Hey everyone and welcome to Big Mad True Crime where we get Big Mad over True Crime.

I'm your host Heather Ashley and today's mini-sode is out of the Bronx, New York.

Small Talk sucks, so let's dive in.

Growing up, Carl Jackson was every mother's dream.

He was smart, he was kind, and he was responsible.

Carl turned 21 in late 1998, but unlike most kids his age who celebrate their 21st birthday

by getting slammer house drunk on cheap liquor, his classmate Jamel wrote on street sense media

that Carl spent his birthday evening at Red Lobster with his mother.

That's the kind of guy he was.

He had strong family values, which were not only clear with his family life,

but also in his personal life.

When it came to settling down, Carl wasn't hesitant at all.

He met and fell in love with a beautiful single mother named Darleen who was a little bit older than

him. According to The New York Times, she had a nine-year-old son and Carl didn't bad an

eye when it came to being a positive male figure in his life.

The New York Times reports that Carl had never been a fan of Halloween in the same sense that

a lot of people aren't a fan of New Year's Eve. It's dark, people are drinking, and that

combination just wasn't worth the risk for him so he never really participated.

That being said, he wasn't going to stop his girlfriend's son from enjoying the childhood

fun of costumes and candy. So on October 1, 1998, Carl and Darleen dropped off her son at a party

for kids. The New York Times doesn't specify that it was a Halloween party, but the likelihood

here is strong. The party went on throughout the evening and into the night, and around 11 p.m.,

...