Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to this one's a doozy. My name
Speaker 1: is Mal and I am thrilled to have you join
Speaker 1: me on this very adult version of Storytime on the mat,
Speaker 1: primary school style. I tell you a true tale that
Speaker 1: is so fascinating it'd be a shame if you didn't
Speaker 1: know about it. Today's story is one of the main
Speaker 1: reasons I don't like the outdoors and why camping is
Speaker 1: a firm number one on my anti bucket list. It's
Speaker 1: about two mates that go camping on this very popular
Speaker 1: trail in the eastern part of the United States, and
Speaker 1: while they're there, they encounter someone who they don't realize
Speaker 1: has a very shady past, and they invite him to
Speaker 1: join them for dinner, and then something very bad happens.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say, So let's get into it.
Speaker 1: So this tale begins on the Appalachian Trail. And if
Speaker 1: like me, you've got no bloody idea what that is?
Speaker 1: The appalach Trail, or a as the locals call it,
Speaker 1: is like this trail in the forest in the US
Speaker 1: that extends from Georgia to Maine. And it's huge, like
Speaker 1: it crosses through fourteen states and it's around three and
Speaker 1: a half thousand kilometers long. I'd imagine if you enjoy
Speaker 1: shopping at places like Catman do, and you take your
Speaker 1: backpack game very seriously and carry a compass and a
Speaker 1: first aid kit with you, then this places your vibe.
Speaker 1: I believe the term is hikers. Anyway, on the morning
Speaker 1: of May sixth, two thousand and eight, a man in
Speaker 1: his thirties named Scott Johnston gets in his truck and
Speaker 1: heads out to the Appalachian Trail. He's not one of
Speaker 1: these hiking folk I speak of, though, He's one of
Speaker 1: the other kinds of people that hang out at the
Speaker 1: at the fishing and camping kind. They like to spend
Speaker 1: their money on stuff like fancy hooks and plastic pants
Speaker 1: that places like BCF building camp and fishing and it's
Speaker 1: bucf and fun. Hey. So Scott's in a great mood
Speaker 1: on this because he's also meeting up with his best mate,
Speaker 1: Sean Farmer, who he's been friends with since they were
Speaker 1: little kids, and they're going to spend the next few
Speaker 1: days camping and fishing and digging holes to shit in
Speaker 1: or whatever camping people do. Sounds horrible. The plan is
Speaker 1: that the fellows are going to meet up at this
Speaker 1: spot called Dismal Creek, which let me give you a
Speaker 1: sneak peak of what's to come by saying this place
Speaker 1: could not be more aptly named. And while this is
Speaker 1: a pretty popular part of the trail with hikers and stuff,
Speaker 1: it's still deep in the bowels of the woods and
Speaker 1: pretty damn isolated, which I cannot understand how people are
Speaker 1: not like terrified of the woods. You're so remote and
Speaker 1: so far away from everything. There are animals out there,
Speaker 1: like bears and mountain lions, and what if you fall
Speaker 1: and hurt yourself and you can't walk and you're in
Speaker 1: the middle of nothing. It's like if a tree falls
Speaker 1: in the forest, does anybody here, saying goes for screams,
Speaker 1: But let's carry on. Sean and Scott love the outdoorsy life, though,
Speaker 1: and they're fairly local to the area, and they've camped
Speaker 1: out there several times before, so they're familiar with it.
Speaker 1: And also it's worth mentioning here that Sean is a
Speaker 1: big unit. I mean, you'll come to learn that he
Speaker 1: is a lovely man, but at first glance he's six '
Speaker 1: five and around one hundred and seventy two kegs, so
Speaker 1: you know, he's not the kind of guy you want
Speaker 1: to fuck around with. I find Sean and Scott to
Speaker 1: be names that are too similar, and I would find
Speaker 1: myself getting confused between the two when I was reading
Speaker 1: stuff about them. So from this point forward, I'm going
Speaker 1: to refer to Sean as Big Sean, just to help
Speaker 1: with the imagery. So on this day, Scott heads up
Speaker 1: to the mountains on his own and gets to the
Speaker 1: river and sets up his rod and real and whatever
Speaker 1: other Rex Hunt themed paraphernalia fishing folk carry with them
Speaker 1: and starts trying to catch some fish. And he's having
Speaker 1: a cracker of a day because he bags himself six
Speaker 1: big trout, which I think is a pink fish, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Scott's very pleased with his efforts, so once
Speaker 1: he's had enough for the day, puts all those poor
Speaker 1: dead fishes into an eski, ops back into his car,
Speaker 1: and starts to head back up the mountain where he's
Speaker 1: going to meet Big Sean at their designated campsite. It's
Speaker 1: during this drive back up the mountain that Scott spots
Speaker 1: this very sad looking, malmourish dog on the road, and
Speaker 1: it was pretty clear that this poor thing was just
Speaker 1: not in great shape. So Scott stops his car and
Speaker 1: gets out to check on the dog, and he notices
Speaker 1: this guy walking up from the creek bank and they
Speaker 1: start having this friendly little chit chat, and this guy
Speaker 1: tells Scott, you know, don't even bother trying to fish
Speaker 1: in that river because there's no fish in there, and
Speaker 1: Scott bless him. He's like, you know what, I had
Speaker 1: great luck in there today, and he opens up his
Speaker 1: eski and offers this stranger some of his trout, which
Speaker 1: I mean is also probably a bit of a flex
Speaker 1: because he might be thinking, yeah, maybe you're just a
Speaker 1: shit fisherman, because he's what the elite among us can reeling.
Speaker 1: And this strange guy, according to Scott, just look like
Speaker 1: a standard camper. He was a bit older and a
Speaker 1: bit quote straggly looking. But you're not going to be
Speaker 1: in your Sunday best in the forest, are you. This
Speaker 1: is the place that you go to be an absolute
Speaker 1: filthy pig and be one with the dirt. Anyways, Scott
Speaker 1: takes pity on this guy who just seems a bit
Speaker 1: shy and lonely, and he tells him where he and
Speaker 1: his mate will be camping over the next few days
Speaker 1: and says, you know, what, if you want, why don't
Speaker 1: you come past and have something to eat with us?
Speaker 1: And the guy's like okay, and they part ways, and
Speaker 1: in a testament to just how lovely these country boys are,
Speaker 1: they say that there's this unwritten rule that when you're
Speaker 1: on the trail, the right thing to do is offer
Speaker 1: friendship and aid to any fellow bush lover that crosses
Speaker 1: your path. I personally prefer the do not talk to
Speaker 1: stranger's line of thinking, but you know better than I.
Speaker 1: So it's later in the afternoon that Big Sean arrives
Speaker 1: at the camp site and Scott isn't there yet, but
Speaker 1: he knows he's been there because his tent's already up
Speaker 1: and whatever. So Big Sean gets busy pitching his tent,
Speaker 1: and it's at this point that old mate from back
Speaker 1: of the river he appears and he tells Sean about
Speaker 1: how he'd just met Scott earlier in the day and
Speaker 1: how he'd invited him to come and eat with them.
Speaker 1: Big Sean is just like, cool, I'm Sean, And the
Speaker 1: guy introduces himself as Ricky Williams, and I I would
Speaker 1: have introduced myself as majorly fucking annoyed, because imagine gearing
Speaker 1: up for a night to just hang out with your
Speaker 1: best mate, and now you've got some rando from god
Speaker 1: knows where he to crush your party. Anyway, I'm tipping
Speaker 1: it was likely trout for dinner, and because Scott's a chef,
Speaker 1: I figure he's probably prepared some kind of lemonon herbaoli
Speaker 1: to go with it. And the trio just spent a
Speaker 1: few hours eating and having beers and telling stories, and
Speaker 1: according to Scott, he's entailed a lot of sports and
Speaker 1: fishing combo, which riveting. So by this point it's dark
Speaker 1: and Ricky has really been making the most of the
Speaker 1: hospitality of our friends Scott and Big Sean, because not
Speaker 1: only did he eat the food, he drank the drinks
Speaker 1: and lots of them. He guzzled their beers down with
Speaker 1: the reckless abandon of a star full forward at his
Speaker 1: footy club's best and fairest night. So needless to say,
Speaker 1: he was pretty buzzed. And then, just as Big Sean
Speaker 1: and Scott are probably thinking can you please go home,
Speaker 1: Ricky finally decides to boot. He gets up, he calls
Speaker 1: for that poor skinny dog of his and just starts
Speaker 1: to walk off. Just seconds after Ricky walks behind Scott
Speaker 1: and Big Sean and out of their view. Big Sean
Speaker 1: says that he hears this massive boom, which is followed
Speaker 1: by this unbelievably loud ringing in his head, and he's
Speaker 1: just kind of stunned for a few seconds because he's
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what the fuck's just happened. And Scott,
Speaker 1: who's sitting right beside him, he knows what's just happened
Speaker 1: because he's just seen this unwelcome and unappreciative strange dinner
Speaker 1: guests outstretched arm unload a bullet into the side of
Speaker 1: his best mate Big Sean's face. Yes, a bullet, as
Speaker 1: in the kind that comes out of a gun into
Speaker 1: the face. Big Sean's mouth swells up immediately and he
Speaker 1: can't speak because he has a very swollen, very blood filled,
Speaker 1: very damaged mouth. And then his vision on that side
Speaker 1: starts to fade, but not enough for him to miss
Speaker 1: the mini fireworks display of the gun discharging towards his
Speaker 1: friend Scott. This is the kind of dinner and a
Speaker 1: show deal that no one wants to be invited to,
Speaker 1: So you know, Scott's just seen his best friend get
Speaker 1: shot in the side of the face, and he's also
Speaker 1: cocked one. And now he's up and running away from
Speaker 1: the campsite and further into the woods, and he's ducking
Speaker 1: and weaving because he can hear the gun going off
Speaker 1: behind him, because ungrateful Ricky is, you know, having a
Speaker 1: bit of target practice with him, and Scott is so
Speaker 1: frantic that he doesn't even register that he's been shot,
Speaker 1: not the first time or the second time, which happens
Speaker 1: as he's running away. And it's now as Scott takes
Speaker 1: refuge by squatting down in this cluster of trees, that
Speaker 1: he actually realizes that he's been shot. And by realizers,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I'm going to quote Scott directly here,
Speaker 1: and then I realized I was shot in the neck.
Speaker 1: I could actually see the blood like squirting a foot
Speaker 1: every time my heart would beat. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: just pulsing out of me. And if that gave you
Speaker 1: the he begbis, then I suggest you assume the brace
Speaker 1: position for this next bit, which is when Scottie Boy
Speaker 1: has a feel around his neck and he locates the
Speaker 1: hole in which the bullet has entered and so he
Speaker 1: takes his finger and sticks it inside the hole to
Speaker 1: essentially plug it up and stem the bleeding. I wonder
Speaker 1: if that's an instinctual thing, like if the brain just
Speaker 1: tells you what to do to save yourself, because I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure I wouldn't have thought of that. So here's
Speaker 1: where we are. We know Scott's crouching down in the
Speaker 1: bushes fingering his neck hole, So let's cut back and
Speaker 1: see what's happening with our gentle giant Big Sean. Well,
Speaker 1: he's understandably a bit unsteady on his feet, having been
Speaker 1: shot in the face and all, but he watched things
Speaker 1: unfold as Ricky Riccardo fired a couple of bullets into
Speaker 1: his best mate. So Big Sean makes the big decision
Speaker 1: to just charge at this worst dinner guest of all time,
Speaker 1: because what else are you gonna do? And that is
Speaker 1: when Ricky raises his arm and loads another bullet right
Speaker 1: into Big Sean's chest, almost at point blank range and
Speaker 1: in some kind of superhuman feet of I don't know,
Speaker 1: a rock solid unwillingness to die. Big Sean stumbles back
Speaker 1: for a sec and then just makes a run for
Speaker 1: his cheek. Riccardo is right on his tail because of
Speaker 1: course he wants to finish the job off. But somehow
Speaker 1: Big Sean makes it to his jeep. The keys are inside,
Speaker 1: but just as Big Sean gets in and he's fumbling
Speaker 1: with the keys, he sees Ricky at his window and
Speaker 1: he's pointing the gun at him, and when he pulls
Speaker 1: the trigger nothing, He's obviously run out of bullets, so
Speaker 1: as he starts to reload, Big Sean turns the key,
Speaker 1: pumps that accelerator gets the fuck out of there. I mean,
Speaker 1: this isn't saying much for me, but I probably would
Speaker 1: have taken this opportunity to run Ricky over at this point.
Speaker 1: But I'm also a bit of a shit talker because
Speaker 1: I once run over a dead bird on the street
Speaker 1: and I could not get past it for days afterwards.
Speaker 1: So who knows what you're going to do in those moments.
Speaker 1: And remember Scott, who's still hiding in the bushes with
Speaker 1: his finger in his neck. He spots the lights of
Speaker 1: Sean's jeep, so he makes a run towards it, and
Speaker 1: he makes it to the road just in time for
Speaker 1: their parts to cross, which is like unbelievable luck. And
Speaker 1: Big Jawn stops, Scott gets in and they gun it.
Speaker 1: Now HARKing back to the shitness of being so remote,
Speaker 1: the guys are both very aware at this point that
Speaker 1: there at least I don't know, eight k's from the
Speaker 1: nearest home where they might be able to get help,
Speaker 1: and they're probably around sixty five k's from the nearest hospital,
Speaker 1: and they are feeling less than chipper. And to make
Speaker 1: matters worse again, because this is nature, there are no
Speaker 1: street lights to help guide your way down this terrifying
Speaker 1: country road. I mean, it's not really even a proper road.
Speaker 1: It's like a path that has sections of just straight
Speaker 1: drops down the side. And apparently, in the full light
Speaker 1: of day, you'd be driving around thirty k's an hour
Speaker 1: to ensure you don't go flying right off the edge.
Speaker 1: But our two wounded heroes here, they don't have the
Speaker 1: luxury of safety first, so they're doing around eighty in
Speaker 1: pitch black darkness. And let's recap. They've both been shot twice,
Speaker 1: one in the neck and the back and the other
Speaker 1: who is the one who's driving, in the side of
Speaker 1: the face and the chest, and they are in full
Speaker 1: survival mode because not only is there an excessive amount
Speaker 1: of blood pulling around them in the car. Scott's car
Speaker 1: is back at the campsite with the keys in the ignition,
Speaker 1: so this is like Christmas time for Ricky Ricardo, so
Speaker 1: the boys are pretty sure that he'll be coming up
Speaker 1: behind them very soon. And then things sort of just
Speaker 1: go from bad to worse because there's a point where
Speaker 1: they hit a very sharp bend in the road and
Speaker 1: the wheels go out from under them and they start
Speaker 1: to skid and they narrowly miss going over an edge
Speaker 1: with a seven hundred meter drop before the car comes
Speaker 1: to a stop and thank god the car is still on.
Speaker 1: But our driver, Big Sean, he's not in good shape.
Speaker 1: He's telling Scott that he's losing his vision and he's
Speaker 1: starting to black out. So Scott's like, okay, ol stere
Speaker 1: and you work the pedals. So he leans over and
Speaker 1: grabs the wheel with one hand because remember the other
Speaker 1: one is in the neck hole, and he calls out
Speaker 1: to Big Sean when to accelerate and when to break
Speaker 1: and so on. I mean, that is really quite remarkable.
Speaker 1: Vic Rhades would be very impressed, but it's also fucked
Speaker 1: until finally this ultimate teamwork slash Frankenstein Drive is over. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: They've made it to the bottom of the mountain, where
Speaker 1: they stop the car at like the third house they pass,
Speaker 1: and Scott runs to the door and starts banging and
Speaker 1: screaming call nine one one. Let's spare a thought here
Speaker 1: for the occupant of the house, Paul Melissa Miller, because
Speaker 1: I reckon, there isn't much scarier than a nighttime knock
Speaker 1: at the door coupled with a man's frantic voice screaming
Speaker 1: call nine one one. Not good. Mel says that she
Speaker 1: initially thought it was one of her son's friends playing
Speaker 1: a joke on her for shits and gigs, and I mean,
Speaker 1: that does sound exactly like something a stupid teenage boy
Speaker 1: would find hilarious. But she quickly realizes that this is
Speaker 1: the real when she opens the door to a blood
Speaker 1: soaked man fingering his neck hole and a very big
Speaker 1: Sean who is staggering his way towards the house, also
Speaker 1: covered in blood, with the gunshot wound to the head
Speaker 1: and the chest. I mean, of course you'd open the
Speaker 1: door and help, but geez, it would surely take you
Speaker 1: a minute or two to process that. Mal immediately calls
Speaker 1: nine to one one, knowing that the closest hospital is
Speaker 1: pretty far away, and I mean, i'd imagine you'd be
Speaker 1: raiding your medicine cabinet, like I don't reckon these jumbo
Speaker 1: size pandaids are gonna cut it. But Mel gives them
Speaker 1: blankets to keep them warm for the forty five excruciating
Speaker 1: minutes it takes for the Ambos to arrive. And I
Speaker 1: wonder if at any point he is Scott asked Big Sean, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know when you were taking off in the jeep,
Speaker 1: were you just gonna leave me out there? And then
Speaker 1: would Big Sean have been you know, wouldn't even be
Speaker 1: in this situation if you hadn't have invited some random
Speaker 1: do our campsite for dinner. Both fair points, but also
Speaker 1: that conversationation probably never even happened, because that's just me assuming.
Speaker 1: So the Ambos arrive, and thank god they had the
Speaker 1: good sense to send a chopper out because there is
Speaker 1: no way that Scott and Big Sean would have survived
Speaker 1: a standard Ambo road trip because at this point Scott
Speaker 1: started spinning up blood, which I'm no doctor, but I
Speaker 1: think he's a pretty bad sign. And also that rush
Speaker 1: of adrenaline is probably starting to wear off, so you
Speaker 1: can imagine the kind of pain that's starting to kick
Speaker 1: in hard at this point. And poor Scott, this is
Speaker 1: so horrible. But he says that while he's in the
Speaker 1: chop art, the ambos state him, so he can't move
Speaker 1: his body as such, but he can hear them talking
Speaker 1: and one of them says that she can't find a pulse.
Speaker 1: So Scott's thinking that maybe he's dead and he doesn't
Speaker 1: even realize it, and that is fucked. But buck up
Speaker 1: because as soon as that helicopter lands at Roano Hospital
Speaker 1: and they open the door and that cold night air
Speaker 1: rushes in, Scott realizes that he's a bit nippley, so
Speaker 1: he must in fact be alive, and now he's in
Speaker 1: the hospital, so his prob's going to be okay. Sure,
Speaker 1: And while Big Shan and Scott are finally safe in Huzzy,
Speaker 1: a retired local cop called Tom Lawson gets word about
Speaker 1: what's just happened, and the hairs on the back of
Speaker 1: his next stand on end as he starts putting the
Speaker 1: possible pieces together about how this event would all be
Speaker 1: connected to a murder case in the exact same location
Speaker 1: that rocked the local community twenty seven years earlier. So
Speaker 1: back in May of nineteen eighty one, police in the
Speaker 1: town of Peisburg, Virginia start receiving calls about two missing
Speaker 1: hikers on the Appalachian Trail who'd failed to show up
Speaker 1: at their latest stop. Robert Mountford and Susan Ramsey were
Speaker 1: twenty seven year old social workers who were hiking the
Speaker 1: trail to raise money to build a facility for troubled kids,
Speaker 1: which the beauty in that just makes this even more fucked. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they get to Dismal Creek and they come across this
Speaker 1: guy who appeared a bit shy and nervous, but they
Speaker 1: strike up a convo with him, and he offers to
Speaker 1: help them get to their next rest stop because this
Speaker 1: is his hood. He's very familiar with it, so they
Speaker 1: follow him. Tom Lawson, that retired cop that I was
Speaker 1: just talking about, he was the local deputy sheriff at
Speaker 1: the time, and he and some fellow officers head out
Speaker 1: to the trail, which they're very familiar with also, and
Speaker 1: they start looking around and they come up to this
Speaker 1: recently built little area called the Wapiti Shelter, and Tom
Speaker 1: says that when they step in, they notice that the
Speaker 1: wood flooring is very dark, like it has been stained
Speaker 1: with something, and when he pulls up one of the boards,
Speaker 1: he sees this massive puddle of blood. Strong indicator that
Speaker 1: something is not right. So they start searching the immediate
Speaker 1: area surrounding the shelter and they spot something red under
Speaker 1: a pile of leaves, and when they go over and
Speaker 1: brush the leaves away, they see a sleeping bag and
Speaker 1: inside they find the body of Susan Ramsey. And the
Speaker 1: very next day, when they take the police dogs out
Speaker 1: to the area, they find the remains of rob It
Speaker 1: and based on other evidence they find, they're able to
Speaker 1: piece together what happened. So it's believed that the pair
Speaker 1: were attacked while they were sleeping in the shelter. Robert
Speaker 1: was shot in the head, However, the first bullet didn't
Speaker 1: penetrate his skull, so as he was I can only
Speaker 1: assume trying to get up and also register what the
Speaker 1: hell had just happened to him, He's shot again, right
Speaker 1: in the cheek, and this time the bullet heads upwards
Speaker 1: and into his brain and it kills him and then Susan,
Speaker 1: who God, I cannot even imagine the fear, she makes
Speaker 1: a run for it, but this mad fuck catches her
Speaker 1: and hits her with a wrought iron fireplace poke. This
Speaker 1: knocks her down to the ground, where he then stabs
Speaker 1: her multiple times with a big spike nail that was
Speaker 1: found at the scene. The community are completely freaked out
Speaker 1: by this, so there's a real hunt to capture this
Speaker 1: piece of shit. The cops complete shut down this section
Speaker 1: of the trail so they can really spend time collecting
Speaker 1: more evidence, which they do find hidden in weird places
Speaker 1: like in knot holes, in tree trunks and under rocks
Speaker 1: and other areas of nature. They end up finding a
Speaker 1: couple of books that belonged to Susan, and on one
Speaker 1: of those books was the sole piece of evidence that
Speaker 1: could help find the killer, a single bloody fingerprint. But
Speaker 1: there's still no suspect. That is until they come across
Speaker 1: the truck of a man who'd been reported missing right
Speaker 1: around the time the murders happened, and inside the truck
Speaker 1: was a handwritten note saying that the owner had been kidnapped. Strange.
Speaker 1: Cops run the red joe of the truck and trace
Speaker 1: it back to a guy named Randal Lee Smith, so
Speaker 1: they start doing some digging into this guy, and they
Speaker 1: find that not only is the handwriting on the letter
Speaker 1: a perfect match to Randall's handwriting, but he's sketchy, as
Speaker 1: locals who knew him told police that he was known
Speaker 1: in the community as OL, which stood for lying Randal
Speaker 1: because you guessed it, he was a liar and not
Speaker 1: of the harmless you know, Sorry, I can't go out tonight.
Speaker 1: My back saw variety. He was a compulsive liar who
Speaker 1: spun stories so far fetched that people just knew not
Speaker 1: to trust or believe anything that came out of his mouth.
Speaker 1: So cops go to Randall's home in Peisburg and surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: they see that it pretty much backs right onto the
Speaker 1: woods near where Susan and Roberts's remains were found. But
Speaker 1: of course it was a case of knock, knock, no
Speaker 1: one's home. So at this point they are very keen
Speaker 1: to chat with Randall because a few hikers had also
Speaker 1: identified him in a picture as having seen him with
Speaker 1: the pair on the trail on the day of the murders.
Speaker 1: And eventually they track him down in South Carolina and
Speaker 1: they haul his ass back to Virginia for questioning, and
Speaker 1: in true psycho fashion, he refuses to give them any
Speaker 1: information at all, even when they match his fingerprints to
Speaker 1: that lone bloody one on Susan's book and charge him
Speaker 1: with the double homicide of Susan Ramsey and Robert Mountfort.
Speaker 1: So you'd think that with this incriminating fingerprint match, it'd
Speaker 1: be Dunski case closed. See you later, Randy boy, because
Speaker 1: the death penalty was still alive and very well in
Speaker 1: Virginia at the time, So if he didn't get that,
Speaker 1: he'd surely be spending the rest of his days in prison.
Speaker 1: Wrong because on the morning of the trial, the prosecuting
Speaker 1: attorney decided that despite the fact that his case had
Speaker 1: rock solid physical evidence tying him to the murders, it
Speaker 1: wasn't quite enough. So he made a plea deal with
Speaker 1: Randall's defense attorneys. And, as happens in so many stories
Speaker 1: we've heard before and continue to hear today, the frustratingly
Speaker 1: unjust justice system, the one that's meant to protect the
Speaker 1: public by putting away those who have done wrong, failed.
Speaker 1: So Randal Lee Smith pled guilty to two counts of
Speaker 1: second degree murder in exchange for a reduced sentence of
Speaker 1: fifteen years per life. He took thirty years in total
Speaker 1: for the violent and unbelievably senseless murder of two innocent
Speaker 1: twenty seven year olds who were just out there doing
Speaker 1: a hike to raise money to help kids in need.
Speaker 1: And worse still, because he was a good boy in prison,
Speaker 1: the courts thought it'd be a good idea to release
Speaker 1: him after serving just half of his sentence. So in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, fifteen years after the murders of Susan
Speaker 1: Ramsey and Robert Mountford, Randal Lee Smith, aged forty two,
Speaker 1: was released back into society. He returned to the home
Speaker 1: that he'd grown up in and shared with his mother
Speaker 1: and just went on living his life. And he spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time in those woods because they were
Speaker 1: practically his backyard. He spent so much time there that
Speaker 1: twelve years later, in March of two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: he just disappeared into them. Cops put missing posters around town,
Speaker 1: but no one had seen him. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: this feels like it should have been like a major
Speaker 1: man hunt, like on the national news and stuff, because
Speaker 1: this was a convicted killer on the loose, And how
Speaker 1: is this for a full circle moment? Just as Scott
Speaker 1: Johnston was being wheeled into surgery, a police officer shows
Speaker 1: him one of those missing posters of Randall and Scott
Speaker 1: takes one look and he's like, one hundred percent that's him.
Speaker 1: So now everyone is looking for Randal Smith, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't long before a local cop spotted him driving Scott's
Speaker 1: pickup truck, which proves he was pretty fucking dumb as well,
Speaker 1: driving around in the car of the person you just
Speaker 1: tried to kill. Anyway, when Randall spotted the police car
Speaker 1: behind him, he pushed that pedal to the medal and
Speaker 1: sped right off and crashed Scott's car into an embankment,
Speaker 1: where it rolled onto its roof and pinned him down.
Speaker 1: So they've got him, and when they take him into
Speaker 1: the station and question him, he denies it all. But
Speaker 1: when the questioning officer is like, listen, Allah, remember lying, Randal,
Speaker 1: we know it was you. Did you shoot those boys?
Speaker 1: And Randal says, quote, well, if I did, it wasn't
Speaker 1: my gun. It was theirs Oki dokie. And of course
Speaker 1: the gun Randall was carrying at the time of the
Speaker 1: accident was indeed a match for the gun that fired
Speaker 1: the shots into Scott and Big Sean. I couldn't wrap
Speaker 1: my head around the fact that two men can be
Speaker 1: shot twice, one in the head, at point blank range
Speaker 1: and it not killed them. And even Paul Robert, who'd
Speaker 1: been shot in the head back in nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: that first bullet didn't kill him either. So what's going
Speaker 1: on with this gun, because it sounds a bit like
Speaker 1: Randall might have purchased it from whatever the reject shop
Speaker 1: equivalent for guns and ammo is. Tom Lawson, the cop
Speaker 1: who'd worked on the original case of Robin Susan he
Speaker 1: reckons that Randal likely used the same gun and ammunition
Speaker 1: for the nineteen eighty one murders and the attempted murder
Speaker 1: of Scott and Big Sean, and this means that they
Speaker 1: would have been way past there used by date, which
Speaker 1: is potentially what saved Sean and Scott's lives. Who knew
Speaker 1: bullets went off and who knows how old those bullets
Speaker 1: were back in eighty one. They could have been ones
Speaker 1: that Randal's grandfather had on a shelf somewhere in the
Speaker 1: shed for all we know. So maybe that explains that
Speaker 1: police did eventually find Randall's campsite in the woods and
Speaker 1: there were some very unnerving things there, which included over
Speaker 1: twenty bladed instruments such as knives and meat cleavers, Scott's sunglasses,
Speaker 1: and how's this. They also found a stash of drawings
Speaker 1: and symbols that were identified as being consistent with the
Speaker 1: pagan religion Wicca, whose core beliefs center around worshiping nature
Speaker 1: and the elements, and the head Honchos are believed to
Speaker 1: be witches worshiping nature and stuff. That seems all right,
Speaker 1: But have a listen to this prayer that they found
Speaker 1: with Randall's stuff. Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtower
Speaker 1: of the North, by the powers of Mother and Earth,
Speaker 1: hear me, show me thy glory, I invoke thee And
Speaker 1: if you're thinking, I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before,
Speaker 1: then may I cast your mind back to the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six cult classics starring Nev Campbell the Craft his
Speaker 1: actress Robin Tunney reciting the very same thing, Hell to
Speaker 1: the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, by the
Speaker 1: powers of Mother and Earth, hear us? Hey, And also,
Speaker 1: how is this for a weird coinky dic? That movie
Speaker 1: came out in ninety six, which was the year that
Speaker 1: Randall was released from prison, weird, And as forgetting some
Speaker 1: kind of answers or resolution as to why lying Randal
Speaker 1: did all of these horrible things, while that ever came
Speaker 1: because just a day after his arrest, he was found
Speaker 1: dead in his jail cell. An autopsy report indicated that
Speaker 1: the fifty four year old had died from a blood
Speaker 1: clot that had formed in the accident when he crashed
Speaker 1: Scott's car. And as if he was going to tell
Speaker 1: the truth anyway, So what became of our friends Scott
Speaker 1: and Big Sean. Well they're both alive, which is a
Speaker 1: maz imagine after all that I'd said. Unfortunately, they didn't
Speaker 1: make it. Scott's surgery was successful, but he was like
Speaker 1: the luckiest unlucky person ever because his surgeon told him
Speaker 1: that the bullet in his neck had missed his carottid
Speaker 1: artery by one millimeter, which, if you need a visual
Speaker 1: luck I did, that's like the tip of a sewing needle,
Speaker 1: and had it penetrated that artery, he would have bled
Speaker 1: out in under five minutes. At one point, doctors weren't
Speaker 1: sure whether Scott would be able to talk or swallow again.
Speaker 1: So there was this moment where they thought that he
Speaker 1: may have to live with a feeding tube, and Scott
Speaker 1: says that when they spoke to him about it, he said, quote,
Speaker 1: either I'll swallow or I'll die. And hadn't we all
Speaker 1: been there? That's inappropriate anyway. After a speedy six day
Speaker 1: recovery in hospital following his surgery, Scott was released to
Speaker 1: finish recuperating at home with the bullets still lodged dangerously
Speaker 1: close to his fine like a quarter of an inch
Speaker 1: kind of close. And just like Scott and friend of
Speaker 1: the Pod Mary Joe Barafuco from a few episodes ago,
Speaker 1: Big Sean's bullets also remain in his body to this day.
Speaker 1: The one from the chest shot sits right near his
Speaker 1: ribs and the other that he took to the side
Speaker 1: of the face is firmly lodged in his sinus cavity.
Speaker 1: And even though this awful experience that Big Sean and
Speaker 1: Scott lived through has resulted in astronomical medical debts for
Speaker 1: both of them, like something in the area of eighty
Speaker 1: grand because you know that's what happens in the good
Speaker 1: old USA when you don't have medical insurance, they have
Speaker 1: lived their lives, focusing on the positives of their experience,
Speaker 1: which is to just be grateful for what you have
Speaker 1: and when face with tough situations, you fight to the
Speaker 1: end and you never give up poetic and they certainly
Speaker 1: haven't because to this day, Sean and Scott still often
Speaker 1: make time to visit the Appalachian Trail together to do
Speaker 1: the shit they've always loved to do, like fish and
Speaker 1: camp and talk sports and crap. And I guess this
Speaker 1: is a very conscious decision not to let Randal Smith
Speaker 1: take that away from them, So I'll wrap up time.
Speaker 1: Stories like this really rat on me because I guess
Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing that makes you scared to
Speaker 1: be nice, like Scott and Sean were just being kind
Speaker 1: when they shared their trout and bees with this man
Speaker 1: that they just thought was a bit of a sad loaner.
Speaker 1: And we don't want to let bad people take that
Speaker 1: humanity away from us. We don't want a second guest
Speaker 1: doing what comes naturally to most of us. But we
Speaker 1: also have to recognize that we live in a world
Speaker 1: where people do bad things. So I don't know what
Speaker 1: the answer is there. But on the flip side, geez,
Speaker 1: what a beautiful example of friendship and teamwork. Good job, fellas.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're listening. Also, if you're wondering what happened
Speaker 1: to that poor dog that Randal had with him, me too.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find much about what happened to this good
Speaker 1: boy except one video that said his name was Bo
Speaker 1: and he was adopted out to a family who cared
Speaker 1: for him and loved him. I mean, is that true?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but let's assume it is because it
Speaker 1: will make us feel better. But here is the main takeaway.
Speaker 1: I think, don't fuck up your kids. Because Randal Lee
Speaker 1: Smith said distick animal he was had a pretty rough childhood.
Speaker 1: His dad left when he was very little. His uncle,
Speaker 1: who lived next door, would constantly take him out into
Speaker 1: the forest. And I shouldn't say this because it's not
Speaker 1: fair to make heinous assumptions about people like I am
Speaker 1: in my head right now. But something about that feels off.
Speaker 1: Perhaps I've just read one too many true crime stories.
Speaker 1: But Randal's mother also used to do stuff like dress
Speaker 1: him up as a girl when he was little. Witch.
Speaker 1: Of course, if that's what your child wants, then I say,
Speaker 1: go forth and do what's best for your kid. However,
Speaker 1: if your child doesn't want that, which it doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like Randall did, and you're sending him to school in
Speaker 1: dresses and bows in his hair where he's mercilessly bullied
Speaker 1: and ostracized, well I think that's a pretty strong indicator
Speaker 1: that perhaps mum isn't doing too well on the mental
Speaker 1: front there either. So let's just look out for each other,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. So profound the end, lots of
Speaker 1: light and shade in that one, mostly shade, but you know,
Speaker 1: our best mate heroes got us through. Please don't forget
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Speaker 1: it's free. Can't get much cheaper than that. We understand,
Speaker 1: Couse he lives, and I'm sure you're well and truly
Speaker 1: sick of my voice. So I'm going to boot. We'll
Speaker 1: be back in your ears soon, but until then, as always,
Speaker 1: take care of yourselves. Thank you for listening. Love him,
Speaker 1: Let's see the guest, Let's do me