Episode 389: Peggy Klinke, Part 1

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

News, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.5 • 10.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the late 1990s, a driven and bright woman builds a life in New Mexico, staying deeply connected to her family back in Ohio. But after meeting a man through a study group, her life begins to shift. What starts as control quickly escalates into a years-long campaign of stalking, intimidation, and fear. As the behavior intensifies, she reports threats, files charges, seeks protection, and even moves a thousand miles away to stay safe - only to find that the systems meant to help her consistently fall short. In episode 389, Jac and Alexis begin the story of Peggy Klinke, tracing the early warning signs, the relentless escalation of stalking, and the critical moments where intervention could have prevented Peggy’s murder. 🎟 Catch up to FOUR bonus episodes per month plus full video episodes over on Patreon: patreon.com/thefirstdegree 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/thefirstdegree 🕺 TikTok: tiktok.com/@thefirstdegreee 👤 Facebook: facebook.com/thefirstdegree Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.8	The first degree.
0:32.8	First degree.
0:33.7	First degree.
0:34.4	First degree.
0:35.4	First degree.
0:36.3	First degree.
0:37.4	The first degree. You see it on the news. You see it on First degree. First degree. The first degree.
0:38.3	You see it on the news. You see it on the paper. You see it on Facebook.
0:43.3	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:51.3	We were all saying, okay, my God, this trial's going to happen because we really put some blind faith in the criminal justice system to do its job.
1:00.1	So we're all like, well, you know, there's a trial. He's going to go to jail for this.
1:05.4	But, you know, my gut was telling me, this could get really ugly.
1:09.7	And I was right.
1:14.3	Welcome to the first degree of the true crime podcast that you might end up on. My name is Jack Fannick. I'm sitting here with the Lexus Link Letter.
1:19.1	And today is part one of our two-part series of Peggy Clinky. And if we have a two-part,
1:24.8	multi-part series, you know what that means. You can binge the entire thing right now in the underground where all of our premium content
	...

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