Dark Hearts with Stacy Lee

Today we are talking about the dangerous and insidious Texas cult known as The House of Yahweh. A man named Buffalo Bill Hawkins and his brother JG change their names to Yisrayl and Yaaqob and state that they are The Two Witnesses prophesied in the Book of Revelations. They gather a small following and before long, as in all cults, everything gets dark. Children are horrifically abused. Women are treated like cattle. Fire and brimstone reign down from Yisrayll's pulpit and he begins making predictions about the end of the world. He steals money, he starves his followers, he abuses everyone involved and then the authorities get involved.

This is the story of Ashley Byers Benefield and Doug Benefield. Ashley couldn't cut it in the ballet world and never made it past the youth ballet she was in. But her dreams in the ballet world continued and she talked her new man, Doug who was thirty years her senior, into helping her form the American National Ballet Company in Charleston, South Carolina. Dancers moved from all over the world to become part of the new company and then Ashley washed her hands of the whole thing and walked away when she ran out of money leaving dancers stranded with no jobs and no income. Then Ashley found out she was pregnant and decided she wanted nothing to do with Doug. She starts making all kinds of accusations against her new husband and then, it all ends in tragedy.

Two secret lovers drive to a Holiday Inn in Amana, Iowa in 1980. They are Roger Atkison, a married man, and Rose Berkert, his mistress. They have planned a weekend far from home to be together. They check into their motel and order room service. The next morning, they fail to check out so the maid alerts the manager and he opens their room door. What he finds is something straight out of a horror film. The small motel room is painted with blood and Roger and Rose are hacked to pieces. Who committed this horrific act and why?

Bodies begin turning up along interstate highways in the Bible Belt. The victims all have one thing in common: beautiful red hair. For years the police cannot catch the killer and the body count continues to rise. Who is murdering redheaded women and why?

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist but sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. From government plots to assassinate Fidel Castro to horrific racist medical experiments and fake testimony from children coached to lie to congress, there is no question, our government is capable of some terrible atrocities. Not every wild and far out tale is a lie and the stories in today's episode are proof of that.

There is a wacky conspiracy theory going around on social media and people actually believe Garth Brooks is killing people in every city he visits during a concert tour. People even claim to have matched up dates of murders and missing people with dates that Garth Brooks is in the city the murder takes place. We talk about the origins of the conspiracy theory and how it all took hold but then, the story takes a very dark turn. Weeks ago, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's hair and makeup artist filed a lawsuit against Garth Brooks claiming he has raped and sexually assaulted her for years.

Today I've got three brand new stories that I will continue to follow and update as they progress. We are talking about Timothy Murphy-Johnson and the death of his wife Molly, JP Miller and the death of his wife Mica, and then a very strange and goofy story unfolding on TikTok. A man named Michael Guzman who uses the handle Rebuilding Atlantis has offered his land in Texas for anyone to come and live on it for free. Is this the start of a new cult?

A maniac on a killing spree crosses the ocean to continue to get away with murder. Like other serial killers of that era, he employed a ruse using a camera, stating he was a professional photographer to get close to his victims. On one occasion, he is even captured on film himself ogling his next victim at a Las Vegas mall during a fashion show. Christopher Wilder is one of the most prolific serial killers of his era, but most people do not know his name.

A man suddenly becomes very religious and his personality begins to change. His wife seeks the help of two priests who decide he is possessed by the devil. After a nine hour exorcism, they send the man home to rest. The next morning, the police are called to his house and what they find is literally something out of a horror film.

This is one of the strangest deaths I've ever covered. During a night of drinking, Sarah Boone and her boyfriend Jorge Torres, who fought regularly, decided to play "a game." Jorge got inside a suitcase which Sarah then zipped closed. Jorge was trapped and began to beg Sarah to let him out. Instead, Sarah took out her iPhone and began recording. The next morning, Jorge was dead. Was this a tragic accident or something much more sinister?

You've heard all the urban legends about poisoned Halloween candy or razor blades, needles and drugs in Halloween candy. But did you know, there is not a single reported case of it ever happening? Well...almost. Join me for a spooky holiday episode, a brief overview of Halloween and the story of Rodney O'Bryan who tried to blame poisoned Halloween candy for his own despicable act.

A mother and grandmother is brutally assaulted and murdered in her Salt Lake City Mormon bookstore. Her ties to wealthy Utah mogul Larry H. Miller have the public and the media in a panic. The cops investigate but soon, the case goes cold. Years later, something called Phenotyping becomes more available to the police and a diligent cold case cop named Ben Pender has a brilliant idea that will lead him on a quest with genealogists to find this monster.

This is an almost forgotten story and you know, I like to bring you these types of stories because every victim matters. When sex workers start turning up dumped in the homeless camps of Seattle, called The Jungle, the cops very quickly realize they have a huge problem on their hands. All the victims have something very specific in common. After months of working the cases, they get a break and when the killer tells on himself, he turns out to be just as cold as the icy little creature he's nicknamed after.

This horrific massacre has all but been forgotten and I don't want that to happen. One night, a group of grocery store workers were accosted by a man who'd been hiding in the store after it closed. What he did is one of the most callous and evil acts I know of. And to this day, we do not know who he is.

With all the Diddy news, this story is being overlooked. Marilyn Manson is being accused of horrific behavior by multiple women. His fans went crazy when I posted this story on YouTube, saying he's "been proven innocent." That is a total lie. The FBI raided his house, there are multiple lawsuits against him, and he has not yet been in court on any of these allegations. He is far from "proven innocent." Join me for this disturbing story about another celebrity behaving badly.

You've seen the posters advertising for Shen Yun Dance, a traveling Chinese dance troupe that comes to your town every so often. But did you know, Shen Yun is part of a very dangerous and insidious cult called Falun Gong? This cult deprives people of their freedom, their money, their personal possessions, and their individuality. It makes millions each year on the Shen Yun shows, the dancers in which are basically slaves. Falun Gong is also involved in a massive propaganda effort for the extreme right wing that includes the media outlet, The Epoch Times. Join me for this disturbing tale that reminds us, things that look beautiful from the outside are often hiding something very sinister inside.

I spent a weekend traveling through these killers' hometown, hunting grounds and even their body dumpsites. My husband and I stood right where these two monsters hid many bodies and it remains one of the most eerie experiences of my life. I'm always surprised that most people don't know about this case. We true crime fanatics have heard the story, but the average American has no idea that not one, but two vicious serial killers were prowling tiny Linden, California from the 1980s to the late 1990s. If you asked most people who Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine are, they probably couldn't tell you, yet these two monsters are thought to have over seventy victims. Join me as I tell the story and re-visit the time I spent tracking these two killers.

This story has a shocking new update! Ten years ago, someone broke into Russell and Shirley Dermond's peaceful home on the shores of Lake Oconee near Atlanta, Georgia and not only murdered the elderly couple, but did it in the most brutal manner. For years, the FBI and Georgia police have investigated but have had no luck in finding the killer. Just months ago, an announcement was made and we now know that DNA testing is underway. Hopefully this will bring some answers to this grieving family who lost their parents and grandparents on a beautiful spring day in 2014.

Serial Killer Jack Unterweger was a local fascination and dangerous media darling in Austria. He killed a prostitute in Gratz and went to prison for 16 years. While inside, he learned to read and write and began writing novellas and poems. His work was so impressive that scholars and critics began to lobby for his release, claiming he had been changed by the power of art. Jack was released and then, prostitutes began dying in the area. Jack was then hired by an Austrian magazine to fly to America and write a story on crime in Los Angeles. He checked into the infamous Hotel Cecil and then, Los Angeles cops began finding dead prostitutes on Skid Row.

On a chilly September evening in 2009, five members of the Gee family living in tiny Beason, Illinois went to bed. After they did, a monster snuck into their home and slaughtered the entire family. As the story unravels we learn about Rick and Ruth Gee's sex life, their drug use, their troubled children and their adult daughter. The investigation reveals not only a shocking motive, but an even more shocking killer.

A thirteen year old boy Nicholas Barclay goes missing in San Antonio, Texas. Years later, Texas cops get a call from a detective in Spain telling them he has that boy in custody half way across the world. Nicholas' family flies to Spain to pick him up, grateful and excited about this miracle. But as soon as they see Nicholas, they know....something is wrong. Join me for this story about one of the strangest men and most bizarre cases of impersonation I've ever heard.

This is the stuff horror films are made from. One night, a beautiful young woman named Sierah Joughin was riding her bike home down a country road. A monster appeared by the cornfields, dragging her into the rows and taking her life. When police were led to his property, what they found inside his barn? Almost too sinister to believe.

Two Mormon Fundamentalist men with some very strange ideas take their children into the Southern Utah desert to wait out what they believe to be the coming apocalypse. Samuel Shaffer and John Alvin Coltharp take their children, two boys and four girls under the age of eight and hide them from the law and their mothers. When the cops finally catch up to them, they almost cannot believe the stories the children have to tell but they must because they are all true. The level of abuse is unthinkable and the level of delusion is disturbing. What leads to this kind of paranoia and mental instability? My opinion might surprise you.

You probably haven't heard of this serial killer or his doppelgänger. In this crazy story, we have not one, but two suspects and the police are stumped. The suspects look almost identical. They could be brothers. So which one of them was taking and killing sex workers in Rhode Island? The answer is even more shocking than the resemblance.

A little boy is found frozen and wrapped in a blue blanket on the side of a rural Nebraska road on Christmas Eve. For years, his identity is unknown. And then, as men begin turning up murdered first in Colorado and then in Texas, the police connect their killer to the little boy's father. Eli Stutzman left the Amish community behind him and walked into a world of drugs, alcohol and murder.

This is one of the most incredible stories I have ever covered with an ending that sadly, we don't usually see here in the true crime community. When Ethan Walton and Amanda Burney went to sell a piece of land to Glen Gouker they had no way of knowing they were walking into a trap. Ethan is attacked and Amanda is captured and assaulted. This story could easily be a horror film. When Amanda is tied up in a bedroom, she finds a way to free herself and she makes one of the most daring escape attempts I've ever heard of. There are several heroes in this story and several victims. It's a tragic tale of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could happen to any one of us.

I don't know why this brutal and gruesome crime hasn't received more attention. Ashley Young was a beautiful young woman entering a new chapter of her life. Unfortunately for her, she was in the midst of a monster named Jared Chance. They were just starting to see each other as more than friends when they went out for a drink one night. Ashley was never seen again. Her tenacious mother and step mother go on a two woman crusade to find Ashley and it doesn't take them long to find her...but what has been done to her is unthinkable.

There is a shocking update to this old case. Bradford Bishop had it all; an important job with the State Department, three beautiful sons and a beautiful wife, and a nice home. He spoke five languages, he could fly a plane, and he'd lived all over the world. But when he doesn't get the promotion he desperately wants and needs, something snapped inside Brad Bishop...or maybe his plans had been a long time coming. He leaves work angry and humiliated and drives to the local mall where he buys a sledge hammer and a gas can. He then goes home and commits an unthinkable crime.

Someone is abducting and murdering hikers on the Appalachian Trail. He's not just killing them, he's decapitating them. Police catch a suspect and as they begin to look into his past, they realize, his history of killing goes much farther back in time than they originally suspected. Gary Hilton is a vile, evil man who did unthinkable things to people who were just out trying to enjoy nature. He is one of the worst, yet not one of the better known killers. He has some very strange personal quirks. He also has a very strange MO for a serial killer.

This story is strange. The crime is strange, the murder scene is strange, even the victim's profession is strange. This is a story about a wild night of partying gone wrong but the question is...who is to blame for the death of Dr. Marianne Shockley, one of the world's foremost experts on insects but specifically, insects as a source of food. Her playboy boyfriend Marcus and a friend of his, Dr. Clark Heindl, psychologist spent the night in the hot tub and the pool with Marianne and then....TWO people ended up dead. In a story of strange elements, the verdict might be the most shocking.

Ronald Cohen is moving out of his house in 1999. He and the movers drag an old metal fifty gallon drum out onto the curb but the garbagemen won't take it away. It weighs too much. So he decides to open it. When he does, he uncovers a mystery that dates back thirty five years. Who is the woman in the barrel and who put her there?

*Podcast Exclusive* The powerful Mormon Church finds out a rare documents collector has uncovered something that makes Joseph Smith, the church's founder look very, very bad. The document, which comes to be known as The White Salamander Letter appears to be a letter from Martin Harris, Joseph Smith's right hand man, to WW Phelps in which Harris tells Phelps that Joseph did not get the golden plates from an angel, but from a talking lizard. What people do not know, is that the Mormon Church leaders have even buying documents for years. Anything that shines an unflattering light on early church history is purchased and secreted away by powerful leaders. The problem? The documents are all fake and the forger, Mark Hofmann, is in a lot of trouble and he knows it. So he decides to create a diversion. Bombs start going off throughout Salt Lake City and people are dying. And then, Mark himself is blown up.

I've got a wild story for you today. There is a Las Vegas escort service for women called Cowboys for Angels. You may have seen this escort service featured on the now cancelled Showtime TV series simply called, Gigolos. The service is still active but there is one profile that is glaring absent from the choice of gigolos for hire, that of Ash Armand. Ash Armand joined Cowboys for Angels and quickly became the most sought after gigolo in Las Vegas. The TV show only made him more famous. Then he started dating a very well known Las Vegas influencer name Toochi Kash. Things were going great for Ash Armand who billed himself as a sexual guru with a spiritual side. But then, everything began to change. Ash finds himself in a very dark place, fired from his agency and dumped by his girlfriend. He decides to return to his roots, once again becoming a "spiritual guru." A very nice young woman named Herleen Dulai hires Ash to help guide her through a difficult time in her life. She had no way of knowing that decision would instead end her life.

I have a ghoulish tale for you today. Michael Mastromarino was a successful oral surgeon but he got addicted to demerol and lost his license. He had to find a new way to make money. Grave robbing went out of fashion a hundred years ago but the demand for human corpses is now higher than ever. Michael knew, he could use his skills to harvest bone and tissue and sell it to the highest bidder. Before long, he was making millions and the greed took over. He and his team began employing more and more unethical, illegal, and disturbing tactics to get a hold of the bone and tissue that was making them so much money. It all came tumbling down when one of the funeral homes was sold and the new owners could not believe what they found in the basement of their new business.

*Podcast Exclusive* Today we are discussing the rising phenomenon of "trad wives" which is slang or traditional wife; a woman who stays home, takes a back seat to her husband, cooks for him, cleans for him, and has lots of babies. We talk about Nara Smith and other trad wife content creators and then we discuss a very recent controversy involving Hannah Neeleman who is known on social media as Ballerina Farm. What is this new "trad wife" movement and how is this antifeminist sentiment affecting women not only in America but around the world?

A serial killer is stalking Montreal and Canada in the late 1960s. Women begin turning up dead and they have deep, vicious bite wounds to their breasts. The police search for the killer for months but cannot seem to catch him. Then, a very lucky break and a bobble head toy lead them to their killer.

An explosion in the desert leads police to a gruesome discovery on John Pinder's ranch. John Ponder is an eccentric loner who keeps a full grown African lion as a pet. The lion lives with him in the house. The police are more concerned about what's happened to Rex Tanner and June Flood who have disappeared and they're more concerned with the little pieces of bone and tissue being found all over the ranch.

A killer on a drug fueled rampage kills two women in Cape Coral, Florida. What happens next is almost as disturbing. When the killer makes his appearance in court, video of him quickly spreads through social media. Why? Women are falling all over themselves talking about how hot and how sexy this man is. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of a controversy involving a very popular social media personality. It's important that we talk about this. Yes, we are true crime lovers but we must be careful about the way we discuss these killers. The victims should always remain in the forefront of the discussion and we should never aggrandize those who do terrible things.

Today we discuss what goes on at Bohemian Grove, a secret meeting place in the California Redwoods forest where the most rich and powerful men in America meet for two weeks every summer. We talk about the history of the club, what goes on at the summer camp every year, and the conspiracy theories that swirl around the rituals. Is this simply a social gathering for the one percent or are dark and nefarious, even illegal things taking place deep in the forest?

Serial Killer Patrick Mackay has been all but forgotten, locked away in a British prison for the past four decades. Once he was convicted, the police stopped investigating the other deaths tied to him but there are those who want the investigation to continue. Patrick Mackay is still alive and is often allowed to go on day trips, leaving the minimum security prison where he is housed. Someone recently took photos of him on one of these trips and the public was shocked to see how he is living.

Today we are talking about an anti-semitic cult that has invaded Germany. The members use a series of fantasy books called Anastasia The Ringing Cedars as their guide. The books, written by Vladimir Megre are racist, misogynistic, and poorly written to boot. I have a very strange personal story about a woman who attempted to introduce me to this cult and I share that story here. This is a kooky story but also a cautionary tale. The German government is concerned about this movement...and it wants to make sure history does not repeat itself.

Maybe you've seen the movie, but are you aware of the controversy surrounding it? A Utah Mormon man named Tim Ballard has conned millions of dollars from good hearted people who want to help end child trafficking. The Mormon Church has formally denounced this man and there is very serious and real evidence that he has engaged in criminal activity including the sexual assault of women he worked with. This scandal is so big, it brought down the Utah State Attorney General, Sean Reyes. Operation Underground Railroad, the organization that Tim Ballard founded, has kicked him out entirely and is now working to distance itself from him altogether. Powerful Mormon leaders are scrambling to repair their public image after associating with Tim Ballard but most importantly, this entire situation has damaged the cause, the very real cause of breaking up child and sex trafficking rings. This will be a Part One as the story, and the litigation Tim Ballard is involved in is still ongoing.

You won't hear this story on my YouTube channel. This is a podcast exclusive; a deep dive into The Luby's Massacre. This is a conversation about Incels, about mental health and about guns. George Hennard was an Incel before that term was coined. He blamed women for all of his problems and like so many other mass shooters, he took his anger and rage out on innocent victims.

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Just weeks ago, Jonathan Candy of Yukon, Oklahoma murdered his wife and three of their four sons. Today I want to talk about Family Annihilators, what they have in common, and how they are different. We are seeing a troubling uptick on social media surrounding men who openly hate women. How does this uptick affect the Family Annihilator? What makes men like this do the unthinkable and what do they all have in common?

What if the Chernobyl disaster was not an accident, but a planned event constructed to cover up a very expensive Russian military disaster? Today we are talking about a conspiracy theory that states a very powerful Russian politician orchestrated the Chernobyl disaster to cover up the fact that his personal project, the Duga Radar Detection System, a project he spent seven billion government dollars on, was a total and complete failure. Is it possible that someone could be so evil? I think we are in agreement that it is. The question is, did it happen?

A sexy OnlyFans model, Courtney Clenney and her boyfriend, Christian "Toby" Obumseli are in a very toxic and abusive relationship. Courtney is making millions selling erotic photos of herself online and Christian works as her personal assistant. The couple has volatile fights multiple times a week but for whatever reason, they stay together. The fights escalate and then it all ends in tragedy.

This is one of my favorite spooky stories, I think because it's so familiar. I am a child of the 80's and all my life I heard stories like this one. It's about a strange man who lives alone in the woods outside a foreboding mental hospital. Then neighborhood kids start disappearing and one even turns up dead. This case is also infamous because of a very specific photo that was taken of the suspect and law professors use that photo as an example as to how photos can change public opinion.

This is the first of a two part episode so you're getting a bonus today! Two episodes! When two blue barrels are found in the forest in New Hampshire, a horrific and gruesome discovery is made. The contain the bodies of a woman and three small children. The case goes cold and then, the unthinkable happens...police realize they missed one. A cold case detective finds a third barrel and the case gets much worse. This is a fascinating tale as to how a genealogist spent years and years trying to find out who the victims are and when she did? A serial killer was uncovered...and that is just the beginning of this story.

Part TWO. This is the companion episode to the episode called The Bear Brook Murders. When police finally begin to put the Bear Brook puzzle together, they realize they are looking for a man who has cut a path of terror across America for decades. They track him to California where they realize he has more victims than just the people found in the barrels back in New Hampshire. Poor Eunsoon Jun had no idea who she was marrying or what would become of her after she did.

You've never heard this story before, I can almost guarantee it. This murder took place in my hometown of Cedar City, Utah in the mid 1980s when I was a teenager. My father was the victim's Mormon Bishop at the time and this case has always haunted him. This is a terrible story about a very naive young college student who got into a car with two monsters who did the unthinkable to her.

In the rough neighborhoods of 1990s Dallas, sex workers begin turning up dead. Cops are horrified to see that they all have something in common...their eyeballs are missing. The investigation takes a turn and with some luck and cutting edge new DNA technology involving an animal hair, the cops find their killer. Charles Albright is a very strange man with an even stranger background. This case makes a solid argument for just how screwed up a mother can make her son.

A violent polygamous sect of the FLDS, Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint cult goes to war with each other with two brothers both claiming to be The One Mighty and Strong. These self proclaimed prophets leave a trail of broken people, ruined lives and murder in their wake.

Sexy Joyce McKinney falls head over heels for Kirk Anderson at BYU, Brigham Young University. Joyce seduces Kirk which is a very big problem because Kirk is supposed to be celibate before his Mormon Mission to London. When he leaves on that mission, he believes he is free of Joyce. He is very, very wrong. This is a story of true obsession that will soon be made into a film called Sinner vs. Saints.

This is not your every day true crime story. It involves a gruesome double murder and dismemberment, the CIA, The Kennedy Assassination and more than a few conspiracy theories. Join me for the story of Fred and Edwina Rogers and their mysterious son, Charles.

The rarest of the rare serial killers: A serial killer that works in not only a duo, but a trio. Dean Corll, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley take boys in 1970s Houston, Texas for years. What Dean does to these boys is horrific and he seems unstoppable until he makes a mistake that will end it all....and then the bodies start turning up in the Texas heat.

Do you believe in the boogeyman? If this story wasn't so well documented, you wouldn't believe it is true. Three teenaged girls become obsessed with an internet boogeyman named Slenderman and two of them decide they are going to become his familiars. In order for them to do that...they believe the third girl must die.

All about this podcast! We do true crime, dark stories, cult stories and sometimes we talk about conspiracies. I truly appreciate your support! Thank you for checking it out, Stacy.