S2E12: Episode 1: "A Death in Florida"
Conspiracyland
Yahoo News
4.4 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2020
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode explores the life of Lori Klausutis, a vivacious 28-year-old who worked in a tiny office in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., as the constituent service coordinator for then-congressman Joe Scarborough. A devout Catholic who wore a “Precious Little Feet” lapel pin, a symbol for the anti-abortion movement. Klausutis was a well-liked woman who served as president of the local Young Republicans club and sang in the church choir. The podcast, relying on detailed police reports and interviews with people directly involved in the case, describes how on the afternoon of July 19, 2001, Klausutis was feeling fidgety and ill moments before she collapsed from an undiagnosed heart condition. While the police found no sign of a struggle or foul play, her death soon spurred speculation and conspiracy theories — many of them pushed by left-wing bloggers who demanded that Scarborough be subjected to the same scrutiny as then-Democratic congressman Gary Condit, who had been having an affair with missing intern Chandra Levy. The rumors that his wife had also been having an affair with her boss infuriated T.J. Klausutis, who reveals Scarborough didn’t even recognize his wife when they encountered each other. “It’s complete nonsense,” he says. “It’s just disgusting.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've been writing this letter in my head for years. I didn't know who it was going to. I didn't know who it was going to. I didn't know under what case it would ever come out. It was just a matter of sitting |
| 0:16.2 | down and actually finally getting the way to get the story out. |
| 0:23.0 | Once you go ahead and read it? |
| 0:25.0 | Mr. Dorsey. |
| 0:27.0 | Nearly 19 years ago, my wife, who had an undiagnosed heart condition, |
| 0:31.0 | fell and hit her head on a desk at work. She was found dead the next morning. |
| 0:37.4 | Her name was Lori K. Clausutis and she was 28 years old when she died. |
| 0:49.1 | Her passing is the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with my 52 years. You're listening to T.J. Klausutus, reading from a letter he wrote last May to Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter. |
| 0:57.5 | Klausutis, an Air Force engineer, wanted to call attention to the ugly rumors and vile conspiracy theories that have circulated for years |
| 1:05.5 | about the 2001 death of his wife, conspiracy theories that have only gotten new traction |
| 1:11.2 | in the age of social media. |
| 1:14.0 | Have you ever tried to actually report a tweet and get action |
| 1:18.4 | when you know that it has false information? |
| 1:20.0 | Have you actually gone through that process before Michael? |
| 1:22.1 | I personally have not. |
| 1:24.0 | Well, I mean, I get attacked all the time, |
| 1:26.5 | but not in the way that is as painful as it was for you. |
| 1:30.8 | It's literally the situation where you're trying one at a time trying to set the record straight and guess what |
| 1:36.1 | it's completely useless there's nothing that you can do. |
| 1:40.2 | Lassutas hit his breaking point this spring when the loudest Twitter voice in the world |
| 1:45.8 | at real Donald Trump jumped on the conspiracy theories about his wife and promoted them like |
| 1:51.0 | never before suggesting in a series of tweets from the White House |
... |
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