WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.339 Imagine a nearly perfect murder. Like the body 00:00:03.339 --> 00:00:06.599 is flawlessly hidden for 34 years. Right. The 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:09.160 police are just completely baffled. The local 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.439 community has confidently blamed the totally 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:14.980 wrong man. And the killer has, for all intents 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:17.359 and purposes, won. Yeah. They've lived an entire 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.079 lifetime as a free person. Exactly. Until, well, 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:22.820 a private investigator looks at a 34 -year -old 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:26.379 retail receipt for a fluffy Pomeranian dog. It 00:00:26.379 --> 00:00:28.480 sounds almost absurd when you put it that way. 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:32.250 But it... highlights exactly how fragile a criminal 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:34.969 coverup really is. It really does. Welcome to 00:00:34.969 --> 00:00:37.670 this deep dive. Today we have a fascinating stack 00:00:37.670 --> 00:00:40.429 of source material centered on a novel that absolutely 00:00:40.429 --> 00:00:43.390 shattered the mold of its own genre. We're talking 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:45.950 about Sue Grafton's S is for Silence. Right, 00:00:46.090 --> 00:00:48.030 and we should clarify this isn't just a basic 00:00:48.030 --> 00:00:51.329 book review. No, not at all. Our mission today 00:00:51.329 --> 00:00:54.469 is to explore what happens when a wildly successful 00:00:54.469 --> 00:00:57.030 creator decides to just take a sledgehammer to 00:00:57.030 --> 00:01:00.250 their own perfectly engineered machine. We're 00:01:00.250 --> 00:01:02.310 looking at the psychology of small town rumors, 00:01:02.770 --> 00:01:05.590 the terrifying nature of confirmation bias, and 00:01:05.590 --> 00:01:08.310 how the most mundane objects, like a lace curtain 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:12.310 or a pet dog, can become the ultimate instruments 00:01:12.310 --> 00:01:14.689 of justice. And we should really set the stakes 00:01:14.689 --> 00:01:17.010 here right at the top. This was not a debut novel 00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:20.150 where an author is throwing spaghetti to the 00:01:20.150 --> 00:01:23.250 wall to see what sticks. This was the 19th installment 00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:26.230 in Grafton's massively popular alphabet mystery 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:28.870 series. 19 books. Let's just pause on that number 00:01:28.870 --> 00:01:31.530 for a second. The series features a private investigator 00:01:31.530 --> 00:01:34.409 named Kinsey Milhone, right? And for almost two 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:36.590 decades, readers had been trained to expect a 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:39.090 very specific, reliable formula. Right. They 00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:40.930 knew exactly what they were getting. Yeah. By 00:01:40.930 --> 00:01:44.069 book 19, you have an entire global fan base that 00:01:44.069 --> 00:01:46.510 relies on your work for comfort. It's like watching 00:01:46.510 --> 00:01:49.370 18 seasons of a reliable procedural TV show. 00:01:49.629 --> 00:01:51.849 You tune in, you know the rhythm, you know exactly 00:01:51.849 --> 00:01:54.290 when the suspect will confess. Exactly. You are 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:56.750 providing a service. It's a recognizable product. 00:01:56.849 --> 00:01:59.659 Right. And then, season... in 19 drops and suddenly 00:01:59.659 --> 00:02:02.140 it is a completely different beast. Okay, let's 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:05.540 unpack this. In the previous 18 novels, we were 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:08.599 firmly anchored in a single linear narrative. 00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:10.580 Always following the detective in real time. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.840 Exactly. But in S is for Silence, Grafton abruptly 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.879 shifts gears. She introduces a dual timeline. 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:20.539 The chapters alternate between the present of 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:23.000 the investigation, which is in 1987, and the 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.939 past of 1953. Which fundamentally changes the 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:28.120 reading experience. I mean, you are no longer 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:29.979 just walking alongside the detective. Right, 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:31.860 you're jumping through time. Yeah, you're watching 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:34.300 the victim's final days unfold independently. 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:36.919 And it wasn't just the structure that changed. 00:02:37.219 --> 00:02:39.560 The sources note that the content took a shockingly 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:42.620 dark and explicit turn. Oh, absolutely. For a 00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:44.340 series that had established a very specific, 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:47.439 relatively accessible lane, Grafton suddenly 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:49.979 introduces highly explicit sex scenes. Yeah, 00:02:50.139 --> 00:02:52.300 including a deeply uncomfortable and detailed 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:54.780 one involving a 14 -year -old character. Which 00:02:54.780 --> 00:02:58.460 is wild. And alongside that, minor homosexual 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:01.300 references, which, you know, for a mainstream, 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.500 cozy, adjacent mystery audience in 2005 was a 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:07.419 massive jolt to the system. What's fascinating 00:03:07.419 --> 00:03:10.300 here is the dilemma of the established creator. 00:03:11.090 --> 00:03:13.789 When you reach that level of success you are 00:03:13.789 --> 00:03:16.830 fighting a two -front war right on one side You 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:18.490 have the fans who want exactly what you gave 00:03:18.490 --> 00:03:20.590 them last time on the other side you have your 00:03:20.590 --> 00:03:22.550 own creative stagnation Yeah, you don't want 00:03:22.550 --> 00:03:25.250 to just paint by numbers forever exactly if an 00:03:25.250 --> 00:03:27.870 author just paints by numbers for decades the 00:03:27.870 --> 00:03:30.599 work loses its soul But the risk of changing 00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:33.300 the formula is total alienation of your core 00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:35.879 audience. Which is why I have to ask, why do 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:38.379 it? Like, why risk a multi -million dollar publishing 00:03:38.379 --> 00:03:40.439 empire just to flex your creative muscles? You 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:42.639 could alienate everyone in one fell swoop. You 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:44.819 absolutely could. But the fact that this specific 00:03:44.819 --> 00:03:47.400 book skyrocketed to the top of the New York Times 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:50.340 bestseller list for hardcover fiction. Wow. Yeah, 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:53.080 posting 1 .2 million copies in print within a 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:55.340 single year. That proves a fundamental truth 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:57.659 about audiences. Readers just like you listening 00:03:57.659 --> 00:04:00.830 to this right now. often crave evolution. Yeah, 00:04:00.969 --> 00:04:03.569 we think we want the same thing over and over. 00:04:03.930 --> 00:04:06.849 Right, but a master storyteller knows when it's 00:04:06.849 --> 00:04:09.449 time to force us out of our comfort zone to deliver 00:04:09.449 --> 00:04:12.030 something vastly more complex. But changing the 00:04:12.030 --> 00:04:14.189 structure wasn't just a gimmick to sell books, 00:04:14.370 --> 00:04:17.569 right? Grafton had to split the timeline because 00:04:17.569 --> 00:04:19.790 the villain in this story isn't just a person, 00:04:20.170 --> 00:04:23.329 it's the passage of time itself. Ooh, I like 00:04:23.329 --> 00:04:25.949 that, yes. Which brings us to the central mystery 00:04:25.949 --> 00:04:28.389 and the disappearance of Violet Sullivan. Let's 00:04:28.389 --> 00:04:32.250 set the scene. It is the 4th of July, 1953. We 00:04:32.250 --> 00:04:34.509 are in the small town of Serena Station, California. 00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:37.790 Okay. Violet Sullivan, a local woman, gets ready. 00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:40.860 heads out for a holiday party, and just vanishes 00:04:40.860 --> 00:04:43.000 without a trace. And as we know, nature abhors 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.720 a vacuum. When there are no hard facts, a small 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:48.500 town will fill the silence with rumors. Oh, always. 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:52.779 So fast forward 34 years to 1987. Violet's daughter 00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:55.180 Daisy, who has lived with this, you know, gaping 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:57.939 wound of unresolved trauma her entire life, hires 00:04:57.939 --> 00:05:00.600 Kinsey Mahone to finally get some closure. And 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:03.060 Daisy hands over a list of the people who were 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:06.180 around back then, her father, her former babysitter, 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:08.899 and a couple of folks from the local car dealership. 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:11.579 And immediately, Kinsey is faced with the defining 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:15.000 challenge of a cold case. For over three decades, 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:17.959 the prevailing theories in Serena Station were 00:05:17.959 --> 00:05:20.759 either that Violet, who was known for being quite 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:23.439 free spirited, simply abandoned her family and 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.939 fled with a secret lover. Right. Or that she 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:28.879 was murdered by her notoriously jealous husband. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:31.759 Philemon Sullivan, whom everyone calls Foley. 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:33.800 Here's where I have to push back a little on 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:36.240 the whole concept of a cold case investigation. 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:39.120 Okay, go for it. How can a private investigator 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:42.220 possibly find objective truth when her witnesses 00:05:42.220 --> 00:05:44.939 have been marinating in gossip and personal bias 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:46.959 for three and a half decades? That's a great 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:49.500 question. I mean, 34 years is a massive amount 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:51.620 of time for a memory to warp. You are hitting 00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:54.680 on the exact thematic core of the novel. Kinsey 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:56.860 quickly realizes she isn't just investigating 00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:00.000 a missing person. She is investigating the town's 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.860 collective memory of that person. And human memory 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:06.379 is incredibly subjective. It's like, it's like 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:09.100 saving a JPEG image over and over again on an 00:06:09.100 --> 00:06:11.639 old computer. Oh, yeah. Every single time the 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:13.720 town recalled the story of Violet over those 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:17.720 34 years, the image degraded. They lost the sharp 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:20.399 pixels of truth and replaced them with the blurry 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:23.120 pixels of their own prejudices until the final 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.180 picture they presented to Kinsey looked nothing 00:06:25.180 --> 00:06:27.870 like the original woman. That is a perfect analogy. 00:06:28.569 --> 00:06:31.310 Look at how fractured the perspectives are. If 00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:33.790 Kinsey talks to the teenage babysitter from back 00:06:33.790 --> 00:06:36.689 then, Liza Mellencamp. Right, Liza. A babysitter 00:06:36.689 --> 00:06:39.430 says she looked up to Violet. To a teenager, 00:06:39.910 --> 00:06:42.470 Violet's independence was inspiring. She saw 00:06:42.470 --> 00:06:44.810 a woman who refused to be boxed in by her era. 00:06:45.069 --> 00:06:48.149 But when Kinsey asks almost anyone else in Serena 00:06:48.149 --> 00:06:51.050 Station, they paint a viciously different picture. 00:06:51.230 --> 00:06:52.910 Completely different. Right. The rest of the 00:06:52.910 --> 00:06:54.930 town deemed Violet a woman of, quote unquote, 00:06:55.269 --> 00:06:58.889 loose morals. They claimed she was selfish, manipulative, 00:06:58.930 --> 00:07:01.750 and that she brought out the absolute worst in 00:07:01.750 --> 00:07:04.889 everyone she met, especially her husband, Foley. 00:07:05.050 --> 00:07:06.949 Which tells us everything about the sociology 00:07:06.949 --> 00:07:09.790 of the time. Violet becomes a mirror reflecting 00:07:09.790 --> 00:07:13.089 the town's own 1950s prejudices and societal 00:07:13.089 --> 00:07:17.740 expectations. Yeah, it was 1953. Exactly. A woman 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:20.360 asserting her independence or showing any kind 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:22.720 of non -traditional behavior in a conservative 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:26.699 small town was heavily scrutinized. So the town's 00:07:26.699 --> 00:07:28.939 collective memory wasn't actually logging facts 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:31.120 about the Fourth of July. They were just logging 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:34.040 their moral judgment of her character. Yes. So 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:36.759 Kinsey is basically digging through three decades 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:40.399 of weaponized gossip. But as she learns, if you 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:42.500 dig through that subjective gossip long enough, 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:46.180 your shovel eventually hits hard, objective physical 00:07:46.180 --> 00:07:48.699 evidence. And the timeline of actual events that 00:07:48.699 --> 00:07:51.779 emerges is incredibly grim. Yeah, it's deeply 00:07:51.779 --> 00:07:54.399 unsettling. As Kinsey pieces together the literal 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:57.579 days before the disappearance, a very specific, 00:07:57.819 --> 00:08:00.079 undeniable sequence of events comes to light. 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:03.360 Violet and her husband Foley had a massive, explosive 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:06.399 fight. And during this argument, Foley physically 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:09.040 tears down the handmade lace curtains that Violet 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.300 had painstakingly made for their home. Hold on 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:12.879 to that detail about the lace curtains, because 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:15.449 it becomes horrifyingly important later. Absolutely. 00:08:15.910 --> 00:08:18.709 So after the fight, Violet goes down to the local 00:08:18.709 --> 00:08:21.370 Chevrolet dealership. She talks to a junior salesman 00:08:21.370 --> 00:08:23.930 there, Winston Smith, and convinces him to lend 00:08:23.930 --> 00:08:26.350 her a Chevy Bel Air. And then she drives that 00:08:26.350 --> 00:08:29.089 borrowed car straight to her bank. Right. Empties 00:08:29.089 --> 00:08:31.769 out her entire life savings and then vanishes 00:08:31.769 --> 00:08:35.210 with her Pomeranian dog whose name is Baby. leaving 00:08:35.210 --> 00:08:37.789 a massive trail of collateral damage in her wake. 00:08:38.169 --> 00:08:41.110 Oh, yeah. The owner of the car dealership, Check 00:08:41.110 --> 00:08:45.149 Kramer, is absolutely furious. Violet put over 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:47.990 200 miles on this borrowed Bel Air before she 00:08:47.990 --> 00:08:50.629 and the car disappeared. Wow. And the dealership 00:08:50.629 --> 00:08:53.429 owner is so unconditionally angry about the mileage 00:08:53.429 --> 00:08:56.169 in the missing vehicle that he forces fully the 00:08:56.169 --> 00:08:58.870 grieving abandoned husband to purchase the missing 00:08:58.870 --> 00:09:01.009 car. Out of his own pocket, yes. Wait, I just 00:09:01.009 --> 00:09:02.789 have to stop and think about the dramatic irony 00:09:02.789 --> 00:09:04.799 of that. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:07.620 Think about this from Foley's perspective. His 00:09:07.620 --> 00:09:10.500 wife vanishes on a holiday. His life falls apart. 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:13.980 He is the prime suspect in town gossip. And on 00:09:13.980 --> 00:09:16.039 top of all that, the dealership owner forces 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:18.820 him to buy this missing Bel Air. Yeah, it's brutal. 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:21.259 Foley was forced to purchase a car that he didn't 00:09:21.259 --> 00:09:24.100 even want, which, entirely unbeknownst to him, 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:26.519 was secretly serving as his wife's underground 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:29.659 tomb. It is a staggering level of tragedy when 00:09:29.659 --> 00:09:32.220 you look back at it. Because yes, as Kinsey continues 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:35.100 her investigation in 1987, she discovers a crucial 00:09:35.100 --> 00:09:38.059 thread. Right. That junior salesman, Winston 00:09:38.059 --> 00:09:41.419 Smith, who lent Violet the car, ended up marrying 00:09:41.419 --> 00:09:43.799 the dealership owner's daughter, Kathy. Oh, wow. 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:47.230 And by 1987, it is a deeply unhappy marriage. 00:09:47.610 --> 00:09:50.250 His wife is obsessed with status, her excessive 00:09:50.250 --> 00:09:53.350 spending has drained him, and he is just exhausted 00:09:53.350 --> 00:09:55.950 by life. And maybe it's that decades -long exhaustion 00:09:55.950 --> 00:09:58.429 that finally breaks his silence. The salesman 00:09:58.429 --> 00:10:00.429 reveals to Kinsey that late on the night of the 00:10:00.429 --> 00:10:03.990 4th of July, 1953, he actually saw that missing 00:10:03.990 --> 00:10:06.169 Bel Air. Yeah, it was abandoned out on a really 00:10:06.169 --> 00:10:08.610 offbeat, remote country road. So Kinsey goes 00:10:08.610 --> 00:10:11.669 out to that specific rural area, and because 00:10:11.669 --> 00:10:14.769 she's looking with fresh, trained eyes, Unclouded 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:17.250 by the town's moral judgment. Exactly. She spots 00:10:17.250 --> 00:10:19.610 something in the landscape, an oblong depression 00:10:19.610 --> 00:10:21.970 in the soil. So they bring in an excavation team. 00:10:22.169 --> 00:10:24.730 Right. They dig into that depression. And they 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:27.429 find the Chevy Bel Air. It had been completely 00:10:27.429 --> 00:10:29.870 buried. Just completely underground. Yeah. And 00:10:29.870 --> 00:10:32.350 inside the car, they find the skeletal remains 00:10:32.350 --> 00:10:36.509 of Violet and her dog, Baby. But it is the state 00:10:36.509 --> 00:10:38.450 of the remains that turns this from a missing 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:42.269 person's case into a waking nightmare. Oh, it's 00:10:42.269 --> 00:10:44.529 so dark. The bodies are wrapped up tightly in 00:10:44.529 --> 00:10:47.210 those exact same torn lace curtains from Violet's 00:10:47.210 --> 00:10:50.149 house, and Violet's hands are tied behind her 00:10:50.149 --> 00:10:54.250 back. Which points to a deeply agonizing, chilling 00:10:54.250 --> 00:10:57.500 conclusion. The forensic evidence suggests she 00:10:57.500 --> 00:11:00.059 was buried alive inside that vehicle. Oh man. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:02.679 This is not a crime of sudden passion or an accidental 00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:05.480 death during an argument. This is a premeditated 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:08.440 logistical execution. The logistics alone are 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:10.620 baffling. I mean, you don't just bury an entire 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:12.940 American automobile with a hand shovel. No, you 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:14.860 definitely don't. But I want to go back to the 00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:17.460 author's choices for a second. Look at how Grafton 00:11:17.460 --> 00:11:20.340 uses domestic objects here. Those lace curtains 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:22.840 weren't just fabric. They were something violet 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:26.159 made by hand for her home. They represent domestic 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:30.120 life, marriage, nesting. And they are twisted 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:33.580 by the killer into macabre instruments of her 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:36.360 torture and death. Right. It subverts the idea 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:40.080 of the safe 1950s domestic sphere in the most 00:11:40.080 --> 00:11:42.899 violent way possible. So with a body finally 00:11:42.899 --> 00:11:45.559 recovered and an actual crime scene established, 00:11:46.139 --> 00:11:48.519 the whole landscape of the investigation shifts. 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:52.179 Kinsey finally has physical proof. But she still 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:55.100 has to navigate the suspects. Exactly. And that 00:11:55.100 --> 00:11:58.200 means unraveling a 34 -year -old alibi that was 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:01.200 built entirely on a psychological illusion. Right, 00:12:01.259 --> 00:12:03.080 because once the body is found wrapped in those 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:05.639 specific curtains, the immediate collective thought 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:08.879 in the town is... Fully did it. Yep. Fully tore 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:10.960 the curtains during the fight. The curtains were 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:13.990 on the body. Case closed. The husband is the 00:12:13.990 --> 00:12:15.970 killer. And to make matters worse for Foley, 00:12:16.210 --> 00:12:18.850 the former teenage babysitter, Liza, actually 00:12:18.850 --> 00:12:21.309 comes forward with a memory that seems to completely 00:12:21.309 --> 00:12:24.009 lock him in as the murderer. Oh, right. She tells 00:12:24.009 --> 00:12:25.830 Kinsey that on the night of the 4th of July, 00:12:26.009 --> 00:12:27.970 she was hanging out at a local construction site 00:12:27.970 --> 00:12:30.269 with the town's resident bad boy, Ty Eddings. 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:33.950 And while they were there in the dark... She 00:12:33.950 --> 00:12:37.769 says they witnessed a man operating a heavy excavator 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:40.789 digging a massive vehicle -sized hole. And she 00:12:40.789 --> 00:12:42.909 just assumed it was Foley. She never actually 00:12:42.909 --> 00:12:45.789 saw the man's face in the darkness. Wow. But 00:12:45.789 --> 00:12:48.450 because of how Foley had treated Violet, and 00:12:48.450 --> 00:12:50.250 specifically because she knew about the violent 00:12:50.250 --> 00:12:52.269 incident with the curtains, her brain just did 00:12:52.269 --> 00:12:55.769 the math. If we connect this to the bigger picture... 00:12:55.580 --> 00:12:58.799 This is a textbook terrifying example of how 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:01.000 a red herring is born out of human psychology. 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:03.899 But wait, hold on, she just assumed it was Foley. 00:13:04.100 --> 00:13:06.960 In a murder investigation, how does a seasoned 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.960 private detective not immediately flag that as 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:12.299 a giant leap in logic? I feel like Kinsey should 00:13:12.299 --> 00:13:14.460 have caught that instantly. Well, she does catch 00:13:14.460 --> 00:13:16.559 it. Yeah. Eventually. But you have to understand 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:18.879 the insidious nature of confirmation bias. OK. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:20.740 It doesn't look like a lie when someone tells 00:13:20.740 --> 00:13:23.100 it. It looks like their truth. The babysitter 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:25.399 wasn't being malicious. Right. She actually believed 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:28.379 it. Exactly. She wasn't consciously trying to 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:31.019 frame an innocent man. It is simply human nature 00:13:31.019 --> 00:13:34.159 at work. We are meaning making machines. When 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:37.059 we lack data, we build narratives that make sense 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:41.019 to our existing worldview. Wow. Liza hated Foley. 00:13:41.149 --> 00:13:44.769 She thought Foley was mean to Violet. Therefore, 00:13:45.049 --> 00:13:47.409 when she sees a shadowy figure digging a sinister 00:13:47.409 --> 00:13:50.789 hole, that figure had to be Foley, her bias filled 00:13:50.789 --> 00:13:53.289 in the shadows. So what does this all mean for 00:13:53.289 --> 00:13:55.950 the investigation? It means Kinsey has to... 00:13:56.689 --> 00:13:59.169 painstakingly fact check a 34 year old assumption. 00:13:59.470 --> 00:14:01.070 And when she actually looks at the police records 00:14:01.070 --> 00:14:04.730 from 1953, the entire case against Foley collapses 00:14:04.730 --> 00:14:07.269 in an instant. Yep. It completely falls apart. 00:14:07.470 --> 00:14:09.169 It turns out Foley couldn't possibly have been 00:14:09.169 --> 00:14:11.370 driving that excavator on the night of the 4th 00:14:11.370 --> 00:14:13.789 of July. Foley was sitting in a jail cell. He 00:14:13.789 --> 00:14:16.070 had been arrested earlier for public drunkenness. 00:14:16.070 --> 00:14:18.090 Right. He was locked up all night and he spent 00:14:18.090 --> 00:14:21.029 the entire next day working off his hangover. 00:14:21.450 --> 00:14:24.620 It is an iron clad. documented alibi. Which leaves 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:27.740 a glaring, horrifying question. If Foley was 00:14:27.740 --> 00:14:30.720 in a locked cell, how did the curtains that he 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:33.279 physically tore down end up wrapping his wife's 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:35.740 body in a buried car? This is where the story 00:14:35.740 --> 00:14:39.740 highlights how mundane everyday details can dictate 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:43.179 life and death. It's crazy. Kinsey discovers 00:14:43.179 --> 00:14:45.840 by digging through municipal records that there 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:48.240 was a delay in the local garbage pickup that 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:50.279 week because of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. 00:14:50.580 --> 00:14:53.350 Think about the chaos theory of that. The trash 00:14:53.350 --> 00:14:56.450 bin sat out on the curb longer than usual, which 00:14:56.450 --> 00:14:58.990 means literally anyone in that town could have 00:14:58.990 --> 00:15:01.590 walked by, seen the torn curtains sitting in 00:15:01.590 --> 00:15:05.570 the trash, stolen them, and used them to perfectly 00:15:05.570 --> 00:15:08.840 frame Foley. A simple holiday delay in municipal 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:11.320 services completely derailed the search for justice 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.539 for over three decades. Yeah. When witnesses 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:16.120 let their personal biases fill in the blanks 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:18.700 and when a convenient prop like discarded curtains 00:15:18.700 --> 00:15:21.320 is left out on the curb, the truth gets buried 00:15:21.320 --> 00:15:24.820 just as deeply as that Chevy Bel Air. The babysitter 00:15:24.820 --> 00:15:27.559 even admits to Kinsey later on that her perspective 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:30.139 was heavily colored by her dislike of Foley. 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:32.600 Everything looks suspicious if you viewed it 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:34.679 through the lens of prejudice. Think about how 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.299 this applies to modern life or, you know, social 00:15:37.299 --> 00:15:41.360 media. How often do we see a torn curtain like 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:44.940 a single out -of -context video clip or a vague 00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:48.120 rumor and let our pre -existing biases instantly 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:50.279 convict someone in the court of public opinion? 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.080 We do exactly what that small town did. We do. 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:55.500 We leap to the conclusion that validates what 00:15:55.500 --> 00:15:58.320 we already believe. But in this case, the hard 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.299 evidence proved the community wrong. If Foley 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:03.559 didn't do it, the answer had to lie elsewhere. 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:06.220 Not with the angry husband, but perhaps with 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:08.039 the secret lover that the town had whispered 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:10.700 about. And the ultimate clue to breaking the 00:16:10.700 --> 00:16:13.440 case wasn't hidden in the town's gossip. It was 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:15.299 sitting right in Violet's lap the whole time. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.700 The Pomeranian? Baby, the dog. Yes. Kinsey remembers 00:16:18.700 --> 00:16:22.340 a tiny detail. Daisy, Violet's daughter, had 00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:24.120 mentioned that the dog was a gift, supposedly 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:26.779 from a romantic partner. So Kinsey follows this 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:29.740 final, bizarre hunch. She pivots entirely away 00:16:29.740 --> 00:16:32.539 from the complex web of human relationships and 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:35.100 focuses purely on the pet. She manages to track 00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:38.070 down the original breeder of the dog. And this 00:16:38.070 --> 00:16:41.490 is the fatal flaw of the killer. Breeders keep 00:16:41.490 --> 00:16:44.210 meticulous records. This is where the physical 00:16:44.210 --> 00:16:47.350 objective evidence finally cuts through three 00:16:47.350 --> 00:16:50.370 decades of small town lies. The Breeders paper 00:16:50.370 --> 00:16:53.570 records reveal exactly who purchased that Pomeranian. 00:16:53.690 --> 00:16:55.990 It wasn't Foley. It wasn't the car salesman. 00:16:56.169 --> 00:16:59.190 Nope. It was a local construction magnate named 00:16:59.190 --> 00:17:02.049 Tom Padgett. The man with unrestricted access 00:17:02.049 --> 00:17:05.299 to heavy machinery. The excavator. Exactly. The 00:17:05.299 --> 00:17:07.359 man who would know exactly how to operate an 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:09.380 excavator at a local construction site in the 00:17:09.380 --> 00:17:12.079 dead of night to bury an entire automobile. So 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:13.980 when Padgett realizes that Kinsey is digging 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:16.900 into the dog's origins, he panics. He knows she 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:19.220 is on to him. He has to act. Right. He tails 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:21.160 her away from the breeder's home and out on a 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:24.099 lonely country road, he attacks her. The confrontation 00:17:24.099 --> 00:17:27.039 escalates violently. Padgett tries to kill her 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:29.160 and Kinsey is forced to shoot Padgett to death 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:31.859 in self -defense. This raises an important question 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:34.259 about the inevitability of truth. modern world. 00:17:34.700 --> 00:17:36.819 It is such an incredible climax because of the 00:17:36.819 --> 00:17:39.640 sheer irony of his downfall. It really is. Think 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:41.819 about the scope of what Padgett achieved. He 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:44.279 committed a near -perfect murder. Yeah, he did. 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.720 He used his professional construction background 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:50.160 to bury a massive vehicle and hide a body so 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:53.400 flawlessly that it stayed hidden for 34 years. 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.019 He beat the police. He outsmarted the town gossip. 00:17:57.240 --> 00:17:59.319 He let an innocent husband take all the social 00:17:59.319 --> 00:18:02.460 blame. Yes. But his ultimate undoing wasn't a 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:04.960 sloppy murder weapon left at the scene, or a 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.779 footprint, or a brilliant forensic deduction. 00:18:07.589 --> 00:18:11.009 No, it was a retail transaction. Right. You can 00:18:11.009 --> 00:18:13.529 move Earth. You can manipulate a town's perception. 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:16.250 You can rely on the biases of witnesses to act 00:18:16.250 --> 00:18:19.049 as a brilliant smoke screen. But Padgett couldn't 00:18:19.049 --> 00:18:21.789 erase a simple paper receipt for a fluffy dog 00:18:21.789 --> 00:18:24.640 he bought as a romantic gift. Wow. The mundane 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:27.900 bureaucracy of a pet sale outlasted a 34 -year 00:18:27.900 --> 00:18:30.099 lie. It's staggering when you lay it all out 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:32.259 like that. And it really brings us back to why 00:18:32.259 --> 00:18:34.200 this deep dive matters in the broader sense. 00:18:34.900 --> 00:18:36.920 We started this conversation by talking about 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:39.680 a wildly successful author taking a sledgehammer 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:43.500 to her own perfectly engineered machine. S is 00:18:43.500 --> 00:18:45.599 for silence proves that stepping out of a comfort 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:48.200 zone yields the greatest rewards, both in art 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:50.779 and in the pursuit of truth. It applies on every 00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:54.039 level of this story. Sue Grafton stepped out 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:56.920 of her structural comfort zone by using a dual 00:18:56.920 --> 00:18:59.799 timeline. Yeah. She stepped out of her thematic 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.980 comfort zone by tackling darker, more explicit 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:06.660 themes that challenged her cozy readership. And 00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:09.720 because she took that massive risk, she was rewarded 00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:12.259 with a commercial and critical masterpiece. And 00:19:12.259 --> 00:19:14.960 on the narrative level, Kinsey Malone had to 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:16.819 step out of the comfort zone of conventional 00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:18.819 interviewing. She couldn't just write down what 00:19:18.819 --> 00:19:20.740 people told her. No, that wouldn't have worked. 00:19:20.910 --> 00:19:23.289 She had to look past decades of comfortable, 00:19:23.650 --> 00:19:26.589 familiar small town gossip to find the deeply 00:19:26.589 --> 00:19:30.130 uncomfortable buried truth. Both the creator 00:19:30.130 --> 00:19:32.069 of the story and the investigator inside the 00:19:32.069 --> 00:19:34.650 story had to break the rules to get the result. 00:19:34.930 --> 00:19:36.710 They both realized they couldn't rely on what 00:19:36.710 --> 00:19:39.549 worked in the past. They had to dig deeper, literally 00:19:39.549 --> 00:19:42.569 and figuratively. Exactly. So as we wrap up this 00:19:42.569 --> 00:19:44.910 deep dive, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:47.440 with a final thought to chew on. Think about 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:49.680 that perfectly engineered machine of routine 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:52.259 and assumption in your own life. Consider the 00:19:52.259 --> 00:19:54.380 town or the neighborhood you live in right now. 00:19:54.859 --> 00:19:58.000 Every single community has its lore. Yeah, if 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.680 someone were to suddenly dig into a rumor... 00:20:00.670 --> 00:20:03.089 that has been circulating in your community for 00:20:03.089 --> 00:20:05.589 30 years, something everyone just casually knows 00:20:05.589 --> 00:20:08.069 is true. How much of it would actually be grounded 00:20:08.069 --> 00:20:10.930 in hard, undeniable fact? And how much of it 00:20:10.930 --> 00:20:13.230 would just be the community's own prejudices, 00:20:13.630 --> 00:20:17.069 their own unexamined biases masquerading as the 00:20:17.069 --> 00:20:19.329 truth? Right. It makes you wonder what else is 00:20:19.329 --> 00:20:21.329 buried right beneath the surface of the places 00:20:21.329 --> 00:20:24.849 we call home. It certainly does. Thank you so 00:20:24.849 --> 00:20:27.430 much for joining us as we explored the incredible 00:20:27.430 --> 00:20:29.990 mechanics of this story. We hope you walk away 00:20:29.990 --> 00:20:32.049 looking at the world and maybe the rumors in 00:20:32.049 --> 00:20:34.109 your own backyard just a little bit differently. 00:20:34.589 --> 00:20:36.769 Keep questioning the narrative and we will see 00:20:36.769 --> 00:20:38.289 you on the next Deep Dive.