Hey, I'm Joel Stein. I want you to close your eyes and imagine a pocket watch.

It's moving from side to side. You're getting very sleepy.

Great. Now that I've hypnotized you against your will, you're going to start liking long-form journalism.

Like so much. You're going to listen to a podcast where the host interviews a writer about their long-form story every week.

I'm that host.

Listen to Story of the Week on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

This just in today, attorneys for George Wagner the Fourth say,

there is proof he did not kill any of the eight victims and therefore could avoid the death penalty.

Judge Randy Deering heard an impassioned plea from George Wagner's attorney who said his client

never pulled a trigger on the night eight members of the Rodent family were killed execution style.

The state made a deal with the devil basically.

So far, Edward Jake Wagner and his mother Angela Wagner have confessed to prosecutors and have

agreed to testify against the rest of the family. George and Billy Wagner are still going through

the court process. The trial has been sent for April of next year.

This is George Wagner's defense attorney talking about Jake Wagner.

He's the person that is most responsible for this. He's the actual killer. He's the actual shooter.

He's the one that snuck into these homes in the middle of the night and shot the victims in the head.

All right, our client didn't shoot anybody.

He says we made a deal with the devil. Unfortunately, there's more than one devil in this case and that is all four of the individuals who are charged in this matter.

This is the Pikes in Massacre, returned to Pike County. Season three, episode four,

State of Ohio, versus George Wagner IV.

I'm Courtney Armstrong, a television producer at KT Studios with Stephanie Leidacher and Jeff Shane.

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