Terrifying & True | Thierry Tilly — The Conman Who Captured an Aristocratic Family

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Many people fantasize about being wealthy,
about having all of the luxuries and money

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you could ever hope for. But
as a great poet once said, mo

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money, mo problems. So what
happens when a rich and powerful family are

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played against each other? And what
happens when these things become life or death?

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What you were about to be ispurity? Tone you based on witness accounts,

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testimonies, and public record. This
is terrifying and truth truth. Hey,

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my spookies, Tonight's story is all
about trusting the wrong people. It's

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a story that's easy to provoke cynical
opinions and thoughts. But I just want

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to say personally, and this may
not be spooky, but it's the truth.

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Most people are generally good. But
that doesn't mean we have to lower

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our garn. That doesn't mean we
should be skeptical. There's a saying I've

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always liked, which is you should
be open minded, but not so open

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minded that your brain falls out.
Well, this story is all about trusting

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the wrong person and having so much
to lose that they can't help but milk

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you for every single red scent.
This is the story of Terry Tilley,

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the conspiracy con man, and we're
telling it tonight right after these quick words.

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Chances are somebody has, at one
point or another conned you out of

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something, whether it be related to
money, food, fame, a romantic

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partner, or anything else you hold
in any kind of positive regard. Think

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back to when you were a child
and a class made or neighbor told you

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that they would give you something they
claimed was more interesting or special, for

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say, a rare trading card or
video game, or even a toy that

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you possessed. You took the trade, only to later find out that it

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was in fact all a ruse for
the said friend to cheat you out of

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something you considered valuable. That,
my friends, is a con. Cons

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are something done every day all around
the globe. Quite a few people will

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cite things such as holidays as cons, and there are those who will state

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that anything or everything a particular government
does is a con. People who specialize

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in conning others are known as con
artists or simply as a con man,

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the term coming from the shortening of
confidence to con as it is usually those

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who exude confidence that make the best
con artists. Our terrifying tale today is

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about a con man. One of
the most notable, impossibly the best.

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We have to go to France and
England today just for this story, but

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it is a trip well worth taking
for an intriguing and hypnotically diabolical scheme such

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as this one that includes embezzlement and
even torture. This is the story of

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Terry Tilley and Howie conned the Davadrines
family. The story begins in the year

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two thousand and with the French family
Daviadrines. The Davadrines family is an aristocratic

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family that was established in augencies Guiliemete
Devadrines, who was born in nineteen twelve,

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had three children, Filippe Julane and
Charles Henry David Drines. Felipe worked

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for an oil company. At the
time of the event, he was in

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his sixties and lived with his wife, Bridget Leroy Martin. Jelaine was running

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a secretarial school in Paris. She
was married to an economic journalist with two

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children. Charles Henry was an obstetrician
in Bordeaux and married to Christine, a

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documentarian by profession. They lived in
their ancestral Chateau Montflanquing. As for the

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master con man named Terry Tilly,
He was born in Boise, Columbus,

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which is northwest of Paris. By
all accounts, he led a normal life

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and even married a model. However, he was never able to live his

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dream of becoming a lawyer, as
he dropped out shortly after enrolling. It

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was Glaine who first met with Tilly. She gave him a job as a

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deputy director. Eventually he became her
right hand and she introduced him to the

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rest of the family. She shared
every detail about them and their property with

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Tilly. After winning the hearts of
other family members, he offered to become

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their financial adviser. Tilly presented himself
as a descendant of the Austro Hungarian Hobsburg

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nobility and claimed that his communist grandmother
had salons with former Socialist president Francois Mitterrand,

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and they all of course believed him. But once he earned their trust

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and became their right hand, Tilly
set to work with his plan for taking

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advantage of his new so called friends. Tilly claimed that the Devadrines were soon

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to become the victims of conspiracies.
In September of two thousand one, he

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persuaded eleven members of the group to
seek refuge in their family castle and Mont

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Flanquin for their safety. Jean Marquin, Gilain's husband, was left out by

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their relatives, whom Tilly revealed to
be a partner of their enemies. The

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eleven family members included Guilimeat, the
matriarch, who was eighty eight years old

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at the time, her three children, two sons and one daughter, two

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daughters of them law and five grandchildren. As per Tilly's script, Galaine and

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her family's lives might be in danger. He convinced them that the Freemasons were

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focused on getting their land. Tilly
appeared to have some knowledge of the dark

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side, and when they asked him
about the field he had worked in before,

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he answered with one palm raised,
do not inquire, I cannot discuss.

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The neighbors of the Deavedrin's family said
they were living a pretty normal life

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before they met with Tilly. They
were a respected family and greatly liked as

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well. It was in the middle
of two thousand and one, however,

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when the eleven members cut their ties
with all of their friends and other family

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the the Dreams began shunning everyone in
their lives, even their spouses and children.

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On January fourth, two thousand and
two, a neighbor came to see

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what was wrong. They didn't open
the door. She looked through the window

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and saw them all sitting motionless in
the door. No one was allowed to

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visit their house. If someone tried
to enter through the gate, they started

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shouting and even attacked some visitors.
Since all the Madrin's family quit their jobs,

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they stopped paying taxes. In two
thousand and three, the tax authority

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seized their property's furniture. Tilly managed
to convince the family to sign over all

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of their property to him, but
after two thousand and one, Tilly had

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been missing in action. He was
giving them orders from a distance, and

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they all became puppets in his hands. Gallaine's husband, Jean Marchande, was

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the only one in the family who
was able to get out of the trap.

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Jean had found an email from Tilly
to Gallaine that included the following instructions,

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throw the glove and flowers his way
to inform him that these are indications

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that his network is evil, and
give him thirty minutes to pack. He

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tried to alert the authorities, but
the Vadrins kicked him out of the castle

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for his attempts at freeing them.
When Tilly ran into significant legal problems in

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France, he began shifting his base
to England. Tilly then had each member

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of the family moved to his home
in Oxford one by one, starting in

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two thousand and six. Felipe de
Madrines and his wife, Brigitte Lereaux Martin

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left the family. In February two
thousand eight, Tilly forced the other nine

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Vadrines to move to Oxford. Tilly's
family and the Vadrins were living together there.

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The Aristocrats were now penniless. Christine
worked as a caterer salesperson, and

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Charles Henry, the former obstetrician,
had to work as a gardener, and

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their salaries went directly into Tilly's account. Yet, of all that was done

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to the Vadrins, the most serious
was the physical abuse of Christine, the

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wife of Charles Henry Till he convinced
the Adrins that Christine was hiding treasure from

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them. One of the family members
tied her to a stool for two weeks

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and prevented her from sleeping. With
the help of her employer, Robert Poget,

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Christine was able to leave Oxford.
He listened to her entire story of

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torture and the endless list of family
possessions that had been lost. In March

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of two thousand and nine, she
arrived in Bordeaux and met with lawyer Daniel

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Picotten, where she told her story. Terry Tilly's good fortune was about to

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end. He became a target after
Christine's testimony, and the French government brought

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charges against him in response to claims
of torture and abuse. When Tilly traveled

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to Zurich on October twenty one,
two thousand and nine, he was arrested

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and the events that followed quickly brought
the Vadrin's family back to d Tilly was

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prosecuted by the French justicistem in Bordeaux
for fraud, abuse, kidnapping and torture.

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Explaining the verdict, the court said
Tilly had created a state of submission

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amongst his victims, encouraging quote group
paranoia and mental destabilization. In twenty twelve,

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he received an eight year prison term
and was ordered to compensate his victims.

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Jacques Gonzalez, his accomplice, was
sentenced to four years in prison.

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Tilly's sentence was extended to ten years
following an appeal In two thy thirteen.

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Charles Henry Davidrines would later say that
quote, he stole ten years of our

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lives. But he did more than
that. He destroyed everything along the way.

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And there you have it, a
man with a hypnotically tight grip on

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a family that slowly turned against their
friends, associates, and eventually each other,

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but looked to this man for trust, only for it to later be

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revealed that it was he who had
conspired against them. Truly a diabolical act,

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if there ever was one, made
even more so by the fact that

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the con artist had began formulating how
to do it all since watching a made

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for television movie that featured a similar
plot. While they had to live in

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social housing for some time, Charles
and Christine were able to get their lives

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back on track, as were the
other members of the Vdrins family. They

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were even able to reconnect with one
another and put their distrust of one another

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into the past. Tilly, however, will always be a dark specter in

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their lives. His ten years are
up, and unless he's learned better,

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he might just be on the prowl, if not already playing another family like

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a fiddle. So when in doubt, trust those you know well, especially

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when it comes to your finances or
any other prized possessions. After all,

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you wouldn't want to be a victim
of a guru spending all of their time

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lying and conning you out of everything, would you? This story? It's

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a rough one. The family were
rich, so many would assume that they

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would be prepared for something like this, But really, when it comes down

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to it, whether rich or poor, we're all simply human. Humans are

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looking for answers every single day.
And when someone comes along and says I

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have all the answers and I'll share
them with you, and it'll be for

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a small fee. If you have
money laying around, why wouldn't you trust

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them. It's a sad story,
a story about the fact that no one

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is untouchable from lies and deception,
but really from being human. And I

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want to recommend another podcast I think
you might enjoy. It's called The World's

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Greatest con It's hosted by Brian Brushwood, a pal of mine. It's really

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good and it breaks down several fascinating
con jobs throughout history. So if you

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get a chance, check it out
wherever you get podcasts. An Unfortunate Truth

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in this world is that we have
to always be vigilant, but don't let

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your heart get so hardened that you
don't enjoy life with other people. It's

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a challenging balance and I'm learning as
i go, just like you. Terrifying

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and True is narrated by Enrique Kuto. This episode is written by Morgan Moore.

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It's executive produced by Rob Fields,
produced by Daniel Wilder, with 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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com. And if you want to
support us in a very direct way,

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go to Weeklyspooky dot com and click
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dollar a month, you can support
us and allow us to keep the Spooky

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rolling and rolling and rolling. And
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to our Patreon podcast booster folks who
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their names at the end of the
show, and they are Johnny Nicks Bobotopia

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dot com, Megan Hua, Julia
Kirsh, Brent mccallus, Steve King,

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Karen we Met, Jack Kerr,
and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so

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much. And we'll see you next
time right here on weekly Spooky and Terrifying and True