Murphy

Played by Skyler Gisondo

... played by Skyler Gisondo, who goes by the name Dan Plumb, said about his experience, "You could offer me $10 million to film that episode in Murphy, Texas again, and I wouldn't take it.

I know I've blocked that out.

It's not a place I like to live." The other thing I want to talk about from Predators, Luke has brought it up, is the interview with Chris Hansen that ends it.

So it turns out, as captured in this movie anyways, that a cop in Texas has written a letter to Hansen.

Yeah.

And he really wants to entreat Hansen and the producers to bring To Catch a Predator to Murphy, Texas.

Oppenheim brings life to this letter with a depiction of events as described in the letter, including a bunch of music cues that sound like something from, um, Angela Lansbury, Murder She Wrote.

And we were talking about it the other day, and you say you don't really remember the ending being here or why it was

here? I remember them going to Murphy in particular.

I just don't remember such a horrific ending to be like, Well, I mean, it almost sounds like what Joel was describing with the injury to Dante Moore is like, oh, we crossed the line.

Yeah.

It was the same thing every time.

So they kept chasing this whale, and in the movie they document this, and the whale turned out to be... a guy from DFW.

Murphy, Texas, on the northern edge here of town, a police officer reached out to Catch a Predator saying, we would like to be a part of this.

We'd like to participate in this.

Yet again, they felt that they could commit identity theft, essentially, by using my name, image, and likeness

Um, the case in Murphy, Texas, with the DA, that's how the movie ends.

And I'm not spoiling anything, 'cause don't go see this movie.

And I'm not saying for political reasons.

How much of that is true?

Here are the facts of the case, Glenn.

When we were conducting an investigation with the Murphy Police Department in Murphy, Texas, uh, there was a man who was an assistant district attorney, Bill Conrad, who got caught chatting with decoys posing as two different 13-year-old boys.

The conversations were sexually explicit, which in Texas, like most states, is against the law just to have the chat, right? And in this, uh, particular time, it was election season in Texas, so, so commercials are running all over the place about people cracking down, people running for judge, people running for state attorney general, people running for district attorney who, you know, the videos were showing law enforcement guys rushing into a room and capturing predators.

That is terrifying.

And earlier round across Long Beach, Murphy and Flagler Beach drew comparable numbers as well.

So this was not like a one-off situation.

Now, Chris Hansen, he is starting to talk a lot in the media about his view of the show.

And I think the routineness of this format of how many men they're able to get to these sting locations, it's something that is redundant and the redundancy itself is chilling.

But while this was your average run of the mill to catch a predator sting, the next sting after this is the one that changed everything.

So in Murphy, Texas, in November of 2006, to catch a predator set up a four-day sting operation.

And over those four days, 25 men were drawn to the house and arrested on arrival.

But did you know that this movie is based on the biggest To Catch a Predator sting in the show's history? It's a sting that also went so horribly wrong, it contributed to the show's demise.

Well, today, I want to tell you what happened during the Murphy sting on To Catch a Predator and how not everyone involved made it out alive.

But first, before we jump in, I wanted to remind everyone that my Netflix podcast, Last Trace with Kaylin Moore, airs on Netflix starting on Monday, September 28th.

If you're interested in my true crime deep dives, this is the show for you.

Okay.

I have a lot to tell you about today.

So why don't you have a seat? On a quiet street in an upscale neighborhood in Murphy, Texas, a brand new pickup truck slowly creeps down the street towards a huge home.

Inside of the car is a 32 year old man named Timothy Gilliam.