Where I have been

Welcome to True Crime Authors and Extraordinary People, the podcast where we bring two passions together.

The show that gives new meaning to the old adage truth is stranger than fiction.

And reminding you that there is an extraordinary person in all of us, here is your host, David McClam.

What's going on, everybody?

Welcome to another episode of True Crime Authors and Extraordinary People.

Of course, I'm your man, David McClam.

Hey, if you guys haven't already, make sure you follow us on all of our social media.

One link to a link tree will get you every place you need to go pertaining to the show.

All right?

And I always like to remind you, if you are someone or you know someone that you feel like hurting yourself or others, please step away from this episode in dial 9889.

It is the suicide prevention hotline.

They will get you the help that you need.

And if no one else has told you this today, let me be the first and tell you that I do care and I do need you to be here.

All right, guys, I am back.

Let me kind of explain to you what has been going on.

There's a reason that I have been gone for this long.

Just to catch up.

I am aware that the last time I talked to you guys is about a month ago.

The last full episode that you guys received was April 4th, and that was the rise and fall of Miss Fanny's biscuits with authors Wanda E.

Braunstetter and Martha Bolton.

Before that, it was the Kayleen Tucker the Relay Felt around the world, which was March 21st.

And then I came in May 16th and gave you a programming note.

So before I get started, here's a couple things I want to say.

First of all, I want to thank everybody that has continuously stuck with me through all of this time, which I'm about to tell you about now.

And at the end, I'll tell you about a new company that I have been honored to be a part of.

They've reached out to me and we're going to talk about what they are.

They're going to allow me to offer you some things if you want to support the show.

And the name of that company is Crowd Weave.

So I'll tell you all about Crowd Weave at the end and then I'll probably remind you guys about Crowd Weave at the beginning of each episode just so that you know that it is there.

And also to anyone who is new to the show, I've met a lot of people over the last month or so that I've told you about the show.

We had a talk about it and you guys like true crime.

And a lot of people said they want to check out the show.

So any new person that is here, welcome.

Hope we get back to normalcy.

I usually drop episodes once a week here, usually in different varieties by the title of my show up until recently, which I'm about to discuss that now.

All right, what has been happening?

Why the sporadicness?

The last full episode again was March 21st.

And then I gave you a programming Update on the 16th.

I believe in that programming update on the 16th.

I did college.

You guys know that we were dealing with some deaths in the family and so on and so forth.

Well, that has continued to happen ever since I went on vacation and came back from Arkansas, which I went on vacation at the end of February and I returned at the middle of March.

A lot of stuff has just been happening, taking place life in.

Right.

I don't know what it is.

I don't know why it's hitting us now, but it is.

So just to kind of give you the beginning of all of that, how that went and where the snowball began was after my vacation.

So I went on vacation.

I came back the middle of March.

I went back to work.

I was at work for one week.

Ended up going on bereavement leave.

During that bereavement time, a very dear friend of ours suddenly passed away.

Wife told us that she's walked in the room.

He was on the ground.

We think he had a sudden heart attack.

His name was Keith, and Keith was a very important man.

He also was a very important man to Hollywood.

He ran a company called Megapixel.

So if you guys ever heard of Megapixel, they are responsible for a lot of the screens that you see when you go to these award shows, whether it's the Oscars or the Grammys or whatever it may be.

Keith and his company was a part of that.

Keith and his company also produced technology for displays called Helios.

It made displays easy.

So like I said, everybody from the Oscars to the Grammys, you see those In Memoriam boards?

I mean, they have a full platform.

What better legacy to have than they use your own technology at your memorial service?

Because they did bring one of the screens they had and they used Helios.

So if you don't know who Megapixel is, look them up.

They have won several Emmys.

I swear, they win one, like, every year because of visual effects.

They do a lot more than that.

But that was the company that Keith was the CEO of and part owner, which the guy was so humble.

I mean, he's rolling around in the porch, he says belongs to the company.

But for years we didn't even know up until the time he passed that he actually ran Helios.

Come to find out a lot of things that he did that his wife didn't even know.

Good stuff.

But his wife didn't even know.

His wife didn't even know he's producing the Helios chip.

Right.

We find all this out as his memorial.

He was truly a humble guy, you know.

So just when we thought that that was going to be end of that, several more people pass away down that line.

And then all of a sudden my boss begins his stuff with me at work.

So there's been a lot of changes at work.

And so for whatever reason, my boss starts targeting me.

So then I start having issues now at work.

I'm not at liberty to talk about all of that at this point, but I will talk about it in due time because I think it's something that everyone needs to know.

I think it's something everybody needs to see that happens in these corporate worlds.

How people change when, I hate to break it up, when politics change and when companies change.

And also when people feel like they are completely untouchable, that they are not even in touch with the world around them, it needs to be said.

I just can't talk about it fully right now because I'm waiting for the outcome of that.

And as soon as the outcome comes, I'll let you guys know.

But that was another problem that was going on.

While all of that's going on, about two weeks ago, from the time that this is being shot, which is now June 17, we get another devastating call.

And the call was that my 45 year old sister in law just dropped dead.

So when we get that call, we're devastated.

Why is she not here?

Why is Lisa dropping dead?

Well, Lisa, exactly a month and three days before she passed away, had complained that she had problems with her leg.

Went to the doctor, doctor discovered that she had a blood clot.

Here is the problem though.

The blood clot I think they said was the size of a golf ball, but it was going to grow.

Now I don't know a whole lot about, about medical stuff.

I did have my, my mom was a nurse and my wife went to school for that.

But I do know some things about blood clots.

If you have a clot like that, what you are supposed to do as a doctor is you pose, be put in the hospital, you're supposed to Be laid down, minimized walking, right.

So you're walking very little because the clock can move.

And now you get Indones drugs, whatever the case is to try to minimize that clot.

If the clot does not complet glow away, then what you're looking for is to minimize that enough so that they can go in and remove it.

That's not what Lisa's doctor did.

Named Dr.

Ho.

The doctor sent her home and said, oh, just take these blood thinners and you're going to be okay.

Well, the morning that Lisa died, she was supposed to go back into a followup with Dr.

Ho.

She did not make it because that was at 10:30.

Lisa passed away sometime around the 6, 6:30am time.

So we start dealing with that now.

She took care of her mother.

So just because I'm going to confuse you and say her mother called us so and you said mother in law and our sister in law.

And I know that my mother in law has long been gone, but what happened is when my wife's biological mom passed away, Paula and Lisa were family friends and my, my wife didn't have a mother figure anymore and needed one.

So Paula legally adopted her at about the age 17 or 18.

So yes, she legally adopted a grown adult and they've been family ever since.

Family doesn't always have to be blood, but for somebody to want to adopt you even though you are grown, that's remarkable.

So my sister in law, mother in law, well, Lisa was taking care of the mother in law.

She lived with her, she got her to all of her appointments, medication, the whole nine, made sure the bills was paid.

So now as a family, we've all had to jump in.

You know, me and my wife and Ashley, who's Lisa's brother, we all had to jump in now to help out where we can.

That is kind of the long story of where I have been.

Trials and tribulations has been hitting and in the business that I'm in, I'll just be honest with you, I'm like, man, all this death is going around.

I, I got people at work trying to, trying to target me.

I don't know where the next one's going to be.

I just got into a very gloomy state and I'm like, I just don't feel like doing anything.

I had to force myself to produce the shows that I do produce for other people.

So they went behind.

But I was like, man, I'm just not, I'm just not feeling this at this point anymore.

And then I was like, I got to get back on the saddle.

And what woke me up was there's a couple of authors reached out to me and you know, they're wanting to come on the show and go, we listen to your show.

We love the show.

And that makes me feel good, right?

Makes me know that people do listen to the show and they want to appear on the show.

And then in that time, from what I didn't know, I had gotten asked to be on several different shows.

I do use a system called Pod Match.

I haven't been there in a while and I go back and I have all these invitations for me to appear on shows and I have all these people that wants to come on my show.

So we're back.

Pray for me and my family because it is going to be something that's going to be affecting us for a long period of time.

I know some people say, oh, that's ridiculous.

You never get over death, especially ones that grip you and change your life.

My mother's been dead almost five years now and I still haven't gotten quite over that.

I'm still dealing with that on a daily basis.

And then to have the rest of these come up.

So that is what happened.

Again, I want to thank all of you guys for being around and being with me through all this time.

Those that have stuck here and just waited for me to return, I truly, truly appreciate it.

I tell you as my audience all the time, I'm always going to be transparent.

I'm always going to be truthful.

On this podcast, you will never have to wonder, well, what happened?

Did David just up and leave?

He didn't even say anything to us.

Am I unfollowing this show?

Does he still have a show at some point in time?

If things like this happens, you guys will always get a follow up for me, whether it's good or bad.

To all of the authors out there that I did do interviews with prior to this time, which there were a couple, I apologize.

Your episodes will be released here very, very soon.

I am getting on those.

I'm getting those edited and produced up and they will be up here very, very soon.

So you guys do have some authors that are coming that I did record before this time that needs to come out to you.

Very, very good episodes, very good books.

So we're going to get on that.

Got some things down the pipeline that is coming you guys way, so stay tuned.

I got some fascinating people that's going to be coming on the show since I've been away.

I'll give you guys, a little bit of a teaser.

One of the authors I'm gonna be sitting down hopefully in the next week is Mary.

No way.

She has written the book the man who Shot JP Morgan, A Life of Arsenic, Anarchy and Intrigue.

You don't want to miss that.

Yes, J.P.

morgan, you know him better.

J.P.

morgan Chase.

He was one of the richest men back in that time.

She's written the book on it.

You don't want to miss what this book's going to have to offer.

I mean, you got some of everything in here.

False identities, criminal exploits, you name it.

This book is going to cover that.

So that's just one that's coming on the pipeline.

I'm going to appear on some shows and there'll be other people coming on this show, so stay tuned.

I do have some stuff lined up for you.

All right, before I get out of here, let's talk about Crowd Weave.

Crowd Weave is a very unique way for you to support your favorite podcaster if they're on this platform, and also get a little bit something back.

So if you want to support the show, there'll be a link at the bottom of this one and then going forward on every show, that will point you to my Crowd Weave page.

Now, some of these things may change and you as an audience can actually give me some insight of what you would like to see here if you want to donate to the cause.

So basically, for instance, let's just say for $5 that will get you a shout out on the show.

Let's say that if you want to go $10, maybe you can pick it up coming case you can vote for the next episode theme, things of that nature.

There's also a tier that I have here if I have any case files, because a lot of things I do FOIA on, if I have any case files for from that, maybe for 20 bucks you can get access to all those case files.

So it's just things like that.

We're still working on it, but want you guys to see it.

But I do want to shout out to Crowd Weaves, thank you guys for allowing me to be on this platform and for reaching out.

And you guys as an audience, let me know what you think.

But I always want to try to give something back for those you guys that want to support the show.

And I think that this is one way in which that can be done.

All right, guys, we're back on the grind.

Starting next week, we'll be back to regular episodes.

And I'm gonna start by dropping some Authors.

If I get a couple of the authors done before then, I'll drop them early.

But then the new episodes will still come out next week.

I think next week we're gonna talk about a case that needs to be discussed.

Right now I have, as you guys know, one of my best friends in this world is ladonna Humphrey.

Ladonna Humphrey has started taking on this case.

And I'm going to tell you this.

This case is so bad and is so dangerous that we want her to stay away from him because it deals with a little place called Madison County, Arkansas.

But there is definitely, definitely cover up.

And you guys need to hear this.

So the case I'm going to bring to you next week will be on the murder of Taylor Barksdale.

You don't want to miss that episode.

I'm gonna tell you guys that episode.

Some resources that you can go to to keep looking into this case.

I'm gonna give you some sites and pages that you can go to that you can see everyone else interacting with this.

And now, maybe for the first time, people of Madison county is starting to demand answers.

So you guys don't want to miss that.

All right, guys, once again, thank you for sticking with me.

I have missed you guys tremendously.

I'm glad to be back, and we're going to keep on pushing this ball.

Pray that nothing else happens between now and next week and makes me go on another hiatus.

Pray for all the people that I mentioned today in my family.

Also, let's continue to pray for people in Hollywood.

I don't know what's going on.

It seems like everybody's just dropping dead.

I mean, every day in the last month, I've got like one to three alerts a day saying someone else that was famous passed away.

I don't know what's going on, but all I can tell you is make sure that you have your affairs in order.

Tell that person that you didn't speak to for a while that you love them, that you do.

If you truly do love them.

If you have a riff and a tiff with somebody, go try to settle that.

Because once the day comes when somebody's gone, we can never get them back.

And as I just.

And as you probably just learned from my story, death has no age.

And we don't know where death lies.

We could all be gone tomorrow for all we know, as tomorrow's not promised.

So please reach out and do that.

If you haven't.

Once again, thank you for tuning in today.

I know you have many choices in true crime and interview podcast.

I am grateful that I am just one of your choices.

You have been listening to the only three faceted podcast of its kind.

Be good to yourself and each other.

And always remember, always stay humble.

An act of kindness can make someone's day.

A little love and compassion can go a long way.

And remember that there is an extraordinary person in all of us.

I'll catch you on the next one.

Don't forget to rate, comment and subscribe.

Join us on social media One link to the link tree has it all.

Feel free to drop us a line@True Crimeandauthorsmail.com cover art and logo designed by Arslan Sound mixing and editing by David McClam intro script by Sophie Wilde and David McGlam theme music legendary by New Alchemist Introduction and ending credits by Jackie Voice.

See you next time Time on True Crime Authors and extraordinary People.