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Speaker 1: A former Commonwealth's Attorney and prominent Democratic Party official, has

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Speaker 1: come under investigation by a grand jury probing prostitution and

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Speaker 1: public corruption in this bucolic backwater of southside Virginia. The

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Speaker 1: hint of scandal has upset the people of Pennsylvania, a

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Speaker 1: community located in one of the most conservative areas of

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Speaker 1: the state, which has always prided itself on the unquestionable

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Speaker 1: integrity of its elected officials. Now the county is under

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Speaker 1: a cloud as a federal grand jury, with the help

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Speaker 1: of the FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents, presses its

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Speaker 1: investigation into what the US Attorney describes as prostitution, public corruption, conspiracy, perjury,

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Speaker 1: misprision of felonies, and obstruction of justice.

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Speaker 2: Truck shop brought those run by a web of X

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Speaker 2: cons a commonwealth attorney wasted on whiskey and power protection

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Speaker 2: exchanged for cash and flesh. A brash local reporter exposing

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Speaker 2: it all. This is hooker Gate, criminals and libertines in

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Speaker 2: the South. And I am your host, Doctor Lindsey Byron, author, historian,

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Speaker 2: and lifelong wayward woman. This forgotten scandal happened in my hometown.

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Speaker 2: Join me as I use crumbling news clippines, interviews, and

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Speaker 2: dramatic reenactments to bring to life for the first time

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Speaker 2: in nearly fifty years, this wild Ride of hedonistic Corruption,

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Speaker 2: Episode nine, The Storm.

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Speaker 3: You say you were afraid to travel back here to

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Speaker 3: Virginia to testify? Is that correct, Missus Barker, Yes, sir,

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Speaker 3: it is. And why are you afraid to be here today?

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Speaker 2: Missus Barker? I am deathly afraid of my husband and

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Speaker 2: will continue to be for the rest of my life.

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Speaker 1: I cannot turn over and put my back towards the door.

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Speaker 3: You can go home and sleep anyway.

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Speaker 4: He won't.

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Speaker 2: All I know is he's going to testify here, and

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Speaker 2: my name was placed on the news last night.

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Speaker 5: He upset me.

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Speaker 3: Did he be you regularly? Once a week or every

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Speaker 3: other day, or once a month, sometimes before breakfast, sometimes after.

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Speaker 2: Her Mama always warned her not to drive in a storm,

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Speaker 2: and so Janet flooded the gas she get out run

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Speaker 2: this one. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon in her

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Speaker 2: rear view. She knew a man in Texas who would

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Speaker 2: be happy to help her give her a job ReSpectacle

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Speaker 2: work back at a front desk. She didn't care if

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Speaker 2: it was a carnival she was working at. Nothing was

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Speaker 2: beneath her. If it got her out of here, she

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Speaker 2: thought this shit would be glamorous, and she couldn't lie.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes it had been fancy clothes, fur coats, everyone saying

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Speaker 2: how pretty you are all the time. She was leaving

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Speaker 2: all of that too, hanging in her closet, the things,

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Speaker 2: the baubles, the stoles, and the stars, and the fucking compliments,

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Speaker 2: as a reminder to Tommy of what he was losing,

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Speaker 2: what he couldn't buy with gifts, furs, compliments, expensive apologies.

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Speaker 2: Janet was driving out of this town with nothing more

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Speaker 2: than a suitcase and fingers crossed, leaving the police with

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Speaker 2: their questions, the FBI haunting her door, Tommy with his tension,

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Speaker 2: Tommy with his love, Tommy with his hands, Tommy with

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Speaker 2: his promises, promises that never came through. If we leave now,

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Speaker 2: maybe we can avoid testifying, Janet whispered to some of

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Speaker 2: the other girls one night in the dwindling end times.

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Speaker 3: Of the truck stop brothel circuit.

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Speaker 2: They debated and decided all night, and now mourning had come,

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Speaker 2: and with mourning had come a storm, dark and rumbling,

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Speaker 2: threatening to crack O in the sky, Connie.

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Speaker 3: Packed her back.

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Speaker 2: She'd travel down the circuit into Florida, or maybe she'd

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Speaker 2: head upwards into Philly, penn Connie would go whichever the

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Speaker 2: way the wind blew.

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Speaker 3: But she won't go and stay here. Buckeye packed her bad.

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Speaker 2: She'd heard good things about the Pacific, heard life moved

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Speaker 2: slower the farther up the West coast you got. She'd

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Speaker 2: come here to the Deep South and tested what her

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Speaker 2: friend had told her back in that girlhood bedroom in Ohio.

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Speaker 2: Whatever happens, her friend had warned, don't blame me. Well

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Speaker 2: she didn't. She didn't blame her. She didn't blame nobody

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Speaker 2: but herself. Kitten her bag, her man would come, get

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Speaker 2: her driver to a new place, a different stay place,

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Speaker 2: a different obstacle between her and her child. Or maybe

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Speaker 2: she'd take one of these girls up on their offers.

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Speaker 2: Maybe she'd hitch a ride away from all this, save

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Speaker 2: money her own way, hire a lawyer. At the vanguard

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Speaker 2: of this exodus, Janet sped and the sky erupted the

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Speaker 2: moment they all drove.

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Speaker 3: Out of town.

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Speaker 1: According to Danville officials, a man was found dead of

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Speaker 1: a drug overdose in Thomas Barker's house. No charges were

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Speaker 1: filed against Barker in connection with the death.

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Speaker 2: Tanita didn't care what the other girls had to say

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Speaker 2: about danger and risk.

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Speaker 3: Tanita was staying.

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Speaker 2: She wasn't going to leave without her man, Her man.

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Speaker 2: She thought of him as she rested her head against

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Speaker 2: the passenger window of Tommy's sedan six am. Another customer satisfied, Well,

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Speaker 2: wasn't too many customers nowadays, nor too many girls, and

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Speaker 2: everything had to be done, so damn careful.

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Speaker 3: I've been thinking of going to Vegas.

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Speaker 2: Blurted as he drove, a thought spoken out loud to

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Speaker 2: no one in particular. Tanita continued to stare silently out

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Speaker 2: the window as Tommy piloted them to his place, a

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Speaker 2: nice brick house, uh way station for girls like her.

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Speaker 3: The few that remained, most of them were scared, runned off.

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Speaker 2: Even Janet House was quieter without Janet.

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Speaker 3: Tommy quieter too.

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Speaker 2: Across the bridge in the earliest light of dawn, that

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Speaker 2: red sigh burned home into the sky.

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Speaker 3: Home. What was home?

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Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't a place, And if if it was one,

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Speaker 2: then she'd never had a home to speak of. As

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Speaker 2: a girl bounced from relative to relative, as a woman,

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Speaker 2: from this man to that one, this state to that state.

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Speaker 2: Another shitty trailer, another shitty apartment, another chair with wobble legs,

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Speaker 2: another cabinet dotted with road shit.

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Speaker 3: No home wasn't a place home? Was this man? Amen?

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Speaker 3: Any man?

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Speaker 2: She didn't know much about this man. She would rather

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Speaker 2: not know. She didn't want to know his arrest record,

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Speaker 2: his mama's name, his dark secrets, if he had.

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Speaker 3: Any, He didn't seem like he had any. He was light.

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Speaker 3: She wanted only light.

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Speaker 2: She wanted only his pretty face, his patience, soft touch.

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Speaker 2: He sold what he had to sell, and he put

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Speaker 2: his own money into their pot. No man had ever

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Speaker 2: done that, helped out a lifetime supporting these bastards, not

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Speaker 2: this one. Though, I won't let nobody hurt you, he

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Speaker 2: had told her.

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Speaker 3: No one had ever told her that.

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Speaker 2: She didn't care if it won't true, if it won't

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Speaker 2: possible for that to ever be true, But she did

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Speaker 2: appreciate the sentiment.

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Speaker 3: It was of him, she thought.

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Speaker 2: As Tommy parked the car in the driveway, of him,

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Speaker 2: she thought, as Tommy turned the lock to the back door.

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Speaker 3: Of him, she thought.

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Speaker 2: As a fellow working girl met her and Tommy at

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Speaker 2: the door, The young woman's face was red, tears streaked.

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Speaker 2: We got a problem, Tommy, she said, what kind of problem?

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Speaker 2: The girl bit her lips, choking back a sob.

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Speaker 3: That man, that man, Tanita, your man, he's well. I

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Speaker 3: found him. I found him, Tommy.

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Speaker 2: Tanita gripped the door frame, her head spinning, swaying on

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Speaker 2: her feet. No, found him, found him, Tommy in the closet,

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Speaker 2: and he's dead. He's in that closet and he is dead.

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Speaker 2: Tommy had a suitcase packed before the coroner had the

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Speaker 2: body bag zipped.

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Speaker 3: A man could reinvent himself in Vegas. A man could

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Speaker 3: even disappear.

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Speaker 1: Did there come a time when you had a conversation

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Speaker 1: with Defendive Whitehead with respect to the testimony of your husband, Wayne.

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Speaker 3: Dowdy, Yes, sir.

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Speaker 4: After my husband was incarcerated, mister Whitehead came down to

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Speaker 4: my house and he had been drinking, and before he

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Speaker 4: made his remark that really upset me, he'd been crying

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Speaker 4: about his kid. He didn't know what he was going

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Speaker 4: to do, and he had asked me if my husband

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Speaker 4: had turned a state's evidence, which at the time he hadn't,

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Speaker 4: and we hadn't even really thought about it. And then

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Speaker 4: he made the statement that Wayne could really hang him.

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Speaker 4: And I got upset and I went to my room.

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Speaker 4: He came in there after I had locked the door,

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Speaker 4: and he came in there and he sat on the

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Speaker 4: bed and I told him to get off my bed.

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Speaker 4: He asked me how came, and I said, because it's

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Speaker 4: mine and my husband's. And I believe he got a

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Speaker 4: little bit hot because I didn't say it nicely. And

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Speaker 4: he turned around and said Robin was mad and walked out.

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Speaker 2: They'd arrested Harold Wayne again on a petty annoyance, another

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Speaker 2: pimpede charge, another few granded bail money, another set of

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Speaker 2: knocks at the door, lawyers, policemen, and.

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Speaker 3: Now even the FBI talk. They told her.

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Speaker 2: But Robin and Harold Wayne, well, they didn't know what

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Speaker 2: to do, what was the right thing for them. She

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Speaker 2: felt pulled in a million directions. Robin surveyed their home,

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Speaker 2: ran her hand across the kitchen counter. A home, a nice, solid,

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Speaker 2: regular place to return to.

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Speaker 3: Sure there was a pool in the.

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Speaker 2: Backyard, nice cars in the driveway, but those those are

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Speaker 2: just things Robin could afford to lose. Things which she

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Speaker 2: could not afford to lose was home, the walls echoed

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Speaker 2: without Harold Wayne Robin hadn't prayed in years, but today.

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Speaker 3: Robin would pray. Jesus, Lord, she whispered, Please please show

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Speaker 3: me the way, Robin, Robin.

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Speaker 2: Robin's head shot up from her reverie peered down the

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Speaker 2: hallway outside her front door in the broad daylight of

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Speaker 2: mid morning, stood Joe Whitehead, just up banging, or should

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Speaker 2: we say leaned Joe Whitehead. He was, of course drunk again.

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Speaker 2: Let me in, Robin, he pleaded from the doorstep.

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Speaker 3: I just want to talk.

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Speaker 2: For so long now, following this man's demands, fulfilling his needs,

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Speaker 2: he lost his damn law license, resign from Commonwealth attorney.

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Speaker 2: What power could he possibly have over her now? And

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Speaker 2: yet why did he feel every bit as intimidating as ever?

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Speaker 2: Why did he feel like a dog on a chain,

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Speaker 2: foaming and furious?

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Speaker 3: Go away?

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Speaker 2: Robin muttered miserably from her side of the closed door,

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Speaker 2: Please Robin, go away. My God was the man crying.

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Speaker 2: She peeked through the window. He held his head in

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Speaker 2: his hands, shoulders quivering.

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Speaker 3: Lord, Jesus, please show.

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Speaker 1: Me the way.

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Speaker 2: Compassion, kindness, redemption, and also fear. Robin opened the door.

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Speaker 2: Your the Lord is my shepherd today, Joe get inside.

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Speaker 3: He entered her home and began pacing. Did you talk

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Speaker 3: is what I got to know. What do you mean? Please? Robin?

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Speaker 3: No games? Did you talk?

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Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to anyone. The FBI came by my

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Speaker 2: office this morning, Robin. Did you know that, Robin? The FBI?

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Speaker 2: How would I know that? I'm just wondering. Who told

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Speaker 2: him to come to me?

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Speaker 3: Is all?

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Speaker 2: That's all I'm wondering right now, Robin. I'm just wondering

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Speaker 2: who told him to come to me?

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Speaker 3: Robin? Are you insinuating Harold?

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Speaker 2: Wayne's locked up as we speak, Robin. What's to keep

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Speaker 2: him from talking, Robin? When the come his way, if

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Speaker 2: they ain't already, What's to keep him from talking, Robin?

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Speaker 3: When the Feds come his way? Robin? He could hang me, Robin,

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Speaker 3: he could ruin me. Oh my god, fuck you too.

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Speaker 2: He froze in his pacing, panting, his red rimmed eyes

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Speaker 2: filled with tears.

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Robin, leave, you need to leave.

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Speaker 2: It's just.

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Speaker 3: My child, Robin. I have a baby. You know my wife.

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Speaker 1: What will she do?

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Speaker 3: What will they do? Robin? Sounds like a personal problem, Joe.

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Speaker 3: He collapsed on her couch and groaned, I fucked.

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Speaker 1: Up.

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Speaker 2: She stared evenly at him, stone cold. She had trained

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Speaker 2: her whole life to hide her heart. You can't see me,

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Speaker 2: but I can see you. Joe, you really do need

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Speaker 2: to leave. He looked up, face swollen. I've been through hell, Robin,

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Speaker 2: we all have.

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Speaker 3: Joe.

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Speaker 2: Can you please just give me a couple minutes to

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Speaker 2: get myself.

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Speaker 3: Together, then I'll get out your hair. Sure, thank Joe,

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Speaker 3: see yourself out.

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Speaker 2: Robin petted into her bedroom, the one with the keen

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Speaker 2: bed and the satin sheets, the one she shared with

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Speaker 2: her husband, her husband who, at this very moment, suffered.

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Speaker 3: Away in some jail cell.

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Speaker 2: It seemed every few weeks since the raid, here come

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Speaker 2: Deputy Moss and his boys with another charge, another reason

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Speaker 2: to take him in, another opportunity to grill him, intimidate him,

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Speaker 2: offer him incentives. I bet you will say shit, Deputy

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Speaker 2: Moss had prophesied that day.

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Speaker 3: Of the raids.

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Speaker 2: And maybe the Moss was right, Maybe none of this

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Speaker 2: was worth it. Take the pool, take the cars, hell,

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Speaker 2: take even the mink coat, although she loved it. But

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Speaker 2: don't don't take this man, Don't take this love. Don't

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Speaker 2: take this home. Robin sank to her knees beside that

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Speaker 2: king bed and prayed for the third time that morning.

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Speaker 2: Show me the way, Oh Lord, get us out of

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Speaker 2: this mess. Let this cup pass away. Just then, Joe

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Speaker 2: opened her bedroom door, strolled on in, and sat down

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Speaker 2: on her bed, right next to where she knelt, a

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Speaker 2: familiar position. Robin sprang to standing. She loomed above him.

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Speaker 2: Now get off, she ordered, Robin. Why I just came

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Speaker 2: in here to say goodbye?

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Speaker 3: Get off my bed.

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Speaker 2: All the time she'd spent on anonymous mattresses with this

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Speaker 2: man and many others, work labor, a silent mind, gritted teeth. Goddamn,

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Speaker 2: how long must a woman grit her teeth, all her

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Speaker 2: damn lies, power through endure.

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Speaker 6: Except this bastard in your bed, that bastard in your bed.

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Speaker 6: Except except no, not no, not today, not this bed,

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Speaker 6: not her bed, not the bed she shared with the

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Speaker 6: man she loved, with the man that loved her.

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Speaker 2: Lord Jesus, please, she prayed, show me the way. And

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Speaker 2: then she grabbed that man by his collar and hefted

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Speaker 2: him to his feet. This is the bed my husband

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Speaker 2: and I share, she told him.

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Speaker 3: Get off of it and get out.

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Speaker 2: Joe slunk away, chastened and not the least bit comforted.

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Speaker 2: Women could be so cruel. By the time Harold Wayne

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Speaker 2: was released on bail that evening, the Lord had made

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Speaker 2: his will clear to Robin.

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Speaker 3: We're talking, she told him, and Harold Wayne agreed.

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Speaker 1: County residents get much of their news from the Danville

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Speaker 1: Register and the Lynchburg News, but it is a weekly

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Speaker 1: in Gretna, the Gazette, that probably has done the most

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Speaker 1: to encourage investigations of prostitution.

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Speaker 3: Something outside that window again.

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Speaker 2: Rodney got up from his desk and peered into the night.

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Speaker 2: That's the problem with working by lamplight. You alone are visible.

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Speaker 2: Those who roam in the shadows can see those in

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Speaker 2: the light. Those in the light, however, are blinded to

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Speaker 2: everything beyond themselves.

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Speaker 3: The darkness into.

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Speaker 2: Which we cannot peer, peers into us freely. Rodney laid

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Speaker 2: the proof of tomorrow morning's paper across his desk under

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Speaker 2: the desk lamp's golden glow.

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Speaker 3: His words on the front page stared back at him.

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Speaker 2: I am not stating that Joe Motley Whitehead is guilty

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Speaker 2: of anything, but I sincerely believe the federal grand jury

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Speaker 2: should be allowed to complete its investigation to find out

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Speaker 2: if Whitehead is in fact the poor, innocent, little lamb

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Speaker 2: he claims to be. Stop talking had been the injunction,

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Speaker 2: first from whispers in town, then even preachers joined in.

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Speaker 2: Next the man himself, the man who could cause you

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Speaker 2: trouble or make trouble, go away. Cut that shit out,

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Speaker 2: Joe Whitehead had warned Rodney in that middle of the

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Speaker 2: night phone call. And yet Rodney had not cut that

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Speaker 2: shit out. He had kept going instead. Sometimes he didn't

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Speaker 2: know why, sometimes he did.

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Speaker 5: Part of it was my journalism education, and a big

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Speaker 5: part of it was Remember now, I was in Washington,

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Speaker 5: d C. During Watergate with Woodward and Bernstein. So when

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Speaker 5: I went to Granta and all this started, I thought,

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Speaker 5: they didn't back down. Why shouldn't I keep going? You're

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Speaker 5: honest them here.

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Speaker 3: So part of it was that.

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Speaker 5: Part of it was just, you know, the male ego,

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Speaker 5: which is capable of any number of goofy things. Part

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Speaker 5: of it was just being hard headed. The more you

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Speaker 5: tell me I can do it, the more I'm going

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Speaker 5: to try to do it.

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Speaker 2: He had promised his family he would make this move

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Speaker 2: worth it, had promised mister Walmack that he'd make this

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Speaker 2: paper a success. Had promised himself that he'd be the

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Speaker 2: real thing, a man to be proud of, a man

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Speaker 2: with a purpose, a man of the people, a man

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Speaker 2: with a pen mightier than the sword.

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Speaker 3: He never thought he'd be here. He never imagined this.

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Speaker 2: A miniature mafia in the heart of tobacco country, the

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Speaker 2: rural backwoods, where UFO sightings were news and Sunday socials

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Speaker 2: after church provided the entertainment.

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Speaker 7: Rodney thought he was escaping high stakes drama when he

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Speaker 7: moved to Gretna, population one thousand and two hundred, Main Street,

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Speaker 7: flanked by a field of bovines.

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Speaker 2: He had been wrong. Outside the window again, motion another

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Speaker 2: paranoid hallucination. Time to go home. Rodney packed his bag.

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Speaker 2: He knew he was doing the right thing. The boys

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Speaker 2: who investigated Watergate didn't back down. Why should he. He

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Speaker 2: grabbed his keys from a hook on the wall next

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Speaker 2: to the door. Do the job when it matters, and

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Speaker 2: he had. Rodney smiled, the weary smile of the battle worn.

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Speaker 2: All that digging, dangerous investigations, late night threats, fear doubt.

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Speaker 2: Can I hack it? He'd wondered, Sure, he'd wondered it,

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Speaker 2: But hack it he had, and now a federal investigation underway.

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Speaker 2: Rodney's suspicions confirmed his reportage instrumental in the takedown.

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Speaker 3: Well, a man could have a moment of pride, couldn't.

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Speaker 8: He He'd done the job when it mattered, and now

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Speaker 8: the job was done.

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Speaker 2: You should be a writer, his high school teacher had

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Speaker 2: told him. I can make this work, he promised his wife.

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Speaker 3: Keep going.

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Speaker 2: He'd vowed to himself all words that had marked him,

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Speaker 2: all words that had come true. And so yes, Rodney

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Speaker 2: allowed a smile to cross his face as he stepped

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Speaker 2: into the night, pulling the door of the Gretna Gazette closed,

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Speaker 2: Wrestling to fit the key into the.

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Speaker 3: Lock, it jammed. Dropped to his feet.

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Speaker 2: Rodney bent down, patting the ground like a blind mouth.

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Speaker 2: It's over, he thought to himself, with a smile. As

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Speaker 2: prostrate he searched.

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Speaker 3: It's really over, Rodney.

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Speaker 2: He didn't know how he ended up flat on his back,

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00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 2: A rain storm of broken glass beat jeweling his body

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Speaker 2: from above a bullet hole the height.

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Speaker 3: Of Rodney's head. It's over, yo. Did you like my storytelling? Dude?

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Speaker 3: I hope so it's me your girl.

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Speaker 2: Lindsey Byron and that's the end of season one. Other

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Speaker 2: than some bonus episodes, I'm about to have come at

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00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 2: you next season. It all falls down courtroom drama time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. I appreciate your attention. Learn more about

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00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 2: my work tips out globe trotting and mansions worldwide at

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00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 2: Good Times Badgirls dot com, follow me on the Gram

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00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 2: and TikTok at lux Underscore Atl on YouTube at Luxatl,

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00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:27,960
Speaker 2: and on substot where I blog weekly at Tumultuous True

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00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 2: Stories by Lindsaybyron. If you'd like to hear more about

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00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 2: my own experience slanging companionship across the South, read my

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00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 2: memoir Too Pretty to Be Good by Lindsaybyron. Find it

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00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 2: on Amazon, Barnesandnoble dot com and anywhere.

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00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 3: Books are sold online.

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Speaker 2: Hey, if you'd like to continue to listen to me

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00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 2: tell stories, check out my first podcast, strip Cast True

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00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 2: Stories from a Stripper with the PhD. Listen on Spotify

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00:33:56,400 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 2: and iTunes. Follow this podcast on the ground at hooker Gate.

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00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 2: Underscore podcast theme music and sound design by my long

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00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 2: term partner in artistic crime, Guy Kelly, you the illist GK.

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00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 2: Check out his work at Guy Kelly dot com.

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00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 3: While This podcast is based upon real events.

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00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:26,320
Speaker 2: Certain elements have been fictionalized for dramatic effect. I cannot

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00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,760
Speaker 2: know for certain what exactly was said behind closed doors,

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00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 2: so I combine my research and imagination to dramatize scenes

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00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:40,239
Speaker 2: described most often under oath in court, and occasionally secondhand

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00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:45,240
Speaker 2: via journalistic or personal accounts. Find citations in the show notes.

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Speaker 3: The pitch for this.

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Speaker 2: Podcast won the twenty twenty one Next Great Podcast competition

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00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:55,160
Speaker 2: hosted by Tongle and iHeartRadio, which is why I'm here

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00:34:55,280 --> 00:35:00,480
Speaker 2: now producing this joint. My gratitude for the opportunity Bikergate

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00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,760
Speaker 2: is the production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 9: When the Feds come, Shit, sorry, I'm not something ever.

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Speaker 9: Hold On, I got to go get some chicken at

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Speaker 9: the oven. It's got to be burned. Hold on, I'll

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Speaker 9: be right back.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to get to my chicken lunch out of

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Speaker 2: the oven before I record the final seed.

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Speaker 3: Oh chicken lunch, I'm coming for you now,