Dealing with the Devil

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning.

0:51 Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey y'all, it's kJ here and I'm back with another episode, which is why you tuned in because you want to hear another episode of Unspeakable. But I am in rare form today because y'all cannot. I couldn't make this up if I tried, And I have to tell you what's going on in my personal life. I just have to tell you because I just can't. Okay, As y'all know, I breed French bulldogs, Okay, And no, I'm not some freak who, like you know, has hundreds of dogs and breeds them until they die type stuff. No, ma'am, I have a pet, and every now and then we breed her. Well, my daughter did the whole Hey, I need a puppy. I want a puppy. I'll take care of it.

1:37 Y'all know that whole hoop off. You're my age. And I said no, no, no, no no, And then they talked me into it. But I didn't want another pet. I didn't want another dog. But I caved and I said, all right, fine, we'll let you keep one from the litter, only if it's a Merle. Okay. And they were like okay, okay, okay. And then whenever the day came and all the puppies were born, the doctor came out was like, you're not gonna believe that, but we have a Merle and a female. Ah. Right. The crowd went wild. We were all excited. And so he kept this puppy and we named her Dottie, and life's mean good. She's now seven months old and we were out in the yard and I promised, this is getting somewhere, uh, and I noticed that something was hanging out of her. Huh. Okay, that's the best way I know how to put it. So I rushed her to the vet. The vet swooped her up, took her in and he looked and he looked real close, and he looked really really really close, and then he got like super close with jelly on his fingers invasive checked my dog and then he stood back and then he looked at me, you know, in these blue eyes that I have, and said, oh my gosh, do you plan on breeding this dog?

2:49 And I said, well, yes, that's why we kept her, because we're going to breed her eventually. And he said, well, I don't think you are and I said what and he said, I've only seen this four times in the twenty five years that I have been a veterinarian. And I said a vagina and he was like what And I was like what, and he's like, no, your dog is a hermaphrodite. Y'all. I had to drop my dog off at seven am this morning because she is both male and female and has to be spade or neutered or spooted or whatever the hell's going on right now in that surgery suite. I don't even know.

3:31 So y'all pray for me and my little pop because God knows what has just happened in my life and it's been traumatic to the whole family. So y'all pray for my dog. But we're gonna make it through. Now. I got a couple shoutouts for I get into this episode, and I'm gonna take it to Niagara Falls, New York with Miss Kelly Holmstrom. Hey Kelly girl, how are you doing way out there? My daughter just came back from New York. She had a great time while she was there. And then Gresham, Gresham, Organ, Miss Dina McCants, Hi, Dina, how are things out there in Organ? I hope they're going well. French Settlement, y'all, that's right down the road for me. That's right over yonder where I'm pointing. If you're watching me podcast, it's just right over there. And we've got Miss Jessica Wallace and French Settlement. Hey Jessica, so happy to have you join the crime family. And then Miss Holly Roberts in Haleyville, Alabama. Hey Holly, how are you? And then we're going to Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky. Shelley, all right, Shelley, I think it's yunt. Is that how you say that? Shelley? Correct me if I'm wrong, Shelley Hunt. If I just butchered your name, you gotta let me know, girl, but I just want to say hey to y'all. I've got even more shout outs coming, so hang in there.

4:42 If I haven't said your name yet, there's a long list. But to everyone who I gave the shout out to today, welcome. Thank you so much for joining my crime page. Y'all are the difference. It's everything for a creator whenever we're making content when people join and support us. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. But right now, I need everybody in Ohio to stop what they are doing, to get their fire extinguisher out, because I'm about to bring the freaking fire. I'm about to bring the smoke. I need everybody from Ohio, specifically from Toledo, Ohio, to listen and to tell everyone about this episode because it had mama hot while I was writing it. Okay, and if you're not from Toledo, Ohio, this one's still for you too. But where are my Highians, Ohio Ohioans, Ohioans, where are y'all? Hello? Listen to me this episode, man, y'all. If you're not familiar with Ohio, which I was, and I had to look it up because I wanted to know a little bit more about them, But they're known for their auto manufacturing, the glass industry. They're actually home to the Jeep headquarters, which I didn't know, and the world renowned Toledo Museum of Art. So hey, they got some artsy farty things going on. They also got manufacturing. They are also an area where several Fortune five hundre companies have their headquarters based out of there.

6:02 And basically it's really an up and coming area from what I understand, for growing families and for business. But this is going to go back into the eighties and then it's going to come full course to today. All right, Well, we're gonna have to go all the way back to the eighties, the timeframe I was born, okay, to get this story started. And back in the eighties in Toledo, there was a bit of a different vibe going on. Things ran a little bit slower, you know, people weren't on the cusp of evolving technology like the world is today. Things just ran a little bit easier and I would say maybe a little less stressful than the times that we're in today. But why am I going back this far? Well, this episode is the epitome of what drives me to do this podcast.

6:46 I mean, if I could sum it up, this case I think really encompasses the goal of telling stories and I want my listeners to hear how victims and their treatment has e over time, but also how a lot of that in terms of the feelings of victims that doesn't change, you know what I mean. Society, we hopefully get better and we learn, but feelings there's something different there, and we have to take feelings into account in my opinion when it comes to a victim. And I just this one, I just you'll see what I mean. So it was just after midnight on January twenty seventh, nineteen eighty one. This is actually before I was born.

7:30 I was born in eighty four, when eighteen year old Sheryl Bartlett was thinking about her fiance. This was going to be twenty two year old Bud Coats. Now they're young, y'all. They met when she was just fifteen and he was nineteen, and they met at a family member's house and it was kind of funny. I actually spoke to Cheryl and she said it was kind of funny because when they met, they were kind of, you know, walking around each other or whatever. And then she went outside and was sitting on the porch and Bud came out there and said, they're kind of stuck up, aren't you. How every love story begins, I guess, but you're kind of stuck up, aren't you? And why won't you talk to me? And Cheryl told him, well, because you have a girlfriend right there, why would I be all up in your face. He said, that's not my girlfriend, that's my sister, and so she's like, oh, and so things kind of took a little bit of a turn, and so it was almost her birthday. He took her out for her birthday and then they never looked back. They were just like all of us in our youth. They were doing the best that they could with, you know, day to day, trying to make just ends meet. And they had been together for a bit, but they weren't married yet, and for a bit, I mean maybe for young people it seemed like a lifetime. It was a shorter amount of time. But they were in love, and they actually were already sharing a young son that they had pretty early on in their relationship.

8:50 This baby's name was Eric, and he was their pride and joy. He was the center of their world, as any baby should be. He was a tow headed little boy. He had his little baby teeths when you're looking at in the pictures, and he was a daddy's boy. That little baby loved his daddy. She told me that he would wake up if he was in bed for the night, whenever his daddy would get home from work. The little man, it was almost like he would know, he would just wake up because he wanted to be with his daddy and they would play and he'd have to, you know, settle the baby back down. But he just was very, very very in love with his daddy and he wanted to be around him all that he could. Now Bud's brother, it was his older brother's name was Don. Don lived with both Bud and Cheryl, and that was really helpful back then because they didn't have a lot of money, and also Don could help watch Eric whenever they needed, which was also a plus. And you know, with limited skills and limited work experience in youth, they were doing the best they could to build a life together.

9:50 But they were short on finances. So Bud had taken a job at a grocery store. I believe it was a Kroger that was near their home and he had taking a job as a meat cutter at the grocery store. So part of this was that they did not have a car. Bud didn't have a car, Cheryl didn't have a car, and so that meant that wherever he was going to work, he had to be able to walk there and make it in a timely manner. And so this meant that they ended up moving into a lower income, lower housing area. It was a traditionally all black neighborhood, but you know, there were white people that lived in there sporadically, but I guess demographically it was more of a black neighborhood and that was okay. They lived in this apartment style home. They had the top floor and then another family shared the bottom floor. And Bud was funny, active and he loved his baby boy so much. Their thing was that they would always wake up together in the morning and the three of them would have breakfast together. Bud's typical work shift at the grocery store was from two pm to midnight, so they would get up early, they would all have breakfast together, and then they would have playtime on the bed, all the three of them just kind of, you know, in their little space together, and Cheryl was, I guess what you would call a homemaker because she was not working. Bud was really insistent, Hey, I want you to be home with Eric, and I want you to help. You know, I want you to raise him and I want him to have a strong mom presence.

11:18 So it wasn't a high paying job, like I said, but it was making ends meet for now. And on this late evening of this January twenty seventh, Cheryl decided that she wanted to go and surprise her husband to be and meet him at the store while he was closing up his midnight shift. Now you know, typically this would be you know, a quicker walk home, just a few blocks or so. And Cheryl decided she was going to go out and go walk by herself and go to the grocery store, which, if you have any sense about you right now, you know where this is probably about to go south walking at midnight in a lower income neighborhood probably not the best idea. But Don was there. He was able to watch to Eric while she went to go meet him, and she wasn't nervous, but she told Don she said, look, I'm gonna go walk and Don was like, I don't think it's a good idea. It's late.

12:07 And she was like, I'm going it's gonna be fine. And she joked with him, look if i'm not back in ten minutes, come looking for me. And they laughed and he said, you'll be okay, just you know, keep your head up and I'll see you whenever you get back. So whenever Cheryl arrived at the grocery store, Bud was really happy to see her, but he was like, my godwoman, you know, why are you walking by yourself? And it turned out that just a few days before this evening, when she walked to go meet Bud, Cheryl had had a very vivid dream and she dreamed that she had been shot, which was very vivid to her. And then about a week later she had another dream, and in that dream, again it was super vivid. She was really shaken by it too. She dreamed that not only was she shot, but she dreamed that she was raped. So it was like this something going on in her head was really stressing her out. I don't know about y'all, but y'all ever look up dreams to see what they mean? Because I do that, and sometimes it's interesting. The turmoil that we have going on inside.

13:07 We don't even realize we're having a conflict inside, and then these dreams kind of bring them to the surface. So when she was having those dreams, she was awakened, she was alarmed, and she'd even told Bud, oh my god, you know these dreams that I'm having, and he would hug her and smile and say, girl, it's gonna be fine. Right although we're in a rougher neighborhood, I'm the man of this house. I am gonna take care of you. He would tell her, I'm going to protect you. I would protect you at all costs. Don't you worry. I've got you. And he was a manly man. You know, Bud was not one to start a fight, but he was certainly one that was not opposed to finishing it if someone else wanted to try him, I guess.

13:50 But even after she had all of these dreams, she couldn't shake them. And it was so weird that she even told her mama about it, and her mom, who wasn't an alarmist or anything, told her, look, you know you're feeling in some type of way, stick close to the house and just make good decisions. That's all you can do. Be smart and it's just a dream, you know, But maybe your gut's trying to tell you something. Well, Cheryl was eighteen years old, y'all, I mean, strong willed, and she wanted to go see Bud. She had made up her mind, so she brushed off any fear that she had because that's not going to happen to me, right, we all say that, And then she took off walking to go see him. So on her way there, she did say that a couple of cars passed her as she was walking, but there was no fear in her. She said. There was no threatening people. There wasn't much of anything going on other than it was dark.

14:37 So Bud was happy to see her. Once she got there, it was a long shift and they hugged and then they were walking hand in hand back towards the house and mulling over the mundane details of the day and things that you know, were going on and what they needed to handle. So as they walked, they came within about a block or so of their home when they were accosted by an unknown man who brandished a gun. Now it wasn't like he ran up on him in the dark. Okay. They saw him walking towards them for about a block and Cheryl's heart really started beating fast. She said, I almost started having like an anxiety attack. Now he wasn't on the same side of the road as us either. He was across the street down aways and he was walking on the other side of the road.

15:26 But then he crossed over to their side. That alarmed her. He never changed pace, his hands were in his pocket, but right as he came up on them, that's whenever his hands came out, she said. She grabbed Bud tighter, and Bud kind of whispered, it's okay, just keep walking, And that's when that gun came out and he pointed that gun in their faces. Now he was yelling at them, putting the gun back and forth between the two of them, you know, telling them both what to do. And they both assumed that this was a robbery. She offered up her wedding rings. Bud had a really nice watch for the time.

16:06 He offered up the watch. They took his wallet, I say they the gentleman took his wallet, which only had two dollars in it. Because they were poor and they had gone grocery shopping earlier that day too, so they didn't have any money, so he took the two dollars, he took the wallet, and then not only did he take their stuff, but then he pulled two masks out of somewhere, out of his waistband, and he said, y'all put these masks on that there would intensify my fear level, because that tells me there was planning involved in this. I have a hard time believing that a random assailant randomly has two masks, like ski mask type things in his pockets. So he says put them on. Both of them did as they were told with the guns in their face, and he said walk.

17:00 So immediately Bud and Cheryl started following his demands, and they did as as they were told, and they were basically walking blindly because they were both forced to wear these ski caps, and so the man kept the gun to Bud's head, so Cheryl dared not do anything because she didn't want to compromise Bud's safety. And so in that moment, all Cheryl could really think about was their baby boy. She started thinking about Eric, and I can't say that I would think anything different of a good mother, right, She's oh, my god, we're in this situation and Eric's at home and both of his parents are here at gunpoint, walking down the road with ski masks on our face at midnight. So Bud kind of leaned over and whispered, I love you, Cheryl, and she whispered it back to him. Now while they're walking and they don't know where they're going, Cheryl reached up and kind of adjusted the mask a little bit, and he took the gun the assailant, and he poked it into her back and said stop it, quit move in that mask. And so Cheryl had a little bit of feistiness to her, and she said, well, if you're going to kill me, I at least want to die knowing what you look like. And he poked her again and said cover your face, so she did. And as they continued to walk, they both pretty much thought, oh, my god, we're about to die. What would he be taking us for? He already robbed us, he already took what we have. We're both about to die.

18:23 And so basically, But and Cheryl told each other they loved each other one last time because they figured it was over. They were holding hands. They squeezed hands really tight with one of her hands. Though, Cheryl adjusted her mask again, and briefly as she did that, she was able to see down in a little bit of the moonlight, that there was another person down the road ahead of them. Now it was a dark figure. Obviously she didn't recognize this person or know who it was, but she could tell that this was a tall, husky what she believed to be black male. And she says to herself, oh, my god, you know, a savior in the dark. What are the chances? Oh my god, maybe this man will see that we're in distress, maybe he'll help us. What are the chances? And she looked as she saw she noticed he had a knife in his hand, and she thought, my god, this is a great stroke of luck. He's arm two And as they got closer, she just knew maybe he would help. But that thought slowly, not even slowly, quickly faded when she realized that the two assailants knew one another, and so as they approached the other man, it became very quickly apparent to them that he was working with the other perpetrator, and so their faces were still covered and they couldn't really see. The two men got behind the two of Bud and Cheryl, and they were whispering back and forth. But she did hear

19:57 one of them referred to the other one as Tony. And by the way, I didn't have this in my notes, but I want to bring it up. If you ever call nine one one, don't like if you're gonna leave the house. Let's say somebody broke in and you call nine one one and you're like, oh my god, I'm gonna leave. Someone's breaking in my house. Never hang your phone up, leave your phone open, even if you're gonna drop it, because you would be surprised how often perpetrators speak to one another and say each other's names, right, And you can learn a lot from that. So just a fun fact real quick. But she heard him say to the other guy something and she heard him address him as Tony. So as they got close, right and they kind of were walking, that second man raised that knife and he put it to Cheryl's throat, that cold metal up against her throat, and they made them continue to walk.

20:47 One has a gun to Bud's head, one has a knife to Cheryl's throat. It's just getting worse by the second. Now, as they walked along these homes, these homes, Like I said, they're lower they're lower income homes. They're not somewhere that I would necessarily think you should be walking alone at night. It's completely dark, there aren't many street lights, and desperation is kind of setting in between the two of them. So eventually they turn them down an alleyway, and then they forced the couple into a broken down, run down garage. And she knew it was a garage, Cheryl says, because it smelled of oil and grease and musty, and she could just tell by the change of the air that she was in some type of garage and there was stuff all over the floor because her and Bud they kept tripping. Their eyes were covered and they kept tripping over stuff as they were being forced into this garage area. Now, although the gun was still to his head and the knife was to Cheryl's throat, Bud continued with that gun to the back of his head. He continued to support and to encourage Cheryl that they were going to be okay. He said, I'll make sure of it, Cheryl, don't worry, We're gonna be okay. But that's when one of the men grabbed Cheryl and jerked her away from Bud. Cheryl became inconsolable instantly. She was screaming. She was crying, help me, anyone.

22:14 She started yelling and screaming. But it was at that point that she heard a deafening sound. And I know she's telling the truth when she says it was deafening because I have an experience with this, and it's called the click of a gun. I didn't say a gunshot. I'm talking about the click, right, the click when you pull that hammer back on this weapon. So side story, real fast. I want you to I want I'm hoping that this will help you feel what she was feeling. So whenever I was learning my firearms training in law enforcement, we learn what's called the post course. I remember one of my instructors who I respect. His name's Hayden. I respect him so much. But Hayden said, you've got to always know in the back of your mind how many rounds you have in your weapon, because the worst sound that you will ever hear, and the loudest sound you will ever hear in your life, is whenever that slide catches back because you have run out of bullets and you're in the middle of a firefight.

23:12 So he said that I'll never forget it, and I'm like, in a firefight, I'm gonna hear a click of a gun. Yes, ma'am, you are, because we were training on this course and I'll when it happened. You only make this mistake once. I'm telling you I'm firing. I'm firing, and you have to do a mandatory magazine reload where you drop the magazine, you get down on your knees, and then you reload the mag And I had miscounted and I'm fighting, and y'all there's a timer. There's a lot of stress involved in this or I feel stressed because I want to succeed. And that gun I pulled that trigger after I pulled it one time and then pop and you just hear click. I mean there's fifteen shooters on the line and I heard that click like an atomic bomb went off. Because now, oh my god, I have no rounds. I've got to tap it and racket and I've got to put it. I knew magazine in and am I going to make the shots off? And this is not even a real firefight, you know what I'm saying. So when she says she heard that click, and it was deafening. I know exactly what she means, and they both knew when they heard that click that she better shut the hell up. They meant business. They had this weapon and they were prepared to use it. So she immediately fell silent, along with the realization that no one was coming. Whatever was about to go down was going down. No one even knew they were there. So this is when things took a turn from bad to worse. The men demanded that Cheryl take off her clothes.

24:41 The utter helplessness, the humiliation, the fear must have just been overwhelming, just as a woman. And I'm maudy if you didn't know, but the thought of someone making me take my clothes off when I don't want to is probably the most important thing I can think about happening to me. But what choice did she have. It was either comply or die, so she complied. She removed her shirt. She then removed her pants. She took a deep breath as she unclasped her braw and it fell to the ground, and then she was forced to pull her underwear off. And then she just stood there looking at these complete strangers as they took in the scene. As if she belonged to them. Now, as a woman who had never been with anyone other than the father of her child, her beloved Bud, this was something beyond unbelievable because she had never been with anyone else. And then she was completely and utterly defiled by not just one of the men, but both of them. They each took their turn, one after the other. And

26:15 she told me that during the rape, one of the men grabbed her face. He grabbed her by her face, and she struggled to pull away. Right he's raping her. She doesn't want to be a part of this, and he grabs her face like you're gonna kiss me, and she wasn't gonna do it. She kind of whimpered, She said, I was whimpering and trying to pull my face away. And then in an absolute power move when she was struggling to get her face away from him. And you'll see why this is a power move later on when I give you a little bit more information. But he took his hands whenever she wouldn't kiss him, and he covered her nose in her mouth, and he just held her down while he continued to pleasure himself with her. A woman struggling to get away, completely disgusted by what is happening to her. Now, power rapists real quick, y'all. There's some subsets to this classification of rapists, but basically their goal is to humiliate and they get off by making someone do something completely against their will. She told me that she was literally gagging at his body odor.

27:25 She said he smelled horrible. And the second assailant not only was watching the first one rape her, but with the gun to Bud's head, he removed Bud's ski mask and forced him to watch. He made him watch this other man sexually abuse, batter and defile his woman, and there was nothing that Bud could do about it. It went on for ten to fifteen minutes. Now you're like, well that's not long. Hey. If you don't think ten to fifteen minutes is long when you're doing something you don't want to do, well, then I suggest you get down there right now and you do a plank and I'll catch you in ten minutes, go run out with sweltering heat. No, and this is way worse than that. So Bud endured watching as they both took their turns raping his sweetheart. He was only three feet away, but there was nothing he could do. There was a gun to his head. The entire time. I asked Cheryl too, I said, Cheryl, tell me, you know, and I'm not asking this to be graphic. I'm not asking this to be salacious. And you should know this by now about me if you're listening to this podcast. I just want people to understand what it was like. And she said, Kelly, all I can tell you is that I went numb, like my body shut down

28:56 mentally because I was going to a place. I was escaping somewhere mentally from what was happening. And I just decided to focus on Eric the entirety of the rapes. I couldn't focus on what they were doing to me. I had to go somewhere else. I guess you would call it a preservation mechanism, something along those lines. And you know, she said, while she was being raped, her mind, you know, Eric flashed before her eyes. She was thinking, will my baby, well I get to see him grow up. You know, who will he be, who will he become, Who's gonna take care of him? I want you to think about that. She's being raped by two men at knife and gunpoint and All she can think about a mama's instinct, A mama's love. I'm getting goosebumps if you're watching me podcast, A mother's love. All she could think about was her baby. He wasn't even there, and she was so afraid, who's gonna watch my baby, Who's gonna take care of him? He'll make sure he's loved because I'm gonna die here And just trying to imp empathize, I guess with Cheryl. I mentioned to her how when I was in my twenties, my early twenties, I started having a lot of gastric problems and I went to the hospital. My daughter was very, very young, a baby, and I went in for a procedure, and when I came out, the doctor was in my face and said, you were very sick. They took me by ambulance to the hospital, and that's when I found out that I was very sick with colon cancer, and they did not know how bad it

30:30 was, and they were not sure my prognosis. And when I tell you my baby girl's life, it just flashed before my eyes. It was like I saw her in school and then I was going to misgraduation and I would never see her get married, and I would never get to see all of her things, and I want to be there and which she know how much I loved her, and when she knew that, I would never have left her. I would never leave her on my own choices, you know. And I'm getting kind of a little worked up thinking about it because I think about how Cheryl must have felt thinking she would ever see that baby again. And so she's got these men treating her as if she was just a piece of meat, a resource used for their pleasure. And when they were done, they forced her to get up, and amazingly, I don't even know if amazingly is the word, but incredibly, Cheryl said that when they made her get up, Cheryl said, I felt disgusted with myself. And that might catch people a little off guard if you've never really looked into rape or sexual assault victims. But I want to discuss this for just a second and tell you that this is not unusual that many rape victims say that they feel this false. It's false guilt, it's false, it's not real. And you, as a listener who listened to True Crime, you know this.

31:47 We know this, and as a team of friends of strangers that have been sexually assaulted. We're all standing here, going, we know this is not your fault, but these victims tend to have this feeling of this false guilt, and it's caused by societal double standards. And I want y'all to know that I'm not some like man hater, you know whatever. I'm not that person. But it's true that, you know, women are looked at differently when it comes to sexuality as men, and for some reason, there's still this mindset that maybe something caused rape to happen, and y'all, it's not true. You know, while many of these women sustain minor physical injuries, the emotional damage is far greater. I'd rather break my arm than be emotionally damaged by something, and the threat of that physical injury just adds to that emotional impact that these people, these victims feel. And studies show that the feeling of fear and of hopelessness, which becomes present during the act itself, for some reason, is replaced by guilt and self blame afterwards. And I wanted to look into that to say, how could you possibly internalize this?

33:02 You are a victim, someone did this to you, and the study behind it says that there's a few variables in women's lives that tend to come to the forefront, but one of the most common ones that they see when they study victims of rape and sexual assault is religious background. And that, you know, we push this non marital sex. You don't have non marital sex. You only have sex with someone that you are married to, and that for some reason, if you are put into this complex emotional trauma of a man that is not your spouse or your loved one having sex with you, that somehow you have done wrong and it's just not true. It's not right.

33:45 But it doesn't matter how much research we do. It do, no matter how much studying we do, you can't change the way that someone feels about themselves. And just to add that on the fact that they're the victim is just unconscionable. I just Cheryl herself told me, I wondered what did I do to cause this? She said, did I? I felt like, oh my god, did I wear the wrong shirt? Did I accidentally give the wrong signal? And I sat in that for a while when I was researching this case, and man, does that just really hit me wrong? As someone who's, by the way, never been raped. But to look at someone who I just think so much of, even though I've never met you, and to know that you feel that way inside, it hurts me for you because I would never want someone to feel that way. And so to anyone real quick who's ever suffered a sexual trauma like this, you are certainly not to blame. Society doesn't look at you as if you were to blame. And trust me because I am society. We the good people are society, and I don't care if you walk down the street naked.

34:45 There's no link between that and someone getting to defile you. That is a predator's decision to do that. You you didn't bring this on yourself. So after the attack, she was very unstable. She said, I was very wobbly, so much so that, you know, both emotionally and physically. She said, I couldn't even stand without being assisted. And so did the attackers help her? You know, did they get her up on her feet, even if it was not very nice? Did they show any remorse? Hell no, they did not. What they did do was order Bud at gunpoint to pick her up and to get her moving. And they added they turned and they said, y'all need to hold each other because this is gonna be the last time y'all ever do. So it wasn't enough to kidnap them and rob them and then rape her and then make him watch it, but now now they want to add that verbal component in that we win. We win no matter what, and there's nothing that you can do, Cheryl said.

35:49 She collapsed into Bud's arms. She was completely just overwhelmed by what had just happened. And Bud held her and they both started crying, and he just told her that he loved her. He apologized to her in that moment, and I can just see they're hugging in the dark of this nasty garage and he's saying, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. So as they stood there crying in that moment, they heard another just deafening sound, but this time it was a gunshot and the gun had gone off in the garage. Cheryl screamed, and the attacker turned and tried to shoot again, but whenever he pulled that trigger, the gun jammed. Thank god. So when the gun jam, those two fucking losers tore out of the garage, and you know, they just ran from the mess that they had just created in these two people. But both Cheryl and Bud, realizing, oh my god, we're still alive, they both ripped off their ski masks. They threw them on the ground, and they stood there staring at one another, almost in shock. Oh are we alive? Is this really happening? And then when the reality set in, they took off, running for their lives, out of that out of that garage. Now, by the way, I know that other big news outlets out there have covered this case before, but I'm going to tell you things that they don't tell you because my job is to tell you everything that these victims went through, and I want to tell you the story as Cheryl wants it told. I think we owe her that

37:19 at minimum. Right, do you know that this young couple knocked on not one, not two, but three doors, begging for help? Begging for help? Now, let me tell you something about that. Why does that matter? You're like, okay, well, they just wanted help, no, no, no. When they started running, the adrenaline had taken over. Right, They're trucking it for their lives, trying to get away from wherever the bad guy is. But Cheryl had all of a sudden lost the ability to run straight, and she started losing focus. So Bud continued pulling at her or trying to keep her to her feet run, but she went weak, and then all of a sudden she went down. And that's when Bud had looked at the back of her jacket, her little shirt that she had put back on, and it was pulling down her back. Y'all, Cheryl had been shot when they pulled that trigger. They tried to kill her.

38:16 They meant to kill her. They put a bullet in her. So these two young people went and they're knocking on doors. The first door nobody answered. The second door, the lady wouldn't open it. She told them, I don't want any part of this. Keep moving. I don't ever want to be that person. I don't ever want to be that person. Please don't be that person. I know it's dangerous, but damn it, don't be that person. And then the third person who did answer the phone, This was a man. He did answer the phone. He said, I don't I mean he did answer the door. He said, I don't have a phone, and she can't come in because she's bleeding. She can sit on the porch, begged please please just take her in. I don't have to come, just take her. Help her, please. She can't walk, she's bleeding to death. And so the man finally let her in and she sat down in a chair and she said, I was so uncomfortable.

39:10 I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get comfortable. I couldn't breathe. I could feel, you know, my life fading from me. And she said that man came over and I don't want to villainize him because he did open the door, but damn it, he came over to her and he grabbed her and he said, if you're gonna bleed everywhere, you need to go outside. You're bleeding in my house. And she said, I apologize to him, and I told him I'm so sorry. I'll try to stop. I'll try to stop. She told that man, I'll try to stop bleeding. And he started yelling at her, and she said, Bud was gone. I just thought, oh my god, this man's gonna do something to me too. And she said he came over and he grabbed me and said you're going outside. And right as he grabbed her, he said he was yelling at her. You're destroying my house, and she said, I'll pay for anything I destroy. Please help. Right as that happened, the police busted through the door. They didn't even knock, she said. They just busted through the door, the police and the ambulance, and they grabbed her and they scooped her up. And incredibly, do you know that they were only one less than one block from their house, but they had been so traumatized they didn't even recognize their own street that they were on. They were right there by their house, but they didn't even realize it because of what they were dealing with. So the next thing Cheryl knew, She said, I was waking up in the hospital and there were people everywhere, and I was in the midst of basically life saving care in an emergency room and not realizing it, obviously, but when she had heard that loud bang in the

40:43 garage, she now knew that she had been shot, and that bullet not only struck her, she wasn't lucky enough to get a through and through bullet, you know that maybe just went through her and caused a little bit damage. No, this was bad. She was shot with the twenty two, but the internal injuries that she received were literally devastating because when the bullet entered her body, it fragmented and then it started ricocheting about her chest cavity. She had collapsed lungs, significant injuries to her bladder significant. Her pancreas was also damaged significantly. Her kidney was very much damaged. It was not even functioning properly. Today she only regained about eighty percent function to her kidney.

41:31 Her life was on the line during a nine hour surgery to try to stop this bleeding and all of this damage that was done internally, and quite frankly, she was not expected to survive. But she did survive, but not before having to be cut from her breastplate. I'm talking right below your throat, her breastplate, all the way down to her lower stomach, straight down. And that's a bitch of a surgery. And you're like, Kelly, how would you know, because my own husband had that exact same surgery and exploratory surgery. He has the exact same cut, straight down all the way down to his pubic bone. And they pry you open and they're digging through your body trying to figure out how to stop damage and how to stop bleeding.

42:13 And it turns out that this woman who they chose to prey on, they thought this weak woman would be an easy target, but y'all she was anything but. Because you may have raped her twice and you may have shot her, but honey, you weren't good enough to kill her. You couldn't do it. She survived, and a little a little over a week later, she was able to awaken enough to speak to investigators who had been at the scene. But they say they were unable to collect any evidence. They couldn't find anything, and she was stunned. She's like, what do you mean you couldn't find any evidence? What about the ski masks? We ripped him off, We threw him on the ground. Well, it looked like the bad guys maybe came back to finished them off, because the ski masks were gone. Someone had come back and taken them. They also could not find the casing from the bullet, you know when it ejects out the casing.

43:12 They couldn't find that. And then and look, I'm not armchair quarterbacking police here. I'm just telling the story as it happened. Okay, but maybe we can all learn something from this. But the first question that they asked this woman who had been through so much. The first question they asked her was were you in bud fighting that night? And she just was stunned by this. She said it they're questioning legitimately told me they didn't believe me. They did not believe our story that we had been through this. They didn't find blood at the scene because all of the blood had been captured in her jacket as she ran, But her mind was able to recall that she had seen the face of the first attacker, and she was able to give a very direct description of him. But overall, she said, he was nasty, he had a full beard, he had beady eyes, and he was a black male. Well, y'all that, I mean, that could be. I mean, anybody could have a full beard and beady eyes and all of that. But the police brought her a book and said, okay, well, here's some pictures, right, pick him out? Can you pick him out? Of this? This album full of these these black males that looked similar to her description, and she picked one out. She picked one out by the name of Anthony Cook. Think about what all this woman's been through. And then she just woke up from a surgery, and she still goes, that's him like boom finger on picture and that's the guy that did this to me. Unfortunately, though, when they went to Bud and

44:45 they said, Bud, can you pick the guy out that did this? Bud looked at the photos and he picked out somebody else. Now, this makes things a bit messy because if two people were in this huge traumatic event, but they both can't decide what the attacker looked like. Just from a strategy point of view, you know, you were raped, you were held captive, and then you were right there in each other's faces. But neither one of y'all can agree on who the bad guy was. That doesn't look good in front of a jury that they don't agree on who the perpetrator is. Now, again, I'm not downing two victims who have been through a lot and are trying to pick out these guys. Okay, I'm just saying, strategically down the road, big picture, that's not good. That's not a good look. Also, neither one of them could id the second attacker.

45:30 Both of the men. Both of the attackers were also wearing ski caps, but they were only down over like their eyes, they didn't have their masks on all the way, so they did get a look at their faces, but not in totality. Another issue was that this was the eighties, y'all, and they took Cheryl's clothes. But technology just wasn't there yet, right, so semen or not, semen or not, they couldn't do much with it. Back then, they could blood type the guys. Well, that's saying much compared to today's standards. So the thing about the eighties, y'all is it was not a good time to be a victim. The bedside manner of the investigators and the technicians and even the hospital staff was a bit lacking. And so much goes into victim resources today that back then not so much. It didn't go that way. And so they took Cheryl's clothes.

46:23 They also did the very invasive rape test kit that I've gone over and passed episodes before. Extremely invasive, hundreds of swabs and pictures and just you know, you're having to go back through this again. There was no rape victim advocate for her. There was nobody there to kind of help her through this. It was just kind of like almost as if she was a science project. It was very black and white they came in slam bam, thank you, ma'am, and then they left and she sat in that room just staring at a wall, a whirlwind of emotions. And this leads to why y'all know my motto is victims First, because the rape was just the beginning of what I think was Cheryl's victimhood. So she stayed in the hospital for nearly three weeks. She did not get to see her child during that time, baby Eric. He stayed with Bud's sister and her mother. Thank god he had you people that could care for him. But her family was trying their best to help her through this, but she said it was just beyond frustrating, and she was frustrated. Again. I'm listening to what she's telling me because I want to learn from from the victim. And she said, I was so frustrated because I didn't need people to feel sorry for me. And she said, you know, people were trying to baby me and tat tammy, and I didn't need it and I didn't want it. I didn't choose to be a victim, and I don't need to be babied. And I'm going to remember that she wanted to be treated like normal. Now, another

47:55 thing that is never covered in any other thing that you will hear or see about this case was that she and Bud were actively trying to have a baby when these rapes happened. So now, behind closed doors, there's another discussion she's having to have with medical staff. You know what that discussion is? If you're pregnant, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? She would not know who the baby's father would be. Would it be Bud, would it be Suspect one? Would it be Suspect two? And this caused even more emotional turmoil for her. Do y'all know about the medications that they give you optional obviously, but optional for if you want to try to prevent AIDS if a suspect has AIDS And I'm not saying that's the case here, but they give you these anti viral medications that make you sicker than shit. For months. She also was trying to have a baby with a man she loved and made the choice that she says, I couldn't go through nine months of not knowing who my potential baby's father would be.

49:15 She didn't know if she was pregnant or not. She didn't know if she was going to become pregnant or not. She just decided to take the medication to just make it go away. That weighs on her too. Don't ever think that doesn't weigh on a woman. It does. And then she said, I had private breakdowns. I never dare do it in front of people because I didn't want to be pitied. And she was very clear about this, and I want to be very clear about this. Cheryl is in no way a prejudiced woman. She does not hold grudges against people for the color of their skin. In this situation, however, she was put in an unfair fearful position at that time. It was a black male detective. And again I'm not making this about race, and neither was. She just understanding from a trauma standpoint. You know, if I was attacked by a bear, then if I saw another bear, it would probably freak me out a little bit. I don't know if that's a good analogy or not, but I'm just trying to be in the moment with the victim here. And so she said that was a little difficult for her, a little jarring for her, because she was afraid. Obviously, looking back on it, now that man was there to do a job and he was going to help her, but in the moment, it was a lot for her. Also, she said that, and I'm sure there's been changes today in medical care for this, but she said that her nurse was also a male, and she said her nurse was a black male, and so there was an instance that really upset her in that she needed she had to use a bedpan to use the

50:49 restroom, and so the nurse, doing his job and doing nothing wrong, but in the course of doing his job, went over to her bed and then she said that he went to go add the bedpan and he just pulled her underwear and it just threw her in all sorts of a fit because she did not want her underwear pulled, and she was just very upset by what was going on in the room. So, and being very clear, I'm sure there's gonna people who hate me for being honest, but that's what happened, and that was her experience. I'm just reporting on what her experience was. So hopefully in today's time we make some changes to that that we have a little bit of a better bedside manner when we're dealing with rape. Victims, and you know what they're going through in recovery. But someone else who also was not doing very well was Bud himself. It was so bad, in fact, that at the hospital he kind of started losing his mind and doctors had to sedate him. They sedated him heavily and then had to send him home because he was just having an absolute meltdown. Now, she and Bud kind of had a little bit of a disagreement too when he came to visit her, because he was doing the pity party thing towards her and she did not want that. So she became very direct with Bud and said, look, don't pity me. You know I didn't. This is not a pity thing. This happened to me, and I want to move forward.

52:07 So he said that he understood once she addressed it, and from that point forward they both decided to move forward, but they moved forward in the way that they actually did not discuss it with each other. They also found out, just three weeks after both of their nearer brushes with death, that a not so lucky twelve year old girl was killed in what looked like a very similar case. She was abducted, she was forced into an unoccupied building. It was a movie theater. She was raped. This is a twelve year old baby, y'all. She was raped. She was forced to get dressed again, but then the perpetrator then picked up a cinder block and smashed her skull in, killing her. And she was found later by someone else.

53:00 So they had a lot going on there. There was fear. It doesn't go away. Cheryl said that she was afraid to go home because she said, oh, my god, what if the killers come back to finish me off? Because you have to remember, the rapists took Bud's wallet, which had his ID, his license, and their address in it. Plus he took their keys so he had access to their home. And all she could think about was, my god, what if they come back, and if they found out Eric was there, what would they do to my baby? So Cheryl didn't want to go home. She was afraid. Not to mention, y'all, she was stapled from her throat basically her upper breast area down to the bottom of her stomach. She had staples lining her whole stomach. She couldn't hold her baby boy, She couldn't barely move, so they moved in with her parents temporarily, and then they were able to get a new place, which was just down the road from her parents. Now, something else that you're not going to find on any of the shows if you see on this episode, is something that Cheryl told me that two weeks after they moved into their own place, Bud told her he didn't want to be with her anymore. The shows tend to kind of sugarcoat this or romanticize it, like, oh, Bud was so struck in by his or stricken by his love being brutally assaulted, he couldn't take it and he kind of ran off and dissipated into the abyss. Well that's not what happened. That makes a great story in all, I guess, but what actually ended up happening to this girl who's already been victimized in so many ways, she found out that

54:32 Bud was cheating on her. That's what happened. She walked in and Bud had a new woman. Not to mention that, she told me too, that he ended up marrying that woman, not the girl that he had a baby with and had been through this traumatic experience with. So another loss that Cheryl would endure was Bud, you know he was unable to cope. He became extremely distant. The more that she tried, she said, the further away he went. He kept telling her that he felt worthless as a man. And so, you know, I kind of feel sorry for both of them. You never know how trauma affects people. But the fact that both he and Cheryl survived this, I want to tell you, is proof that they both did exactly what they should have done in this situation. If Bud felt like he didn't protect her and he didn't do the right thing, they both lived. They lived. And so although Bud was traumatized and he was emotionally scarred by the situation, he did end up leaving Cheryl and Eric in nineteen eighty one, and he never came back. So all fast forward just to let you know that he did eventually, like I said, Mary the girl he was cheating with, and then years later Bud cheated on that woman, that wife he married with her own sister. So this whole story really sucks worse than you even know. Bud also became an alcoholic and started using

56:04 drugs, according to what Cheryl told me, and then eventually, in his darkest days, he went to a hotel and he shot himself and committed suicide. Bud has been gone for a while, so all of that, right adds to the trauma of what happened. And poor Cheryl said she just felt absolutely worthless. Now, I mean, she lost everything after this rape, and she wanted them caught, but she said she was so over dealing with it. You know, it had destroyed every aspect of her life as far as she was concerned. And as time went on and these assailants continued to attack couples and do the very same thing to these couples, except they killed these people, they would become known as serial killers. This is not a one and done situation. This is getting gonna get even worse. So I can do more episodes on those victims, but today I'm doing this focusing on Cheryl and Bud, So no disrespect to the other victims. I'm just kind of honing it in on Cheryl and Bud. But most notable at this time, as police were looking at these cases they were trying to figure out if they were involved or not, was that the assailants were black in every case and the victims were white in every case. Now, I am not coming at you with some race thing. That's not what this is. It actually is an integral part to the investigation. So another couple that was attacked, a woman did survive. There's only two survivors. Out of everything I'm going

57:36 to tell you, she was able to give a very good description of her attacker. So I'm guessing in that case, he thought he was going to kill her anyway, so he didn't cover his face. But she didn't end up getting killed because some stuff happened and they fought back, basically, and I guess they didn't expect that. But that girl put together a sketch with police. And when police put that sketch out to try to get some public, you know, reaction to it, Cheryl saw it on television. She was with her dad at home and she pointed, she said, Dad, that's him. That's the guy that raped me. I know it. I can tell. So police showed up. They called the police, the police showed up. They pulled out a photo album. All these years later, and guess what, she picked out the exact same man that she had picked out in the hospital, thirty two year old Anthony Cook. So who was Anthony Cook? He was employed, married and a convicted felon shocker, I know, right, wow, the shockwaves going around. So it was found that during the investigation on him that he had gotten mad during one of his stints in prison, specifically the stint he was doing a seven year sentence he did for an armed robbery. He got mad because he felt like the white prison guards or mean to him. Imagine that prison isn't nice. But he got mad because as the white prison guards were mean to him. So as

59:07 a result of the guards, he says, being mean to him, he now admittedly had beef with all white people, and he set out on a mission to get even with white people in general. So when he was released in nineteen seventy nine, that's exactly what he had started doing. So a friend of his came forward after also seeing the sketch and said, not only had Cook been going around bragging about shooting a white man, which was obviously a different case than Cheryl's, but tied to that case where the girl made the sketch that survived, he was bragging about shooting a white man, and he said he did it with a twenty two revolver, same making model as what Cheryl was shot with. But also this friend saw him give that weapon to a neighbor. Thank God for this friend that came forward. Right is right and wrong is wrong. So he was in a Toledo, Ohio, the Toledo, Ohio area after he had been released from prison, and he had decided he wanted to exact revenge on white people. But he was also always in the company of his brother, and his brother's name was Nathaniel Cook, and looking at their photos, police felt like they fit the description of the two killers and rapists that kept striking according to these victims. So police were able to get that twenty two revolver and they did run the ballistics on

1:00:39 the weapon and guess what, it came back a positive match for the gun that had recently killed two white men in another case. So Anthony Cook was arrested on a multitude of charges, multitude murder, attempted rape, all sorts of stuff. Where this case got me again was in the fact that these two men in custody, Okay, these two men that had been taken into custody, these brothers, police were unable to positively say whether they were the attackers of Cheryl or not. The DNA evidence, Remember, wasn't of any use back whenever they took the DNA evidence. Also, that bullet that went through her body and almost killed her was so fragmented and damaged that they couldn't compare it to the known sample from the twenty two from the ballistics. So this meant that basically police told her, sorry, but we can't charge them with your rape and attempted murder. And that makes me absolutely sick for her as a victim to know everybody knew they did it, but proving it is another thing. So Cheryl was in a place that they all knew who did I did, but nothing was going to be happening. Then can you imagine the anger. I would be so angry, And in Cheryl's own words, she said, I understand that there may be a lack of evidence, but

1:02:09 I just want to be heard. I just want you to hear what I'm saying. I just want them to have to listen to me. They did this to me, and I wanted to be acknowledged. Okay, maybe they won't spend a day in prison for but they could at least acknowledge what they did to me. And she said, I felt shoved to the side and I felt not important. Anthony Cook was tried and convicted in nineteen eighty two for murder, robbery, and attempted rape, and y'all, he got fifteen years. It was fifteen years to life, but fifteen years with the possibility of parole. Back then, Ohio, you know, didn't have the death penalty and without the option, you know, without being a fit of parole wasn't an option either. Now, consider you're the victim who gets no justice so to speak of, and they now know your name, they know who you are, they know what they did to you, and the other half of your rapist attempted murdered duo is still walking free. Like, think about all of this that she's she's dealing with. So Cheryl was now really worried that, you know, the one brother was locked up, and what if the other one comes after her. He's obviously a you know, capable of extreme violence. He had already tried to kill her and nothing could be done.

1:03:43 So Cheryl said, you know, my wife began to spiral. At that point, I started drinking, she said, I started using drugs. I didn't care about me, nobody else did. That's what it felt like. So if nobody else cared about me. Why should I? And I just really, man, I can't imagine how that was feel. We know that they did this to you, and nothing can be done. Oh but Cheryl, being the woman that she is, she eventually got her life together. She decided, and you know what, they're not going to take control of my whole life. She decided, I'm going to power through. These men are not going to win. She moved to Nashville, she started a new life, and she did end up meeting a man who she would eventually marry and they're still married today. They actually went on to raise four sons together and life became good for her. But in nineteen ninety seven, after she's moved forward, notice I didn't say she moved on, but she moved forward. She had gotten to a good place in life, her case would come back up and be the forefront of her life and the news again another victim after Cheryl was attacked and had been raped and they had made her get dressed. The difference here is some time had gone, science had advanced, and when the attackers had made this woman get dressed that I'm not trying to be gross, but these are the facts. The seamen from the rape dripped

1:05:13 out of her body and into her pant leg because they made her get dressed, they were now able to take technology and get a positive match between that semen and those pants and none other than Anthony Cook as well as his brother Nathaniel Cook. Seventeen years later, they both were tied to the rape and murder of another woman and her boyfriend. So Cheryl was ecstatic. You know, she said, I didn't feel like I had to look over my shoulder anymore. You know, I'm finally gonna get a chance to say what I want to say to these monsters after what they've gotten away with for all of these years. But that's when she was dealt a new blow. Her case was not being considered in the trial because of the lack of evidence, and they could not tie them to her case. And I know right now someone's like, well, I mean that on the evidence, they can't do it, but just put yourself in the victims shoes. Of course they did it.

1:06:15 Okay. She was furious, she was hurt. And remember that rape kit, that very invasive rape kit they did in the eighties that she went through. Is anyone wondering where that went because I was. But guess what ended up happening they Cheryl finds out that a potential solution had been brought to the table and that the families of the deceased in some of these other cases had agreed to a plea deal. But don't get too excited, y'all, this is going to blow your mind. In exchange for confessing to all of the crimes that they committed, including Cheryl's, including cheryls, he would only be sentenced to twenty years. Twenty I cannot Cheryl said, hell no, I don't agree to that, but she was told by the powers that be basically sorry. But the majority of the other families of victims they agreed to the deal, so we're just gonna take it. So Anthony Cook got twenty years. Are you ready what he got twenty years for? He confessed to nine murders and multiple rapes. He killed nine people, He raped multiple women,

1:07:48 including a twelve year old child. Nathaniel Cook, his brother, confessed to three murders and multiple rapes. These men got slaps on the wrist. Are you listening to what they confess to? They even agreed that they did that to sh Hayl they are plain evil and if I'm just being frank, both of those men should have eaten a bullet. This is not justice. This is doing the bare men on to say justice was served, whatever that even means. And do you know Cheryl did not even get to speak at any of the trials. She was never allowed to say anything. And that's not right. Even after they admitted in detail what they did to her, she was not allowed to be acknowledged to speak. It's disgusting. And I want to tell you something. Twenty years flew by, because in August of twenty eighteen, Nathaniel was in court being released. Matter of fact, not only was he being released, but Cheryl showed up and he turned around and he smirked at her while she cried. She didn't get justice, not in the terms I guess that I feel like justice would be. So I guess since she didn't get to speak, I'll just say it for her. Anthony

1:09:23 and Nathaniel Cook are two pieces of utter shit. They are racist, raping, murderous, torturous, spiteful, hateful, child abusing, wasted waste of space, pieces of shit. Both of your lives are meaningless and your mother should be ashamed of you and speaking of their mother. When Nathaniel Cook was released from prison in twenty eighteen after admitting to killing multiple people and raping them, he moved in on over there on Nebraska Avenue in Toledo, Ohio.

1:10:06 And that's current. He's on Nebraska Avenue in Toledo, Ohio. So if you're in that area, you need to keep your head on a swivel because he moved in with his mama over there, and I want to tell you something. He got frustrated. Imagine this, he got frustrated and upset with a reporter that went by the house and said, you know, we'd like to talk to you about this. He got upset and he said, you know what, that's in the past and I'm just wanting to move on. Really, have you apologized to any of the multiple people you've murdered, including a twelve year old little girl that never got to grow up. You smashed her brains in. You're six foot three, three hundred and eighty pounds, and you kidnap, raped, and bashed the brains in of a twelve year old girl. And you have the audacity to come to the doorstep of your mama and say you want to move on? Are you kidding me? I'm sure she would have loved to move on. I'm sure she would have loved to grow up, but she didn't. Not to mention all the other lives you ruined. You and your brother disgusting and despicable and something else too.

1:11:30 Anthony Cook his brother. He's still in prison right now, and real quick, I want to make sure that you know we're talking about the right one here before I go further, because, by the way, there are five Anthony Cooks in the Ohio Department of Corrections. Okay, I'm not talking about Anthony no middle name Cook, the one that's the drug trafficking and aggravating murdering one. I'm not talking about Anthony Isaac Cook, who's in there for illegal conveyance to detention centers and possession of drugs. I'm not talking about Anthony Marcel Cook, who's there for murder. I'm not talking about Anthony Allen Cook. This is a white boy though, uh for who's there for attempted aggravated murder, violation of a protection order, or weapon under disability. I'm not talking about those guys. I'm talking about Anthony H. Cook and I don't know what the H stands for, probably hell bound, but we need to ensure that he stays behind bars. The Anthony Cook that's there for murder, attempted rape, aggravated robbery, attempted murder, the one identified by A one six seven two three five, that guy. Because I want to tell you something, he's eligible for parole in February first of twenty twenty five. His parole board meeting is scheduled for December of twenty twenty four. That's this year, and I want everyone listening to know. I'm putting a link. I'm putting a link to the parole board where you're able to go in if you are

1:13:01 so inclined to speak about why you don't want him released. I'm putting a link in the show notes and I'm putting it online. He does not deserve to walk free. In twenty eighteen, when Nathaniel was released from prison on parole, he got to go home and live with his mom and wants to move on. Anthony is up for parole this year, Ohio, pay attention. We all need to get behind this woman, and we all need to do what it takes. You call the officials, you write the emails, but we the people, should be helping this woman. And Honey, I'm doing this one for you, Cheryl, specifically for you. I'm so angry if you cannot tell. There was an argument made in court too. This was mind blowing that Nathaniel only did what he did because he was influenced by his brother. Hold On just a minute. I have been influenced before, guys. When I was in my twenties, I was influenced to drink too much. I was influenced to seeing karaoke when I had no business doing so.

1:14:02 I was influenced to start a podcast. But there ain't never been a day that I've been influenced to rape someone, to kill people, to terrorize men and women, to rape women, that is different. That's someone getting off on the power of doing it. That's not influence. That's a character flaw. That's an animal. You know, when I was twelve years old, I had to put my dog down and I did it humanly and it's still to this day I think about it. So these animals, they want to move on from raping and killing people, Well, the normal ones of us don't believe that that's how that should go. So that's not going to happen for me, So for Cheryl, who I don't feel like got justice.

1:14:51 For nineteen year old Connie Sue Thompson who was killed by the Cooks after they picked her up hitchhiking and killed her. There were Dawn Renee Backs, a twelve year old elementary student who was raped and bludging to death in the basement of a theater. For twenty one year old Scott Mouton, for nineteen year old Connie Sue Thompson, who was killed by these bastards when she was picked up when she was hitchhiking. And for Dawn Renee Backs, the twelve year old elementary student who was raped and bludging to death in the basement of a theater. For twenty one year old Scott Mouton, for twenty two year old Denise Sitkowski, who were both shot and killed in their car. For twenty one year old Darryl Cole and his twenty one year old girlfriend, Stacy Ballineck, they were both beaten to death and found in the trunk of his car. For twenty two year old vickiy Lynn Small, for twenty four year old Thomas Gordon, and for Peter SOWICKI. I'm not forgetting. I'm not moving on, And maybe the Cook brothers should have thought about it before becoming my and doing all of this if they don't like the attention just because you grew old and you speak softer. As I read in an article that a reporter who tried to go talk to one of them said, that doesn't mean anything bad. People grow old, so what That same reporter also said that she wrote a letter advising Nathaniel that she was going to come by because she

1:16:24 didn't want to catch him off guard when she showed up at his house. Well, isn't that nice? Because none of these victims that I just mentioned were given such a courtesy. They didn't get it heads up. I wish Cheryl would have been carrying a gun that night and put both of those animals down, but she wasn't. And like I told you, i met Cheryl, I'm going to be doing an additional episode with her where we get to hear from her specifically, and we're going to talk about this case. So y'all look out for that. But guess what if you're living near me, did you know? On July fourth of this year, a new law is going to take place in Louisiana. It's going into effect. No permit is required as of the fourth of July to conceal carry in the state of Louisiana.

1:17:14 So this means now the law abiding citizens can carry their weapons without paying the large fees that the criminals don't bother with. They don't pay, and they don't worry about it. Whenever they take their weapons to attack us. It's pretty cool. And all I can say is this, Look, things are changing for people like the Cook brothers. We've had enough. And if you don't like the attention that you're getting, then, in the words of LITL John, don't start no shit, won't be no shit. Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast or I tell stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning, Unspeakable is intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised,