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Kathy Sigman and Maria Ridulph were best friends. The little girls played together constantly, and the evening of December 3, 1957, was no exception. But that evening, a young man approached them. He seemed friendly. He offered them piggyback rides and asked them about dolls. He told them his name was Johnny, and that he wasn\\u2019t married. At one point, Kathy excused herself to get a pair of mittens. But when she came back outside, Maria was missing, and Johnny was nowhere to be found.

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Then Kristin tells us about a college student in Oklahoma, who woke up to a loud thump. The woman sat in bed for a while, listening for more strange sounds. When she didn\\u2019t hear any, she got up to go to the bathroom. That\\u2019s when she saw a man standing at the end of her hallway. She flipped on the lights, but the man vanished behind a corner, only to reemerge seconds later. The man sexually assaulted her, then left out the front door. Later, when the woman called police, they showed her two line-ups. Both line ups included an innocent man named Thomas Webb.\\xa0

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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.

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\\u201cThe Wrong Man\\u201d by Jon Schuppe for NBC News

The book \\u201cRectify: A story of healing and redemption after wrongful conviction,\\u201d By Laura Bazelon

\\u201cWrongfully convicted man gets $175,000 for 13 years in prison,\\u201d by Jon Schuppe for NBC News

\\u201cRape suspect walks free after innocent man spends 14 years in prison,\\u201d by Dallas Franklin for kfor.com\\n

\\u201cThomas Webb, III\\u201d entry on The National Registry of Exonerations

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"Taken: The Coldest Case Ever Solved\\u201d by Ann O\\u2019Neill, CNN

\\u201cJUSTICE STORY: The coldest case, \\u2018The Piggyback Kidnap\\u2019\\u201d by Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News

\\u201cMan cleared in 1957 slaying of Sycamore girl wins $300K settlement from Seattle. Cops there arrested him after DeKalb County reopened case.\\u201d Associated Press

\\u201cMan wrongly convicted in 1957 Sycamore killing of 7-year-old declared innocent by judge\\u201d by Clifford Ward, Chicago Tribune

\\u201cMurder of Maria Ridulph\\u201d wikipedia.org\\n

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YOU\\u2019RE STILL READING? My, my, my, you skeezy scunch! You must be hungry for more! We\\u2019d offer you some sausage brunch, but that gets messy. So how about you head over to our Patreon instead? (patreon.com/lgtcpodcast). At the $5 level, you\\u2019ll get 25+ full length bonus episodes, plus access to our 90\\u2019s style chat room! \\xa0

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