Diane Downs & Ann Rule's "Small Sacrifices"
What a Creep
Margo Donohue
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Season 24, Episode 7
Diane Downs
Diane Downs gained infamy for the 1983 shooting of her three children, one of whom died, in Springfield, Oregon. The case became highly publicized due to the shocking nature of the crime and the subsequent investigation and trial. On May 19, 1983, Diane Downs drove her children to a rural road and shot them at close range. She then drove VERY SLOWLY to a hospital, claiming that a “bushy-haired stranger” had shot her and her children during a carjacking attempt. However, inconsistencies in her story and evidence led investigators to suspect her involvement in the crime. Anne Rule’s book Small Sacrifices was turned into a TV movie starring Farah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal that garnered huge ratings.
Trigger Warning: Child abuse & murder.Sources:
- Diane Downs Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Downs
- Willamette Weekly: https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/10/04/oregons-parole-board-isnt-likely-to-release-diane-downs-anytime-soon/
- ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/US/1983-diane-downs-stranger-shot-kids-police-decided/story?id=61683920
- Crime Museum: https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/famous-murders/diane-downs/
- Distractify: https://www.distractify.com/p/diane-downs-children-now
- All That is Interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/diane-downs
- Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Sacrifices-Story-Passion-Murder/dp/0451166604
- Diane Downs on Oprah! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsMXTsU4eqE
- Diane’s daughter: https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/diane-downs-biological-daughter-finds-truth-birth-mom-61880672
- 1989 TV Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fUk6XsmIAE
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to What a Creep. The show with Margotaniu and Sonia Mansfield talking about |
| 0:06.0 | creeps from the past to the present. |
| 0:08.8 | This is your quick guide to the biggest Creeps, jerks, ass, and losers, the best of the worst. |
| 0:15.0 | From two nice ladies who want the world to be a Creep, this is Margot Donahue and my cohort and |
| 0:30.4 | creep as always is the amazing Sonia Mansfield. |
| 0:33.0 | Hey Sonia. |
| 0:34.0 | Hello my friend. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello my friend. |
| 0:37.0 | We are the podcast that talks about creeps from the past to the present. |
| 0:41.0 | We've got quite an episode coming on today. This is someone who was creepy. So notorious |
| 0:48.4 | Farah Fawcett pla-Plader in the TV movie. Oh, Farah Fawcett TV movies were so good. |
| 0:55.0 | They're so amazing. |
| 0:56.0 | But before we get to that, we just want to let you know that if this is your first time listening, |
| 1:00.0 | we always end the episode with someone who's not a creep, |
| 1:02.0 | so at least you leave |
| 1:03.2 | feeling a little bit better about the world yes at the end and just so you know this |
| 1:07.6 | person is in jail that we're talking about where they belong. |
| 1:12.2 | Mm-hmm you can like our Facebook page, we won't do anything about it. |
| 1:17.0 | That's where people usually go to complain about our language. |
| 1:20.0 | And as this is your warning, We use salty language in this program. |
| 1:23.8 | Yeah, fuck shit, damn. |
| 1:27.6 | We're on Twitter at Creep Pie because somebody had what a creep on |
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