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Episode 1 - One Femur, Please
13 Plays2 months ago
In our inaugural episode, we dive in to the dark side of cinema.
Movies can't kill people... right? While they work on turning their haunted house into a haunted home, the girls gab about two curious cases where the silver screen may very well have caused some serious screams. Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone floats the real human remains.
Full show notes on our website!
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Transcript
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we discuss dark locations, sinister media, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:44
Speaker
so Here we are, moving into the cottage. It's empty. But the nightmare truck will be here in the morning. We'll cozy it up, spooky it up, and I lean while we wait. Tell me why you wanted to embark on this spooky nightmare with me. o So I like spooky stuff, but I'm really easily spooked. I like watching and reading about haunting and demon-type stuff. Anything I can find, but there's like a really, really tiny part of me, a little bit bigger than tiny, that is afraid that I might be haunted.
00:01:16
Speaker
ah So like I don't want to rock the boat. Don't take me to a haunted house. I'm very much afraid of clowns and the dark, so none of that because that's usually like 99% of what is there. I love everything about true crime though. Growing up, I always wanted to be a forensic pathologist, but that didn't quite pan out. So I love the idea of looking at remains, trying to paint a story from them.
00:01:37
Speaker
I'm still very into getting into into like the nitty gritty of why people do the things they do, like how events play out, how people are caught or the snags in the investigations. I don't want to say I love like the gruesome and gory so much, especially with children, it gets to be a little much. yeah but But I do love to see the progression that the cases take. So what about you, Nim?
00:01:59
Speaker
Well, I absolutely adore horror fiction. I read a lot. I watch a lot of horror movies. I feel like there's just kind of some comfort in knowing that it's fiction. I have just super horrid anxiety. And I think that horror kind of helps a lot. It's a comfort blanket almost. Okay, so bear with me. I was like, wait, um I feel like it peaks by anxiety. So I'm not really sure how that... So I think there's something to it that is... I know that it is fiction.
00:02:27
Speaker
I know that it is not real. I know that that monster is not real. I know that that serial killer is not outside my door. I know that it's fake. I know that it is a story that was a tale that was woven by a mastermind of of fiction. Because I know that that's fake, it's comforting.
00:02:42
Speaker
Question mark. I also love kind of what I like to call delightfully dark. okay Like something like the Addams Family or Tim Burton are kind of more mainstream examples. It's like dark, but there's also love and humor, which is the big part of it for me. There's also like a beauty to it. Yeah. that That's just like kind of a a slice of the darkness that I really particularly enjoy.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, I can agree with that. There is something to be said with like the romance and the gloom. um like I was more of a Munster's kind. like i guess it was like it It was a similar but different vibe for Madden's family, right? Yes. I feel like his little campier, but I'm not really sure. Yeah. So like Tales of the Crypt, I was a Tales of the Crypt kid. Yes. I love the idea of seeing like the macabre in everyday situations. So like the Crypt Keeper, he was brick and terrifying. like I recently saw like my friend reminded me that there was this Legends of the Hidden Temple type style game that was on like Nickelodeon or something, but it was a group keeper. And I saw him recently and I was like still terrifying. Still, like I am way too old to be terrified.
00:03:54
Speaker
but I definitely shouldn't have been watching those shows at like such a young age anyways, so I don't um don't even know what happened there. Yeah, Tales from the Crypt is huge for me. When I used to stay at my dad's house on the weekends, I would be sleeping on the couch and I would be watching TV after everybody else went to bed, so I'd watch things like Tales from the Crypt and American Gladiators somehow. But yeah, so the Tales from the Crypt, God, I couldn't have been more than like 10, so that was the the impressionable mind that was getting that. And I love it so much. And that's kind of the horror comedy thing that I love. Yeah, definitely. And of course, the monsters are also fantastic. Yeah, it was just, I don't know, it was sweet, but silly and and cute and adorable and dark and, you know, like our lives, I guess. Yeah, very much. And I really hope this cottage kind of turns that way too. Yeah, we'll see.
00:04:46
Speaker
So are we ready to dive in? Well, what you got for me today? I dove into a film series that was kind of part of my childhood. oh It's part of my childhood in a way that I don't remember watching it, but I remember a lot of bits of it. And me and my mother still quoted at each other constantly to this day. okay Have you seen Poltergeist?
00:05:07
Speaker
Yes. Yes, I have. I have, and I honestly was probably way too young to have seen it. yes like This was just parent like before parental controls even like existed, I guess, on TVs, and it was just not a great time. Anyways. It's only rated PG. Did you know that? No. No. yeah No. No, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. The quotables. like Even the last time my mom was here,
00:05:31
Speaker
She was staying in my cottage. We had ordered food and when it arrived, she said, they're here. You know, and that's what the little girl says. I mean, my parents didn't really let me watch any horror at all. I watched it late night on TV. Whatever was there after everybody else's was in bed.
00:05:48
Speaker
So I'm not really sure why this movie was iconic in my house. I don't know when we did we watch it together or what? I don't know, but it it still baffles me the more I think about it. and But yeah, those memories are just seared into me. But for anybody who hasn't seen it, Poltergeist is your classic demonic haunted house story. um Happy family's house gets haunted and horror ensues.
00:06:06
Speaker
Poltergeist has a reputation of being one of the scariest movies of all time. And this is one of the most notorious of the allegedly cursed films that I was looking up when trying to pick a ah movie that I wanted to cover. This is considered one of the most notorious of the allegedly cursed films due to the extraordinarily tragic shit that happened. In the movie? Or like on set? On set to the actors. Most of my notes came from the Shutter series Cursed Films and then Biography dot.com. So In the movie, Robbie Freeling, who was played by Oliver Robbins, he was the young brother. Oh, the little one? Okay, so there was the the youngest daughter and then the middle boy and then the oldest sister. Okay, got it, got it, got it. So Oliver Robbins played Robbie Freeling. So I guess, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen it, there is the scene with this clown doll. Do you remember the clown doll? No, I don't want to remember the clown doll, but I just told you that I do not.
00:07:00
Speaker
And i does does this clown? It was horrifying. It had little bows on. Do you think that this clown has anything to do with your clown here? Like didn't its like legs like roll up into itself at one point? And they like expanded. Yeah, then yes. Oh, yes, maybe. Because that is no, that is no. No, thank you. No. So in that scene where that clown drags Robbie under the bed by his neck. Uh-huh. Oh, God.
00:07:23
Speaker
It turns out that the mechanism in that doll malfunctioned and it was actually choking him. Wait, they did it on the real kid? Yes, they did. This is the 80s. They still should have had stuntmen in the 80s. Well, they did have stuntmen in the 80s. Especially for children. But it wasn't meant to be a stunt. That is 100% a stunt if I am being pulled by my neck. But it was the 80s.
00:07:46
Speaker
And, that you know, things were just a little different, I guess. Yeah, it's different. That's unsafe. Whatever. Anyway. So, um to your point, it probably should have been a stuntman because it turns out that the mechanism in that doll malfunctioned and it was actually choking the actor. They didn't realize it until he was still convulsing and turning blue after they called cut.
00:08:06
Speaker
oh my gosh yeah that's obviously very messed up but unfortunately it just gets worse from here so i wonder if they like re-filmed it or if like really what we're seeing this day is like that kid almost dying on the screen you know what i don't remember if i saw the answer now we have to watch it we'll know that sounds horrible now like a horrible reason to watch it never mind just ignore me it's fine
00:08:32
Speaker
should watch it though. It's really fun. I mean, not for that reason. Yeah, for that reason. Yes. Okay. Okay. But also to continue on with the horrible shit that happened on set. Okay. Well, not on set exactly on this one. Next, we're going to go to Dominique Dunn. She's the one who played the older sister. Dana was a character. So while they were filming the first movie, she was dating a man named John Sweeney, who fun fact actually was a sous chef for Wolfgang Puck at the time.
00:08:56
Speaker
So apparently, John Sweeney is a massive piece of shit and he beat Dominique regularly and she did break it off and got away from him, but that happened. And then after the movie came out and was super successful, Sweeney shows up at her house, ah beats her up and chokes her out. She ends up in a coma and then was taken off of light support a few days later and passed away. And this was while she was totally or after? This was after that the movie had come out. I think it was just like the buzz of the success or whatever. And he came back to her for whatever reason.
00:09:26
Speaker
And yeah, so so just sought her out. So even worse though, the trial was pretty messed up. He had a history of violent abuse in relationships, but for some reason that information wasn't admissible in court. Though he was convicted to an insultingly low 10 year sentence, he served less than three years after killing her. Yep. Yep. And so her parents had to live with knowing that the guy who murdered their daughter. That is insane. Yeah, it's fucking sad.
00:09:51
Speaker
So then we're going to move to kind of what is just really sad. Heather O'Rourke is the actress that played Carol Ann, the youngest of the siblings. She'd been getting sick before going into filming the third installment of the series of Poltergeist 3. Like in what way? she Well, she had been diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which is like an inflammatory bowel thing. Yeah. Oh, for a kid too, that's even worse. Right. Well, so that's what she was being treated for since she was diagnosed with it.
00:10:17
Speaker
And the only visible downside you can see from her on the screen is she's got really puffy cheeks from the steroids. oh But she didn't actually have Crohn's disease. She had a birth defect that caused an abscess in her intestines to collect fecal matter and then and another toxic crop. It eventually burst and she went into toxic shock and passed away at 12 years old.
00:10:36
Speaker
oh no oh my god that's so sad yeah so this was this happened during filming of the third film at this point the cast and crew were super done they packed it in went home wait in the middle of filming they hadn't finished filming it correct she'd been feeling bad and they were trying to treat her for it but it was just misdiagnosed it so wait how did they finish filming because that definitely had an ending We're getting there. We're getting there. We're almost there. At this point, the cast and crew were super done. But MGM, of course, they had money tied up into this super unfinished movie. No. So much money. Because of the success of the previous films, I mean, it was a big deal. They poured a lot into it. So they forced him to finish it. Oh, my gosh. That's so sad. Yeah, they rewrote an ending to take Caroline out. It was an awful ending. It's just... I was about to say, but that didn't happen. They didn't take her out.
00:11:26
Speaker
They wrote out her involvement in the ending. Oh, got it. Okay. And then they got a body double because you'll remember from the last scene, the mom is holding her and you just see her crying. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a you don't ever see the girl's face. Oh, it's a body double. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And it was really unsettling to everybody on set. Yeah. I can imagine.
00:11:46
Speaker
It's like nothing is happening on set, but like their lives are almost just getting really fucked up after the movie. Yes, yeah. So people say that the movie is cursed. And the reason one of the biggest reasons why people think that it's cursed is because in the first movie, there's a scene where JoBeth Williams, who plays the mom, she's in a pool filled with like mud and skeletons. And the skeletons you see are actually real human skeletons. Why?
00:12:14
Speaker
Well, so tell me tell me what you think about that. That's fucked up. why Why? Why do you think it's fucked up? Where are you getting human skeletons? One, and two, why? So they're getting them from biological supply stores. So think about that. Like the ones that do like studies on people? Like why are you? why you Well, they're for schools and things like that. Yeah. And so So we're just giving away body parts willy-nilly after you're done doing your like tests and stuff? They pay for them. I feel like I feel like they're just they're still like human remains though like isn't I feel like there should be some kind of law against that. Well there's not. Okay so like my uncle Joe could just be like chilling on a movie set is what you're telling me right now.
00:12:57
Speaker
If he signed his body up for science in a certain way, I guess it could. But I don't think it's done as much now. But especially then, a lot of horror movies, especially back then, almost all of them used real human remains. Oh my gosh. Because budget's always king and is far, far cheaper, at least at that point, to have somebody to to go up to the biological supply store and purchase that. I'm sorry, there's a store now?
00:13:22
Speaker
Yes, I said that. but but I thought you just meant like, it's just something they do on the side, not like, okay, I can just walk in and be like, one femur, please. It would be far more expensive to have somebody sculpt.
00:13:34
Speaker
a skeleton to use for a movie at that point in time. Now, right now, we can go to Target and get a plastic skeleton. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's so crazy. These people signed their bodies over to science after they passed away. I recognize that signing it over to science is not the same thing as signing it over to Hollywood. Not really. But I don't know what the rules were.
00:13:55
Speaker
My point is mostly that if we're going to say that something is cursed, then I guess all those other things are cursed too, but I don't really like going on the curse train. It kind of feels like it cheapens it, but I'm going to kind of get into that. yeah Also to kind of go with that, I will also say it's just really good publicity for a horror film to have something like that associated with it. Like a bunch of people dying or whatever. No, saying that there's a curse involved in adding the sensationalism of it being, oh, there are real human remains when that's something that's already been a common thing. Yeah. So the buzz created by this really did embed poltergeist into pop culture. And that's really good for the studio executives.
00:14:31
Speaker
So having said what I said about not really liking the idea of applying a curse to it, I'm going to round this out with a quote from Zelda Ruhmanstein who played the exorcist from the film. Oh yeah. So she said, Heather died of an undetected congenital anatomical defect and Dominique Dunn died at the hands of an extremely ill-directed boyfriend. I think it's pretty much a courtesy at this point to put an end to this superstitious crap.
00:14:55
Speaker
end quote. ah wow Yeah, there were other kind of dark things that people said were attributed to the curse that happened on set or to people who were involved in the movie, but it was really just people that got sick for other reasons and died around the time of the releases of the movies. And I didn't really go into covering any of that. So there's a lot of other reasons that people think that the movie is cursed, but it's just a scary movie that had some tragedy involved with the actors involved.
00:15:22
Speaker
What the fuck was that? Where was that? It's just outside the door. Is it the... Is it the cat? No, he's asleep over there. I'm sure it's fine. It probably is just a box falling over or something. Yeah, probably. Okay, that was weird.
00:15:43
Speaker
So you were talking about your childhood and that's what led you to decide to talk about Poltergeist, which great movie horrifying. There were three of those weren't there? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if I told you like I had watched at a really young age like my dad, he used to put television on and when when I was eating dinner and I'm talking like anywhere like three to five. I swear my earliest memory is just like sitting at the dinner table and seeing cops playing on the TV. Maybe that's why I like crime stuff. like It sounds really messed up because it was such a trashy show, right? But but still, like I just remember like the police coming in, like the chases and stuff. so That's what this one kind of reminded me of a little bit. He is called the Freddy Krueger killer, but the there was like a killing spree that went on over like three days. I kind of liked how the layout was almost like a book or a police chase. Like you're you're following him along and they have such really good timelines where everything was going on.
00:16:38
Speaker
Just to get started, so his name was Dino Gonzalez. He's 25 years old at the time, and this all happened in southern England. But he was named the Freddy Krueger Killer due to his claims that he went on a killing spree because he was inspired by horror movies that he had been watching.
00:16:54
Speaker
So he was painted as a bored, unemployed loner, a drug user, and he lived at home with his mother. They said that he spent most of his days watching horror films, playing computer games. Prior to the three-day killing spree, he spent two days planning how he would make those newspaper headlines.
00:17:12
Speaker
So he actually planned all of this, which is what I found to be even worse, because it was chaos. Was he trying to specifically create certain headlines? I think so. I don't know. Like, I think he did want to be named the Freda Kruger Killer, so I'll get into it, but he doesn't really have specific victims in mind.
00:17:31
Speaker
I think he just wanted to create chaos more than anything and have someone notice him. But I'll get into all that. Prior to his three-day killing spree during the week of September 11, 2004, and September 14, 2004, he went to a rave in East London and he admitted to police that he took speed, ecstasy, cocaine, and ketamine. So this was just a few days before all this happened. And then the first encounter happened on September 15. He left home.
00:18:01
Speaker
after his mom had gone to work. Then he took a steak knife and around 11 30 a.m. he encountered Peter King. age 61, he was walking his dog with his wife and Gonzales lunged at King with a knife saying, I'm going to kill you and attempted to slit his throat. Just, yeah, I'm going to kill you. Like just, like just conversational. I guess, I don't know. But he tried to split his throat. King was able to fight him off. He sustained non-threatening injuries. And then Gonzales just drops the knife and runs away and he's like, sorry, I'm a schizophrenic and just leaves just and gets on a train. just screams it out. I'm a schizophrenic. Yeah, don't worry. It's okay. It's okay. I can see where that would be like relieving to someone and that part right there already makes me think I don't know if he is like mentally ill, not to say like I feel bad for him. So you think maybe there is like a duality there. Do you think he was just saying oh, I'm a schizophrenic so he completed insanity later? Oh, shoot, maybe.
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. You might be right, actually. So Gonzalez then got off the train at Worthington a little while later. He bought another knife because he had dropped the last one. And then during police interviews, he said that he was, quote, walking down these alleyways with a knife, waiting to carve up someone. The knife was six inches long. It was like a butcher's knife used to carve up bits of meat. I was going to the first place I could to kill someone. So that was his quote.
00:19:28
Speaker
He followed a man in Worthington. He didn't attack him because the guy turned onto a road, so he got scared. And then failing to find anyone to attack, he then got back on the train and decided to go to another city, so Fishgate. Once he got off the train near Fishgate Station, he walked to a remote area and he decided to hide in some bushes and wait for his next victim.
00:19:51
Speaker
You know, like you do. Like you do. So he stated he put his hand on her mouth and then stabbed her. Her name was Maria Harding, age 73. He stabbed her in the neck and back as she was walking home. He stated that he slit her throat because she was screaming and he wanted to do it and get away as quickly as possible.
00:20:11
Speaker
When police asked why he stole her money, he stated, quote, it was a dead person might as well take her money, end quote. but Her body was found around 420 p.m. on September And she ended up dying from multiple stab wounds from the neck and the back, like he said. The knife that he used, it was never found. So all of this so far has happened within five hours of him leaving his home, just to, yes. like So he just is just running around with knives. At this point, he decided to head home. And then his mom reports that she saw him in his bedroom at 7.15. So he was at home that night, had a good night's rest, whatever.
00:20:49
Speaker
The next day, he was then seen on CCTV later in that afternoon on King's Cross Station around 426, so about a whole 24 hours later, right? Three hours later, he stole two large kitchen knives from a department store, and then he went drinking in pubs around the West End. again with the na yeah so he's just getting knives and he's not even looking for people at this point he just decided to go get drunk which i think is really weird to do that first i don't know if he's trying to get courage to do the things he was doing he waited all the way until the next morning on september 17th he left the pub and he attacked kevin maloy aged 46 he was on his way home from drinking at a pub in north london and he stabbed maloy to death with two knives
00:21:31
Speaker
When investigators asked why he stabbed Mr. Malloy, Gonzales stated, quote, his face started winding me up. I had to carve him as I was stabbing him. He said, what are you doing? I thought, how could you ask that? It's quite obvious. I'm trying to kill you at this point. Every time you do this, I'm just picturing him just directly after the crime, just giving his statement. Yeah. Like breaking that third wall. Yeah. Yeah. Like the office at fourth wall. Fourth wall.
00:22:01
Speaker
Break in the fourth wall? Listen, walls, okay. You don't always see all three. Maybe it's a sidewall. Okay, fourth wall. It's just some matter of fact. Yeah, and that's why I'm like, maybe he is, but I don't know, he has been doing a lot of drugs and then he's apparently drunk. It could be like, yes, I understand like this is later, but still like he must be just... Do we know what kind of drugs? ah Yeah, so it said that he was like on a bunch of uppers. I think it was ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine, and speed.
00:22:31
Speaker
and drinking so at the same time? I mean, I don't know. But like within like two days before he started doing this, yes, all those at the same time. Yeah, I don't know how he wasn't dead. Maybe he was trying to kill himself. He ended up killing this guy, right? The guy's body, Malloy, i was found around 5.30 AM. So just so you know like how late he was out just drinking and then just stabbed this guy on his way home, I guess. So on September 17th, the guy died for multiple stab wounds, the face, neck, chest, and abdomen.
00:23:02
Speaker
Yeah, a few hours later, around 7am, Gonzales attempted to break into a nearby house. So he was just trying to get in the homeowner. um His name is Comus Constantinou. The guy finds a man in his kitchen with a large kitchen knife in his hand.
00:23:20
Speaker
and it turned out to be Gonzales. Constantinou said that he was stabbed and bitten by Gonzales, but then Gonzales ran away when Mr. Constantinou's wife ran outside screaming for help. So I don't know. He was rabid, I guess. I don't know.
00:23:35
Speaker
So then Gonzalez bought another knife around 8 a.m., about an hour later. He then randomly started pressing buzzers on flats trying to get someone to open their door. And the unfortunate person who did was Derek Robinson, age 75. Yeah, it seems to be a theme, like they're all older people, which is really messed up. I don't know if he's targeting them. So it's probably because he doesn't feel like they'll be able to find him off.
00:24:01
Speaker
I know, I feel like that also is a direct contradiction to him wanting to be the Freda Kuger killer because like wasn't Freda Kuger after like kids? Teenagers. Yeah, so he ended up buying that other knife around 8 a.m. an hour later, randomly pressed on the buzzers. So Derek Robinson, age 75, answered the door and Gonzales immediately just stabbed him repeatedly in the throat with a 12-inch knife. And unfortunately, Robinson's wife was right behind him.
00:24:29
Speaker
And so Gonzales stabbed his wife, Jean, age 60. And of stabbing her, he said, the woman was really strong. I started feeling sorry for her. I went through her throat and then I stabbed her loads of times in the heart because I just wanted her to die quickly.
00:24:46
Speaker
Yeah, so around 12 p.m. on September 17th, so a few hours after this stabbing, Gonzales was arrested finally at the Tottenham Court Road a train station. And after buying a ticket with bloodstained money, someone decided to finally call the police.
00:25:04
Speaker
ah I was going to say, did they just let that happen? No, that's what I guess got him captured. but So upon capture, Gonzales said of the killings, quote, I felt clean or gasmic. I'd washed all the rubbish out of my life. I felt better. It's something I live for. It's a really good buzz killing, end quote.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah, like he sounds like the Joker, if anything, but you know, good buzz. Yeah, some people. I mean, he I guess the the drugs and alcohol weren't doing it for him anymore. I guess. So while awaiting trial, Gonzalez was placed in a special care unit of the highest security ward in the county.
00:25:41
Speaker
It's called Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital. In this hospital, he was surrounded by other mentally disturbed people, but they were all afraid of him. There were claims that he would reenact how he killed his victims and even try to kill himself by chewing into his own veins and arteries. I know, I'm just like, I had a tendon and a piece of chicken and I'm like, ugh. Like, I can't imagine doing that to yourself. You're the worst. That's what I'm here for.
00:26:10
Speaker
my nightmare. Yes. So I thought this might just be an over the top attempt to like try to use insanity plea, like you said, right. But there was a forensic psychiatrist that his name was Edward patch, who evaluated Gonzalez while he was at Broadmoor.
00:26:25
Speaker
Pech claimed of Gonzalez, quote, I have never seen anything like this. The degree of disturbance was without parallel in my existence. He was at further risk of extreme unprovoked violence and would attack his visiting family or try to harm himself. I've never seen anyone bite himself with the ferocity he did. It was a serious attempt on his own life.
00:26:49
Speaker
end quote Yeah, imagine how terrifying you have to be to scare the forensic psychologist who evaluates people that do these horrifying crimes all the time. It's insane. So, Petch believed Gonzalez to have schizophrenia, maybe antisocial personality disorder, but he admitted that his symptoms would change from month to month, which was odd.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, Gonzalez also told doctors that he had only gone on the rampage because he was bored. That he would watch horror movies all the time and quote, just thought about doing it. What it would be like to be maybe Freddy Krueger or something like that just for a day.
00:27:27
Speaker
I guess that's when he named himself the Freddy Krueger killer. I don't know. So he named himself that. I guess. I figured he would at least like try to emulate that. Yeah, but okay. He's crazy. i'm I don't know why I'm judging his murder style. I'm i'm not sure.
00:27:41
Speaker
Man, I watch a lot of horror movies and I haven't gone on any murderous rampages. So his aim was to kill at least 10 people. Of course, he didn't quite get there. In his trial, Gonzales attempted to claim not guilty by reason of insanity, so you called it. He did admit to two counts of attempted murder, but then he denied that the murder was real because he was schizophrenic and was just doing what the voices told him to do.
00:28:08
Speaker
So it doesn't count because the voices told me to do it. I'm going to try that next time. I forgot to do laundry. So to throw another wrench in this, after his capture, his mother's stepfather and Daniel himself all claimed that they had tried to seek help for his mental and emotional issues before all of this had happened, but they were always dismissed. So a few examples of this. His mother, Leslie Savage, said in a statement that, quote, every time we asked for help, we were told we would have to wait for a crisis to occur before he could have the help he needed.
00:28:42
Speaker
End quote in a letter to his doctor october 2003 so a year before the murders daniel wrote I really do need help now I have tried to cope on my own without help or medication, but I have not managed to succeed Please please help me. This is very urgent I really do need medical help to find the correct medication. I need to take this in a controlled hospital environment. Please, can you help me? I really would appreciate it if you would help me to improve as I am in a desperate situation." So this was a letter to his doctor, quoted, sorry. It makes me wonder if this whole thing was just his final attempt to try to get help because in the prison system, you'll get help. That's true. and like
00:29:24
Speaker
if the doctor should have told him, like, crisis needs to happen. right He's like, fine, here's your crisis. right So the day before he committed the offenses, he was apparently seen running around the city completely naked and was still not arrested. but Additionally, Gonzalez states that the morning before the murders, he was punching himself in the face.
00:29:43
Speaker
He was trying to give himself a black eye, tried to break his own nose by jumping face down into the dumpster and threw himself down the stairs about three or four times. His stepdad went down to the police station to try to get them to come help him because they felt like he felt like something was seriously wrong, right? The police never came up to help. In his mugshot, he does look really beat up, ah but I'm not sure if that's from these events specifically, like that I just described or the murders or the capture or whatever, right?
00:30:14
Speaker
But yeah, the picture was kind of eerie. His plea for insanity was rejected due to his past admittance to have deliberately fabricated these symptoms of mental illness in the past to avoid being sent to prison. So he was sentenced to life in prison and ended up dying by suicide about a year later. So Reflecting on all this, I kept wondering who the heck was giving this guy knives? like Who kept selling him knives? Because, okay, yes, there isn't a law against it, but if he's attacked and killed this many people throughout the day, he has to be bloody, right? like No one's stopping this guy who's on the train and has blood with him or coming into a store and like trying to buy a knife and there's just like blood splattered on him.
00:30:58
Speaker
There's a lot of mind your own damn business happening in a lot of situations like this, but it's also you said this is in England, right? Yes. And it was like 2004. So it's like not even that long ago. It feels almost like a cultural thing of just not getting into somebody's business. Keep calm, carry on. I don't know, man.
00:31:17
Speaker
i don't think it's right yeah i'm just saying i'm not sure if he was really schizophrenic either he obviously wasn't okay you can tell not just from the murders but also his picture it was a bit intense he looked like he wasn't like all there and the forensic psychologist that was evaluating him at the mental hospital even said his symptoms kept changing so that makes me believe like he was either faking it or maybe it was just like fueled by all like the drugs and alcohol And like maybe he wasn't even sleeping, right? Like that can make you absolutely crazy. Especially if he's on uppers and then not sleeping, right? god So I wasn't sure again why he was named the Freddy Krueger killer since he wasn't really killing children or using like a slasher glove or anything. That's what Freddy Krueger had, right? Like a- Right. Well, I mean he had- there's- it's a glove of knives. So like Edward Scissorhand?
00:32:07
Speaker
Not like it when she says your name. But it's a glove. It's his hand. It's just nice. So it's more like this leather glove that has knives. Like Wolverine. It's Freddy Krueger. Was Freddy Krueger the first one? Which one came first? Freddy Krueger or Wolverine? It's like that kind of chicken. Is this a serious question? Yeah. I I am but a bade.
00:32:33
Speaker
I would say that it is closer to Wolverine than it is to Edward Scissorhands. Okay, cool. So he's on the spectrum on the on the knife spectrum. I wasn't sure why he was named that. Yeah, so apparently something that I didn't add in the story. So when he jumped out at that lady that was hiding behind the bush, he was wearing a Jason mask.
00:32:54
Speaker
but Yeah, so like, how are you going to call yourselves afraid of Krueger-Hiller but you're going to wear a Jason mask? Get your horror-mories. mori. Like, mori was a bitch or something.
00:33:05
Speaker
Anyways, get it straight, right? um So yeah, I'm getting really into the weeds with the name anyways. But yeah, just make it make sense. Like, if you're gonna be like, oh, we do the horror movies, maybe do it, like at least know like what horror movie you're talking about. Oh, there's there's the chance that, you know, somebody else labeled him as that and it stuck. But you know, you go ahead kind of go with the lowest common denominator, you know, what's a ah famous, you know, horror thing at the time, that's kind of just whatever the zeitgeist is.
00:33:30
Speaker
I guess. I don't know. But yeah, so that's the story of Daniel Gonzalez and the killing spree he decided to go on.
00:33:45
Speaker
Well, that was really horrific and much more intense than I was expecting. Yeah, super intense that I decided I'm going to give you a quiz about this. quick i Why didn't you tell me you were going to do this? Because I just found out about it. but Which famous serial killer are you? Aww. Okay. You don't want to be a famous serial killer? I would rather not be a serial killer, but let's do it. Ooh, you have to pick a city. Okay, very first question. Los Angeles, New Orleans, Seattle, Chicago, New York, or Miami?
00:34:18
Speaker
New Orleans. Sounds right. I don't feel like I even need to ask, but what is your favorite season? Fall. Okay. And what do you want for dinner? Pizza, salad, pasta, sushi, shrimp gumbo, a hot dog, a very rare steak or chicken. This is the weirdest question. Well, I have sushi with dinner tonight. Let's go with sushi. Okay.
00:34:43
Speaker
Oh, pizza? Pizza didn't make your list? You just won the lottery. Nice. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to Disney World? No, but I'd go on a trip, maybe. Pay off student loans, go on your dream vacation, buy a lavish new home, share it with friends, buy a new car, invest it, or live off of it for the rest of your days. Well, I feel like I'd be able to do some of all of it.
00:35:05
Speaker
but I mean, you said vacation, right? Is that what she said? Well, yeah, but I know this is a stupid quiz and my my anxiety makes me care too hard about the answers. I would probably say share it with friends. Okay. I feel that. I have a percentage. Same. How long is this quiz? Oh, it's two more questions. Pick a decade.
00:35:27
Speaker
80s, 60s, 90s, 1830s, or 1970. So 60, 70, 80, 90s, or let's go back to 1830. I'm definitely not going to go to 1830. I really like my modern conveniences. I feel like 80s for you.
00:35:45
Speaker
See, and I was gonna land there, but I feel like The Matrix was right and we were really in peak society in the 90s. But no, you know what? There's a charm to the love. Let's go with 80s. 80s, okay. If you were arrested for murder, would you? Plead not guilty, but then just eventually confess. Plead guilty, but try to claim insanity. Flea the country and risk greater punishment. Plead guilty, but claim self-defense.
00:36:15
Speaker
or plead not guilty by reason of insanity or not guilty or guilty. There are so many options there. So what what combination and I'll find the right one. I feel like I'd go self-defense. Self-defense. All right, I think this is the last question. If you killed someone, what would you do with the body? I'd call Nyleen and ask her to help me.
00:36:38
Speaker
do whatever I'm going to do with it. Well, I have a very specific question I need to ask you. Would you dump it far from your home or cut it up and hide it in your home, hide it in your home without cutting it out or just leave it at the crime scene? What about cutting it up and far away? That's not an option. I mean, you could dump it far away. Is that what you want to do? Yeah. Far away from which home? Your regular home or your nightmare cottage? All of them. Okay. Oh, ho.
00:37:08
Speaker
How bad is it? You got David Berkowitz, the son of Sam Killar. Oh no. He ah terrorized New York City area from 1976 to 1977. So you're a spree killer. He killed six people, wounded seven ah using a revolver. He was arrested. He stated that his neighbor's dog was possessed by a demon, which told him to commit the murders. Are you kidding me? I remember the stories. He was sentenced to 25 years for each murder.
00:37:39
Speaker
In 79, he held a press conference where he stated that his claims about satanic possession were a hoax.
00:37:47
Speaker
What? And so apparently you're a psycho. Not guilty. Self-defense. By reason of the dog told me to do it.
00:38:05
Speaker
okay so that is that's what I got man for episode one and I think we should go outside and check out whatever that was I don't think you have seen enough horror movies cuz you never you never go outside that's like literally no that's the worst idea we're just gonna bunker down but I'm a scary thing in the night I am the reluctant thing that follows the scary thing in the night. I'll protect you. All right, sweet dreams. If you have topic suggestions, movie or book recommendations, questions for the cottage, or just want to say hi, you can email us at nightmarecottage at gmail dot.com. You can find us on Instagram at nightmarecottage and on our web website at nightmarecottage.com. Sleep tight if you dare.