Episode 6: The Journal Building

Summary

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The Peacemaker – Episode 6: The Journal Building

Date: November 18, 2025
Hosts: Ben Westhoff and Ryan Krull
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode delves deep into the “Journal Building,” the notorious off-campus apartment complex in Kirksville, Missouri, that became a backdrop for two deaths closely linked to Brandon Grossheim—the central figure in the Truman State suicide cluster. Hosts Ben Westhoff and Ryan Krull explore the physical space where these tragedies unfolded, examine Grossheim’s complex relationships with the victims, and detail the strange, lingering atmosphere of the building. The episode features first-hand accounts from former residents and friends, shedding light on questions of influence, guilt, and the burdens of collective trauma.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Journal Building and Its Deaths (02:37–09:08)

• The Journal Building was notorious for hard partying, raucous behavior, and a series of tragedies. It was described as “pre-game and post-game party central” for Truman State students (03:03).

• Two key deaths occurred here:

  • Alex Vogt’s suicide (January 2017)—Brandon Grossheim was one of the last to see him alive and opened the building for police.
  • Glenna Hott’s death (July 2017)—Cause: alcohol-induced liver failure; Brandon was the last person to see her alive.

• Cody Robbins, Glenna’s ex-boyfriend and tenant in the apartment, left soon after her death, leading friends to sign a large farewell card.

• Police focused on Grossheim after seeing his card signature: “Die Master.”

  • Key exchange:
    • Police: “You signed your name Brandon G. And it says Die Master.”
    • Brandon Grossheim: “Yeah, Die Master is Beer Die Master. It’s a beer drinking game.” (05:25–05:40)

• Despite Grossheim’s explanation, suspicions persisted due to his proximity to multiple tragedies and his odd behavior.

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Visiting the Journal Building (09:08–15:03)

• Ben and Ryan tour the Journal Building with Dalton McVeigh—a former roommate of Grossheim and ex-resident.

• Dalton is portrayed as quirky yet insightful, with “serious six degrees of Kevin Bacon connections” to the story (07:15).

• Their walk is peppered with quirky anecdotes (a “deer in a headlock” story, lavender plant-smoking, and banter about loud trucks).

  “[Dalton] just kind of standing there staring at me. Well, I walked up to him and I started patting him, and I just gave him a hug.”
  —Dalton McVeigh (09:11)

• The building was in disrepair—“trash and junk on the floors, holes in the doors… a washer and dryer just sitting out in the middle of the hallway” (13:59).

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Meeting Quinn: Life Inside the ‘Death Apartment’ (15:03–18:36)

• The hosts and Dalton meet Quinn, the current tenant of the infamous apartment.

• Quinn learned of its tragic history only after moving in; he notes the somber oddity but ultimately treats the place as “just an apartment” (16:06).

• Supernatural elements surface—Quinn describes “saging” the apartment and his girlfriend’s belief they encounter ghosts:

  “She hears knocking and stuff and she says that door moves all the time, that closet. But… I haven’t experienced anything too crazy.”
  —Quinn (16:35)

• The lofted bed area: a focal point where one death occurred. Quinn explains how easy it is to fall from, especially when drunk, supporting Grossheim’s account that Glenna could have fallen (18:20):

  “It’s difficult enough to stay in one of these lofted bed areas when you’re sober. If you’ve been drinking, falling out is a definite possibility.”
  —Narrator (19:38)

  “I think that is so believable.”
  —Quinn, re: falling out of bed (19:13)

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The Specter of Brandon Grossheim (18:36–21:54)

• Quinn is familiar with the “cluster suicide” story but confuses some details, referencing “Phi Lam” instead of Alpha Kappa Lambda (20:01–20:16).
• A spooky moment: a door blows open to reveal a mess inside Grossheim’s old apartment—“Domino’s delivery boxes flattened out on the floor, an overflowing, dirty laundry basket, a cat meowing at us… lacked the most basic things you'd expect… like a functioning door” (20:42).

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Tracing Brandon Grossheim’s Footsteps (25:48–29:40)

• After the Journal Building, Dalton leads a tour of Grossheim's other residences:
  • Apartment above Polly Eyes Pizza: Rundown, no hot water—“not what most people would consider like acceptable living conditions for a developed nation.” —Dalton McVeigh (26:30)
  • Fraternity-adjacent house: Targeted by arson and overrun with cats—and kittens. Grossheim was a noted “cat person.”
• Audio clips from Grossheim’s Facebook videos reveal a fixation with his cats, hinting at a turn toward isolation following the deaths (27:24–29:27).

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Brandon’s Decline—Substance Abuse & Isolation (29:40–31:30)

• Dalton details Grossheim's escalating alcoholism after the deaths:
  • “He had kind of, like, developed a pretty bad alcohol addiction… [eventually] full blown addiction. He would be drinking in the morning, like very visibly inebriated on the job.” —Dalton McVeigh (29:40–31:30)
• Grossheim became withdrawn, barely speaking to his parents, and coped with sadness through cats and poetry.

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Reflection & The Larger Mystery (31:30–32:55)

• The episode closes with a reflection on the urge to scapegoat Grossheim and a reminder to consider broader possibilities:

  “If you think Brandon is guilty of encouraging his friends to commit suicide, you probably don't have a lot of sympathy for him… But… what if the real problem, the more likely explanation for all these deaths, what was more obvious, what if it had been right in front of us the whole time?”
  —Narrator (32:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Die Master is Beer Die Master. It’s a beer drinking game.”
  —Brandon Grossheim explaining his nickname to police (05:40)
• “There was one time I got a deer in a headlock out there. Wild stuff.”
  —Dalton McVeigh reminiscing about Kirksville oddities (09:08)
• “I just sort of got the place saged. That was just my move.”
  —Quinn on moving into the apartment with a dark past (16:21)
• “He would be drinking in the morning, like very visibly, like, inebriated on the job.”
  —Dalton McVeigh on Grossheim’s alcoholism (31:16)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:37 – Introduction to the Journal Building’s tragic history
• 05:25 – Police investigation of Grossheim’s “Die Master” signature
• 09:08 – Entering the Journal Building with Dalton McVeigh
• 13:59 – Arrival at the infamous apartment, vivid description of the building
• 15:03–18:36 – Interview with Quinn, the current tenant
• 19:13 – Discussion about the plausibility of a fatal fall from the loft bed
• 20:42 – Direct peek into Grossheim’s old apartment, still in disarray
• 25:48–27:27 – Dalton’s tour of Grossheim’s various apartments and love for cats
• 29:40–31:30 – Dalton describes Grossheim’s increasing alcoholism post-tragedy
• 32:23 – Episode reflection: questioning the simple narrative of blame

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Tone & Language

• The hosts balance journalistic detachment with empathy for those affected, often using dry humor or candid, informal language (“kind of a dump”; “pretty wild place to live”).
• Dalton’s offbeat storytelling and Quinn’s laid-back candor inject levity into a heavy subject.
• The episode’s exploration of the building’s eerie ambiance (ghost stories, repeated door slamming) gives it an uncanny, haunted-house feel.

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Summary

This episode uses a boots-on-the-ground exploration of the Journal Building to humanize the broader tragedy at Truman State, highlighting physical realities, lingering lore, and the complex social web surrounding Brandon Grossheim. By interviewing current and former residents, the hosts demystify some elements while reinforcing the sense of unresolved trauma. Grossheim’s continued proximity to multiple deaths, his social isolation, and his descent into alcoholism underscore the dangers of scapegoating—and the challenge in untangling fact from speculation in a close-knit college town wracked by loss.

The episode closes with a teaser, hinting that next time, the hosts will further investigate whether the community’s collective grief may have obscured more prosaic but no less tragic explanations for the suicide cluster.

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Transcript

[Ben Westoff]

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[Narrator]

A warning. This episode discusses youth, depression, and suicide. These topics may be distressing for some listeners. As we noted in the last episode, Glenna Hott was different than the other victims in this story. Yes, Glenna, a dog trainer and bartender who'd come to Kirksville for a new life, interacted with Brandon Grossheim before her death, just like the members of the Kirksville suicide cluster. But she didn't die by suicide. Instead, in July 2017, she died of a ruptured liver, having basically drank herself to death. She was 29. She died in the apartment of her ex boyfriend, a guy named Cody Robbins. Cody wasn't there at the time, and they were no longer dating, but the stress of this tragedy had to be overwhelming. Before long, he moved out of the apartment. It was understandable, certainly, that he was shaken up after Glenna's death. Something like that would be enough to rattle anybody. Still, his neighbors were sad to see him go. They all lived in an apartment complex known as the Journal Building, and he was a big part of the social circle there. The Journal Building was a pretty wild place to live, and Cody and his friends, including Brandon Grossheim, partied hard. They blasted music. Things got crazy. The small Kirksville bar scene was right across the street, and so the Journal Building could be like pre game and post game party central. But the Journal Building had seen two recent deaths. The suicide of Alex Vogt and the death of Glenna Hott. Now, with Cody leaving, the party was truly coming to an end. And so before Cody moved out, he had a bunch of friends sign a card for him. It was actually a big piece of white tag board, and his friends left all sorts of funny and inspirational messages on it. There's a peace symbol, an anarchy symbol, and even a quote from Tupac. Even though you're fed up, keep your head up. It was also signed by Brandon Grossheim, whose message raised some eyebrows with police because in it he referred to himself as the Die Master. As in Die Master. Here again is Brandon talking about it with the Kirksville pd. Second photo I want to show you. This was a picture of like a. Almost like a poster board or a wall board or something. I'm gonna circle the parts that they want me to ask you about. You signed your name Brandon G. And it says Die Master. Yeah, Die Master is Beer Dye Master. It's a beer drinking game. Oh, okay. Never heard of it. I guess maybe that shows my age, but it's really Popular at Akla. I know other fraternities have their own variations of it. Okay, so just a beer drinking game, and obviously you were pretty good at it, but they're calling you the Master. I mean, it's all about hands on information and throw a die up to a certain height, sauce through the ceiling lamp on the other side of the table if you cup somebody drink. Now, as Brandon claimed to the police, dye Master was a cheeky nickname, referring to his prowess in a fraternity drinking game and not to anything sinister. But the fact remained that Brandon still had plenty of explaining to do when it came to the Journal Building tragedies. In this apartment that Cody was moving out of, two people had died. When it came to the first, Alex Vogt, who killed himself in January 2017, Brandon was one of the last people to see him alive. In fact, Brandon let the police into the building when they arrived on the scene. When it came to the second death of Glenna Haut, Brandon was the very last person to see her alive. As you heard in the last episode, he faced a battery of questions from police about the fact that she was found nearly naked, that he had scratches on his body, and the fact that he refused to submit to a DNA test. There's all sorts of outstanding questions when it comes to both of these deaths. And so today we're going to focus on the Journal Building, the off campus apartments where the death sentence happened. What was it about this place? And how was it that Brandon Grossheim was able to maintain his corrosive influence there? This podcast series tells the story of the most infamous suicide cluster in American history. It's a production of iHeart podcasts and cool Fire Studios. I'm your host, Ben Westoff, along with Ryan Krul. This is the Peacemaker. Producer. Ryan and I wanted to visit the Journal Building to better understand the environment these young people were living in. But we couldn't exactly just go barging in. And so Ryan and I got in touch with a guy who used to live there named Dalton McVeigh. Dalton McVeigh is a character. I love this guy. He's quirky, and he also has some serious six degrees of Kevin Bacon connections to people in this story. A lot of them. He's a former roommate of Brandon Grosseim, and they also work together at the local pizza place. Not only did Dalton used to live in the Journal Building, he was also a member of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, which was, of course, where three of the victims killed themselves. So to some extent, Dalton was in the middle of all of this while it was going down. He's a thoughtful guy, clearly very smart, but he also says some things that might throw you for a loop. Like what he said on our walk over to the Journal Building after I told him I'd gone running at a local spot called Thousand Hills Park. It's beautiful, but the trail is kind of punishing.

[Dalton McVeigh]

There was one time I got a.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Deer in a headlock out there.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Wild stuff.

[Narrator]

A deer in a headlock?

[Dalton McVeigh]

Yeah. Wow. He just kind of standing there staring at me.

[Narrator]

Well, I walked up to him and I started patting him, and I just gave him a hug. Dalton also showed us a lavender plant near the Truman State campus, which he says he smokes for the terpenes. And then he yelled at a guy who drove by in a really loud truck.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Oh, man.

[Narrator]

Look at that guy. You're so cool, man. What'd you say? I said he's so cool.

[Ryan Reynolds]

His truck is so loud, man.

[Narrator]

Aren't you impressed? Very loud. Yeah, very loud. Anyway, we finally arrived to the Journal Building. Dalton and producer Ryan scoped out the place to see how we could get in. But it turns out we needn't have worried. The side door was wide open, so we just walked in after all.

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[Narrator]

As I expected, the Journal Building was kind of a dump. Trash and junk on the floors, holes in the doors and then There was a washer and dryer just sitting out in the middle of the hallway. I thought they'd been abandoned, but no, it turns out that this was actually the laundry room. According to Dalton, however, this place was actually in better shape than when he'd been living there a few years back. So what were you saying? At least it looks like the roof's been fixed.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Yeah, like it used to be. A lot of these ceiling tiles were.

[Quinn]

Like, water damaged or broken or just fly out missing.

[Narrator]

There used to be a lot more.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Like holes in the wall like this.

[Narrator]

And some of them were very large and substantial. Anyway, eventually we made it to apartment two. Dalton, Ryan and I stood before the doorway. It was kind of freaky to be here. I mean, this is the apartment where two young people died, only months apart under unsettling circumstances. Finally, we worked up the courage to knock.

[Quinn]

Hey, how's it going, man? Can I help you? Yeah, so sorry to bug you. We're actually reporters from St. Louis. We're making a podcast. Oh, yeah. And some of the events of the podcast actually went down in this apartment.

[Narrator]

Oh, shit.

[Quinn]

Okay. Yeah. Wild.

[Narrator]

Yeah. I don't know. Have you heard about the Truman State suicides? Yeah, I knew some of those guys. Oh, you did? Who did you know?

[Quinn]

I knew the guy who hung himself in here. Oh, Alex. Yeah.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Oh, wow.

[Narrator]

I'm sorry to hear that. How? You know, just from living in the building, tangentially. Yeah, so. So, yeah, we were hoping just to, like. Do you mind if we see the apartment? Just to see what it's like? Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for letting us.

[Quinn]

I'm Ryan. I'm Quinn. Quinn, nice to meet you, man.

[Narrator]

It's Ben. It turns out the current resident, Quinn, had lived there about a year. He never met Glenna Hot. And knew Alex Vote a little bit, but not too well. As for the tragedies that took place in his apartment, Quinn said he didn't learn about them until after he'd already moved in.

[Quinn]

I didn't even realize I had any sort of connection to him until I even moved in here. I didn't even realize. Like, to me, it's just an apartment that I live in. And also, as far as I'm aware, two folks died in here.

[Narrator]

I asked him what it felt like to live in a place like that.

[Quinn]

You know, I lived here for about two weeks when I found out, and, you know, I just sort of got the place sage. That was just my move. And then my girlfriend says she hears noises, but I haven't experienced anything too.

[Narrator]

Crazy, like what, kind of like ghosts or something?

[Quinn]

She hears knocking and stuff and she sits that door, moves all the time, that closet. But.

[Narrator]

When you say. When you say saged. Just like someone. Like a shaman or someone, or.

[Quinn]

Yeah, just. I have a friend who's local, whose family is much more, like, in tune, I guess, with some stuff. And so she came into the sage role and just sort of cleansed the place, I guess, really, Just because, I don't know, my aunt's a witch or whatever.

[Dalton McVeigh]

I don't.

[Quinn]

I don't know anything about any of that stuff, but I believe that somebody probably knows better than I do. So when I first had moved in, there was, like, knocks and stuff, but she still used it. But I haven't heard nothing since I saved it.

[Narrator]

This was a lot to take in. We hadn't counted on ghosts. I hoped he at least wasn't paying too much. And so this building, is it, like, is it. What is your rent, if you don't mind me asking?

[Quinn]

575.

[Narrator]

Okay. It sounds like it's gone up a little since.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Yeah, it used to be much more reasonable, Steve. Doesn't surprise me.

[Quinn]

Here's my water, though. My electric's not too high because I got these big fucking windows.

[Narrator]

It did have cool windows and some nice exposed brick. But the apartment really wasn't much. It was basically a studio. And Quinn told us that Dan Vogt didn't own the building anymore. If you recall, we met Dan Vogt at the Wooden Nickel a couple episodes back. He's the father of the third suicide victim, Alex Vogt. In any case, the most intriguing part of this apartment was the lofted bed area, a small space right above the apartment's front door.

[Quinn]

Basically, in this, like, little corner area of the loft, there's a new plywood floor that wasn't there previously. It used to just be, like, a shaft. And that's where I was told he was found. I was told she died of, like, alcohol poisoning, just like here somewhere.

[Narrator]

This was a good segue for me to talk to him about. One of the sticky details from Brandon Grossheim's interview with police. Brandon said the afternoon of Glenna's death that he come over to check on her because he'd heard a loud thump that sounded like someone falling out of the lofted bed. That could potentially explain some of the bruises found on her body and take some of the heat off Brandon, who faced pretty intense questioning. But was this believable that she might have fallen out of the bed? Quinn said it was.

[Quinn]

I think that is so believable.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Oh, really?

[Quinn]

It's so believable.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Tell me more.

[Quinn]

Especially because this apartment down here, my buddy Blake used to live in there. His loft is like, narrower. Like his bed just barely fits in there. And I asked him. He added the little ledge that keeps him in his bed because he heard about the lady who rolled out. Yeah. Have you ever had an issue? No, because I sleep in a tiny bed.

[Narrator]

Basically, what Quinn is saying is that it's difficult enough to stay in one of these lofted bed areas when you're sober. If you've been drinking, falling out is a definite possibility. We continued talking to Quinn about Brandon Grosseim. He'd never met him. He had heard about this story over the years, but he had some of the details wrong.

[Quinn]

Is this the Phi Lam case?

[Dalton McVeigh]

No, this is Alpha Kappa Lam. No, I think there was, yeah, a different fraternity that had one or so.

[Quinn]

Incident a few years back. Phi Lam had a similar incident where a guy was basically just convincing people to kill themselves.

[Narrator]

Really? This sounds like the same thing. Yeah, this is the same thing. Yeah. But then, right in the middle of our conversation, the door across the hall just suddenly blew open. I was like, my friend, did the door just blow open?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, yeah.

[Narrator]

You weren't kidding about those doors. That's what I'm saying. You want to just pull it? Hello? Is anybody home? I don't know if it was a ghost or what, and I hadn't even realized Quinn's door was open. But suddenly we found ourselves staring into Brandon Grossheim's old apartment. No one was there, and Brandon didn't live there anymore. But the place resembled what it likely often looked like while he was living there. A total mess. Domino's delivery boxes flattened out on the floor, an overflowing, dirty laundry basket teetering atop a camping chair. A cat meowing at us. And of course, it lacked the most basic things you'd expect from an apartment, like a functioning door. There was even an extension cord dangling from the rafters, making me suspect that the apartment still didn't have electricity, years after Brandon had been complaining about it. Anyway, it felt rude to be staring into someone's apartment. So we closed the door, only to have it blow open again almost immediately. At this point, we were pretty much spooked. So we said goodbye to Quinn.

[Quinn]

You've been a very gracious host.

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[Ryan Reynolds]

A taco in one hand and ordering a ride in the other means you're stacking cash back. Nice. Get up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash on your favorite brands when you pay with your Venmo debit card. From takeout to ride shares, entertainment and more, pick a bundle with your go tos and start earning cash back at those brands. Earn more cash when you do more with Stash. Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply. Max $100 cash back per month. See terms at Venmo Me Stash Terms.

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[Narrator]

After we went to the Journal Building, Dalton gave us an impromptu tour of some of the other places where Brandon Grossheim lived during his time in Kirksville. It was a pretty short walking tour. I mean, Kirksville is a tiny place with the Truman State campus and the AKL house and the town square and the Journal building all basically within a few blocks of each other. I'm not exactly sure on the timeline of where Brandon lived when, but in 2019, Brandon and Dalton lived together in an apartment above Polly Eyes Pizza on the town square where both of them worked for a while. Dalton said this apartment was pretty grim.

[Dalton McVeigh]

I remember like the hot water didn't work. I mean not a particularly great like pretty rundown old apartment that like was not properly maintained, but certainly like not what most people would consider like acceptable living conditions for a developed nation.

[Narrator]

At a different point, Brandon also lived in this apartment with a girlfriend. Anyway, after that, Dalton also showed us a house near the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity where Brandon lived with a different roommate.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Interestingly, somebody tried to burn it down.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The summer they were moving in.

[Dalton McVeigh]

The vinyl siding was all smooth scorched up on the outside of the house. That was Brandon's room on the bottom floor. I know there was some contention from his cats. He very quickly got three cats in rapid succession.

[Narrator]

One had babies.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Yeah, there were multiple babies with the plants.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Wow.

[Narrator]

Okay, so just a little note about Brandon and his cats because he was really into cats. His former housemate at the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, Connor Templeton, said he had a bunch of cats and kittens there at the house. And then apparently after Brandon was kicked out of the fraternity. These kittens just kept on coming. This is from a 2018 Facebook video when he was living off campus somewhere. Long story short, this sweet little missy had a baby. Don't know if everybody can see that right there, but here, this little. Little buddy is little tiger. No idea if it's a boy or girl yet. I am expecting more to come. And then here's another one from two days later. Maddie. Whenever I came home last night, 11:30 was in the middle of having another baby, so he was having a little difficulty last night. He's been doing very well, guys. I'm really proud of you. Slow guy. It looks like he's gonna be all right. I'm expecting at least one more because Maddie is very fat, still better than normal, so we'll see how she does, but she's still, either way, very happy. So I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks. Forever paying attention. These videos and Brandon's fixation on his cats paint a portrait of Brandon's mindset following the suicide cluster and the death of Glenna Haut. The last death Glenna's happened in July 2017, and the coming years would be extremely difficult for Brandon. He was at the center of a police investigation, and though he wouldn't be charged, he was constantly discussed in the media and also had a lawsuit filed against him. For solace, he turned to his cats and according to Connor Templeton, began writing dark poetry. At the same time, his substance abuse ramped up. According to people who knew him, like, Dalton McVeigh.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Yeah, we had been roommates for, like, a couple months, and then just he had kind of, like, developed a, like, pretty bad alcohol addiction. And Brandon never, like, opened up too much about, like, his personal struggles regarding that stuff. I think, you know, he didn't want to be too much of a burden.

[Narrator]

Apparently, he was barely speaking to his parents around this time either. It seems like he may have been drowning his sorrows in booze.

[Dalton McVeigh]

Vodka was, like, his main drink of choice early on in his, like, drinking career, but, like, later on, like, whenever you'd, like, descended into, like, full alcoholism. Yeah, like, Aristocrat vodka was, like, consumed very heavily. He had already been, like, an alcoholic at that point. I don't know exactly when, like, he got to a point of, like, problematic drinking, but I know that, like, we. He had been working at a local restaurant called the wooden Nickel, and he had already developed a bit of a drinking problem. I don't know if I would go so far as to say, like, it was, like, full Blown alcoholism. But like, I think that's probably where it started was like working there. It wasn't a very good, like work environment. By the time, like we were working together at Polyey's, sometime during, like his employment at Polyeyes, it kind of like became abundantly clear to most people around him that he had like a full blown addiction. He would be drinking in the morning, like very visibly, like inebriated on the job.

[Narrator]

The Kirksville PD investigation of Brandon kicked back up in 2019. You'll recall that a detective showed up to the pizza place to interview Brandon while he was at work. But then just as quickly, the investigation wound down. Sure, he was never charged. But by the summer of 2019, Brandon had been dealing with these suicides and their aftermaths for three full years. Things had been bright for him when he started at Truman State, but now his life was a total mess. He was 22, he hadn't graduated, was stuck in a dead end job, and many people close to him were dead. Then the pandemic hit. He couldn't stop working because he had legal bills. Now, if you think Brandon is guilty of encouraging his friends to commit suicide, you probably don't have a lot of sympathy for him. I understand that. But I'm sure, like us, you don't want to resort to an easy scapegoat. You want to consider all of the possibilities. And one possibility is what if Brandon was just getting a bad rap? What if he was just made to be the fall guy? Now, stay with me here, but what if the real problem, the more likely explanation for all these deaths, what was more obvious, what if it had been right in front of us the whole time? That's next time on the Peacemaker. The Peacemaker is a production of Cool Fire Studios and iHeart Podcasts. It's hosted by me, Ben Westoff and Ryan Krull. Our executive producers are Jeff Keen, David Johnson and Steve Lubert. Music and audio engineering by Brent Johnson. Executive producers for iHeart podcasts are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etor. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, there are resources available to you. Please call the suicide and crisis Lifeline 988.

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[Narrator]

You know what a girl's best friend is not Diamonds. Her lawyers.

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[Ben Westoff]

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[Narrator]

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[Ben Westoff]

Terms apply this is an I heart podcast.