Deadly Deeds With Dad - Wallburg, North Carolina

Summary

Small Town Murder

Episode Title: Deadly Deeds With Dad - Wallburg, North Carolina
Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Release Date: January 15, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode takes listeners to the small town of Wallburg, North Carolina, to dissect a shocking murder involving a father-daughter duo, a troubled American-Irish family, and the tragic bludgeoning of a father by the woman he married and her FBI agent dad. True to their style, James and Jimmie blend in-depth, Dateline-level research with irreverent humor, laying out a tale of lies, loss, and a destructive pursuit of family at any cost.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. About Wallburg, North Carolina

• Location & Demographics (05:20–11:30)

  • A small town (~3,000 people), suburban feel, high marriage rate (67%), predominantly white (92.4%).
  • Quiet, close-knit community with low home prices and a strange mix of “obnoxious people and terrible roads” (08:09).
  • Hosts banter about local traditions and the famous “Pigs in the City” art installation and barbecue festivals in nearby Lexington.

• Memorable Quotes:

  • “Obnoxious people, terrible roads. Five stars!” – James (08:10)

2. Victim Background: Jason Corbett

• Jason’s Irish Roots and Tragedy (26:01–39:00)

  • Born in Limerick, Ireland, part of a large, loving family.
  • Married to Margaret “Mags” Fitzpatrick; they had two children, Jack and Sarah.
  • Suffered a devastating loss when Mags died suddenly of an acute asthma attack, leaving Jason a 30-year-old widower with two very young children.

• Quote:

  • “They’ll never remember their mother.” – James (38:44)

3. Enter Molly Martins: The Nanny from Tennessee

• Her Arrival & Rapid Involvement (45:39–58:50)

  • Molly, 25, claims extensive childcare experience but fabricated her resume.
  • Initially hired as a live-in nanny; almost instantly becomes the children’s primary caregiver and then Jason's romantic interest.
  • Background: Daughter of Tom Martins, a seasoned FBI agent. Struggled with self-image, lied frequently, and had a history of possible mental health issues.

• Identity & Lies Revealed:

  • Molly was engaged to someone else before fleeing to Ireland.
  • Habitual liar: told stories of miscarriages, Olympic aspirations, and even invented a dead sister back in college.

4. Family Dynamics & Manipulation

• Molly's Obsession with Legal Adoption (93:23–105:29)

  • Molly grows fixated on legally adopting Jason’s kids, pressuring and emotionally manipulating all involved.

  • Jack and Sarah have their late mother’s images removed from sight; Molly alienates the kids from their Irish heritage and insists on being “Mom.”

  • Shocking abuse: per later testimony from Sarah, Molly tells her Jason killed her birth mother, encourages bulimia, and gives “tips” for shoplifting (91:45).

  • Quote:

    • “Molly started telling me that my dad killed my birth mom when I was six years old.” – Sarah (91:47)

5. Tensions Mount: Move to North Carolina, Marital Collapse

• Relocation & Estrangement (97:16–109:42)

  • Jason, hoping for stability, transfers from Ireland to a job in NC.
  • Molly becomes increasingly erratic; family arguments escalate over adoption and the kids’ ties to Ireland.
  • Jason starts planning to leave Molly and return to Ireland with the children.

• Notable Exchange:

  • Email between Jason & Molly, revealing anxiety about the kids' wellbeing and the irreversible blending of their lives (69:09–75:54).

6. Murder Night: The Fatal Bludgeoning

• August 2, 2015—The Crime (120:43–131:32)

  • Molly’s parents, Tom and Sharon, visit. Just after 3 a.m., a 911 call from Tom claims he may have killed his son-in-law during a “struggle” after hearing Molly scream.
  • Paramedics find Jason naked and brutally beaten—his head bludgeoned beyond recognition with a Louisville Slugger and a brick from Molly’s nightstand.

• 911 Call Quote:

  • “My daughter’s husband… I think he’s in bad shape. We need help… I may have killed him.” – Tom Martins (121:59)

• Evidence Oddities:

  • Severe overkill: coroner counts minimum 12 blows, brain exposed; multiple weapons; injuries mostly when victim was already unconscious or dead.
  • Molly and Tom have no notable injuries and display suspicious calm on scene (133:15–135:42).

7. Investigations, Allegations & Contradictions

• Self-Defense Claims & Doubts (136:04–139:19)

  • Molly and Tom insist Jason was violent, cite (later-discredited) statements from Jack and Sarah about abuse.
  • Toxicology reveals Jason was sober and sedated; witnesses and blood spatter suggest staged recounting, altered crime scene, and postmortem blows.

• Quote:

  • “You cannot be engaged in a donnybrook like they described… and not have a mark on you.” – Prosecutor (139:09)

• Children’s Testimony Flip-Flop:

  • Initially, kids echo Molly’s story. Later, in Ireland, admit Molly forced them to lie under threat of separation, confirming her coaching and psychological manipulation (159:33–161:22).

8. Legal Proceedings & Outcome

• First Trial, Conviction & Appeal (162:48–184:52)

  • Both Tom and Molly are found guilty of second-degree murder (three-hour jury deliberation).
  • Receive sentences of 20–25 years each.
  • On appeal, murder convictions are overturned due to exclusion of kids’ video statements—despite their later recantation (182:45).
  • Released on bail and ultimately accept a plea of voluntary manslaughter in exchange for time served (51–74 months).

• Quote:

  • “I was going to save Molly’s life or die trying. And I have no regrets.” – Tom Martins (190:42)

• Victims’ Final Say:

  • Sarah and Jack return to Ireland. Sarah, now an adult, gives an impact statement in court and authors a book, A Time for My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing (188:13, 190:01).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Four stars! B and E’s have been more frequent lately.” – James (09:01)
• “She can’t help it. It’s like she can’t help lying, it’s fucking crazy.” – James (85:02)
• “She told me vomiting was okay to keep myself skinny for swimming… when I was six.” – Sarah (92:05)
• “He was sober. They kept saying he was drunk, wild, but his blood alcohol was 0.02.” – James (152:16)
• “Molly started telling me that my dad killed my birth mom when I was six.” – Sarah (91:47)
• “You may fuck off: 51 to 74 months!” – James, sentencing (188:39)
• “Fuck these people—God damn.” – James & Jimmie, conclusion (190:42)

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Important Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------|---------------| | Wallburg overview & weird reviews | 05:20–09:39 | | Local oddities, barbecue festival | 14:02–18:58 | | Jason’s Irish life & tragedy | 26:01–39:00 | | Enter Molly: Lies, nanny, romance | 45:39–58:50 | | Email exchanges: fears about adoption | 69:09–75:54 | | Molly’s manipulation, kids’ suffering | 91:45–96:44 | | Move to NC, marriage breakdown | 97:16–109:42 | | Molly/parents conspire recordings | 112:36–115:36 | | Murder night: 911 call & aftermath | 120:43–131:32 | | Crime scene, blood evidence | 133:10–135:42 | | Kids’ (coached) abuse statements | 143:29–147:23 | | Coroner’s findings, toxicology | 147:41–152:16 | | Investigation, legal buildup | 162:48–164:09 | | Jury verdict, aftermath, appeals | 175:59–184:58 | | Final outcomes, books & docs | 188:13–190:01 |

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Tone and Style Highlights

• James and Jimmie maintain their signature blend of rigorous research and dark humor.
• Frequent sarcasm, especially regarding the town’s reviews and Molly’s obvious lies.
• Empathetic toward the children and Jason; unflinching in mocking the defense’s evasions and the Martins’ manipulations.

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Further Exploration

• Sarah Corbett’s Book: A Time for My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing (2025)
• Netflix Documentary: Deadly American Marriage (2025)
• Additional source: Killer Gold Diggers by Anna Benton

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This episode is a deep dive into the tragic cost of psychological instability and desperation to belong, set against the backdrop of one small town’s dark secret. James and Jimmie balance heartache and humor as only they can, reminding us—as always—to “shut up and give me murder.”

Transcript

[James Petragalo]

Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. But potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again. But if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now, you call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a [e-mail] Switch limited time, 50% off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for three months, $90 for six month or $180 for a 12 month plan. Taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy. See terms this week in Wahlberg, North Carolina. A twisted story unfolds when a seeming fairy tale relationship ends with bloodshed, lies and a father daughter team that stick to their stories amongst increasingly incriminating facts. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello everybody, everybody. And welcome back to Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yay.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petragalo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[James Petragalo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder. We cannot wait for this. It's a wild episode. We'll get into all of that and more. First though, head over to shut up and give me murder dot com. Get your merchandise. Get your tickets to live shows. That's the most important thing. Full slate of 2026 live shows are available starting out on February 21st in Nashville. Get your tickets right now. Then we're going to Atlanta. Durham. Phoenix is sold out for Small Town Murder. Wow. Salt Lake City, sold out. Denver, Buffalo, sold out. Wow. Royal Oak, Michigan, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Tarrytown and Boston. Get your tickets right now. We are excited for that tour.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crisscross Crossing it. Hell yeah.

[James Petragalo]

That's it. Shut up and give me murder.com. also listen to our other shows, Crime in Sports and your stupid opinions which are so funny. You don't have to like sports for crime in Sports. You just have to like us telling stories about idiots which if you listen to this show, I think you'll like that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I love that.

[James Petragalo]

Check it out. So if you listen to everything, you still need More. We have more for you with Patreon.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes.

[James Petragalo]

Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all of the bonus material. Anybody? All you have to be is $5 a month or above. And you get everything we put out immediately upon subscription. Hundreds of back bonus episodes you've never heard before. New ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder. And you get them all, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You bet. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

This week, what you're gonna get for crime and sports, we're gonna do the history of super bowl halftime shows.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Awesome.

[James Petragalo]

It started out with like a juggler in a marching band from a local high school and now it's the craziest show in the history of the world. There's lights and fireworks and thousands of people. It's insanity. So we'll talk about that for small town murder. We're gonna talk about Dean Corll and Elmer Wayne Henley and just the weirdness of this and how Wayne Henley, who was a kid at the time, ended up holding the bag for a John Wayne Gacy level of murder and burial. And it's wild stuff. At least he was smart enough to not bury people under his house. But still, we'll talk about all of that and more. Patreon.com CrimeaSports is where you get all of that. And on top of all that, you get everything. We put out all three shows all ad free with your Patreon as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ad free.

[James Petragalo]

Ad free. And on top of that, you also get a shout out at the end of the show too because dammit, we appreciate what the hell you're doing. That said, I think we gotta do the disclaimer here, everybody. This is a comedy show, comedy podcast. We are comedians. That does not mean the story isn't insanely and unfortunately very real. That's the thing. Nothing is made up for comedic effect. We try to do better research than Dateline or 2020 or any of these shows and be funny at the same time. So that's what we're trying to do here, you know, that's. How do you do that? Very easily. We don't make fun of the victims or the victims families.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why is that, James?

[James Petragalo]

Because we're assholes. But. But we're not scumbags. See how that works? Real easy to do. So if you think that true crime and comedy should never ever go together, though maybe we're not for you. But maybe we are though I would give it a listen and you're gonna hear a wild story. And for the rest of you though, that want to hear A crazy story, and you're gonna hear a wild one here. I think it's time. I think it's time. I think it's time. Let's all sit back. What do you say? Let's all clear the lungs and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petragalo]

Let's go on a trip, shall we?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gotta.

[James Petragalo]

We're going down to North Carolina this week, where we'll be in Durham on March 6th. As a matter of fact, here, we're going to Walberg, North Carolina, Not Durham. Yeah, this is central North Carolina. It is about 15 minutes to Winston Salem, just outside Winston Salem. About an hour over to Charlotte and about an hour and a half to Kings Mountain, North Carolina. Our last North Carolina episode. Episode 626, the Thirsty Killer. Right again. The North Carolina cases are always wild man.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Named after Donnie.

[James Petragalo]

Very well, of course. Yeah, different spelling. Yeah. Named after him and all of his brothers. Doesn't he have brothers?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mostly Donnie. They all care about Donnie.

[James Petragalo]

Marky Mark's like, what am I?

[Jimmy Whisman]

What about, you got enough money?

[James Petragalo]

You come on, feel it, feel it. Give me some. Put my name on it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The other guy had to marry Jenny McCarthy to have anything.

[James Petragalo]

This is in Davidson county, area code 336. Little bit of history of Wahlberg here. It started out with a guy named Samuel W. Wall. There you go. Because it's W A L L B U R G. Wahlberg Burg of walls. Yeah. This was Samuel W. Wall in 1860. The second generation of the family in the area had a coach making business. Oh, which is pretty good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Making like stagecoaches.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Stuff for that. They had at one point, this is in the 1800s here, $600 worth of capital investment.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God damn. They were rolling it upwards of $600.

[James Petragalo]

Three employees. Wow. And they were producing 10 buggies and carriages worth $1,100 annually. So every year, every year. Crushing it, Crushing it. Two of his sons, he had, Charles and George, founded their own firm, which was a lumber company. And they started making, I guess, kind of finished type things to make furniture. So, yeah, they had a saw and planing mill, and they basically made planks, wooden boxes, and some finished products such as couch frames.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, fuck this show. I want to know more about these guys.

[James Petragalo]

These guys are real interesting. Yeah, yeah. They made a land Purchase in 1888. George did. And there's this house that basically his relatives lived in until, like the late 70s, 1970s. The town wasn't incorporated until 2004. Dang and they were like, world as fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Till 20 years ago.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Till literally 20 years ago. A few reviews of this town. There aren't a ton of reviews of this town here. Five stars. Here we go. It's a beautiful town and many longtime residents know each other well. I bet they have to. Yeah. Run into the same couple thousand people.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

There are some residents who are obnoxious and the safety of roads is subpar, but that can come in any neighborhood. Obnoxious people, terrible roads. Five stars.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I got 60 houses in my neighborhood, James. I'll bet you. I mean, there's. There's a lot.

[James Petragalo]

40 of them are obnoxious. Yeah. You know that you have an hoa, so that's a higher percentage of obnoxious. It's certainly more pleasant than a large city. Okay. It's one of those people that's like, I don't care if it's terrible. It's still better than something else.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just, I'd rather be those people.

[James Petragalo]

Four stars. Walberg is a small town full of great people. Pretty much everyone know. Ever know each other. Not knows know each other.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Obnoxious people.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And we love to support our local community. Then four stars. I like where I live. Most of the people are nice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Most.

[James Petragalo]

Most. Except for the obnoxious ones. And then finally, four stars, which this should be a lower rating, I would imagine, if this is all you're concerned about, because it's a very short review. Quote, B and E's have been more frequent lately.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Four stars.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus, that sounds horrifying. That's four stars.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Four stars entering those ones.

[James Petragalo]

Four stars for me just shivering in my bed in fear. Four stars. It's great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Every time I leave the house, my shit's not safe.

[James Petragalo]

It's four stars. Great. Four stars. Perfect. People in this town, population 3,050. It's a small town.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very small. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

It's outside of Winston. Salem's a pretty decent size. And Lexington is right nearby. And we'll talk about that. For the things to do. They have like 20,000 people there. So it's a bunch of kind of suburbs of a small city. Essentially more women than men here. 50.8% women, 49.2% men. Median age is like exactly the national average. 38.3. I think it's 38.4 nationally. Family here. This is a get married, stay married kind of town. This is one of the highest we've ever seen. 67% married in this town. This is a suburb. Like a son of a bitch. 36% married. With children. Only 4% are single with children. So this is. You stay married here. Race in this town, 92.4% white.3% black, 1.1% Asian, 5.8% Hispanic. Religion in this town, normally 50, 50 in the rest of the country here, about 40% of the people are religious, which is surprising for semi rural North Carolina. And the highest percentage of people are Methodist. That's another surprise. It's close. Second is Baptist, as we know. Baptists are the Catholics of the south, but Methodists coming in and stealing it this time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Are they popular in many communities at all?

[James Petragalo]

I don't know. I have no idea. I guess apparently here, yeah, they're the number one median household income here, $83,011, which is above the $69,000 average median home cost here, 277,500 bucks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not bad.

[James Petragalo]

Not bad. Higher income, lower home cost. That equals an easier way to live. And if we have convinced you that Wahlberg is the place for you, you want to find out all about furniture making and couch framing and all that stages and things like that. We have for you. The Wahlberg North Carolina real estate. Average two bedroom rental here, $950, which is well below the national.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's not bad.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, it's 1250. Everywhere else. 1280 campaign in 2004. Yeah, that's not. That's exactly right. House number one here is a four bedroom, two bath, 1910 square foot. It's got to be manufactured. It has to be big. It's. Yeah, it's a decent size, but you can see that's not going. There's. I don't know. It was built in 2021 is why I say that. If it was older. Yeah, it looks hard to say.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The architecture is that of a manufactured.

[James Petragalo]

Or if they, they. It's a bad plan if it's not a manufactured home because you built a house that looks like a trailer. Good job.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Architect brought you that and he said yes, you could have just bought a trailer for a third of that price.

[James Petragalo]

That's it. 279,900 bucks for that. It just got a $20,000 price cut, by the way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petragalo]

House number two, three bedroom, three bath, T bowl for all your B holes. This is brand new, built just now. Just. It's not. No one's ever lived in it. 2340 square feet. It is just your average, as you can see, kind of looks like your average suburban home. Very nice. That house is $381,990. Shit. And then finally that's crazy. House number three. Four bedroom, four bath, tea bowl for each and every b hole. Everybody. 3,481 acres. Or I'm sorry. 3,481 square feet.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, okay.

[James Petragalo]

14 points. Yeah, 14.61 acres. So still a lot. Look at this place. It's cool. It's got a pond in it, which just looks like, awesome. A nice place for mosquitoes to breed. That looks terrific porch.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's great.

[James Petragalo]

It's a real nice house. It's cool looking too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is that a chimney?

[James Petragalo]

It's nice. Yes, it is. It's a big chimney there. Nice inside fireplace. This house, though, 989,900 bucks. Oh, yeah. Almost 15 acres. I guess I could see it's a big house, but that's a little expensive though, I think. Things to do here. Well, we're gonna move over to Lexington for things to do. Oh, about 15 minutes away now. Lexington here has a couple of things. They have pigs in the city, number one. Sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So do a lot of cities.

[James Petragalo]

Dude, this is wild. It's a public art initiative where they just have giant life size. Life size. I mean human life size, not pig life size. Sculptures of pigs installed throughout the city.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, they're just pigs.

[James Petragalo]

Pigs and dressed different. Cartoonish pigs. Different kind of pigs. Lexington touts themselves as the barbecue capital of the world.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Have they not heard? North Kansas City?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, they don't do that because this is. Don't start a barbecue war. People in North Carolina think Kansas City and Texas barbecue is trash. People in Texas think that's trash. Everyone has their own style in North Carolina. From what I've had, Texas is dry and shitty. I don't like their stuff.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Texas is terrible.

[James Petragalo]

It's not great. It's dry, it's shitty. Don't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tennessee's shit.

[James Petragalo]

Don't dry rub my shit. Fuck out of here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I want it juicy, God damn it.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, I don't. Tennessee. I don't mind. They got some spices. There's some good stuff there. It gets better. North Carolina's got that vinegary shit on the pork. You pull the pig. Oh, it's so fucking good there. Barbecue sauce, I love it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is hickory. Is that the tree or is that.

[James Petragalo]

North Carolina you're smoking it on?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I think so. That's. That's the. That's the tree.

[James Petragalo]

But they just. They drench it in this vinegar based barbecue sauce. It was so good. It's like North Carolina, huh? Oh, it's good. It's good. It's good. I like it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You like thin barbecue, huh?

[James Petragalo]

No, that's the thing. Only down there. Normally, I like a nice. You know, I like a barbecue sauce that'll stick to it, and that's good. Right, right, right. Different type of thing. But this is a different.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Chew through the sauce.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, this is a different kind of barbecue. Like, this is like a. It's almost like a juice they put on it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, maybe it's just the juice of the meat.

[James Petragalo]

No, it's a barbecue sauce they make out of vinegar. Because I asked the guy who was doing the. Had the pig on the grill.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Petragalo]

And it's goddamn good, though, man.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is it good?

[James Petragalo]

It's addictive. You want more of it right now?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fine, I'll give them if they want it.

[James Petragalo]

But other barbecue I like. Kansas City, Tennessee, is fine. So Pigs in the city drew more than 40,000 visitors from all over the state in 2003, its first year, just to see sculptures of pigs around the town.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're not kidding.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, that's wild. It ran for a few years and then went away and then came back. So who knows? Check and see if it's this year. There's also the Lexington Barbecue Festival.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There you go.

[James Petragalo]

Now we're talking here. You can have a. Let's see. Here are the events. The Cork and Craft Hospitality Garden. The Pre Pig Shindig.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, Pre Pig.

[James Petragalo]

A Pre Pig in North Carolina's pig. They take a giant pig and they put it on a grill.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right?

[James Petragalo]

There's a whole goddamn pig on there. And they cut into it and they put the barbecue sauce on it. They spray it in there as it's cooking, so it gets all in there and juicy, and it basically, when you eat it, it just melts in your mouth. It falls apart and melts. It's the most beautiful thing in the world. Then there's the Uptown Lexington Painted Pig Hunt. Sure. Which could be interpreted in a very different way. We don't want that painted pig. That is bad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Leave my mom out of this.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. God damn it. And then there is also music, of course. And you gotta have music.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They got a festival.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, they got music. You got music here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So playing the pig barbecue.

[James Petragalo]

Who do you think is here? Well, we have Matt Cooper. No, he. Look at his picture. It looks like wanted for kidnapping eight children. Look at him. Or.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Or terrible or. Or just his grinder profile.

[James Petragalo]

That's either one.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fascinating looking.

[James Petragalo]

Who.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why would he choose that?

[James Petragalo]

I don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It looks like somebody was like, yes.

[James Petragalo]

He said, hey, did you just take a picture of me. That's what it looks like. Hey, you didn't just take a picture, did you? Oh, yeah, that's your.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't take a picture. Looking at these kids.

[James Petragalo]

Runaway June, which is three ladies with really long hair and curls. All probably June. Then there's a Shane Profit with two T's. Shane has a beard and no mustache and a camouflage hat on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I know what you do, Shane.

[James Petragalo]

We know exactly what you do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I know the music you make, man.

[James Petragalo]

Then to change it up a lot. Chairman of the board, which is three older black men in purple suits dancing. So that's like a Motown revival of some kind.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Chair men. Is that what it is?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, Chairman of the board. All three of them, Jim Quick and Coastline, which just looks like some dad and his friends. It's just what it looks. A bunch of 50 year old men. And finally, Band of Oz. Oz. And they all have this. It's a bunch of. They're all over 50, obviously. Some of them look like they're over 70. And they look like a bowling team. They're all wearing the same outfit. It's like up in Smoke, you know, we all wear the same thing, but like different.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, that's hysterical.

[James Petragalo]

They look like a bowling team. That's great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

At what age is it appropriate to say this isn't gonna work?

[James Petragalo]

It's not gonna. Yeah, what are. We also featured Smitty and the Jump Starters.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petragalo]

The Robertson Boys. And of course, Groove Machine. Gotta have Groove Machine. Full effect. That is a wild festival.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I guess the food's the draw.

[James Petragalo]

The food is the draw. Cause you've never heard of any of those people. You know all these weird.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I know a lot of country artists.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. If Jimmy doesn't know you, Shane Proffitt, you're probably terrible. You probably. By the way, I'd like Matt Cooper to loan his mustache to Shane Profit so we can pull out then I got one beard, we got one full facial hair. And one guy who doesn't look like a pedophile anymore. It's perfect. We should do that. Now that is. Christ. Crime rate in this town. What we're interested in here, right? All those B and E's and everything. It's property. Crime is about one quarter above the national average. Oh. So I don't know what's going on over there. Small town.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And everybody's got kids and everything, but they're doing that now. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime. Really? That is about one quarter beneath the national average. So it's safe like that. I don't know. I guess a B and E would be a property crime if nobody was there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, but that feels violent.

[James Petragalo]

It feels, yeah. Breaking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If it's in my house, that's violent.

[James Petragalo]

If break is in the title of it. That sounds violent. You broke something. That's violent. Now, before we talk about this murder. Because we have to talk about a murder, everybody. Oh, yeah, we do want to say, stay tuned next week. Next show that we. Not the Express this week, but the next regular show, we have got a monstrous announcement for you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So huge. Tickle your ass with a feather.

[James Petragalo]

Very big, very cool announcement. It's going to be pretty fun to announce.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very excited about it.

[James Petragalo]

We've been holding it in for a while, so we're going to. We'll let you know next week.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A first date fart. We can't wait to.

[James Petragalo]

Oh, man. Thank God I got the fuck out of there. No blowjob needed.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Trying to. Yeah, we've been trying to make it happen for a long time, and so.

[James Petragalo]

Now we felt all about it. Next week.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Next week. It's not allowed to say it now.

[James Petragalo]

No, next week. Next week we will do. Yeah, we're not trying to be dicks here, but next week. That said, let's talk about this murder. Okay, let's start out with June 4, 2011, in the setting of Knoxville, Tennessee.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, all the way up there.

[James Petragalo]

We're going over to Knoxville for this one here. This is the day of a lovely wedding. We usually jump into, like, a 911 call or a person's backstory. Let's jump in the middle here of a. We never say, hey, let's have a nice event first off in a murder story. So let's do it today with this here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Where is it?

[James Petragalo]

It's wedding bells in Knoxville, June 4, 2011. A June wedding and everything.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tennessee, shit.

[James Petragalo]

Even the beginning of June, so you don't sweat out of your bride's dress there. So the participants of this marriage are Jason Corbett, who is 34 at the time. He's born Feb. 12, 1976, and his fiance is Molly Martins.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What color is the wedding?

[James Petragalo]

She's a little younger. What color is what?

[Jimmy Whisman]

What color is the wedding?

[James Petragalo]

I was going to say they're both white. That's what I was going to say. I don't know. I was like, I don't know why you need to know that. That's why I was like, what? I mean, they're both white, but who cares?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tan and purple.

[James Petragalo]

What's the difference. Yeah. Now Jason brings with him to the marriage two kids.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petragalo]

Jack, who is five at the time, and Sarah, who's three at the time. He's a widower. He's not divorced. He is a very young man and a widower. And he's also Irish.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petragalo]

He's from Ireland. Like, he doesn't live in America. On the day they're being married, he lives in Ireland. So we have an Irish widower with two kids coming into this, and she is a lot of different things, but currently an au pair from Tennessee.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God dang.

[James Petragalo]

So an Irish widower and an au pair from Tennessee are getting married in Tennessee in June of 2010.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Was she.

[James Petragalo]

Or 11.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sorry, his. Or was she his au pair in Ireland?

[James Petragalo]

We will talk all about that, of how they got that. Now, at the wedding, one of Jason's relatives, his sister, starts talking to one of Molly's bridesmaids, whose name is Susie, which is the ultimate bridesmaid name, I think, Right. To women, when they pick out bridesmaids, they go, well, I don't. I need a Susie.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Thank God. When they meet in high school. And she's like, I am Susie. She's like, oh, great.

[James Petragalo]

Puts her in a Rolodex for later.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We're gonna be lifelong friends. I need you.

[James Petragalo]

Perfect. I need a bridesmaid. Now they're. So this is Jason's Irish sister and Molly's Tennessee Susie friend. Okay? They're sitting there chit chatting, and they're very confused when two people are talking about the same thing and both of them have different information completely. It's very strange.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, it's so fun.

[James Petragalo]

It's like us on crime and sports trying to figure out which Jack we're talking about. It's that kind of thing where you're like, hold on. We have different info.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're probably civil and they don't yell at each other.

[James Petragalo]

Well, they're not comedians. That's why they're not honest or fun. So Susie is talking to the sister saying, man, this is such a fairy tale, isn't it? I mean, like, I feel so bad because the mother of these two kids, Jason's dead wife, was such a good friend of Molly's. And you know how while this woman was dying of cancer, this Jason's ex, Jason's dead wife and the kids, she died of cancer. She. This is what the friend's saying while she's dying of cancer, how this woman, you know, asked Molly, please make sure to take care of my family. Be the kid's Godmother, like, take care of my kids.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Susie's saying all this.

[James Petragalo]

Susie's telling the sister, this is amazing what your brother's doing, because, you know, this is. It's so nice of the. The dead woman to have to basically say, please take care of my kids. And Disney. And now Molly's marrying the husband and, you know, just like the wife wanted. And she can take care of her. Isn't this nice? Now Jason's sister is like, huh?

[Jimmy Whisman]

The fuck you talking about?

[James Petragalo]

Literally, what the fuck are you talking like that?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, boy. Huh?

[James Petragalo]

She said, wait a second. No, that's happened. She said, none of that is true. And so Susie's like, what are you talking about? I just talked to her. She told me all of this. She told everybody all this. And she said, yeah, no, that is not. None of that's true at all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why would you.

[James Petragalo]

She didn't die of cancer. And why would you say that? Molly never knew this woman. Never met her in her fucking life. Never talked to her once. So there's some confusion on the wedding day here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Let's find out how we got here to this point of awful confusion. Okay, now, Jason Corbett is from Limerick, Ireland, which is amazing because we just did a youa Stupid Opinions episode this week with a movie theater in Limerick.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ireland, where they eat lots of cheese with their popcorn.

[James Petragalo]

They dipped, and so many people were defending that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And they're so mad at.

[James Petragalo]

So mad at us thinking that's ridiculous. Try dipping a kernel of popcorn and fucking cheese. It doesn't work. You can't pour it on when it's hot, all the popcorn will melt. You can't wait till it's cold. It'll just sit in clumps. There's no way to do it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If you dip it, it's ridiculous.

[James Petragalo]

Corn breaks. It's a mess.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Americans figured it out. It's powdered cheese. That's what you do.

[James Petragalo]

That's what you do. Yeah, exactly. Sprinkle that on and eat it. It's worse for you too. So that's better. We figured it out. Yeah. Here, put this chemical cheese on your chin. Now, Jason is one of eight siblings, so there is. It's a big family. He's got seven others. Yeah, he's got a bunch of brothers and sisters, and he's got a twin brother named Wayne as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, nice.

[James Petragalo]

Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you a better way to feed your dog with Ollie.

[Jimmy Whisman]

O L L I E dot Com.

[James Petragalo]

Absolutely. We love our dogs. Oh, Boy, Jimmy just got a puppy. He loves the puppy. I love my dogs. It's wintertime where they gather around us by the fire. We all hang out. It feels great. We love it. Enjoy hanging out on a cold night with your pups. And we wanted to give the dog the same kind of fresh start, slow down energy that we got going on here. And Ollie is the way to do it. We switched to Ollie. It is fresh human grade meals, real ingredients, five slow cooked recipes. Tastes like a warm, comforting meal. But for dogs, you'll be jealous. You'll take it out and go, I want to eat some of that. You sit right down on the floor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is that blueberries in there?

[James Petragalo]

That's not. Jeez, I want that. Yeah. Have you ever picked food out of your dog's food and ate it before? Because I have and it's good and it's human grade. You can do it. Here it is. Human grade recipes backed by vet nutritionists and crafted with culinary experts. Dogs love the taste of it. Doesn't matter if your dog's picky. They're gonna dive into this Ollie. I'll tell you right now because they think they're getting your food. Yeah. So they're like, oh, I'm getting away with something. They're into it. You can get tailored meal plans to meet your dog's specific needs. Weight for things like that, perfectly portioned meals and mess free packaging comes with a scoop for easy serving and a puptainer that you can store it in. And it doesn't stink at all. It's really. It keeps the smell in. That's great. The Ollie app offers on demand health screenings where you can tap real experts for pup peace of mind that uses data from the Ollie pack to develop new recipes and products for your dog. We really like these Ollie products. All three of my dogs tear this apart. They love it so much. You can tell their tails are doing that up and down. Oh, yeah. You know, they get so crazy they can't even go side to side anymore. That's how they like it. Your dog's well being starts with their food and. And that's why Ollie delivers fresh human grade food that your dogs will love. Head to ollie.com STM tell them about your dog and use the code STM to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus they offer a happiness guarantee on the first box, so if you're not completely satisfied, you'll get your money back. That's o l l I-e.com STM and enter code STM to get 60% off your first box.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petragalo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you how to save some money with Rocket Money.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Rocket Money.com Absolutely.

[James Petragalo]

You go. What is Rocket Money? Rocket Money is awesome, number one. But Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. They do such an awesome job. I paid for something for like six years that I didn't use and didn't know was on there. They found it. I was adding up the money I'd spent. I was so angry and so happy with Rocket Money for finding it. At the same time, Rocket Money's the real deal. It really does. They'll track down your subscriptions and you can cancel within the app with just a few taps, saving you time. The app consolidates checking, savings, loans and investments into a single dashboard to give you a clear view of your financial picture. It can set budgets and goals. You get personalized insights and regular reports and receive real time alerts for large transactions, upcoming bills, refunds, and low balances. They do so much. They'll try to lower your bills for you. They'll get on the phone with customer service. Really, it's awesome. I don't know anybody else who's going to do that for you. They do it. They'll wait on hold for you, these people. That is worth it because I'm not doing it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petragalo]

Rocket Money is though. They do so well. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] SmallTown Murder that's RocketMoney.com SmallTown Murder RocketMoney.com SmallTown Murder now back to the show. So his parents are John and Rita. And by the way, Limerick is in southwest in Ireland. Down in that area of Ireland here, his parents and siblings, a very close family. That's how the hig was raised. I mean, they're hard workers. They don't have a lot of money, but they're close and they work hard and everybody will pitch in, everybody talks. It's a very close, very open family that always hangs out with.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They just didn't have any money. So they made people to help.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, we need a bunch of people to do this. Like the Amish. They're Irish Amish.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fuck a crew out of her.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, that's right. So they said that everyone here, you know, had to chip in and Jason and his siblings always carry that too, as they're always very close. As they grow older, everybody stays in a lot of close touch and everything like that. Jason's known as a. He's a. Everybody said he's a real laid back guy that always has a smile on his face. Very kind of humorous.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sure.

[James Petragalo]

What I mean, he's like one of those happy Irish guys. In America, we look at Irish people as two things. Either angry and punching or happy and smiling and singing songs and shit. One of the two. Either way, you're shit face. Don't get me wrong.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, but I usually see them as angry and punching or singing a shanty.

[James Petragalo]

You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

One of the two angry and subdued.

[James Petragalo]

Or they're all arms around each other singing a song.

[Jimmy Whisman]

One of the two, that's just one.

[James Petragalo]

Day of the year or causing a soccer riot. We don't know. So that's kind of how this goes. But he's that guy, I guess. And everybody said he would come in and everything would kind of brighten up. Basically. We'll talk about. He has a job and all that kind of thing. His sister Tracy, we'll talk about her a lot in this. She said that they, she realized later that they definitely struggled to make ends meet as a kid, but she didn't know it at the time really. So whatever was going on was working. Because she said, we didn't feel poor, felt like we were fine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just didn't tell them the finances.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, and I mean, that's also. If you grow up in an area where everybody's kind of of your socioeconomic level, you don't really feel poor because it's the same as everything else. They didn't have any rich kids in their high school. Like, hey, what the hell? Hold on a second. Parents buy their kids BMWs. What's going on?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That guy's driving a brand new Tahoe.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus. So at one point, dad lost his job and Jason, who was still in school, got a part time security job at the school sports center to help make extra cash just to give to the family. So that's. Everybody pitches in. It's one of those things. Nobody even thinks twice. Oh, well, he's doing that. I'll pick up the slack over here and we'll, you know, everything will even out here. Now. His sister Tracy says, quote, jason is an amazing human being. When he was young, he was fun and vivacious, a little bit giddy. You would hear him before you would see him. We would just spend summers in Spanish Point in County Clare, hang out, fish, just kind of normal, traditional Irish upbringing. Really?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That sounds awesome.

[James Petragalo]

That sounds great. That's not bad at all. So, you know, he went to school, he gets a job with an international packaging company as a plant manager. So that's. He's got a decent job. He makes good money over there, too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's doing international packaging company.

[James Petragalo]

He's doing pretty well. That's when he meets Maggs. Okay. Yeah. Mags is Margaret Fitzpatrick, and this is going to be his future wife. And everybody said when they met, it was like immediate love at first sight. Everybody could see, oh, these two were made for each other. Like, nobody was against it. If both sides of the family, everyone's like, this is great. It's probably good. You know what I mean? No one has anything. Any bad things to say about it. Tracy, the sister, said they were just so happy and so excited with life and so enthusiastic about it as well. So they end up when they have kids. He says they had two kids, a boy and a girl. And she says they had their little prince and little princess. They married in 2003, so. And when they. 2004, September, they have a son named Jack. And then August of 2006, they have a daughter named Sarah. So that's how this goes. And when their kids are born, everybody says rather than it causing any kind of tension, it brings everybody closer.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God, yeah. Because that's where he's from.

[James Petragalo]

They're loving it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

They said Jason loved his role as a father. He was Dove into it headfirst. He would change diapers and read books. Not that they. And there's women going, so. Not that that's bad. But it's also. Some guys don't do that. So say, all right. There you go.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Surprisingly rare. I know it sucks, but that's true.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, it's true. And everybody felt happy and safe and all that kind of thing. So it's very nice. He liked little things. He'd take the kids for walks in the park and stuff like that, and they all enjoy it. You know, things that are free and nice and just spend time together. Now, Maggie, though, Mags, I'm sorry. Margaret here, she's kind of the center of the family because he's at work, she's home with the kids. So she, you know, she spends the most primary caregiver of these children here. And he loves her, loves the two kids. Everybody said it was a very stable and comfortable home, that, you know, you'd go there. There was never any kind of just. No, yeah, there's just no tension. None of that stuff. Beautiful you know, she saw the schedule, she. She helped Jason with his job and stuff that he had to bring home for work. And she's taking care of the kids and everything and they're really, really happy. Everything's great. Then on November 21, 2006. Yeah, young Sarah is 11 weeks old. So Mags just had this young girl. I mean, less than three months ago. Less than three months ago. 11 weeks. 11 weeks old. She's brand new.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Apparently it's the middle of the night and she's feeding Sarah when she has an asthma attack. Sarah's, or Mags, is a known as matic. She has a nebulizer, she has all that kind of thing. But this is a really bad acute attack, which. These are dangerous. Yeah, Mags sister was there also. Jason came over and, you know, banged on the door. Oh my God, we gotta help her. What are we gonna do? And she said she came in and, you know, her sister was not looking good. She was holding her chest and you know, saying she very severe, a severe acute asthma attack here. So this happened before and she's using her inhaler and it's not working, not helping her at all. So Tracy, Jason's sister, said Mags woke Jason to say that she was feeling wheezy and he sat her up. She started to take her nebulizer and she started to get progressively worse. We found out later. They called him in and told him that she had died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She was already dead before they got there.

[James Petragalo]

Before they got to the hospital. She died in the ambulance.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petragalo]

So they said it was likely due to an acute cardiorespiratory arrest secondary to known bronchospasm. According to the autopsy results here. She's only 31.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jesus.

[James Petragalo]

She's 31. Jason's 30, Jack is 2 years old. Sarah's 11 weeks old. So these kids will never remember their mother. That's sad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy.

[James Petragalo]

They'll never remember their mother. And now he is a 30 year.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Old widower with two brand new babies.

[James Petragalo]

Two small children, which is horrifying. And Jason is just crushed by this. Crushed. And it's hard because the kids are too young to have any concept of it. So you can't even use each other as strength or anything like that. You just have to be everything's fine in front of your kids, otherwise they're.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gonna freak out for sure. Because the loss of a mother can cause obvious problems, but seeing dad fall apart contributes even more.

[James Petragalo]

It's not gonna help. And now you're all they have. You're the son at this point, so yeah, yeah, you better come up every morning, you know what I mean, boy, or else shit's gonna go bad. So he tried to focus on his kids and provide them with stability and his family would help him a little bit because he's a single dad and he's working full time too. And so he's got family that'll help watch the kids, someone will bring a food over for him at night, something like that, you know, try to help him out a little bit here. But it's still just a shock. No one expects a 30 year old, 31 year old woman with an 11 week old child that doesn't have a terminal illness to just drop dead, you know what I mean? So it's really, really bad. And the days are going by fast for Jason. Basically. He's got funeral and he's still got the kids and people calling him, making sure he's okay and all that kind of thing. He was having night terrors.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yikes.

[James Petragalo]

I mean, he's having a bad fucking time. And we have her actual kind of coroner's report from her autopsy and it said acute cardiorespiratory arrest secondary to the bronchospasm thing we talked about. They said there is. She was declared deceased at 2am they said she continued to deteriorate. She took the nebulizer and it didn't help. And then she collapsed on the way to the hospital and despite resuscitation, declared dead at 2am and they said there was, quote, there was no evidence of any external injuries. Very important. No bruises, no anything, no scratches. Just can't breathe. That's it. So they said that's how that went. This is what from Maggie's sister or Mags? Sister. I'm sorry. She said that basically Sarah had gotten up to eat and she and Jason, Mags and Jason sat up and laughed and talked for a little bit while they were feeding and then they fell back asleep. Sarah got settled back down, fell asleep. Quote. In the early hours, Mags woke Jason to say she was having an asthma attack and decided to take her nebulizer. Soon she realized it was not giving her relief. She knew these chest pains were somehow different. Jason called an ambulance and went to wake Catherine, who was living with them at the time. While she waited for her new house to be ready, Mags told Catherine she was scared. Instead of waiting for the paramedics, Jason stayed on the phone with them as he drove Mags toward the city to meet an Ambulance and Route Smart. So he said, I'll fucking take you to the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm coming to you.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Which is, you know, that's you want to save her. Catherine later said that she knew something was badly wrong when Mags, who was so image conscious, basically got into the car in her pajamas. She said, oh, something's really wrong. She said Mags kept saying in the kitchen, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. Which if you have something where you can't breathe right, you feel like you're going to die, it's just that's breathing is something you do without thinking. So if you have to, if it's labored, you go, oh my God, I'm going to die. I need to be able to breathe. So it was too late and poor Mags is gone. But yeah, she said, she kept saying, I'm going to die, I'm going to die. That's what she felt like. So for the next year and a half after the death, Jason is just relying on family and he's got to be in a balls off, he's got to be in a fog. Yeah, there's no way that man sleeps even close to eight hours a night.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No way.

[James Petragalo]

He's not sleep, not in a row. No working, got kids. Plus just the, the absolute fucking sadness and heartbreak. Yeah, heartbreak. Everything. Yeah. The complete annihilation of your, of your life and everything that goes on. And it has to be a lot for him. I can't imagine that. So. But his family tried to help, which is nice. They, they would help him with childcare, they'd come clean the house, they would just come over and bring dinner. The neighbors helped out, everybody helped. But they still don't have a mom, these kids, and that's the hard part. And the kids are suffering. Jack apparently was becoming increasingly reclusive as he's two. A two year old just yanked their mother away. They don't know what happened.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And a boy, that's all, that was.

[James Petragalo]

All the light in the universe and it just went out. So where the hell that happened, a 2 year old can't process. No, they just know mom's here and then mom's not here. They need their mother and they need their parents. So Sarah also at that point wouldn't sleep through the nights very well. So, I mean, she's very young. I don't know if that can affect a young child like that, but I bet it can. I'm sure, I bet the lack of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's gotta, it's gotta outside of America, people breastfeed much longer than we do. So.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know what I mean? She may have still been breastfeeding.

[James Petragalo]

So that's only 11. She's only 11 weeks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, I keep. In my head, I keep sticking with 11 months. She's 100% still breastfeeding.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. She's not even three months old if.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She breastfed at all. That poor thing's life is so changed.

[James Petragalo]

It's a lot. And Jason starts to get sad because he, you know, he's having a hard time, and sometimes it's hard for him to be patient the whole time. If you haven't slept in weeks and you're sad and the kids are crying and all that, you can just go, everybody shut up. You can just lose your mind. And he felt bad. He thought he's failing his kids and he's fucking up. He's like, it's all on me now to be the mom and the dad, and I'm fucking up. I'm not doing it all so well. So he slogs through it, though, and he realizes that people can help and relatives can bring dinner over and mom can watch the kids, but. But it's not gonna. It doesn't cover a mother. It doesn't cover the other parent. So he needed somebody that would be around and would give them regular attention, someone they could count on, essentially. So he didn't know what to do. He said, okay, maybe I'll get a nanny.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petragalo]

He said, that'll work. He said it was weird, though, to have a stranger in his house because he wasn't used to that kind of thing. But he said these kids need somebody. So that's what he said. So he's looking for a babysitter, and he's trying to figure something out. He hoped that he could get everybody back on track and on a good pace here. And he knew that that's what Mags would have wanted as well, is to keep it together and don't just completely fall apart in front of the kids. So he would try to just keep laughter going. Everybody said he tried to make the kids laugh and stuff like that. And he's looking for a nanny, and he said, though, he needs to find a qualified applicant, which is difficult, obviously. And he's searching for someone who basically, they need security, they need attention, they need affection, these kids. So that's what he's looking for. Anything he could get. He really thought about it, too. He put up an ad saying, widowed father, two kids with a picture of him and the two kids. Hi. Please help. Essentially. Please help me. Things are a mess and I can't fix them. It's hard.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's a picture of us, picture our home.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. So he said that he was seeking out traits that his wife had. Calmness and tolerance and being gentle and actually really liking the kids. And not just. Not just someone who's here for a paycheck, basically. So he's interviewing people, he's getting references, he's talking to the references and all that kind of thing. And he said it was really, really hard to do, though, just to think about who you're gonna leave your kids with all day long. And this is like a live in nanny situation. He's looking for. He's looking for someone who will like clean up the house. He's looking to buy a wife, essentially. Like. I mean, yeah, buy a housewife, you know, like raising kids minus the relationship. Yeah, yeah. Basically a homemaker. Like, I'll go work and you keep the home and that kind of deal, but I'll pay you at the end of it. So that's what he's doing here. And the first au pair he hired is from the Czech Republic. And that was fine. She was okay. But the language barrier made it really.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hard and a little aggressive.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, it was mainly the language barrier, though. He couldn't really talk to her and she had a hard time talking to the kids and so it was like hard to learn.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She said mad all the time.

[James Petragalo]

Everything she said just had an edge on it. It was weird. Then she got a girl from Spain and same thing. She didn't really speak good English and he doesn't speak any Spanish. And if you've heard an Irish accent, you don't want to even hear someone with that accent attempt Spanish. You absolutely don't. The last thing you want is someone. No. English is funny.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So English is wild with them.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Now, in addition to the language barrier, neither of these women were looking for a long term thing. There are a lot of these women people, they like to travel and this is a skill they have and they want to stay in Ireland for a while and six months later they want.

[Jimmy Whisman]

To go somewhere else or they patch this in between careers. That one just ended abruptly. I'll do this for a while until I can find another one. Sure.

[James Petragalo]

Well, in Europe, the nanny situation, especially once there was the EU and all that kind of thing, and you move freely, they. They didn't mind. They'd just go work in other countries and they would travel all the time. So that's scary. Yeah, he just wanted stability. Wanted someone who spoke English and wanted. And basically was looking for a long term thing. Wanted to be there for years and speaks English. So that's a tough thing to find. Finally, in February 2008, he gets an email from a 25 year old woman from Knoxville named Molly Martins. Okay, okay. Now, Molly Martin's born in 1984. She's born in Knoxville, Tennessee, like we said. Her parents are Tom Martins, who's born around 1950. We'll talk a lot about him. And Sharon Martins is her mother. Now, Tom is a career FBI agent.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Waited a while to have kids. He was 34.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, yeah. Which is normal now. That's very normal. Yes. In the 80s.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That was interesting, right?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Or maybe they. Well, she's not the only kid they have too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I was just gonna say I'm assuming that. Yeah, that's a crazy assumption.

[James Petragalo]

So he worked half his career in criminal stuff in the FBI and half in counterintelligence. Oh, so that's a sneaky motherfucker. Number one, anybody? Counterintelligence.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's trying to be sneakier than the sneakiest.

[James Petragalo]

Exactly. He also has interrogation training and all. He's trained others and that sort of thing, from what I understand. That's just what I heard. She has three brothers. Molly. So it's three brothers and Molly.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petragalo]

Which is a surprise. Yeah, the dynamic there you can see already. So she grows up in Knoxville. Like we said, she had a lot of problems growing up here. Now, her father's a real well respected FBI agent. The family, they do well financially. Everything's very stable. They have very high standards, this family. And Molly really was close to her dad, which she's the only girl. So she's going to be close to her dad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And dad has seen what this world has to offer. He's going to protect her.

[James Petragalo]

I would think so. So everybody says that she seeks out praise a lot from her dad. She's always looking for praise from her dad and she found it hard to live up to expectations. Molly's very pretty at one point, later on the news broadcast say she was a model, which I can't really find what she was modeling, but she's trying to be a model at one point. She's intelligent and things like that, but she is down on herself all the time. Everybody else is better than her, she thinks and that kind of thing. She's odd. So through high school she goes and she ends up enrolling at Clemson University. And after high school, she didn't know what she wanted to do yet, but she knew she needed to go to college. But due to some problems, she had academic difficulties and from what I understand, some social problems. She ended up dropping out before she graduates Clemson. So that's tough. She had a hard time picking what she wanted to do, what she wanted to be. Yeah, she just had a hard time like a lot of people do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. It's a wild expectation we put on children.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Know what you want to do for the next 50 years when you're 17?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. You know how you don't know shit about the world?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Figure it out real fast and make a plan.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

That's crazy. That is crazy. She tried a bunch of different jobs and tried different professional things and nothing really just fit her, you know what I mean? She wanted to feel important. She wanted to do stuff like that. Molly just continued to struggle and her parents kind of prop her up the whole time. They try to really help her out and things like that. And she wanted to do something and she made a decision. She got applied for and was taken on by a nanny agency. That's how people find those generally. And she found his Jason's ad and said, overseas might be good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That would be fun.

[James Petragalo]

I can work as a nanny and I can have influence over these kids and do that kind of thing. And I can also go see Ireland. That sounds fun.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sounds great.

[James Petragalo]

Cool. So they end up going back and forth and he says, all right, come on over. So she flew to Ireland on March 10, 2008. Now at Customs, she's initially denied entry because she'd only bought a one way ticket and didn't have a proper work visa.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, that seems weird.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Well, it's like you're not. You don't have the paperwork to work. So when the fuck are you going home? Essentially, you can't just stay here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

When are you getting the fuck out of here?

[James Petragalo]

What's up with the one way? But she somehow talked her way into it. I don't know if she bought everybody around or how it works over there, but probably. Yeah, that'll probably get you well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What's this Guinness say about paperwork?

[James Petragalo]

It's an order to me looking better all the time. It's looking better.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I tell you, two Guinnesses would be better.

[James Petragalo]

It'd be better than one. So that is fucking hilarious. One of the friends was there, one of Jason's friends, and said, I met Molly the day she arrived in the airport. And this Jason's friend Lynn is this person went with him to the airport to meet her. Basically, come with me so it doesn't just look like me standing here like a weirdo. She didn't like Molly at first.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really should.

[James Petragalo]

I met Molly the day she arrived at the airport. And my first thoughts and the first sentence to my husband were, quote, this is not what Jason needs right now. Oh, boy, this is bad. She said the minute I saw her with the big bouncing curls. She was in her 20s. She had a bright, big, bright colored coat, fur collar, cowboy boots. Was dressed and makeup done like a pageant queen. As we would say.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's gonna try to fuck her.

[James Petragalo]

Yep. She seemed just not the nanny type. Right. Which at the same time is. I mean, she can't be attractive and want to hang out with kids too. You know what I mean? Like, that's. But no, not in a situation. Not in a situation with a grieving.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Man blinded by and you know what I mean? It's going to be so quick for us to be like, well, she's got.

[James Petragalo]

To look like fucking Marla Hooch from their own. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's just like Robin Williams and Mrs. Dalfin.

[James Petragalo]

Something like that. Yeah. So the kids love Molly. Yeah, she's great with the kids. She took it seriously. She got to know the kids, she tried to get in with the household. She didn't want to disturb anything. Like she really knows how to be a guest. Not really a guest because she's living in, but knows how to incorporate herself here. Jack was about 4 at this point. He didn't really trust people. He still got it. There's still something there that you're like, oh, there's something. Losing his mom messed him up a little bit. Yeah. And he missed his mother, obviously. Jesus Christ. A four year old. Sarah is two. So she's just looking for someone to be with anyone. She doesn't care. Yeah. So Molly does her best and she plays with them. She plays games, she reads them stories and, you know, tries to do all that kind of shit, takes them to the park, does everything. And after a while, the kids know that she's a trusted person, that if they're upset, they can turn to. And she became a real consistent presence in their life, which is exactly what Jason was looking for here. And it helped relieve Jason's anxieties. He knew the kids were fine. He knew that they were taken care of. He knew that their emotional needs are being met. So you don't have to freak out at work and feel all upset and you have to get home because something bad could be happening. So Molly's just there. And Jason said he could see his kids transforming. They got happier, they got more secure, they got more outgoing. It just changed everything to have this person here. So he was like, wow, this is a godsend, this woman. He said now everything became bearable. Everything. Everything he had to do became easier and he could concentrate on working and doing well there and getting a promotion and all that kind of thing. And Molly dug it too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petragalo]

She dug the whole house and everything. The only thing that was hard for her was a completely new culture. Yeah. Ireland and Tennessee could not be more different. They really couldn't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's great here, but this is a lot of fish.

[James Petragalo]

There's. It couldn't be more different. It just couldn't be. The people couldn't be more different. The attitudes couldn't be more different. The climate couldn't be more different. I mean, nothing could be more different. It rains 349 days a year in fucking Ireland, man, but it's all green. It's beautiful and green. And the one day when the clouds open up, everyone goes out and enjoys it. So, you know, they become friends, Jason and Molly, they, they're hanging out. When they sit down and eat a meal together. They're the two adults.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

So what are you gonna do? Talk to the 4 year old about everything and eventually conversation has to go to an adult. And. And then after the kids would go to bed, then they'd end up hanging out and talking and everything like that. And you know, he would talk about everything that he's going through and she would listen to him and everything was wonderful. Obviously they're, they're hooking up. That's what ends up happening. Now, by pretty much all accounts, this started pretty fast, like within the first month.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, I mean, hot chick just got off a plane and she's coming to my house.

[James Petragalo]

Not to mention you're sad and you're lonely and you haven't been with a woman in over two years.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. And if this woman's even remotely interested, I'm certainly gonna do whatever.

[James Petragalo]

And the kids like her and it feels good. I mean, this would be. I don't blame it. You know, it's obviously a thing that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Could happen after couple of pints happens, it happens.

[James Petragalo]

So there was people that said it happened like the first day, which I'm not sure about that. I can't see that. You know what I mean? I would think he would be a little awkward and he would be. Be more about introducing them to the kids on the first day and getting them together. I don't think you'd be like, so let's have. What's up with you? Let's talk about it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They likely had some sort of conversation before. Before she. You know what I mean? They probably talked a bit on the phone or a little bit emails or whatever. Sure.

[James Petragalo]

So. But, you know, she's charming and she's pretty and she likes the kids. And so he saw this as. This is great. And people around them saw them getting closer as well. And, oh, what's going on here with these two? And, you know, little chitter chatters of conversation about what's going on. You know, they. Little prolonged looks and a little laugh and touch on the arm and that kind of thing. And you can tell when people are kind of, you know, getting closer than being an employee, employer relationship.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, Any. Any affection that you see and you go, what's going on there? It's very odd.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yeah. Now, Jason, at this point, too, is like, he. He'll gain a lot of weight after this. He's like a thin guy in the beginning. And he gets.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She fattens him up.

[James Petragalo]

She gets. He gets pretty. Pretty hefty after a while.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's feeding him.

[James Petragalo]

Well, I don't know if she's feeding him. Someone's feeding him something. Okay, he's her genetics or some shit, but he's getting. He's getting a bit chubby on the chubby side as this goes here, and. But, I mean, yeah, he's settling down, you know, so she kind of wanted to be a member of the family, it looked like. And, you know, she would. She would be receptive to criticism about her, you know, role and what she's doing with the kids. And they said she would put her own needs last and, you know, put the kids ahead of everything and all of that. But eventually they end up being together here. Now, Lynn, the friend, said she was good with the kids. Jason started to smile a bit more. There was definitely something between them. The two of them looked very happy. Jason was always a romantic type. He shouldn't have been alone for the rest of his life. And that's the thing. People aren't like, hey, what's he doing? She's been dead for years. What do you want this guy to do? Wait till he's. Till the kids are 20 to fucking go out? When he's in his 60s, he can find somebody. This is crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's supposed to just wander around the rest of his life and.

[James Petragalo]

And say, sad and lonely, my wife.

[Jimmy Whisman]

My. My ex wife.

[James Petragalo]

My wife. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

That's sad. It's terrible. So that's. That's real bad. So, I mean, he was concerned about how the children would react to this, and so was Molly. But the fact is the kids don't really remember mom, so, you know, they just know Molly as the woman that kind of fills in that role at this point. So. Thanks to Home Serve for sponsoring this episode. Homeserve.com Absolutely. Owning a home is great. I mean, it is. It's a wonderful feeling. It feels good. But, you know, one minute you're cooking in the kitchen and the next minute you're wading through a basement full of water up to your knees. It's a. That's a problem. That's the only thing that's not fun about opening a home is repairs. Don't care about timing and they don't take your budget into consideration, unfortunately. So you got to do that. You protect everything else you have. Your health, your car, you protect everything. How about your home? It's your biggest investment and things go awry. The costs can hit hard and boy, they can come fast and overwhelm you. That's where homeserve comes in to calm the whole thing down, make it all a little more manageable. Regular homeowners insurance usually doesn't cover a lot of the day to day wear and tear, plumbing failures, H vac breakdowns, electrical issues. You're on your own there, right? That's if a wall doesn't fall down, they're not interested. You know what I mean? That's where HomeServe comes in. It's like a subscription for your home. For as little as $4.99 a month, they've got your back. Repairs hit fast and hard. You could be searching for a contractor in a panic, or you could already be on the phone with HomeServ's 247 hotline. Scheduling a repair. Make your life easier, Simplify, and it is super simple. Choose a plan for your needs and your budget. When something on your plan goes wrong, just call their 247 hotline to start the repair process. They've helped homeowners like you and us for over 20 years with a trusted national network of over 2,600 local contractors with 4.5 million customers and a 4.8 out of 5 post repair rating and an A at the Better Business Bureau. They're the real deal. This is, this is the, the best way to get these repairs done on your home. I've used home serve. They're Excellent. And I remember back in the days not having anything like this and being in a panic when warm air starts blowing out of your air conditioner. Oh, my God. What am I going to do? It's terrifying. It really is. So you really. I've had this where my air conditioning went out in Phoenix in the summer and you're in trouble.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

You don't have to be. Homeserve can take care of all of this for you. They do such a great job. It was so exciting. Expensive. To get that fixed, we had to borrow money. It was a nightmare. Could have just had home serve. It's ridiculous. Help protect your home systems and your wallet with HomeServe against covered repairs. Plans start at just $4.99 a month. Go to HomeServe.com to find the plan that's right for you. That's HomeServe.com not available everywhere. Most plans range between 4:99 and $11.99 a month. Your first year terms apply on coverage repairs.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petragalo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about the safest sponsor there is. Simply safe.

[Jimmy Whisman]

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[James Petragalo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't want that.

[James Petragalo]

That's useless. What's that gonna do? Yeah, your whole family's in trouble. Yeah, they're making. Stacking your family up like Cord would, stealing all your stuff. And the alarm go woo, woo, woo. Big deal. Great. That's. You don't need that. Traditional security systems basically say, hey, someone got in. Simplisafe home security is much different because it's built to stop crimes before they start. They're gonna prevent this stuff. They've got this double layer of defense. They have their AI powered cameras that can spot a threat, a real threat, while they're still outside your home and alert the live monitoring agents. And those agents, they don't just watch. They'll jump in, they'll yell at them, hey, moron, get out of here. Hey, criminal, go away. The cops are on the way. They can actually talk to the intruder, let them know they're on camera and that police are on the way. And they could even trigger a loud alarm siren, a spotlight if they need to. So it's not all on you to see a notification in time and go, oh, wow, someone's in my house. We love Simplisafe. It protects our homes, our offices. We've used it for years, and it's just the best there is. It's top notch. You're gonna feel better. Get yourself some peace of mind with the best home security system you're going to get. You're going to get. And Simplisafe has been named one of the best home security systems by U.S. news & World Report for five years in a row, trusted by over 5 million people to help protect their homes, including us. So protect your home with SimpleLife and get 50% off any new system. For a limited time, just go to simplisafe.com small that's S I M P L I safe.com small there's no safe like.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Simplisafe. Now back to the.

[James Petragalo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

Murder. Now back to the.

[James Petragalo]

Show. You know, it seems to work out as 2009 progresses. They're getting closer and closer. But Jason has some concerns. He's happy, but he's also concerned. Listen, are we moving too fast? Because it's one thing to say this is nanny Molly. It's another thing to say this is like new mom Molly. Those are two separate roles. So what if the kids get too attached and things don't work out between.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Us? Yeah. They've already lost a woman in their.

[James Petragalo]

Life. Exactly. I don't need them losing anybody else. So before we get into that, you know, it's interesting. Yeah. So they're talking. There's. I have emails.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. From him saying now I really wish things could have been different if we had just dated first. Then you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I loved you. Just you, all by.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yourself. This employer boss relationship thing is.

[James Petragalo]

Weird and like you're immediately in the family. It's not just like me and you and then we bring the kids into it. It started, we reversed it. It's a weird situation. Things that have been different and we could have dated and flirted and had frivolous conversations and nice dinners and drinks and, you know, dress up clothes. I wish we had that normal year where you thought I was beautiful all the time and was never without. This is her to him. I'm sorry. I was never without makeup. Never saw me sick. Never saw me in my grandma nightgown. So she's saying, I wish this could have been, you know, courtship. Yeah. Rather than the first Night you saw me with cold cream all over my face before.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You. Those fucking under eye.

[James Petragalo]

Strips? Yeah, those things. Biore of strips going across. It's 2007 or whatever. I'm trying to think of what she would be using. So she said. But the fact is we just didn't. And although I wish we had that at first, I wouldn't give up what we did have for anything. Yeah, I'd like to add to the beginning. I'd like to add that onto the beginning. But all in all, if I just got to pick one or the other, I'll pick the what we had. Because this is reality. And isn't reality enough? Shouldn't it be enough that you know me at my best and my worst and that I love you throughout? Maybe we should count ourselves lucky to have taken the crash course on lifetime relations or lifelong relationships. Sure, we have a lot to learn, everyone does. But we've been through what most couples get in a decade and we've had it all in our first.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Year. It's true. She's just having a stream of consciousness email. That's a pain in the ass to.

[James Petragalo]

Read. Yeah, she's just saying this is the reasons why maybe we're fine. She said, you think we can just go back to dating? Have you actually thought about that? Because apparently he brought that up. You can't just go back in time. Especially if it never happened in the first place. Just now pretend we don't know each other and we're dating. You can't leave from the same house and get ready in the same room and act like you just got to the restaurant. Pick her up at the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Door. This is.

[James Petragalo]

Weird. Tell you what. I'll pull out of the driveway, I'll go drive around the block and then I'll come and I'll come up to the door, knock on it and pick you up and I'll open your door for. For you and. Shit. What are we talking about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here? Just end up at this bar and I'll just call you by a different.

[James Petragalo]

Name. Yeah. She said, I don't expect you to wait. I know what you are expecting out of life. And I know that you feel it's what you want. I truly hope that's what happens. You're right. It does put pressure on us to sink or swim. And that pressure after that is pressure after that. After five months, we should not be under. Yeah, it should be the honeymoon phase of the relationship. Not even. We should be having fun, getting to know one another, going on dates, not husband and Wife. It's what I was trying to say yesterday, that as adults, we can work through this, and if it doesn't work, then we reluctantly move on. My concern is for Jack and Sarah. They've had enough tragedy in their short lives, and whilst I know that they are resilient, I'm nervous about putting them through any further. So that's his. This is his response back to her, obviously, because Americans don't say whilst. So I keep saying, if this was a normal relationship, we'd be dating and the kids would not have so much exposure until we were sure we can move forward. So that's what he's saying, basically, is, you know, that's what I'm concerned about. That's it. He said at one point, he wrote, I'm really scared, Molly. I don't want to lose you. But more so, I don't want to risk Jack or Sarah losing another mother if we don't work out. That's what the email says. I mean, that is really fair, you know? And he. She goes back and says, I'm 25 and I know that I want love eventually a husband and a family, and I want those things with you. But if you don't think you have those things, or I might hate you for a while, but I'd understand, then I'm not going to be strung along until you decide you've reached a decision. So now she's saying, look, shit or get off the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Pot. Yeah, I'm 25. I'm about to be.

[James Petragalo]

70. I'm 25. Biological clock is ticking, man. It's crazy. She's saying, look, obviously we can't go back and start dating again. That's not going to work. We are where we are now. So do we just proceed with it or do we say fuck it? Even though we're happy and everything's going great, we didn't start out the right way, so we can't be together because that might.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hurt. Yeah, she's doing a lot of.

[James Petragalo]

Overthinking. Yeah, they both are, it feels like. Because, I mean, honestly. That's the thing, though, when you get into a relationship, when you have these kids, either you're in it or you're not. And either it works out or it doesn't, but you can't guarantee a positive outcome for.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anything. Yeah, it feels, though, she's, like, worried about what other people think too, about.

[James Petragalo]

It. I don't get.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. How it appears like, the. The optics of.

[James Petragalo]

It. I'm not getting that. I think they're saying that their relationship would be different. But yeah, either way, I think either way they're at where they're at. There's no way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

To. Yeah, it is what it is. Start the relationship or fucking end this.

[James Petragalo]

Thing. Yeah, they live in the same house, so you can't go, okay, yeah, let's pretend we're dating now. It's just. Just weird. She said the right decision for you really might be to say goodbye. I can't know how or why that would be right, but that's not really for me to decide. I don't want to spend my life with someone who isn't sure about me either. So it's shit or get off the pot time essentially. Now he says fine, you know what? We're happy, the kids like you a lot. What am I going to do? Stop? Because if he stops the whole relationship and everything, he's going to have to fire her. And then he's extracting her from the kids lives anyway. So it's like she. You want to. It's just a self fulfilling prophecy. And is he trying to like shield himself from future pain or the kids from future pain when you really can't do that in the world. It's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Impossible. If you're going to do that, it's just going to cause pain forever. You're never going to.

[James Petragalo]

Heal. You have to go through it, plow through. And then if shit breaks, pick up the pieces afterwards. That's all you can do as a human being. I mean, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I feel like that's all you can.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do. You gotta try. Fuck, man. Life isn't just wait for the perfect moment for everything. Yeah, you're never gonna have.

[James Petragalo]

One. Absolutely. So this is at this point now, it's a beautiful story. A widower found new love. Who's. She loves the kids and she's nice to them. And she's hot. She's hot. And this is a beautiful. He's Irish and fun. It's great. And her resume looked real impressive too. She told Jason she graduated from Clemson. She also had been vetted and approved as a foster parent. She told him and had extensive experience with children. Problem is we know the Clemson thing isn't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

True. That's not.

[James Petragalo]

True. And neither are the other two.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Things. Oh, for heaven's sake. How's it to.

[James Petragalo]

This? She dropped out of Clemson. She was never a foster parent. And the only, quote, experience with children she had was babysitting as a teenager. So.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She'S. What's the.

[James Petragalo]

Deal? She wants to go to Ireland and be a nanny. So she made a bunch of shit up. Same way people make up all sorts of shit in their resumes all the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Time. They want.

[James Petragalo]

Something. They want something. And also, this is another thing that we didn't know. When Molly applied for the au pair position, she was engaged.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Already.

[James Petragalo]

What? When she showed up, she was engaged to another.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Man. What the fuck happened.

[James Petragalo]

There? Oh, well, let's find out, because we have his quotes. Let's find out from the ex fiance. Keith McKinnon is his.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Name. She told me she wanted to go see the Blarney Stone. And then she never came.

[James Petragalo]

Back. I don't know. She said, I'm gonna see if Guinness is better over there. I hear they really know how to pour it. Yeah, that's how it is. I just want to see sheep. I have a real fucking hankering for mutton right now. So Keith McKinnon, the ex fiance, says, quote, the first time I met her, I was just floored because she was stunning and she is very pretty. And.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Blonde. She's.

[James Petragalo]

Gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah. To her credit, she did tell me early that she had.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bipolar.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. She was no longer able to work or anything. She pretty much couldn't keep a job. She couldn't do the nannying stuff anymore. I think we'd been together about a year and we got.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Engaged. She's disabled by mental.

[James Petragalo]

Health. Yes, that's what he's saying. We don't know that's his statement. But they were engaged, so, I mean, that's. Who knows? He said she had significant mental health struggles. She had migraines, insomnia, Spent a lot of time, quote, soaking in the bathtub or sometimes just crying on the bathroom.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Floor. Same.

[James Petragalo]

Suzeback. Wow. I was gonna say, if you add a bottle of wine and a joint to that, I'll invite her over and we can all have a fucking. We can all have a good cry. All of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Us. I mean, welcome to adulthood. This is hard, isn't.

[James Petragalo]

It? It is. Jesus Christ. Might I suggest adding wine to that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cocktail? Have a tall bottle of.

[James Petragalo]

Wine. Oh, man. So he claims that they had. He and her, had recently, before she left, been in a psychiatric ward together. Like inpatient hospitalization. And then out of nowhere, she said she was gonna look for nannying jobs in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Europe.

[James Petragalo]

You. Huh? You couldn't leave the bathroom last.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Week. You have breakdowns on the bathroom floor when a two year old requires your attention. You can't be laid out on the bathroom.

[James Petragalo]

Crying. Oh, you can't. So Keith said. She told me, I think initially she was going to be gone for like a week. And then I think it might have been 10 days before I heard anything. I knew she was not in a good mental state whatsoever. I didn't know how safe it was for her to be going over and nannying for somebody's children. We had just been in a psych ward. What the fuck is happening? So I knew she wasn't in a mental state to do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. Yeah, Nurse Ratched was just medicated. Now she's trying to take care of.

[James Petragalo]

Babies. We just followed a giant Indian out a window and now here we are. Fuck are you talking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

About? This isn't even our.

[James Petragalo]

Boat. This is crazy. He said. So I knew she wasn't in a mental state to do it. And this is the Internet. I mean, you don't know what the hell you're getting from overseas. Some.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Person. The baby needs a diaper change. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the.

[James Petragalo]

Bath. Yeah, I'll be out tomorrow. Don't worry about it. So 10 days of silence and then he finally gets an email. The old fiance, Keith here, he says, so she finally emailed and said, sorry for not calling you, but I also don't know if I am ever coming back. I need to move.

[Jimmy Whisman]

On. Dear.

[James Petragalo]

Keith. Dear Keith. Letter.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Boy. What I found out later was that say hi to everyone at the hospital for me. Yes. Jesus Christ. Wow. What I found out later was that not only did I not exist when she went to Ireland, but she and Jason started a relationship very quickly. So he was like, I'm out. I guess we were engaged a minute.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ago.

[James Petragalo]

Holy. And by the way, if you need mental help, go to a goddamn psych ward. We're just saying, as soon as you get out, maybe don't apply to be an overseas childcare person. Maybe work on your issues first. That's all we're.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Saying. Ireland was accurate to be like, I don't know that. You belong here.

[James Petragalo]

Lady. We don't. Yeah, who are you? And she goes, but look, I'm blonde. You know, I'm practically a redhead. Let me in. So, Valentine's Day. And if you say my name with an Irish, Molly Martins, it sounds real. Molly Martins. It sounds real Irish if you say it. See, look, when you say it, it sounds Irish as.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fuck. It sounds Irish as.

[James Petragalo]

Fuck. It's Molly Martins. Yes. Sounds like I own a pub. Molly Martens Pub. Come on in. Been here since 1642. We have. Yes, we.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Have. Breath. Stinking of.

[James Petragalo]

Harp. Yeah. So Valentine's Day 2010, she's been here for almost two years. They're at a restaurant in Limerick called Freddy's Bistro. And Jason proposes it is time to make this for real. And Molly says yes. And she's jacked about it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Man.

[James Petragalo]

Really. She's excited. She immediately, that night, she is planning her wedding back in the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

States. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Boy. And near her family in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tennessee. We're coming home for.

[James Petragalo]

This. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's like, listen, I know you live here and everything, but I got a bunch of Susie's over there that need to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Be. We're gonna make it American.

[James Petragalo]

Legal. Yeah, we're doing this America style here. So she's planning sister, Jason's sister Tracy said. They came and said they got engaged. And we opened a bottle of champagne and toasted their future. Was he happy? He was happy. Yeah, he was. He was in love. He loved Molly. And she said the sister when they walked in. Because we'll tell you, there's several books that we're quoting from in here and a documentaries, and we'll give you the name of everything at the end here. I just don't want to give everything away. So she said, tracy, when they walked in their. Next time. Next time. Tracy saw them after they got engaged, she was holding her hand up, showing the ring, like, look what I.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Got. Showing.

[James Petragalo]

Everybody. Yeah. Hey, look at that. So everybody was all clapping and excited. And then at the wedding, they get married in 2011, June 4th. That's when. That's when Susie tells Tracy the sister. Oh, yeah, that's such a nice story about. She knew Margaret, and Margaret died of cancer and asked her to be the mother. And. Oh, this is so beautiful. And the sister's like, what the fuck are you talking about?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's. She died of an asthma.

[James Petragalo]

Attack. There was a Czech lady in your room before you. What are you talking about? There's some lady. The Czech Republic. Some lady from Prague was in here. What do you want? So that's not the only weird Molly.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Lie. No. Why should you do that.

[James Petragalo]

Anyway? I don't know. Molly's got some weird shit. That's what I mean. These are not necessary.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Lies. Yeah, you could. The truth is just as. Just as.

[James Petragalo]

Romantic. She didn't even have to say he was the person she was working for. If she wanted to lie, she could have said, I went to Ireland, I met this wonderful man, and we fell in love and got married. It's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fine. What do you.

[James Petragalo]

Think? He's a widower, Hannah. What do you need to tell? How much of a story do you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Need? Right. Why do you need to.

[James Petragalo]

Create? Well, it gets weirder, man. She's a member of a book club, apparently. Allegedly. Here. This is what other people say. We don't know how true it is, but several people said it. Molly was explaining, talking about the act of giving birth to Sarah at the book club, talking about what it was like to give birth to her. And the day that it happened. And, oh, we ran to the hospital and he grabbed my bag and.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We. As if she's the actual.

[James Petragalo]

Mother. The actual came from her Wentz. From her vagina. Fucking mother shot it out of her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crotch. Why does she need that to be.

[James Petragalo]

True? The fucked up part is there are several people in the room while this is happening that know the whole story. And they're like, why is she saying.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This? Why is she doing.

[James Petragalo]

This? And she knows. They.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know. What in the.

[James Petragalo]

Fuck? That's what I mean. It's like. She can't help it. It's fucking crazy. And it goes back further in college. This is crazy. She kept a framed photo of a young girl by her dorm bed. And when her roommate asked her who that is, she told her, it's my sister who died of cancer. She doesn't even have a fucking sister, Jimmy. She never did. She has three brothers. She's the only.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Girl. What does she need sympathy.

[James Petragalo]

For? I don't know. That's what I mean. And the photo came with the fucking frame. It wasn't even of a person she.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Knew. There's a barcode.

[James Petragalo]

Lady. What are you talking about? You take it off, it says Walmart on the back of the print, man. It's not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. What is she.

[James Petragalo]

Doing? That's crazy. So anyway, back to the wedding now where we know where we are. He's about to marry. A lot of lies, this. Lies. Yeah. Jason's family flew over from Ireland. Tracy, all the other siblings, friends of his. I mean, this cost a fortune to everybody to come over.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And they said when they arrived, they knew something was wrong. They said that the Molly in Tennessee was completely different than Ireland. Molly, why? Totally acting different. This is Sister Tracy said the person in Ireland was very different to the one that we met in Tennessee. She was just very controlling. She was angry, I would say. And for someone who in Tennessee, for someone who was about to get married, she just wasn't herself, which a wedding could be a lot of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stress. It makes for some weird.

[James Petragalo]

Sure. Yeah. But this is beyond.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. How.

[James Petragalo]

So? This isn't. That centerpiece has the wrong color flowers. It's not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. What is.

[James Petragalo]

It? On the day of her wedding, she stayed in bed curled in a ball for a long time. When she was supposed to be, like, doing stuff, she wouldn't socialize. She lost her mind. Having a real Bridezilla TV moment at people because someone had a McDonald's cup there. She lost her mind and fuck your pictures up. Was yelling at the guests, what. Then she either fainted or pretended to faint. But there was a. Yeah, she has. She got the vapors and her. Tennessee came out. She got the vapors and fell over on a fainting.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Chair. Put her forearm on her forehead and.

[James Petragalo]

Everything. Yeah. Back of the hand to the forehead and she's just. Ah, my goodness, I can't take it. The vapors have overcome.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Me. I do.

[James Petragalo]

Declare. I do declare. Jason's best friend told him, don't do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This.

[James Petragalo]

Run. He said, fucking walk your ass back down the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Aisle. Irish A. Get on.

[James Petragalo]

It. Get the fuck back on a plane and let's go home and tie one on tonight. Tracy, his sister said, quote, I said, you're the most unhappiest married man I've ever seen. On his wedding day, because he was just miserable over this. One of his groomsmen, Paul said, I asked him to just leave her and get on the plane and go home. He said he can't. He said he made a commitment. And this is mainly a commitment to the kids, you know what I mean? Because that's the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Thing. My family spent thousands to be.

[James Petragalo]

Here. You all spent thousands. The kids think they're getting a new mom. And we told her, we're gonna be a family now. And then we're gonna go, nevermind, we're not a family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now. Molly, she's fake famous. You guys, we gotta go.

[James Petragalo]

Home. After the wedding, more lies start to come.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Out.

[James Petragalo]

What? Yeah, like the people are talking and both sides are all there, so everyone's kind of comparing notes. When they hear about a couple of lies, they start comparing notes on other lies. Apparently she had told a lot of her friends she was an Olympic swimmer. Olympic. Which in 2000, the 2000s. That's ballsy. A Google search can handle.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. So easy to figure that out. Yeah. She was so.

[James Petragalo]

Young. She wasn't. She claimed she was a Montessori teacher. You know the Montessori schools? She claimed she was a teacher? No, no teaching certificate. Never taught there. She claimed to have been a foster parent. She wasn't. She said she had bipolar disorder, which her boyfriend said as well. Medical records later show she was diagnosed with depression, but there's no bipolar in her medical records, so she might have made that up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Too. What the.

[James Petragalo]

Fuck? She also claimed to Jason that it's so lovely that she's gonna have kids now because she's always wanted kids. And she had several miscarriages before we met. And I don't know if I can ever have kids of my own. So this is amazing. No evidence that's true. None of the exes ever said she was pregnant. None of her medical records show she ever went into. Have anything looked.

[Jimmy Whisman]

At. Just don't understand.

[James Petragalo]

Why. That's what I don't get. It doesn't make any.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sense. Why would you do. Why would you create false people who are realities when for.

[James Petragalo]

What? I don't get it. And this is what all these people are saying. I mean, like we said, we're not there. We don't know, but that's what they say. And that seems.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Weird. Yeah. But if it's true that you're sitting in a circle with a bunch of people who know you and you're making up stories that people know are.

[James Petragalo]

False, think about the balls that takes. That's crazy that you. You could be like. You could be a bank robber with that kind of fucking nutsack to basically be like, with the force of your.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Will.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Getting them to shut up without even saying anything. Don't say I'm lying. That's a. That's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy. They. They know that you're not being honest. And nobody caught. Like, if I did that to you in public, you would be like, jimmy, what are you.

[James Petragalo]

Doing? Well, I don't know if I do it at the time because we're kind of. We're close, so I think maybe you're running a game on some of these people. That's fine. When they left, I'd go, what's going on here? What are you trying to accomplish? You know, I'll help you. Let me know so I can.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Help. It's always, what's your.

[James Petragalo]

Angle? Who are we versus? That's the line. Who are we versus? I'd say, hey, who are we versus? What's happening? I'm in, dude. Let me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know. It's just why I wouldn't call you.

[James Petragalo]

Out. I don't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know. I gave birth to that child. I. I know for a fact she's got another mom. What are you talking.

[James Petragalo]

About? What are you talking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

About? Last.

[James Petragalo]

Name? Yes. She's got a fucking Irish accent. The hell are you talking about? She's a 2 year old with an Irish.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Accent. What's going.

[James Petragalo]

On? More strange tales here. And this is when it gets a little bit disturbing. Okay. This is from young Sarah, the daughter. This is her in 2024 talking about this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Time. A nearly 20 year old.

[James Petragalo]

Girl. This is an adult now talking about this time. She said Molly started. This is so fucking fucked up, man. I'm so. This is messed up. Molly started telling me that my dad killed my birth mom when I was six years.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Old. Holy.

[James Petragalo]

Dude. That's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy. Why would you fuck with a child like.

[James Petragalo]

That? That's what I mean. She told me my dad was a bad man. Molly also told me that vomiting was okay. To keep myself skinny for swimming when I was.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Six. What in the shit taught a.

[James Petragalo]

Six year old about bulimia? She.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Taught. She.

[James Petragalo]

Instructed. This is a great way to stay skinny for swimming. You're gonna love.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. Alienating the relationship between her father and then giving her an eating.

[James Petragalo]

Disorder. Not only that, she said. She also told her that shoplifting was okay. I mean sometimes. What the fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Though. That's.

[James Petragalo]

Great. We're doing six year.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Old. I can't show her how to do.

[James Petragalo]

That. Jesus.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Christ. Fuckin curly.

[James Petragalo]

Suit. Let me teach you some tricks. You don't have to actually pay for things and you can eat anything you want and not get fat. Let me show you some stuff like this is. You can't do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This. Sometimes you just put things in your.

[James Petragalo]

Pockets. It's great. So this. Sarah said so I believe that Molly had a very troubling relationship with the truth. Which is an extremely nice way to put that. Sarah's a classy young lady. Yeah, she is talk. She's like. They're both smart, sharp, classy, brave kids. Like they're. It shows that. So man, if it fits in your pocket, it's free. It's free.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yay. Comes out of your mouth. It's no.

[James Petragalo]

Calories. Oh. So they were. There's a lot of tension coming up between. Molly really wants to. She wants to be these kids mom and she talk starts bringing up adoption. I would like to adopt the kids. I would like to adopt the kids. Which is nice. She's got a dead mom. They have dead mom and they're married. So I'd like to adopt a kid. That's. That can be a nice thing. You know what I mean? But the fact all the weird shit she's doing makes it not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Exactly. Yeah but the thing is like mom's deceased. So to make these children your children, all you have to do is be involved and marry that.

[James Petragalo]

Man.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Legally. You're their stepmom. Mom is attached to.

[James Petragalo]

That. Exactly. But she wants them to be her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kids. She wants to be.

[James Petragalo]

Mother. And it's crazy. And it grew a lot stronger. She kept saying she wanted to adopt them. She thought that legal recognition would solidify her place in the family and give her the authority she felt she needed as a parent. Meanwhile, the kids know she's an authority because she's the only mom they really can.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Remember. That's my point with the deceased part. It's like she's not gonna. She's not gonna object to this.

[James Petragalo]

No. I guess other people said that this was a way for her to stop feeling like an outsider among this family and feel like they were an actual family. Yeah. Your stepmother and all that kind of thing. And there's some interesting shit they do. And this is. They're still living in Ireland at this point. They got married and went back to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ireland.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. Jack says that Molly started. He took the pictures that they had of their mom on their nightstands. She took those away and got rid of them. That's the only. They don't remember what their mom looks like. That's the only way that they can remember their mom is this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Picture. She took them and destroyed.

[James Petragalo]

Them. Don't know if she destroyed them, but they weren't on the nightstand anymore, and they're not around. They said also, she would dote on Sarah. She would spend all of her energy and time on Sarah. But Jack said he never felt like she was really into him. And Jack was more close to his dad. And she would get angry at Jack for liking his dad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Basically. What is that.

[James Petragalo]

About? Jack said one time he was leaving, going to work or on a trip or something. And he went out in the driveway and said, I love you. And when he came back in, Molly tore his room apart for saying I love you. Knocked his dresser over, threw his clothes all on the floor, Freaked out for saying he loved his.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Dad.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Which is crazy. Sarah also says that at one point she was in the car with. This is later on, she was in the car with Molly, and she asked to play T ball. She said, hey, can I play T ball? Since dad is the coach of the T ball team, I could just drive with him and he could just take me. So it's not an inconvenience, and I can just play T ball. And Sarah said that Molly replied, don't you want to spend time with me? Why do you want to hurt my feelings? What do you need to go hang out with your father for? You know, hang out with me. I'd rather see you and all this shit. This is fucking five year old that wants to play T ball. Let her go run around in a field. She doesn't need to sit with you. Don't. You can't, dude, you can't put your feelings on kids. You can't do that at all. You can't. That's the most unhealthy shit in the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

World. Allowing them to just be a kid is the most important.

[James Petragalo]

Thing. Yeah. They're not supposed to worry about adults feelings at.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. No, they shouldn't even know you have.

[James Petragalo]

Them. Exactly. That's the point. I mean, they should know not to be assholes and shit. But wanting to play T ball and see your dad a little bit is not being an asshole or shithead. It's being a kid who wants to go play T ball, run around 6 year.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Olds. Should never see you fall apart. No, they should never see.

[James Petragalo]

It. It's hard. So, 2011. Coming to America. Here we go. Let's do it. Jason gets a job transfer and he works at Multi Packaging Solutions is the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Company. They've got an American based product.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. They have a plant in Winston Salem, North Carolina. That's the closest thing to Molly's family that they can do, so. And that's a four hour drive from.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Knoxville. Not.

[James Petragalo]

Bad. Not bad at all. He takes the transfer. They do it. Also, Molly had been complaining of being homesick and couldn't settle into Limerick. It just wasn't her thing. So they go there and the kids said, by the way, right away they were like, it was great. It was a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mansion.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. With a huge yard. North Carolina suburban estates are way different than these Irish ones that were built 400 years ago out of San Diego. In the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

City.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yeah. So they end up first, they're in Lexington for a minute I think while they're looking for a place and then they end up buying a place in Walburg in the Meadowlands golf.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Community. Sounds.

[James Petragalo]

Great. It's a five bedroom, 3,400 square foot house. I won't give the address. We don't need that. It was in the Meadowlands Golf community, which is a gated subdivision. All the houses are beautiful and everything's great. Jason paid for most of it. Molly gets a part time job as a swim instructor, but still spends most of her time with the kids. They're still young, I mean. Yeah, don't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Worry. When you got an Olympic swimmer coaching, there's going to be kids around the.

[James Petragalo]

Block. Plus it's got a. You gotta warrant a big fee for that too. I would think, right? So by 2011, though, things are already starting to get tense here. Already getting very tense. This is Jason emailing. They communicate via email quite a bit. For a married couple, that's very strange. Very formal. Yeah. Dear sir, I've never emailed anybody. I was. To whom it may concern. Yeah. No, never. He says, is there anything I can do to make you happy? I've done everything. And you still hate yourself. Hit yourself. Cry in the shower, vomit. At least she's moved from the floor to the shower for the crying. That's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Positive. Hit.

[James Petragalo]

Herself. Hit herself. Cry in the shower, Vomit. Curse. Shout at me. I feel so inadequate. Malz, I've given you everything in my life, including my kids and my heart. And I know you love us so much, but you still, in the last three days, only have done all the above things. Even vacation Jason isn't enough anymore. I don't know what to do in three.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Days. She did all of.

[James Petragalo]

That? All of that for three days? It sounds like. So that's what he claims. Yeah. He says that I'm really scared. I don't want to lose you, but. But more so, I don't want to risk Jack and Sarah losing another mother. If we don't work out, this may never happen. But I really want to be sure that I can give you all that you want. So, you know, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, he's saying he's trying. I don't know what to do. Here she comes back with an email that says, really? Exclamation point. That is what you think. I feel like no matter what you think, no matter what you think, I do something wrong. I feel like a messa. I mess up everything. And then when something is amazingly wonderful, I found out that what you remember is what I messed up or couldn't do. It's not a very good feeling. And we had talked about the painting on our own several times, deciding to have our room and other downstairs painted professionally. Then magically, you act as though those conversations never took place in front of my.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mother.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Now through all this, she's still pushing for adoption. She really wants adoption. And that became a primary source of their conflict is the adoption. She would raise it during moments of stress, during arguments, whenever anything would come up. That was the soft underbelly to go for. She won't even let me adopt the kids. She thought her efforts weren't being fully acknowledged. And she would accuse him of not trusting her. And he felt misunderstood and he felt like he had a lot of pressure on Him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Remember when you punched.

[James Petragalo]

Yourself? Remember that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Shit? I can't tell a fucking adoption agency. You punch.

[James Petragalo]

Yourself. Yeah. Lie to them. So the children are caught in the middle and obviously that's tense for them and having a hard time. Jason still talks to his family all the time, and they notice that he's just different. Changes in his demeanor. It's stress. During phone calls and visits, he would seem more withdrawn and less relaxed. He told several of his relatives, like especially his brothers and sister, about arguments with Molly and his concerns about her behavior. And he kept hearing more and more about it from the kids about what Molly does. And he's like, holy shit now. She says, though, he kept promising he would do the adoption. I'll arrange it. I'll arrange it. And then he wouldn't do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. There's probably little events where he's like, well, I can't do it now. You just broke.

[James Petragalo]

Down. We don't know if he actually said that or if he did. Maybe he was. I don't know what he was trying to do. Like, maybe that would make her happy and then she would stop doing that stuff or. I'm not sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Exactly. Maybe there's an OSHA clock in his head where he's like, there's a mental.

[James Petragalo]

Breakdown.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. I mean, there was just a mental breakdown three days ago. We.

[James Petragalo]

Can'T. It's only three days since our last shower cry. Can't have.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. It's only been 12 hours since the last time you left. Crossed.

[James Petragalo]

Yourself. Yeah. And I guess Molly started to think that this is never going to happen. You're never going to let me adopt these kids. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a better way to shop with Thrive Market. Thrivemarket.com that's the one, Jimmy. Thrivemarket.com you will be thriving with Thrive Market. Healthy is hard. We get that. The Thrive Market will help you make it easy. You can just with the small swaps, little things that you can swap out can help. So much trusted ingredients and personalized shopping that fits your lifestyle. Thrive Market is the easiest way to make better choices without feeling overwhelmed. All delivered straight to your door. And they really do. They have so much stuff. Just little things you can swap out like sour candy, gluten. So they have these awesome chips that are really good that I didn't even know were gluten free and I'm eating them like crazy. I love their tortilla chips that they have others. The snack stuff, it's so good and not terrible. For you, that's what's great. You can actually eat better and do better with Thrive Market. And it's so simple to do. It really is. I mean it's. You don't want it to feel like all these sacrifices. You want to feel like you're living your life. You work all day, you come home, you want to sacrifice more. Now you need something decent. So healthy living, it's not. Doesn't have to be boring, doesn't have to be expensive. Thrive Market will get you where you need to go. If eating better feels overwhelming, that's because you're not shopping in the right place. Yeah. I'm telling you right now, healthy eating does not have to feel like it's a restrictive diet saying no all the time. Thrive Market makes it easy to say yes to thousands of healthier versions of your favorites without giving up on taste or breaking the bank. They make it easy. Scan anything with the barcode scanner that they have and it instantly swaps it out for a better version of that. That's so cool. So you don't have to go searching for it. Personalized shopping is also great that they have here. Instead of the struggle of trying to figure out what foods fit your health goals. Thrive Market, it'll do the hard work for you easily. Shop by 90 plus diet and lifestyle filters to find exactly what you want without second guessing. High protein meals, low sugar meals, GLP1 friendly options or gluten free staples. AI powered cart, remembers your habits. Cutting decision fatigue out too. You don't have to think because Thrive Market knows what you like, so they'll bring it with you. And also, Thrive Market ensures the food you eat has the healthiest quality, the highest quality, the healthiest quality, and free of 600 plus sketchy ingredients. So every choice is verified by experts and it feels intentional and safe. And it's great. Thrive Market's great. It's an easy way to shop. Really excellent for finding the healthy stuff to switch out. We use it. I think you should use it. Honestly. That's our advice as friends. Go out and get Thrive Market. Join Thrive Market with our link thrive market for 30% off your first order plus a free $60.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gift. And now back to the.

[James Petragalo]

Show. His sister Tracy said he didn't want to take the only mother they'd ever known away from them, but he wouldn't allow her to adopt them because of what she had said about Mags and because of her erratic behavior because she's a lot. He found out about all these lies and he's like, oh, that's not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Good.

[James Petragalo]

Right. She waited until just before the wedding, and then all these stories came out. So when we spoke, he said he just couldn't. How could he go ahead and allow Molly to adopt children, Adopt the children, when all he had all these issues of trust with her. Either way, the children called Molly mom always. She raised them since they were toddlers. But, you know, all of that. Now, in Jason's will, after Magsa died, he made a will, and in his will, he names his sister Tracy and her husband as the legal guardians of Jack and Sarah in case he dies. And he did that before he ever met Molly.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. And that's what you would do anyway.

[James Petragalo]

Right? I would think. But even after marrying Molly, he never changes it. He always keeps them as the beneficiary. So at that point, legally, if Jason got in a car accident, the kids go back to Ireland, they get pulled right out of Molly's hands here. Now, he talks to a lawyer about this, he emails a lawyer, and he said, I've been married to Molly for just over a year now. And we live in Forsyth County. We've lived here for over a year. Is it possible to structure this, that if I ever get a divorce, not planning to in parentheses, that the right to keep the children is with me over Molly? So he's saying once they're adopted, is it now just she's mom and I'm dad and we go to court like that, or in court, will they parse out, you're not the real mom and you're the real dad and I get them. And he said, what would you need from me if we proceeded. And the lawyer said, this is something to consider. If she adopts that child, she has just as much rights as you do. So basically, if you get a divorce, she could get full custody of your.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kids. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Boy. From.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You. Imagine.

[James Petragalo]

That. That is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy. You don't.

[James Petragalo]

Even. That's fucking weird. That's real weird. She also would withdraw, become emotional all the time during this time, and he's struggling, trying to keep the kids happy and keep her happy and everything. It's weird that none of this happened in Ireland. What is it about Tennessee where all these things come out? Where in Ireland, she could hold it together for a lot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Longer. Strange foreign country. And she probably feels much more.

[James Petragalo]

Comfortable. Yeah, but you think, like, after a couple years of being there, all this shit would come out, but it really doesn't. Nothing happens until they get married. As soon as she steps foot on Tennessee.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Soil.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. She is a different.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Person. Well, you act a fool in a foreign country. They don't, they don't treat you the.

[James Petragalo]

Same. That's true. They'd be like, what's wrong with this American? Especially if you're American in other places you're trying not to be an asshole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anyway. Yeah. You know, you were a kid and you'd go over to your mom's friend's house and she'd be like, don't make me look like a fucking asshole in.

[James Petragalo]

Here. Don't you make a scene in here. You make me fucking be good. Don't mess anything up. Don't break.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anything. That's what she's doing in Ireland. And then she gets home and she's like, I get to break shit.

[James Petragalo]

Now. Yep. My dad, my mom and my dad take. Put up with all my shit, maybe. I don't know. So the tension is not limited to adoption. They also disagree about how to discipline the kid, the kids routines, the children's relationship with the family in Ireland. Jason wanted them to maintain strong ties to all the relatives in Ireland. But Molly wasn't real excited about Jason's family having any influence over these kids. She would express concerns about his family's involvement with the kids and their intentions and all that kind of thing. So now he's like, jesus Christ, not even my family. I'm getting pulled in 18 different directions here. Summer 2015. The unhappily ever after life here. Poor guy, he's unhappy. Marriage is not working out. He missed home. He misses Ireland. He missed his friends and relatives and family. And he starts making plans to get the fuck out of here and go home without Molly. Take the kids and go. Really get back to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ireland.

[James Petragalo]

Divorce. Divorce. And his family in Ireland is concerned about him. They encouraged him to seek help, try to think about everything that's going on. They suggested maybe counseling or something like that for you too. And some professional support could help this. They want it to work out. A text between him and his brother, they say, so how you getting on? And Jason says, some days like it here, others can't wait to get out of here. Work is good, work is good. Kids are great. Malz is still crazy. That's his answer.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Rough. It's always the smoke shows.

[James Petragalo]

Man. It's always, yeah, it's a problem. So Tracy, Jason's sister, said Jason started talking about moving home. He wasn't happy. A lot of it was coming down to the relationship with Molly. She was acting strange. There were things occurring that he wasn't comfortable with and he missed Ireland and Wanted to move back, but he knew and said there would be huge difficulty in him coming back once Molly found out. This has to be a secret. So according to Tracy, at the end of July, beginning of August 2015, Jason was weeks, if not days, away from getting back. He'd been figuring out how to transfer financial assets to a bank in Ireland. He'd been looking at.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Flights. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Boy. Getting serious. And Molly would. She knew. She figured it out. I mean, she's not stupid. She's. She's a smart girl. She knows. Smart lady. And so. And she said basically that if they leave, then she's never gonna see these kids again. She knows.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And to her, she has said, these are my kids now. That's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. You know, Put an ocean between me and my.

[James Petragalo]

Kids. Yeah, exactly. So Jason's friend Lynn, who was at the airport when they picked her up, said, I think Jason became surplus to her requirements. She didn't need him anymore. She just wanted the children. Oh, and it sounds like from everything the kids say, it sounds like she just wanted Sarah is what she wanted.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jack. She could take her leave, talk about.

[James Petragalo]

Him. Take or leave, Jack. So she'd been preparing for years. She consulted with an attorney about her custody rights and what they would be in the event of a divorce. And they said, oh, they would be.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Zero.

[James Petragalo]

Nothing. You're their stepmother. You have nothing. What custody are you going to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get? What are you talking.

[James Petragalo]

About? Yeah, it doesn't matter how long. There's no legal rights there. Even though you've raised them since they were kids, which is tough. That's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tough. You're gonna miss them.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. You've raised these people, these kids, since they were so little. That's hard, man. It's really hard. Then she starts making recordings during this time of her own. Yeah. She gets these little recording devices that stick under tables and shit. These little sticky recording devices, like an.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Airtag. But, yeah, you can get them from, like, Radio Shack and best. Just a little. Just a little MP3 guy.

[James Petragalo]

That. I wonder who. Internal recorder with a dad Encounter intelligence. I wonder who would have thought to record.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Devices. Those are probably all over the house.

[James Petragalo]

Yep. And there's a lot of these recordings, and the timing of them makes them a little suspicious as far as it's. She knows that she's being recorded and he.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Doesn'T.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. You know what I'm saying? So it's that. So you can tell in a lot of these. It seems like she's trying to have an outcome happen. And later on, these recordings make Jason look really, really bad. But when you hear them, he is very calmly. He sounds like a guy who's put up with, who's had a lot of frustration with this. And he's calmly, without. He's trying not to be angry while he's fighting with her. Essentially, this is from this recording. And some of this shit that they. It's not real nice either. Which. I mean, they're about to get a divorce, so I wouldn't expect it to be. But some of these recordings, he can be very cheery. He's not real nice either. So one of these, he says, quote, are you finished with your dinner, hun? I'm talking to you. Is this how you treat us? You just ignore me? I said, I'd like to have dinner with my family. I'm talking to you. I shouldn't have to say it over and over again. And Molly just says, can you guys get out the stuff for pancakes? And he says, see, there you go again. I'm talking to you. You're still going on about something else. And he hears Sarah yell off in the background, stop fighting. He sounds very frustrated. That's. He sounds frustrated. But it's not like. It's not like, listen, bitch, you better. It's none of that shit. But it's. You can tell he is very frustrated with.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Her. And this is shit that's not. It's not.

[James Petragalo]

New. No. And so when you're making a. The problem is if this. If neither party knew they were being recorded, you take whatever's on that recording with that's that there it is, lay it out. And that's what it is. When one person knows they're being recorded and the other doesn't, it's different. You can't do that. Then you have Amber heard situation, right? Where she's like, johnny, why are you doing cocaine? No, you shouldn't do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Drugs. Oh, now you're gonna drink seven bottles of.

[James Petragalo]

Wine? What are you talking about? You were doing lines with me last night. Aquaman. You can't have that. It's not the same. You know what I mean? So. So Lynn, his friend, said she was playing the long game. Yeah. She was telling people that he had been abusive. She had her recordings. She would have a case to go to the. To get the children from him. That's what the friends are.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Saying. And she's making it performative too, to where she just puts this recording in. He asks a question that she just ignores him. And she knows it's gonna get a rise out of him. And all it is is him all over that tape because she's just ignoring.

[James Petragalo]

Him. Exactly. That's exactly what it is. And that's. And we don't know when. She could turn him on. She could turn him on after she's turned. We have no idea. And I'm not. I'm not taking anyone's side here. I really are. Because we don't know. All I'm saying is those are just facts. Unless both people don't know they're recording. Don't know they're being recorded. You can't take a recording seriously. That's like an FBI informant trying to get somebody on the phone to tell them that, yeah, bring over 20 kilos. Right? You know what I mean? This guy is going to be fucking steering the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Conversation. If it's a wiretap and nobody in the room knows it's being recorded, that's a different.

[James Petragalo]

Story. Then you get John Gotti and his lieutenants openly talking about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Shit. That's called entrapment. And that's what she's doing, rather.

[James Petragalo]

Than one of them going, so that guy we killed yesterday, he's buried, right? You know, so late July 2015. Now, we're getting down into increments here. July 30th. Molly fills a prescription of trazodone, which is. Some people say it's an antidepressant, but I always knew it as a sedative, like a sleeping aid. It's what they give our dog. My dog Frankie's a big goat. Doho Argentino. And when people come over, she gets real, like a lot of people we have, like a Christmas party. She gets real crazy and starts, you know, barking at people sometimes and gets too excited. So we have to give her Trazodone. And then she goes to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sleep. Well done.

[James Petragalo]

Alone. Gives us.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Those. Yeah, just the word down at the end. It's a downer. That's.

[James Petragalo]

The.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. The idea is that it's a. It's a tranquilizing element of the drug. All the words in a drug mean something. And they mean.

[James Petragalo]

They. Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes they just don't mean anything. Drugs, names. Sometimes they're just completely made.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Up. Not like. I don't mean like aspirin. I mean like the. A clinical word like that. They take pieces of the word and they all.

[James Petragalo]

Mean. Sometimes. Yeah, yeah, sometimes. Sometimes they literally just pull names out of their asses for.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Medicine. Anything that just sounds oxidil or some.

[James Petragalo]

Shit. Yeah, it means nothing. Things like that. What, you could just make it up it doesn't mean anything. They do that sometimes. Yeah, it's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Great. That's.

[James Petragalo]

Bizarre. And then the trade names for them are even crazier. They don't, you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know. Yeah, yeah. Paxil, the name like.

[James Petragalo]

That.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. You know, Lamisil has nothing to do with pimples or.

[James Petragalo]

Whatever. Oh, look, it's. It's Joy Buprofen. Excellent. That's. I need.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. And that's actually a.

[James Petragalo]

Diuretic. It actually. Yeah, it's not even. It's not for your head. It's not for your head. There's nothing to do with here. Just makes you pee. So late July 2015, also around this time, Jason visits his doctor and mentions that he's been feeling kind of dizzy now and then, a little bit sluggish, and he's up to, like, £260 at this point. He's not a tall guy, so that'll do that. And he says also that he's been feeling angry for no reason at certain times. And this is in his doctors, in the medical records of him saying angry for no reason at times. I get agitated. He gets agitated. I don't know why. Then there's also from around this time, here is a friend of theirs who said in July, they had come across Jason and Molly at a party. And they say, quote, jason and Molly were at a party, and she was belittling him, calling him a fat ass, saying he must have taken all the nutrition from his twin because he looked like he'd eaten for.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Two. Oh, my.

[James Petragalo]

God. Like, in front of people. He's just saying.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That.

[James Petragalo]

What? That's brutal. That's people. Just regular people at the party.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That. You know who else did shit like that? Phil Hartman's.

[James Petragalo]

Wife. Yeah, exactly. So now, according to sister Tracy, Jason, during this time, is looking for flights. And that's. That'll make it. That's a lot of stress. Marriage falling apart. I'm gonna run away to Ireland with my kids, and that's gonna be a big problem. Now with her, I have to fight. It's going to be a lot. Saturday, August 1, 2015. Tom and Sharon Martins, Molly's parents, they drive from Knoxville to North Carolina for a visit. Now, Tom canceled plans he had at the last minute to make this trip. He had plans with his boss, as a matter of fact, and canceled them to make this trip in town. In Knoxville. Yeah. He brings with him two gifts for the children. A tennis racket for Sarah and an aluminum Louisville Slugger baseball bat for Jack. So sporting goods. You bring the kids they don't arrive until about 8:30 at night. They arrive, Jack is gone. The young boy, he's at a friend's party and doesn't get home till about 11pm because it's late. Tom says he decided to wait until morning to give him the bat. So Tom kept the bat down with them in the downstairs room. Now everybody goes to bed. Tom and Sharon are in the basement in the guest room. That's where the guest room is. Jason and Molly are on the master bedroom on the first floor. Jack and Sarah are upstairs on the second floor. Okay, so it's set up like that. Everyone's on different floors, sick now a little before three. It's a nice house. It's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Beautiful.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. According to Molly here, Sarah comes into the master bedroom after having a nightmare. And this is what Jack said too. Had a nightmare about the. On her bed she has sheets that have like little fairies and like little lizards and stuff on them. And she had a nightmare about the fairies and spiders and lizards on her bed sheet coming alive and, oh no, taking her or something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So. Yeah, how'd you get into my fucking.

[James Petragalo]

Mushrooms? Yeah, what's up with that? So Molly takes Sarah back to her room, settles her in, and then returns to the master bedroom. And Molly says that Jason's awake and really pissed off about being woken up. Real mad, I mean furious. And an argument starts. That's what she claims. Then at 3:02am there's a 911 call from the house. Oh, okay. This is, what's the address of your emergency? Tom is the one making the call. Molly's dad, he says, my name is Tom martens. I'm at 160 Panther Creek Court and we need help. I said, what's going on there? And he says, my daughter's husband, my son in law got in a fight with my daughter. I intervened and I think he's in bad shape. We need.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Help.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. So the dispatcher says, what do you mean he's in bad shape? And Tom says, he's hurt, he's bleeding all over and I, I may have killed him. At this point the dispatcher says, what's your name, person who just admitted to murder? Can we tell me your name? He says, my name's Tom Martins. The dispatcher says, was he drinking? Which is a very odd question to ask at this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Point. Is.

[James Petragalo]

It? I would say, have you been.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Drinking?

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. You're the one who just killed a guy. Have you been.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Drinking? Maybe he's just on the page where it's like all Information about the.

[James Petragalo]

Deceased? Yeah, about the person that the injured party. And Tom says, yes, he had been drinking during the course of the day. They said, is he conscious at all? And Tom says, no. Is he breathing? Tom says, I can't tell. The dispatcher says, all right, so we're going to start cpr. All right. I need you to make sure that his mouth and nose are clear. Tom says, it's a mess. When you hear about his injuries. Yeah, there's no way to do anything like that. Oh, it's crazy. The dispatcher says, I'll set a pace for you. 1, 2, 3, 4. Tom says, I'm certified. I just can't think. He said, I know how to do it. I'm just. Yeah. Dispatcher said, okay, you have to say, stay calm. Let the training take over. 1, 2, 3, 4. He. I can't explain to you how calm Tom is over the course of this call. Yeah, he acts like he. If you're ordering a pizza, you'd have more like, do we want pepperoni or.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sausage? I get so flustered with.

[James Petragalo]

That. None of that. Yeah. He has not. He's like, literally, my name is Tom Martens. Like, he is as calm and cool and collected as a human being can be on the phone, which is interesting. Multiple investigators later commented on how creepy it was that he was this calm. One journalist said, quote, literally, the hair would stand on the back of your neck. It's quite chilling to hear how calm he was talking to this dispatcher. So, yeah, the dispatcher is Karen Black. Caps is her name. And she gets this. And he's calm as can be. And. Wow. So when the paramedics arrive at the house, they were shocked because there is fucking blood everywhere in this master bedroom. I mean, it looks like a person exploded in there. It doesn't explode. Leaked all over the place, all over the walls. And they said the. The person, the victim, Jason, was basically. His head was unrecognizable as a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Person. Whoa. Like a shotgun.

[James Petragalo]

Blast. Brutally bludgeoned. So they also notice that when they get there, they go, he's cold to the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Touch.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And the one EMT says to the other, how long ago did they say this happened? Yeah, supposedly it happened just now. 15 minutes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ago.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And he's cold already, which. That ain't the way that works. So that's interesting. The police are called to the scene, obviously. Molly said the children woke up in the middle of the night. One of them had a nightmare. She said, I went up and got her. I went to the room Right away. Calmed him down, Put Jack and Sarah back to bed. Took a couple of minutes. They went back to sleep. After that, I went back to the bedroom I shared with my husband, and Jason was agitated and he jumped on top of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Her.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. And she said, well, he does work long hours, and it seemed like he's under a lot of pressure lately. But she said he put his hands around her neck and started choking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Her. What kind of dream was he.

[James Petragalo]

Having? No, shit. And she says he. She shows in the interrogation the video of it where she says, he puts his hand here. So she puts her hand around her neck and says that's how he started it and that's what was going on. And so she said, however, she managed to scream when he loosened up his grip a little.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bit.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. And she said her father, Tom, sleeping in the basement, heard it asleep and through the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Floor. Heard.

[James Petragalo]

It. Yeah. Sleep through the floor. And he'll say in his interrogation, I heard, like, loud banging above me in the ceiling. Like something was really going bad up there. So he ran upstairs, but first grabbed Jack's new baseball bat, brought that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Upstairs, snatched that up and went with. Took that with.

[James Petragalo]

Him. Yep. He's obviously a trained FBI agent, like we said. He says he walks in and sees his daughter being choked. Yeah, he said that she was choking. Jason was choking Molly with his hands. And when he walked in and said, let her go, Jason switched his grip to the, like, chin lock grip where they're. Her back is to his chest like a. Like someone would do in a hostage situation, go, you know, and hold the bank teller in front of them as the police. Yeah, Fucking snipers on her. Yeah, same shit. So she said. He said, he's choking her like that. And so he says, he dives in there and fucking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. He 60 something years.

[James Petragalo]

Old. Yeah. He said he wanted. He said this. This is what Molly said. He wanted to shut me up. So he covered my mouth and started choking me. But at some point, when he stopped, I screamed. Next thing I remember, my dad standing in the hallway or doorway saying, you know, stop it. Yeah, stop it. So he says that. Then he switched the grip to the chin lock and started dragging her toward the master bathroom. He was gonna go. Jason was gonna take her in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There. Yeah, I'm gonna drown her back.

[James Petragalo]

Here. So Tom said at that point, it's time to start going. And he said, you know, it's all blurry. But he said he must have hit him with the bat. He hit him with the bat. And he said at some point, Jason grabbed The bat and pulled it away from him. And then Jason had the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bat. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

No. So they said, oh boy, that must have been scary. Jason has the bat and they go, how did you end up getting the bat back then? If a 30 something year old man who's 100 pounds heavier than you as a baseball bat, how the fuck are you getting it back? He said, I don't know, Molly must have distracted him or something. I was scrambling. That's what he says. So, so distracted he drops a baseball bat. What is he, like a bear that you put a honey thing in front of and you. Oh, I don't know what's going on. She had a Zagmon Bugs Bunny floating toward a pie. What are we doing here? So that's a little bit ridiculous, but apparently. And then he said he started working him over with the bat again after that. And he just kept hitting until he stopped moving and stopped trying to come at him. Once he went down, he said that was that basically, not until he stopped moving, but once he went down. Now Molly's story is that's exactly what happened. He was choking me. He switched to a chin lock. My dad hit him with the bat. He got a hold of the bat. Jason.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Did.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. So I grabbed a nine pound brick that was sitting on my.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nightstand. Great idea. I never even thought about that. Yeah, great home.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Bashed him in the head with.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. Great home.

[James Petragalo]

Defense. Yeah, I hit him in the house, he dropped the bat. And then my dad picked up the bat and finished it off. That's. That's the story that they have.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Essentially.

[James Petragalo]

Fascinating. And so, yeah, Jason's very dead. Jason's family hears about this and says, bullshit, that's impossible. You look into that fucking Molly. Because this is Molly's fucking fault. Jason was planning on moving home. He was planning on divorcing her. She was not gonna be able to stay in this big house anymore. She's not gonna have the kids anymore. This is bullshit. And her father's an FBI agent too, so he knows how to get away with shit. And like I said, the first responders were horrified. Blood on the walls of the hallway. Blood soaking the carpet of the bedroom. A lamp knocked over, Louisville Slugger baseball bat with blood stains. And a concrete paving brick in the middle of the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Floor. A.

[James Petragalo]

Paver. It's a big fat brick with hair and blood all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Over. That's a three inch thick.

[James Petragalo]

Brick. It's a big one. It's nine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Pounds.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And so a gallon of milk is seven pounds, right? That's pretty.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Heavy. Ass.

[James Petragalo]

Brick. Now imagine that being real hard and hitting someone in the head with.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. And then just at full speed motion towards your head. That'll crush.

[James Petragalo]

It. That'll crush it. He is lying on the floor naked when they get there too. Oh, he sleeps naked or what? His skull is completely destroyed. I mean, this isn't. I hit him a couple times. He went down. When one first responder tried to lift his head, his fingers went through the skull and touched his brain. Oh, no, that's a fact. That's how badly this poor man.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Was. There's no.

[James Petragalo]

Skull. That's horrifying. And so bad that when one of the EMS workers went outside to get a breath of fresh air, he told the paramedic person, the other whatever, the guy in charge, the commanding officer of that unit. He walked out and he said, it's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bad. Don't.

[James Petragalo]

Look. When they tell each other it's bad, it's fucking bad. You know what I mean? That's when it's real bad. They see everything. They don't give a shit. The one said there was blood on the wall. There's blood on that wall. There's blood on this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wall. There's blood in the.

[James Petragalo]

Hallway. Yeah, because I don't know if they walked out. I don't know. They said blood covered not only the walls, but both sides of the door to the bedroom, the hallway, and the walls in the bathroom. There's fucking blood everywhere, both sides of the door. Blood was also on the baseball bat and the paving brick. Obviously not good. Corporal Clay Dagenhardt was the first police officer on the scene, and he said immediately he noticed the blood had started to dry already. Oh, this happened a while ago. He said it was congealed. He described it as being like Jell O or.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jelly. That's old, old.

[James Petragalo]

Blood. Yeah, that's post Thanksgiving. Weird turkey stuff that's on there. That turkey.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Gelatin. Yeah, it's the bottom of the drip.

[James Petragalo]

Pan. Yeah, they reported that he's cold to the touch as well. Blood already congealing. And yeah, they were like, how long ago did this happen? Now they have the Louisville slugger baseball bat. 9 pound concrete paving brick. They said, why did you have a nine pound concrete brick paving brick on your.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nightstand? That's.

[James Petragalo]

Wild. That's an odd thing to keep. That's a weird paperweight is all we're.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Saying. Or home defense. Either way, it's a very strange thing to have inside the.

[James Petragalo]

House. It is. Well, she said that it was a craft project and her and the kids were Gonna paint flowers on them to put around the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mailbox. Oh, so we just leave it on the.

[James Petragalo]

Nightstand. She brought it inside earlier that evening because it was supposed to rain. Oh, so a paving brick can't get wet, it'll just crumble into the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Brush. They shrink.

[James Petragalo]

James. Yeah, it's a shrinky dinks. That's how it works. So they're like. That's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Interesting. They'll never absorb pain.

[James Petragalo]

Again. Yeah. She says, oh, okay. They said, well, why was it on the nightstand and not like in the garage or near the painting supplies or, you know, kitchen counter, wherever, junk drawer, something like that. Front yard on your nightstand. That's odd. And the bat is the same bat your father brought over that he brought the murder weapon to the house. Essentially, he brought the death weapon.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The death implement self defense weapon to the.

[James Petragalo]

House. Whatever you want to call it. Legally, that's what he brought to the house. So that's strange. Then the police notice, and you can see this in her interrogation video. She did it at the scene, but she does it a few more times in the video. Because I kept saying, look at her, look at her. Look at her doing that. She keeps rubbing her neck vigorously at this scene. Really rubbing it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Good.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Now that could be. Oh, I'm trying to make it feel better. But it's not like holding it. She's like rubbing it like they think trying to make a mark is what they.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Think. What the.

[James Petragalo]

Hell? She was warned twice by two different officers to stop fucking doing that. Stop. And when they bring her all in, by the way, and they take pictures of these two. Uh huh. Number one, the only mark she has on her is behind her ear. A minuscule, minuscule scratch. Tiny scratch behind her ear. Which by the way, if I was being beaten to death with a baseball bat, I might reach for.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Shit. You know how scratch.

[James Petragalo]

Somebody? Yeah. When they dig a lady up out of somebody's ground, they go under their fingernails for DNA. Because they would fight back. That's what she's trying to say. That means he was attacking her rather than he was defending himself. Trying to defend himself. Yeah. So it's a lot here. So she keeps doing that in the interrogation when they take the pictures. There is no. I mean, there is nothing on her neck besides that. Not a mark, not a bruise, not a redness, not abrasion, not scratching. They show him clean as a fucking whistle, dad. Absolutely. Number one, there's no blood around his face, so he definitely didn't do cpr. In my opinion, from what it looks like to Me, I don't know the facts of the matter, but didn't look like it from the fucking pictures. It's weird. So the pictures of them do not look like two people who are in a fight for their life at all. There's literally not a mark on either of them except a tiny, tiny.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Scratch.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Behind her ear. It's crazy. He said another thing he tells them is he's like, look, he was drinking all day, he got wild in there and he was getting wild in the room and he's gonna kill my daughter and all this type of shit. And he said, also, I think he killed his first wife in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ireland.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. He said, I know this because the kids mags parents came over to see the kids. This is Mikey Fitzpatrick is the dad. And he explains that he's not an educated man, Mikey. And he's got a thick Irish accent and he's hard. Basically made him sound like he's a fucking leprechaun troll who came over.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here. He's Shrek. He's a big dum.

[James Petragalo]

Dum. Yeah, yeah. So he said, he came over and he said, what do you think about Jason? Do you like Jason? Is what Tom asked Mikey. And Mikey said. He said, I don't know, a heavy accent and all. But he said, no, he fucking killed my.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Daughter.

[James Petragalo]

Oh. So he said he killed that. So this is his second wife he was going to try to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kill.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Now his story changes a little bit too. His narrative changes a bit. Tom's. It featured Jason catching the baseball bat mid swing and dragging Molly toward the bathroom while being beaten, wrestling the bat away, pushing Tom to the ground, and then somehow losing the bat again. In Tom's story, Jason grabbed the bat away from him. A 260 pound man in a bedroom with an aluminum baseball bat and has shoved a 65 year old man to the floor. Right. Somehow that 65 year old man ends up with the baseball bat back again. And that's from the brick.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kidding. A naked.

[James Petragalo]

Man. Naked man. That's a giant, fat, naked man. Give me a goddamn break. And they said, well, how'd you get the bat back? And I said it before, but I don't know, I was scrambling. He. He said, yeah. Which is. I was scrambling is not an answer. And she says too, like, I don't remember all of it because, you know, it was like there's bits and pieces that are missing and he would.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know. I don't know every fucking thing that happened to you in that moment.

[James Petragalo]

Right. I mean, sometimes people lose moments of time. You get in a car accident. People don't remember the accident happened.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But that's in a blink. This is a. You're. Somebody just beat a man to death. That takes a.

[James Petragalo]

While. Everybody's brain works different when it comes to that, but there's little details that are different. Like in the picture of Molly, one of the things that's very interesting is she has a very delicate bracelet that's perfectly intact on her wrist. She was just trying to pull hands from her throat and fighting and literally a death struggle with this person and her very delicate bracelet didn't break. Those bracelets break if you catch them on a thread on your fucking pants. Tom, also clean as a whistle. 65 years old, battling with somebody 30 years younger than him, outweighing him by.

[Jimmy Whisman]

£100.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. That is crazy. They just said it's life or death. They wrestled for control of the bat. It was horrible, Everything like that. Now the assistant district attorney says you cannot be engaged in a donnybrook like they described with a man who is bigger than you, stronger than you, taller than you, and not have a mark on you. It's just not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Possible.

[James Petragalo]

Right. Logically, it's really hard to say that. You know what I mean? Hard to say that that's possible, you know? So why were the parents there that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Day? Yeah, they were there to visit.

[James Petragalo]

Right? Yeah, they were just. They canceled plans to get there and everything. Well, Tom doesn't say that, though, when he's in the interrogation room. He said, oh, we just said it was a beautiful Saturday, sun was shining. We didn't have any plans at all that weekend. Yeah, so he said, it's a four hour drive. It's a beautiful day. Let's go see Molly. Let's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hop. Four hour.

[James Petragalo]

Drive. It's a four hour drive. Let's just hop in the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Car. It's an eight hour round trip. Let's pop over by big five, get a couple of sporting goods, head on down and bring some.

[James Petragalo]

Gifts. No.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Problem. All.

[James Petragalo]

Right. But the problem is, if he really didn't have plans and just went, that'd be fine, but he canceled his plans to go to north, so that's. He lied in the interrogation room about that, obviously. Allegedly. Whatever. So where the fuck was Sharon during all this? Because Mom. Yeah, where's she? All the other adults in the house are accounted for. Well, she says that she was sharing, sleeping down in the room there. She said she heard a scream, her husband got up, and then she went back to sleep. A.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Scream. He's got.

[James Petragalo]

It. It's all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. Yeah. Brad Pitt was just going down on me on that dream. I'm gonna try and get back to.

[James Petragalo]

That. Close your eyes real tight. She claims she woke up to a ruckus, but after Tom went to check it out, she just went back to sleep. Never checked. Never happened. Make sure the kids are okay. Her husband's okay, her daughter's okay. She never called 911. She just rolled back.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Over. She sleep.

[James Petragalo]

Great. Yeah. And when officers arrived, she was described by police officers as, quote, surprisingly calm, given that her son in law had just been beaten to death upstairs by her husband and daughter. Yeah, super calm. Just whatever these people. Her statement is, quote, during the middle of the night, I woke up, the dogs were barking. I could hear Molly screaming upstairs and some thumping. My husband said he was going to get going up to get them and calm down or he was going to call the police. He told me to stay there. I heard more screams and more thumping. And then she said it got quiet and the dog settled down, so she just went back to sleep. What the fuck are you talking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

About? Everybody could have just been massacred. But she's like, at least they're.

[James Petragalo]

Quiet. That's fine. Seems like everything's fine now. Holy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Shit. How.

[James Petragalo]

Lady? So then they. The next day, they bring the kids to the Dragonfly house, which is, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, they did. Kids that have had trauma and they're. Yeah, so they go to talk to Ronald.

[Jimmy Whisman]

McDonald. Minus. Minus.

[James Petragalo]

Cancer. Yeah. That's probably good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. So. Well, I mean, not the same. It's good they don't have.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cancer. Right, right. Right. This is mean. That's what the house.

[James Petragalo]

Is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Traumatic shit. That doesn't. Not a.

[James Petragalo]

Sickness. They find out a bunch of things that are very unexpected from these kids. Jack says that they have code words. Yeah, they have code words to call Tom and Sharon and tell them they're in some sort of emergency. And Tom and Sharon will come running and come to Knoxville, four hours away. All they have to do is call up, say the word and hang up. And they'll be in the car.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cauliflower, and they come.

[James Petragalo]

Running. It's Jack's word is galaxy, and Sarah's word is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Peacock.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. That's how it works. They're supposed to call their grandparents if things got bad, and then they'll come running. So Jack tells investigators, they say about the brick. He says it was for painting. They were going to make it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Pretty.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. So, yeah, they said that. They asked Jack, tell me why you're here. And it's the environment that you question a kid in. It's not a police interrogation room and it's a person trained. Yeah, trained to work with kids and all that kind of thing. They said, can you tell me why you're here? And Jack says my dad died and people are trying. My aunt and uncle from my dad's side are trying to take me away from my.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mom.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Sarah says I don't want to wake my dad up. And they say tell me why. And she says because he gets really, really angry because why'd you wake me up? And she also says the way she put it is very cute. She says she begins her story with not when I was four, not when I was five, but when I was six this happened which I'm like, the Irish are great storytellers. Even at this young age. She can tell a story not when I was four, not when I was five, but when I was six. The great potato famine started and ah, the family had to eat the peat from around the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Property. I like when kids do that. Kids do that a.

[James Petragalo]

Lot. It's awesome. I love that shit. She's cute as shit. Yeah, she's cute as shit. Yeah, it's adorable. So they asked her them about abuse and they said what did you see? And they said punching, hitting, pushing. Oh, they, you know, she said that her dad would get very mad. And Sarah said that she saw her dad hit her mom once because they say do you ever see her dad hit your mom? And she said once. And Jack said that we'll talk about. Jack said, but they said have anyone told you what to say when other people talk to you? And she said I'm just saying the truth. That's all she said. Jack is like young here. I mean this is young. He's like 10. And he says that my dad, I've witnessed my dad physically and verbally assault my.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mother.

[James Petragalo]

Interesting. A 10 year old used the words physically and verbally assault. I did not know those words together until I was 21 probably. So that's very interesting here. And the social worker explained all this thing and they talked to Sarah first and then social worker explained everything. And Sarah and Jack had just arrived home that night and they explained all of that. They said Jack, this is from their report. Jack states that he goes to Wahlberg Elementary. He states he's in the fifth grade. He says he does not like the principal. He states he's very demanding and mean. Yeah, he said that. Why? What he does not that he says what he does not like being home is that his parents fight physically and verbally. He stated his dad gets mad at his mom for no good reason. And he said he gets mad at her for simple things like she'll leave a light on, and he freaks out that she can't do anything right. Jack said that his dad says that his mom doesn't pay the bills on time, and she. He said it could be any simple thing such as leaving a light on. He said his dad curses at his mom. And he said he's seen his dad a few times. Hit his mom with a fist. And this. He's seen this a few times. They asked Jack where he and his sister are when the fighting is happening. And he said his room. He said sometimes mom and dad send he and his sister outside while they fight, or sometimes the parents will go in their room. He said it makes him feel sad. Yeah. He said he thinks about all this every day. And a lot of times he thinks about it during the night. It keeps him from sleeping. It's tough. It's tough for a kid here. And they said that Sarah stated that she saw her dad smack her mom across the room. She said that they pretended the kids would pretend they didn't see it when that happened. He said he also stated they would run. And there was one time when dad pulled mom's hair, and she stated that they were out in the hallway between the door and the garage and that her mom started to fall and got up and then went to the car. Okay. So they're saying everything Molly says is true. Mad, abusive. Jason.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is. These kids are just corroborating everything she says.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yep. The painted brick is exactly. He said. Yes, we make it pretty exactly like she said. Same words. So during the autopsy, they find out that Jason, number one, was naked on the floor. His skull was so destroyed that it's described as caved.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Boy. The back of his head is hit so many times that medical examiners can't count the blows because they overlap. They said it's at least 12, but it could have been a lot higher because the damage was so extensive. Some blows landed in the same spot, making the count impossible. Multiple scalp lacerations, Extensive skull fracturing. His scalp was literally ripped from his skull in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Places.

[James Petragalo]

Wow. His skull was crushed. The medical examiner estimated that four of the blows could have been fatal individually and that eight of the blows would have rendered him unconscious. And then the other ones. Who.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Knows? Who.

[James Petragalo]

Knows? Yeah. They also found evidence that there was at least one blow delivered post mortem. Dead.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Already. And they're still that takes so.

[James Petragalo]

Long. When you see the pictures too of the blood spatter down there. I mean I am no blood spatter expert and I'm not. Not trying to dunning Kruger this shit at all. But just the basic science of blood spatter is the things, you know where the blood goes. If it comes this way, it meant it came from here and went there. It's a halfway up the wall and it looks to me like the blood came from below and went up on the wall. It's got the tentacles coming away like going on top of the wall. So that would mean that that's how it shooting up. Shooting up from the floor. So he's on the floor. You don't need to hit him anymore. He's right on the floor getting leave the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Room. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Right. You can get away danger at that point and go so. And he's. And after all those blows to the head or any of them would have rendered him unconscious if not killed.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Him.

[James Petragalo]

Right. And you need to keep working.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Him. And you're hitting something on the ground that is so bloody that it's splashing.

[James Petragalo]

Every. Dude, the blood in this scene is sick. It's insane. There's blood.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Everywhere. Not a lot of people are still charging bleeding like.

[James Petragalo]

That. No. That's the thing when you're.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bleeding. Yeah. You're fighting to keep this body moving. That's crazy.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. The coroner said that they saw similar wounds on car crash.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Victims. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Wow. You know, with a 3,000 pound car crashing into them. They said they were unable to say how many times he was hit in the face either. But the wounds were consistent or inconsistent and appeared to be made by different weapons. Meaning not just one hit with the brick to the face is what they're saying. The police did uncover the landscaping stone. It was picked up as possible evidence because it's got blood and fucking hair. Everything's got blood on it, but it's got hair on it too. They said some wounds are made with this brick. Neither Molly or Thomas mentioned that at the time. There was an indication that he was also hit after death like we said. Now the toxicology report is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Also. Yeah, that's fascinating.

[James Petragalo]

Right. Interesting that they find toxicology found trazodone in his system. Oh, he doesn't have a prescription for trazodone, but Molly does. But people take each other's medication like that all the time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. You know, what's the next between.

[James Petragalo]

Friends? Yeah. I go. When I went to the dentist, they prescribed me Ibuprofen 800. Sarah had I gave her one. Who cares? You know what I mean? It's. You're married, you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Know. Don't go admitting to crimes, James. Is that.

[James Petragalo]

Crimes? Giving my wife an ibuprofen 800? I don't think that's a crime. No, I think we're okay with that. No, I think we're all right. Inside the house. It's literally just for Advil. There's no drugs in it or.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anything. It's not coding. You can take a handful of Advil or just take one of.

[James Petragalo]

These. I'll take one of these. So they said that the number of sleeping pills found would certainly have knocked him out if he never used them before. If he had no, you know, any kind of buildup for them. The lack of defensive injuries suggests that he was unconscious as. Also, there's no defensive wounds on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anybody. What the.

[James Petragalo]

Hell? That's not a fight, dad. No, with a baseball bat and a brick and grown people in a small room together. Not a small room. A masterpiece. That's an ambulance. It's a lot. So that's interesting. They said also if he was attacking Molly and she was trying to get him off her, there would be at least a couple of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Scratches. On her, you'd.

[James Petragalo]

Think. Or on him. She was scratched him also. There's nothing like that. There's nothing under her fingernails. The medical examiner concluded that Jason was. It doesn't look like an accident to them. Or self defense. Even so the blood alcohol. Because they keep saying he'd been heavily drinking all day. He was drunk and wild. You know those Irish. Yeah, drunk and.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wild. You wake up us a sleeping drunk Irishman.

[James Petragalo]

Watch. Of course you're gonna get choked. Well, his blood alcohol level was.

[Jimmy Whisman]

0.02. Oh, he had a glass of wine with dinner. That's.

[James Petragalo]

It. Six hours ago, maybe. Yeah, in a 260 pound man, that's not anything. Plus, he's Irish. At 0.20, he's fine. Probably. He can probably.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Function. Yeah, you could fix those numbers around. And he's so.

[James Petragalo]

Fine. Yeah, that's the legal limit to drive in Ireland. I think you're fine. 0.20. Ah. You going back to the bar, laddie? All right, then. Get on back there. Yeah, that's just for morning coffee. The patterns on the walls shows that J of blood show that Jason's head was 12 to 18 inches off the floor when some of the blows were struck. That meant at least some of the beating occurred when he was already on the ground, not standing or fighting like they had said Tom. They Must have been standing over him, just beating him. That's what the indications are. Also, high velocity blood spatter on the hem of Tom boxer shorts because he was wearing boxers and a T shirt up here. The prosecution later will argue that this is consistent with Tom standing over Jason as he delivered the blows. Blood flying up from the impact. The. This blood was never tested on his boxers, which is odd. But the blood spatter expert says that dents are visible in the wall of the master bedroom. You can see there's dents down low. Oh, where they.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Probably. Yeah, hitting the bat against.

[James Petragalo]

It. So they say that it was multiple times. Yeah, that's how it happened. And also, evidence indicates that a vacuum cleaner with blood on it was moved before the investigators arrived at the house and started taking pictures. They said that they used special equipment to take pictures of the red polo shirt and plaid boxer shorts that Martins was wearing and the pajamas that Molly was wearing. And they said that the. They talked about the impact spatter, the saturation of blood staining the carpet. It was also on the bed skirt. Evidence suggesting that Jason was struck first. Struck near the bed. Like I said, there was a vacuum cleaner sitting upright at the west wall of the master bedroom. And he said there were blood spatters behind the vacuum and a pattern of blood spatter flowing from side to side on the vacuum cleaner. Oh, he said it was either. It tells me that the vacuum cleaner was on its side when the blood deposited on the vacuum cleaner and it was long enough for it to dry. It shows an alteration of the scene prior to the photographs being taken. Why would we move the vacuum? Who.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Knows? What's the.

[James Petragalo]

Deal? We don't know. And also, the concrete brick had blood and tissue fragments on it. And it was used more than once to strike something because it had it in different parts. So back to the investigation. Our neighbor reported seeing an unidentified vehicle at the house in the early morning hours that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Night.

[James Petragalo]

Why? Before anybody arrived, emergency services or anything like that. The vehicle was never traced. Nobody ever figured out what that was that about? Who knows? Also, Jason's laptop and phone weren't found.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Somehow. What is that.

[James Petragalo]

About? I don't know. That's what they said in the story. So now, within 48 hours of Jason's death. I don't know. What. I don't remember what source. This is from. A newspaper source? I believe so. I'm not sure the exact truth of this, but this is what was reported. Molly took $30,000 from their joint account. This is within 48 hours, spent 5,500 on a forensic deep clean of the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

House. Oh, I mean, I guess, yeah, you have.

[James Petragalo]

To. To attempted rapid cremation. That they said, hold on now, sister, Slow down. She filed for guardianship and the $500,000 life insurance. Apparently, the children had been removed as beneficiaries weeks before the death of the life insurance. And we don't know who made those changes, apparently. So they bring the kids to court to see where they're going, because they don't. They're. They're not with a parent at the moment. Sure. And the court. I mean, it's not even close. It's black and white, open and shut. Says in his will, yeah, they go to his sister. They're from Ireland. They're Irish. Their whole family is there, their cultures. And the judge goes on culture, religion, this, that, everything says they belong in Ireland with their family. Why would they stay in Tennessee with you people? You're not even related to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Them. You can file for life insurance if you. Well, I guess. I mean, is it self defense? Is that all.

[James Petragalo]

Right? Self defense. She's gonna give it a shot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anyway. That's a fascinating.

[James Petragalo]

Choice. So the judge returns them to Ireland under sister Tracy's watch here, after the children moved to Ireland. This is crazy. Apparently, allegedly, Molly hired planes to fly banners over their school. And she has a. No, she's not supposed to contact them. And she contacted Sarah's classmates on social media to try to get an in, which is real.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy. Can't do that flying a.

[James Petragalo]

Plane. Hi, Sarah. Greetings from.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Knoxville. Like paying somebody to fly it with a.

[James Petragalo]

Banner. Like a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Banner. The hell is going.

[James Petragalo]

On? I don't know, man. January 6, 2016. Five months later, they're final. Tom and Molly are arrested. They heard nothing for five months. They did their interviews. I think, like, two weeks later, they went and talked again, and that was it. So the investigators told Molly at the night of the killing, based on all of her stories and before the autopsy came in, this looks like self defense to me. Sure. She said, you know, he beats me. Because when they were asking her, they said, he's gotten physically violent with you? And she said, yeah. And they said, more than once? And she said, yeah, how many times? More times. And you can count. And she said, a.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Lot.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. So there was that. But they are charged with second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter, I assume. Let the jury choose between the two. So Molly's uncle said, I mean, of course they're devastated. They were both aware of the possibility that they might not walk out of this courtroom.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. I mean, there's. I don't like the.

[James Petragalo]

Bat.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No. I don't like that he brought the bat and then had it downstairs with him. And then upon hearing a scuffle.

[James Petragalo]

Grabbed the bat and that he just brought into the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

House. He brought. Yeah. That I don't like at.

[James Petragalo]

All. If the bat was already in their bedroom and he just picked it up, that'd be one thing. But he brought a bat from Tennessee or wherever the fuck he bought it and then brought it upstairs. It's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy. It brought it downstairs with him and.

[James Petragalo]

Then. And then brought it back up with him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's. I don't like that at.

[James Petragalo]

All. Now, the big thing that people can. The reason why people are saying that, you know, there are a lot of people are on Molly's side here with this. Is that the kids. There's video of these kids talking about that dad beating my mom up and all this type of shit. Then by next year, though, when the kids are in Ireland for a while, they change their story. Oh, yeah. The DA talks to them and they claim Molly told them to say everything they said and coached them very thoroughly. She said, Jack said that Molly told him, if you don't tell this, we'll never see you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Again.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. You'll lose your mom and your dad's already dead. You will just be gone somewhere. They claim Molly coached him and Sarah to lie, including allegations that Jason had killed his. Their.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Mother. Tell them this.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yes. He said that Jack said that he was punished by Molly. Had to put his face under a faucet, waterboarded the kid, essentially allegedly here standing. Because he didn't call her mom. Yeah. He wrote. He'll later write a statement calling her a murder, a murderer. In this, they say, is it true that your father was abusive or. False. And he says, false. They said, what did Molly say to you? He said, we were going to do an interview. She was saying a lot of story, a lot of story. Making of stories about my dad saying that he was abusive. And she started saying, if you don't lie, I'll never get to see you again. You'll never see me again. And they both said that. Sarah says the same thing. Molly coached them, told them exactly what to say. Sarah later on said, I lied in those interviews and I'll always have to live with that. But Molly had gotten into our ears at such a young age. Molly started telling me that my dad killed my birth mom when I was six years old. She told me my dad was a bad man. We Were sat down by the Martins and Molly, and they told us we had to say that dad was a bad man and that he hit her and that if we didn't say those things, that we would be separated and that we'd never see each other again. Jack and Sarah, not only them, you won't see each other.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Again. She is.

[James Petragalo]

Diabolical. Sarah said so we were really scared, and we lied. They have no reason to lie, these kids. None. There's no re. Out of everybody in this story. I believe the kids the most. They have the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Least. Have anything to gain, and they have the most experience. The. The things that they're. Because as a child, when things happen to you that are traumatic like that, your body creates the things that you. That are there that are traumatic. You remember the motherfuck out of.

[James Petragalo]

That. Unfortunately, you'll live those over for the rest of your fucking days. Sarah. It's so sad, too, because Sarah says, I feel like my mom and my dad dying is my fault. My mom was awake. My mom was awake to feed me when she died. And this time I woke the house up with my nightmare, which that might not even be true. They might have been about to do this, and then she had a nightmare and like, oh, shit. Get her back to bed. Yeah, we don't know. That might. She might not even woke everybody up, but in her heart, that's what she feels. I mean, I feel horrible for these kids. And these kids seem like they're pretty. Pretty well adjusted. They seem real smart and strong, but. So attorneys for Molly and Thomas are. They are trying to get a change of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Venue. Oh, they want to go somewhere.

[James Petragalo]

Else, get it out of Davidson County. Saying that the news organizations have published what they consider false information. So they don't want the jury having this false information. The judge said he wasn't entirely convinced that the trial should be moved out of the county. He said, quote, I just don't see it. Yeah, I think you're good. July 2017. It's trial.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Time.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Second degree murder for the two of them. The jury is nine men and three or nine women and three men or manslaughter. This is second degree murder or voluntary.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Manslaughter.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Both families turn out. The Irish contingent all fly in. They take up one side of the court. The Martins are on the other side. It's a lot. Tracy said, what was it like to be so close, sitting in the same room with Molly and Tom? It was very difficult. You're sitting there looking at two people that had done something that Was so malicious, insidious and.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ferocious. The.

[James Petragalo]

Irish. That's right. The aptitude for attitude, as we found out from the Irish turn of phrase. Boy, not when I was four, not when I was five, but when I was six. They know how to turn that phrase. Aptitude for attitude. That was great. The prosecutor here in this case, during the trial, in the opening, said, we thought we had evidence stacked up a mile high. The viciousness and violence and excessiveness of the injuries that Jason suffered is really the cornerstone of our case. They present the autopsy, finding the at least 12 blows to the skull. The photos of Tom and Molly with nothing on their.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bodies. Not a.

[James Petragalo]

Mark. Lean. Yeah. He said they didn't have a scratch, an abrasion. Molly had a delicate bracelet on that night she continued to wear throughout this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Trial. Paper thin.

[James Petragalo]

Skin. And he's fine. Didn't even cut himself. They presented the blood spatter evidence that he was struck in the head when he was 12 to 18 inches off the floor. They presented the toxicology that the drunken claims of being wild and drunk aren't true because he was Plano 2, for Christ's sake. What are you gonna do here? So he said, the prosecutors will prove that Molly and, you know, Tom hit Jason multiple times at the bat, the paving stone. Dr. Craig Nelson, coach himself, the medical examiner testifi testifies that when he took the scalp off Corbett's head for examination, chunks of skull fell onto the examining.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Table.

[James Petragalo]

Jesus. They said, you're gonna see pieces of his skull that looked like a hard boiled egg got dropped on the counter. The defense is very simple. Self defense. That's it, really. That's what they said. It's self defense. They said that, you know, Tom and Sharon had driven to see the kids. They said they hadn't seen the grandchildren in six months. Oh, it's just a quick four hour drive. They said they called Molly and told her they were coming. And they arrived, they got there and, yeah, they went to bed. Martin's was. Tom was planning to play golf and spend time with Jack and Sarah, even if Jack. And even give Jack the little league baseball bat he got for him. But, you know, he said he knows upstairs is his daughter. When he hears the thumping, he knows upstairs is his grandchildren. He doesn't know what he's facing. So he grabs this bat and he goes up there and he finds this guy strangling his daughter. My God. He said he struck Jason until he let Molly go. And Jason was down in the bedroom. Then he called 911 and performed CPR. He said, I hit him just till he let go of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Molly.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. She. Yeah. Interesting. They talk about the 12 different blows to the head. They said that it was unable to determine how many times he was hit in certain places because it was crushed in the 911 dispatcher, they testify as well here, saying that, you know, they've done been doing this for 16 years and that CPR is exhausting and that many people who perform CPR are out of breath. But Tom never appeared out of breath on the phone. He's a 65 year old man. She said, I noticed he was not out of breath. He didn't sound like most people do when they're doing CPR. How often does a 911 operator hear people doing CPR?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Constantly. All the time. Yeah, he said he was in bad shape. What does that even mean, you know.

[James Petragalo]

260. Yeah. You know, he could drop a few. I'm going to be honest with you. So the dispatcher also said that Molly appeared to be a little excited and yelled out the counts for the compressions as if she wanted to make sure that the dispatcher.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Heard. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Right. Just didn't sound right to the dispatcher. So Tom's co worker here, Joanne Lowery, who worked with Martins at Oak Ridge Laboratory and the counterintelligence office in Tennessee here, she said about two months before Jason was killed, she sat beside Tom on a Monday and asked him how his weekend went. And he said, oh, the kids came home and we're always glad to see them at home, but we're glad to see them leave is what he.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Said.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Then he talked about Jason and said that son in law, I hate him is what Martin's told her. This was months beforehand, which if he was abusive to the daughter, he.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Would have, he would.

[James Petragalo]

Have. But if he just hated him and he just hated him. She said that Martin's expressed his dislike of Jason in 2011, before they even got married, before he ever came.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here. Didn't like him.

[James Petragalo]

Ever. She said it was just a discussion of his pre wedding celebration. Jason, his friends were coming to their home, the Martins home. He indicated his dislike for Jason and his rowdy friends. There are a bunch of Irish guys at a bachelor party. What do you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Want? They're the.

[James Petragalo]

Worst. Yeah, they're gonna be rowdy. Keep them away from all comedy clubs. But if you're in the house, you gotta expect.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This. Don't be near them. Watching.

[James Petragalo]

Soccer. Yeah, what if there's a game on? Under cross examination, she said she couldn't remember exactly when in 2015 that Tom made the statement about Jason Corbin just a couple of months before the murder. She also said that Tom had been in a good mood, but his attitude had changed when he mentioned Jason Corbett. Now, this testimony was very much contested. Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent an hour and 15 minutes arguing outside the presence of the jury over whether this lady should be allowed to testify and whether her testimony should be limited in any way. They argued that the testimony with the defense said it's irrelevant and prejudicial and hearsay, arguing that the state's theory of the case involved allegations that Molly and Martin's acted in concert. That means that these statements implicate Molly also. So that's bullshit. And then that sets up a possible violation of Molly's constitutional rights because her attorneys either have no chance or limited opportunity to confront Lowry on cross examination. Okay, so the district attorney, though they argue that it's relevant testimony because it goes to malice. And they said that prosecutors haven't firmly committed to a theory of acting in concert and that they should not be barred from eliciting what they consider to be relevant testimony. So they agreed to allow the testimony, but only as a possible evidence of Tom's guilt, not Molly's guilt. Oh, can't count that for Molly. Told the jurors they also this. Lowry testified that Tom made his dislike for Jason well known among the counterintelligence unit. They all know he hate him, which was made up of 13 people, which is crazy. They bring in a drug expert for the prosecution that said the drug would have. It is unlikely that the drug would have had impairing effects on Jason. That's. The defense is saying that the prosecution saying he would have been impaired by the drugs. Tom.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Testifies. Yeah, you gotta talk. Yeah, you gotta talk about.

[James Petragalo]

It. In his interrogation, he sounded like. He sounded like he was describing an inconvenient small blip in his day that happened on his way to get coffee. That's the way he was describing it. So that's weird. So I understand that's gonna come off weird too. Tom said, I certainly felt he would kill me. I felt both our lives were in danger and I did the best I could. He said, once I got control of the bat, I hit him until I considered the threat to be over. You know the legal definition of how you do this. And when I considered the threat to be over, I quit hitting him. So the defense tries to present evidence about Jason's alleged abuse, but the judge excluded most of most of it, including the children's 2015 statements where they could talk about their dad hitting their mom and all that, all that shit we talked about, none of that comes in. Oh, they also don't allow in any of those.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Recordings. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Good. They said they're without context. They're without. We don't know what that means. Molly does not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Testify. She keeps.

[James Petragalo]

Quiet. Dad said, I'll take care of this now. During his closing argument here, the prosecutor used the actual murder weapons to make his point. He held up the bat, he held up the brick and slammed him over and over again into the prosecutor's table. And saying with every time, with ever increasing force, asking jurors to imagine that table was an Irish businessman's head. And every slam on the table was. They said it was so ear piercing in court loud. He also slammed the table with the concrete paving brick along with the bat. And they said this was a big deal. They said they didn't just rip flesh from bone. They said they crushed his skull. It takes I hate you force to do that. They beat him to the point that the doctor said, this is the type of injury we see in car crashes or a fall from a great height. They also walked over to the table and pointed to Martins and Molly and they said, they killed him. He killed Jason with a bat. She killed him with that brick. They literally beat the skin off his skull with the bat and the brick. They said, how much force does it take to split the flesh all the way to the skull? You know what malice feels like from the brick that Molly had, it feels like I hate him and I want those kids. That's what malice feels like. Said excessive force, postmortem blows, the motives, the fake cpr, as they said, because they said there's no blood on Tom's hands. When they got there delayed 911, the body was cold. They said, not self defense murder. So he said, Jason did not have to die. He did not have to die in his own bedroom. He didn't have to die with his children at the top of the steps. He didn't have to die at the hands of the woman he came to America for. He didn't have to die at the hands of her father. None of that had to happen. You have a duty to return a verdict that will deliver justice for Jason. The defense attorney said, no, none.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Of that is not true at.

[James Petragalo]

All. It's all garbage. He said, no, no reasonable fear. There's no malice inconsistencies in the prosecution's forensics. They said Molly had nothing to gain, apparently not in the the will, apparently she tried to get. There was reports that she tried to get the settlement from the insurance, but other reports that she didn't and that she wasn't in the will. So I'm not sure which one that is. They said Jason is larger and more aggressive than both of these people. They said the jury should be concerned about everything it didn't see. They said the prosecutor's blood stain pattern expert couldn't even be bothered to go to the house or review reports from paramedics. Also, they said they didn't use an accurate. They didn't use accurate diagrams of the house when drawing the conclusions. They also said that they didn't take photos of Tom in the plaid boxer shorts he was wearing. The only photos of Martin's were taken more than four hours later at the sheriff's department. When he's got khaki shorts on. That material anyway. Said he doesn't have to prove one thing to you. It's their burden. If they want to use their lack of evidence against him, folks don't let him do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That.

[James Petragalo]

Right. He said Tom Martin. Tom Martin's woke up from a dream into a nightmare sometime before 3am before he heard noises. He thought he was there to visit his grandchildren, his daughter and his son in law. But once he heard those noises, he grabbed the metal baseball bat he planned to give to Jack the next day and went upstairs. He spent his life defending our country. He served us. He's protected us. That's what Martins knows how to do. To.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Protect.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. The last thing he would ever expect to see is his son in law with his hands around his daughter's throat. And he did what he had to do to protect his daughter. He noted that Jason had received a diagnosis of depression and had a thyroid condition that he wasn't taking medication for. He also drank seven beers that night. You can say he drank a keg and a half when it happened. He was not drunk at.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All.

[James Petragalo]

Right. And they even say the prosecutor said 0.08 is North Carolina, you can drive. He's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

0.02.

[James Petragalo]

Right. And he should have gave a little wink and went. And he's Irish.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Too. Come on, this man could drive a bus right.

[James Petragalo]

Now. Yeah, it's no problem. They said that weeks before the death, he said he was stressed and becoming angry for no reason. He's obviously out of control. Yeah, it's all Jason. Not guilty on these two. Now, pre verdict, Molly and Tom give an interview to 2020 before the jury after the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes. After the trial, before they come Back.

[James Petragalo]

Wow. Wow. Like that night, I guess after the closing arguments. And they called Jason controlling and paranoid and described violent behavior that took place behind closed doors. So verdict comes in here. Three hours of deliberation. That's not much quick. Yeah, they're pretty sure about something one way or the other. They find them both guilty of second degree.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Murder. That's a. Oh, boy, that's.

[James Petragalo]

Good. So during sentencing, they say, you dad and daughter, right? You can have a daddy daughter date this way in fuck off.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Land.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. 20 to 25 years each they get. Now for Tom, that could be a death sentence. He's 67 years.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Old. Yeah, that's not.

[James Petragalo]

Good. That's terrible. So as Molly was led away, she turned to her mother in the courtroom and said, quote, I'm sorry, I should have just let him kill.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Me. Oh, come.

[James Petragalo]

On. That's what she said. So the reactions here, Tracy, sister of Jason, said it was overwhelming relief, really. They beat him horribly and viciously. And no human being deserves to leave their marital bedroom with their son. Skull destroyed like what happened to Jason. Molly's family's got a different view. Molly's Uncle Michael tells the 48 Hours and oh, no, this. He talked to the News and Observer and Molly's brother Connor were interviewed for 48 hours. Okay. He says, both Connor and I stressed that Tom and Molly did not receive a fair trial as outlined by the appellate briefs and oral arguments that we have. And more importantly, key evidence was never heard by this jury. An example were the interviews the children conducted, including two forensic interviews where both children stated they'd witnessed their father verbally, emotionally and physically abused Molly. Additionally, during my interview, I explained through evidence presented at trial, the numerous fictions being presented as fact in the Irish media. I also attempted to emphasize Tom's 31 years of laudatory service as an FBI agent, his 40 years passing detailed security background investigations. And neither Tom or Molly have any derogatory record. Now, Ernest was managing a Facebook page dedicated to freeing Tom and Molly. And he said the only evidence presented at trial regarding mental instability pertained to Jason. He said, no evidence presented regarding Molly. They should have brought her ex fiance in there. He's got some shit to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Say. How about Nurse Ratched or anybody in the fucking psych.

[James Petragalo]

Ward? So they file an appeal arguing that multiple errors have been made, and most significant, the exclusion of Jack and Sarah's statements, the ones that were obviously advantageous to her, not the ones later on. They described their father as violent and abusive. So they argue that. They argue that should have been included. They also argue that that should have been definitely included, they said, and that. That they. They made an alleged statement that Tom made, which was stated that the father of Jason Corbett's first wife told him that they blamed Jason Corbett for the death. So they should have let that in, too. Now, thing is, though, in an affidavit before he died, Michael Fitz ended up dying. The father. Mags Father, really. Later 70s or something, but. But he signed an affidavit saying, I never.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Told. I never said anything about that.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. And that's what her mom said, too. Mags mom said he loved Jason. We loved Jason. We all love Jason. Sister loved. None of us blamed him at all. He was sobbing over her corpse when she died, saying, please don't leave me. Please don't leave me. I love you. He didn't do it for two years, they said it's total bullshit. But one of Martin's attorneys has argued that that statement should have been admitted as a way to explain what Martins was thinking at the time of the death. But the autopsy shows obviously that a cardiac arrest stemming from asthma not being choked. Their defense attorneys, though. Yeah, they're in this documentary. They're insane, these two guys, in my opinion. They said what they say is, I think, insane. They said, she. It's right in the document. She kept telling her sister, I, I think I'm gonna die. I think I'm gonna die. They said, that's not someone with asthma. That's someone who's been strangled. And then there's a certain time where you're strangled and then you're fine, but then you die afterwards, even though you're not being strangled.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Anymore. That's a person that tells.

[James Petragalo]

You. Yeah. And he said, and look at her autopsy. It says no external injuries whatsoever. They don't tell you about internal injuries.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Though. Oh, come.

[James Petragalo]

On. The problem is any internal injuries that can come from the outside. Yeah. Show up on your fucking skin. These guys are pulling shit out of their ass, and they're saying that they really think he killed his first wife. And all this shit. It's fucking insane. So. Wow. They also said there was jury misconduct. There was evidence that jurors talked about the case outside of the deliberation. Specifically cited was jury foreman Tom Amland, who gave interviews in which he said there were private conversations. Nancy Perez, another juror, vomited after seeing autopsy photos during the trial. But she had told them that she had not eaten breakfast that morning. That's why she threw up. In an interview with 20 20, she said that the autopsy photos did make her sick. Yeah, she was trying not to look like a wuss at the time. So they say that they're. Yeah. Now the prosecutors say Molly and Martins were convicted by their too perfect self defense claim. Not consistent with the voluminous direct and circumstantial evidence that belied their choking story and the extensive evidence of Jason having been repeatedly bashed in the head by both defendants until he was dead. Together they created this fantasy to deceive the authorities and this jury in a fabricated story participated in. By both defendants acting in concert together to attain the ultimate result they intended. Yeah, they, they also talk about the discrepancies in like they argue about whether Jason was trying to transfer $60,000 to Ireland and who cares? And whether or not he was trying to apply for, for a business loan. And who knows that they're arguing about all this? Anyway, so January 2019 is when they hear the oral arguments. February 2020. This is very rare. This happens on a murder case. On the first appeal, the murder convictions are.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Overturned. Based on.

[James Petragalo]

What? Based on all of that self defense, I guess. The kids statements. If you don't show the kids statements, then you show the kid statements, you go, oh, that makes a big difference. Yeah, but then what about the kids statements? Since then, what about those.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Things? You may say that.

[James Petragalo]

Right? Yeah. So the court ruled that excluding the children statements was prejudicial and they're entitled to a new.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Trial. Well, the bummer is then you have to have the kids testify. And that's fucked up. That's, that's more.

[James Petragalo]

Torture. She. Well, they would have showed the videos of them. That's how they do it with little.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kids. Yeah, but the defense or the prosecutor is just going to have the, the kids testify that. And so now you're gonna have to, you're gonna make those children sit on the fucking stand. This woman's a fucking.

[James Petragalo]

Monster. Oh, there's an interview with Sarah, tears popping out of her eyes where she's saying they, they were just, they're just overturned. Like they're like, they're, it didn't happen. And she's.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very. Molly's a.

[James Petragalo]

Monster. They were like, oh, we're all going over there, the whole family, they're going, we're going to testify. We're going. Molly's brother said the kids statements that Jason was abuser. And those interviews were conducted in professional environments on multiple occasions where Molly was not present and to the allegation that they were coached by Molly. I mean the interviews were conducted by professionals. That's their job. They can only take it at face value. They're saying they were coached in Ireland because they did their interviews via a Skype call. So there must have been someone off camera giving feeding cue cards to the kids of what to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Say. The thing about an abused child is that they believe that their abuser can get them at any moment and that they have the longest arms on the. Because they've witnessed this person. What a silly thing to say out loud. Those kids, no matter what, are gonna feel that way. They're gonna feel like they can be got or whatever. Whatever threat is going to be followed up on no matter.

[James Petragalo]

What. So the state appeals this decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2024 by a vote of 4 to 3. Stretching it, they uphold the appellate court's decision, and it's still.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Overturned. Oh.

[James Petragalo]

Wait. What? They upheld the appellate court's decision to overturn.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It. Okay, so now we have to have a new.

[James Petragalo]

Trial. Yep. And they are released on $200,000.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bail. Get the fuck out of.

[James Petragalo]

Here. They're out and free. And that's when Sarah is not happy about that. Young Sarah. So there's gonna be a new trial. They said, oh, we're definitely putting them on trial again. The new defense strategy is to question Mags's death, to bring in the secret recordings. They're arguing. They have all the recordings. And one of the recordings Jack says he found in Jason's car and showed it to his dad. And he was like, what's. Why is this in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here? Look at.

[James Petragalo]

This. His dad was pissed. So she said she captured Jason being frustrated and short tempered, but she never captures physical violence, which is what she says he's constantly doing. You hear him talking to her like he is trying to stay in control of a volatile situation. No, of an unwieldy teenager. Like you said, we were doing this. And now you're doing this, Molly, why? So? I don't know. It sounds like a guy who wants a divorce, I'll tell you that much. October 2023. They end up getting a plea.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Deal.

[James Petragalo]

Okay. Basically, this trial would be a fucking mess again with the kids contradictory statements and everything like that. Tom pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Molly pleads no contest to voluntary manslaughter. They dropped the murder charges during sentencing. Dr. David Adams assessed Molly before this and concluded the primary focus of her existence. Existence before she married Jason was to adopt these two children, then divorce him and then have custody rights. She consulted a divorce attorney months before her wedding To Jason, the kids make victim impact statements. They get to do it. Finally, they get their say. It's great. In the car, before they go into court, they got her aunt. Their aunt and uncle are in the car with them. And they're like, going to this court. And he's like, all right, we're going to go in there. We're going to stick together. What do we say about this? Fuck these people. He says, fuck these people. They don't mean shit to us. And they're going in there. It's the total, like, Curb youb Enthusiasm. Fucking Robert Smigel. Fuck these people. They say that. He goes, no. The uncle says, oh, fuck these people. It was like, yes. These people are liars. They're saying all that. Jack stated in his impact statement that he saw a recording device in a Ziploc Baggie at the Martins house the day after his father was killed. Molly corroborated on the. On this documentary that there was a recording device on her nightstand in the bedroom where Jason died. They don't have that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Audio. Where the fuck is.

[James Petragalo]

It? The whole thing is recorded. Detectives believe there were up to 150 hours of secret recordings, but the DA is only provided with two hours of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Recording. What the.

[James Petragalo]

Hell? All very specific. Jason's upset recordings. So it was recorded, but gone. So it was at the Martin's house. So that was destroyed. So that tells me if you. If everything you're saying is true, you would want everyone to hear this recording. You'd want all the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Recordings.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. Yep. Sarah delivered an impact statement calling Molly remorseless and a monster, noting that she removed her wedding ring the next day after he was dead. Sarah also, and this is a big one, she talks about being.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Drugged.

[James Petragalo]

What? Sarah says she remembers being given tablets and cranberry juice by Molly that night. When she woke up later, her legs felt like jelly and it was like being on a moving boat. Jack was also given tablets before bed. That corroborates the theory that they must have been sedated. And that's how they slept through screaming and murder. So the judge says, you two may fuck off. 51 to 74 months in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Prison. Stop.

[James Petragalo]

It. And with time or for credit. Or time. Credit for time served. Pretty quick. Sarah said it was difficult to read the victim impact statement. There was a lot of emotion, but I think it finally gave me the chance to say something in a courtroom. I felt like I wasn't afraid of them anymore. They'd taken so much space in my life and I didn't want to give them power over me anymore. We have to live with the fact that the words that we said are part of the reason why Martins are walking free today. And I suppose that's why I wrote A Time for Truth. We'll get into that because it gave me a chance to just be completely honest about everything and put it in a book and let people read it. He said the Martins brought my birth mom into it, my grandfather into it, and all these people I loved have passed away since. And I just think this really shows the character of the people that The Martins are. June 6, 2024, they're released from prison.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Free. Get the fuck out of my life. They got three.

[James Petragalo]

Years. Three years, basically. So what does the audience think? Don't know. It's our audience. What do you guys think? Who knows? Fuck em. There's been some books here, but Tracy. I'll leave Tracy with the last word, she said. I smiled briefly to myself. This is the sister. As I realized, Jason eventually found himself back in the only place on earth he ever wanted to be, in the arms of his beloved Mags. I hope they're together.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Somehow. Oh, that's.

[James Petragalo]

Adorable. So Sarah writes a book called A Time for My Father Jason and My Search for Justice and Healing that's published in 2025. There's also a Deadly American Marriage is a book too, which is also a NETFLIX documentary that came out last year. Is A Deadly American Marriage with the same title? And there's also excerpts from Killer Gold Diggers by Anna Benton here as well in this book, in this thing. So there is a lot going on here. We will say and that everybody. These people. Fuck these people. God damn. Tom said I was gonna save Molly's life or die trying. And I have no.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Regrets. Oh, eat shit, old.

[James Petragalo]

Man. I was gonna say you have no.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Regrets.

[James Petragalo]

Really? Come on. So, all right, fitty, we get.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You. Yeah.

[James Petragalo]

Yeah. I'm a die trying. So yeah, the book, by the way, comments on the documentary saying that they did a good job on it there based on the book. So there you go, everybody. If you like the story, get on whatever app you're listening on, give us five stars. It helps amazingly and tremendously. So please do that. Head over to shutupandgivememurder.com get your tickets for live shows starting out in February on the 21st in Nashville. They're selling out fast. Then we're in Durham. Atlanta. Phoenix is sold out. Salt Lake City's sold out. Denver, sold or Denver. No, Denver has tickets. Buffalo, sold out. Royal Oak. Milwaukee. Minneapolis. Dallas. San Jose, Sacramento, Tarrytown, Boston. Get your tickets right now. Shut upandgivemerder.com follow us on social media, on Instagram, Smalltown murder on Facebook, Smalltown Pod. Hang out with us there. Keep coming back. Get yourself patreon. Patreon.com crimeinsports. Get you everything that you don't have already. First of all, hundreds of back episodes immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder. This week, crime and sports. Super bowl halftime shows, where they were, where they've come to Small town murder. Dean Corll and Wayne Henley. John Wayne Gacy's idols, basically. And his people he looked to for tips. It's gonna be crazy stuff. Patreon.com crimeinsports and you get a shout out at the end of the show, which is right now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the people who are so goddamn wonderful and don't keep bricks on their nightstands. Hit me with them right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now. This week's executive producer, Gary Howard and Home Livingston to.

[James Petragalo]

Texas. Oh.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Boy. For you. And then sales. I. I don't want to call you just Serge. Siddi Sedan. Oh, isn't it sales? Isn't that. What? What? Bronson Pincho. Come on, Sales.

[James Petragalo]

S. The white wine spritzer is very.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nice. Call me.

[James Petragalo]

Sales.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Says Surge. What is surge? Other producers this week, Liz Vasquez, Peyton Meadows, Ryan Bender, Janice Hill. Jack with no last name. Chris Green. I broke it. Joe Copeland. Yep. Kelton. Yeah, Kelton. Kinghorn. Robert and Tracy junior. Joe C. Probably not Kid Rock sidekick because I think he's incredibly.

[James Petragalo]

Dead. No, that little guy. I've always hated Kid Rock. Hate Kid Rock. Always hated it if he came on instead of channel.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Change. He had a gimmick from the beginning. He had a little guy. And Josie was so much cooler than him. Josie had a dope lyric. I think it was in Devil. Devil without a cause. He had an amazing verse. I'll play it for you one day.

[James Petragalo]

Wendy. No, you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Won'T. I guarantee you it's.

[James Petragalo]

Josie. I won't listen to it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Guaranteed. Brendan with no last name. Nurse Sourpuss. Tom. What is this? Tamiko. Tamiko Harrison. Is that what that says? It does. Stephanie Nicholson. Muggins with no last name. Desiree Clemens or Clemens. Greg Sankowitz. Sanki. Thank you. Wits. Kristen Tons. Tossack. Toss. Check, Talk. Check. Tom Partridge and the Family. Ricky Lambert. Alan Ramirez. Shirelle. Cheryl. Cheryl Bird the Third. Marnette Shelley. Rebecca Adams. Chandra Hendricks. Joshua H. Veronica Zakova. John Smith. Joe Throckmorton. Warren Shur. Lap. Lisan. Chris Smith. Barbie C. Kristen Graves. Leah Open. Oprah. Oprah. Chill. Becca with no last name. Saray. Sarai. Kettle. Ketl. Kettle Cattle. Patrick Lilly. Raver. Rave. The wrong Mexican. Bradley Hewitt. Sally Skiru. Skru. You say it slow and it's like you get all right. Becky.

[James Petragalo]

Gilligan. Redneck. Talking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

About. Yeah. Ayala. Ayla. Ayla. Giovannetti. Giovanny Dirg. Man 34. Liz Chaps. Chapaski. Chapsky. Linda Lindley. Lindley Davis Beck would know last name. Carrie Giddings. Josh Erickson. Monty. Monty are Monty R. Jones. No, no other ones. The one with the middle initial R is the Monty. Jackie Schultz. Ladiva. Like Lady Godiva. Jay Bird's mom. Jake with no last name. Chrisanne Weimer Soto. Mike. Mike the Wicked Gaper. What? Tina Clauder. Mike. Take it easy. Tyler Van Dusen. Just go slow. Low and slow.

[James Petragalo]

Buddy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ab. Probably not that one. Becky Meston. Rachel Raskovich. Mike with no last name. Natalie Ruben Koenig. Heather Sky. Scott Atwood. Lisa Marshall. Eula Dean Ross with no last name. David Burke. Maxandra. Michael with Gerald. Michael. Gerald Maxandra had no last name. Jessica Simon. Kate with no last name. Riley Crossman. Crossman. Karen Murray Jordan Gregory Garnett. Garnett Cosai with no last name. Bethany Fralich. Cat with no last name. Carrie liked the book. Okay, like. Oh, the book. All right, I'm on board. Frog on a leaf wearing a chill hat. Brian Kulai. Kujay Kujet. Rebecca Richardson. Jake Sullivan. Michael Richards. Oh boy. Levi Dinger. Destiny Ricketts. Nicole Lawler. Zach Roberts. Samantha Velasco. Bonnie with no last name. Nick with no last name. Declan. Declan with no last name. Karen with no last name. Tyler Garrick. Jessica Snow. Jody Friesen. Killer Mike Beef Tips. Ew. Shelby Black. Patrick Baker. Met Louis Meta. Is M E T T E. Is that Met or Meti or mate or.

[James Petragalo]

Met? You got.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Them? All things. Louisa Barker, Carrie Rashe, Rishi Rash, Amy White, Anna Boyle, Zane B. Olivia Osterberg. And everybody, the patrons of the show. You guys are the best. Thank.

[James Petragalo]

You. Thank you so much, everybody. You fantastic, wonderful bastards. You want to follow us on social media, shut up and give me murder.com has drop down menus that will find you wherever you want to go. Hang out with us. Keep coming back and until next week, it's been our pleasure. Small Town Murder is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, but potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Most people overpay for car insurance not because they are careless but because switching feels like too much hassle. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease. Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls. No hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1,300 a year. Switch with confidence. Download the Jerry app or visit Jerry AI Libson today. That's J E R R Y AI.