304. The Killer Who Played Robin Hood - The Murder of Marjorie Nugent

Payton and Garrett unravel the chilling case of Marjorie Nugent, a reclusive woman living alone in a sprawling mansion on the edge of town. When loved ones begin to fear she’s vanished, police make a welfare check, only to uncover a horrifying secret hidden in her freezer. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: TexasMonthly.com - https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/midnight-in-the-garden-of-east-texas/ CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-the-mortician-the-murder-the-movie/ Wikipedia.org - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Tiede Variety.com - https://variety.com/2014/film/news/richard-linklater-bernie-tiede-1201243497/ InvestigationDiscovery.com - https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/murder/bernie-marge-the-mysterious-case-of-the-murderous-mortician-the-wealthy-widow KLTV.com - https://www.kltv.com/story/31770727/bernie-tiede-trial-victims-sister-says-she-was-afraid-of-marjorie/ TexasTribune.org - https://www.texastribune.org/2016/03/31/bernie-tiedes-sentencing-trial-redo-starts-wednesd/ TribTalk.org - https://www.tribtalk.org/2014/05/12/bernie-was-nothing-like-the-movie/ Grunge.com - https://www.grunge.com/357384/bernie-the-truth-about-bernie-tiede-and-marjorie-nugents-relationship/ NYTimes.com - https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/magazine/how-my-aunt-marge-ended-up-in-the-deep-freeze.html Telegraph.co.uk - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/9243732/How-my-wicked-aunts-murder-became-a-Shirley-Maclaine-comedy.html AllThatsInteresting.com - https://allthatsinteresting.com/bernie-tiede Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 0:08Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:09Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:10Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Happy Monday. Happy life. Happy wife. Hope everyone is doing great. Yeah, that's what we got. It's Monday for recording. It's not Monday, but thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. We don't really have too many announcements. Nothing too crazy coming up. Guess I'll kind of jump into my 10 seconds. Been watching football. Playoffs are getting crazy. Chargers lost. I don't know. They deserved it. That was absolutely garbage performance. If you don't watch football, then you can skip this a couple of seconds. Garbage performance by the Chargers. They did not deserve to win that, honestly. So I think I am rooting for the Bears.

• 0:51Garrett Moreland?

  See what happens. Other than that, um, nothing too crazy for my 10 seconds. Making bagels, hanging out. I guess I'll ask you guys, okay, if you were to pick a bagel, a breakfast burrito, or a donut, what would you pick? What do you pick?

• 1:13Payton Moreland?

  Me?

• 1:14Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah. You have to say bagel.

• 1:16Payton Moreland?

  The, oh, bagel.

• 1:18Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, bagel. No, honestly, what would you pick?

• 1:20Payton Moreland?

  This answer just changes for me so often.

• 1:24Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 1:24Payton Moreland?

  I'm just such a temporary girl. Like, I go in and out of these. So right now, I would probably pick a breakfast burrito.

• 1:38Garrett Moreland?

  Ooh, I think breakfast burrito would be last for me.

• 1:40Payton Moreland?

  But there was a time where I only craved bagels all day, every day.

• 1:44Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 1:44Payton Moreland?

  And there's been a time where I just wanted donuts every morning.

• 1:47Garrett Moreland?

  I just bagels. Um, for those who don't know, if you are watching this for the first time, I'm opening a bagel shop. Uh, more details to come. Hopefully, starting construction next week, but I love bagels. Been making bagels for like four years now. They are my life. They are my soul. Besides this beautiful girl next to me.

• 2:10Garrett Moreland?

  Um, yeah, so that's what I got. I'll keep you guys updated. Nothing too crazy other than that. So I think on that note, we can hop into today's episode. Also, for those watching for the first time, just a reminder. I do not know what case my wife is telling me. I never know what case she's telling me. I don't know much about true crime, other than when we sit here and record. We don't talk about it afterwards. We don't talk about it before.

• 2:36Garrett Moreland?

  Everything is real, non scripted on my end.

• 2:39Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, we've been going for quite a while now, so.

• 2:42Garrett Moreland?

  Five years, 303 true crime cases. I know more than I did before, but it blows my mind how many cases there are that I don't know of. I mean, even you at this point, I feel like we were covering cases that you don't know.

• 2:59Payton Moreland?

  Sometimes, yeah.

• 3:00Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 3:01Payton Moreland?

  Actually, I feel like a lot of time I try not to pick cases. They're so well covered or known, so it's getting even more. Yeah. But yeah, it's so crazy to me that we started this thing just on the basement floor.

• 3:16Payton Moreland?

  Headphone mics.

• 3:17Garrett Moreland?

  Here we are.

• 3:18Payton Moreland?

  And here we are.

• 3:19Garrett Moreland?

  Again, thanks again, and we love you guys. And let's hop into today's case.

• 3:25Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are Texas Monthly.com, CBS News.com, Variety.com, InvestigationDiscovery.com, K L T V.com, Texas Tribune.org, Tribe Talk.org, Brunch.com, New York Times.com, Telegraph.co.uk, and All It's Interesting.com. All right, whether we want to admit it or not, we all make rash judgments about people. Maybe we don't like the way someone dresses and so we're like, ah, not our type. Maybe someone shares a name with our old high school bully. So immediately we're like, ugh, rubbing me the wrong way. The point is, while it's not the most evolved trait we have as humans, our brains naturally like to put people into boxes.

• 4:09Payton Moreland?

  Mean, nice, good, evil. There's honestly something primal about it. It's how we spot danger quickly. What our biology doesn't account for is all the nuances that actually make up a person. Maybe someone is kind because they're being calculated, manipulative, and looking to get their way. Maybe someone is more closed off or a little colder because they've been really hurt in the past. It's not until we actually give people a chance and we really get to know them that we find out what lies beneath the surface.

• 4:44Payton Moreland?

  And those boxes that we've put people in might not just be totally wrong. They could also be deadly. So let's take a trip down to Carthage, Texas. This is a small little town of about 6,500 people and we're 160 miles east of Dallas, close to the Louisiana border. That is the area Marjorie Nugent had always called home. Now, born in just 1915, outside of Carthage, Marjorie's dad ran a little grocery store.

• 5:25Payton Moreland?

  He was also a pretty prominent landowner back then, which earned the family a pretty significant reputation around the small town. So Marjorie grows up, she goes on to study at Louisiana Tech where she met her husband, a recent graduate with an engineering degree named R.L. Rod, as they called him, Nugent. Now, the two got married in 1937, when Marjorie was just 22 years old and Rod's career took off shortly after. He got a job with Magnolia Oil that is now Mobil, like the gas station.

• 6:07Payton Moreland?

  And the couple became extremely wealthy over the years because he got in so early with what would become a huge company. So after moving from Texas to Louisiana to New Mexico, they and their son Rod Jr. moved back to the Carthage area in 1989, just to slow things down a little bit. Rod Senior bought controlling interest in the first national bank of Carthage. And with that, the couple purchased a 6,000 square foot, beautiful stone home that sat right on the border of town.

• 6:47Payton Moreland?

  Now, equipped with a stone wall, electronic gates and complete isolation from the rest of the world, this is what Marjorie preferred. She hardly ever left the estate, which is why...

• 7:03Payton Moreland?

  Whispers about who she was and honestly, kind of her grouchy nature started to spread through the small town.

• 7:10Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 7:11Payton Moreland?

  I mean, this family moves back, they're very wealthy, they buy this enormous mansion and the wife is never seen. So people whispered that she hadn't spoken to.

• 7:24Garrett Moreland?

  That's Peyton, minus the mansion and gate part.

• 7:27Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. So, um, people whispered about her that she hadn't spoken to her sister who was in Carthage, like, living in the area for years, apparently over one argument about their mother's estate after she had passed away. They talked about how Marjorie stopped speaking to her now adult son Rod Jr. because of one too many fights. So basically, the rumor mill is she's cutting everyone off in her life. People said she was snobbish, entitled, nasty, too good for Carthage, this small town, which is why she never leaves her mansion. Even members of her own family claimed that they were scared to cross her.

• 8:11Payton Moreland?

  And at one point, Marjorie's little sister was quoted calling her "the devil on earth." But because Marjorie hardly ever left her home, she let other people tell her story. She was made up to be this grumpy, grouchy, old woman. But no one knew she was really just a troubled woman who seemed to battle bouts of depression.

• 8:38Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 8:39Payton Moreland?

  And that she took that pain out on other people. Though, there were some people who did get to know the real Marjorie, learned what she had gone through, who said, "When she loved you, she was extremely kind. She would send lovely birthday cards and shower you with gifts." And that the gossip around Marjorie had definitely been exaggerated over the years.

• 9:03Garrett Moreland?

  Have you seen Up?

• 9:05Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 9:06Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 9:06Payton Moreland?

  It's kind of feeling like the old man.

• 9:08Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I mean, yeah. Mm hmm.

• 9:10Payton Moreland?

  Just because she didn't go out of her way to be kind to people in her small southern town, go out to meet her neighbors, go out to see people. Everyone in town judged her. They believed the rumors without question. It must have been a pretty lonely existence for Marjorie, especially with her own husband so caught up in his work. And things got even lonelier when Rod Senior passed away from heart failure a year after they moved back to Carthage in 1990, which even further explains why she became more of a recluse. She's now grieving. Rod had been 76 years old when he died, leaving 75 year old Marjorie widowed

• 9:56Payton Moreland?

  and not on speaking terms with her one and only son. But something happened at Rod's funeral that would actually completely change the course of Marjorie's life. Now, it was during those arrangements that Marjorie met 32 year old Bernie Tita.

• 10:17Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 10:18Payton Moreland?

  A well-loved funeral director and mortician in Carthage.

• 10:23Garrett Moreland?

  Mortician.

• 10:24Payton Moreland?

  Now, maybe because of Marjorie's difficult reputation, only a handful of people actually showed up to the services to offer their condolences for her husband. And Bernie Tita claimed he saw the sadness and the loneliness in Marjorie's eyes that day. And he immediately knew she was more than what everyone had gossiped about. Not only did Bernie prepare the body and make all of the arrangements for the funeral, he also sang during the services. And then he personally escorted Marjorie to her husband's grave, offering his jacket to her. And in that moment, like that sweet gesture of kindness kind of won over Marjorie.

• 11:08Payton Moreland?

  So who is this Bernie Tita who's finally broken this little?

• 11:15Payton Moreland?

  runt that Marjorie had put up. Now, outside of being the local funeral director and mortician for the last decade, Bernie was extremely well-liked and popular around the small town. I mean, this guy was everywhere, especially when it came to the church, which is everything in a small southern town. He sang in the church choir, he taught Sunday school. And when the minister was under the weather, he actually stepped in and gave the sermon. And people said Bernie was a really talented performer, too. Ever since he went to Panola College, he had been very involved in the musical scene. He became an encyclopedia for Broadway shows,

• 11:57Payton Moreland?

  was asked to direct some of the school's performances, and even sang with a professional group called the Shreveport Chamber Singers.

• 12:06Garrett Moreland?

  The Backstreet Boys.

• 12:08Payton Moreland?

  But life wasn't always singing in the rain for Bernie. He had had a tough childhood. He grew up about 45 minutes outside of Carthage in a town called Kilgore. And when he was just three years old, his mother died in a car accident.

• 12:22Garrett Moreland?

  Geez.

• 12:22Payton Moreland?

  And then, when Bernie was only 15, he lost his father

• 12:25Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 12:26Payton Moreland?

  to an illness. Now Bernie was left to support himself and his younger sister. And that was when he actually took a job working at a funeral home. And Bernie found there was something about being there for people in grief that he really liked about his job. And as the years passed, he also realized he loved singing and performing. But working at a funeral parlor and volunteering at the church was a way he could sort of merge these things together.

• 12:56Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 12:57Payton Moreland?

  So in 1985, at 27 years old, Bernie came to Carthage when an opportunity opened at the Hawthorne Funeral Home. He even took up residence in a small apartment behind it. And there he did everything. He sang at the services, he embalmed, he did the hair and makeup of the deceased.

• 13:21Payton Moreland?

  And he was a shoulder to cry on for the families that came in.

• 13:25Garrett Moreland?

  One man show.

• 13:26Payton Moreland?

  But people said Bernie did a lot for the community outside of that, too. He helped people with their tax returns if they needed it. He would run errands for the widows in town.

• 13:38Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 13:38Payton Moreland?

  He donated his time and money to causes that mattered to the people of his community. And because Bernie put himself out there for all of Carthage to see, that's the story everyone told. Bernie was sociable, thoughtful, he put others first. And that is obviously what Marjorie saw the day of her husband's funeral, too.

• 14:01Garrett Moreland?

  Extremely curious where this is going. I have no idea.

• 14:06Payton Moreland?

  This message is sponsored by Greenlight. You know, there were many times growing up in school where I was like, when am I ever going to use this? And let me be real honest with you, a lot of those things have turned out to be true. But you know what I wish they would have taught in school? Financial literacy. So Greenlight takes the mental load of family life and kind of puts it all into one place. It keeps your whole family in sync, money, safety, and everyday life, all in one place. When you're using it, you can see what your kids are spending, right when they spend it. You can also easily send them money via Greenlight instead of like digging around for cash.

• 14:50Payton Moreland?

  And Greenlight just helps your household run smoother. Chores happen without nagging because you can do it all through the Greenlight app. There's also like a schedule that is up to date in real time. So when you're out of milk or someone needs new cleats, it just goes on this shared list that everyone can add to. Join the 6.5 million family members who trust Greenlight. Garrett has younger siblings, they've used Greenlight and it is so amazing to watch them learn about money in the safety of their home. You've got enough on your plate, Greenlight keeps it all in sync. Get started at greenlight.com/husband. That is greenlight.com/husband. Greenlight.com/husband. Go check it out now.

• 15:34Garrett Moreland?

  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are plenty of reasons we put off getting support and for a lot of people, cost is one of them. With BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, maybe there are a few others worth questioning too.

• 15:57Payton Moreland?

  Women inherit a law of unwritten rules. Be ambitious, but not intimidating. Be there for everyone, but still make time for yourself. Have it all together, but don't look like you're trying too hard. And I have definitely fallen into all of these traps. But if you have been wanting to start therapy, BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks and eligible members have an average copay of just $23 per session with insurance. If you don't have insurance or don't live in the United States, you can still get 10% off your first month.

• 16:29Garrett Moreland?

  And Peyton and I are big advocates for therapy. Give it a try. Life can be crazy. There's a lot going on. Like we were talking about, sometimes it feels like you need to have everything figured out. You don't. Go talk to someone. Go see what's going on. Visit betterhelp.com/husband to explore your payment options. That's betterhelp, H E L P dot com slash husband.

• 16:50Payton Moreland?

  So, a few days after the funeral, Bernie, who's in his 30s, calls to check on Marjorie, who's in her 70s, and she is flattered. Someone was reaching out to her, not just so they could peddle in silly gossip. She believed Bernie really did care about her. Though Bernie definitely knew how much Marjorie was now worth, at least the ballpark, somewhere between five and 10 million, which is a lot now and was a lot back then. But Bernie said he didn't treat Marjorie any differently than he treated the other widows at his funeral parlor. He always asked if they needed anything. He always helped them pick up groceries or medication, stuff around their house, just things like that.

• 17:35Payton Moreland?

  But things with Marjorie turned out to be very different than the other widows that Bernie was connecting with.

• 17:42Garrett Moreland?

  Uh oh.

• 17:43Payton Moreland?

  Bernie said he could tell Marjorie was lonely, so he started inviting her to places with him. They began going to lunch, to dinner. And slowly, Marjorie started opening up to Bernie. This closed off, grumpy elderly woman was warming up, talking about who she was, where she came from. And Bernie said he saw a side of her that people, even in her family, never got to see.

• 18:11Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, so there was a big age difference?

• 18:14Payton Moreland?

  Huge.

• 18:15Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 18:16Payton Moreland?

  He's in his 30s and she's in her 70s.

• 18:19Garrett Moreland?

  A little scary.

• 18:20Payton Moreland?

  So, um.

• 18:21Garrett Moreland?

  Little scary.

• 18:23Payton Moreland?

  Marjorie's family and the town is like, this is weird.

• 18:27Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, I think everyone would say that.

• 18:30Payton Moreland?

  Like, she's loaded.

• 18:33Payton Moreland?

  She's 70, he's 30.

• 18:35Garrett Moreland?

  You know what?

• 18:35Payton Moreland?

  Reverse the roles.

• 18:37Garrett Moreland?

  Can an elderly girl not catch a little motion? Just kidding, don't put that in there.

• 18:41Payton Moreland?

  Oh my god. Bernie's like, I know a side of her none of you know. They're seen around town, holding hands. Bernie said Marjorie wasn't very steady when she walked. He's like, that's why we're holding it.

• 18:54Garrett Moreland?

  Oh.

• 18:55Payton Moreland?

  In fact, both of them insisted to everyone, there was nothing romantic about their relationship. Actually, they say Bernie was gay. He claimed, though, that Marjorie never asked about his sexual orientation, so they never really spoke about it. Now, whether she wanted more in their relationship or not is unclear. But that didn't stop her from doing everything in her power to keep Bernie close and keeping this friendship, relationship afloat. Because soon, those affections for Bernie manifested into gifts. She was buying him new clothing. A $12,000 Rolex.

• 19:38Garrett Moreland?

  Holy, oh, man.

• 19:41Payton Moreland?

  First-class trips around the world to places like Egypt, Thailand, and Russia. And of course, to go see plenty of shows in New York on Broadway, which is his dream. And none of that stopped the rumors about what was really going on between Bernie and Marjorie.

• 20:02Garrett Moreland?

  And now I think I know where this is going now.

• 20:05Payton Moreland?

  Now, even though she was 40 years older than him, whispers said that they had begun sleeping in the same room, maybe even the same bed together when they went on these trips around the world. Though Bernie denies it. Now, it was certainly an unlikely friendship, but romance was never the direction it took, he says. Instead, Marjorie became his employer. See, in 1993, after three years of this going on, Marjorie finally encouraged Bernie to quit the funeral business. At the time, he was only making about $24,000 a year.

• 20:46Payton Moreland?

  And Marjorie was offering a new gig that would more than double that. For $900 a week in the early 90s, so this is about $2,000 a week today, she asked Bernie to be her caregiver.

• 21:01Garrett Moreland?

  For how much?

• 21:02Payton Moreland?

  $2,000 a week.

• 21:05Garrett Moreland?

  Damn, okay.

• 21:06Payton Moreland?

  And her bookkeeper. She wanted him to help her with any personal stuff full-time. So that meant each morning Bernie drove to her house to run errands for her, pick out her clothes, clip her toenails, a lot of which he was actually probably already doing without a salary.

• 21:24Garrett Moreland?

  There's no way he was clipping her toenails.

• 21:26Payton Moreland?

  For sure. You know how hard it is for elderly people to bend down and clip their toenails?

• 21:31Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, no.

• 21:32Payton Moreland?

  Cause it turns out, two years prior, Marjorie had actually made a pretty huge decision. She had amended her will and made Bernie the sole recipient of her entire estate. An estate that had now kind of solely belonged to her since her husband's passing. So now with this new job, he also had full access to her accounts. Cause he was the one that was now helping her pay bills and manage her finances. All of this to say, walking away from the funeral home was something Bernie probably felt was necessary. He couldn't say no to her job offer and risk being taken off her will. This is life changing.

• 22:15Payton Moreland?

  Plus, the job obviously came with plenty of perks, not just gifts and travel, but in advance that let Bernie purchase his own two bedroom home only a mile away from Marjorie's excluded estate. And he got a new car and then he got his pilot's license, something he'd always wanted to do. He even bought a couple of small airplanes. And there were some people who said they noticed a pretty positive change in Marjorie as well. Eventually she started going to church. She even hosted a brunch at her estate for the other women at the church, which is like a huge first.

• 22:55Garrett Moreland?

  I was gonna say, I don't, yeah, age difference, age difference is wild. It sounds like she's happy, sounds like he's happy. I mean, it sounds like it's working out, so all power to them at this moment.

• 23:08Payton Moreland?

  I mean, of course, like, everything's going good for the couple, but the tides are getting worse with Marjorie's family because the family of the elderly person in dynamics like this always has an issue.

• 23:23Garrett Moreland?

  Especially when there is this much money on the line, if you want to say.

• 23:29Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 23:29Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, like this much wealth and anytime someone dies in general. Money always causes fights, families are torn apart. Sadly, it's horrible.

• 23:38Payton Moreland?

  So in 1994, when Marjorie was 79 years old, her granddaughters actually stopped by her home to just check with her. And when Marjorie opened the door, she either pretended not to know them, or she really didn't recognize her own granddaughters. There were sources that said Marjorie's eyesight had started going by this point. She was demonstrating early signs of dementia. But when her granddaughter Alexandria finally convinced Marjorie to let her in, all the photos of her family in the family estate had been replaced by pictures of Bernie.

• 24:18Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, here we go.

• 24:20Payton Moreland?

  Including every last photo of their grandfather, her late husband.

• 24:26Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 24:26Payton Moreland?

  Was now taken down in the home.

• 24:28Garrett Moreland?

  Nah, this is weird.

• 24:29Payton Moreland?

  And maybe because of that dementia, Marjorie kind of started to venture off that property less and less over the next year or two. And by 1996, the sightings of Marjorie around town, you know, going to church, having those luncheons, came to a complete stop. Now, at that point, it seemed like Bernie was doing just about everything for Marjorie, while also finding new ways to spend his own hard-earned cash. And honestly, a lot of it seemed pretty generous. For example, when a friend of his asked for help opening a new western wear shop in town, Bernie gave him the money. And when the church wanted a new wing, Bernie donated a hefty sum.

• 25:14Payton Moreland?

  And when a local trophy store was floundering, Bernie gave them a loan so students at the local school wouldn't miss their trophies that year. He bought cars, not just for himself, but for 10 other people. He bought a house for a young couple in need. He provided scholarships to local kids who couldn't afford college. But all the wild people are curious. Yeah, we get it. You're working for Marjorie, obviously, but how is she? They hadn't seen her in a while and Bernie was assuring everyone, you know, she's fine. She's just out of town, visiting her sister. Oh, no. She's at home taking a nap. She's temporarily in a nursing home, recovering from a stroke.

• 25:58Payton Moreland?

  And still, no one really questioned it, at least out loud. The maid was still coming to clean the house. The gardener was still showing up to water the lawn. It was pretty much business as usual, the same as it was before Marjorie's husband had even passed away. Many assumed she had just become reclusive again. And you have to remember, she doesn't really talk to anyone else in her family. She and her younger sister don't speak. She barely would let her grandkids into her home. And even her own son, now a successful pathologist, hadn't seen or really even spoke to her in years. Honestly, it wasn't even until the spring of 1997 that people really started to wonder. Is Marjorie okay?

• 26:43Payton Moreland?

  Her stockbroker, one of the few people she was close with outside of Bernie, said he had been worried about her ever since Christmas. He'd sent Marjorie a turkey and she never called or wrote to him to thank him. And that just wasn't like her, but he wasn't super concerned. Until Marjorie missed an appointment to sign some important documents. And then shortly after that, in July of 1997, another local woman actually called the police out of genuine concern. She said that no one she knew had seen or heard from Marjorie lately and just recommended that they go look into it. It took them a month, but they finally showed up.

• 27:28Payton Moreland?

  They first called Bernie, who said he was in Las Vegas singing at a friend's wedding. He claimed Marjorie was in a hospital under an assumed name because she didn't want to be bothered. And he didn't offer more than that. So the police begin calling around. And no one has a woman in their care matching Marjorie's description. So they phone her estranged son next.

• 27:54Garrett Moreland?

  This is crazy.

• 27:54Payton Moreland?

  And on August 19th, 1997, Rod Jr. accompanies police to his mother's home. Now, by this point, Marjorie hadn't been seen for about nine months by anyone other than Bernie. So when they get inside, they start looking for any clues of where she might be. Is there a piece of mail, a hospital bill, a phone number, anything that could lead them to her? And they take advantage of the fact that Bernie's not there by scanning every single inch of that place, including a chest freezer and a utility.

• 28:28Garrett Moreland?

  There's no way. There, that's insane.

• 28:30Payton Moreland?

  They open this large freezer up and inside they see frozen corn, some meat, fish, some chicken pot pies. And then beneath it all, wrapped inside a blanket is the body

• 28:45Garrett Moreland?

  That's

• 28:46Payton Moreland?

  of 81-year-old Marjorie Nugent.

• 28:50Garrett Moreland?

  That is a mi- like, mind-blowing.

• 28:53Payton Moreland?

  So terrified of destroying evidence, the sheriff had the entire freezer taken to Dallas to remove her there for her autopsy. It took Marjorie two days to thaw out before they could even begin the autopsy. And her cause of death, well, she was shot four times in the back.

• 29:11Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap.

• 29:13Payton Moreland?

  With a 22 caliber rifle. So if there was any like, oh, she got old and I just couldn't handle it. And I went a little crazy and she died naturally and I just, I couldn't let go of her. All that is out.

• 29:26Garrett Moreland?

  I'm also curious to see what happens because if he really was on her will, like, why? Why kill her?

• 29:35Payton Moreland?

  Right?

• 29:36Garrett Moreland?

  That doesn't make any sense.

• 29:37Payton Moreland?

  So there's one person who obviously police are like, I think we only have one suspect here because there's only one person who's said that he's seen her while she's obviously been dead. But police hate to admit it. It is the local good man, Bernie.

• 29:55Garrett Moreland?

  Look, I've come to realize if things are too good to be true, they are too good to be true.

• 30:02Payton Moreland?

  He is the one who told them Marjorie was in a hospital. He was the one who had access to her home, her bank account, her entire life. He was the last one who saw her. So they begin looking for him. And they find him just as he's about to take a local little league team and all of their parents out to dinner. The police are prepared to fully investigate this case, but it ends up being even easier than they imagined. Because right after they take Bernie in for an interview, he confesses, "Yeah, I killed her." He admits it. And when they're like, "Well, why?"

• 30:44Payton Moreland?

  He says, "Because Marjorie was a very hateful and possessive woman, and I felt trapped." And he goes into more detail during this interrogation.

• 30:59Garrett Moreland?

  All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad, and it is the one and only Skims.

• 31:04Payton Moreland?

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• 31:45Payton Moreland?

  So yes, the Soft Lounge Sleep Set, it has the perfect weight, the perfect stretch. The fabric will not irritate your skin. Honestly, I recommend Skims to everyone due to just the quality and the comfort that it brings. So go check out their cotton fleece sets or their sleep sets right now.

• 32:05Garrett Moreland?

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• 32:18Payton Moreland?

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• 33:01Payton Moreland?

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• 33:46Payton Moreland?

  Bernie says that after their first five years together, traveling the world and making memories, things between them had started to sour, that Marjorie was getting more emotionally and mentally abusive. It started small. If Bernie was even a minute late to lunch, she claimed Marjorie would call and page him incessantly until he called her back. If he spent time with someone else, he had to call her and check in repeatedly, or she would, quote, "give me living hell." And he said it only got worse when Marjorie started getting dementia. He claimed that she had Bernie buy a gun to shoot any armadillos that stepped into

• 34:26Payton Moreland?

  her yard, and she would follow him around yelling at him while he shot them. Now, over time, she expected him to be there for her around the clock. She wanted him to always be obedient, do everything for her at the drop of a hat, to be her constant servant. And Bernie claimed there were times when he literally tried to leave the house, but Marjorie locked the gate before he could get away, physically trapping him inside. And when he was asked, okay, why didn't you just quit? He gave a sob story about how he felt like he was the only person in Marjorie's life who cared about her. The reality was he was probably afraid he would get cut out of her will.

• 35:10Payton Moreland?

  Plus, don't forget, he had access to her accounts. So all of that money he was sharing around town for scholarships and cars and businesses to stay afloat. It wasn't the advance or the salary Marjorie was paying him weekly. It was deducted straight from her own accounts and handed out. Basically Bernie was trying to be the town Robin Hood in a way.

• 35:35Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, but can't kill an innocent woman.

• 35:39Payton Moreland?

  It's estimated that he stole about $2 million of her money to give as handouts around town. So he was, I mean, he gave $2 million to people. Now, of course, police take his sob story with a grain of salt, especially since Marjorie is no longer around to even defend herself.

• 35:59Garrett Moreland?

  I was gonna say, that's the other thing is you were only actually hearing one side of the story. And considering he just killed someone, he could be lying about everything.

• 36:08Payton Moreland?

  Is it totally possible she was a big pain? That she was elderly, she was losing her mind a little and maybe taking it out on him for sure.

• 36:19Garrett Moreland?

  Even so, people have bosses, they hate, I mean, but you don't go around killing people.

• 36:24Payton Moreland?

  If you don't like someone, you simply remove yourself from their life.

• 36:28Garrett Moreland?

  Easy peasy.

• 36:30Payton Moreland?

  But they still find it hard to believe that the town's most beloved philanthropist, this nice guy, could be guilty not just of murder, but then stuffing an elderly woman in a freezer and lying about it for nine months. Even when Bernie confesses how he did it, police find the story hard to swallow. But here's what Bernie says next. He claimed for months, he thought about hitting Marjorie with a baseball bat to end things once and for all. But he couldn't bear the thought of her suffering. That's what he said. So he considered other gruesome methods. And then on the morning of November 19th, 1996, a couple of days before I was born, by the way.

• 37:13Payton Moreland?

  The 38-year-old Bernie was ready to act. That morning around 7:00 a.m., he went to Marjorie's house, make her breakfast, just like he did every day. But before he went back to his house to take a quick shower, he noticed something. The rifle that Marjorie made him use to kill those armadillos. He gets an idea. He moves the rifle into a bathroom near the garage. And then when he came back later, he told Marjorie he would give her a ride to the dry cleaners to pick up her things. He followed her out into her garage, went and grabbed the gun, and then shot her once in the back.

• 37:54Payton Moreland?

  Now, when he realized that elderly Marjorie was still breathing, he shot her three more times. And then he began looking for ways to get rid of her body. And that's when it dawned on him. The freezer in the utility room. He dragged her body down the hall and removed enough items to fit the five-foot-two, 81-year-old woman, now wrapped in a blanket, inside. He placed the frozen items back on top, cleaned up the blood, and then just went about living life.

• 38:29Garrett Moreland?

  Crazy.

• 38:30Payton Moreland?

  What's weird is, why did Bernie just leave her in the freezer for nine months? Like, what was his plan? What was he gonna say to people?

• 38:39Garrett Moreland?

  I don't think at that point you have a plan. I think he probably was just, I think he's probably hoping no one would ever check the home. But, I mean, I agree, not agree. I will say that, yeah, if her body was somewhere else, or they could never find the body, he probably would have never gotten caught.

• 38:56Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, but everyone would have suspected him.

• 38:59Garrett Moreland?

  For sure, but would he?

• 38:59Payton Moreland?

  I mean, was there more?

• 39:01Garrett Moreland?

  Would he have gotten convicted, though?

• 39:03Payton Moreland?

  Probably not. There was more logic, like, oh, she must have just gotten run, ran away. Like, there were more logical ways he could have got away with it.

• 39:10Garrett Moreland?

  Not that we want that, I'm just saying.

• 39:11Payton Moreland?

  But you gotta remember, everyone in town loves this guy. Like, loves this guy, including the police.

• 39:18Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, of course they do. He just gave $2 million to all of them.

• 39:21Payton Moreland?

  And Marjorie has kind of always had this bad reputation. So she's... The road to justice is already on a bad foot.

• 39:30Garrett Moreland?

  I'm actually really curious to see how this trial goes.

• 39:33Payton Moreland?

  So he tells police, he's like, yeah, I know, like, if I'd just gotten rid of her, maybe I would have got away with it. But I couldn't bear the idea of not giving her a proper burial. After all, I was a mortician and a funeral home director most of my life. So he's like, I just waited too long to do it. But what came next was maybe even more baffling. Once Bernie's bond was set for the murder charges at 1.5 million, a bunch of women in town came together to try and fundraise for his release.

• 40:10Garrett Moreland?

  This is gonna be a nightmare.

• 40:12Payton Moreland?

  The DA actually had to go to the justice of the peace and add theft charges to get his bond price raised to 2.7 million in hopes of keeping this fundraiser from succeeding. The local reverend called for people in the church to pray for Bernie.

• 40:29Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, God.

• 40:31Payton Moreland?

  Bernie's friends hired a famous criminal defense lawyer for him named Clifton Scrappy Holmes. All to say, it was like the entire town of Carthage basically rallied around Bernie regardless of whether he was guilty or not. Regardless of the heinous crimes he admitted to.

• 40:52Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, it's gotta be, I mean, as much as maybe people don't want to admit, it's because he's helped so much financially. And so people are like, well, she didn't help us, he helped us.

• 41:05Payton Moreland?

  She didn't use our money, he used our money.

• 41:06Garrett Moreland?

  Correct.

• 41:07Payton Moreland?

  To them, their minds were made up. Bernie was the Robin Hood and Marjorie was the wicked witch that he had put an end to. The justice system would see it completely different, though. Because there were so many people around Carthage who knew the case and were already obviously siding with Bernie. The trial had to be moved 50 miles away. The 1999 trial lasted under a week where Bernie's defense claimed he had killed Marjorie in a sudden act of passion. They said the crime was not premeditated, even though Bernie had already admitted to this when talking to police. And after only 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury came back with their verdict. Bernie was guilty of first degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.

• 41:50Garrett Moreland?

  Wow.

• 41:51Payton Moreland?

  But Bernie's story actually doesn't end there. In fact, it's kind of really just heating up because a famous filmmaker had caught wind of Bernie's salacious case and like, oh my gosh, this Robin Hood like killed her and then spent her money. And this filmmaker wanted to turn it into a scripted feature. His name was Richard Linklater. You may know him as the writer-director of Dazed and Confused. Now, in 2011, he released Bernie's Story, aptly titled Bernie, onto the big screen. The feature starred Jack Black as Bernie and Shirley MacLaine as Marjorie.

• 42:34Garrett Moreland?

  How have I never seen this? Have I seen this?

• 42:36Payton Moreland?

  Well, here's the thing. The depiction of Marjorie didn't exactly make her family happy. It seemed like he kind of shared a similar mentality with the people of Carthage, that Bernie was a hero for all of this and Marjorie was controlling, manipulative, abusive, and deserved. What happened to her?

• 42:58Garrett Moreland?

  I think I've seen this.

• 42:59Payton Moreland?

  It certainly didn't help that the movie was written as a dark comedy, kind of making a joke.

• 43:06Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 43:07Payton Moreland?

  And the worst part was that it actually influenced the real Bernie's fate because after the movie came out in 2011, an attorney named Jody Cole got very interested in Bernie's case because this movie really made everyone hate Marjorie. And she met with him and filed an appeal stating his rights were violated. She said he had been coerced into confessing and that he was bullied into signing that confession without a lawyer present. He also said that the officers threatened to expose his homosexuality if he didn't cooperate with them. Now, also in this new statement, he claimed that Marjorie's abusive nature had triggered

• 43:46Payton Moreland?

  kind of a post-traumatic stress response, almost like, you know, because he'd been sexually abused as a child, he was in a dissociative state when he committed the murder, which was backed by analysis from a forensic psychiatrist. So basically, this new lawyer comes in and is like, "Look, you can only take so much abuse from someone, and due to the history of abuse that happened as a child, his child brain took over, went into a dissociative state to, like, save itself and to survive and killed her."

• 44:18Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting. Okay, so they're kind of comparing it to, I mean, any abuse in general, like if a man is, or a female in a relationship, someone is abusing each other, and the other person kills that person, I mean, yeah.

• 44:32Payton Moreland?

  Kind of like a PTSD defense.

• 44:36Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 44:38Payton Moreland?

  Now, Jodi Cole brought all of this to the DA who bought it, hook, line, and sinker. The DA threw out the life sentence and ordered a new trial. Bernie was then released from prison in 2014 until that new trial could take place. And with nowhere really to go, he got in touch with one person who had previously offered to help, writer-director Richard Linklater, who had made basically the movie based off of Bernie's life. And between 2014 and 2016, Bernie actually lived in Richard's garage apartment in Austin. And naturally, Marjorie's family is pissed.

• 45:17Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, yeah, I'm sure.

• 45:18Payton Moreland?

  This new movie-

• 45:19Garrett Moreland?

  This is crazy.

• 45:21Payton Moreland?

  Really, whether true or not, painted her in a horrible light and then actually affected her real-life killer's sentence. If the movie was never released, there would be no question about Bernie's future, he would still be behind bars. And now there was a possibility that he could be walking free for good and maybe go on and take advantage of another rich elderly widow, which is how they sought. So they held their breath as they waited for the next trial, which began in April of 2016. Suddenly, old witnesses were called to the stand, family members were forced to reopen old wounds, and Bernie sat there quietly, waiting to see if his fate would change, or if he had just received a temporary vacation from prison.

• 46:05Payton Moreland?

  The jury decided it was the latter. On April 22nd, they came back with the verdict. Bernie was still guilty of first degree murder and would go back to serving life behind bars.

• 46:14Garrett Moreland?

  Wow.

• 46:15Payton Moreland?

  However, Bernie would now be eligible for parole again in a few more years. In August of 2029, when he is 71 years old, he will be eligible for parole. Now, since then, Marjorie's granddaughter Shawna has started a nonprofit to educate people on the signs and dangers of elder financial abuse. Because remember, this isn't like a rarity. This type of con happens often. It's just whether we believe this was a con or not. As for Marjorie, she did get the proper burial she deserved in a small cemetery just outside of Carthage. Many of the family members who she hadn't even spoken to for years prior to her death

• 46:57Payton Moreland?

  came to pay their final respects, including her estranged, but certainly loved younger sister, who had seemingly decided that maybe Marjorie wasn't the villain in her story after all. And that is the murder of Marjorie Nugent.

• 47:15Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy. I can't believe there's a movie on it. Um, I've seen the cover art, but I've never seen that movie. And I've seen a lot of Jack Black stuff, so that surprises me. But yeah, I mean, here's the thing. I think that I like looking at it from the justice system. You can't kill people.

• 47:33Payton Moreland?

  Here's my thing. Like, yes, yes.

• 47:35Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, you can't kill. You can't do that. You cannot kill. Let's say even if all that stuff is true, right? Let's say everything that they're saying is true. You still cannot kill people.

• 47:47Payton Moreland?

  You have to take accountability.

• 47:48Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

• 47:50Payton Moreland?

  Because there's so, there's just so many excuses.

• 47:53Garrett Moreland?

  And maybe, and maybe I'm a little biased because I don't think I, I believe he was being abused. Sorry, like I just, I don't know. I don't, I don't think he was. I don't, it's not like the other DV cases we've covered where the guy or the girl is beating someone in their relationship for years and years. And there's marks and there's pictures and it's insane and it's crazy. Like this is a very different situation in my mind and yeah, crazy. I don't know.

• 48:21Payton Moreland?

  Listen, I'll be the first to admit.

• 48:25Payton Moreland?

  That sometimes old people can be cranky and annoying.

• 48:28Garrett Moreland?

  For sure.

• 48:29Payton Moreland?

  Granted, they've had to be alive for a long time, so I don't really know if this is justified or not, but I, I'll be the first to admit that they cannot be the most fun to be around. Like, sometimes it can be a miserable experience. They're very entitled sometimes when they get in this state of mind, which again, is why it's your responsibility to either remove yourself from their life, or figure out a way for them to be taken care of, or just deal with it.

• 48:58Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, we, we don't just go around killing people. Also, you can't tell me that he didn't want her money.

• 49:02Payton Moreland?

  Well, I mean, I mean, truly, truly, truly, if he was unhappy, he, he probably, I mean, she wasn't strong enough to keep him there physically. So, you know, he could have just simply left.

• 49:16Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 49:17Payton Moreland?

  But he was Robin Hood.

• 49:21Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy. This is a crazy case.

• 49:22Payton Moreland?

  I mean, he had all this money he needed to give to people.

• 49:24Garrett Moreland?

  Insane. That's wild.

• 49:26Payton Moreland?

  I don't know. I think it's just so complicated because of what he did with the money, but.

• 49:29Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 49:30Payton Moreland?

  All right, you guys. Thank you so much for joining us for today's episode, and we will see you next week with another one. I love it.

• 49:38Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 49:38Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.