0:01

Hey everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show

0:03

and tell you a little bit about one of my favorite

0:05

things there is. Audible! And

0:08

listening on Audible helps your imagination soar!

0:11

Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert

0:13

advice, any genre you love, because they

0:15

have them all, you can be inspired

0:17

to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and

0:19

new ways of thinking. You can find

0:21

all the genres you love and discover

0:23

new ones along the way. You'll stumble

0:26

across so much stuff you

0:28

didn't even know you're interested in, explore

0:30

best sellers, new releases, plus thousands of

0:32

included audiobooks and originals that members can

0:34

listen to all they want with more

0:37

added all the time. I've listened to

0:39

something recently, an audiobook, that

0:41

definitely had my imagination soaring. It

0:43

is called the Phoenix Program, America's

0:45

Use of Terror in Vietnam. And

0:47

as an Audible member, you can

0:49

choose one title a month to

0:52

keep from the entire catalog, including

0:54

the latest best sellers and new releases.

0:57

New members can try Audible free for 30

0:59

days. Just visit

1:02

audible.com slash small town murder or

1:04

text small town murder to 500-500. That's

1:08

audible.com/small town murder or text

1:10

small town murder to 500-500.

1:14

Now back to the show. Hey,

1:18

small town murder listeners. Have you heard? You

1:21

can listen to your favorite gripping

1:23

investigations ad-free. Good news! Amazon

1:26

Music, you have access to the

1:28

largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts

1:30

included with your Prime membership. To

1:32

start listening, download the Amazon Music

1:34

app for free or

1:37

go to amazon.com/adfreetruecrime. That's

1:39

amazon.com/adfreetruecrime to catch up

1:41

on the latest episodes

1:44

without the ads. The

1:47

new Hulu original docu-series from

1:49

Duplass Brothers Productions out there,

1:51

Crimes of the Paranormal, dives

1:53

into eight unsolved true crime

1:56

cases with shocking links to

1:58

the paranormal world. Each

2:00

case unravels, an unsettling truth

2:02

emerges. The pull of the

2:04

supernatural is powerful. But

2:06

sometimes, real monsters walk among us.

2:09

The perfect watch for every fan

2:11

of true crime. All episodes of

2:13

Out There, crimes of the paranormal,

2:15

are now streaming only on Hulu.

2:34

Hello, everybody, and welcome

2:36

back to Small Town Murder

2:38

Express. Yay and choo choo.

2:41

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My

2:43

name is James Petrogalow. I'm here with

2:45

my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you

2:47

folks so much for joining us today

2:49

on another crazy edition of Small Town

2:52

Murder Express. 10 pounds of

2:54

murder, 2 pound bag. You know how it

2:56

works. So I hope you've been enjoying all

2:58

the other Small Town murders over time. We've

3:00

done some wild ones, especially the New Jersey

3:02

one that came out this week too. It's

3:04

really crazy stuff. But this time, we're going to Wisconsin.

3:06

It's going to be a lot of fun. Before

3:08

we get there, just want to say, shut

3:10

up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets

3:13

to live shows for the rest of the

3:15

year, especially for the virtual live show for

3:17

Halloween. And it's available for two weeks after

3:19

that too. You can purchase it. You can

3:21

watch it a hundred times, just like a

3:24

regular live show, except we're wearing costumes. It's

3:26

Halloween. And you are watching it from wherever

3:28

the hell you want to. No

3:30

parking, no anything. Free

3:33

booze at your house. So do that. Enjoy

3:35

it. Come join us. Shut

3:37

up and give me murder.com. We also have more

3:39

stuff. If you don't have enough content for you,

3:41

we do have, I bet we have more. patreon.com/crime

3:44

in sports, which is our other

3:47

show you should be listening to

3:49

crime in sports. Also your stupid

3:51

opinions. Patreon, if anybody $5

3:53

a month or above, you're going to get tons

3:55

of stuff. First of all, immediately you're going to

3:57

get the entire back catalog of bonus stuff. and

4:00

heard hundreds of episodes there. New

4:02

ones every other week for five bucks. You can't

4:04

beat it. This week, which you're going to get

4:06

one crime in sports, one small-time murder and you

4:08

get it all. For crime in sports, we're going

4:11

to talk about hot air balloon disasters, which have

4:13

nothing to do with sports, but everything to do

4:15

with that being hilarious and crazy. Why would you

4:17

do it? We'll talk all about that. Neither of

4:19

us are fans of hot air ballooning, so this

4:21

will be interesting. Then for small-time murder, we're going

4:23

to talk about a documentary that

4:25

has had both of us just twisted for

4:27

like 13 years now. There's

4:30

something wrong with Aunt Diane it's called,

4:33

and it's this mysterious crazy story of

4:35

death and destruction, and we got to

4:37

tell you all about it because it's

4:39

so weird. Can't wait for that. patreon.com

4:42

slash crime in sports is where you get all of

4:44

that, and you get a shout out at the end

4:47

of the regular show as well. That said, let's

4:49

do this. I think it's time, everybody. What

4:51

do you say? Let's dive in and let's

4:54

all clear the lungs. Let's

4:56

go this arms to the sky and let's

4:58

all shout. Shut

5:02

up and give

5:04

me murder.

5:07

Let's do this, everybody. Let's go

5:09

on a trip, shall we? Here we go.

5:11

Let's do it. We are going all the

5:13

way to Wisconsin this week, and it's Thomas,

5:16

Wisconsin, did we say? Thomas. I think it

5:18

was Thomas, Wisconsin, right? We just did the

5:20

pronunciation of it. We looked it up. I

5:22

believe it's Thomas. I believe it's Thomas. So,

5:25

Thomas, Wisconsin, T-O-M-A-S. If it's not, no need

5:27

to tell us because we'll have moved on

5:29

long on by then, so don't worry about

5:31

it. Get yourself a spotted cow and have

5:34

a nice day. Enjoy. Enjoy your curds. So,

5:36

this is in West Central Wisconsin. It's

5:39

about an hour and a half

5:41

to Madison, Wisconsin, about

5:43

two hours-ish to Milwaukee, and

5:45

two hours and 45 minutes to Phillips,

5:48

Wisconsin, which was our last episode, the

5:50

serial killer tapes, which was, man,

5:52

that was bonkers. I remember that. Just horrible,

5:55

awful descriptions as this guy had. So,

5:57

gross stuff. Population of this town. Teeny

6:01

times. Yeah, not an

6:03

itty bitty, but not a big town by

6:05

any stretch. Median household income here,

6:07

$51,661, which is well below the national average of almost Median

6:15

home cost here matches it though, it's also low, $200,700

6:17

is the median home cost

6:20

here. So, a very affordable kind of a

6:22

joint. And it's kind

6:24

of rural out here, let's be realistic. If

6:27

you're an hour and a half from Madison, you're out

6:29

there. So a little bit of

6:31

history in this town. It

6:33

was founded by Robert E. Gillette

6:36

or Gillette, whichever one, in 1855. This

6:40

is that they incorporated as a city in 1883,

6:42

but there was no charter issued until So

6:48

they put like some paperwork together, then

6:50

sat on it for a decade or

6:53

so and then turned it in. Did

6:55

anybody mail that? No, I didn't mail

6:57

it. Shit. The charter, guys,

6:59

Jesus Christ, we got to do that. We're not

7:01

even a fucking town yet. What are we... Day

7:03

one. It's 11 years it's taken us to do

7:05

this. Lazy bastards.

7:07

They're just full of cheese.

7:10

They can't get there. That's

7:12

how it works. It was

7:14

named after Thomas Karen, K-A-R-C-A-R-R-O-N,

7:17

who was a trader at

7:19

Green Bay. This is in the 1700s and

7:21

early 1800s who had

7:23

integrated into the Menominee

7:26

tribe. Which

7:28

happened a lot. People would do that.

7:30

Really? Yeah, the Native Americans,

7:32

they're pretty accepting. It's a welcoming group. They're

7:35

pretty fucking accepting, man. Yeah, if you were

7:37

cool and could contribute, they would accept people.

7:39

You're not trying to shoot anybody around here.

7:41

Come hang out. Let's do it.

7:44

Yeah, that's what I mean. You haven't taken a shot at us. I don't see

7:46

a musket, so let's do it. They

7:49

pronounced the name Toma, or Tomau,

7:53

and he became known as Chief Toma.

7:56

Wow. Yeah. They

7:59

promoted him. to most important? They said,

8:01

fuck it, I guess he's, I don't know if he

8:03

had the biggest gun or what, but that's... He

8:06

must have built a hell of a fire. Well, a

8:08

lot of times what they would do is a lot

8:10

of these guys would say that I should be

8:12

in like the management because I can go talk

8:14

to the other white people for us and I

8:16

can go talk to the quote, great father and

8:18

tell him how wonderful you people are and then

8:20

they won't come and kick you off your land

8:22

basically. Right, it won't bother us. Most

8:24

of the time that was pure bullshit and they were

8:27

just trying to be in charge of shit, but it

8:29

happened. You know, so that they

8:31

don't have to go hunt and gather and

8:33

shit. You know, this became the site of

8:35

significant lumber and railroad industry,

8:37

railroad industries as well,

8:40

became a center of

8:42

agriculture, especially cranberry growing.

8:44

Is that right? We're going to hear...

8:46

Cranberry bugs in Wisconsin? We're going to

8:49

hear more about cranberries today than we

8:51

ever thought we'd know from small town

8:53

murder. Get the fuck out. Also

8:55

milk watering, do you know what that is? Because you will

8:57

by the end of the show. You

8:59

will by the end of the show. This is the

9:01

most Wisconsin show ever. It's awesome. Reviews

9:03

of this town very quickly. Here's

9:06

five stars. Very interesting

9:08

little town. Very fun. Has

9:11

a spirit for sure. Just love it. Very

9:14

strong sense of community for such a small

9:16

little town. Yeah. Okay.

9:19

That sounds nice, I guess. They're having parades and

9:21

shit. Okay. Yeah. You

9:23

better back those claims up, but all right. Gotta do it. Three

9:25

stars, born and raised in Tomah, Wisconsin.

9:28

It's a fairly average small town. Not

9:30

much to do, but near enough to

9:33

areas like Wisconsin Dells and La Crosse

9:36

that it's not too boring. Oh, well,

9:38

if you can get to La Crosse,

9:40

obviously, then you're going to be partying

9:42

it up there, clearly. I

9:45

mean, that's like a... They are known. La

9:47

Crosse is known as the Bourbon Street of the

9:50

Midwest. Yeah, it's known. Everybody knows

9:52

about it, man. La

9:54

Crosse. Here's three stars. I don't

9:56

understand why this is under a town review on niche,

9:59

which is a... website about cities. I

10:01

work in fast food. Okay. I

10:05

feel that I should get more respect for the job

10:07

I do. That's the whole

10:09

review of the town of Tomah, Wisconsin.

10:11

Everybody that works in fast food wishes

10:14

that same thing. People are

10:16

a dick to the guy at Wendy's. That's his review. Two

10:19

stars. People seem to be stuck in

10:22

the olden days around Tomah. It's

10:24

olden days. It's both nice

10:26

yet tiring. Places do not

10:29

stay open long enough for students and

10:31

those who work to enjoy. Most businesses

10:33

in the area, other than fast food,

10:35

close down around four in the evening.

10:37

That's not evening, by the way. Nope.

10:39

That is afternoon still. We don't hit

10:41

evening until five, I believe, in my

10:43

book. The sky ain't even

10:45

changed colors yet. No. Unless it's

10:47

winter, then it's pitch black by

10:49

four in Wisconsin. Other

10:52

than that, holy shit. That is

10:54

four. Four? You get out

10:56

of school, we got to rush to the store before

10:58

they close. Jesus Christ, it's four

11:00

o'clock. Four? Guys.

11:02

I didn't pay your rent. Stay until

11:04

five at least. Bankers' hours, for Christ's

11:06

sake. What are we doing? Unbelievable.

11:09

He said there's also very little to

11:11

do in the small town, as there

11:13

is only a movie theater that shows

11:15

a small selection of films and a

11:17

Walmart. So like a two-screen

11:19

movie theater and a Walmart. He

11:22

said playing four months ago's movie theater. Yeah. I'm

11:24

sure it is. Like a $2 theater. There are

11:26

a few parks in the area, but no one

11:29

is ever at them. Toma is more

11:31

like a truck stop rather than a town. That

11:33

makes sense. It's probably more of a stop on

11:35

the highway here. And finally, we'll do one more

11:37

because it's just funny. Why is the title of

11:39

this one? One star. I

11:41

cannot understand why someone would want to

11:44

live in Toma. Perhaps if you like

11:46

to drink too much and owned a

11:48

tavern and did some favors for people,

11:50

it would make sense in a convoluted

11:53

way. Okay. Sure. And

11:57

then quickly, things to do. We have Toma's

11:59

annual Freeze Fest, which is happening whether you

12:01

fucking want it to or not. I'll tell you

12:03

that right now. Right around January?

12:06

It's in December, I believe. And

12:08

you go... Basically, you just go

12:10

and freeze your ass off. Right. And the

12:13

only cost to the event is $1 for

12:15

a Freeze Fest button. $1 and your toes. That's

12:19

it. Oh, well, it's up there. They don't

12:21

care. It's

12:23

so fucking cold. I've been in Minnesota where it

12:25

was three degrees outside. I was looking on my

12:27

phone and there was chicks walking by with half-shirts,

12:29

just like, and skirts on coming from the bar.

12:31

I was like, what the fuck? I

12:34

had three parkas on. It's good for you people.

12:36

And there's also the Squirrel Fest.

12:40

Oh. The North American Squirrel

12:42

Association. What? That's

12:44

a thing. It's just

12:46

squirrels. It's just a

12:48

bunch of squirrels with hats on that hand you think. Squirrel

12:52

Fest is a free family festival held the

12:54

first Saturday after the 4th of July in

12:56

Winnebago Park in Tomah. Great food,

12:58

live music that we're not going to talk about. A free

13:00

raffle for kids. I don't know if you win a squirrel

13:02

or what here. And

13:04

there is a citywide scavenger hunt

13:07

for the Golden Acorn. So

13:10

$250 will be awarded to the winner. If

13:14

you can find that, find my Golden Acorn.

13:17

That said, the Golden Acorn, baby. I

13:20

hope a squirrel steals one year and then buries it deep

13:22

in an acorn. They actually took it. With

13:25

clues posted on our Facebook page beginning

13:27

July 1st. So for like a few

13:29

days after that. And under, by the

13:31

way, the North American Squirrel Association of

13:34

Tomah, the fucking

13:37

logo here, it says, helping

13:39

the elderly and physically challenged

13:41

enjoy the outdoors. Do

13:43

they mean elderly squirrels or

13:46

people? Handicapped ones. Handicapped little

13:48

squirrel wheelchairs. Yeah. That'd be

13:50

fun. It'd be good. That

13:52

said, let's talk about some murder that happened here. Okay.

13:56

This is so weird. Let's start out. The

13:58

whole thing is going to take place. 1986 we're gonna

14:01

talk about. We're going back quite a bit.

14:03

Our regular show this week was 2016. So

14:07

we're going to 86. 1986, Tomah,

14:09

Wisconsin, there's like 3,000 people here. Yeah,

14:12

I think there was, I looked it up, I think there

14:14

was like 6,000 people at the time or so. It's grown

14:16

steadily. Sure. So let's first

14:18

talk about Tracy George. That's

14:21

a man, by the way, Tracy George. His name's

14:23

21 years, he's 21 years old. And

14:27

Tracy here works, he works on these

14:29

farms, okay? It's like dairy farms, there's

14:31

cranberry bogs, there's all these different shits.

14:33

Everyone involved here is gonna be like

14:35

these farm workers. Some of them own,

14:37

like our families own the farm. Tracy

14:39

like works at a farm, okay? Now

14:42

Tracy, by the way, was kind of a hot

14:44

shit high school kid. Is that

14:46

right? Yeah, really popular. A

14:50

student and the star of the basketball

14:52

team. Hell yeah. So he

14:54

was, well not really, because

14:56

he was big man in small pond. And then

14:58

as soon as you graduate, that pond gets a

15:00

lot bigger, and you're working on a

15:03

farm at that point, even though you want it

15:05

to be a basketball player and all this shit.

15:07

Instead he's a farmer who's not going to college.

15:09

So not exactly what

15:11

he had in mind. So you can take whatever

15:13

you will from that. Guy

15:16

he hangs out with

15:18

name here is Richard

15:21

Sherricks. So Dick Sherricks

15:23

here, S-C-H-E-R-R-E-I-K-E. Sherricks.

15:27

Yeah, our old Dicky Cher here,

15:29

old Dick Cher. So we got Dick and

15:31

Tracy. No shit. Dick

15:33

Tracy here, that's amazing. I just realized

15:36

that Dick and Tracy. He's

15:38

26 years old, Dick here. So he's a

15:40

little bit older now. George

15:42

and Richard worked on a farm owned

15:45

by Helmut Sherricks. Helba?

15:49

Helmut. H-E-L-L-M-U-T.

15:53

Helmut Sherriff, or

15:55

Sherricks. Helmut, yeah, these are very

15:57

German people here. No kidding. the

26:00

house, they

26:02

leave, he's there, and then they never see

26:04

him again. He disappears.

26:07

He never shows up at the hearing to testify,

26:10

just poof into the ether

26:12

basically. So Heinz

26:14

is trying to find him at that

26:16

point, and Heinz is like, I don't

26:18

understand it. He says, I don't understand why

26:20

he would leave the area. His checking

26:22

and savings accounts are untouched over a

26:25

couple days. And he

26:27

also said Andy had two paychecks coming that

26:29

were not picked up, and he didn't

26:32

take any of his clothing from the house. He

26:34

didn't like pack a suitcase. No money, no clothes.

26:36

Yeah, you need both of those things. In

26:38

addition, he said Andy's car is still in

26:40

the driveway of our house with the keys

26:43

locked inside of it. So he

26:45

didn't take- He's locked inside. He didn't take money, clothes,

26:47

or his car, which are the three things you need

26:50

to take off and you can figure everything else out.

26:54

So very weird, his keys are locked in

26:56

the car in the driveway. So

26:59

he said- They asked Heinz how did the keys get in

27:01

there, and Heinz said, I have no fucking idea how the

27:03

keys are locked in his car. I don't

27:05

know. We have no idea. So Richard,

27:08

they talked to- Later

27:10

on, they're going to talk to Richard. Richard has a

27:12

little bit more of a window on

27:14

it. Now Heinz said that

27:16

because Andy was 18, he didn't want

27:19

to appear to be a domineering parent

27:22

and give him too many suggestions about how

27:24

to handle the legal situation he was in.

27:27

Sure, sure. If you're 18 and in this situation, you

27:29

really need advice though. You know? Might need some guidance.

27:31

I get what he's saying. He's trying to keep out

27:33

of it. Maybe Andy's one of those kids who's like,

27:35

don't tell me what to do all the time or

27:37

let me live my own life.

27:39

Who the fuck knows? Oh boy. What is it?

27:42

Yeah. The father said he

27:44

was concerned about how Andy planned to make

27:46

arrangements to get to where

27:49

he's supposed to testify against George. So

27:52

Heinz said he approved

27:54

of Andy's plan to meet the chief

27:58

deputy Ronald Pearson in Monroe, California. Ryan

53:55

Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price

53:57

of just about everything going up during inflation,

53:59

we thought we'd bring our prices down. So

54:02

to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently

54:04

a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited premium wireless! Have a bit of a

54:06

get 30, 30, a bit of a get 30, a bit of

54:08

a get 20, a bit of a get 20, a

54:10

bit of a get 20, a bit of a get 20, a bit of a get 15. 15, 15,

54:12

15, just $15 a month sold! Give

54:15

it a try at mintmobile.com/Switch. Forty

54:18

five dollars upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month new

54:20

customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees

54:22

extra speed slower above 40 gigabytes in detail. Derek,

1:04:00

this is a weird thing because one's 26 and one's

1:04:02

21. There's

1:04:05

a big difference between 26 and 21. True.

1:04:08

And Richard is the older one, but

1:04:10

yet the prosecution says, quote, who is

1:04:13

going to pull who around by the

1:04:15

nose? He said, Richard's

1:04:17

a dipshit and a dummy. He said he'd

1:04:19

be lucky to pick cranberries for a fucking

1:04:21

living. He said George is an A student

1:04:23

in high school and was a big popular

1:04:25

basketball star. I think he'd be the one

1:04:28

in control. Sure. And

1:04:30

he's a bigger guy too. He's a big guy. So

1:04:32

he said he's the one who's conjuring up

1:04:34

the story to avoid responsibility for his actions.

1:04:37

He would say anything to walk out of this

1:04:39

courtroom, not Richard. So the verdict

1:04:41

comes in. Nine women, three men

1:04:43

on the jury here, they were brought

1:04:46

in from a different county because of publicity.

1:04:49

So they did that. So much publicity that three people

1:04:51

showed up. They

1:04:53

started deliberations at 3 p.m. on a Friday and

1:04:56

reached their verdict at 9.50. Jesus,

1:04:58

they kept in there till 10 o'clock. The

1:05:01

verdict was announced at 10 20 p.m. Oh,

1:05:04

after they reassembled everybody on a Friday night.

1:05:06

They have these people are it's Wisconsin. These

1:05:09

people are hammered. How many of this courtroom

1:05:11

were shit faced when they came in there?

1:05:14

Your honor, we're ready to

1:05:17

proceed. You order a Bloody Mary. They

1:05:19

give you an eight ounce beer with

1:05:22

it. Yeah. Just as a backer.

1:05:24

You know you'll want that. They don't

1:05:26

care. They'll get thirsty

1:05:28

after all that sodium. Yeah, you're

1:05:30

going to need this. Trust me. So

1:05:33

they are going to find him. This

1:05:35

is Tracy George here. Not

1:05:38

guilty of murder. Is that right?

1:05:41

Not guilty of murder. Yeah. Even

1:05:43

though it all lined up too good. They

1:05:45

did find him guilty of burglary, intimidation

1:05:47

and extortion for breaking into Andy's home

1:05:49

on September 8th and threatening to injure

1:05:51

him. If he testified, he could be

1:05:53

sentenced to a maximum of 20 years

1:05:55

in prison. Oh my God. But

1:05:58

at one time he faced nine charges. murder.

1:06:00

So not bad. He did

1:06:02

pretty well for himself. Not bad. Not bad

1:06:04

for him. I mean, he,

1:06:07

wow. Tracy George's mother and his girlfriend were all

1:06:09

there and they were sobbing and hugging each other.

1:06:11

It should have been high fiving. He got fucking

1:06:13

acquitted of murder when he clearly

1:06:15

probably did this. Smacking people on the ass

1:06:17

screaming good game. This is fucking, yeah, the

1:06:20

attorney. Good job there. Fist bumps. So

1:06:23

Tracy's going to make a deal, a plea

1:06:25

bargain for the four counts

1:06:27

of theft being a party to perjury

1:06:29

in his efforts for September 12th. Cause

1:06:31

he's got all those charges hanging over

1:06:33

him too. So for some reason they

1:06:36

make a deal with him. I would think they'd want to

1:06:38

hold his shit to the fire and get every year they

1:06:40

can since he got acquitted of murder. It's like, Oh, Jay,

1:06:42

they're going to put him in longer. There's on the health.

1:06:44

They're afraid that they can't get it because they couldn't get

1:06:46

him on murder. I may be.

1:06:48

Yeah. So in return, maybe he'll get away

1:06:51

with everything in return for the plea. They

1:06:53

dropped four burglary charges against him

1:06:56

and Vernon County agreed to drop charges in the

1:06:58

burglary and theft case there because he's been stealing

1:07:00

shit all over the place. So

1:07:03

they asked if the judge approves the,

1:07:05

they said, if the judge approves the

1:07:07

agreement, sentencing on all the charges will

1:07:09

be all together. And,

1:07:12

um, yeah, for which if he faces trial, if

1:07:14

not convicted, involved theft and burglary. Okay, there you

1:07:16

go. Now, so he's charged with the party to

1:07:18

perjury and all that kind of shit. They

1:07:21

urged a, uh, the prosecutor urged a

1:07:23

severe sentence saying the public needs protection

1:07:25

from people like George Tracy George felt

1:07:27

he was too smart to get caught

1:07:30

for what he was doing. Tracy

1:07:33

speaks anything to say for yourself? He goes, hell, something

1:07:35

to say. All right. He said, I

1:07:37

realized I've made some big mistakes and I have to

1:07:39

be punished for them. I know I have made a

1:07:41

mess out of my life, not your life that we're

1:07:44

talking about. You took another,

1:07:46

but I mean, he's not in trouble for

1:07:48

that. So, no, not at all. He said

1:07:50

that he wants a chance to change his

1:07:52

ways. So please give me a light sentence.

1:07:54

He said, I want to be an aid

1:07:56

to society, not a detriment. Okay. He

1:07:58

won't be, by the way, we'll talk all about it. about it,

1:08:00

but his lawyer urged a

1:08:02

maximum of two or three years in prison

1:08:04

for him. The

1:08:07

judge on the other hand here, he says

1:08:09

that he didn't think George showed any remorse

1:08:11

for his crimes previous to the sentencing. He

1:08:13

said the remorse seems to be more directed

1:08:15

toward the situation in which he now finds

1:08:18

himself, like he needs to be remorseful. He

1:08:21

said he's a manipulative person. He's

1:08:23

sometimes a very arrogant person. He

1:08:25

also called George very intelligent, but

1:08:27

probably an academic underachiever whose high

1:08:29

point in life came when he

1:08:31

was a basketball star in high

1:08:33

school. You're

1:08:36

being deemed legally, you fucking

1:08:38

peaked in high school. You

1:08:40

legally peaked in high school, sir. You've

1:08:43

been adjudicated a high school peaker. He

1:08:47

suggested that George may have become bitter because

1:08:50

his life seemed to go downhill from that

1:08:52

point. He said, I sense a lot of

1:08:54

hostility in Mr. George and what I've observed

1:08:56

in the courtroom. He also

1:08:58

brushed aside a defense attorney comment that

1:09:01

George had never smoked, drank, or taken

1:09:03

drugs. The judge said that he'd

1:09:05

have an excuse for his conduct if he had been on

1:09:07

drugs and alcohol. Drunk I

1:09:09

can understand. I've been drunk. An

1:09:12

arrogant sober lunatic that I've never

1:09:14

had before. He says,

1:09:16

you, sir, may fuck off.

1:09:20

32 years in jail, he gives him. Not

1:09:23

two, 32. 32 for a non-murderer. But

1:09:27

he will be eligible for parole in eight

1:09:29

years. Okay. Now

1:09:33

Richard gets sentenced for

1:09:35

his part in all this and he has sentenced

1:09:38

to you, sir. May also fuck off 22 and

1:09:40

a half years. He might

1:09:42

as well have just gone with the flow. They

1:09:44

would have got away with it if neither of them said

1:09:46

anything. They would have fucking, they wouldn't know who to convict.

1:09:48

So that's what he testified and got that. Now

1:09:51

very quickly before we end here, then

1:09:54

there's an article from the La Crosse Tribune.

1:09:57

This is November 13th, 1988. says

1:10:00

massive milk watering scheme, probe

1:10:04

centers on same farm linked to

1:10:06

two-year-old murder case. A

1:10:09

John Doe investigation into milk watering

1:10:12

reportedly has ended, but the Monroe

1:10:14

County District Attorney David Shudlick would

1:10:17

not comment. Such investigations are kept

1:10:19

secret. However, a compliance officer in

1:10:21

the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade

1:10:23

and Consumer Protection who said he

1:10:25

testified twice in the investigation told

1:10:27

the La Crosse Tribune that

1:10:29

in September they had an

1:10:31

investigation centered on a collusion between a dairy

1:10:33

man and a milk hauler. The

1:10:37

case, they're watering down their milk from

1:10:39

a dairy farm. They

1:10:43

said the case could involve hundreds of thousands

1:10:46

of dollars worth of watered milk, making it

1:10:48

the largest case of its

1:10:50

kind in his 30 years with the department. And

1:10:54

puts the, quote, reputation of Wisconsin's

1:10:56

dairy products at risk. They said

1:10:58

this in court. How

1:11:01

dare you besmirch Wisconsin's dairy rep here. They're not

1:11:03

taking that shit. Is that how they make it

1:11:05

1%? That's it.

1:11:07

The suggestion is widespread abuse of

1:11:10

widespread abuse is contained in a

1:11:12

complaint here where they say

1:11:14

a milk hauler, it accuses a milk

1:11:16

hauler, Paul H. Felber of Tomah with

1:11:18

failing to take samples of milk picked

1:11:20

up at the Helmut Sherrick's farm. Between

1:11:24

83, 84, 85 and through November

1:11:26

of 1986, you know, when

1:11:28

there was shitloads of cops on the property, then

1:11:30

they stopped. On that date,

1:11:32

a field man for Wisconsin Dairies tested milk

1:11:34

picked up at the Sherrick's farm. The

1:11:37

milk was found to contain 37% added

1:11:40

water well beyond the

1:11:43

natural water content. Golly, 30.

1:11:47

Now his lawyer, Helmut's lawyer said Helmut Sherrick's a

1:11:49

68 year old dairy farmer. He purchased his farm

1:11:51

in 1961 and operated as a family farm for

1:11:53

27 years. He

1:11:56

received numerous awards for producing excellent

1:11:58

quality milk. He's proud. of maintaining

1:12:00

grade A milk status and has

1:12:03

never watered down his milk. The

1:12:06

Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer

1:12:08

Protection though said to

1:12:10

have, they pulled a milk hauler,

1:12:13

Felber's license, got

1:12:15

rid of his license. Hind

1:12:18

says he isn't 100% sure, but his

1:12:20

recollection is that Andy had told authorities

1:12:22

at least something about the milk watering,

1:12:24

because he did. He said- 37%

1:12:26

sure? Yeah, how sure are we? Are we

1:12:28

2%, 1%? Are we skim

1:12:30

sure? He said Andy

1:12:33

knew about it and was questioned about it before

1:12:35

he turned up missing. I know one thing, it

1:12:37

sticks in my mind. Andy wanted to

1:12:39

quit the place six months or longer before he turned

1:12:41

up missing. I talked him out of it. I wish

1:12:43

I hadn't. Maybe alive. He

1:12:46

said how the milk was watered was described

1:12:48

by the Tribune by a farmer here saying

1:12:52

that this happened. George was accused

1:12:54

in Andy Sherrick's, this is Tracy George too,

1:12:57

because Tracy George is involved in this as

1:12:59

well. Apparently after the cows

1:13:01

had been milk and the milk pumped into a

1:13:03

bulk tank, the water used to rinse the milk

1:13:05

line was left running into the tank for 20

1:13:07

to 30 minutes each night, adding

1:13:10

extra water. He said Rick

1:13:12

or Helmut would run the wash cycle.

1:13:14

That's what Tracy George said. So

1:13:17

that's Richard or Helmut. That took anywhere from

1:13:19

20 to 30 minutes depending on who did

1:13:21

it and how much of a hurry they

1:13:23

were in. He said I'd come

1:13:25

in, hang up the machines used to milk the

1:13:27

cows, scrape down the barn and let the cows

1:13:29

out, and I'd walk in the milk house and

1:13:31

the discharge pipe would still be in the bulk

1:13:33

tank. George

1:13:36

said he became curious about the operation. One

1:13:38

night he measured the milk before the rinse

1:13:41

operation and again right afterward finding a big

1:13:43

difference in volume. Yeah, about 40%. About

1:13:45

40 we got. After that he

1:13:47

said he kept an eye on it. He said watered down

1:13:49

milk sometimes weighed 16,000 pounds

1:13:52

or more every day but usually came in between 11,000

1:13:54

and 14,000 pounds. He

1:13:57

said figuring an average of 12,500 pounds, 30%. 7%

1:14:01

added water would have increased the value of a

1:14:03

single pickup by $551 every time. That's an

1:14:08

extra $8,548 a month, more than $102,000 a year. In 1985, six months. That's some shit.

1:14:18

That's a lot of money. And that's

1:14:20

an amazing living in 1986. You're rich if you

1:14:22

make 100 grand a year. No kidding. So

1:14:24

George said he once asked Helmut if

1:14:26

milk watering was

1:14:29

how he solved his farm's financial problems. He

1:14:31

goes, this is how you solved it? He

1:14:34

said, quote, he didn't say yes or no. He just

1:14:36

had a sly grin on his face. And

1:14:39

two other sources agree.

1:14:41

This is Helmut's son, Heinz,

1:14:44

who's 41 and obviously Andy's father.

1:14:46

He said that, yeah, there was a lot

1:14:48

of problems, problems on the

1:14:51

farm alone from the FHA helped

1:14:53

save the farm. He

1:14:55

said, but he was Heinz, who's in a dispute

1:14:57

with his father over ownership of a very small

1:14:59

piece of land, said that milk

1:15:01

watering began on a small scale 27 years

1:15:04

ago when he was a high school freshman.

1:15:06

Been watering it for years. Years. He said

1:15:08

his son, Andy, also knew about it and

1:15:10

said, what I knew, he knew, I

1:15:13

know how things went. So Andy knew too.

1:15:15

So now you can add another part of this fucking

1:15:17

conspiracy to get rid of, everybody wanted rid of Andy.

1:15:19

He knew too much. Heinz said

1:15:22

he was asked by, he knew

1:15:24

too much. He knew

1:15:26

too much about cranberry flooding and milk watering.

1:15:28

There's a lot of things to kill over.

1:15:31

It sounds like shit. Someone would want to

1:15:33

kill Charlie over and fucking always sunny or

1:15:36

something. I know about the milk watering and

1:15:38

the crab bogging and the cranberry bog shit,

1:15:40

man. This is big, Dennis. The

1:15:42

motor oil and the snowmobiles.

1:15:45

Jesus Christ. So they

1:15:48

said, would you, are you going to

1:15:50

testify? They asked Heinz against your father and he said,

1:15:52

I would, yeah, not to discredit him, my dad, but

1:15:54

to tell what I knew it's the law. He

1:15:56

said, they said, do you know what's going to happen to your father? And he

1:15:58

said, I'm sure he's going to lose it. everything.

1:16:01

So George's account of milk watering is

1:16:05

substantiated to a lesser degree

1:16:07

by another source. George had

1:16:09

told the story to his

1:16:11

probation agent more than a year

1:16:13

ago and George was sentenced

1:16:15

for all the thefts and while he's in prison.

1:16:19

So Felder, by the way, has been doing

1:16:21

that route for 20 years. So he's

1:16:23

been doing this a lot. In recent years,

1:16:25

they said Helmut's financial difficulties had magically straightened

1:16:28

out. He kept his farm. He built a

1:16:30

new barn in the early 80s, bought new

1:16:32

tractors and drove a Lincoln Continental. Because

1:16:35

water's cheaper. Water's cheaper than milk. One of his

1:16:37

neighbors said, I always wondered how he got a

1:16:39

lot of milk out of his cows. Yeah. Yeah.

1:16:42

Not a lot of cows out there. A lot of milk coming out of it.

1:16:44

Strange. A lot of milk. Now Richard, I think

1:16:46

everybody's out of prison by now. Yeah, they've

1:16:49

got to be. They're all, I mean, eight

1:16:51

years and whatever. Richard, I found, had a

1:16:53

couple of minor infractions here. A failure to

1:16:55

stop at a stop sign in

1:16:58

2015 and then a failure to obey a

1:17:00

traffic officer in 2017. Oh

1:17:03

my God. Not a big deal there, but then

1:17:05

also I see Richard

1:17:08

acclaimed Chapter 13 bankruptcy in

1:17:10

October of 2023. Uh-oh. So

1:17:15

he's in some trouble. He lives

1:17:17

in Green Bay at this point, I

1:17:19

believe, there and Tracy don't know where he is

1:17:21

because fuck that guy. So there you go, everybody.

1:17:25

You don't know where he is. Don't know where he

1:17:27

is. Right around the corner, man. Say, watch out. I

1:17:29

have no cranberries around here. I'm checking behind every door.

1:17:31

Let's do it. Yeah, when we leave here, let's fucking

1:17:33

do a quick, quick Tracy George

1:17:36

sweep. Andy

1:17:38

just, the poor little fuck just knew too

1:17:40

much. It's amazing. He had

1:17:42

way too much knowledge for his tiny body

1:17:45

and it didn't work out. So

1:17:48

there you go. There's Tom in Wisconsin. Jesus

1:17:50

don't know anything. If you

1:17:52

like the show, tell the world about it. Get on

1:17:55

whatever app you're on. Give us five stars, head over

1:17:57

to shutupandgivememurder.com. Tickets to all the live shows are live

1:17:59

right now. Get them tickets, especially virtual live

1:18:01

show October 31st Halloween night available for two weeks

1:18:03

after that as well You can watch it as

1:18:06

many times as you want like a regular

1:18:08

live show, but right in your living room We

1:18:10

can't wait. Don't you want to see what we're

1:18:12

wearing do it up. Shut up and give me

1:18:14

murder calm We have patreon

1:18:17

also patreon.com Slash crime and

1:18:19

sports all your bonus material five bucks or above

1:18:21

get you hundreds of bonus episodes New ones every

1:18:23

other week this week for crime and sports what

1:18:25

you get what you get also hot air balloon

1:18:28

disasters We're gonna talk about what you're gonna be

1:18:30

really fun. That's an unforced error. I'm

1:18:32

sorry You

1:18:35

can easy you don't need to be in there

1:18:37

and then for small-town murder a documentary that's been

1:18:39

tripping the two of us out For over ten

1:18:41

years. Yeah, what's wrong? What is it? What's what's

1:18:43

what's the matter with aunt Diane? What's the matter

1:18:46

with aunt Diane? I think it's girl. What's wrong

1:18:48

with that? I am I clicked off of the

1:18:50

thing already So, I don't know but there it

1:18:52

is. It's a crazy documentary with a mysterious. It's

1:18:54

so weird You have to talk about it. It's

1:18:56

gonna be fun shit. Check that out patreon.com/Crime sports

1:18:58

and you get a shout out at the end

1:19:01

of the show also fun shit there Keep

1:19:03

following us follow us on social media. Tell your

1:19:05

friends. Yeah, and keep coming back every week

1:19:07

and until next week everybody It's been our pleasure

1:19:24

If You

1:19:29

like small-town murder you can listen early and

1:19:31

ad free now by joining Wondery plus in

1:19:34

the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts Prime

1:19:36

members can listen early and ad free on

1:19:38

Amazon music Before you go tell

1:19:40

us about yourself by filling out a short

1:19:42

survey at Wondery comm Survey

1:19:44

and now a next-level moment from AT&T business

1:19:46

say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of

1:19:49

pillows and they need to be there In

1:19:51

time for International Sleep Day, you've got AT&T

1:19:53

5g So you're fully

1:19:55

confident, but the vendor isn't responding

1:19:57

an international sleep day is tomorrow.

1:19:59

Luckily AT&T 5G lets you deal

1:20:01

with any issues with ease, so the pillows

1:20:03

will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly,

1:20:05

especially you. AT&T 5G requires

1:20:07

a compatible plan and device. 5G is

1:20:10

not available everywhere. See att.com/5G for you

1:20:12

for details.