Overview of My Favorite Murder Episode 545, “Don’t You Like Weirdos?”
This episode blends two very different true stories: the first is a disturbing Canadian sexual assault case involving a doctor who tried to outsmart DNA testing by implanting stolen blood into his arm; the second is a historical financial scam from 1814 that used false wartime news to manipulate the London stock market. Along the way, Karen and Georgia trade their usual banter about outfits, weirdness, forensic TV nostalgia, and how often powerful or charming people manage to fool a whole community.
Main Story: Candy vs. Dr. John Schneeberger
The setup
- In Halloween 1993, Candy, a 23-year-old woman in Kipling, Saskatchewan, is working at a gas station when a fight with her ex-boyfriend leaves her upset.
- She goes to the local hospital to see a friend and ends up speaking with Dr. John Schneeberger, a trusted local physician who had delivered her baby months earlier.
- Schneeberger gives her a shot of Versed, a sedative that can cause amnesia, and she later wakes up realizing she has likely been sexually assaulted.
Candy’s fight for the truth
- Candy gets a rape kit done at another clinic and tests positive for semen.
- She reports Schneeberger to police, but many townspeople do not believe her and speculate about revenge, obsession, or extortion.
- Schneeberger cooperates with investigators and offers a blood sample, which initially does not match the semen evidence.
- Candy remains convinced he is her attacker and keeps pushing.
The DNA deception
- A private investigator later retrieves DNA from a tube of chapstick in Schneeberger’s car, and it matches the semen from Candy’s rape kit.
- But that evidence is inadmissible in court.
- Schneeberger later gives another blood sample, this time under police supervision, but the sample is too degraded to analyze.
- The case goes cold again until his stepdaughter comes forward, revealing that he had been sexually assaulting her for years by drugging her first.
- In her office, Schneeberger’s wife Lisa finds condoms, needles, and Versed, and realizes her husband has been lying all along.
The reveal
- Schneeberger is finally arrested and tested again, this time with:
- a fingertip blood draw,
- a hair sample with the root bulb,
- and a cheek swab.
- All three match Candy’s rape-kit DNA.
- At trial in 1999, Schneeberger confesses to surgically implanting a Penrose drain under the skin of his arm, filled with stolen blood from a patient, so he could fake blood tests.
- He is convicted of sexual assault, administering a stupefying drug, and obstructing justice.
Outcome
- He is sentenced to six years in prison, stripped of his medical license, and later paroled after serving about four years.
- His Canadian citizenship is revoked because he failed to disclose the sexual assault investigation during naturalization, and he is deported to South Africa.
- Candy later helps create the film project I Accused, hoping to encourage other survivors to come forward.
Second Story: The Napoleonic Hoax of 1814
The scam
- In February 1814, a mysterious man arrives in Dover claiming to be “Colonel de Berg” and says he has urgent news from France.
- He spreads the false report that Napoleon has been killed and the Napoleonic Wars are over.
- The story races toward London by horse and coach, and government bond prices rise as investors react to the “news.”
Why it worked
- Information moved slowly in 1814, making rumor and manipulation much easier.
- The scam resembles an early pump-and-dump scheme:
- spread false news,
- inflate bond prices,
- then profit before the truth comes out.
The fallout
- Investigators quickly trace the carriage and uncover a group of conspirators tied to Lord Thomas Cochrane, a member of Parliament and naval hero.
- Cochrane and others are found guilty of fraud.
- Cochrane is fined, pilloried, and publicly embarrassed, though some historians have later questioned whether he deserved conviction based on the trial evidence.
- The episode closes by noting that early stock-market manipulation was already a problem long before modern finance.
Key Takeaways
From the Candy case
- Trusting a respected professional can make abuse even harder to detect and prove.
- Candy’s persistence is the heart of the story: she does not let bad testing or public disbelief stop her.
- The case is a chilling example of how far an abuser may go to evade forensic evidence.
From the Napoleonic hoax
- Financial scams are not new; market manipulation has been around as long as stock markets themselves.
- Slow communication made 19th-century rumor a powerful weapon.
- The episode draws a clear line between old-time bond fraud and modern pump-and-dump schemes.
Notable Episode Moments
Host banter and side notes
- Georgia and Karen spend part of the intro talking about outfits, including Georgia’s floral mechanics jumpsuit.
- They revisit old style choices and joke about keeping an outfit binder.
- Karen gives a corrections note referencing a previous episode about Paul Franzak and mentions that The Knife also covered it.
- They also plug other Exactly Right shows, including Bananas, Brief Recess, Disgraceland, and I Said No Gifts.
Cultural references
- The Candy story is framed as a classic Forensic Files case.
- The second story leans into the hosts’ love of historical weirdness and financial misconduct.
- Their commentary repeatedly circles back to one of the episode’s core themes: weirdos are real, and sometimes the most polished people are the most dangerous.