"The Pied Piper of Tucson” Charles Howard Schmid

Serial Killers

Spotify Studios

True Crime, History, Education

4.6 • 30.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With his caked-on makeup and pathological lies, Charles “Smitty” Schmid cut a distinctive figure among Tucson’s youth. The 22-year-old wanted to draw misfit teens to himself like moths to a flame, before holding a cultish sway over them. Schmid was a corrupting force. And by the summer of 1965, he had killed at least three young women, burying their bodies in the Arizona desert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised.
0:04.8	This episode includes discussions of sexual assault, violence, animal abuse, and murder.
0:10.6	We advise extreme caution for children under 13.
0:22.2	In August of 1965, Cretchen Fritz and her sister Wenty were going to see the new Elvis
0:27.3	film when they ran into Cretchen's boyfriend, Charles Schmidt.
0:30.9	Smitty everyone called him.
0:33.3	It's hard to say what exactly was going through Cretchen's mind that night.
0:37.0	She may have been happy to see her boyfriend, or perhaps she was annoyed with him, as she
0:41.7	often was.
0:43.6	At some point, they went back to his house.
0:46.0	Cretchen might have thought they were there to drink and unwind.
0:49.6	Or she may have suspected that something was off.
0:53.6	Whatever she was thinking, she clearly didn't expect what happened next.
0:58.2	Details from that night will always elude the public, because only one person left a house
1:03.8	alive.
1:06.0	It wasn't Cretchen, and it wasn't her sister.
1:09.0	It was Smitty.
1:10.3	The smooth-talking Lofario, known throughout town.
1:14.6	Even before that night, Smitty had a reputation.
1:18.0	Some saw him as a rebel, others just thought of him as a 23-year-old clown who wore
1:23.2	too much makeup and hung out with teenagers.
1:27.3	But despite all the gossip, some knew the truth.
	...

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