What a Creep Season 18, Episode 8: Lizzie Borden

“Lizzie Borden took an axe. Gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41” — Children’s rhyme late 19th century/early 20th century.

Lizzie Borden was just another 32-year-old New England single woman who loved her family and was devoted to her church. On the morning of Thursday, August 4, 1892, her world turned upside down with the murder of her father and stepmother in her home. Each was hit multiple times in the head with an axe and with no witnesses, and Lizzie was the only one in the house when the crimes occurred–she was charged with their murder.

What happened next was one “trial of the centuries” the media likes to play up along with a mystery that has never been solved. Lizzie was acquitted and lived the rest of her life as a pariah.

Who were the Bordens, and why would anyone want them dead? If Lizzie didn’t do it, who did? Did her sister Emma know the truth behind the murders? Why is her crime still a source of fascination with dozens of films, books, and documentaries about this one crime? We will discuss this in today’s creepy murder mystery!

Sources for this episode:

Lizzie Borden Wikipedia
Smithsonian Magazine
Britannica
Crime Museum
Legends of America
PBS News Hour
The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015) Christina Ricci
The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) Elizabeth Montgomery
Lizzie (2018) Kristen Stewart
The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson
The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller
CBS 48 Hours (December 2020)
The New York Times 2021
The New York Post
The Inhabitant (2022)
History’s Mysteries
A & E Lizzie Borden: A Woman Accused (1996)

Trigger warnings: Sex abuse, animal abuse (quick mention), and murder

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 7: Nicole Daedone and OneTaste

Nicole Daedone is the founder OneTaste, which positioned itself as a wellness company that preached the practice of what she called “orgasmic meditation,” or OM.
OneTaste made $12 million a year at one point, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Khloe Kardashian sang Daedone’s praises. But eventually, it was revealed that Daedone was less of a wellness guru and more of a leader of a sex cult or a prostitution ring that exploited trauma victims and others that needed healing.
Sources for this episode:
Trigger warnings: Sex abuse, child molestation, and coercion

What a Creep: Ask Us Anything

We are finishing the year with an episode devoted to your questions — Ask Us Anything! In it, we answer your questions about the following:
  • How do we pick our Creeps
  • The Creeps we will not cover & why
  • How we practice self-care while putting the show together
  • How there is NO “Cancel Culture.”
  • Creeps in Stand-Up Comedy
  • Why do people forget what Creeps do
  • Our favorite makeup 🙂
  • Sonia’s style and why she is bright & teens love her
  • Margo’s broken ankle story
  • Our favorite movies

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 5: Christmas & comedy creeps

What a CreepSeason 18, Episode 5
Chris D’Elia, Charles Dickens, & Can’t Stop the Music

Comedian Kyle Anderson posted on YouTube a one-hour takedown of Chris D’Elia, who is turning into a modern-day Bill Cosby.
We have talked about D’Elia before, as he has been credibly accused of harassing minors and being generally gross to women who interact with him. But this is awful. Trigger warning: Sexual Assault and Coercive Control.

Some of his comedy pals have been accused of sexual assault as well, and we have heard from survivors of their abuse privately.

Before we get to our main subject of this episode ( a replay from December 2020), Charles Dickens, we will talk about a NON-Creep who needs our help.

Actress Valerie Perrine is fighting Parkinson’s Disease and needs help with her medical expenses and care. The 79-year-old is best known for her roles in Superman (1978,) Lenny (1974), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), and finally, Can’t Stop the Music, which also stars The Village People, Caitlyn Jenner, and was directed by Nancy Walker. Here is the link for her “Go Fund Me” page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-valerie-perrine-fight-parkinson039s-disease?utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B5102-48hr-donor-share

Now on to our replay ep:

Charles Dickens is one of the most successful authors of the 19th Century who attracted a rock star-like following around the world for his dramatic readings. He is considered as close to Father Christmas as any man has ever been and was a champion of working-class people and liberal causes. His work influenced writers for several generations, including Willkie Collins, Jules Verne, Gorge Orwell, Roald Dahl, and Jonathan Nolan (screenwriter for The Dark Knight.)He was also a massive creep to several vital women in his life, which is what we will focus on today. Trigger warnings: Shitty husbands
Sources for this episode include:

Be sure to follow us on social media. But don’t follow us too closely … don’t be a creep about it!

What a Creep Season 19, Episode 1: A Quartet of UK Creeps

What a Creep

Season 19, Episode 1

“A Quartet of UK Creeps”

Co-horts! We have reached season 19 (!), leading it with one of our “Quartet of Creeps”–UK style! We have stories of creepiness from the worlds of entertainment, punditry and a tale about an Irish woman who really disliked her British boss. These stories are more of an overview than a deep dive into shitty behavior, and we always reserve the right to revisit any or all of them as solo episodes.

Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault, murder, racism, sexism, transphobia, and general assholery.

Sources for Ricky Gervais

Sources for DJ Tim Westwood

Sources for Katie Hopkins

Sources for Kate Webster

Be sure to follow us on social media. But don’t follow us too closely … don’t be a creep about it!

 

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 4: Matt Taibbi and media creeps

Matt Taibbi is a journalist who has been described as a “firebrand” and whose writing is reminiscent of gonzo-style writing like the late Hunter S. Thompson (worshipped by white boys since the 1960s.)  In the 1990s, he helped uncover corruption in 1990s Moscow with the paper The eXile (along with a former friend and fellow Creep Mark Ames.)

As a New York-based freelancer, he went from a mouthy opinion writer for the alternative weekly, the New York Press to one of the most celebrated investigative journalists for Rolling Stone winning several awards for excelling in reporting. Featured on everything from Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC  to Bill Maher on HBO and even on Late Night with Seth Meyer. 

Many people on the left claimed him as one of “theirs” who speaks truth to power with bravado, and some of his best-selling books tackled the financial shenanigans of Goldman Sachs, the idiocy of Congress, the march to the war in Iraq built on shabby evidence, and how the media is dividing Americans. 

Nowadays, he is a popular substack creator who rakes in millions writing about anything he damn well pleases. This is any writer’s dream, but he has seemed to switch from fighting power and corruption to fawning over billionaires and power-mad lunatics like Vladamir Putin. He now writes about Trump being a victim of a press that hates him for no reason and recently was part of the big Twitter reveal from past Creep–Elon Musk. 

So what did he uncover? Why does he feel like a victim of woke culture? We will get into it today. Also, I had an encounter with Matt Taibbi, who did some shitty journalism for a magazine I worked for and maligned me in his column for no fucking reason except he a burr up his ass about a topic he is not an expert on and tried to throw me under the bus. For 20 years, I have been hearing friends tell me how awesome and brave he is, and I have to tell them my story and remind them he is a punk-ass bully with no genuine affection for the topic he covers and just wants to swing his dick around. 

Today I found the article in question and will read it allowed for the first time since 2004. Then I will learn about Taibbi and why he is controversial. Like the tagline for Jaws The Revenge–this time, it’s personal! 

Trigger warnings: Drug use, sexual assault, 

Sources for this episode:

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 3: The Salvation Army

Tis the season for giving, and one of the organizations that encourages giving the most is The Salvation Army. Their army is stationed outside stores all over the world, ringing bells with their little red buckets asking for donations. They do a lot of good work, but unfortunately, they also have a history of sexual abuse and discrimination. 

Sources for this episode:

Trigger warnings: Homophobia, transphobia, and sex abuse

Noncreepy organizations for donations:

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 2: Diamond Annie and the 40 Elephants

Peaky Blinders is a popular show on Netflix about a group of thieves and gangsters in 1920s London. Many people do not know that there were gangs of women considered the best shoplifters and thieves of the wealthy that ran from the mid-19th century up into the 1950s. The most notorious of these was the “Forty Thieves/FortyElephants” gang, run by tough women who master criminals.

Diamond Annie (born Anne Diamond) was labeled as such for her ferocious punch with fingers crammed with diamond rings. At 5’9”, she was a formidable woman who ran a gang of shoplifters, seducers, and blackmailers, which made the police and media baffled by their brazenness. With the invention of the automobile, women soon took off for all parts of England with their thieving. This story is wild!

Sources for this episode:
The History Girls
Ranker
Forty Elephants Wikipedia
The Sun UK
St. Mary’s University
Danny Dutch.com
The Guardian
Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald
Lessons from History on Medium
Bitch Media
Wondrium Daily
The Human Exception
The Culture Trip
Grunge
The Daily Mail

Trigger warnings: Thieving and my attempt at a British accent

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 1: James Dobson and Focus on the Family

James Dobson is an evangelical Christian author and founder of Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, ​​which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group.

 

In the 1980s, Time Magazine ranked him as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life. He’s written more than 30 books on family issues, specifically parenting and marriage. Dobson frequently appears as a guest on the Fox News Channel.

James Dobson and his organizations are sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and racist.

Sources for this episode: 

Trigger warnings: Racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. 

What a Creep Season 17, Episode 10: Lana Turner and the murder of Johnny Stompanato

Lana Turner was one of Hollywood’s most alluring (and controversial) actors in movie history, with star turns in the original The Postman Always Rings Twice, Imitation of Life, and Peyton Place. She was blonde, sexy, and a supposed “maneater” with eight marriages and several lovers. In 1958 she dated the former war hero and current mob hooligan Johnny Stompanato who supposedly treated her terribly.

Her only child, Cheryl Crane, at 14, stabbed Johnny to death after her mother tried to break off their relationship. Cheryl was acquitted of any wrongdoing (Johnny was a BAD dude) but spent years dealing with her childhood trauma and being the daughter of a movie queen.

But did Cheryl really kill Johnny, or was she covering up for her mother?

Trigger warnings: Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, & Murder

Sources:
Vanity Fair April 1999 The Gangster and the Goddess
Lana Turner Wikipedia
Biography.com
Johnny Stompanato Wikipedia
Cheryl Crane Wiki
People Magazine
All That is Interesting
History 101.com
Los Angeles Times
The Daily Beast
E Mysteries & Scandals March 9, 1998
Cinema Scholars