Speaker 1: Well, because I clean.
Speaker 2: I listened to a lot of podcasts to get through
Speaker 2: the day, and I kind of exhausted all the good ones,
Speaker 2: of course Cereal, and went through all those pretty fast.
Speaker 3: Mary West has had many jobs and worn many hats.
Speaker 3: She's in her sixties now and living in northern Florida,
Speaker 3: where these days she cleans houses.
Speaker 2: I did it when the kids were in school so
Speaker 2: that I could go on field trips or go to
Speaker 2: their swim meets or whatever.
Speaker 1: I like cleaning, actually, and so I've just stayed with it.
Speaker 1: I was just.
Speaker 2: Googling one day for like podcasts set in Florida, because
Speaker 2: I really just wanted to hear about local stuff.
Speaker 1: I guess you know, you came up.
Speaker 2: Like I would even agree to do a house I
Speaker 2: didn't want to do because I'd have four hours of
Speaker 2: uninterrupted listening. You know. The part of the podcast really,
Speaker 2: and it's still memorable, it is when you played the
Speaker 2: clip of Victoria Avalon.
Speaker 4: Mister Scott, this man. My name is Victoria Avalon. I'm
Speaker 4: the prosecutor in the case.
Speaker 3: Victoria Avalon is an assistant state attorney who questioned Jeremy
Speaker 3: Scott after he confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in a
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen evident Charry hearing right.
Speaker 1: And she was questioning, Jeremy.
Speaker 4: Grandmother's dead right.
Speaker 2: Leave her out of this.
Speaker 4: Your grandmother's dead right as she is. She's the only
Speaker 4: one on earth that cared about you, wasn't she answer
Speaker 4: out loud? Yeah, no one's sending you any money.
Speaker 2: Correct, No, ma'am.
Speaker 1: You can't even afford to buy deodorant, can't you.
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, you can't even buy deodorant, can you?
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, she's just she was harsh.
Speaker 1: I thought, man, that's awful.
Speaker 2: I just felt so bad for Jeremy. So I thought, well,
Speaker 2: I want to send Jeremy some money, like twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know, do.
Speaker 3: You remember the first letter what you said to him?
Speaker 1: I think it was right around Christmas, and I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just said he was that I thought he had
Speaker 2: done the right thing to confess what he had done.
Speaker 1: I knew it had to be hard, and that.
Speaker 2: I felt bad because he had said he felt like
Speaker 2: he slept with ghosts that night, and that was just
Speaker 2: wanting to help a downtrodden person. Really, I didn't have
Speaker 2: any plans to keep writing him like that.
Speaker 3: You know, do you remember the first letter that Jeremy
Speaker 3: sent to you?
Speaker 1: Well, I have it. Oh right here, let me see.
Speaker 5: You my mind, I have to have my feet sorrow
Speaker 5: step sorry this.
Speaker 6: In this vista see.
Speaker 2: To things.
Speaker 3: Things Bone Valley, Season two, Jeremy, Chapter five, Like a
Speaker 3: little kid. When Mary first decided to write Jeremy a letter,
Speaker 3: she wasn't sure how to reach him or where he was.
Speaker 3: In order to deposit funds into an inmates canteen, the
Speaker 3: Florida doc has to approve you. So I helped her
Speaker 3: navigate the protocols. She sent Jeremi a letter, got approved,
Speaker 3: then deposited a little money for deodorant and toothpaste. She
Speaker 3: assumed that would be the end of that, but Jeremy wrote.
Speaker 1: Her back January thirty first.
Speaker 3: Christmas had passed and it was the beginning of a
Speaker 3: new year, twenty twenty three. One day she was picking
Speaker 3: up her mail and there it was.
Speaker 2: I think it's on like a half a piece of
Speaker 2: paper because he didn't have any money to buy paper.
Speaker 1: It's torn at the bottom.
Speaker 3: Yeah, go ahead and read.
Speaker 1: It, okay.
Speaker 2: So January thirty first, twenty twenty three, Dear miss West,
Speaker 2: I just want to let you know that I received
Speaker 2: your letter and to let you know that you were approved.
Speaker 2: I've been trying to find out who you were. I
Speaker 2: even sent a letter to mister King, the one that
Speaker 2: did the podcast on me. I have not had anyone
Speaker 2: to write me in over ten years now since my
Speaker 2: grandma passed away, so I kind of give up on
Speaker 2: hearing from family. I hope that you can understand my
Speaker 2: spelling and writing. I haven't wrote for so long, and
Speaker 2: it's hard writing on paper like this because it doesn't
Speaker 2: have any lines on it. Oh and yes, I did
Speaker 2: like your Christmas card. You were the only one to
Speaker 2: send me one. Thank you.
Speaker 1: You said that you want to put some money in
Speaker 1: my account. Well, I'll give you my word.
Speaker 2: I will buy stamps and writing paper if you got
Speaker 2: me off podcast. You should know what I am in
Speaker 2: prison for. I've been locked up since nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 2: I was nineteen and I went to prison in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Have been here since. I'm fifty three.
Speaker 2: Years old now and right now I'm on cm IE Lockdown.
Speaker 3: As soon as she started getting letters from Jeremy, Mary
Speaker 3: agreed to send me voice memos talking me through them.
Speaker 3: What really struck me in those early letters was how
Speaker 3: surprised Jeremy was to be hearing from her.
Speaker 2: He says, can I ask you something? I ain't never
Speaker 2: had anyone to want to help me. And now, don't
Speaker 2: get me wrong, I just wanted to know. He didn't
Speaker 2: say why, but I'm guessing he meant to say why,
Speaker 2: but thank you, and I hope you are well in
Speaker 2: doing good.
Speaker 3: Something else that stood out. It seemed like Jeremy wanted
Speaker 3: to prove to Mary that he was worthy of her time,
Speaker 3: her letters, and her attention.
Speaker 2: In the beginning, he would send me exactly what he
Speaker 2: bought a canteen, you know, to show me that he
Speaker 2: was spending his money wisely.
Speaker 3: When Jeremy was a younger man in prison, his family
Speaker 3: was still writing and visiting, but then they stopped. Now,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, he had someone new in his life,
Speaker 3: and it seemed important him to be accountable to her.
Speaker 2: Like here's that he sent a receipt of something. He said,
Speaker 2: I still have four dollars I can use. He said,
Speaker 2: I did buy degodurant and another bar of soap, and
Speaker 2: I just wanted to let you know that I use
Speaker 2: that money for the good.
Speaker 3: In those early letters, Jeremy and Mary are just getting
Speaker 3: to know each other.
Speaker 2: The third letter I got from Jeremy, we've talked about football,
Speaker 2: Gardner Minshew specifically because that is one person in football
Speaker 2: that I know about, because he's pretty hot.
Speaker 3: At first, he's writing once a week or maybe every
Speaker 3: two weeks.
Speaker 1: I got to say.
Speaker 2: His handwriting is really good at slants evenly and pretty
Speaker 2: consistently to the right. It's incursive for some who never
Speaker 2: made it through high school. He doesn't have a lot
Speaker 2: of misspellings, so my thought is that he puts a
Speaker 2: lot of time and effort into his letters.
Speaker 3: By April, Jeremy is writing all the time, sometimes every
Speaker 3: three days.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to drop a line so that you
Speaker 2: would have a letter from me, and then a little
Speaker 2: smiley face drawn on the paper.
Speaker 3: The letters get more personal.
Speaker 2: I hate being behind this door all day, but I'm
Speaker 2: doing everything I can to get off CM.
Speaker 1: And then he says.
Speaker 3: Mary asks him about his family and the people he
Speaker 3: used to know on the outside.
Speaker 2: He said, you ask if I heard from my son's mama,
Speaker 2: and I have not since my son was twelve years old.
Speaker 1: Her name was Jamie C. Allen.
Speaker 2: I learned she got married, so I don't know her
Speaker 2: last name. I still have family, they just don't write me.
Speaker 2: I don't know where they are. My own mom doesn't
Speaker 2: write me. My son justin m Allen, I don't know
Speaker 2: where he is anymore. It's hard to think about them,
Speaker 2: knowing that they are my blood family and won't even
Speaker 2: let me know how the family are. I just don't
Speaker 2: know what else I can do. I wrote my Aunt
Speaker 2: Debbie in May.
Speaker 3: The letters ramp up even more.
Speaker 1: He talks about Missus, his grandma.
Speaker 2: He asked me one time if I could get a
Speaker 2: picture of her gravestone.
Speaker 3: Mary wasn't able to find her gravestone, but she was
Speaker 3: able to find her Aleene's obituary. It had a picture
Speaker 3: of her. Mary printed it out and sent a copy
Speaker 3: of it to Jeremy.
Speaker 2: He wrote back, I was looking at that picture of
Speaker 2: Grandma and I used to have the same picture. When
Speaker 2: I was in prison in Miami. They lost all my stuff.
Speaker 2: I had another picture of me, Aunt Debbie and Grandma
Speaker 2: when they came to visit me once in some picture
Speaker 2: of my son and others as well, but now I
Speaker 2: have none. Thank you for sending what you could and
Speaker 2: finding out what you could. Again, he asked, what, I
Speaker 2: please find out his grandma's birth date, and I'm not
Speaker 2: sure I ever did, so I'm going to follow up
Speaker 2: on that. Then he said, I also understand that you
Speaker 2: found some news about my brother.
Speaker 3: Looking at Mary also did what she could to connect
Speaker 3: Jeremy with other family members, just like I did last
Speaker 3: time I checked. Royal Dean Scott was in prison himself
Speaker 3: in Alabama. In Alabama, Mary found his mugshot online and
Speaker 3: sent that to Jeremy.
Speaker 1: As well, that's my little brother. I would know that
Speaker 1: face anywhere.
Speaker 2: Exclamation mark, exclamation mark, And he said he had last
Speaker 2: seen him when he was about thirty five, and he
Speaker 2: must be fifty two or three.
Speaker 3: Now it's clear how much these family connections mean to Jeremy.
Speaker 2: Dated May sixteen, twenty twenty three, he thanked me again
Speaker 2: for sending the obituary, and he said he was looking
Speaker 2: at it again and rereading it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for the obituary.
Speaker 2: She was strong, never turn her back on anyone, always
Speaker 2: trying to help if she could. Sometimes we don't think
Speaker 2: about stuff that she did for us all, and I
Speaker 2: feel bad it took me thirty four years to understand
Speaker 2: what Grandma had been telling me. I will always remember
Speaker 2: the good times I had with her. If you find
Speaker 2: out anything else or get any other pictures, would you
Speaker 2: please send them? He said, you know you're really the
Speaker 2: only person that writes me. Basically, it was just me
Speaker 2: and mister King that were writing him.
Speaker 1: He says, I also want you to know that I
Speaker 1: really appreciate everything you have done for me.
Speaker 2: I still find myself sometimes looking for help. Sometimes it's
Speaker 2: good to talk. I hope that you've had a great weekend.
Speaker 2: Take care of Jeremy Scott.
Speaker 3: From his letters, Mary has learned even more than I
Speaker 3: have about Jeremy's childhood.
Speaker 2: He said that as a kid he used to have
Speaker 2: fun in foster homes, never staying long, always getting himself
Speaker 2: in trouble, and he said, I think that I might
Speaker 2: have been in more foster homes than any other kid
Speaker 2: growing up. Some were good and some were real bad.
Speaker 2: I just wish none of this had ever happened. I
Speaker 2: never met my dad, don't even know who he was.
Speaker 2: I asked my mom, but she would never tell me.
Speaker 2: My mom was a kid when I was born. I
Speaker 2: think she just turned fifteen years old. Then I was
Speaker 2: raised by my grandma and grandpa.
Speaker 1: I live with it.
Speaker 2: It does hurt, but I learned some time ago that
Speaker 2: you have no one to blame but yourself.
Speaker 1: But it still hurt. I never did grow up.
Speaker 2: Even now, I at my age, I still feel like
Speaker 2: a kid. I'm always thinking things like a kid. Maybe
Speaker 2: there is something wrong with my head.
Speaker 3: During the sentencing phase of the Donald moorehead trial, when
Speaker 3: he was nineteen years old, Jeremy listened to his aunt Debbie,
Speaker 3: describe him as slow, with a mind that wanders like
Speaker 3: a nine year old child.
Speaker 2: They always said, even in court, that I had the
Speaker 2: mind of a nine year old. He does say that
Speaker 2: when he looks back that he can see how stupid
Speaker 2: he was and he never did things the right way
Speaker 2: until it was too late. He did say, ever since
Speaker 2: he was six, seven or eight years old, he always
Speaker 2: felt like something was wrong with them in the head,
Speaker 2: and that he always felt like people were putting him
Speaker 2: down or making fun of him, and that it hurts
Speaker 2: real bad. That's one of the reasons that he doesn't
Speaker 2: go too many groups or anger management classes.
Speaker 1: He said he did try those.
Speaker 2: And it didn't work, and all it did was get
Speaker 2: him in more trouble, so now he just tries to
Speaker 2: work out his problems in his head. I'm sorry for
Speaker 2: my dog barking in the background. I have two dogs
Speaker 2: that don't get along. I had told him about I
Speaker 2: was dog sitting one of my cleaning clients, three rockweilers,
Speaker 2: and he said he was familiar with them and he
Speaker 2: liked having dogs when he was a kid. And he
Speaker 2: put a little smiley face, which he doesn't do very often.
Speaker 1: He comes around a lot.
Speaker 2: Then he says, oh, I really want to get an education,
Speaker 2: and education is printed in all caps.
Speaker 3: Jeremy was barely literate when he was sent to death row.
Speaker 3: It sounds like that's where he finally tried to learn.
Speaker 2: He mentioned the old man who taught him to read
Speaker 2: when he was on death row from eighty nine to
Speaker 2: ninety three, and he said, an old man was teaching me,
Speaker 2: and if school could teach me the way he did,
Speaker 2: I could have been a new person. I can't remember
Speaker 2: his full name. I always called him mister Jackson. He
Speaker 2: was good at helping, not just me, but others as well.
Speaker 2: He is a black man, about sixty five years of age,
Speaker 2: maybe sixty eight, and he didn't care what color your
Speaker 2: skin was.
Speaker 1: I never saw him again.
Speaker 2: I heard he got off death wrote someone told me
Speaker 2: that he had died, but he says that may not
Speaker 2: be true because he heard rumors that he himself, Jeremy,
Speaker 2: had died in two thousand and two. I had ordered
Speaker 2: him a ged study book, and he said that should
Speaker 2: really be fun, because I suck at everything. I only
Speaker 2: went to the sixth grade and I never got past
Speaker 2: it math. I don't know at all. I mean, I
Speaker 2: can add, and that's about all I've ever learned. The
Speaker 2: next letter, he said that he got the three books
Speaker 2: I sent, and he said, I don't know that I
Speaker 2: can do this. It looks really hard, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to try.
Speaker 1: He says.
Speaker 2: Remember I told you that I only went to the
Speaker 2: sixth grade. He said, really, I only went to the
Speaker 2: fourth grade, but they moved him up to the sixth
Speaker 2: because of his age. I sent him a math book
Speaker 2: on top of that, and that I had. I sent
Speaker 2: him one that was fourth and fifth grade math, and
Speaker 2: I felt bad doing it because it looks like a
Speaker 2: kid's book, and I didn't want him to feel, you know, embarrassed.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the other prisoners see, or you know,
Speaker 2: if they make fun of him for.
Speaker 1: Things like that.
Speaker 2: You know. When I'm more reflective about what is going
Speaker 2: on here about me and Jeremy writing letters, I kind
Speaker 2: of think, like, Mary, you're insane because here you are
Speaker 2: talking to him basically a mass murderer, and worrying about
Speaker 2: whether he's going to feel bad because you sent him
Speaker 2: a fairly childish kind of book.
Speaker 1: So who knows.
Speaker 2: Truthfully, I just don't think about it too much. I
Speaker 2: just just write the letters, you know, as if he's
Speaker 2: any other person in my life, maybe like a brother
Speaker 2: or something. Anyway, So he says he can't do the math,
Speaker 2: and he guess he's gonna have to just read it
Speaker 2: real slow and try real hard and maybe something will
Speaker 2: come to him.
Speaker 3: Between the ged books Mary sins and the paperback novels
Speaker 3: that I send him, it still sounds like he can't
Speaker 3: get enough to read.
Speaker 2: Mary, you told me that mister King is gonna mail
Speaker 2: me the Game of Thrones three four and five. Does
Speaker 2: he know how to order the books from the bookstore?
Speaker 2: You might have to let him know. The next letter
Speaker 2: I got was dated May ninth, two thousand and three,
Speaker 2: and insight on the very front he had written in
Speaker 2: big letters it said, Happy Mothers Day, Mary.
Speaker 3: Sometimes Jeremy's letters are just his stream of consciousness what
Speaker 3: it's like to spend day after day in prison.
Speaker 2: He said that the last two or three days it's
Speaker 2: been raining real hard, and it was cool for a while.
Speaker 2: I was just thinking about summer, and when it gets here,
Speaker 2: it will be really hot. The bad thing is we
Speaker 2: have to wear our blues all day from seven am
Speaker 2: to four thirty pm. I just wet my blue shirt
Speaker 2: and then put it back on and sit under the
Speaker 2: window and try to stay cool.
Speaker 1: He says.
Speaker 2: He washes his own shirt and pants because if he
Speaker 2: turns them in, they never come back clean, and they
Speaker 2: often just give you another pair, and they don't always
Speaker 2: fit the same. So he washes them himself and that
Speaker 2: way he knows they are clean. Then he writes, I
Speaker 2: try to write a letter like most people do, but
Speaker 2: when I'm done re read what I just wrote, it
Speaker 2: never sounds right. I just don't want you to think
Speaker 2: that I ain't trying. He says he felt pretty good
Speaker 2: right now, it's not as hot and he's clean. He's
Speaker 2: going to clean his floor, and he said, he takes
Speaker 2: off his blues and will lay right under his window
Speaker 2: and the rain comes in just a little bit and
Speaker 2: hits him in the face and feels good and cool.
Speaker 2: He said, I did this last night and then went
Speaker 2: to sleep. I hope everything is good and you are
Speaker 2: well and don't work so hard.
Speaker 3: By summer. Jeremy and Mary are also talking on the phone.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's August. Well, shit, it's September twelfth.
Speaker 2: But my phone call with Jeremy, the last one I
Speaker 2: had was August fifteenth of twenty twenty four anyway, so
Speaker 2: I was not expecting a call from Jeremy because I
Speaker 2: had not written him in a while. He said that
Speaker 2: he was fine. That he gets two times a week
Speaker 2: he gets to go outside for an hour. But he
Speaker 2: said the cell was small. It was about eight feet
Speaker 2: long and seven feet wide. And he said he is
Speaker 2: able to shake hands with the cell MAT's next door
Speaker 2: to him, but that right now he has no neighbors
Speaker 2: on either side of him, which sometimes he likes because
Speaker 2: it's quieter. But sometimes, you know, you miss the interaction.
Speaker 2: And the operator was saying, you know, our time was
Speaker 2: running out, so that's how.
Speaker 1: We ended it. Yeah, I just I wonder what that's
Speaker 1: like for Jeremy. Just to know that somebody's going to
Speaker 1: be checking in. I feel like that has to be
Speaker 1: significant for him, probably, but it might be a I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Not everybody wants to be, you know, micromanaged by a mother, So.
Speaker 1: Uh do you ever feel that, like you're just yeah,
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: I worry about him. It's like a it's like a
Speaker 2: parental thing. I'll ask him, has he easy versh in
Speaker 2: his teeth and taking vitamins and all that, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, has he been to a dentist or does
Speaker 2: he need glasses?
Speaker 3: In my calls with him, Jeremy always asks for updates
Speaker 3: on Leo's case, and when I let him know that
Speaker 3: Leo had a big hearing coming up that could lead
Speaker 3: to his release, he wrote to Marry about it.
Speaker 2: Mister King told me that Leo's parole here his next
Speaker 2: week and he is going to be there.
Speaker 1: I hope things turn out good for Leo.
Speaker 3: Jeremy will never see the day where he's actually par old.
Speaker 3: But he tells Mary how much it means to him
Speaker 3: for Leo to be released from prison, you know.
Speaker 1: Of his own accord, he said that.
Speaker 2: He had heard that Leo had been married and he
Speaker 2: was sure hoping they would let him out soon, and
Speaker 2: that he did everything he could think of to help him.
Speaker 2: But Polk County, it's just really bad. And he said
Speaker 2: it's hard to undo or right or wrong. And you
Speaker 2: know that's pretty profound coming from Jeremy, but also true
Speaker 2: life is so fucked up. Now look at Leo. They
Speaker 2: really didn't want to even hear Leo's case. No matter
Speaker 2: how much we try, they just they won't even listen.
Speaker 2: When will people just say stop, let's look at this.
Speaker 3: In the spring of twenty twenty four, Leo was finally
Speaker 3: released from prison. Mary talked to Jeremy on the phone
Speaker 3: not long after.
Speaker 1: Oh, I guess it's this.
Speaker 2: From that call, he said he met Leo's former roommate
Speaker 2: and he said he can't remember his name, but the
Speaker 2: man was coming around doing some kind of education thing
Speaker 2: with the prison and he said he had been Leo's
Speaker 2: roommate for seven years, and he thought that was really cool,
Speaker 2: and he asked the guy to tell Leo that he
Speaker 2: wished him well and all that. And I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm getting chills as I even say this, because.
Speaker 3: He's a murderer, but.
Speaker 2: You know, I really think he cares about Leo. And
Speaker 2: he seems very sincere when he said stuff like that,
Speaker 2: like he was really he was really impressed. He was
Speaker 2: talking to somebody who actually knew Leo.
Speaker 7: I just really get the feeling though he.
Speaker 1: Cares about Leo, and that's just I don't know.
Speaker 7: I'm not even stoned or drinking, but maybe I shouldn't
Speaker 7: be anyway. I hate the way this has turned out
Speaker 7: and wish it had never happened like this. I hope
Speaker 7: someday I will come face to face with Leo so
Speaker 7: I can look at him and say I'm sorry for
Speaker 7: what I did. Yes, I still don't sleep good at
Speaker 7: night and have bad dreams, but not as bad as
Speaker 7: they were once I have learned to deal with it.
Speaker 1: I just wish none of this had ever happened.
Speaker 3: Jeremy's not just concerned for Leo, shows a lot of
Speaker 3: concern for Mary, who is being treated for cancer.
Speaker 2: He thanks me for writing ask about my health, and
Speaker 2: I have to say that in my letters I sound
Speaker 2: like my grandparents talking about my pneumonia, my brusiitis and arthritis,
Speaker 2: and I really need to jazz up my topics just.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 3: She shares her own health updates with him and how
Speaker 3: her chemotherapy treatments can leave her feeling exhausted. She shares
Speaker 3: a lot with him.
Speaker 2: Actually, I must have had car trouble and mentioned it
Speaker 2: because he said something about get your car fixed, because
Speaker 2: you don't want to be driving down the road in
Speaker 2: the middle of anywhere and it not work. Get it fixed.
Speaker 3: And sometimes in Jeremy's letters back, you can hear his
Speaker 3: anguish when he thinks about losing this connection with her.
Speaker 2: I didn't write him back right away, evidently because he
Speaker 2: said I'm glad to hear from you. I thought you
Speaker 2: just stopped writing me. I should have known better than
Speaker 2: that you ate like most people. I'm sorry for thinking
Speaker 2: that you would. What I did was wrong. I took
Speaker 2: a life and for that I will never get out
Speaker 2: almost thirty five years in here. This is my home.
Speaker 2: I have to learn to live with it. I just
Speaker 2: hope that you don't feel that way about me. I
Speaker 2: can't stop you or blame you for not wanting to
Speaker 2: write me. People really don't know me at all. I
Speaker 2: have tried to tell people about me, but they always
Speaker 2: looked down at me as a killer. Would you please
Speaker 2: do me a favor. I'm not saying you well but
Speaker 2: if you do stop stop writing, please write and tell
Speaker 2: me one day like talking about this kind of stuff
Speaker 2: though all these years, people just up and stop writing,
Speaker 2: even though they said they wouldn't. I don't blame anyone
Speaker 2: my family or friends. They all have their own life
Speaker 2: now out there and their own families. I just wanted
Speaker 2: to say this. It's been on my mind all week.
Speaker 3: It was around this time that they gave Jeremy some
Speaker 3: exciting news about his family.
Speaker 2: Dear Mary, Mister King told me something that it about
Speaker 2: knocked me out. Dear Mary, mister King told me something
Speaker 2: that it about knocked me out. He told me that
Speaker 2: he talked to my son Justin, and he said that
Speaker 2: Justin listened to the podcast and he wants to write me.
Speaker 2: I have lived for this day to come. I haven't
Speaker 2: wrote him since he was twelve or thirteen. I never
Speaker 2: understand why or what happened. I really thought that I
Speaker 2: would never hear from him again. I can't wait to
Speaker 2: hear from him, so much to say to him.
Speaker 1: Mary, I'm just full of it right now.
Speaker 2: When mister King told me that he talked to my son,
Speaker 2: I just lost it. I follow his birthday every year,
Speaker 2: March fifth from nineteen eighty nine. I don't even know
Speaker 2: what he looks like, how tall he is, how long
Speaker 2: his hair might be, if it's straight. I go to
Speaker 2: bed asking Justin to forgive me for my sins and
Speaker 2: for not being there for him all these years later,
Speaker 2: my son wants to write and talk with me. I'm sorry, Mary,
Speaker 2: I just don't understand this feeling I'm going through.
Speaker 1: I just needed.
Speaker 2: Someone to talk with, and you are my only friend,
Speaker 2: he said. I'm acting like a little kid.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 2: I will write again. I hope things are good there
Speaker 2: and well for you. Take care of Jeremy.
Speaker 3: Justin is all Jeremy wants to talk and write about.
Speaker 2: Oh. He had started talking to mister King about Justin,
Speaker 2: and he said, the way mister King talks, he sounds
Speaker 2: like a smart young man.
Speaker 1: I guess I will find out soon.
Speaker 3: You can't stop thinking and wondering about his son and
Speaker 3: this family. He knows so little about.
Speaker 1: Dear Mary. It was good to talk with you.
Speaker 2: Evidently we had a phone call, he said. He got
Speaker 2: an email from mister King and missus Kelsey saying they
Speaker 2: were in Florida and that they had met Justin.
Speaker 1: My son and his son vow.
Speaker 2: You got a kount of slow. Why you ready? Why
Speaker 2: he is two years old?
Speaker 1: That makes me a grandpa. I didn't even know that
Speaker 1: Justin had kids. He listens to the podcast twice.
Speaker 2: Mister King said, I hope it doesn't stop him from
Speaker 2: writing to me. Mister King said that he wants to
Speaker 2: visit me, and he also wants to meet some of
Speaker 2: my family.
Speaker 1: I never thought I would be a grandpa.
Speaker 2: I hope someday that I will meet both my son
Speaker 2: and grandson. Mister King told me that he was watching
Speaker 2: Justin play with his son at the playground.
Speaker 1: He said, Justin is a dedicated father.
Speaker 2: Justin has a girlfriend who has three daughters of her own,
Speaker 2: so he.
Speaker 1: Is doing good.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad that he never fell down that bad,
Speaker 2: dark road that I did. I wish things weren't like this.
Speaker 2: I really want to know him, I mean everything. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be waiting for him to write me. Oh you
Speaker 2: tell me here too.
Speaker 1: I can't be happier. Thank you. Okay, that's it for
Speaker 1: this time.
Speaker 3: Hearing how excited Jeremy is about Justin makes me realize
Speaker 3: just how much he's missed his son's entire life thirty
Speaker 3: five years Jeremy has never had to navigate a relationship
Speaker 3: like this, and I don't know if he has the
Speaker 3: tools to do it. What if he overwhelms Justin? What
Speaker 3: if he drives him away? What if in trying so
Speaker 3: hard to hold on, he ends up making things even
Speaker 3: worse for himself.
Speaker 2: Well, mister King is still in touch with my son,
Speaker 2: so I guess he's trying to put what he wants
Speaker 2: to say on paper.
Speaker 1: I know it's hard for him.
Speaker 2: He's he's going to write, I will be writing. I'm
Speaker 2: still working on a letter to him, so I know
Speaker 2: it's hard.
Speaker 3: I was hearing from both Jeremy and Justin that they
Speaker 3: were writing and rewriting drafts of letters to each other.
Speaker 3: Justin was unsure of how to find the right words
Speaker 3: for a father he'd never known, and Jeremy wasn't sure
Speaker 3: how to talk to his son he'd never held in
Speaker 3: his arms.
Speaker 2: I tried to do what you told me about writing
Speaker 2: my son. It's harder than I thought. I'm still working
Speaker 2: on it. I don't know anything about him. I don't
Speaker 2: want to lose him, not after all these years. I'm
Speaker 2: going to keep at it, Okay. I hope that I
Speaker 2: get a letter tonight from you or anyone. It feels
Speaker 2: good to hear from someone. Well, I just wanted to
Speaker 2: talk to you again. I hope to hear from you soon.
Speaker 2: Get your car fixed in capital letters and parentheses and
Speaker 2: then a smiley face, Take care, Jeremy all.
Speaker 3: Scoped with Mary's help. Jeremy is trying to be his
Speaker 3: best self, hoping Justin will recognize his effort and honesty.
Speaker 3: So you know that there's no possibility that Jeremy's really
Speaker 3: going to ever get out of prison.
Speaker 1: Right, and he knows it too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, what do you envision the rest of
Speaker 3: his life could look like?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it would be well. I would like
Speaker 2: to see him get a visit, a visit from his son.
Speaker 2: That would be like a big high point of his life.
Speaker 3: Finally, Jeremy managed to write his letter to Justin.
Speaker 1: He might not write me at all. I hope that
Speaker 1: he does.
Speaker 2: I ain't mad if he doesn't. He has a life
Speaker 2: to live out there. I'm just going over things in
Speaker 2: my head, that's all. And he says, I hate that.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I just get this feeling. Sometime I try not
Speaker 2: to let it get me down. I'm going to put
Speaker 2: my game of thrones down for a while and try
Speaker 2: to read these others about the dogs. And then he says,
Speaker 2: take care of Jeremy Scott. And then later there's a
Speaker 2: ps and he says, you're going to make me cry
Speaker 2: all over again, old Yeller. And he did tell me
Speaker 2: later in a phone call that he did, in fact
Speaker 2: cry because you know it's old Yeller and it's a
Speaker 2: really good story.
Speaker 3: Jeremy sent his letter for Justin to me so I
Speaker 3: could deliver it in person. He asked me to.
Speaker 1: Give you this. Is this like his handwriting or is
Speaker 1: it that's his? Everything?
Speaker 3: Is his handwriting? Next Time. Bone Valley is a production
Speaker 3: of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
Speaker 3: Number One. Our executive producers are Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler,
Speaker 3: and Kevin Wordis. Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Jackie
Speaker 3: Pauley and Hannah Biel are our producers. Britz Spangler is
Speaker 3: our sound designer. Marianne mcune is our editor. Fact checking
Speaker 3: by Dania Suleman. Jeff Cliburn is our head of marketing
Speaker 3: and operations. Our Social media director is Ismati Guardrama. Our
Speaker 3: social media manager is Sarah Gibbons and our art director
Speaker 3: is Andrew Nelson. Additional research and production by Kelsey Decker.
Speaker 3: Additional sound recording by James Johnson. Bone Valley is written
Speaker 3: and produced by me Gilbert King. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok,
Speaker 3: and threads at Lava for Good