WEBVTT
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Okay.
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I take a slow and deep breath in, and I
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asked the women sitting before me, this.
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Are you guys comfortable talking about.
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You have for me?
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Yeah? He's ever asked us that, because that.
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Explains a lot how spawn even ended up in your life?
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Can see well, because a lot of people, I'm sure like,
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why were you even in that relationship?
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Why did you stay?
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I'm sitting down with Johnny, Bethany's mother, to try to
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tell her story. Johnny's story has never been publicly told
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in full. When we talked about the purpose of this
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podcast and how we approach our Missing and Hushtown series,
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we told Johnny that we aim to tell the story
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as honestly and holistically as we can. We wanted the
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listeners to not just hear about Bethany, but to also
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know Johnny. Fighting for Bethany has become Johnny's mission, her legacy.
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But when Johnny was a young girl, nobody appeared to
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be fighting for her. So we'll share Johnny's life events
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which led her to become the protector she needed when
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she was Bethany's age. This is Missing in Hushtown Season two.
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Let's go.
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M m h, m hm, m h m hmmmm.
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I am Johnny Carter, Bethany Markowski's mother. I'm the oldest.
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I'm the oldest, So you're gonna when your memory of
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our childhood is way better than mine.
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You fall a lot more than I did, and you
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know a lot of things that were going on in
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the household. But actually, I'm sorry, but I actually think
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you were trying to protect us from so I won't
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you travel a bit?
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Well, I'm the oldest of four girls.
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Johnny is the oldest of four girls. Johnny, then Ronda,
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then Aunt Laurie, and then Tommy. Sadly, Ronda passed away
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a few years ago, but the sisters keep from memory
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close in their hearts.
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Our home life was insane, did was it a two
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pair of household? Sometimes? Yeah?
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Sometimes most well, yeah, until I was what ten.
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Nine?
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I was thirteen? No, I was thirteen fourteen something?
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So how come about?
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Anyway?
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It was?
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I don't know, It's kind of it was very weird.
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You never knew what you were going to come home to.
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You're hearing and Aunt Laurie, and you'll hear them interrupt
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each other, talk over each other and finish each other's sentences.
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The sisters have grown immensely close once again throughout the
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last decade, Little sister Tommy arrives in just a little bit.
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Either you were going to come home to a party
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house or you were going to come home to nobody
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who was parting. Our parents and their friends and alcohol
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and drugs, thank you, yes, hard dregs, no marijuana. Mostly,
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I don't know if it was hard driven or not.
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That it was what we saw and what we were around,
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and what we and what we help. One of our
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favorite I know this sounds horrible, one of our favorite
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memories is one of the you know, favorite memories that
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we can think of where we you know.
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We're having a good time.
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Yeah, yeah, we were doing anything wrong. No.
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Now, imagine four young girls ages thirteen down to two,
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sitting around a kitchen table, smiling, chatting away, helping their
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family without a worry in the world.
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It was, you know, a bunch of marijuana dumped on
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the kitchen table, and it was our task to sort
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out the stams in the seeds and to put it
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in these little bags in on these little scales.
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I want to prepare everyone listening, but this is likely
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the most mild of stories that you'll hear from Johnny's
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life moving forward. This episode does contain stories of childhood
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trauma to include sexual abuse, allegations, and mentions of suicide,
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so please listen responsibly.
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It was fun, I mean, and.
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Johnny even when they got to the door and take
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the money, they were in operation.
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They were dealing from the house.
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He was, yeah, your father, my father, Yes, the four
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girls three days.
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If you caught that. Johnny and Laurie have different fathers. However,
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during the following memories, the man her mother is with
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in their home is Lurie's father.
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So we would do all of this and then weigh
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and I don't know, I can't remember how many ounces
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or I don't know how much was supposed to be
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in there, put into bags, and then we remember the
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brown paper lunch bags. We would put him in that,
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and then we would put them I would or they
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would go in the second drawer of the dresser. And
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then if somebody knocked on the door wanted a bag
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or take the money, give him the bag and put
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the money in the drawer.
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Johnny was about ten or eleven years old. Then she
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recalls how oftentimes the children would get off the bus
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and walk into their home to find out that their
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stepfather was in jail, or their mother had just not
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come home and would be gone for a day or
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maybe perhaps a few days.
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It's like if he was in jail or something, then
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Mama would go wherever she would go, and I would
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sometimes take the kids with me, but sometimes not going.
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How old were you girls when you would have days
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alone at your house?
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How old so you were?
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You were probably maybe twelve thirteen, and you had all
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of us, and we're.
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All younger than you.
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Johnny was forced to grow up quickly when her mother
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would vanish. Chasing after her stepdad, Johnny was responsible for
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her three younger sisters, feeding them, bathing them, clothing them,
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getting them to school, and something she may not have
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known she was also carrying was the emotional weight of
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being a mother while also needing her own mother.
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Well, sometimes, like I said, I would take the kids,
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and sometimes I wouldn't go around and knock on doors
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to the neighbors and barie bread from this person and
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cheese from this person so we could have a cheese
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sandwich for dinner. I didn't know how to do laundry,
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so I would just fluff our dirty clothes in the
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dryer so we could re wear them.
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When Johnny was growing up, the parties in their childhood
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home were loud, fueled by liquor and drugs, and went
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on throughout the early morning hours. Young Johnny's bedroom was
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just off the living room and it had two entry doors,
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one off the living room and one from the hallway.
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These parties were full of grown women and grown men,
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and nobody was monitoring the children except for Johnny.
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So when it was party mode and there was all
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kinds of men and people we didn't know in the
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house smoking dope and drinking and acting crazy, I would
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get my sisters and bring them in the bed with
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me and put a dress up against the doors and
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the ladder. The party got the ladder, I would sing
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and just you know, trying to make sure that they
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were safe, because it wasn't a very safe home at all.
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So growing up feeling unsafe in the home and during
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those parties, was their sexual abuse in the home. Yes,
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her memories of being sexually abused began when she was
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around five years old.
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And I hopefully, in pray to God, as hard as
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I tried, I did protect my other sisters from it.
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So you knew at a young age what evil can do,
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so you wanted to protect your sisters. Laurie shared more
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about this with us during her solo interview.
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When we were kids, Johnny took care of us. She
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was our caretaker. She protected us, and she protected us
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from my father, and she kept us safe. And you know,
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she was the one that made sure we, you know,
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the best that she could. You know, when there was
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stuff going on in the house that kids didn't need
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to be around, she would gather all of us up
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in her bed and put her dresser up against the door.
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The air around the table became tense, and not from
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aggressive tension, but rather as if each women before me
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was now returned to a place in her mind where
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she felt unsafe, as if each sister around the table
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had been slowly clenching their jaws and stiffening their bodies
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like an unconscious or uncontrollable physical reaction to the emotional
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distress that their childhood memories was bringing up. I offered
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to stop and ask them if they want me to
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take anything out of the interview. Johnny wanted to continue
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to share her story. It was important that others knew
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how she grew up. The condition she was raised in
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and bring people along her journey to better understand how
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she ended up in a marriage with a man like Larry,
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and more importantly, how hard she fought to bring Bethany
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to safety like she desperately needed as a child. Here's Laurie,
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Johnny did a she did.
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She did really good job of protecting us, taking care
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of us. And but I do remember the lettuce I
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heard you talking about that.
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I'm trying to make things fun, right, even when it
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wasn't fun.
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She's referring to a weekend where the girls's mother was
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absent and there was no food in the home. Johnny
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went around knocking on neighbor's doors, and one neighbor handed
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her a whole head of lettuce. So Johnny walked back home,
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lettuce clutched under her arms, and made lettuce sandwiches for
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all four girls that evening. Their neighborhood was full of
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elderly and retired couples, but one family had young grandchildren
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about the girls's ages, and they invited them to church.
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The sisters recalled that as a pivotal time in their lives,
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when things felt to be getting better and more stable.
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But then again, Jimmy, Johnny's stepfather, was also in prison
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at the same time.
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It was after Jimmy went to prison, because he did
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finally go to jail because.
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What he was doing to Jo.
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It's here that we honor Johnny's requests to remove a
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section of her interview. Oftentimes, in these interviews, people will
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begin to talk and take us through their memories, almost
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in a stream of consciousness narrative, only to at times
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pause and let it sink in what they've just revealed
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to the world. They'll not only feel vulnerable, but they'll
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take into account all those in their lives who they
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love so deeply. So we respected Johnny's request and removed
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a few revelations from this chapter. It's a podcast to
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you listeners, but to the people on the mic behind
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the mic, this is their life, and everything that they
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reveal has real consequences for those around them.
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Did you have to testify against him?
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I did, in course, so did you? How did it
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come out? Who did you tell? I told nobody. I
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put up more of a fight this time, and I
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was crying because for a very long time, I guess
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I was probably ten or eleven years old, I did
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not have a clue.
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There's Lourie.
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He wasn't a good person. He actually went to prison,
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and I haven't seen him since. And I was around
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nine nine years old then and I'm almost fifty eight,
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so it's been a long time since I've seen him
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or talked to him. So it was a broken family
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when when he was gone, we ended up having to go,
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you know, of course we had there was four girls
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having to go and live in government housing in Union City.
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And when we lived there, Johnny had a baby, and
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so it was us three girls and Johnny and the baby.
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You know, there was you know, and mama and so
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so that was a dysfunctional and you know, mama didn't
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work and getting food stamps. So it was it was,
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you know, the typical living off the government family, I guess,
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you know, the welfare family.
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Johnny shares that two times in her life has contemplated suicide,
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once while she was a young teenager battling the scars
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from her traumatic childhood, and once more about ten years
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after Bethany went missing. Previously, we shared that Johnny had
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reached her breaking point with Larry and his mistreatment, and
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she knew she had to escape with Bethany and she
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told us how she prayed to God for specific things
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to happen. Number one let her go to work, and
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number two let her take Bethany to school, and both happened.
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I don't know if she's pieced together her stories as
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a cohesive storyline ever, But on our side, sitting on
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the other side of the table, we see the patterns
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in Johnny, and one of the most admirable patterns is
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her resiliency and her faith. She recalls when she was
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a young teenager asking God for help during one of
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her lowest times.
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I had been praying and telling God and you know,
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kind of just telling him I'm done, God, I can't
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do this anymore. You get me out of it, or
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I'll get me out of it. One either I would die.
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Were you going to take me out of this?
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If you ask Johnny, the timing of that prayer, her
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stepfather going to prison coinciding with the sisters being invited
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to church was not coincidental. Johnny turns to her sister Laurie.
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And once was with Larry Markowski. I wanted after Bethany disappeared,
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you pulled the gun out of my hand.
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Johnny pauses and recalls how her stepfather treated their mother.
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So he uh physically abused her in front of you girls.
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You saw mom. Yeah, he hit her one time she
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kicked him in the growing.
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He knocked her completely out.
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That was when he hit her.
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Yeah.
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Hall.
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She was.
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Not a loving, caring mother. She was not one to
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say I love you. If you said I love you,
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she would say you too, or nothing right. I remember
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she had a few mental breakdowns.
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The sister's mother would continue to struggle with her mental
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health and her journey with substances. As the sisters continued
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to talk around the table, I decided to let the
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conversation drive itself. It took many side turns, turn offs,
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and back roads, but it slowly came back to this.
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The sisters agreed that their mother did what she could
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do with what she had, and it was all Johnny Nuke.
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Growing up, I never thought, oh, poor pitiful Johnny. Look
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what she's had to deal with her whole entire life.
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It's not fair. I never thought about that.
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It never crossed my mind.
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And then it was kind of like talking about it
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and getting it out there and seeing people's reactions, and
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you know, I'm like, oh my god, how did I
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have to go through all this.
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On the outside because you didn't know that there's things
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that could be better.
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You didn't know of warm loving mother.
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At just seventeen years old, give birth to her first son, Kyle,
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and just one year later she would marry her first husband,
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Tony Barham. Tony adopted Kyle, and the two newly wedded
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00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.480
would go on to have their first child together, Emily.
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00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:08.639
Johnny and Tony would later go through hard trials in
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their marriage, and it's during this time that Johnny would
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meet Larry. Johnny has never once claimed to be an angel,
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to be perfect, or to have made great decisions in
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her past. What she does do is own up to
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what she's done, and she admits that when she met Larry,
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she was still legally married to Tony. Tony would find
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out and that would propel their decision to divorce. Now,
295
00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:35.360
at this time, however, Larry tells Johnny that he is
296
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going through a divorce as well, and his wife has
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taken his kids away from him. It's clear that this
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00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:46.679
conversation is tough. It's heavy, it's multilayered, and it's raw.
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It's invasive. So we take a break from the interview
300
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one hour of opening. Such deep wounds can have lasting
301
00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:56.480
effects for days. I often tell my interviewees to be
302
00:15:56.559 --> 00:15:59.720
prepared to cry or sit in silence afterwards. You know
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00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:04.159
it hits at random and unknown times. This weight of
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00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:06.840
what you've been caring begins to feel real for the
305
00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:09.399
first time in years, And all of a sudden, you
306
00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:12.480
realize you've been in survival mode for so long, but
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you forgot how it feels to just set it down.
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00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:22.759
After about ten minutes, we regather around the table grace, comfort, compassion, honesty.
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00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:26.279
That's how I would describe the relationship between Johnny, Laurie,
310
00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.360
and Tommy, three of the remaining sisters, forever bonded together
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00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:34.240
through tragedy, triumph, love and resiliency SLA.
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00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.720
You know, it is hard to believe when you do
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00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:40.000
get a good man in your life and they don't
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00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:44.039
slap you around or cush you or be mean to you.
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00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:46.759
You think something's wrong with them? What's wrong with you?
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00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:50.000
Aren't you know saying that talking about I was thinking
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00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.360
about something that you said a while back, Because when
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00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:56.440
Johnny was born, Mama had her and a home front
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00:16:56.519 --> 00:16:58.320
web mothers, and she was going.
320
00:16:58.159 --> 00:16:59.080
To give her up for adoption.
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00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:02.720
NNI's mother didn't tell her parents that she was pregnant.
322
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This would happen in the early nineteen sixties, and she
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00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:09.400
had signed her rights away to Johnny, but something in
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00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:13.279
her changed. She kept Johnny. Her sisters recalling how that
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single decision of bravery by their mother protected them throughout
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the coming years.
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00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:22.720
And so you said that you're glad that she didn't
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00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:24.880
give you because she would have never had you know,
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00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:26.359
she would have been there for us.
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00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:30.480
I'm glad, yeah, us, Yeah, I think I said, you know,
331
00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:33.119
everything I've ever had to deal with my whole life
332
00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:36.160
was worth it, just to be their sister, to be
333
00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:39.279
in their lives. It was all worth it. I would
334
00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:44.480
do it again. Just yeah, I can't imagine growing up
335
00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.839
not knowing them. I think, you know, if.
336
00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.880
You hadn't have been there, you know, things might have
337
00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:54.279
turned out really bad for the rest of us. You know,
338
00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:56.559
I mean it was already bad enough, but we might
339
00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:57.720
not have survived it.
340
00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:02.200
Which out you know, I never you know, it has
341
00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:04.599
crossed my mind. I'm not gonna lie that. I have
342
00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:10.920
thought in the past, how different would my life had been? Right,
343
00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:14.839
But then I wouldn't have my kids, I wouldn't have
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00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:17.640
my sisters. I wouldn't have Bethany. I wouldn't be sitting
345
00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:22.119
here right now today. So yeah, it's all worth it
346
00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:24.480
to have them and to have my kids, even with
347
00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:27.839
Bethany missing. You know, I had eleven years with her,
348
00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:31.519
right but I feel like too, it's made me the
349
00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:35.759
person that I am, you know, and it all prepared
350
00:18:35.799 --> 00:18:37.960
me for what I'm going through right now, for the
351
00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:39.880
fight of my life.
352
00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.400
The stories Johnny share impact her sisters in their own way.
353
00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:47.359
She's my sister. It's hard to listen to some of
354
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.319
the horrific stuff that she went through.
355
00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:53.759
And here we pivot to when Johnny meets Larry. Johnny
356
00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:56.680
is unhappy in her marriage with her first husband, Tony.
357
00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:59.880
Now recall she had a baby and was married all
358
00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:03.960
the age of eighteen, and then soon she would find
359
00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.000
herself a young mother of two children. So when she
360
00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:10.000
meets Larry at the kmart when she was working and
361
00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:13.599
he proceeds to pursue her, she makes the decision to
362
00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:16.960
allow him to Johnny is first to say that going
363
00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:19.319
with Larry when she was still with Tony was wrong
364
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.400
and there was no excuse, in fact, not once in
365
00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:28.119
all over conversations has Johnny given any excuse for her choices,
366
00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:31.599
even when she has had the life that she has had.
367
00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:35.440
It was us, the producers asking the questions to try
368
00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:39.240
to understand why Johnny walked through the doors which she
369
00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:39.920
walked through.
370
00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.039
I met Larry when I was manager at Kmark in
371
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Union City at the shoe department. He was coming in
372
00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.559
and talking to I think one or two of my
373
00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:54.400
female workers.
374
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:57.559
Johnny was staying with her uncle during the workshifts, which
375
00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.400
scheduled her to be off work after nine pm and
376
00:20:00.519 --> 00:20:03.200
back to work by eight am the next morning. Driving
377
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:06.000
home wasn't feasible, and since her uncle had an apartment
378
00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.319
in Union City, it worked out. One evening after work,
379
00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:11.960
Johnny and her girlfriends from work went to a local bar,
380
00:20:12.279 --> 00:20:15.839
Maggie Lee's, and Larry shows up, and it's that night
381
00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:17.480
that the two become friends.
382
00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:21.160
It started coming up to Kymart all the time, I think,
383
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:23.799
before he would go to work and we talk and
384
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.759
I just felt so sorry for him. At first. His
385
00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:30.720
story was, you know, I don't know where my wife
386
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.119
and kids are and I miss him so much. And
387
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:36.319
they she up and took my kids and I don't
388
00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:37.200
know where they are.
389
00:20:38.119 --> 00:20:40.799
Keep in mind Larry was returning to his then wife,
390
00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:45.160
Sheila and his two children, Jenny and Daniel, every night.
391
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:50.519
And it turned into a different story where he knows
392
00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:54.519
where they are. They're in Alabama. He filed for divorce,
393
00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:00.599
and it was just my heart broke for him that
394
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.440
this mean woman over here, for no reason at all,
395
00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:06.480
snatched his two kids up. That he would give the
396
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:07.359
world too.
397
00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:12.200
And Larry's lie is the emotional manipulation. It was working.
398
00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:15.720
So him and I started seeing each other, and.
399
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.240
Soon Johnny was staying over at Larry's home instead of
400
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.039
her uncle's apartment. When she would go to his home,
401
00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:24.119
she would notice the kid's toys were everywhere, rooms were full,
402
00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:27.440
it looked like a woman was there, And when questioned
403
00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:30.240
about this, Larry would remind Johnny that his wife just
404
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:33.319
up and took their kids away from him, which upon
405
00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:36.960
Harry not we couldn't ignore the irony of Larry's lie,
406
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:41.680
unknowingly foreshadowing how Johnny and Bethany would then flee from
407
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:45.079
him in two thousand and one. And Johnny believed him.
408
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:47.119
You know, she didn't have a reason not to. At
409
00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:50.039
this point, she felt so bad for him, and he
410
00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:53.839
was so charming and charismatic towards her in his pursuit
411
00:21:53.880 --> 00:21:54.200
of her.
412
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:58.160
But we were going to town, or we were going somewhere,
413
00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:01.160
and we were in his Bronco or whatever, and these
414
00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:02.839
two little boy and girl was standing on the side
415
00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.680
the street, jumping up and down, you know, waving in
416
00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:08.200
front of this little tiny, I think, blue house, and
417
00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:10.680
I waved it him. I was like, oh my god,
418
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:13.720
they are the cutest kids. He never said a word.
419
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:18.960
Larry looked past the children, never acknowledged them, and kept
420
00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:19.640
on driving.
421
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:22.920
They were his kids, Yep.
422
00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.599
Those kids were Jenny and Daniel Murkowski, excitedly chasing down
423
00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:30.279
their daddy's car, only for him to pretend they did
424
00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:33.400
not exist in his world. And it's soon after that
425
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:36.079
Johnny would find out the truth that those were his
426
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:39.680
kids and that yes, they were still living there with
427
00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:42.519
their mother, Larry's wife, Sheila.
428
00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:46.640
I got a phone call one night one day at
429
00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:54.160
work and it was a woman and I said, you know,
430
00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:56.400
thank you for going hey Martin, She said Johnny, And
431
00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:00.000
I said yeah. She said, when Larry leaves your house,
432
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.279
house tonight, call his house and see who. Don't give
433
00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.440
him enough time to get home, Call his house and
434
00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:09.759
see who answers his phone and they hung up. So
435
00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:13.440
I had my own apartments. Sometimes he would stay. Sometimes
436
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.880
he would say he was going to go home. He left.
437
00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:19.240
I gave it about fifteen minutes to make sure he
438
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:22.359
didn't come back. I called, and a very sleepy you
439
00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:25.279
can tell I just woke her up with Sheila answered
440
00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:29.319
the phone. She begged me not to tell Larry. But again,
441
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.880
at this point in time in our relationship, he wasn't
442
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:37.559
the monster right that he turned into. And she's like,
443
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:39.680
please don't tell her, Please will tell him. And so
444
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:41.799
the next time, you know, he come up to work,
445
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:45.559
told him. I called his house and a woman answered, Well,
446
00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:49.200
then he told me that she just came in her
447
00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:51.759
she just came in town for the weekend or for
448
00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:55.200
sheever to get to pack up their stuff.
449
00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.240
Johnny is beginning to see what maybe she just didn't
450
00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:03.559
want to see that a man who started off so charming, handsome, charismatic,
451
00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.559
who was such a good man, whose family was taken
452
00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:09.559
from him in the night, could actually be a wolf
453
00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:13.319
in sheep's clothing? Could it be that Sheila was his
454
00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:17.400
current victim? Was Larry living two lives? A sheep with
455
00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:21.640
Johnny and a wolf with Sheila. Next time I'm missing
456
00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:24.559
in Hushtown, Sheila and Johnny sit down together for the
457
00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:26.680
first time ever to share their stories.
458
00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:31.480
And when I worked at Kmart, people in that store
459
00:24:31.559 --> 00:24:36.400
saw him physically abuse me. Wouldn't do nothing about it?
460
00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.480
Can he talking about that? Yeah? He came up to
461
00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:41.079
my work. Like I said, I was a manager of
462
00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:43.119
her sheet apartment. He came up to my work and
463
00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:46.039
he was getting ready to go to work. And I
464
00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:49.440
don't know what anyway, Oh I do know what calls it.
465
00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:53.839
When he walked up, I was helping a man with
466
00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:56.200
some steal toed boots.
467
00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:57.599
That's my job.
468
00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:01.200
Yeah, anyway, you were doing your job. The guy left,
469
00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:04.680
and Larry came up and came up, and he started
470
00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:07.720
hollering and cousin and anyway, And he took a pair
471
00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:10.519
of those boots by the shoes string and base smacked
472
00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:16.559
me right in ahead with them. People saw it. It
473
00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:19.920
just I don't know what it was about him that
474
00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:21.319
people were scared.
475
00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:26.119
He broke my nose. One night he came. I was
476
00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:29.960
sleeping in the bed, well, it was on like a cot.
477
00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:33.839
My son. We hadn't gotten him a bed yet, and
478
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:36.720
they Jenny was on one side and he was on
479
00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:39.880
the other and when we heard him come up, so
480
00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:42.799
we were trying to act like we were asleep while
481
00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:45.000
he came in and leaned over and grabbed me by
482
00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:46.920
the hair of the head and pulled me up out
483
00:25:46.960 --> 00:25:51.880
of the bed and like, I said, nothing, I didn't
484
00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:56.279
do nothing. He just comes in and it's like he is.
485
00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:58.680
I don't know if he's taking something out on me
486
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:02.799
or what. But he hit me in the nose and
487
00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:06.240
he broke it and there was blood everywhere. And I
488
00:26:06.279 --> 00:26:09.480
told him, I said, he said, he told me. He said,
489
00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:14.920
I think I just broke your nose. I said, yeah,
490
00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:17.920
I think you did too. And at the time, all
491
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I had to drive was his truck. Well, he told
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me I needed to go to the hospital. He told
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me to drive his truck. But he said, don't you
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tell them what happened. And he said, because if you do,
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when you get back, it'll be worse. And of course
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the police officer that was up there, well he was
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actually my nephew's daddy, and I just told him that
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I got in a fight with a girl and he said, well,
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what did this other girl look like? And then he
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said he said he knew he knew I was lying
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because he knew Larry. But the thing about is they
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wouldn't have done nothing if I had said something. They
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wait until they kill you or something like that before
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they would have done anything.
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Did he have connections with the local law enforcement as well?
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No, I mean everybody knew Larry. They all knew him,
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all of them, the police officers. Everybody knew the Markowski's
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because they were always in fights, they were always doing something.
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But the police officer. I had two police officers come
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to Sidonia. They had me on one side of the house
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and they had him on the other, and they wanted
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me to tell them what happened. And I told him,
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I said, but there's no sense in pressing charges. I said,
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because he'll be out in the morning and then he'll
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kill me. And that's that's probably what would have happened.
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But see, I never did what Johnny did as far
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as taking up from.
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Myself Missing in Hushtown. Season two is executive produced in
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partnership by Fire Eyes Media LLCs Jules Thorpe and Johen Rivera,
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as well as mom Cast Productions Rachel Holloway and Heather Northcraft.
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The script is written by Jules Thorpe and edited by
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00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:43.039
Heather Northcraft. Project lead is Rachel Holloway and master Editing
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00:28:43.079 --> 00:28:46.720
and audio production is done by John Rivera Jewels Thorpe
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is your host Fire Eyes Media mom
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Haspard, raising voices while raising kids
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Okay.
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I take a slow and deep breath in, and I
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asked the women sitting before me, this.
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Are you guys comfortable talking about.
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You have for me?
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Yeah? He's ever asked us that, because that.
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Explains a lot how spawn even ended up in your life?
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Can see well, because a lot of people, I'm sure like,
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why were you even in that relationship?
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Why did you stay?
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I'm sitting down with Johnny, Bethany's mother, to try to
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tell her story. Johnny's story has never been publicly told
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in full. When we talked about the purpose of this
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podcast and how we approach our Missing and Hushtown series,
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we told Johnny that we aim to tell the story
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as honestly and holistically as we can. We wanted the
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listeners to not just hear about Bethany, but to also
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know Johnny. Fighting for Bethany has become Johnny's mission, her legacy.
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But when Johnny was a young girl, nobody appeared to
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be fighting for her. So we'll share Johnny's life events
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which led her to become the protector she needed when
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she was Bethany's age. This is Missing in Hushtown Season two.
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Let's go.
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M m h, m hm, m h m hmmmm.
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I am Johnny Carter, Bethany Markowski's mother. I'm the oldest.
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I'm the oldest, So you're gonna when your memory of
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our childhood is way better than mine.
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You fall a lot more than I did, and you
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know a lot of things that were going on in
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the household. But actually, I'm sorry, but I actually think
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you were trying to protect us from so I won't
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you travel a bit?
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Well, I'm the oldest of four girls.
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Johnny is the oldest of four girls. Johnny, then Ronda,
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then Aunt Laurie, and then Tommy. Sadly, Ronda passed away
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a few years ago, but the sisters keep from memory
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close in their hearts.
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Our home life was insane, did was it a two
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pair of household? Sometimes? Yeah?
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Sometimes most well, yeah, until I was what ten.
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Nine?
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I was thirteen? No, I was thirteen fourteen something?
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So how come about?
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Anyway?
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It was?
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I don't know, It's kind of it was very weird.
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You never knew what you were going to come home to.
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You're hearing and Aunt Laurie, and you'll hear them interrupt
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each other, talk over each other and finish each other's sentences.
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The sisters have grown immensely close once again throughout the
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last decade, Little sister Tommy arrives in just a little bit.
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Either you were going to come home to a party
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house or you were going to come home to nobody
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who was parting. Our parents and their friends and alcohol
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and drugs, thank you, yes, hard dregs, no marijuana. Mostly,
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I don't know if it was hard driven or not.
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That it was what we saw and what we were around,
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and what we and what we help. One of our
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favorite I know this sounds horrible, one of our favorite
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memories is one of the you know, favorite memories that
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we can think of where we you know.
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We're having a good time.
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Yeah, yeah, we were doing anything wrong. No.
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Now, imagine four young girls ages thirteen down to two,
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sitting around a kitchen table, smiling, chatting away, helping their
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family without a worry in the world.
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It was, you know, a bunch of marijuana dumped on
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the kitchen table, and it was our task to sort
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out the stams in the seeds and to put it
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in these little bags in on these little scales.
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I want to prepare everyone listening, but this is likely
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the most mild of stories that you'll hear from Johnny's
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life moving forward. This episode does contain stories of childhood
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trauma to include sexual abuse, allegations, and mentions of suicide,
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so please listen responsibly.
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It was fun, I mean, and.
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Johnny even when they got to the door and take
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the money, they were in operation.
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They were dealing from the house.
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He was, yeah, your father, my father, Yes, the four
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girls three days.
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If you caught that. Johnny and Laurie have different fathers. However,
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during the following memories, the man her mother is with
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in their home is Lurie's father.
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So we would do all of this and then weigh
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and I don't know, I can't remember how many ounces
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or I don't know how much was supposed to be
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in there, put into bags, and then we remember the
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brown paper lunch bags. We would put him in that,
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and then we would put them I would or they
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would go in the second drawer of the dresser. And
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then if somebody knocked on the door wanted a bag
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or take the money, give him the bag and put
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the money in the drawer.
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Johnny was about ten or eleven years old. Then she
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recalls how oftentimes the children would get off the bus
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and walk into their home to find out that their
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stepfather was in jail, or their mother had just not
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come home and would be gone for a day or
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maybe perhaps a few days.
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It's like if he was in jail or something, then
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Mama would go wherever she would go, and I would
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sometimes take the kids with me, but sometimes not going.
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How old were you girls when you would have days
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alone at your house?
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How old so you were?
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You were probably maybe twelve thirteen, and you had all
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of us, and we're.
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All younger than you.
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Johnny was forced to grow up quickly when her mother
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would vanish. Chasing after her stepdad, Johnny was responsible for
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her three younger sisters, feeding them, bathing them, clothing them,
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getting them to school, and something she may not have
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known she was also carrying was the emotional weight of
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being a mother while also needing her own mother.
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Well, sometimes, like I said, I would take the kids,
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and sometimes I wouldn't go around and knock on doors
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to the neighbors and barie bread from this person and
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cheese from this person so we could have a cheese
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sandwich for dinner. I didn't know how to do laundry,
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so I would just fluff our dirty clothes in the
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dryer so we could re wear them.
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When Johnny was growing up, the parties in their childhood
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home were loud, fueled by liquor and drugs, and went
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on throughout the early morning hours. Young Johnny's bedroom was
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just off the living room and it had two entry doors,
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one off the living room and one from the hallway.
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These parties were full of grown women and grown men,
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and nobody was monitoring the children except for Johnny.
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So when it was party mode and there was all
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kinds of men and people we didn't know in the
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house smoking dope and drinking and acting crazy, I would
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get my sisters and bring them in the bed with
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me and put a dress up against the doors and
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the ladder. The party got the ladder, I would sing
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and just you know, trying to make sure that they
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were safe, because it wasn't a very safe home at all.
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So growing up feeling unsafe in the home and during
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those parties, was their sexual abuse in the home. Yes,
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her memories of being sexually abused began when she was
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around five years old.
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And I hopefully, in pray to God, as hard as
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I tried, I did protect my other sisters from it.
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So you knew at a young age what evil can do,
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so you wanted to protect your sisters. Laurie shared more
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about this with us during her solo interview.
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When we were kids, Johnny took care of us. She
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was our caretaker. She protected us, and she protected us
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from my father, and she kept us safe. And you know,
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she was the one that made sure we, you know,
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the best that she could. You know, when there was
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stuff going on in the house that kids didn't need
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to be around, she would gather all of us up
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in her bed and put her dresser up against the door.
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The air around the table became tense, and not from
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aggressive tension, but rather as if each women before me
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was now returned to a place in her mind where
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she felt unsafe, as if each sister around the table
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had been slowly clenching their jaws and stiffening their bodies
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like an unconscious or uncontrollable physical reaction to the emotional
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distress that their childhood memories was bringing up. I offered
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to stop and ask them if they want me to
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take anything out of the interview. Johnny wanted to continue
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to share her story. It was important that others knew
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how she grew up. The condition she was raised in
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and bring people along her journey to better understand how
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she ended up in a marriage with a man like Larry,
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and more importantly, how hard she fought to bring Bethany
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to safety like she desperately needed as a child. Here's Laurie,
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Johnny did a she did.
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She did really good job of protecting us, taking care
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of us. And but I do remember the lettuce I
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heard you talking about that.
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I'm trying to make things fun, right, even when it
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wasn't fun.
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She's referring to a weekend where the girls's mother was
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absent and there was no food in the home. Johnny
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went around knocking on neighbor's doors, and one neighbor handed
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her a whole head of lettuce. So Johnny walked back home,
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lettuce clutched under her arms, and made lettuce sandwiches for
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all four girls that evening. Their neighborhood was full of
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elderly and retired couples, but one family had young grandchildren
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about the girls's ages, and they invited them to church.
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The sisters recalled that as a pivotal time in their lives,
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when things felt to be getting better and more stable.
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But then again, Jimmy, Johnny's stepfather, was also in prison
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at the same time.
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It was after Jimmy went to prison, because he did
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finally go to jail because.
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What he was doing to Jo.
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It's here that we honor Johnny's requests to remove a
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section of her interview. Oftentimes, in these interviews, people will
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begin to talk and take us through their memories, almost
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in a stream of consciousness narrative, only to at times
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pause and let it sink in what they've just revealed
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to the world. They'll not only feel vulnerable, but they'll
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take into account all those in their lives who they
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love so deeply. So we respected Johnny's request and removed
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a few revelations from this chapter. It's a podcast to
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you listeners, but to the people on the mic behind
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the mic, this is their life, and everything that they
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reveal has real consequences for those around them.
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Did you have to testify against him?
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I did, in course, so did you? How did it
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come out? Who did you tell? I told nobody. I
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put up more of a fight this time, and I
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was crying because for a very long time, I guess
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I was probably ten or eleven years old, I did
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not have a clue.
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There's Lourie.
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He wasn't a good person. He actually went to prison,
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and I haven't seen him since. And I was around
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nine nine years old then and I'm almost fifty eight,
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so it's been a long time since I've seen him
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or talked to him. So it was a broken family
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when when he was gone, we ended up having to go,
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you know, of course we had there was four girls
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having to go and live in government housing in Union City.
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And when we lived there, Johnny had a baby, and
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so it was us three girls and Johnny and the baby.
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You know, there was you know, and mama and so
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so that was a dysfunctional and you know, mama didn't
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work and getting food stamps. So it was it was,
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you know, the typical living off the government family, I guess,
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you know, the welfare family.
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Johnny shares that two times in her life has contemplated suicide,
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once while she was a young teenager battling the scars
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from her traumatic childhood, and once more about ten years
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after Bethany went missing. Previously, we shared that Johnny had
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reached her breaking point with Larry and his mistreatment, and
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she knew she had to escape with Bethany and she
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told us how she prayed to God for specific things
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to happen. Number one let her go to work, and
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number two let her take Bethany to school, and both happened.
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I don't know if she's pieced together her stories as
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a cohesive storyline ever, But on our side, sitting on
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the other side of the table, we see the patterns
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in Johnny, and one of the most admirable patterns is
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her resiliency and her faith. She recalls when she was
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a young teenager asking God for help during one of
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her lowest times.
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I had been praying and telling God and you know,
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kind of just telling him I'm done, God, I can't
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do this anymore. You get me out of it, or
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I'll get me out of it. One either I would die.
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Were you going to take me out of this?
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If you ask Johnny, the timing of that prayer, her
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stepfather going to prison coinciding with the sisters being invited
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to church was not coincidental. Johnny turns to her sister Laurie.
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And once was with Larry Markowski. I wanted after Bethany disappeared,
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you pulled the gun out of my hand.
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Johnny pauses and recalls how her stepfather treated their mother.
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So he uh physically abused her in front of you girls.
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You saw mom. Yeah, he hit her one time she
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kicked him in the growing.
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He knocked her completely out.
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That was when he hit her.
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Yeah.
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Hall.
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She was.
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Not a loving, caring mother. She was not one to
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say I love you. If you said I love you,
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she would say you too, or nothing right. I remember
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she had a few mental breakdowns.
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The sister's mother would continue to struggle with her mental
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health and her journey with substances. As the sisters continued
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to talk around the table, I decided to let the
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conversation drive itself. It took many side turns, turn offs,
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00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:15.720
and back roads, but it slowly came back to this.
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The sisters agreed that their mother did what she could
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do with what she had, and it was all Johnny Nuke.
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Growing up, I never thought, oh, poor pitiful Johnny. Look
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what she's had to deal with her whole entire life.
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It's not fair. I never thought about that.
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It never crossed my mind.
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And then it was kind of like talking about it
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and getting it out there and seeing people's reactions, and
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you know, I'm like, oh my god, how did I
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have to go through all this.
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On the outside because you didn't know that there's things
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that could be better.
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You didn't know of warm loving mother.
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At just seventeen years old, give birth to her first son, Kyle,
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and just one year later she would marry her first husband,
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Tony Barham. Tony adopted Kyle, and the two newly wedded
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00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.480
would go on to have their first child together, Emily.
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Johnny and Tony would later go through hard trials in
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their marriage, and it's during this time that Johnny would
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meet Larry. Johnny has never once claimed to be an angel,
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to be perfect, or to have made great decisions in
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her past. What she does do is own up to
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what she's done, and she admits that when she met Larry,
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she was still legally married to Tony. Tony would find
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out and that would propel their decision to divorce. Now,
295
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at this time, however, Larry tells Johnny that he is
296
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going through a divorce as well, and his wife has
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taken his kids away from him. It's clear that this
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00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:46.679
conversation is tough. It's heavy, it's multilayered, and it's raw.
299
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It's invasive. So we take a break from the interview
300
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one hour of opening. Such deep wounds can have lasting
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effects for days. I often tell my interviewees to be
302
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prepared to cry or sit in silence afterwards. You know
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00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:04.159
it hits at random and unknown times. This weight of
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what you've been caring begins to feel real for the
305
00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:09.399
first time in years, And all of a sudden, you
306
00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:12.480
realize you've been in survival mode for so long, but
307
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you forgot how it feels to just set it down.
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00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:22.759
After about ten minutes, we regather around the table grace, comfort, compassion, honesty.
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That's how I would describe the relationship between Johnny, Laurie,
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00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.360
and Tommy, three of the remaining sisters, forever bonded together
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00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:34.240
through tragedy, triumph, love and resiliency SLA.
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00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:36.720
You know, it is hard to believe when you do
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get a good man in your life and they don't
314
00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:44.039
slap you around or cush you or be mean to you.
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You think something's wrong with them? What's wrong with you?
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Aren't you know saying that talking about I was thinking
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00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.360
about something that you said a while back, Because when
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00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:56.440
Johnny was born, Mama had her and a home front
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web mothers, and she was going.
320
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To give her up for adoption.
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NNI's mother didn't tell her parents that she was pregnant.
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This would happen in the early nineteen sixties, and she
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00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:09.400
had signed her rights away to Johnny, but something in
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her changed. She kept Johnny. Her sisters recalling how that
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single decision of bravery by their mother protected them throughout
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the coming years.
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00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:22.720
And so you said that you're glad that she didn't
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give you because she would have never had you know,
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she would have been there for us.
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I'm glad, yeah, us, Yeah, I think I said, you know,
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everything I've ever had to deal with my whole life
332
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was worth it, just to be their sister, to be
333
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in their lives. It was all worth it. I would
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00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:44.480
do it again. Just yeah, I can't imagine growing up
335
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not knowing them. I think, you know, if.
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You hadn't have been there, you know, things might have
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turned out really bad for the rest of us. You know,
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I mean it was already bad enough, but we might
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not have survived it.
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Which out you know, I never you know, it has
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crossed my mind. I'm not gonna lie that. I have
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thought in the past, how different would my life had been? Right,
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But then I wouldn't have my kids, I wouldn't have
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my sisters. I wouldn't have Bethany. I wouldn't be sitting
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here right now today. So yeah, it's all worth it
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to have them and to have my kids, even with
347
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Bethany missing. You know, I had eleven years with her,
348
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right but I feel like too, it's made me the
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person that I am, you know, and it all prepared
350
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me for what I'm going through right now, for the
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fight of my life.
352
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The stories Johnny share impact her sisters in their own way.
353
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She's my sister. It's hard to listen to some of
354
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the horrific stuff that she went through.
355
00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:53.759
And here we pivot to when Johnny meets Larry. Johnny
356
00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:56.680
is unhappy in her marriage with her first husband, Tony.
357
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Now recall she had a baby and was married all
358
00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:03.960
the age of eighteen, and then soon she would find
359
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herself a young mother of two children. So when she
360
00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:10.000
meets Larry at the kmart when she was working and
361
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he proceeds to pursue her, she makes the decision to
362
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allow him to Johnny is first to say that going
363
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with Larry when she was still with Tony was wrong
364
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and there was no excuse, in fact, not once in
365
00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:28.119
all over conversations has Johnny given any excuse for her choices,
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even when she has had the life that she has had.
367
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It was us, the producers asking the questions to try
368
00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:39.240
to understand why Johnny walked through the doors which she
369
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walked through.
370
00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.039
I met Larry when I was manager at Kmark in
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Union City at the shoe department. He was coming in
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00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.559
and talking to I think one or two of my
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female workers.
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Johnny was staying with her uncle during the workshifts, which
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scheduled her to be off work after nine pm and
376
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back to work by eight am the next morning. Driving
377
00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:06.000
home wasn't feasible, and since her uncle had an apartment
378
00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:09.319
in Union City, it worked out. One evening after work,
379
00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:11.960
Johnny and her girlfriends from work went to a local bar,
380
00:20:12.279 --> 00:20:15.839
Maggie Lee's, and Larry shows up, and it's that night
381
00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:17.480
that the two become friends.
382
00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:21.160
It started coming up to Kymart all the time, I think,
383
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:23.799
before he would go to work and we talk and
384
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.759
I just felt so sorry for him. At first. His
385
00:20:27.880 --> 00:20:30.720
story was, you know, I don't know where my wife
386
00:20:30.759 --> 00:20:33.119
and kids are and I miss him so much. And
387
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:36.319
they she up and took my kids and I don't
388
00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:37.200
know where they are.
389
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Keep in mind Larry was returning to his then wife,
390
00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:45.160
Sheila and his two children, Jenny and Daniel, every night.
391
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:50.519
And it turned into a different story where he knows
392
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where they are. They're in Alabama. He filed for divorce,
393
00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:00.599
and it was just my heart broke for him that
394
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.440
this mean woman over here, for no reason at all,
395
00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:06.480
snatched his two kids up. That he would give the
396
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:07.359
world too.
397
00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:12.200
And Larry's lie is the emotional manipulation. It was working.
398
00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:15.720
So him and I started seeing each other, and.
399
00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:18.240
Soon Johnny was staying over at Larry's home instead of
400
00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.039
her uncle's apartment. When she would go to his home,
401
00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:24.119
she would notice the kid's toys were everywhere, rooms were full,
402
00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:27.440
it looked like a woman was there, And when questioned
403
00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:30.240
about this, Larry would remind Johnny that his wife just
404
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:33.319
up and took their kids away from him, which upon
405
00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:36.960
Harry not we couldn't ignore the irony of Larry's lie,
406
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:41.680
unknowingly foreshadowing how Johnny and Bethany would then flee from
407
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:45.079
him in two thousand and one. And Johnny believed him.
408
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:47.119
You know, she didn't have a reason not to. At
409
00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:50.039
this point, she felt so bad for him, and he
410
00:21:50.119 --> 00:21:53.839
was so charming and charismatic towards her in his pursuit
411
00:21:53.880 --> 00:21:54.200
of her.
412
00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:58.160
But we were going to town, or we were going somewhere,
413
00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:01.160
and we were in his Bronco or whatever, and these
414
00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:02.839
two little boy and girl was standing on the side
415
00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.680
the street, jumping up and down, you know, waving in
416
00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:08.200
front of this little tiny, I think, blue house, and
417
00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:10.680
I waved it him. I was like, oh my god,
418
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:13.720
they are the cutest kids. He never said a word.
419
00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:18.960
Larry looked past the children, never acknowledged them, and kept
420
00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:19.640
on driving.
421
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:22.920
They were his kids, Yep.
422
00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.599
Those kids were Jenny and Daniel Murkowski, excitedly chasing down
423
00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:30.279
their daddy's car, only for him to pretend they did
424
00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:33.400
not exist in his world. And it's soon after that
425
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:36.079
Johnny would find out the truth that those were his
426
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:39.680
kids and that yes, they were still living there with
427
00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:42.519
their mother, Larry's wife, Sheila.
428
00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:46.640
I got a phone call one night one day at
429
00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:54.160
work and it was a woman and I said, you know,
430
00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:56.400
thank you for going hey Martin, She said Johnny, And
431
00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:00.000
I said yeah. She said, when Larry leaves your house,
432
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.279
house tonight, call his house and see who. Don't give
433
00:23:03.319 --> 00:23:05.440
him enough time to get home, Call his house and
434
00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:09.759
see who answers his phone and they hung up. So
435
00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:13.440
I had my own apartments. Sometimes he would stay. Sometimes
436
00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:16.880
he would say he was going to go home. He left.
437
00:23:17.119 --> 00:23:19.240
I gave it about fifteen minutes to make sure he
438
00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:22.359
didn't come back. I called, and a very sleepy you
439
00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:25.279
can tell I just woke her up with Sheila answered
440
00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:29.319
the phone. She begged me not to tell Larry. But again,
441
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.880
at this point in time in our relationship, he wasn't
442
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:37.559
the monster right that he turned into. And she's like,
443
00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:39.680
please don't tell her, Please will tell him. And so
444
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:41.799
the next time, you know, he come up to work,
445
00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:45.559
told him. I called his house and a woman answered, Well,
446
00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:49.200
then he told me that she just came in her
447
00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:51.759
she just came in town for the weekend or for
448
00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:55.200
sheever to get to pack up their stuff.
449
00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.240
Johnny is beginning to see what maybe she just didn't
450
00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:03.559
want to see that a man who started off so charming, handsome, charismatic,
451
00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.559
who was such a good man, whose family was taken
452
00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:09.559
from him in the night, could actually be a wolf
453
00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:13.319
in sheep's clothing? Could it be that Sheila was his
454
00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:17.400
current victim? Was Larry living two lives? A sheep with
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Johnny and a wolf with Sheila. Next time I'm missing
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in Hushtown, Sheila and Johnny sit down together for the
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first time ever to share their stories.
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And when I worked at Kmart, people in that store
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saw him physically abuse me. Wouldn't do nothing about it?
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00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.480
Can he talking about that? Yeah? He came up to
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my work. Like I said, I was a manager of
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her sheet apartment. He came up to my work and
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he was getting ready to go to work. And I
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don't know what anyway, Oh I do know what calls it.
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When he walked up, I was helping a man with
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some steal toed boots.
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That's my job.
468
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Yeah, anyway, you were doing your job. The guy left,
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and Larry came up and came up, and he started
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hollering and cousin and anyway, And he took a pair
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of those boots by the shoes string and base smacked
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me right in ahead with them. People saw it. It
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just I don't know what it was about him that
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people were scared.
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He broke my nose. One night he came. I was
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sleeping in the bed, well, it was on like a cot.
477
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My son. We hadn't gotten him a bed yet, and
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they Jenny was on one side and he was on
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the other and when we heard him come up, so
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we were trying to act like we were asleep while
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he came in and leaned over and grabbed me by
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the hair of the head and pulled me up out
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of the bed and like, I said, nothing, I didn't
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do nothing. He just comes in and it's like he is.
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I don't know if he's taking something out on me
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or what. But he hit me in the nose and
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he broke it and there was blood everywhere. And I
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told him, I said, he said, he told me. He said,
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I think I just broke your nose. I said, yeah,
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I think you did too. And at the time, all
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I had to drive was his truck. Well, he told
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me I needed to go to the hospital. He told
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me to drive his truck. But he said, don't you
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tell them what happened. And he said, because if you do,
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when you get back, it'll be worse. And of course
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the police officer that was up there, well he was
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actually my nephew's daddy, and I just told him that
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I got in a fight with a girl and he said, well,
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what did this other girl look like? And then he
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00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:50.839
said he said he knew he knew I was lying
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00:26:51.240 --> 00:26:56.599
because he knew Larry. But the thing about is they
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wouldn't have done nothing if I had said something. They
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wait until they kill you or something like that before
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00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:04.119
they would have done anything.
505
00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:08.559
Did he have connections with the local law enforcement as well?
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00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:13.480
No, I mean everybody knew Larry. They all knew him,
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00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:16.960
all of them, the police officers. Everybody knew the Markowski's
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because they were always in fights, they were always doing something.
509
00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:29.319
But the police officer. I had two police officers come
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00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:32.359
to Sidonia. They had me on one side of the house
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and they had him on the other, and they wanted
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me to tell them what happened. And I told him,
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I said, but there's no sense in pressing charges. I said,
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because he'll be out in the morning and then he'll
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kill me. And that's that's probably what would have happened.
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But see, I never did what Johnny did as far
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as taking up from.
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Myself Missing in Hushtown. Season two is executive produced in
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partnership by Fire Eyes Media LLCs Jules Thorpe and Johen Rivera,
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00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:35.200
as well as mom Cast Productions Rachel Holloway and Heather Northcraft.
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00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:38.680
The script is written by Jules Thorpe and edited by
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00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:43.039
Heather Northcraft. Project lead is Rachel Holloway and master Editing
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00:28:43.079 --> 00:28:46.720
and audio production is done by John Rivera Jewels Thorpe
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is your host Fire Eyes Media mom
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00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:59.799
Haspard, raising voices while raising kids
