Anne Scripps and Scott Douglas

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Hi, I'm rich and I'm tin
And if there's one thing we've learned in

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over twenty years of marriage, some
days you'll feel like killing your husband,

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and some days you'll feel like killing
your wife. Welcome to love, Mary,

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kill e Tina. Hey, Rich, how are you? I'm great?

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How are you good? Well,
you've been sick, so I don't

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know how good you actually are.
I have been a little sick, and

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I'm getting a little sick and tired
of being sick. But I'm gonna I'm

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hanging in there. I think you
brought me something to eat, and I

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am a little hungry. I did
bring you something, so I held you

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cooking something. This is a very
random it's kind of a random snack today,

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but it's just something I had kind
of craving for. Bisy, I

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made you some homemade biscuits. Well, they're lovely. Look really good,

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don't they. Yeah, I'm excited
to try them. I brought some honey

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and some some jam also in case
you would like to put something on your

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biscuits. I'm a little shocked right
now. Was a little scared because last

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time you made beignets the kit So
Rich is he's a great chef, but

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he's not the best cleaner. And
so last time you made the bignet's,

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I was like, holy moly,
everything was like covered in powdered sugar and

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my bowls weren't clean. Oh,
your kitchen is just fine. Trust Oh

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it's just fine. Okay, Well
the biscuits they look great. Yeah,

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I'm not much of a bit.
I don't really make biscuits. Which we

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had biscuits last night with their fright, I know I had. This was

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a something I had planned before.
We decided to go to the gas station

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and get chicken and biscuits. People
we get okay, we have yeah,

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who we do go to the talk
about the gas station chicken places. Well,

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let me try this biscuit. All
right, we'll be right back.

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Holy noly, you you're beautiful.
Did you enjoy your biscuit? Olyness?

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That was? That was so so
good? Was really good and hit the

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spot. You know how. I
don't know how I came to decide I'm

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making biscuits, but it started to
love a biscuit. Today's Today's episode is

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set in New York and I was
looking for New York snacks or something,

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and I was googling things that I
came across the cronut, which apparently was

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invented in New York, the cross
between a croissant and a donut. So

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I was gonna make those. But
then I looked at the recipe, and

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we're going to make corona. Yeah, but I looked at the recipe.

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I was like, oh no,
I'm not making this way too way,

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too complicated. So yeah, somehow
I wound up from there to biscuits.

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I don't know how well they are
excellent, and you did a fabulous job.

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And I like the scallop edge.
I think it's the cutter that we

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have. It's a little scale up
edge here, but fancy, fabulous.

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Well you are the officially the biscuit
maker in our family. I have been

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meaning to make croissants, but I
mean, I bake a lot, but

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I'm not the most I don't like
a hard recipe. So yeah, maybe

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we could tackle that together. We
could collaborate on some croissants. All right,

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yes, all right, what is
the story you're going to tell us

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today? Well, first, before
I get into that, today's case was

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a recommendation from our listener Dorothy from
the Long on the Go. So Dorothy,

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I hope you're still listening. If
you are, thank you for the

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recommendation. We do have a long
list of case recommendations and we're working our

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way through them. Some of them
weren't able to do because we can't find

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enough information, but I'm glad that
you were able to find enough information to

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do the soon for Dorothy. Yeah, and if you would like to recommend

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a case to us, email us
at Lovemarykail at gmail dot com. Like

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you just said, we can't promise
to get to every case, but we're

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always interested to learn about new stories
that we weren't aware of. Today,

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we're going to tell you about the
tragic story of An Scripts and her family,

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an heiress to the Script's newspaper Fortune, and Scripts had a privileged upbringing,

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attending private schools and coming out at
debutante balls in Vienna and New York.

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She married a stockbroker in a lavish
ceremony with royalty and attendance, and

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soon gave birth to two daughters.
When her first marriage eventually ended in divorce,

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she quickly met and fell in love
with a new man, a house

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painter named Scott Douglas, who was
nine years younger than Anne. After a

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whirlwind romance, Anne and Scott married, and soon Anne gave birth to a

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third daughter. All Anne wanted was
the simple life of a suburban housewife,

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doting on her children and giving them
the warmth and love that she didn't get

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in her own childhood. But her
new marriage quickly turned into a nightmare,

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with a tragic outcome that would reverberate
for years to come. Anne Script's story

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is a reminder that wealth and privilege
are not safeguards against domestic violence. It's

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also a reminder that domestic violence doesn't
just affect one person, it can impact

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entire families for generations to come.
Very true. Just a warning that today's

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episode contains descriptions of domestic abuse and
suicide that may be distressing, so please

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listen with care. Anne Fraser Scripts
was born in nineteen forty six in Gross

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Pointe, Michigan, one of the
country's wealthiest suburbs. She was the first

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of three children born to Captain James
E. Scrips, the third, a

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retired merchant marine, and his wife
Anne. Anne's great great grandfather was James

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E. Scripps, who in eighteen
seventy three launched the newspaper that became the

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Detroit News. He had a radical
idea for its time that his reporters should

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quote write like people talk unquote.
His competitors called the News a cheap rag,

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but the public loved it. It's
a good paper. Yeah. I

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mean well, I will say growing
up in the Detroit air there were and

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there still are, two major newspapers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free

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Press. Your family was either like
a news family or a free press family.

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You couldn't be both, which was
kind of weird. It was.

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It was almost like there was a
like this competition, like, well,

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we subscribe to the Free Press,
so you know, we don't like those

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news people. Well, in Chicago
it's similar because you have the Chicago TRIBUNEA

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and the Chicago Sun Times. Well, we were a free press family up

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in any case, James Scrips did
pretty well for himself, but his little

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brother, Edward W. Scripts did
even better. He started his own news

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empire, acquiring twenty five different newspapers
and starting the news service that became known

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as United Press International or UPI.
His media empire was called the E.

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W. Scripts Company, also known
as Scrips Howard, and it's still around,

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although now mostly focused on TV production. You may also know it as

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the organizer of the US National Spelling
Bee, which started in nineteen twenty five.

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Oh, I was going to ask
you if you'd heard about the Spelling

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Bee because it just wrapped up.
Oh no, okay, good timing.

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We'll save that for later. Okay. Together, the Scripts were known as

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the first Family of American journalism.
Anne grew up in a life of old

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money privilege. She went to the
best private Catholic girls' schools. She had

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nice clothes and other possessions, and
she got to take amazing vacations. But

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what she didn't have were parents who
were there for her. Dad was away

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much of the time, and he
was an alcoholic who wasn't heavily involved in

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her life. Later in his life, he did get help for his alcohol

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addiction and devoted the rest of his
life to helping other alcoholics as the director

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of a treatment program for recovering alcoholics
who were unable to pay for their own

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care. Nice Anne's mom was also
only partially present. She struggled with manic

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depression, although it wasn't diagnosed until
much later in her life. Anne's grandmother,

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Ruth ru ended up being a surrogate
parent to Anne in many ways.

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Ruth had been married to James E. Scripps Junior, who died while in

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his twenties. She remarried a man
named Lester Rue of gross Pointe Farms.

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Ruth was a socialite who mingled with
the Ford family and other members of the

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elite class. She introduced Anne to
the ways of high society. When Anne

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was twelve, the family moved to
upstate New York near Albany, where she

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attended the all girls Sacred Heart Convent. She then moved to New York City

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to attend the prestigious Dushane Residence School, a two year college for Catholic women.

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Anne was a debutant who made her
debut at a ball in Vienna's Schwarzenburg

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Palace and then in New York at
the debutant Cotillian and Christmas Ball It's Very

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Fancy Wait. After graduating from the
Residence School in nineteen sixty six, and

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studied interior design at the New York
School of Interior Design. Soon after finishing

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school, Anne met and fell in
love with a bond trader named Anthony Xavier

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Morrell. They married in nineteen sixty
nine, when Anne was twenty three years

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old. It was a lavish ceremony
at the luxurious Saint Regis Hotel in Manhattan

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that included European royalty. Among her
bridal attendants was Princess Immaculotta Habsburg of Vienna,

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and one of the ushers was Victor
Emmanuel Junior of the House of Savoy,

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who was a direct descendant of the
former King of Italy. The wedding

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was featured in a three page spread
in Town and Country magazine. After the

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wedding, Anthony and Anne settled in
the affluent village of Bronxville, New York,

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about fifteen miles north of midtown Manhattan. Anne had an idealized version of

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life as a suburban housewife, greeting
her man with the Martini when he came

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home from work, dinner on the
stove, children playing in the yard,

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and for a time that vision seemed
to be coming true. Less than two

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years into the marriage, Anne gave
birth to a daughter, Alexandra, and

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the following year she had another daughter, Anne. Alex and Annie were Anne's

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pride and joy. She was determined
to give them the warmth and attention that

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she hadn't gotten from her own parents. She spent as much time with her

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girls as she could, making crafts, doing art projects, taking walks,

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going to get ice cream. Once
they'd started school, she would walk them

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to school every day, come back
and pick them up for lunch, then

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return to walk them home from school
at the end of the day. Her

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entire life revolved around their children.
Alex and Annie later recalled their childhood as

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idyllic. They were spoiled by their
mother's love, and they lived in a

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beautiful tree lined neighborhood and a seven
bedroom house that offered endless opportunities for exploration,

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hide and seek, and sometimes even
roller skating down the hallways. Sounds

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like a very nice childhood. The
two girls, just over a year a

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part in age, grew up close
more like twins in many ways. Alex

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was seen as the tougher of the
two, more daring and with a biting

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sense of humor. Annie was more
sensitive and awkward, but also warmer and

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more open hearted. But all fairy
tales eventually come to an end. While

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Anne was a homebody who enjoyed the
simple life, Anthony was drawn to life

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in the fast lane. He liked
the world of high finance and parties,

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He drank a lot, and over
time Anne came to suspect that he was

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having affairs. In nineteen eighty eight, after eighteen years of marriage, a

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couple decided to divorce. Alex and
Annie, both in high school at the

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time, stuck by their mom following
the divorce, but by this point they

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were both starting to brant out to
do their own thing with their own friends,

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and Anne found it hard being single. She was afraid of being alone,

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but she wasn't alone for long while
the inco on the divorce papers was

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still drying. Anne met Scott Douglas
at a Super Bowl party in late January

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at nineteen eighty eight. Seemed a
little odd that Anne was going to a

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super Bowl party. Everyone loves the
super Bowl, I guess, so it's

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just not a high society yet.
Scott was thirty three years old, nine

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years younger than Anne. Scott had
a very different background and upbringing from Anne.

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He grew up in the town of
Rye, New York. His father

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died when he was young, and
his mom struggled to get by as a

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single mother. She eventually remarried,
but Scott didn't get along with his stepdad.

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He dropped out of high school and
moved out. When Scott was nineteen,

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he moved in with a woman named
Phyllis Creighton. Phyllis was twelve years

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older than Scott, divorced with two
children. They lived together for three years

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and remained close friends after that.
A few years after moving out, Scott

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got a job as a caretaker for
a property in Portchester, New York,

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living in a cottage on the property
from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty six.

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Scott was somewhat of a mystery to
people who knew him. He was very

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private. In three years living with
Phyllis Creighton, he never once introduced her

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to or even mentioned his mother.
He was tall, good looking, charming,

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and affable, but some people saw
him as standoffish and inarticulate. Philis

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said he wouldn't hurt a fly.
Literally. She said that he wouldn't kill

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the flies or aunts if they were
in their house. Instead, he would

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take them outside, saying that everything
had a right to live. At the

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same time, his hobby was taxidermy. Well that's a little ironic. He

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wouldn't kill a fly, but then
he would stuff a beaver or whatever you

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might find a dead raccoon or other
varmint and his freezer waiting to be stuffed.

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One neighbor said he was quote a
boy scout of a guy. But

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at the same time, she said
that he had a large light and a

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dark side. He dated a lot
of women. The man who owned the

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property where Scott worked as a caretaker
had this to say about him. I

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think before you read the quote,
I think you have to read this with

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a New York accent. So if
you could do that, that would You're

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so talented action you're accents, okay. Quote. There were a lot of

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girls, and I heard a lot
of fights. He was a woman chaser.

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The gals he went around with were
very substantial, very beautiful. He

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was an earth shaker, had a
personality to make movie stars look like a

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bunch of bombs. Only close friend
he had was his brother. He'd never

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marry a poor woman, told me
I was a sucker. He used to

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tell the girls this was his place. He'd entertain them at my pool.

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He had no respect for women,
said women are nothing but a bunch of

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whores. He'd be fighting with one
of them inside with another waiting for him

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outside. End quote. Oh to
he's the player. He fathered two children

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out of wedlock before meeting Anne,
something he never mentioned Anne, amongst other

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secrets he had kept from her.
Growing up where he did in the proximity

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of a lot of wealthy people,
Scott had ample opportunity to see how the

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other half lived, and he wanted
to be one of them. By the

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time he met Anne at the Super
Bowl party, Scott lived in a small

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apartment in Greenwich, Connecticut, and
was making a living painting houses. Anne

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saw Scott as someone who was hard
working and who valued family above all else,

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just like she did. Anne's wealthy
friends and her daughters had a different

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00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:43.840
feeling, though. They saw Scott
as standoffish, believing that he felt inferior,

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having come from a lower class background
in their eyes. They tried to

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be friendly to him, but he
didn't seem interested, although it's certainly possible

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that they looked down on him and
that he sensed that he just didn't fit

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00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:58.559
in with the ultra rich country club
crowd that Anne had grown up with.

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This started a vicious cycle where he
would try to separate her from her friends,

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00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:07.399
which caused them to resent him,
which made him even more determined to

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build a wall between Anne and her
friends. Anne's daughter Alex later said that

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00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:16.960
he just didn't seem very bright or
articulate, and that she had nothing in

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common with him. He was unsophisticated, and Alex and Annie worried from the

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beginning that Scott was out to take
advantage of their vulnerable mother. In any

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00:15:26.519 --> 00:15:30.960
case, Anne found him charming and
attentive. After dating for only about six

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00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.279
months, Scott asked him to marry
her, saying they had to get married

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00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:37.879
right now, and Anne agreed,
that's not a red flag. No.

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Her friends and family were taken aback
when she told them of their plans to

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get married only five days following his
proposal. One friend later said, quote,

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we tried to talk her into waiting, but she was vulnerable, a

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bit scared after her divorce. How
do you put restraints on a grown woman?

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Unquote How much time had passed between
the proposal and the divorce. It

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00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:00.879
was roughly a year, maybe a
little less. Okay, so that's pretty

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quick, Yeah, really quick.
Her family tried to talk Anne into having

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00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:10.320
Scott sign a prenup, but that
also fell on deaf ears. The wedding

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00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:14.120
was held at Anne's home in Bronxville. It was small, with only twenty

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people in attendance. Notable absences included
Scott's mom, he had told Anne that

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she was no longer living, and
also Anne's mother, brother, and sister.

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00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:27.000
She hadn't even invited them, knowing
that they wouldn't approve. Even those

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00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:32.720
who did attend the wedding were not
necessarily supportive. One guest later said about

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00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:36.799
Scott, quote, he was classless, a name dropper. You could see

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00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:40.519
that immediately. He was shifty,
he had a slimy, weak handshake,

235
00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:44.200
didn't look you straight in the eye, had no conversation, had nothing to

236
00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.399
say. What could he talk about
house painting? He didn't speak our language.

237
00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:52.200
Unquote. Well, I take offense
to that because my dad was a

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00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:55.919
painter. Yes, he was a
house painter, a very successful house painter

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00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:00.559
who worked so hard. Yeah.
I have no sympathy for Siks in this

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00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:03.759
story at all, but I do. It does seem like her friends were

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00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:07.799
a little bit bit thompus. Yeah. While Anne's friends and daughters may not

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have liked Scott before the wedding,
at least they saw that he seemed kind

243
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.839
and treated her with respect. After
the wedding, though, that changed suddenly.

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He was quick to criticize Anne about
everything. He said she had snobby

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00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.240
friends and that she spoiled her daughters. Alex later said, quote, he

246
00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:30.039
got an attitude. He got very
mean and controlling. Unquote. He lied

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00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:33.359
to Anne about many things. As
we already mentioned, he told her his

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00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:37.279
mother was dead, even though she
was in fact living just twelve miles away

249
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from them. He never mentioned the
two children that he had but never saw.

250
00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:47.279
He also had two sisters that he
never mentioned, and for some reason,

251
00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:49.359
he told Anne that he was Jewish, even though she later found out

252
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he was Episcopalian. He also didn't
share with Anne the fact that he drank

253
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a lot, had bouts of depression, had been in therapy, and that

254
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his painting business wasn't really all that
successful. He was struggling to get by.

255
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All of this would gradually become clear
after the wedding. After he moved

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00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:11.519
into Anne's house, he kept his
apartment in Greenwich. It was primarily an

257
00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:15.599
office for his painting business, but
he would come and go regularly, and

258
00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:19.359
he never mentioned to his local friends
or neighbors that he was now married.

259
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They all assumed that he was still
single. Despite the growing issues in the

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new marriage, Anne was anxious to
have another baby. Partly, she was

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looking for a new life to take
care of now that her daughters were both

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00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:34.799
getting older and getting ready to go
off to college and a life of their

263
00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:38.680
own, But partly she thought that
having a baby would help fix things in

264
00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:42.920
the marriage. It never does.
About a year into the marriage, Anne

265
00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.279
found out that she was pregnant.
She gave birth to another girl, Victoria

266
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Scrips Douglas, in June nineteen ninety. Everyone doated on little Victoria, more

267
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commonly known as Tory. Anne loved
her and spent hours playing with her,

268
00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:02.599
making up silly stories and saws and
dances, just like she'd done with Alex

269
00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:06.559
and Annie. Scott seemed to enjoy
being a dad as well. No one

270
00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:11.000
doubted that he loved his new daughter. Now teenagers, Alex and Annie also

271
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loved their new little sister, but
it didn't take long before things deteriorated.

272
00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:21.440
The dislike between Alex and Scott turned
into outright hatred. She would call him

273
00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:26.359
an uneducated dirt bag, and he
started seeing both Alex and Annie as competition

274
00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:30.640
for his wife's affection and probably for
her money as well. He pushed Anne

275
00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:34.359
to put pressure on Alex to move
out after she graduated from high school,

276
00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:40.799
which she did. There were also
increasing fights about money. While Anne knew

277
00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:44.640
that Scott wasn't wealthy, she probably
expected that he would at least be able

278
00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:48.319
to contribute to the family with his
income. But it turned out that Anne

279
00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:52.160
paid for everything. She paid all
the bills, the utilities, any expenses

280
00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.359
for the children, She paid if
they went out to dinner in a movie.

281
00:19:56.759 --> 00:20:00.039
She even gave him money besides all
that, and in fact, he

282
00:20:00.039 --> 00:20:03.960
would charge her if he did any
work around the house. A friend of

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00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:07.279
Anne's said, quote, she thought
he would share in the cost of the

284
00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:10.920
house, but he acted like a
jigglow. She was used to being treated

285
00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.440
like a lady unquote, but she
has a lot of money, right,

286
00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.759
Yeah, for sure, But she
just wanted him to contribute something. I

287
00:20:18.759 --> 00:20:22.359
think it's I think it's reasonable.
Right. Smartly, Anne kept her money

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00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:26.759
completely separate from Scott, refusing to
give him access to any bank accounts and

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00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:32.279
keeping him in the dark about her
finances. This rankled him, as did

290
00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:36.559
her refusal to buy him a new
BMW. At one point, he exploded

291
00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:38.720
at her, saying, quote,
I've gotten more from women I've dated for

292
00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:44.400
two weeks than I got from you
in two years unquote hikes. If Scott

293
00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:47.680
thought that he was going to get
rich by marrying a wealthy woman, he

294
00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:52.599
must have gradually realized that he was
mistaken. In most old money families,

295
00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:56.440
like the Scripts, the family fortune
is well protected in trusts that are designed

296
00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:00.799
specifically to keep the money in the
family. In fact, when Anne died,

297
00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:04.680
her estate was only worth about a
million dollars. The rest of the

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00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:10.720
Scripps family's nine hundred million dollar fortune
was in a tightly controlled trust, with

299
00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:17.279
interest from the trust used to support
generation after generation of direct errors. No

300
00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:19.599
matter what happened, Scott was not
going to get any of the trust fund

301
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:23.799
money. As things got worse in
the marriage, Anne updated her will to

302
00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:29.160
ensure that Scott would get the minimum
amount possible. By law, he was

303
00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.680
entitled to one third of her estate, about three hundred thousand dollars, but

304
00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:37.400
she had the will structured in a
way that he would get an initial payment

305
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:41.559
of ten thousand dollars followed by taxable
payments of just sixty five hundred dollars a

306
00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:48.200
year for life. Wow. That
was pretty smart. Over time, Scott

307
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.759
became increasingly violent, especially When he
would come home drunk, he would throw

308
00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:57.279
furniture across the room, smash glasses
against the wall, and he started becoming

309
00:21:57.359 --> 00:22:02.279
violent with Anne as well. After
a dinner party, a friend of Anne's

310
00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:06.400
saw him slam her against a stone
wall near the driveway of the dinner party

311
00:22:06.440 --> 00:22:10.720
hosts, in full view of other
guests. Another time, at a wedding,

312
00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.359
he became enraged when Anne went out
on the dance floor with her former

313
00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:17.880
brother in law. He grabbed her
arm and pulled her off the dance floor,

314
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:22.400
calling her a slut in front of
everyone. On their second wedding anniversary,

315
00:22:22.680 --> 00:22:26.519
Scott bought Anne a bathroom scale,
saying, quote, you'd better use

316
00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:29.240
this every day. I don't want
to see an inch of fat on you

317
00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:33.039
unquote At the time, not that
it matters, but Anne weighed one hundred

318
00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:37.640
and five pounds. The fights would
get worse than Scott would apologize and promise

319
00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.640
to change, then the cycle would
start all over again. He would get

320
00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:47.400
paranoid and accuse Anne of having affairs, and he would get irritated and impatient

321
00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:51.160
when she would take Tory for a
walk or stop and chat with neighbors.

322
00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.720
Anne started speaking in code to her
friends on the phone, believing that Scott

323
00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:59.400
may have bugged the phone. She
had code words to let her friends know

324
00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:03.119
that Scott would lingering and that she
couldn't speak openly. He started spending more

325
00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:07.279
time at his old apartment and business
office in Greenwich. He would party a

326
00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:11.559
lot, and he would befriend many
of his female painting clients, never letting

327
00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:15.079
on that he was married. Oh, hopefully you're getting the picture by now

328
00:23:15.079 --> 00:23:21.359
that Scott is a real piece of
shit. In the spring of nineteen ninety

329
00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:25.119
one, a petitioned the family Court
for an order of protection against Scott,

330
00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:27.960
saying that he had tried to push
her out of a moving car. She

331
00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:33.000
packed her bags and took Toy with
her to stay at Alex's apartment in Bronxville,

332
00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:37.839
but Scott persuaded her to return home, promising again that he would quit

333
00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.359
drinking and become a better husband.
In December nineteen ninety three, and discovered

334
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:47.880
that Scott had taken Tory's birth certificate
and other important papers from their home.

335
00:23:48.599 --> 00:23:52.079
Fearing that Scott would kidnap Tory,
she filed another court order preventing Scott from

336
00:23:52.119 --> 00:23:57.000
harassing her and from taking Tory from
the house. Anne then sought help from

337
00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:03.519
the Coalition for Family Justice, nonprofit
organization in Westchester, New York. On

338
00:24:03.640 --> 00:24:07.799
describing Scott's violence in detail, the
chairperson of the coalition advised Anne to get

339
00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:11.160
out of the house and offered up
one of their shelters as a place for

340
00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:15.599
her to stay in the near term. However, Anne's attorney advised her to

341
00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:19.880
stay at home, otherwise it could
be considered abandonment and it would weaken her

342
00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:26.720
position in regards to custody of Tory. Oh, it's just those stories over

343
00:24:26.759 --> 00:24:33.519
and over again. It's just really
really heartbreaking. As they talked about ending

344
00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:36.599
the marriage, Scott said he would
leave if she paid him a quarter of

345
00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:40.720
a million dollars. Anne agreed,
but only if it was done officially through

346
00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:44.880
the court system. Otherwise she was
worried that Scott would come back and demand

347
00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:48.039
more money, or that he would
kidnap Tory, something he had threatened to

348
00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:53.079
do many times. So this was
the situation leading into the final week of

349
00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:56.839
nineteen ninety three. Scott and Anne
were both still living in the house,

350
00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:02.920
both sleeping in separate bedrooms. Scott
would come and go without explanations, sometimes

351
00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:06.799
staying out all night or leaving in
the middle of the night. He would

352
00:25:06.839 --> 00:25:08.720
wake Anne up in the middle of
the night, yelling at her, calling

353
00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:14.279
her stupid or calling her a slut. She'd wake in his grip, unable

354
00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:17.880
to move as he ranted at her. One time, he threatened to cut

355
00:25:17.880 --> 00:25:22.240
her into little pieces and scatter her
body all over New York. She began

356
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:26.279
sleeping with a claw hammer under her
pillow or next to her bed for protection.

357
00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:30.559
On Christmas Eve, Anne met a
friend for lunch. She had a

358
00:25:30.599 --> 00:25:33.839
patch over one eye after a trip
to the ar because her cornea had gotten

359
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:37.599
scratched in Scott's latest attack on her. She told her friend that he had

360
00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:41.240
pushed her down the stairs, thrown
her on the floor, kicked her,

361
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:45.440
and pulled her hair so hard she
thought it was going to come right out

362
00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.640
of her head, she said.
She threw her hands up and told him,

363
00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:51.920
quote, take anything you want,
but don't hurt me any more.

364
00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:56.759
I can't take it any more.
End quote. That's horrible. A few

365
00:25:56.839 --> 00:26:00.400
days after Christmas and before New Year's
Scott gave Anne a black eye in another

366
00:26:00.440 --> 00:26:03.519
fight, and she went to family
court to seek an order of protection.

367
00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.640
But it was the holiday season and
the family court judge was on vacation,

368
00:26:08.359 --> 00:26:12.559
so she was told to come back
after the holidays. On New Year's Eve,

369
00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:18.319
Alex now twenty three, was in
Vermont skiing with friends. Annie twenty

370
00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:21.359
two, was home on break from
college, but she was planning to go

371
00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:25.319
to a party while Anne was planning
to stay home with Tory, who was

372
00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:27.880
now three. As Annie was getting
ready to go out, she found her

373
00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:32.680
mom crying. Anne told her that
she and Scott had been fighting again.

374
00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:37.200
She said that Scott told her that
the threats were over and something more had

375
00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:41.599
to be done, implying that the
violence was going to escalate her, which

376
00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:45.359
is really scary. Annie said she
was going to stay home, but Anne

377
00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:48.599
said, no, go ahead and
go out have fun. It's just another

378
00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:52.440
one of his threats. When Annie
returned home from the party at three thirty

379
00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:55.839
am, she realized she had forgotten
her key and the door to the house

380
00:26:55.920 --> 00:26:59.039
was locked. It was freezing outside, so she pounded on the door,

381
00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:03.359
the same time noticing that Scott's car
was not in the driveway where it usually

382
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:07.039
was. She was quickly alarmed when
there was no answer, because she knew

383
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:11.200
that her mom was sleeping in her
room, which was right above the door.

384
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:15.160
A few hours earlier, just ten
minutes into the new year, some

385
00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:18.880
police officers out on patrol saw a
gray bmw idling in the middle of the

386
00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:23.480
tap and Z Bridge, a cantilever
bridge that spanned the Hudson River, twenty

387
00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:29.200
five miles north of Midtown, Manhattan
and about twenty two miles from Anne's home

388
00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:33.039
in Bronxville. The car was at
the midpoint of the bridge, which was

389
00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:37.240
three miles long and one hundred and
forty feet above the water. There was

390
00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:40.880
no one in the car, but
sitting in the front seat was a bloody

391
00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:45.119
claw hammer. After Annie had been
outside pounding on the door of the family

392
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:49.359
home for about twenty minutes, the
police showed up. We've heard differing reports

393
00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:53.400
about how the police got the call. One report said that the neighbors heard

394
00:27:53.440 --> 00:27:57.079
Annie pounding on the door and call
them up. Another said that Annie called

395
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:00.160
them herself. It's possible that she
may have had a cell phone at this

396
00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.920
point, but we don't know.
A third explanation we read is that at

397
00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:07.599
some point, after finding Scott's car
on the bridge, his brother called the

398
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:11.799
police because he was worried about Scott. Apparently, Scott had called him right

399
00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:18.119
before midnight, saying quote, I've
done something really bad this time end quote.

400
00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:22.000
When Scott's brother couldn't reach him after
that, he eventually called the police,

401
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:25.839
who showed up at Anne and Scott's
home around three fifty am to find

402
00:28:25.880 --> 00:28:30.279
Annie standing outside the front door.
In any case, after the police arrived,

403
00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:33.599
firefighters were summoned to break into the
house. As Annie and the officers

404
00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:38.480
reached her bedroom, they were met
with a horrific sight. Anne was laying

405
00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:42.279
on the bed, her head bloodied
and beaten, apparently by the same hammer

406
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:48.039
that she had been keeping nearby for
protection. The sheets were soaked in blood,

407
00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:52.359
and the family's new puppy was snuggled
up next to her. Anne was

408
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:57.039
breathing, but just barely. Here's
Annie telling ABC News about that terrible moment.

409
00:28:59.039 --> 00:29:03.759
I couldn't believe it. I couldn't
even recognize my mother. Face was

410
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:15.000
so badly beaten and swollen, and
she had a huge oh on the side

411
00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:19.559
of her face. Anne was rushed
to the hospital. Three year old Victoria

412
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:25.119
was found physically unharmed, cowering in
her bedroom next to the primary bedroom.

413
00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:29.519
Apparently she either witnessed what happened or
went in to find her mom after it

414
00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:33.200
happened. We've seen different versions of
what Tory supposedly said to her sister and

415
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.000
the police after they found Anne,
but most are something along the lines of

416
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:41.960
quote, daddy was giving mommy so
many bad booboos? Why does mommy have

417
00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:48.519
paint all over her face? End
quote that's so we'll be back after a

418
00:29:48.559 --> 00:30:00.599
break. Anne was in a coma
fighting for her life. She hung on

419
00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.519
for six days, but her injuries
were just too severe, and she passed

420
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:10.839
away on January sixth, nineteen ninety
four, without ever regaining consciousness. Coincidentally,

421
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:14.319
at the time that Anne was fighting
for her life, her first husband,

422
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:18.440
Anthony Morrel, was fighting for his
own life in the Veterans Affairs Medical

423
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:22.240
Center in Pittsburgh. He had been
diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver resulting from

424
00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:26.880
his fast paced, hard drinking lifestyle, and was given between six weeks and

425
00:30:26.920 --> 00:30:30.400
six months to live. When he
heard about what happened to Anne, he

426
00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:34.400
left the hospital and came to New
York to be by her side. Alex

427
00:30:34.440 --> 00:30:38.039
and Annie decided that their mom would
have wanted to donate her liver to their

428
00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:42.200
dad, so they gave the go
ahead for the transplant. Oh my goodness,

429
00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:47.200
a family spokesperson said, quote,
her daughters acted on what they knew

430
00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:49.680
would be their mother's wishes. Anne
left this world the way she lived in

431
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:55.759
it, loving and giving unquote.
The liver transplant ended up giving Anthony the

432
00:30:55.759 --> 00:30:59.279
gift of another eleven years of life. He died in two thousand and five

433
00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:03.119
of a heart attack. Well that's
so nice, I know, very nice.

434
00:31:03.400 --> 00:31:04.920
If we divorce, I want you
to have my lover too. If

435
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:10.440
oh, thanks, you're welcome,
and vice versa. Oh thanks. New

436
00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:15.079
Year's Day nineteen ninety four was the
first day on the job for Westchester County

437
00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:19.039
District Attorney Janine Piro. That sounds
familiar, well before she had her Judge

438
00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:23.480
Janine Puro TV show and before she
was a Fox News co host. She

439
00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:29.279
was elected as the first female DA
of Westchester County, New York. On

440
00:31:29.319 --> 00:31:32.480
that first day, before she even
had a chance to take her jacket off,

441
00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:37.000
she was notified of a high profile
domestic violence and possibly murder case.

442
00:31:37.880 --> 00:31:41.440
She was already known as a passionate
prosecutor of domestic violence cases from her time

443
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:47.359
as assistant DA, and she raised
her profile further by appearing frequently in the

444
00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:52.119
media to talk about the Anne scripts
case. Domestic violence would become a focal

445
00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:56.559
point of her next twelve years in
office. One substantial change was eventually made

446
00:31:56.559 --> 00:32:01.920
in domestic violence procedures as a direct
result of Anne's death. Remember that Anne

447
00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:07.359
had sought out protection shortly before she
was killed, but the family court judge

448
00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:10.079
had been on vacation, so she
was turned away. Now, if no

449
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:15.079
family court judge is available when needed, the criminal court judge who is on

450
00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:19.519
twenty four hour duty can sign an
order of protection, which is really it's

451
00:32:19.559 --> 00:32:22.039
amazing that it took this for that
change to be made, because it just

452
00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:29.160
seems obvious that people are going to
need protection at random times of the night

453
00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:31.720
or holidays or things like that.
But in any case, some good that

454
00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:36.960
came out of it. While Scott's
car had been found idling in the middle

455
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:40.319
of the tappan Zee Bridge, few
people believed that he had actually jumped over

456
00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:45.400
the side to end his life.
Alex and Annie were firmly convinced that he

457
00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:49.680
had faked his own suicide, and
they feared for their safety, even hiring

458
00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:53.400
bodyguards for a time. Scott's former
boss, who owned the property where Scott

459
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:58.160
worked as a caretaker for six years, said quote, I'll tell you this,

460
00:32:58.279 --> 00:33:00.640
he never jumped off that bridge.
He hated cold water. He never

461
00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:04.440
went in the pool one time in
all the years. Said the water was

462
00:33:04.440 --> 00:33:09.480
too cold. No way he jumped
into that freezing cold January water. On

463
00:33:09.559 --> 00:33:15.119
January second, the police visited Scott's
apartment in Greenwich. They spoke with a

464
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:19.359
neighbor who lived downstairs from Scott,
who said that she hadn't seen him.

465
00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:22.079
The next day, though she heard
footsteps in the apartment above and called the

466
00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:25.359
police, But when they showed up, there was no sign of Scott at

467
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:30.880
his apartment. Whoever it was had
left, but it reinforced the belief that

468
00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:36.799
Scott was still alive. The investigation
also uncovered the fact that Scott maintained two

469
00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:40.160
bank accounts under two different names and
social security numbers, and that he was

470
00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:45.279
in possession of two birth certificates with
different names. There was speculation that he

471
00:33:45.319 --> 00:33:50.480
had fled to the Caribbean, possibly
with the help of a girlfriend. A

472
00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:54.000
warrant was issued for Scott's arrest,
and the family offered a reward for information

473
00:33:54.119 --> 00:33:59.680
leading to his arrest. The reward
started at twenty five thousand dollars and was

474
00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:04.559
raised in February to one hundred thousand
dollars. The police did launch a search

475
00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:07.360
of the river, but the currents
in the Hudson River are actually quite variable.

476
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:12.519
Unlike most rivers, the water in
the Hudson River can flow either north

477
00:34:12.679 --> 00:34:16.599
or south depending on the tides,
and the flow direction changes usually four times

478
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:22.039
a day. And while the Hudson
River doesn't usually freeze over, the frigid

479
00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:27.800
waters and scattered ice hindered the search. On March thirtieth, nineteen ninety four,

480
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:31.519
as things were thawing out, a
Metro North Commuter railway worker found a

481
00:34:31.559 --> 00:34:36.559
body on the river bank, not
far from the railway tracks. A day

482
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:40.920
later, dental records were used to
positively identify the body as Scott. Apparently

483
00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:45.719
he had jumped after all. Oh
my goodness, He had five hundred and

484
00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:49.960
seven dollars in cash in his pocket
and his watch was stopped at exactly twelve

485
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.119
o'clock, leading investigators to believe he
jumped right at midnight, moments after calling

486
00:34:54.159 --> 00:35:00.559
his brother and only ten minutes before
they came upon his car. And Annie

487
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.800
were surprised, but relieved they no
longer had to worry about Scott coming after

488
00:35:04.840 --> 00:35:07.719
them or Tory. Annie said,
quote, it was a surprise, but

489
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:13.599
the nightmare is over. Unquote.
Do you think when Scott jumped from the

490
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:16.679
bridge he intended to end his life
or do you think he thought he could

491
00:35:16.719 --> 00:35:21.519
reach the shore? I think he
must have intended to end his life because

492
00:35:21.559 --> 00:35:23.360
the bridge is it's one hundred and
forty feet above the water, and the

493
00:35:23.400 --> 00:35:29.119
waters were frigid cold on January first, So I can't imagine a world where

494
00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:34.000
he thought he would survive that,
Okay. In a brazen and shameless move,

495
00:35:34.119 --> 00:35:37.559
Scott's family tried to file a claim
on Scott's shares of Anne's estate,

496
00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:43.239
but in October nineteen ninety four,
a judge denied the claim. The primary

497
00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:46.559
reason it was denied was that Scott
actually preceded anne and death. Although it's

498
00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:51.800
hard to believe if she hadn't hung
on for six days after the beating,

499
00:35:51.920 --> 00:35:55.199
it's possible that his family might have
actually been entitled to part of her estate.

500
00:35:55.480 --> 00:35:59.760
It just boggles my mind that that
would even be a possibility. That

501
00:35:59.800 --> 00:36:05.280
his family could just so icky too
that they wanted to do that. Although

502
00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:08.280
Annie had said the nightmare was over
after Scott's body was found. Sadly that

503
00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:13.639
was not the case. Initially,
after her mom's death, Annie redirected her

504
00:36:13.639 --> 00:36:16.440
grief into caring for her little sister, Tory, who wasn't able to get

505
00:36:16.440 --> 00:36:22.039
to sleep by herself anymore. Annie
became a substitute mom for Tory, and

506
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:24.840
for a time she wanted to adopt
her, but she was twenty two years

507
00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:30.400
old and in no position to provide
a stable home for a traumatized three year

508
00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:34.920
old. In the end, Tory
was adopted by Anne's sister, Mary Scripps

509
00:36:34.920 --> 00:36:38.800
and her husband, Robert Carmody,
who raised Tory in Vermont. Even though

510
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:43.639
Annie and Alex remained in touch with
Tory after she was adopted by her aunt,

511
00:36:44.119 --> 00:36:49.159
losing her was another blow to Annie's
fragile psyche. In nineteen ninety five,

512
00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:52.800
Alex married a real estate investor named
Jimmy Romeo, whom she had been

513
00:36:52.840 --> 00:36:57.840
seeing at the time of her mother's
murder. In nineteen ninety six, Annie

514
00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:01.679
married Jimmy's best friend, Paul Patrol, whose family owned a construction company.

515
00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:07.639
Alex and Annie remained extremely close through
the years, talking ten to fifteen times

516
00:37:07.639 --> 00:37:12.320
a day and taking vacations together.
The two couples lived fifteen minutes from one

517
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:15.360
another. Alex had a daughter,
Alexa, and Annie had a son,

518
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:20.440
Michael, who were fifteen months of
pardon age, just like Alex and Annie

519
00:37:20.440 --> 00:37:22.880
had been. They were more like
sister and brother to each other than cousins,

520
00:37:23.519 --> 00:37:28.920
but neither marriage lasted long. Alex
got divorced after three years of marriage

521
00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:32.480
and Annie after four. As Alex
later said, the two girls were in

522
00:37:32.599 --> 00:37:37.280
La La Land after their mother's murder
and were having a hard time coping.

523
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:42.360
Annie was reportedly drinking a lot during
her marriage. Anne had to be hospitalized

524
00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:46.360
more than once after passing out.
Alex received intensive therapy and at help.

525
00:37:46.679 --> 00:37:50.719
She had always been the more resilient
of the two girls, and she hadn't

526
00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:53.559
been there that night to see her
mom's horrific injuries. It was harder for

527
00:37:53.599 --> 00:37:58.159
Annie. She saw a therapist for
a time, but she couldn't get the

528
00:37:58.199 --> 00:38:00.920
images of her brutally beaten, in
dying mom out of her head. She

529
00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:06.000
felt guilty for not staying home that
night, thinking she could have prevented what

530
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:10.039
happened, despite Alex and others telling
her that no Scott would have killed her

531
00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:15.400
as well if she would have been
home. Over time, Annie's trust fund

532
00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:20.079
dwindled, she had problems managing her
money, compounded by a drinking problem and

533
00:38:20.159 --> 00:38:23.280
difficulty finding love. She and Alex, along with the Scripts family, sued

534
00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:29.199
the state family Court and police for
twenty two million dollars, saying that Scott

535
00:38:29.199 --> 00:38:31.960
should have been barred from Anne's house
when she had petitioned the court in early

536
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:37.239
December, but the Sooths were eventually
dismissed. The court transcripts showed that Anne

537
00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:42.000
hadn't actually asked for Scott to be
evicted at the time, even though it

538
00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:45.119
had been reported that way in the
media. In nineteen ninety seven, a

539
00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:50.960
maid for TV dramatization of Anne's story
was made, called Our Mother's Murder.

540
00:38:51.639 --> 00:38:55.039
It starred rox Anne Hart as Anne, Holly Marie Combs as Alex, Sarah

541
00:38:55.159 --> 00:39:00.159
Chalk as Annie, and James Wilder
as Scott. Alex and Annie both participated

542
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:04.920
in the making of the movie,
which brought them some income but also served

543
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:08.760
as a reminder of their trauma every
time it aired. In two thousand,

544
00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:13.039
was that a Lifetime movie? I
don't know who originally made it, but

545
00:39:13.119 --> 00:39:15.679
I believe it. You can probably
see it on Lifetime in reruns now.

546
00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:20.320
Yeah. In two thousand and one, the girl suffered another blow when their

547
00:39:20.440 --> 00:39:24.079
uncle, George Morrell died in the
nine to eleven terrorist attacks, and then

548
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:28.920
again in two thousand and five when
their dad died of a heart attack.

549
00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:32.639
To occupy her time, once her
son Mikey started school, Annie got a

550
00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:37.239
job working part time at a local
nursing home. She was trying to help

551
00:39:37.280 --> 00:39:39.960
herself by helping others, but it
didn't work. She got too close to

552
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:45.440
the nursing home residence and anytime someone
died she took it really hard. They

553
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:47.519
loved her at the nursing home,
but it just wasn't going to work out.

554
00:39:49.239 --> 00:39:52.559
She took other jobs as well,
as a clerk at an antique store

555
00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:55.920
working in an office cafeteria, but
the drinking interfered with her work and she

556
00:39:55.960 --> 00:40:00.599
couldn't hold down a job. Her
son, Mikey, became anxious being around

557
00:40:00.599 --> 00:40:05.519
Annie when she was drinking and depressed. He loved her, but he started

558
00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:08.800
having trouble in school. The school
suggested he might have to be held back

559
00:40:08.840 --> 00:40:13.519
a year. Annie and her ex
husband decided that it would be best for

560
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:16.320
Mikey to switch school systems, so
he moved in with his dad. It

561
00:40:16.440 --> 00:40:20.880
was the best thing for him,
but again it was another major blow to

562
00:40:20.920 --> 00:40:24.880
Annie's already fragile mental state. Nighttime
when she was home alone, was especially

563
00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:29.800
hard for Annie. She'd call her
friends while walking her dogs, and sometimes

564
00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:32.400
she would be in tears, talking
about her inability to find a man to

565
00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:37.320
love, or how she just missed
her mother. Some nights, she would

566
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:39.800
drink too much and made calls that
could be bitter or angry, but she

567
00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:45.199
wouldn't remember even making those calls the
next day. One morning, around two

568
00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:47.840
thousand and six, Annie called Alex
and told her that she'd taken a bunch

569
00:40:47.840 --> 00:40:52.320
of valume that she'd ordered on the
internet. Alex called for help and ended

570
00:40:52.360 --> 00:40:57.719
up getting Annie committed to a treatment
facility. While there, the doctors recommended

571
00:40:57.800 --> 00:41:01.960
electroshock therapy, and Annie agreed,
desperate for a solution to her struggles.

572
00:41:02.280 --> 00:41:07.239
But after the treatment, Annie found
that she was forgetting people's names and events

573
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:10.440
from her life, such as family
vacations, but she couldn't forget the one

574
00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:15.559
thing that she really wanted to forget. In September of two thousand and nine,

575
00:41:15.719 --> 00:41:20.800
thirteen year old Mikey was still living
primarily at his dad's house. On

576
00:41:20.840 --> 00:41:25.599
September twenty second. The Our Mother's
Murder docu drama aired on TV again two

577
00:41:25.679 --> 00:41:30.840
days later, Thursday the twenty fourth. The day started as it normally did.

578
00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:35.400
Alex called Annie and they had their
morning coffee while chatting and laughing on

579
00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:38.760
the phone. The sisters met for
lunch, then got manicures and pedicures.

580
00:41:39.320 --> 00:41:43.760
After that, they went to Annie's
condo and hung out until six pm,

581
00:41:43.960 --> 00:41:46.719
when Alex left to go make dinner
at home. According to Alex, they

582
00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:52.639
were talking and laughing about whatever,
nothing out of the ordinary. After Alex

583
00:41:52.719 --> 00:41:54.920
left, Annie went on Facebook and
sent a quick message to a friend,

584
00:41:55.039 --> 00:42:00.840
just asking what's up and saying she
missed her. At seven thirty, Annie

585
00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:04.639
called Chris Smith, who was a
friend and an on again, off again

586
00:42:04.679 --> 00:42:07.840
boyfriend. She said something about being
at the gas station getting cigarettes, but

587
00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:13.920
her signal was breaking up, so
the call ended quickly. Fifteen minutes later,

588
00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:16.800
around seven forty five, Annie drove
her BMW out to the middle of

589
00:42:16.840 --> 00:42:22.480
the tappan Z Bridge, stopping at
nearly the exact spot that her stepfather had

590
00:42:22.519 --> 00:42:28.119
jumped from nearly sixteen years earlier.
Witnesses saw Annie walk purposely from her car

591
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:31.280
to the railing of the bridge.
She called Chris Smith again at seven forty

592
00:42:31.360 --> 00:42:36.400
nine pm. This time all he
heard was what he described as a loud

593
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:40.280
swishing sound, then nothing. Three
days later, Annie's body was found on

594
00:42:40.320 --> 00:42:45.440
the riverbank a quarter mile north of
the bridge. She was thirty eight years

595
00:42:45.480 --> 00:42:49.039
old, the same age as Scott
Douglas was when he jumped from the same

596
00:42:49.079 --> 00:42:52.599
bridge. That's so horrible, I
know. In her car was found a

597
00:42:52.599 --> 00:42:57.599
note scribbled in pencil. The first
part of the note was addressed to her

598
00:42:57.639 --> 00:43:01.079
son. It said, quote,
Michael, my angel. I loved you

599
00:43:01.159 --> 00:43:05.639
more than life and will love you
forever. I tried to give you everything

600
00:43:05.679 --> 00:43:08.400
and always be there. I'm so
sorry I let you down. I'll be

601
00:43:08.519 --> 00:43:13.440
your guardian angel, and that's a
promise. Be strong, my special son.

602
00:43:13.519 --> 00:43:16.360
I love you. Daddy and Mima
slash Biba, which I think is

603
00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:21.599
her husband's parents, will always be
there. You'll grow up to be strong

604
00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:24.519
and caring. Always smile. I
love you the day I loved you,

605
00:43:24.559 --> 00:43:29.800
the day you were born. I'm
sorry I let you down. Further down

606
00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:34.159
in the note, she addresses her
sister and her niece, quote Alex and

607
00:43:34.280 --> 00:43:37.239
Alexa, I love you so much. Thank you for the smiles. And

608
00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:40.519
for never giving up unquote. Next, there's a bit of a cryptic message

609
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:46.559
to her half sister, Tory,
quote Tory wish you loved us me and

610
00:43:46.639 --> 00:43:52.159
I'm assuming she meant to say we
here Me certainly loved you. I always

611
00:43:52.159 --> 00:43:57.280
missed you unquote. So I haven't
read anything about any conflicts between Tory and

612
00:43:57.320 --> 00:44:01.000
her sister, so it's unclear what
he was referring to in the note.

613
00:44:01.159 --> 00:44:07.039
Maybe Tory felt that she needed to
distance herself from the alcoholism, and yeah,

614
00:44:07.039 --> 00:44:10.320
that's possible. The note also includes
a brief message to her friends Amy

615
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:14.559
and Chris, and she asks that
someone find a good home for her two

616
00:44:14.639 --> 00:44:17.360
dogs and her cat. Written in
the middle of the note is a heartbreaking

617
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:22.239
plea to the spirit of her parents. Quote, Mommy and Daddy, please

618
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:27.920
find me unquote. All Annie wanted
was to live a normal life. She

619
00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:30.599
wanted to find love and raise a
family, but she couldn't escape the demons

620
00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:35.480
that haunted her since finding her mother
on that New Year's morning in nineteen ninety

621
00:44:35.480 --> 00:44:38.400
four. It's so sad because you
know that she loved her son and would

622
00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:42.519
have done anything to be there for
him, but she just couldn't carry her

623
00:44:42.559 --> 00:44:46.840
grief and depression any longer. Annie's
death hit Alex hard. The two girls

624
00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:52.239
were best friends who talked ten to
fifteen times a day. Alex was at

625
00:44:52.280 --> 00:44:55.400
first in denial, then her denial
turned to anger at Annie for leaving behind

626
00:44:55.400 --> 00:45:00.320
her son, her sister, and
her friends. Alex said that dealing with

627
00:45:00.360 --> 00:45:04.000
Annie's death was ten times harder than
anything she went through with her mother.

628
00:45:04.800 --> 00:45:07.880
It's so so hard to lose someone
that's so close to you like that.

629
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:12.840
Yeah, just never recover and you
missed them horribly every day. Yeah.

630
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:16.519
Tory, whose thirty fourth birthday will
be June seventeenth of twenty twenty four,

631
00:45:17.039 --> 00:45:21.800
has also struggled to deal with the
trauma and the loss that she's experienced in

632
00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:24.880
her life. She's battled addiction since
a young age and has gotten into trouble

633
00:45:24.920 --> 00:45:30.679
with the law several times over the
years. Her adoptive parents, Mary Scrips

634
00:45:30.679 --> 00:45:35.360
and Robert Carmody, said that her
troubles started in her middle school years after

635
00:45:35.400 --> 00:45:38.679
seeing a re airing of the Our
Mother's Murder docu drama, prompting her to

636
00:45:38.719 --> 00:45:45.039
start asking questions about her past.
Her older sister's suicide when Tory was nineteen

637
00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:51.119
also exacerbated her issues. Before Tory
turned eighteen, her adoptive parents went to

638
00:45:51.199 --> 00:45:54.760
court, saying that she was not
capable of handling the seven figure inheritance that

639
00:45:54.800 --> 00:45:59.760
she was due at that time.
The court ruled in Tory's favor, and

640
00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:02.880
she quickly spent the money that she
inherited. People took advantage of her,

641
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:07.599
knowing that she had money and also
knowing about her addiction. Between the ages

642
00:46:07.639 --> 00:46:12.800
of eighteen and twenty one, she
was arrested four times for drug related offenses

643
00:46:12.840 --> 00:46:16.320
and twice for burglary. Then in
twenty eleven, at age twenty one,

644
00:46:16.559 --> 00:46:21.000
she was pulled over in Vermont and
found to be in possession of one hundred

645
00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:24.679
and ninety three bags of heroin.
She told the arresting officer that she had

646
00:46:24.719 --> 00:46:30.920
a six bag a day heroin habit. She was subsequently charged with heroin and

647
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:35.719
cocaine distribution, and then another charge
was added later on that she was operating

648
00:46:35.719 --> 00:46:39.639
a crack house. After this arrest, her adoptive parents refused to post her

649
00:46:39.719 --> 00:46:44.679
ten thousand dollars bail, hoping that
she would dry out by staying in jail.

650
00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:49.239
Her mother, Mary Scripts, said
at the time quote were supporting her

651
00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:52.519
every way we can. We love
her and will never stop loving her,

652
00:46:52.599 --> 00:46:57.000
and will never stop trying to help
her. Unquote. Tory ended up pleading

653
00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:00.079
guilty and was incarcerated for about a
month before being permitted to go to a

654
00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:05.119
halfway house in Florida, but she
was thrown out of the halfway house for

655
00:47:05.199 --> 00:47:09.559
violations and returned to jail. She
was granted supervised release in twenty thirteen,

656
00:47:10.159 --> 00:47:15.000
but again found herself in trouble after
violating the terms of her probation. She

657
00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:19.920
was back in court in twenty fifteen, where she delivered a ten page handwritten

658
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.880
letter to the judge apologizing for her
behavior and documenting a plan for successfully staying

659
00:47:24.880 --> 00:47:31.320
sober, which included attending college,
continuing to seek drug treatment, undergoing individual

660
00:47:31.360 --> 00:47:37.440
counseling, and working on developing a
more healthy lifestyle. In the letter,

661
00:47:37.519 --> 00:47:40.840
she wrote, quote, throughout my
addiction, I have suffered so many consequences.

662
00:47:42.519 --> 00:47:45.480
Every time I think things cannot possibly
get worse, they do. As

663
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:49.679
a result of my addiction. I
have lost family, friends, hope,

664
00:47:49.679 --> 00:47:52.960
for my future, my own values
and beliefs, self esteem, pets,

665
00:47:53.519 --> 00:47:59.559
educational opportunities, respect from others,
and for myself, my freedom and the

666
00:47:59.599 --> 00:48:05.840
list go. In twenty eighteen,
Tory was again arrested for possession of stolen

667
00:48:05.880 --> 00:48:10.960
property after pawning her adoptive mother's heirloom
jewelry and stealing her car, and she

668
00:48:12.039 --> 00:48:15.320
was arrested again in twenty twenty three
in North Carolina on charges of second degree

669
00:48:15.599 --> 00:48:22.199
trespass. In twenty nineteen, at
age thirty, Tory was scheduled to receive

670
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:25.400
another two million dollars from her trust, and again her mom, Mary,

671
00:48:25.440 --> 00:48:30.079
filed a motion that Tory not received
the distribution on the basis that she is

672
00:48:30.119 --> 00:48:36.199
incapacitated as defined by the trust terms. It appears, at least based on

673
00:48:36.280 --> 00:48:39.880
my reading of the case file,
that this time Mary was successful in delaying

674
00:48:39.880 --> 00:48:44.280
the payment, but I haven't been
able to find any more information about that.

675
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:50.320
In January twenty twenty four, Victoria's
estranged husband, Dewan Williams, was

676
00:48:50.360 --> 00:48:54.400
sentenced to twelve years in prison as
the mastermind of a nationwide heroin, fentanyl,

677
00:48:54.800 --> 00:49:00.480
methamphetamine, and cocaine distribution network.
During his sentencing hearing, a recording

678
00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:06.559
of a twenty nineteen call between Williams
and Victoria was played in which he threatened

679
00:49:06.599 --> 00:49:09.480
Tory and her family. I did
a little bit of Facebook stalking, and

680
00:49:09.519 --> 00:49:15.159
I saw that Victoria's adoptive parents,
Mary and Robert, posted a picture in

681
00:49:15.239 --> 00:49:19.880
January twenty twenty three where they're embracing
Victoria, who has a big smile on

682
00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:22.800
her face in the picture. So
I'm hoping that with the love and support

683
00:49:22.840 --> 00:49:28.559
of her parents, that she is
keeping herself on a good path. Wow,

684
00:49:28.599 --> 00:49:30.719
that is a lot of generational trauma. I know, it's just so

685
00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:36.840
really so sad. Like you alluded
to at the top of the episode,

686
00:49:37.119 --> 00:49:39.440
people think that money makes you happy
and it can take all your problems away,

687
00:49:40.320 --> 00:49:45.000
but that's not the case. No, definitely not the case. I

688
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.559
have a couple questions for you.
One is, why do you think Annie

689
00:49:49.679 --> 00:49:52.960
chose to end her life at the
very same spot that her mother's killer chose

690
00:49:52.960 --> 00:49:59.760
to end his life. Well,
the traumatic event never left her and she

691
00:49:59.840 --> 00:50:02.320
was probably thinking of him when she
did it, and she knew that it

692
00:50:02.360 --> 00:50:07.039
had worked for him, and it
was maybe a quick way to end her

693
00:50:07.079 --> 00:50:10.320
life. Yeah, yeah, maybe, I think. You know, obviously,

694
00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:14.079
her mother's death had such a huge
impact on her life, and I

695
00:50:14.079 --> 00:50:16.480
think it, you know, it
just was full circle at that moment for

696
00:50:16.519 --> 00:50:22.239
her to end her life. In
that way, her mom's death never left

697
00:50:22.280 --> 00:50:24.079
her. It was always, you
know, at the forefront of her mind,

698
00:50:24.079 --> 00:50:29.480
no matter what she did. Yeah, and it's so sad. It

699
00:50:29.559 --> 00:50:32.760
really really a worry. I mean
that's devastating too. I know she was

700
00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:37.119
really a baby when she saw her
mom die. Yeah, and it never

701
00:50:37.239 --> 00:50:43.760
left her either. And no amount
of therapy and love from other people can

702
00:50:43.840 --> 00:50:46.280
heal you sometimes, right, I
have one other question for you, and

703
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:49.960
this this may sound like a little
bit more of a whimsical question, but

704
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:52.280
I'm really serious about it. And
the question is if you were an heiress

705
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:57.719
with access to a family fortune,
so you didn't you don't have to work,

706
00:50:57.760 --> 00:51:00.760
you could do whatever you want,
what would you do with your life?

707
00:51:00.800 --> 00:51:04.239
Because I think in some ways that
can actually be more of a challenge.

708
00:51:04.280 --> 00:51:07.119
Like for Toy, for example,
she didn't have to work, so

709
00:51:07.159 --> 00:51:08.880
I think that in some ways it
was harder for her. But you know,

710
00:51:09.079 --> 00:51:14.119
what would you how would you choose
to live your life if you didn't

711
00:51:14.159 --> 00:51:17.280
have to work. I would give
all my money away, would you know?

712
00:51:19.039 --> 00:51:21.119
I would give a lot of it
away. I would think, Well,

713
00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:23.960
whenever we play the lottery, I'm
always like, okay, if we

714
00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:28.880
win we're going to give like half
to charity, right, but we haven't

715
00:51:28.880 --> 00:51:32.199
won. No, we haven't won. Unfortunately, our podcast is doing you

716
00:51:32.239 --> 00:51:36.840
know, we're donating what we can
with the podcast. But what would you

717
00:51:36.880 --> 00:51:39.559
do with your time? Oh,
with my time? Yeah, I mean

718
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:45.039
I don't know. I would definitely
want to travel and have a good time.

719
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:49.400
But yeah, I think I know
what you're getting at. And yes,

720
00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:52.719
I think you do need a mission. You need something to work towards.

721
00:51:52.280 --> 00:51:55.840
You need to do hard things for
your self esteem. Yeah, you

722
00:51:55.880 --> 00:52:00.679
need to find some reason to to
live, really, to get out of

723
00:52:00.719 --> 00:52:07.000
bed. Are you saying that Annie
and Alex didn't have one toy? I

724
00:52:07.039 --> 00:52:10.360
mean, I think I think Tory, especially like, it was hard for

725
00:52:10.480 --> 00:52:14.800
I think Annie and Alex they both
had a child fairly, you know,

726
00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:17.519
early on after they got married.
So I think that gives you, you

727
00:52:17.559 --> 00:52:21.760
know, a reason, gives you
something there. But I think it's hard

728
00:52:21.800 --> 00:52:24.599
for all of them just having,
you know, having too much freedom in

729
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:30.119
some ways is not a good thing. Well, that is the tragic story

730
00:52:30.159 --> 00:52:34.519
of Anne Scripts and her three daughters. The key takeaways for me are as

731
00:52:34.559 --> 00:52:37.440
I mentioned at the beginning of the
story, domestic violence and abuse affect so

732
00:52:37.519 --> 00:52:43.360
many more people than just the immediate
target of the abuse. Everyone deserves healthy

733
00:52:43.400 --> 00:52:47.119
relationships. If you're in an abusive
situation, please get help by calling the

734
00:52:47.199 --> 00:52:53.599
National Domestic Violence Hotline at one eight
hundred seven nine to nine. Safe Safe.

735
00:52:54.559 --> 00:52:59.079
Rest in peace, Anne and Annie, and best wishes to Alex and

736
00:52:59.119 --> 00:53:01.960
Tory. I hope that they're doing
okay. Do you have any update on

737
00:53:02.039 --> 00:53:07.719
Mikey. I don't. I tried
to find any information about him, but

738
00:53:07.719 --> 00:53:16.360
I was not able to. But
I hope he is also doing well.

739
00:53:16.519 --> 00:53:20.480
We worked really hard in the month
of May and we had two bonus episodes

740
00:53:20.480 --> 00:53:23.119
and we had a lot of new
listeners and it was a good month.

741
00:53:23.280 --> 00:53:25.800
We had a really good month,
so thank you so much for listening.

742
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:30.039
But we were able to donate three
hundred dollars to the Bride Again Foundation.

743
00:53:30.760 --> 00:53:36.519
We had an episode earlier in the
month about Shana Gardner and Jared Bright Again,

744
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:39.199
and we said that we were going
to donate to their foundation. I'm

745
00:53:39.239 --> 00:53:44.360
just going to redo something from their
website. Kirst and Bridagin founded the Bride

746
00:53:44.400 --> 00:53:47.800
Again Foundation in September twenty twenty two
after the tragic murder of her husband Jared

747
00:53:49.239 --> 00:53:52.400
earlier in twenty twenty two, Jared
was ambushed and shot to death outside of

748
00:53:52.400 --> 00:53:57.679
his vehicle on February sixteenth, while
his two year old daughter, Bexley sat

749
00:53:57.719 --> 00:54:02.079
strapped into her car seat. For
witnessing this horrific act, Axley was taken

750
00:54:02.079 --> 00:54:06.440
to the police station, where she
not only spent hours without either of her

751
00:54:06.480 --> 00:54:09.480
parents, but she was also without
basic necessities for a toddler, such as

752
00:54:09.480 --> 00:54:14.199
a sippy cup or the correct sized
diapers. The officers did their best to

753
00:54:14.239 --> 00:54:19.039
comfort Bexley, but she had they
had limited supplies on hand. In an

754
00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:23.079
effort to make children's experiences at police
stations a little less traumatic and scary,

755
00:54:23.639 --> 00:54:30.280
project Bexley Box was born. Bexley
Box aims to provide comfort items and basic

756
00:54:30.360 --> 00:54:35.280
necessities for children brought to police stations
without their caregivers. So we're proud to

757
00:54:35.280 --> 00:54:38.199
make a donation to the Bright Again
Foundation this month, and if you would

758
00:54:38.199 --> 00:54:44.280
like to make a donation, just
go to Brtiganfoundation dot org and you can

759
00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:46.400
easily donate there. And thank you
all, And we really owe it to

760
00:54:46.639 --> 00:54:51.800
all of our listeners for being able
to do that. And one more thing

761
00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:53.800
I wanted to talk about. It's
a current news story that I thought would

762
00:54:53.800 --> 00:54:58.679
be relevant. So we don't normally
get political here in the Love Mary Kill

763
00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:01.280
Studios, but there is a a
big political scandal in the news right now.

764
00:55:01.800 --> 00:55:05.519
I thought we would be remiss if
we didn't talk about it. Okay,

765
00:55:05.960 --> 00:55:09.119
I'm talking, of course, about
New York City's rat hating Mayor Eric

766
00:55:09.199 --> 00:55:15.559
Adams once again being ticketed for having
rats at his property in Brooklyn. Last

767
00:55:15.559 --> 00:55:21.920
week, Mayor Adams announced plans for
the first ever National Urban rat Summit.

768
00:55:22.719 --> 00:55:27.199
The summit, scheduled to take place
this coming September, will gather the best

769
00:55:27.280 --> 00:55:30.639
rat experts from around the country to
talk about ways of mitigating the growing rodent

770
00:55:30.679 --> 00:55:36.119
problem in the Big Apple. In
announcing the summit, Adams said New Yorkers

771
00:55:36.119 --> 00:55:39.320
may not know this about him,
but he quote hates rats unquote. I

772
00:55:39.320 --> 00:55:43.119
think most of us hate rats.
Don't go we I mean I don't.

773
00:55:44.079 --> 00:55:45.639
I mean I can say I don't
hate them because we don't have them.

774
00:55:45.800 --> 00:55:49.760
If I lived in the city,
I would probably hate them. So Adams

775
00:55:49.800 --> 00:55:53.000
went on to say, quote with
rat sightings down nearly fourteen percent in our

776
00:55:53.039 --> 00:55:58.679
city's rat mitigation zones year over year, we continue to make progress, but

777
00:55:58.760 --> 00:56:01.480
We're not stopping there. The best
way to defeat our enemy is to know

778
00:56:01.599 --> 00:56:07.920
our enemy. That's why we're holding
this inaugural summit. Rat Mitigation Zones,

779
00:56:07.960 --> 00:56:12.079
by the way, they are areas
with high levels of rat activity where city

780
00:56:12.119 --> 00:56:17.039
agencies focus resources to address rats and
the conditions that support them. Mayor Adams

781
00:56:17.079 --> 00:56:21.800
says he hates rats so much that
a few years ago, when he was

782
00:56:21.840 --> 00:56:25.719
the Brooklyn Borough president, he held
a press conference that featured a macab display

783
00:56:25.760 --> 00:56:30.440
of dead rats killed by a new
type of rat trap he had installed in

784
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:36.760
the borough. Last year, Adams
appointed Kathleen Karate as the city's first ever

785
00:56:36.960 --> 00:56:42.920
ratsar, tasked with coordinating across city
government agencies, community organizations, and the

786
00:56:42.960 --> 00:56:47.079
private sector to reduce the rat population
in New York City. Despite his alleged

787
00:56:47.119 --> 00:56:52.320
hatred for rats, however, Mayor
Adams has just been ticketed for a fifth

788
00:56:52.360 --> 00:56:57.239
time for rats At a property he
owns in Brooklyn. A health inspector observed

789
00:56:57.280 --> 00:57:00.239
fresh rat droppings and a rat borough
near the front staircase of the property.

790
00:57:01.079 --> 00:57:06.679
Adams challenged the previous rat tickets that
he's received. Three of them were dismissed,

791
00:57:06.679 --> 00:57:08.800
but he had to pay a three
hundred dollars fine to settle the fourth

792
00:57:08.840 --> 00:57:13.960
one. He said at the hearing
that he had spent seven thousand dollars on

793
00:57:14.079 --> 00:57:17.719
rat mitigation at the property. So
far this year, across all five New

794
00:57:17.800 --> 00:57:22.159
York boroughs, there have been fifteen, eight hundred and eighty four complaints about

795
00:57:22.239 --> 00:57:25.920
rat sightings, which kind of confused
me because every time I've been to New

796
00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:30.519
York, I've seen rats, but
I've never ever once thought to call and

797
00:57:30.559 --> 00:57:35.519
report it. But apparently that's a
thing you can do. Not everyone is

798
00:57:35.559 --> 00:57:38.679
happy about Mayor Adams and his war
on rats. However, after his latest

799
00:57:38.679 --> 00:57:43.599
comment about hating rats, PETA,
the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals,

800
00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:47.480
has sent Mayor Adams an empathy kit, including one of its popular Rats Have

801
00:57:47.639 --> 00:57:53.400
Rights coffee mugs. PETA executive vice
president Tracy Rieman said, quote, instead

802
00:57:53.440 --> 00:57:59.119
of trash talking rats, Mayor Adams
should focus on clearing New York's streets of

803
00:57:59.159 --> 00:58:02.800
the massive heaps of garbage attracting them
in the first place. Pet is calling

804
00:58:02.800 --> 00:58:07.719
on atoms to stop villainizing rats for
a problem created by humans and to address

805
00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:12.800
this issue with respect and understanding.
Unquote, I mean I can kind of

806
00:58:12.920 --> 00:58:16.760
I think that's probably the better thing
to do is to focus on you look

807
00:58:16.760 --> 00:58:21.920
at the underlying cause yeah, yeah
it is. I had a pet rat.

808
00:58:22.320 --> 00:58:25.119
Oh really, yeah, well it
wasn't really a pet rat. I

809
00:58:25.119 --> 00:58:30.639
had an experimental psychology class, and
in the experimental psychology class, you were

810
00:58:30.679 --> 00:58:36.760
supposed to train the rat, okay, and I wasn't very good at it.

811
00:58:36.840 --> 00:58:39.360
And my rat what I mean,
I really didn't like the rat.

812
00:58:39.400 --> 00:58:43.000
It was kind of a mean rat. I don't know if they all are,

813
00:58:43.039 --> 00:58:46.320
but it bit me several times and
I did not enjoy that very well.

814
00:58:46.320 --> 00:58:50.639
What were you trying to train it
to do? Oh? You know

815
00:58:50.679 --> 00:58:52.800
what, I don't even remember.
It was a long time ago, but

816
00:58:52.159 --> 00:58:57.519
we did have like little sugar pellets
and you were trying to you know,

817
00:58:57.719 --> 00:59:00.559
that was like the reward. It
was the reward. Yeah, I mean

818
00:59:00.599 --> 00:59:04.760
it was pretty much like a Pavlov
situation where I think I was probably just

819
00:59:05.039 --> 00:59:08.000
trying to train it to like tap
something to get the sugar pellet. Yeah.

820
00:59:08.599 --> 00:59:10.599
The first time I ever went to
a big city, I think it

821
00:59:10.639 --> 00:59:14.880
was probably New York where I first
saw a rat running around the street.

822
00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:19.360
And it just it's such an icky. They're like so big, they're like

823
00:59:19.559 --> 00:59:22.719
little tiny dogs. You don't know
if I've seen one in the wild ever.

824
00:59:22.119 --> 00:59:24.079
Well, when I was in New
Orleans a couple of weeks ago,

825
00:59:24.320 --> 00:59:28.519
I told you this, but I
was walking down an alleyway at night to

826
00:59:28.679 --> 00:59:31.519
get back to my hotel, and
suddenly I sensed that there was a lot

827
00:59:31.559 --> 00:59:35.280
of movement around me in the alleyway. And I looked around and there was

828
00:59:35.320 --> 00:59:38.039
like dozens of rats, like just
scurrying everywhere. Well, what makes a

829
00:59:38.159 --> 00:59:43.639
rat worse than a pigeon or yeah, a mouse. I mean, I

830
00:59:43.639 --> 00:59:47.119
know they're big, and I know
they you know, have pointy claws and

831
00:59:47.400 --> 00:59:52.239
you know, teeth. Yeah,
yeah, in reality, probably probably nothing.

832
00:59:52.599 --> 00:59:59.280
Right because of our episode was about
ann scripts and the scripts National Spelling

833
00:59:59.320 --> 01:00:02.760
Bee just wrapped up. I think
we'd be remiss not to talk about the

834
01:00:02.800 --> 01:00:05.920
Spelling Bee for a second. I
know we did this. I think we

835
01:00:05.960 --> 01:00:10.800
did this. No, I was
going to give you a couple. I

836
01:00:10.840 --> 01:00:14.800
believe the winner of the Spelling Bee
was a twelve year old, which is

837
01:00:15.639 --> 01:00:20.360
so young to you know, know
all those words. Yeah, tough words

838
01:00:20.400 --> 01:00:22.880
too, Like I was going to
give you some. I don't even know

839
01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:25.360
how to spell any like, I
mean, how to pronounce any of them.

840
01:00:25.800 --> 01:00:30.880
I'll give you just a couple that
I know how to pronounce, desiccate

841
01:00:30.679 --> 01:00:36.159
d e s s I c A
t e no no d e s I

842
01:00:36.280 --> 01:00:38.960
c c A t e two c's. I never would have thought that.

843
01:00:39.480 --> 01:00:45.800
Uh, there are some propernouns on
this this too. And if you're if,

844
01:00:45.639 --> 01:00:51.599
if you're a patriot bringing up old
old words, ham trammick, am

845
01:00:51.639 --> 01:00:55.880
trammick. That's a city in the
Detroit area. Capital h A m t

846
01:00:57.239 --> 01:01:04.199
r A m k h A m
t r a m c k e k

847
01:01:05.079 --> 01:01:08.960
is a city in Michigan where you
can get Poonski's on Fat Tuesday. You

848
01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:14.239
can go there any time up.
They're known for their Pooonske's to cannery.

849
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:16.679
C h I c A n e
r y. Hey, you got that

850
01:01:16.760 --> 01:01:22.199
right, packet arm p A c
h y d e r m those easy.

851
01:01:22.320 --> 01:01:27.519
No, we did this on a
patriot. I think we've already established

852
01:01:27.519 --> 01:01:31.880
that I am an excellent spell you're
an excellent speller. You're excellent almost everything,

853
01:01:31.960 --> 01:01:37.360
almost almost everything. Well, thank
you guys so much for listening and

854
01:01:37.440 --> 01:01:40.119
hanging out with us today. We
appreciate it. Please rate, review,

855
01:01:40.199 --> 01:01:44.920
follow, and subscribe. Find us
on social media or send us an email

856
01:01:45.039 --> 01:01:51.119
up Lovemrykill at gmail dot com and
consider supporting us on Patreon dot com slash

857
01:01:51.199 --> 01:01:54.199
love Marykill. We have one tier
five dollars a month for early ad free

858
01:01:54.239 --> 01:02:00.400
access and a monthly bonus episode until
next time. Don't kill your you,

859
01:02:00.480 --> 01:02:46.840
don't kill your wife. That's a
little ironic. He wouldn't kill a fly,

860
01:02:47.000 --> 01:02:57.519
but then he would stuff a beaver
or whatever it means. Why are

861
01:02:57.559 --> 01:03:01.239
you laughing about stuff in a b
vergs made me left h