104: The Hazing Death of Matt Carrington & a Murderer Turned Professor

Let's Go To Court!

True Crime, History, Comedy

4.8 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2020

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt Carrington wasn’t your typical frat boy. He was reserved. He didn’t drink much. But when a friend asked him to rush the Chi Tau fraternity at Chico State University, Matt said sure. He couldn’t have guessed what he was in for. Over the course of what is commonly referred to as “hell week,” Matt endured relentless hazing. The hazing ramped up as the week progressed. On the final night of hazing, Matt died.

Then Brandi tells us about a brilliant, troubled young man named James Gordon Wolcott. James grew up in a small town in Texas. He excelled academically, but he struggled to fit in at home. His sister, Elizabeth had a Southern accent that grated on him. His father, a conservative professor at Southwestern University, disapproved of James’ more liberal politics. One day, in the summer of 1967, James had enough. He murdered his entire family.

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:

“Matt’s Law” entry on wikipedia

“The Pledge” episode of The Shadows of Death
“New ‘Matt’s Law’ toughens penalties for college hazing,” by Matt Krupnick for Contra Costa Times
“Horrifying details in hazing death,” by Cecilia Vega for the San Francisco Chronicle

“7 face trial in hazing death,” Associated Press

“4 fraternity members plead guilty in student’s death,” Associated Press

“Student dies during fraternity hazing,” Santa Maria Times
“A fraternity hazing gone wrong,” by Elaine Korry for NPR
“Hazing death at Chico State” episode of Dateline

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:

“Innocence Lost” by Kim Janssen, Chicago Sun Times

“Esteemed Illinois professor revealed as teen killer who murdered his family — and served just six years after insanity bid” by Joe Kemp, New York Daily News

“The Family Annihilator Turned University Professor – James Gordon Wolcott” by Emily Thompson, Morbidology

“Boy who killed family turns up 46 years later as college professor” by Mike Robinson, NBC News

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts. I'm Kristen Caruso.
0:07.4	I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court. On this episode I'll talk about the hazing death of Matt
0:13.2	Carrington. Well that sounds terrible. Well so does yours. Go ahead and read yours. And I'll be
0:17.6	talking about yet another family annihilator. Wow, wait a keep it light. Sorry gang. We've got a
0:26.1	dark one for you. It is. Hang on. Actually let's talk about something fun for a second. Okay.
0:31.5	Right now on our Patreon we have a poll up where everyone can vote on our next episode topic.
0:37.2	I am very excited. Brandi what are the options? Cases covered by America's most wanted
0:42.6	or cases covered by unsolved mysteries. For me this is a true win-win situation. I loved both
0:49.7	of those shows. Right now the voting is really close but if you want to get on and vote and you
0:54.4	want other stuff if you join at the five dollar level you get to vote plus you get bonus episodes.
0:59.8	We've got Mary Kay Laterno on there. We've got Jim Carrey's wrongful death suit. We've got a bunch
1:05.1	of cases there and you get to join the discord. If you're a baller, if you're just shot collar,
1:11.0	if you're a billionaire, then you'll probably want to join at the Supreme Court level most likely.
1:16.9	That's where you get all of those benefits plus a sticker plus an induction on the Supreme Court
1:22.7	and you get a monthly video because you're probably thinking, God they sound like models.
1:28.4	Hot is what you're thinking and boy are you gonna be this way?
1:35.6	They look like women in their 30s you grew up in the Midwest.
1:41.9	Listen gang, pear shape is the most desirable shape.
1:45.0	I once read a book where someone described a woman as not curvy just Midwestern.
1:53.2	No, but I think it makes sense. Like you know, we're just kind of,
1:59.2	that's just the deal. That's just the deal. What norm? Okay, norm, norm would like to not comment on
2:04.9	this at all. This does not feel like safe to have.
	...

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