September 5, 2012, Kit asks Joan for a divorce. Does he want a divorce? Yes. He initiates a divorce, apparently. Now, this is the only person people who say this are Kit and Kit's daughter. Okay. That during an argument regarding the divorce, Kit's daughter says she overheard Joan tell Kit that she would ruin his life and military career if he left her. Which, I mean, people have said worse than that, but either way, that's. That's give it a shot. They claim he said that she said that, but that's the only Proof we have here. So she decides she wants to move out of the house since, you know, they're getting a divorce and shit. So she asked her neighbors Cal and Pam, the couple across the street, to help her move out of the residence here. So Cal, by the way, is 59. His wife Pam is 58. Okay, nice 60 year old people across the street. And you're like, get in the middle of my fucking marital strife, would you?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Will you drive a U haul for me?

[James Petragalo]

Jesus, if this was like a hundred years ago, those people would be considered like elderly and you leave them alone. Not that that's elderly now, but goes from that to, hey, guys, will you help me move out of my fucking house?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't bother them. They're contemplating and very depressed about how they're about to die.

[James Petragalo]

They want to know where their final resting place is gonna be. And they're talking about it. Leave them alone, that's all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Leave them to their bread pudding.

[James Petragalo]

That's it. Yeah, they have no teeth left. That's how it was a hundred years ago. So during this, Cal observes what he believed to be because he was in the military, so he, you know, can recognize some shit. I wouldn't know my ass for my elbow with this stuff. But hey, everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you a little bit about one of our favorites, SimpliSafe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, SimpliSafe.com S I M P L I Safe.com.

[James Petragalo]

That'S absolutely correct. And if you're anything like us, most important thing for you is probably protecting your family from harm, right? I mean, nothing else matters if people are coming into your house and, you know, murdering your whole family and robbing your house, what's the difference? That's why us here at Small Town Murder, along with millions of other Americans, we trust Simplisafe with our home security. It's great. Our both our studios, our homes, everything that we have is protected with Simplisafe because it is the best security you're gonna get. You can install it incredibly easy on your own. Even I can do it and I can't put IKEA furniture together. It's so good. I'm telling you, start the year out with greater peace of mind. Visit simplisafe.comsmall to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and your first month free. That's simplisafe.com/s I-m p l I safe.com small there's no safe like Simplisafe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petragalo]

Want to start your morning strong? Dig into Kodiak's hot protein packed breakfast crafted with whole grains to help keep you feeling fuller longer. Grab Kodiak flapjacks and oatmeal. Get 20% off now through March 31st on kodiakakes.com kodiakbreakfast and use code KODIAKBREAKFAST20. He was hip hop's biggest mogul. The man who redefined fame, fortune and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Cohen. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So yeah, that's what's up.

[James Petragalo]

But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three count indictment charging Sean Combs with racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was up and I hit rock bottom.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But I make no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry.

[James Petragalo]

Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now it's real.

[James Petragalo]

From his meteoric rise to his shocking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fall from grace from law and crime.

[James Petragalo]

This is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery. He observed what he believed to be classified military information located on a laptop computer and computer disks. Why he was firing up laptops and browsing through the files and looking through the disks. I have no fucking clue in the world. But that's what happened.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The computer and the disks all had classified just right the fuck on them.

[James Petragalo]

Real big sticker across the top of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The laptop, big red letters that are just like a rubber stamp.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, big one.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Part of the letters are missing, but he can tell that that's a classified.

[James Petragalo]

So Cal took the items and turned them over to the FBI.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, that's a step. That's a big step. He took you took shit out of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

My garage and called the FBI.

[James Petragalo]

Called the FBI on me for it. Yeah, for this. So turns out there's some reason for that. Apparently that was classified. Yeah. Now Joan has some problems also here. They basically, they found out that there's accusations from her ex husband that she basically kidnapped her daughters from her ex husband. That's what the accusations are. So that's what's going on now. At the same time, this is when Joan tells Cal and Pam that Kit has been physically abusive to both her and her son Elijah. So there we go. She gave Cal photographs depicting the Young man's injuries, which Cal then turned over to military police. Cal will tell on you, boy. He will.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cal's a rat.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus Christ. Don't smoke a joint in your back porch. Cal's gonna be on the phone with the local cops immediately.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Got some loose fucking lips.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus, man. I would say so. So Cal tells another neighbor named Danzero is his last name, that he wants a divorce from Joan. And all he said, I think she's been having an affair. Kit says that? Yeah, Kit says that and everything like that. So they're talking to all their neighbors here. Now, the accusations she levels at him for child abuse get deeper than that. Okay. She also accuses him of molesting her daughters.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

Yes. One of the daughters said that Kit had given them baths more than five times, but less than 10 times. The other daughter couldn't remember more than one or two times. Elijah, the son, said he witnessed the abuse on at least one occasion. The one daughter said she couldn't remember Elijah being present when she and her sister took baths. The first daughter that we talked about said that Kit was clothed when he gave them baths, whereas Joan claimed that he took baths with the girls while fully nude, which would be obviously horrifying.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Terrible thing to do.

[James Petragalo]

Yes. And Alma said in one statement that Kit always used a washcloth when bathing them. And then in another statement, she said sometimes he used his bare hands. She said the one girl said that when she was about 5, Kit would bathe her and her sister. This is from what she told investigators. Now, she claimed that he would put soap on a rag and insert his finger into her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petragalo]

Elijah then said that he had witnessed the abuse, which this young lady said happened more than five times, but less than 10. See, this is different versions of the story here, but there's always that number that comes up. Now, Elijah said that Kit would hit him with his hands, a belt, a whip, or anything else he could get his hands on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

He said that Kit would get angry for no reason and beat him up. He said that he never did his chores well enough for Kit and that Kit and that, you know, Elijah said he'd always get a beating no matter what he had assigned to him. So there's pictures of this here. And Elijah said it happened when they lived in Rhode Island. He said he and some friends accidentally knocked over a porta potty, which is disgusting.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Accidentally.

[James Petragalo]

I don't know how you accidentally knock over a porta potty. Yeah. Unless you did it with, like, a vehicle or something. There's no way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're not like a lamp.

[James Petragalo]

No.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Soccer ball.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, shit. You know, unless you had like a. Like a pickup truck you backed into it with or something, it's hard to knock those fuckers over.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You'd have to. Both of you throw shoulders into that like a. Like a football tackling dummy.

[James Petragalo]

I've seen people do it, and they usually rock it from both sides.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, because it's got liquid in there and that's the stable part.

[James Petragalo]

It's like a basketball hoop in your driveway. It's one of those with the sand or the liquid in the base. That's what it's like with hundreds of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Pounds of liquid in it.

[James Petragalo]

There's a lot. They don't want it to be tipped over by the wind while you're shitting in it. That would be bad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Or when you're not and you just did.

[James Petragalo]

Bad feature. That would be. So he said when Kit found out about it, he made Elijah and his friends put the porta potty upright and clean up the mess, which seems extremely reasonable.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

If my kid knocked over a porta potty, I'd be like, you fuckers are picking that up. I'm not touching. Getting some gloves and some paper towels and you're going to work here. Sorry. He said he then made Elijah take a shower after the shower, which, I mean, he was covered in shit. So that's again, blue water.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Reasonable so far at this point. After the shower, while Elijah says he was dressed only in boxer shorts, Kit started beating him with a belt. He told investigators that Kit hit him with the leather and the buckle end of the belt both. Elijah also told investigators after the beating, Kit made him cut the grass with scissors. Okay, that took a while. That'll take. They have acres. That'll take a minute. I would say my question is make him get a comb in there too and do it so it's even. Or how do we do it?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just willy nilly.

[James Petragalo]

Willy nilly hacked up like somebody who sat at 2 in the morning. Which one does he get?

[Jimmy Whisman]

The texturizing scissors and give it a real nice.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, there we go. The thinners. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, a good look.

[James Petragalo]

Love those thinning scissors. Those are great. According to Elijah, he got a lot of abuse from Kit, including whippings from a Roman whip made of leather straps with stones attached to the strips ends. That's what he claims. Wow. Joan later said that the Roman whip had metal burrs on the ends of each strip. Not stone.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God damn.

[James Petragalo]

Either way, hard things shadow nine tails.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right?

[James Petragalo]

Isn't that what that is, that shouldn't make your dick at all hard. No.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nobody should be hit with that.

[James Petragalo]

That's true. No, that's horrible. Another instance of abuse, according to Elijah, occurred when he got caught stealing a necklace from his mother to give to a girl. Which sounds dumb teenager shit here. Kit took him down to the basement where he essentially. He essentially treated him like he was Marcellus Wallace going to the pawn shop.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petragalo]

He tied him up with duct tape and blindfolded him. Okay. After 20 minutes, Kit returned. He said he left him there about 20 minutes. He returned and punched him in the stomach. He said Kit then used a knife to cut him loose and made him stand in the corner until his mom told him he didn't have to stand in the corner any longer. Okay. Elijah also said that Kit always wanted to wrestle. Come on, let's wrestle. And that the wrestling would often end with him in a choke hold and not able to breathe. Come on, let's wrestle so I can choke you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So what you're saying is you lost a lot.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, he didn't do very well. He said that Martin referred to the wrestling as WrestleMania, which is great. It's WrestleMania time, motherfucker. No, I don't want to have WrestleMania main event, bitch. Let's go.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Me and you.

[James Petragalo]

Me and you. Cutting promos on him. Wow. He described one occasion where he had purple dots all over his face due to a lack of oxygen. Yeah, I was gonna say, you know, petechia, like if you're strangled. And one of the young ladies here, the daughters, also added that they would all get smacked if. The daughters would get smacked if they tried to intervene in this at all. Well, I mean, yeah, it's against the rules. You can't hit them with a chair on the outside of the ring. The ref isn't gonna call for that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You can't grab my leg.

[James Petragalo]

Can't grab for that when I'm going to the ropes to come off with a clothesline. This is crazy. Obviously.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Trying to do my finishing move and.

[James Petragalo]

You'Ve been away the fuck, man? Obviously, you know, nothing funny, but it's crazy anyway. The idea of I'm going to have WrestleMania with my stepson and choke him out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You can't cheat.

[James Petragalo]

Kick his little girl managers away as they try to run in the ring is fucking crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're 90, bitch. Valets really getting.

[James Petragalo]

Take that. That's right. He's cutting promos. So Elijah's first account here, like I said, the porta potty incident. Now he says that he was beaten with a belt after the porta potty incident. But Jones said it was a bamboo stick. And Elijah later said that it was a belt and a bamboo stick. Okay. Now, Elijah said his mom took pictures of his bruises the day of the beating, and that's what he said. Joan will testify later that she took photos the day after the beating. So they're going to say, obviously the beating didn't happen because they got. They're not on the same page of a day of and day after. So obviously they both made it up. Clearly, that's. That's his. His, you know, his stance on the whole thing here. In one version, Elijah said The beating lasted three minutes. And another, he said it lasted 20 minutes. The duct tape incident. Elijah said his hands and feet were duct taped and his eyes were covered with what he thought was also duct tape. He said that he was sitting on the bed and that Major Martin came into the room and punched him in the stomach. Elijah then claimed Kit returned a few minutes later to remove the tape of the knife. Joan's version was slightly different. She said, my daughter Alma came running into the kitchen saying, daddy's hitting Elijah. We had a basement. And she told me Elijah was down in the basement. I ran down there and looked in the guest room, which was dark. I noticed Elijah was in the room on his knees with his wrists duct taped behind his back. I also noticed Elijah was duct taped around his mouth and had two pieces of tape covering his eyes. Elijah was sitting in the dark on his knees, duct taped. And of course, I freaked out. Yeah, as anybody would. Alma was just crying and her eyes were swollen. I then ran to get the scissors and ran down and cut the duct tape off him. He immediately started crying, so I stood him up and walked him upstairs. Now, Kits, Elijah said Kit came in, punched him, and cut him loose. And in a sworn statement, Jones said Elijah told her that Kit kept coming into the room and hitting him, applying that it happened, implying it had happened more than once. So they're taking slight discrepancies and saying it obviously didn't happen. That's their thing, which is, you know, a crazy, abusive night a couple years beforehand. I feel like maybe things get a little. Whatever. So little hazy. He found an email that Joan sent to herself on May 2, 2011. The subject line read, elijah tipped over the portable toilet. Email contained four images and the following message. Pictures of what Kit did to him after he got in trouble for tipping over a porta Potty with a neighboring boy near our home, which is what neighboring means. Okay. So here are the pictures.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy.

[James Petragalo]

If that's real, that's crazy. If that's real, that is fucking horrifying face. He's got all over his face. His back.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh my God.

[James Petragalo]

His back looks like he is in. He was a starting roof.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Django.

[James Petragalo]

It looks fucking crazy. He's got a Kunta Kinte back right now. This is fucking bonkers.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh my God.

[James Petragalo]

Just say Toby. Elijah. Jesus Christ. Don't take the beating anymore.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Name is Toby.

[James Petragalo]

Fuck my life. Dude. This, this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's so bad.

[James Petragalo]

It's everywhere.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And being so mad at a child that you hit.

[James Petragalo]

No, I can't. No, that's. This is. It's arms. Face. The back is horrifying. And the arms and the face.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It looks like the cheeks on the left side of his face were hit because he was swinging so wildly at his back that he just tagged him in the face.

[James Petragalo]

That's what it looked like. It almost looks like a buckle mark up there. I don't know. So Joan said she deleted the pictures off the camera, then sent them to herself in an email so Kit wouldn't find them on the camera and get mad at her. So anyway, Joan also tells investigators that Kit would slap her across the face whenever she tried to intervene. When he was abusing Elijah, she said he would choke her to the point of nearly losing consciousness, which seems to be a routine thing. Common theme here. She claimed that Kit would threaten to kill her if she ever left him. So according to Joan. Also here are some more accusations from Joan once this all comes out and the divorce is on the table here. According to Joan, while in Germany, Kit once held one of the little girls by her foot and dangled her off the balcony of a three story marble staircase and laughed. He was just doing a Michael Jackson impersonation, that's all. Yeah, that's hilarious. She said he would whip the other little girl with the Roman style whip. He would take baths nude with the girls, telling them they had to get comfortable with nudity because they were in Europe and there was a lot of nudity in Europe. That's not. That's it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How about. No.

[James Petragalo]

No. Just because you can have your tits out at the beach doesn't mean you're. There should be a cock floating in your fucking baby's bath water. I don't think so. Totally different thing there, guys. Wow. Joan also told a story about Kit punching Eliza in the face. Elijah in the face so hard that it knocked his glasses off. And then she said Kit stomped on his glasses with his foot and Crushed them. Which is like, joke's on you, asshole. Now you gotta buy me new glasses.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You just made yourself a bill, you moron.

[James Petragalo]

When I go to school and I can't fucking see, they're gonna go. They're gonna send a letter home going, get this kid glasses. He can't see.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You just cost yourself $400.

[James Petragalo]

That was stupid of you. Joan also told the investigators that she took the concealed carry class at Cal's house because she feared for her life and wanted to protect herself from Kit. Joan said, quote, I just felt trapped. I felt like I could not get out. And it was hopeless. In the beginning of the relationship. I thought he just needed help or counseling. But as time went on, I wanted out. I just wanted to get us out. So the agent asked her if she could expand on her fears. And she said, I was afraid he was going to kill me, and I was afraid he was going to kill or seriously hurt one of my children. My son was trying to protect me as he got older, and I was afraid he was going to get seriously injured or killed as time went on. Okay, that's a pretty pretty on the nose statement there. So. Wow. Now, Alma, one of the kids also said. I think that's the one kid said that. She said that Kit told her if she or any of the other kids told anyone about the abuse, he would kill them. She said that if any of them had a black eye, they were supposed to say they ran into something. She claimed that when they lived in Germany, he always walked around naked. I'm just being German. You're lucky I'm not pooping on stuff. Just. It's cool.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Lederhosen. Was that somewhere else? I don't know.

[James Petragalo]

No, that's Germany. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is it? Yeah. That's very awkward and uncomfortable clothing, especially.

[James Petragalo]

When that's all you're wearing. Yeah, just that with your cock dangling down. It's not good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm putting the hose and hose in.

[James Petragalo]

Exactly my own version of lederhosen. So Elijah tells us a story about how Kit injured his foot. He said that he was in a barn and didn't put a lid on a container correctly. Elijah did, and he said that Kit got angry, pushed him down and scraped his foot on the barrel. The picture that they all paint of Kit was that he's a lunatic and that he would basically just be horrible for them. They said that he treated his biological children well, but not them. Some evil stepdad shit they're claiming here. They said that the biological kids would get new clothes and Nice things while they're. These kids had to shop at Goodwill. He's like, well, they're not my kids. I ain't fucking buying them clothes. So she the one daughter said when she started her period, Kit called her fat, ugly, and worthless. And that Elijah said he was often called an idiot, a loser of four eyes and a dork. Four eyes? Yeah. Hey, four eyes, how'd you like the. It's bad enough going to school. You got to come home and you're like, ah, fuck. This is worse than gym class. Jesus Christ, man. He's gonna start pegging me with a kickball next. Just fucking over and over again.

[Jimmy Whisman]

At least I can fight those kids with the same size, the same. This guy just wants to call me a dork and then body slam me.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, he's a fucking major in the army. Wants to choke me out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's gonna DDT me after he calls me four.

[James Petragalo]

No shit. Elijah said that Kit had a friend who was a police officer. He said that on the night of the big argument, that Kit's friend said that he didn't see any signs of abuse. This police officer, Elijah, said he and his mom had large red marks across her face. Or he said his mom had large red marks across her face. And the. One of the daughters added that Kit threatened to kill her that night if she said anything to the police. So these are the accusations that are leveled against him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're heavy. Holy shit.

[James Petragalo]

They're fucking heavy. So during all this, by the way, she moves out and all that kind of stuff, he has another girlfriend. So at one point, her name is Laura. They interview Laura. The police go to interview Laura to do a welfare check on her to make sure that she's not full of black eyes and belt marks and shit like that. Laura told the investigators she was aware of the allegations against him. And Laura told the cops she coaxes her kids to lie about things that happened. Oh, yeah. So. But they. I guess the investigators tried to question. Basically kept asking her if she was in an abusive relationship and kept asking and asking. Now, there's this book that is very much a Kit's the man book, basically. And they say that the cops harassed her to the point of badgering her to see if she was in an abusive relationship. I think they're doing their job. That's what they're supposed to do, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, oftentimes somebody in an abusive relationship will say no. That's the thing to ask several times in several different ways.

[James Petragalo]

Assure them you can keep them safe. Things like that. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gonna be okay. If you feel that you are threatened, they ask different. Different verbiage to get them to admit.

[James Petragalo]

Because eventually it's like you're being extorted by the Mafia. You ask him the first time. The Mafia extorting you? No, no, no, no. Vinny's my pal. No, we're great. No, we're tight.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Charging you money for what he calls.

[James Petragalo]

No, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I lend him a couple of bucks once in a while, but that's just because Vinnie gambles. Oh, okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Has there ever been any mysterious fires around?

[James Petragalo]

Well, no. And. Well, actually, there was, but not after I started loaning Vinnie money. Then they all stopped.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Are you catching.

[James Petragalo]

See what I'm saying? You gotta keep going with it. So they asked about Kit's temper and whether she had ever witnessed him losing it. She replied she'd never seen Kit lose his temper with her or anyone else. They showed her the picture of the alleged abuse of Elijah, and her quote was, I'm sorry. She said that the agent told her women don't often want to admit they're in an abusive relationship at the time or they miss early abusive behavior. Let me show you this. Laura said she was a nurse and knew the signs of abuse. She told them that she had endured 17 years of verbal abuse by her previous husband and would not allow herself or her kids to be around that kind of abuse again. And they talked to her kids and, I guess, her kids. One of them described Kit as cool and said the only time he ever heard Kit yell was at the dogs. The other kid said that she felt safe, didn't have any concerns, and that Kit never abused or touched her inappropriately. Okay, so there's that. Anyway, they said that while they looked around here, they didn't find any Roman Whip anywhere, by the way. Well, they just, you know, they didn't have, like, a search warrant looking through the house. Yeah. And Laura told them she didn't know anything about bamboo sticks. Yeah, that's it. So Kit, now he complains. He says Joan abandoned her. That's abandoned him. That's what it was.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. He says that basically, Kit learned that, I guess when he was in Iraq, he learned that she wasn't getting along well with the other army wives. And before leaving Germany, Kit came home from work to find what he claimed was total chaos, with Joan cussing at Elijah and beating him and the girls screaming. And that's when he wanted a divorce. At that point, that's when he first started wanting one, because she was out of her mind. So September 11, 2012. This is when Kit learns about the photographs that the police have and that she has with Elijah. So this is six days after he asked her for a divorce and seven days before there was an emergency protective order hearing. Now, in his statement, Kit mentioned the photographs in a statement to a family advocacy representative. He said, this is. The representative said, I had a follow up appointment. Oh no, this is him. This is Kit. I had a follow up appointment with LCDR Belgrave of the Family Advocacy Program. I was hoping this meeting might provide some information as to the health and safety of my stepchildren as I had requested, or maybe a follow on to my wife Joan's mental health. Instead, I learned that my wife had escalated her attacks and slander on me by claiming I had abused my children. She even produced photos of my stepson. EJ apparently depicted extensive scratches or burns across his back. I had never seen these photos before, nor those alleged injuries. I was shocked by what they apparently showed and the accusation that I had done this. So yeah, he said that his first thought was they stay told him these. These injuries occurred while you were living in Rhode Island. And he said, oh, I think I know what those were. That's not abuse. Those are rug burns from his jujitsu lessons I was giving him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

On his back like that. On his face.

[James Petragalo]

On his face? Yeah, just all over himself. The rug burns.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What rug are you wrestling on?

[James Petragalo]

Get a mat, asshole. Number one, grab a mat, why don't you?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy.

[James Petragalo]

This is crazy. He said Elijah also practiced with a high school wrestling team for several months when they first moved to Pembroke. Another possibility Kit offers was that Joan may have been the one who caused the injuries. He said, the only time I've ever witnessed a serious incident with my stepson was when I returned home from work one day while stationed in Germany. I heard yelling and screaming from the backyard and thought someone was hurt. When I ran around the corner, I saw my son EJ stand, which. It's J. E. It's Justin. Elijah. It's so weird. Okay. On the second rung of the ladder, about a foot off the ground.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wait, it's Elijah. Justin. He goes.

[James Petragalo]

It's Justin. Elijah. And he goes by Elijah or E.J. don't get it. Okay, whatever. His sister, Alma. Alma was on the sub roof of the main roof above him. And my wife Joan was beating EJ with a broom or a stick across the back and shoulders, yelling obscenities such as fucking pussy and fucking coward. Wow. I yelled at her, but she didn't seem to notice I was there. I didn't know how long she'd been doing this, but I had to restrain her to get her to stop. Imagine being the Germans, what they thought of all this if this happened. Like fucking America. Just what we all thought, everybody. Holy shit. Nope. No, it's Jerry Springer. It's. Yeah, I know. We got it out here. Same thing. I was finally able. I was then finally able to ask what happened. She told me Alma had gone to retrieve a toy stuck on the roof and then was afraid to come back down, so she told EJ to get her. I don't know why Joan didn't do it. EJ was apparently also very afraid of heights and could not climb the ladder past the second rung. So Joanie had gotten violently upset and started beating him. He says I mention this only as a statement of fact, not to counter my allegations. Oh, no, no. Just. Just like to give all the information.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Just the facts, ma'am.

[James Petragalo]

Now, here's the problem with Joan. It comes out when they file for divorce and everything. She is not. She's already married.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petragalo]

She never divorced her husband, Carlos. She's still married to him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's a polygamist.

[James Petragalo]

Yes, well, a bigamist anyway. Yeah, a polygamist would be if she was living with both of them. But she's a bigamist anyway, so she's a bigamist here. So there's going to be bigamy charges against her for that. She's going to plead guilty to charge of bigamy and granted a pretrial diversion. You know, put her in fucking prison for that. But, yeah, now the military is going to charge Kit with various offenses relating to the mishandling of classified information from the laptop and the discs and physical abuse of the boy as well. Now, there is a court martial scheduled December 15, 2015. There's a court martial hearing scheduled here. And Cal is supposed to testify at that court martial hearing about finding everything here, because that's part of it, is where they got the shit from.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's a rat.

[James Petragalo]

So, yeah, absolutely. Cal and Pam made several statements to individuals indicating that their fear that Kit would come and kill them or if anything happened to them, tell the cops to look at Kit, because we're going to testify against him, and at best, he's going to lose his pension, which he's not going to be fucking happy about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's going to be very upset.

[James Petragalo]

Very upset. So after a bunch of continuances, court martial proceedings scheduled for December 2015. Now November 18, 2015. Less than a month away from these court martial proceedings, Pam, Cal's wife Pam left for work around 7am now, around noon, she was informed that a washing machine she had ordered could not be delivered to her home because no one was there, which is a nightmare. You order appliances, you have no idea when they're coming, and then give you a fucking window.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Eight to ten, eight to noon, whatever.

[James Petragalo]

The fuck, but you have no idea when they're coming. And then when they do come, you not only have to be there, you have to be like ready with the door open and the place open for them to put it. And it's all prepared and hope you bought the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The hoses and the hose. The plug.

[James Petragalo]

Oh my God.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So you want a refrigerator? There's no plug.

[James Petragalo]

Are you me? Are you? Jesus Christ. How is that possible? Yeah, I remember that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Doesn't fit the new fridge. What the is going on?

[James Petragalo]

Every washing machine? Yeah, they sell you a plug.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Everything. Yeah, they sell you a plug. What?

[James Petragalo]

How?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Charge me $50 more and give me the motherfucking plug.

[James Petragalo]

How the hell am I supposed to. Is there a choice here? Run it with no plug? What are we talking about?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do you not do that? In case I buy it in Germany and you can put the right plug.

[James Petragalo]

Fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know where you're sending it. Send the plug.

[James Petragalo]

Is this a solar washer? Do I put it out in the yard for a few hours and then it's got enough juice to do a load? What do I do? How does this work?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Who the fuck is so cheap that they're like, take $50 off and I'll buy it? Well then you don't get the plug. Deal. What does that say?

[James Petragalo]

Give me the plug, please. So she was informed the washing machine was there, she was concerned. So she left work earlier than usual around 5pm because she usually leaves at 6, but she's leaving at 5, even though it was at noon when the, you know, when the call came. Now Cal's usually home, so that's why she's like, what are you talking about? There's nobody home. Cal's home. So she left at 5 to go check on Cal because she hasn't heard from him. And this is 2015, so people are always incessantly texting each other and hasn't heard from him. And no one could deliver the washing machine. She arrived at her residence and called her friend Frances Marlene Larocque here. She said, hey, Francis, have you seen Cal? So Frances said she had called Cal earlier in the day to check on his sick dog, but nobody answered. What a nice person. She called to check on the sick dog. A text would have been sufficient, I think there. Don't call me for that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Both are thoughtful, I suppose.

[James Petragalo]

It's not thoughtful to call someone out of the blue for no reason. That's not thoughtful. It's like giving someone, like, a bill for something that's, like, not thoughtful. Text if they want to call, I'll tell you all about it. I'll call you or something. But don't just assume they want to get on the phone and talk to you. I think older people might be different, though.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Good afternoon. Let's talk. Let's talk about depressing shit.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, I think older people are different with. They're okay with getting phone calls. Yeah, I think it's like 55 and over are okay with getting phone calls. 55 and under is like, you called me for what? How could this. This could have been accomplished way easier in a text. Why are you doing this?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Text me and see if it's okay.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, text me and see if I'm busy first.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hey, you want to talk?

[James Petragalo]

That's all? No. Okay. There you go. Just saved us both an awkward conversation.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Can't imagine you wouldn't want to talk about your dog with cancer.

[James Petragalo]

Weird, right? So Marlene also said she had gone to the Phillips residence around 2pm and found the front door open, which was unusual, but she assumed Cal was working out in the back field and just left the door open. So Pam told Marlene to hold the line because she saw something. Now, there, she's at home, Pam. She's looking around. Now, Marlene heard a scream, as if someone had been startled, and then silence. Okay, a scream and then silence. And that was it. Never heard from her again. Okay, so Marlene returns. She gets in the car to go drive over and check on Pam, and she found the front door open, but no one there. No one answering, yelling, hello. No one's answering. Shit. So Pam's car, I guess at that time, Pam's car was parked in the driveway. Normally, like it normally is about an hour later. So Marlene didn't call the cops or anything like that. She left and came back an hour later. Okay, so she returned to check on them at this car. At this time, Pam's car had been moved to face the other direction, and the front door of the house was closed. Okay, so you go, okay, well, they're around. And that's what she figured. She figured, well, they must be. They must have come Home and. Or whatever the fuck, I don't know. That's what they do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So she just left and everything's fine.

[James Petragalo]

She just left it alone. At that point she figured everything's fine. So whatever. So that morning at 2:15am okay, so middle of the night, a nearby neighbor named John Homic, or Homic, was awakened by the sound of two explosions or gunshots coming from somewhere on his farm. He said he thought the sounds were possibly caused by trespassing hunters, so he didn't investigate any. He's like, I'm not gonna go out there and get shot by idiots at 3 in the morning. That's stupid. So later that morning, he went outside and saw a car smoldering in his field.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, a car burned to shit in his field.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Those hunters killed the car.

[James Petragalo]

Fucking. They got themselves a Pontiac Grand Dam, it looks like. That's a. Oh, boy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm a tag for that. Let's get out of here.

[James Petragalo]

It ain't even in season. Let's go. It ain't Pontiac season. We gotta get out of here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Shit's gonna arrest us. We gotta run.

[James Petragalo]

God damn it. I said I was after Mustangs, but damn it, this is ridiculous.

[Jimmy Whisman]

On these T. Roy. Let's go.

[James Petragalo]

Let's go. Move it. So the police look inside the vehicle when they get there and discover that there are two sets of human remains inside the burnt vehicle. Two bodies. Two burnt up bodies inside this vehicle. So the vehicle is registered to Cal and Pam Phillips. Okay, now here we go. All right. There's more to this as well, by the way here as we'll talk about quite a lot more. So the cops head over to Cal's here. They head over to Cal's residence where they discover. Because they get that call and they have the registration. So they go to the house. When they get to the house, they find that Cal is at home. Huh? But he's dead.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, shit.

[James Petragalo]

His remains are in the cellar among more signs of a fire being set around him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So someone tried to burn the house down.

[James Petragalo]

Someone tried. Yeah. Either that or Cal killed whoever that was and then went home and tried to off himself and burn the house down. One of the two.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the fuck?

[James Petragalo]

So police continued to search the property and they located. They discovered blood in the backyard next to a distinctive World War II era pistol which was known to belong to the Phillips neighbor, ed Danzero, who's 63 years old.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ed Danzero's got a pistol in their yard.

[James Petragalo]

In their yard. Subsequent testing indicates the blood in the Yard belongs to Ed Danzero, not to Cal.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the fuck?

[James Petragalo]

This is crazy, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Pam's blood was also discovered on the back door and in the yard, they discover that the what they take. So the remains are super burnt in the car. They get them in, they finally process and figure out that the fucking bodies are Pam and Ed Denzero in the car. And then Cal is dead in the basement.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

Fucking crazy. So their injuries, by the way, you'll probably want to know about here because it's a lot. Cal suffered five gunshot wounds.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petragalo]

And blunt force trauma to different locations of his body.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He was tortured a lot.

[James Petragalo]

Fucking wild. They said there are two kinds of gunshot wounds. Penetrating and perforated. A penetrating wound means that the bullet remained in the body. A perforated wound means that it threw and through. So Calvin had both types of those, they said. As for the blunt force trauma injuries, they said that the injuries were to the face and upper and lower extremities. So that's the whole body as far as I'm concerned. Or at least legs and arms and face. In response here, they also say the trauma injuries occurred antemortem or before death. It's important because it indicated that he was beaten before he was shot. They said. They asked if the injuries could have been caused by a butt of a gun and they said they could have. That's what the doctor says. The facial injuries though, were near occurred near the time of death. They were paramortem. And they said this lends credence to the possibility that all the blunt force injuries may have occurred due to the victim being tossed down the cellar stairs while still alive. Okay. Blood on the stairs and a tooth discovered under his body also suggest that he may have been dumped down the stairs face first, possibly by, you know, anybody throwing him down there. Who knows? So one finding that wasn't fully explained related to the. I guess the bullets here. There's different types, I guess different bullets. Trocars. Is that how you say it in a bullet? They're designed to separate after the bullet hit the target, such as skin.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

It's come apart in you right away, huh? Yeah, I guess. They said Calvin had three entrance injuries like that to the left side of his chest, indicating that they. That the bullets had separated before entering the body. Oh, God. One possible scenario is that at least one shot fired at him hit something else first, causing the separate. He sustained three penetrating gunshot wounds to his chest. They were still in the body. Other ones were in the neck and the right clavicle they were perforated. Meaning they exited the bullet bases from the two perforated gunshots were never recovered. And they don't know. So they don't know if the shots were fired outside, inside. They don't know what they said. The trocar. I guess that's how you say it. Entry wounds also support the possibility of one bullet striking something like anything. A window or mirror or anything like that breaking off from the main bullet. The gunshot wound to the neck entered Calvin's left ear, but exited the right side lower on the neck. There's also a smaller exit wound where the trocars exited. All exit wounds were lower on the neck than the entrance wounds. The same is true for the perforated wounds on the right clavicle. The exit wounds were lower than the entrance wounds. So we're talking from above.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

The trajectory of the bullets suggests that they were fired from above. This could also indicate someone standing over Calvin as he shot. Any of that shit is possible. So, Pam Phillips and Ed here. And Ed Denzero. Here we go. Almost Jerry Springer. Dr. Jeffrey Springer enters the equation here. Medical examiner for Kentucky here. Yes. His brother. He examined Pam and Ed. They said both bodies had been consumed in the automobile fire. The doctor was able to examine the remains that were recovered from the front passenger seat and the rear passenger seat of the car.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Front and back.

[James Petragalo]

Front and back. So they were driven there and no one was put in the driver's seat?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

It's not even trying to act like they did this themselves.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. That's just putting two passengers and then getting out.

[James Petragalo]

Getting the fuck out. X rays of both victims revealed bullet fragments in their brains. In Pam's case, the X ray also showed the presence of a mostly intact.22 caliber bullet in the charred remains of her heart. So. Yeah. Interesting. So this is a fucking mess. Obviously. An absolute mess.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How did. How did Ed die?

[James Petragalo]

Gunshots as well. Same thing. Yeah. Gunshots. Gunshots and burning. Yeah, Multiple gunshot wounds. So, okay, they were. There was a.22. They recovered fragments from the bodies of Ed and Pam and confirmed they'd both been shot multiple times with a.22 caliber firearm. Okay. Now, several hairs were recovered from the vehicle from Dan's. A Rose vehicle. Okay. Not the one they were burning in. This has been locked. This had been located between his residence and Pam's Burton vehicle. His car. Somewhere in the middle. Yeah. While certain hairs were consistent with a sample taken from Kit, only one hair was suitable for definitive DNA testing. And it, I guess, apparently didn't match Kit. All right. Now, projectile fragments recovered from the bodies of Pam and Ed confirmed they'd been shot multiple times. Like we said, Kit owns several.22 caliber firearms as well. Forensic testing was inconclusive, meaning that the examiner could neither confirm nor exclude the possibility that the recovered fragments were linked to his.22 caliber firearms. There was a lot of damage to the bullets, so that's hard. Cal was killed by a unique G2 Rip.45 caliber bullets. That's what he was killed with. Unique bullets fired from a Glock. He suffered several gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma. Like we said. The police found a.45 caliber Glock pistol when they searched Kit's home. So when they searches safe at home. And forensic testing of the fragments was inconclusive. Again, no ballistics on this. So nothing happens, no arrests are made.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, because this gun doesn't match it.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, nothing matches it. Well, they don't know if it met. It's just not. They can't tell if it matches it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

It's just. Yeah, if the fragments are too fucked up, they don't know. If they say it could have been, they can tell you whether it could have been or couldn't have been.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But it can't do. It can't.

[James Petragalo]

But they can't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, the other word.

[James Petragalo]

Deny, exclude, Exclude. So the Phillips property was processed for evidence on three separate occasions. November 19, November 30, and December 4, 2000. They keep coming back to process to look for more shit. Now, a neighbor named Mark Harris lived next door to Danzero and across the street from Kit and Pam. And he said in 2015, he could sense something was wrong on the street. Caught a weird vibe on the street.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, this is what Mark said. Mark said that he went and talked to or. Yeah, he was talking to Cal and said he told me about a week before this happened, I need to stay away from here. There's something going on bad. Cal told him that. So now the neighbor, his theory is that Kit went to Cal Phillips home, killed him in the basement, and then Ed and Pam were collateral damage. Yeah, it seems like he waited for fucking Pam to get there. Right, and then nailed her. He probably hid like, you know, and then fucking popped out because that's where a scream would come from. Then silence. She probably saw Cal, screamed, holy shit, and then that was that. He went out and got her at that point.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And then maybe Ed heard the scream. I don't know.

[James Petragalo]

That's. That's possible. Yeah, Ed might have come over. Who the hell knows? Ed might have seen.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Seems like they all just involved themselves with each other.

[James Petragalo]

So they're gonna be totally this guy said, I don't know what was said, took him to the basement of the house, maybe found him in there and he walked in and shot him. So who knows? Now they talked to Elijah, the son here, Joan's son, and he's saying that Kit's a fucking monster. He said in public he'd be the nicest person you'd ever meet. But behind closed doors, phew, he was a monster. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But when a social media fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke.

[James Petragalo]

Out last fall, that was no protection.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Claudine Gay is now gone.

[James Petragalo]

We've exposed the DEI regime and there's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Much more to come. This is the Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's.

[James Petragalo]

On the Media to listen, subscribe to OnTheMedia wherever you get your podcasts. UFO lands in Suffolk and that's official, said the News of the World. But what really happened across two nights in December 1980 when US servicemen saw mysterious lights in the forest near RAF Woodbridge and claimed to have had a close encounter with an actual craft? Encounters, a new podcast available exclusively on Wondery plus, takes a deep dive into one of the most famous and still unrelated unresolved UFO encounters to ever take place in the uk. Featuring shocking testimony from first hand witnesses. Hosts, journalist, podcaster and UFO researcher Andy McVillan. That's me. And producer L. Scott take us back to the nights in question and examine all of the evidence and conflicting theories about what was encountered in the middle of a Snowy Suffolk Forest 40 years ago. Are we alone? Encounters is a podcast which is going to find out. Listen to Encounters exclusively in ad free on Wondry plus. Join Wondry plus in the Wondry app or in Apple podcasts. And he, he also people do he says that he yeah. They're not going to be like I love beating the shit out of my kids out in public at work they usually don't say that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So he, they also said do you think that your stepfather did this? And he said he's 100% because the person, because of the person he was being behind closed doors. So a private investigator working for the defense team in the court martial case now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, okay. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

And that this private investigator had interviewed Cal Phillips two weeks before the murder. In the interview the detective was convinced that something would turn the entire case on his head. He said something that nobody else knew that Cal Phillips would have Flipped on Joan and testified for Kit. That's what he says, but there's no proof of that. Um, the private investigator wrote in an email to police, it's the professional opinion of Mary Martins that I. The end I. That Calvin Phillips was murdered in order to prevent his testimony on behalf of the defense. Think about that witness statement strongly port point to Joan Harmon as the person most likely to benefit from his silence. So here's what their theory is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Joan is fucking badass.

[James Petragalo]

Joan did this because if, apparently if she was alive and he basically, she could have gotten a really good settlement from the military about the abuse. Shit, she could have gotten a settlement from the military. That's what, that's what his defense attorney saying, rather than it's Kit who did it because he doesn't want them testifying against him. They're saying Cal was going to testify actually for Kit and Joan found out and killed three people over it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So both of these sides are going to say that the other person did it because his testimony would benefit them.

[James Petragalo]

Yes, that's exactly what it's. What it is. So Kit said that she knew she was on. She knew she was. She knew that was her last chance to ruin my career. She couldn't do it. Now, by the way, the evidence against him is. There's all sorts of physical evidence. Physical evidence about the laptop shit. Because the military is still looking into that. These CDs labeled secret in the laptop computer. Also a thumb drive and an HP personal computer that Kit had given to Joan, also turned in for analysis. And also Kit said this is when he was brought in and questioned about the laptop. He said, I do not know how the FBI gained sensitive information that has my name associated with it. I may have been hacked in the past. Oh, no, there we go. He literally went to hacked. That's the last bastion of a truly desperate jerk off that's been caught doing something bad. I got hacked.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The admission of guilt without saying I did it.

[James Petragalo]

Yes, exactly.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ever present anytime anybody says I was.

[James Petragalo]

Hacked, okay, I was hacked, man. If that is not the case, I believe that my ex wife. And he put wife in parenthesis in quotes, by the way. Act not ex part wife. Like she was never. His wife may have found sensitive items on some damaged discs she stole along with most of the items from my house and then turned them into the police as a part of her ongoing plan to ruin me out of spite. She did this even though I provided soul support to her and her children for nine years. And she was the one that had an Affair. I have consistently had to defend myself against accusations made by my ex quote, wife and then in parentheses that I later learned was a bigamist and that I was not even legally married to. Since I asked for a divorce In September of 2012, I was forced to call the police when she became violent. She vowed to ruin my career and has utilized every venue to do so. She's continued to harass me and has even recently vandalized my vehicles. She has accused me of abuse and then, then later abuse toward her children, charges which I have been cleared. Despite her documentary, purge or documented perjury, I've continually had to defend myself in a guilty until proven innocent system for the last 10 months, as well as attend family advocacy training and fat that would be. Which is hilarious. And have my name listed on a fat blacklist that is used to check soldiers backgrounds prior to promotion or command assignment. Oh, my God. He said when Kit learned about the charges against him, he still held out hope he could prevail in a court martial trial. Kit's attorneys, though, they informed him that he was facing serious charges that could end his career and put him behind bars for a very long time. So the court martial hearing here. Yeah, he is convicted of charges here. We'll talk about this here. The. One of the guys involved in the trial, one of the lawyers said it was one of the most heated trials I've ever been in in the military. It's his charges that he has classified information and sexually assaulted a child.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They got him on that too.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, they're charging him with it. They have little girls who said he touched them, so I mean, gotta do it. He was basically found not guilty of some charges and then he was convicted of mishandling classified information and simple assault. So he gets cleared of the major charges and they give him like lesser, lesser shit for this. And he was sentenced to 90 days in prison.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

That's what he got. He was also dismissed from the army as well. And also forfeiture of all paying allowances and a reprimand. Shit out of luck. So now he became a huge fucking case for certain groups out there, big time. I mean, lots of these groups, basically these quote, men's rights groups were getting involved to try to help him out. That was a big deal.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's convicted of hurting children, man.

[James Petragalo]

Giant cause for these people to this day. It's a huge cause. So now Carlos and Joan were finally actually divorced on April 20, 2016.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, they figured it out, huh?

[James Petragalo]

They figured it out. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Very nice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Let's sign this.

[James Petragalo]

Whoops. So Kit here, after his 90 days he heads to North Carolina.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Where he is going to get a job as a commercial airline pilot. American fucking Airlines hired this man. American. American Airlines. Just everybody out there. So you know American Airlines, we hire anybody? Yeah, it's actually the one of their subsidiaries, PSA Airlines.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's the little. Yeah, it's the little ones.

[James Petragalo]

I got a PSA for you don't fly that airline. I don't know where the fuck it is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But did you say he moved? You said he moved?

[James Petragalo]

He's in North Carolina.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, yeah, he's flying out of Charlotte.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Well no, because I think he's going to end up in Norfolk is going to be his home base. It's a weird thing. So yeah. The PSA is wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines and operates an all jet American Eagle fleet. So he began working there. He wasn't the oldest pilot in his new higher class. He said there was guys older than him and he was almost 50. So yeah, he liked that. Basically he said he didn't like the small jet was less responsive and nimble than an Apache attack helicopter.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is that right?

[James Petragalo]

No shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Surprise, surprise. It's not delivering payload of fucking weaponry, sir.

[James Petragalo]

The American Eagle fucking 9:30 to Palm Springs isn't fucking as nimble as an attack helicopter missiles on it. A plane that was built 19 fucking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

87, that's what they are.

[James Petragalo]

That's the ones built in 1987 that have a fucking welded shut ashtray on the fucking thing. You think those aren't as nimble as an Apache attack helicopter? Huh?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Can't do barrel rolls in this.

[James Petragalo]

Weird. He said yeah, the Apache had full color screens with 3D map presentations because people were shooting at you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They assume apple green screen.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, they fucking assume that the, the PSA flight to St. Louis isn't going to be under attack.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Probably it's not flying through enemy territory.

[James Petragalo]

They assume it's just gonna be a, you know, run out of ginger ale.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He does fly with night vision.

[James Petragalo]

He's like, can I just wear night vision? So I feel cool. Let me just put the goggles on while I fly.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's 10pm man, it's dark.

[James Petragalo]

So he had a choice of pilot bases and he chose Norfolk, Virginia which is a two hour drive from Roanoke. He said he liked the small town feel and he found a hotel near the water and all that kind of shit. So he was a reserve pilot then he could bid on four day trips which would limit the amount of time of Commuting so he could only commute once and then go back. Now during this, a couple years have gone by since the Phillips's and Ed Denzero have been murdered and the families are getting pissed off here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fuck yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Like what happened? And as we found out in other cases on this show where the worst was the Brighton, New York one where the cops were like, I don't know, we didn't have the family in here banging on our desks saying please solve the crime. So it just goes to the back burner. We need motivation guys. Come on, come in and motivate us. Fuck you. Fucking goddamn solve this shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do this job with no credit.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. If your family member's murdered and they don't arrest somebody immediately, you gotta bother them or they will just give up. That's how it works. So the Kentucky Attorney General said in a video statement that his office has now picked up the case after the Phillips, his son came into the office. He said about two years ago, Matt Phillips came into my office. He talked about losing both of his parents in a brutal murder that also took the life of a third individual. He was worried that the case was stalled and was worried that justice would not come. So yeah, he said that of the whole thing. Phillips had. He told cnn, by the way that his father had evidence that was harmful to Kit's military case. And he also said that Kit was shamefully kicked out of the military. He said my father had a lot to do with that and I think we should all be frank thankful for that frankly that this guy isn't fucking flying attack helicopters. Wow. So he said he, meaning his dad, handed over pictures of a sub 16 year old boy that had been bitten, choked violently multiple times. He also told CNN he said that his dad also handed over disks that had classified information and should have never left an army post. Now Kit's lawyer, he said that. No, no, no, it's. They got it totally backwards. Cal was going to, he was going to defend us actually. So no. No motivation. He said that? Yeah. He said if their motive is that he killed Calvin Phillips because he was going to testify in his upcoming court martial, well that was nothing further from the truth. Now there's cameras everywhere by the way. Now 2016 cameras are everywhere.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We have some footage of something.

[James Petragalo]

Well following this I guess Phillips son, this is Cal and Pam's son Matt and his aunt Diana installed cameras at the residence, at the Phillips residence just to make sure because it was secured and they wanted to make sure that nobody was breaking into it or Anything. So they secured cameras.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And it's a little late, but we should have had these in the first place.

[James Petragalo]

We should have had them in the first place. So several months later, Diana notices in a. A metallic object under some wood on the breezeway to the back porch there. This is on the camera. So they went out and looked. She showed the object to Matt, who recognized it and realized it was a shell casing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petragalo]

So he called the cops. And yeah, police had concerns regarding the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the evidence. How you found it, whatever, but they did it. And in 2018, testing reveals the casing was fired from Kit Martin's Glock 45.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hey.

[James Petragalo]

His gun too. They finally had some shit. Yep. They got the casing and it worked out very well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We got a fingerprint from his thumb. Putting it in the fucking bag.

[James Petragalo]

We don't have that. But we have his gun, his casing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's not good.

[James Petragalo]

A lot of his motive also. This is fucking great. There's some issues here. They have phone data records that show on November 18, 2015, which was the early morning, late night time that this murder happened. Kit set his alarm on his phone to wake him up at 1:10am Whoa. Remember, the murders happen at 2 something in the morning. That's when the explosion was heard and gunshots heard in the farm property.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why are you trying to wake up so early, Kit?

[James Petragalo]

So, okay, obviously that the state is saying that he used that time to sneak out of the front door of his home, move the bodies and burn the vehicle that they were found in, do all that shit. That's what they say. Now, his explanation is gold when he testifies. We'll get to that. Okay, May 11, 2019, here they talk about. Because he hasn't, you know, he hasn't been arrested or anything. This is just evidence they have. So May 11, 2019. Now, Kent here, you know, he doesn't like some of the younger pilots that he works with. Nah, just doesn't like it. They just don't get. They're not military guys. They're not like him. He likes the older guys. Who's in the military. Yeah, they're doing this for pussy. So he almost backed out of the trip when he saw who he was paired with. But, you know, he said he could have called in sick because he was off probation and with the company and everything, but he said he didn't want to fuck anything up. So he figured, figured he'd, you know, just. Just do the trip and be done with it. So he treated the two flight Attendants to dinner at Panera Bread. On their first layover, the captain, whom Kit didn't like, was in good spirits. So that was good. The second day of the four day trip had a layover in Louisville. And he, the captain was planning on meeting up with a girl he knew in the area. And everything was gonna be all fun here. So they get back on the flight to fly out of Louisville here, and I'll let a passenger take over from here. This is Ashley Martin of Elizabethtown, who has no relation to Kit, by the way. Just Martin's a common last name. She says it was something like. It was like something you would totally see in a movie. Her and her mother Frances, were at the airport boarding American Airlines Flight 5523 from Louisville to Charlotte. And the mother said it was very tense. I think it was. I think it was very tense. You could tell the employees knew something was going on. They said when they first heard their pilot had been arrested. They took him off the fucking plane, bro. It's hilarious. They both assumed he must have been shitfaced, probably showed up drunk. They do that all the time. Later in the day, though, they learned different. And the mother said, oh, my gosh. When they learned he was in for murder, Ashley Martin said, it's startling, it's scary to think that this happened so long ago and they're just now getting around to catching the guy. Right then the mother said we were inconvenienced a lot. She's still looking for fucking free fucking miles here or something. This is crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We need a room, we need a.

[James Petragalo]

Dinner, we need a couple upgrades here. What are we doing first class?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Also, what if that guy found out mid flight, you know, I mean, somehow found out mid flight that he was gonna be arrested when he landed and just drove this motherfucker right on the.

[James Petragalo]

Ground, decided, oh, my God, we're going to Bolivia, everybody. That's where we're going. Three route in this flight. We're going to Cuba.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Captain speaking. It's gonna be hot. We're going because we are destined for hell.

[James Petragalo]

We're gonna be headed for Cuba. Change of plans. Everybody might want to contact your loved ones in your destination city. Let them know you've been rerouted to Cuba.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Perhaps Google the nearest consulate. We're going to be landing.

[James Petragalo]

We're going to be landing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Water.

[James Petragalo]

Not sure of the illegalities of our attempt at immigration.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hope you brought your passport. Enjoy the flight.

[James Petragalo]

Mother. We're inconvenienced a lot. Like missed an entire day of a vacation. That's been planned and saved for. For an entire, entire year.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I can't imagine.

[James Petragalo]

Better than being flown into a mountain, probably. So they were going to St. Lucia? Going to an island? Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We're going down to the fucking Bahamas.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. If you were in Kentucky and you thought you'd be in an island in three hours, I guess that would piss you off. That's way different.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Where are the fucking bananas and coconuts?

[James Petragalo]

This is bullshit. Someone get me a pina colada or I'm going to stab somebody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It was a very hot, bare chested man.

[James Petragalo]

She said. The daughter said I was definitely stressed. It felt like it was a little chaotic and unorganized. The workers, you could tell they were stressed. You could feel the energy. You could feel the tension from the flight attendants. And then there's an American Airlines statement they give out here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What are they saying?

[James Petragalo]

That's what you get for flying American. Go fuck your mothers. Oh, no. That's. What do you expect? It's American. Fuck you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We're the largest carrier in the country. We hire anybody.

[James Petragalo]

Hire anybody. By the way, if we lose your bag, we're keeping it. Fuck off. All of us at American Airlines and psa.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You can fly with us again. It's cheap.

[James Petragalo]

It's cheap. We might be going where you're going when no one else goes there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nobody else is going there. You'll fly with us. See you on the next flight.

[James Petragalo]

That would be me in an American Airlines seat in a commercial. I'd be going. They were the only ones flying where I needed to go. I thought about taking a layover to fly a better airline here, but I just said, fuck it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nonstop to Norfolk doesn't exist.

[James Petragalo]

I just said fuck it. And then they come on American Airlines. Fuck it. It's their new slogan. And that's it. I just said fuck it. I'll take a chance.

[Jimmy Whisman]

One of us, me or my bag will get there.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, my God. All of us at American Airlines and PSA Airlines are deeply saddened to have learned about these allegations from 2015. Our team was made aware of the indictment this morning after his arrest at Louisville International Airport. We have an unwavering. Who cares? Okay? He was placed on administrative suspension pending the outcome. Wow, they must really need pilots. Like, he might get off. Hey, remember that one guy we hired? Look, he's on trial for triple murder right now, but he could get off. If he gets off, we could put him right in the schedule going and doing the Norfolk round again.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, administrative suspension is with pay. That's crazy.

[James Petragalo]

I think it is. That's awesome. Wow. So he is now indicted on three counts of murder, two counts of burglary, one count of arson, one count of attempted arson, and three counts of tampering with physical evidence.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, it's not good.

[James Petragalo]

Wow. Okay, now it gets fun.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Well, a little bit after this, but he calls his mom from jail when he gets arrested. She picked up the phone and heard about accepting a call from an inmate and was like, what? And just hung up. She didn't have any idea. She's just like, that's crazy. Click, wrong number.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Prank caller, obviously.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, my God. That's amazing. When his mom did find out, she had to be taken to the hospital for thought she was having a heart attack.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petragalo]

She's having an anxiety.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's 70 something years old.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. He's in his 50s, so. I mean, Christ, he's like 50, 49 or some shit. So he pleads not guilty as you do. His lawyer said his client would plead not guilty and said that's what we're. They said basically, like why? He said, why did they wait so long to indict him? He said, that's what we're all curious about. What evidence do they have that they didn't have almost four years ago? A bullet that matches your gun is one that's a big one. You'll know that's a big one. Yeah. So he's arraigned. Elijah was there during the arraignment as they were asking him questions. And Elijah said this to a reporter. He gave an on camera interview to Nashville station. He said he would hide behind a mask, out in public, in front of everybody, and act like he was this great major in the military behind closed doors. He was very evil. He was a tyrant, he was a monster. All of the above. I was the one he targeted most most. Beat me all the time, smack me around, punch me, whatever. He then gave another example of maltreatment. He said, I was out mowing the lawn one day and I made a line, the line a little too crooked. And he started smacking me around for it and told me I was doing it wrong. And then Cal came over and took me out of there. That's part of it. Cal apparently came over and helped him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's a little hero. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So that I think, baby, it's not just the military stuff Cal knows about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's well aware of what goes on over there.

[James Petragalo]

Yes, that's what I mean. These people seem very enmeshed in their neighbors lives and very fucking nosy. All of them. So everyone in this neighborhood knows exactly what's going on with everybody. It feels like kids beating the kid again.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm gonna go get him.

[James Petragalo]

I'm going to go get him. Um, so the news reporter stated that Elijah told him that he and his mother and sisters left immediately after the murders. And they never doubted who was behind them. Elijah said, I believe that he took out the witnesses. I hope he gets the worst punishment that's available to him. Um, now the venue is going to be transferred from Christian county to Hardin County. Little tiny venue. You got to move that shit because everybody heard about it. During an evidence suppression hearing, it was revealed that police requested Diana the Phillips, the aunt of the kid of the Phillips son, there to submit to a polygraph examination, which she apparently failed. However, the trial court excluded the evidence at trial anyway, so they just basically the que. I don't know if they're trying to say that. The only thing I can think is the defense is saying that they basically the Phillips's went and got a shell casing from somewhere else.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, okay.

[James Petragalo]

And said they found it where the. Near where the murder happened. So that's what they said, but the casing was still allowed into the trial. Other pretrial shit here. They said that the Commonwealth filed a notice of its intent to admit hearsay statements under the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception, which is in the law here. That is. About two weeks before he died, Cal told Stephen Durham that he feared Kit would kill him. Before the court martial trial, Cal told a guy named Steven Bollinger that if he ever ended up missing or dead to point the authorities old Kit Martin's way. Cal told Major James Garrett, one of the prosecutors from the court martial, that he was a afraid of Martin because Martin knew he had provided the information that led to the court martial. Pam told Penny Case that she and Cal were afraid to leave the house unoccupied because they were afraid Martin would be in the house when they got back.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petragalo]

Pam told Case she was worried Martin would hurt her and the authorities should look at Martin if anything happened to her. So, okay. The court determined these statements were admissible under the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception. Okay. Now he brings up in their defense, they're like, what about all these other deaths around Joan? Oh, okay. Listen to this. On early on June 28, 2015, an elderly couple was brutally attacked at their residence on Old Trenton Road in Guthrie, Kentucky. Both had been bound and beaten. Joan had been renting a house from the couple not that house. Not near there. That was just her landlords.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay, her landlords were beaten to death?

[James Petragalo]

Yes, but they said it was unclear if they were her landlord at the time of the attack or not. They operated a large farm. Amos Yoder, who was 79, and his wife, Marjorie Yoder, died from severe head trauma there. Joan talked about the Yoder murders to her co workers at the soda shop. She described the Yoders as being like grandparents to her kids. Over the following weeks, though, they said Joan seemed to come into a windfall. She bragged about new furniture and a car she had purchased. She showed up to work in new outfits. When asked where the money had come from for the all these purchases, Joan said her mom had sent her money. He said the Yoder beatings are still unsolved and robberies believed to be the motive.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay, so she stole enough money to get.

[James Petragalo]

So that's the accusation Cal's defense team wants to put in that even though there is zero evidence she had anything to do with these people's murder or anything like that, he wants to put into evidence the fact that they were murdered and that she knew them and that she bought a new dress.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In the next couple months, she got a new couch.

[James Petragalo]

So you know what I'm saying. So that means I'm innocent.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. So that means. Because I didn't do this.

[James Petragalo]

Sure. The victim's family statement here, they said that this is from all the families together. Cal Phillips, Pam Phillips, and Ed Danzaro were brutally extinguished beyond recognition from family. Did they say extinguished when two of them were burned to death? What is that? What the fuck is that?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why did they do it? Why do they do it?

[James Petragalo]

Your brain must do that. It must. Because all these statements where you're like, what's the last thing you'd want to say? Well, that's every fucking time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Never make a pun about fire. Don't do it.

[James Petragalo]

Just leave it out. Anything beyond recognition, it's totally unintentional. Obvious they're not doing it on Sweet. Crazy for Jokes. No, I don't think they're trying to help us out, but thank you anyway. Beyond recognition from the family. Every day we're haunted by what was done to them and haunted further that someone was still free to do as they wish. Beyond the civility of mankind or laws of our nation. We are overwhelmed with this positive step toward resolution for the people we love dearly. Cal, Pam and Ed, and the hundreds of friends, family, neighbors, co workers and others deeply affected by their brutal end. We look forward to justice in court. And we look forward to a verdict to bring an end to this terror and start fresh, start at healing. So 2021 here. Joan completed her pretrial diversion for her bigamy shit. Two days prior to this trial. So because of that, I'm pretty sure they did this on purpose. When they did the trial, the date for it, the state then filed a motion to exclude any reference to the bigamy charges since she wasn't under anything anymore.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petragalo]

So they said, you can't talk about that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Talk about that because she's not a bigamist anymore.

[James Petragalo]

The trial court ruled that she could not be impeached with the bigamy conviction because it was dismissed. And as it was dismissed as diverted because she was in a diverted thing, which means it got dismissed. So as soon as it got dismissed, technically, she no longer did it. So you can't bring that up anymore. So that's what the court decided. So that won't come up in court that she was a bigamist, which is way different than a triple murderer, by the way. So it doesn't matter, really.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And who's to say that it was not just an accident? You know what I mean?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She signed all the. He signed. One of them just didn't file it.

[James Petragalo]

You know, I mean, might just be lazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's possible, man.

[James Petragalo]

Pure lazy. Bad at paperwork.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So the defense as the defense. Basically, Kit's defense is the alt perp defense. What, me?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Somebody else. And they know. Not just somebody else. Her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

Fucking Joan.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Yep. He said Joan wanted to ruin him, so she had her boyfriend commit the murders and plant the shell on the Phillips porch to frame him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not only did I not do it, I've been framed.

[James Petragalo]

I know that I've been framed. Yes. My wife didn't do it. She manipulated another guy to do it. Then they framed me together.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Framed.

[James Petragalo]

Framed. Framed.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. So at that point, because of the theory of the case, both Joan and Elijah both invoke their fifth amendment privilege against self incrimination on this because they can, I guess, their lawyers advise them to if they're going to accuse them of crimes. Don't let them accuse you of crimes and actually answer their questions in court. That's stupid. So. And at a following hearing, the circuit court ordered that neither Joan nor the son could be called as a witness at trial. So they're both out, Which, I mean, it's pretty irrelevant, honestly, at this point, because it's a murder trial. It's not anything else.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Pleading the fifth has now become such A. It means that your guilty thing, that, like that could have been. If they called him, like that could be, you know, I mean, helpful. Because it could sway the jury. Any jury who knows just be like, I don't know. They won't even talk. So what are we talking about exactly?

[James Petragalo]

That's. That's. You're absolutely right. You're not. Now they. Anybody taking the Fifth, the judges instruct the jurors that that is not allowed to be taken as anything but fair. But that's your human beings, right? You send 12 humans back in a room, they're not law books. They're humans. And they're gonna think dumb shit because they're humans. That's what we do. So in the openings here, the defense opening, they basically say that the whole opening is it was Joan Harmon that did these murders, not my client. Also presented testimony. They say they're gonna present testimony from Kit's daughter saying that Joan threatened to ruin him in his military career. Remember that if he left her. Other people testifying here. Pam's co worker, this woman here, said that she testified regarding statements that Pam made that she was afraid to leave her house for the holidays because if she did, Martin would be in her house waiting for her when she got back. She told everybody this shit. She further testified that Pam also said she believed Martin would hurt her. And if anything happened. That's your guy right there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Clearly. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So the defense team is. Their big thing is they try to get the images of Elijah forensically analyzed to see if. Because they have those pictures. Yeah. And they look bad. So if you do. If you can say that Joan fabricated that, then she's capable of anything is basically what they're trying to do. She likes to frame this guy and we're saying he's framed. So one plus one equals two. So. Yeah. And one times one equals one. Sorry, Terrence Howard, but that's how it works. The resulting analysis was unable to determine the definitively when or where the photos were taken. Big deal. It doesn't matter. There was also questions about the reliability of timestamp data related to emails Jones sent that contained the images. They said while the pictures. While the content may show injuries, there's nothing visual in the pictures. Validating date time. Without the camera being submitted and the time verified as accurate, these pictures should not be used and should not have been used as evidence. So basically they said the time on a camera can be easily skewed or changed. That's his defense team saying that. Here's his ex wife's work boss here. So Kit presented testimony from Joan's work supervisor, Lisa, who said that Joan was strangely excited and almost happy in the immediate aftermath of the murders. Joan's statement about the murders and other behavior disturbed this Lisa Petrie to the point where she reported Joan to the police. Oh, I think she was happy her husband was going to go to prison because she thought he was a dick. Another thing here he. Kit presents evidence about a month after the murders that Joan brought Pam's cell phone to an AT&T store, claiming she found it in the yard of her residence in Elkton, Kentucky, which is 10 miles away. When Harmon returned the phone to AT&T, it had been reset to factory settings. So because she tried to get a phone hooked up, that means that she.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Killed her and it was reset to factory settings, which you do that to get it going.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, anytime she. Now he also is trying to say that Joan carries a.45 Glock pistol. Oh, really? That's a big gun. Most ladies don't carry a.45. Most petite blonde ladies don't carry a.45 just because of the kick on that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Thing is lesson, lesson. You got a lot of trauma in your past and you don't want that shit happening again. That's a big gun to carry, though.

[James Petragalo]

Even then you might not be able to control it. If you weigh a buck 20, that's a big gun. And also they say that her boyfriend was, quote, in the area on the day of the murders of Kentucky. So, you know, Kit further attempts to cast doubt on the integrity of the investigation because Joan was romantically involved with William's Stokes, who was related to Ed Stokes, who was a sheriff's deputy. Related, not his brother. So because she fucked a cop's cousin, that means that the whole police force is gonna frame a man, gonna frame a major in the army because she fucked the cop's cousin. She must have fucked him good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Next time I have any police interaction, I'm just gonna scream that I've been framed.

[James Petragalo]

I'm framed. Framed. Hey, it works for tons of people, at least in the public eye. Yeah, but you have no idea how much that does in the public eye, though if you say you're framed, there's so many people that will that just believe that because people have been framed, but they think that everybody's framed then, so it's crazy. And especially if you're in whatever group that they like, that's also going to be part of it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Said that to that cop in Texas.

[James Petragalo]

Damn it, I've been framed. I was. I had the Cruise Control on 77.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I swear Cadillac framed me.

[James Petragalo]

Framed me? Yes. That's fucking funny. So now the wounds. The prosecution's theory of. They said the wounds on Cal were made with military, like precision. Oh, and the words are very carefully chosen. In Pam's case, they said a shot to the brain or the heart would have been enough to kill her instantly. The fact that there were multiple shots indicates that it wasn't. The defense is saying it wasn't quite as precise of a shooting as the prosecution claimed. In the case of Ed Danzaro, investigators found two different areas outside, separated by some 60 yards that contained his blood. He wasn't killed instantly. Since both Pam and Ed's bodies had been mostly consumed in the fire, there's no way to know how many shots might have been into their bodies. What the prosecution claimed was military, like precision was more likely a chaotic stream of gunpowder fire. The gunshots to the brain and heart were probably fired after both had become incapacitated by shots elsewhere in their bodies. Ed had multiple bullet fragments in his skull, so they said Pam's official cause of death was multiple shots to the torso. And Ed's cause of death was multiple gunshots to the head. They said, besides the bullet fragments. And examination of Ed Danzero's remains revealed the presence of a metal plate attached to a leg bone. His girlfriend, Sally Jackson, confirmed he had a metal plate in his leg, the result of a ski, a skiing accident. Now Kit testifies. Really, he has to. His whole case is. Everything's a huge conspiracy against me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've been framed.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yeah, I've been for. I've been. I've been framed. So if you're gonna say that, you gotta go up there and be, yeah, hella believable, let's just say that. So they said, chris, did you murder these three people?

[Jimmy Whisman]

He said, no.

[James Petragalo]

No, sir, I did not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, really?

[James Petragalo]

No contraction. But she's also a military guy and they don't like contractions quite as much. That's not official enough for them. They continued questioning. They said, if. Did you have someone else murder these three people? He said, no. They said, are you behind this whole thing? And he said, no, I think the evidence and the expert testimony has shown that. He said that the prosecution in the case believes he did it, stating that he's been in jail for, quote, 768 days and five and a half hours.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And the hours.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, and the hours. Just to show how, you know, on top of everything, he is. They then asked him about his military dog tags and the dog tag that had been collected as evidence from the Phillips home. There was. One of his dog tags was found in the home over there. That's not great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petragalo]

He denied that the dog tag on a string collected from the Phillips home was his explaining, even though, you know, had all his info explaining. All his dog tags had always been on breakaway chains, came in pairs and had rubber boots, meaning the case around a little like the license plate holder, which he said were pieces of rubber that covered the edges to prevent them from glaring or making constant fucking and jingling noises. He specifically stated he would never have placed his dog tags on a string and that they'd always been kept on a metal breakaway chain. He said no soldier would do that, especially a white string. But they wouldn't put it on a string at all. Yeah, but you're not in combat. You're in Pembroke, Kentucky. I get if you're in the field, you wouldn't do that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But you work for American Airlines.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. You're not. There's no counterinsurgency here. This is. Fuck are you talking about? He added that also anyone can get a dog tag made anywhere or ordered online. So, I mean, anybody can do that. He said that also. They said what. Why was your alarm set for 1:15am okay. He said, well, you see, what happened was. What happened was I like to jog. I. No, no, no. I had a new kerosene heater that I recently bought to warm my house. So the heater was new. So he wanted to make sure it was running correctly and safely. So basically he said he didn't know if he had to refuel it in the middle of the night or anything, didn't know about it. So he set his alarm for 1:15 so he could check on the kerosene heater and then go back to sleep. 1:15, quarter after one.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

He said, I think that was the first night I was running the new heater, so I was a little concerned about it, obviously. So I would usually set my alarm for November through March and during the night to go check on it at least once to refill it and make sure everything was going all right. That's convenient.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In the middle of the night.

[James Petragalo]

Yep. He said he checked. After he checked the new heater that night, he went back to sleep. He said that also he'd been on the Phillips property several times to target shoot his guns with Cal Phillips, which is true. You know that. He also confirmed during his testimony that his ex wife, who the defense has suggested may have committed the murders instead of him. Had also fired his guns behind the Phillips home. He recalled Cal Phillips asking him to help run a concealed carry permit class, but that he didn't have the time or money to do it. But he encouraged his wife to take part in it. He said, I encouraged Joan to do it, and I think Joan, Ed, and some other people did it. And I think they actually did it in his backyard. You would know if there was a firing range going on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The amount of rounds that these people observe absorbed. How would nobody fucking hear all that?

[James Petragalo]

You know, it seems like a lot. Yeah. He also said the night that he. That they separated him and Joan. He said the two of them got in an argument and that she had been yelling loud enough for the neighbors to hear. He said, she started yelling at me some more. And finally I got to the point where I was like, look, I talked to you about this before. I'm done. I want a divorce. And he said she acted, quote, she acted violently. And told me straight up, the first thing that came out was, if you divorce me, I'll ruin your career. I know how to do it. So he continued to testify that that night, deputies were called to the home by both of them, both he and Joan, to intervene in the dispute. Following the dispute, he said that Harmon issued an emergency protective order against him. The judge later ruled in favor of Kit, he said, after Harmon failed to meet the burden of proof of the threat of domestic violence. During his testimony, Martin also confirmed that during the court martial that Joan and Cal had been. Had been began against him. You know, they're against him, basically, but that he and his defense counsel subpoenaed Cal as he was a key witness. And he said he, at this point, intended to call Cal as a witness for him. Yeah. He said my private investigators had interviewed Calvin, and we have his audio that was actually played on Channel 4 Nashville. And he denied all that. He was key for me to disprove the lead prosecutor in the court martial there. So he said that's why at that point, he was. For me, he was my most important witness.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, Nobody's more upset about this than me.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, I'm a. I'm so upset. Kit also testified he never owned the type of ammunition that was found to have killed Calvin. The G2 research rip.45 caliber. When they mentioned that, the prosecution's firearms Expert testified that the.22 caliber bullets could have been fired by any of Kit's weapons.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

Kit replied that his guns didn't fit them. That's what he Said, well, my gun. Those don't fit my gun. They asked Kid if he disagreed with the ballistics expert, and Kit said he remembered hearing the expert say that they didn't match and that the truth was that the conclusions about the bullets were none of. Were none that were. That they were none of Kit's guns could be excluded, meaning they could be his guns. They shared similar rifling characteristics as test bullets fired from his guns, but that the expert could not match the guns. He continued to testify that on the night of November 19, after he and his lawyer and private investigator learned of the murders, the two advised him to move the Glock that he usually kept in his truck into his safe out of fear that Joan might do something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He keeps a gun in the truck. Are you out of the truck fucking mind?

[James Petragalo]

Even if he's not in the truck, doesn't even take it in the house. Finally, he testified that on the night of November 18, he spent the day after coming home from work at Fort Campbell, celebrating his and Laura Spencer's anniversary by watching tv, eating dinner and spending time together at home. Well, you could have done all that and got up at 1:15. That's the point. That's the whole fucking point. Now, during cross examination here, this is the bet. They couldn't wait to get their fucking claws into him. They asked him when he learned the court martial against him came as a result of what Harmon and Cal Phillips turned into the laptop. He said, I didn't find that out until much later. I was just informed that there was a laptop. I had background information showing that it actually hadn't been an army laptop since 2007 and belonged to a unit in Maryland, which I've never been to, but I tried to provide that. They asked him if it didn't, if. If that didn't stop the court martial. It continued. So he said, yes. They said, so you knew that Joan Harmon, with the help of Cal Phillips, not only turned over the laptop that was found in belongings that had been in your house, turned it into the FBI, but also the. Cal had provided a photograph of Joan Harmon's son showing bruises and so forth. He replied, stating he didn't know any of that information for several years, but added that he knew Joan was obviously behind it. Obviously. They said you at some point said that you hired private investigators who specifically went to interview California Phillips. And he said later on, yeah, they said, so, you know, they're asking him to. He was saying that Cal was going to testify for him again. They said, so it wasn't that you thought he would be favor of your. Because they said Martin originally stated he needed Cal to discredit Harmon and Garrett, but later confirmed that discrediting Cal was only a small part of his importance as a witness. So they said. So it wasn't that you thought it would be favorable to you. The effort was to discredit him. And he said that's what the attorneys put down there. But we also had the private investigator interview. So now he's saying two different things. They wanted him to testify so they could discredit him to get rid of all the evidence, but he's saying no, no, he was going to testify for me. Sounds like he takes something that very small and makes into something that would be helpful for him and that he would like it to be. They said you heard the pathologist testify that both Ed Denzerou and Pan Phillips, Pam Phillips, were murdered with 22 caliber bullets, any of which could have been fired in any one of either of the two.22 caliber pistols you own or the.22 caliber Smith and Wesson rifle. And he said, not my rifles or pistols. And that's what the experts say. And the Prosecutor said, actually the.22 bullets could have been fired from either of those guns. And he said they weren't. Okay, but you just said he. See what I mean? They said it might have been an au. We can't confirm it. So he said, that means they wasn't done.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not mine.

[James Petragalo]

Like he just extrapolates something that's better for him. So in closings, his lawyers continue to say Cal was on his side, Joan was the one who did this. And the prosecutors are like, Jesus fucking Christ. How many. How much circumstantial evidence do you need? This is a lot, man. So the verdict comes in. He is found guilty of everything.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes, yes.

[James Petragalo]

Across the board. Sentencing comes around. Oh, boy. You, sir, may fuck off. Three life sentences without the possibility of parole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's over.

[James Petragalo]

A life sentence for arson, 20 years for attempted arson, 20 years for each count of burglary, five years each for each count of tampering with physical evidence for a total sentence of life without parole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, why don't they give him fucking littering for where he parked that car?

[James Petragalo]

I mean, anything else? Jesus Christ. Yeah, I think he. I think his emissions tag was out of date, I think on that. Pretty sure. Yeah, pretty sure they had did that. So the reactions are here. The prosecution claims that Ed Danzero and Pam Phillips were just collateral damage.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, they said the reason he was there. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

No, the Families in the Pembroke county community have endured a profound loss. While this verdict in no way eases that pain, I hope they in some way find some peace and comfort today. So there's juror number five, by the way that this book talks to. Juror number five is a very similar guy to Kit Milk. Career military guy, same thing. He. They both did helicopter flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. But juror number five was in Nam. That's the only difference. He was in Vietnam. He's an older guy, where he flew a Cobra combat helicopter.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, my God. Yeah. So he was 74. And they talked to him about all this, and in the book, they're trying to, like, convince him that he was wrong. They said when confronted with the testimony that there was no evidence that the barrel had been altered on the gun, meaning he claimed it could have been switched out after the murder, something not discussed at trial. He also agreed with the prosecution that the manufacturer of the bullet could have used different shell casing during the assembly process, which the prosecution explained could be why the metals in the shell casing didn't match the metal combination normally used for the rip rounds. As for the.22 caliber, evidence not conclusively matching any of the defendant's weapons, they said that that didn't matter to him because they could have just as easily matched him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure.

[James Petragalo]

So they said the dog tag evidence was of concern for him. He said he told his fellow jurors how it was routine to separate dog tags with one tag around the neck and one tag placed in the shoe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, he said, just as Kit had demonstrated on the witness stand, he followed that up by telling his fellow jurors that he was aware from people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that soldiers would sometimes wear their dog tags on something other than a chain due to the desert heat.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay, it's hot metal.

[James Petragalo]

A string is actually. And it's just uncomfortable. He had no explanation of how the dog tag ended up on a bookshelf next to the victim's phone and wallet, commenting that the fact it wasn't found until much later indicated to him it was unlikely to have been planted evidence. Some of the other evidence, they said the DNA testing came back for Ed Danzero, blah, blah, blah. He keeps going, he said. I'm glad they got it straightened out is what he said. He said the security camera footage didn't cover the front of the house. When asked about the front door, he agreed with the defense that the front door was unusable, but claimed the defendant could have gone out Through a window. Leaving the house by an open window wasn't something that was ever distracted, discussed at trial, but worth considering. So basically, he's just saying that they're trying to go over him. He goes, no, I thought he was guilty. And, you know, blah, blah, blah. Once deliberations began, the first task was to choose a four person. They got some other guy. The next job was to do a poll. And they said after the first poll, several people voted guilty, a few are undecided, and at least one voted not guilty is what he said. He implied that his explanation about why the dog tag might have been on a string, he thinks helped sway a few votes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

They were like, he would have never kept it on a string. He's a military guy, so we can believe him. So he said, he's only had it on a chain. And he was like, nope, you'll separate him and do that. So he said after that process and further discussion, another poll would be taken. The number of jurors willing to vote guilty increased. And he said, from there, just a couple more votes, and then snowballs from there. Now, once he's in prison, he directs his family. He calls his family on the phone and directs them to find a box hidden beneath the stairs of his previous home in North Carolina.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jesus, this is scary.

[James Petragalo]

That contained weapons the deputies believed were used to kill the victim. He made phone calls from prison. He asked his sisters to retrieve this box under the stairs of the rally house. And he and, I guess he and Laura Spencer had broken up and the house was for sale. They said he, quote, he was definitely urgent that she find it. They know this because they're recording his phone calls. He's in prison. So Smith said that when. This is one of the cops. When he and a fellow deputy arrived at the house in Raleigh to find out what was in the box, they were unable. They were able to gain entrance. But the box was missing from the hidden location.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Already gone.

[James Petragalo]

He got it was already gone. So he said, I can't imagine what you felt when this is a question to the. An interviewer asked him, when you opened it up, you'd come all this way and it was gone. What did you think? And he said, I thought it was time to get to work.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So according to this investigative report he compiled the following trip. Following the trip to Raleigh, he began Raleigh. He began to try and track down Martin's family, speaking with his sister Juliet and her husband Keith. At first, they denied having any knowledge of it, but an hour later, the investigative report shows that they got back in touch with Smith and told him the truth.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, we've been thinking about it.

[James Petragalo]

In a recorded call between the Andes and this investigator, they. He admits he removed the box from within the stairs, saw the.22 AR15 and a long box inside.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petragalo]

He said this. The husband said, I don't even remember the gun freaked me out. I just put the shit back. And the sister said, we did not ask for any of this. We don't want to be involved in any of this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He made us do it. This sucks.

[James Petragalo]

No. While he said he didn't know what was in the long box, the deputies would later learn it was a silencer. They believe that both the AR and the silencer were used in the murders.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petragalo]

Wow. Deputies then said, well, if he put the box back under the stairs, why was it gone? And according to this, they said it had been picked up by Emma Spencer, the daughter of his ex fiance. He got his ex fiance, Laura's daughter to do it. So they said, how do you address the elephant in the room with these people that they are now passing off weapons from a man convicted of triple murder? The cop said, until I had retrieved the items, I had to play in between everybody's emotions. He said once he got all of this, he said he first contacted Emma Spencer, who testified on Kit's behalf during the trial. But she wasn't cooperative. He said, at first she's acting like she doesn't know anything about it. She's very standoffish. I told her, I don't want to get in any trouble. I don't want you to get in any trouble being in possession of something that's regulated by the atf. And, you know, she said, I'm at work. I have to go right now, and all that kind of thing. Then at one point she said, okay, I moved it. My neighbor has it. And they tracked it down to a neighbor who confirmed he was given the.22 caliber AR15, but that Spencer still had the silencer. She kept that herself. Interesting. Here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Those are quiet enough. If somebody puts silencer on that dude, you can. You can snuff out an entire family with those things and not hear. Not hear, Pete. That's crazy.

[James Petragalo]

They then asked if Emma could turn. Could instead turn the silencer over to him. And she showed up. And the cop said he wasn't pleased. She said, he said, in a nice way to put it, she said, here it is. Now get out of North Carolina and never come back. She was rude to them, but they got the Silencer. And he said, well, I just said, thank you for bringing this to me. This kept you out of a lot of trouble.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, you can't have that, ma'am.

[James Petragalo]

I can absolutely charge you as an accessory after the fact. I felt like it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And also, you're in possession of a fucking suppressor with no stamp. You are in federal. That's a crazy charged. You don't want that, ma'am.

[James Petragalo]

No, you definitely don't. So they communicated through this daughter, through text, and she wrote to the news. If any information I give you is to discredit me or Kit, you can kindly piss off.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ma'am, you are holding a silencer.

[James Petragalo]

You're holding a silencer. And you're not British, so you're a criminal. Put that shit in your pocket. Jesus. So the appeal, he argues that they admitted hearsay statements. They allowed his ex wife and stepson to refuse to testify, excluded certain alleged alternative perpetrator evidence, admitted evidence of a bullet casing that was discovered by a lay witness, and excluding evidence that the same witness failed a polygraph examination, denying his motion for a directed verdict on the arson and murder charges, allowing his convictions on two counts of first degree burglary to stand in violation of double jeopardy principles. So the arson charges. He's got a point. Because a deceased person cannot occupy a building, only a live person can occupy a building. The court has specifically held a defendant cannot be convicted of first degree arson when the Commonwealth failed to produce sufficient evidence that the person inside the building was actually alive at the time of the fire and that the defendant was aware of that fact. Has to be both. They have to be alive and the guy has to know he's alive. They're alive in there. They said. They point to the evidence of the bodies of Pam and Edenzero, who were badly charred. The Commonwealth refers to the evidence of a fire discovered near Cal's body. Thus, the Commonwealth argues the evidence was inconclusive, so the jury could reasonably infer that they were alive when the fire started. That's not enough, though. They said, having carefully reviewed the record and arguments, we reverse Martin's arson and attempted arson convictions and otherwise affirm everything. So life without Cocksucker. Keep it going.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So you're not a flamer.

[James Petragalo]

So you're not a flamer. Yeah. So they have all of this shit here now. The book is called I Will Ruin you. The Twisted Truth behind the Kit Martin Murder Trial. And it's by Emilio Corsetti iii. And here is a just a quick little thing, a synopsis that they say here, guilty until proven innocent. The true story of Christian Kit Martin, the former army major and airline pilot convicted of a triple homicide. The true story of. What is this? Oh, of the. Of the former army major and airline pilot charged in a triple murder and the web of lies that led to his problematic conviction.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Are you kidding?

[James Petragalo]

Yep. Swear to God. Why were so many observers convinced of his innocence? The evidence against Kit Martin consisted primarily of a dog tag with the defendant's name on it and a shell casing that was identified as having been fired from his gun. Yeah, that's. What more do you want?

[Jimmy Whisman]

His identification.

[James Petragalo]

That's called evidence. That's called evidence is what that's called.

[Jimmy Whisman]

His identification and murder weapon tools were there.

[James Petragalo]

That was it. They said both pieces of evidence were supplied to the police by family members of two of the victims months after the crime. The defense suggested both pieces of evidence had been planted to frame the defendant. The dog tag, for example, was not an official military dog tag. It was discovered on a bookshelf next to the victim's phone and wallet. And it was on a string which the guy, the one guy explained away pretty. Pretty easily here. They said, lastly, Kit Martin had alibi witnesses and security camera footage that proved he could not have committed any of the murders. That's not true, though, because they found work records and stuff showed that. No, he had plenty of time to do that. Yeah. So anyway, that went on then, Kit, because this causes this giant, like, weird fervor here. By the way, Chris Kip right now is doc number 318-599-956, serving life without parole at the Little Sandy Correctional Complex. And yeah, this isn't. And then he wrote an article in 2016, by the way, this is before the murder conviction, before he was even charged with it, while he was at the. At Fort Leavenworth for 90 days. Oh, yeah, number for the other shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

For the kitty stuff.

[James Petragalo]

It's called NCFM hero Christian Kit Martin, quote, the Real Expendables, Falsely accused military men. Oh. He then has a picture of Joan here and it says, felon, check abuser, check fraudster, check liar, check murderer, maybe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, well, she's hot.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus, she's pretty. Pretty late. So they said, he goes, I'm not going to read his whole thing because it is propaganda. Honestly, it's like fucking. There's a certain area of the Internet right now where this is the hot propaganda. I ain't gonna give this shit a fucking breath of air because it's bullshit. He basically says, yes, let me look through this, yes. Court martials, they said, are up 550% since 2007. He says convictions are similarly growing exponentially. Army prisoners are up from 119in 2010 to 593in 2014. That's because they made a concerted effort to fucking prosecute criminals. The whole point was there was decades and decades and decades of fucking documented shit that said the army doesn't do shit when people do things to other soldiers. Constant rapes don't get prosecuted, assaults don't get prosecuted. So they said, let's start prosecuting those things. It wasn't that they just were making those up. They just were actually prosecuting crimes. They said this is due to the primarily. This is due primarily to false sexual assault epidemic. He says false. This is politically motivated narrative, almost identical to what's happening in our universities. You know who this asshole is now? It's. He's trying to use political things for his own advantage, for his own scummy crimes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And it's fucking pathetic hiding behind that fucking uniform. What a twat.

[James Petragalo]

Us veteran men are now the new political prisoners of the world. The real expenditures are expendables. Wow, this is fucking wild. After years of working to earn rank and respect, these combat veterans are now being treated like children and guarded by children too. Most guards are teenage privates straight out of high school and basic training. Yeah. Cause it's a shit job nobody wants.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't care who has the job.

[James Petragalo]

When I was a teenage private, I would have been too humble to even speak to a real veteran, such as my current brothers and I are brothers I am confined with now. I was in awe of real soldiers that had actually fought in war. Men who were paratroopers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He wants the fucking guards in there to be in awe of him, right? Yeah, they would be if you weren't a fucking piece of shit. They would be in awe of you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If you weren't a murderer and convicted of simple assault on a child.

[James Petragalo]

That's like, imagine that. I respect a lot of people, but if I was guarding them because they killed three fucking people. I don't respect you anymore. Fuck you. I respect you less because I'm trying to become this. And you have now denigrated the fucking image of me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You sullied my uniform, you cocksucker.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. No one should dislike this guy more than military people. He is disgracing their fucking uniform. Not other people anyway, so six. It's fucking wild. Anyway, they say that he goes on to really go off on the sexual assault thing. Like it's fucking wild. Some of the shit he said. These poor soldiers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The machine spares. Know this. When you have an epidemic, you most. You most show yourself. You must show your solutions working. When you're spending $257 million a year to convict veterans and building $95 million prison, you have to have a lot of hammers. You must find nails to justify those hammers. I bet you don't mind when they build fucking prisons and put fucking civilian criminals in them, though you're happy about it. Probably cuz that's where most of you go to fucking work after you're done. Not most of you, but a lot of you. Cops and prison dogs and shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's acting like a soldier. And a veteran doesn't commit crimes sometimes.

[James Petragalo]

And if they do, the respect of what they've done should wipe it all out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They should get a nice prison where people are in awe of them.

[James Petragalo]

He goes through all this and says, Maybe that's why 22 vets a day take their own lives.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, don't pull that.

[James Petragalo]

You fucking piece of shit. God damn it. I hope somebody fucking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, piece of shit.

[James Petragalo]

Fuck you. Okay, I'm done with this asshole. There you go, everybody. Pembroke, Kentucky. So I did. I wasn't. I was 98% positive he's done. He did it. Then I read that. Now I'm 3,000% positive he did it. Go fuck yourself. Right in your ass kit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's a bad man.

[James Petragalo]

Your dog tags, your medals, and your Apache helicopter right up your fucking asshole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And I really want accommodations for nothing.

[James Petragalo]

For nothing. He's for. Just for doing his job. Which, yes, thank you for your service. No, thank you for everything else you've done in life.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Every day he needs a blowjob for.

[James Petragalo]

Yes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

For what he's done.

[James Petragalo]

Even by prison guards.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So anyway, there you go. That's that. Check that out. Definitely rate and review on any of any of the podcast apps you're listening on. Please shut up and give me murder dot com. Tickets for live shows are right there. Pittsburgh, February 7th. You're up first, Columbus. You're sold out, babe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hell yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Love you. Thank you, Columbus. We are going to. Definitely. I think we probably have comps. There might be 10 more tickets we'll release, but that's it. That's it. Pittsburgh, you're up next. A lot of the others are selling out too, so get your tickets right goddamn now. Even if you want to go in December, November, get your tickets now. Do that. Shutupandgivemerder.com patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all your bonus materials. $5 a month or above gets you a huge back catalog of new shit every other week, including this week, crime and sports. Travis Rudolph, an NFL player who just finished up a murder trial. Multiple murders I believe too. And then for small town Murder, West Memphis. 3 Baby Part 2. Figure out what the fuck happened there. Can't wait. That is patreon.com crimeinsports also follow us on social media. Smalltown murder on Instagram. Small town pod on Facebook. Now, Jimmy, hit me with the names. Are the people who would never, ever, ever, ever try to use whatever uniform they were wearing to justify horrible crimes. Hit me with them right fucking now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This week's executive producers are. Andrew Newman. Yep. Mark and Chrissy Such. Hey, Happy birthday. No. Happy anniversary. 32nd Jesus.

[James Petragalo]

Happy birth. Iversary.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I could never. Matthew Reed. Thank you, bud. That's. That was very nice. Happy hour. Got a. A mortgage in Texas. Hey, that's too bad. I'm sorry about it. Hope you get home to, I guess, a better place.

[James Petragalo]

That's a lateral. At least you're home at best. But home is always a positive move.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Joe Gleason won the Crime and Sports and Small Time Murder Fantasy League. James, good for you.

[James Petragalo]

Well then congrats to you. We should give him something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They did. He won money.

[James Petragalo]

No, no, no. From us though.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, we just did.

[James Petragalo]

We'll give him something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We'll find something.

[James Petragalo]

I'm gonna find something in the office, somebody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And we'll send you something. And also Tracy Lisquia. Liquia, Tracy. Thank you. You went above and beyond and that.

[James Petragalo]

Thank you, Tracy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All of you. Thank you so much for what you're doing. You're amazing people. Other producers this week. Liz vasquez, Peyton Meadows, 12 year old. Lucas Martel, 12 year old. What are you doing listening to this?

[James Petragalo]

I don't know if that's great or bad for your future, but either way we love you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God damn it.

[James Petragalo]

God damn. Tell your parents. Maybe they won't want this. Or don't tell your parents. We'll be like your Judas Priest or something, you know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Did your parents buy you an iPhone and they don't even know you do this?

[James Petragalo]

He plays it quiet at night and honestly, AirPods flashlight under the. Under the sheet tent.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Lucas, I don't know if you're a good kid or a bad kid. I can't tell.

[James Petragalo]

I hope you're fucking great. Rock On Lucas.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't. Don't.

[James Petragalo]

That's all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Janice Hill. Andrew Bailey. Will with no last name. Brandon Camarato. Comarata Camarota. Sammy Wright. Jordan Kiffin. Carmen McTurner. It's Russ, man. Chris Cope. Nope. Chris Pope. Sarah with no last name. Amber Kramer Cranmer. Olivia Horniak. Horny. Is that right? That is Grace. 1, 2, 3, 4. Crystal Voltz. Elizabeth Van D. Veldi. Dwanya. Dwanya Kelly. Ellen Medley. Michael Baird. Zach Chipman. DM D, like the person d. E. E, like Mr. Brown with the letter M. Andrew Gilliam Brown.

[James Petragalo]

And his pump is Andrew Gilliam.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do we know. Is that the.

[James Petragalo]

Sounds very. No, we know, we know. Is it the good Reverend? Yeah, the good Reverend. That's a different Gillian.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a different Gilliam, isn't it?

[James Petragalo]

Different Gilliam. No. Yeah. No, it's John, the good Reverend. Jonathan Gilliam. That's it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. This is Andrew Gilliam, I think.

[James Petragalo]

It's not a reference. Not a reverend at all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Was there a Gilliam? Armand.

[James Petragalo]

Armand Gilliam, the NBA player? Totally. Totally different guy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right. Well, Gilliam. Thank you. Mike with no last name. Megan Delaire. Stephen Baker. Beth Kuffle. Kuffle.

[James Petragalo]

Carla Baker, the ex. Giants wide receiver. Steven Baker, the touchdown maker.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's the guy.

[James Petragalo]

Yes. Number 85 himself. Yeah. Stephen Baker.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Carla McGee. Manders with no last name. Mitchell Forester. Justine Rogers. Karen Lowe. Alex with no last name. Bethan Williams. Beth Hurst. Yeah. Matt Helmers and Addie Baro. Baro. Maybe at I, uh. Vaughn Robinson. Linda Hefner Hughes daughter. I imagine Jesus would q have a daughter named Linda. Is he that old? Uh, Carrie Bargain barging.

[James Petragalo]

He died at like, 114. I think he was that old.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ryan McCarty. Tony McKay. Bowtie Mouse. Joseph Layman. Lehman. Bradley Myers. Erica Maxson. Ali Mack. Attack and Stroke Malone.

[James Petragalo]

What the fuck?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nicola Everson. Julian. Julianne Cabrera. Amy Hagerman. Hagerman, Kristen Camille. Connie Walters. Mary Kramer. Wachter Watchter, Laura Freeze.

[James Petragalo]

Watch her do what?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Watched her.

[James Petragalo]

I watched her. I can't get sanitarium out of my head.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Watched her. Kramer, Laura Freeze. Jonathan Bird. Elena with no last name. Julianne Beck. Walter. Bubba Brooks iii. Ann Robinson. Tracy with no last name. Tony Maldonado. Maldonadoo. Natasia Stacy with no last name. Barb Pressler. Shizuka with no last name. Morgan Bowling. Lacy Lynn. Courtney Delay. I said that. Monica Hammonds. Mads. What did she donate? Twice. Courtney. Damn it.

[James Petragalo]

Courtney. So nice. She did it twice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Unbelievable. Mads Wilkins. Ellen Elian with no last name. Tarla Baloo. What is it?

[James Petragalo]

Gonzalez.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes. Leon Gonzalez. He's back. Got himself a raft. Melinda Johnson. Camilla Rodriguez. Dipinto. Dipino. Carson with no last name. Mike Sipco. Paige Burns Burris. All right. Zach Kell with no last name. That is a last name. Kel. Jesus. Colleen Connolly.

[James Petragalo]

James Petragala. With no last name.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Christine MacArthur with no last name. Taylor Strouch. Karen Napoli. Napoli. James Gilstrap. Jesus. Jill Strap. That's okay. Ansley Wimbish. Ryan Crichett. Abby Hubble. Madeline Kacharski. Nick Legault. Joseph Reynolds. Sweet Biggins. Good for you. Alexandra Smith. Ian Boxell. Joseph Payne. Mike Forehand. Charles. After, after, after. Georgie. Georgie Dunn. Elton. Elta Abbott. Lauren Coulter. Christian F. Lindsay with no last name. Rather not. Hannah Sonnenberg. Patricia Dishman. Charity with no last name. M and D. Chris with no last name. Sierra with no last name. Rob Bossman. Spencer Davis. Kira Lee. Michael King. Nick Kite. Keefer. Louise Falzerano. Dave Clark. Hannah Souza. Amanda Enright. What? Is that right? Yes, it is right. It is all right. Papa Tanku. Jason with no last name. Larry Barnard. Barnhart. Virgil Casanova. Mike Manchak. Profit Black. Angie Green. Zach Jackson. Sarah Van Halle. Halle Vieira. Gina Rodriguez. Laura Wilkinson. Diane Schneider. Amy Mackey. Louise Martinez. Luis Martinez. Steve Fuller. David Scott. Ryan Jute Boot. Mary Cass. Laurel Mitchell. Clay Billingsley. Amy L. Erica with no last name. Mike Lachase, Terry Trufont. Jessica Boucher. Boucher. Krista Isabel Reyes with no last name. That is a last name. Jeffrey. Greg Matthews, Nathan L and every one of our patrons. Thank you all so much.

[James Petragalo]

Thank you everybody so much. Appreciate all that you do for us. Honestly, we can't thank you enough for that. Patreon is the lifeblood of this show. Thank you for what you do for us and we will keep that shit cranking for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So do that. Keep coming back, Tell your friends, keep hanging out with us. You want to follow us on social media, shut up and give me murder.com youm can find all that shit right there. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. 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 [e-mail] survey. You don't believe in ghosts. I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either, until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and yet unexplained, have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.