Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett.

And the story I want to tell you today goes right into the dark heart of romance.

In the late 1940s, after World War II, single women all over the country thought they had

finally found true love. What they really found, though, was something much, much more sinister.

This is the story of the lonely hearts killers.

In early January of 1949, just after New Year's in Amsterdam, New York, a woman named Mary

Spencer is getting ready to spend some time with her stepmother. Even though Mary's dad passed

away some time ago, she and her dad's widow, this woman named Janet Faye, still have a really

good relationship. Janet basically helped raise her and they've always stayed in touch.

And today's going to be special, though, because today, Janet is coming to town from Albany

so that Mary will get to meet Janet's new love interest.

Since Janet's a devout Catholic who goes to mass every Sunday, Mary doesn't meet up with

her until that afternoon when Janet and her new gentleman friend Charles come over, along

with Charles' sister Martha. So Mary has Janet, Charles, and Martha all over to her

house and they all tell her about how they met. And Janet tells Mary how she's already

started introducing him to her friends because things are just going so well. Like, Janet

already head over heels and love with this guy. You see, he's a successful businessman

and since his family's from Spain where he spent a good portion of his childhood, he's

like a man of the world. He feels very exotic. Yeah, he sounds like a really great catch.

This dude is a catch right. Now, we don't know what exactly Mary's first impression of

them is, but she has to notice the one thing that I think would really stick out. Charles

is in his mid-30s, which is definitely quite a bit younger than Janet who's in her early

...