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Speaker 1: When you pair your skills with our spices, you get

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Speaker 1: a very potent combination. No matter what's on the menu,

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Speaker 1: McCormick Culinary has the power to make your flavors stand out.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people are afraid of crawl. I'm in

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Speaker 1: New York City, afraid that there's no such thing as

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Speaker 1: a safe neighborhood anymore. It's the mid seventies in New

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Speaker 1: York City. Graffiti covered subway cars rattle through wormholes beneath

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Speaker 1: the streets. New Yorkers saw one result of the city's

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Speaker 1: tight new by Jackman, garbage began to pile up in

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Speaker 1: the streets. The city is bankrupt, and drugs and violence

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Speaker 1: are destroying people's lives. To find them, I'm afraid to

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Speaker 1: be able on the street. And then there's the music scene.

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Speaker 1: Downtown bars with sticky floors like CBGBs and Max's. Kansas

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Speaker 1: City explode with sweat and filth and energy, the birthplace

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Speaker 1: of many a rock legend. And also this guy, everybody

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Speaker 1: think Billy Balls, dead set on making a name for himself.

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Speaker 1: Billy had a girlfriend named Rebecca. She was bleached blonde

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Speaker 1: in a bombshell. You think I'm pretty huh? You think

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sugar. I'm one of the few nuts you'll meet. Man.

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Speaker 1: She took no ship from anyone. Rebecca and Billy were

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Speaker 1: crazy about each other, living in a converted storefront in

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Speaker 1: the East Village. Then one night in the summer of

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Speaker 1: Rebecca came home to find their front window blown out

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Speaker 1: and cops everywhere. Baby boy Billy had been shot right

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Speaker 1: could neighbors said the guy who did it? They'd never

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Speaker 1: seen him before, A mystery man in a cowboy hat.

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Speaker 1: Billy died. His body was sent to a city cemetery,

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Speaker 1: buried in a mass grave. Rebecca never had a chance

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Speaker 1: to say goodbye, and she never got any answers about

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Speaker 1: why Billy was murdered. I'd like to read you. As

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Speaker 1: the years went by, the injustice and unanswered questions turned

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Speaker 1: to an addiction and explosions of rage that would nearly

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Speaker 1: tear her life apart. Now, almost forty years after Billy

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Speaker 1: was killed, it's time to get Rebecca some answers from

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Speaker 1: crime town. I'm io till it right, and this is

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Speaker 1: the ballad of Billy Balls. I'm nowhere. You know, one

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Speaker 1: of our best friends was all of a sudden murdered

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Speaker 1: and was dead and it seemed really suspicious. It seemed

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Speaker 1: more like an execution to me. It was fishy from

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Speaker 1: the start. They were coming in to raid for I

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Speaker 1: think drugs. You know, he was accused of litting somebody off.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. It was some political thing, and I

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Speaker 1: don't know if if it was terrorists. Some bigger pieces

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Speaker 1: missing here, and I think it lies in what the

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Speaker 1: fuck was Billy up to? Chapter one, Billy Balls and

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Speaker 1: his baby girl. Alrighty, I think we are good to go.

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Speaker 1: All right, all right, I'm gonna follow you on a

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Speaker 1: mild day in December. It feels like it warmed up

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Speaker 1: a little bit. Yeah, My producer Austin and I head

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Speaker 1: off to meet Billy's girlfriend Rebecca at her apartment. She

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Speaker 1: still lives in the East Village. All right, we're on

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Speaker 1: Third Street between second Half in the Bowery. This was

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Speaker 1: a gas station. It's now the Bowery Hotel. Things have

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Speaker 1: changed here. Rebecca has not How about a whole light?

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, you can't see is that? She just turned

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Speaker 1: on a lamp and pointed at a disco ball that's

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Speaker 1: installed in the ceiling. Rebecca is tall, rail thin, with

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Speaker 1: sinewy muscles wrapped around her bones. She's dressed all in

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Speaker 1: black with tattered cargo sweatpants and a ripped tank top.

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Speaker 1: A high ponytail dangles down her back. She crosses her

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Speaker 1: small apartment to a pot simmering on the stove last

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Speaker 1: night in the middle of the night. Take a look.

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Speaker 1: Come on, it's it's the direct Blood Transfusion and it

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Speaker 1: has Spanish smoked popers. Well, let's let's do you want

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Speaker 1: to sit down? And Rebecca doesn't own a couch, so

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Speaker 1: we sit on a futon and she pulls out an

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Speaker 1: oversized brown leather folder. What is this? This is Billy's portfolio? Yes,

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Speaker 1: oh shit? Should I open it? You want open up?

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Speaker 1: You can open it? Oh my god, this is Billie's

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Speaker 1: resume is William Heightsman and then there's his phone number.

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Speaker 1: He was William Heightsman on paper, but around town he

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Speaker 1: was just Billy Ball. She played in CDGS Lots and

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Speaker 1: Max's that's Billy. He played rock and roll piano, saying

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Speaker 1: like a motherfucker, and he dressed the part. Guy wasn't

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Speaker 1: a big fan of wearing shirts. Huh no, because that's

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Speaker 1: his stage, of which she wears just skin. Okay, look

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Speaker 1: how hot he is. He's so fucking sexy. So this

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Speaker 1: is a picture of Billy, uh was his hand and

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Speaker 1: his parents. I don't know what he's doing, scratching his balls,

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Speaker 1: no doubt. And he's got a cigarette hanging out of

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Speaker 1: his mouth. Oh god, I can't even points his photograph.

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Speaker 1: It's sacrilegious. Okay, look at him. Oh he's so hot.

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Speaker 1: Another photo, this time Billy's joined by a bleached blonde

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Speaker 1: who carries herself like Grace Jones, statuesque and glamorous. That's

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Speaker 1: me scratching the bottom of my nose and that that's

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Speaker 1: my that's my ass. You know. The scird photo shoot

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Speaker 1: of you guys together, you know, Billy together. You know

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Speaker 1: it's great. Yeah, I'm not kidding, right, you look delirious

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Speaker 1: happy in this picture. Yeah, m hmm. From I Gotta

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Speaker 1: tell the Storm now, Yeah, I came here when her sixteen,

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Speaker 1: Rebecca's story begins with her driving clear across the country

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Speaker 1: towards the big city lights of Broadway as a teenager.

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Speaker 1: It's just like a little very tuned antenna, a little

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Speaker 1: wild animal with just an instinct that I gotta go.

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Speaker 1: Coming around Fort Street, tenth Avenue, where you take the

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Speaker 1: curve from the Greyhound bus station with and you see

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Speaker 1: the curtains. Everybody has the windows open, you know, coming

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Speaker 1: in and the thickest, stickiest, sweatiest part of the summer,

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Speaker 1: there's a height of healths kitchen. You can hear all

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Speaker 1: the music coming out in The music is plumped and

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Speaker 1: hiluptuous by the wet humidity in the air, and the

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Speaker 1: sound is in the air. What's hanging in the full

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Speaker 1: up suousness of the sticky humidity and the stickiness and

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Speaker 1: the sweat. Those hot skinny man with the A shirts

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Speaker 1: leaning up the window with the anemia and their black beard.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm like, oh my god, shouting some ship

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Speaker 1: to bring up the fucking bread or whatever, shouting down

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Speaker 1: at your wife, you stupid idiot, or throwing the flower

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Speaker 1: pot out the window to clunk. Some jerk on ahead.

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Speaker 1: People swag walking down the street. They'll kill you. And

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Speaker 1: they're on fire. They're angry about some ship. And then

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Speaker 1: there's a little preteen prostitutes and gay prostitutes. And on

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Speaker 1: the sidewalk the black DRDs have like tent maybe three

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Speaker 1: ft high for turning tricks. And that inside the town

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Speaker 1: is mattresses where they're going in and charging people money

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Speaker 1: to go and fuck, we'll get a blowjob. It's undeniable.

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Speaker 1: It's all part of each other, the sounds, the whistling up,

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Speaker 1: shouting down, the anger, the sacks, the emotions, the sweat,

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Speaker 1: like all this ship, the cycle at the stew of life,

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Speaker 1: and that's just so refreshing. Were you ever scared? Scared?

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Speaker 1: Are you kidding? There's a hair raising place. Some dude

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Speaker 1: came behind me on seventy second students said, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: kill you, you know, and I don't know how to

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Speaker 1: watch your back and your shoulder and all that ship

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Speaker 1: and people would chase you into doors with the intention

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Speaker 1: of raping and stabbing your robbing you. The whole place

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Speaker 1: was hair raising. So I just I think I might

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Speaker 1: be one of those people that comes alive in definitely

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Speaker 1: danger and romance. I rented a room for a month

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Speaker 1: and it was in a drummer's empty cement loft. It

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Speaker 1: had a box springs on sculpted olive green, really disgusting,

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Speaker 1: tacky carpet, and that was a no blankets now nothing.

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Speaker 1: In the next little abandoned office was a pair, a

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Speaker 1: little teenage pair, a little white girl and a little

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Speaker 1: black boy that were porn workers, and he would wear

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Speaker 1: his bathrobe, you know. And that's where one weekend a

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Speaker 1: man showed up named Billy Balls. That's after the break.

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Speaker 1: I met him one Saturday afternoon. It's and twenty one

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Speaker 1: year old Rebecca is living in New York City. She's

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Speaker 1: about to meet the love of her life, the wild musician,

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Speaker 1: the disruptor, Billy Balls. I'm wearing, by the way, black

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Speaker 1: velveteen step up the side torito or pants, kind of

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Speaker 1: capri length, and a red swede kind of fifties jacket

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Speaker 1: with some paint splattering on it and short bleached blonde hair.

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Speaker 1: And uh, the elevator opens as it's becoming early dusk,

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Speaker 1: m and off the elevator comes Billy Balls, wearing knee

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Speaker 1: pads and black leather roller skates and a black leather jacket.

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Speaker 1: And he has a Sicilian aninia his black hair and

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Speaker 1: pale skin and a little razors stubble on the chest

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Speaker 1: and a pinch to the devil right here on the chin.

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Speaker 1: You know. We take one look at each other and

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Speaker 1: my god, that was fucking it. That's it. It's called love.

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Speaker 1: It first sight, like a landslide. Just overwhelming magnet attraction,

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Speaker 1: like a magnet cling and he says to me, to

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Speaker 1: a cigarette, And we made our way a couple of

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Speaker 1: floors up to an abandoned garment floor with couches and

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Speaker 1: garment degree and we got it on within twenty minutes

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Speaker 1: of setting eyes upon each other. And that was it.

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Speaker 1: You know. He was there for a rehearsal with Roy

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Speaker 1: the drummer, and he's put a chair in front of

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Speaker 1: his electric piano which was on a ironing board, you know,

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Speaker 1: and proceeded to play and sing. For me, this is

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Speaker 1: Billy just too much. He was so fucking real and

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Speaker 1: so talented and a sad get up. And I was

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Speaker 1: like my cheeks were like flushing across. It was like

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Speaker 1: I'm naked under the spot, like like embarrassment, the nakedness,

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Speaker 1: the revealing this, you know. And I remember thinking, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, you know, because I knew with just my instincts,

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Speaker 1: this is deciding fate for eternity, moments of am I

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Speaker 1: going to be with this person or not? And I

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Speaker 1: I joined him, No, I'm with this person for eternity.

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Speaker 1: You're saying, I have a question about this. It's a

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Speaker 1: piece of paper, This looks like Billy's handwriting. This is

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Speaker 1: a song we wrote together in the bag that winter.

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Speaker 1: Can you read it? Yeah, man, it's his handwriting, alright.

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Speaker 1: This is the words to the song we wrote. He

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Speaker 1: goes hot flashes, hot flashes. It feels more like waves

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Speaker 1: of heat. The words hot, hot flashes, hot flashes feels

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Speaker 1: more like waves of heat up my spine, into my head,

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Speaker 1: hot flashes. It's a sexually explicit song totally about or

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Speaker 1: gas mouse and the hallucinations during or gas. Most because

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Speaker 1: we've got it on five times a day, every single

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Speaker 1: day modus operandi. I gave forty pounds in one month

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Speaker 1: from that period of holding up in the bed and

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Speaker 1: only eating olive oil and the black Jewish Ukrainian bread

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Speaker 1: from the bakery on the corner right there, and basically

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Speaker 1: never leaving the bed m Eventually, Rebecca and Billy got

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Speaker 1: their own place, a converted storefront under a flophouse called

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Speaker 1: the Valencia Hotel. Thirteen third Avenue was pretty modernistic at

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Speaker 1: thirteen third Avenue. You know, he had no heat, he

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Speaker 1: had no water, I had no kitchen, but he fixed

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Speaker 1: it up. He put sheet rock on the walls and

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Speaker 1: five layers of soundproofing on the floor, and and the

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Speaker 1: soundproofing was for the because the rehearsal studio is underneath

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Speaker 1: and the cella, so it was loud anyway. And the

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Speaker 1: captain's bed near the back with a little bar refrigerator

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Speaker 1: and a hot plate made of nice baths hub for

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Speaker 1: me and made me a nice makeup mirror with big

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Speaker 1: light bulbs. He drilled the holes to put the sockets,

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Speaker 1: and he made me a beautiful makeup mirror sliding glass doors.

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Speaker 1: But you can tell she gets lost in memories of

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Speaker 1: this place, a popper's palace that Billy built just for her. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's pictures right there in the house. Yeah, there's a

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Speaker 1: picture that let's just see it. It's a polaroid in color.

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Speaker 1: Come on. In this photo of Rebecca and Billy in

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Speaker 1: their storefront, sheet rock covers the walls. A single abstract

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Speaker 1: painting hangs above their bed, and Rebecca has a very

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Speaker 1: particular look, no eyebrows at all, eyebrows painted on. Really

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Speaker 1: was showing me how to do my eyebrows to flatter

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Speaker 1: my features. It sounds like Billy showed you a lot

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Speaker 1: of stuff in their new home. Billy pushed Rebecca to

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Speaker 1: chase her dreams of a life in show business. He

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Speaker 1: is a master showman, and I was going to be

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Speaker 1: a fashion model and better actress. I knew that when

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Speaker 1: I was a kid. And all the things that you're

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Speaker 1: talking about have to do with some form of show business,

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Speaker 1: like for photography, the eyebrows or you know, singing. This

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Speaker 1: is gonna pick that bab He told me his the

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Speaker 1: technique to learn to sing, you know, correctly. He's kind

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Speaker 1: of tall. He's really fine. Someday I hope to make him.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca found her person. There was no one else on

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Speaker 1: earth for either of them, and they knew it. He

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Speaker 1: was Billy Balls and she was his baby girl. But

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Speaker 1: like when you and Billy were alone, like we were

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Speaker 1: alone a lot. He made a point of it, who

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Speaker 1: lock the door and we will be alone? What would

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Speaker 1: you do that one we were in love? What do

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Speaker 1: you think we did? The bed was the heart of

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Speaker 1: the home. You know. He had a TV and we

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Speaker 1: were watched nineteen forties Hollywood movies from the bed all

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Speaker 1: night sometimes in between being in love and uh, we

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Speaker 1: just talk. When I've been around birds, you said, why

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Speaker 1: because all my life, when I was growing up, my

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Speaker 1: brother had birds always and you have a tape one

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Speaker 1: of those intimate conversations, mostly harmless, little birds, all of them.

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Speaker 1: Where did you keep all of those birds? Isn't that

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Speaker 1: pronounced a vary? Yeah? I don't know. Maybe I've been

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Speaker 1: playing it wrong all my life. Where was that avery? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: In our backyard? Wherever was you mean he had covered

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Speaker 1: with glass or so there? Yeah? Wiing like sounds like

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Speaker 1: Rebecca and Billy were together for years five years common

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Speaker 1: law changed from seven to five. We legally fell into

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Speaker 1: the common law married category, even though he proposed to me, wait,

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Speaker 1: can you tell me that story when you when did

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Speaker 1: that happen? Is this baby? Girls, you want to get married,

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Speaker 1: if you want to have a baby, whatever you want

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Speaker 1: to do. And it says when you make a first

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Speaker 1: million dollars? Yeah, after the break the day that changed everything.

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Speaker 1: First of all, it was two right, uh huh. And

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Speaker 1: it was a summertime. Any idea of the month? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like me, June, you don't know the day. I've blocked

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Speaker 1: it out to fully that My mind just blocked at

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Speaker 1: the funk out And uh I was visiting Jade that evening.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca remembers that in the early summer she was visiting

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Speaker 1: a friend on set, and that she walked back almost

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Speaker 1: four miles to the home she shared with Billy. And

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Speaker 1: I come up to the storefront on Avenue where we lived,

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Speaker 1: and there's orange, the orange tape all over and somehow

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Speaker 1: it's open, as if a window is broken or something

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Speaker 1: like that, because it was all open, and there's like

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Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen overcoated dicks rummaging around in my house.

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Speaker 1: By overcoated dicks, she means, the police. You could see

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Speaker 1: them mealing around in our house and tossing ship and

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Speaker 1: turning shipped upside down, our furniture, all our things, all

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Speaker 1: our things is really every little thing is a very

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Speaker 1: special thing, you know. And uh. I went to red

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Speaker 1: on the corner of the news stand, the gay dude

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Speaker 1: with the glasses and the red hair, with the cut

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Speaker 1: off sleeve jeans jacket, and I says, what the fund

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Speaker 1: is going on? And he says something happened and there

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Speaker 1: someone was shot. And I went in there and I

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Speaker 1: crossed the tape and they says, you can't come in here,

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Speaker 1: and I says, this is my house. I need to

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Speaker 1: change my shoes, and he says, you can't come in here.

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Speaker 1: I felt like, I was so fucked up. I didn't

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Speaker 1: know what was going on. And I went around the

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Speaker 1: corner in our car, hit his car to Mercury and

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Speaker 1: there's men crawling around in there. They were undercover dicks,

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Speaker 1: and I said, I ran down the street. I said,

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Speaker 1: get the funk out of our car. And says William Heinzman.

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Speaker 1: Shot is shot five times and he's in such and

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Speaker 1: such hospital. And I ran from one hospital to the next.

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Speaker 1: I was on warrior mode, you know, in high warrior mode.

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Speaker 1: I was really on a war path to get to

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Speaker 1: Billy and to find out what the funk was going on,

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Speaker 1: you know. In the next chapter of The Ballad of

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Speaker 1: Billy Balls, Rebecca says goodbye to the love of her

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Speaker 1: life and goes looking for answers. Crime town is Zack

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Speaker 1: Stewart Pontier and Mark smirlin The Ballad of Billy Balls

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Speaker 1: is hosted by me Io Tillet Right and made in

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Speaker 1: partnership with Cadence thirteen. The show is produced by me

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Speaker 1: Kevin Sheppard and Ryan Swigert. Our senior producer is Austin Mitchell,

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Speaker 1: editing by Zach Stewart Pontier and Mark Smirling, fact checking

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Speaker 1: by Jennifer Blackman. This episode was mixed by Sam Bear.

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Speaker 1: Sound designed by Ryan Swigert and Sam Bear. Music by

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Speaker 1: Kenny qc Yak. Our title track is Dark Allies by

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Speaker 1: Light Asylum. Archival research by Brennan Reese. If you want

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Speaker 1: to know more about my story, you can pick up

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Speaker 1: my memoir Darling Days, or find me on the internet.

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Speaker 1: Um Io loves You Everywhere Thanks to Drew Nellis, Jesse Rudoy,

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Speaker 1: Ula Culpa, Jamie Raisin Wade Slipkin, Daniella Aria, rachel Leie Wright,

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Speaker 1: Emily Wiederman, Green Card Pictures, Alex Weinberg, Alessandro Santuro, Bill Clegg,

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Speaker 1: Shannon Funcius and Bruno Coviello, Ben Davis, Orn Rosenbaum and

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Speaker 1: the team at Cadence thirteen, and of course, Rebecca, without

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Speaker 1: whom none of this would be possible while and spout

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Speaker 1: the thoughts out