FILE 192 / 8 October 2020 / 168 MIN / full

Angry, Bloody & Ridiculous

Colby, WisconsinListen

The town

N ↑Public placePublic placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

It's in central Wisconsin ... in two different counties, Clark and Marathon counties. about 0:05:45

History, in brief

1872

The Wisconsin Central Railroad was building its line through the woods towards Lake Superior and finished the 1872 construction season with the rails completed at Colby.

about 0:06:56

Town note

The station was renamed in honour of Charles L. Colby, a partner in the construction company and son of railroad financier Gardner L. Colby.

about 0:08:20

1874

Colby is the birthplace of Colby cheese, and a historical marker in downtown Colby commemorates its development by Joseph Steinwand in 1874.

about 0:08:58
All 8 history facts

1872

The Wisconsin Central Railroad was building its line through the woods towards Lake Superior and finished the 1872 construction season with the rails completed at Colby.

about 0:06:56

Town note

The station was renamed in honour of Charles L. Colby, a partner in the construction company and son of railroad financier Gardner L. Colby.

about 0:08:20

1874

Colby is the birthplace of Colby cheese, and a historical marker in downtown Colby commemorates its development by Joseph Steinwand in 1874.

about 0:08:58

Town note

Ambrose Steinwand passed his cheese-making art to his son Joseph F. Steinwand, who perfected a washed curd process that gave Colby its mild flavour.

about 0:09:12

Town note

It takes slightly more than a gallon of milk to produce a pound of Colby cheese.

about 0:09:31

1898

An 1898 issue of the Colby Phonograph noted that a merchant in Phillips sold the genuine Steinwand Colby cheese.

about 0:10:22

Town note

Colby cheese is no longer made in the town of Colby; a factory east of town cuts and packages it, and the former cheese factory is now a dilapidated building.

about 0:14:37

The figures, as told

Religious

58.2%

Biggest faith: Catholic, 27.6%

about 0:20:58

Crime / national average

Property crime
▼ about 25% below

about 0:29:42

Violent crime
▼ less than half

about 0:29:47

Money

Median home value$109,500
Two-bedroom rentabout $700
Median household income$45,000
Cost of living77 out of 100

For sale

$87,900

Two-bedroom, one-bath, 1,160 square foot house

about 0:24:43

For sale

$127,900

Four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,680 square foot house

about 0:25:15

For sale

$650,000

Four-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath, 1,260 square foot house on 160 acres

about 0:25:43
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2020

Population

"667"

Comparison: "in 1900". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:18:37

Population

"2,000"

Comparison: "currently". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:18:45

Population growth

"30%"

Comparison: "since 1990". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:18:55

Median age

"36 and a half"

Comparison: "about a year younger than normal". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:19:34

Race

"0.0% black"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:24

Race

"0.7% Asian"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:43

Race

"21.4% Hispanic"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:48

Religious population

"58.2%"

Comparison: "a little more than normal". Direction: above.

As told in 2020 about 0:20:58

Catholic

"27.6%"

Comparison: "beat the Lutherans by over ten percent". Direction: above.

As told in 2020 about 0:21:11

Unemployment rate

"about normal"

Comparison: "normal". Direction: about the same.

As told in 2020 about 0:22:47

Median household income

"$45,000"

Comparison: "normally almost $58,000". No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:22:59

Households making $30,000 or less

"more than 30%"

Direction: above.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:04

Manufacturing jobs

"33%"

Comparison: "more than three times the average". Direction: above.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:17

Cost of living

"77 out of 100"

Comparison: "100 is regular". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:23:58

Housing

"47"

Comparison: "100 is regular". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:05

Median home cost

"$109,500"

Comparison: "extremely low". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:08

Homes valued under $100,000

"about 50%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:18

Average two-bedroom rental

"about $700"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:36

Two-bedroom, one-bath, 1,160 square foot house

"$87,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:24:43

Four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,680 square foot house

"$127,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:25:15

Four-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath, 1,260 square foot house on 160 acres

"$650,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2020 about 0:25:43

Property crime

"about 25% below"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:29:42

Violent crime

"less than half"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2020 about 0:29:47

The reviews

2.5 / 5 · average of 2

5 stars

“A small, quaint, rural-feeling town where everyone knows everybody, surrounded by farmland but with good amenities four minutes down the road; a wonderful place to raise children although the schools are not good and job opportunities are limited.”
about 0:15:52

0 stars

“After three years in Colby the reviewer says the water tastes disgusting, is beyond hard, makes skin ashy and dry and has damaged their hair; 118 people agreed and 156 disagreed.”
about 0:16:59

In Wisconsin

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  4. Singing Serial KillerMenomonie, Wisconsin · 13 November 2025126 km / 78 miShow on map
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The story

Robert Pogue was a butcher by trade, a meat cutter at Century Foods in Abbotsford, Wisconsin, and a man who liked loud music, hot rod racing and his two pit bulls.

She was twenty, already divorced with a two-year-old daughter, and he was sixteen.

The marriage was chaotic. Later that year she had another affair with Joe Trejo, a co-worker at a Denny's in Tyler. No one called the police.

He went back later, cut the phone line, kicked in the door and confronted Robert with a shotgun. The two men wrestled over it and a shot went through the roof, but again nobody called the police.

They stayed with Robert's family for a short time and then rented a one-bedroom flat at 3304 and a half Division Street. Robert worked in the meat department at Century Foods in Abbotsford.

He asked a Nacogdoches police detective, Clifford Lightfoot, for advice about getting his children back; Lightfoot told him to hire a lawyer and not to go to Wisconsin. He described cutting the torso in two and the rest into six-to-eight-inch pieces, mutilating the face and removing the teeth so Robert could not be identified. He kept repeating, in McNeely's recollection, "no body, no crime". He said he would use a machete. McNeely thought he was letting off steam.

The medical examiner's evidence pointed instead to a knife wound to the abdomen. Instead they went ahead with the plan.

He cut off the head and held it up by the ponytail, opened the chest and pulled out the heart with his bare hand, remarking that he had not known a human heart was so small. He cut off Robert's testicles and slashed his buttocks. He said the only moment he was frightened was when he was sawing through bone and worried that the noise would make someone complain. Afterwards he said the knives were so blunt you could not cut butter with them. She said she stayed in the car as lookout.

She told Robert's sister that he had walked out after a row. She told Robert's mother, Shirley, that he was a drug addict who had run off with drug friends. The mattress was gone, she said, because one of the pit bulls had torn it up.

Robert's mother reported him missing to the Colby police on 4 June 1990. On 7 June Wisconsin detectives flew to Texas and, with the Nacogdoches police, located the s. On 8 June Robert's stepfather, Glen Maine, found the discarded mattress beside a road and recognised the pattern. In the car police found the stock and part of the barrel of a shotgun, a bow saw with flesh, blood and hair in the blade, and a work glove containing Robert's ponytail with a piece of scalp attached.

On 15 September 1990 he agreed to help investigators find the body. He led them to a site about twelve miles south-west of Babcock along Highway 173. On the second day they found the first burial site along a logging road about two hundred yards from the highway, near cranberry bogs; a second site was three hundred feet away, and a third and fourth were found over the next two days. Robert's head, hands, heart, lungs and testicles were never recovered. A tattoo of Ann on one arm identified him.

He blamed Robert for tearing his family apart and said dismembering the body was the only way to get it out of the flat. He is in Stanley Correctional Institution.

The case

Murder of Robert Pogue

Victims

Robert Pogue. A butcher and meat cutter at Century Foods in Abbotsford, best friend and, through marriage to aunt Ann, his uncle by marriage.

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 8 October 2020.

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Ann Pogue. Robert's wife and aunt; she took to the Texas trailer to show him the affair.
Judy Adams. mother.
Shirley. Robert Pogue's mother, who reported him missing.
Glen Maine. Robert Pogue's stepfather, who found the discarded mattress.
Felicia. Robert Pogue's sister, who said Pogue treated his pit bulls like children.
Marilyn. aunt, whom Robert Pogue dated before Ann.
Leonard McNeely Sr.. Owner of L. M. McNeely, employer, who nicknamed him Rambo.
Leonard McNeely Jr.. Co-worker and owner's son; told him the plan to kill Pogue.
Stephen Murphy. A 24-year-old who had an affair with in Tyler, Texas.
Joe Trejo. A Denny's co-worker who had an affair with and was abducted by .
Sam Skinner. Owner of the trailer outside Nacogdoches where confronted Pogue with a shotgun.
Clifford Lightfoot. Nacogdoches police detective asked for advice.
Wendell Roddy. Marathon County sheriff's detective who investigated the murder.
Susan Whittaker. friend and distant cousin, who said he told her he would kill Pogue.
Patricia Cooper. short-lived girlfriend in April 1990.
Pam Ben Senma. friend, told a version of the killing on June 3, 1990.
Margie. mother, who spoke to police.
Amanda. daughter from her first marriage.
Daniel. son, believed to be Robert Pogue's.
Alan Mokrie. Owner of the Rudolph Motel in Medford.
Lawrence Ackellarry. Owner of Century Foods, to whom gave one day's notice.
Jerry Rice. A co-worker and electrician who saw the ponytail.

The timeline

  1. October 2, 1966 is born.about 0:33:48
  2. early 1980s drops out of high school in about the tenth grade and goes to the Job Corps in McKinney, Texas. (Job Corps)about 0:35:14
  3. 1982-1983 meets at the Job Corps in McKinney. (Job Corps)about 0:36:23
  4. April 28, 1983 , 16, and , 20, marry in McKinney, Texas; his mother signs the papers.about 0:37:57
  5. 1987 While is on army manoeuvres in Germany, and Robert Pogue have an affair and she becomes pregnant.about 1:02:05
  6. 1988 son Daniel is born, believed to be Robert Pogue's child.about 1:02:17
  7. fall 1989 moves in with Stephen Murphy in Tyler, Texas; bursts in with a pool cue and threatens to kill him. (Tyler, Texas)about 0:54:38
  8. December 1989 puts a gun to Joe Trejo's head outside apartment; Trejo throws coffee in his face and dives from the moving car, and fires three shots at him.about 0:56:36
  9. January 1990 Ann Pogue takes to the trailer outside Nacogdoches; he later returns, cuts the phone line, kicks in the door and confronts Robert with a shotgun, which fires into the roof during a struggle. (Trailer outside Nacogdoches)about 1:03:02
  10. February 1990 Robert Pogue and move with the three children to Colby, Wisconsin.about 1:06:20
  11. February 1990 They rent a one-bedroom apartment at 3304 and a half Division Street. (Pogue apartment)about 1:07:31
  12. February 1990 begins writing and telephoning , asking him to come to Wisconsin and take her and the children back to Texas.about 1:09:52
  13. early May 1990 tells Colby Elementary School that her daughter's last day is May 11 and that they are moving back to Texas. (Colby Elementary School)about 1:25:38
  14. May 25, 1990 leaves Texas driving north; gives one day's notice at Century Foods. (Century Foods)about 1:25:57
  15. May 28, 1990 arrives in Medford; he and book into the Rudolph Motel, then check out at 7.30 p.m. and move to room 29 at the Welcome In Motel. (Welcome In Motel)about 1:26:24
  16. May 30, 1990 goes to the Division Street apartment and kills Robert Pogue during a struggle; says she stabbed Pogue in the back, while the medical evidence shows a knife wound to the abdomen. (Pogue apartment)about 1:28:35

Places and phrases

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Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode