54: The So-Called Kayak Killer & the Girl Scout Camp Murders

Published: Feb. 6, 2019, 7:01 a.m.

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Angelika Graswald and her fiance, Vincent Viafore, loved going on adventures. On a Sunday in April of 2015, they strapped two kayaks to the top of Vincent\\u2019s Jeep and headed for the Hudson River. They planned to kayak over to Pollepel Island, where they\\u2019d see the Bannerman Castle ruins. But there were a few big obstacles in their way. The water was cold. Their kayaks weren\\u2019t suited for the river. Vincent didn\\u2019t wear a life vest. On top of all that, the weather that evening was predicted to take a turn for the worst. On their way back across the river, Vincent\\u2019s kayak capsized. Later, Angelika\\u2019s statements to detectives had people asking whether this was a tragic accident or a calculated murder.

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Then Brandi tells us the heartbreaking story of three violent murders at an Oklahoma girl scout camp. In the summer of 1977, Doris Milner, 10, Lori Farmer, 8, and Michelle Guse, 9, shared a tent. Everything seemed normal on the night of June 12, but early the next morning, a camp counselor discovered a grizzly scene. The girls\\u2019 dead bodies had been piled together on a trail. The crime stunned and terrified the nation. Police soon captured a man named Gene Leroy Hart. But did they have the right guy?

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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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\\n\\nIn this episode, Kristin pulled from:
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\\u201cMurder by kayak?\\u201d episode of 20/20
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\\u201cWoman pleads guilty in fiance\\u2019s kayak death on Hudson River,\\u201d New York Times
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\\u201c\\u2018Who\\u2019s Miranda?\\u2019 Suspect in kayak killing didn\\u2019t understand her rights, lawyer says,\\u201d New York Times
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\\u201cA kayak trip on the Hudson, ending in death and an arrest,\\u201d New York Times
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\\u201cMurder charge for woman who said fiance\\u2019s kayak capsized in Hudson River,\\u201d New York Times
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\\u201cWoman convicted in fiance\\u2019s death entitled to portion of his life insurance,\\u201d CBS News

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In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
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\\u201cGirl Scout Murders | June 13, 1977\\u201d by Tim Stanley, Tulsa World
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\\u201cGirl Scout murders in Oklahoma remain unsolved 40 years after tragedy\\u201d by Juliana Keeping and Brianna Bailey, The Oklahoman
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\\u201cGene Leroy Hart Is Found Innocent In Sex Slayings of Three Girl Scouts\\u201d by Jim Bradshaw, The Washington Post
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\\u201c40 Years After 3 Girl Scouts Were Killed at Camp, Police Hope DNA Will Reveal Their Killer\\u201d by Jeff Truesdell and Christine Pelisek, People Magazine
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\\u201cThe Troubling, Still-Unsolved Case of the 1977 Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders\\u201d by Cheryl Eddy, Gizmodo

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