WEBVTT - Introducing: Weird Little Guys

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<v Speaker 1>Cool Zone Media. Hey, welcome to Weird Little Guys, a

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<v Speaker 1>weekly show about the worst people you've never heard of.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm your host, Molly Conger. I spent years researching and

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<v Speaker 1>writing about far right extremism. I hang out in their

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<v Speaker 1>chat rooms, watch their live streams, follow their court cases.

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<v Speaker 1>I've stared deep into the abyss, pouring over court documents,

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<v Speaker 1>reading manifestos, and listening to some of the worst podcasts

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<v Speaker 1>ever made. And I've sat in the silence of a

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<v Speaker 1>mostly empty courtroom, feet away from men whose hateful ideology

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<v Speaker 1>spurred them on to acts of shocking violence. And you

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<v Speaker 1>know what, They're all just some guy, however heinous the act,

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<v Speaker 1>whoever hideous the rhetoric, no matter how dark their desires.

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<v Speaker 1>It's like the end of an episode of Scooby Doo.

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<v Speaker 1>There never was a ghost or a swamp creature. There

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<v Speaker 1>is no supernatural villain. It's some guy. Dick Gerald. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>back in twenty seventeen, Daryl Drake's started sending letters. His

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<v Speaker 1>first letter, sent just weeks after the deadly Nazi rally

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<v Speaker 1>in Charlesville, Virginia, demanded the cancelation of an annual Civil

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<v Speaker 1>War reenactment and threatened that the Unite the Right rally

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<v Speaker 1>would look like a Sunday picnic by comparison if they

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<v Speaker 1>didn't heed his demand. But they didn't cancel, so he

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<v Speaker 1>put a pipe bomb in a tent. The bomb didn't

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<v Speaker 1>go off, but the letters continued, and for over a year,

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<v Speaker 1>members of the board at the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation

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<v Speaker 1>received letters with increasingly frightening threats. The letter writer said

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<v Speaker 1>he'd kill one man's mother with a car bomb. He

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<v Speaker 1>made graphic sexual threats towards someone's doughs. He threatened to

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<v Speaker 1>feed ground up glass to the horses ridden by the

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<v Speaker 1>Cavalry reenactors and drive trucks through parades. And all the

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<v Speaker 1>letters were from Antifa, or so the envelope said. But

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<v Speaker 1>they weren't from Antifa. They were from a weird little

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<v Speaker 1>guy named Gerald. He'd been kicked out of his Civil

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<v Speaker 1>War reenactment unit a few years earlier, and like the

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<v Speaker 1>Confederate soldier he dressed up as he just couldn't let

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<v Speaker 1>go of losing. He capitalized on the political tensions of

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<v Speaker 1>twenty seventeen, exploiting the hysteria around anti fascist activism to

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<v Speaker 1>get a very personal kind of revenge. The race warriors

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<v Speaker 1>and ethno state enthusiasts who spend their day's brainstorming ways

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<v Speaker 1>to unravel the fabric of our society are a threat

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<v Speaker 1>to be taken seriously. That's why I've spent years researching them.

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<v Speaker 1>But this won't just be a parade of horrors. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>it'll definitely kind of be that, but we're gonna laugh too.

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<v Speaker 1>I think we have to. Darrel dropped his first letter

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<v Speaker 1>in the mail on his way to the airport for

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<v Speaker 1>a solo European vacation. So the day somebody opened that

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<v Speaker 1>letter threatening to shoot up the fake Civil War, he

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<v Speaker 1>was writing a five star review of the Burger King

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<v Speaker 1>who went to in Madrid. In the day the FBI

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<v Speaker 1>raided his house, he was posting on a sex doll forum.

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<v Speaker 1>These are the weird little guys trying to ruin our lives,

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<v Speaker 1>and I hope you'll join me for a little peak

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<v Speaker 1>under their hoods. Listen to Weird Little Guys every Thursday

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<v Speaker 1>on the iHeart You app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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<v Speaker 1>get your podcasts.