The Tragedy That Occurred
California City
LAist Studios
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2020
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ken Donney is a hero to some, but most people would call him a villain.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for LAST comes from Pasadena Playhouse presenting Eureka Day. |
| 0:04.6 | Jonathan Spector's Razor Sharp 2025 Tony Award winning satire. |
| 0:09.1 | Eureka Day is on stage at Pasadena Playhouse beginning September 10th. |
| 0:13.2 | Tickets are on sale now at Pasadena Playhouse.org. |
| 0:17.0 | Live stream, supported by South Coast Repertory, presenting million-dollar quartet. |
| 0:21.6 | Step back to 1956 when Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins |
| 0:26.7 | made music history with one of the greatest rock and roll jam sessions. |
| 0:30.2 | In this musical with over 20 hits, September 13th through October 19th. |
| 0:34.6 | Tickets at SCR.org. |
| 0:39.0 | Previously on California City. |
| 0:42.0 | I mean, do you really think that anybody could just snap and kill their wife? |
| 0:51.9 | You have 60 seconds remaining. |
| 0:59.0 | There's no one in this story who is as proud or as disgraced as Ken Donnie. |
| 1:07.0 | Ken helped thousands of people get their money back in California City. |
| 1:11.6 | And then 18 years later, Ken murdered his wife. |
| 1:16.6 | It's hard to hold both of these versions of him in my head, but both are true. |
| 1:21.6 | And that's the reason I want to tell you about Ken's crime, |
| 1:24.6 | because he's the most extreme example of something I've noticed about |
| 1:28.4 | almost everyone I talked to for this story. |
| 1:32.8 | Heroes can be villains. |
| 1:36.8 | Victims can be perpetrators. |
| 1:40.3 | No one is all bad or all good. |
... |
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