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Cult Liter with Spencer Henry

97: When A Stranger Calls

Cult Liter with Spencer Henry

Spencer Henry | Morbid Network | Wondery

True Crime, Exhibit C, Society & Culture, Comedy

4.95.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cult babes! Are you alone?? Okay don’t answer the phone...the call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE! This week we’re discussing the murder of Janett Christman, the slaying that inspired ‘When a Stranger Calls.’ Join me as we dive into the strange happenings of Columbia Missouri. This week’s episode is sponsored by Shudder! Visit Shudder.com and use promo code ‘cult liter’ for 3O days FREE!! Visit BetterHelp.com/Spencer for 10% off your first month. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Cult Leader Early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.

0:30.0

Hello and welcome back to Cult Leader. I'm your Cult Leader Spencer Henry and if you're new here, I got something to tell you.

0:43.0

You're gonna want to sit down for this. All right, listen, you've joined a cult. I know it's scary, unsettling, exciting, but it's true.

0:50.0

So welcome.

0:51.0

How's everyone doing? We got an exciting week coming up. Lots of stuff going on. I have a lot to tell you by the end of the month and hopefully it all just goes as planned. I have felt drained you guys by the recent news cycle.

1:04.0

You know, I deleted Twitter, deleted some of the news apps that I had on my phone and I'm like, I'm just gonna focus on Netflix for now.

1:11.0

I need some time to just dissociate with good old documentaries. There's actually this meme that I got sent recently that people have sent me before, but I always think it's funny because it says turning, I'm turning off the news and turning on a serial killer documentary to unwind. I'm like, if that, if that's not us speaking of, I watched the Night's Docker series on Netflix. And to be honest, I left feeling underwhelmed.

1:34.0

I kind of felt like a long news coverage story about the police's perspective, but I did think parts were cool. And I was dying when they were talking about the groupies that were at Richard Ramirez's court hearings.

1:48.0

And they cut to that one lady who's wearing the glasses and she's like, well, I'm sorry, they're just a bunch of dumb bitches. Like, she was not holding back. I love her.

1:56.0

I'm also dying at the mugshot. Like, no, I've seen it before, of course, obviously, but it never stopped being funny to me because it is so bad.

2:04.0

I also watched some other stuff that I'll tell you about in a little bit because I got a surprise coming. Also, before I forget, don't forget to follow along online at Cult Leader Podcast to get the picks for every episode. And that's all I feel like saying. I want to get into it.

2:17.0

Today's story revolves around an old urban legend, one that began circulating in the 1960s, and it's often referred to as the babysitter or the sitter. Though it's often twisted and contorted to fit the storyteller's agenda, the basis always remains somewhat the same.

2:32.0

It's a teenage girl babysitting who receives a phone call. The person calling prompts her to check the children.

2:38.0

The babysitter ignores the call at first, writing it off as a prank phone call and continues watching TV. Eventually, the person calls back several more times.

2:46.0

Check the children. At this point, the babysitter's freaked out, calls 911, and they tell her that they'll trace the phone call if this person calls again.

2:54.0

The person calls again, they trace the call, and then the police call the house until the babysitter she needs to go outside immediately. And when they arrive, they tell her the call was coming from inside the house.

3:05.0

And the killer was waiting for the babysitter to come upstairs after killing the children.

3:10.0

Maybe you've heard this story, maybe your friends cousin told you this story because she actually totally knew someone had happened to, or maybe you've seen a movie adaptation of the story, like 2006 sensation remake, when a stranger calls based off the 1976 film by the same name.

3:25.0

But one thing I know to be true is every urban legend has some grain of truth in it, and today's story is no different.

3:32.0

We got a lot to talk about, so sit back, relax, I'm gonna tell you the story of Jeanette Christman.

3:37.0

Jeanette was born on March 21st of 1936 in Columbia, Missouri. Her parents Charles and Lula Christman were ecstatic.

3:45.0

Just 18 months later, after Jeanette was born, her mom gave birth to another daughter Rita. The couple did end up having one more child, a third daughter named Cheryl, but she was just a baby in 1950 when most of today's story takes place.

...

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