Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosing a Killer. I'm Koelle and I'm Kenna and
you're almost
27, 28. Girl, you're leaving the whole day out. What year is it?
Yes, T-minus, well I guess a few days, this is gonna come out the day before my birthday.
38. At 38, 28. Yes, T-minus a couple days is what I meant to say, like for my birthday, but
you guys will be hearing this the day before my birthday. Yeah. Yeah, it's wild. I'm getting
fucking elderly. It's totally fine. My back hurts all the time. I almost broke my toe trying to stand
up yesterday, so that was fun. And I had a huge ass panic attack at work today, so that was the first
and I like a dead ass thought I was gonna pass out. I had to sit down, it was bad.
Jeez. It was really bad, like I'm still feeling the effects of it like now and it's been like
almost 12 hours. It's been an intense week. Yeah. Yeah. Just in general. And it has. Once the week,
like the week is over, I think it'll be better by Monday because you're gonna go out of town
this weekend. Yeah. And that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really excited. So we're going to the
birthday weekend. We're gonna wakeboard and jet ski and we have two of our really good friends,
Braxton and Kaylee, that have never been to the lake house with us, so we're gonna go
with them and this is like our first like little mini vacay with them that we've ever done. So
that's really exciting. And then also I'm gonna announce this at my birthday dinner on Friday,
but I got accepted to grad school. Congratulations. Thank you. That's awesome. That's something that's
been really kind of stressing me out because like not only am I accepted, but now I have to do all
of the stuff before the three weeks goes by when I start classes. Right. Because I kind of did my
application a little bit late, but it went through. I'm accepted and I will be pursuing an MS in
forensic psych. That is really scary to say. Incredible. You're not scared, you're excited.
I'm so excited. Yeah. I can't believe you start before I do because I don't start until after
the festival. Yeah, mine starts on the 7th of August. Like it's early, but it's completely online. I
mean, it's so is yours, but I don't know. I don't know how it works, but yeah, it's fucking a while.
It's gonna take you about two years, but throughout that time, listeners, you'll be able to hear my
knowledge increase on the topics that we bring you every day. That's so exciting. So that's pretty
cool, right? I feel like I'm gonna sound smarter like a couple weeks, just in a couple weeks,
getting that knowledge. We're on an upswing here. Yeah, I think we are. For sure. Like I'm almost
done with my associates and then after that, hopefully transfer to a university. Yeah. The
university that I want because my GPA is right where I want it to be. Yeah, your GPA is awesome.
You're doing a great job getting it up there. Mine was terrible. I think I was like a tenth of a
GPA point above like the minimum. Really? The master's. Oh no, I definitely wanted them to be
able to look at my application and be like, oh, clearly GPA is there. Clearly she put it in the
work. Yeah, for sure. I'm super proud of it. Yeah, that's awesome. You should be. Okay, before we
get started, we do just want to mention quickly our social media. Do you want me to tackle that
since it's your case? Sure. Sure. So we have social media. This is your first time listening. We are
everywhere at diagnosing a killer with the exception of Twitter, which is at Killer Diagnosis. We do
have a Patreon set up. If you're unfamiliar, we have three tiers of our Patreon. All of them
receive ad free episodes every week. And our tier two and three patrons will also receive an
additional bonus episode once a month on the 29th. I've picked my case for this month and I am
researching it and it is bad. But these ones are completely unedited, very a little bit more graphic
than our normal content. So if you'd like to be able to get access to those, please go ahead and
join the Patreon. And we always appreciate the support of our current Patreon members. Yes.
Lastly, I think is. Diagnosing a killer.com. Yeah, we have diagnosing a killer.com. I'll be with all
of our resources and links and merch and all that good stuff. So please go buy some merch. I am
going to wear my Yikes on Bikes shirt at work tomorrow, I think. And check out the True Crime
and Paranormal Podcast Festival that we are going to be a part of in a couple weeks. So scary.
So exciting. I keep saying scary, but I really be excited. Yes. Okay, I'm done. Go ahead. Today,
we are going to be talking about Brenn Omdil Hartman. Okay. Now she might not sound too familiar
to you right now, but she will. She will sound familiar. Okay. Content warning, this episode
depicts scenes of drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and a murder suicide. If this episode
is not for you, we encourage you to listen to another one of our episodes. Remember that your
mental health comes first and you are very important to us. We love you. Love you. Bye.
So Brenn Omdil Hartman was actually born Vicki Jo Omdil on April 11th, 1958. Vicki Jo. Vicki
Jo. I feel like we always get those names. Vicki Jo. She was born in Thief River Falls in Minnesota
to parents Donald Jean and Constance or Connie Faye Omdil. I think Constance is such a cute name.
I think so too. Constance. I think of Constance though when I think of Monster House because
that was the big lady. Yeah. The wife. Yeah. Oh yeah, the house. Yeah. She's like that was her.
She was the house. I think that was Kathleen Turner. Yeah, she was the house. I want to say
she was Kathleen Turner. I love her raspy voice. Donald worked as an engineer and Connie worked
for a local retail shop. Cute, quaint. Brenn was one of four kiddos or in this case Vicki Jo
because she was born in Vicki Jo. Yes. Or Vicki. Vicki was one of four kiddos and they were all
raised in a middle class Christian household. Vicki had an older brother named Greg and then she
had two sisters, Catherine and Deborah. Greg. Greg. Gregory. As long as her family remembers,
Vicki was a vivacious, charismatic and ambitious young child. She was known to be extremely funny
and silly. She would be considered the troublemaker of the four kids. At a young age, Vicki expressed
her desire to be famous like as an actress or a model. I want to be famous. I want to be famous.
You're going to see my name up in lights blah blah. But for real. So those around her gave her a
lot of encouragement to become an actress or a model. She was always really cute or she was,
you know, grew up and blossomed into this beautiful woman. The encouragement seemed to validate Vicki's
kind of arrogant attitude after a certain time. Like she often thought that she was better than
others because one day she dreamed that she would just leave this small town behind and go to LA
and be this famous person, right? You know who that sounds like? That sounds like Cousin Vicki
from Vegas Vacation. Yeah. She's like, she's like dancing on the side and she gets ovary
up there like with her. Andre or Aubrey on her. Yeah. The blonde girl. She's like, look,
he's like my daughter's famous. She's on the billboard. Yeah. It's like sex work. Yeah, exactly.
Call this number. Gross. Yeah. He's like, do that little number at Shoddy sweetheart and then it's
on a pole. So gross. I want something better. What's up better than this goddamn life? Did you lose your place?
I was thinking about Vegas Vacation. It's a good movie. I love that movie. Great fucking movie.
So Vicki was 5'10". She was blonde-haired, blue eyes and beautiful. And this came with its own
sense of superiority over others as well because she got a lot of attention or admiration. It came
very easily to her, especially from men. She was described as a very girl next door, quote, unquote.
Wouldn't the girl next door kind of be like someone that's like not outwardly like at first glance,
like really good looking and it's someone that's like kind of just like down to earth and genuine
and doesn't really realize how pretty they are? I feel like that's what I think of when I think of
girl next door. Girl next door. Yeah, maybe. I think maybe it was because she was conventionally
attractive. You know, yeah. Got it. So by high school age, Vicki began to go by Vicki Joe as it
made her seem more exotic or something. Vicki Joe. Vicki Joe would begin dating a man by the name of
Douglas Torfinn when she was in high school, which Douglas had already been married and divorced at
this point. Couldn't really figure out how old Douglas was, but either way in the May in May
of 1977, the two would marry after being together for a few years. So if you do the math, she's
born in 1958 and she's married in 1977. She would be 19 years old. Oh my gosh. So I don't know how
old this guy was, but either way, they were like together for about eight years. Dang. Yes. That's
still like kind of gross though. Yeah. I'm sorry, they were together eight years and she got married
at 19. Is that what you're saying? No, they would be married for, they would get married in 1977
and they would be married for eight to nine years. I was like, hold the phone. She was eight. I had
to do that. Eight, eleven? I did that too. And I was like, wait a minute, this can't be right. And I
had to go find other sources. Douglas was the kind of guy that was ready to settle down and have kids,
but Vicki Joe again was not satisfied with living in a simple town. She did not want to be a house
wife. She had these big dreams. So eventually the couple would divorce and Vicki would find this
as kind of an opportunity for her to pursue her modeling and acting career. Okay. And how old
is she around this point? Oh gosh, eight years later? Yeah, about 28. Vicki would find mild
success in local shoots and she would get headshots and all that other stuff. She tried to
do modeling locally and as soon as she had this kind of like portfolio put together,
she decided to move to LA and she took acting courses as well. She lived extremely modestly
in LA and she struggled to get jobs almost immediately. After some failed attempts at
launching her career, Vicki Joe changed her name to Brendan as it seemed even more unique.
Brendan. B-R-I-D-O-N. Like it almost looks like Brydon, but it's Brendan. Yeah, Brynden.
For a girl. For a girl. I'm just going to call her Bryn from now on because she does shorten it to Bryn.
A childhood friend of Bryn's would later recall, quote, when I met her, she was Vicki. Then she
became Vicki Joe, then Brendan and then Bryn. I'd laugh all the time and say, who are you this week?
End quote. Hell of a wall. The name change seemed to help a little bit as Brynden would eventually
book her first swimsuit job. It's a swimsuit model. She would continue to model swimsuits
in various catalogs over some time, but it still wasn't the ultimate success that she craved.
She tried out for many acting roles with no callbacks. Brynden had thought that since everyone
at home had admired her, being in LA was going to be no problem. She just thought that she would
be able to find work very quickly. And that wasn't the case. No, serious reality check. When you go
to LA, everybody's tall, skinny and beautiful. Everybody's blonde and blue-eyed. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, like it's not just you now. Brendan would soon become depressed and once on a night out,
Brendan tried cocaine for the first time as it was a part of the regular nightlife.
However, she would become highly addicted to cocaine and alcohol, resulting in multiple
stents in rehab. Oh, shit. Brendan would change her name simply to Bryn, but now sober after rehab
and on Zoloft to treat her ongoing depression, Bryn began to work again and became a Catalina
swimsuit model. Oh, okay. Catalina wine mixture. In 1986, with her life finally stabilizing once more,
an LA friend of Bryn's wanted to set her up on a blind date. This man was described as funny,
successful, and was right at Bryn's alley. On November 25th, 1986, Bryn would meet her future
husband, Phil Hartman. Okay. Am I supposed to know who that is? Yeah. Okay. My bad. He was on
Asadone, PD's Playhouse. He was Pee Wee Herman. No, he was Paul Rubens. But he was in a... Okay,
do you remember Three Amigos really well? Not really well. Damn, okay. I only remember from
that as Chevy Jays. There's Phil Hartman's at the beginning and he's like the dude that's just the
telephone guy and he's like, take the Amigos clothes. No? I mean, I haven't seen that movie
in probably 15 years. The Coneheads? I remember that movie. Haven't seen it in 15 years. Which is,
oh my gosh, that was the Astral Plane just now because I literally said the Coneheads earlier.
I was at work and I put like a little tiny traffic cone on one of my kiddos head and I was like,
hello, Conehead. Coneheads. That's so funny. Can't look at an airplane. Wow, that was the Astral
Plane for sure. That's so strange. No, I'm showing my age even though I was just complaining about
being old. I don't know who that is and the listeners are probably very disappointed. Well,
I'm going to tell you who Phil is. Philip Edward Hartman was born at September 24th, 1948. He was
a Canadian born fourth child of eight. His parents were Doris Marguerite and Rupert Lovig Hartman.
Whoa, those are names, right? Those are names. Phil's father sold building supplies and the family
grew up in a middle-class home. He was raised in a Catholic household and Phil says about his
childhood, quote, I suppose I didn't get what I wanted out of my family life. So I started
seeking love and attention elsewhere and quote, oh, that's sad. Being directly in the middle of all
eight kids, Phil strived to get the love and attention that he desired and craved. He also had
a disabled younger sibling that took up a lot of his mother's time at home and his dad worked
extremely long hours. Dang. He found the best way to gain positive attention was through comedy and
would often goof off around his family being the cheery one. Phil's family moved to the United
States when he was just 10 years old, first living in Maine, then Connecticut, and then ending up in
Los Angeles neighborhood Winchester. This was all within five years. So the family moved. I'm sorry,
where did you say he was born again? In Canada. Oh, okay. In Ontario. Okay, I'll show. Phil graduated
from Westchester High and was most notably the class clown and noted as a true romantic.
He often doted on the girls that he dated, writing them love letters and embarrassing them in front
of other students with his outward expressions of love, which is so cute. Oh, so cute. After high
school, he decided to attend that Santa Monica City College, but then he soon dropped out in
1969 as he found an opportunity to tour with a rock band as a roadie, which I think is just like,
book this school. I'm just gonna live on the road. It's punk rock. Oh my god. I don't know why
that just reminded me. Complete side note. Me and Casey watched the hatchet wheeling hitchhiker
documentary. Did you see it? Kai. Oh my gosh. That guy is, yes, I saw it. The documentary? Yeah. Oh my
god. It's wild. It's wild. It's just as wild as he is. Yeah. That reminded me because he said this
guy's like, oh, fuck it on the road. Like, I don't have to worry about working. Yeah. Doing anything.
Some mash. Some mash. So bad, dude. Awful. And then that one guy made such a good point when he was
like, you know, he would say things that were like very clearly alarming and people would just
like not fucking say anything. People would laugh. Yeah. I'm doing right now. Exactly. Like, he's
literally talking about hitting somebody in the head with a hatchet and everyone's like, and it's
like, haha. Smash. Oh, you dog. Oh, that catchphrase. I need that on a t-shirt. Seriously. That's
terrible. Yeah. Anyway, back to the story. So while working with musicians, Phil found a passion
in graphic design and he actually wanted to create album covers, which I thought is really unique
and interesting. Really cool. So he actually went back to college. He went to California State
University in Northridge to study graphic design. He would graduate and come to own his own graphic
design company. His company designed over 40 album covers. Most notable graphic designs were for
Poco, America, and the Crosby, Crosby stills in an ash before they had Neil Young, which is like
huge. That's really cool that Phil Hartman would do that. Huge. Don't know who any of those people are.
Are you there? God damn it. I'm just like, hmm, impressive. Some people will listen to this and
go, I know exactly who she's talking about. Yeah, exactly. That's for our listeners older than me.
So around this time or during the time that he was working at this graphic design company,
Phil had met Gretchen Lewis and now Phil was finding success in work and he felt successful.
He asked Gretchen to marry him. The couple would quickly marry in 1970, but they would
also quickly divorce in 1972. Oh dang. Soon after this, Phil's first television debut was on an episode
of The Dating Game where he would actually win. Oh really? Which was interesting. I know what that
show is. Oh, you know what The Dating Game is? I do. Don't know, Phil Hartman. Dating Game is old.
I want to do that. What's that guy's name? I want to do The Dating Game Killer. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. I waited. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'll, I'll, I don't know his name. I'll cut it. Mom sent it to us.
Yeah. Remember? Yeah. That guy's creepy looking. In 1975, he started attending He Being Phil,
not The Dating Game Killer. Started attending a comedy group called The Groundlings where he
actually met who would become his two biggest friends and confidants, John Lovitz and Paul
Rubins who is P.B. Harman. Oh okay. I know who that guy is. John Lovitz would later recall about
Phil quote, he could do any voice. He could play any character, make his face look different in a
whole different way without makeup. He was the king of The Groundlings and quote. Aww. So cute.
Why does he have Jim Carrey? Like he can change his whole face. Oh for sure. Yeah. Phil would meet
and marry Lisa Strain in 1982 and the couple were seemingly fine until their marriage problems arose
in 1985, just three years later. Lisa was beginning to become frustrated about Phil's lack of
communication saying that when, during disagreements, Phil would quote, disappear emotionally. His body
would be there but he'd be in his own world. That passivity made you crazy and quote. Yeah.
It's like you're talking to nobody. Yeah. Lisa said about Phil quote, my sense of Phil was that he
was really two people. He was the guy who wanted to draw and write and think and create and come
up with ideas. He was the actor and the entertainer and then he was also the recluse end quote.
That's like really sad honestly. It reminds me of like Robin Williams. Yeah or Jim Carrey's that way
too or was. Jim Carrey yeah exactly. And it's just you become that person. Yeah like a lot of people
that are like they seem the happiest or actually like the most depressed you know. Sad. I'm truly sad.
The couple would divorce in 1985 however the two would not lose contact and in fact would develop a
very deep friendship over the years. The former Groundlings troop members would go on to create
a children's television show called Peewee's Playhouse. The concept was mostly about identifying
with young kids by playing along with them instead of strictly educational videos or an
election lecture type setting. Phil would play Captain Carl in the show and Phil would actually
go on to co-write the screenplay for Peewee's Big Adventure. I love that movie. Right. The
Basement of the Alamo. Yeah. I've seen it. My favorite part. It's the best part of the Alamo.
Yeah. Yeah. It's the basement. Yeah. If you haven't been down to the basement you should go check it out.
I was saying that it was the best part of the movie but. Oh the basement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. No I think the best part of the movie is when they're in the 18-wheeler and she's like
it looked like this and then her face gets all crazy. Scared the shit out of you when I was a little.
Come on, A-Bastard King. I'm a loner, Dotty. A rebel. A rebel. A rebel. Oh my god. I need to watch that.
I used to have such a crush on Paul Rubins too. He's a cutie. Everybody always looked at me weird
when I said that. He's a cutie. Yeah he's cute. Yeah. Okay. Back to the story. Anyways.
Well he's important. He's part of the story. He's important. Yeah he was like one of Phil
Hartman's best friends. So either way this would be around the time that Bryn would be set up with
Phil and they go out on this date and the two hit it off. Bryn loved Phil's sense of humor and how
doting he was with her and Phil couldn't believe that he nabbed this tall beautiful blonde babe,
right? She's like kind of a working model. Things were looking up for Phil as in the same year that
Peewee's Big Adventure came out and when he met Bryn later on that year in 1986 he would be asked
to join the cast of Saturday Night Live, which is a huge career changing move that most comedic
writers dream about. Phil said, quote, I wanted to do SNL because I wanted to get the exposure that
would give me box office credibility so that I can write for movies myself, end quote. Phil was
known for his laundry list of impersonations, most notably his Bill Clinton impersonation,
and original characters such as Caveman Lawyer, which was like this thought out Caveman Lawyer.
Sounds funny. I said that's funny but my voice like didn't work for a second. Adam Sandler used
to refer to Phil as glue for a nickname. Lauren Michaels, who was the creator of SNL, explained
this nickname saying, quote, he kind of held the show together. He gave to everybody and demanded
very little. He was very low maintenance, end quote. Yeah, that's sweet. Lauren Michaels of SNL.
Yeah. Are you telling me that he's the one behind the, it's Saturday Night Live. It's really good.
It's Saturday Night Live. It's like you have to do like a little bit of vibrato on the live.
Yeah. Girls that doesn't sound right. Live. Dana Carvey. Like that. Tim Meadows. We did that for
like not as good as Johnny from Jeopardy. Oh, Johnny from Jeopardy is really good. Now, here's the
host of Jeopardy, Alex Travec. Thank you, Johnny. Ken Jennings. Thank you, Johnny Gilbert. That's
great. I like when Johnny does the categories. Yeah. Yeah. That was really good. Kind of. Thanks.
I'm a voice actor. You should be. So the couple have become inseparable, walking red carpets together
and going to shared interviews even on Howard Stern. What's wrong? Nothing. Oh, I thought there was
a bruise on my elbow and I mean, there is a bruise on my elbow. I was trying to see if I could
locate it. Okay. I thought maybe you got a bug bite or something. Whatever. It's always something with me.
Within a year of their first date, the couple would marry in November 1987. Their son,
Sean Edward Hartman was born in 1989 and their daughter, Bergen Anika? Anika. It's either Anika
or Anika. Hartman was born in 1992. By all accounts, their marriage was a rocky one. Further
compounding all of the complications that they were having, Bryn began to use drugs and alcohol
again. No. She tried entering rehab on several occasions, but often when the couple would fight,
Bryn would get verbally or even physically abusive with Phil. He would often come to work.
Co-workers would essentially notice that there would be marks on him. Oh my god, that's so sad.
You know, we always say that. Spousal abuse can go both ways. I feel like a lot of the times,
it gets overlooked when it's a female spouse abusing her male partner.
Bryn often went out drinking until early morning hours and she would come home to pick fights with
Phil, who would most often be sleeping. She would come home, messed up, and would pick fights with
him. Wake him up, justify it. Justify it. Justify it until they don't argue about it.
Phil had also on multiple times pretended to be asleep when she would arrive just to avoid
arguments, but it only seemed to enrage her more. Phil would tell a friend, quote,
I would go into my cave and she would have to use grenades to get me out.
Grenades? What do you mean? Like a metaphor. Like he would go into his usual like kind of
self-protecting cocoon and she would get so explosive in order to get him to react.
Like, I don't understand that. Like, if alcohol makes you, and I know that's addiction,
I'm just saying like alcohol makes you fucking act like that, then why are you drinking that much?
Like I just don't ever understand that. Like personally, like I don't obviously struggle
with addiction, but I noticed a while back that certain types of alcohol made me act
certain ways when I was intoxicated. So I stopped drinking those certain types.
For sure.
Because I didn't like the way I acted when I was very drunk, you know.
And she's, you know, she's mixing it with her antidepressants and she's mixing it with cocaine.
Yeah.
And she clearly has some type of an addictive personality here because she's had stents in rehab
before. Yeah. And it's easier said than done, you know, to just not drink, you know. But it's
definitely not, it should not, and it is terrible that it's at the expense of Paul.
Phil.
Of Phil.
Yeah, not Paul Rubin.
I know, I was thinking of Paul Rubin still.
Who doesn't think of Paul Rubin?
Just constantly in my mind.
Bay.
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Phil wasn't the only one that Bryn would start conflict with.
Specifically after Bergen was born, Lisa Strain, who was Phil's ex-wife but long time
friend, wrote a letter to the Hartmans congratulating them on the birth of their second child.
Lisa, however, would receive a letter a few weeks later from Bryn telling Lisa to stay away from her
family and that she is to cease all contact with Phil and at one point threatened to quote,
rip your eyes out if you speak to him again, end quote.
Jesus, you didn't deliver a load of death?
Straight up.
That's what, remember, that's what one of the people we've done said, he messaged them and said
that he was going to deliver a load of death.
Deliver a load, a load of death.
Like, that's not funny, but like that's not, that's terrifying.
Intense.
So, but it's poor Lisa, she's probably like, what the fuck?
Makes me wonder if she was abusing alcohol then as well right after the birth of Bergen.
And if she wasn't, then that's just her, that's just how angry she gets.
And it's just compounded by drugs and alcohol.
Gosh. Bryn began showing extreme signs of jealousy and began to attempt to isolate Phil.
Bryn has struggled to find acting work only appearing in a single movie in 1994 as a waitress.
Bryn began to feel that because of Phil's career taking off, it dwarfed her.
It was such a point of contention between the couple that at one point,
Phil even considered retiring just to allow his wife to pursue her career without his influence.
Oh my god. That sounds like a textbook narcissistic personality disorder.
Like you can't be great.
Yeah, I'm the only one that can be great.
Yeah, because your greatness is like dimming my light.
Exactly, dimming my light.
That's ridiculous.
Like you should be lifting your partner up, not, you know, trying to outshine them or whatever.
Phil had even removed the children from the house on occasion to stay with friends or family
members because of Bryn's outburst, which is also scary that there's two children involved in this.
That is very scary. And also, like, it's not only, like, it should never have affected anybody,
but now it's affecting, like, outside people. And I'm sure that she's not enjoying the fact that her
behavior is getting a lot of recognition. Like, she's like, probably like, oh,
shit, like, I don't want them to know about, you know, these certain things.
Because of course, a narcissist, someone that abuses their spouse doesn't want it to get out,
because then they're going to say, how dare you make me look bad?
Yes. By telling people things I said and did.
Nobody will hire me in this town because you, you know.
You slandered my name.
You slandered, you told everyone.
Exactly. Even Phil's SNL co-stars were not safe from Bryn's jealousy.
She would constantly accuse Phil of having feelings for Jan Hooks, who was a famous impersonator,
and often played politicians' wives on the show. Bryn would always say that she believed
Phil and Jan were married, quote, on some other level, end quote.
Oh, whatever, dude.
Bryn had written Jan several letters, giving detailed threats to Jan in a similar manner
the way that she threatened Lisa. Thankfully, she never sent these to Jan,
and they wouldn't be found until much later.
Imagine being like, extremely famous and on SNL and having to deal with this shit.
Right?
I'd be like, are you fucking serious? Like, as Jan, I mean.
Yeah, well, I'm, well, Jan didn't get the letters.
I know, but I'm just saying, even then, she would quote, unquote, like, joke.
Like, yeah.
Oh, you guys are like, married.
Fuck off.
When she's really actually fucking jealous.
What's even more interesting about it is I feel like maybe the reason Bryn didn't send
the letters to Jan is because Jan is famous.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
And she couldn't win anything against Jan Hooks.
She might have gotten like a lot of backlash.
Exactly. So she probably wrote all these things down because those were her feelings,
but she couldn't do anything about it because, again, that's her narcissism.
Yeah.
Because if she really wanted to accuse her of an affair, she could.
It's true.
If she felt it was the truth, but she probably didn't think it was the truth.
I mean, that's like not the worst thing in the world to like write down, you know,
your feelings and then throw them away and not say, you know, but like, that's toxic as fuck.
This is clearly toxic.
And not only that, but it's not just her feelings that she's keeping to herself and
then getting rid of.
She's taking it out on her husband.
Yeah, exactly.
Phil's career continued to blossom.
He would do multiple voice acting jobs for The Simpsons, Animaniacs and The Critic,
but he really hit it big with News Radio in 1995.
News Radio was a TV show that surrounded a radio station and the characters that worked there.
The show started the likes of Andy Dick, Joe Rogan and Dave Foley.
This would be one of Phil's most accredited roles as Bill McNeill.
Britain, on the other hand, was still struggling to find work and was becoming
more and more jealous of her husband's career and tired.
She grew tired of feeling simply like arm candy.
Here's the thing.
I guarantee you he could have at least assisted with getting her work.
And I guarantee you she was like, no, I can't.
No, there's no way I'm getting famous off of your doing.
I have to do this on my own, blah, blah.
Well, he actually did.
So in 1998, he was on a show called Third Rock from the Sun.
And I think he's only in two episodes maybe, but he got her a two episode job on there.
You know, like, oh, just throw my wife a bone.
She won't fucking stop complaining about her career and all.
So just give it, just put her on the fucking thing.
Just put it, just please.
Yeah, just like fucking help me out.
Please.
So she's not just a total bitch when we get home, you know, kind of shit.
It's just that's so awful.
And like, I wonder how uncomfortable that would make.
I'm uncomfortable.
I said that really comfortable uncomfortable that made him feel.
Not only is he now having to experience this abuse at work at home, he's probably having to
experience that at work, maybe like a verbal abuse or maybe like under her breath or like
passive aggressiveness or whatever.
And like, he did her a fucking favor and I guarantee you she didn't change her fucking attitude.
No, especially at work.
No, because she wanted to make it big.
She didn't want to be the wife of an actor.
Yeah.
She wanted to be an actress.
Yeah.
Expressing his marital problems to Joe Rogan of all people,
Joe recalls telling Phil several times to leave the marriage and that the relationship was toxic.
Joe said, Phil told him that he couldn't because he wanted to stay together for the kids,
which is awful.
And absolutely is no one blaming the children.
Yeah, of course.
You know, it's not.
But he's like, you know, she's a really good person.
It's just the drugs.
It's the abuse.
You know.
Well, I guarantee he wasn't like there was not even a thought in his mind that they could
have an amicable split.
Right.
And then make sure that the kids were taken care of.
Yeah.
There's no way.
At least you would have to get her like stabilized.
Yeah, exactly.
And then, you know, even begin to have a conversation about divorce.
Exactly.
And by this point, the couple were sleeping in separate bedrooms.
On multiple occasions, staff on the SNL set would hear Phil and Brynn arguing in his dressing room.
And on one, at least one occasion in 1998, Brynn came into the studio demanding a divorce
after Phil had given Brynn an ultimatum, the drugs or the kids.
Damn.
He was just like, this is it.
You get, you have to get sober or you're not going to like I'm taking the kids.
It's unhealthy.
Our kids.
Sorry, I said your kids.
Our kids.
Phil confided in his makeup artist after this argument that he was going to be a good
kid, that he actually didn't want a divorce and that he would likely have to deal with
Brynn, her addiction and her abuse for the rest of his life.
Oh my god.
He, unfortunately, was not wrong.
On May 27, 1998, Brynn and a friend of hers went to a local Italian place in LA where
Brynn was noticed to have a few glasses of wine.
This spot was known as a regular spot for Brynn and Phil, and even at one point a server
asked Brynn where Mr. Hartman was, to which she replied at home.
Brynn seemed to be in good spirits and the two women would leave the establishment around
9 or 10 PM.
Not entirely done with her night, Brynn proceeded to drive to a former boyfriend's house named
Ron Douglas in order to continue drinking.
So Phil can't talk to his ex-wife.
His ex-wife cannot send a letter of congratulations on having a fucking baby,
because she can stop by her ex-boyfriend's house in the way because she's not done drinking.
And drink more.
Phil did not care for this man, not because he was a good boy.
Because he thought that they were intimate or any of that other stuff, but it's because
Ron would often supply Brynn with as much cocaine as she wanted.
Yeah.
Brynn became increasingly agitated as she began to talk about Phil and their relationship
and the ultimatum, and she continued to get high at Ron's place.
Around midnight, Brynn was so full of rage she decided to drive home to confront Phil yet again.
Brynn arrived home drunk and high on cocaine.
She and Phil proceeded to get into an argument.
Hours went by and at some time after 3am, Brynn called Ron to say that she had found a note from
Phil saying that he was going to be out for the night.
What?
Ron found this to be unusual as both children were in the house that evening,
and knew Phil wouldn't leave the kids alone overnight with no one home.
Yeah.
Brynn asked if she could go back to Ron's house, which he replied,
no because the kids are going to be alone and you've clearly been drinking.
She sounded way more wasted than when she left.
So did he offer to come over because she's fucked up and she's by herself with the kids?
No.
He was just like, go to bed.
Jesus.
She was like, okay.
Brynn would not take this advice, and 20 minutes later Brynn shows up at Ron's house.
She immediately states, quote, I think I killed Phil, end quote.
What?
Yeah.
Just like, I think I killed him.
Like just in like a fucking drunk and stupid.
Like in a fucking stupid.
Yeah.
Like a way to put it on.
And she's, you know, fucking completely high.
What do you mean I think I killed him?
I think I killed him.
You just said he was out for the night, like 20 minutes ago.
Seeing that Brynn was completely intoxicated and almost inaudible,
Ron didn't believe her at first.
Then Brynn produced a handgun stating that this was the potential murder weapon.
Ron immediately removed the weapon from her hand and inspected it.
Oh, putting his fingerprints on it.
He was just like, what the fuck?
I would be like, why the fuck did you bring that to my house?
Why are you here?
Why the fuck did you do that?
And you came immediately to my house?
Well, he looked at the gun and apparently there was
like the gun was full of bullets or something.
So he was like, did she, did she not?
Was this a dream?
Did she threaten him with a gun?
And that's what she thinks or whatever.
Yeah, that's true.
He probably wasn't like immediately believing her that she did that.
I don't even know how she made it to his house.
You know?
Oh yeah, it's true.
In her inebriated state, she actually asked Ron to call the house multiple times
to see if Phil would answer the phone.
Unsure if she had even hurt Phil.
Ron did multiple times, but no answer at the house.
My God, now he has that on the fucking record.
The two waited at Ron's house for several hours.
As Brynn was so intoxicated and high, she actually became sick,
like she started throwing up.
And Ron feared that she would eventually have an overdose.
So he waited for her to kind of not, not call an ambulance.
Yeah, of course not.
Not call a police.
He was just like, oh, let's see if she overdoses.
And where the fuck are the kids during this whole thing?
They're at the house.
By themselves.
With their deceased father, presumably in the house with them.
Presumably.
And Ron, Ron knows this and is like,
Well, he doesn't really know because again, she's so messed up.
Okay, well.
I can see that.
I can see that perspective.
But she's been known to be outlandish and dramatic, you know?
Here's the thing, even if he's not dead, the kids are still there.
Alone.
Find themselves.
Like.
Even if Phil had gone out for the night, right?
Yeah, like what?
Yeah.
So after a few hours, the two would make their way over to Phil's house.
And while in the car, Bryn called another friend.
And this time she confessed to killing Phil.
Or at least what she thought she had done.
When arriving on the scene at about 6 10 a.m.
Ron entered the home where he found Phil lying in his bed as if he were sleeping.
Oh my God.
He had been shot three times.
The first shot through the forehead killing him instantly.
Bryn had shot him an additional two more times.
Once in the throat and another in the chest.
Ron immediately called 911.
Bryn called more people, including her sister, from her own phone stating multiple times that
she had killed her husband Phil and apologized in her intoxicated state.
She told her sister to take care of her children as she wasn't going to be able to any longer.
Police arrive on the scene and begin to process the house.
The police knew right away from the phone call that there had been a shooting and that there
were children present, so their first priority when arriving at the scene was to remove 9 year old
Sean and 6 year old Bergen from the home.
Yeah, that you probably fucking woke up during that whole shit too.
That's so sad.
Sean said he heard noises of gunshots, but at the time he thought after yet another argument
his parents were just slamming doors.
Oh my God.
Meanwhile Bryn moved into the bedroom where Phil was and locked herself inside.
Once the children were safely out of the home, a single gunshot could be heard from the house.
Bryn had taken her own life lying next to her husband Phil's lifeless body.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
So that's why she told her sister to take care of her kids, not because she was going to prison.
Oh my God, that is so fucked up.
It's really fucked up.
Oh my God.
After this tragedy Bryn's brother Greg sued the company Fizer who produced Zoloft at the time
and her kids psychologist who had provided the Zoloft to her.
Her child's like her two kids psychologist.
Not even her own doctor.
Wow, that was a fuck up.
The case was settled with Fizer and ended up paying out 100,000 to the family of,
to the children.
Two other examples of homicidal side effects of the drug Zoloft are actually present in the
cases of James Holmes who's the Dark Knight shooter and Eric Harris from Columbine.
So they are two other instances of this kind of homicidal rage that is incorporated with
abusing Zoloft or mixing it in combination with other things.
Both of these individuals had struggled with homicidal rage while using Zoloft essentially.
Andy Dick who was a co-worker of, or co-star of Phil Hartman's was actually accused of
starting up Bryn's cocaine habit by John Lovitz.
What?
John claims that Andy gave Bryn cocaine at a party a few weeks before the murder suicide.
Although Andy claims that Bryn had either A already relapsed by that point or B he didn't
know that she actually had any severe problem with it.
Yeah, I just gave her drugs.
I didn't like give her a dick shit.
Neither of which is okay.
Yeah.
I just provided her with a fucking classic by the person.
She's got a problem.
That's her issue.
Yeah.
Like what?
Fuck you Andy Dick.
It gets better.
So, fuck you Andy Dick.
John did forgive Andy until one incident in 2006 where the two were sitting separately at a restaurant.
Andy Dick came up to John Lovitz and said quote,
I put the Phil Hartman curse on you.
You're the next to die.
End quote.
This is his co-star.
The dude that did news radio with him.
So he's saying like I gave your wife cocaine and now she's gonna be an addict and kill you?
Is that what he's saying?
Like it's just Andy Dick being a fucking asshole.
Like and you know everybody knows Andy Dick is a fucking asshole.
And he struggles with his own addictions.
That's wild.
This caused a massive disturbance with which ended with Andy Dick being ejected from the establishment.
Jesus.
The two would run into each other once more some years later at a comedy club.
In which an altercation occurred with John Lovitz slamming Andy Dick's head into the bar multiple times.
Oh jeez.
I can't even get through that sentence.
It's such a wild sentence.
It's a wild sentence.
Right?
I'm like oh John Lovitz like all of a sudden.
Okay.
You know.
Oh.
News radio would end after the show attempted to replace Phil Hartman's character unsuccessfully.
Or at least kind of get away from that tragedy.
Tragedy.
The show would be cancelled the following year.
Bergen and Sean were adopted by Brinn's sister Catherine.
And Phil always thinking of his children.
Put a very specific inheritance plan together for his children which I thought was this is this is cool.
Like if I was you know a very wealthy individual this is probably what I would do.
Okay.
The two would receive a third of their inheritance when they turn 25.
Or if they receive a bachelor's degree from a four-year accredited university first.
So you could do the bachelor's degree four-year accredited university.
And then you could get that third of your inheritance or whenever you turn 25.
Okay.
The remaining inheritance would be split given half at age 30 and the rest at 35.
So like by the time you're 35 hopefully you're established enough.
Yeah.
And it's just like it's not you turn 18 you get all the inheritance.
Exactly.
Yeah.
It's you know kind of siphoned out.
Hmm.
Which I yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's kind of cool.
I do too.
Also in their will Phil and Brynn wish to be cremated.
Ashes spread along Catalina and have a shared headstone which was honored.
That's fucked up.
I wouldn't have done that.
Yeah.
Like I'm I know it's in your will but like come on.
Yeah.
Like that's all I was saying.
It's just either way it's fucking sad.
It's very sad.
No it's horrific.
The children have seemed to adjusted as well as they possibly could.
Sean is now 34 and is a artist and musician.
Oh wow good for him.
And Bergen is 31 and she is happily married and she has been sober from drugs and alcohol since 2012.
Wow good for her.
Right.
Bergen shared recently on her Instagram a photo of her father on Father's Day.
The caption said quote as another Father's Day comes to an end.
I remind myself that no matter what I am very fortunate to have a number of great father figures in my life.
But this dapper dude will always have my heart and quote.
I just got full body he's it's really sweet.
Right.
And it's a really good picture of him too.
Sean mostly lays low so but again he's a successful artist and musician.
In a final interview films but not yet aired at the time of Phil's death.
Phil said some of his final words quote.
I think of my old age I've come to realize how precious everything is and I try to value the many blessings that I have that have been bestowed upon me.
But there's also this sense of vulnerability.
If fortune took another turn for the worst and that you have to live with the awareness that anything could happen in this world.
End quote.
I feel like he knew.
Right.
I feel like he knew not only with that quote but also with him saying that he was going to spend the rest of his life with his wife's addiction.
Yeah.
I think that he had an inkling you know and they say that like sometimes like you just know like when you're like going to die soon.
Like people just have like an intuition about it.
Like you've ever seen like those final tweets or whatever like this one girl said like oh the future looks dark and then like she died like a week later.
Yeah.
That's really fucking sad.
It's like a highly abusive situation you know this domestic violence situation where everything is still unpredictable.
And you have to feel so helpless.
Yeah.
I'm just glad that the kiddos were okay.
But that's really really sad and it's sad on both parts like with her struggling with addiction for so long and then him becoming a victim of that.
And then also Zoloft like I mean that's it's not the only time that that's happened.
I think they I read an article that in the UK there was something like 28 to 32 people with and like a you know six month or a year span that were that had harmed other people or themselves on Zoloft.
That's scary and they still prescribe that.
Phil Hartman was to voice that brand again from Matt Groening's Futurama but would be replaced with Billy West.
But he did try out for it.
He would have been that brand again which is kind of cool because Billy West does his own like interpretation of Phil Hartman.
You can really hear it.
He was also nominated for an Emmy Award for his participation in news radio after his death.
Small Soldiers was also dedicated to Phil Hartman as it was his last film.
And in September 2012 Phil Hartman was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame with Paul his brother accepting his award.
And in August 2014 he got his own star on the Hollywood Walk.
Oh that's really sweet of them.
Yeah I think it was really yeah it's nice to like commemorate him.
Yeah for sure.
It's it's just thinking about the way the direction that his career was going like there wasn't going to be any stopping him.
It was just this you know.
So we have talked about Zoloft and we have talked about alcohol and drug abuse and we want to make it clear that we are not saying anything specific about any type of medication or drug that if you take Zoloft this will happen to you.
Yeah.
You know definitely not saying that but there are some very real links between just medication in general SSRIs plus alcohol and the side effects that it can create.
Yeah or other drugs.
Yeah.
And even mix things you know any type of medication with any other kind of medication for sure.
So specifically between alcohol and Zoloft some of the increased effects can include dizziness depression suicidal thoughts anxiety headaches nausea diarrhea or drowsiness.
So yeah don't want to be mixing alcohol for the most part talk to your doctor always talk to your doctor always talk to your doctor everyone's different.
Now without the SSRIs alcohol alone can send symptoms of anxiety feeling worthlessness fatigue irritability tiredness or insomnia restlessness weight gain or weight loss and loss of appetite.
So even if you take Zoloft or any other medication for a condition other than depression it still might not be safe for you to drink alcohol.
You may still have an increased risk of depression from alcohol just alcohol alone.
This is because depression is common as a common symptom of other related health problems like OCD PTSD that Zoloft does treat.
Yeah.
Gotcha.
If you are a loved one or struggling with drug or alcohol addiction call the substance abuse and mental health services at 1-800-662-4357.
You can always reach out to the National Suicide Lifeline at 988.
But if you or a loved one or an immediate danger please call 911.
If you are a loved one is experiencing domestic violence call 1-800-799-7233.
Great job.
Thanks.
That was a good story.
Yeah.
Did that sound sarcastic?
It did.
Oh my bad.
I really was just like kind of dwelling but what's the word?
Mulling over.
Yeah mulling over everything that I just heard and I was like great job but it sounded really auto tone the way it came out.
No that was a good case.
It was one that I kind of wanted to tackle just because I feel Phil's name is still so highly attached to that incident.
Yeah.
And Bryn I'm not you know what happened was an absolute tragedy and it's just I think that had there been maybe more resources that either them or someone else maybe suggested.
Clearly Bryn was dealing with some mental disorder issues and alcohol dependency probably drug dependency you know and possibly even anger issues.
Yeah definitely.
You know I don't I definitely again we said earlier domestic violence goes both ways.
He was definitely becoming isolated.
You know check check up on your friends.
Yeah check up on your loved ones.
Absolutely and you know it it's really hard because there's a lot of situations that really seem different than they are but that's why it's important to like start these hard conversations and talk about the things that we talk about on the podcast because yeah it might be uncomfortable but it could quite literally save someone's life.
Yeah.
Just having that person that they can find it in order to be able to tell them how they're feeling or what's going on you know in their personal life and stuff you know.
And this is a very very minute thing compared to what we just spoke about but I mean similarly to today at work you know I was having very bad panic attack I was seeing spots and I immediately grabbed someone and I told them look this is what's going on.
I need to take a second and they took over for me and they covered for me so that I could sit down.
And it's just again that's a very small on the scale but that if I didn't have this confidence in talking about mental health or hard subjects I might have just pushed past that and who knows I could have actually passed out you know or I could have.
Or eat out more you know or you know when I come home and then spend the rest of your night in bed.
Exactly because it's it hits you all then because yeah because you didn't take care of it in the moment.
And held it held it in for a long time and that I mean that's not an example that's like this one but this is way obviously more detrimental on that scale but.
It's I think it's just that awareness the knowledge helps you and others you know I think you're able to recognize it in other people because you can recognize it in yourself.
Yeah absolutely and it actually helps me having all this knowledge it helps me like handle my personal like struggles like better more better more better and on that note.
Thank you guys for joining us for another episode.
Join us next week for our mental breakdown on Monday and then my case next Thursday.
It's a doozy.
Y'all are going to really like this one and if you have not heard of the herd of this case that I'm bringing next Thursday I will be very very surprised really.
And that goes for you and all of the listeners.
This is a very popular case that I'm bringing next week.
And then don't forget on the 29th the week after that is going to be our Patreon bonus.
It's already here again I feel like we just did Dahmer and this Patreon bonus episode has been suggested by a patron.
And that's all I'm going to say for now.
You're not even going to tell me who it is.
Well I'll tell you who it is but I'm not going to say it on the mic because I'm going to say it next week.
Remember we do it a week in advance so you're right.
You're right.
I'm going to turn off the mic now so I can tell.
Call the I don't think I've ever said call on here.
I don't think you have.
That's called an inside joke.
We'll tell we'll talk about the legacy that is called eventually.
We will if you guys want to hear that story email us.
Yeah.
Okay.
Alright see you guys on Monday.
Love you.
Bye.
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