Transcript of Episode Revisit: The Survival Story of Mary Vincent, Patron Saint of Badassery New

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Alayna and this is Morbin!

Not in the pod lab. Nope, we're We're in Elena's room. Whoa! Whoa!

It's purple.

It is purple.

It's very comfy in here.

It's a nice dark purple.

Yeah, deep dark purple. Me and Annie are painting our room, and I think that I want to do like everything white with one accent wall, but then your room makes me feel like, do I want it to be like darker and homier?

That's why I like it, because it's like moody.

Yeah, you're a moody bitch.

I'm a moody bitch, so this works out really well.

But this isn't a decorating podcast.

It's not.

What are we talking about this week? Death, crime.

Yes. But you know what? This one is kind of good because it has a happy ending. Ayy. So, I mean, there's some, there's some shit along the way. Spoiler alert for sure. But we're going to be doing one where some badass lady somehow, against all odds, in a situation that none of us could even fathom being in somehow pulled her shit together and survived.

Yeah, this case is bananas.

Like badass woman alert. We are doing the case of Mary Vincent, and she is a baller. She really is. And we're going to focus mostly on Mary. We are going to talk about her attacker because he did some other shit too that affects her as well, but we're going to focus it mostly on Mary.

Yeah, because she's a bamf.

Because she's where it's at. There's a little true crime news that I'm sure everybody has heard about by now. We might have a new very prolific serial killer on our hands. He's caught, luckily, but this could be insane. He could be one of the worst.

Yeah, I don't know much about this, so fill me in.

So this guy's name is Samuel Little. He doesn't have 3 names, but you know, we'll take it. Um, basically he could be one of the deadliest serial killers in history, which is crazy. He has admitted to Texas Rangers that he played part in more than 90 unsolved murders in 10 states. Whoa. So he is 78 years old now, and he's serving 3 life sentences in California for killing 3 women. So he's already— he's already away forever. That's insane. And they said that so far they're able to match over 30 cases to him so far. Yeah.

And that's, that's like all that they like.

That's just 30 so far. And they said they have no false information coming from him. It's all been up to snuff.

So how did they, how did they get him?

I don't know exactly how he got arrested, but for the 3 women. But he obviously he got caught for other murders.

Shit.

And like I said, he would— this would make him one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history. Ted Bundy confessed to 30. John Wayne Gacy killed at least 33 boys, but I think the Green River Killer had 49 that he was convicted of. He confessed to 71. So this guy would pass him, which is insane.

Damn. But so he has 30 and how many more?

They've at least been able to connect 30 to him, but he's confessed to 90 and he's giving information to police about these 90. How the fuck do you kill 90 people? I'm saying, I guess he started way back in the '70s.

The '70s were a wild time.

Yeah, they really were. He's, he's linked to possible deaths in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas. Wow. Yeah, so this is kind of an ongoing thing, so it's gonna be kind of one of those things that more shit is gonna leak out as we go. But it's crazy. So we'll definitely be on the lookout for that one. And I think the only other thing that's been happening lately is that Chris Watts shit. The guy who killed his wife and his children and then blamed it on his wife because she's dead and can't defend herself.

He's the male version of a cunt.

Yeah, exactly. And now his mother is coming out and saying that the wife killed the kids, like, my baby couldn't have killed his whole family. And it's like, that's exactly why your fucking asshole son is the way he is. Yeah, because his whole life his mother probably bailed him out of all his shit.

Everything.

It's like, nope, you need to look in the mirror and know that your son is monster who annihilated his entire family and his pregnant wife because he had a mistress.

And how do you say that about somebody that's dead? Like, oh no, they killed all the kids.

It's like, you know, not— oh, you don't know what happened. That case makes me nuts. Um, but yeah, so that's— I think that's all the stuff we have to catch up on.

The case that we're talking about this week is like one of my favorites.

It is. It's such a good one.

I heard this case when I first started listening to My Favorite Murder, and I was in my car driving to work on the edge of my seat.

Oh yeah, it's insane. Like There's, um, I'm sure you guys have all heard of the show I Survived. It's so good. It's so binge-worthy. It like, but it's stress— it's very heavy. There's a lot of heavy shit.

And I can't watch it like live.

Yeah, it's hard to record it. Me too, because I need to take a break. Yeah.

And I have to fast forward through the commercials.

Oh yeah, for sure.

Like they keep you on such a—

oh my God. Yeah, because you know, you're like, I know they're gonna survive, but I need to know how. And this one in particular, I still— to— I, at this moment, I still cannot understand how she got out of this situation. Oh, and I mentioned, I mentioned I Survived because there was an episode about Mary and Vincent. Oh yeah, go check it out because it's a really good episode. Um, listen to this first though. Keep listening, please. So, um, let's dive in. Uh, September 29th, 1978. Again, the '70s, man.

Damn '70s.

Mary Vincent was a 15-year-old girl living in Las Vegas. She, from all accounts, it seems like she kind of had a troubled home life. I don't think there was anything— no, excuse me, I shouldn't say I don't think. There's not a lot known about her home life growing up. Right. I know she was in a military family. She probably moved a lot. At 15, she was kind of at odds with her parents. And from what I read, it seems like she ran away from home this day, and she was going to be running away to California. At 15, which is like so young to me. It's like, I think of me when I was 15 and like, I can't even.

Yo, sorry mom, but I was about to run away from home at 15. There's been plenty of times where I was like, I could run away.

I could run away. 15 is a— and you know what? 15 is a shitty age.

Oh yeah.

Like, I don't know anyone who was like, you know what? 15 was a great year for me. I had everything going on. I had it all figured out.

They should have a show that's like 15. I survived.

I survived 15. Because it really is that bad.

It is.

Like, 15 for me was shit. Absolute shit.

Yeah, same.

So thanks, high school bullies, or junior high bullies. Um, so yeah, so she was living in Las Vegas. Um, on this day, she was hitchhiking from Berkeley, which was her uncle's house in California.

Okay.

And she was hitchhiking to her grandfather's, which was somewhere near Los Angeles. I'm not sure exactly where. I I also don't know California that well. Sorry, California.

I was listening to California Love on the way here.

Of course you were. Of course you were. Uh, so, or is it RIP, or is he living somewhere? I don't think so. Yeah, I wish. I know, I love that conspiracy theory though.

Um, actually, shout out to Last Podcast on the Left, just for like a quick little break. I was like, I couldn't stop listening.

Oh yeah, I honestly, I love Last Podcast on the Left. Every case that they have covered, they have covered so well. Like, they just did— I'm just gonna plug them like, like they need it, but whatever— they just did the West Memphis Three, which we will cover at some point, but that's going to be a very long, very research-heavy case. Yeah, they did it in like 3 episodes and they did it so well because you feel like you know everything about that case, but they did it and you felt like you learned more. Yeah, so shout out to them. So on this night, on this day that she was hitchhiking, she was standing on the side of the road with 2 other hitchhikers. They didn't know each other. They were just all hitchhiking somewhere. They all had signs saying where they wanted to go. Now, this is when Lawrence Singleton, Larry, pulled up in a blue van. Mary described him as looking like a friendly grandfather type. Like, she was like, he's older, he looks like he could be my grandfather. And he was old enough to be her grandfather, so she felt immediately, like, comfortable, which is not a good thing.

Also, apparently he was wearing blue overalls And like, here's the thing about old dudes in overalls.

Don't trust them.

Well, especially you generally get two kinds of old dudes wearing overalls. Either sweet farmer types who just want to tell you the best way to get the beefiest tomato crops, or hillbilly mutants who think you look like their sister. Hillbilly mutants. So no bueno.

If you're trucking, overalls are a no.

Yeah, don't get in the car with someone who has overalls. Like, sorry everybody who wears overalls. I want a pair of overalls, but don't get in the car with me. No, like, just don't do it.

Too much room for comfortability.

Yeah, exactly. So Larry was like, I only have room for one of you in here. Meanwhile, he had a van, which is low-key alarm—

or excuse me, high-key alarming.

Like, that's a, that's a red flag.

I was like, sir, you've got a van. Sir, you have a van. I don't know if you know what you're driving, but it's called a van.

I have— I'm small. I don't need a lot of rest. So already these, these people with her were like, yeah, maybe you shouldn't go with him. And she was like, yo, I got to get to my grandfather's. She was tired. She had been like, you know, she'd been moving, moving, right?

Yeah.

And she, she was just like, I'm over this. I just want to get to my grandfather's house. So Larry was a 51-year-old former Merchant Marine at the time. He had just been divorced from his second wife and had a teenage daughter that was also 15 at the time. He He told Mary this immediately. He was like, I have a daughter your age who reminds me of you.

Okay, chill.

And this further cemented his like, nice old, you know, older man. He's a father. Like, he has a kid my age. And that's exactly what he wanted. So he told her he wasn't going to Los Angeles, but would happily take a detour to bring her there. He offered to drive her to Interstate 5, which is the fastest route south. And she was so desperate that she was like, yep, I'll just get in. We'll do this. So she got in the car. Now, she said it was pretty uneventful for the most part in the car until obviously a big event happened. But at one point she lit a cigarette and she sneezed and he immediately reached out to feel her neck and asked if she was sick. Like he felt her like gland and she was like, and that fucked her. She was like, nope, don't touch me. Like, that's weird that you just felt like you could touch my neck. And she said it made her comfort— like, uncomfortable. Like, that weirded me out. But she ended— nothing else really happened after that right away, so she ended up nodding off and falling asleep.

Don't fall asleep if you're hitchhiking.

Yeah, in the '70s this was totally acceptable. Everyone was hitchhiking, which I think we learned now that that was a bad idea because a lot of these people ended up dead. But now, definitely don't hitchhike.

Rules of hitchhiking: 1, don't. 2, don't fall asleep. Yeah, I'm sure we'll come up with more.

Exactly. Uh, so she ended up falling asleep. When she woke up, she noticed that they were not going to LA as promised, but instead were going east toward Modesto. So immediately she started to panic. She saw that there was a stick, or like a, like a little yardstick or a surveyor stick on the floor of the van. So she grabbed it, held it out, and demanded— she was like, where— what the fuck? You're supposed to be taking me to Los Angeles.

This makes my stomach hurt.

So he was like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. And And he said, he said, I am an honest man and it was an honest mistake. I'm so sorry.

Yeah, right.

So he was like, you know what, I'm gonna take you there. I'm really sorry, I just wasn't paying attention. And she was like, okay, well, fucking take me there. So he was like, all right, let's pull over quickly so I can relieve myself and then we'll be on our way. So they pulled over, he gets out of the car and he goes somewhere to piss. She gets out of the car to stretch her legs and she said she reached down to tie her shoes And that's when Larry snuck up behind her and hit her in the head with a hammer.

Dear God. First of all, how did she even survive that?

Exactly. And she immediately went out, like, unconscious. When she woke up, she was completely naked and tied up.

Oh my God, I hate this.

Right away after waking up, he forced her to perform sexual acts on him. He also said something really disgusting as he was doing this that I'm not going to repeat because it stresses me out too much. But he was gross. He was a pig. He like shoved himself in her mouth, basically. He then raped her and sodomized her. He then threw her in the back of the van, drove to another secluded area, and repeatedly raped her again. She recalls at least 6 to 8 times that he raped her, and she said it hurt a lot the entire time.

Oh my God.

During this, he also made her drink some weird unknown substance from a plastic jug. That she assumes is alcohol, but she said it made her pass out, so it could have been anything. Uh, she passed out several times, and when she woke up, at one point he had thrown her onto the ground on the side of the road and forced her to lay down. Now she's naked, completely naked, and tied up. She started begging him to set her free because she was like, what's going to happen next? He said, quote, you want to be set free? I'll set you free. Then he went to the van grabbed a hatchet and returned back to her. He then held her down as she fucking fought and screamed and chopped her right arm off. He then hacked at her left arm until it was severed just below the elbow. Oh my God. It took 3 strokes of the hatchet to sever that arm off.

Oh my God.

He cut both her fucking arms off while she was conscious with it, the whole thing. Fighting the whole time, fucking hacked her arms off of her body.

Like, what a sick fuck.

That is some shit.

And like, what does that mean? Like, oh, I'll set you free by chopping your arms off?

Yeah, he's literally— because— and you'll hear he says it again. So like, he's having to hold this poor nude woman down while she's screaming and crying and he's hacking her arms. Like, that is— that's beyond my comprehension.

Like, who does that?

Yeah. So she fell on her— onto her back after this, obviously, because he was like holding her up, hacking at her arms. And she said she caught a glimpse of him like twisting and shaking his arm. And what was happening was her arm was still attached to his arm and he was trying to fling it off. Yeah. He then rolled her down a 30-foot embankment and stuffed her into a cement drainage pipe. When he left, he said, okay, 'Now you're free.' And this place turned out to be Del Puerto Canyon, which I'm not familiar with, but I'm sure Californians will know. Um, so yeah, he leaves and says, 'Okay, now you're free.' I'd be like, um— so I think to him he was like, 'Oh, you want to be free? I'll untie you and I'll leave you here and you can get out if you want.' Like, I think to him he was like, 'You're gonna die, but like, you're free. Like, good luck.' What is it—

like, what the fuck is wrong with you, dude?

Blew my mind. So he immediately— obviously he thinks she's dead. She's been wailed on the head, she's been repeatedly raped, and she's had her fucking arms chopped off, and she's gonna bleed out and die, and she's also been rolled down a 30-foot embankment. Like, there's so much here. So he left her alone to die and sped off.

She fucking survives.

Yeah, just keep that in mind. She comes out of this, she is kicking, breathing, thriving today.

She's a bad bitch.

So at this point she was like, okay, I could die here or I could fight and stop. In her mind she said, I can stop him from doing this to someone else.

Good for her.

That was her thought process, was I can't let him do this to someone else.

How do you have that coherent thought process when somebody just chopped your fucking arms off?

It is like fight or flight, and she chose fucking fight. So at this moment, she was like, I need to— I need to stay awake. So she forced herself to stay awake because if she allowed herself to pass out, she would just bleed it up. She would just fall asleep and never wake up. Now think of all those times you've just been sitting on the couch and you hit that wall of exhaustion all of a sudden and you can barely keep your eyes open. Now think of that, but your arms have been chopped off. You've been force-fed some kind of weird alcoholic substance, and you've been hit in the head with a hammer and raped repeatedly.

How? I don't even know.

Like, I never want to say I'm tired.

Mary's like, fuck you.

Yeah, literally. So she forced herself to stay awake, and she said, quote, he threw me off a cliff. I should have broken bones. I should have bled to death. I didn't. And I never passed out. I remember everything. I wanted to give up and go to sleep, but I felt someone there with me, a presence who wanted me to survive. A voice told me to get up and get help or someone else would die. Wow, girl, I got chills. I can't— she's— oh, Mary, Mary, like, I just can't even.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary.

Oh, you are just— I don't know how you did this, man. So She ended up losing 50% of her body's blood supply.

How did she— how did she not pass the fuck out?

Because she's a fucking warrior. To stop it from getting worse, she packed her arms with mud to cut off the flow of blood.

Jesus.

First of all, I am 33 years old almost, and I work in the medical field, and I don't think that would immediately be my, like, I need to pack these severed arms with blood. She was 15 years old.

And how did you do that with both of your arms cut off? Exactly. Like, you didn't even have another arm to pack with. I—

there's just so much about this that I'm like, who are you? What are you? What kind— like, we don't deserve you, Mary. No. So she walked herself up the 30-foot cliff she had been rolled down without arms. Like, think about that for a second, how hard that would be to do with arms, walking up a 30-foot cliff.

Never mind without arms.

It took her hours and hours and hours of fighting up this hill with only 50% of her body's blood and a head wound. Jesus Christ. And she said it took all day, like a full day, to get up that 35. I believe it. So she finally reached the— because she said she could hear the freeway above, she just wanted to get there. She's like, I just got to get there. So she finally reaches the freeway and ended up walking for 3 more miles before seeing a car. Finally, it was a convertible with 2 men in it. They pulled over like a little bit, but once they saw her, they sped off. And I mean, she was nude, she was completely battered, she had no fucking arms.

They probably didn't even think it was real and was bleeding profusely.

That's horror movie shit like that. And she says to this day, she said she can totally understand why they were terrified and sped off. Like, she was like, I do not hold that against— like, so she said at the time she was holding up what was left of her arms in the air so quote, the muscles and blood wouldn't fall out. Wow. So she was holding her fucking, like, what's left of her arms up in the air. Now luckily, a couple who were tourists and had like taken a wrong turn— like, what a wrong turn—

weren't they on their honeymoon or something?

I think they were.

I think they were.

I've read that a couple of times. Yeah, so they might have been on their honeymoon. I think they picked her up and they immediately wrapped her in linens from their car before driving her to a nearby airport and calling 911. Now, I mean, because it was the '70s, they didn't have a cell phone, so they had to drive to a phone. All she could say was, quote, "He raped me" over and over again.

Oh my God.

She went by helicopter to the hospital. And at the hospital, like, she just continues to be like a fucking warrior. She gets to the hospital and she doesn't sit there and be like, "All right, now I'm going to take a break and like, rest my weary soul right now." She was like, nope, I can describe this motherfucker to an absolute fucking T. Let me give you it. So she described him so perfectly that the composite sketch of him was like a photo. They said, we'll post it. Yeah, it was immediately released to the media. And Larry's own neighbor, who was his friend, like was a friend of his, saw it and was like, whoa, that Larry. And they called and told the police, I know who that is. And it was their friend. That's how clear it was, though. They were like, that's fucking Larry. That's insane. Mary also picked his picture out of 6 others before the grand jury at one point. Wow. So, uh, in 1979, he went to— so they picked him up. There's not a lot of like how they found him, or, you know, like she, she knew who he was, she picked him.

Look at this motherfucker.

That's, that's a dude. Oh, he dead now. So that's good.

Looks like a penis.

Yeah, his nose is a lot. So in 1979, he went to court and Mary testified against him after all she went through at 15 years old.

That is insane.

Badass. Mary stood up in front of the court, pointed one of her hooked prosthetic arms at him, and she was like, that's fucking him. And she will to this day, she will only refer to him as, quote, my attacker. She won't refer to him as—

and he doesn't fucking deserve it.

No, he doesn't. So Larry said he was drunk that night and described Mary as, quote, a $10 whore.

What the fuck?

Yeah. He also claimed that the two other hitchhikers were in the van as well, including another Larry. So he said if anything happened to Mary in his van and the blood and other physical evidence presented at trial proved that it did, then he said the crimes must have been committed by, quote, the other Larry.

So, like, yeah.

So he insisted on being framed. Later, when he became a little more forthcoming, he mentioned that he had cut off her hands because he wanted to remove the ID. Yeah, dental records are a thing, you fucking $10 dumbass. But, uh, after testifying, Mary quickly left the courtroom, and she did this because Larry made a very quiet comment to her, and she just rushed out of the courtroom. Later, he admitted what he said to her. I remember he told her, quote, I'll finish this job if it takes me the rest of my life.

Like, go fuck yourself.

Like, are you kidding? Like, can you fucking imagine that? No. After all you've gone through, this dude's like, I'm gonna finish this. Like, fuck.

I'd be like, I'll finish you, sir.

She was obviously fucking terrified. Um, afterwards her parents came to get her, but in— but she said they were kind of like, they couldn't really help. Like, they didn't have the relationship that needed— they needed to help her. Yeah. They said— she said, quote, ran away in the first place. Yeah. And she said, quote, they couldn't handle it. They took it harder than me. I'm telling them I need you. But they couldn't do it. They were more interested in what they felt about what happened to me than what I felt. So Larry ended up being convicted of a whopping number of charges: attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, oral copulation, aggravated mayhem, and the use of an ax to cause great bodily harm. Now, at the time, he got the max sentence for this, which was only 14 years in prison.

I'll leave.

Like, are you kidding me right now? Well, it gets worse.

All those charges and you get 14 years? Like, what the fuck?

All those, like, terrifying charges.

You chopped somebody's arms off.

Fucking attempted murder. Like, it's insane. He thought she was dead. He left there thinking she was dead. She was going to die. Well, it gets worse. He only served 8 years out of that because he got off on good behavior. Okay, good behavior.

You fucking chopped somebody's arms off.

Exactly. It's like, I don't give a shit if you always you know, keep your cell clean and always say please and thank you to the prison guards. I don't give a shit. You tried to literally rape somebody repeatedly and tried to chop their arm and chop their arms and then said it was the other Lawrence. Yeah, fucking poor other Larry that probably doesn't exist. Well, it gets even worse. When he got out, he immediately tried to sue Mary.

For what?

So while in jail, he said— and this is where it gets funny— he said he considered the alleged events and he was like, nope, I didn't do that.

Oh my God.

He said he remembers Mary threatening to accuse him of rape and that she had brandished a stick at him. He said that's why he became violent. So he filed a complaint suing Mary for, quote, forcible kidnap for the purposes of robbery.

Are you kidding me?

Luckily, the courts dismissed it. They were like, yeah, they were like, you're a fucking asshole. So after he got out of jail, After 8 years, 8 years later, like, goodbye. Like, she's barely even beginning to cope with this at this point. So, well, she said she was afraid to stay in one place for too long. She went through a series of bodyguards and she ended up living in a deserted gas station at one point.

Holy shit.

Yeah. Like, she really, like, went down a bad path. She said she was depressed. She had crazy anxiety.

Of course she did.

Her relationship suffered. I mean, with family, friends, like romantic relationships. Like, it was a really dark time. She eventually had two sons of her own. And in her words, quote, when I became a mother, I really had something big to live for. And she says there, like, what got her. That's amazing. I love it. I mean, his release was controversial, obviously, to Mary, but it was controversial to everyone because it was like any—

nobody wanted him to live anywhere.

Yeah, well, it was bonkers because, I mean, that's 8 years. His own daughter didn't want him loose. Wow. So his own daughter said that he had attacked and abused her and her mother. And in fact, her mother once told her that she was surprised that she had been born without complications because Larry had beat her mother while she was pregnant with her.

Oh my God.

Yeah. So when, when she found out that he was getting out of jail, she also fled and hid like— That's what I would do.

Mary did.

She asked law enforcement if there was any way they could keep him behind bars.

Like, what the fuck, Florida?

Yeah. And she recently— well, this wasn't— this wasn't in Florida.

Oh, I thought it was.

No, this is in California.

Oh, but, um, didn't he— I think he had—

he goes to Florida. Yeah, we're gonna get to that. What the fuck? So his daughter, who I won't name because I don't know if she wants her name out there, she recently spoke to a woman who runs the site familyarrested.com, which helps family members of like shitty people who have done awful things cope with their own, like, victimhood.

Yeah, I'm sure you—

because it's such a— it's such a unique experience to be like the daughter of a fucking monster, the sister, the spouse, or the mother, you know. Um, so she had this to say to this woman about her father. It's a big long quote. 6 years into my father's sentence, I knew he was getting out early as an, quote, ideal inmate. So in 1984, when I was 21, 3 years prior to his proposed parole, I called the California prison where he was staying, and it was Saint Louis Obispo's California Colony for Men. I told whoever I talked to— I wasn't sophisticated enough then to take names or notes— that I was afraid my father remained a threat to my safety and was in general still dangerous. When I was 21, I quickly made several changes to my life. I graduated from college with my first degree. I changed my last name legally. I moved from Nevada to California, then moved back to Nevada to marry my college boyfriend. When I left Reno, I told anyone who my father might possibly contact to try to find me to tell him I, quote, flaked out or something, got married to someone they didn't know and left town.

I gave them a PO box so we could stay in touch. I realize how naive this sounds today as I write this, but I was concerned he might hurt or harass them. When I was about 20 years old, with the assistance of a PhD psychology intern, I had written a letter to my father telling him I was terminating our relationship. I asked California prison personnel what could be done to keep him in longer, and I was told there was nothing. They suggested I obtain a restraining order at the time of his release. Sorry, but I mean this quite sarcastically. I tell you he is a danger. I said that before the first crime. I've changed my name multiple times and I'm moving across state lines, and you all suggest a piece of paper that will tell him exactly where I am, what my name is, and not and not to come within, say, 300 feet of me. The neighbor woman who I had moved in with and lived with from about age 15 and a half until I was 18 had discouraged me both from terminating the relationship and from considering changing my name. She told me it was my, quote, responsibility to, I don't know, not hide.

I then and now wonder if she was not motivated by fear of my father.

That's insane.

That's his own daughter.

I've said that so many times, but like, it is so insane.

And that's— it's like, that's his fucking daughter.

She was always like so afraid. I mean, she obviously was so afraid of him.

Like, oh yeah. And to hear that he not only abused her but abused her mother too, before she was born and while she was gestating, like, that's insane.

Like, I would say that it takes like a, like, super fucked up person to like hurt a pregnant person, but this guy literally chopped somebody's arms off.

Yeah. So it's like, he is—

he has no love.

He doesn't. I don't know where he would have It's shocking that he didn't start earlier and didn't rack up a higher number.

I sincerely hope that like there is a hell just for people like this.

Yeah, just something, something like that. Well, obviously his daughter was very right to be concerned. Because, um, when he got out, when he was paroled, California was like, nope, we don't want him. So, uh, they pro— they protested to not allow him to move into their communities. Literally one California community after another told parole officials that they could not relocate him there.

Good.

Um, he was finally forced to live in a mobile home on the grounds of San Quentin Prison until the end of his parole in 1988. So wherever he was going next, he had to register, which he went to Florida. So he had to register with the state of Florida as a convicted felon. His move to Florida, where he was originally from, was not smooth. He was one of 8 kids in his family originally, and that's where he was from, like I said. So he had a lot of siblings living in California or Florida still. And at first he moved into his brother's home. Which soon became a target for people who were like, this is a fucking crazy person. Why is he coming into our community? They had a firebomb tossed into their front yard. Oh my God. Protesters showed up at court hearings where he appeared because he ended up having some— I think it was like shoplifting charges in Florida because he just kept being a fuckhead.

Of course.

So whenever he would go to court hearings for that, protesters would show up because I think between 1990 and 1991, he was arrested 3 times for shoplifting. At one hearing for these, he described himself as, quote, a confused, muddle-headed old man. Yeah, you're like— I love how he's just like, I'm just confused. I'm just an old man. You don't seem confused.

You just seem like a giant fucktard.

So after living with his brother, his brother was like, yo, you gotta get out of here because there's firebombs being tossed into my yard. Uh, so he moved into another home that was owned by his family in Orient Park in Tampa. His new neighbors thought he was a fucking great guy.

Oh, God.

Yeah. His next door neighbor at the time, Tom Bennett, said, quote, we were scared of him at first, but every day he'd talk to you. He'd cook steaks and bring them to you. Don't eat those. He fixed up his property really good. He was the neighbor you dream of. I started to believe him. Maybe he was framed.

No, he wasn't.

Nah. Well, they find out that he wasn't. Uh, so he— I mean, he lived alone. He spent most of his time just remodeling his house and landscaping his property. Several of his brothers and their wives visited often. He had a dog named Kala who was a Rottweiler that he apparently loved. Uh, they said he was also solicitous, offering to repair a neighbor's broken mailbox one day. Um, he would go to see his neighbors, like, bands play at bars. Like, he was very much in the neighborhood. Like a part— he was like one of those neighbors that's like in with everybody.

He was a townie.

Yeah, exactly, which is crazy. So some of the neighbors knew his— the con— the whole Mary Vincent thing, but some didn't. The ones who did were just like forgiving eventually, which is crazy to me. I would—

insane.

I just wouldn't be.

If you chop off somebody's arms, you're just not good in my book.

No, it's like, I just can't— I can't be like, well, maybe he friend, like, no, that's too much. No. So one of his other neighbors said, quote, we didn't like the idea that something had happened. Like, what? But you can't make a big thing about it if you want to give people a chance.

Yeah, I don't want to give that many people.

I love that they're just like, we don't like that something happened. Oh, something happened? He fucking blunt force trauma'd, brutally raped, chopped arms off, and threw a woman off a cliff. Something happened.

That's, that's not really like just casual behavior.

Yeah, it's just like, you know, we don't love that about him, but we're going to give him a chance.

I'd be like, yeah, we're not going to do that. I don't know.

I feel like it's like when somebody is like, yeah, I've been arrested for shoplifting quite a bit. You're like, ah, right. I don't like that bad habit, but—

Don't come to my house, please.

Yeah, like don't come around my valuables, but like, I don't like it, but we'll give you a chance. Yeah. This, not so much. So this is interesting. 3 weeks before he ended up being arrested in Florida for something we will talk about in a moment. Neighbors had to save him from his van because he attempted suicide in his driveway. His neighbors said he was found breathing the van's exhaust through a dryer hose that he had attached to the tailpipe. After this, he spent about a week in a psychiatric ward before returning back to his home. Tom Bennett, his neighbor that said before, like, we were scared, but he was good and he cooked steaks, he was great. He said, quote, he told me he was feeling sorry for himself. But he didn't give any more explanations.

Why the fuck are you feeling sorry for yourself? Why don't you feel sorry for the girl whose arms you cut off?

Exactly. Well, about 6 PM on a Wednesday night in February 1997, Hillsborough County Sheriff's officials said a man who had done some renovation work for Larry dropped by his house and heard, uh, what you might say is a commotion inside.

Uh-oh.

So he was like, what the fuck's going on? So he peered in through a window and he saw Larry butt-ass naked in the living room, choking and punching a woman and stabbing her repeatedly. The woman was nude and on the couch and was screaming for help.

Jesus Christ.

And he was— they said he was like maniacally just stabbing at her and like punching her.

And believable.

Yeah. A deputy who responded to the 911 call says Larry answered the door completely covered in blood.

And he's just like, hey, what's up?

Yeah, he was just like, oh, hey. And the woman was dead. The victim was identified as Roxanne Hayes. She was a 31-year-old sex worker and a Tampa resident and mother of 3. Oh my God, that's awful. Nobody knows exactly, you know, what the whole scenario was, if she was there for some other reason or if she was, like, there on business purposes. Either way. It's fucking awful. So the state of Florida flew Mary down for this trial.

Hell yeah.

Because she didn't have to testify, but she was like, oh, I'mma testify. Which is like, oh my God.

By the way, Lawrence, I'mma finish this.

Yeah, like, don't worry.

She's like, you thought you were about to finish something?

Crazy. So she didn't flinch when they asked to identify him, and she said she didn't dare take a deep look either. She was like, I don't— she said, quote, I wanted to see his eyes. Eyes are important. When he was on top of me attacking me, I was looking at the ax trying to stay alive. I asked later if I could look at him in the eye, but it didn't happen. Which is like, oh, it's like just so—

so fucked up.

Now this time he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Good.

Die, bitch. Unfortunately, he died in 2001 on death row of cancer. At age 74, which is a bummer.

Yeah, I wish that he actually got to be—

I hope he suffered. Yeah.

Do you know what kind of cancer he had?

No, I don't. I tried to look it up, but I couldn't find it.

I hope it was the worst one. I hope it was penis cancer.

You know, penis cancer. I don't know that particular one.

I hope he had it. Uh, yeah, you get for raping people.

Yeah, I hope he just had all the cancers. Yeah. So the prosecutor, Donald N. Stahl, who, uh, is now retired, but he said, quote, I'm not going to say he's Hannibal Lecter, but once a guy like that has a certain bend, he follows it for the rest of his life. This guy has a personality that's bent in the direction of going after women. Um, so this case actually helped Donald Stahl, the prosecutor, get legislation in front of the people it needs to get in front of that would make mandatory terms for most violent crimes. And as a result, they can now say that at this time, the shit that he did to Mary Vincent would result in a life sentence. Like, that would not happen again the way it happened, because they're like, they're like, look, we gave him 14 fucking years, which is nothing, and then he got out in 8 and he immediately killed someone else. Right? Like, this is ridiculous.

This is a fucked up thing.

Yeah. So one of his neighbors said, quote, when I found out about what he had done, the first thing I thought was, should I have left that man in that van that day? If I had known, I probably would have at least given it a second thought. Yeah, you should have, because that's the other thing. It's like now all these neighbors who like rushed to help this guy were like, shit, we saved his life and he went on and killed someone.

Exactly.

I don't blame them for being like, should I have fucking left him in his van?

Who knows if he like killed somebody else and that's why Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, we don't know DNA. It's in the '70s. It's so hard to pin shit on.

I'm sure this guy killed other people.

He could have done stuff before Mary. He could have done stuff, you know, in between. It's just crazy. So as for Mary, who is the real star of this whole thing, she says that she still has a lot of nightmares. Um, she's still afraid to go to sleep and can't sleep for very long. When she— when she actually does. She says, quote, I've broken bones thanks to my nightmares. I've jumped up and dislocated my shoulder just trying to get out of bed. I've cracked ribs and smashed my nose. Every day I pray to God to make a space I can breathe in, and every day God gives it to me. And she's now an artist. She doesn't have arms and she's a fucking artist.

Oh my God.

And this is a skill that she said she like just happened after this whole thing. She said she couldn't draw a straight line before this.

That's a miracle.

Yeah, which is insane.

So she does— she draw with like prosthetics?

Yeah, like she uses her prosthetic hooks. And that's the other thing, she's like a tinkerer, so she makes her own prosthetics to like work with what she wants to do.

Wow.

Yeah, she said— and this, I love this— she says she has entered the third phase of this whole ordeal now. She says first she was a victim, then a survivor, and now she's an artist. That's interesting. Which I love. I love that. And as an artist, she focuses on— she says she focuses on powerfully upbeat women. She uses chalk pastels and she works in a vein that kind of blends like the Vargas pinup girl style. And she creates her own basically like femme fatale action figures, which I just think is so badass.

That is.

And oh yeah, so like I said, she's like a tinkerer and she makes her own shit. She uses spare parts from broken-down refrigerators and old stereo systems to modify them, like her prosthetics, to be what she needs them. Like, the fingers turn in all directions, like, and she does it herself. She said, quote, I like to tinker. So did my grandfather. He was an artist too. I guess I get it from him. There's all this stuff in the world that's been discarded. If you keep working with it, it will work with you. Which I'm like, I love that. And she, um, she started the Mary Vincent Foundation to advocate for teenage victims of sexual assault. Really? Yeah. And she— and I'll just end this with a quote from her. She said, quote, I've never indulged myself in anger and hate. I wouldn't be here if I had.

That is so fucking big of her, because I would be the most angry, hateful person if this shit happened to me.

That's the thing. It's like, how do you not come out of that with so much much hate, anger, just bitterness, like just so paranoid of everything, right? Which I know she probably was— is paranoid at times, but like for her to come out and just be like, nope, like I'm not gonna—

she just is living her life like the best. Yeah, she can.

And it's like, and she's in a pretty remarkable way. And she must be so fucking annoyed that it's like they gave him such a lenient sentence and he went out and killed a woman.

Well, because that was her main thing that she like went to trial for, that he wouldn't do it again.

Exactly. And that's the whole reason she survived. Her whole mindset was, I have to survive so he doesn't do this to someone else. And then the system let it happen again after she fucking survived all that shit and like used every fiber and cell in her body to survive that whole thing, just so— not for herself, but for her— him not to do this or someone else. The system allowed him to just walk out and do it again. So messed And it's like, the poor family of, you know, Roxanne. This could have been avoided. This dude shouldn't have been out in the fucking— yeah, her 3 children. It's like, this dude shouldn't have been out loose. And I'm sure his neighbors, because I know I read a lot about his neighbors being like, this dude should not have been allowed to live near us like this and to interact with us and become part of us. Like, this is crazy. I'm so glad that this case Which is— I mean, this is all like because of Mary, like that this case changed things so that this kind of attack is not seen as something that you get a max of 14 years and serve 8 years for, you know, like now you're getting life for this kind of shit because if you're capable of doing this, you're not going to be rehabilitated.

It's just not something that's going to happen. No, no. So it makes so much sense. It's like that and pedophilia. Pedophilia, you can't rehabilitate it. No, like, those people need to be like away from the rest of society, and I have no fucking qualms saying that. No, it's true. But yeah, so that is the fucking bonkers story of Mary motherfucking Vincent. That is— I can't even— the patron saint of badass bitches. Like, she needs her own— you know those true crime candles?

Oh my God, yeah.

Which also, like, someday I hope our faces are on one of those. That's like my goal. That's the goal. That's the dream.

Oh my God.

Like, just putting that out there. True crime candles someday. Someday. Someday. We'll earn it someday. But she needs to be on one of those.

I'm picturing one.

But you have a duck face. No, I wouldn't. I— but Mary Vincent needs to be one of those. Yeah, she does.

She needs an I survived candle.

She needs to— like, she needs to be a candle that's like the patron saint of badassery.

I want that.

I'd buy that. Yeah, I want that.

I'd buy that for a lot of money.

That's just our little, you know, pitch. True crime candles. So yeah, so that was— at least that one was a good one. It had, it had a real bummer in the beginning, it had a real bummer in the middle, but like, you know, in the end, he died. At least he's dead.

And Mary's a fucking beautiful artist.

Yeah, and Mary's just this beautiful fucking wildflower, just floating through and she is thriving. So that's a great one, and, uh, we hope you enjoyed that one. We'll do some more of these like fun survival ones sprinkled in every now and then because they're nice.

Yeah, not everybody has to die.

Yeah, I mean, it definitely gives the grizzly shit, but like it's nice to have that every once in a while, to have an end that's like, yeah, all right. So we hope you guys enjoyed this. Like I said, we want to start getting out some more content. We just have to kind of like make it work for us. Yeah. Uh, but I promise we have so many cases we want to get to, so we really do want to just give you as much as we can. Um, eventually we'll try to do 2 a week. We're definitely going to try to do that. I think we can make it work sooner than later. We just kind of have to— we'll get it, we'll get it, we'll buckle it up, we'll figure it out. Because I know you guys will, um, be psyched to get more, so we want to give you that because you're so amazing. And yeah, so we'll do another bonus episode very shortly. I think we— in fact, I know we are going to hit House of 1000 Corpses because I'm very excited to show Ash that for the first time. I've never seen it.

And I love doing that. I love giving you like a first, a first run. Yeah, it was like Freddy vs Jason. Yeah. So I love it. I love being the one to introduce you to this like fucked up shit.

Ayo!

So we'll do House of 1000 Corpses. Our next case is not going to be a survived one. It's one that I remember reading about, like, early in my true crime fascination. Not right in the beginning, but it's one that I just remember, like, constantly coming up when I was reading. So we won't tell you about it yet. We'll give you a tease.

Yeah, let's do the teasies.

Yeah, we'll tease it out. So we'll see if anybody, any of you true crime afficionados can snag which one it is.

If you guess, you win.

Yeah, if you get— you know what, if you guess it right, you wanna— we'll give you a sticker.

Yeah, well, you get a sticker.

Yeah, we'll get— if you guess it right, we will give you a Morbid sticker. So we'll put out some teasers and we'll see if anybody can get it.

The first person to guess it right.

Yeah, the first person to guess it right. Yeah, because if everybody just repeats the same one, we're gonna have like 400 sticker.

I just realized that.

Okay, so the first person to get it right will give a sticker to—

you get a sticker, and you, you get a sticker.

Everybody gets a sticker.

Look under your chair, there's a sticker there.

There's a sticker, enjoy it. Imagine if that was part of Oprah's like thing when she's like, and you get it, look under your chairs, and they were like, it's a sticker, and she was like, it's a sticker. It's just Oprah's face. Thanks, fucking Oprah. So yeah. Oh, so make sure you guys rate and review and it really helps us out. And, you know, hit that subscribe button. Find us on Instagram @morbidpodcast. Email us morbidpodcast@gmail.com. We hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it fucking weird.

You threw in the fucking.

I did. I felt like I wanted to make it aggressive.

Don't just be weird.

He's fucking weird, man. And don't sleep on the couch.

And fresh air is for dead people. And don't hitchhike.

And don't hitchhike.

And if you do hitchhike, don't fall asleep.

Yeah, definitely don't fall asleep. Mary Vincent, you the shit. Mary Vincent, Mary Vincent, Mary Vincent, Mary Vincent, Mary Vincent, Mary Vincent, Mary Vincent.