MFM Minisode 505
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
In this special Grandparents Day edition of My Favorite Murder's mini-sode, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark celebrate beloved family elders with two gripping and heartfelt
Key takeaways
- Family secrets can be buried in plain sight—sometimes revealed through trauma or forgotten paperwork.
Main topics
- Grandparents Day celebration
- Family secrets and adoption revelations
Notable quotes
"I mean, trauma on trauma."
Conclusion
This heartfelt episode reminds listeners to cherish their grandparents not just for their wisdom, but
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:01) This is exactly right. Speaker 3 (0:06) Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. A beautiful woman smiles and hands you a scotch, but you have no idea just how messed up her job actually is. Speaker 2 (0:22) It was the most sexist job I think you could have. Until one day, a group Speaker 3 (0:30) of stewardesses spark a revolution that reshapes America. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (1:03) And welcome. To my favorite murder. Speaker 4 (1:05) The mini-sode. Special edition. Grandparents edition. We did that so smooth. I mean, it's like we memorized our lines earlier. Speaker 5 (1:13) You want to go first? Speaker 4 (1:14) Yes. So yesterday was Grandparents Day. And of course, we love and respect and admire all grandparents. So we thought it'd be the perfect time to do a Grandparents Day spectacular here on the mini-sode. And you guys know we love grandparent stories. And you know personally about me that my example always when I'm talking, especially when we were trying to do the combo stories, my example was always a grandma and Al Capone. Yeah. Speaker 5 (1:41) No, you have one? Grandma Al Capone story. Holy shit. Speaker 4 (1:45) And then in parentheses it says kinda, which is perfect. Fair enough. It's perfectly done. It starts high, high. I heard on your 500th mini-sode that you were looking for combination stories. And when I heard you say the combination of Al Capone and grandmas, that's my standing example. I knew I had a story for you. I'm from Windsor, Ontario. Speaker 4 (2:07) You have an Ontario mug. As if the Lord made me drink this coffee. I remember when you bought that. I think I was there with you. You were? Yeah. In the Starbucks in Ontario? Yeah. Or did someone send it to us? No, I Speaker 5 (2:20) think you bought it. Okay. I think I remember you buying that one. I really do love it. Yeah, it's good. And Speaker 4 (2:25) it's got your seafoam green. I love that. I'm from Windsor, Ontario in Canada, which is right across the border from Detroit, Michigan. I thought they were going to say it's right across the border from you guys. Yes, you're the land next door. We know. During the 13 years of U.S. Prohibition, Windsor was a major bootlegging hub. The area was nicknamed the Windsor-Detroit Funnel. Did you know any of this? Speaker 3 (2:48) Because Speaker 4 (2:48) of all the alcohol that was being run across the river. My great-grandpa, my grandma's dad, was a rum runner, one of the people who smuggled the alcohol. Got it. He died before I was born, and I've been told that although he didn't talk much about his activities, He met Al Capone. Whoa. When my grandma was young, her home was robbed at gunpoint. They cut the telephone lines before they entered and tied her to a chair. I guess it was believed that this was the work of Al Capone's guys or something because they seemed to be looking for something specific on top of money. During the robbery, they went through a bunch of their paperwork and things, and obviously they did not clean up after themselves when they left. Later, when my grandma was helping clean up, she came across her own adoption papers. Speaker 5 (3:32) I mean, trauma on trauma. Speaker 4 (3:35) This is, we thought we were getting an Al Capone story. Holy shit. And that's how simply it could happen back then. You didn't have to have a, what do you call it? No, it was none of that Ancestry.com stuff. It was like. Almost too far fetched. One little drawer in that grandpa's roll top desk. Let me help after being tied up and fucking robbed. Yes, you're right. Oh, hey, Speaker 5 (3:57) what's this? Speaker 4 (3:58) Oh. Yeah. On top. It's total trauma Sunday. Oh, my God. Two veterans in an episode that we could name trauma Sunday. Oh, God damn it. Save it. What do you like on your trauma Sunday? Pineapple sauce? Because that's traumatic. Oh, my God. This is how she found out that the people she thought were her parents were actually her grandparents. They adopted her and her sister was actually her mother. Yeah. Speaker 3 (4:20) Yikes. Speaker 4 (4:21) Growing up, I was always told that my grandma was adopted, so we didn't know much about her side of the family. Hey, so that is a very different story. Yeah. The reason I found out this whole story is that I started performing in a local bus tour group about rum running. A local bus tour group. Must be like a haunting tour. Oh, yeah. They ride Speaker 5 (4:43) around and be like, that building right there is where Al Speaker 2 (4:46) Capone. Speaker 4 (4:47) And she's Speaker 5 (4:48) playing Al Capone. Speaker 4 (4:49) I'm assuming it's a woman. It's got to be. Speaker 4 (4:52) A local bus tour group about run-rumming in Windsor and my mom casually brought it up like it was a normal story. I know this might not be exactly the Grandma Al Capone story you were looking for, but I thought it could count. Thank you, Lexi. It all counts, Lexi. Lexi, you sharing your story about your family, even if there was never a label that we had asked for, it's always valid. It's a good one. You get Al Capone in there, we're listening. That's us. Speaker 3 (5:20) Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. There's great food, comfortable chairs, and attentive stewardesses. The stewardesses were so beautiful. But in reality, the stewardess job is far less glamorous Speaker 2 (5:40) than it appears. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. Speaker 3 (5:49) In this era, the airlines told these stewardesses they have to be single. They had no good excuse for why they wouldn't let women be married. They have to be skinny. Speaker 1 (6:00) We were starving ourselves. Speaker 3 (6:03) And they have to be young. You would retire at age 32. But one day, a group of stewardesses said, This has got to stop. They risked it all, turning a fight for fairness into a revolution. Speaker 3 (6:20) Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (6:30) Okay, well, this one's called Grandma, a Clown, and Kidnappers. Lighthearted. Hello, Karen, Georgia, and the person screening emails for the show. My sister told me I had to listen to you guys, forcing me to join the ranks of every single other person whose sister forced them onto the podcast. Thanks to her, I have been a loyal listener for a long time, and I realized I have a hometown story that needed to be shared. While my cousins were growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, my grandma had a side hustle that made her an absolute legend in our family. Yes. She was a children's birthday party clown named Bubblegum the Clown. Speaker 4 (7:10) Naturally, we called her Grandma Bubblegum. Hold on a second. I need to say that I think this has changed my vote permanently about clowns. Because if it's a grandma clown, your birthday party is a dream. Is it? No. I Speaker 5 (7:23) don't know. I still, you know. You're saying the quality Speaker 4 (7:27) of the grandma is very crucial? Absolutely. Speaker 5 (7:30) One summer day, Grandma Bubblegum had just finished working a gig and came straight over to my aunt's house in full clown attire and makeup to watch my cousins for a couple of minutes to help bridge the gap between my aunt leaving for work and my uncle coming home. My oldest cousin, Kevin, who was always a little shit and made it his personal mission to push her buttons, decided he wasn't having it. The second she walked in, he bolted out the front door and took off down the street on his bicycle. Without missing a beat, my grandma took off sprinting after him down the road, still in full head-to-toe clown makeup and costume. That's