This week, in Falkner, Mississippi, a teen love triangle leads to some weird situations, when two friends go out with the same young lady. Everything seems solved when one of the teens disappears, leaving the other to date the girl. But the allure of sex causes a confession to murder, even though it's later recanted. Small town politics play a big role, with rumors flying, and people fleeing town, and a Christian Slater movie being made about the whole thing!!Along the way, we find out that some people in small towns are just plain cheap, that confessing to murder just to get some sex isn't a great plan, and that a certain four letter word can make some people do anything!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [email protected] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is Small Town Murder Express about?
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah, choo-choo. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane murder-stuffed episode of Small Town Murder Express. Ten pounds of murder in a two-pound bag, everybody.
And we got a wild one for you today that ended up with Christian Slater's involved in this. So, you know.
great you know it's weird when we've we've somehow wrangled christian slater into the episode but it's it's all there we'll get to that one second break from being a scumbag and young guns to be in this one oh my god it's so weird too the time we'll talk all about it uh first of all shut up and give me murder.com is the website go there to get your tickets for live shows the virtual live show takes place on april the 19th it's our 420 virtual live show
It's a Saturday night, and it's available to buy or to watch 100 times anytime you want for two weeks after that, just like a regular live show, except you are anywhere on the planet with internet that you want to watch it in your living room. We're going to have costumes. We have the pictures, and just like a real live show. Can't wait for it. We're excited.
And then also get your tickets for May the 17th, Saturday night in Chicago at the Riviera. The night before is sold out in St. Louis, so that's the next live show there. If you want to come see us in person in the Midwest, that is the place to go. Shut up and give me murder.com. Also, you want Patreon for sure.
Patreon.com slash crime in sports, which, by the way, is the name of our other podcast that you should certainly be listening to. So Patreon.com slash crime in sports. All the bonus material you can handle. Anybody $5 a month or above. You get immediately upon subscription a giant back catalog. Hundreds of episodes you've never heard before. Bonus stuff to binge on.
And then new episodes every other week. One crime and sports. One small town murder. Damn it, you get it all. This week, what you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about...
fraternity hazing over the years different cases of it and there's sports involved a lot of these guys are athletes and we'll talk about all that and then for small town murder we're going to talk about the upcoming Karen Reed retrial she is the woman in Boston who's accused of killing her cop husband or not husband boyfriend and she instead her her defense is that the entire police force has conspired against her so
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Chapter 2: What is the background and demographics of Faulkner, Mississippi?
And it's possible. It's wild. We'll talk all about it and get into all the conspiracies. It's a lot of fun. And that is patreon.com slash crime in sports. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. That said, I think it's time, everybody. I think it's time to sit back. What do you say? Let's all clear the lungs here. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder.
Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Let's do it. We are going down to Mississippi this week. Yeah. We are heading down there to Faulkner, Mississippi. Okay. There we go. F-A-L-K-N-E-R, Faulkner. This is in northern Mississippi, way on up north up there. It's about an hour and 20 to Memphis. That's the closest place. Yeah. That's up north for sure. Yeah.
It's about five hours to Wiggins, Mississippi, which was our last episode down there, which was Biting Off More was the name of it. That was the one where the guy was biting off parts of another person that you don't want to bite off. It was pretty crazy. Population in this town, 514.
teeny tiny this is a real small small town median household income here is about 55 000 a year which is well under the national average median home price here this is crazy one this is the median home price 125 400 bucks that's wow free that's just yeah you just what's my mortgage like 50 bucks a month sounds great is this shit so our town's bigger Wow, history in this town here.
A little bit here. The creation of this village of Faulkner is related to the railroad coming here. Colonel W.C. Faulkner was the president of Ripley Railroad Company. So that's how they did it. The first and only depot was located for this company where the town of Faulkner is today and was called Faulkner Station. And then they just shortened it. And they built a community around it.
They listen to how cheap this is. They incorporated the community in 1992. But the alderman of the town later abolished the incorporation to avoid paying their share of the construction of Highway 15. They didn't want to pay their share of the cost. Cheap bastards. And then once they figured all the roads are built and they don't have to pay for anything, they reincorporated again in 1962. Cheap.
Cheap. You're not allowed. No one from this town allowed to drive on that highway. Sorry.
Just getting citizenship of Canada for April 13th through 16th.
It's so weird. So reviews of this town. There's only two. Here's five stars. I've been living in Faulkner because, or I'm sorry, basically my whole life since I was very young. Well, that would be your whole life. Yeah. Life tends to start when you're very young. That's how it works. I even I even enjoy living here because of my family and friends.
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Chapter 3: Who are the main people involved in the 1981 Faulkner murder case?
Also, I think they mean the ladies.
I would hope so.
Me and you will show up.
Me and you got to show up with boots and dukes on and see what happens there. With a nut out. Well, it'll fall out eventually. There's no way we're keeping both balls in a set of those things.
Yeah, I'm 44.
They're coming out somewhere.
Sorry about it. I've aged into these.
Hopefully not on the trail. And then here's another one. There's another poster for a different year for Dukes and Boots.
Hosted by who?
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Chapter 4: What led to the disappearance of Stephen Brown?
So she's a hot shit for a young high school Mississippi girl here. So they're dating, these two. They start dating in 1979. Okay, now Tammy was in the ninth grade, Steve was in the eighth grade, and that's a pull for an eighth grade boy.
Ooh, yeah.
Yeah, ninth grade.
He aimed at another campus.
Yeah, eighth grade girls want older guys, but generally ninth grade girls don't want eighth grade boys, so Steve's a catch is what that says.
Sure is.
So they date all through 1980, which is long term for back then for school. And about Christmas 1980, they decided that they should date other people.
Oh, it's over now.
They break up. Seems like it was probably Tammy's idea when I tell you what happened next. I don't know if they decided mutually or not, but they decided that they weren't going to be steady anymore and that they would date other people. So after Christmas of 1980, Tammy began seeing another guy here named Michael Miskelly. He goes by Mike.
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Chapter 5: How did the search for Stephen Brown unfold?
It's going to be wild.
I'm going to unfurl a performance. That's what I'm going to show you. It's going to be crazy. It's just going to be the Bee Gees' How Deep Is My Love, which is... Really weird for church. I'm going to put Christ in it. I'll put Christ in it. How deep is Christ's love it's going to be with disco music playing?
Oh, boy.
So Mike called Steve that afternoon when he stopped home to change his clothes, happened to catch him at home. And Mike said, hey, you want to go hunting with me quick? There's a place that's got some, you know, I'm about to head out. So if you're not doing anything, come with me. So Steve said, well, shit, yeah, sounds good. He said, yeah, pick me up about 4, 415 at the steps of the high school.
I'll go back there. So Mike comes to pick him up. About four o'clock at the high school. And Steve is sitting there with a guy named Dwayne Hopkins. And Steve has a 22 caliber Mossberg rifle, which his father had given him to go hunting. So they're waiting to go hunting. That was a time when you could just meet. I'll get my gun and I'll meet you at the school. And that was totally fine.
That's totally no problem at all. Wow. Sure. The principal coming. Hey, Steve. Hey, principal. How you doing with the fucking rifle on his shoulder? What you got there? Oh, it's my .22. Is it loaded? Yeah, it is. Yeah, you want to see? Here, check it out. So, 8 p.m. comes around. Yeah. And Steve's father...
Comes knocking at Mike's house at Mike Miskelly's house and says, I don't know what Steve's missing. Where is he? I can't find him. You know where Steve went. I know he was going out with you. What's the deal here? And they the reason why they're on the hunt for him is because Steve didn't show up for the Future Farmers of America meeting.
That old FFA.
You better be there. And literally the FFA was like, this is such a small town. When someone doesn't show up for the FFA meeting, they break up the meeting and go look for them. Because something must be wrong. Literally. The fire department put out a fucking siren and everybody from town came to the fire department.
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Chapter 6: What was Michael Miskelly’s confession and motive?
There seems to be not a lot of boys in this town to date because. Just two. These are the only two that have any interest to her. So months go by. That's March. April goes by. No sign of Steve.
What the fuck?
Yeah.
So the dad calls the sheriff and the highway patrol and all these, any authorities he can get involved.
Anybody's got a badge.
Yeah. Story for you. Whoever's got jurisdiction over here. So she said that that's May 18th. Now, this is what she said. This is her statement. She says this is a written statement. Quote, Steve and I began dating when I was in the ninth grade and he was on the eighth. On March 23rd, 1981, Steve and I had an agreement in effect by the terms of which we had decided to date other people. What the?
What's this legal document you're reading?
I've read like disillusions of corporations that are less fucking jargony than this. This is crazy, dude.
That's incredible.
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Chapter 7: Why did Michael Miskelly recant his confession?
She's not even a cop. She's just bad at him. She's a pretty good interrogator, though. She's not bad. Yeah. So finally, he said, I just told her, yes, Tammy, sure. I did it. I killed him. And Tammy said that Tammy then said to him that, you know, what the fuck, basically. And he said, yeah, I don't know. That's what happened. So he's telling the cops that I only said that to shut her up.
He said during this period, the reason why. Why do you why do you say it? I mean, anybody could just say, I don't hang out with you anymore. Leave me alone. He said, well, she was providing sexual favors for me at the time. During this whole time period. And basically she told me she wasn't going to fuck me no more if I didn't tell her what happened. So I told her and then she sucked my dick.
That's how it works. That's what he said. He literally was. Yeah. Once I told her, then she resumed fucking me again. So it worked. That's what I was. I was just trying to get laid. That's what he tells the cops. All right. So the cops go, OK, these are two likely stories there. Either one could be true. So let's sit down, take a polygraph test. What do you say? They said they here's the guy.
They called him the best examiner in the state of Mississippi. He's a highway patrol examiner in Jackson, which is the capital of Mississippi. So he might be the best they have to offer. Now, he said, OK, him, his father, his mother all came in. They went all the way to Jackson where he underwent a polygraph examination.
Now, Mike claims that they told him if he took the test and passed and they'd leave him alone and he'd be cleared and they'd move on to the next thing. He says they told him that he passed. The polygraph examiner later on tells everybody, though, that it was inconclusive, the polygraph examination.
So you're saying I didn't fail.
So you're saying. So they just go, I don't know. I don't know. Everybody shrugs. Mike goes home and it gets and it just goes away.
Goes nowhere. Yeah.
And it goes nowhere for a long time. Steve is nowhere to be found. No one can find Steve.
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Chapter 8: What was the community and police response to the disappearance?
Well, we've got a police officer named Kenny on the fucking case.
Kenny Dickerson. Yeah. He said, I don't really think he ran away. He's just not that kind of person. This has caused us to stop and think and wonder what's really going on. Things like this just don't happen in Faulkner. Well, apparently they do, motherfucker, because here you are.
So, yeah, they said that they had heard that someone called authorities from Florida called saying they had a youth with an appearance that matched Steve's and they needed the parents to come see if it was their kid or not. And so a bunch of the guys from Faulkner, Dwight and a bunch of a carload of men from Faulkner drove to Florida and it just looked like a random kid.
And he had he was driving a car with Mississippi tags, too. And they said it just a kid who looked like Steve. That's all it was. Just kid with braces and a southern accent. So. September 23rd, 1981. Big article. Nation joins hunt in two of states' disappearances. And it's a big article about, you know, just there's him and this woman that disappeared, too, from the area.
And no one can find either one of them. And it's written by Loretta Pendergrast, who keeps with this story for years. Really? She's got the byline on, like, everything. March 1982 headline Steve Brown 17 missing still over a year now we're talking about April 1982 there's an article that says Stephen Brown trail heats up authorities will drain private lake next week.
Oh, my.
Yeah. They said now foul play is high on the list of possible reasons for the youth's disappearance. A chief investigator said we came up with some information that leads us to believe that the brown boy was in the area at that time. That doesn't sound good. If you didn't know, his last name is Brown. We're not only looking for a body, but we're also looking for a gun.
It's one of several possibilities. And they said the lake is they went in the vicinity of the lake. Maybe he came back here. It's about 18 miles from where they did their initial search for Brown. They said that it'll take two or three days to drain the 70-acre lake within three feet of the bottom. Yeah. How long? It's three days to drain that.
God dang.
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