Drink about something
True crime and some fun banter adventures with music you don't want to miss!
Lindsey finds stories that are amazingly shocking enough that you just may need a drink after or during the tales of past crime trauma!
Drink about something
EPISODE 104: Your Spell Is A Lie
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A man calls in a fire, first responders arrive, and he’s standing there with blood on his hands. Then he drops the line that makes your stomach turn: two kids are dead and it was a “spell gone bad.” We’re Jesse and Lindsay, and we’re walking you through the true crime case of Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr, a story that gets mislabeled as “witchcraft” when the real themes are control, jealousy, and violence hiding behind a mask.
We trace how Larry meets Marla Strowman, how fast the relationship moves, and how he builds trust by looking like an amazing stepdad. Then the cracks show. Marla is Christian. Larry claims pagan beliefs, talks about Wicca, brings up Anton LaVey’s Satanic Bible, and starts pushing past boundaries, even involving the kids in conversations that make Marla deeply uncomfortable. As the marriage heads into conflict, we talk about practical red flags: possessiveness over platonic friendships, escalating fights, and what happens when someone with a bipolar disorder diagnosis stops taking medication and refuses follow-up care.
When the case turns horrific, Larry tries to explain it with possession by the Hindu goddess Kali and “magic” gone wrong. We unpack what investigators and courtroom evidence reveal, why the “satanic panic” framing can be so misleading, and how people weaponize religion as a cover story. We also end the way we always do, with a band recommendation you can blast after you catch your breath.
If you listen, share it with a friend who loves spooky season true crime, and leave a review. What moment in the timeline feels like the clearest warning sign to you?
CHECK OUT THE FEATURED BAND THIS WEEK!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7V459FVe28
Ready to explore more shocking true crime cases with us? Subscribe to Drink About Something for new episodes every Friday, and visit drinkaboutsomething.site with links to see all our content, including visual evidence from the cases we cover.
AS ALWAYS D-A-S
Witchy Banter To Kick Off
SPEAKER_02Hey Jesse.
SPEAKER_00Hello, Lindsay.
SPEAKER_02Did you know that even though we used Game of Thrones vows for our wedding, because we're complete nerds, that the mother of the maiden in the crone is actually part of the Wicca religion?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it goes way back. Yeah, I kind of knew that was a kind of a thing. Yeah, hell yeah. And we did the damn thing. We did the damn thing. That's what's up. We uh must be some witches. What do you think? I think it says light as a feather, light as a feather, stiff as a board in our song, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Light as a feather, stiff as a board.
SPEAKER_00I think so, right?
SPEAKER_02You want to try that later?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I go first.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Or do we need like four? I need to call my coven. Oh, you got you do have a covenant, Lindsay's. I better not fuck up around Lindsay. She'd be working the roots on me. No, it's a good one. So Marie Laveau, I think you would be like Marie Laveau. If you were a witch, like you would kind of be like more around.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but anything that I want to do as far as that goes, I want it to all be like positivity, complete. I don't want to do anything dark.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. Yeah. All natural, sweet, earthy.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And just positive manifestation, just absolute the light. We got enough darkness. We talk about darkness every week. We got enough. But listen, hey.
SPEAKER_01Hey.
Drinks And The Day We Had
SPEAKER_02Hey, listeners. Uh, we are Jesse and Lindsay from the Drink About Something podcast, where I tell Jesse a story, a true crime story. We have a couple of drinks, and at the end of the episode, Jesse plugs an amazing band for us to listen to. What's in your cup tonight?
SPEAKER_00Me, I have the ginzelati.
SPEAKER_02And what is that? For our listeners, I know what it is.
SPEAKER_00It's pineapple Fanta and spiced rum.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Very good.
SPEAKER_02So we came up with that when we first moved in together because it was like what we had in the house. And we had this uh, it was a smoothie maker, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I had a big old jug of that shit, and I just never really drank it. It was just in his house. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And he and he likes, he always liked to drink Fanta when he would have pizza. So he had pineapple Fanta in the fridge, a jug of Jack Daniels. I mean, um, not Jack Daniels, uh, Captain Morgan spice rum. And that was our drink. We did uh, what did we used to call them? Gen Z Mondays.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, because fuck Mondays.
SPEAKER_02Well, and we never really we weren't really drinking on the weekends then because I was still working some weekends.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was wide open. Yeah, it was just yeah. And I was taking on like kids that I didn't have, and I was like raising, I was like, I'm taking on all this stuff, so I'm new dad stuff, so we're doing all that, and then then we went, we went uh kayaking and yeah, and I saved the rum that day. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, that was a day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was a hoopla. The hoopla. What are you drinking?
SPEAKER_02I have peach um vista bay. Oh, and uh some leftover tropical Celsius because I needed that shit earlier. We have had a day, you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, full-on day, dude. I even went to my dermatologist today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and by that he means tattoo artists.
SPEAKER_00Got uh old silly goose there, a black goose from Oasis Tattoos in Gainesville. Go check him out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if y'all are local to us, absolutely go to Oasis. I mean, all the artists there are talented, but goose is.
SPEAKER_00I knew that he was feeling himself when he's all like talking about the plantains upstairs because he came in with a big old bag of food and he took it upstairs and he's all like, I got some plantains up there. I may or may not have rubbed my genitals on it. Listen, I would like the goose is goosing.
SPEAKER_02I would give my one of my fingers right now for some plantains. That's one of my favorite things to eat.
SPEAKER_00I must love a plantain.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Especially with a big old plant that you're gonna get.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he looked like he had a whole bag.
SPEAKER_02Actually, you can just throw a plantain on any fucking thing. I don't care. Just give me some plantains.
Feeling Old With 90s TV
SPEAKER_00Anyhow, yeah, anyhow, Lindsay, what made you feel old this time?
SPEAKER_02Oh, you son of a bitch.
SPEAKER_00I am going to be the son of a bitch today.
SPEAKER_02When I was looking up uh when Rain Man came out today. That's kind of the same shit as me, man.
SPEAKER_00I was looking up, uh keep going though. You got more?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's just because you confuse Target with Kmart.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And you were like, that's where I buy my underwear. 400 Oak Street, yeah. And I was like, what? And he was like, yeah, 400 Oak Street. I'm like, Jesse, that's Kmart.
SPEAKER_00Fuck. But that's where I get my underwear.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's from Rain Man. And I was like, I don't think Target was around yet when Rain Man came out. And I looked up when Rain Man came out, which was 88. And then I looked up when Target was a thing, and it was like 62. And I was like, oh, never mind. I was wrong about that. But we didn't get him local to our area until like early 90s. I don't, I I do think I'm right about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I I said I said that was back when Tom Cruise didn't have a cruise ship for a nose.
SPEAKER_02Actually, he still did.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he did. He didn't, but he was a heart throb still, though, right?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. What do you mean, still? Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_02In 88, that's when his heart throbness was I mean, he still is, like all the way from then until now, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But like I was telling you, I I prefer when he plays ugly old men. Yeah. There's something about that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Mine was basically the same thing. Like, I'm I'm I'm looking back at all of our TV shows, you know, like Randon Stampy just turned 30.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And then like Courage the Cowardly Dog is like 26 years old. And I'm not even gonna mention He-Man and Ninja Turtles and shit.
SPEAKER_02No, because that shit we watched when we were little.
SPEAKER_00They're in their 40s.
SPEAKER_02I want a run when when we're done rewatch, when we're done with American Horror Story, when we're done re-watching Game of Thrones, I want to fucking re-watch cat dog.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and that's up there too. That's up to it.
SPEAKER_02Cat Dog, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't have the stats on cat dog, but I did write it down.
SPEAKER_02Alone in a world with a little cat, though.
SPEAKER_00Me, some cat dog. Yes. Yeah, and I love courage too. We got to meet the artist, and yeah, that was really cool.
SPEAKER_02Did I ever tell you my my story about, you know, I grew up without having any kind of like cable or anything like that. So I could only watch cool cartoons like that when I was at a friend's house. So I was at a friend's house, first time I ever watched Ren and Stimpy, and it was the episode about um Stimpy. He's the big one, right? He's the chunky one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So he had farted and he didn't want it to leave him. And so he like married his fart and all the things. And then the next time, two years later, when I'm I think I was at my Aunt Catherine's house, and she would just let me have my little, my little time watching TV, you know, because she knew. She knew I was sheltered, all the things I was staying with her for the summer. That same episode came back on. And then a year later, I was at another friend's house. We're sitting down, Ren Stimpy's on, same episode. And Stimpy's running around with the fucking fart in a jar, right?
SPEAKER_00Didn't he get a little bit of a few?
SPEAKER_02I don't remember if it was in a jar. But I remember he got really depressed when it left him.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, and then heeped out. Yeah, the green cloud.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll have to find that episode and watch it. Because it was like, I just thought that that was wild. Three separate times. I never watched another episode before that.
SPEAKER_00How cool were they?
SPEAKER_02They were so cool. But then, of course, I watched many, many. When I moved out on my own, I watched Ren and Simpy continuously. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I remember so many episodes. Like the one where you had the collection of nose goblins. Oh, yeah. The nose goblins had them under the desk. Yes. So many stories, though, Lindsay, and you got them too, though.
SPEAKER_02Oh my
Case Begins Larry Harris Sr
SPEAKER_02god. This week. Uh so I told y'all season three. I warned you at the beginning, it's gonna be rough. We are in spooky season, and uh, we're gonna talk about a little bit of uh witchcraft today.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, crafty.
SPEAKER_02And Jesse has my scripts. He's got to pass it back over to me.
SPEAKER_00I'm holding it. I'm holding it like Stippy's fart.
SPEAKER_02So the background information on our subject today. Today we're drinking about Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr. Um, it's it's limited, uh, but I do know that he was from Upland, California. He was the second of four siblings. And if you guys have multiple kids, y'all know that that second kid is the no-limit soldier. They will put you through all the hill. All the hill. And look, he and he was exactly what I just said. He was a handful. And his sister Kat says that he had to be the center of attention all the time. And he would have an absolute meltdown if it wasn't about him, period. He would yell at his mom and be completely disrespectful. And punishments did nothing. He would just start running away. We've dealt with that, haven't we, Jesse? We've had one of those. With my second child.
SPEAKER_00I think we're experiencing that a little bit with our grands a little bit.
SPEAKER_02Not saying that we're gonna be able to do that. No, no, no. We're not gonna we're we're no. We are going to rebuke that. Yes. We're gonna invoke positivity, but she, we gotta, we're gonna get her, we're gonna get her by herself for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna I'm gonna, real quick, I'm gonna go ahead and put a Al Nal Nathrach, Uthrasvethad, Donkey All Janve on that.
SPEAKER_02You have no idea what you just said.
SPEAKER_00Well, if you know what it is, I'll give you a t-shirt.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02So then he would start becoming violent towards his siblings. Then he eventually became violent with his mom. And I mean, Larry's parents tried everything, and my heart just goes out to them because I have been through it. And as he got older, he would actually he became less violent, but he seemed to become more angry and somber. He went through like kind of probably like a grunge era type thing, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02He uh he began to cut himself and had to spend some time in a behavioral institution because of that. So now we're gonna jump to when he meets Marla Strowman in 2005. Marla, she was a single mom who worked too hard, who loved her kids and never stopped.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, those are the moms, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02You don't know that reference? Work too hard, love your kids, love your kids and never stopped. Oh, ooh. Who the gentle hands and the I'm gonna stop on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay, Reba.
SPEAKER_00You did it.
SPEAKER_02I've been re-watching Reba, so yeah. We were like pausing.
SPEAKER_00We're like, should we sing it? Should we sing it? Did we do it? We do it. We did it.
SPEAKER_02But you know, all jokes aside, Marla, she had one boy named Triton, and then two girls named Kendra and Alicia. I thought that was a very interesting name for a boy. Triton.
SPEAKER_00I love it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Actually, King Triton from Little Mermaid.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah, had to do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now, Marla, she was a caregiver at a group home in Alexandria, Minnesota. Larry and his son, who was just a baby at that time, were living in the group home. Larry was in the home recovering from addiction to meth, and his son's mother had abandoned the baby. Marla was a few years older than Larry, and she she had a little past too. She had been caught with marijuana possession in the past, but nothing real serious. She had no real record or anything other than that. So Larry starts talking to Marla about parenting on your own because she had experience, and they bond over that, and then a relationship starts, and they start taking their kids on walks together. And after about a month, Marla asked Larry to move in with her. But he wasn't sure he was a good enough parent to take on his boy Larry Jr. So little Larry remained in foster care for a while. But what's crazy is when he moves in with Marla, he helps take care of her kids. And what? Because she worked full-time until he found employment. And by all accounts, he was amazing with Marla's kids. He read to them, took them to the park, tucked them in at night, and it wasn't long before, like, you know, he was saying, I love you to these kids, and they were saying it back. But here's where things get complicated.
Beliefs That Start Breaking Trust
SPEAKER_02Marla is of the Christian faith, and Larry says that he is a pagan who studies Wicca and reads Anton Levee's satanic Bible.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Anton Levee.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, I mean, we did we did we did talk about the satanic. Yes, we talked about that. So they don't believe in any deities at all. They don't believe in all of that.
SPEAKER_00No, it's more self and self. Selfish.
SPEAKER_02Yes. They are uh they are all about themselves.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and if you want to gain some cool points here, go to our first episode. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and comment what you think about that one. So he tells Marla that he likes to practice casting spells. Well, that makes Marla uncomfortable. And she asks him not to do it in her house. And he had actually been like talking to the kids about it too. A little later on, Marla sees how good Larry is with her children and encourages him to get little Larry Jr. back. And when Larry finds out that it's actually possible, he tells Marla, hey, the spell worked. And she's like, Huh? And he said, Yeah, I cast a spell last night, and now I just got a call that I'm gonna get Junior back. Everything is great. What's the problem? And she was like, Well, I asked you not to do that in the house, and I definitely don't want my kids involved. But life went on, Junior comes home and they are pretty much a big happy family. And in July of 2006, Marla and Larry get married. Now, she will say later on in an interview that after their rehearsal dinner, that something inside of her was telling her not to go through with it. And that voice inside of her was saying, if you do, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life. But she didn't listen to that voice. And she was like, you know what? The children are happy. Her and Larry never fought. She thought maybe it was just a bit of cold feet, like her own. Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, all the nervousness. The nervousness.
SPEAKER_02Now I'm not sure what the details are, but there were a couple of times that the cops actually had come to the family's house, but nothing came of those incidents. Like nothing was reported. So I'm not really sure there. Now Larry tries to get Marla later on, you know, after they're married, to read the satanic Bible. But she does not like how it contradicts the Holy Bible. So after a couple of pages, she says, you know, I'm not interested. And the more invested Larry gets into the satanic Bible, the more his behavior starts to change. Which is odd to me, because the satanic Bible is not about evil or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00So But you're using the word, so of course that's taboo, you know?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But that's the whole the whole reason why it's called that religion is because it was basically as a fuck you to everybody else, to all these other religions. You know what I mean? But it is literally the practice of one's selfish, like you're investing in yourself.
SPEAKER_00It's kind of setting the premise for the people that want to be real and get away from the whole Christianity religion, period.
SPEAKER_02Right. Like I said, it's more about just like taking care of it. It's like it's more like self-care. As far as I know, so far, we are gonna go in depth into Anton LeVay down the road. So we'll get back to you on that. But as far as I know, the things that I read in research covering Corpsewood Manor and things like that, it doesn't say anywhere that was there's anything really evil in that religion. Like I said, it's more about yourself.
SPEAKER_00But it's not really antichrist, it's just more than a chance. But they just called it more agnostic or they just called it they say the satanic church to be.
SPEAKER_02Because I don't know. I haven't read it.
SPEAKER_00I'm not even interested in reading it myself.
SPEAKER_02Well, the I mean, like I said, I just I looked up, I have looked up basic, not AI overview, but Wikipedia articles and things like that about it. Yeah, a summary. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00I gotcha.
SPEAKER_02Haven't deep dived into it.
SPEAKER_00But I think the word itself is just trying to like pronunciate the the whole grasp of this doesn't exist and we're just gonna support ourselves type and do our own things.
SPEAKER_02Right, but like I said, they don't believe in a deity, period. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm just I'm trying to hash it out with you because you know more than me. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But like I said, the most that I have gone into it, I don't understand why his behavior would change other than there's something going on upstairs, and we're gonna get into that. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, control thing or something, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, Larry, he starts bringing red, white, and black candles into the house. He draws Baphomet and Crayon on a dresser, and he starts drawing his own blood. He's practicing stuff that Marla is not okay with, and she doesn't want it in the house. So he starts doing things in the woods. He starts going to the woods to practice spells and he returns with cuts on him. And this is scaring Marla because she doesn't understand what the fuck he's doing. She doesn't get it. And that's where I would be like, all right, you need to explain this to me, or we gotta figure out our living situation.
SPEAKER_00But we can practice like symbolic blood magic, but if you actually do blood magic, then it's anti-well, hold on.
SPEAKER_02Let me get yeah, let me get into it. Yeah, well, that's that was more of the Wicca and the pagan stuff, according to Larry. So life, you know, continues
Control Jealousy And Stopped Meds
SPEAKER_02to go on. And in early 2007, they moved to Marla's hometown in Sioux City, Iowa. This was mostly because their rental house was put up for sale by the owner. And Marla has family in that area. Now Marla is working at another residential facility, and Larry gets a job at Walmart. Not too long after they move, Marla's son, who is just 13, gets convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and becomes part of the registry at 13. It's the details could not find what exactly he did. Because there's actually not many people that have covered this. Um, I will discuss later where I got a lot of this information and where I found this. But yeah, so Marla's girls, they were in the fifth and second grade at this time. You know, she just, like I said, her 13-year-old son just got in trouble. But Kendra, she's in the fifth grade and she's super smart and she would write short stories. And she was also already learning Japanese because she loved anime so much.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Just super art, yes, artistic and just reaching out for everything to be herself.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah. And she she also loved animals and you know, aspired to be a vet when she grew up. And little Alicia, she loved to draw and she wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. And she was already reading at a fifth grade level in second grade.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02Both girls loved to swim and roller skate and bake, and everyone said they were super sweet girls. Like Kendra brought one of their neighbors cookies at Christmas time, like just very well-rounded girls. Now, around this time, I'm pretty sure it was uh shortly after the incident with Marla's son. Larry and Marla start to fight, and there's a lot of tension in the house. They're fighting over discipline, dishes, laundry. Now, those things seem normal at first. And it was actually Larry that was more on the clean freak side. He did not like how messy Kendra and Alicia were, and he was like, they need to have their shit spotless all the time. And Marla's like, Well, they're kind of my kids. Why don't you just kind of stay out of it? Let me deal with it if you're having an issue.
SPEAKER_00Oh, so he's reaching for structure and home accountability.
SPEAKER_02She's still got that mom guilt because they are from a different father, their father's not around, she's divorced. So there is, I mean, we've we've even battled that. Battle's troubles. Yes. Because I'm like, listen, we gotta pick our battles where I'm more on the clean freak side.
SPEAKER_00But I'm just an easygoing dude. I'm just gonna go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm like, no, clean your fucking shit up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I'm just like, uh, well, they'll take care of it.
SPEAKER_02But I definitely don't want to be compared to Larry, but I understand cleanliness, and I understand that we all you also need you need to teach the kids to clean up after themselves. Yeah, and it's a battle every time. And you're yeah, you're gonna fight with them every fucking day of your life until they are grown. But then when they move out, then they keep a clean house. My mom did it with me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, our oldest does it. You know, he is wide open keeping a nice house.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's then he's got an excellent work ethic. Yeah. But also, Marla had platonic male friendships, and Larry would start to get jealous of. When she would either hang out with these friends or give them these were all like co-workers, okay? And there was one guy she would give a ride home. But a lot of the times, like she would take the kids with her and so that Larry would see, hey, this is strictly friendship. Because Larry, he really didn't have any friends. He was socially awkward, which is not Marla's fault. But when he expressed his anger, she was like, All right, I won't hang out with him anymore, you know? Now Larry had also been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was medicated for it. But then he just decides to stop taking his medicine, and that was in June of 2007.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, not good.
SPEAKER_02Now this led to more fighting. And Marla's like, look, we need to go to counseling and you need to get back on your meds.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're swinging.
SPEAKER_02Or this isn't gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00Moods are everywhere.
SPEAKER_02Moods are everywhere. She was like, the kids don't deserve to see us fighting anymore. Let's get this resolved. She says that she loved him and she was willing to do anything to make it work.
SPEAKER_00Right. She's seen the best side of him, and he's getting all the brownie points, especially at the beginning.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02In December of 2007, Larry finally agrees to go see a doctor. And the doctor wanted a second visit before prescribing medicine. But Larry doesn't schedule that second appointment. And then he says something pretty alarming to Marla in the middle of a fight. He says, I can hurt you in the worst way possible without even touching you. But like I said, this was in the middle of a fight. Right. So Marla brushed it off. She definitely should not have.
SPEAKER_00He feels like he's got some power though.
The Fire Call And A Horrific Claim
SPEAKER_02Because on January 6th, 2008, Marla goes to work. And she's got to pull a double. And Larry, he's at home with the kids. And I'm thinking that this was still during Christmas break time because around 1.30 p.m., Marla gets this eerie feeling like something is wrong. And she actually asks her job if she can leave because she's not hearing from Larry like she usually is. She said normally she would get 50 to 100 texts a day from him.
SPEAKER_00That's unhealthy.
SPEAKER_02That is unhealthy.
SPEAKER_00I think so.
SPEAKER_02So when you're going from getting 50 to 100 a day to nothing, she's like, what the fuck? And he's not responding to her texts that she's sending. So the job, they're like, no, we're understaffed. We really need you to stay. And then around 418, the police and the fire department were called by Larry, saying that there was a fire, but the call was made anonymously. It wasn't until later on that they figured out that it was Larry that called. When they get there, they instantly see blood on Larry's hands. And he said that Kendra and Alicia were deceased in their rooms.
SPEAKER_00Lindsay.
SPEAKER_02He said that their death was a result of a spell gone bad. Lin Z. And the first responders, they're like, What? There was a fire in the basement, but it seemed like it caused what they said was superficial damage, and it was maybe like done on purpose, you know what I mean? But there are two girls that are dead upstairs. Larry shows them this notebook that he had of spells and drawings, and it was all references from the satanic Bible, a book called Pagan Ways, and oh my god, I can't say this word. Necronomicon? Necronomicon. Necronomicon.
SPEAKER_00Should fuck the Yeah, Ash, evil dead, Necronomicon, Lindsay. Sorry. Why did this motherfuckin' motherfucker be a motherfucker, dude? Practice your shit on something else. Come on, man.
SPEAKER_02Well, we're gonna get let me finish.
SPEAKER_00Oh, this is an oh man.
SPEAKER_02Now he tells the police that he had been possessed by the Hindu goddess Callie, and she is the goddess of time, change, and destruction. Sir. What? Now I had to Google this. Callie is Hindu, but she is referred to in Wicca, but they mostly use the triple goddess, which is Mother Maiden Chrome.
SPEAKER_00Right. I mean, you're putting a fucking bad name on all this bullshit.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. We want y'all to know right now that we do not look down on any of these practices. We are, that's what I'm that's why I'm telling this story because this guy had more things wrong with him.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was taking the wrong things, the negative things, and twisting them into something like that. He didn't know what the fuck he was doing either. Yeah, there you go. Failure.
SPEAKER_02Now the girls were taken by the medical examiner, and it was determined that Alicia and Kendra had died of aspitiation. Alicia had been strangled, and this was by a cloth belt that later on Marla will be like, Yeah, that came with a pair of pants that I bought, Larry. Now Marla had texted Larry at 4:15, but she got no response. Soon after, her cousin called and told her that fire trucks were at her house. So she calls Larry again and gets no answer, of course. But then she has a voicemail from Larry, like it was like a butt dial, and he's cussing up a storm. He's just flipping out on this voicemail. Then the police call Marla to let her know that there was a fire. And she calls Larry again, and this time the police answer and said that she's gotta go to the hospital, ASAP. Now, when she gets there, they won't tell her right away what has happened to the girls. I mean, she has to literally beg them. Now, when she gets there, she believes that her girls have died from the fire. The police tell her that she's gotta go to the police station for an interview. And that's where she finds out that Larry is being held responsible for the homicide for the murder of her children. And boom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Right, big bada boom.
SPEAKER_02Like I said, she thought that they passed away from smoke inhalation. Right.
SPEAKER_00He was holding a cloth belt over one youngin''s neck until they passed away.
SPEAKER_02Well, she, her son, Triton, he was at her mom's house. So, like, she's got all this going through her head. She's like, why didn't I just let them go over there? You know, but Yeah. All right. Oh, God.
SPEAKER_00Oh, here it comes.
SPEAKER_02Well, she asked if she could see Larry, and they let her, but they were like, You can't, you have to hold your hands behind your back. You can't put your hands on him. And that's that's gotta be hard to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he gets fucking protection.
SPEAKER_02She, and it's and it's all it's recorded. Like, I'm gonna plug where I got all this information here in a little bit, but you can watch it right on there what she says to him. It's it's fucking heartbreaking, man. And she immediately asks to see his hands, and they still have blood on them. And DNA results later on uh prove that some of that blood was from Alicia, the youngest one. And it was like when she saw that, she knew. So Marla completes her interview and she calls family and she moves out of that house like immediately. She's like, I can't, I can't go back there. I mean, and I can't blame her a bit. Larry is charged the next day with two counts of first-degree murder. Actually, he's officially booked the next day, and then he's charged officially on January 15th. And Larry goes for the insanity plea because he has been unmedicated. But the prosecutors are like, no, this man was practicing witchcraft, and his notebook was full of everything that he had been doing and notes he had taken, and what happened to the girls was taken from passages of the satanic Bible, which I I don't think.
SPEAKER_00Multiple counts of premeditated, right? Documented. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Larry's defense, they did not want any of this, like any of the beliefs or practices brought up in court. Sir, what? What? Yeah. Okay, so the spell that Larry used was called invocation employed towards the conjuration of destruction. This spell talks about slashing the victim and rend that gaggling tongue and close his or her throat, O'Callie. Like that was like the notes that he took. But the satanic Bible prohibits killing children and other human sacrifices are to be made indirectly, like a hex. Like you just speak the words, you don't actually hurt them. You know what I mean? Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00Well, what you're trying to do is you're trying to invoke something that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_02Yes, you're invoking mental or emotional destruction. That was my next word. Right.
SPEAKER_00And if it doesn't work, then maybe you weren't powerful enough or it wasn't meant to be, because you still do believe in the end in some kind of higher something that makes that power.
SPEAKER_02Right. Well, more evidence came out that not only were the girls strangled, but their wrists were cut, their genitals were cut, and they had both been completely naked and sexually assaulted. Fuck. So I guess a spell did all that.
SPEAKER_00Just straight fuck.
SPEAKER_02A spell gone wrong did all that.
SPEAKER_00Fucking hell. You just yeah, you got it all wrong, dude. Fry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, Larry was just a jealous asshole and a pedophile and a murderer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it all just fucking came out right here. And he's wanting to use that for an excuse. Yeah. Fuck you, Larry.
SPEAKER_02A psychiatrist said that he was not mentally ill and that Larry had suspected Marla of having an affair, and he didn't like how much time she spent with her kids. And he had done exactly what he said he was gonna do.
SPEAKER_00And that's why you don't look on a book that hells for all the selfishness. I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_02I know. But what I was gonna say was he did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Yeah. He hurt Marla in the worst possible way without laying a hand on her.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Selfish.
SPEAKER_02That's more than selfish, Jesse.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, you took it to a whole nother level, and then you used to be.
SPEAKER_02And then you want to bring other religions in it. Twisted.
SPEAKER_00It's all fucking twisted. Yeah.
Trial Evidence And The Spell Defense
SPEAKER_02Now the trial was very out of the ordinary, to say the least. Now, Larry claims the spell was cast to straighten out Marla's son, who had gotten in the trouble. 13-year-old convicted of, you know, sexual misconduct. And when he said that, you know, he was possessed by Callie and all that, he said he walked to the store. Like he said, he cast the spell. He did the thing, he blew out the candles, and he walked to the store with Larry Jr. And then when he came home, the house was filled with smoke and the girls were upstairs deceased. That was his defense. And the defense tried to use that he was unmedicated and that he was in a trance. Now, here's where their argument could have actually been valid. Larry had never been violent with any of the kids before. There wasn't a history of abuse. And Marla and childcare advocates said that he was a great father and stepfather. Even Kat, who was terrified of her brother as a kid, had moved in with Marla and Larry for a while and said that she had seen an amazing change in Larry since he met Marla. So what was the motive? Well, sometimes psychopaths are just in it for the long game. And there was red flags. So Marla says that when Kendra started her period, she was only nine years old. And Larry was pissed. And he said, She's not pure anymore. She's unclean. Now Marla, for some reason, took that as he didn't want to have to deal with her mess. And Marla's like, I'm I'm gonna take care of that. You don't have to buy her tampons, you don't have to buy her pads. I'm gonna deal with that. But if I heard that with my ears, I would have been like, what do you mean she's unpure? What do you mean she's unclean? But I'm not gonna judge Marla at all because she was she was blinded by love. And we are a lot of times, and we do push back those red flags. It doesn't register till after the fact.
SPEAKER_00Well, it seems like she had her head down trying to be a provider and doing the best she can in the situation she was in.
SPEAKER_02And everything that she saw was positive, you know.
SPEAKER_00But then boom, all of a sudden you get those kind of accusations and those kind of threats and those kind of things tied into him practicing what he did, you know? So it's like, ooh, are you doing this the right way? Or are you gonna fuck all this up? And that's where we're at.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and he was a psycho. On January 29th, 2009, Larry was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and was given two life sentences. I watched the show Evil Lives Here, season five, episode nine, about this case. And the guilt that Marla and Kat both experience is absolutely heartwrenching. Like Kat, she was on her way to work and she like I guess she was walking, and her debit card, she had left her debit card at home and she talked herself out of turning around to give it it because she was like, I don't really need it. And she says that if she had just went back, because it was around that same time when she left to go to work that Marla was over here getting that eerie feeling and tried to leave work and go home. I just thought that that's more witchy than anything this motherfucker was doing because they both had these feelings and they ignored them. Don't ignore those feelings. I'm not victim blaming whatsoever because Kat and Marla are victims as just as much as the children. They were blinded by this man's. I mean, he was literally, in my opinion, Larry was in it for the long game. Like he was doing all the things in front as a front. He was doing all the right things to get Marla to trust him and to get his sister who hated him to trust him. Right.
SPEAKER_00And then he played the game very well, didn't he?
SPEAKER_02This horrific thing and tried to blame it on magic. Sir, get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_00There is no kind of magic that is Well, not even magic.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we'll call it witchcraft, piganism.
SPEAKER_00It's an excuse, is exactly what it is, for your fucking crazy ass thoughts and shit that you could have walked away from and everybody would have been fine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But you used it. You used it for your debilitating, horrific fucking fantasies.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. That he he and he won't ever admit to that. I mean, like I said, the defense didn't even want him to talk about that shit. They wanted to just be like, hey, shut the fuck up. We'll try to get you, you know, less time served or whatever, because you're an unmedicated bipolar disorder diagnosis, you know, you're a person diagnosed with this disorder. But he was like, no, I'm gonna talk about this because this is what he's trying to use as his own defense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but there is no higher being, if it be thy will, type situation ever when it comes to somebody's own fucked up psychosis where they want to twist something and then create horrific drama or death to somebody else.
SPEAKER_02There's no, I mean, to me, even his explanation is absolutely fucking stupid because he's trying to say that he was trying to cast a spell to straighten out Triton, but then Kendra and Alicia die in a horrific manner, and you're possessed by this goddess named Callie from Hindu. Like it's just so No, you're not, dude. No, absolutely not. No, we don't believe you, Larry. We don't believe you.
SPEAKER_00Fuck that dude.
Aftermath Guilt And Misused Religion
SPEAKER_02But that is the end of that coverage on that motherfucker. I don't like him. Wow. Well, yeah. I have uh actually, this was covered by True Crime All the Time, I believe is the name of the podcast. And I don't even follow them, but they just came up like one Friday when I was cleaning house and was working on, you know, I'm just I'm just listening. So I'm listening to my regular shit, and then they just come up in the algorithm, right? And that case just like it locked me in. I was like, what? So I it's actually the research on this was hard to find. I read the Sioux City Journal coverage about them, and then I found that episode on Evil Lives Here, and I had to dig, but I watched that episode, I watched it three times.
SPEAKER_00We're bringing the light some some bullshit. Yeah, if you're not like mentally able to take on that kind of intellect of somebody twisting something into their own religion or their own writings or their own practice. No, this guy gives a bad name participate to those all those religions. Yeah, dude. No, you're not. I mean, dabble and and experiment and do whatever you want to in your own thoughts and processes, but if you're not mentally ready for this and you want to grasp this on and twist it into something else, if you're that kind of person, don't participate at all.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Like if you don't know what you're doing and haven't studied on it, like like I said, me and a couple of my friends, we just, you know, did some positivity manifestation type things. We're not out here trying to deep dive into something we don't know about yet. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, don't be a walking contradiction to yourself, also.
SPEAKER_02No, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm just gonna take this and oh, this seems cool too. And it's gotta be evil because it says Satan on the book, right? Right. So we're allowed to do this, right? No, fuck no. You're not causing harm on somebody else. Ever thought you could fucking participate in some bullshit like that. Fuck, I'm pissed off already, Lindsay. Damn it. But hell, you know, I gotta do the things, and thank you for finding this one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's horrific, but it needs more attention because, like I said, people like Larry give other religions like Wicca, paganism, and even the Church of Satan a bad name. And he, I mean, I to me, he's just like doing pretty much what I did. Like looking on Wikipedia. No, I mean, he actually had the books and shit in his house. He was reading them, but I think he just took them to a level of twisted. Of twisted. And he was an unmedicated person with bipolar disorder. And he had previously, so I think it some of those symptoms can actually I'm not a doctor here, but just from things that we've talked about in the past, I think the things can actually get worse when you have been medicated and then you stop taking it.
SPEAKER_00Well, what else are you gonna feed off from except for building on negative emotion because it makes you feel good? And that's probably what happened there. And I'm just looking for an excuse, you know?
SPEAKER_02Right. Absolutely. But we're gonna take a big deep breath. Five sips.
SPEAKER_00Take five sips. Fucking hell.
SPEAKER_02And I'm gonna ask Jesse what I ask him every week. What band do you have for us today?
Band Spotlight Oathbound Set Adrift
SPEAKER_00Lindsay, I'm going back to Eclipse Records.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00And I'm talking about the band called Oathbound. Oathbound, okay. Yeah, this song is called Set Adrift, and you're gonna fucking love it.
SPEAKER_01Maybe one day I'll get a reasonable That was perfect.
SPEAKER_00Oh my God, they were amazing.
SPEAKER_02What a good damn song. What a damn good song. I've had a couple of white claws over here. I've had this debate.
SPEAKER_00I'm enjoying Eclipse Records music. Yes. And all the bands. Yeah. Thank you guys for letting us share your catalog. It's so good. These guys are making moves. Check out the bands, man. Always check out the bands. Always check out the bands.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, so they are Oathbound underscore band on Instagram. And of course, they are with Eclipse Records. Go follow them right now. And follow them on Spotify or whatever music platform you listen to.
Where To Follow Us And Next Scares
SPEAKER_02And while you're at it, if you're not already, follow us. Our main website is drinkaboutsomething.site on Instagram or DrinkaboutSomething. And then if you want to send us an email, if you want to share a story that you know about, or you want to hear something specific that you want us to cover, hit me up at drinkaboutsomethinkpod at gmail.com. Where are we at on that YouTube?
SPEAKER_00You just type in Gen Z, J-E-N-D-S-E-Y. It's easy. Everybody has the app, and you can come and party with us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And there's one. Oh, and we do sporadic lives on TikTok. Drinkabout something pod underscore Lindsay. Lindsay. Yes. Yeah. So tomorrow we're going to be heading down to Sir Henry's haunted house. Is that right? Is that what it's called?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's going to be the top fucking horror house in Florida, and you're going to have a blast, Lindsay. You can hang on to my shirt while we walk through it.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Okay. Oh, that's what I do anyway. We want you to be scared.
SPEAKER_02But um, yeah, so uh we're probably we might do a live there or on the way back.
SPEAKER_00We'll gather some content, Matt, put it together for you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And recap uh Ellen Greenberg and uh this case right here. And then next week, we have some more spooky shit to talk about. So because it's October.
SPEAKER_00And we're gonna hand you something on the way down because we're going to Plant City, and we already kind of been to Plant City a little bit, little bit. But there's some shit that happened in Plant City, and I might hand you something to do.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's go live and talk about that.
SPEAKER_00Uh just I'm just gonna hand you a script and be like, read this.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Of some shit that happened down there. Okay. Because we're going right by that area. Oh. Yeah. But check out all the bands, dude. Like, if you're a Spotify listener, you can check out our first two seasons on Spotify. Drink About Something season one playlist, season two, two playlists. Two to them. You can have fun and check out all the music and follow them and support them.
SPEAKER_02Because the music has been fire. Like we have, it has really been good shit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I'm doing, you know, not not as an amazing job like you, Lindsay, but I'm doing a damn job.
SPEAKER_02You are doing a great job because that is that's our that's the other part of our show.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you just stay for the story and or what are you listening to?
SPEAKER_02Come for the story and stay for the news and have a couple of drinks in between.
SPEAKER_00And I'm feeling tipsy. Ginzelotti's got me. We're gonna take a oh yeah, we're gonna take some time off here. We're gonna uh maybe I'll tell a story one of these days soon. Yeah. I'm excited for that. But on the way down, I think I'm gonna hand you a script. I think you already got it printed out in there.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I was wondering what that was, but I just cleaned around it. I did not look.
SPEAKER_00Let's do this. Yes. Yeah, we'll see you guys uh next Friday, though. And we're gonna go do things, we're gonna talk about things, we're gonna, you know, we're just doing things and let us know what you're doing too, because we all want to hang together.
SPEAKER_02And we're almost at the most wonderful time of the year, which is Halloween.
SPEAKER_00Right now, it started in September, Let's see.
SPEAKER_02It did, but I'm not rushing it because time goes by fast enough.
SPEAKER_00I th I I told her yesterday. I was like, Lizzie, let's just keep our house like this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Jesse loves uh loves when I get my decorations. Yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_00We'll just put Christmas shit over top of the other shit.
SPEAKER_02Halloween all the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with a Christmas Christmas feng shui. Let's do it, man. Just leave it. Just leave it. I mean, what what else do I wear but skull shirts all year long? So pretty much me too. Yeah. They were making compliments about our outfits today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Jessie and I look pretty hot today. I got on my hocus pocus shirt. You have on this beautiful pink and blue skull button up. It's gorgeous.
SPEAKER_00Gorgeous? We have some gorgeous people. Send us pictures of your gorgeousness, Halloweeness. We want to see it. Come participate with us, share, subscribe, like, follow, and all the stuff. And we love you. So my
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