Episode 264: John Cornelius Mcghee

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

Society & Culture, News, True Crime

4.5 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On July 11, 2002, a 45-year-old man is gunned down in the doorway of his home in Bridgeport, Ohio. As far as local law enforcement is concerned, it’s a tragic home invasion gone wrong and nothing more. But all is not as it seems. And for a small town, identifying the perpetrator and their motive is not as straightforward as it should be. As the weeks, months, and years pass, conflicting and conflated accounts, and outright lies put forward by witnesses cloud the truth. The killer remains on the loose, their identity obscured. However years later, the fight to unravel the truth and bring the victim’s assailant to account is not only renewed, but far from over. In episode 264, Jac and Alexis detail the baffling unsolved murder of John Cornelius McGhee, and the strength and courage of his daughter Madison who refuses to give up on finding justice for her father over 20 years later.

Transcript

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0:00.0	First degree, first degree, first degree, first degree, first degree, first degree, the first degree.
0:09.0	Get on the news, get on the paper, get on the paper.
0:13.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not real life.
0:23.0	I was with my grandmother and her sister. We were in Texas visiting my mom's side of the family.
0:29.0	And my grandmother gets a call from the Red Cross.
0:34.0	And they told her that my dad had passed away.
0:37.0	And we got on a plane the next day and flew back home, went to the funeral.
0:43.0	And my mom didn't know what to do with herself.
0:47.0	And she was like, I have to tell you something.
0:50.0	If you wanted to set the record straight, tell the truth, solve this case, you had your moment.
0:58.0	You had your time. A big thing that's been going around the family is like, oh, that's not really what happened.
1:04.0	Or you got that wrong. Or whatever.
1:07.0	And it's like, okay, well then tell me the right thing.
1:11.0	What really happened?
1:13.0	Oh, you're not willing to do that. Then I'm going to keep going until I get the right thing from someone somewhere.
1:23.0	Welcome to the first degree of the True Crime Podcast that you might end up on.
1:26.0	My name is Jack Fanick and I'm sitting here with Alexis Linkletter.
1:29.0	How are you doing today, Lex?
1:31.0	I'm doing great. We're dealing with super storm Hillary.
1:36.0	Hearing the sweet pitter patter of the rain drops just outside the window.
1:39.0	It's kind of calming.
1:40.0	It is kind of crazy because California gets absolutely zero rain in the summer.
	...

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