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Sword and Scale

Episode 338

06 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 20.824 Unknown

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. A man's manhood should never be compromised when it comes to a female.

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24.247 - 63.061 Mike Boudet

Come take a load off, put your feet up, and listen to some murder. What a stupid thing to say. This is season 13, episode 338 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. If you're a fan of true crime, I invite you to check out our brand new YouTube channel where you can subscribe the opposite way you can on our website.

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63.081 - 97.039 Mike Boudet

See, on our website you can subscribe for $10 for audio and then add video for another $10 on top of that. On YouTube, you can start with video and add audio. So, you know, take your pick. This is just going to complicate things, isn't it? Oh well, fuck my life. Some people still want to drink at the end of the day, but just not the alcohol part. That's where Good Feels fits in.

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Chapter 2: What happened to Diane Madison in East Cleveland in 2019?

97.781 - 123.147 Mike Boudet

Good Feels makes THC-infused cannabis seltzers designed to be light, consistent, and easy to enjoy. No hangover, no heaviness, just a calm, lifted feeling that doesn't take over your night. They're made with natural ingredients and formulated to feel balanced, whether you're relaxing at home or out with friends. It's a simple alternative if alcohol isn't doing you any favors anymore.

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123.708 - 175.001 Mike Boudet

And right now, you can get 20% off at shop.getgoodfeels.com with promo code SWORD. 21 and over only, please. That's shop.getgoodfeels.com and use promo code SWORD for 20% off. It's just after midnight in 2019, during the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. This isn't some mumbo-jumbo new age crap. It's when the sun is furthest from the equator.

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176.102 - 199.283 Mike Boudet

And it's a time when some say the veil between this dimension and the others is the thinnest. Okay, so maybe there is a little quote-unquote new age wisdom. The most important point though is that it's Ohio, the state that's becoming quite popular around here for some reason. So it's June 21st in East Cleveland.

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200.124 - 223.426 Mike Boudet

Believe it or not, there are posh areas in Cleveland, so that some of you savages can pretend to be people. This isn't one of them. It's not a picturesque skyline by the lake or the downtown area lit up with nightlife. It's Collinwood, a working-class neighborhood that feels like it's part of a bygone era.

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224.347 - 258.266 Mike Boudet

Part of the Rust Belt, the houses are small and modest, but nice enough, and the lawns are mowed. There's just enough space in the backyard for a barbecue. Ah, Americana. A small, white, Cape Cod-style home faces a narrow street called Chickasaw Avenue. It's a mild but humid evening. No wind is blowing, and it's dark. Windows stay open in most homes, and the people inside are asleep.

259.307 - 269.198 Mike Boudet

The fans humming in the background. But on this street, as June 21st turns to the 22nd, something bad is happening.

269.999 - 283.948 Unknown

Steven 911 dispatcher, who do you need police, fire, EMS? Hello, we just got stabbed on Chicken Saw Ave. I'm sorry? I said we just got stabbed. Who just got stabbed?

284.969 - 295.46 Mike Boudet

The call almost sounded like a hoax. The child calling in was so calm and said she lived on Chicken Saw Avenue. But this was no joke.

296.401 - 320.025 Unknown

What's your address where you are? Chicken Saw Ave, we just got stabbed. What's the address? The complete address? You may not have caught it, but the little girl said she was about to pass out.

Chapter 3: What tragic events occurred in Diane's neighborhood before the stabbing?

720.931 - 748.592 Unknown

19612 Cherokee. Who am I speaking to? This is EMS and police. Hurry up, please. These girls have been stabbed bad. Come back here, baby. Ain't nobody going to mess with y'all. Oh, my goodness. Come on. Oh, my goodness. Come on, baby. Come on. Get up.

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749.062 - 762.72 Mike Boudet

The little girls confirm that it was a cousin who stabbed them, and she's afraid he'll find them. Not when this guy's around. I mean, would you fuck with him? I wouldn't. Weakly, she tells him she can't get up.

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763.481 - 793.386 Unknown

Open that door. This girl done been stabbed up there. Okay, that's the address where they're going to be, the 19612? Yes, yes, 19612. Here, hurry up. Oh, my fucking goodness. Okay, are you guys responding, Petey? Yeah. Say what? Hey, y'all sit right there. Oh, my fucking goodness. This girl is stabbed up real bad. Does she know where the person went and stabbed her? Say what?

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793.707 - 815.053 Unknown

Does she know where the person went and stabbed her? Where the person go to stab? They said they looking for him. Shut up. Let me do this. Please help. They said they looking for them.

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815.994 - 835.279 Mike Boudet

Oh boy. These gentlemen seem ready to carry out their own investigation. But police wanted a name. The little girls were scared and going in and out of awareness. It was hard to get the needed information and confusion was getting in the way.

835.85 - 868.624 Unknown

They don't know. Do y'all know who set up y'all like that? Sorry. Yeah. Are both of them stabbed? Yes. Sir, we got people on the way. I'm trying to get information from you. These kids are stabbed up sad. They're two little girls. Oh, my fucking goodness. Man, I found this dude. Who is this guy? I got EMS already talking to them. They don't need to be transferred.

868.784 - 880.167 Unknown

Okay, I got... Who is this guy that's stabbed, y'all? I got two 10-year-old stabs. Apologies. Who's that, y'all? Sorry, who? Jalen Plummer.

881.008 - 897.852 Mike Boudet

It was 18-year-old Jalen Plummer, their cousin, who was supposed to be staying with an aunt in a different part of the neighborhood, but decided to go on a killing spree at his grandma's house instead. And the grandma was still back at the house.

898.673 - 917.303 Unknown

Now, y'all, please hurry up. Send somebody for these kids. Okay. So much was going on.

Chapter 4: How did the 911 dispatch respond to the stabbing incident?

1097.082 - 1119.871 Unknown

What's that? Justin. Hey, here's what. She's in the living room over there. My buddy, my buddy is watching me now. Oh, that's okay. Well, Where's your brother? He's in the bathroom. Okay. Hey, I'm going to cover the back.

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1121.012 - 1139.119 Mike Boudet

Justin was risking his life letting the officers in because the killer was still there. In the bathroom, the water was running. Jalen Plummer was fully clothed, standing under the shower. The blood from his own knife wounds swirled into the drain.

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1142.002 - 1175.905 Unknown

Stay right here, my man. You're okay. You're okay. What's that? You get my clothes for me. I can't. Are you okay, though? Yeah. Get your hands off! Get your hands off! Wait, my brother. My brother's in there. My brother did this. Okay. You're fine. You're fine. How old are you, my man? This was a madhouse.

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1177.067 - 1185.199 Mike Boudet

When asked for his mother's name, he was able to give it to the officer, but he couldn't spell it, saying that she never told him how.

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1185.685 - 1211.368 Unknown

Okay, we'll call her, okay? You're okay, though. You're not hurt, right? You're not bleeding at all? You got stabbed, huh? Wait, I got that? Yeah, you got some blood. What's your name? I got lucky. What? Yeah. When I saw the knife in there. You did? Where do you think the knife's at? At the toilet, and I cleaned it up. You cleaned it up? Yeah. Okay. It's in the sink.

1211.388 - 1212.31 Diane Madison

It's in the sink.

1212.49 - 1213.572 Unknown

It's in the sink right now.

1213.792 - 1215.916 Diane Madison

It's in the sink? Hey, he's saying the knife's in the sink.

1216.577 - 1220.603 Unknown

This guy, this... Victim. Yeah, he's got a little laceration to the back right now.

Chapter 5: What details emerged about the victims and the assailant?

2116.342 - 2123.81 Unknown

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Heavenly Father. I am so glad they got him because I wasn't going to rest, you know, until they did.

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2124.431 - 2129.997 Michael Madison

Before, I had to put my fridge against the door and lock myself in before I could even go to sleep.

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2130.432 - 2159.663 Mike Boudet

Just two years after the Cleveland Strangler was put away, Michael Madison emerged onto the crime scene. Michael was born in East Cleveland in 1977. Former classmates barely remembered him because he had no real friends. He was, I guess, what you would call forgettable. He didn't graduate from high school, but he was far from stupid. He had a lot going on in his head.

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2159.879 - 2188.992 Mike Boudet

but no one ever bothered to ask what that was. And he never saw a therapist. But he needed one because he hated women, specifically black women. The women who fell into his nightmare weren't prostitutes or drugged out street women, not that they would deserve his fate. Instead, they were women with families, full lives and plans. And for a brief fateful moment,

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2189.09 - 2209.207 Mike Boudet

Each of them crossed paths with Michael Madison. The first body found was 18-year-old Sherelda Terry. She had just graduated from high school with plans for a good life. That summer, she worked at an elementary school in East Cleveland, helping run youth programs and earning respect from teachers and neighbors.

2210.188 - 2232.674 Mike Boudet

She was last seen alive on July 10, 2013, leaving school after her shift, but she never made it home. They met somewhere in the previous weeks and started texting. Michael lied, saying he was 25 with no children. When they opened the garage door, thousands of flies swarmed in the putrid air.

2233.715 - 2255.925 Mike Boudet

Officers moved the bags containing her remains and a trail of decomposition fluid left a mix of brown, gray, red, and yellow flowing like a dirty river on the concrete in front of it. It was one of the most gruesome crime scenes they'd ever laid their eyes on. She died from ligature strangulation.

2256.846 - 2264.713 Mike Boudet

And investigators also noted a severe vaginal laceration consistent with sexual assault while she was still alive.

2265.674 - 2270.759 Unknown

Shirelda's my angel. Well, everybody called her Shirelda. I called her heaven.

Chapter 6: What was the background of Jalen Plummer, the assailant?

3965.615 - 3997.188 Mike Boudet

Want to know why? Well, they're waiting for an alternative execution method in place of lethal injection. You see, they can't get their hands on the right drugs to make the deadly cocktail. They can put dogs and cats to sleep all day long. All the strays, put them all to sleep in a humane way, we're told. But they can't get the cocktail right for humans. Isn't that strange?

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3998.329 - 4028.766 Mike Boudet

It's almost as if they don't want to. And are just hiding behind some bullshit regulation in order to not do it. Despite what the populace might have voted for already. Doesn't sound very democratic, does it? Anyway, for now, this asshole is still alive. as the system that condemned him sits frozen in time, almost by design.

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4029.407 - 4060.782 Judge

I am struck by the sheer inhumanity of what one human being can do to not one, but three human beings. It is incomprehensible. You cajoled, lured, and deceived Shatisha Shealy, Angela Deskins and Sherelda Terry to your apartment for your depraved purposes. You went on to abuse the corpses of these three victims. You stripped them from the waist down.

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4060.842 - 4074.537 Judge

You folded them in half, binding them so that their feet were up by their ears. You wrapped them in multiple layers of trash bags and you discarded them.

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4075.073 - 4104.507 Mike Boudet

This killer didn't just kill out of nowhere. His crimes were monstrous, but they happened after unresolved festering thoughts from a long entangled legacy of suffering. Then you add the alcohol and possibly drugs and poof, you get a certain scale episode. Lucky you. Decades later in a cramped Cleveland apartment, a young Michael was beaten, locked in closets, humiliated.

4105.027 - 4129.38 Mike Boudet

and allegedly forced to eat feces by the very person who was supposed to protect him, his mother, Diane Madison, a woman the public celebrated after her death. Later, he was allegedly sexually abused by one of her boyfriends. Michael felt emotionally discarded and shoved through the cracks of a system that barely noticed he was falling.

4129.715 - 4158.979 Mike Boudet

Then came Tania Plummer, the mother of his child who, according to Michael, belittled him and called him less than a man. A man's manhood, he said, should never be compromised by a female who's never been a man. That quote may sound absurd on the surface, but beneath it lies a cold bit of truth. One that points to a deeper identity crisis, especially among men raised in trauma by women

4159.516 - 4184.511 Mike Boudet

who are in trauma themselves. It's a warped belief born in pain and shaped by powerlessness. It's an endless loop I don't know how the fuck we get out of. Do you have any ideas? And then came Jalen, Diane's grandson. The quiet boy who watched all of this unfold. Who once lived under the same roof as Michael.

4184.997 - 4219.512 Mike Boudet

In 2019, Jalen, just 18 years old, would creep into Diane Madison's home and stab her to death in her own bed. He didn't just kill her, he nearly decapitated her. He pleaded guilty in 2021 and is serving a life sentence with eligibility for parole in 30 years. His brother, sister, cousin, and sad little dog all survived the incident and remained in the care of their mother, Tania Plummer.

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