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

Ep. 604 Joseph Edward Duncan

·1 hr 53 min·5 clips

Duncan’s first recorded sex crime came at 15, and the hosts say he later claimed he had raped 13 boys by 16.

1. Let Them Fight: A Comedy History Podcast focuses this episode on Joseph Edward Duncan and the crimes tied to his name. 2. Tim Groeschel hosts with a co-host who reacts throughout, and Duncan matters because his case spans Washington, Minnesota, Idaho, California, and federal court. 3. The episode asks what kind of record a man with three first names leaves behind when the file includes child sexual assault, kidnapping, and murder. 4. Duncan was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on February 25, 1963, and his father, Joseph Edward Duncan Jr., served in the Army. 5. The family had five children, and after the parents split in 1979 and divorced in 1983, Duncan stayed with his mother in Tacoma, Washington. 6. The hosts say Duncan did not graduate from Lakes High School and began committing sex crimes as a teenager. 7. They state that his first recorded offense came at 15, when he assaulted a nine-year-old boy at gunpoint and stole a car. 8. Duncan was sent to Jesse Dysland Boys Ranch in Tacoma and later told a therapist he had bound and sexually abused six boys. 9. He also estimated in that therapy context that he had raped 13 boys by age 16. 10. After another attack on a 14-year-old boy, a judge returned him to prison instead of leaving him in treatment. 11. The episode details how he was released in 1994, later arrested in 1996 for marijuana use, then returned to prison in 1997 for violating parole. 12. He left prison again in July 2000 with time off for good behavior and later settled in Fargo, North Dakota. 13. In March 2005 he was arrested for the July 3, 2004 molestation of two boys at a playground in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. 14. A Fargo businessman paid Duncan’s $15,000 bail, and Duncan skipped town before a federal warrant was issued for unlawful flight. 15. The hosts then move to May 16, 2005, when police found Brenda Groen, Mark McKenzie, and 13-year-old Slade Groen dead in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. 16. They note that Dylan and Shasta Groen were missing at that point, which triggered an Amber Alert and a wider search. 17. Shasta later described Duncan in black gloves with a gun, tying up the adults with zip ties, and beating the victims with a hammer. 18. She said he kept her and Dylan for 47 days, repeatedly raped and tortured them, and talked to her about killing her family. 19. The episode’s style mixes grim case chronology with sarcastic commentary, profanity, and rapid back-and-forth between the hosts. 20. Listeners who like criminal-case breakdowns with dark comedy will get the most from it, while listeners avoiding explicit child-abuse details should skip it.

As heard by us

A sharp, darkly funny look at a case that keeps getting forced through the legal system.

Let Them Fight traces Joseph Edward Duncan through federal appeals, extradition fights, and the long procedural drag of a case that keeps climbing the ladder. Tim Groeschel and Jacob M.

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Why you'd press play

You want a furious legal grind told with jokes, swearing, and zero polish.

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