Middle-Aged and Mediocre

In 1848, gold was found in them thar hills of San Francisco! One of the largest mass migrations in American history shortly followed. Along with the increased population came a shortage of resources and a demand for eggs. While chicken eggs were almost impossible to supply to the new San Fran population, a bird known as the Murre produced a bountiful supply of eggs just 26 miles west on the Farallon Islands, aka “The Devil's Teeth Islands” and "The Islands of the Dead". As an alternative protein source, these eggs demanded a high price in San Francisco and lined the pockets of those who could transport them from the island with lots and lots of money. What ensued was capitalism at its finest; corporate greed, the decimation of nature, and war... oh, and egg pirates!

Join us for a tale from American history and listen as you can almost hear Cash's eye begin to twitch as he does his best not to go into full-on rant mode. EVERYTHING'S FINE!

No new episode this week but we wanted to give you an update on the show and let you know what we have going on in our lives.  Thank you all for the support and we'll be back with a new episode next week!

Jeffrey Lundgren had grown up in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (RLDS) but had been excommunicated for stealing funds from the Kirtland Temple and defrocked as a lay minister for teachings counter to the RLDS.  When he left, he took several church members with him and started his own offshoot branch of the church, leading his followers to believe he was receiving messages directly from God.  One of those messages would, unfortunately, lead to the murder of the Avery family, who were members of Lundgren's community themselves.  

Natalie Bollinger was a 19-year-old whose life tragically ended execution-style on the side of the road. All fingers pointed towards 42-year-old Shawn Schwartz as the trigger man. Natalie had known him for two years, told friends and family that she was terrified of him, and had been granted a restraining order because she feared that he was stalking her. Shawn relentlessly proclaimed his innocence on social media while also claiming that Natalie was evil and that her family should be in prison. Ultimately, it would come down to a Craigslist ad to unravel this mystery and shine a light on who had killed Natalie Bollinger. 

We've got three bizarre unsolved mysteries for you today including the death of British intelligence agent, Gareth Williams, who was found dead in a padlocked duffel bag with almost zero evidence left behind. Theories ranged from a BDSM game gone bad to Gareth being taken out by his own agency because he knew too much to the Russian KGB snuffing him out because he wouldn't turn double agent for them. In the end, Gareth's death remained unsolved and will likely remain that way unless all information is declassified and provided to authorities. 

Also in this episode, a two-year-old girl goes missing in France only to be possibly discovered and reunited with her parents a short time later. Then a body was found matching the description of the little girl who went missing. So who was who and who did the severed adult-male head found nearby the body of the little girl belong to? This strange tale has remained a mystery since 1922 and will likely never be sorted out properly.

Lastly, do you believe in reincarnation? The sudden, tragic death of two sisters led their family and others to believe in reincarnation when their mother gave birth to identical twins just a year later who not only displayed some eerily similar birthmarks to those of their deceased sisters but also seemed to have knowledge and memories that only their sisters would have.

We are back with the conclusion of our H.H. Holmes two-parter plus the guys talk about Joel's recent comedy show and Cash is seeing ghosts! 

***In this version, I have replaced the songs with some radio tuning sound effects so it is available everywhere***

Welcome to The Cosmic Whiskey Hour presented by Ray Gun Radio with one-half of Middle-Aged and Mediocre! Cash has got his very own Spotify-exclusive show where he's enjoying some bourbon (Wild Turkey 101), playing y'all some tunes, and talking about his career in professional wrestling.  

In the debut episode, Cash remembers Jay Briscoe, talks about the bloodiest match in Remix Pro Wrestling's history, and recalls how he first got started in professional wrestling.  We hope y'all enjoy the show and let us know what you thought about it in the comments below!

Tracklist for this episode: "Gimme Back My Bullets" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Scream It Until You're Coughing Up Blood" by Against Me!, "The Wolf" by Whiskey Myers, and "Drunkin' Ramblins' of a Hopeless Romantic" by Zach Welch.

Enjoy!

It took us a while but we finally got around to talking about the original Triple H, H.H. Holmes!  This guy was a dastardly sonofabitch who used the World's Fair to draw both guests and victims into his custom-built "Murder Castle" that featured secret passages, various kill rooms, and everything else you would expect to see a mad scientist utilizing to kill off multiple characters in an old-school horror movie.  Holmes was said to have been a graverobber, an insurance fraudster, a snake oil salesman, and above all, a horrific murderer.  While he definitely was most or all of those things, separating fact from fiction is a big part of the H.H. Holmes story, as many allegations would be slung his way once he was arrested and executed for his crimes.

In part one of our H.H. Holmes episodes, we look at his early life and the beginnings of his reign of terror that labeled him "America's First Serial Killer".

Enjoy!

We've got a terrifying story about someone living inside the walls of a family's home, an Australian family who goes on a bizarre road trip, and a doctor who takes loving someone to death a bit too far. 

And is there a Middle-Aged and Mediocre movie in the works? Check out the episode now to find out!

DEA Agent, Brady Wilson, tracks down the source of the abrupt rise in the sale of fentanyl and meth in his small hometown of St. George, Utah, which had a devastating impact on the community after overdose deaths were on becoming more and more frequent. It was a similar story in the rest of the United States, and Wilson, along with the rest of the DEA, were on the lookout for the main operators of the Mexico/America drug trafficking pipeline. Wilson himself found a man named Ángel Rubio Quintana at the center of the drug problem in St. George. It would turn out that Rubio wasn't just another cog in the drug cartel machine but rather a local businessman who had been using his connections to the Sinaloan cartel to begin building his own drug empire right in the middle of Mormon country.

Cash and Joel also look at how the cartels in Mexico take advantage of locals who have no other source of income to churn out massive amounts of fentanyl and meth daily, and how the drugs make their way into America. 

Also in this episode, an update on the Moscow, Idaho murders where a suspect has been taken into custody, and Cash has some significant doubts about the innocence of one person in particular that is involved in the story.