Fart Murder

0:00 Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and descriptions of

0:04 violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and we recommend you stop listening

0:09 now. Hello everyone, and welcome to Kind of Murdering, a true crime

0:25 podcast that's mostly about murder and always about the strange and compelling stories that arise

0:31 when the path less traveled twists to darkness and those who walk its shadows surrender

0:36 to violence and moral corruption. We have a perilous journey ahead, so thank

0:40 you for lending me your courage and good company. I'm your host, Zevin

0:44 Odelberg, and this is kind of murdery. You know, the information age

0:49 is a wonderful thing. Perhaps less wonderful, but certainly entertaining for those of

0:54 us who enjoy kind of Murdery is the fact that human beings are truly absurdly

0:58 murdery. I made an interesting discovery researching this episode, and it's simply this.

1:03 People are so murdery that you can google nearly any word alongside the word

1:07 murder and you're likely to come up with results. In other words, you

1:11 pick the theme there's been a murder that occurred that corresponds. I was in

1:17 a lighthearted mood when I first started researching this episode, so the first term

1:22 I searched for was hilarious crimes, which led me to a Rolling Stone article

1:26 entitled the ten Most WTF. That's what the fudge crimes of twenty seventeen.

1:33 It's not actually fudge, but you know, no need to get gratuitous.

1:36 This ten most WTF Crimes of twenty seventeen article was written by Joe Weikes,

1:42 and as always, all my sources are in the show notes. One of

1:45 the crimes outlined in the article was the story of a man who was released

1:49 from police interrogation and not even charged because his farts were just too nasty for

1:55 the questioning detective to endure. That's right, set free by flat choice.

2:00 But more on that later. After chuckling at this case of good fortune and

2:04 bad gas, I then, on a lark, not expecting to get anything

2:07 back, googled the phrase fart murder, and that's when I learned what I

2:12 alluded to at the very top. People are so murdery that it doesn't really

2:15 matter what you pair the word murder with. Somebody has almost certainly killed for

2:21 exactly that reason. Whatever it is which brings us to today's episode, where

2:24 I will be uncovering what truths I can and solving what mysteries I may as

2:30 we explore a series of short true crime stories all about the kind of murdery

2:36 consequences of passing gas kind of murderies. Fart Murder starts. Now, of

2:53 course, I'm fully aware that the theme of this episode is incredibly immature,

2:59 stupid even, but these are true stories, and I do hope you enjoy

3:02 them as much as I did. I think today's kind of murdery is going

3:07 to be an absolute blast. All right, We're going to start off with

3:10 the story that inspired the episode that I'm calling Fart out of Jail Free Card.

3:15 Now, generally, when you're being interrogated by the police, it's best

3:19 to keep your mouth shut unless you have a lawyer by your side. But

3:22 maybe, just maybe there's another more fragrant way to get out of trouble.

3:27 Shawn Sykes Junior, a twenty four year old resident of Kansas City, was

3:31 riding in a car in twenty seventeen when police found drugs and two handguns,

3:36 so he was taken in for further questioning. When a detective asked Sykes about

3:38 his address, he quote leaned to one side of his chair and released a

3:44 loud fart before answering with the address unquote. The detective wrote in his report

3:50 about the interrogation, the barrage of farts continued, and according to the detective,

3:54 he quote continued to be flatulent, and I ended the interview unquote.

4:00 Though he was not charged, Sikes was pulled over two months later. Police

4:03 allegedly found crack and a stolen gun in his car, and it seemed likely

4:09 that he wouldn't be able to fart his way out of trouble a second time.

4:13 So that's fart out of jail free card. Next up, we have

4:15 a series of stories of assault, attempted murder, and actual murder inspired by

4:19 flatulence. And while the inciting incident in each of these cases is the same

4:26 that incident being a fart, not all these stories are as funny as their

4:30 shared reason for existing. The first one occurred in twenty eleven in Bristol,

4:34 Connecticut, where a man was being held on murder and assault charges after allegedly

4:40 stabbing four people, one fatally, because partygoers were making fun of his farts.

4:45 Police said, Mark Higgins, twenty one, left a party and returned

4:48 with three knives, stabbing people indiscriminately, according to court documents, The Hartford

4:55 Current, quoting those documents, reported that Higgins told the police he was angry

4:59 at being derived and wanted to teach people that they shouldn't trifle with him.

5:02 Higgins appeared in court, was charged with murder, assault, and carrying a

5:06 dangerous weapon, and was held in lieu of a two million dollar bond.

5:11 Next fart Up a case of fart inspired teenage murder from Ohio. In two

5:15 thousand and twelve, a sixteen year old Ohio girl was killed and another teenager

5:20 charged with murder all over a fart joke. Police say that the victim,

5:25 Shaquire A. Dorsey, teased the suspect about passing gas, which led to

5:29 the two girls fighting. During the fight, Dorsey collapsed and died shortly thereafter.

5:33 Dorsey's stepfather was at the fight and witnessed the girl's death. He now

5:36 faced his questions as to what he was doing at the fight and whether he

5:40 encouraged his daughter to fight the other girl. Police say they responded to a

5:44 nine one one call about the fight, and when they arrived the fight was

5:46 long over, but medical personnel were attending to Dorsey. Witnesses say that Dorsey

5:50 was suffering from shortness of breath after the fight and collapsed. While the other

5:55 girls been charged with murder, the focus of attention shifted to the rolled Dorsey's

5:59 stepfather played in the fight. Based on Facebook and Twitter posts, it was

6:02 reported that the stepfather took Dorsey to the fight. When questioned by police,

6:06 he admits driving his daughter to the scene of the fight. He says that

6:11 she jumped from the backseat, ran behind an suv, and re emerged fighting

6:15 the other girl. One of the nine one one calls mentioned that the kids

6:17 were fighting and that the adults were just standing around watching. If that's true,

6:21 it will be interesting to see if prosecutors pursue any criminal charges against the

6:26 stepfather. While he did not directly participate in the killing of his daughter,

6:30 an argument could be made that he should be partially responsible for child endangerment if

6:34 he intentionally drove his daughter to participate in the fight. Ultimately, the suspect,

6:39 whose name was not released due to her age, was charged with one

6:42 count of murder. It is not known whether she'll be charged as a juvenile

6:46 or as an adult. Who that one's dark now to Florida twenty fifteen,

6:50 it was a case of law and odor when police arrested a woman who attacked

6:57 her husband for farting. Florida woman don Mike, fifty five, was lying

7:00 in bed with her husband Donald, just after three am on December eleventh,

7:04 when she elbowed him in the arm for passing gas between the sheets. Oh

7:09 yes, the old Dutch oven. Those of us who were married know it

7:12 well. When Donald ignored her please to hold the farts in, Michael began

7:15 to kick him until he eventually got out of bed, according to police records,

7:19 But after clearing the air literally, Donald hopped back into bed and the

7:25 flurry of flatulence continued. Donald says his wife began another round of kicking and

7:30 elbowing him. According to the affidavit, Donald told police he tried to stop

7:33 Michael by restraining her for her own safety and received scratches on his chest.

7:39 During the kerfuffle, Michael got a split lip, but told police her husband

7:43 did not punch her. He was restraining me, she said, and somehow

7:46 my lip got split open. As the fight escalated, Michael retreated into the

7:49 couple's bathroom and called police. Using pepper spray to keep her husband at bay.

7:54 Police arrived and arrested Michael. She was taken to the Saint Lucy County

7:58 Jail and charged with missed him in her battery charges. She has since been

8:01 released. Okay for the next one. We're staying in Florida for an assault

8:05 with a deadly weapon with intent to kill all over a little bit of crop

8:11 dusting. In Dania Beach, Florida, a woman faced an aggravated assault charge

8:15 after authorities say she passed gas in line at a dollar store and pulled a

8:20 knife on a man who complained about it. Citing a Broward Sheriff's Office report,

8:24 the Miami Herald reported that thirty seven year old Shanetta Yuvette Wilson passed gas

8:28 while waiting in line at a Dollar General and upset a nearby customer. The

8:33 report says the offended customer and Wilson then got into an argument in reference to

8:39 quote the defendant farting loudly. The report says that Wilson then pulled a small

8:43 folding knife out of her purse and told the victim she was going to quote

8:46 gut him unquote while moving as if to attack him. Wilson was arrested and

8:52 charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. Up I

8:56 had that wrong at the top, without not with intent to kill. Although

9:00 she said she was going to gut him that would most likely kill him.

9:03 It was unclear at the time whether Wilson had a lawyer. Next, we'll

9:07 jump forward to a fart triggered assault from January of twenty twenty, when a

9:11 Wichita Falls man was arrested after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend when she commented on him

9:18 passing gas. According to the Wichita Falls Police Department and arrest warrant affidavit states

9:24 that officers responded to a disturbance around two pm on a Sunday in the thirty

9:28 five hundred block of Cranbrook Lane at the residence the victim said she and her

9:33 boyfriend Ragsdale, were sitting on the couch at a friend's house. According to

9:37 the affidavit, Ragsdale farted and his girlfriend commented that it quote smelled horrible,

9:43 unquote I'm sure it did. The forty one year old Ragsdale allegedly got angry

9:46 and grabbed the victim by her hair and pulled her to the ground. The

9:50 victim said she landed on her stomach and Ragsdale wrapped his arms around her neck

9:54 to choke her. She stated that she could barely breathe. Next, we

9:58 have a set Korean gas attack that inspired an attempted murder. In August of

10:05 twenty twenty, a taxi driver has been arrested for wielding a weapon while arguing

10:09 with a passenger who kept farting who would not stop farting. On August third,

10:15 twenty twenty, the yong Gai Police station in Busan revealed that they had

10:18 requested an arrest warrant for a taxi driver in his fifties on charges of attempted

10:24 murder. The taxi driver, a Mister A, is suspected of stabbing a

10:28 passenger in his twenties with a weapon more than ten times on the road near

10:31 Mangmei station in soy Young, Busan. The passenger, A Mister B,

10:37 is currently being treated at a hospital or was currently in twenty twenty, being

10:41 treated at a hospital for serious injuries such as damaged organs, but his life

10:46 was not at risk. According to the police. Mister A opened the window

10:50 and warned mister B to be mindful of his farts as mister B constantly farted

10:54 during the taxi ride. However, mister B became offended and argued this is

11:00 when the argument started between the taxi driver and the passenger. Now, the

11:03 driver, mister A had a knife used for fishing in his car because he'd

11:07 kept it in order to go fishing the next day, and mister A then

11:11 used that knife to wield as a weapon against mister B and stabbed him multiple

11:15 as in ten times. Mister A stated quote, I think I lost my

11:20 rationality momentarily. As he admitted to his crimes, a police officer stated quote,

11:24 we have charged him with attempted murder, not with inflicting bodily injury,

11:28 considering that it was a brutal crime, including the fact that he wielded the

11:33 weapon and stabbed the victim several times. I think several is an understatement.

11:37 If he stabbed him ten times, imagine we're talking about eating hard boiled eggs

11:43 instead of stabbing someone. It's not hard to imagine someone saying that they ate

11:48 several hard boiled eggs. It's pretty tough to imagine someone eating ten hard boiled

11:54 eggs at once. So again, several is an understatement when it comes to

11:58 the number ten. All right, now we've covered fart murder for the last

12:01 decade of recent history. We're going to talk about some historical examples of the

12:05 grievous consequences of cutting the cheese. The impact of great farts throughout history has

12:11 not been limited to weird and disproportionate consequences such as the triggering of widespread mayhem,

12:18 death, and destruction. More on that in a minute. Farts have

12:20 also wrecked political careers and destroyed social standings. A prime example of that can

12:24 be seen in the social faux paw, or more like fart paw of Elizabethan

12:30 era aristocrat Edward de Vere seventeenth Earl of Oxford, reportedly, while making a

12:35 deep bow to show his respect and obeisance to Queen Elizabeth the First, this

12:39 Earl of Oxford exploded in a huge fart. He felt so embarrassed, in

12:43 a shame, that he left the country for seven years, and when he

12:46 finally came home, the Queen's first words upon his return to court were,

12:52 my Lord, I had forgot the fart. Ah that Queen Elizabeth. What

12:56 a noxious wit she had, almost as noxious as the seventeenth Earl of Oxford's

13:03 ass. Now we go further back in time to the Arabian Peninsula in the

13:07 Middle Ages to further explore the catastrophic fallout of ill timed ass blasting. As

13:15 the Earl of Oxford's fart illustrates, breaking wind in public was embarrassing in the

13:20 court of Elizabeth the First. However, such embarrassment pales in comparison to the

13:24 social consequences of a public fart. In the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle Ages,

13:28 a wealthy Yemeni merchant named Abu Hassan married one of the region's most beautiful

13:33 women and threw a lavish wedding feast, to which he invited notables from near

13:39 and far. As is customary, the bridegroom ate and drank heartily at the

13:43 feast, perhaps too heartily, for when he rose from his seat to go

13:46 to his bride's chamber, he let out a thunderous fart. Mortified, Abu

13:52 Hassan turned away from the bridal chamber, headed to the courtyard, saddled his

13:56 horse, and rode off into the night, weeping bitterly. It was the

13:58 start of a weird and long journey and exile that would put the Earl of

14:03 Oxford to shame. After fleeing his wedding, mortified at the humiliation of his

14:07 huge fart, Abu Hassan ended up on the coast where he caught a ship

14:13 headed for India. Landing on the Malabar coast, he eventually joined the service

14:18 of a local king and rose in his service. After a decade abroad,

14:20 however, Abu Hassan pined for his homeland. Finally, he snuck away and

14:26 returned to Yemen, but unsure of his reception, he donned the disguise of

14:30 an impoverished dervish and headed back to his hometown. Abu Hassan endured many weird

14:35 and wacky adventures en route, surviving encounters with lions, enduring snake bites,

14:39 and hiding from bloodthirsty bandits. Eventually, he reached his hometown and his eyes

14:45 brimmed with tears when he looked down upon it from the surrounding hills. However,

14:48 he was wary of the type of reception he might encounter, and he

14:52 told himself they might recognize me, so I will wander about the outskirts and

14:56 listen to what people are saying. May Allah grant that they do not remember

15:01 what happened, but Allah did not grant Abu Hassan's wish. Disguised as a

15:07 dervish, he wandered around his hometown for a week, eavesdropping on people on

15:11 the chance he might hear any mention of his name. Finally, sitting near

15:15 the door of a hut, he overheard a young girl ask her mother when

15:18 was I born? Mamma, one of my friends needs the dates so she

15:22 can cast my fortune. The mother replied, my dear, you were born

15:26 on the night that Abu Hassan farted. A bitterly disappointed Abu Hassan rose and

15:31 immediately fled his hometown once more, this time for good. As he put

15:37 it, quote, my fart has become a date. It will be remembered

15:41 forever. Ha, my God, can you imagine blasting such a notorious wedding

15:48 fart that people remembered their children's birthdays by it? Holy Boly Hassan eventually made

15:56 his way back to India, where he remained in self imposed most exile for

16:00 the rest of his life. Well, they do say that the root of

16:03 all comedy is tragedy. All right, for our grand finale or grand fart

16:10 Nally, it's time to talk about the deadliest fart in recorded human history,

16:15 and for that we head back to ancient times in Jerusalem forty four a d.

16:19 History's deadliest fart was smelt and dealt around the time of Passover in forty

16:26 four a d. In Jerusalem, not long after the death of King Herod

16:30 Agrippa, as thousands of Jews gathered to partake in the Passover feast and festivities,

16:36 a Roman soldier stationed above the temple turned around, bared his butt moon

16:41 the crowd, and cut a fart. Understandably, the religious crowd below did

16:45 not take kindly to the blasphemous insults in the temple. Rioting broke out,

16:49 and the Romans rushed in soldiers to quell the disturbance. Things escalated, and

16:53 by the time the dust settled, approximately ten thousand people lay dead, all

17:00 because of a chain of events that started with a fart. The Jewish historian

17:03 Flavius Josephus left Posterity an account of the lethal posterior emission. He described it

17:11 as such, the Jews ruin came on for when the multitudes were come together

17:15 to Jerusalem to the feast of unleavened bread, and a Roman cohort stood over

17:21 the cloisters of the temple, for they were always armed and kept guard at

17:23 the festivals to prevent any innovation by which the multitude thus gathered. Might take

17:29 that some old timey Romanish speak there, but basically he's saying they were always

17:33 Roman guards watching over the large Jewish festivals just in case people got rowdy.

17:40 In this case, the guard incited a riot with his musical ass. Here's

17:45 what the historian says. One of the soldiers pulled back his garment and,

17:49 cowering down in an indecent manner, turned his ass to the Jews and spoke

17:55 such words as you might expect at such a posture. Spoke such words means

18:00 farted. At this the whole multitude had indignation and made a clamored a cumanist.

18:03 The provincial Roman procurator that he would punish the soldier, while the rasher

18:08 part of the youth, and such as were naturally the most tumultuous felt of

18:12 fighting and caught up stones and through them at the soldiers. It was the

18:17 start of a bout of widespread violence and a weird chain of events leading to

18:21 mass death. In other words, everyone was offended by this soldier farting over

18:25 their religious ceremony, which they should be offended by. Mind you, The

18:30 more level headed parishioners petitioned that the soldier be punished, while the younger people,

18:36 less even tempered, immediately started brawling. Things escalated quickly as the Romans,

18:41 never known for a light touch when dealing with disturbances in their provinces,

18:45 came down hard on the Jews. As historian Josephus continued in his account,

18:51 when the Roman procurator heard of the rioting in Jerusalem humanists, was afraid lest

18:56 all the people should make an assault upon him, and sent to call for

19:00 even more men, who, when they came in great numbers into the cloisters,

19:03 found the Jewish people in a very great consternation being beaten out of the

19:08 temple. They ran into the city, and the violence which they crowded to

19:11 get out, was so great that they trod upon each other and squeezed one

19:15 another, till ten thousand of them were killed, insomuch that this feast became

19:21 the cause for mourning, and the whole nation and every family lamented. Now,

19:26 in truth, this is a pretty tragic story. You had a town

19:30 full of Jewish people peaceably celebrating their religious holiday. Some asshole Roman drops his

19:36 drawers and blasts some ass at them while they're celebrating Passover. That is horrible,

19:41 so obnoxious, and they were so offended that a riot started. Well,

19:47 between the riot and the ensuing excessive force of the Romans military response,

19:52 ten thousand people in Jerusalem died. That is a serious case of fart murder.

20:00 And I suppose it shouldn't even really be chuckled at, except the short

20:04 version of the story is Soldier Moon's religious crowd blasts ass ensuing riot kills ten

20:11 thousand. I mean, it's absurd. Man. There you have it,

20:18 folks, that is kind of murderers fart murder. Now, before I let

20:22 you go, I'd like to remind you, as I always do or often

20:26 do, of the free three digit lifeline number nine eight eight, that you

20:30 can call anytime twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to receive

20:34 immediate counseling four substance use, mental health or suicidal thoughts. So God forbid,

20:40 but if you should find yourself in acute crisis, please do remember to

20:45 call nine eight eight. Program it into your phone now. Please do get

20:48 the help that you need, and always remember that the world is a better

20:52 place with you in it. Now. If you're not an acute crisis and

20:56 you'd just like to connect with someone, please do feel free to reach out

20:59 to me kind of Murdery at gmail dot com or at kind of Murdery on

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21:22 when you guys reach out. Also, don't forget to call our toll free

21:26 number eighty eight Murdery, where you can tell your kind of Murdery story and

21:32 inspire an episode of the show. I'll see you back here on Sunday,

21:37 April ninth. I'm Zevin Odelberg and this has been kind of Murdery