WEBVTT - Sideshow 12: Murder in Gibtown 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.840 This episode includes stories of domestic violence. Listener, discretion is advised. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.480 Death rarely stops a showman, quite the opposite. Sometimes it 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.600 actually encourages them. You've heard about a few sideshow stars 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.800 who were put on stage after they died, like Jumbo 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.720 the Elephant or Julia Pastrana and her child. But recently 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.479 it was some of the smallest oddities that caused a 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.720 big scandal. Pickled punks, as they were known, had long 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.080 been a sideshow standard, but by the nineteen seventies people 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:41.320 were reconsidering the attraction of formal the hide suspended fetuses 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.239 in a jar. The times were changing. You see, a 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.199 cultural shift was happening, and you only had to look 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:51.680 towards Gibson Town, Florida for proof. Sideshow performers have been 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:54.480 flocking to Give Town, as they call it, for decades. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.800 It had been a small bit of coastal town southeast 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.840 of Tampa, home to fisherman and a small lumber company. 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.200 Grace and Eddie LeMay were the first carnival folk to 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.560 visit in nine, a trip spent camping and fishing. They 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.280 told their friends a lot of them actually, and by 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.600 nineteen forty five the town had grown by hundreds of residents, 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.560 many of which were from the side show. These new 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.760 arrivals would change the DNA of the town. Special zoning 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.080 laws allowed them to house and train elephants and lions 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.000 in their gardens. The post office had a counter low 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.600 enough for people with dwarf is um. The bar had 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.760 chairs built perfectly sized for the comfort of large ladies 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.640 and giants alike. Gibson Town had the air of a 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.640 family reunion. When performers settled back in after a long 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.080 season on the circuit, tongues would wag, beer would flow, 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.000 and babies and business deals would be made. Gibson Town 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.640 was their winter wonderland. It was home a refuge from 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:59.280 the prime eyes of the outside world. But as the 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.960 era of the American side show began to sunset, conflict 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.600 began to arise between two worlds, those on the inside 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.680 and those on the outside. The lights of the town 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.960 began to dim and the cracks began to show. The 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.960 broader world was beginning to question, reject, and outlaw much 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.640 of what had been part and parcel of the side show. 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.760 Elements that had in decades past drawn huge crowds willing 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.119 to part with their hard earned money the cultural institution 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.680 was fading, and those dollars were becoming more difficult to 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.800 come by. It was at this moment, amidst all of 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.399 this change, that the pickled Punks took center stage as 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.760 a flashpoint for national controversy. You see, back in the day, 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.280 it wasn't uncommon to find jarred human body parts in 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.680 curiosity cabinets. There was still little known about the body 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.040 for so long, and hungry minds wanted to know its secrets. 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.680 Over time, these jars made the leap from private settings 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.639 and into the hands of the public for tentilation and consumption, 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:06.040 and of course, for profits. But by the nineteen seventies, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:10.400 several states had passed legislation banning transportation of human remains 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.520 across state lines. Soon laws were on the books that 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.040 eventually outlawed even the possession of them. And this is 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:21.280 where we find legendary showman and Gibson Town resident Ward Hall. 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.480 In nineteen seventy seven, he was operating what he liked 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.200 to call the Freak Baby Show, and it was exactly 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.720 what you might imagine it to be. For seventy five cents, 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:36.120 visitors had the pleasure of viewing malformed, jarred fetuses uh 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.880 fish baby, a frog, boy and girl, a cyclopse baby, 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.320 Siamese twins. You get the idea. There were warnings attached 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.320 to each one suggesting that the abnormalities were a result 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.560 of the mother's moral failings, and it billed itself as 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:55.640 a nonprofit educational exhibit to boot Wards collection was being 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.720 exhibited at a county fair in Illinois by his partner C. M. Christ, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.520 but the law would intervene. Police rated the exhibits and 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.280 confiscated the punks. CM was arrested on charges of illegal 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.160 possession of human remains and was questioned about where he 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.160 had gotten them and who they were. He would later 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:15.840 be acquitted, citing that a similar exhibit had appeared at 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.920 the Chicago World's Fair in nineteen thirty three. But while 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.000 CM was set free, the punks remained in police custody. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.039 Just a few weeks later, in several hundred miles to 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.560 the south, local police rated Wards storage facilities in Gibson Town. 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.120 They found two punks that had not previously been confiscated 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.440 in Illinois, so a warrant was issued for his arrest. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.560 According to newspaper articles from the time, a total of 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:47.159 and I quote thirteen unborn babies and embryos floating in 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.840 jars of for malde hyde were discovered and confiscated at 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:55.360 his property, which the article described as a carnival man's backyard. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.719 He was able to get the charges dropped, but similar 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.720 raids kicked off across the country. As these exhibits were 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:07.080 forced to close, people found themselves without livelihoods. One seized 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.040 collection was estimated to be worth well over one hundred 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.640 thousand dollars. It was just getting harder and harder to 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.480 make a living in the side show. By the end 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.880 of that year, the issue was put to a close, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.320 well sort of. On a November day, and under a 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.640 blue sky, a single vault was opened. People stood somberly 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.440 in black in the thick of that quiet, Tiny foam 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.240 caskets were lowered into the ground a funeral for these 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:40.240 so called carnival babies. The reverend presiding proclaimed that with 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.719 the burial, and I quote, we also bury the idea 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.359 that human life should be a grotesque spectacle, that human 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.760 life is cheap or to be exploited. Ironic then that 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:56.040 the funeral itself was meant to be a spectacle. You see, 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.160 the event was photographed and highly publicized in national newspapers. 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.799 They got a lot of lawmakers talking. Even in shutting 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.159 down these exhibits, it seems a glimpse of such specimens, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:11.120 or at least their caskets, still attracted a lot of attention, 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.320 for better or for worse from the American public. It 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.800 seems that despite the very public outcry, we still couldn't help. 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:26.159 But look, I'm Aaron Manky and welcome to the side show. 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.720 Grady Styles was perched on his bar stool, content he 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.159 had killed a man and gotten away with it. In fact, 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:44.960 it seems that he had gotten away with a lot 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.000 in his life. He drained his glass down his throat 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.000 and felt his body grow warm. Grady had nowhere to be. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.960 He had no where he wanted to be. Really, He 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.760 signaled for a fresh round with his claw, and the 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:02.120 bartender poured him another stiff drink. The other bar flies 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.039 didn't like him much. He was a mean drunk, but 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.640 he was also a legend. As famous as he was infamous, 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.040 he had a reputation that reached far beyond Florida's stormy 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.880 spring skies and bleak expanse of US Route forty one, 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.360 Gibson Town, where we find Grady Here was once a 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.920 spectacle itself, but by the nineteen nineties GiB Town had 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.240 faded in grade along with many of its stars. And 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.280 it wasn't just that some had faded, some had been 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:35.760 overshadowed by darkness. Grady Styles Jr. Had been born into 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.400 a sideshow family in nineteen thirty seven. His body was 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:43.239 home to extrodactyl ly, a rare congenital deformity that fused 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.360 his fingers into claws and gave him truncated legs that 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.840 ended at his knees. You see, the Styles could trace 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.920 their claws back generations and had become something of a 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:57.560 sideshow circuit legend. And for his family, more offspring meant 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:02.320 more dollars. The Lobster Family, as they were known, moved 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.840 to the Gibson Town area in n around the same time. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.880 Young Grady left school to join the family act. But 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.520 his role on stage as Lobster Boy wasn't much. He 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.200 just sat in a chair and waved his claws as 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.400 spectators when they came to see him. It's hard to 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.480 know exactly what made Grady mean, what turned him. Maybe 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.119 he was ostracized when he was small until he found 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.040 home in Gibb Town. There, he was just like any 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.720 other sideshow kid, and his family was just like everyone else. 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.559 He often got around in a wheelchair, but just as 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.400 easily used his upper body strength to move across the 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:41.600 floor at an alarming speed. He grew strong and dextrous, 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.280 rough housing with his friends, charming the girls, and even 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.840 learning to fire a pistol. And like check Off, Grady 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.080 always liked his guns, a passion that would come back 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.640 to haunt him. He got married a few times and 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.680 started a family with one of those wives. His marriage 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.200 to marry Teresa had always been volatile. He ruled his 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.800 house with an iron claw. His wife and his children 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:07.960 were often on the receiving end of his rage, though 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.439 so when his eldest daughter, Donna announced at fifteen that 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.240 she was pregnant and marrying her bow, Grady had some 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:20.079 opinions and an idea. The day before their wedding and 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.079 twelve whiskey doubles later, Grady invited his future son in 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.479 law Jack into the house for a chat. Jack obliged 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:31.920 the last decision he would ever make. Donna was the 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.240 first to hear the shots ring out in a moment 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.560 Jack was stumbling out of the house, blood pouring from 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.840 his chest, and fell down right in the doorway. Grady 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:46.080 had shot him. Donna ran to him and looked up 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.520 to find Grady gloating. I told you I would, he said, 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.480 and then Donna screamed. To his credit, Grady waited patiently 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.840 for the police to arrive take me. I'm ready, he 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:01.000 told them, surrendering his wrists and his gun to them. 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.640 He went to trial, and there he readily admitted to 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:06.800 his deed. He carried no remorse for him. This was 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:11.040 wholly inactive practicality. He simply didn't want his daughter marrying 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:15.679 that guy. The jury deliberated for three hours, and after 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.760 that Grady was sentenced to only fifteen years probation. You see, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.800 the authorities believe that because of Grady's compounding set of 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:27.600 physical conditions cirrhosis from drinking and physema from smoking, and 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.040 his ectrodactually he wouldn't be able to receive the adequate 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.960 care behind bars. They thought keeping him locked up would 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:39.280 be cruel. He quickly skipped down and took the money 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.360 that he owed to his lawyer and used it to 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.280 assemble his own ten in one side show. But he 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.240 wouldn't be gone for long. All side show roads lead 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.080 back to GiB Town, after all, and that's exactly how 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.280 he found himself atop his familiar bar stool on that 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:57.000 humid May night. With this tab running up and the 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.920 night winding down, Grady closed out and took his leave. 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.320 He headed home to his brown trailer on Inglewood Drive, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.760 his family's least favorite time of the day. They would 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.800 never truly grow accustomed to his inevitable drunk arrival. He 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.120 and Mary Teresa had been divorced at one time the 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.080 abuse had become too much, but at this point they 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.520 were one year into their second marriage to each other. 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.240 Grady had promised to change. You see, he had managed 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.240 to charm her again. He had been on his best behavior, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.600 and she hoped that these changes were real. But old 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.920 habits die hard, as they say, and within two weeks 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:37.440 of their new union, Grady had turned back into a 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:49.800 monster m It's not every day that someone gets cut 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.640 up and reassembled, but Mary Teresa Herzog lived for it. 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:56.720 She got her side show start as a ticket seller, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.320 but soon graduated to the Zigzag Girl act, where she'd 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.880 while audiences by getting sliced up into thirds. But this 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.400 was harmless fun, after all an illusion. There was not 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:12.079 a drop of bloodshed nor any band aids needed. It 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.760 was off stage, though, away from the bright lights and 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.320 the carnival barkers, that she took on her most fearsome role. 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.320 She was a wife. You see, to be a woman 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.760 is a very dangerous thing. The statistics tell us as much. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.480 Current studies say that one in four women will be 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.360 the victims of severe physical violence at the hands of 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.559 their intimate partner, one in five will experience sexual violence, 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.040 one in seven will be stocked, and studies tell us 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.360 that the presence of a gun in a domestic violent 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:47.520 situation increases the risk of homicide by five That isn't 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.440 to say that people who aren't women don't experience abuse. 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.320 They do, but the majority of the world's social and 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.200 economic systems have long favored cis men with female partners, 0:12:57.280 --> 0:13:01.840 putting women who pair with men into vulnerable situations. We 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.040 can trace the precedent for men's physical domination over women 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.880 back to Hammarabi, back to the Koran, back to the 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.640 Roman Empire, back to Old English common law that suggested 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.640 a lane of hands as a corrective measure. Historically, there 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.040 have been a lot of rules that have spelled out 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.360 what was allowed to go on in the home and 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.280 what was going on and Married Teresa's home had been 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:27.480 for years. It was something people knew but only whispered about. 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.360 She had been wooed by the Lobster Boy one spring 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.480 day in Trenton, New Jersey, back in nineteen fifty nine. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.680 Sparks flew, and their lives were set on a course 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.199 from which they would never turn back. If their trailer 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.280 was Gradi's castle, it was married Teresa's prison. It was 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.000 here she both labored to raise a family and to 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.240 protect them from their father. She loved him fiercely at times, 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.440 and we can wonder if he loved her too. What 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.040 we do know is that he wanted to control her, 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.959 a desire exercise through his use of fists and threats 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.079 to kill again. But this time he threatened that it 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.400 would be her. So when Grady ambled home from the 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.440 bar that night sufficiently inebriated and agitated, Mary, Teresa and 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:18.199 their daughter Cathy found themselves directly in his line of fire. Kathy, 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:22.480 also born with extrodacty ly and seven months pregnant, had 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.800 long positioned herself as the protector of her mother. She 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.520 wouldn't have continued to stay with the sideshow if not 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:32.840 for the need to keep her mother safe. Unprovoked, Grady 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:37.280 flew into a whiskey soaked rage. He started beating Mary Teresa. 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.080 Kathy tried to intervene from her wheelchair, yelling that her 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.760 father preferred the bottle to his family, and then he 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:49.120 turned his anger on her. Grady started in on her heart, 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.560 pummeling her in the arms, the jaw, and eventually knocking 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.080 her around so much that she fell from her chair. 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.200 The fleshy thuds knocked the wind from Cathy's lungs and 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.080 felt like hammer is coming down on her bones. The 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.280 pain was white and blinding, the shocks reverberating through her 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:10.040 entire skeleton. She fought back, of course, but nothing could 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:14.160 be done until Grady decided that he was finished. Kathy 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.360 barely slept after the attack that night. She didn't say 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.200 anything about the pain until she started hemorrhaging. The next morning. 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.640 She rushed to the hospital. Kathy told the doctor who 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:28.320 performed her emergency c section that she had simply fallen 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.240 out of her wheelchair. Did he believe her Probably not. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.920 The baby's placenta had separated from the umbilical cord and 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.560 Cathy's water had broken as a result of the violence. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.280 Baby Misty came into the world on May six, and 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:48.640 she was healthy, and she too was born with lobster claws. 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:52.520 It's hard to know exactly when Mary Teresa decided that 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.560 enough was enough. What we do know, though, is that 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.240 there was an immense amount of courage and strength that 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.160 it took on the part of both of these him 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.440 in to stand up for each other in the face 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.600 of such terror. After decades of torment, of living in 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.520 a vortex of violence, with bloodshed just as likely as tears, 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.800 Mary Teresa knew at some point that this had to end, 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.000 and she didn't want to be the one who went first. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.240 It all culminated on a fairly normal day, as the 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:37.640 most pivotal moments of our lives often due. It was 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.320 November and the Styles family was back home in give 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.800 Town and ready to settle in for a quiet winter. 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.800 Mary Teresa and her teenage son Glenn, decided to make 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.520 an evening visit to Kathy and Misty, who are living 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.240 just across the way. The child was too, by now 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.760 small and mighty, toddling around and just beginning to come 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.960 up with her own opinions about life. They were all 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.320 together in Cathy's trailer when the sound of gunshots split 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.119 the night for just a few moments. The crickets and 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.720 bullfrogs were stunned into silence. Everyone looked at each other, 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.800 their pulses quickening. There was a chill in the air 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.280 where there hadn't been before. Some quick thinking neighbors called 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:19.560 the cops. Mary, Teresa, and Glenn ran back in the 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:24.639 direction of the sounds. Their home. The trailer's sliding glass 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.280 door was a jar. In light from the living room 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.800 spilled onto the concrete outside. The stench of whiskey and 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.960 cigarettes lay thick, a smell that was now mingled with 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.399 the acrid, metallic odor of blood and brain matter. And there, 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:43.000 slumped over in his brown armchair was Grady Styles Jr. 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.040 Dead from not one but three gunshot wounds to the head. 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:49.920 His reign of terror had finally come to an end, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.919 and he had gone out wearing only his boxer briefs. 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:58.520 All was quiet in the house. The police arrived, quickly, 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.840 securing the perimeter and confirming that Grady Jr. Was in fact, very, 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:07.280 very dead. Then they began interviewing everyone in the immediate vicinity. 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.760 They deduced that nothing was stolen and there was no 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.280 sign of a struggle. A neighbor said that he had 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.480 seen a shadowy figure run from the trailer shortly after 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.600 hearing the gun go off. How far could the perpetrator 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:23.600 have gotten on foot? Mary, Teresa, Glenn, and Cathy stood 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:28.959 obediently and answered questions, but the police thought something was off. Oddly, 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.080 they all seemed fine, so fine in fact, that the 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.639 detectives took notice. Yes, shock does interesting things to a person, 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.960 but this just felt a little strange. It wasn't long 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.000 until members of the family were brought down to the 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.439 station for more official questioning. Glenn was the first to 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.879 take a lie detector test about the whole affair, and 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.040 with the childlike innocence, was eager to do. Well, then 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.240 can you blame him? When the detectives revealed that he 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.639 had failed some questions, mostly those referring to his knowledge 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.480 about Grady's killing, he crumbled. They soon wore him down 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.200 and he signed away his rights to have a lawyer present, 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.960 and then the confession came spilling out. He talked about 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.000 Gradie's abuse of his mom, how he was always threatening 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.760 to kill her and get it over with. They just 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.440 couldn't take it any longer. Mary Teresa had devised away 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:23.440 to finally teach him a lesson. Gradie the third, who 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.680 was asleep in the back bedroom of the trailer when 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.560 all of this took place, later stated that his mother's 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.600 only intention was to hire someone to scare his father, 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:34.679 or maybe just rough him up a little. What we 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.639 know now, though, was that Chris Wyant, a neighborhood punk, 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:42.639 took the job for a cool fifteen hundred dollars. Mary Teresa, Glenn, 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.720 and Chris all got their separate days in court in 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.919 January of n It was ruled that Chris was guilty 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.320 of conspiracy in the first degree and murder in the second. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:56.600 Mary Teresa's trial began that July, with heart wrenching testimony 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:00.239 spilling into the pages of the newspaper. My husban been 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.600 was going to kill my family, she testified, I believe 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.280 that from the bottom of my heart. Her attorney attempted 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:10.680 to use the battered spouse defense, a position never before 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.840 tried in Florida in a murder for higher case. Tears 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.280 rolled down her cheeks as she was sentenced to twelve 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:21.120 years in prison. On first degree murder charges. Glenn, who 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.360 was on trial for hiring Chris, received a life sentence. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.760 I wish I could tell you something different. We all 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.560 love a happy ending, a story that can tie neatly 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.920 into a bow, but this isn't one of those. It 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.639 was probably never going to be one. This situation was 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:42.120 one of true horror. But maybe in what happened, we 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.840 find the lesser of all the evils. Through the death 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.840 of one of them, there would be something a bit 0:20:48.920 --> 0:21:01.480 closer to peace for everyone else. The same year that 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.479 all of this happened, President Bill Clinton signed the Violence 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.879 Against Women Act into law. It allocated over one point 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.919 six billion dollars towards the investigation and prosecution of violent 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:14.879 crimes against women. The initiative was the result of the 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:19.400 feminist movement's collective grassroots efforts, work that had spanned decades. 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:25.120 Even still, disconcerting attitudes towards domestic violence have long determined 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.000 how we govern ourselves within the walls of our homes. 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.000 Some may want to leave, but can't for any number 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:35.840 of reasons of dependency, stubborn commitment, cultural pressure, or just 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.600 plain fear. Community leaders and police officers have been known 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.680 to counsel people to try to make abusive situations work, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.320 even though the lives at hand might be in imminent danger. 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.000 The Violence Against Women Act signaled the beginning of a 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.720 shift in society. But as we know, gargantuan ships take 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:57.879 a long time to change course in rough waters, and 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.400 we are still so far from our desk a nation. 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.480 Grady Styles Jr. Was buried in the local showman cemetery. 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.439 The story goes that he was so widely disliked that 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.840 they had a hard time finding anyone who was willing 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:13.280 to be a pall bearer. That's in the fact that 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.480 a large part of his family was being tried for murder. 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:20.600 And when pall bearers were finally located, the story tells 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:22.879 us that the concession was that they would only do 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.399 the job if they could handle it with a little 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.760 bit of flare, with lobster claw mittens on their hands. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.399 To be precise, A bouquet of flowers sat atop his 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.080 coffin a pretty site amidst this final inflection point of 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.879 a decade's long tragedy, and anyone present, whether they be 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:42.679 mourner or gawker, would have been able to see the 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:54.959 words printed across their banner from your loving wife. This 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:57.600 was a heavy story. I think I can speak for 0:22:57.640 --> 0:22:59.320 all of us here at grim and Mild when I 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:02.119 say that this episode has us hugging our families a 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.160 little bit closer today. If you are someone you love 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:08.600 is struggling at home right now, we've included resource links 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:12.720 in the episode description. Now I have something new for you, 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.879 something different, a look at what's ahead coming from the 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:20.119 contemporary world of the Side Show with my co producers 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.640 Robin Miniter and Taylor Haggerdorn. Stick around through this brief 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:36.399 sponsor break to hear all about it. Wow, that was 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:40.199 a doozy of an episode. He really was. You know, 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:43.320 we've encountered some dark stories over the course of the season, 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:47.919 and it's really easy to remove ourselves from them, you know, 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:51.000 just to think that they are tales of yesteryear, that 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:54.440 these things took place a long time ago, maybe back 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:57.399 at a time where we weren't so knowledgeable or we 0:23:57.400 --> 0:23:59.960 weren't so enlightened. But in meeting Grady and a say 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:03.120 only we can understand that we really aren't that far 0:24:03.200 --> 0:24:06.399 removed from this history. None of this took place that 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:09.159 long ago, and the Side Show might be harder to 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:14.080 find these days. But it's ghosts, it's still lingers. You're right, 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:18.560 well said, but I would move that beyond being a 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:23.080 ghost right into this very real, very present force. It 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:25.560 really surprised me. I think it surprised you too. You know, 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:28.600 when we started this, it was chronological, and we had 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:30.720 to start with Barnum, right, We had to reckon with this, 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:33.719 and I certainly didn't predict that we'd end up with 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:37.600 this new and yet similar kind of darkness with Grady. 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:40.399 But the Grady in the nineties wasn't the end of 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:43.520 the side your story. That's right, you know. That brings 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:46.439 us right up to the present. And I actually have 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:50.639 one more Grady Styles adjacent story for our listeners. You 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:55.680