Ep 9: Endings

2024-07-03 00:50:51

Twelve-year-old McKay Everett disappeared from his Texas home in September 1995. His father Carl returned from an Amway meeting to find the back door ajar and the telephone ringing. On the line, a woman with a raspy voice demanded $500,000. Over the next week, the FBI played a game of cat-and-mouse with the kidnappers, who used inside information to stay one step ahead of the investigation. Ultimately the FBI uncovered a series of crimes that started long before McKay was taken. Most shocking of all was the suspect. McKay had been betrayed by someone he trusted – a pillar of the community hiding a dark secret. But decades later, McKay’s mother, Paulette, still isn’t satisfied with the official story. She doesn’t think everyone involved has been brought to justice. Ransom: Season 1 - Position of Trust is a story of greed and betrayal and how one’s outward appearance can be dangerously deceiving.

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A warning about content. This show contains descriptions of violence. Listener discretion is advised.

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There's always a risk in anything you do, like getting in the car and driving, you know.

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When we started making this podcast, Paulette drove us out to see McKay's grave.

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This road was not four-lane. You know, it was very wooded and, you know, it was two-lane.

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But

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things change.

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We pulled into the cemetery, a flat green expanse peppered with trees, graves stretching out as far as the eye can see.

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This is what's bizarre to me. We were one of the first ones out here. Now, it's covered in graves.

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So much has changed in the 28 years since McKay was buried here in 1995.

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. Conroe has gone from an idyllic town where safety was assumed and kids roamed free, to a crowded city of 100,000, where McKay's story has largely been forgotten. You're saying when you moved here, you knew everyone, when you go into a restaurant.

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And now I know everybody in the graveyard.

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McKay's headstone is a black marble cross. And there's a.

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little foot thing that says, how about those lions? A?

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memorial to the last words he spoke to his father before he was abducted. Twelve-year-old McKay's sheepish way of saying, I love you.

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Cross buried here and McKay's buried here. Such is life, right?

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For.

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those even peripherally involved, McKay's kidnapping was a dramatic and significant period in their life. Then, after the trial, it was over. Media moved on to the next big story. Lawyers to new cases, and law enforcement to other investigations. But for Carl and Paulette, and Hilton and Connie, there was no moving on.

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The consequences of Hilton's decision to kidnap and murder. McKay would haunt both families for the rest of their lives.

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From KSL Podcasts, I'm Art Rascone. This is the finale of Ransom, Position of Trust.

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Episode 9, Endings.

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Author Tanny Shannon had begun corresponding with Hilton Crawford before the trial, but he didn't actually meet him in person until 1996, after Hilton received his death sentence.

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I'd never been inside a prison before.

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Tanny wanted to figure out who Hilton really was, and what led him to kidnap McKay.

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He had an awful lot going for him. for someone that would go to this extreme and, you know, wind up being executed for this heinous act. To me, it just boggles the mind, and that's why I started interviewing him to begin with.

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When I went in to meet him for the first time, the death row at that time was 15 miles outside of town. It's very remote. Outside the building, everything is covered with high fences and razor wire. on top of that. You have to go past a guard tower first, where they will look underneath your car, your vehicle, and all that to make sure that you're not bringing anything in.

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Then, once you get in, you park and you have to go through another checkpoint, where they use a scanner to see if you have anything metallic on your body and so forth. Then you go in through at least two gates before you are ushered into the visitor's area. The ceilings were so high, and there were windows right at the top of the ceiling that were open for ventilation. And they had ceiling fans way up at the top. These buildings were not air conditioned.

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It was a little like walking into something in a horror movie.

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As author Tanny Shannon walked into the death row visitor's room, he saw Hilton sitting behind a plexiglass barrier, dressed in a white prison uniform.

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He's clean cut. If he didn't have his prison whites on, you would think that he's a businessman, maybe a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Every time I saw him, his prison whites were perfectly pressed. And I asked him about this one time, and he said, well, what I do is when I find one that's fairly new, I don't send it to prison laundry. I wash it by hand in the toilet, and then I let it dry and put it underneath my mattress to press for visitors.

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Tanny explained to Hilton the project, to write a book with Hilton's side of the story, trying to figure out what had compelled him to kidnap McKay.

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I hadn't been interviewing him very long, and a big, loud siren type noise came up. And I said, what in the hell is that? And he said, well, there's been a break.

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Of course, there wasn't. It was just the little lunch siren saying that lunchtime was over or something like that. I don't remember what it was, but it was just announcing the time. Even in the face of lots of pressure, he maintained his sensing humor, just a little on the dark side.

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Following the trial and Hilton Crawford's conviction, Tanny says he was one of Hilton's only visitors.

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His wife turned completely against him, wanted nothing else to do with him whatsoever.

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Connie divorced Hilton after the trial. But in the dozens of interviews Tanny recorded with Hilton, Hilton stayed devoted to Connie.

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We never had an argument. We never cussed each other out. We never spent one night away from each other. Tanny spent seven years interviewing Hilton, always through a plexiglass wall.

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After he had been on death row for a few months, he was going through a hard time out in the exercise yard. And he had fallen to his knees and was crying, feeling like he just wanted to die and having profound regret for everything he had done. And the inmate in the yard right next to him comforted him and they prayed together. And he got him through this incident.

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For the first few years, Hilton was held at the Ellis Unit, where well-behaved prisoners could work in a garment shop and spend a few hours a day talking and watching movies. But that changed. on Thanksgiving Day, 1998, during their outdoor recreation time. Seven death row inmates, secretly sawed through a fence, climbed onto a roof and waited for nightfall. They'd left dummies in their beds, so guards wouldn't notice that they were missing.

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After sunset, the inmates continued their escape, but they were spotted by a guard who raised the alarm and began to shoot. Six of the seven escapees surrendered immediately. But one man began to scale the prison's high perimeter fence.

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He had insulated his clothing with cardboard so as he threw himself over the razor wire, it wouldn't cut up his body. And he actually made it away. They searched for him for a week or so and finally found his dead body in the river, a few miles away. Apparently, he had tried to swim the river without removing the cardboard, and that created a problem for him.

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Following this prison break, Death Row was moved to a new facility with even stricter conditions. At this new unit, inmates spent 22 to 24 hours a day confined in small cells. With breaks only for showers or brief stints outside. That gave Hilton plenty of time to think about his life.

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He felt quite a lot of remorse about what he'd done. He would sometimes cry when he started talking about McKay.

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But Tanny saw Hilton as a man of contradictions.

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His remorse and his denial were kind of in conflict with each other. And I would stop him and ask him to explain it a little better or expand a bit. And he said, that's what happened. And that's the best way I can put it. He would often get annoyed.

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Associated Press reporter Mike Graczyk said he had a similar experience with Crawford.

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As a reporter, if something doesn't sound right, you know, you ask him, follow up says, well, can you explain that for me? Or if this doesn't sound right, how can this be? And then you come up with some other explanation. You take everything with a grain of salt.

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But even though he'd dance around certain questions, Graczyk says Hilton kept to the story that while he'd kidnapped McKay, he hadn't killed him. Hilton insisted the mysterious R.L. Remington was the murderer.

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Hilton Crawford was pretty consistent.

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Still, from his years of reporting on death row inmates, Graczyk doesn't think consistency counts for much.

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These people who are locked up, I'm pretty convinced they could pass a polygraph. You're locked in a six by nine concrete cell and all you have is time to convince yourself that I didn't do it, I wasn't there.

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And Graczyk has a lot of experience with death row. As a reporter for the AP based out of Huntsville, Texas, the site of the country's most active death row, Graczyk has the dubious distinction of witnessing more executions than anyone else in America.

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Texas has carried out more executions than any other state, and I've covered most of them here.

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In fact, he's lost track of the exact number.

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I've watched probably 450.

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But out of the hundreds of death row inmates Graczyk has met and interviewed, he says that Hilton stood out.

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He used to send me Christmas cards, wrote me letters, kind of weird. You don't usually get people in their 50s being sentenced to death.

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By all accounts, Hilton was a charming man, and in the years between the trial and execution, Tanny says he grew closer to Hilton than he ever expected to.

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When I first started visiting, I thought, you know, I could never be friends with somebody that's done something like this. I had friends when I learned I was writing about him. Had some nasty things to say to me. But when you spend that much time with someone sharing all the intricacies of one's life, it's pretty easy to get close to him. In fact, I might have been his only friend on the outside.

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Now, he had his bad sides, he was a little bit manipulative, but most gamblers are. They try to take advantage of other people or try to win at whatever game they're playing.

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Tanny says that while he was working on his book and meeting with Hilton regularly, he bought into the stories that Hilton told him about R.

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L. Remington, how Hilton had never intended for McKay to get hurt and how he was just trying to get out of debt to provide for his family.

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To do this, I was convinced that he was telling the truth. I had to be, I think, to follow through with it.

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But remember, Hilton was a manipulator who obsessed over how people perceived him. Perhaps he saw Tanny's book as his last chance to rehabilitate his image. But even though Hilton managed to convince Tanny that he never intended for McKay to be killed, Tanny could never understand why Hilton had taken such a reckless risk with an innocent boy's life.

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Regardless of what the situation was, he's still guilty of McKay's death. And I could not understand what would drive him to that.

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Tanny viewed Hilton as a man who had been consumed and destroyed by his gambling addiction.

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He was addicted to the adrenaline of putting himself on the line, playing for more than you can afford to lose. That's when the adrenaline starts pumping. And his personality did not let him admit his failure to his family. And he did whatever it took to keep from doing that. And that became way too much.

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And perhaps when Hilton completely exhausted all his money and credit, he came up with a final gamble to get the biggest adrenaline rush of his life, kidnapping McKay.

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Before his conviction, there were two Hiltons, Hilton, the family man and Hilton, the gambler and criminal. After the conviction and after his wife, Connie, cut off all communication, a new Hilton emerged. Hilton, the monk.

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He really became religious after being on death row.

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Hilton had begun corresponding with European nuns who were anti death penalty activists. And he said that in prison he'd found religion. He became a Franciscan monk, taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to God. That again, a pledge to give up material wealth, love and freedom, isn't much of a sacrifice for a death row inmate. Another incentive for this religious conversion may have been the fact that visits from spiritual advisers didn't count towards an inmate's visitor limits.

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So it afforded Hilton more time outside his cell. But despite his supposed spiritual awakening, Tanny says he heard that Hilton continued gambling behind bars.

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In fact, I belong to a hunting club in the Houston area. We used to do a football pool every year for bowl games. I got him to pick my bowl games one year. He won it. And when they found out that the pool had been won by a death row inmate, that was a story that was told over and over.

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Now, he would not accept the money, but he did get me to agree to host some visitors that he had coming from London to elderly nuns, that he wanted me to chauffeur around and stuff.

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Now, when he got his execution date in early 2003,, it was a tough time for me, honestly. You get close to someone and then you're given a date that they're going to die. Are you going to be put to death? That's pretty hard to deal with. But he wanted me to attend, so I did.

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In the time between Hilton's trial and his execution day, Paulette and Carl were struggling. Paulette had hoped that after the trial, their life would start returning back to normal. But the grief was still overwhelming. Carl dove back into running his oil company, which often took him out of town. But Paulette felt like he was avoiding her.

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He would disappear for long spans of time.

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And when he and Paulette would see one another, they weren't on the same wavelength.

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He kept trying to get me to go to Amway meetings, and I finally just told him, I can't do this. And so I began to stand back up on my own two feet, and, you know, that didn't please him.

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And while Paulette went to therapy to process McKay's death, Carl refused to get any professional help.

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He stuffed it. He didn't talk about it and deal with it and learn how to cope.

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Instead, Carl began binge eating comfort foods.

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He would eat and eat and eat and eat.

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Carl and Paulette never figured out how to talk about the tragedy they'd been through. In 1999, three years after the trial and after 28 years of marriage, Paulette asked Carl for a divorce.

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It was tough. I didn't want a divorce, Carl, but I had no choice. I had to take care of me. And that's what I learned to have to make decisions for our own life that make no one else happy. And you've got to stand by what's good for you.

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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Do you ever find yourself comparing your life to others? What do you do when you get caught up in wishing your life looked like someone else's? It's easy to envy other people's lives, especially when you're scrolling on social media. It might look like they have it all together, but in reality, they don't.

[18:03.94 - 18:28.50]

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[18:29.20 - 18:46.22]

Stop comparing and start focusing with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash ransom today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com. slash ransom.

[18:49.40 - 19:13.72]

After the divorce in 1999, Carl Everett continued to struggle. He did start seeing a counselor, but he still stuffed down his feelings and ate to cope with his stress. When he first met Stacey, the woman who'd become his second wife, he'd gotten so good at hiding his grief that she had no idea what he'd been through.

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When he walked into a room, it lit up. He had a big belly laugh, like Santa Claus. He was always happy. He was always very chatty. And, you know, so it just was very shocking.

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As they started dating, Carl opened up to Stacey about McKay. She was surprised to learn the extent of Carl's trauma.

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Oh, it just broke my heart. There would be times that Carl would just sit there and cry, especially around McKay's birthday. Basically the whole week surrounding the kidnapping, you know, just. he said that he could just relive every moment, every second, that whole week.

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He felt that, as a man, he'd failed in his duty to protect his family.

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That's something that he was just never able to get over. And I think betrayal of people that they knew, you know, it tore a family apart. I just I sat and listened. I cried and I felt his pain, because it's so hard to see someone that you love go through so much pain.

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But the way that Carl dealt with the loss of McKay evolved throughout his relationship with Stacey.

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When I first met Carl, he told me, I cannot ever have children, I can never go through anything like I've ever been through. And I'm like, you know what, that's fine. I have two nieces. You know, I'm OK.

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Carl and Stacey got married in December 2001.

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. And a couple of years into the marriage, Carl had a change of heart.

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He goes, you know what, McKay always wanted a brother or sister. And he goes, I will never take that away from you. And I'm not going to take that away from him.

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But in February 2003, Carl received a notice in the mail informing him that Hilton's execution would be in July of that year.

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I think it just conjured up so many feelings and emotions and didn't know whether he should just be so angry or he should just cry, or he was just at a loss.

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Carl couldn't decide whether he wanted to attend Hilton's execution.

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He went both ways, talked about going, talked about not going. And then I basically found out I was pregnant three weeks prior to the execution. Press were calling him and he needed to get away. We hopped on a plane and went on a cruise. I think that he, emotionally, would not have been able to handle seeing Hilton Crawford again.

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Paulette wasn't sure whether she wanted to go to Hilton's execution, either. Eight years had passed since McKay's kidnapping and murder. She didn't know if seeing Hilton killed would bring closure or stir up more anger and grief. But in the end, she did decide to attend. Hilton's wife, Connie, and his sons chose not to witness Hilton being put to death.

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But author Tani Shannon says Hilton's son, Chris, did come to visit Hilton on the day of the execution.

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For an hour or so, something like that. And as he walked away, I saw Crawford kind of turn around and he had tears just rolling down his cheeks. You know, I just watched him walk out of the room. And that was a very touching scene.

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Also in the visitor's room was Hilton's spiritual advisor, a woman named Rebecca, who had helped him on his monastic journey. When Hilton's son, Chris, left, Rebecca and Tani spoke with Hilton.

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She says, you're going to wake up in a marvelous place. God's going to take you by the hand and he's going to guide you. It's going to be such a wonderful experience. And she said, in fact, I want to sing you a song. And she belted out this beautiful, she had such a beautiful voice, but it was a religious song I didn't recognize.

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But everybody in the whole visitor's room just kind of stopped and listened and turned around. And, you know, it was. it was wonderful, actually. But when she finished, Crawford says, that was wonderful. Thank you so much.

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I could see this little glint in his eye and he said, you know what? That was so great. He said, this is my last day on earth and you two are my only friends. Tani, I'm going to ask you to sing a song as well.

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I had no idea what to do. I said, all right, then you got to know when to hold him, know when to fold him. Yeah, so he starts laughing and she's upset and she said, Hilton, what's that song about? Is that song about gambling? Don't you know?

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that's what got you in here? And he's laughing so hard, tears are coming out. And he said, tell the truth. Is gambling really a sin? And she said, Hilton, you know, gambling's a sin.

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And he just kind of looks down like this and shakes his head. And he said, hmm, so I guess I'm going to be in line longer than I thought. On the day of his death, can you imagine that?

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The execution chamber in Huntsville, Texas, is a small mint green room that's subdivided into three areas. There's the death chamber, where the inmate is strapped to a gurney, facing two barred windows. Behind the windows are two viewing chambers, one for the inmate's invited witnesses, the other for the victim's family. At the time of the execution, Tanny, Rebecca and some prison chaplains entered the offender's side of the viewing chamber. Paulette was there on the victim's side, along with AP reporter Mike Graczyk and a few other.

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journalists. The rooms were teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny, low, low, low ceilings and the ugliest green you've.

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ever seen. Graczyk has seen so many executions that they blend together. But he kept notes on each one. He says Hilton was already strapped to the gurney in the death chamber when the witnesses walked in.

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My notes show that he was wearing something around his neck that had a small wooden cross.

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I guess he had become some sort of a monk while he was in prison. And I'm thinking, oh, get real.

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And he has belts on each wrist and belts at the knees and belts at the ankles.

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And I was like, oh, do they think he's going to get up and run?

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So we walk into the chamber. He's four or five feet away. And if the glass wasn't there, you could reach out and touch it. The only thing he can really move is his head from side to side. And he turned and looked at Paulette and he made a joke about how he should have eaten more of his meal that he had selected.

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And then he gives his final statement.

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Here are excerpts of Hilton Crawford's final statement, read by a voice actor. First of all, I would like to ask Sister Teresa to send Connie a yellow rose. I want to thank the Lord Jesus Christ for the years I have spent on death row.

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They've been a blessing in my life.

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I would like to thank Father Walsh for having become a Franciscan. I would like to thank the nuns in England for their support. I want to tell my sons I love them. I've always loved them. They were my greatest gift from God.

[26:56.54 - 27:16.94]

I want to tell my witnesses, Tani, Rebecca, Al, Leo, Dr. Blackwell, that I love all of you and I'm thankful for your support. I want to ask Paulette for forgiveness from your heart. One day, I hope you will. It is a tragedy for my family and your family.

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I am sorry.

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Speaker 1
[27:20.40 - 27:30.76]

My special angel, I love you. And I love you, Connie. May God pass me over to the kingdom shore softly and gently.

2
Speaker 2
[27:31.84 - 27:32.68]

I am ready.

3
Speaker 3
[27:34.80 - 27:50.20]

I guess he thought he was some great public speaker. He had something to say, laying on a gurney. Well, you know, it's a little late. It's just a little too late.

5
Speaker 5
[27:51.16 - 27:56.54]

Once the final statement has been made by the inmate, the drug is turned on.

1
Speaker 1
[27:57.48 - 28:05.56]

As the lethal drug cocktail flowed into Hilton's veins, the prison chaplains started reciting prayers.

3
Speaker 3
[28:05.82 - 28:07.74]

Just mumbling, mumbling, mumbling, mumbling.

5
Speaker 5
[28:08.38 - 28:11.78]

And as the drugs took effect, he turned purple.

3
Speaker 3
[28:12.56 - 28:21.66]

His whole skin tone went through this series of lollicky, purply, bluish, grayish, until he was dead.

[28:23.42 - 28:25.48]

And then I was like, that's it?

5
Speaker 5
[28:26.08 - 28:36.00]

Yeah, it's very quick. They essentially go to sleep. They may cough or gasp a couple of times. We've heard comments, oh, I can feel it. It's cold.

[28:36.10 - 28:41.98]

It's hot. It burns. But, you know, 30 seconds later, they are either unconscious or they're dead.

1
Speaker 1
[28:42.58 - 29:03.90]

The whole situation bothered Paulette. She thought Hilton had gotten off too easy. A final meal, a final statement, and an anesthetic, putting Hilton to sleep before he died. McKay had gotten none of those comforts. If they would have asked for you to push the button, you would have gladly done so.

3
Speaker 3
[29:04.86 - 29:05.24]

Yes.

1
Speaker 1
[29:06.22 - 29:08.84]

If there was anything you could say to him, what would it be?

3
Speaker 3
[29:10.22 - 29:11.34]

Was it worth it?

[29:12.90 - 29:16.66]

Look what you left your children to bear up under.

1
Speaker 1
[29:17.04 - 29:17.34]

Yeah.

3
Speaker 3
[29:18.20 - 29:30.50]

You know, I can say I am so proud of my son. My son was a courageous 12 and a half year old. What can I say?

1
Speaker 1
[29:33.32 - 29:39.56]

For Tanny Shannon, it was tough to see his friend being put to death right in front of him.

2
Speaker 2
[29:40.32 - 29:52.86]

I walked out. I was a little upset. And I was probably saying some things, little comments about how efficiently they had put someone to death. And I'm sure I was sobbing a little bit or whatever.

1
Speaker 1
[29:53.84 - 30:00.96]

As Tanny went to the prison parking lot, he thought about the final exchange he'd had with Hilton earlier that day.

2
Speaker 2
[30:01.40 - 30:20.52]

We had been joking about him sending me signs. If you see a guy on a horse walking down the street, you'll know it's a bet on the cowboys. We had this little joke going for weeks before he was executed. But the last thing that I said to him, I said, I want a sign. I want to know that you've made it.

[30:20.64 - 30:36.14]

He said, I'm going to send you a sign. I promise. I had asked one of the chaplains for a transcript of his final statement. And we walked out to the parking lot. He's got the transcript in one hand and we shake hands with the other hand.

[30:36.14 - 30:56.28]

And right at that moment, at that precise moment, a bird shit right on the top of my head. And I'm not talking a little bird. I'm talking a splatter that went down to both shoulders. I had to go get a room and shower before I would drive home. And that was, I've never seen anything like that.

[30:57.32 - 31:01.02]

And I thought, well, I guess he made it. It sounds like something he would do.

1
Speaker 1
[31:09.24 - 31:28.48]

Carl Everett's daughter was born in 2003,, half a year after Hilton's execution, and it brought back a side of Carl that some thought had been lost. Here's Carl's friend, John Husbands. That little girl, you know, kind of puts a glow back in his eyes.

2
Speaker 2
[31:29.28 - 31:31.12]

Second chance at being a dad, I guess.

1
Speaker 1
[31:31.66 - 31:36.06]

Carl's second wife, Stacey, says that Carl was a devoted father.

4
Speaker 4
[31:36.42 - 31:42.48]

He was just an amazing father. I mean, there was no question. He woke up every day and said, you know what, your daddy loves you.

1
Speaker 1
[31:43.40 - 31:47.76]

But Stacey is adamant that Carl never moved on from McKay.

4
Speaker 4
[31:48.34 - 32:06.36]

McKay was always on his mind, every single day and always in his heart. And if you loved Carl, you accepted that. Carl would sit there and tell stories about how McKay loved peanut butter and honey sandwiches. You can't take that away from somebody. And it brought so much joy to be able to share that.

[32:07.12 - 32:17.96]

He loved us unconditionally. He loved us. But his heart was with McKay. His heart was with his child. And he did everything he could to make us happy.

[32:18.72 - 32:25.88]

He was great in the kitchen. You know, he was everything. But ultimately, I mean, he died of a broken heart.

1
Speaker 1
[32:26.78 - 32:36.50]

Even though Carl loved his wife and daughter, he was still haunted by McKay's murder. He continued to cope with his grief through food.

2
Speaker 2
[32:37.20 - 32:39.64]

Carl proceeded to try to eat himself to death.

1
Speaker 1
[32:40.48 - 32:48.12]

I mean, a lot of people drink themselves to death. Well, Carl Everett would stop and buy a whole pie and a gallon of milk and stop and eat it in the roadside park.

4
Speaker 4
[32:48.82 - 32:53.84]

He became a diabetic. He had a heart attack. He actually had about three or four heart attacks.

1
Speaker 1
[32:54.50 - 33:05.96]

He had quadruple bypass surgery, had cancer surgery, you know, stomach cancer. And despite these health consequences, Carl didn't or couldn't change his lifestyle.

4
Speaker 4
[33:06.30 - 33:12.84]

I would, you know, beg him, let's go walking, let's do something. It was not ever acknowledged.

1
Speaker 1
[33:13.98 - 33:22.70]

I'm telling you, Carl put his body through. I mean, he literally never tried to kill himself, except passively, if you will.

4
Speaker 4
[33:23.28 - 33:42.40]

It just ultimately ended his life. He had a heart attack in Fort Worth, where he was working, and he had been in ICU for a couple of days. They took him out of ICU. They gave him a room so he could go home the next day so we could drive back to Conroe. And I went ahead and went to the hospital.

[33:43.36 - 33:47.08]

And this poor nurse, it was her first day of work.

1
Speaker 1
[33:47.72 - 33:50.58]

Hi, Mr. Everett, I'm here to take your vitals.

4
Speaker 4
[33:50.58 - 33:59.50]

And he's like, well, darling, why don't you take her vitals and we can get out of here a lot faster. And he started laughing, his deep belly laugh, and then he died.

[34:01.30 - 34:03.98]

The doctor said it was instantaneous.

1
Speaker 1
[34:07.06 - 34:11.98]

Carl's laughter dislodged a blood clot that went straight to his lungs.

4
Speaker 4
[34:14.36 - 34:25.54]

But he died laughing. I mean, I would like to die laughing. And I just, you know, I know he's happy and he's with McKay. He's in heaven with McKay.

1
Speaker 1
[34:27.78 - 34:48.52]

Carl Everett died on April 1st, 2011,, 15 years after McKay's abduction and seven years after the birth of his daughter. Carl was only 57 years old. Stacey thinks Hilton's betrayal was just too much for Carl to deal with.

4
Speaker 4
[34:48.52 - 34:53.50]

It took a man that was just so loving and beautiful and it broke him.

1
Speaker 1
[34:53.98 - 34:58.12]

Like Paulette, Carl thought Connie was somehow culpable.

4
Speaker 4
[34:58.40 - 35:02.32]

He was completely convinced. Connie had something to do with it as well.

1
Speaker 1
[35:03.00 - 35:27.74]

Carl had tried to get in touch with Hilton right after McKay disappeared. But Connie said she didn't know how to reach him. Carl thinks, at the very least, she knew that Hilton was behaving erratically and wondered if he was involved. Carl thought if Connie had opened up about her suspicions of Hilton that night, they could have figured out how to reach him on his cell phone.

4
Speaker 4
[35:28.26 - 35:34.06]

He really felt that if she would have come forward in the very beginning, then McKay would still be alive today.

2
Speaker 2
[35:34.84 - 35:41.96]

Knowing his number, calling him on the phone could have saved McKay. I mean, that's the thought. That's why they're so angry.

1
Speaker 1
[35:47.06 - 35:52.46]

Carl struggled with trust for the rest of his life, especially when it came to his daughter.

4
Speaker 4
[35:53.04 - 36:07.38]

He was very, very protective, and rightly so, but it got to the point of it was it was overbearing. He was very selective as to who was allowed to watch her. You know, he didn't want to go play dates because something could happen.

1
Speaker 1
[36:07.92 - 36:19.30]

That was something we heard from many people close to this story, that Hilton's betrayal made it harder for them to trust others. Here's neighbor Nancy Kahn and her daughter, Haley.

3
Speaker 3
[36:19.52 - 36:35.26]

You can't trust people. It's unfortunate. You just hate to think that we have to live in a world that people are like that. Well, especially, I think, knowing that someone that you know could do that is what didn't really go away. It changed all of us.

1
Speaker 1
[36:36.04 - 36:49.76]

It's hard to know what to make of a story like this, where someone so deeply betrays a friend's trust. Here's FBI agent Lloyd Diaz. You know, you hear about strangers doing things to people all the time.

2
Speaker 2
[36:49.90 - 36:53.18]

But, you know, here's a family friend giving him a football.

1
Speaker 1
[36:53.28 - 37:01.94]

Well, I think literally it was two weeks before this happened, you know, from your Uncle Hilty. My God, what is wrong with you? You can't live life without trusting anybody.

2
Speaker 2
[37:01.94 - 37:05.76]

My God. But this sure does make people think real hard.

1
Speaker 1
[37:06.96 - 37:07.90]

Sheriff Guy Williams.

2
Speaker 2
[37:08.46 - 37:19.94]

That's the bad thing about this case. is Hilton Crawford kind of messed it up for everybody. It's like you can teach your children about bad people, but do you make your friends and family bad people?

1
Speaker 1
[37:20.90 - 38:00.04]

In many ways, Hilton Crawford is an aberration. And crimes like this fascinate us because they are so unusual. But statistics show that violent and sexual crimes are more likely to be perpetrated by friends, family and acquaintances than by strangers. Over the last 28 years, Paulette has spent a lot of time thinking about this issue and how to prevent another tragedy like what happened to McKay. After McKay's death, she and Carl started the Samuel Everett McKay Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping children safe.

3
Speaker 3
[38:00.18 - 38:04.32]

It was started with the monies that were sent in for the ransom demand.

1
Speaker 1
[38:04.98 - 38:12.62]

When McKay's kidnapping had initially been publicized, they received anonymous donations to help pay for McKay's ransom.

3
Speaker 3
[38:13.12 - 38:17.14]

People just randomly sent in cash with no return address.

1
Speaker 1
[38:17.32 - 38:38.52]

They used the donations to start the Samuel Everett McKay Foundation, which designs educational materials for schools. In particular, the materials use McKay's story to emphasize the fact that family friends can be perpetrators, too. Like this animation they produced that's racked up millions of views on YouTube.

3
Speaker 3
[38:39.12 - 38:40.26]

He is for danger.

5
Speaker 5
[38:40.66 - 38:43.64]

A person that can cause you harm isn't always a stranger.

2
Speaker 2
[38:45.04 - 38:46.74]

I am not a stranger.

1
Speaker 1
[38:48.68 - 39:11.60]

The dangerous man in that cartoon, by the way, bears a striking resemblance to Hilton Crawford. Paulette's advocacy work even brought her to the White House in 2003.. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. When George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act, establishing a national amber alert system.

[39:12.20 - 39:38.08]

No child should ever have to experience the terror of abduction or, worse. No family should ever have to endure the nightmare of losing a child. In addition to her work with the foundation, Paulette also wrote two books about McKay's kidnapping. The first, Deadly Betrayal, she co-wrote with two professors of criminal justice. It covers the whole case and trial.

[39:38.90 - 40:05.50]

The second, A Waltz with Insanity, is more of a memoir about coping with grief. And maybe more than anything else, Paulette has become a mentor for others undergoing unthinkable losses. Strangers will hear her story and reach out for advice, or friends will put people in contact with Paulette. In fact, our interview with her was interrupted by one of those requests.

[40:07.28 - 40:10.30]

Paulette showed us a text she'd just received.

3
Speaker 3
[40:10.30 - 40:20.92]

You know, they're trying to help somebody whose son overdosed on fentanyl. Can we give them your number? That's just today, you just got back. Yep. That's every week.

1
Speaker 1
[40:21.78 - 40:28.10]

It's difficult work, but it's a role that Paulette feels specially equipped to deal with.

3
Speaker 3
[40:28.30 - 40:41.62]

You'll hear counselors and speakers say, don't waste your grief, don't waste your hurt, don't waste the tragedy. There's something here that God wants us to get. From all this.

[40:43.16 - 40:56.18]

Once something tragic happens, you're left with, what is your response? What are you going to do? Of course, you're going to grieve. But then what are you going to do?

[40:57.92 - 41:15.48]

How do you cope? What do you say? What do you do? And I've watched myself respond appropriately, respond inappropriately, have it together, and then blow it. You know, but it's all about what are you going to do with what happened?

[41:16.20 - 41:22.12]

Is it going to make you a better person, a better parent, a better friend? What?

1
Speaker 1
[41:24.96 - 41:30.46]

The grief never really stops in a story like this. There is no closure.

3
Speaker 3
[41:31.10 - 41:35.14]

You close windows and doors, you don't close things like this.

1
Speaker 1
[41:35.77 - 41:45.00]

But although the grief never goes away, it does change over time. Memories of McKay no longer overwhelm Paulette.

3
Speaker 3
[41:45.72 - 41:53.92]

My eyes will just water, but it's not like I'm taking out time to cry. I'm still doing what I need to get done.

1
Speaker 1
[41:55.90 - 42:25.32]

Sometimes Paulette drives out to McKay's gravesite and thinks back to his funeral and all the people who gathered to honor him. The circumstances of McKay's death brought on what felt like a never-ending procession of stress and chaos. The week-long investigation, the media circus, the court proceedings, her stroke and the collapse of her marriage. Even McKay's funeral felt overwhelming at first.

3
Speaker 3
[42:26.08 - 42:56.68]

So many people would just want to do something, want to do something. And I had told Carl, I said, if anybody has to do anything else, let's just kind of back up, because I'm feeling overwhelmed. Sure, as that came out of my little arrogant mouth, an FBI agent came and asked if he could play a mace and grace on the bagpipes at the gravesite. And I thought, shut up, Paulette, just shut up and back up. This is not just about your grief.

[42:57.55 - 43:00.06]

It's about other people's grief, too.

1
Speaker 1
[43:01.76 - 43:12.24]

On the day of the funeral, as the FBI agent played Amazing Grace, Paulette thought back to young McKay teaching himself the song on the violin.

3
Speaker 3
[43:12.76 - 43:28.84]

There's an FBI agent who's playing the song that McKay had taught himself. There's beauty in that. As tough as this is, that is a little flick of light in all that darkness.

1
Speaker 1
[43:29.62 - 43:41.86]

The funeral was a moment when time seemed to stand still and everyone could focus on McKay, the 12-year-old boy who had been robbed of his future and all his potential.

3
Speaker 3
[43:42.66 - 44:00.42]

We gave people magic markers so that they could write on the casket their goodbye, because that was stolen. So many people loved him and you could see it on everybody's face. There were law enforcement agents there crying.

1
Speaker 1
[44:01.66 - 44:19.66]

McKay's funeral is the hardest thing I had ever done in my 25 years with the Bureau. Agent Bob Lee. The church was crowded. A lot of friends, families, well-wishers, a lot of law enforcement was present. You become very close to the family during an investigation like this.

[44:20.24 - 44:28.18]

We were there to help comfort the average. It was just a tough day. But looking back, I'm glad I did it.

[44:30.40 - 44:36.14]

And McKay's young friends made the scene all the more emotional. Jack Cochran.

2
Speaker 2
[44:36.42 - 44:43.74]

That was one of the first funerals I ever remember going to, just somber and people just crying, wearing sunglasses.

1
Speaker 1
[44:44.34 - 44:58.58]

And everyone's around, gravitating towards Miss Paulette, talking to Carl, handshaking, hugs. Having gone through this unthinkable ordeal, there's one thing Paulette knows for sure.

3
Speaker 3
[44:58.96 - 45:03.04]

It never took away my love for McKay.

[45:04.60 - 45:06.96]

That remains to this day.

[45:08.54 - 45:19.98]

And I don't regret putting my careers on hold at all. If there was anything that made it easier for me was that I laid down my life.

[45:21.74 - 45:39.30]

He was my light for 12 and a half years. He brought a perspective to my life that I would not have known had I not known him. And in all of this, I have been part of a beautiful love story.

1
Speaker 1
[45:44.14 - 46:05.82]

But the love Paulette feels for McKay doesn't temper her anger. It ignites it. She's convinced that Hilton's wife, Connie, was somehow involved. And she doesn't feel like her concerns were taken seriously. And Paulette still suffers every day from the consequences of Hilton's actions back in 1995..

[46:06.88 - 46:43.62]

Despite his losses and mounting debts, Hilton couldn't or wouldn't quit gambling. He kept doubling down and doubling down until finally he decided to gamble with McKay's life and his own. Hilton made the reckless decision to kidnap McKay. And when the plan went off the rails and McKay was screaming in the trunk of his car, Hilton had the four-hour drive to Louisiana to search his soul. A million moments to turn around the car and free the boy who called him Uncle Hilty.

[46:44.20 - 47:08.98]

Even if Hilton was so cold and callous that he didn't care about McKay, as former law enforcement, he should have realized he wouldn't be able to get away with the crime. But Hilton could never tell when he was holding a losing hand. So he did what he always did. He doubled down yet again. He murdered McKay and tried to get away with it.

[47:09.74 - 47:31.10]

Despite his supposed love for his family and friends, Hilton committed the ultimate betrayal. Despite a capital sentence, Hilton never learned from his mistakes. In the decades since, Paulette stitched back together a sense of purpose. But there was no repairing the loss of innocence that died with McKay.

[47:50.78 - 48:22.58]

Or go to 1-800-GAMBLER-CHAT-DOT-ORG to connect to more resources. You can learn more about the McKay Everett Foundation at ProtectingChildren.com. Or you can also order Paulette's books, Deadly Betrayal and Waltz with Insanity. For more information, including pictures, find us on social at The Ransom Podcast or visit our website, RansomPodcast.com. And if you could leave a rating and review, we would really appreciate it.

[48:23.28 - 48:54.78]

Ransom is researched and written by Ben Kebrick and hosted by me, Art Rascone. Production and sound design by Ben Kebrick, Aaron Mason and Trent Sell, who also did the mixing. Special thanks to Andrea Smartin, Kellyanne Halverson, Ryan Meeks, Amy Donaldson, Felix Bunnell, Josh Tilton and Dave Colling. Voice acting this episode by Aaron Mason. Main musical score composed by Allison Leighton Brown, co-created by Austin Miller.

[48:55.60 - 49:13.68]

For Podcast One, executive producer Eli Dvorkin. For Workhouse Media, executive producer Paul Anderson. And for KSL Podcast, executive producer Cheryl Worsley. Ransom is produced by KSL Podcasts in association with Podcast One and Workhouse Media.

[49:42.34 - 49:49.54]

But now I'm found Voice blind.

?
Unknown Speaker
[49:50.60 - 49:56.00]

But now I see.

1
Speaker 1
[49:58.68 - 50:06.88]

But now, but now I see.

3
Speaker 3
[50:14.28 - 50:17.16]

What drives a woman to commit the ultimate crime?

1
Speaker 1
[50:17.62 - 50:49.96]

Enter the world of Women Behind Bars, the gripping show that delves deep into the minds of female inmates convicted of murdering those closest to them, lovers, parents, even their own children. Unravel the complex web of emotions, motives and circumstances that led these women to take a human life, be it betrayal, desperation, love gone wrong, or just twisted loyalties. Women Behind Bars challenges everything you thought you knew about crime, punishment, and the women who walk the line between love and murder. Listen to Women Behind Bars now, wherever you get your podcasts.

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