Episode 395: The Eleventh Gun

The First Degree

Alexis Linkletter and Jac Vanek

News, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.5 • 10.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In early January 1985, a 20-year-old National Guardsman is on a training exercise in Henderson, Nevada. The ambitious and intelligent young man has a strong moral compass guiding him in his career. That is, until one day, when he’s confronted with a difficult choice and thrust into a situation out of his control. The cascade of choices he makes next change the course of his life in an entirely unanticipated way, altering his path forever. In episode 395, Jac and Alexis detail the intriguing story of Jerry Mathes, and how his journey through the criminal justice system and out the other side of incarceration forced him to mourn the kind of man he not only had been, but deep down face who he really wanted to be. This is a tale of the spiritually redemptive power of memoir and using one’s voice to reclaim both the truth and a new perspective on life-changing events. 🎟 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 📓 Substack: http://thefirstdegree.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first degree.
0:02.0	First degree.
0:03.0	First degree.
0:04.0	First degree.
0:05.0	First degree.
0:06.0	First degree.
0:07.0	The first degree.
0:08.0	You see it on the news.
0:10.0	You see it on the paper.
0:11.0	You see it on Facebook.
0:13.0	These things are supposed to happen in movies, not in real life.
0:23.6	Being implicated meant that they could charge me a theft. So it was a scary deal.
0:26.6	Because now I know that like we can get caught.
0:30.6	If we get caught, I'm going down.
0:31.6	I realize that at this moment, it's not just like he's going to get in a lot of trouble.
0:36.6	Now it's we're going to get in a lot of trouble. Now it's we're going to get in a lot of
0:38.6	trouble. I knew that the prison time. I didn't know what, but I knew it wouldn't be good.
0:45.3	Welcome to the first degree of the true crime podcast that you might end up on. My name is Jack Vanek.
0:49.7	I'm sitting here with Alexis Link Letter. Happy hump day, another another Wednesday. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. And your
0:56.5	favorite day, deep dive day, is tomorrow. I do want to know the percentage of, like, who's listening
1:04.7	to what? Are we all listening to both? I know that we have deep divers that don't listen to the
1:10.0	first degree, first degrees, first-dees that don't listen to the first degree, first-degree, first-ees
	...

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