The Fireplace Poker Murder - Spring Grove, Illinois

Small Town Murder

James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman

True Crime, Comedy

4.9 • 77.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 186 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, in Spring Grove, Illinois, when a young woman is found, brutally murdered & with her skull crushed, detectives suspect her ex boyfriend, who happens to be an former small town police officer. He inists that he "only wants to help people". But his violent past, including being seen biting the victim's face, in public, makes him the obvious suspect. This all leads to wild & strange court poroceedings, and a huge fight over the murder weapon!

Along the way, we find out that you should never write your own bio, that there is no such thing as a "little bite on the face", and that just because you used to be a cop, doesn't mean you know how to get away with murder!!

New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!!

Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder

Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!

instagram.com/smalltownmurder

facebook.com/smalltownpod

Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This week, in Spring Grove, Illinois, detectives suspect an ex-small town cop when his on-again-off-again girlfriend is found horribly murdered, mostly due to his violent pasts, but he insists that he, quote, only wants to help people.
0:14.0	Welcome to small small town murder.
0:34.6	Yay!
0:36.0	Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy.
0:41.1	Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. Yay. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigal. I'm here with my co-host.
0:54.3	I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another absolutely wild, crazy downhill edition of Small Town Murder. We have a wild one as usual. And something special today that we have to talk about.
1:00.4	We have to welcome Netflix viewers. Hello. Thank you, Netflix viewers, for joining us today.
1:04.7	Hello, we'll wave right at the camera for that one. Nice to see you guys. Thank you so much.
1:10.6	We're very excited. And if you like this show, good news for you because this is episode 669. So that means there are 668 more episodes
1:14.6	to catch up on wherever you listen to podcasts. So thanks for being here. You're going to see a wild
1:19.8	show. We can't wait to present this for you. Got a crazy murder. Got to tell everybody, head
1:24.7	over to shut up and give me murder.com. Tickets for live shows are available right now.
1:30.4	A whole slate of 2026 live shows starting out February 21st in Nashville.
1:35.7	Get them right now.
1:36.7	Nashville sells hot, so you got to get them hot like their chicken.
1:39.7	That's right.
1:40.6	Then Durham on March 6th, March 7th in Atlanta, Phoenix is sold out, but your stupid opinions is still available. So get your tickets for that. Salt Lake City sold out. We have Denver almost. It's getting there. Buffalo sold out. Royal Oak, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Terry Town, and Boston. Get your tickets now. Come see us live. It is a blast. You'll be looking at us like you're looking at us now and everything. But we'll have a... They're so much fun. They're crazy. We have all the pictures and everything. It's a really good time. So definitely do that. Also, listen to the other two shows we make, Crime and Sports and your stupid opinions. Then get yourself Patreon.
2:18.4	That's what they should do.
2:19.3	Oh, boy.
2:20.3	Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of the bonus material.
2:26.0	Anybody, $5 a month or above, you're going to get everything that we put out.
2:29.7	We're talking hundreds of back bonus episodes immediately upon subscription.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.