Transcript of The Horrific Crimes of the Aspirin Bandit

Hey, weirdos.

I'm Ash. And I'm Elaina.

And this is Morbid.

This is Morbid. Bitch. On the weekend.

I know. It's so weird. I feel like we very rarely record on the weekend.

We try not to.

The weekend. The weekend. If you've seen the Urban Legend movie.

Which I hope you have. If you haven't, go watch it.

If you haven't, what the hell are you doing?

What the hell, Yante? What's that?

If you haven't seen the Urban Legend movie, then where the hell are you at? I don't think that one really worked, but whatever.

I don't think it did.

Okay, I didn't need you to double down on my own opinion. But here's the thing.

I really liked it.

Okay, that's good. I'm just very tired. You had no big thoughts. So tired. We had our first live show last night at the Will At the Wilba.

At the Wilba, Ye Old Wilbur.

Ye Old Wilba is what we found out it's called.

It was so much fun.

You guys, I said on my Instagram story, you showed up and you showed out.

You did. You showed in every direction.

You showed in, up, down, left, right, center, everywhere. Under on top. It was so much fun. It was. We had a couple of hiccups, super minor hiccups, and you guys were just lolling with us.

Yeah, because they were funny hiccups. They were funny. They ruined anything. But it It started right away when I didn't know when I was supposed to go on stage. I know. And I think everyone heard me over the microphone be like, Do I go up now?

Do I go? I literally like, Yeah, just go. Just go.

But yeah, so that was so much fun. And we got to meet a bunch of you. It was just It was great.

I know. Everyone we met was so lovely.

The vibe was so good in there.

It really was.

You guys really brought some just delicious vibes. Yeah.

Here's the thing. You're going to be hearing this after it already happened just because of the way the cookie crumbles. But Sunday crowd, you better have brought it.

I hope you brought it.

Because Friday brought it.

Yeah, they brought it.

So yesterday's crowd?

Yeah. Hope you brought it. And shout out to Lauren, who made us the coolest cross stitch I've ever seen.

And was the sweetiest bobedy. Sorry, I gave you the most awkward hug of human existence because my shoes were so high and the stage was high up. So I went to give her a side hug, but I just leaned on her.

I think I just grabbed your arm or your hand. Elaina is not a hugger. Because I just didn't know what to do.

You I hugged last night. I hugged. Yeah. And I hugged and we all hugged.

Hey, it's all...

I love you guys. Yeah. I say I'm not a hugger, but then I just go and hug everyone. Yeah.

You are a hugger. I'm a secret hugger.

You are. You know what? I'm coming out of the closet as a hugger.

You're officially saying it. Here I am. Here she is.

Except don't hug me. I'll hug you.

Yeah, that's all. It's like, if I want to hug you, I'll hug you. Yeah. Yeah. So if I hugged you, I wanted to hug you. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Yeah. We had everybody was so amazing. And we had all the people You know, that love and care about us back there with us, which was so lovely.

Yeah.

But yeah, I'm exhausted.

It's very big tired.

You know, one of my kids is going through a slight little sleep regression type doodad.

The little doodad.

So I don't exactly sleep through the night ever right now. It feels like a newborn a little bit, but- I slept.

I'm sorry. I slept through the night and I slept in and I'm still tired.

I got, I didn't sleep through the night. And then I woke up, took one of them to dance, and then immediately went to karate. And this is like, John was going to just do all the things this morning. Yeah, but you want to. But because I had the thing last night, and I don't like- And we had some of the day taken out. Yeah, I don't like missing like, I get that. Bedtime with them and everything. So I was like, no, I want to do it all. And then I was like, but I'm so tired.

You're like, that Sarah Jessica Parker movie. How does she do it all? How does she do it all? Except I think she might be a bitch in that movie. Probably. Well, I mean, you're bitching, but you're not a bitch.

You're bitching. But you're not a bitch.

I like that. Donna's to Darko.

But yeah. So I'm exhausted. But, here we are. We're here. It's all good exhaustion.

Yeah. Honestly, life has been like, well, Before I go too far.

I was just going to say, where's this going?

It's so fun. Professional life has been fucking sick lately. Oh, yeah.

We are fucking loving.

Professional life did a 180. Love it. And then personal life went a little like...

Well, it's like life If in our own little houses, A plus.

Great. Fucking awesome. A plus.

Outside of that? Outside of that could use a little WD-40 because it's a little squeaky.

I think we need more than that, babe. A little squeaky. But you know what?

But you know.

Babe, I got you, babe. I got you, babe. That's my... We're Sonny and Cher before they divorce.

So there's that. Yeah. But yeah, we're going to... We have a case for you today. We do.

That's why you're here. They're like, Can you get to it? They're like, Can you stop being insane?

This could be very unhinged. Probably. But, here we are. I'm going to talk about the Aspirin Bandit today.

The what? I just took a sip of coffee. Like, the worst The Aspirin Bandit. Is this about someone stealing the Aspirin? You would think.

You would think. It's a little different. So I know that's a very interesting name, but we'll get to it.

Topical.

So let's begin at the beginning. Okay. You know, a really good place to begin.

Yeah. By the way, I'm sorry about my straw. There's nothing I can do about it. Oh, yeah. Mikey, don't worry. It's fine. I need the coffee.

We have it. You know, we're trying to be the environment with glass and metal straws.

But then it does a little like... But it But you know what? Asmr. Yeah.

We don't do it all the time. So don't worry. So on the afternoon of January 13th, 1941, Betty Allen was home, home alone. Home alone. Home alone? I don't... I was going to say HomeArone. I'm I'm not really sure. Well, maybe she was both. I don't know what's going on.

She was living that Macolke... Macolke?

She was living that Macolke in life. What? That's what she was living. Why? Wait, what?

Macaul- Macaulkeek. Macaulkeek. Macaulkeek. Macaulkeek. I did the K too soon. Jesus Christ. Oh my God. I told you. Christ Almighty. I warned you. What's the other Kerkin? What's the other Kerkin? What's the other Kerken? What's the other Kerken? What's the other Kerken? What's the other Kerken?

God damn it. There's many Kolkin.

Who's Roman?

Roman is Kieran, maybe?

No. Is it Kieran? It was a Kieran. Now I have to look this up. We're never going to get to this story. We haven't even started this. Hello? I think it's Kieran Kolkin. I think you're right. Or is that Kieran Shippke? Yeah, it's Kieran Kolkin. It's Kieran Kolkin, but Kieran Shippke.

There's Macaulay Culkin. There's Rory Culkin.

No, you don't have to tell me all of them. I just like Kieran.

And Kieran Culkin. No, Kieran. Kieran Culkin is Roman. He is. But Rory Culkin was in Scream 4. He plays Charlie.

Oh, I did like Charlie, too.

And I thought he was so good in that. He really was. I really thought he was awesome in that.

Of all the of all the Culkins, Kieran is my favorite.

Kieran is your favorite. I mean, I get that. I think he's pretty high up on people's lists right now.

But honestly, they all rock. Yeah, they're all good. They're all pretty great. I like you all. I'm just saying. I like Kieran the best.

Since you're obviously listening to this is fine.

Listen, Culkin weirdos.

Listen, Culkin.

I feel like I'm losing my mind.

Oh, one little side note. Oh my God. I feel like, and again, this is coming out after the Sunday show. I don't know. I made a joke at the end of the Friday show. Yeah, you fucked up. Tobias Forge was coming out.

I don't know if you should do that tomorrow.

I don't think I should do it Sunday. I think I genuinely disappointed everyone because I was like, just kidding.

Don't do that at the end of the show.

Because he's in Mexico. He's not here.

It was funny, though, when you were like, I'm kidding. He's in Mexico.

Yeah, I was like, come on. He's not even here. I think everyone believed me for a second, which like, thank you for having the faith in me that you think that I could get Tobias Forge to come out for the end of our show.

Here's the thing. If we were going to get Tobias Forge to come out, I feel like we wouldn't put him at the end of the show. Oh, absolutely not. That'd be so rude.

I would have had him sat on that Chase Lounge the whole time.

I was like, what are you about to say? Where would you have him sat?

On the Chase Lounge.

On the Chase.

He would have just been a little specimen that sits there. There you go. Every now and then I'd be like, Tobias Forge, what's up?

. So funny that you heard Tobias.

Yeah, it was funny. I made that joke. I don't think anybody was mad at me about it, but I felt the disappointment, so I don't think I'll do that on Sunday.

Here's how I'll call your disappointment. Our pumpkin necklaces that I ordered us just came in. Oh, hell, yeah.

I want to wear the shit out of that. Let's fucking go. Yeah. If you were at the Friday show, sorry if I disappointed you with that joke. I truly didn't mean to. Okay. Someday we'll have him be a special guest. Yeah. You know. On a chase. On something. We'll put him on a chase. But on Sunday, who knows if I made that joke. And if I did, sorry, I disappointed you, too.

I'm telling you, I don't know if you should.

I don't think. Maybe I'll just tell you on Sunday that I made that joke and it disappointed everyone.

There you go. There you go. And now you'll just hear it again. I figured it out.

Okay. Okay. All right.

So here we We're losing it.

All right. So on the afternoon of January 13th, 1941, Betty Allen was home alone. And errone. And errone in the Bronx apartment she shared with her husband. The Bronx. And she heard a knock at the door. When she opened it, Betty was met by a young man with olive skin, that's how he was described, and dark hair, who she had never seen before. The man explained that a few days earlier, he had been hitchhiking in Connecticut. It was picked up by her husband who was driving his bakery delivery route. The young man told Betty he'd had a hard life and had grown up in Boys Town, which was a small village in Nebraska, established a few decades earlier by Father Edward Flanigan as a home for orphaned boys.

I feel like I've heard of Boys Town.

Yeah. He was on his way to visit his sixth sister in New York, and Betty's husband had been kind enough to not only give him a ride, but also lend him a few dollars. Now that he'd arrived in the city, he wanted to repay the small loan, which is really nice.

I don't know if I buy it.

Betty explained that her husband was still work and would be home later that day if he wanted to return.

Never give up that information.

You can't do that.

Your husband is always home as far as strangers are concerned.

The man seemed a little disappointed and again expressed that he really just wanted to return the money. But Betty just reiterated her previous statement, My husband is not home. He will be home later this evening. Accepting this whole thing, the man was about to leave. But before he did, he wondered if Betty might be able to spare a few aspirin and a glass of water because he said he had a terrible headache all day and would have to walk back to his sister's apartment, which was far away, and he was really dealing with a headache. All right. Betty was like, Yeah, of course. So she said, yeah, wait, wait here. I'll get you the pills and the water. But as soon as Betty had walked away, the man slipped in behind her and closed the door.

Oh, no. That is really scary. Really scary. Actually, I hate saying this, but that's such a good way to get in. Most people really wouldn't think twice about that.

He endeared himself. And then he just asked for something very simple, which is like, I really have a headache. And he didn't insist on coming in the house. He waited.

Knowing that she's not going to, or most likely not going to lock the door behind her.

But now you know, lock the door.

Yeah.

So once inside the apartment, the man forced Betty into the back bedroom and pushed her on the bed. Oh, no. Then he, and just as, obviously, I think you can all see that this is going to be a rough one. I would love to throw a trigger warning right now, just in case there's some sexual assault in this one. It's a little tough. He tied her hands with a necktie and her feet with a towel, and then he gagged her with a handkerchief. Jesus. She was laying face down on the bed, but she could hear him rumaging through the apartment, presumably looking for cash and valuables. But when he finished ransacking the apartment, he returned to the bedroom and she could hear him taking off his clothes, presumably to sexually assault her. Yeah. Fortunately, just as he had started to unbutton his pants, the telephone rang really loudly and scared him. It like, freaked him out. And he quickly dressed himself up and ran out of the apartment.

The telephone scared him off? Yeah. That's crazy. I don't know if it's just like- I'm glad, but- It's just like interference from the outside world, maybe.

Just made him be like, Oh, fuck. Like, I'm going to get in trouble here? I don't know. Interesting. Now, when Bronx's Detective, Ed Burns, came to the Allen apartment, the scene supported the story that Betty had told. Someone had clearly torn the place apart, you know, ripping out drawers, pulling out the contents of the cabinets. But when he spoke to Betty and her husband, Burns only learned a few things of value that had been stolen. He was like, he didn't really take a lot. Other more valuable items were left behind.

Weird.

Also, after giving investigators a description of her attacker, both Betty and her husband claimed they didn't know the man, and her husband couldn't think of anyone who matched that description. That story was not- Was a ruse. Yeah. The rest of the crime scene was pretty unhelpful. There was a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin on the table in the kitchen. But when they dusted the glass, neither Betty nor the attacker's prints were even visible on it, indicating that he'd actually been smart enough to wipe it down before leaving the apartment because he had wiped Betty's off, too. When he considered all the evidence, Burns theorized that this probably wasn't the first time this attacker had done something like this because that was pretty smart. Also, he left behind valuables laying in plain sight while taking, again, the smaller, less valuable ones. He was like, I I didn't even think that robbery was the prime motive here. So later that afternoon, detectives brought Betty and her husband into the station to look over a bunch of photos of 50 known criminals that they wanted to have a look at. That's a lot of people.

She flips through a few pages, and she identified Anthony Litzie as the man who attacked her. At the time, Litzie was known to Bronx Police for his involvement in a number of robberies a few years earlier. But since he'd been released from prison, he'd stayed out of trouble and he'd actually maintained employment with a local construction crew. So they were like, fuck, is he back at it again? Yeah. Now, there was nothing in his past as well to suggest that he was a violent predator, too, which made them consider what was going on. Yeah, that's weird. But when investigators spoke to his employer, they learned that Anthony had been working at the Park Chester Apartments on the day Betty Allen was attacked, which is where she lived.

Okay.

So he was brought in for questioning. Under interrogation, Litsy vehemently denied having anything to with this whole thing. And he offered two of his coworkers as alibis. He was like, I did not do this. But when they learned that both of Litsy's alibis were related to him by blood or marriage.

Oh, that doesn't fucking check out at all.

He was arrested for the attack on Betty Allen. All right.

I still don't know if it's him.

You don't know. So his arrest represented the best possible outcome. A quick resolution that brought this whole thing to a close.

Feels too soon.

Or so it seemed. Imagine if I was like, And that's the end. That's it. The end.

Yeah. Welcome to the shortest morbid ever recorded.

And what a happy ending. He got caught. I know.

And like, you know.

Bye. So three weeks after the attempted assault on Betty Allen, Ed Burns was called to the apartment of John and Katherine Pappas. John had been at work that afternoon when someone came to the apartment and killed Katherine. Oh. Yeah. According to John, there were several things missing, including a necklace, a diamond engagement ring, and an unknown amount of dimes that Katherine had been saving in a tin on her dresser. But what immediately caught Burns's attention was the open bottle of aspirin and a glass of water sitting on the coffee table. Oh, shit. Now you know why he's called the Aspirin Bandit.

And that is such good detective work to notice something.

Because, again, that's pretty innocuous. Right. Exactly. Many people get headaches, and especially around this time. We're in the '40s here. Everybody got a headache. You're taking some aspirin. You got headaches. Like, shit's rough. We're like, depression era, like post-depression. It's like everybody's got a fucking headache and you're all taking an aspirin for it. It's just like a normal thing to do. Now, in the bedroom, Katherine's body was on the bed. She had scratches and bruising on her face. Her bra was torn and her dress was hiked up to her waist, but she was still wearing underwear. Later, the medical examiner would confirm that she had not been sexually assaulted, but she had been strangled and several of her neck bones had been broken in the process.

That's brutal.

Brutal. When she was And when he discovered she had a linen towel tied around her throat, which had been ripped, and the other was used to bind her ankles, and her wrists had been bound with a man's blue necktie. On the bed, there was also a balled-up handkerchief that looked like he had tried to use it as a gag, which is exactly what he did with Betty.

I was just going to say.

To Burns, the scene clearly looked very much like the Betty Allen scene immediately. There was no sign of forced entry. The bottle of aspirin on the table, the apartment had been ransacked and looted.

Seam bindings.

Yeah. The only difference was in this case, Katherine Pappas had fought her attacker with every ounce of energy she had in her. And for that, she was likely killed. They thought she fought so hard that he just lost it. Right. Now, investigators interviewed John, who was an owner of a small coffee import business. And he told them he had been at work when his wife was killed, which was confirmed by several of his employees. And John told detectives he and Catherine had met in Egypt where she had grown up, and they married just two years earlier. Since their marriage, Katherine moved to America and spent most of her time volunteering with their church, where she taught Sunday school, and she just kept up with the domestic responsibility. She was just like a stay at home wife. Very '40s. Yeah.

According to John, he returned home around 10: 00 PM that night and rang the bell.

And he explained that because his wife was new to the country, she was a little anxious and uncomfortable about being alone, especially when she was home alone, which is smart.

I lived here my whole fucking life, and I'm anxious when I'm home alone.

What's so him is he got in the habit of ringing the bell when he arrived so that she wouldn't be frightened by him just entering the apartment. Oh my God, that's adorable. Yeah. She didn't want him to hear. He didn't want her to hear the door open, like think somebody was coming in to hurt her.

Yeah, be anxious, right.

But that night, after ringing the bell, he put his keys in the door and was surprised to find out that it wasn't locked.

Oh.

And he was like, that's not, we don't leave this unlocked when she's there. So he went in the apartment and found it had been ransacked. And he found Catherine dead in the bedroom, which is when he called the police.

That's so sad that she was so worried about being here in the first place.

The one thing she was worried about happened.

And it's like, you do wonder if she felt some sense of that.

Yeah. Like she could almost tell that something was in touch. She was in touch. It's really You hear this a lot in these cases. And it's always fascinating. Where it's somebody who's really nervous or very anxious about being alone and so locks the door a lot or does whatever they knew. And then they end up being the victim of these things. And you're like, It's just so horrifying to me for someone to be that's their worst nightmare, and it comes true. Yeah. I mean, the one thing they didn't want to happen comes true.

And you do everything you can to avoid it.

I hate it. So when it was suggested that she might They've been having an affair, which they, of course, brought up. So rude. John flatly rejected the very idea, saying that she was an exceedingly proper woman who would never have done anything to compromise her reputation.

He's like, Also, we were in love.

He's also like, She's my wife. Also, he was like, She has a very small social circle, mostly people she knew from church, and would have been really out of character for her to invite a stranger into their home under any circumstances. The medical examiner fixed Katherine time of death between 11: 00 AM and 3: 00 PM. Basically, that's when she would have been home alone, like the bulk of when she would have been home alone. When detectives asked the doorman if he'd seen anyone unfamiliar that afternoon, he told them as he was arriving for his shift at 2: 00 PM, he did see a man with olive skin and dark hair leaving the building like he was in a hurry. Now, investigators worked through the night to process the scene, which was really light on evidence and clues. And in the living room, they discovered several cigarette butts in the ashtray, and there was a brand that John and Katherine did not smoke. So the discovery of all these cigarettes suggested that the killer had lingered in the home.

And smoked inside like a douchebag.

Yeah, of course, it was a 40, so they all did that. Everybody smoking inside. I was like, yeah, that was just normal. But this belief was supported by the presence of coffee cups on the table, which indicated that Katherine had provided at least a coffee, water, and aspirin, at the very least to this intruder, which is out of character.

Or maybe he made his own coffee there. Yeah.

So a little past 04: 00 AM, one of the investigators discovered a fingerprint on the water glass that didn't match Catherine. Oh, I love it. Which that's badass. I love 4: 00 AM. They're like, Got it.

They're going to run it through the database in the '40s.

Yeah, exactly. Fortunately, by 1941, crime scene investigators had started carrying fingerprinting kits, and they were able to take the fingerprints of everyone who had been the scene since the body was discovered, at the very least. Having effectively ruled out everybody there, that meant the fingerprint almost certainly belonged to the killer because they checked John's fingerprints as well. The print was rushed to Albany, where the state fingerprint records were kept, and a copy was also sent to the FBI in Washington, DC, for comparison. As soon as he saw the crime scene, Detective Ed Burns was convinced that this was the same person that attacked Betty Allen. Also, in the week since the attack in the Allen apartment, three other rape and robberies had occurred, two in the Bronx and one in Washington Heights. In each incident, the attacker had asked the woman for aspirin before attacking them. Since Anthony Litzie was in jail, when the Papas murder and other attacks occurred, it was impossible that he was responsible for any of the crimes. So he was released from jail, and district Attorney Samuel Folley admitted there was the that the murder was committed by the same person.

Yeah, I would think so.

Now, detectives fanned out across the city, interviewing the owners of various pond and junk shops around the city, hoping that the killer might have tried to sell some of the stolen jewelry. But by the end of the day, they were really coming up with nothing. At the same time, and honestly, with remarkable speed at that, the results from the Albany fingerprint analysis came back, and unfortunately, the print found on the water glass wasn't a match for any of the prints on file. Two days passed since the murder of Katherine Pappas, and in that time, investigators's best evidence had gone nowhere, and there were no new leads. Super frustrated, Burns and the other detectives returned to the earliest case, which was the attack of Betty Allen. They were certain that there was something in that case that was going to lead them to the killer. Betty and her husband were called back to the precinct for another interview, and Betty told her story again. She wasn't ordinarily in the habit of letting strangers in her home or even opening the door for people she didn't know. But she said the young man just seemed to know a great deal about her husband, including the route he drove as a delivery driver.

Yeah. So he assumed, she assumed he was telling the truth. He knew all that information.

So he's like watching people. Yeah.

So when they first interviewed following the attack, both Betty and her husband were adamant that they didn't know anyone who matched the description of who attacked Betty, and neither of them had any idea how the man knew all these details about them. And Betty reiterated this during the follow-up interview. But When they asked Betty's husband the same question, his story changed. This time, he explained that just a few days before the attack, he did pick up a hitchhiker while he was on a delivery route in Connecticut. And while they drove, the man told a familiar story. He had been raised in Boysetown, Nebraska, after both his parents died, and he was on his way to visit his sister in New York because she was sick and needed help. The story played on Betty's husband's sympathy, so he gave the young man a few dollars. But The hitchhiker insisted that he pay him back, so Mr. Allen gave him their address in the Bronx.

Oh, so he didn't want to say that originally, which I get. That's rough. He was probably embarrassed and felt so guilty.

Of course. That he was being so blindly trustworthy.

That's rough.

Now, at the time, Betty identified Anthony Litsy as their attacker, so her husband didn't mention the hitchhiker because it didn't seem relevant.

Yeah. Although it definitely fucking did.

It definitely was. That's how he thought it. By the time they got around to the second interview with the Allens, the story had become familiar to the Bronx detectives, having heard it from three other victims. In each case, the incident seemed to go in more or less the same way. The young man shows up at the door while the woman is home alone. He claimed to have borrowed money from their husbands, and he even mentions growing up in Boysetown, they all still told the same story. In each case, he asked for an aspirin and a glass of water, and that's when he makes his way into the apartment and he attacks the woman, tying them up with his necktie and whatever else he could find. And then he ransacks the apartment, stealing whatever valuables he could find before wiping the fingerprints off the glass and fleeing the scene. Same thing each time. Now, in each of the four cases, the attacker had been picked up hitchhiking either in Connecticut or New York. A few days later, he would show up at the victim's apartment. To Detective Burns, it seemed entirely reasonable that if there were four victims that they knew about, it was pretty possible there could be more, either in the Bronx or one of the other boroughs.

Operating on that hunch, he put out a message to all the precincts across the five boroughs, and he asked for any cases that were similar to these attacks on Alan and the other victims. It's unknown what type of response Ed Burns was hoping for, but whatever it was, it probably paled in comparison to the incredible response he received back. Okay. Now, within a few hours, investigators received a call from police in Manhattan regarding a case that was really fucking similar to the one in the Bronx. The couple was brought into the Bronx precinct, and the husband explained that he had picked up a hitchhiker who told him his name was Jerry Schafner. He told him he'd grown up in Boysetown and was trying to get to New York to visit his sister, who he'd recently, I think the sister had broken her leg in this instance and needed help getting around.

He probably just got tired of saying the exact same thing.

You got to switch it up a little.

Just a tiny bit. Yeah.

Like Betty's husband, the man gave him a few dollars and the hitchhiker insisted he wanted to pay him back, so he got their address. It's just like a bunch of dudes that are trying to be nice.

I know. But just giving up their home address. Like, goddamn.

A few days later, Jerry Schafner showed up at the door when the man was at work, explained the whole thing, and he seemed trustworthy, and the wife felt sorry for him. So she invited him in and offered him some lunch.

This is such a wild way to go about things, hitchhiking with their husbands first and then- And praying- He infiltrates the entire family.

And praying on their goodness. Like, full goodness. He's fully praying on their trustworthiness because this person is picking you up, giving you money, and then giving you their address. You show up and then pray on the wife who's like, Do you want to come in for lunch?

Like, nice people trying to be nice.

Yeah. So after eating the sandwich that she had prepared for him, Schafner said he had a terrible headache and asked if she could spare some aspirin. When she returned with the pills, that's when he attacked her. He tied her up. He sexually assaulted her. He looted the apartment. He then wiped down anything he touched and left. The call from Manhattan was just the first of many, many, many more calls. And by the end of the day, investigators were flooded with calls from precincts all over New York City, with cases that were nearly identical to those in the Bronx. The attacker went by many aliases, Jerry Schafner, Jerry Mitchell, George Mitchell, George Mundee, George Blake, and others. But the details were literally all the same. The boys town thing, showing up looking for aspirin, attack, assault, to wipe off, leave. All of the above. In 1941, police precincts and districts operated more or less as independent entities, basically, despite being a larger, the NYPD. This had much to do with the limited communication technology as it did the limited regions they were responsible for. But as a result, they rarely communicated with one another unless a case really required it.

As a result, investigators all over New York had no idea they were pursuing the same person in multiple cases across the city right now. Oh, dang. Once, detectives in the Bronx started pulling together all the cases, though, a bigger picture of what was going on and how surprising this one was coming into view. By plotting all the cases on a map, Burns and the other investigators were able to identify 31 cases going back nine months, all with the same memo.

Wow.

There was a noticeable pattern in the movements. He would catch rides from drivers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, or New Jersey, and travel into the city. Once there, he would commit three or four assault, and then he would leave the city, and the cycle would start over again. All right. Yeah. Now, operating on the assumption that if the attacker could have caught rides in the states around New York, it was pretty possible he could have come from further away. Investigators put out a bulletin to eight states on the East Coast, stretching as far as Maine and New Orleans. Wow. Asking their fellow detectives to, quote, make a careful check of files for a man who gains entrance by subterfuge, claiming to know the husband. After gaining admittance and gaining women's confidence, he mugs some by applying soiled handkerchief to some's mouth, then ties hands and feet with necktie and steal money in jewelry. In the same bulletin, they included descriptions of Katherine Pappas' missing jewelry and asked pon shop owners and jewelers to also be on the lookout in those places. They're doing a really good job with this.

Yeah, they really are.

Meanwhile, detectives reached out to Father Edward Flanigan Flanigan, the founder of Boysetown, who explained that he didn't know anyone who fit the description of the man they were looking for. He did, however, explain that he had received several postcards in recent months from men whose names he didn't recognize, and he offered to hand them over if it would help. That's strange. In their interviews with the victims and their husbands, many reported that the hitchhiker had gone as far as writing out and sending postcards to Flanigan while in their presence. To make his story more believable, basically.

But to send them is so strange.

So this man is making up these aliases, and then he sits down after telling this story and writes out the postcard so they feel like he's telling the truth. And then, like you said, is actually sending them to Father Flanigan.

That's the thing. It's like, you could go to that trouble to make the rules believable. Which is also weird. Which is also weird. But to send them is like a whole other level. Yeah.

So while they assumed the names on the cards were all aliases, Burns and the other investigators thought, at the very least, that the postcards could provide them with a handwriting sample. In fact, when they received the postcards from Flanigan, they were all signed with aliases or simply the mayor.

The mayor? Yeah. What is this? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Right?

Oh, I love that character. Same. But analysis of the cards found that the handwriting belonged to the same person. In the two weeks after the release of the bulletin, the Bronx Precinct received a second flood of reports from surrounding States, all reporting cases that match the MO. Although the victims in all cases are different in age, race, and body type, the details of the attack are nearly identical. And investigators added an additional 50 victims to their list. Oh my God. Which was an average of one attack every three days. Holy. Yeah.

So who the fuck is this person that has all the time in the world to just hitchhike around and kill everybody? I'm saying. Like, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

Where do you come from?

That's the thing. They're like, who the fuck is this?

Why don't you have a job Now, among the worst aspects of the Aspirin bandit attacks was definitely the physical and psychological trauma that the victims were experiencing.

But nearly as bad was the ways in which the victims were retraumatized in the days and weeks after the attack. In nearly all the cases, the attacker was only able to commit the assault because the woman's husband gave him their addresses. But because they had limited ability to cope with the intense feelings of guilt and shames that caused, they frequently projected their feelings onto their wives, blaming them for the attacks by suggesting they'd done something to encourage the man. The '40s. In a sense, the victims found themselves in a catch-22 situation. If they found that fought their attacker, as Katherine Pappas had, they could end up dead. But if they didn't fight back hard enough, then they were blamed for their assault.

Nice.

To be a... I love being a woman. Oh, how I just love being a woman. Damn. I'd rather be a fairy. Now, on February 10th. She was a fairy. On February 10th, as Burns and the other detectives continued trying to piece together the timeline of events and track the killer's movements, they received a call from a couple in Heightstown, New Jersey. According to this couple, they had picked up a young man hitchhiking a few days earlier. After hearing the story about how he grown up in boys town, they felt sorry for him and offered to let him stay with them for a couple of days. The following morning, though, the couple woke up and found that he had stolen a bunch of valuable shit from their house. The whole place was ransacked and the hitchhiker was gone. So both the husband and wife were artists, and the woman offered to draw a detailed sketch of the hitchhiker.

That is so fucking cool.

Isn't that awesome? From memory.

That is so cool.

And when investigators took the sketch to several of the victims, they all confirmed that is 100 % the guy.

That is the coolest fucking way to be that woman and be like, God damn it, you just stole all my shit. And out of the goodness of my heart, let you in. But then to be like, you know what? I'm an artist, and you didn't count on me, do it. Rendering a sketch from memory.

You didn't count on me having a fucking skill.

Of your bitch ass face.

Yeah, that's right. Fuck that guy. Iconic. So thanks to the couple in Heightstown, detectives now knew what their suspect looked like. And thanks to the dedicated police work and constant communication across precincts and even states. Which is so rare. Yeah. They had a general idea of how far he traveled and how frequently he cycled back through New York. Unfortunately, what they didn't know was where he was and when he would strike again. Yeah, that's tough. That meant that as much as it panned them to do so, they had to wait until he attacked someone to find his location. It's sad. Which is a case a lot.

I was literally just going to say it's sad how that does happen a lot, but it's also like, what else do you do?

You don't know what else to do.

It sucks.

It's a real catch-22. Now, it turned out the next attack wasn't in New York at all, but in Washington, DC. On February 19th, DC police received a call about a potential break-in at an apartment, but the woman had managed to fight the man off before he was able to get inside. Because they had been in communication with detectives in the Bronx, DC police suspected this was probably the Aspirin Bandit, so they rushed to the apartment to try to catch him. When they got there, they found the victim in the company of the a building superintendent who chased the would be rapist up the stairs and onto the roof. But by the time the officers got to the top of the building, the man had disappeared down the fire escape and was gone. A little less than a week later, on February 25th, another call came into the Bronx, this time from detectives in Newark, New Jersey, where another rape/robbery had been committed under similar circumstances. That report was followed by three more calls, all reporting similar attacks in New Jersey. So by plotting the attacks on the map of the suspect's movements, investigators in the Bronx are able to track his movements and suspect he's making his way back into New York.

And this time they were like, we're going to catch this fucker. So if their estimations were right, detectives in the Bronx expected their suspect to arrive back in the city on or around March third, which is fucking badass that they were able to track him to be like, he's coming back in here in March, like March That is impressive. So they set up checkpoints at every train and bus depot, as well as every bridge and tunnel across the city. I love to see it. Anything coming into the city, stopping anyone who vaguely resembled the sketch. That's true, man. At the same time, police officers flooded the city, checking every motel and hotel for new arrivals and showing front desk staff the sketch. While they were there, they also checked the handwriting samples from the postcards sent to Flanigan against the hotel logbooks, but nothing was an obvious match.

But they got everything, though.

They were going for it. So that evening, detectives on Manhattan's West Side stopped into the Mills Hotel, a place popular with day laborers looking for a clean but like a place to stay for a short period of time. Emphasis on the short. Short. As they were sitting in the lobby, they noticed a man enter the hotel wearing the same blue-green coat and bright yellow shoes described by many of the victims.

Bright yellow shoes.

Get the fuck out of here. Yeah, that's like a real.

That's a crime.

Like, bold of you to wear those.

I know. Bold of you to wear bright yellow shoes and try to be in this situation.

At all, but especially when you're committing crimes. He strongly resembled the sketch that was provided by the couple in New Jersey. After the man registered with the clerk under the name George Kalosky- George. George. He started up the stairs towards his room, and one of the detectives rushed to the desk and compared the handwriting to the postcards, which appeared to be a match.

That is so fucking cool.

Such cool investigative work.

I love it.

However, when the detectives looked up to the register, the man was coming back down the stairs in the direction of the clerk's desk. He said, I'd like my 50 cents back. I just remembered I have to go to work at one o'clock. So not wanting to miss their opportunity, they seized the man by his arms and forced him to write his name again, and again, the handwriting match. Yeah. Which was, as far as they were concerned, reason to place him under arrest.

It was very strange that he was just like, Oh, fuck, I forgot I have work I wonder if he noticed.

He was trying to get out of it. He was like, I think those might be detectives. Probably. Yeah.

Because why else would you be like, Why else would you? Well, never mind.

Just kidding. Once they had him in the interrogation room at the Brock's Precinct, investigators learned that their suspect's name was not George Kalosky, Jerry Mitchell, or George Mundy, but George Joseph Speck, a 23-year-old transient with a long criminal record. Twenty-three? Twenty-three. And several stays at juvenile detention centers in his past. At the time of his arrest, police described him as a, and this is their description, quote, a common road bum.

A common road bum. That is such a read.

He's just a common road bum.

Get out of here, you road bum.

You common road bum.

You're a nasty no good common road bum.

You're not even a unique road bum.

You're common. You're a basic road bum. A basic road bum. I am obsessed with that, and I will be adding it to my vocabulary.

Thank you. I'm going to call everyone that pisses me off a common road bum.

No, I'm calling them a basic road bum. You... Because here's the thing. You'll go, You basic. And they're going to think that you're going to say, Bitch, but no, you're going to hit him with road bum.

You hit someone with road bum.

They don't see it coming.

No. They'll never in a million years see that coming.

And they won't know what hit them.

And you know what? That's a little gift from to you. Okay. Use it in your next argument. There you go.

You're welcome.

Yeah. He had no permanent address and no employment to speak of road bum. So a brief look into George's background revealed a rather unremarkable and directionless young man who'd made his way in the world through theft and other criminal activities. Not great. George was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a large and generally dysfunctional family. Relatable. When he was twelve years old, George was caught robbing his own parents house.

Shit. That's fucked At 12? Yeah.

When his own mother tried to intervene, he beat her and continued robbing them.

What the fuck?

He's a fucking demon.

Yeah, he's beyond road bum. I wouldn't even say he's a basic road bum.

This goes far beyond road bum.

Yeah, this goes far beyond road bummery. This is not just your typical day-to-day road bummery. This is different. It's so different. I really got you.

This is just your classic road bummery over here. It's not. This is not. You are correct. This is not classic road bummery. I don't know what this is. I don't know why that word is just... That phrase is so funny.

I love it. How can you not I did not laugh at that?

But either way, this case of far beyond road bummery got him a short stay in a boys reformatory, not Boys Town.

They were like, Don't beat your mom's ass.

Yeah, don't do that. When he was released, he returned to his parents home and attempted to rob them a second time.

Get out, get out, get out.

Yeah. For a second robbery, he was returned to the reformatory, but that time he was sentenced to five years. By the time he was released, George was old enough to be on his own and spent the next five five years supporting himself through robbery and theft. Yikes. When she was told about the news of her son's arrest, Barbara told a reporter, he's my boy, and I don't want to see him die in the electric chair, but I don't feel too much sympathy for him. He's always been bad. He's always wanted to steal money and not work for it. I guess he's no good.

Oh, that's so sad. The end of that, I guess he's no good.

It's literally devastating. Oh, that poor mama. Yeah.

It's not your fault, girl. I don't know that for sure, but I It doesn't feel that way.

I can't totally stand on that business because I don't know your life.

I'm five toes down on that.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Now, when confronted with the accusations, George denied having anything to do with the Papas murder or the other sexual assaults and robberies in several states up and down the East Coast. But when investigators fingerprinted him and compared his prints to the print left behind at the Papas murder scene, they determined it was a match.

Oh, bitch.

Despite the evidence linking him to the crime scene, George was Nope, didn't do it until investigators put him in a lineup. Oh. A one after another, victims were brought into the station to view the grouping of six or seven men, including George. And in 1941, there was no two-way glass or video monitoring systems. Each victim was brought into a room and stood just a few feet from the man who violently sexually assaulted them.

The bravery that that would take. That, that's next level.

Is trauma on a level I can't even fathom.

Good for those women.

Some looked him in the eye and firmly identified George as their attacker. Wow, good for them. And others broke down and could do nothing else but point at him.

Yeah, because you're being retraumatized, like you just said.

Every single one of them identified George as their rapist. Also, while most of their husbands were able to provide moral support to their wives during this horrible moment, at least one victim's husband lost his composure and tried to attack George. Before he was physically removed by the room. And I say, why'd you physically remove him from the room? I say, snaps for that man. Snaps to that man.

Honestly, if my husband didn't try to beat his ass, we'd get in a fight later.

Honestly, good for that guy. I know violence is not the answer to anything. I get it. But I mean, sometimes- I'm sorry. If I'm a husband and somebody violently raped my wife- Violence is the answer. I'm going to hurt that person.

For a minute. For a quick moment. Just a quick old one, two to the face.

Quick little Now, before being confronted and identified by at least a dozen of his victims, George had been confident to the point of fucking cockiness.

Of course. Of course. 23-year-old motherfucker.

But at some point during the lineup, it must have come clear to him that he wasn't getting out of this. By the end of the lineup, George had lost any hint of his previous cockiness. And in the early morning hours of March fourth, he broke down and confessed to attacking at least 15 of the more than 80 suspected victims.

And don't forget, that's insane. And don't forget, he's not just a rapist. He's a murderer. Oh, yeah.

And he confessed as well to murdering Katherine Pappas. Yeah. So he's a piece of absolute fucking garbage.

Garbage.

In their interview, George confirmed what police had already learned about him. Most of his victims were women whose husbands he had met while hitchhiking and using his charm in ingratiating manner. He would get enough information from them to sound convincing when he showed up at their door a few days later. Yeah, and he really did. When it came to the attack on Katherine Pappas, however, he changed his usual approach. On that day, George had happened to stop into the building and look over the names on the mailboxes and decided to take what he described as a blind stab by ringing the couple's doorbell. What? So she was chosen at random. And he told the investigator, She told me she had been making cookies for her husband and offered me some. And your bitch ass. And if that doesn't make you want to fucking wring his neck.

Yeah, that's the thing. Your bitch ass went in there and took her life. This woman who was literally spending her afternoon making cookies for her husband, and she's the one who made him a sandwich, right? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. You piece of dog shit. Yep.

He said, I sat beside her on the sofa. I slipped my arm around her neck and pulled her head back. Then with my right-hand, I removed my necktie and tied her hands behind her back. I carried her to the bedroom and put her on the bed. Why? Once they were in the bedroom, Katherine began fighting back hard and even managed to bite George's finger, leaving a wound that was still visible upon his arrest nearly a month later. Good. She broke motherfucking skin.

I hope it hurt for the rest of his life and actually into the afterlife as well.

George claimed that he eventually clamped his hands around her neck to keep her from screaming. And a few minutes later, he just realized that she was dead. He's literally claiming that he accidentally strangled her manually. We've all been over this. We know how long it takes to strangle someone manually. We know how much pressure needs to be consistently put upon someone's neck to manually strangle them. You just realized it?

We don't accidentally do that. It's seven minutes long.

Yeah, you don't do it. Get a fucking grip, my guy. Get out of here. At that point, he rummaged through the apartment, grabbed whatever he could. But because he was panicked, he forgot to wipe down the water glass and left behind the fingerprints. Idiot. District attorney, Samuel Foley, told reporters following his arraignment that poor woman never got a chance to scream. No. Now, despite being able to convincingly link George to dozens of other sexual assault victims, district Attorney Foley chose to pursue only the murder charge in the case of Katherine Pappas, because the murder charge was a capital offense, and the prosecutor was seeking the death penalty. If he were to be found guilty, George would be paying the ultimate price with or without the additional charges. In the months after this, as the district attorney built the case, George began speaking to any members of the press who would listen, primarily to minimize his responsibility and reject the claims of additional victims. He asked a reporter, Those stories about me attacking 15 or 23 women, where do they come from? Reality.

You attacked 23 to 50 women?

Yeah, they come from the reality.

They come from your fucking situations.

Of the situations. Yeah.

Your bitch made actions.

He said, You got me identified by a lot of women. I ain't never seen three quarters of them in my life. You did. Immediately upon that statement, how that's phrased, you did it.

.

Yeah, you did it. George's trial began in mid-april, and he maintained his defiant stance from beginning to end. What a douchebag. Before the final members of the jury had even been selected, George was admonished by the judge after he jumped to his feet and shouted at the judge, You're supposed to be sitting on this case, mind your own business, after the judge questioned his lawyer for his methods of interviewing potential members of the jury.

Make that make sense for me. You're supposed to be sitting on this case. So he's Here you are doing your job, which is being in my business of all the shit that I've committed. And he says, mind your... The judge is like, This is all of my business.

He's like, This is literally my courtroom.

This is my actual business. I get paid for this.

I'm in the business of this.

Of judging your ass. Of all this. Quite literally. What?

I love it because in response, Judge James Bartlet just stared at him. Oh, I love it. Then sternly said, I will not tolerate such outbursts. This is the first and last outburst you will make.

He treated him like the child he was.

He said, You little baby man.

He said, You petulent fuck.

You petulent little fucking child. That part. A week into the trial, the entire case had to be put on hold when Judge Bartlet fell asleep under a sunlamp for about two hours and suffered a particularly bad burn.

I was really rooting for him just now, and I feel different. I I feel a little bit different. I really went so hard for him just now, and I'd like to maybe back that up a teeny bit. Just a hair. Just a little hair.

Just like a beep, beep. You know, just...

What? My guy. What? What? What? What do you mean, babe? What do you mean? You got to stay awake under the sunlamp. Yeah. I mean, these days, don't be going under sunlamp. Don't go.

Don't you fucking go tanning.

My guy will be easy tax it for a reason. Don't do it. Do you remember when Snuki was so fucking personally angry at Obama for that?

I don't want you guys to get melanoma.

No, spray tan.

I don't want that.

You want to be tan? I mean, like cool. Spray tan. Yeah, spray tan. They got the mitts now.

They got the- I think they have like natural shit that's like not even... Because I mean, other sprays are like fucking chemically bad.

Do you remember? Were Have you ever had Jurgen's girly? Jurgen's, I think it's natural glow. Here's the thing about me. You've never wanted to be tan.

No, I did. At one point I really wanted to be tan, but then I realized I'm not meant to be tan. I'm not really either. So I did try that Jurgen's journey for a minute and a half, and then I realized this isn't it. Here's the thing, and I just embraced.

Even when they smell good for a second, and I'm sorry if you self-tanned, but I've tried it, too. I also wanted to be tanned. You smell like chicken.

There is a chicken-y smell to it.

You smell like chicken. Self-tanned smells like chicken.

There is a little bit of a chicken-y smell. Is.

You are correct about that. You could mask it, I guess. But I don't know.

It never worked out for me. There's just a certain smell to it. But I think there's like natural ones now that probably don't have that chickeny smell. Yeah. Because I think a lot of girlies are getting good spray tans.

Some girlies are getting good spray tans. They might get it. Whenever I did a spray tan, one, I looked absolutely fucking bonkers. And two, I'd always made my hands look weird.

Yeah, I would get it between my fingers.

Yeah, but some girls have that shit master. That's the thing. Those are the queens out here.

Which I was going to say, you're queens if you can do that.

You know who's not a king out here? Yeah. The judge.

The judge.

He's falling asleep under the sunlap.

And do it responsibly if you're doing it.

I really can't believe I went so hard for him. Yeah.

But you know what? Two weeks later, the trial had resumed. So he got over that little speed bump. Yeah, that big old burn. He came back with like, such a glow.

I was literally going to say, they said, Your Honor, may I? You're glowing.

May I? And he said, I almost died.

Yeah. He said it was a real journey to get here. It wasn't a good sleep. It was a real journey to get this glow.

He said, this glow, you don't want it. Don't come for free. Now, despite having already been warned by the judge about his outburst, George proved to be incredibly difficult from the moment the trial began. In fact, when he finally took the stand in his own defense, he refused to answer nearly all the questions put to him by the prosecution.

Then why go on the stand, my fucking guy?

He just chose to sit petulently on the witness stand with his elbows on the railing and his chin cupped in his hands. Oh, what a little bitch. Finally, after countless questions had been asked and unanswered, George told the prosecutor, It's no use continuing with those questions. I refuse to answer them. I told you I killed her. I want to take my punishment. It's only a question of first or second-degree murder. So he doesn't give a fuck. Wow. If they don't give him first degree, when I was reading this, I was like, Motherfucker, if they don't give him first degree murder, I'll fight.

I'm a head out. I'll fight. I'm a head back in time. Yeah.

And then head out. And then head out. And with that, the prosecution rested its case against George, and the jury was excused for deliberation. So they deliberated for less than a half hour.

Because he literally sat on the stand and said, I killed her. Get over it. And then he was like- He literally did Courtney from fucking Jawbreaker. He said, I killed Liz. I killed the teen dream. Deal with it.

That's what that's literally what he said. He literally did that. Fucked up. Then he was like, now it's just first or second, which I'm like, did you think you were getting second?

You literally said I killed her.

Did you really just think that you had any chance of getting second after When everything, all the shit you went through, it was very much premeditated. You literally planned the entire thing. They come back into the courtroom after less than a half hour, and they found him guilty of first-degree murder for causing the death of Katherine Pappas. When the verdict was read, the ever-defiant George said nothing and just stared coldly at the judge. When asked by reporters for a comment, district Attorney Samuel Foley said, This man is a contemplable liar. George has continuously tried to evade the responsibility for what he in Bronx County on February fourth. He is even low enough to besmirch the name of the woman whose life he has taken. The following day, George was back before Judge Barrett, who set an execution date for July seventh, 1941. After the customary appeals and small delays, 24-year-old George Sfeck was executed in the electric chair at Sing-Sing Prison on February 26th, 1942.

Rest in distress, you petulent bitch made road Bum.

Common road bum. Basic road bummery. Just a basic common road bum.

Wow, I've never heard of that.

It is such... I almost think we need to name it something instead of the Aspirin Bandit because it just does not give the full scope.

Because it's so much more like he's a rapist.

He's not just a bandit. I think we'll name it something different, but it's called the Aspirin Bandit case.

Yeah, it's well known as that.

The communication between the different precincts in different states.

And the detective work. Unbelievable. In the '40s?

The investigative work that went into this was top-notch. This is one of those that you go, hats off. There it is. That's what I'm looking for because we have so many that you're just like, what the fuck? And then this one, you're like, fuck, yeah, investigators.

I love the ones where we can hats off to them.

Because they really went for it.

Because it gives you a little bit of hope in humanity. When you're hearing about all these terrible murders and rapes and everything. That's awful.

You're like, at least these people went full tilt to catch this guy. And they did. It paid off. This fucker didn't get far. He was only 23 years old. Here's the thing about- It was worth it.

About practicing basic road bummery. You'll always get caught. You're going to get caught. You're far too basic to make it.

Your road bummery will come to a violent end. Yeah. But yeah, that's the Aspirin bandit.

What a crazy case.

Yeah.

Well, guys, if you're coming to the show or you did already on Sunday, it was so much fun. It was. And also I can't wait to see you.

Yeah, both. Simultaneously at the same time.

All at the same time. So that's what Simultaneous is. Yeah. Well, we also hope you keep listening simultaneously.

And at the same time, and we hope you...

Keep it weird. Keep it weird. Simultaneously and at the same time.

Don't be a classic road bum.

Don't practice that road bummery.