Catlic fans, welcome to episode 18. I'm super glad you're here. Our Catholic live finale is coming soon.

Don't forget, it's March the 14th. The event is already 63% sold out, so be sure to get your tickets to both the live finale and our Catholic walking tours at catlick.com.

Also, I'm going to reveal our first special guest joining us at the finale.

Just stick around to the end of this episode to hear who it is.

All right, that's it.

Enjoy episode 18.

This episode references historical moments that are violent and at times sexual.

Listener discretion is advised. On the morning of August 1st, 1984, 16-year-old David Samples slides into a phone booth at the corner of Boulevard and Memorial Drive.

Memorial Drive is a busy road that marks the southern boundary of Atlanta's Cabbage Town neighborhood.

This early in the morning, the streets of Atlanta are still dark and mostly empty.

It's August in the south, so it's also hot and humid, even at 4 a.m.

David pulls a quarter out of his pocket.

He has to make an important phone call.

He's crying.

That phone booth at Boulevard and Memorial is, of course, no longer there.

I walk or drive by this intersection almost every day.

It's just a couple of blocks south of my place in Cabbage Town.

By 1984, Cabbage Town had fallen into near anarchy.

The cotton mill that had anchored the neighborhood's economy for a century had closed back in the 70s.

For the white working class people of Cabbage Town, the shuttering of the mill was an economic catastrophe. These generations of Cabbage Town families had worked at that mill.

And when it closed, many of the residents already dirt floor poor had few other options.

Mass unemployment led to mass poverty, and the poverty swept in like a plague.

...