Crossfire at the Shaughnessys'
41:31 Share

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Some stories have a way of sticking with you. For me, it's the 48-hour series Murder in the Orange Grove. But Audible has a best of 2024 list that's packed with unforgettable listens you won't stop thinking about. Check out Framed. It's

It's one of Audible's top picks and an astonishing true story of wrongful convictions that keeps you hooked from start to finish. Whether you're into thrillers, memoirs, or even romance, there's something for everyone. Head over to audible.com slash 48 hours and discover all the year's best waiting for you. That's audible.com slash 48 hours. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen.

For thousands of years, explorers the world over searched for and told tales of a mythical fountain, said to restore one's youth and cure anything. Uh, newsflash, it was never found. But hey, we found the next best thing. Ancient Nutrition Collagen Supplements. While it's not a miracle, it is proven to be pretty darn good at helping you look and feel younger and more healthy. It's

Ancient Nutrition's mission is to create high-quality supplements that combine the best of ancient wisdom and modern science. Their multi-collagen advanced lean supplement contains 10 types of collagen from 10 real food-based sources. This formula is powered by clinically studied ingredients that promote fat loss and healthy weight management, as well as building lean muscle. Right now,

Ancient Nutrition is offering 25% off your first order when you go to ancientnutrition.com slash Wondery. That's ancientnutrition.com slash Wondery. For 25% off your first order, ancientnutrition.com slash Wondery.

You sign up for something, forget about it after the trial period ends, then you're charged, month after month after month. The subscriptions are there, but you're not using them. In fact, 85% of people have at least one paid subscription going unused each month.

Thanks to Rocket Money, you can see all your subscriptions in one place and cancel the ones you're not using anymore. Now, boom, you're saving more money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

In a fraction of a second, it changed my life.

Now I'm someone else. No warning, no premonition, nothing. My name is Corrie Shaughnessy and I used to own Gallery Jewelers in Austin, Texas. The thing that made the jewelry business really fun is selling engagement rings, selling jewelry to people because they're marking special occasions. Ted kind of had the same passion. He loved colored gemstones.

We called ourselves gallery jewelers. It should have been called Ted's Jewelers because it really was all about him. March 1st was just a boring day. He came home from work. We had dinner. I basically rolled over to go to sleep. And the next thing I know, one of the dogs barks. This was early morning hours. Two shooters enter the Shaughnessy home. They quietly move through the home.

Ted sits up in bed and he grabbed his gun to go see what it was. I hadn't even gotten my head back on the pillow, I don't think, before I heard the first gunshot. And then there was a barrage of gunfire. One of the shooters advances towards the master bedroom where Corey is. I grabbed my gun. I started shooting back.

And I ran out of ammo. I just bailed into the closet. Travis County 911. Do you need police or fire or paramedics? I don't know. I'm in the closet. There were shots fired. Help me. OK, we're helping you, ma'am. Help me. I heard this horrible, horrible moaning. And when I came out of the closet, I saw Ted's legs. And I could tell that he was dead.

- Okay. - Oh my God. - Take a deep breath, you're doing awesome, Corey, okay? - Oh God. - Theodore Shaughnessy was shot dead in his Austin area home by an intruder. Corey Shaughnessy shot back at the intruder and wasn't hurt. - I was under the impression that this was a robbery that had gone bad. - There was nothing stolen. We weren't finding anybody that had any ill feelings towards either one of them. - We didn't have any idea who committed this murder.

Anybody that can do this is a sociopath. It's just absolutely crazy. I don't even know why. I really don't know why. ♪♪

When Travis County Sheriff's detectives Paul Salo and James Moore arrived to investigate a shooting at Ted and Corey Shaughnessy's Austin, Texas home early on March 2nd, 2018, they first thought it might be a robbery gone wrong. It looked as though there was a home invasion and a homeowner was killed. Inside the sprawling suburban home, it looked like a battlefield. 55-year-old Ted Shaughnessy

lay dead in a pool of blood near the kitchen table. He was shot in the head, the back, the thigh, and the buttocks. One of the family's two pet Rottweilers, Bart, had been shot to death as well. There was broken window glass everywhere, bullets lodged in the walls, casings all over the floor. Authorities noticed they were not all the same type. We had .40 caliber and .380.

So that told us that we had two shooters. Corey would tell police she and Ted kept about 20 guns in the home and said she'd used her .357 revolver to shoot back at the attacker. It was a hell of a gunfire. Investigators had noticed a single wide-open ground floor window around the side of the house and wondered if the intruders had used it to get in.

Somebody took the screen off, set it next to the window outside. That open window led into an unoccupied bedroom. And there, inside a drawer, police found what seemed like an unlikely coincidence.

there's a 40 caliber gun box in that drawer it's missing out of the box well hang on 40 caliber is one of the caliber that you were just describing yes it meant that shaughnessy's empty gun box could have held a pistol that one of the intruders used and had ejected bullet casings near the victim that information gets past me while i'm outside

Outside, near Detective Moore, first responders were looking after Corrie Shaughnessy. Corrie's sustainable. Corrie would tell police she had not seen the attacker's faces, but she did have a hunch about why they'd come. Being a jeweler, you might someday be a target. When you hear they own a jewelry store, what does that mean?

Prompt in your minds. Automatically a motive. Someone figuring there was some safe with a bunch of jewelry. Absolutely. That's right. Corey broke the news by phone to the Shaughnessy's son, Nick, then 19, who lived two hours away with his girlfriend, Jackie, in College Station, Texas. They immediately drove to Austin, arriving about 8 a.m.

Nick comes over and he's emotional. He asks me what happened. Nick, Jackie and Corey all agreed to help the investigation in any way possible. Corey allowed police to search her phone. And though Nick said he hadn't been in Austin for about a month, he and Jackie did the same. All three also agreed to answer questions at the station. I'm finding of anything that could be helpful.

Our goal was to just try to get as much information as possible. I didn't hear anything until the dog started barking. But Corey says the more police questioned her in the coming days, the more a traumatic situation went from bad to worse. I'm trying to think of anything I can to help. She says they were not treating her like a victim. I was extremely angry at the sheriff's department.

Investigators still weren't sure if the murder was part of a random attack, a jewel heist gone bad, or whether it was a targeted assassination. They weren't finding any relevant unidentified prints at the scene, so they had to wonder if their sole surviving victim, Corrie Shaughnessy, was actually a suspect. She's the only person in the house, and we have her husband who has been shot to death.

We know that she owns firearms, so it's obviously an option for us. They called her in for a series of interviews. For the last one, she brought a lawyer who is seated on the left. You got a distraught wife. You got a dead husband. You have to ask about the marriage, don't you? Yes.

Ted was the people person. He was the front part of the story. Investigators learned Corey and Ted had met in the early 80s at a video arcade in Phoenix. They'd quickly discovered they had a lot in common, including a love of jewelry and eventually of each other. They married and opened gallery jewelers. Everything seemed to be just about perfect.

As the jewelry business grew, Ted and Corey had decided to grow their family too. In 2000, they adopted Nick at 16 months old from an orphanage in Ukraine. It was just instant love. It was? Yeah, instant. Corey says they all bonded even before bringing him home. There were animal crackers involved. Skillful distribution of animal crackers? Yes, yes. And by the time we left, we were a family.

She says Ted had a knack for helping people express their love with a sparkle. Everybody loved Ted. Didn't have any enemies. By the time of the murder, the Shaughnessys were worth millions. But maybe even more valuable to them, they counted some of their customers as close friends. We were very happy. For Corey, being a parent was worth its weight in gold. Nichols had everything a kid could want. Yes. Yes.

What was he into? He liked animals and he loved cars. Especially fast ones. His father drove race cars for fun and often took him to the track. He loved putting on Ted's helmet and his racing gloves and all of those things. In high school, she says, her son found another love. Her name was Jackie Edison. After her parents' divorce, Jackie had moved from New Jersey to Austin to live with her father.

Nick brought her to meet his parents in 2016. It was an awkward dinner. But Corey says Jackie eventually won them over. And before long, she was spending so much time in the Shaughnessy's house, they actually let her move in. Did you settle into a, okay, a serious girlfriend seems to be part of Nick's life, and she's okay? I did. She was all right.

In August of 2017, Nick and Jackie moved out to start a new life in College Station. She in school, he as a day trader with his parents' financial backing. Ted and Corey would have less than a year to enjoy their empty nest before that horrible night in March. Police stayed on the scene for hours trying to process all the evidence. I was actually on call when the murder occurred. Amy Meredith was an assistant district attorney.

and says police asked her to come help them process and preserve the scene, an unusual request. She arrived around 11:00 AM and after looking around, began to believe as they did that Ted Shaughnessy probably knew whoever had attacked him. - This was not a stranger. This was not a stranger killing.

Meredith was sure the home was just too big and too dark for a pair of random robbers or jewel thief wannabes to find their way around. Maybe even more importantly... There was nothing stolen. Nothing from that safe. No valuables missing from the rest of the house. So everything for you pointed to inside jobs. Yes, without a doubt.

Most weight loss plans are one-size-fits-all, not taking into account each person's individual needs. Noom, on the other hand, is built for your psychology and your biology, meeting you where you are. Noom Weight uses psychology, and that's why they say losing weight starts with your brain. But it also takes into account your unique biological factors, which also affect weight loss success. The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have cravings.

Stay focused on what's important to you with Noom's psychology and biology-based approach. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com. That's N-O-O-M dot com.

Turn protecting the planet into your career. Georgetown's 10-month interdisciplinary Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability Management program blends cutting-edge scientific knowledge with essential business principles, equipping you to address the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Learn to tackle today's most urgent environmental problems with a strategic, dual skill set that combines environmental science and business expertise.

Ready to make a real impact? Georgetown's Master of Science in Environment and Sustainability Management empowers you to transform your passion for the environment into a meaningful, purpose-driven career. Explore the program at msb.georgetown.edu slash esm dash podcast.

Corey Shaughnessy's frustration with investigators was growing. Thank you. All right. Well, again, I appreciate you guys coming in. She says she'd known from the start that she was a suspect in her husband's murder. She says she needed money for the business in the following weeks, and it didn't help when she tried to cash in his million-dollar life insurance policy. I was the only beneficiary. That could only mean that they suspected me.

Let me just ask, did you have anything to do with this? Absolutely not. But Amy Meredith says Corey had started raising red flags immediately after leaving the scene. Within hours of the murder, she reportedly stated there would be no funeral and inquired about having the house cleaned. We had to make sure that she did not have any involvement. But Corey wasn't the only member of Ted's family who was raising suspicion.

The Shaughnessy son, Nick, had been more than 100 miles away at the time of the murder. At the scene that morning, he'd been emotional. But what struck Detective Salove was one of Nick's first questions. I tell him it looks like somebody came into the home and shot your dad to death. And how did he absorb that news? He asked me, did he suffer? Was that an odd question? It definitely struck me as odd, yes.

Even more so, police say, because as the morning wore on, Nick became much less interested in speaking with police than with the reporters who had started showing up. Nick and Jackie continuously tried to talk to the media. We asked them to stop and to stay in the scene. And then Nick did something really odd, says Detective Moore. He walked directly over to examine that ground floor, wide open side window.

The room it led to had once been his. Him going to that side of the house to look specifically at that window, which you can't see from just the front of the house. So for him to know that that was even involved, he did not have that information. How does he know the entry point unless he was involved in creating the entry point?

Sometimes people will get information from crosstalk with detectives or law enforcement. And so I didn't automatically get super suspicious, but it was catching my attention. Something on Nick's phone had caught their attention as well, an app that gave him access to his parents' alarm. Corey told them the family often chose not to arm the system and that it had been switched off that night.

But authorities noticed something in the account history. There was an activation for an open window. The time of the window being opened was 4:27 that morning. Following that was glass break activations. We believe that's when the bullets started breaking the glass in the house. That's when Ted died. That's when the shots were being fired. Was this important to have? Extremely. Police also saw something that seemed important in Jackie Edison's behavior.

We were going to do gunshot residue tests on their hands. We then separated them, and at that time, Jackie broke down hysterically. And what did you make of it? That was a major red flag for me. We knew there was something more to this at that point. A woman officer put your mom on the phone, and then your mom told you what happened? Yeah. She's like, someone took care of the house. There was an exchange of gunfire. I believe she fired a shot.

And then she ran to the closet. In questioning later that day, Nick and Jackie reminded police they'd been at their home in College Station when the shooting happened. We both moved to College Station, and he just works from home. A few days later, investigators got a search warrant. Once we get in the apartment, we're going through it. We're finding ammunition.

Though common among gun owners, the ammunition was the same brand and caliber that was found at the crime scene.

And investigators were about to find proof the couple was keeping secrets. We find a marriage certificate for Nick and Jacqueline. You discovered that Nick and Jackie were married by searching Nick's apartment? No. In all of the conversation you were having, they never said that they were married? No. A teenage friend of Nick's named Spencer Patterson

Spencer Patterson. Who'd been certified as a minister online, had married them eight months earlier. Police weren't the only ones surprised. You and Ted never knew? No. Corey Shaughnessy says Nick and Jackie didn't tell her about their clandestine marriage until after the murder. And I told him, I said, this is not, you shouldn't have done this. You're too young.

Trying to be a good mom, she says she promised to help them plan a proper wedding. I said, "You need to do it the right way." Corey had ample opportunity to make sure it happened because over the next few days, Nick and Jackie moved back into her house. We were planning the engagement party. We had the guest list. Jackie was picking out invitations.

That's especially chilling because while police initially had looked at all three for the murder, they now suspected just two and that Nick and Jackie had also targeted Corey. But it was still only a working theory. You can't say anything to Corey. No. That's a hard line to walk. If you have two people who planned her killing now living with her, are you worried about Corey's safety? Of course. Of course.

But Corish Onasi says what worried her was the possibility authorities were trying to frame her son, who by now was working in his father's place at the jewelry store. There is a set of circumstances that the police are trying to make work in the easiest way that they can. On March 10th, 2018, she hired her son the best defense attorney she could find.

You could have told me aliens landed on the front yard, and I would have believed that before I would have believed that Nicholas and Jackie planned to have us killed. Corey Shaughnessy knew police were suspicious of Nick and Jackie, but she says she had no reason to think they were right. After all, she says... I don't know. They'd been wrong about her. The last thing that I would ever do would be kill my husband.

And I thought, well, if they think I did it, it's not a stretch for them to think Nicholas did it. But the closer police looked, the more incriminating evidence they seemed to find that Nick and Jackie had planned to have both Shaughnessys killed. While phone records showed Nick had been more than 100 miles away at the time of the murder,

They also showed he was lying when he said he hadn't been to Austin for a month. We ultimately see cell phone usage in Austin on February 28th, which is just two days before Ted ends up getting killed. Investigators wondered if he had been in town making final preparations. There were text messages on Nick and Jackie's phones that police say showed a suspicious conversation.

how important was the text message that he sent out february 23 24 nick is saying he's working on it and jackie's response to the text message was do they want 50k or not and she says we can't afford to pay half before in another exchange nick asks her to withdraw money from her account quote so if it happens cash in hand they do make this withdrawal

Jackie withdrew $1,000 from the bank just days before the murder. Authorities suspected it was no coincidence. Then, in May of 2018, they talked to the man who had officiated Nick and Jackie's wedding, that high school friend, Spencer Patterson. Trying to get a hold of Spencer was kind of difficult. At first, investigators believed Patterson might be a suspect. But when they finally reached him, he proved to be a critical witness instead.

He told them just before the murder, Nick had talked about coming into $8 million with Ted and Corey gone. Nick had put a dollar sign on the lives of his parents. Yes. That's chilling. It is. Patterson showed them text messages that were even more chilling.

There was also communication between Spencer and Nicholas, where Nicholas was trying to hire him to kill a family. "Just walk in and shoot a family," writes Nick. "Steal all their s---. No mask needed. 'Cause they'll all be dead." Spencer didn't want to go long with it, but Nick still pitched the idea.

Police cleared Patterson and on May 29th, 2018, they arrested Nick Shaughnessy and Jackie Edison for criminal solicitation. Corey couldn't believe it. I'm still under the assumption that he's being wrongly accused. For months, Corey had stood by Nick, but she told us when she read the arrest affidavits and saw the evidence, her rock solid belief in his innocence began to crumble.

I got to where I understood that, yes, they were involved in some way. But as a mother, she says she still couldn't convince herself they deliberately tried to kill anyone. I was then hoping that they had maybe gotten caught up in something in College Station where maybe Nicholas owed someone money or maybe there was some sort of a strange drug thing or maybe he told the wrong person that we were jewelers. Confident Nick and Jackie were behind the attack,

Police hope some time in jail might make them come clean about who had actually pulled the trigger. For the moment, though, neither one was talking. The next step was, who were the actual shooters? And how do we figure this out?

The evidence trail had essentially run cold. So we kind of hit a stall point. When in early July, four months after the murder, Detective Moore decided to review some security video from Nick and Jackie's porch, recorded just two days before the attack. I see two individuals show up to his front door. Moore says he noticed something about one of the men that made him freeze the video.

something he was wearing. A green Anderson T-shirt. Window company. A window company. This feels like a break, and it only happens because you isolated a frame of the video from the security camera? Yeah. He and Salo drove to the window company where their hard work ran into more good luck. By sheer coincidence, an employee's daughter said she'd actually met the man in the freeze frame.

Apparently, he'd only worked there for a few days, four years earlier. And this woman still remembered his name. Sergeant, what are the odds of a hit like this on the identity? It was crazy that we got that break. His name was Cameron Vosbeck, and he wasn't home that day. But his wife answered the door and quickly got their attention. I know why you're here.

that kid who hired somebody to kill his jewelry store parents. Hang on. She doesn't know who you guys are. You identify yourselves as detectives, and she says, "I know why you're here?" Yes. She said a few months earlier, a man named Johnny Leon had asked her husband to commit murder for money, but he turned him down. Police ruled out Vosmec as a suspect.

But Leon turned out to be the other person in the security video from Nick and Jackie's porch. When they brought him in for questioning, he told them he was no murderer, but he admitted Nick had tried to hire him. Police were convinced that Leon had taken the bait.

Leone was arrested for a capital murder, and on his phone, police found evidence he may not have acted alone. There was a flurry of contacts around the time of the killing with a Fort Worth man named Arian Smith.

They also discovered both men had arrest records. In fact, the two had been arrested together for drugs a year earlier. Detective Moore and I interviewed him. He did admit that he had met Nick. He gave us a lot of good information

Smith opened up about the details of that night and broke down in the process. Prosecutors were closer than ever to having everything they needed to make their case. We've got enough. Now let's go to trial.

Something Nick Shaughnessy told us he'd wanted to avoid. Did you pay these two men to go kill your parents?

Power up your family's playtime with the Nintendo Switch System, the home of Mario and friends. Jump into the unexpected with Mario, Princess Peach, and more in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Or challenge each other to a race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Go to Nintendo.com and browse the full lineup of Nintendo Switch Systems. Additional accessories may be required for multiplayer mode.

games, system, and some accessories sold separately. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs.

Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution.

I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. After police arrested the last of their four suspects, Arian Smith,

Detective Salo says Smith told them he wasn't just there for Ted's murder. Yes, I was there. He acknowledged firing the fatal shot and then made a stunning request. I request the death penalty. The death penalty. I killed somebody. I didn't hurt the guy. What is that? He also told police where to find the murder weapon. It was the .40 caliber pistol missing from that box they'd found in Nick's old bedroom.

The .40 caliber gun that killed Ted was Ted's. Yes. For a mother who'd struggled for months to keep faith in her son, it felt like the last straw. Too much had happened that pointed to Nicholas and Jackie having involvement. And Corey was horrified to realize she'd spent months sheltering the very people who'd planned to have Ted and her murdered that night.

What a chilling thought. Two people who tried to have you killed, and they're living in your home. Very. It's very chilling. I bought all the groceries. I paid all the bills. I bought her clothing. This is diabolical. Absolutely. They thought they had gotten away with it. Do you prefer Jackie or Jacqueline? Jackie. But after their arrest, it took just a couple of weeks for Jackie to blame Nick. Did Nicholas hire somebody to kill his parents? Yeah.

And Jackie seemed to know why he'd done it. She says Nick was in desperate financial straits with a failing day trading business and thousands in overdue loans, including at least one from Corey. I think his mom gave him $30,000 and she expected money in return, but he wasn't paying her. After her cooperation, authorities released Jackie on a reduced bond.

And prosecutor Amy Meredith resolved to go after Nick for the maximum. We're going to try Nicholas Shaughnessy for capital murder. At this point, were you prepared to testify against Nick? Yes. Nick Shaughnessy and the two alleged hitmen were charged with capital murder. But by the spring of 2021, Amy Meredith had left her job as assistant district attorney.

And there was a new DA, Jose Garza, whose office made the men an offer. Avoid a possible death sentence by pleading guilty to a reduced charge of murder and serve 35 years with the possibility of parole. Leone and Smith agreed, and Corey wrote to Nick to suggest he do the same. If I could speak to Ted, I think that would have been his choice.

Nick Shaughnessy accepted the deal. He could be released when he's 36. In the summer of 2023, we visited him in prison near Houston. Did you hire people to go kill your parents? Yes, Jackie and I participated in multiple aspects to kill my parents. Never mind participated in multiple aspects. Did you pay these two men to go kill your parents? Yes. Nick told us he's sorry for all of it.

I know that I'm here because of those actions. Nick, at the end of the day, are you sorry for what you did or are you sorry that you got caught? I'm most truly, passionately sorry for what I did. And Nick told us he never would have done it if not for Jackie. It was a very toxic relationship.

Although he stood to inherit his parents' money eventually, he told us he wasn't prepared to wait. Were you at all thinking, what am I doing? Of course. It was always in the back of my head, like red flags, like stop, don't go. The back of your head? Yeah. Why not the front of your head? I guess the validation or approval from Jackie, right?

It is hard to know how much Jackie Edison should be blamed or what punishment she deserves. And jurors won't get to decide. She too got a deal from the office of the new DA for pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit capital murder by terror threat or other felony. A jail sentence of 120 days and 10 years probation.

It's astounding. It's absolutely astounding. She began serving her time in June of 2023. It is an outright dismissal of everything that I went through as a victim, and it's a dismissal of Ted's life. Three are doing 35 years. One is doing 120 days. Corey says that's outrageous. What are your thoughts? I had no involvement once I left the district attorney's office on Jackie's case.

Amy Meredith was working elsewhere before prosecutors offered the plea deals. Corey's feelings aren't lost on her. Do you understand her rage? I absolutely understand that she is upset. Corey is so upset that when the new prosecutors asked her to appear at Jackie's 2023 plea hearing, she refused, instead recording this video at home to be played in court.

I'm alive because your plan to have me murdered didn't succeed. You are a monster. You are evil and everyone needs to know it. You knew what was about to happen and yet you sat home and did nothing because you wanted it to happen. We wanted to ask Jackie Edison about that and other things, but she declined our request for an interview.

On the day she was released from jail, our producer, Jenna Jackson, approached her. Hey, Jacqueline. What do you make of Nick Shaughnessy's apology? See more evidence from the case at 48hours.com.

Now more than ever, people are relying on their community pharmacy. Fortunately, CVS Pharmacy team members are passionate about their local communities. In fact, 87% of pharmacists wish their customers would ask more questions about their health needs. Does your CVS pharmacist go above and beyond for you? We'd love to hear your story. Share it at cvs.com slash stories. That's cvs.com slash stories. CVS, making healthier happen together.

Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudine Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts. ♪

Corey and Nick Shaughnessy haven't spoken directly since his 2018 arrest. When you look in the mirror, do you see evil? My mom stated that me being evil, I don't see evil in me. And these days, it's safe to say they don't see eye to eye. In fact, there may be only one thing they do agree on. Jackie is not a victim.

On October 17th, 2023, Jackie Edison walked out of an Austin area jail after serving her four-month sentence.

Hey, Jacqueline. We'd been asking for an interview for months. I don't want to do any interviews. But our producer, Jenna Jackson, had some questions for her anyway. Nick got 35 years, the hitman got the same, you got 120 days. Are you getting away with murder? No. I think that it's fair. I think it accurately reflects the level of involvement.

Corey and Nick have both told us that you were a partner in this murder plot. Yeah, I think Nick is saying whatever he has to say to kind of clear his name. And Corey is very much in denial about what really happened. You weren't in on this plot and didn't get money out to pay the hitman. No, no, ma'am.

But investigators say there is no evidence Jackie ever tried to stop the murder.

She's no princess in this. And according to what Nick told authorities, Jackie had been making plans for spending the Shaughnessy's money. I found out that Jackie had already picked out the car she was going to buy her mother with the money that they made. Off of the murder of you and Ted? Yes. I'm not defending her by any degree. Though she did eventually help them make their case against the person they identified as the key culprit. They're both to blame.

Who took more action? It's Nick. You take Nick out of this, you don't have the incident. You take Jackie out, it still happens. Do you understand Corey's frustration? I do. Absolutely. We empathize with her. But more in Salo say Jackie's plea deal wasn't their call. Our job ended at the arrest, and there's not a single step further that we can take it.

We wanted to ask DA Jose Garza exactly why Jackie Edison got 120 days after the other three got 35 years. But he wouldn't agree to an interview. A district attorney's spokesperson sent us a statement saying, quote, Our office takes acts of violence seriously and is committed to holding people who commit violent crimes accountable. The statement also said Edison is on 10 years probation.

And if she violates the terms, she could face 20 years in prison. Corey Shaughnessy says a full explanation from authorities would have helped her make sense of something that has always struck her as impossibly wrong. So no one's ever explained to you why this enormous disparity in sentence? No, absolutely not. It's a slap in the face to my mother. Now you're concerned about your mother? Most definitely.

True or not, Nick Shaughnessy told us he hopes someday Corey will agree to speak with him. What would you say to her? I wish I could tell my mom how truly sorry I am that this is not something I'm proud of and I failed her as a son. It means nothing to me. Do you think he believes it, what he's saying? I don't know that person. I have no idea who Nicholas Shaughnessy is.

And Corey says there is no point responding to an apology she was never meant to hear. In my mind, I am supposed to be dead. And so I'm a ghost, and ghosts can't speak. But even after a betrayal no mother should ever have to see, Corey still can't bring herself to condemn her son altogether. Do you still love your son?

I love the person I knew to be my son before this happened. You love that eight-year-old boy racing cars with his dad? Yes. She knows that boy is gone forever, and so is the life she and Ted tried to build around him. Nicholas and Jackie destroyed my entire world. They took my husband. They took memories. They took my business. They took everything I had that I cared about.

But now, living out of state under a different name, Cori is determined to make the most of every day. It'll always be there. It'll always be a part of who I am. But I've been given life and I need to do something with it.

Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts, but less than two minutes after liftoff.

You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't.

I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness.

and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. ♪

They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near LA in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer.

who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder.

Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.