257: A Drowning & a Shipwreck

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Brandi starts us off with the mysterious death of Dee Dee Jackson. Dee Dee was at her boyfriend’s house late one night in 1994 when she passed away. Her boyfriend, Don Bohana, told police that she’d drowned in his pool after a night of heavy drinking. But that explanation sounded fishy to Dee Dee’s family. They said that Dee Dee had never learned to swim. She was terrified of water. There was no way that she’d willingly gotten in the pool that night.

Then Kristin tells a dark, old time-y tale that made a big impact on the justice system. The crew of the Mignonette was probably doomed from the start. The yacht wasn’t built for long, arduous voyages, but the crew had been paid to sail it nearly 15,000 miles. So they tried. When a wave did irreparable damage to the ship, it sank in less than five minutes. The crew of four managed to get on a lifeboat, but with no fresh water and just two tins of turnips, they knew they couldn’t last long. After approximately 20 days at sea, they resorted to cannibalism.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:

“In warm blood: Some historical and procedural aspects of Regina v. Dudley and Stephens,” The University of Chicago Law Review

“Regina v. Dudley and Stephens,” casebriefs.com

“What’s eating me about this tale of cannibalism?” Western Daily Press

The book, “Cannibalism and the common law: the story of the tragic last voyage of the Mignonette and the strange legal proceedings to which it game rise,” by A W B Simpson.

“R v Dudley and Stephens” entry on Wikipedia

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:

“Jackson Family Mystery” episode 20/20

“Drowning in Lies” episode Accident, Suicide, or Murder

“Man in prison for Tito Jackson's ex-wife drowning says she 'could swim’” by Enjoli Francis and Joseph Rhee, ABC News

“L.A. Businessman Claimed Girlfriend Accidentally Drowned — But Evidence Pointed To Murder” by Joe Dziemianowicz, oxygen.com

“The Mysterious Death In Michael Jackson’s Family — Delores Martha Jackson” by Shenbaga Lakshmi, Medium

“People v. Bohana” findlaw.com

“Neighborhood Spotlight: Pricey Ladera Heights, tucked away in the Westside, retains a sense of community” by Scott Garner, Los Angeles Times

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