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[Assistant] Now over the course of two years that followed, uh, their marriage, Rosa gave birth to two children.


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[Assistant] And while Herbert continued his education, uh, completing his seminary training in the spring of 1873,


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[Assistant] Uhm, he graduated from the conference seminary and then enrolled at was, I think it's Wesleyan College in Middletown, Connecticut. Yeah, totally. And Rosa stayed home and raised the kids.


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[Assistant] Uh, Hayden really wanted to complete the program, but the workload and his part-time minister, like minister duties essentially became a little too much for him to handle. And he began a long battle with really extreme fatigue that kind of prevented him from keeping up with his studies. Like he just couldn't keep up with it all. He was running himself into the ground.


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[Assistant] Out of six semesters, he only completed about two semesters worth of work.


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[Assistant] And in 1875 he accepted a part time position preaching on Sundays at the church in West Rocky Hill, Connecticut. Got it. That was a small community between Hartford and Middletown.


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[Assistant] The position at Rocky Hill was supposed to just be like kind of a temporary thing.


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[Assistant] Uhm, he intended to kind of parlay it into something more long term, but this worked for now.


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[Assistant] Um, cause it was helping to pay the bills, so like why not? Yeaah. And it's in your, your line of work that you want to do. Right, right. And after one year at Rocky Hills, he was transferred again to Rockland, and then transferred again in 1877, this time to replace the minister at a church in Monroe, Connecticut.


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[Assistant] So the position in Monroe was, had better pay, and it seemed like it could really turn into something more permanent, but there was a problem.


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[Assistant] It made sense for Herbert to spend the majority of his week in Monroe to kind of handle church business and, you know, not have to do that commute all the time. So this left Rosa though at home alone with the kids a lot.


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[Assistant] And again, this position held promise for Herbert's career, but it meant Rosa was left alone, and like, that's a lot to put on her, and it was like five or six days out of the week she was completely alone.


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[Assistant] And because of this, the couple, because he had this new job, decided that they were gonna hire someone to help.


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[Assistant] Her around the house with the kids, and so they hired a young woman. And this young woman was Mary Standard.


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[Assistant] Now by late 1877, Mary had moved into the Hayden's house and was working like five or six days a week with them, like just, you know, helping with the kids, keeping the house, like helping with meals.


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[Assistant] Although Rosa found her indispensable, it seemed like Herbert really liked Mary.


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[Assistant] Within a few weeks of her being hired on a full time by the Haydn's,


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[Assistant] And halfway through the meal, he excused himself briefly to return home.


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[Assistant] Yeah, like what the fuck? No. The mistress that's taking care of our kids? Yes, yeah, wait, wait, what? Yeah, I'm saying no.


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[Assistant] And then poor Rose is sitting there aphrodisiac-ed up. Yea, with no where to go. And he's already done. With no where to go. Yea, she should find someone else. Herbert sucks.


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[Assistant] Few people really thought badly of Mary for her participation in the affair.


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[Assistant] But apparently Mary was very easily influenced by others and was likely very susceptible to Hayden's charms because in fact when it came to Mary it seems like everyone


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[Assistant] So I think people were like a little easier to forget, like quicker to forgive her of her social missteps, I should say.


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[Assistant] Uh, but Herbert Hayden denied the affair with Mary. He maintained his innocence until the day he died.


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[Assistant] So we'll never know what caused their affair to eventually come to an end, which it did. Or will we? But whatever the case, by late spring, their romance had died out.


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[Assistant] And when Rosa gave birth to the couple's third child in August, because remember he was carrying the son while his wife was pregnant. Yeah, that's good. Uh, Mary had moved out of the Hayden house and stopped working for them. I wonder why. We don't know.


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[Assistant] She ended up moving in with Jane Studley near, uh, in nearby Guilford.


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[Assistant] It was Jane Studley, a friend to whom, uh, Mary first confided this affair. Okay, okay.


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[Assistant] After two, about two weeks of moving into the home, Jane noticed that Mary seemed very despondent.


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[Assistant] She was like super emotional, she could be set off a lot easier, and it was not typical of Mary. She pregnant. And so when Jane asked what's wrong with her, Mary broke down and confessed that she and Hayden had been having an affair, and that she had been quote, criminally intimate with the Reverend, and now believed she was pregnant.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the text that we found this in isn't super specific about it.


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[Assistant] But together the two women did the math and determined that Mary was about five months pregnant.


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[Assistant] Five months. Yeah, and this fell in the time frame that Mary and Herbert were carrying on an affair.


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[Assistant] Damn, that's pretty far along. Yeaah. So, although she was known to be what, like I said earlier, people thought of her as a woman of lower than average intellect, I would say. Mary knew giving birth to another child out of wedlock with a married man. A married preacher, no less.


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[Assistant] Uh, basically reasoning that he would have to be just as invested in dealing with this.


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[Assistant] As she was, like, we have to come up with a solution here. You would think. And Mary agreed that this was a good idea, but before doing that, she sat down to write a letter to her sister Susan.


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[Assistant] And included in the envelope another letter that was intended to be given to Herbert Hayden.


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[Assistant] In the letter, Mary told her sister Susan about the affair, the possible pregnancy, and asked that she give the letter to Herbert Haven.


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[Assistant] Now according to Mary, the letter she wrote to Hayden was a similar explanation and a request that he take her to New Haven.


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[Assistant] For an operation, and then to return her to Mrs. Studley for any sickness that might follow. Okay.


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[Assistant] Now Mary mailed the letter to her sister in Rockland and she got it two days later. But by then, Mary had returned home to her father's house and intercepted her sister.


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[Assistant] Before she gave the letter to Hayden, cause she was like, I want to give it to him in person actually. Okay. She just changed her mind. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Now a little after 1pm on September 3rd, 1878, her 22nd birthday, Mary Stanard gathered up her tin pail and left the house. She told her father she was going to go to Big Rock about a quarter mile from the house to pick blackberries and she would be home soon. That afternoon,


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[Assistant] The sun went down, it was getting darker, and Charles' standard became concerned. She hadn't come back, that wasn't like her.


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[Assistant] Uhm, and so he set out in the direction of Big Rock to find out where she had gone.


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[Assistant] And as he made his way through the brush into the clearing by big rock, Charles made the gruesome discovery.


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[Assistant] And so Charles ran to her and quickly realized that he was not going to be able to bring her back. Mary's throat had been cut.


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[Assistant] Severing the jugular vein, carotid artery and the larynx. Oh my god. Brutally cut. Yeaah. Deep. She also had a severe head wound.


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[Assistant] There was a hole in her scalp. What? And there was also a large bruise on the back of her right hand.


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[Assistant] Oh my god. So she was brutalized. Yeah, absolutely. So Charles...


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[Assistant] Freaked out, ran to the nearest home for help, that of Francis Mills, and the news spread across the village very quickly. And before long, a group of men had assembled at the Mills house and they set out for the scene. Uh, they discovered Mary's body in the woods where Charles had told them, and a quick search of the area turned up no, nothing else really of note. Uhm, no instrument of murder.


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[Assistant] No, no instrument, like, cause it seems like there was two different things used, like something to cut her throat, and probably a blunt instrument that hit her in the skull. Neither one was found. And because it was nearly completely dark at that point,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And at this point it had actually started to rain. Oh no. The men called off the search for the evening and just carried Mary's body back to the standard home before sending for Justice Henry Stone and Dr. Rufus Matthewson. Dr. Matthewson was the one who performed the autopsy.


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[Assistant] In his post-mortem examination, Dr. Matthewson confirmed that Mary's cause of death was pretty certainly that wound to her throat. Yeah.


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[Assistant] He also noted the wound to the right side of the head and he said quote, jagged and star-shaped and apparently made by a blunt instrument.


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[Assistant] Truly interesting though is that according to Dr. Matthewson, Mary's body showed no signs of pregnancy or of having been recently pregnant.


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[Assistant] Interesting. And the state of the body indicated quote, an outrage was not committed upon her. So no sexual assault. Okay. So she was not pregnant.


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[Assistant] So this all could have been avoided, it's, it sounds like. Yeah. Horrifying. Now, a coroner's inquest was immediately called the following day, and it was overseen by Justice Stone and Dr. Matthews.


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[Assistant] Uhm, among the first witness called was Francis Mills, who was the owner of the home where Charles, uh, Standard had run to after discovering Mary's body.


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[Assistant] And, uh, Mills told the jury that she had been walking out in the woods earlier with her son around 3pm in the afternoon.


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[Assistant] But Mill's testimony led many in the inquest to speculate that she, quote, might have been outraged by, and this is a quote, by a tramp and then murdered. Oof.


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[Assistant] Now, Dr. Matthewson however dismissed that theory and reminded the jury there was no evidence of sexual assault. She was not outraged, quote unquote. Okay.


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[Assistant] Now, almost immediately after the body was discovered, rumors started swirling around town about Herbert Hayden's possible connection to this murder. After all, for the past year there had been a lot of talk about the illicit romance between the two.


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[Assistant] But it was Mary's sister, Susan Holly, and Charles Stannard, her father, who offered the most insightful of testimonies, I would say.


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[Assistant] Now according to both of them, Reverend Hayden had come.


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[Assistant] To their home around 11am on the morning of the murder. But she was in town! And he and Mary had gone out for a walk.


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[Assistant] When they returned, Mary told them both that they had made an appointment to meet later that afternoon. Not far from where the body was discovered. Additional testimony from Susan and Jane Studley revealed that Mary had confessed her affair with Hayden to both of them.


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[Assistant] Now when asked about this, Herbert Hayden denied having met with Mary a second time that day.


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[Assistant] He said he had been out cutting wood all afternoon, all by himself.


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[Assistant] Alone. By myself. All day. Secluded. Just chop, chop, chop and wood.


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[Assistant] Now after hearing two days of testimony, head juror Charles Stannard, who, er, Stannard, no relation, by the way.


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[Assistant] Charles Stannard is her father. This is head juror Charles Stannard, who is not related. That's crazy. Uh, he went to Justice H.B. Wilcox. H.B. Wilcox. I have feelings.


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[Assistant] Oh, I have feelings about this man. Sorry, wait, who's H.P. Wilcox, the judge? He's the, uh, he's the justice. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And, so this head, this, this head juror,


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[Assistant] Instead, girl bye. He said, he insisted, he said, he had quote, heard Hayden preach a very good sermon. It did not seem possible the minister could be guilty and he would rather sign his own death warrant than that arrest warrant against Mr. Hayden.


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[Assistant] Although the evidence against Hayden was, at this point, pretty circumstantial, and opinions kinda heavily were influenced by rumor at this point. Belief in his guilt was pretty widespread.


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[Assistant] One reporter wrote, yeah, one reporter wrote, the circumstances of the murder were so overwhelming against the clergyman that surprise was expressed that he was not at once placed in custody.


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[Assistant] Far more important in this case was the judge's opinion. And in this case, the judge on the case


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[Assistant] Was Justice H.B. Wilcox. I had a feeling. Our friend.


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[Assistant] He's not my friend. A friend and staunch advocate of Herbert Hayden's innocence. Which seems...


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[Assistant] Seems fine. Seems so legit. It's like can we call anyone else? Literally any, go outside and grab the first guy you see and I think that'll be better. Like come on. The trial began September 10th and was held in the basement of the Madison town hall.


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[Assistant] And it was a space described as quote, low ceiling, stifling, dirty room, almost a cellar. Why don't they have a courthouse? You know, the 1800s.


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[Assistant] They were wily back then. Now, Wilcox again was the presiding justice and it should be noted that although he had legal training, he had no trial experience.


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[Assistant] Actually, it was the testimony from Susan Hawley and Charles Stannard regarding Hayden's supposed appointment with Mary on the day of her murder. That was the most suspicious. And in her testimony, and the fact that he didn't have an alibi, his alibi was like, I was chopping wood alone in the forest.


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[Assistant] Can you get me a bear to tell, to like, you know, corroborate this? No. No. No I can't.


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[Assistant] Now, uh, so in her testimony during the inquest and during the first trial, Susan Holly, her sister, explained that after Mary's first visit with Hayden on the day of her murder, her sister claimed that she had told Hayden of the supposed pregnancy.


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[Assistant] So in that first meeting where they took a walk, she had revealed to Herbert Hayden that she was pregnant. And he told her not to worry.


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[Assistant] However, he insisted he had not yet used the arsenic. He hadn't used it to kill the rats. And as far as he knew, it was still in the package in his barn. Okay. So he's like, I didn't even open it. And he made sure to say that, which I was like, that wasn't smart. Cause we can figure that out later.


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[Assistant] Now, the second piece of compelling evidence was a bloody knife.


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[Assistant] I love this because it's very 1800s cause it's like it went to Yale University where they, they conducted extensive tests on the blood. He just like sniffed it. And what he said was, I think it's human blood.


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[Assistant] That's so extensive. And I didn't just make that up. That's a fucking quote from the New York Times in 1878.


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[Assistant] That checks. When he was called to testify, Professor White confirmed that it was blood.


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[Assistant] White explained that he had made a similar examination of the blood stains found on Mary's bonnet, that pure white bonnet that she had worn, and those discovered on a large stone found near the body, and said he, quote, had no doubt that the blood on the stone was human blood. So he could definitely tell that that was human blood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A few days later, Herbert Hayden's wife, Rosa, took the stand to testify for the defense.


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[Assistant] And I'll be able to tell you that I too think it might be human. Me thinks. Now according to Rosa, Herbert Hayden had cut his finger with that knife a few days prior to the murder, and that likely explained the blood on the blade.


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[Assistant] And it all did little to explain the presence of the blood, like how it got there, but it was long winded and complicated enough to raise doubts.


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[Assistant] And at the same time that testimony was being given in the court, H. Lynn Harrison lobbied to have Mary's body disinterred and have the wound and stomach be examined more thoroughly.


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[Assistant] Harrison's request came in light of the fact that not only had the knife been discovered in the barn and can now be compared to the wound, they were like, we need to get her back so we can compare it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but also after the prosecution learned that Hayden had purchased a large quantity of arsenic poison from the local pharmacy just days before the murder, the defense objected strongly because they were like, we can now test her stomach contents. And the defense was like, no!


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[Assistant] And they were like, why though? And they were like, he's, he's a preacher. He can't afford additional legal fees that we're going to accrue while the state puts this hold on the case to exhume and examine the body. Okay. And Judge Wilcox.


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[Assistant] Being a friend and having no sympathy or affinity for the prosecution agreed with the defense and refused to pause the case. But he said, you can exhume her, I'm just not pausing the case.


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[Assistant] Indubitably that he did this. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Now, so they're not gonna pause the case. Could get to the end of it before they even get Mary out of the ground and try to make these, like, literally the smoking gun discoveries. Right. But he's like, yeah, I don't care.


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[Assistant] During the inquest in the first trial, a great deal of information came to light that the prosecution really believed warranted further investigation before any court could reasonably determine guilt or innocence.


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[Assistant] We're having a lot of stuff come up that like you do need to pause so we can go through all this. And this included, like we said, an exhumation of Mary's body to examine stomach contents and that neck wound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as well as several statements and claims relating to the knife and to Hayden's whereabouts on the afternoon of the murder. It was just too much coming out that was like, this is shady.


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[Assistant] Now Judge Wilcox, however, disagreed. He refused again to adjourn the case to allow the further investigation. And on September 19th, 1887, Wilcox announced that he had heard enough.


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[Assistant] He wasn't even going to let it keep going. According to Wilcox, a close friend and defender of the accused, remember? Aye. The prosecution had presented a largely circumstantial case that was easily explained away by the defense.


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[Assistant] Fuck this guy. What the hell? Fuck this guy. Judge Wilcox, fuck you.


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[Assistant] Well then, Wilcox. Can we go somewhere else? This court sucks. The 1800s of it all. But Wilcox went on to say that Mrs. Hayden, Rosa Hayden's testimony was further proof of Hayden's innocence because quote, he didn't think she would tell a falsehood to save her husband from the gallows. I don't think.


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[Assistant] Fuck? What? Like, and everybody, and all these men were just sitting there going, huh, yeah, uh huh, absolutely. He's like, she-


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[Assistant] Let me say from the testimony given that if I were as sure of heaven and eternal felicity as I am of this man, that this man is guiltless of the crime of killing Mary E. Stannard, I should rest content. So he's saying if I was, I am more, I am more sure


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would rest content if I was as sure that heaven exists as I am sure of his innocence. And it's like, what did this guy, what's he got on you? Like, what the fuck's going on? What's happening?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, we don't. I don't know about this, brother. He's, uh, he's wild. And with that...


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[Assistant] Fuuuck. Now at the time of Herbert Hayden's arrest, public opinion was generally that he had killed Mary Stanard. And gotten away with it. After being told that she was pregnant. That's what everybody thought.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the prosecution offered a strong and compelling case that presented motive, her pregnancy and their affair, means the bloody knife discovered in the barn, his barn, and opportunity, the appointment in the woods. They had literally laid out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Presented a rebuttal that included basically some murky scientific jargon that they probably just pulled out of their ass, but mostly relied on the assertion that Hayden simply couldn't have done this because he's a minister and his wife wouldn't lie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally. That's literally the case they rested on. No, you're not wrong. This guy is a minister or preacher. And his wife, she's so pretty, she wouldn't lie. Yeaah. That's it. And they were like, sounds good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And again, while one of those arguments is clearly and objectively much stronger than the other, uh, the charges were nonetheless dismissed by a judge who from the very start was convinced of Hayden's innocence and not only resented even having to preside over this case in the first place,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So while the charges against Hayden were dismissed at the time, H. Lynn Harrison remained convinced of his guilt. And that's the prosecutor. He was like, fuck that. Like, I know this is true. And he refused to let Wilcox's bullshit decision, bias decision, prevent him from continuing to pursue the case. Which like, good on him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He believed that Mary's statement to her sister about, quote, quick medicine referred to the arsenic purchased by Hayden on the morning of the murder. Agreed.


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[Assistant] And SW Johnson, the chair of the chemistry department, also from Yale. So the two Yale pathology, uh, professors. He was like, I trust them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In their examination of the contents of Mary's stomach,


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[Assistant] The pathologist discovered, quote, a mass of unobsorbed arsenic.


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[Assistant] Which they claimed was quote, enough arsenic to kill the whole community of Rockland. Oh my god.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They found all of the arsenic in her stomach, and then he slit her throat as well? Yup.


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[Assistant] By White and Johnson's estimation, there were roughly 50 or 60 grams of arsenic in Mary's stomach.


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[Assistant] .145 grams can be lethal. Wait, and I'm sorry, how much was in her? 50 or 60 grams. And they believed there was more that had already been absorbed.


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[Assistant] That is, and that's on the low end of the dosage, but even 1.145 can be lethal, and that is less than only 1 eighth of a teaspoon. Is a lethal dose. Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah.


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[Assistant] I am dumbstruck right now. And it was during this second autopsy that another surprising revelation was made relating to Mary's belief that she was pregnant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't her making it up. Right. Cause that, that was another thing that was starting to go, oh, she made this shit up to keep him, to like take him away from his wife. I don't think so. And they were like, no, no, she was experiencing symptoms that at that point especially. Right. Mimicked early pregnancy and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They immediately issued a warrant for Haven's arrest again, and he was taken into custody by sheriff's deputies and delivered to a cell at the jailhouse in New Haven.


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[Assistant] The following day, reporters noted that as he was being transported to the jail, quote, Hayden was as smiling and talkative as on the day of his trial. What the fuck? Cause he thought he was like, I'm not...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're not gonna get me. Cuckoo nut man. In between the dismissal of charges and his rearrest, Hayden had managed to gain considerable sympathy.


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[Assistant] Among other things, the resolutions claimed, quote, his late arrest was made on the most criminally frivolous grounds and was therefore a great outrage upon him and society at large. And it noted that his arrest was due only to, quote, wicked designs of evil men.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the resolution closed with a pledge by the congregation.


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[Assistant] Now, the general support for Hayden was pretty broad and the resolution was specifically


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[Assistant] So, and that's because everybody's now reframing Hayden as a pious and morally righteous victim in what was essentially described as a battle between good and evil now. Are you fucking kidding me? Where he is good. Totally. And they are evil. For sure. And as such, Herbert Hayden entered into his second trial for the murder of Mary Stennard as a kind of, uh, like folk hero?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a victim of a government system determined to pin a murder on him that he did not commit.


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[Assistant] The exhumation and second autopsy had not only allowed them to confirm the arsenic in Mary's stomach, but also meant that they could take a sample so they could compare it to something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the problem was, however, that Hayden claimed he hadn't seen that packet of arsenic since he purchased it. And the initial search of the barn hadn't turned up any arsenic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Only after the defense ended up having to give specific instructions as to where it could be found, so it was hidden as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The packet of arsenic from the barn was turned over to CM White for analysis and was confirmed to be opened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to have the same chemical structure as what was discovered in Mary's stomach. Dude, come on. And it was fucking hidden. It was hidden. Hidden and opened. When this man said I never opened it and it's just sitting in my barn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And during the first trial, witnesses for the prosecution like Susan Hawley and, you know, um, Jane Studley, they were all kind of regarded with sympathy because they had just lost a loved one in a very gruesome way. Like Charles Stannard, they were all treated very nicely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This time, however, the public opinion had swayed in Herbert Hayden's favor, remember?


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[Assistant] And the public including the judge and defense attorneys


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[Assistant] Had no sympathy for anyone that they believed was participating in the persecution of this minister.


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[Assistant] On the stand and in the press, witnesses like Susan Hawley and Charles Stannard were belittled in court.


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[Assistant] Wow. Herbert Hayden on the other hand was held up of a man of culture and strong moral and religious character, while his wife Rosa was treated as though she were the real victim here, having been robbed of her husband for so long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Baby, he robbed you of him. Yeaah. He robbed a woman of her whole fucking life and William of his mother. Exactly. And Charles of his daughter. Yeaah. And Susan of his sister.


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[Assistant] They're like science? I don't know her. No, I don't know her. He established the relationship between Hayden and Mary, reminded them of the motive in the case, and more importantly, gave incredibly compelling evidence that connected Mary's death to the arsenic and the knife discovered in Herbert Hayden's barn. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was the scientific evidence that was the linchpin of the entire case and Harris went out of his way to include expert testimony from several pathologists at Yale.


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[Assistant] Many of whom recreated their experiments in the courtroom before the judge and jury just to make it, like, drive it home.


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[Assistant] Unfortunately, while such scientific evidence might seem irrefutable to us now,


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[Assistant] And according to one press report at the time, this is wild, quote, at one time during the examination, five jury men who had finished their inspection were reading newspapers, which were spread out before them, but no one imagined they were reading reports about the trial.


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[Assistant] They're just reading newspapers while this is happening. Come on! Like, yea. You can't make that shit up even.


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[Assistant] Further muddying the jury's understanding of the arsenic analysis, he just confused them more. And also their defense rested largely on Hayden's supposed strong moral character and that of his wife.


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[Assistant] And then they made sure to say that the victim and her family were just ignorant farmers and made poor choices and were poorer, had poor character. I cannot.


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[Assistant] And remember, Herbert cheated on his wife. I do remember that.


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[Assistant] But we're, we're holding him up as the strong moral character. But of course. But. Like this man is admitting.


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[Assistant] To meeting with Mary to discuss the affair and possible pregnancy. But they're holding him up as the moral character and just like sanctimonious motherfucker up here. Yes.


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[Assistant] In fact, during Charles' standards testimony, the defense focused considerable attention on Mary's illegitimate child, William. That's fucked up. Quote-unquote illegitimate child, and even made attempts to establish that Mary herself had been born out of wedlock.


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[Assistant] And they had no, nothing to prove it. No basis, exactly. So rather than prove his client's innocence, Jones just cast suspicions on someone else.


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[Assistant] He just decided to throw it on someone else. Benjamin Stevens, a neighbor of the Stannards, who occasionally did work for Charles Stannard. Just out of the blue. And slept at their home sometimes. Just decided to off marry. Yeah. Brutally. Unlike the morally righteous and upstanding Herbert Hayden.


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[Assistant] Uh, Jones also pointed out that it could have just as easily been Charles.


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[Assistant] Just to fuck with the jury because that's all he had. Right. He didn't have anything to prove his client was innocent.


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[Assistant] Everything proved his guilt. There is not one shred of evidence besides Rosa sitting on the fucking stand and being like, I love my husband. I don't think he'd do that. He would not murder someone. Yea, I was cutting peaches.


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[Assistant] Wild. Now after more than two months, the trial finally reached closing arguments on January 13th, 1880. Lind Harrison reiterated his case for the jury, emphasizing


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[Assistant] That fearing his reputation would be ruined should the affair and pregnancy be made public, Hayden had a very strong motive to kill Mary, and the weapons used in the murder were found in his fucking home. With blood on them.


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[Assistant] And again, cast dispersions on Benjamin Stevens.


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[Assistant] But it was found on a knife in his possession, you dumb fuck. And also, what clothing? We don't know what clothing he was wearing that day. He could have gotten rid of them. That's the other thing. Jones remarked in statement, quote, Ben Stevens' denial that he committed the crime should have no weight.


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[Assistant] The jury deliberated for nearly four days before finally reporting that they had become hopelessly deadlocked. Motherfucker, you deadlocked. Eleven jurors were in favor of acquittal.


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[Assistant] One was a holdout that was committed to Hayden's guilt. One.


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[Assistant] And the fact that they had already presented the most compelling case they possibly could. Aside from having like some just omniscient narrator that could come in and be like, hi, I was watching the whole thing and here's what happened. They didn't see a point.


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[Assistant] Now in both trials, the jury weighed what was very clear evidence of Hayden's guilt.


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[Assistant] And banned from preaching altogether. Oh wow, I'm surprised by that. Sounds to me like people knew what was the truth. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Sounds to me like after hearing that trial that there was really no denying it.


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[Assistant] So no longer a pillar of the community and held up as this righteous, righteous moral god for all of them, he and Rosa moved to New Haven where they lived until his death in 1907. Wow. Now in 1914, 33 years after that second trial,


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[Assistant] The Hartford Courant interviewed the last living member of the jury. Stop it!


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[Assistant] Stop it. His name is Horace Perry. Horace. And he was asked, what was your rationale for voting to acquit Herbert Hayden of the charge? Cause was he one of the 11 in favor of acquittal? I don't think they knew whether he was one of the 11, but they assumed he was, but I think they're just like, clearly there was like, what was the rationale there? Like what was the conversation that day? Perry explained. Oh my God.


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[Assistant] That throughout the trial, Rosa Hayden had been sitting in front of the jury and was quote, a very beautiful young woman.


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[Assistant] As far as the majority of the jury was concerned, quote


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[Assistant] From the day the trial opened until the last ballot was cast, their view had been, how can we convict a man with a beautiful young wife like that?


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[Assistant] Mr. Perry said, you wanna know why we didn't listen to a shred of the fucking evidence that was presented to us? His wife was hot and she was sitting in front of us.


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[Assistant] What the fuck does that have to do with anything? When I tell you...


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[Assistant] Marilyn Monroe sittin' in front of that jury? I am...


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[Assistant] Are you joking me? Without words, to be honest. No, that's, I'm telling you, like, that vibe. That's why I was like, just you fucking wait. Like, you don't think it's gonna get.


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[Assistant] How do you expect me to function for the rest of this day? Are you kidding me? I'm saying. The fuck? I was looking up to see if I could find Rosa. It's hard to find now.


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[Assistant] Oh my god, oh. I mean, there's an artist's rendition, but I don't know if this is correct. It's gotta be, like.


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[Assistant] Are, uhm, the, like, the little generator things. Yeaah, exactly. In the same way I don't know what else to do. I don't either. And it's hard because you have to use that, like, cap cut thing. Yeaah, it's...


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[Assistant] It's so much work. Whenever, I feel like this probably happens to you too, whenever I make a TikTok, people are like, oh my god!


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[Assistant] I don't even think it's like a trend anymore. But like, we're always trending.


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[Assistant] Mikey thinks we're funny. He's working on our headshots. We did headshots today. Yeah. Cool.


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[Assistant] I have a real bummer of a case for you today. Womp womp. I know, it's, this is a baffling one to me. Just the reaction of people.


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[Assistant] To murder? Like the reaction people had to the brutal murder of an elderly woman is


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[Assistant] So let's just go right into it. Bernie has a hard name to say because his real name is Bernhart. Bernhart. I always want to pronounce the D like Bernhardt. Hardt.


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[Assistant] It's like letterboxed. Letterboxed-uh. There you go. Yea, but Bernie Tede was born on August 2nd, 1958 in Tyler, Texas to Bernhard Tede Sr. and I believe it's Layla Mae Jester.


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[Assistant] Now, uh, Bernhardt was a music professor, which is really cool, and Layla was a homemaker.


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[Assistant] But unfortunately in 1960, when Bernie was just two years old, his mother was actually killed in a car accident. Oh geez. Yea, really tragic start. Now his father waited three more years before remarrying in 1963 to a woman named Clara Wiley, uh, and after the movie,


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[Assistant] So starting at an early age, Bernie took on the role of caretaker in the family, like especially after his mom passed away. And then when his father died in 1973, after battling a long illness,


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[Assistant] Bernie immediately volunteered to get a part-time job to help support his sister and his stepmother.


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[Assistant] His sister sat in a 1998 interview with Texas Monthly Magazine.


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[Assistant] I really think that because of the loneliness he went through in his childhood,


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[Assistant] Bernie made it his calling to serve people in times of their own need.


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[Assistant] It's, it's really interesting the path that you take throughout this case because


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[Assistant] You, it's, I'm like where did you veer off course?


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[Assistant] Now, but before that happened, that desire to take care of other people led Bernie to a part-time job at a local funeral home. We're at just 15 years old.


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[Assistant] He spent his afternoons doing yard work and then down the line he eventually started helping with the funerals. Okay.


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[Assistant] Now, in 1973 East Texas, where gender roles and heteronormativity were kind of expected, Bernie was something of an anomaly. He was a presence that unintentionally but directly defied those social expectations.


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[Assistant] But, on the other hand, he was so charming and nice that everybody couldn't help but like him.


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[Assistant] Oh yea, and that's not to say that there weren't people out there that just completely didn't accept him because he would get bullied from time to time for having a quote unquote effeminate personality. But overall, he was really popular with his classmates.


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[Assistant] Of course the group of assholes that bullied him, but for the most part he had.


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[Assistant] Bernie's warm, friendly personality, it did make him an ideal fit for the funeral industry. You need somebody like that when you're dealing with grief and everything that comes along with it. And after graduating from high school, he enrolled at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.


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[Assistant] Where he eventually got an associate degree in mortuary science. Which, pretty cool. That is pretty cool. Reminded me of you.


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[Assistant] Shout out to my morticians out there. Hey yo. Hell yeaah. Let's go.


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[Assistant] But after graduating, Bernie found work at a local funeral parlor where he spent years and years learning the trade. And then he moved to Carthage, Texas. And there he found work at Hawthorne Funeral Home. And he was able to get an apartment just behind the funeral home, so he lived close by. That's a nice commute. It's a great commute.


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[Assistant] It's a skill that someone has to have. Hell yea. And he was also a good singer and good at dealing with the families, you know? Yea.


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[Assistant] Leave this world. Exactly. So, so again, shout out to morticians. Hello.


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[Assistant] But Bernie, he didn't just excel at work. He gained quickly, he quickly gained a reputation around town as a helpful, cheerful man to just about everybody. Carthage resident Paula Carter said,


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[Assistant] He was very quick to shake your hand and ask how you were doing and if you told him you weren't doing too well, he would drop everything to talk to you and see what he could do.


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[Assistant] With something that Bernie had ordered from a catalog. But like, for other people. Wow. Yeah. And you're like, what the fuck is going on, Bernie? It's so strange. When's it gonna happen? I'll let you know.


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[Assistant] But whether it was at the funeral home and church or literally just on the street, Bernie seemed to add something to the community that everybody recognized as valuable.


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[Assistant] But at the same time, his gentle disposition, his love of Broadway show tunes,


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[Assistant] And his noticeably single relationship status did make him the subject of some small town gossip. Which is stupid because you're like, here's this awesome person and we're all just gonna like quietly talk shit about him because he's single and he likes show tunes.


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[Assistant] That's fine, just live. Stop worrying about what other people are liking. It's my favorite fucking way of, my favorite motto, my favorite way of life. Live.


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[Assistant] And let live. Exactly. If no one's hurting someone. Of course, of course. If you're being a dick. Don't, don't let that happen. Then you're in trouble.


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[Assistant] But Tom Lipsy said he wasn't bad looking and there were numerous girls in the community who would have dated him, but he showed no romantic interest in women his age at all. I think some of the men during their coffee shop talks would insinuate that Bernie was a little light in the loafers.


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[Assistant] Right in the loafers? Yeaah, it's a very rudely insulting way to say that somebody is gay.


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[Assistant] Wow, I've never heard that. Nor had I. I had to look it up. Strangely. I was like, light in the loafers.


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[Assistant] I forgot that Google existed, so I was sitting there for like 10 minutes, like lighting the loafers. And then you're like, oh, it's 2023, I can Google this. I can Google this. And it's, although you're like,


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[Assistant] None of us do. Nobody knows what cookies are. Even if you say that you know what cookies are. You don't. And you have to accept them everywhere you go now.


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[Assistant] But yea, so basically, people at this point, people really like Bernie, but there, he is the subject of small town gossip of people insinuating that he's gay, because he doesn't have a partner and he likes show tunes. Which like- And it's that time and it's all- Yes, and I don't really, you know, whatever. So either way- Whatever. Whatever. Either way,


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[Assistant] Whoever he was, Bernie did seem to have a way with older women, at least as far as things at the funeral home were concerned. According to Skip Hollinsworth, quote,


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[Assistant] A little bit about us. Here we are. So let's talk about Marjorie. Let's talk about her. Marjorie, her maiden name was Midget, and she had been born in a small town just outside of Carthage in 1915.


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[Assistant] And she met her future husband Rod Nugent while they were both attending Louisiana Tech. After graduation they got married.


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[Assistant] Rod took a job with Magnolia Oil, and his job required them to move around, like all over the place. They'd spend time in Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, you name it.


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[Assistant] But their longest stay was in Midland, Texas. They spent over 12 years there and mostly raised their son Rod Jr. there.


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[Assistant] And at that point, Rod senior was seriously considering retirement and just wanted to settle down close to Marjorie's hometown.


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[Assistant] The antithesis of other recent transplants like Bernie, who quickly and easily integrated themselves into the community.


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[Assistant] After buying and controlling interest in the first National Bank of Carthage, the couple, quote, built a sprawling 6,000 square foot stone home at the edge of town, surrounded by a stone wall and electronic gates.


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[Assistant] Damn. Goals. Holy shit. I want electronic gates. Electronic gates. I'm gonna put that on my vision board. Damn. So the high stone walls and the electronic gates surrounding the Nugent house, uh, certainly didn't endear them to the locals. And it was said that neither did Marjorie's attitude. I will warn you ahead of time that


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[Assistant] Maybe there's something in here but a lot of people were kinda nasty to her. But I would like to say that I bet there was a few things about Marjorie's personality that were great.


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[Assistant] Eventually we'll find out that she's gonna lose her husband. So she's not in like the best time of her life. No. If I was older and lost my husband, I don't think I'd be the most friendly human on the planet either. I'd be fucking miserable. I would be. So I can't give her, like I'd be a horrible person to be around. Same. You know what Marjorie?


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[Assistant] Absolutely, and Rod thought so, so let's go. So there you go.


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[Assistant] That aside, you know, the house didn't really endear them to people because it was intimidating.


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[Assistant] Yeah, intimidating, exactly, that's the perfect word for it. And it, it kinda said like, mm, we don't really want anything to do with you, like that's what these electronic gates are all about, so like, leave us alone.


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[Assistant] You know? So, the thing was Marjorie didn't leave the house very often to go into town and whenever she did, people said she had a way of rubbing people the wrong way.


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[Assistant] And you're like, wow, that was a funny way of saying that. That was a read. Pretty mean. Exactly. And also, you get to that point in life, you should be able to hold your head high.


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[Assistant] While you're doing it. Exactly. And what people didn't know was that one of her relatives confirmed that she struggled with a kind of quote unquote low level depression.


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[Assistant] So she was struggling internally. And it's like nobody took the time to...


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[Assistant] But those, those low levels that she would hit, they were said to make her unpleasant and irritable. Okay. And this relative said, it was like these blue periods came on and when they did, she could be very biting in her comments to people. Margie was a difficult woman to love.


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[Assistant] As unpleasant as she was guarded and uninterested in going out of her way to make friends.


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[Assistant] If Bernie Teed's warm welcome into Carthage tells us anything,


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[Assistant] It's that in small town Texas, friendliness and good-natured warmth can go a long way when it comes to integrating yourself into a community.


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[Assistant] And conversely, being a little closed off and guarded can have the opposite effect.


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[Assistant] And that caused Marjorie to become something of an outcast in her hometown.


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[Assistant] Which sucks. Yea, that really sucks. It does. So her outcast status became starkly apparent when her husband died unexpectedly from heart failure in the 90s, uh, in 1990. Quote, only a handful of people came to the funeral to offer her their condolences. Which like, that's shit. That's really shitty. That's shitty. I don't know. But. I don't know about these people.


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[Assistant] But, you know who did go and offer their support was Bernie. He was not only a comfort in his capacity as assistant funeral director, but also as a friend. According to one resident, Larry Brumley, I believe.


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[Assistant] Now, while the majority of Carthage residents did their neighbourly duty of politely passing on condolences after the funeral, on the rare occasions that they did see Marjorie in town,


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[Assistant] Bernie was really the one among the residents who took a genuine interest in Marjorie.


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[Assistant] District Attorney Danny Buck-Davidson would later say,


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[Assistant] He, he is good to her for a while. Like for a little bit and like sees this.


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[Assistant] But it's weird, because like, he is good to her for a little bit, but then, it really quickly veers off course.


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[Assistant] Oh, whatever. Like just two sad, you know, souls that are misunderstood. Exactly. That's exactly what it is.


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[Assistant] But that's the thing, so he saw her, you know, as this lonely woman and it kind of activated his caretaker personality and drew them to each other.


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[Assistant] So in the months following Rod's death, Bernie started carving out larger and larger chunks of his time to check in on the newly widowed Marjorie. And by then, she was living alone in that sprawling mansion that they had built just a couple years earlier. And Bernie would visit the house for lunch.


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[Assistant] And before long, Bernie and Marjorie seemed inseparable. However, despite what the local gossip said,


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[Assistant] Their relationship was purely platonic and never remotely romantic, but Marjorie quickly grew possessive of Bernie, they thought.


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[Assistant] And she started repaying his acts of kindness with her own demonstrations of affection.


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[Assistant] Typically in the form of expensive gifts, like a $12,000 Rolex that she bought him. Damn. A rolly, rolly, rolly with a damn wrench.


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[Assistant] For a woman with a reputation of being cheap and curmudgeonly, Margie and Bernie's relationship baffled a lot of the town's residents, who just clearly have a lot of time to gossip. And Bernie's friend Larry Brumley told the reporters, she depended on him a lot, she would cling to him.


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[Assistant] And people looking on could see that Marjorie was becoming very possessive of Bernie.


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[Assistant] And even though I just said that their relationship was never anything but platonic,


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[Assistant] That didn't stop some other residents from speculating and spreading rumors that Marjorie and Bernie were not just friends.


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[Assistant] Or the two sharing a cabin on a cruise were being interpreted as evidence of a romantic relationship or something unsavory. Of course. So you can see where people got their ideas from. Yea, people love some gossip. Oh, they sure do.


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[Assistant] So there you go. Black and white right there. There you go. And that's where you start to see like, maybe that was a little bit of a warning sign that he really liked her money. Yeah. Marjorie's family.


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[Assistant] And to make matters worse, he owed the IRS around $4,000 in back taxes.


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[Assistant] And under the circumstances, Bernie's acceptance of the lavish gifts and large sums of money from Marjorie makes sense.


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[Assistant] But that doesn't mean that his friends and family necessarily approved of the arrangement between the two of them. Yeah.


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[Assistant] At the end of 1993, Bernie told his boss Don that Marjorie had actually offered to hire him as her business manager.


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[Assistant] End quote, escort her on trips around the world for a much higher salary than he was making at the time.


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[Assistant] Now, the owner of the funeral home, Don Lipsy, was stunned by the news and he warned Bernie. He was a little concerned. He said, you know what kind of woman Miss Nugent is? Whatever you think you're going to get out of her, you're going to have to earn every penny of it.


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[Assistant] And Don's wife Sally agreed, saying, Mrs. Nugent is already so possessive of you. She's already making you drive out there every morning just to fix her coffee. Is that really what you want for yourself? Hmm. Which, you know.


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[Assistant] Now, this wasn't the first time somebody had warned Bernie about the rumors going around town about his relationship with Marjorie. In fact, about a year earlier, Don Lipsy had expressed to Bernie,


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[Assistant] Everybody was also falling victim of like the small town of it all here. That's the thing, yea, very much the small town of it all. But about a month after that conversation,


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[Assistant] Marjorie ended up offering Bernie that job as her business manager, and he did end up quitting his job at Hawthorne funeral home.


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[Assistant] To become Marjorie's full-time companion and quote unquote business manager.


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[Assistant] I was like, his degree is in uhm, Mortuary Science. Does he have a business degree? I don't know.


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[Assistant] So with money borrowed from Marjorie, he bought a small house about a mile from her estate. And he would throw lavish parties to show off.


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[Assistant] Something out of this, I suppose. For a little bit, and rightfully so in the beginning.


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[Assistant] You are performing a service, you are being paid for it, that's wonderful. I'm not here to say anything. But shit gets not okay. Widely.


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[Assistant] Because he wasted no time acclimating to his new role in Access to Wealth, which several people in the Nugent inner circle found suspicious. Which personally, I know if some random man started showing up and hanging out with my grandmother, I would be a little sus about that.


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[Assistant] I would not feel good about that. I would not be happy about that. No, but he did have all those privileges.


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[Assistant] I guess Marjorie exploded and told Tiller, the stockbroker, she could absolutely trust Bernie and that if he had a problem with that, she would move her stocks elsewhere. Whoa. So she was like, how dare you insinuate that I can't trust him. Damn. Which makes you even sadder when you find out that she went to


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[Assistant] She stood up for him like that? Yeah, I was just gonna say, cause like, Jesus, like he really must have been.


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[Assistant] So similarly, when Marjorie changed her will in late 1993 to make Bernie the sole beneficiary of her entire estate,


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[Assistant] Family members had questions. Yeah. When one of her family members asked her why she would cut her only child out of her will, Marjorie said, quote, she didn't want to leave a scent to her son or her immediate family because they didn't appreciate her.


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[Assistant] Whoa. And appreciate was quote unquote. But can you imagine your mom cutting you out of her will because she says you don't appreciate her?


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[Assistant] That's upsetting. Behold my field of fucks. It is barren forever. And then to leave it to like another young man who's probably similar in age to you that you may have known because again, the Nugent's knew Bernie when he was a child. That would fuck me up. Yeah.


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[Assistant] In addition to Bernie's considerable salary, he also accompanied Marjorie on trips around the world to places like Egypt, Russia. They took various cruises all over the place together.


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[Assistant] And soon enough, it seemed that the access to Marjorie's fortune was too much of a temptation for Bernie.


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[Assistant] And handing it out around town to people who most needed it. So you're like...


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[Assistant] He's like a weird like, Robinhood, but like, yeaah.


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[Assistant] That's almost like, for lack of a better term, like playing God. Yeah, well it's just like, that's not yours.


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[Assistant] That's not your role to divvy up. Yeah, exactly. But he sure did. With money stolen from Marjorie's account, Bernie quote, bought at least 10 cars for people who couldn't afford one.


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[Assistant] A home. Holy shit. A home for a struggling young couple, scholarships to students at Panola College, and he pledged $100,000 to the new building campaign at First United Methodist Church. Damn.


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[Assistant] But like, invest your own money and watch it grow and divvy that out. Or talk to her. Or say yeaah. And be like, you know.


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[Assistant] Just fucking wait it out, my guy. She left her entire fucking estate to you. Yeah, then you can do whatever you want.


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[Assistant] I'm feeling stressed. You'll know how to feel when we get to the end of it. That's good. This ends very brutally and very, very


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[Assistant] So, with Bernie as her business manager, Marjorie assumed that she didn't need to monitor her accounts. That's what she hired him to do.


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[Assistant] You know, Bernie had kind of become the community's one man social safety net. Yeah, it sounds like it. And developer using her money to help residents go to college.


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[Assistant] Open small businesses, stay afloat until their next paycheck, you fucking name it. All the good things that you could do with money that is yours. Mhm. But while she did place absolute trust in Bernie, the real reason for her ignorance of Bernie's, I guess you could say, well-intentioned thefts was likely due to the onset of dementia.


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[Assistant] Oh. So that makes it even more fucked up, in my opinion. Yes, it absolutely does. Now, just a year after going to work for his friend, Bernie started to feel like Marjorie had become more controlling of everything around her and far less willing to tolerate any inconvenience or disappointment.


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[Assistant] Now in a conversation with his own sister, Bernie said Marjorie had fired the gardener's quilt because the flowers hadn't bloomed in time.


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[Assistant] And his sister actually remembered this conversation and said, I asked him why he didn't quit. And he gave me this tortured look and said, because I'm her only friend. I have to stay. I'm the only one she has.


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[Assistant] Which is interesting, because you're actively stealing from an elderly woman with dementia.


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[Assistant] But you also maybe care about being the only friend that she has? And it's like, do you care about being the only friend she has or do you care about the good feeling that you get when you


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[Assistant] But I do think there's something to be said about people that do good deeds because they genuinely want to make people, you know, feel good or get people out of a tough situation.


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[Assistant] Now even though Marjorie hadn't been a very social person to begin with, as 1997 dawned, there were a few people who found it odd that they hadn't seen from her or heard her, excuse me, seen her or heard from her in months.


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[Assistant] But when people would ask about her, Bernie would say she was away or she'd been ill and bedridden for weeks.


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[Assistant] In December of 1996, he lavishly decorated her estate for Christmas. But when anybody would ask where she was, he would say she'd gone to her fam- he- she'd gone to Ohio to visit family.


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[Assistant] But Bernie continued to explain her absence away by saying,


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[Assistant] Actually she'd suffered a stroke and she was in a nursing home outside of town recuperating.


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[Assistant] And at that point Marjorie's cousin Ruth, uh, Cockrell


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[Assistant] I'd become deeply concerned that something had happened to Marjorie, but she didn't really know what to do about it.


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[Assistant] Which I understand, I- Yeah, what do you do? What would you do at that point? Like, can you call the police? Yeah. With nothing to really, like-


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[Assistant] I was worried something had happened to her but I didn't know who to talk to about it. Bernie was so beloved in Carthage that if I suggested he had done anything wrong, I would have been laughed out of town.


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[Assistant] He'd become, like, the town better factor.


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[Assistant] But finally, in July of 1997, an unidentified person had become so concerned about Marjorie's welfare that they did call the sheriff's department to request a wellbeing check.


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[Assistant] Maybe it's a testament to the local sentiment about both Marjorie or Bernie.


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[Assistant] A month. Somebody called that check-in.


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[Assistant] The lawsuit that I would lawsuit. That's incredibly shocking. Like I'm just, I- And just like- How do you- What the fuck? How?


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[Assistant] And then like after the 30 days, what do you, you're just like, oh, I guess we should go check on her. Like what? That's the thing.


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[Assistant] I don't know if- I'm astounded by it, like I'm literally shocked. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Do the welfare check. Nope, nope, nope. Holy shit. Nobody nope, nope. But when somebody finally did reach out to Bernie in August after getting that wellness check in fucking July, receiving the request for it.


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[Assistant] Bernie was out of town at a concert in Vegas and he said Marjorie had actually recently checked into a hospital in Temple under an assumed name and that she didn't want to be bothered.


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[Assistant] And searched for any sign of Marjorie but came up completely empty handed. It was like she just literally vanished into thin air. But.


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[Assistant] Rod's daughter did mention that she thought it was strange that the large chest freezer in the kitchen pantry had been taped shut.


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[Assistant] So, the comment prompted sheriff's deputies to take a look inside the freezer.


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[Assistant] And when they did, they discovered the body of Marjorie Nugent wrapped in a white sheet buried underneath a pile of frozen food. Oh my god.


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[Assistant] So, so fucked up. What the fuck?


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[Assistant] It was pretty obvious to investigators that at the very least, he knew how she ended up in the freezer. Yeah.


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[Assistant] So sheriff's deputies spread out across Carthage and eventually found Bernie.


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[Assistant] Getting ready to take the local little league baseball team and their families out to dinner. That's where they found him. What?


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[Assistant] Still doing good deeds. Yeah, he's just out there.


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[Assistant] Knowing what's going on. Knowing that he placed an elderly woman in a freezer.


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[Assistant] And then later on you found out why the sheriffs approached Mr. Bernie Teed as you were about to go out to dinner with him with your whole ass child. This is outrageous. Outrageous. Yeah. Truly.


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[Assistant] She'd been kidnapped months earlier and he'd been negotiating with the kidnappers by phone ever since. Shut up.


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[Assistant] I believe it's Jeter said he said he got one phone call from the kidnappers a month.


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[Assistant] And then he said that he got a recent call that informed him quote, the time is near.


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[Assistant] I can't. Me either. We're getting very theatrical now. He loves a show tune.


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[Assistant] So unfortunately, not being very skilled in the ways of deceit, it was very apparent to Bernie that the investigators were not buying his act. No. But for some reason, he stuck to his story.


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[Assistant] It was only after Jeter and his partner returned from searching Bernie's home and informed him they found quote unquote, un-Christian-like videotapes in their search.


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[Assistant] That he caved and admitted to killing Marjorie Nugent


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[Assistant] So this is speculation, but to me and to, uh,


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[Assistant] Probably everybody. It sounds like what they found was movies that confirmed people's thoughts about Bernie's love interests. You know, hopefully you got the


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[Assistant] Which it's like, why would that have anything?


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[Assistant] And with that, he was charged with murder on August 19th. I mean, you can't murder people because of that. You sure can't. You can't murder people ever. You can just, like, leave. Yeah, you could quit. And just, uh, not hang out with her anymore. But then you wouldn't have access to all her money and be the town's hero. Damn. And that would really stink. Damn.


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[Assistant] So, his bond was set at 1.5 million dollars, while the district attorney reserved comments until they received a full autopsy report.


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[Assistant] Now the news of Marjorie's death came as a big surprise to the small community.


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[Assistant] But it was nothing compared to the confusion most people felt when they learned who was responsible for her death. Oh, people must have lost it. They lost their shit. They didn't believe it, even though he quite literally, like, he admitted it. Don Lipsy told reporters, we're just shocked. He was just a pillar of the community.


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[Assistant] The tragedy I think they were talking about was more about finding out that Bernie.


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[Assistant] Murdered someone, not that an elderly lady had been murdered.


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[Assistant] Yeah, maybe. That would be great. Fucking covered in frozen food. Oh god. You were this woman's friend apparently, like allegedly. How do you- You spent all this time with her? I'm sorry, you have to be-


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[Assistant] There has to be something very, very wrong with you if you can leave an elderly woman's body in a freezer, cover her up with frozen food, and then just go about your life spending her money. No.


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[Assistant] Like, something is wrong with you. Something's very wrong.


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[Assistant] Wealthy recluse with a hard tough side to her. Bernie was described by friends and neighbors as the kindest, most gentle man, a very compassionate and caring person.


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[Assistant] Two days after his arrest, the Panola County District Attorney added a charge of felony theft and increased Bernie's bond to 2.75 million dollars once it was determined that


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[Assistant] He'd been stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Marjorie's bank accounts after her death. Holy shit. Mhm.


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[Assistant] District Attorney Danny Buck-Davidson told the press, quote,


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[Assistant] He had the power of attorney to sign checks for her, but that terminated after her death. Or at her death.


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[Assistant] So it's like, what the hell? So it's like, yeah, you're continuing to write these crazy checks. And the fact that he did continue to write the checks after Marjorie had been killed.


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[Assistant] But even the news of the new charges had little effect on how people in town viewed Bernie.


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[Assistant] Knowing full well that he continued to access this woman's money and forge fucking checks. Or I guess not. Well yea, it is forged. She's dead. You can't sign checks at that point.


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[Assistant] He was a very popular member of the church. I'm sure he was. He was a leader here.


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[Assistant] You know, until he murdered an elderly woman. Yeah.


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[Assistant] And also he was a leader there because he was giving the church the elderly woman's money that he stole directly from her account. Hold on to that cash. Yeah. Hold on to that cash.


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[Assistant] Not like, but that's not the Bernie that we know and love. Yeah, cause guess what? I don't give a shit about the Bernie that was before this. I care about the Bernie that's a murderer and him going to jail now. Well, and guess what? It was the Bernie that you knew and loved because he was still coming to church spending her money.


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[Assistant] That she didn't kill her. After he murdered her! Oh my god.


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[Assistant] So as locals worked through their confusion and conflict, investigators started putting together the pieces of what had led to Marjorie's death. They were like, how did we get here?


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[Assistant] According to Bernie's confession, he arrived at Marjorie's house a little after 7am on the morning of November 19th, 1996. November.


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[Assistant] Wait, so November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August. Nine months she was in that freezer. And he's just walking around spending her money. Almost a year.


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[Assistant] A full pregnancy. Holy shit. Nine months.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Damn. And also it's like that fucking welfare check.


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[Assistant] But, so on the morning of November 19th, 1996, he prepared her morning coffee and then he went back home to shower before going back to Marjorie's house around 10am. He told deputies, quote,


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[Assistant] She had become evil and wicked and very possessive over my life.


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[Assistant] But once he returned to Marjorie's house that morning, he said,


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[Assistant] She almost instantly began ranting at him. Which remember, she's suffering from dementia.


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[Assistant] Then, at one point, Bernie noticed the .22 caliber rifle that Marjorie had actually told him to buy to deal with pests. And he saw it leaning against the wall.


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[Assistant] And so he picked it up and started going into the garage to put the gun away, but Marjorie was following closely behind him.


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[Assistant] According to Bernie, there was nothing in particular that caused him to shoot her on that day. He told his sister


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[Assistant] I started thinking about having to live with her for the rest of her life and I just couldn't take it. I realized I couldn't stand it another day.


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[Assistant] So Bernie decided he had had enough of her nagging at him, and he turned the rifle on her.


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[Assistant] He told sheriff's deputies, I took the rifle and shot Marjorie in the back.


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[Assistant] She fell face first, but was still breathing heavily, so I shot her again. I may have shot her again. I didn't want her to suffer.


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[Assistant] I would like you to stop saying I would like her, I didn't want her to suffer. So then why did you shoot her? Because I would call that suffering. Murder I would call suffering.


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[Assistant] Sir. So when he was completely sure that Marjorie was indeed dead, he dragged her body from the garage to the freezer.


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[Assistant] It's like, I don't care if you cover her in a bougie sheet or not, you've just murdered an elderly woman. Oh my gosh.


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[Assistant] He sealed the lid of the freezer with two large strips of tapes. Tape, excuse me. And in the weeks that followed, he kept going to work.


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[Assistant] And keeping up appearances at the house to make it seem like she was still alive and active inside.


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[Assistant] To avoid questions from the neighbors. Oh come on. So for nine months.


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[Assistant] He kept going back to the house where he killed her. He went through.


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[Assistant] Is dia-fucking-molecule. Like, there's something happening in your brainium cranium that is- Something's wrong there. Dark-sided. That is dork-sided. Dark sinister vibe. That is sinister. Ever said that in a while? It's sinister vibe. That's honestly definition of sinister vibe. Truly.


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[Assistant] So when the autopsy came back, it confirmed exactly what Bernie had told the authorities. Marjorie had been shot in the back four times with a .22 caliber rifle. That's the other thing. A rifle. Damn. Horrible. So unable to make bond, thankfully, because you know, he didn't have Marjorie's money anymore.


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[Assistant] Bernie sat in a cell at the Panola County Detention Center while the Sheriff's Department conducted their investigation.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, the IRS had to be called in to aid the case.


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[Assistant] Primarily to perform forensic accounting services.


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[Assistant] And in addition to that, several other transactions showed that he had cashed almost $400,000 in checks drawn from Marjorie's account.


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[Assistant] The majority of which he distributed to neighbors, charitable organizations and art programs around the community.


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[Assistant] You stole over half a million dollars from this woman.


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[Assistant] I have no idea, but in one instance, he invested almost ten thousand dollars into a play that he was producing.


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[Assistant] It was written by local video store clerk Jeremy Jones and Jones told reporters, we all assumed he was very wealthy. I never questioned it. Yeah. Why would you? That's the thing. Why would you?


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[Assistant] And consider additional charges of money laundering. Wow. I was wondering if they were gonna go that route.


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[Assistant] So while the local and federal officials worked to build a case against Bernie, many in town rallied around him.


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[Assistant] Not long after he was arrested, several friends and neighbors actually pooled their own resources to hire a man named Clifton, quote unquote, Scrappy Holmes, an East Texas criminal defense attorney famous for defending wrongfully accused or incarcerated individuals.


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[Assistant] District Attorney Danny Buck-Davidson found the unconditional support for Bernie infuriating. Same.


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[Assistant] He said, Bergen is a con man and an accomplished actor. He duped a really nice trusting town. He's evil. Which like, re-tweet. Yeah. Re-X.


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[Assistant] Now, Davidson had actually known Bernie Teed as long as everyone else in Carthage had, and up to this point, he always thought that Bernie was a nice man. So he understood why locals could struggle to reconcile the man they knew with the man who murdered Marjorie, which


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[Assistant] For sure. 100%. But it's the willingness to look past what he did. That's the thing. Just because they preferred him to Marjorie. Yeah.


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[Assistant] But like, wow. So the support for Bernie Teed in and around Carthage was, uh, was not just inexplicable to law enforcement, it also proved to be a really big problem when the case made its way to court.


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[Assistant] Of the 350 prospective individuals considered for the jury,


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[Assistant] So Judge Griffin said that was just the first question. Their attorneys hadn't even begun their questioning. At that point, we felt we needed to try again somewhere else. So they had to declare a mistrial.


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[Assistant] Wow. And relocate the trial outside of this county.


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[Assistant] But while the district attorney's office worked to get the trial moved to nearby San, uh, San Augustine, which is about an hour from Carthage. Scrappy Holmes there, the defense attorney.


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[Assistant] Was in deep negotiations with the DA to arrange for a plea bargain that would make a trial unnecessary.


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[Assistant] And all Scrappy would tell the press was, plea negotiations did not turn out. So they weren't able to get any kind of plea bargain here. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Now, with no plea bargain in sight, Bernie's trial began.


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[Assistant] And only a handful of those interviewed for potential jury duty seemed interested in the case. Which, you know, that's good.


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[Assistant] Bernie Teed had enticed Marjorie with promis- promises of constant companionship.


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[Assistant] It sure seems like he was angling some way. It sure does. Robert Evans, who was a friend of Marjorie's because Bernie was not the only friend she had.


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[Assistant] Robert Evans told the jury how while having lunch with Marjorie in her home, they were interrupted by Bernie, who greeted Marjorie with a kiss.


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[Assistant] And he told the jury, he definitely believed this was just one of the ways in which Bernie had manipulated Marjorie. Oh damn, that's fucked up.


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[Assistant] Uh, yeah. And Angelo Rowe, an acquaintance of Marjorie's, offered similar testimony, telling the jury about one instance where Bernie, quote, brushed up against Mrs. Nugent with his body in a way I did not think was appropriate. Ooh.


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[Assistant] And she also told the jury about a shopping trip she'd taken with Marjorie, where Marjorie purchased some lingerie.


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[Assistant] Now the second day of testimony included a number of law enforcement officials.


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[Assistant] And experts who explained the evidence and gave descriptions of how the investigation had come together. Bernie just sat there sobbing.


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[Assistant] As the prosecution showed the court photos of the crime scene in the freezer where he had stuffed Marjorie's body.


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[Assistant] You're crying because you got caught. And you're crying because you probably see how fucking terrible that looks now that you're sitting in front of a room full of people who aren't accepting your good deeds.


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[Assistant] Now the final photo shown that day, which was the final image the jury saw before being dismissed for the day, was the interior of the freezer.


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[Assistant] That mid showed quote, bags of ice, a white tray and some boxes of food below which could be seen the small gray oval that was the back of Mrs. Nugent's head.


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[Assistant] And the images were so disturbing that the jury sent the judge a note requesting a 15 minute break to compose themselves.


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[Assistant] lodged a formal objection to the video claiming that it was macabre and was shown only to prejudice the jury.


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[Assistant] When outside the courtroom he elaborated his objection saying to reporter Stephen King couldn't have done it any better. I feel like he could have. I mean, shut the fuck up. It's also just like...


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[Assistant] Take another avenue here to defend your client because you're not doing a great job. Maybe just don't say anything.


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[Assistant] But despite having confessed to the murder, Bernie did plead not guilty. So the trial was necessary to determine his responsibility.


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[Assistant] And in his defense, Scrappy Holmes told the jury, Bernie was never motivated by money.


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[Assistant] Never motivated by money? That's a bold move to go in that direction. He said instead that it was Marjorie's quote-unquote possessive demanding nature that had become intolerable and his client simply quote-unquote snapped.


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[Assistant] Which like, I do wonder if he did just snap. You can.


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[Assistant] Look at it through that lens. Because he has no priors here. Like you're like- Well that's- This whole thing is very shocking. It's a shark.


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[Assistant] But they said in time, Marjorie became overbearing and demanding of all of Bernie's time, which eventually pushed him to the point of an impulsive action resulting in her death.


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[Assistant] And they said, if his motive was indeed greed as the prosecution had alleged, why would he have gone out of his way to give away the vast majority of stolen funds to the community members and civic organizations?


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[Assistant] Scrappy Holmes' objective was more or less damage control in a lesser sentence. That was what he was out for.


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[Assistant] So he needed to convince the jury that Bernie had acted in a moment of passion and impulsivity and that he actually didn't pose any threat to, you know, or future danger to the community.


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[Assistant] But unfortunately for the defense, the prosecution did a more than adequate job of portraying Bernie as a con artist after one thing and one thing only.


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[Assistant] And in his closing statements, the DA told the jury, from this evidence, you can find this defendant was a liar, a liar, coward and back shooter.


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[Assistant] So having no other context or familiarity with the defendant, the jury had no trouble believing that this was the case as presented by the prosecution.


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[Assistant] Now given Bernie's confession, the guilty verdict was pretty much expected. When it came to the punishment phase, however,


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[Assistant] Holmes was hopeful that his client's reputation would go a long way to secure a lighter sentence.


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[Assistant] Davidson, the prosecutor on the other hand, was pushing for a strict sentence. He told reporters, I think you've got to look at the crime and the punishment should fit the crime.


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[Assistant] Her granddaughter Susan said, we're relieved that there was a guilty verdict. He deserves 99 years. I mean, yeah, bye.


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[Assistant] So the next day, on February 11th, the court reconvened for the sentencing phase where the jury deliberated for less than two hours and returned with a sentence of life in prison. Wow. What do you mean?


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[Assistant] Now Marjorie's granddaughter Susan told reporters, this was a horrible, terrible crime and he deserved the worst sentence he got, that he could get. And obviously the jury thought so too.


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[Assistant] And Marjorie's son, Rod Jr., was also in town for the trial. He was actually expected, er, expecting to be called as a witness, but he wasn't called. So the sentencing phase was the first time he could speak in the courtroom since the trial started.


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[Assistant] This crime to me is about finding old people who are vulnerable and stealing from them.


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[Assistant] Now, after he was convicted and sentenced and the whole nine.


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[Assistant] Defense attorney Clifton Holmes immediately fired papers requesting the judge declare a mistrial, which was rejected.


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[Assistant] Now among the issues cited for the appeal was the claim that the judge refused to allow the defense's psychiatric expert to testify.


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[Assistant] Our psychiatrist come in and talk about his condition, which would have showed that he wasn't dangerous and this is what he was dealing with at the time of the murder. And it's like, okay. It's valid. Yeaah. To an extent. For sure, but it's like, but he put her in a freezer.


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[Assistant] Dr. Frederick Mears explained that in his opinion, at the time of the murder, Bernie was under considerably more stress than normal and quote, might have had some disassociative event that made him temporarily psychologically degraded.


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[Assistant] Now in addition to that, when they asked whether Boni-Bernie would pose a future threat to the community, the doctor stated,


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[Assistant] It is my opinion he absolutely would not pose a threat or danger to inmates, cellmates, guards, anyone in that system. Uh huh.


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[Assistant] So initially the Court of Appeals ruled that the lower court actually had erred in their refusal to admit Dr. Muir's testimony into evidence. But when it was sent back for reconsideration,


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[Assistant] The appeals court did determine that the error was quote unquote harmless and ultimately upheld the sentence.


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[Assistant] I don't know about that. Now, usually that would be where the story would end in a typical case. They said like, fuck you to the appeal, and then you sit in prison the rest of your life. Yeaah. But as we know, Bernie T's case is far from typical. No. And there were gonna be some more twists and turns before it, you know, faded from the spotlight.


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[Assistant] About a decade after Bernie entered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the story of Marjorie Nugent's murder


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[Assistant] At the hands of the town's beloved former mortician.


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[Assistant] Made its way to the desk of screenwriter Richard Linklater later.


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[Assistant] Now, Richard had read Skip Hollinsworth's, who I've quoted here.


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[Assistant] His 1998 article about the murder, Midnight in the Garden of East Texas. It was published in Texas Monthly. I definitely recommend reading it.


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[Assistant] But he approached Hollinsworth about collaborating on a screenplay about the case. Now the film, you might remember it, it wasn't too long ago, it was titled simply Bernie, was released in 2012.


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[Assistant] So, the critics, they liked the movie, but in Carthage, Linklater's Hollywood adaptation of Margaery's murder was not as well received. One resident said of the film, if it was fiction it might be funny, but this was a real person in a real town and no, I don't think it's funny at all.


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[Assistant] Like delightful, dark, hilarious. That's upsetting. That's wild. Yeah. That's on another level. Damn. Oh, that just shook me. Yeah.


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[Assistant] Well, despite local criticisms of the film, some people close to the case actually felt like it was an accurate portrayal. Marjorie's nephew, Joe, uh, Joe Rhodes said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are little things in Bernie that aren't exactly true. Bits of dialogue and name changed here and there, but the big things, the weirdest things happened exactly as the movie says they did. Wow. Now more than 10 years after the murder occurred,


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[Assistant] The residents of Carthage actually reconsidered their stance on Bernie Teed after that movie, which is interesting that this fucking Jack Black movie made these people change their opinions.


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[Assistant] Wild. But, while locals had turned on the man they once rushed to defend,


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[Assistant] Austin-based attorney Jodie Cole reached out to Link later to find out more about the story.


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[Assistant] She saw the film and told him it, quote, raised some issues I wonder about.


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[Assistant] Now like many people who had seen the movie or simply heard about the case, to her, something just didn't add up.


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[Assistant] So Attorney Cole there ended up speaking with Bernie after reaching out about like the film's making and watching it and just having questions upon questions. Yeah. So she ended up talking to Bernie multiple times.


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[Assistant] And eventually filed a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf.


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[Assistant] Arguing that the jury had been prevented from accessing critical testimony that would have likely influenced their understanding of the crime and their attitudes during the penalty phase.


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[Assistant] After several interviews with a clinical psychologist, Cole actually learned, and uh, this is a trigger warning for sexual trauma.


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[Assistant] Cole actually learned that Bernie had experienced considerable sexual and psychological abuse as a child. Oh, which significantly influenced his cognitive ability at the time of the murder. According to Bernie, Marjorie quote,


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[Assistant] Often demanded and ridiculed him and became critical and accusatory toward a male gardener.


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[Assistant] The effect, they said, was essentially what one would experience in an abusive domestic relationship, which ultimately led to Marjorie's murder.


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[Assistant] Now a second psychological evaluation conducted by Dr. Edward Gripen, or Gruppen.