Hello, campers, grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire.

In last week's episode, we learned about the troubled early life of Earl Nelson and witnessed his first steps towards becoming one of the most prolific serial killers in North American history.

This week, his journey of mayhem across America really kicks into high gear.

This is part two of Dark Strangler,

the crimes of Earl Leonard Nelson.

With panic over the murders of Clara Newman and Laura Beale fading,

the people of the Bay Area began to think this grim nightmare was behind them.

And then all of a sudden, three months later, it wasn't.

Lillian St. Mary was 63 years old and had been separated from her husband for the past 12.

She lived with her adult son James and rented out rooms for some extra money.

Two rooms were occupied, two were vacant,

and every afternoon Lillian would go out shopping for supplies to make dinner for her tenants,

par for the course in cities when refrigerators were still super rare and cost twice as much as a car.

On the afternoon of June 10th, Lillian was clearly ready to go out for this errand.

She had on her coat and hat and held her purse.

Investigators assumed someone rang the doorbell just as she was about to leave,

a prospective lodger who'd seen the room for rent sign in the front window.

Lillian led the caller up to the furnished room on the second floor. Earl Nelson was on her as soon as the door closed behind her,

heavy hands clutching her throat as he shoved her down to the floor. He knelt on her chest as he choked

her. Nine of Lillian's ribs were broken.

She was incapacitated almost immediately.

Her glasses didn't even fall off her head in the struggle.

...