11: The Finger-in-the-Wendy’s-Chili & Government Corruption

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This week, Brandi’s story doesn’t involve stabbings, serial killers or cult leaders. Instead, she talks about Budd Dwyer, the Pennsylvania treasurer accused of awarding a government contract in exchange for a campaign contribution. Doesn’t sound like Brandi’s cup of tea, does it? Trust us, it is. This story has a huge twist.

Then Kristin tells the story of Anna Ayala, who claimed to find a severed human finger in her Wendy’s chili. But whose finger was it? And how the hell did it get there? This one’s a real nail biter.

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:
“Finger-in-chili lady back in trouble,” San Francisco Gate
“‘Finger lady’ spills the beans about chili scam,” McClatchy Tribune News Service
“Prison term for Wendy’s chili scam no joke,” Associated Press
“Woman in chili incident fails to enter plea in court,” San Francisco Chronicle
“Police call woman’s finger in chili claim a hoax,” New York Times
“Police check woman with Wendy’s finger claim,” Associated Press
“Finger has lunch crowd rethinking its choices,” LA Times

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
The documentary “Honest Man: The Life of Budd Dwyer”