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Speaker 3: Previously on wiscrack, you had Jody catching you up digging
Speaker 3: around in the UK. But look, I figured, since I
Speaker 3: lived through it all, I'd be better to chime in
Speaker 3: with what really happened that night, right, Jody met my
Speaker 3: two glorious brothers, Sam who insists but it couldn't be
Speaker 3: a killer, which is a choice, and Jack, who we
Speaker 3: kind of forgot to tell about any of it.
Speaker 4: Oops. Sorry.
Speaker 3: Then came the trial, where it was silent for most
Speaker 3: of it until one sharp, unsettling outburst. He was found guilty, rightfully,
Speaker 3: but here's what still shakes me. While he was serving
Speaker 3: his sentence, two ultra religious soul mates claimed he was
Speaker 3: possessed and they decided.
Speaker 4: To cleanse him. They killed him.
Speaker 3: They said it was an exorcism that they were told
Speaker 3: to do by God.
Speaker 4: Anyway, where did we leave off? A?
Speaker 3: Jody is off to the happiest place on Earth, not Disneyland,
Speaker 3: stands in Mountfitchet.
Speaker 4: God speed Jody.
Speaker 5: For the first time in ten years, I am podcast free,
Speaker 5: which feels horrible. I'm desperately looking for another podcast.
Speaker 6: Really, Oh my God.
Speaker 1: While I was in London, I made some calls to
Speaker 1: Ed's old friends, the ones who knew him best around
Speaker 1: the time of the murders. One name I found on
Speaker 1: the flyer they handed me at Ed's Edinburgh show was
Speaker 1: the director of his comedy set, Sophie Hagen.
Speaker 5: I actually remember exactly when I met it, because I
Speaker 5: was blown away by how funny he was. It was
Speaker 5: at uh pup called the Queen's Head in Camden in London.
Speaker 5: Ed was sitting there all chubby he used to be
Speaker 5: really fat, which he was so funny about it. And
Speaker 5: he was sitting in the corner jumping up and down
Speaker 5: like a little child, saying, guys, guys, can you believe
Speaker 5: they're gonna let us do comedy?
Speaker 1: Sophie is a force in her own right, a veteran
Speaker 1: of stand up specials and podcasts, and in fact, the
Speaker 1: year before Ed premiered his show, Sophie won Best Newcomer
Speaker 1: at the Edinburgh Fringe. I was hoping to get a
Speaker 1: glimpse into Ed's mental state only months after the murders.
Speaker 1: What I got was something else entirely.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 5: The way I remember it was he called me one
Speaker 5: night and told me the story of what had happened, and,
Speaker 5: being this sort of cynical person that I am probably was,
Speaker 5: I was like, Ed, this is a show.
Speaker 6: Would you do this on stage?
Speaker 5: And I remember him sounding surprised, being like, really, you
Speaker 5: think I should? He then said, well, would you want
Speaker 5: to help out with it? And I was like, ye oh, yeah, definitely,
Speaker 5: And I told him that I had a few rules.
Speaker 5: I had a few sort of I can only work
Speaker 5: on this if you're truthful about it, if you work
Speaker 5: hard and you tell the truth, then I'm.
Speaker 4: Absolutely on board.
Speaker 5: I would love to help. So it all came crashing
Speaker 5: down around the same time. He tells a story in
Speaker 5: the show about how, by accident, his email and number
Speaker 5: was printed on the front page of his local paper.
Speaker 5: And I said to him the whole time work on
Speaker 5: the show, I'd said, oh, we have to see this,
Speaker 5: like this is a like we need to post it
Speaker 5: on Instagram or to show it in the show, like
Speaker 5: we need to see this because this is so funny.
Speaker 5: And he kept saying, yeah, yeah, I will, we have
Speaker 5: it at home. And every time I asked, you'd say,
Speaker 5: oh yeah, yeah, my brother's sending it or whatever. So
Speaker 5: around the time when I started doubting him in general
Speaker 5: and realized he told a lot of lies, I pressed
Speaker 5: him on it and I was like, ed, can I
Speaker 5: see that newspaper now, please? And he's got really defensive
Speaker 5: and was like, oh, you don't trust me. And I
Speaker 5: was like, ah, that sounds like what liars do when
Speaker 5: they're caught out in a lie. And it actually took
Speaker 5: it took some time, maybe like days, before I thought,
Speaker 5: if he's willing to lie about all these other big things,
Speaker 5: could he lie about this? And I started googling it
Speaker 5: frantically to find any evidence of this having happened. And
Speaker 5: I believe I did find articles about having happened, but
Speaker 5: I don't think if I remember correctly, I didn't find
Speaker 5: anything that backed up his side.
Speaker 4: Of the story.
Speaker 5: I don't remember any mentioning of the neighbor of Brett
Speaker 5: trying to break into another house. There was no mention
Speaker 5: of Ed anywhere. Then, when I pressed him on at
Speaker 5: a tiny bit and said Ed, how much of this
Speaker 5: is true? He again became incredibly angry and like defensive
Speaker 5: and started blaming me for all sorts of things. And
Speaker 5: I'm just thinking, Okay, do you know what. I now
Speaker 5: don't know how much is true at all about him,
Speaker 5: his life, anything, So I doubt that this story is
Speaker 5: true and I don't know, And at that point I
Speaker 5: didn't care. And then I basically haven't really spoken to him.
Speaker 5: I've seen him since, so I think as soon as
Speaker 5: I realized that he told not just one, but multiple lies,
Speaker 5: I stopped because the person I loved and the person
Speaker 5: I had this very close relationship with, I didn't know
Speaker 5: how much of that was an actual person and how
Speaker 5: much of that was just lies.
Speaker 1: Sophie's claims changed the way I saw everything. In all
Speaker 1: my years of working in true crime, I knew to
Speaker 1: document the cleanest timeline possible, layering eyewitness accounts and police
Speaker 1: reports to build a tight play by play of exactly
Speaker 1: what happened, which I had done thoroughly. The problem was
Speaker 1: the subject of my story wasn't at the crime scene.
Speaker 1: He was three doors down asleep. He's never been contacted
Speaker 1: by the police to give a statement, much less sworn
Speaker 1: under oath to anything he witnessed. Had I convinced myself
Speaker 1: of a story that wasn't true, had I made the
Speaker 1: fatal mistake of trying to fit Ed's comedy into the cold,
Speaker 1: hard facts instead of the other way around. What if
Speaker 1: there was a world in which Brett Rogers committed the
Speaker 1: murders but never came to Ed's house, never banged on
Speaker 1: the door. It would mean Ed was only adjacent to
Speaker 1: the crime, feet from it, but he never once crossed
Speaker 1: Brett's mind that night. And it would also mean that
Speaker 1: Ed has shoehorned himself into a crime that has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with him for the worst possible reason. Fame.
Speaker 1: I'm Jonie Tovey and this is Wisecrack, episode four. Brett,
Speaker 1: who as Ed, picks me up outside of my Airbnb.
Speaker 1: The only thing I wanted to do was meet his parents.
Speaker 1: They could quickly corroborate his story and get these thoughts
Speaker 1: out of my head. But Ed was in no hurry
Speaker 1: to get to his house. He decided I needed a
Speaker 1: tour of the village first, so I decided to play
Speaker 1: a cool go with the flow. If there was anything
Speaker 1: to Sophie's claims, they'd soon be a parent, and I
Speaker 1: didn't want to rattle Ed either.
Speaker 3: Sorry, this is the entrance and it's going to take
Speaker 3: about ten minutes to drive through the entire thing.
Speaker 6: Amazing. This looks like a storybook like. These homes right
Speaker 6: here are just gorgeous. They all kind of have like
Speaker 6: that gingerbread look, and then the Tudor style with the
Speaker 6: bricks are very pretty. That is literally a straw roof
Speaker 6: that we just passed.
Speaker 1: I had pictured Stansted as a quiet, pastoral town, and
Speaker 1: on the surface it is. But when it's just me
Speaker 1: and Ed, he doesn't hold back to him. Stansted is
Speaker 1: frozen in time, filled with men grinding away at mundane
Speaker 1: jobs and their wives who sneer at the wealth in London.
Speaker 6: I haven't seen a person, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 4: No, we don't have many of them. Do you like pigeons?
Speaker 6: They are quite noisy?
Speaker 3: This is quite It always reminds me of Private Drive
Speaker 3: from Harry Potter. It's just like perfect tractors, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: Stansted might have spent the rest of eternity as a
Speaker 1: sleepy little village, but in the nineteen sixties a local
Speaker 1: military airfield was converted into an international airport serving London. Now,
Speaker 1: on any given day that airport sees approximately eighty thousand passengers.
Speaker 1: Airline crews from India and Africa fill the local pubs
Speaker 1: for a quick pint between flights. But the actual village
Speaker 1: has an older, working class population of just around eight
Speaker 1: thousand people.
Speaker 3: So now we're going into Lowest Street. I think there's
Speaker 3: about six businesses down here. Three of them are pubs.
Speaker 4: We laugh at them. A village four.
Speaker 6: I'm not laughing, I mean I am laughing. I am laughing.
Speaker 6: Of the six businesses, three of them are pubs. Oh,
Speaker 6: here's a person.
Speaker 3: Well that's Tony. That's a carpenter. What do you saw
Speaker 3: it for?
Speaker 6: That really is Tony Y.
Speaker 4: So what this kid's doing now?
Speaker 3: I did my entire life just on a bike with
Speaker 3: a backpack on riding somewhere and that's all we did
Speaker 3: was welcome.
Speaker 1: As we drive through its narrow streets, watching him retrace
Speaker 1: old paths and point out forgotten landmarks. I send something
Speaker 1: buried beneath the cynicism, something more than just a dark nostalgia.
Speaker 4: That's a tennis club.
Speaker 3: I'm not allowed back in there anymore because me or
Speaker 3: friends accidentally nearly set on fire.
Speaker 6: We'll come back to that, we will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's on edge too, taking easy jabs, checking the time,
Speaker 1: scanning his surroundings, but with absolutely no chance of running
Speaker 1: into Brett. I can't figure out what has him so anxious.
Speaker 1: I even wonder if he knows I've talked to Sophie
Speaker 1: and you.
Speaker 4: See that place called the Mayflower.
Speaker 3: Huh that is the least authentic Chinese er ever going
Speaker 3: to do. The guy that owns his name is Kevin.
Speaker 3: Get the fuck out, and you've just left anced we just.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, so we're out. I'm not kidding. So that
Speaker 6: was maybe a two minute drive that we just drove
Speaker 6: through the entire town. Yeah, maybe two minutes.
Speaker 3: It's why I was so keen to leave, because that
Speaker 3: two minute drive is a five minute walk, and you
Speaker 3: know everyone like I know everything.
Speaker 1: And then it hits me. Ed's feeling vulnerable, exposed. We're
Speaker 1: about to relive the worst night of his life, but
Speaker 1: this time we aren't using Ed's script, and all the
Speaker 1: characters in Ed's world can speak for themselves.
Speaker 6: So your house is that way.
Speaker 1: We turn off Cambridge Street and into a labyrinth of
Speaker 1: dark brick townhouses attached together in twos and threes. From
Speaker 1: sheer muscle memory, Ed weaves us through the maze and
Speaker 1: up to a small cluster of homes before I meet
Speaker 1: Ed's parents. There's one house he wants me to see first.
Speaker 6: All right, so we're walking right outside of Frett's house.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the bedroom window.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you are right next door to I mean,
Speaker 1: not adjacent, perfectly adjacent, but what like the Rogers home,
Speaker 1: a modest two story townhouse, the kind you'd pass without
Speaker 1: a second glance, And just a few feet away sits
Speaker 1: the Hedge's house. Standing in the home shadow where so
Speaker 1: much blood was shed, I could sense a lingering chill
Speaker 1: in the air. His voice deepens into a whisper.
Speaker 3: Thirty seconds a second walk, that's the distance between us.
Speaker 4: Ty.
Speaker 1: This bench that we're standing next to right now was
Speaker 1: actually closer to your house, closer to.
Speaker 4: My house, and also under a street light.
Speaker 6: And that's where they found Brett.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but just over our shoulders is a completely different vibe.
Speaker 1: We walked just a few steps into a blooming garden,
Speaker 1: through a weather doorstep and into Ed's childhood home.
Speaker 6: Number forty.
Speaker 4: We go, Hello, Mom, this is Jodie. Come say hello.
Speaker 6: Hi, very nice to meet How you can I give
Speaker 6: you a book?
Speaker 7: How's it going? Yes? Could you meet you? Hello? Yes?
Speaker 1: We're greeted by Ed's mother, Carol, light brown hair, glasses
Speaker 1: and a warmth that hits instantly. She's the picture of
Speaker 1: a British mom in every sense.
Speaker 5: I know you.
Speaker 6: They you've been eliminated completely.
Speaker 1: I just want to point out it's.
Speaker 4: Cool because there are photos of Salm and Jack around here.
Speaker 7: And then yeah, I took him down.
Speaker 1: As I'm shown around, I notice Ed and his mom
Speaker 1: speaking glances and smirks, like whole conversations pass without a
Speaker 1: word habit. I imagine shaped in a house where his
Speaker 1: father's temper could erupt without warning. And truthfully, he was
Speaker 1: the one I was mo nervous to meet John the
Speaker 1: here's the chair.
Speaker 4: This is father, father John. This is Jody.
Speaker 7: Hi, nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: At seventy years old, John is a hulking man with
Speaker 1: broad shoulders and eight fingers just as legend would have it. However,
Speaker 1: Ed tells me his father is not the gruff man
Speaker 1: portrayed in his set anymore. Age and grandchildren will do
Speaker 1: that to a person.
Speaker 6: I do love the kitchen.
Speaker 1: We all sit Ed, John, Carol and me, and after
Speaker 1: a few lighthearted stories about Ed's childhood mischief, I cut
Speaker 1: to the chase. I ask about that night.
Speaker 7: I came home at hop our six and I'm usually
Speaker 7: the first one hand, and it had been rough day
Speaker 7: at work and night was hot, and I just thought
Speaker 7: I can't pipoffered, and then when he came in, just
Speaker 7: as he got through the door said do you fancy
Speaker 7: fish and chips tonight? I don't feel like cooking? And
Speaker 7: you went over.
Speaker 1: John often goes over to pick up dinner from one
Speaker 1: of their favorite restaurants, Churchill's, a three minute walk from
Speaker 1: their house.
Speaker 7: And when you came back, he said, oh, I just
Speaker 7: saw Jill over there, and she was really weird.
Speaker 1: As a reminder, Jill or Jillian is Bred's mother.
Speaker 7: She came in but she didn't order anything. You said, agitated, yeah,
Speaker 7: and then she left. And then when you come back
Speaker 7: here to me, you said that you passed Brett and
Speaker 7: Brett looked weird, right, But you said she But you
Speaker 7: did say she was drunk, didn't you.
Speaker 8: Oh, yeah, she'd had some drink. Yeah, she was definitely
Speaker 8: under the influence.
Speaker 7: And that's why he said it, because it was sort
Speaker 7: of like tea time, and.
Speaker 1: Then you guys came back, had your dinner, and then
Speaker 1: what happened after dinner.
Speaker 7: It was just like a normal night. We watched TV,
Speaker 7: and we went up to bed, let himself in because
Speaker 7: we were in bed, and then the dogs all started barking.
Speaker 7: I looked out the window and there was a policeman.
Speaker 1: A policeman. This is the first I've heard of the
Speaker 1: police in the front garden, long before any knocking. Which
Speaker 1: window were you looking out of?
Speaker 7: Was my bedroom window directly above him? Well, at that
Speaker 7: point I went that way, so I have to have
Speaker 7: the window open.
Speaker 4: Wasn't in the front garden at that point.
Speaker 7: Well, there was someone in the somebody in the in
Speaker 7: the front garden running about.
Speaker 3: Because theater banged on the door, went into the garden
Speaker 3: and tried to get that way.
Speaker 4: I don't think that was a policement.
Speaker 8: I took over for the front because I did get up,
Speaker 8: but I slept through most of it because I went
Speaker 8: back to sleep straight away and I got out here
Speaker 8: and was looking out.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but that was because you thought someone was trying
Speaker 7: to wait.
Speaker 8: I thought someone was trying to occur. And also the
Speaker 8: side gate here, when that opens and swings back and
Speaker 8: hits the house, you're going to go bunk because it's
Speaker 8: right there sort of brick. And heard that, and I thought,
Speaker 8: what's happening?
Speaker 1: So you heard the gate slam over here? And then
Speaker 1: where did that person go?
Speaker 8: I didn't see anyone.
Speaker 4: Oh I did.
Speaker 8: I have heard the gate gone, but already had the
Speaker 8: banging at the door. They said there was a police,
Speaker 8: he's a helicopter up there, there's policemen on the green
Speaker 8: and whatnot. I said, well, don't worry then, because we're
Speaker 8: surrounded by the police.
Speaker 4: So we're perfectly.
Speaker 1: Say rewind to the banging. So we watched TV. We
Speaker 1: go to bed, and then when did the banging happen?
Speaker 1: Is there a rough time or who woke up first?
Speaker 7: I don't know what the time was because I didn't
Speaker 7: look at the clock. I woke up first, and then
Speaker 7: I came in to you, didn't I.
Speaker 3: So what we've just said and what we're saying, now
Speaker 3: are two different things completely. Well, you just said you
Speaker 3: woke up, looked out the window, and back to bed,
Speaker 3: and now you.
Speaker 7: Do no, no, no. I went back to you in
Speaker 7: the bedroom.
Speaker 3: So as I remember it. Yeah, the banging happened, you
Speaker 3: heard it outside your window. Yeah, it was on the
Speaker 3: front garden and someone who you think was a police officer.
Speaker 4: But that story don't check out at all.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know who it was.
Speaker 1: It's subtle, but I noticed that Ed is leading his mom,
Speaker 1: correcting her.
Speaker 3: Whoever it was was trying to get an off front door,
Speaker 3: went into our garden, knew the back gate, ran to
Speaker 3: our garden and tried to get the back door.
Speaker 4: It doesn't sound like police. Doesn't sound like a police
Speaker 4: officer to me. He didn't do that.
Speaker 3: And the banging, you think a police officer is going
Speaker 3: to knock bang at that door that hot You don't
Speaker 3: think police have got the manet the thing that can
Speaker 3: get a back door open.
Speaker 7: But we haven't done anything wrong.
Speaker 8: That Bret might have tried to run.
Speaker 1: You're not on the stand.
Speaker 7: I just want you to know that you're not in trouble.
Speaker 1: Carol is flustered. Now her recollection is being versively challenged.
Speaker 1: I remind her this isn't an interrogation. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to understand. Wanting a clearer picture, I switched tactics, ED,
Speaker 1: why don't you tell the story?
Speaker 6: And then John and Carol jump in.
Speaker 4: When you remember, we'll pull it to paces.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, yeah, challenge.
Speaker 4: Me and whatever you need to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you get in from the gig.
Speaker 3: I get in from the gig. I walk upstairs. This
Speaker 3: is about eleven eleven thirty. I planned to come home
Speaker 3: at about eight nine that night, so the front door
Speaker 3: was left unlocked when they went to bed because they
Speaker 3: were expecting me shortly afterwards. I walk upstairs and go
Speaker 3: into my bed to go to sleep. While I was asleep,
Speaker 3: from what I understand, there was noise in the front garden.
Speaker 3: Someone was outside that were banging on the door. Then
Speaker 3: you come to my room and that's when I wake up.
Speaker 3: You're at the end of my bed. Well, I was
Speaker 3: going to that wall and you're looking out the window,
Speaker 3: and he said, whatever you do, don't tell the lights.
Speaker 1: That line is quite possibly the most memorable, most chilling
Speaker 1: line straight from ed set and the way they said
Speaker 1: it in Unison Eyes locked. It's eerie. Is it possible
Speaker 1: she's quoting ed Set just to stick to his contrived story,
Speaker 1: or is this a shared moment of clarity in a
Speaker 1: night of chaos, the one petrifying moment that seared in
Speaker 1: both of their minds.
Speaker 3: So I got out of bed, I got looking for Dad.
Speaker 3: Dad was awake at this point, standing at the window,
Speaker 3: and the banging was still happening at that point.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I was looking at the wind drive for the grain.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I started to go downstairs, and both of you
Speaker 3: basically say don't do that.
Speaker 4: At some stage because.
Speaker 3: I remember being on the landing with you panicking. Yeah,
Speaker 3: pre helicopters, post banging. That's when the gate hit.
Speaker 8: The wall, right yeah, And then I heard they hear
Speaker 8: the wall.
Speaker 3: So we went downside gate. We didn't have the decking
Speaker 3: at the time, into the garden.
Speaker 7: It was different.
Speaker 3: They let me fresh memory a little bit, although you
Speaker 3: so look different. He still have a gold handle. Yes,
Speaker 3: he pulled the handle web being up. The handle was
Speaker 3: pulled down. Obviously whoever was outside couldn't get in. And
Speaker 3: then they left.
Speaker 4: Could it be the end of us?
Speaker 1: Could have been the end of us. John finally lets
Speaker 1: down his guard long enough to let me know his
Speaker 1: real feelings. He too, thinks Brett was attempting to break
Speaker 1: into his house, possibly to hurt his family, Just as
Speaker 1: Ed contends in his set, his father, who was loath
Speaker 1: to show weakness, was indeed scared that night. But I
Speaker 1: still can't quite get a read on Carol. Is she
Speaker 1: just having trouble putting words to an indescribable night eight
Speaker 1: years ago? Or is she withholding something from me?
Speaker 3: I mentioned I was a little b chubby you as
Speaker 3: a kid. My mom and my whole family were all
Speaker 3: a little bit chubby. She joined a weight loss club
Speaker 3: and they all started taking these silly little weight loss
Speaker 3: pills and they lost loads of weight.
Speaker 4: They lost heaps of weight.
Speaker 3: But she was taking these weightless pills, and then she
Speaker 3: can't get the weightless pills anymore. So she started looking
Speaker 3: and she met someone online. She made a friend on
Speaker 3: Farmville who knew somewhere that could get these weight loss pills,
Speaker 3: and she started getting them delivered to the house. A
Speaker 3: package turned up at the door. My mom wasn't home.
Speaker 3: My brother answered the door. He looked at the package
Speaker 3: and it was covered in mandarin, and he was like,
Speaker 3: that's weird. And so he took it inside and he
Speaker 3: went onto the family computer. He translated it. So he
Speaker 3: got really angry and Jack went, what have.
Speaker 4: You been taking?
Speaker 3: She was like, weightless pills? He went, where did you
Speaker 3: get him from? She went and met a man called
Speaker 3: Lee on Farmville. He sends them to me, and Jack said,
Speaker 3: what does Lee look like? My mom said, well, he's
Speaker 3: of Asian descent. He's got a lot of tattoos. And
Speaker 3: Jack went out of interest. Is he missing any fingers?
Speaker 3: And she was like, yeah, he's missing a finger because
Speaker 3: my dad's missing a finger. She was like, he is
Speaker 3: missing he's missing a bit of his pinky finger. If
Speaker 3: you know anything about the Triad gang, that's an initiation
Speaker 3: to them. My brother googled the ingredients and my mother
Speaker 3: had been taking crystal meth for six months that she
Speaker 3: was buying off the Triads on Farmville.
Speaker 4: That's not one of the lies.
Speaker 1: That shit happened.
Speaker 3: She did that. And do you know what makes it
Speaker 3: worse is Jack was like, how long have you been
Speaker 3: taking these pills? Does anyone else take him? My mom
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, I sell them to the village. I
Speaker 3: thought that was as bad as it could get. It's
Speaker 3: not my mom was like, oh god, oh no, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna have to stop, aren't I? And Jack was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you can't keep taking them, and she went, no.
Speaker 4: Not stop that. Not worried about stopping that. Obviously, I
Speaker 4: can't keep taking them.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to stop selling them to the girls
Speaker 3: in the village. My mother was a meth dealer in
Speaker 3: East Anglia, in London. Just pushing myths, all these up
Speaker 3: to be fair, our house has never.
Speaker 4: Been clean us.
Speaker 1: On stage, Ed portrays his mother as wonderfully daffy, even gullible.
Speaker 1: It adds such charmed ed set. But after my sit
Speaker 1: down with the family, I was starting to get nervous.
Speaker 1: Why does Carol seem so shaken by my questions? So
Speaker 1: I decided to pull Carol aside away from Ed and
Speaker 1: John to see if I could get a straight answer
Speaker 1: out of her. I asked her to climb the narrow
Speaker 1: stairs to the hedge's second floor from inside Ed's small bedroom,
Speaker 1: where she woke her son and warned him not to
Speaker 1: turn on the lights. It all came rushing back.
Speaker 7: It wasn't knocking, it was banging. It was banging, and
Speaker 7: then I thought, well, what is that? But I jumped up.
Speaker 7: I didn't wait John up because he gets up so early.
Speaker 7: I thought that, but it was also the dogs were
Speaker 7: going absolutely And then I started panicking because you could
Speaker 7: hear someone out there in the back garden. There's something
Speaker 7: going on out there, and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 7: I was petrified. I thought we'd getting broken into. By
Speaker 7: that time, there was helicopters and everything going out there.
Speaker 7: There was a lot of place running up the alleyway,
Speaker 7: and that bit there was like the apocalypse.
Speaker 1: Carol and I joined the boys back downstairs, and I
Speaker 1: think even Ed could see the relief on my face.
Speaker 1: I try to imagine being in ed shoes, sitting across
Speaker 1: from my own parents, asking them to recall a frenzied
Speaker 1: night from eight years ago, the uncertainty, the gaps in memory.
Speaker 1: It would probably sound a lot like this. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing. What they're saying does line up with Ed's
Speaker 1: version of events, maybe not in perfect order or sequence.
Speaker 1: But they remember someone in the front garden and the
Speaker 1: gate slamming against the back brick wall. They remember someone
Speaker 1: circling the house and trying to get into the upside
Speaker 1: down lock. They remember the helicopters and the officers on
Speaker 1: the green behind the house, and most importantly, they remember
Speaker 1: the banging at the front door. Then I learned something
Speaker 1: that both shocked me and completely wiped away all my
Speaker 1: suspicions of Ed's parents.
Speaker 7: Ed is very secretive about his gigs, right, even this
Speaker 7: what he's stood now today? Oh yeah, we know nothing.
Speaker 1: Despite all of his success, Ed's parents have never been
Speaker 1: to one of his comedy sets. They didn't even know
Speaker 1: Ed talks about Brett Rodgers on stage because they've never
Speaker 1: seen him perform. They're not trying to match up with
Speaker 1: any script of Eds. They're just telling the truth as
Speaker 1: they remember it.
Speaker 7: We know, we know he said, Oh, they're just coming
Speaker 7: to talk to you. That's it, just that me. That's it.
Speaker 7: Now that it's going through, we thought he was talking
Speaker 7: about you, but it's sort of talk everything. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: so he even this. We know we had never seen
Speaker 7: Edward perform.
Speaker 1: No wonder. Carol seemed a little rattled by my questions.
Speaker 1: Ed had prepared her to meet me, but he hadn't
Speaker 1: told either of his parents. I'd be asking about Brett Rodgers.
Speaker 1: As Ed drove me back to my airbnb, I could
Speaker 1: tell he was just as exhausted as I was spending
Speaker 1: the day with your parents can do that to you.
Speaker 4: Yep. Also my virginity in that forest.
Speaker 6: Just so and again there's no cameras, no.
Speaker 4: More magical place loves virginity than a forest trolls live.
Speaker 1: But Ed had one more setting from his comedy show
Speaker 1: that he wants to show me.
Speaker 4: This is the Carey Club. This is where I spent
Speaker 4: pretty much every day of my childhood. I was mad
Speaker 4: about it.
Speaker 6: It's a lot smaller than I was picturing. So what age?
Speaker 6: Were you hanging out here?
Speaker 4: As early as thirteen twelve thirteen.
Speaker 6: And so you would just walk from your house, walk.
Speaker 3: From my house up to hear meet a load of people.
Speaker 3: It was the coolest place in the world because you'd
Speaker 3: have this like congregation of like men of loads of
Speaker 3: different ages, and you would be drinking.
Speaker 6: Remind me what the legal age is minimum for drinking here?
Speaker 4: Legal? Yeah, eighteen, technical at fourteen.
Speaker 6: And so you were here drinking as early as.
Speaker 4: Fourteen twelve thirteen, fourteen twelve around that Wow, not like heavily.
Speaker 1: Ed tells me he and Brett would spend most afternoons
Speaker 1: about one hundred yards from each other, just playing different sports.
Speaker 1: The cricket field literally overlaps the football field.
Speaker 4: This is where I want the ball to go. Okay, yeah, okay, so.
Speaker 6: I should throw the ball.
Speaker 1: Though he hadn't pitched in over a decade, he was
Speaker 1: eager to teach me how for the comic relief. No doubt,
Speaker 1: there is a.
Speaker 4: Hop skip jump thing.
Speaker 3: So you start off, you go like one, two, three,
Speaker 3: and then.
Speaker 4: As you trusted.
Speaker 1: Cack like do I do this? And then well all right?
Speaker 1: Ed is the only Hedges who plays cricket. No legacy,
Speaker 1: no tradition. As a kid, he just needed something that
Speaker 1: was his own.
Speaker 4: I was like a pitch, you want to bring your
Speaker 4: own round.
Speaker 1: So Hey, after many failed attempts, we grab a pint
Speaker 1: at the clubhouse, a small wooden shed packed with team
Speaker 1: photos stretching across the century. I scan the walls until
Speaker 1: I spot Ed young, determined part of something bigger. He was,
Speaker 1: in fact a great cricket player, one that found a
Speaker 1: community through his talent. He wasn't a chubby loaner who
Speaker 1: has given a sportsman award out of pity. I thought
Speaker 1: back to Sophie's issues with Ed. She's right, there are
Speaker 1: things he has skewed in his set, seemingly more than
Speaker 1: just the three lives he warns his audiences about. I've
Speaker 1: been clocking the disparities in Ed's story, and I'm starting
Speaker 1: to get concerned that he's never bothered to disclose these
Speaker 1: half truths to me before I get it. Comedians don't
Speaker 1: swear on a Bible before grabbing the mic, but I
Speaker 1: felt like Ed owed me the full truth before I
Speaker 1: got on a plane to the UK. It was a
Speaker 1: confrontation between Ed and I that was brewing in the background,
Speaker 1: and neither of us wanted to have it. But that
Speaker 1: would have to wait for now. There was one person
Speaker 1: I needed to speak to first. He'd moved away from
Speaker 1: Stansteed all but disappeared from his old social circles. In fact,
Speaker 1: he hadn't spoken to anyone in the media since the
Speaker 1: year of the murders. If anyone had insight into the
Speaker 1: inner workings of Brett's mind and could tell me why
Speaker 1: he showed up on Ed's doorstep, it would be him,
Speaker 1: And if he answered the door, I'd be face to
Speaker 1: face with the man who raised a killer. Next time
Speaker 1: on wisecrack, I mean, she says that you made a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff up what's true and what's not.
Speaker 6: So you're saying this isn't safe.
Speaker 1: I personally would not go there, or please bring someone
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 6: Oh gosh, now I'm nervous. Can you please be careful?
Speaker 1: Wisecrack is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 1: in association with Star White Productions. I'm your host Jody Tovey.
Speaker 1: The show is written by Charles Forbes. Stand up comedy
Speaker 1: written and performed by Ed Hedges, with additional writing contributions
Speaker 1: by Charles Forbes. Executive producers for Tenderfoot TV are Donald
Speaker 1: Albright and Payne Lindsay. Executive producers for Star White Productions
Speaker 1: are Jody Tovey and Charles Forbes. Lead producer is Alex Vespestad,
Speaker 1: with additional production by Stephen Perez, Joe Grizzle, ja Ja Muhammad,
Speaker 1: Jamie Albright, and Jordan Foxworthy. Lead editor is Stephen Perez,
Speaker 1: with additional editing by Dylan Harrington and Liam Luxon. Coordinating
Speaker 1: producers are John Street and Tracy Kaplan. Research by Jim
Speaker 1: Nally and Misty Showalter. Original music by Jay Ragsdale with
Speaker 1: additional music by Makeup and Vanity Set, mixed by Cooper
Speaker 1: Skinner artwork by Byron McCoy. Special thanks to Aren Rosenbaum
Speaker 1: and the team at UTA, Nate Ranson, Alexander Kaplan and
Speaker 1: the synerg Clubhouse, and the Nord Group. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: like Wisecrack, search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app,
Speaker 1: or visit us at tenderfoot dot tv. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Episode five will release next week, but you can binge
Speaker 1: the rest of the season right now, completely add free
Speaker 1: by subscribing to Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts or at
Speaker 1: tenderfootplus dot com.