meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
RedHanded

ShortHand: Flakka - “$5 Insanity”

RedHanded

Wondery | RedHanded

True Crime

4.518.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What makes flakka – aka gravel, aka the zombie drug, aka five-dollar insanity – one of the most frightening drugs on the market is not just its unpredictable strength. It’s not just its effects – which have caused its users to go on unhinged, rabid rampages that end in bloody violence and brutal murder.

What makes the synthetic cathinone particularly horrifying is just how easy it is to make, distribute, and profit from. And how continuously drugs like it evade the law. This week, H&S find out why the drug exists – and why it drives people to such horrifying attacks.

GET YOUR NORTH AMERICAN TOUR TICKETS:
https://redhandedpodcast.com/

Become a patron:
Patreon

Order a copy of the book here (US & Canada):
Order on Wellesley Books
Order on Amazon.com

Order a copy of the book here (UK, Ireland, Europe, NZ, Aus):
Order on Amazon.co.uk
Order on Foyles

Follow us on social media:
Instagram
Twitter

Visit our website:
Website

Sources available on redhandedpodcast.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Shorthand.

0:17.6

We're going to be doing things today.

0:20.2

Drugs!

0:21.2

Drugs, yeah.

0:22.2

Welcome to Shorthand where we're doing drugs.

0:23.2

That's what's happening.

0:24.2

But hopefully not like this because this is mental.

0:29.2

So at 1.40am on Friday the 16th of March 2018, police were called to a home in Royal

0:34.8

Palm Beach, Florida.

0:37.3

When they arrived, they found a woman covered in blood, with cuts all over her hands,

0:42.1

screaming, I killed my mother and I need help.

0:46.7

When approached, this woman handed officers keys soaked in yet more blood and then collapsed.

0:54.3

As the police entered the garage of the house, they could hardly believe what they were seeing.

0:59.8

There were handwritten notes scattered around referring to cleansing the soul and in the middle

1:05.3

of it all lay the body of a woman and an enormous pool of blood.

1:12.0

There were several large, deep, lacerations to our body, including her head, arms, chest,

1:18.4

stomach and groin.

1:21.1

And her eyes had been gouged out with broken glass.

1:26.6

A few meters away from the body, there was a cardboard box on top of which sat the woman's

1:32.5

missing eyeballs.

1:35.7

This poor woman was 55-year-old Francisco Montierro Barla.

1:41.8

And the woman sat outside now chanting, I'm a murderer, was her 32-year-old daughter,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery | RedHanded, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery | RedHanded and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.