Overview of My Favorite Murder Episode 539: “It Keeps Getting Ruined”
This episode blends the hosts’ usual banter with a major true-crime update, an early-American murder case, and a bizarre historical oddity. Karen and Georgia start with life updates, including Georgia’s Italy trip, vacation nails, and TV obsession with Widows Bay, then share a major sentencing update in the Gilgo Beach case. The main story is the 1778 murder of Joshua Spooner in Massachusetts — a scandal involving adultery, politics, pregnancy, and what may have been one of the earliest uses of the insanity defense in America. The second half shifts into “weird news” territory with the infamous Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876.
Opening Banter and Pop Culture Chat
Georgia’s Italy trip and “dressing for dinner”
- Georgia talks about liking the ritual of dressing up for dinner in Italy and how it made each evening feel more special.
- The hosts joke about her not openly displaying Jewish symbols while traveling and about staying in a hotel once used by Mussolini.
TV talk: Widows Bay
- Both hosts are obsessed with Widows Bay and discuss:
- Easter eggs and timeline clues
- the social-media “react” culture around TV
- spoilers ruining big reveals
- They praise Chris Fleming’s performance in the show.
True Crime Update: Gilgo Beach Case
Rex Heuermann sentenced
- Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach murderer, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- The victims named in the update include Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amberlynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Karen Vergata.
- The hosts react with relief that the case has reached a conclusion and emphasize that the “monster” was just a cowardly man.
Main Story: The Murder of Joshua Spooner
The setup: Revolutionary-era Massachusetts
- The story takes place on March 1, 1778, in Brookfield, Massachusetts, during the Revolutionary War.
- Joshua Spooner was a wealthy businessman and Patriot supporter.
- His wife, Bathsheba Ruggles Spooner, came from a powerful Loyalist family; her father was Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, a deeply hated Loyalist figure.
A miserable marriage
- Joshua and Bathsheba’s marriage was arranged and unhappy:
- Joshua was frequently drunk, unfaithful, and possibly abusive.
- Bathsheba was described as beautiful, strong-willed, and difficult to control.
- Their relationship was further strained by politics, since Bathsheba was cut off from her Loyalist father.
Ezra Ross enters the story
- A 16-year-old Continental soldier, Ezra Ross, is taken in by the Spooners while sick and traveling home.
- Bathsheba and Ezra form a secret relationship that becomes sexual.
- Bathsheba later tells Ezra she is pregnant and asks him to help poison Joshua.
The murder plot
- Ezra tries to poison Joshua with nitric acid, but Joshua tastes it and spits it out.
- Later, Bathsheba recruits two British deserters, William Brooks and James Buchanan, offering money and clothes to kill her husband.
- Ezra returns and joins them.
- On March 1, Joshua is ambushed outside his home, beaten, strangled, and thrown into a well.
- The plan was to make it look like a drunken accident.
Investigation and trial
- Joshua’s body is discovered quickly, and signs of strangulation make the “accident” story hard to believe.
- Bathsheba, Ezra, Brooks, and Buchanan are all arrested within 24 hours.
- The trial becomes a major sensation because of:
- the scandalous love triangle
- the political tensions of the Revolutionary era
- Bathsheba’s Loyalist family
- The defense argues Bathsheba may have been mentally unwell, making this one of the earliest uses of an insanity defense in American legal history.
Pregnancy claim and execution
- Bathsheba claims she is pregnant, delaying her execution.
- After repeated physical examinations by court-appointed midwives, the court rules against her.
- On July 2, 1778, Bathsheba, Ezra, Brooks, and Buchanan are hanged.
- A post-execution autopsy finds Bathsheba had been pregnant after all, and the fetus was about five months developed.
- The public backlash centers on the injustice of executing a pregnant woman and the gender/political bias baked into the case.
Legacy
- The story has become a cautionary tale about:
- political bias
- the treatment of women in the justice system
- domestic abuse and coercive marriages
- the double standard around adultery
- Joshua’s well still exists in Brookfield, according to the historical commission.
Weird History Segment: The Kentucky Meat Shower
What happened
- On March 3, 1876, in Olympian Springs, Kentucky, meat-like chunks reportedly fell from the sky onto the Crouch family farm.
- Rebecca Crouch, who was making soap outside, saw what looked like snowflakes, but it turned out to be fleshy material.
- Animals on the farm reportedly ate some of it.
What was it?
- Samples were analyzed, and the most plausible explanation is that vultures had eaten meat elsewhere and regurgitated it mid-flight when startled.
- Other theories mentioned included:
- gelatinous bacteria
- horse or human tissue
- absurd, sensational speculation from newspapers
Modern obsession and reenactment
- An art professor at Transylvania University, Kurt Goad, later became fascinated with the case.
- He located a preserved sample and even turned the mystery into jelly beans to test flavor impressions.
- He now commemorates the event with a local festival and a playful “second meat shower,” dropping wrapped beef jerky from a small plane.
- The segment ends as a reminder that bizarre historical events can become community folklore.
Key Themes and Takeaways
- True crime has always been messy: the Spooner case shows that scandal, politics, and legal bias have long shaped justice.
- Women in the 18th century had almost no power: Bathsheba’s options were extremely limited, even before the murder plot.
- Public fascination with the grotesque is nothing new: the Kentucky Meat Shower shows how people have always tried to explain strange phenomena.
- The hosts’ tone: equal parts comedy, skepticism, and genuine anger at injustice, especially when the story involves abuse, bias, or violence against women.