utah criminal podcast

Episode 188 Sending out 2019 with a Swift Kick to the …

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What better way to send out and bring in a new year than talking about an Infamous Utahn! Our final one for 2019 gives us the Ogden Hi Fi Murders. We talk about race relations in Ogden because of the case and of course, the pure brutality of the crime. Also what happens in a case when there is only 1 witness who was brutally damaged?

We also went through some of Utah’s top news stories and took a hilarious news quiz by Salt Lake Tribune editor, Robert Gehrke. If you were curious what Utah’s top Google search’s were for 2019 we go through that for you too .

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Music By: Folk Hogan. Bootleggers Dance.

Infamous Utahn: Gary Ridgway

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Although his ties to Utah are basically birth to 11 years old, for September Infamous Utah segment we decided to discuss the monster that is Gary Ridgway.

Born February 18, 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His time in Utah was short. His family moved to Seattle when Gary was 11. As with many of the criminal’s that we’ve covered over the last year, Gary came from an abusive background *and we are talking like Norman Bates stuff here*, he had a low IQ, and matched the profiling of other serial killers. Torturing animals at a young age, his first victim was when he was 14. Gary stabbed a local 6 year old. Fortunately it didn’t kill the kid, but we did notice that in our research we couldn’t find why Gary wasn’t punished for said crime. We discuss, is it because of the time frame it happened? The whole, “boys will be boys” era? Gary ended up joining the Navy in 1967 and was shipped to Vietnam.

It might true what they say, there is someone for everyone. Ridgway was married three times before he was convicted. The majority of the kills that Ridgway had were in the 80’s when serial killers were a in the front of the public mind. Women ranging between the age of 18-30’s and being transient or prostitutes, people he felt wouldn’t be missed. However, not even specifically that category, if he thought they were one of those categories, they became part of his MO. It is true what you have read, Ted Bundy was consulted about the “Green River Killer” and gave his insights about the psychology and the why on what Gary was doing.

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Photo: Learning History

Ridgway was arrested in 2001 and in 2003 he confessed and was convicted of 49 murders with a plea bargain given in exchange for locating the bodies he remembered, at least a few of them anyways. Ridgway believed that murdering women was his “job.” Gary is quoted as saying “I had killed so many women I have a hard time keeping them straight.” It is said that he may have killed up to 71 women, if not more. He is currently serving in Colorado after being transferred there from Washington. There has been talks to move him back to Washington, but who knows if that will happen.

Some great resources to learn more about Ridgway include; Learning History with a comprehensive timeline of his life. Ranker has also listed some of the most heinous things about Ridgway. Robert Debry also did a wrongful death series on Ridgway.

Music By: Folk Hogan; Bootleggers Dance

Infamous Utahn Ron and Dan Lafferty

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For our monthly segment on an infamous Utah Criminal, this month we decided to deep dive into the Lafferty Brothers, Dan and Ron.

The brothers grew up in Payson, Utah in a family of six boys and two girls. Their father (Watson Lafferty) was a stern disciplinarian, seething with quiet rage which he directed towards his wife and pets. After one particularly ugly spat with his wife he beat the family dog to death with a baseball bat.

Watson planted the seeds of paranoia, rebellion and fanaticism into his children. He thought his boys to distrust conventional medicine as well as the federal government. He also took his religious beliefs to the extreme.

Jumping forward to adulthood, Ron is excommunicated from the LDS church for wanting to marry his 14-year-old stepdaughter and begin the practice of polygamy. Ron’s wife not only refuses to allow the marriage, and practice in polygamy, but she leaves him. This set of circumstances opens a new rage in Ron. He channeled this newfound rage on three people. Chloe Low, a former LDS Relief Society President who helped his wife during the divorce; Richard Stow, the LDS Steak President who presided over his excommunication; and Brenda Wright Lafferty, the strong-willed wife of his youngest brother Allen.

In March 1984, Ron records a so-called message from god know as “The Removal Revelation”. He later shared it in is newly found School of the Prophet.

“Thus saith the Lord unto my servants the prophets,” Ron wrote. “It is my will and commandment that ye remove the following individuals in order that my work might go forward. For they have truly become obstacles in my path and I will not allow my work to be stopped. First thy brother’s wife Brenda and her baby, then Chloe Low and then Richard Stowe. And it is my will that they be removed in rapid succession.”

On the afternoon of July 24, 1984 Ron, 42, and Dan, 36, set out to fulfill the revelation. They first drove to Allen and Brenda’s duplex and in a gruesome act they wrapped a vacuum cord around Brenda’ s neck and slit her throat. They then slit the throat of her 15-month-old baby. The other two intended victims were not accessible so the brothers drove on to Wendover, Nevada and were arrested in an all you can eat buffet line.

Fast forward to August 13th 2019 A federal appeals court denied Ron Lafferty’s latest appeal putting him closer to the firing squad. Lafferty, now 78, can appeal the latest decision to the U.S. Supreme Court however it is highly unlikely that they will review his case. If they refuse it should only be a matter of months before his execution.

Music By: Folk Hogan; Bootleggers Dance