Miller Morning Madhouse S1E5: Suicide by Charleston...

All you guys do is just sit up there and talk about how fucking cool you are.

WSPR Super Beach Radio. The best issue between Rush and Ripper.

Close as you can, without it being in your mouth. So, like, just the just the tip.

Just the tip. I can do that.

Elizabeth Benedict. I think I do like that better than Elizabeth Short Stack.

I do

too. I've already named her that. So

Wow. Where did we name that? Figure that

out at, Flamingo?

Hey there, folks. Welcome back to the Miller Morning Mad House. Episode 5 is here, and this time, we're diving into the wild story of William Fulton, the former mayor of Gary, Indiana whose jazz age annex and tragic end are the stuff of local legend. Today's episode is brought to you by So Cool shirts, keeping you looking sharp since, well, whenever we got started and by the great state of Indiana. But really, it's not that bad.

I'm your host Jerry Pancake, and with me today is none other than Josh Scramble serving up the news, sports, and whatever else crosses his mind and making her debut on the show. We've got the incredibly sharp Elizabeth Benedict here to keep us honest and or at least try. So kick back. Maybe throw on your favorite So Cool shirt and let's get into the gritty history of Gary's jazz age and the life of William Fulton. Always remember, you can, subscribe and rate us on all the stuff, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the like helps keep things rolling.

So here we go.

When I am in Miller Beach doing cocaine and deporting people, I listen to the Miller Morning Mad House with Limtuk, Jerry Pancake, and Josh Scramble. I mean, they make me laugh because it's the dumbest radio show I come to play. But I can't get enough. They love the game so much.

Alright. All you cool cats out there, today, we got a fresh face in the madhouse, our resident true crime detective, Elizabeth Benedict. Elizabeth is known for digging up dark secrets with the focus of someone on their second cup of black coffee or something else that might keep you awake and the persistence of a fork heading for the last pancake or someone's throat.

That too. You know?

It happens here.

It was Elizabeth in the conservatory with the fork?

You never know.

Rumor has it, she's even passed up a breakfast buffet to track down a lead, which is a dedication at the level we all admire. Like, except if you would pass up that breakfast buffet if it was at a certain restaurant that has a very loud DJ most of the time. Today, she's back to gritty, gritty, scandalous story from 19 thirties Gary, and we all love the jazz age. Josh Scramble. Right?

Oh, yeah. We all love the jazz age. Don't you know?

It's had great things.

Had great things. All the cocaine dancing and horse.

They had cocaine in the jazz times? Jerry. I thought it was just the,

the Soon? They've had the cocaine in around for

a while. I thought it was just the weed. What did they call it?

You got warmed up with the wacky tabacky, but then you went to the nose candy real quick, you see.

In that reefer madness, they called it something like jazz sticks or something like it. Some weird thing. But, anyway, in the the politics in Gary are are a 100% always, a 100% of the time, corrupt. It was no different back in the jazz age in 19 thirties, Gary. This is about a former mayor.

True story.

What had happened to him. And so let's hand this the mic to Elizabeth Benedict and let her tell the story.

Thanks, Jerry.

Oh, you're welcome.

Alright. Well, now while Jerry's over there with his breakfast platter, I'm here to serve up something even juicier. A tale from 1930. This isn't your typical eggs and bacon story, folks. We're talking about the story of William j Fulton, former mayor of Gary who started as a rising star in the city's political scene, but ended up, well, toast.

Imagine in 1930, Gary's jazz age in full swing with jazz pouring from clubs, the steel note, hot and bothered, and stacks and sacks. Think smoke filled rooms, locals doing the Charleston, shady deals done over late night scrambled eggs at Miller's Mix and Mingle. That was really a thing.

Yeah. That's a that's a club from the jazz age. I I wish it was back, though, to unfortunately, like, we don't have a lot of good places to go.

No. And, honestly have where to make some mango?

Well, I would head over there right now if it was if they had it. Because the flamingo's closed tonight. So What about hot and bothered? I would go to hot and bothered.

That actually sounds like it'd be the next strip club to hit Gary. Hot and bothered?

If need one more.

So do you think they have food, and do you think that they serve it in a reasonable amount of time at any of these clubs?

I think it more describes the waitresses.

Honestly, like, I I just can't get my eyes off of the late night scrambled eggs. Like, can you imagine how the killer that would do that? Like, if imagine Flamingo if they served breakfast at 1 AM. Oh my god. That would be, like,

that would be ultimate. How late?

1 to 3. Like a Denny's.

Yeah. Like, 1 to 3. Last call for both booze and oh.

And crunchy hash browns.

Booze and breakfast, last call. Scramble and hash at 2 AM.

Oh my god.

Scramble and hash is the new morning show that's coming out, next year.

Once we fire you.

Once once on fire, Scramble and Hash will be coming out. But, yeah, that it would be wonderful if if the flamingo did a 1 in the morning, breakfast. But in 1930, apparently, we had a lot of, these clubs, and, they were doing the Charleston. And I I don't know if you've ever seen someone do the Charleston.

It's not it's not fun to watch.

It looks like a sped up. Like, the you know, people do those sped up videos on the TikTok. Are you on the TikTok, Elizabeth?

I know what you're referring to, but I do like the originals. They do do a really nice job.

The OG I know the podcast. Yeah.

It's like new songs.

Oh, do they oh.

Did Charleston, like, sped up because it's a new song?

I just love that Jerry calls it the TikTok. The TikTok. The TikTok. TikTok.

The TikTok.

The kids are out there.

Well, you know, they're out there doing the TikToks, and I don't know why I went to Bill Cosby.

This. I mean, he's not doing any TikToks these days because him dead.

Oh. Well, he's not dead. He's not he's not dead. Bill Cosby? His career, that's dead, but he is very

much alive. I always make there should be.

Right? No. Wow. You guys need to read a paper because no. He got out of jail.

Oh. And he is now living at home with his complicit wife.

I thought justice was served. Camille

Camille, they're very much both alive.

Come give me a fucking break. That's not true.

I swear to god. I would not lie to you about something like that. He is so he's he is alive eating Jell O Pudding Pops in Connecticut with his wife. Is

he dying?

He's sucking some toes. Right?

Is it because he's dying?

Well, I mean, everybody's dying. It's just that old. Well, yeah. But he's still alive.

Like a hospice release or something?

No. They let him out on a technicality.

I thought he died.

Oh, we

gotta do some research, Jerry.

I The research is so

been all over the fucking TV for you. Personal research.

Oh, OJ was the one that died.

Yeah. OJ's daughter. Wow. Well, god's gonna be racist there, man. Messed up at all.

Damn. Evil people live like, the the good people die younger than the evil people, so that's why OJ died.

Well, maybe that's why Billy Joel wrote that song, OJ died young. That's why it's a song.

So so, yeah, I didn't know that, that Bill Cosby was alive, but I do remember when he faked that he was blind. Do you remember that?

Well, I the one eye is definitely blind because he's got, like, that, you know, you know, when you have, like, a dog that

has, like, 1 eye, like, the glaucoma eye? 1 eye

yeah. That's that's that's the new nineties band, 1 eye blind.

Oh, excuse me. 1 eye blind is my new favorite band.

Is he, like, lazy, or is it small?

No. It's that's what she said. He is he is he

is one of those. Right?

Like, a tiny eye?

He's got a small

He's got, like, a lazy cloudy one, like, you know Or is it like?

Oh, yeah. Like the like like

Droopy like you had a stroke?

I need a picture of him. I can't remember.

Jesus.

Oh, you know, it's Bring it.

Good old one eyed Cosby.

Tangent.

Well, that's

that's And giving you the one eyed Cosby had a different meaning back when he was a healthy man.

Yeah. Giving you the one at Cosby. That's

He did that a lot. Anyway,

get Cosby. Oh,

speaking of people from the jazz age, Bill Cosby, ladies and gentlemen. Well subject there. It it was Well, you was, like,

shaking hands and kissing babies, I think.

Yeah. Okay. So this guy, this fella, named Fulton is the mayor, and, we're talking about how what he did in the jazz age.

19 thirties.

Okay. Go ahead. Right. Elizabeth Benedict.

Alright. So shaking hands and kissing babies, maybe doing a little extra on the side by early 1930, though. Things started heating up more than my morning coffee. Rumors spread of corruption, dirty money, hidden deals, and suddenly, Fulton found himself in a spotlight for all of the wrong reasons. Now here's where it gets juicy.

May 15, 1930 with accusations flying faster than flapjacks on the griddle. Fulton retreated to his lake house on Oak Avenue.

Right here. Very close. Stone's throw.

Yeah. And on, May 17th, he was found dead. Initially, it was a suicide. Folks at Fulton's Downbeat, his own namesake club weren't buying it. Do you

think there are relatives of the people that are on the day shift at Flamingo at Fulton's Downbeat at that time?

Oh god. And so, like, 3rd generation.

3rd generation camo.

Day shift. Oh. I shouldn't name names. Schools?

Yeah. Like, so, like, someone's grandfather

like, oh, I see what you're saying.

The people

that are locals nowadays, they're

Yeah. Actually, we were while we were kinda talking about this, like, a couple weeks ago, like, you know, I've been in Miller so long. My great great grandfather was getting drunk at 9 AM down at Fulton's Down Beat.

It was called generational

Alcoholism. Like, it follows you. Yeah. It's in your genes, apparently. My mom always said that I would be an alcoholic.

She was right. A few things she was right about. But no. Like, I just think about it like this the generations, these people that say they've lived in Miller for, like, a 100 years or whatever, they might have been at Fulton's Downbeat or Hot and Bothered or one of these fabulous clubs, like Miller's mix and mingle.

Someone's grandfather had to be at that club.

I know.

I'm sure

there's plenty. Plenty that actually knew him.

So what happened to him?

Oh, okay. So they were buying it. They said things like Fulton knew too much or he crossed the wrong guy over a hot and bothered quote quote unquote, hinting that the scrambled mess of Gary's politics might have pushed him to the edge.

So either he was framed or he just couldn't take the corruption and end it at all?

It sounds like, basically, he didn't commit suicide, so I don't know.

I mean, I think he killed himself. Here. You just wanna I think

Also, like, it's 19 thirties. Like, how much could really be going on in Gary? Like, although there was a lot of shit going on, I mean, steel mills were kicking in full stream. Like, people were dying, getting dumped into liquid steel. And What?

I don't I there was no safety back then. Like, that's why there was 50,000 workers. Like, one fell in the melt molten pit and, you know, you just put another one up. Oh,

this it was in the New York Times, apparently.

Well, Gary used to be something.

The amount of, like, murders I'm sorry. Being from Illinois, the amount of murders and serial killers and conspiracies in Indiana has blown my mind.

Well, I mean, Jerry's dad knew, like, half of those serial killers.

He did. He has met a lot of them. Gacy. Some people even say it's Jerry's

dad that inspired all the murder.

You know, Belle Gunness? You know that story with, like Yeah. My mother-in-law has collected all of this information, written like a screenplay. Great great

great info.

Okay. Is that the La Porte lady?

I can't remember.

But it's basically she invited men to her house Yes.

Killed them.

Yeah. That's the La Porte lady. She run

that she run an Airbnb and She did.

Her did.

In the in the paper.

She was Yeah. She would advertise for, like Well, you know Hey. Are you a transient that has no family? I'll rent you a room for, like, $10.

Basically, she burned down the whole house.

Yeah. Oh, when she was

She may or may not have lived.

Yeah. No one knows. She was a handsome woman. Look at this mayor Fulton fuck.

Okay. Here we go.

Just and it's hard to describe.

You see the guy on the left there?

Yeah. This so this

Oh my god. Like, I literally worked with a guy that is, like, almost spitting image of him.

Yeah. Well, he looks like a like a he would be probably at any clan rally

back in those times. Flogged himself after seeing a woman doing a Charleston.

Nice. He seems nice.

He seems like a nice white very white guy.

White shit.

Like h?

Powder was less white.

I mean, they had to probably like, they had to put shadows in just so you see a face on the white background because, like, otherwise, it would be super white. And then there is another guy that apparently defeated him, this Roswell Johnson. No offense to anyone that's related to either of these 2 fuckers.

Well, Roswell Johnson, you know, I just had to advertise this you know, his campaign slogans. Go with the man with the tan, not old way. I mean

What's the police report? Honestly, the police

report. So let's look at it. Hey. This is a we we are doing audio only for the podcast.

So Yeah. That's very

true. That is imagining what these visuals look like.

Links are in the notes.

It looks, it looks just like you would think, in the 19 twenties.

It is our thirties, but spot on.

That one out.

I mean, look at those hats. Would you wear one of those hats? Point? No. They're like a bucket hat almost?

Yeah. Like, the low the low waist dresses.

Oh, yeah. Low hey, man. You don't want a high skirt because you wanna when you're doing that Charleston, you want it to swing around real, like,

give it a turner effect going with the our skirt swinging?

It it's a Titanic look for sure if if anybody knows what

mean, that was just a few years before.

Yeah. If anybody knows what the people looked at, like, on the Titanic in the movie, This is what they looked at, like, in Gary here.

Wait. When was the Titanic? Wasn't this a little earlier?

Titanic was the 3rd 31? Wait.

What's the name of the Titanic? 33.

Well, hang on. Jerry, they didn't give us the day off, so I don't remember it.

Well, the Titanic was higher class, though.

Hey. Most of the people that died on the Titanic were just regular old folk.

Well, in the movie.

I prefer that they invented that story that they trapped all the poor people underneath to let the riches get off. I They think of that.

They did always. Rich people were way more important than poor people, and it's still the case. I'm loud.

They're more catered. No.

They're not more important. They're more catered to.

Yeah. Well, this shows how much I paid attention in school. The Titanic was 20 years before this in 1912.

I knew it.

How did they so I think back about these days, and I just think Randomly? I you know, I can't remember them because I wasn't born for, like, 70 years or whatever after. But, I think

Me too. How the fuck

did they make this shit in the 9 in 1906? How do you make a ship like that? A lot of people probably died.

Easy. It was

very dangerous. Have you ever seen a bolt, like, from the Titanic? It was like

can they that's why you're asking. Like, the steel mill. Yeah. Like, 9 tons of people died.

Can we compare it to the Titanic plunge of that submarine?

I mean, How do

you do that?

Well, that was built with, like,

their cut

someone just went out and welded 2 trash cans together and then decided to use those, like, PlayStation controller.

That Titanic, submarine or whatever, that thing was, like, a, I think, a Timu. They got it at Timu. Like and they were like, oh, man. I got a great deal on this submarine, and and I'm gonna charge people $250,000, and it's got, like, a PlayStation controller.

Hey, Bob. You know, we we could buy this really nice one on Amazon for 300,000, but I found this one on Timu for half the cost.

Dude, you would think millionaires would be, like, super smart and be like, oh, show me the control how do you control this thing? And they just get, like, a, like, a PlayStation controller out, and they're like, with this. Like I mean, like, I'm not getting on that fucking thing. You're nuts.

You remember Metal Gear Solid? I'm using the same exact controller for this.

We went back to the PlayStation 1 because it's more reliable.

No rumble stick.

And it was like a Bluetooth too. It wasn't even wired in. I'm like, man, you better have everything wired in in a summary.

Well, also, that was my favorite thing about that whole summary. Like, the fact that there was a billionaire and his son who died on it, like, kudos to you for dying for your dumbass decisions. That was my favorite thing. Like, I couldn't have been happier when I heard that. It's dark, and I don't care.

I could not have been happier that they were that stupid. Like, I hope the money goes to some charity or at least it

It won't. It'll go to the relatives of those terrible people that will poor decisions. They will also be terrible with their body and

mouth. Year old girl, like, I'm gonna go buy a new wardrobe because my dad died on a submarine because he was stupid. Thoughts?

No. Elizabeth Benedict?

You wanna talk to try?

To cry. That's correct. Illegal gambling, moonshine, and murder. And

Okay. So we're looking at this.

I was distracted. I don't even I can't I was just saying. I'm so sorry.

I I wanna give a shout out to this website, and I don't know who's doing it, but it's called, r gary stories dot com, and this is a real website. And I had I had come upon this, I don't know, a couple years ago when I when I could not sleep, which is often, and I'm just googling on my phone, and I wanna know about what was going on in the early 1900 in the town that I live in.

Where I harvest my grain, I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain, but that's just perfect for an Amish like me. You know I shun fancy things like

WFBR Super Beach Radio, the best station between Rush and Ripley.

Jacob Plow. The chickens and Jacob Plow. Cool. And I've been milking and plowing so long that even Ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone.

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All you guys do is just sit up there and talk about how fucking cool you are.

Miller Beach, this is your president.

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Alright, folks. That's it for today's episode of the Miller Morning Mad House. Big thanks to our sponsors. So Cool shirts where bad decisions become great fashion. Check them out for your next questionable t shirt and don't forget all in just trivia with Josh Scramble hosted at the Marshall J Gardner Center.

It's the only trivia night where the questions are just as unpredictable as the answers. Join us if you dare and a shout out to the Miller Community Theatre, also at the Marshall J Gardner Center, where the local stars shine bright. Big thanks to the MBACD for hosting these awesome events and making Miller Beach the place to be. Thanks for hanging out with us, Miller Beach. We will be back next Sunday, hopefully, with a brand new episode.

That is if we are not too hungover. No promises. But stay cool, stay crazy, and keep supporting the madhouse.

Cheat you.

I said I'm wondering just how you taste. She laughed and said, I know just where to begin. She said, I know you like breakfast food. I'm about to blow your mind. I have a sandwich that was made for your kind.

It's the moon's over my head. It's got cheese and egg. Eat it on sourdough as you check out my legs. It spoons over my heavy with its eggs and cheese. Spread it on sourdough as you taste the green.

Instant moon's over my heaven. It's got cheese and eggs. Eat it on sourdough as you check out my leg. Moon's over my hammy with bits, eggs, and cheese. Spread on sourdough as you check out my legs.

Moon's over my hammy with bits of eggs and cheese. Spread it on sourdough as you taste

the green.

Jam's a bam. What's a bam? Well, you wouldn't even know.

What was Do you understand the words that you're talking about in my mouth? No. Do you speak it in English?