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

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Angelika Graswald and her fiance, Vincent Viafore, loved going on adventures. On a Sunday in April of 2015, they strapped two kayaks to the top of Vincent’s Jeep and headed for the Hudson River. They planned to kayak over to Pollepel Island, where they’d see the Bannerman Castle ruins. But there were a few big obstacles in their way. The water was cold. Their kayaks weren’t suited for the river. Vincent didn’t wear a life vest. On top of all that, the weather that evening was predicted to take a turn for the worst. On their way back across the river, Vincent’s kayak capsized. Later, Angelika’s statements to detectives had people asking whether this was a tragic accident or a calculated murder.

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

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.


In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Murder by kayak?” episode of 20/20
“Woman pleads guilty in fiance’s kayak death on Hudson River,” New York Times
“‘Who’s Miranda?’ Suspect in kayak killing didn’t understand her rights, lawyer says,” New York Times
“A kayak trip on the Hudson, ending in death and an arrest,” New York Times
“Murder charge for woman who said fiance’s kayak capsized in Hudson River,” New York Times
“Woman convicted in fiance’s death entitled to portion of his life insurance,” CBS News

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