Let Them Fight: A Comedy History Podcast · Jacob Trimmer and Tim Groeschel

Ep. 599 Crawford Goldsby

·2 hr 3 min

The episode opens with a sideways tangent about Angela White nearly dying on set. The cause is not spelled out, so the show leans into jokes about porn industry safety, intimacy coordinators, consent, testing for STDs, and the idea of a certified eyewash station on an adult film shoot. Then the conversation slams into Bill. The hosts frame his story as one of those ugly frontier outlaw episodes where one bad decision in a jail cell turns into a legal mess. Bill is already locked up when the trouble starts. He shoots a deputy in the jail, and the whole thing turns into a grim, half absurd standoff while he is still in his cell. Another prisoner, Henry Starr, eventually talks him into giving up, which the episode treats like a strange historical footnote with almost movie star energy. From there the conversation shifts to Judge Parker, who is furious that the murder happened in jail and comes off like a fire and brimstone nightmare with a badge. The episode leans hard into the brutality of the response and the sense that nobody is expecting mercy. Bill is tried for murder again, found guilty again, and sentenced to death again. The case goes all the way to the Supreme Court, which upholds the ruling. The hosts linger on his final week before execution: time with a priest, poker with other prisoners, a cigarette, a light lunch, and visits with his mother and the woman who helped raise him, Auntie Amanda Foster. His final walk to the gallows is presented as grimly plain, and his refusal to make a speech lands like the exhausted line of a man who is done talking. The execution happens fast, and the episode lets that finality sit without trying to make it noble.

As heard by us

A fast, grim history episode that keeps its dark humor in check just enough to work.

Angela White's on-set scare sets a sharp opening note, and the call for porn-shoot safety standards lands with more weight than the setup suggests.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a filthy outlaw-history rant with zero respect for decorum.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify