Terrifying & True | The Unsolved Murder of Tupac Shakur

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Hey, my spookies. Before we
start today's show, I just want to

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say thank you all so much for
helping me pay for my dog, Chicano's

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cancer treatments. It appears the chemotherapy
was successful, but I ran up a

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bill of eight thousand and five hundred
dollars, not including the previous surgeries.

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So if you want to help,
and many of you have, go to

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Weekly Spooky dot com and click on
help my Dog. We've raised half the

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money and anything helps. But now, my friends, it's time for the

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show, and this one is meaty
to say the least. Many musicians talk

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a lot of smack, but not
all of them have a violent history to

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back it up. That is,
except, of course, for Tupac Shakur,

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who was murdered. But to this
day, no one truly knows who

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was behind it, why did they
want him dead? And we'll explore that

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tonight. What you were about to
based on witness accounts, testimonies, and

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public record, this is terrifying.
And as a nineties kid, the story

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of Tupac Shakur brings me a little
bit of a chilly feeling down my spine,

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because you see, this was one
of the first mainstream mysteries that everyone

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was talking about even in elementary school. Why was Tupac killed and who did

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it? And is he even truly
dead? Or was he simply tired of

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being famous, of having enemies as
well as friends, so he decided to

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run away from it all. There
are claims Elvis Presley did the same.

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There are claims Bruce Lee did the
same. Is there anything to it or

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were they just so beloved No one
wants to believe they're gone. We're going

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to look into it after these quick
words from our sponsors. Tupac Shakur was

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an American hip hop artist who was
regarded as one of the most influential rappers

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of all time. He was also
the best selling music artist of the time,

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with over seventy five million records sold
worldwide. Later in his career,

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he would be shot numerous times and
survive, go to prison, and star

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in films that would become iconic black
cinema. Tupac was shot and killed in

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a drive by shooting in Las Vegas
in nineteen ninety six, and his death

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remains unsolved. Born Lessain Parish Crooks
in East Harlem, New York City,

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on June sixteenth, nineteen seventy one, Tupac Shakur was renamed Tupac Amaru,

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an indigenous Cacique and the last descendant
of the last Incan ruler. When he

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was a year old, Tupac's mother
revealed that she had had him renamed quote

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I wanted him to understand that he
was a part of a world culture,

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not just a neighborhood culture. Tupac
had an older half sister and an older

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step brother. His parents, Afenni
Shakur and Alice Faye Williams, were active

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members of the Black Panther Party in
New York in the nineteen sixties and seventies.

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A month before Tupac was born,
his mother faced the Panther twenty one

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trial and was acquitted on all counts. Many of his family members were Black

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Panther Party members, and many of
them were convicted and imprisoned. Tupac's stepfather

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was on the FBI's top ten most
wanted list when he was caught in nineteen

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eighty six for the nineteen eighty one
Brinks robbery, which killed a police officer

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and a guard. Elmer Pratt,
also known as Geronimo, was a member

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of the Black Panthers who was convicted
of murdering a school teacher during a robbery

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in nineteen sixty eight. He was
imprisoned for twenty seven years before his conviction

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was overturned due to concealed evidence.
Finally, Tupac's grandmother, Asada Scheker,

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was a former member of the Black
Liberation Army who was convicted of first green

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murder in the death of a New
Jersey State trooper and is currently wanted by

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the FBI. Tupac's mother struggled to
find work, and she battled drug addiction.

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The family relocated from New York City
to Baltimore, Maryland in nineteen eighty

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four. He went to Roland Park
Middle School and Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School.

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There, he attended Baltimore School for
the Arts, and when he was

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in the tenth grade, he studied
acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet.

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This is where he met actress Jada
Pinkett Smith and wrote several of his

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poems about her. Tupac's debut album, Tupocalypse Now, was released on November

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twelfth, nineteen ninety one, with
five hundred thousand copies sold. The album

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was certified Gold. His second album, which was certified platinum and sold one

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million copies. Was released in February
of nineteen ninety three. Tupac created the

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group Thug Life in nineteen ninety three, which is also tattooed on his torso.

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Tupac was one of six persons in
the group, and one of them

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was his stepbrother. In October of
nineteen ninety four, the group released only

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one album, which was certified gold. When the Notorious Big was in Los

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Angeles in nineteen ninety three, he
sought a local drug dealer to introduce him

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to Tupac, and the two quickly
became best friends. They were both described

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as having mutual respect for one another. When Biggie was in California, he

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slept on Tupac's couch, and when
Tupac was in New York, he constantly

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traveled by Biggie's neighborhood. At the
time, the two were among the most

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famous musicians in history. Biggie once
asked Tupac to be his manager, but

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Tupac objected to the idea of combining
friendship with business. The two first clashed

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when they were meant to collaborate on
a project with another rapper, Little Sean.

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Tupac arrived at the Times Square Quad
Recording Studios on November thirtieth, nineteen

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ninety four, where he was getting
ready to meet with Sean Combs and Biggie,

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but before that, Tupac was shot
five times in the lobby. Tupac

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survived, but he suspected Biggie had
something to do with it. Tupac was

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in prison when he released his third
album, Me Against the World. In

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March of nineteen ninety five. Tupac
reached out to Suge Night and was later

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signed to Death Row Records, which
heightened tensions between Tupac and Biggie. Biggie

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later released a song called who Shot
You, to which Tupac responded with hit

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Him Up, in which he claimed
to have slept with Biggie's wife. Tupac's

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fourth studio album, All Eyes On
Me, was released on February thirteenth,

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nineteen ninety six, and was certified
nine times platinum in June of nineteen ninety

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eight. Tupac was in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September seventh, nineteen

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ninety six, celebrating his business associate
Tracy Robinson's birthday, and also attended the

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Bruce Selden versus Mike Tyson boxing match
at the MGM Grand Shug Night was driving

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to Club six six two around eleven
fifteen pm with Tupac in the front passenger

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seat. They were stopped at a
red light when a white four door Cadillac

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Sedan pulled up to the passenger side
and began firing, striking Tupac four times,

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once in the arm, once in
the leg, and twice in the

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chest, with one bullet penetrating his
right lung. Officer Chris Carroll was the

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first officer on the scene, and
he described Tupac's body as almost falling out

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of the car. Suge Knight was
also hurt when Shard struck him in the

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head. Suge Knight then began yelling
Pac Pac before the officer realized who had

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been shot. The officer stated,
quote, and the guy I'm holding is

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trying to yell back at him.
He's sitting up and he's struggling to get

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the words out, but he can't
really do it. I looked down and

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realized that this is Tupac Shakur.
According to the officer, he asked Tupac

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who shot him? Quote, and
that's when I looked at him and said

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one more time, who shot you? He looked at me and he took

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a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth, and

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I thought I was actually going to
get some cooperation, and then the words

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came out, fuck you. Tupac
was brought to the University Medical Center of

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Southern Nevada and placed on life support. Tupac Shakur was declared dead from internal

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bleeding six days later, on September
thirteenth, nineteen ninety six, at four

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oh three pm. His body was
cremated the following day. An investigation was

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launched to find out who murdered Tupac. Former LAPD detective Greg Cating led a

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special task force that discovered evidence that
Shawn Combs hired Cripps member Duane Keith to

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kill Shuge Night and Tupac for one
million dollars. Shawn Combs has denied all

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allegations that he was involved in Tupac's
death. Keith Davis revealed in two thousand

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and eighteen that he and his nephew
Orlando Anderson were in the Cadillac in Las

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Vegas on the night Tupac was killed. There was surveillance footage of the MGM

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Grand Hotel from the night Tupac jumped
Orlando Anderson. Anderson took a death row

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necklace from one of the members Tupac
was going club six six two, according

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to Keith Davis, Davis denied being
the killer of Tupac. He claimed his

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nephew and another man were in the
back seat, with one of them being

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the murderer. He added that he
did not want to provide any additional information

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because quote, it was street code, and Orlando Anderson was shot and killed

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two years later. There have been
numerous theories concerning who killed Tupac in nineteen

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ninety six. The first was his
cremation, for which sug Night claimed to

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have paid three million dollars the next
day for the man in charge of the

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cremation has allegedly vanished. Many people
then discovered that Tupac's Social Security number was

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not included in the death index.
Another theory holds that Tupac's stage name was

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Machiavelli, which was inspired by Niccolo
Macchiavelli, an Italian stratagist who faked his

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death. Many people believe sug Night
was involved, and while no evidence was

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uncovered, sug Night was charged with
murder after allegedly running over two men and

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killing one of them. Many individuals
believed the FBI was involved in his murder

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because of their efforts to eradicate quote
violent rap culture during the hip hop war

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between the East and West Coasts,
and many believe this is why the notorious

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Big was murdered as well, but
there has been no evidence. Many have

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analyzed his lyrics. People have thought
that Biggie was involved, who was later

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murdered in a drive by shooting six
months later. Many fans believe Tupac is

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still alive and well in Cuba.
Tupac Shakur is regarded as one of the

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most influential rappers of all time,
and he continues to set records many years

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after his death, the most recent
of which occurred in two thousand and twenty,

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with his album All Eyes on Me
being considered in the five hundred Greatest

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Albums of All Time. Despite this, many people still question who murdered him

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many many years later. Tupac Shakur
is an all too familiar story. Someone

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who was beloved, someone who was
a little controversial is cut down in their

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prime, and many have trouble believing
that it was something so simple as a

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random act, whether it's of violence
or of God. Elvis Aaron Presley has

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a very similar story. Many don't
want to believe that he's dead, and

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maybe he isn't. I don't know, John F. Kennedy. It could

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have been a lone person shooting him
from a tech schoolbook depository, or there

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could be more to it, though
there's no denying Tupac had his share of

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enemies. At the end of the
day, you have to wonder, is

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this about the fact that we don't
want to believe something simple and evil can

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destroy someone so wonderful to so many. Whether Tupac was a thug or a

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genius is up to a very fervent
debate, But his art continues to live

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on. His art continues to inspire, and in that way, Tupac Shakur

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is still alive to this day and
likely will never die. But what do

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you think? Do you think Tupac
was simply killed in a drive by shooting

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or do you think this was part
of a hip hop gang war? And

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will we ever really know? Tara
Fining and True is narrated by Enrique Kuto.

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It's executive produced by Rob Fields.
Produced by Daniel Wilder with the original

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theme music by Ray Maddis. If
you have a story you'd like us to

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cover on the program, send us
an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot

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you to our Patreon podcast boosters,
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to hear their names on the show, and they are bobble Topia, Megan

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all so very much and we'll see
you next Monday,