Vampires Among Us: The Ritual Murder That Shocked Germany

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[Music]

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Germany in the 90s wasn't exactly a breeding ground for vampires, but don't tell that to Daniel

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in Manuela Ruta. He was a blood-drinking black metal fan with a flare for theatrics,

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and she was a goth-turned-vampire enthusiast who blacked out her windows and slept in a coffin.

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Romantic, right? But when these two met, their shared love of darkness turned into something

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more dangerous than matching outfits and bad eyeliner. Their story is one of blood rituals,

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satanic visions, and a personal ad that could have been ripped straight out of a creepy gothic

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Craigslist. But what happens when a couple's obsession with eternal damnation leads them to

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believe murder is their ticket to hell's VIP lounge. That's where things get messy. But before we

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get into that story, if you like your true crime, brief, and bingeable, you have found the right

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podcast. Tap the follow button now to access at least two episodes per week. Welcome to 10 Minute

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Murder.

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[Music]

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Manuela Bartel was the kind of kid who made her parents breathe a sigh of relief.

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Pellite, hardworking, and bright. Growing up in the 80s and 90s Germany, her life followed the

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well-worn path of a typical small town of bringing. Good grades, plenty of friends, and really no

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trouble to speak of. But then, adolescence came knocking, and Manuela didn't just slam the door

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in her childhood innocence, she torched it. For most parents, teenage years mean a few slam doors,

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some questionable outfits, and a curfew rebellion or two. But Manuela, she leveled up. Her mood swings

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weren't just emotional, they were physical. Manuela's fits of rage were explosive, sometimes

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spilling out into the streets, where her behavior turned bizarre and terrifying. Biting strangers

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was just another Tuesday for her. Her baffled parents turned to psychiatrists, hoping for answers.

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But therapy sessions, evaluations, and even desperate prayers yielded nothing. No one could pinpoint

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why their once-sweet daughter had morphed into something so unrecognizable. And then, it got worse,

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much worse. Manuela Bartel's spiral from promising student to self-proclaim vampire was anything

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but subtle. It began with her skipping school and swapping her typical teenage wardrobe

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for the dramatic blacks and heavy eyeliner of gothic fashion. Her parents, bewildered by her

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transformation, didn't see the next twist coming. At just 16, Manuela packed her things and vanished.

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Not to a friend's house or nearby town, but across the channel to London. London, with its sprawling

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subcultures welcomed Manuela like a moth to its dark flickering flame. She found work at a gothic

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night club in Islington, a place where her new aesthetic wasn't just accepted, it was celebrated.

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But this wasn't just about fashion or music for Manuela. Her immersion into the gothic scene

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opened the door to something far darker. At the club, she mingled with a crowd that didn't stop

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at black lipstick and devil horns for Halloween. They embraced the occult, worshiped Satan,

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and shared the taste for blood. Literally. Manuela would later describe how she and other self-identified

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vampires drank the blood of willing donors during their macabre gatherings. It was thrilling and

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toxicating even to feel connected to this dark forbidden community. But for Manuela, it still

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wasn't enough. Craving something deeper or perhaps darker, Manuela left London for Scotland.

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Her behavior became increasingly extreme, sleeping on graves, performing occult rituals,

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and at one point being buried alive. In her own words, she claimed to have sold her soul to Satan,

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completing her transformation from rebellious teen to a figure who had abandoned all semblance of

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her former self. When Manuela Bartel resurfaced in Germany, she wasn't just a rebellious teen anymore.

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She was a living, breathing gothic archetype, straight out of a nightmare. By then,

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her connection to daylight had vanished entirely. She blacked out her apartment windows, transformed her

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sleep routine to match her nocturnal habits, and chose a coffin as her bed of choice.

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Suttletey, it seems, had left the building. Her transformation didn't stop at lifestyle changes.

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Manuela went under the needle, shaving part of her head to make space for a tattoo of an inverted

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crucifix. A bold declaration for her allegiance to the dark. But even that wasn't enough to complete

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her evolution. To truly embody the vampire image, she craved, Manuela underwent dental modification,

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replacing two of her teeth with sharp animal fangs. At this point, Manuela wasn't just living

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the gothic lifestyle. She was sculpting herself into its extreme embodiment, becoming a figure that

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blurred the line between reality and horror fiction. Her return to Germany marked the final

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phase of her metamorphosis and set the stage for a dark chapter that would shock the world.

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Back in Germany, her life took another sharp turn. This time, it was sparked by a personal ad

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buried in the pages of a magazine catering to gothic, delusioned youth. The ad was brief,

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yet it spoke directly to her morbid sensibilities. Vampire seeks princess of darkness,

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who hates everybody and everything. It was essentially a lonely heart's ad,

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wrapped in black velvet and nihilism. But for Manuela, it was an invitation she could not resist.

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Responding to that ad would change the trajectory of her life forever, setting her on a path of

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destruction she could never undo. Experts who later dissected their story often speculated that

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had they been left to their own devices, Manuela and the man she was about to meet might have

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eventually outgrown their gothic obsessions. Had a lessons and identity crisis fade, after all,

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but life doesn't often give people such neat endings. Manuela answered the ad and met Daniel Ruta.

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Together they would form a duo that would drag their shared fantasies into horrifying reality,

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ensuring that neither would escape the darkness they had embraced.

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Daniel Ruta grew up isolated and angry, never fitting in and recoiling from even basic human

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connections. In search of purpose, he first turned to neo-nazism, finding fleeting camaraderie during

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the 1998 general election. Disillusioned by the movement's failure, he abandoned it and dove into

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Germany's gothic and black metal scene. In this dark subculture, Daniel embraced blood-drinking

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rituals and followed his favorite band, Blood Sucking Freaks, across the country. But even this

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macabre community couldn't satisfy him. Desperate for deeper meaning, he placed that personal ad,

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vampire seeks princess of darkness who hates everybody and everything. Manuela answered,

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setting the stage for their deadly partnership. Daniel and Manuela's connection was

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instant and disturbing. They fully embraced their shared obsession with darkness and the occult,

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creating a life together where Daniel worked to mundane job day to day, and Manuela lived out

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her vampiric fantasies in their lightless apartment, complete with a coffin bed. Their delusion

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escalated when Daniel claimed to receive a satanic vision. They were to marry on June 6th and die

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on July 6th to earn eternal seats besides Satan. But first, they needed a sacrifice. For Daniel

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and Manuela, the question wasn't whether to kill, it was who to choose. That decision would soon

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seal their fate. For Daniel and Manuela, their satanic devotion required one final act, a blood

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sacrifice. Manuela's isolated lifestyle meant few potential victims, so the couple turned to

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someone they both knew. Frank Hagen. Frank, a kind and open-minded colleague of Daniels, had met

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Manuela and didn't judge their eccentric lifestyle. But his good nature made him the perfect choice

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in their twisted logic. Frank's humor and personality led them to label him as Satan's future

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court jester. In their eyes, Frank wasn't just a victim, he was the key to their eternity in hell.

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On July 6th, Frank arrived at Daniel and Manuela's apartment, expecting a casual evening with friends.

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Instead, he walked into a trap. While they sat on the sofa, Daniel struck Frank twice with a hammer,

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disoriented but still alive, Frank stumbled toward the television, only to be met with Manuela's

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blade. Convensed, she was following a divine order, she stabbed Frank 66 times. The depravity didn't

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stop there. They carved a pentagram into a stomach, drank his blood, and completed their ritual by

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having sex beside his body. In Manuela's coffin. Frank's death wasn't just a sacrifice, it was a

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horrifying descent into their delusions. With Frank's blood spilled, the couple believed their mission

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was nearly complete. All that remained was their departure from this mortal world,

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sealing their pact with Satan. Initially, they planned to slit their wrists, but the thought of

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staging a fatal accident with a truck crossed their minds. For unknown reasons, neither plan

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materialized. Instead, Daniel and Manuela fled. Their disappearance might have gone unnoticed,

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but Manuela sent a good buy letter to her parents. Alarmed, her family contacted the authorities.

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When police arrived for a welfare check, they discovered a scene straight out of a horror movie.

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Frank's mutilated body was decomposing in the apartment. The scowl still protruding from his stomach.

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A nationwide manhunt quickly ensued, and the couple was apprehended on July 12th in another city.

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Daniel initially claimed he had no memory of the murder, but Manuela was more forthcoming.

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She laid out the details with chilling matter of factness, openly explaining the ritual,

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and their belief that the act was an order from Satan. I got the order to sacrifice a human for Satan.

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Daniel declared during his statement, "Manuela echoed the sentiment. It was not murder. We are not

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murderers. It was the execution of an order." What followed would be one of the most bizarre and

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unsettling murder trials in modern German history. The trial of Daniel and Manuela Ruta was less

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about legal proceedings and more about theater, a twisted gothic performance that horrified and

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fascinated onlookers with equal measure. Dressed in their signature gothic attire, the couple

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turned the courtroom into a stage for their macabre beliefs. They shared passionate kisses in front

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of the cameras, flashed satanic hand gestures, and seemed to revel in the chaos that they had created.

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Manuela even requested that the courtroom windows be blacked out, claiming the sunlight hurt her eyes.

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While the judge denied this bizarre request, she was permitted to wear sunglasses throughout the trial,

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further adding to the surreal atmosphere. Never one to shy away from the spotlight. Daniel

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took the stand with an argument that left the courtroom stunned, comparing himself to a car

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involved in an accident. He declared, "If I kill a person with a car and half his bleeding head

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is hanging on the radiator grill, the car is not put on trial. The driver is the bad one. I have no

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reason to regret anything because I have not done anything." His statement underscored the couple's

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shared belief that they were mere instruments of Satan, absolved of personal responsibility by

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the supposed divine order they claim to follow. Despite their theatrics and pleas for leniency

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on the grounds of mental disturbance, the judge saw through their facade, though not without

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some measure of compromise. Daniel was sentenced to 15 years and Manuela received 13, both to be served

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in the psychiatric unit of a prison. The court also forbade them from ever seeing each other again.

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Their bond, which had brought them together in the name of darkness, dissolved shortly after the

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trial, culminating in a divorce. In the years that followed, Daniel remained defiant. He pinned a

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book about the murder, a move that not only shocked the public, but ensured his request for early

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release would be denied. To this day, Daniel remains behind bars refusing to participate in therapy

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sessions, a requirement for his potential release. Manuela, on the other hand, appears to have taken

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a different path. She engaged in therapy, reportedly coming to terms with the gravity of her actions.

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After serving her sentence, she was released. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

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That's 10-minute murder for today. Brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe, I'm the host,

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and thank you for taking the time to listen. I don't know what got me in the vampire mood.

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It wasn't necessarily me. I don't want to take full blame. You guys are the ones that request

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these different topics for the episodes. I happened to put two vampire episodes pretty close to each

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other because I've done the Richard Chase, the vampire sacrament. I did that one pretty recently.

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Now this one, that's my bet. I should have spaced out the vampire episodes. Again, thanks for

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listening. If you're a brand new listener, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right

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now. Follow on social media and go to my website, get all the information about the podcast. 10minute

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murder.com. And this has been an ongoing theme over the years of doing this podcast. For some reason,

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people want to know, Joe, what's bothering you right now? What's something you want to get off your

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chest? What's a pet peeve of yours? Something along those lines. And I don't know why people want to

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know this about me, but I do get occasional emails. So I will, I'll tell you what's bothering me at the

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moment. I'm sick of logging in. All these different devices, all these different places where you go

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to do the things on the internet. You have to log in all the time. I'm so sick of logging in and create

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a password. Bro, I'm out of passwords. I don't, I don't have another password in me. Maybe you have a

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job where you have to create a log in and a password. And then that password has to be changed every 60,

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30, 90 days, whatever it is. I am so out of passwords. I don't know what to tell you. Like, what else you

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want me to talk about? Like, it should start looking around the room sometimes like pocket lends.

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12. Like, that's not a real password of mine for the record. But like, that's what I'm doing at

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this point. Like, I don't even know what to do for passwords. Leave me alone. Whoever invented the

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face technology where the device will recognize your face to log you in, I want to kiss you on the

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mouth because that is a lifesaver for me. If I had to enter a password every time I needed to get in my

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phone, I would never use my phone. Okay, I'm gonna hush because this episode's getting long but

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don't forget to check out my other podcast, 10 Minute Mystery. Same vibes as this one, just no

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murders. Again, thank you so much for listening to 10 Minute Murder.