Seven Deadly Sins: The Valhermoso Springs Massacre

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June 4, 2020.

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Seven people are about to sit down for dinner in rural Alabama.

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The invitation came from two guys they thought were friends, members of their club, except

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Frederick Rogers and John Michael Legg didn't come to eat.

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They came to make sure there weren't any witnesses, and when deputies arrived at that house

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on Taluca Road, they found bodies in the garage, bodies in the living room, and a fire that

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was supposed to make it all disappear.

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It didn't.

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The Lermo So Springs, Alabama, Morgan County, Rul, Quiet, about 20 miles south of Huntsville.

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The house on Taluca Road had been a problem before deputies had been called out there multiple

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times.

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The sergeant in the case testified that when they got the 911 call on June 4, 2020, about

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shots fired, this address wasn't new to them.

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So they rolled up, expecting another domestic situation, maybe a dispute they got heated,

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but they found something else entirely.

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Sergeant Lucia walks into the garage first.

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Three bodies, all male.

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One of them is still on fire.

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Actually burning when he arrives.

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He moves through the rest of the house, four more bodies, seven total, three women, four

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men, all shot multiple times.

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There's also a dead dog.

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Deputy Jacob Fanning gets tasked with documenting everything.

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He ends up taking over a thousand photos, a thousand.

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That's how much carnage was spread through this house.

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Madison County had to send back up because Morgan County's resources were maxed out trying

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to process the scene.

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District Attorney Scott Anderson would later call this the most significant crime ever committed

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in Morgan County's history.

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And these are people who've seen their share of bad things.

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Rogers and Legg didn't stop at just shooting everyone.

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They also set the house on fire, a calculated move to destroy evidence, which tells you

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everything about how they were thinking.

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This wasn't rage.

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This wasn't a fight that got out of control.

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They brought accelerants.

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They planned cleanup.

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The fire didn't work, obviously, because we know about all of this.

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But trying shows you the premeditation.

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They knew what they were doing would require covering up.

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The victims ranged from 17 to 45 years old.

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Tammy Muzzy was 45.

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Emily Payne was 21.

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Roger Lee Jones Jr. was 19.

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Jeremy Roberts was 31.

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William Hodgkin was 18.

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James Benford was 22.

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And Dakota Green was just 17.

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They came from Valermo so springs, Decatur, Athens, Somerville.

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Some lived in that house.

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Others were just visiting.

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They were connected through this social circle that centered around drugs and a group calling

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themselves the Seven Deadly Sins.

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At least three of the dead were members of this so-called club.

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The others were friends, family, people who happened to be there that night.

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Sheriff Ron Puckett made it clear what the Seven Deadly Sins actually was.

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Not some established criminal organization.

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Not a biker gang with chapters and bylaws.

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Just a local club.

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Kids playing pretend.

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And what were they pretending to be?

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Brothers of Sons of Anarchy.

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Frederick Rogers told FBI agents that he and John Michael Legg started the Seven Deadly

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Sins after really getting into that show.

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Sons of Anarchy is fiction.

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It's a drama about an outlaw motorcycle club in California where loyalty is everything

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and breaking club rules gets you killed.

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Rogers and Legg watched that show and decided that they wanted that life.

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In rule, Alabama.

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Over some drugs and guns.

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Here's what's terrifying about adopting a fictional code of conduct.

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It gives you permission to do things no rational person would justify.

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You're not just some guy dealing drugs anymore.

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You're living by outlawed rules.

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And outlawed rules say certain violations demand certain responses.

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Even when those violations are completely trivial.

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The murders happened because of an argument over stolen guns and drugs.

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And took something from Rogers and Legg or at least they thought someone did.

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But here's where social media enters the story.

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One of the victims posted photos of those guns and drugs online.

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Put them on Facebook for everyone to see.

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Rogers and Legg lost it.

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To them this was more than just ordinary disrespect.

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It was exposure.

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It threatened to bring law enforcement down on them.

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It made them look weak in front of whoever they thought was watching it.

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They violated their imaginary outlaw code.

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Rogers also claimed one of the victims had beef with the Aryan Brotherhood.

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And now they were threats coming at him and Legg.

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Whether that was true or whether Rogers was inflating the danger to justify what he was

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planning, we don't know.

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But it gave him the narrative he needed.

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They had to handle things.

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They couldn't let it slide.

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And most critically, they couldn't leave witnesses.

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Rogers told the FBI that he and Legg planned everything.

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They didn't show up in a blind rage.

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They strategized.

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They decided on execution and they used dinner as bait.

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A witness testified that Rogers explicitly said that he was going to burst into the house

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and start shooting.

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She tried to warn people.

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They didn't take her seriously.

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Maybe they didn't believe Rogers would actually do it.

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Maybe they thought their friendship meant something.

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Rogers and Legg showed up at Toulouca Road with guns and a plan.

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Shoot everyone, set the place on fire, destroy the evidence, then run to Oregon and start

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over.

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The execution was methodical.

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Seven people, multiple gunshots each.

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And Rogers was clear about the reasoning.

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No witnesses.

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Because in the TV show code he adopted, witnesses get you caught.

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Better to kill everyone and walk away clean.

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After the murders, Rogers and Legg drove cross-country.

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They were heading to Oregon, specifically near Rogers' grandmother's house in Salem.

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The FBI found them on June 22nd, 18 days after the killing.

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Mary and County deputies pulled him over during a traffic stop.

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That was it.

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No shootout, no dramatic chase.

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Just two guys in a car that thought distance would save them.

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Rogers told agents that he wanted to stay in Oregon.

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Fresh start.

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Forget Alabama ever existed.

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Sometimes you can't outrun seven bodies, especially when you run straight to a relative's address

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that law enforcement obviously knows about.

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Rogers confessed, told the FBI about the sons of Anarchy Influence, about the planning,

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about the decision to eliminate witnesses.

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He even said he'd made peace with getting the death penalty.

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That last part matters.

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It's the posture of someone trying to project control, like he'd already won by not caring

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about the consequences.

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That's not how it played out in court.

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Rogers trial started in August 2024.

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His defense attorney conceded guilt immediately.

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There was no question about involvement.

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The only fight was over life without parole versus death.

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The jury sat through hours of graphic evidence, crime scene photos showing partially burned bodies.

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All-topsie pictures, ballistic analysis, testimony from first responders who walked into

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that nightmare.

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Rogers, the guy who told the FBI he'd accepted death, was bouncing his leg.

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Shaking, looking away when the worst photos appeared on screen.

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That's when his whole performance fell apart.

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It's easy to talk tough in an interrogation room when everything's abstract.

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It's different when you're in a courtroom watching a jury look at what you did.

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The jury found him guilty of capital murder.

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But when they deliberated on sentencing, they chose "life without parole."

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They rejected the death penalty.

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John Michael Legg was scheduled for trial next.

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A judge ruled him mentally incompetent.

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Then Legg entered a guilty plea, "life without parole."

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District attorney Scott Anderson explained it simply.

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Rogers was more culpable.

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He was the planner, the leader.

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If a jury gave Rogers life instead of death, it wouldn't be fair to pursue death for Legg

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who was the follower.

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So both got the same sentence, though both die in prison, just not on a schedule set by

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the state.

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Seven people died because two guys couldn't separate fantasy from reality, because they

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thought a Facebook post and a drug dispute required wholesale execution.

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Rogers and Legg had no criminal records before this.

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They weren't career criminals.

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They were young guys who watched too much television and imported fictional rules into their real

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lives.

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That social media post was the spark.

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It turned a manageable conflict into something they perceived as an existential threat.

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And in their minds, shaped by a TV show where violence solves everything, the response had

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to be murder.

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Valeroso Springs and Morgan County carry this scar permanently.

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Seven families lost people they loved.

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A community had to process violence that doesn't fit any reasonable narrative.

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All of it, because two guys couldn't distinguish between sons of anarchy and their actual lives.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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I'm Joe, I'm the host, and let's get to a couple of emails, first one subject, crime show

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logic question.

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Hey Joe, why do TV detectives always whisper, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

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Right before doing the dumbest thing possible, real detectives must cringe watching that

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stuff, wondering your take on it.

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Mara in Lynchburg, Virginia.

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And I'd say what Mara, I can't give you a detective point of view because I'm not a detective.

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I just play one on a podcast.

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But I've had kind of that same feeling, that question, like why is the dialogues so cheesy

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at some point?

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And the answer that I've told myself that it must be, we all, well most of us, have an

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internal dialogue.

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And in a movie that doesn't exactly work out.

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You can't think thoughts and then the people watching it, hear it.

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You know what I mean?

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So they have to say the thing.

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And sometimes the thing is cheesy.

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Like sometimes I might be in the middle of doing something, and I'm about to do something

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stupid.

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And I'll just, in my brain go, well this is gonna suck.

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Because I already know the consequence of what I'm about to do, but I do it anyway.

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So if I was in a movie, I would just say that out loud.

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Anyway, I hope that answers your question or make sense in some type of way.

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Alright, next email.

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Subjects, thoughts you'd want to hear this.

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I'm a show.

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I recommended your podcast to my sister and she texted me.

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Quote.

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This guy explains murder like a frustrated librarian.

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And I took that as a compliment for you.

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Vence and Peoria, Illinois.

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Then I'll take it.

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I'll definitely take that as a compliment.

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I appreciate the email.

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And hey, if you're a new listener to this podcast, make sure you subscribe wherever you're

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listening right now.

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You can go to 10minutemurder.com, get links to every place you can listen.

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You can also get my email address there, sign up for the weekly newsletter, check out

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the murder blog and a whole lot more.

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That's at 10minutemurder.com.

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And that's gonna do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.