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Serial Killer In Your Backyard Ordinary Wife From Gregg And Morgan Olsen · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: It's all about making a connection. Arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net. Oh, it's
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. Hello and good morning, you guys. How
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  Speaker 1: are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 4: You're perky.
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  Speaker 3: What time is it there?
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  Speaker 1: Well, here in the Carolinas, I mean, we're already up
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  Speaker 1: at 9.50 in the morning, so I've been up since
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  Speaker 1: 5 o'clock. So what do you guys want to know
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  Speaker 1: about what's going on in the world?
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  Speaker 3: It's still dark here. Oh, my God.
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  Speaker 1: Where are you guys at?
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  Speaker 3: We're out by the Seattle area. Oh, my gosh.
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  Speaker 1: See, I grew up in Billings, Montana, so I know
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  Speaker 1: that area all too well up there.
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  Speaker 4: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, that explains a lot about you guys
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  Speaker 1: and the way that you're digging into some history here
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  Speaker 1: and looking for some, you know, some true crime. Because,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's what we do up there in Montana
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  Speaker 1: and the Pacific Northwest. There's a lot of history up
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  Speaker 1: there that is still undiscovered.
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  Speaker 3: That's right. And this one here, by the way, has
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  Speaker 3: a Billings connection. What? What? What? What?
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  Speaker 2: Because one of the victims is from there.
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  Speaker 1: You got to dig in right now, man. Just let
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  Speaker 1: me know what's happening. Because I mean, when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about Billings, I sit up straight, dude. So, so what,
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  Speaker 1: what is, what is the connection? Because I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: grew up in a, in a group of people where
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  Speaker 1: two of the people that were in our band were,
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  Speaker 1: were both murdered. I mean, and that's the thing. So
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  Speaker 1: now I'm sitting there, I'm going, okay, so what's going on?
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  Speaker 1: Is this connected to a serial killer that I, that
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  Speaker 1: maybe I should know about? And, And I can't be
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  Speaker 1: the only one who's thinking like this.
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  Speaker 3: That's right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, one of her one of her husbands.
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  Speaker 3: Was was killed in the Billings area, was was poisoned.
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  Speaker 3: So there and the investigation from Twin Falls, Idaho, where
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  Speaker 3: the first crimes happened, led all the way to Billings, Montana,
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  Speaker 3: to catch her and try to build a case that
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  Speaker 3: she had killed, you know, four husbands, a brother in
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  Speaker 3: law and and her daughter with one of them being
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  Speaker 3: a fellow from Billings.
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  Speaker 1: Morgan, I got to tell you something. This has got,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we are in the true crime generation. This
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  Speaker 1: has got to be so, so empowering to you that,
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  Speaker 1: that your dad is going, let's do it. Let's make,
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  Speaker 1: let's make this happen here because I mean, you are
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  Speaker 1: helping him undig and then the two of you are unveiling.
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  Speaker 1: If you know what I mean, there is a process
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  Speaker 1: of writing growth here.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, you know, I grew up
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  Speaker 4: with my dad writing, you know, my entire life. His
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  Speaker 4: first book, Abandoned Prayers, came out when I was in kindergarten.
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  Speaker 4: And when it came out, yeah, I mean, true crime
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  Speaker 4: really hadn't taken off the way that it has today.
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  Speaker 4: In fact, over his entire career, there have been lulls.
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  Speaker 4: But right now, it is a big topic. Lots of
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  Speaker 4: people are interested in it. In this case, is about
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  Speaker 4: Lida Southard. This is our book, The Ordinary Wife. And
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  Speaker 4: what we found is, even though we have been immersed
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  Speaker 4: in true crime for decades, this was a case that
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  Speaker 4: we hadn't heard about. And so we figured that all
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  Speaker 4: of the people who are as interested in true crime
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  Speaker 4: as us want to hear the real story. And we
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  Speaker 4: wanted to get that recorded.
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  Speaker 1: Well, see, none of this shocks me being from Montana
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  Speaker 1: because I've ridden out there in those fields on that
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  Speaker 1: horse where, I mean, we didn't have fences or anything
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  Speaker 1: like that. And if you don't think this kind of
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  Speaker 1: stuff hasn't crossed my mind, I'm going, I'm not shocked.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not shocked, dude.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, well, you shouldn't be shocked.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, the Pacific Northwest and, you know, Idaho and Montana,
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  Speaker 3: this part of this corner of of the country.
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  Speaker 2: There is, there have been a lot of interesting cases, right?
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  Speaker 3: A lot of serial killers roaming around, you know, maybe
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  Speaker 3: in here more than any other part of the country,
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  Speaker 3: I think. It feels like it anyway. So I can
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  Speaker 3: imagine you, you know, riding your horse, driving your car
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  Speaker 3: on these roads in Montana, in that beautiful country, and
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  Speaker 3: there could be something sinister, you know, off the side
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  Speaker 3: of the road you just don't know about because it's
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  Speaker 3: such a big land.
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  Speaker 4: She was looking for husbands who were ranchers, who were,
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  Speaker 4: you know, just living in those remote areas. So, yeah, definitely.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, see, now you're giving me the story of my
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  Speaker 1: first wife and she was looking for husbands. Come on now.
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  Speaker 1: I got to investigate this. Oh, my God. See, you
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  Speaker 1: see how we're bred out there? I did so far.
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  Speaker 1: I got out.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: But I do have to ask the simple question. And
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  Speaker 1: I know that readers are going to do the same
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  Speaker 1: thing as they go from page to page. Why is
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  Speaker 1: it that there weren't any signs? Because you can't just
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  Speaker 1: poison in one shot, can you? Or am I am
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  Speaker 1: I being wrong?
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  Speaker 4: You know, I think it was the time period over
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  Speaker 4: 100 years ago, news didn't travel. And I think that
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  Speaker 4: there are a lot of things happening in the world,
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  Speaker 4: you know, with typhoid or with the Spanish flu that
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  Speaker 4: you could attribute these deaths to. So I think it
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  Speaker 4: took the right detective, the right person to put all
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  Speaker 4: of the clues together. But yes, I don't think that
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  Speaker 4: this would happen today where we would have so many
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  Speaker 4: without anybody catching on.
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  Speaker 2: And let's be clear about it.
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  Speaker 3: The idea of her being a woman killing these people
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  Speaker 3: was something that just people could not wrap their brains
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  Speaker 3: around that concept. It was very hard for them. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: it was an all-male jury that ended up convicting her,
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  Speaker 3: and they didn't send her to.
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  Speaker 2: The gallows, which they could have, because they just didn't.
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  Speaker 3: Want to do that to a woman. So there's that element, too.
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  Speaker 3: I think her gender gave her some cover. But ultimately,
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  Speaker 3: in the end, it was her undoing because, you know,
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  Speaker 3: they kind of fabricated and created this storyline of why
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  Speaker 3: she did what she did and who she was. So
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  Speaker 3: it's a double edged sword.
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  Speaker 1: And again, I am not shocked. We're talking about the
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  Speaker 1: bad lands here. And I mean, I mean, because I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you've got calamity gene. You've got I mean, everything up there.
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  Speaker 1: It just signaled that there was the bad lands and
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  Speaker 1: bad people were going to be coming from this area.
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  Speaker 1: So when you speak like this, I'm going, yeah, that's us. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you got it.
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  Speaker 2: That makes sense. That makes sense.
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  Speaker 3: But honestly, like boiling flypaper, you know, to get the arsenic,
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  Speaker 3: you know, getting all of the, you know, insurance policies
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  Speaker 3: lined up. You know, there's a lot of effort that
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  Speaker 3: goes into, you know, making her the legend that she
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  Speaker 3: was and bringing her to life in this book.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot there.
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  Speaker 3: And there's a lot for people to contemplate as they read.
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  Speaker 3: You know, how bad was she? Did she really deserve it?
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  Speaker 1: So bad I want to say dun-dun-dun-dun. We're going to
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  Speaker 1: be right back with Greg and Morgan Olson. The name
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  Speaker 1: of the book is Ordinary Wife from the collaboration, the
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  Speaker 1: father-daughter team of Greg and Morgan Olson. So let me
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  Speaker 1: ask you this question. When you uncover a thing, you
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  Speaker 1: don't make me feel like this is a CBS Sunday
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  Speaker 1: morning news story. You make me feel like you're putting
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  Speaker 1: me there in that moment. What are you two doing
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  Speaker 1: to create that magic to where you're inviting people into
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  Speaker 1: what you're uncovering?
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  Speaker 2: Morgan, take that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that is a great question. Well, you know, what
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  Speaker 4: are we doing? We are really researching and we're reading
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  Speaker 4: every news clipping we can get our hands on. We
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  Speaker 4: are talking about what we think. And then we're also
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  Speaker 4: talking about what we think isn't really relevant to the case.
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  Speaker 4: We want the readers to make their decision. We want
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  Speaker 4: to leave our opinions out of it. So, yeah, we're
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  Speaker 4: just leaving no stone unturned.
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  Speaker 1: See, I love that because that's exactly the secret of radio.
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  Speaker 1: Give them the theater of the mind and let them
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  Speaker 1: get their own interpretation. And that creates a connection and
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  Speaker 1: a loyalty to the author themselves.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I agree with that. That is exactly the right
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  Speaker 3: way for everybody to come to, I think, a really
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  Speaker 3: great nonfiction book is the writer's job is to give
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  Speaker 3: you that material and let you process it in your
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  Speaker 3: own way without being in the way of telling the
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  Speaker 3: story or leading you down a path. It's hard to do.
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  Speaker 3: because there's no one to talk to when it's 100
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  Speaker 3: years old. We can't get the nuances. So you really
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  Speaker 3: have to dig through those transcripts, review the letters. We
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  Speaker 3: found some oral histories that people had recorded long after
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  Speaker 3: it happened. So there were lots of places to look,
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  Speaker 3: but again... You know, we're just like you on radio.
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  Speaker 3: We want to paint a picture, but you're going to
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  Speaker 3: fill it in. We're not going to do that.
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  Speaker 1: I got to tell you, every time you say 100 years,
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  Speaker 1: I chuckle because I can still hear Dolly Parton tell me,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the only way we ever got the news
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  Speaker 1: out was through the country music. And I'm going, oh,
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  Speaker 1: my God, that's what was missing from Montana at that time.
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  Speaker 1: Some good old country music so we could get that
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  Speaker 1: word out.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, you want to save lives.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I got to give you some kudos here, Greg.
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  Speaker 1: I have been for many, many, many decades now trying
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  Speaker 1: to get teachers to get their students to write because
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  Speaker 1: from writing comes books, from books come imaginations, then other writers.
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  Speaker 1: To hear Morgan speak and to share her research, that
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  Speaker 1: inspires me and that gives me that fuel to continue pushing.
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  Speaker 1: I understand the importance of reading, but you've got to
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  Speaker 1: get them to write as well.
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  Speaker 3: You're 100% right, and here's the thing. In my entire
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: life as a writer, I have probably my best moments,
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  Speaker 3: whether it was in the UK or in Hong Kong
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  Speaker 3: or other places where I have taught young people about
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  Speaker 3: how to write a true story and what goes into it.
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  Speaker 3: And I can see that there's a hunger out there
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  Speaker 3: for kids to learn how to do that. And I
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  Speaker 3: hope that this generation that's immersed in screen time and
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: sound bites and TikToks and all of that, I hope
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  Speaker 3: there's a pause in that at some point where they'll
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  Speaker 3: really sit down and write the stories because that's what
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  Speaker 3: history is. It's storytelling. And if we don't write things
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  Speaker 3: down or share them in that way, they are lost.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the really, really neat things here, yesterday
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  Speaker 1: I was talking with somebody that was saying that 1%
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  Speaker 1: of all crimes actually go to a court and they
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  Speaker 1: can't get jurors to do it. Yet you guys have
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  Speaker 1: written a book where you make us the jury. God dang,
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  Speaker 1: I love you guys.
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  Speaker 3: You really, you really, you know what I'm saying?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you're giving us the opportunity to be the jury.
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  Speaker 1: If only 1% is going to make it to a
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  Speaker 1: court case, well then give me this book then.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
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  Speaker 3: I love that. And I'm kind of now wondering when
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  Speaker 3: you're on that jury, how you're going to vote. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: that's right.
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  Speaker 1: Well, send Morgan. She'll give us all the information. Send Morgan.
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  Speaker 1: So now, are you going to continue a series like
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  Speaker 1: this and stay 100 years from now? Or how else
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  Speaker 1: do you find these stories? And my God, I would
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  Speaker 1: love to see your research because I am a research pig.
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  Speaker 1: I've got to really dig in.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, actually, we are working on another one, and we're
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  Speaker 3: almost done with it. We don't say too much about it,
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  Speaker 3: but it's like 1959, so.
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  Speaker 2: It's not 100 years old. But we're really looking.
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  Speaker 3: For those kinds of cases, the cases that inform us
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  Speaker 3: about things that happened in the past that might not
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: happen again or taking a fresh look. And some notorious cases,
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  Speaker 3: which we have three scheduled.
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  Speaker 2: And hopefully Morgan and I will enjoy doing this, you know,
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  Speaker 2: for years to come.
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  Speaker 1: When you guys get dry on information, you got to
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: come to this forest here in Carolina, because I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what the energy that's here. But when you try
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  Speaker 1: to figure out what the history of this land is,
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  Speaker 1: you can't find it. That's why I think something happened.
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  Speaker 1: They buried it somewhere. And there's something buried in these trees.
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  Speaker 1: And I think, I swear to God, that's got to
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: be the reason why I like Ordinary Wife. Because if
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  Speaker 1: you're talking about it, that gives me permission to talk
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  Speaker 1: about it as well.
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  Speaker 3: That's right. Well, you know what? I'm thinking if I
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: ever come to Carolina, we're definitely hanging with you, and
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: we're going to get a shovel and see what we
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: can dig up.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Dude, if you only knew how much is underneath all
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: this kudzu, because they feel that once the kudzu's over,
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  Speaker 1: they're like, ah, that's history. We don't need to go
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: back and revisit it. My friend Steve, we will go
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and undig old Native American burial grounds. I mean, it
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  Speaker 1: is there just waiting to be found.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, wow. There's so, yes, there's so much history, whether it's,
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  Speaker 3: you know, artifacts for sure, but also within our country's archives,
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  Speaker 3: there are so many stories that are just sitting.
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  Speaker 2: You know, in some courthouse somewhere that.
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  Speaker 3: Will never get found and never get told, you know,
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  Speaker 3: except for somebody, hopefully like me and Morgan will find
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  Speaker 3: those stories because it is like an archaeological dig. you know,
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  Speaker 3: finding what people have missed and bringing it out into
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  Speaker 3: the light. So you and I and Morgan, we're all
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: the same. The three of us are the same. And
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: thank goodness there's a lot of people out there that
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: share those interests.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question, Morgan, in the way
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of in this day of binge watching TV, when you
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: sit down to a thriller, you probably have it figured
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: out in the first episode, don't you?
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Who did it?
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't. And I think that I don't.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: I don't. I'm a viewer just like everybody else. But
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I will say about this case, if it ever is
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: made into a movie, there is a very big twist
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: that we haven't talked about. We won't talk about. We
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: won't ruin the book. That would make it an amazing
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: thriller drama.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about this collaboration,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: which is just blowing me away?
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Well, you know what, we're everywhere. Every online retailer, independent bookstores,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: all of your major chains, we're there.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Those books are out there. And there's also a fantastic.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Audio that, you know, if people are less inclined to
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: read and want to hear the story, it's really great.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: It's one of the best audios I've ever heard.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the future. I mean, whatever you guys are doing, we
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: got to get the word out and just keep growing
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: your existence of research forward because that's what we need
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: to really invest in.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, we'd love to come back.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, you're our number one. We thank you for
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: your energy and your enthusiasm. It's early in the morning.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: It's still dark here, but I've got a smile on
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: my face, and thank you so much for your time.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Well, you guys be brilliant today, and go enjoy that
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Mount Rainier today.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, we will. Absolutely. There might be a dead body
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: on it.
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  Speaker 1: I know that for a fact, man. I was up
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: there on a hill one time and it was lean.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: They even told us when we were getting there, the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: house is going to lean. You're right below Mount Rainier
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and you're not probably going to feel well. Well, they
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: nailed that. So I thought, what's out here that I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: need to know about? And so that's where I spent
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: all my time was out there trying to. But I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: kept running into the Oregon Blues. Are you familiar with
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: those out there, guys? No, no, the bird. I, somebody
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: told me that it's a state bird and that Oregon
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: blue would not leave me alone. As I was walking
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: through that forest, I kept saying, what do you want
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to show me? What is going on here? And then
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I get to meet you guys today and you're doing
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the same exact thing.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: That's fantastic. Thank you. We also call that the death bird.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Well, you guys be brilliant today.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Okay. All right.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Have a great one.