193. The Sting Operation That Ended “To Catch a Predator”: Bill Conradt
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What is the background and premise of the Murphy sting that ended “To Catch a Predator”?
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That's right. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash HSP pod. That's shopify.com slash HSP pod. Welcome back to another episode of Heart Starts Pounding. As always, I'm your host, Kayla Moore. Maybe you've seen the trailer for the new A24 movie that's coming out, Primetime, where Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen. I'm actually looking at it now, and the trailer has almost 50 million views on YouTube. 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 are interested in my true crime deep dives, this is the show for you. We are digging into the mysteries that keep me up at night, the cases that just don't sit right with me. You can check it out exclusively on Netflix September 28th. I worked so hard on this show. I cannot wait to share it all. with you and thanks to everyone who has been with me since day one when I would record this in my closet and is now seeing this all the way through to a Netflix show. Thank you guys. 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. He's married, he has two kids at home, and he thinks he's about to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex. Timothy pulls up to the house and waits outside in his car looking nervous. The front door opens to reveal a young girl standing. Standing in that doorway holding a cat. And she starts beckoning Timothy to come in. She says, I can't come out and meet you. I'm holding the cat. Come in. But Timothy shakes his head. Maybe he's starting to second guess things. Or maybe he senses that something about this encounter is not what it seems.
Seven cameras placed strategically in the neighborhood have tracked him as he approached the house. They've caught his face, his license plate number, but they don't need any of that information. Because inside of this home is a team of people that already know everything about Timothy. And that's because for the last few weeks, Tim has been chatting with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl under the username Dallas Bad Boy 2002. Under that screen name, he sent her pictures of his genitals. He asked her explicit questions about herself. But actually, Tim had been talking to an adult volunteer with Perverted Justice, a watchdog group dedicated to busting child predators. Perverted Justice had been working with Datelines to catch a predator for eight undercover investigations at that point, and the show had become incredibly popular.
So popular. that Timothy even mentioned in his messages to the girl that he had seen the show, and that he needed to be careful because so many guys had been getting caught on it. But he thinks he has a way to get around that.
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