Episode 514: Bernie Tiede and the murder of Marjorie Nugent
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More big. I like wonder girl tiktok. I love all the ones that's like me when I haven't eaten in like four hours and i'm pitching out, my husband and I walk IT after a snack.

And like who I know, this funny related tiktok is fun. I fucking love tiktok fun. Sometimes I want to make tiktok and then I tried to the only tiktok I can do are um .

though like little generator thing yes yeah same way I don't know what else to do.

I don't need there and it's hard because you have to .

use that like cap cut thing yeah it's I I got to say fluency yeah content creators on tiktok killing IT, like I was said when we talked a Tyler about this Tyler ghost, tony, the most wonderful, magical, mythical wim sal human ever, is clear.

weird.

I told him how I was like, I don't know how. How do you live? Like, how do you live having making one tiktok IT just destroys me for, like, three months.

like, it's so much work, whatever. I feel like this really happens to you too. Whenever I make a tika tiktok, people are like, oh my god, oh yeah, posted you you like woll do another one in three months. Yeah.

figure that out something. We have lots of ideas and always say .

we should do talk and but will do IT eventually. I know we should do that when that would be funny. I don't even think it's like a .

trend anymore. So I like, I never, I was GTA say like I I never.

I am never trending.

I am never trendy, I am never on trend and never any of that fun stuff. So I love a good. Let's bring you back.

Let's .

break back all high. I wish you guys kind of seen the face and movement little worked guys with me and just I said, i'm someone after all, my favorite is when they go that's .

on the most place at the wedding.

Let go. I like that. Goodbye must plays on the wedding was correct, correct. Well, here we are, A O, E.

What do you think? Like goose, you fee good for you feel, I thought you say good for you. Fee for good for you. Feel good for you. fee.

That's alright.

I got to check a lot of my mike.

I think things we're funny. He's working on our head shots. We did head shots today.

Yeah, cool. All right. So that's our life. Peers is going to .

love you, love you.

love you mean IT like, genuinely are I have a real bummer of a case for you today wamp wamp, I know it's this is a baffling one to me. Just the reaction of people to murder, like the reaction people had to the brutal murder of elderly woman is wild. Oh boy, yeah, we're going to be talking about burnt and the murder of a margin.

Nugent, I know this one. Yeah I know I don't know the details, but I know of that's exactly where I was before. I know kind of dived in.

But then I go in and I was like, I got to get out here because going. So let's just go right into IT. Berny has a hard name to say, because his real name is burn heart.

Burn heart. I always want to pronounced the deal like burn hard, hard to do. Like litter. Boxed letter boxed a about burning was born on August second, one hundred and fifty eight, and Tyler, texas, to burn heart teed senior. And I believe it's loma gesture.

or what an adorable name, lame laa .

may is really cool. I love a first and last name combo that's like, that goes together, like that mean, I like now burn heart was a music professor, which is really cool. In laa was homemaker t yeah.

And for the earliest years of berne s life, the family lived in a public. Its killed gore, where his father worked as an instructor in the fine arts department at coglan junior college. But unfortunately, in one thousand nine hundred sixty, when bernie was just two years old, his mother was actually killed in a car accident.

O jess, yeah, really tragic start. now. His father weighted three more years before we, marking in one thousand nine hundred sixty three to a woman named clara Willy.

And after the movie, what to say movie, after the wedding, the family moved. That's why to live in. I believe its abolition.

Texas right above sounds good to me. I only say that once. So if if you're in never so was starting at an early age. Bernie took on at the role of caretaker in the family, like, especially after his mom passed away, and then when his father died in one thousand nine seventy three, after battling a long illness, burning immediately, volunteer to get a part time job to help support his sister and his stepmother. His sister said in one thousand nine hundred ninety interview with texas monthly magazine, I really think that because of the lonely ess he went through in his childhood, burning made IT is calling to serve people .

in times of their own need.

So it's really interesting the the path that you take them out this case because you it's i'm like where did you wear off course?

Yeah that I think that's again, I don't know the details of this, but I remember that this case was that was like very confusing because it's .

like what happened yeah it's like he just snapped. Yeah, really now, but before that happened, that desire to take care of other people LED burning to a part time job at a local funeral home where we're at just fifteen years old, he spent his afternoons doing yard work. And then down the line, he eventually started helping with the funerals.

Okay, now, in one thousand nine hundred seventy three, east texas, where gender roles and head ero Normal activity more kind of expected, berne y was something of an anomaly. He was a presence that unintentionally, but directly defied those social expectations. But on the other hand, he was so charming and nice that everybody couldn't help but like him. So there were things about his personality that, you know, where he lived, people wouldn't usually be cool with. But just because of who he was, they were cool with that.

Isn't that funny that it's like, huh yeah so you didn't like these things completely, just innocuous things that you decided aren't right or socially okay, but because he's such a nice person, couldn't help just ignore them and it's like, it's almost like you should .

look at who people are. imagine. No, no, let's not do that.

No, let's base IT off for something totally ridiculous or yeah 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, quote, if feminine personality. But overall, he was really popular with his classmates. There were, of course, the group of vessels that bullied him.

But for the most part, he had a loving squad. That's good. Yeah, i'm glad he had that when he was.

when he was like a decent person. exactly. See, is so confusing.

It's just a tough case. Yeah, but his sister said he was popular at high school. And for kicks, he's sneak the horse on fridays out of the funeral home and drove a bunch of us around dalling, sorry.

I said IT again, that sounds fun. Yeah, I went, thought that was great.

You would have been one like, got you like, okay, okay. But bernis 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 that.

yeah. And after graduating from high school, he enrolled at mcnee state university. And like Charles luzano, where he eventually got an associate degree in mortuary science, which very call that is pretty grounded me of you.

No.

thank you. You welcome mortuary science. Surprise me.

I don't have that degree, but thank you. Oh, you don't know ah I thought you did. No, that's a little different that you don't like mortuary stuff as a whole different very involved degree.

Um shout out to my morticians out there. Hey hi. Yeah, let's go.

But after graduating, bernie found work at a local funeral power where he spent years in years learning the trade, and then he moved to cartage, texas, and there he ve found work at half gn funeral home, and he was able to get an apartment just behind the funeral home.

So he lived close by the nice commute.

It's a great commute, and he was close with the function. The owner of the funeral home for a little while down lipsey t. Said he was probably the most qualified Young man i've ever seen.

He waited well on families. He would sink solos behind the screen during the funeral. And he was a dorne good in bomber. He had a talent of making the hair of the deceased look really natural.

Man, yeah, loaded statement. I was just going to say so much fun pack in that statement is just like he was a dam good in bammer which is like, you know what necessary yeah the whole point is to look great absolutely. You know, I like to look nicer, serene and peaceful and you know and look like what your family members remember you yeah like, you know.

it's a skill that someone asked to have. Hi yeah. And he was also a good singer and good at dealing with the families. And yeah, good.

I always thought about that when we did autopsies. I was like, the embalmers showed out to them. Yeah, because a lot of times I was like, oh like, you know, your work come out for you here.

I would imagine that would be difficult, especially, you know, depending on how you leave this world.

exactly. So so again, showed out to .

more to hello. 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 polar carta said he was very quick to shake your hand and ask how you were doing. And if he told him you weren't doing too well, he would drop everything to talk to you and see what he could do. And when he wasn't still in curtains for his elderly neighbours or helping them with their taxes, he was showering them with gifts and momentous.

S, O, yeah, according to the funeral, or they're done, lipski's said. The U. P. S. Truck started arriving in cartage every day with something that bernie had ordered from a catalogue but like for .

other people wow yeah and you're like, what the fuck is going on? berny?

It's so strange we .

got was not gonna happen.

i'll let you know but whether IT was at the funeral home in church are literally just on the street. Bernie seem to add something to the community that everybody recognized as valuable. But at the same time, his gentle disposition, his love of broadway show tunes and his noticeably single relationship status s did make him the subject of some small town gossip, which is stupid because you're like, here's this awesome person and were all just going to quietly talk shit about him because he single and IT like like shootings.

I know like people get a life. People need to mind. There are fucked in business, to be honest. Just let them like show to again. I I don't know exactly what happens after this. I'm sure i'll change my tune later and that but like right now, i'm like if someone's be in chill, just like what they like and you know you like show tunes.

You like show tunes, show tunes. I don't like show tunes, but I hope if you like show tunes, you have the best time singing them.

Like our lives too short. Everybody just live up boring about what other people I like him.

It's my favorite ite fucking and way of my favorite model, my favourite of life. Live and let live exactly if if not hurting some, of course course, if you're be a dick, don't don't let trouble but down. Look, he said he wasn't bad looking, and there were numerous girls in the community who wove, 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 initiate that. Bernie was a little light in the loafers, which are in the loafers, a very rude, insulting way to say that somebody is gay.

Wow, I.

i've never heard that, nor had I. I had to look at friendly. I was like, light in the loafers. And then I forgot that google existed. So I was sitting ten minutes like a light.

The r it's twenty, twenty three. I can google google. And although you're like I don't really this is not a fun thing to have on my google search history.

Yeah, let's go. I didn't like my cookies to be a part of that. finally. Know those arent, but none of us do. Nobody know this, what cookies are, even if you say that you .

know what cookies are now and you have to accept them .

everywhere you go. Now do.

But sometimes I say no, me too.

Sometimes I, sometimes I get strong and I say, no, yeah, me too. But other times I say.

expect all except all yeah. I honestly just depend on feeling that it's true.

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Yeah so basically people at this point, people really like berney, but there he is the subject of small town gossip of people and using that he's gay because he doesn't have a partner. He like show .

team and it's time and I don't .

really you know whatever so either way, whatever whatever either way, whoever he was. Ernie did seem to have away with older women, at least as far as things at the funeral home were concerned. According to skip holz worth quotes, some of the older women in town loved him so much that they told their children bernie had to sing up their funeral when they passed on. I don't like they were like, listen, i'm putting in in my will. It's him.

He literally like kirk for gilmore girls like befriending, although ladies, he get in getting their rings up.

Yeah now now but IT was that strong empathy and compassion that drew a newly widow, margey nugent, to burning in their meeting certain motion. Unfortunately, a chain of events that would forever ver change the lives of many people encourage success.

IT was also like IT was also cheerful.

In june.

A lot of IT was cheerful in june, and I don't now now we're going out. It's like going up the the hill of the role coastal you're able to take that dive.

See, that's actually my favor party. No, no was entirely so that's where I am right now. I there's no, not that metaphorical coaster. I don't like IT there, but I like the legit rocos ter.

I love that part a little bit about us.

Here we are. So let's talk about margry. Let's talk about her margery. Her made me was mid yet and he had been born in a small town just outside of cartage in one thousand and fifteen.

And SHE met her future husband, rod nugent, while they were both attending louie, an attack. After graduation, they got married. Rod took a job with magnolia oil, and his job required them to move around, like all over the place they spent time in, losing a new mexico, texas unamid.

But their longest day was in midland, texas. They spent over twelve years there and mostly raise ed, their son, rod junior, there. Or then in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine, they moved to cartage.

And at that point, rodd senior was seriously considering retirement and just wanted to settle down close to margery's hometown. Margey might not have been born in cartage, but IT was clear that the nugents were the antithesis of other recent transplants like bernie, who quickly and easily integrated themselves into the community. Okay, that wasn't quite the case for the nugents. After buying in controlling interest in the first national bank of cartage, the couple, quote, built a sparling six thousand square foot t stone home at the edge of town, surrounded by a stone wall in electronic gates.

They am, goal is shit. I want electronic gates.

electronic gates. I'm going to put that on my vision board so the high stone walls in the electronic gates surrounding the nugent house um certainly didn't endure them to the local and IT was said that neither did margy's attitude. I will warn you ahead of time that a lot of people didn't have nice things to say about her, which is really shady reporting on the case because I would have loved to find something that I know could report .

on that doesn't sound like bias or anything or like something that yeah just.

you know, like talking crap somebody and maybe there's something in here, but a lot of people were kind of asked me to her. But I would like to say that I bet there was A A few things about margy's personal.

First is always, that's the thing and that's why sucks when you only hear the bad stuff because it's like you don't want to only hear the good stuff and you don't want to only hear the bad stuff, like everyone's a rounded out person. That's the thing.

That's something. And I think this was also a later in her life SHE. So eventually will find out that she's going to lose her husband, so she's not like the best time of her life. If I was older, lost my husband, I don't think i'd be the most friendly human on the plan of either.

I'd be fucked and miserable. I, I can give, like i'd be A A horrible person to be around. So same, you know what margery I feel you girl.

I do too. So be your .

personal life .

ability. Rod thought so, so yeah, let's go. So go. So that aside, you know, the house didn't really endure them to people because I was IT was intimate. Yeah, intimate. Exactly of the perfect word for, and a kind of said, like, we are not really wanted thing to do with the u. Look out for these electronics cades are all about like me mussel .

me know that's just i'm like, i'm like game sea .

game i'm like, yeah those I would actually have a sign on and that had leave me alone like.

good I see that and be like how ya fellow .

people hater like you just to their security .

camera do like a rock how there we will never .

speak very the game i'm totally .

kind of everybody there I mean.

you know, the thing was margry didn't leave the house very often to go into town. And whenever he did, people said he had a way of rubbing people the wrong way. One resident said, if he had, if he had held her nose any higher, SHE would have drowned in a rainstorm. So okay, god, for a bit, anybody be confident and you're like, well, that was a funny way of saying that was a read pretty me exactly. And also you get to that point in life you should be able to hold your head high, I mean, I hope, but that might know so high that i'll drawn and I don't .

have any problem with people's confidence. I don't walk around fein, how you want to. You shouldn't.

The problem comes when you look down on people? Yes, that's where the problem comes. You wants to hold your head up pie.

Hold that head up pie. Yeah, hold that had a pie. I hope everybody feels that way some time in their life, exact look down on people while .

doing exactly. And what people didn't know was that one of her relatives confirmed that he struggled with a kind of quoting quite low level depression. So SHE was struggling internally, and nobody took the time to to realize about .

her you know empathy .

with that at all.

That's the other thing I know throwing a lot like life lessons and here but i'm feeling IT this you know because it's just it's weird but it's like that's the other thing you don't know what somebody y's going through yeah on their private life for their prior their inside you know mean like that way don't don't just .

read people right away the time of day yeah that's the thing but those those low levels that he would hit, they were said to make her unpressed and irritable OK. And this relative said I 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. But I also think it's important to point out that this was a bit of a different time where people didn't really have the understanding of that they are now. So I do wonder how this happened more recently if marbury would have had the same reputation because .

he sounds like he .

was just struggle in a bit exactly, you know. But in retrospect, CT, most people were able to realize that margry wasn't exactly as as unpleasant as he was guarded in, uninterested in going out of her way to make friends. But if berny teeth warm, welcome into cartage tells us anything.

It's that in small town texas, friendless ss and good natured warmth can go a long way when IT comes to integrating yourself into a community. And conversely, being a little closed off and guarded can have the opposite effect. And that caused margery to become something of an outcast in her hometown.

Okay, which sucks. Yeah, that really sucks. He does. So her office became starkly apparent when her husband died, unexpected dly from heart failure in the nineties. In one thousand nine hundred ninety, only a handful of people came to the funeral to offer her their condolences. Which like that shit .

that's really shitty, not shitty, I don't know, but I don't know about these people only there I feel like even like because you're talking about the people who are like study the bernie because even though he is a good person, there's just mad that he like show tunes and then these same people she's going it's like I don't know yeah seems like the calls coming from inside the .

house town sure does but you know who did go and off their support was berny. He was not only a comfort in his capacity as assistant funeral director, but also as a friend, according to one resident, Larry bromley, I believe, got the nugents, including mister nugent. New burn's parents and their association goes back many years.

They knew him as a child. Over the years, they've maintained their connection and had an interest in him and helped him. So both of them get, yeah.

Now, while the majority of carthage residents did their neighborly duty of politely passing on condolences after the funeral, on the rare occasions what they did see margry in town, bernie was really the one among the residence who took a genuine interest in margery distract attorney danny buck Davidson would later say, I don't know if miss newgate had a single friend in the town, other him, which is harper really sad and, according to skip poll's worth bernie quote, would later tell others that he could see the loneliness. Loneliness echo miss newgate s. Stern face as he stood by the casket oh my gosh.

is .

internally going through a lot. And it's sad because he he is good to her for a while, like for a little bit and like, seize this. But it's weird because like, he is good to her for a little bit. But then IT really quickly wears off course. Yeah, this is to such .

a strange one IT. There's no warning signs that feels like like i'm not seeing anything here that's like, oh, okay, eventually.

Do we get .

some eventually.

in my opinion. Shore, okay. I think .

like so far like this just seems like whatever just too sad, you know, souls that I misunderstood exactly .

that's exactly when is, but doesn't think so. He saw her, you know, as woman, in a kind of activated his caretaker personality and drew them to each other OK. So in the months following rod's death, berny started carving out larger and larger chunks of his time to check in on the newly windows.

margery. okay. And by then he was living alone in that spelling mansion that they had built just a couple years earlier. Wow, i'm berny would visit the house for lunch.

He would take margery to see police and musical performances at the nearby college, and he would leave notes of endearment or on the house for her defined after he added. In margry start, the stockbroker laud tiller said, bernie made her smile. He gave her plenty of attention, and he was an excEllent conversationist.

IT was like, he made her feel Young again. So is like, seems lovely. I kind of like revitalized her spirit a little bit yeah.

And before long, bernie and margery seemed inseparable. However, despite what the local gossip said, their relationship was purely plutonic and never remotely romantic. But margry quickly group possessive of berney. They fought and started repaying his acts of kindness with her own demonstrations of affection, typically in the form of expensive gifts, like a twelve thousand dollar role like that. He bought him dam a really, really, really, really down much.

So for a woman with the reputation of being cheap in her marginally margin, bernie's relationship baffled a lot of the town's residents, who just clearly have a lot of time to gossip. Yeah in berny friend Larry romney told the reporters SHE depended on him a lot. SHE would clink to him. And people looking on could see that margin was becoming very possessive ve of burning. And even though I just said that their relationship was never anything but plutonic that didn't stop some other residents from speculating in spreading rumours that margry an verney were not just friends, most of the rumours actually seemed to come from the other windows in town because they were jealous that bernie had been spending last time with them as he in margry group closer yeah we just understand yeah that is but eventually innocent act like burning napping at margery house or the two sharing cabin on a crews were being interpreted as evidence of a romantic relationship or something unsafe, of course. So you can see where yeah people got their ideas from.

Yeah, people, people love some gossip.

and they sure do. But one of margery's relatives set of the relationship, quote, I think margie truly enjoyed the companionship of berne, and I think bernie truly enjoyed margie's money.

So there you go back and right there.

there you go. 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, margery's family.

I could see that for sure. Red flag, red flag, red flag.

That's a red flag. Yeah and margery's family's feelings about berny may not have been entirely misplaced. In the early nineties, bernie was earning an annual salary of eighteen thousand dollars year as an instant funeral director that was barely enough to cover even the essentials, much less the excesses of spending on gifts for friends and neighbors that he quite frequently engaged.

Bernie sister told writer skip holds worth, bernie was a biao lic. He not only wanted to experience the finer things in life, he loved buying as much as he could for others. He dorter the same items over and over, like three of the same chairs or boxes of cross pens, just so he could give them away.

wow. Now the overspending constantly put him behind on its bills. And to make matters worse, he owed the IOS around four thousand dollars in back taxes.

And under the circumstances, burn's acceptance of the lab bish gifts and large of money from margry makes sense, but that doesn't mean that his friends and family necessarily approved of the arrangement between the two of them yeah at the end of one hundred and ninety three, bernie told his boss dawn that margery had actually offered to hire him as her business manager. N quote. Escorted her on trips around the world for a much higher salary than he was making at the time.

Now, the owner of the funeral home down lipsey was stunned by the news, and he warned burning. He was little concerned. He said, you know what kind of woman with nugent is? Whatever you think you're going to get out of her, you're going to have to earn every penny of IT and dan'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? You know, I don't I don't know if I was the coffee making you wanted for himself. No, I think I was like i'm going to traveled the world and get paid yeah with the fuck really would say note .

of that exactly.

That's the thing. Now this wasn't the first time somebody had warned berny about the rumors going around town about his relationship of margin. In fact, about a year earlier, don lipsey had expressed to berney that he was concerned the relationship could affect his business at the funeral home.

No, he said what they did, a lot of things together. People probably assumed IT was romantic. I told him, bernie, you can't be funeral director here and do that. This is a small town. So everybody was also falling victim of like the small town of IT.

all that's the thing yeah very much the small town of IT.

But about a month after that conversation, margry ended up offering burning that job as a business manager and he did. And that quitting his job at hathorn free neural home to become margery full time companion, ob and quote, quote, business manager was, his degree is in a multi science. Does he have a business degree?

I don't know. No, I don't know about that. No, but I don't know.

As margery y's new business manager, bernie had access to a lifestyle that had always been very far out of his reach, but very much desired. So with money borrowed murger's, he bought a small house about a mile from her state, and he would threw lavish parties to show off this upgrade of his own social status. His sister said. Bernie found himself living a dream for the first time in his life. He got to be somebody .

all right here. So everybody's getting something of this, I suppose.

for a little bit, and right fully. So in the beginning I was gna say.

right now it's my god for everybody performing .

a service you are being paid for. That's wonderful. I'm not here to say everything, but he gets not okay widely, because he wasted no time actually meeting to his new role in access to wealth, which several people in the nugents that earn inner circle sound suspicious, which personally, I know if some random man started showing up and hanging up with my grandmother, yeah, I would be a little sense about that.

That's where the that's where he becomes the issue.

I remember he has like a child.

He has a side would start, I would have my shoes of bb, ah, I believe, what's the deal?

What's the end game? And if somebody that was not a family member had access to my grandmother's bank account, like bernie had access to margery bank account and also had checked privileges, yeah, I would not feel good.

I would not be happy about that. No.

but he did all those privileges. And when margry stock broker questioned whether, you know, he could be trusted to have access to so much money, I guess margry exploded and told teller the stockbroker SHE could absolutely trust burney and that if he had a problem with that, he would move her stocks elsewhere. Wow, so SHE was like how diary in anyway that I can't trust him down, which makes you even sad when you find out that he went to SHE stood up for him like that yeah.

I was just onna say, because like jesus, like he really must have brain washed her yeah.

So similarly, when margery changed her will in late one thousand nine hundred and ninety three to make burney the sole beneficiary of her entire estate, family members had questions. Now, when one of her family members asked her why SHE would cut her only child out of her will, margery said, quote, SHE didn't wana leave a sent to her son or her immediate family because they didn't appreciate her. Wo I appreciate was quote and quote. But can you image then your mom cutting you out of her? Well, because he says you don't appreciate .

for sure that would be a devastating blow. That would be not well, but not for the leg material reason but just for like the dam like that yeah that sending a message.

someone taking you out of their will like not the monetary part .

of IT the mess message I like that that because that is your last like that is you shuffling off this mortal coil and saying fuck you to the person you took out your .

well birds in the later that's upsetting beholds my field of fuck IT is barred forever and then to leave IT like another Young man who's probably similar age to you that you may have known because again, the nugents new bernie.

when he was a child. That would .

fuck me yeah yeah. In addition to burney's considerable salary, he also accompanies margery on trips around the world to places like egypt, to sha. They took various cruise all over the place together.

And soon enough, IT seemed that the access to merger's fortune was too much of a temptation for burney. No, no. And this is where that goes.

We go completely. Of course. He started regularly withdrawing small, quote, quote, small to medium amounts of money from margery account and handing IT out around town .

to people who most needed IT.

Like he's like a weird, like Robin .

hood but like, yeah but .

like was stolen my with money .

that like, it's not like this lady has done anything terrible and like.

no.

like it's not like you like you know like kills kids or something yeah, they really give IT away. He does not deserve IT. But it's like, yeah like no do that but it's like you I don't know if in his mind he's thinking or convincing himself that he's like Robin hood, I think and it's like that works most definitely.

I think so. Oh, I think he thought he was some in this is just my opinion. It's just my he thought he was doing good here.

I think there's a missing pieces here, burne. And i'm sure and again, this is just my opie. I'm sure that was one of enius SHE is Richard fox. She's just he's not finding IT so I might as well give IT to people who need you yeah but it's like that's almost like for a lack of a Better term .

like playing god just like that's not yours.

That's not your role to diva.

Yeah exactly.

But he sure did. With money stolen from margery account, bernie quote, bought at least ten cars for people who couldn't afford one a whole shit a whole for a struggling Young couple scholarships to students at poole college. And he pledged a hundred thousand dollars to the new building campaign at first united .

method church dam. I'm just like, so I like your. You have like this one part of that is is good cause my is there yeah the idea yeah it's the methodology correct that I have a problem with but like you're like.

yeah it's awesome that people so nice .

like that feels great but like invest .

your own money and watch IT grow and to be that her or say.

yeah people like you know like this is just like a really great thing that you would be able to do in since I can see you know was happening in your financial life here. Yeah, if you felt so inclined, IT might be nice to help some people out, you know, get some of those good, good feeling going and like, just start talking to you or about and be like, I could help you like we could do this small and like if you wanted to do this, you can you can take a with you when you leave. So like you .

mind as well that if have .

this notion berny just talk to her about IT, that's least at the very least. And at that point just feel like OK you're not willing to do IT before you, you know, depart this earth, maybe put in your will that like you'd like to do some good with your money and stuff or .

just fucking waited out. My god, SHE left her entire fucking a state.

And you can do whatever you want with that. You can help everybody out like apparently you want that strange about this like that sounds like you want to help people.

but you he definitely .

in a good way. There's really no doubt about the fact that he wanted to help people, but it's just, I said so many other ways to .

go about this and .

this is just so so I don't .

know to feel i'm feeling stressed. You'll know how to feel when we get to the end of IT. That's good. This I like to know how was very brutally and very, very I mean, murder is always uncalled for. And this specific .

one is just like, wow.

So with bernie as her business manager, margry assumed that SHE didn't need to monitor her accounts. That's what SHE hired him to do yeah. And the thing was though, if he had been monitoring those account, SHE would have realized that in burning had kind of become the community's one man.

Social safety net. That sounds like a and .

developer using her money to help residents go to college, open small businesses, stay a float until their next paycheck.

You've fuck and name IT all the good things that you could do with money that is yours.

But while SHE did place absolute trust in bernie, the real reason for her ignorance of bernie, I guess you could say, well, intention to that was likely due to the onset of dementia, which was first noticed by bernie in one thousand nine hundred and ninety five. So that makes me even more fucked up in my eyes. IT absolutely does not.

Just a year after going to work for his friend, bernie started to flic, margry had become more controlling of everything around her and far less willing to tolerate any inconvenience or disappointment, which is a symptom of a certain kind of dementia. One hundred percent, like we've all seen the commercials, or you unfortunately have had to deal with the people that we love. People can change when they are going to that.

Now, in a conversation with his own sister, berney said margery had fired the gardeners quote because the flowers hadn't bloomed in time and became vigilant and almost paranoid about the armadillos that occasionally made their way into the yard. 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 mean, only one SHE has, which is interesting because you're actively stealing from an elderly woman, woman with dementia, but you also may be care about being the only friend that he has and it's like do you care about being new friends or do you care about the good feeling that you get when you donate her money to other sets?

The thing that feels like he's positioned himself as the only friend he has um which is a powerful thing in someone's life to have that much you know authority over everything with her and also you positioned yourself as her only confident which I mean like obviously that is she's been lonely a lot in her life that he feels like you're taking advantage yeah this feels like a vulnerable situation, vulnerable women and you positioned yourself as someone you can trust and that you'll be here for and then you go around being like I me only one SHE has it's like, oh oh my god that seems like you put yourself in that position that that takes away any of the you know that takes away any of like the good deed points you would have gotten at any point during this.

And it's a great you're doing good deeds like fantastic. But I do think there's something to be said about people that do good deeds because they genuinely wanted you make people you know feel good or get people out of a tough situation or people that do something good because .

of the feeling that IT gives them all. That is usually like a lot of people do these things silently yeah they don't tell anyone and they just do IT yeah because they wanted to do IT and that IT. And it's like it's always seems to be a thing where if you don't showed IT from the rooftops, you're not doing IT or you're you know somehow you know so it's like IT feels like he was doing IT to get some of the cats on the back doing IT, which i'm not saying you shouldn't get pats on the back for doing great things like by on me. I love being like helium, a people doing great things but like .

there's .

a baLance yeah IT feels this feels embarrass ced exactly IT feels like it's imbaLanced onto a more taking advantage side of thing than doing good for doing good in IT .

has now even though margry hatten been a very social person to begin with, as one thousand nine ninety seven, there were a few people who found IT odd that they hadn't seen from her or heard her, could be seen her or heard from her in month. But when people would ask about her, bernie would say he was away or SHE had been ill in bed ridden for weeks.

In december of one thousand nine hundred ninety six, he lavishly decorated her state for Christmas. But when anybody would ask where he was, he would say, sh'd gone to her family. Sh'd gone to ohio to visit family. It's like, okay, but yeah.

it's so by the spring of one thousand nine hundred ninety six.

margery's absence had become noticeable to more than just those close to her. But bernie continue to explain her absence away by, actually, SHE did suffered a stroke and he was in a nursing home outside of town recruiting ating her. And at that point, margery's cousin, ruth cocker.

I'd become deeply concerned that something had happened to margin, but SHE didn't really know what to do about IT, which I understand. I yeah, what what would you do at that point in? Can you call the police? Yeah nothing to really like be says about and i'm sorry, I forgot.

Do you how old did SHE SHE was like in her .

early eighties at this point? I think she's like elderly yeah and remember SHE has like, that's so so some margery I know and now finally, somebody is like way to second this is weird, but they're not nobody do this cousin of her, ruth said I was worried something had happened to her, but I didn't know who to talk to about IT burning was so beloved in cartage that if I suggested he had done anything wrong, I would have been laughed out of town. Which like that in that shows you have a love tears .

by these people.

which you also have to wonder, did you do all of these things maybe in the back of your mind somewhere, knowing that you were going to get rid of this woman and you could, because you were so loved and he was not necessarily by the people in town.

And and it's like when you start thinking about IT because now that I know that he's like a murder, yeah it's it's like takes all of this because it's almost like you look at like john win jacey really love that guy and it's like that's that's a tactic, absolutely. And when he comes down to brass tax at the end, everybody's going all know like, shut up. Anybody who brings IT up would be like, shut up, not burnley.

We love him. They get shot down and it's like that's a tactic and it's almost like a cold leader thing. It's like you take control of everybody's minds yeah then everybody will fight for you when the truth comes out.

That's why this case is is so interesting because you can look at IT through so many different lenses and and I I have like writing IT and then I am right now all over again. Yeah, you really can look at this like a hundred different ways because down the road, when we do find out what happened, you look at IT through another one and maybe he did just snap.

And it's interesting in tragic yeah but honestly, marti's cousin was not far off feeling that way to the residence of cartage. Bernie was a beloved man for more than a decade. He was so sweet to everybody that the idea of him harming anybody literally seemed impossible to people. And since taking his job with margery, he'd become like the town bed factor, which only increases, I was gonna say, that more power.

So puts simply.

even if something had happened to margery, IT would have never occur red to anybody that bernie had something to do with IT, which is interesting because again, he's literally like one of the only people he has yeah.

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But finally, in july one thousand nine hundred ninety seven in uni, dense fied person had become so concerned about margery's welfare that they did call the sheriff department to request a while being check. Now maybe it's a testiment to the local sentiment about both margery or berney or maybe the share of office was just really fucked in busy. But for some reason, that well being request when unnoticed for nearly a month.

i'm sorry, what a month .

somebody called that checking and they didn't get round to IT for nearly a month.

So you call the authorities say, hi, hey, hey. Haven't heard from my loved one.

elderly loved.

very worried about them. I'm so worried, in fact, that I would love you, the authorities, to go check on her, check on her well being total, absolutely cockle. And they hang up the phone and then they .

don't do .

IT for a month, nearly thirty days. That's incredible.

The last suit that .

I would lost, readability, shocking. Like i'm just .

and .

just like how you what how, how and then like after the thirty days, what you just like, oh, I guess we should go check on her .

like what that's the thing I don't know sounded by but like.

i'm literally shocked yeah.

when somebody from the shore department finally did reach out to bernie in August.

And this is a small town too yeah. So like this, like a big, bustling city, the same .

billions of welfare checks, the same person that took that well, this called, probably if I can drove past her home on the way.

it's like just stop in to the welcome when somebody finally .

did in August after getting that wellness chicken in fuck in july, receiving the request for IT, bernie was out of town at a concert in vagus, and he said marbury had actually recently checked into a hospital in temple under an assumed name and that he didn't want to be bothered. So are of deputies really? Okay, that's a little.

So maybe we should have check on this sooner. And they called the hospital and were informed that nobody matching margery's description had been admitted and nobody had been checked under an assumed name haha. So for the first time since bernie arrived in cartage, some residents of the small town did start to wonder, perhaps berny teed wasn't quite the Angel everybody had judged him to be.

Yeah, maybe he started .

looking about and now, unable to verify berny story about margry checking into the hospital, deputies ended up calling margery son rad in amarillo, who came to cartage with his daughter to help locate his mothers. So rodin, his daughter, went to the house and searched for any sign of margery, but came up completely empty handed. IT was like SHE just literally vanished in the thin hair. But rod's daughter dead mention that he thought I was strange that the large chest freeze in the kitchen pantry y had been taped .

shut which like .

why did you take the granddaughter noticing that and not .

the deputies um man.

so the comment provided share of deputies to take a look inside the freezer and when they did they discovered the body of margene nugen wrapped in a White sheet buried underneath a pile of frozen food oh my god. So so fuck, fuck.

So given the extent to which bernie had gone to put off questions about margery whereabout ts in the months leading up to the discovery, IT was pretty obvious to investigators that at the very least, he knew how he ended up in the freezing yeah. So share of deputy spread out across cartage and eventually found burning, getting ready to take the local little league baseball team and their families out to dinner. That's where they found him.

What's .

still doing?

Good day. Yeah, he just out there. No one. What's going on .

knowing that he placed an elderly woman in a freezer.

But he said there in front of everyone being like, are I great?

Let's do so. So nice. You fucking imagine if your child was on that little league team. And then later on you found out why the sheriff approached mister berny.

T, as you are about to go to dinner with him, with your whole last child, this is a out. Yeah, truly. He was then once he was located right into the share of office for questioning.

Now at first, he fained surprised that they would even want to speak to him at all. And he actually started crying when they told him about margery's body being discovered in the freezer and confronted the truth. Burney told the deputies sh'd been kidnapped months earlier, and he'd been negotiating with the kidnappers by phone ever since.

Sure that, but all county sherifs caped in David H. I believe its treated, said. He said he got one phone call from the kidnappers a month, and then he said that he got a recent call in inform term, quote, the time is near.

I care me. We're getting very theatrical now.

He loves the shooting. So unfortunately, not being very skilled in the ways of deceit, IT was very apparent to berney that the investigators were not buying his act. No, but for some reason he stuck to his story.

IT was only after jitter in his partner returned from searching burn's home and informed him they found, quote, a quote, unChristian, like video tapes in their search that he caved in, admitted to killing mercury nugent. So this is speculation, but to me, into probably everybody that sounds like what they found was movies that confirmed people's thoughts about bern's love. Yes, you you got to know which .

is like, why would that have anything?

They were they were intimidating him because they were like, oh, we found these days and it's gonna get out. Sorry.

was not putting that very obvious thing together.

I didn't that first either. Like they were saying like that we found these. And like, we're gone to let people know. So yes, so you wanted tell us something .

that so according to skip holz worth.

when investigators asked why he'd done IT, what burne looked at, the officers in bulgar men as of the enter were obvious at last. He said that miss newgate had become great, very hateful and very. And with that, he was charged with murder on August.

I mean, you can't murder people because about you just like leave. Yeah you could quit and just a not hang out with her anymore.

but then you would have access all her money and be the town zero o game that would really think them. So his borne was set at one point five million million dollars, while the district attorney reserved comments until they received a full autopsy report. Now the news, the news of margery's death came as a big surprise to the small community. But IT was nothing compared to the confusion most people felt when they learned who was .

responsible for her .

death of people must lost. They lost their ship. They didn't believe IT, even though he, quite literally like he was, like he admit, yeah, don lessee told reporters, were just shocked.

He was just a pillar of the community in another person, twin cross spokeswoman for penny college, where bernie had donated generously to the arch's programs. SHE echoed that does believe, saying a lot of her students are devastated over this is shocking. It's just the most absolute tragedy. And the sad of thing is, the tragedy I think they were talking about was more about finding out that bernie murdered someone, not that an elderly lady had been murdered. Yeah.

you know what? I mean, one hundred percent IT was focused on who did IT and not what happened killed.

Yeah, it's it's like, everyone's like, wow.

this is a tragedy and it's like, I know right like this poor woman lost her life and they like and I was berny and it's like, may we could just talk about the person who's dead in a freezer? I don't know yeah maybe .

would be great fucking covered in frozen food or god, you were this woman's friend to apparently, allegedly.

to spend all this time with her.

I'm sorry. You have to be. 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. Now, like something is wrong .

with something is very wrong, like I don't know about that. So within days of his arrest.

IT was becoming clear where people in cartage stood on the matter, while margin nugent was commonly described as possessive and a quote and quote wealthy recluse with a hard, tough side to her. Bernie was describe by friends and neighbors as the kindliest most gentleman, a very compassionate and caring person.

You and elderly woman.

I don't care if he was grump y or not.

Yeah, you can kill them. The old people, no, all old people be dead. You can do that.

And it's, and they weren't the right to be gmp. Yeah, they lived a fucking life, bro. Yeah when i'm i'm going to be rumpy as fast. I'm already grump y and i'm thirty seven. It's like I am going to be intolerable when i'm old of you and it's but it's like you're all talking about the good deed he did with this woman's money and without consenting consulting with her first what about the really.

really, really, really, really ad .

all the good deeds? I would think that you know, that's just me though.

But IT wasn't just like the residence in the town. IT was even investigators that seemed reluctant to investigate the murder, yeah, and, you know, to consider burning a murderer, yeah, but let them. More and more they investigated the case, the more obviously became that this was not a crime of passion.

Two days after his arrest, the panel, la county district attintion, added a charge of felly theft in increased burner's bond to two point seven five million dollars. Once IT was determined that he'd been stealing hundred of thousands of dollars for margery bank accounts after her death, holly shit, district attorney danny books, David tn, told, told the press, quote, he had the power of a turney design checks for her. But that terminated after her death or at her death so it's like.

what the hell so with the yeah .

you're continuing to write these crazy checks yeah and the fact that he did continue to write the checks after markey had been killed suggested that he in fact killed her to continue accessing her virtue. absolutely. And if that we're determined to be the case, that would elevate the charges to the case to a case of .

capital murder.

But even the news of the new charges had little effect on how people in town viewed berny, knowing full well that he continued to access this woman's money and forge fucking checks. Or I I guess not. We got as ford.

She's dead. Yeah, at that point after he killed her, people are like, well, ww SHE was grandpa. We love berny .

wow SHE was grumpy and we loved to berny like what .

the fuck look, mrs. And say that's something thing like it's truly is like she's grumpy. That's literally all IT is she's unpleasant. Like SHE never did anything to hurt anybody. So like she's to like himself beating .

people with a cane and SHE goes down the street. Like you like that's even that I like I was just like stay in your yeah but like nobody kid kill people that this ship you sure can and like this is layd.

it's layard and it's fucked at is revert E B easily. Of the first united method church, who got a lot of money from bernie, told reporters that makes me even more difficult to deal with. But he was quick to add IT doesn't mean the church has decided to turn its back on bernie.

The bernie teeth that's being discussed in the news today is not the burning teeth. This congregation new. He was a very popular member of the church.

And sure, he was. He was a leader here. Yeah, you know, until he murdered an elderly woman. yes. And also he was a leader there because he was giving the church the elderly woman's money that he stole.

but directly from her account. Hold on to that cash. Yeah, hold on to that. Wipe your eyes with that cash method. Get on would .

be like, this is fucked up and we'd like to give IT back and we d like to give like, just put IT back .

in her account or it's like, did they say, like, wow, this is wild and like, key terrible and we don't cone this say that period.

no period but that's not the berny that we know yeah .

I guess what I don't give a shit about the berny that was before this. I care about the berny that's a murder and him go to jail .

now won't guess what IT was the berny that you knew in love because he was still coming to church spending her money after a good kill her yeah.

after he murdered her, my god. So as locals .

worked through their confusion and conflict, investigators started putting together the pieces of what had had to margery death they were accorded. We get here. According to burner's confession, he arrived at merger's house after seven A M on the morning of november nineteen, one thousand hundred, and ninety six november SHE was discovered in aug.

I was just gonna say way the second.

Well, so november, december, january, february, march, April, may, june, july, August, nine months.

He was in that freezer and he's just walking around spending .

our money almost a year, a full pregNancy, nine months yes. And also it's .

like that fucker and welfare check yeah one of those .

months on another on another level, but so on. On the morning of november one thousand nine hundred nineteen ninety six, he prepared her morning coffee, and then he went back home to shower before going back to marries house around, turning them, he told deputies, quote, SHE had become evil in wicked and very possessive over my life. And according to burn, this was actually not the first time he had considered killing margey. He told them, I thought of hitting murdering in the head with a bat or anything for a couple months of every one thousand nine hundred and one thousand nine hundred ninety six.

But I did not want her to suffer.

Oh, I thought of murdering this woman for a while. Actually.

you just like not hung out with her anymore.

You could have just left your job. Yeah.

you could just like not been there.

But once he returned to marries hows that morning, he said, SHE almost instantly began renting at him, which you remember, she's suffering from dementia. Then at one point, bernie noticed the twenty two caliber rifle that margery had actually told him to buy to deal with pests, and he thought, leaning against the wall. And so he picked IT up and started going into the garage to put the gun away.

But margery was following closely behind him. According to bernie, there was nothing in particular that caused him to shoot her. On that day, he told his sister, 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 in another day. So bernie decided he had had enough of her nagging at him.

And he turned the rifle on her. He told share of deputies. I took the rifle in shop, marry in the back SHE fell face first shop, but was still breathing heavily. So I shot her again, may have shot her again. I didn't want her to suffer.

I would like, stop saying I would like.

I didn't want her to suffer. Then why did you shoot her? Because I would call that suffering murder. I I would call suffering sir someone who was completely sure that margey was indeed dead.

He dragged her body from the garage to the freezer, and once he removed the food, he placed her body inside and covered her with a sheet, which he kept telling investigators throughout this conversation that they were having. Was a landon sheet like that made IT any Better? He keep saying over and over gan that IT was a landon sheet.

It's like, I don't care if you cover her in a boozy sheet or not. You've just murdered. No, yeah, elderly one.

Oh, my got. And then put food back in the freezer, fully covering her body. h.

Once he had stash the body, berny return to the garage, swept up the bullet casings along with a pile of large leaves with cheese in the trash, and then use the garden hose to wash the blood away. Finally, he sealed the lid of the freezer with two large strips of tapes. But tape, excuse me. And in the weeks that followed, he kept going to work and keeping up appearances at the house to make IT seem like he was still alive in active inside to to avoid questions from the neighbours.

Come on.

So for nine months, he kept going back to the house, killed her.

He went through, is dia fog molex like there's .

something happening in .

the anim dork said that by that, is that a wild sinter? By that's .

honestly definition of sister? By truly. So when the autopsy came back, IT confirmed exactly what bernie had told authorities. Margry had been shot in the back four times with a twenty two caliber rifle. That's everything, all rifle.

and horrible.

So unable to make bond, thankfully, because, you know, he then have margery money anywhere. Berny satan is sell at the panel icon detention center, while the share of department conducted their investigation. And meanwhile, the I arrest had to be called to aid the case primarily to perform forensic accounting services to determine just how much money bernie had stolen for markey and where IT had gone. My god, according to court records, he had stolen over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in about a dozen transactions, most of them in amounts over ten thousand dollars. And in addition to that, several other transactions showed that he had cashed almost four hundred thousand dollars in checks drawn from marri's account, the majority of which he distributed to neighbours charitable organizations in art programs around the community.

I hate that he's like doing good deeds with this cause you're like, fuck, do you could have been such a good person? All the parts there.

over half million dollars from this woman.

He had all the parts to .

be .

enable man, a charitable human, and he like, what the fuck happened?

They have no idea. But in one instance, he investing almost ten thousand dollars into a play that he was producing. IT was written by local video store clerk jeremy Jones, and Jones told reporters, we all assumed he was very wealthy.

I never questioned, but why would you that thing? Why would you? yeah. And on August twenty seven to thousand nine hundred and ninety seven, a penal account ground jury, indeed burney, on quote, charges of murder and theft in the death of margry nugent. The indictment noted that he had spent, quote, extensive and extremely substantial amounts of margery's money in the months since her death, which caused the arrest to seize his property and consider additional charges of money. Wandering, wow, I was going.

I was wondering if they were going to go that room.

Yeah so while the local and federal officials worked, build a case against burney, many in town rally around him not long after he was arrested, several friends and neighbours actually pulled their own resources to hire a man named clifton critiqued scrappy homes in east texas criminal defence attorney famous for defending wrongfully accused or incarcerated individuals.

But like honey, he confess.

correct. Now luckily not everybody was an enthusiastic supporter of berne district torney danny bucks Davidson found the unconditional support for berny infuriating same, he said, burning is a conman in an accomplished actor. He do, to a really nice, trusting town. He is evil.

Actually tweet, yeah. rex.

Now, Davidson had actually known, burnished as long as everyone else in cartage had. And up to this point, he always thought that bernie was a nice man. E yeah. So he understood why locals could struggle to reconcile the man they knew with the man who murdered margin, which I can understand that being like, holy shit.

he duped us all. Yeah, I can totally understand like having to reconcile that and struggling with that like four .

hundred percent. But it's willingness to look past what he did the thing because they preferred him to margry yeah he said that was baffling and he said, a couple people have said to me that bernie deserves to fry for what he's done. But I know there are a lot more who want who just want the whole thing to go away. They keep asking me if there aren't some extenuating circumstances that would help his defense. And I think, good god, all mighty, do people really think miss newgate was so mean to him that he had a shooter in the back and self defense?

That's the thing.

She's an derling. 我， how many times I have to say IT don't drink every time I say IT cause wow, but like wow. So the support for burning in and around cartage was a was not just indicated to long enforcement.

IT also approved to be a really big problem when the case made its wait to court yeah of the three hundred and fifty perspective individuals considered for the jury, all but one hundred were dismissed for various reasons unrelated to the case wow. And when judge by griffe asked the remaining about a hundred perspective jurors whether they could impartially judge berny for the murder, less than half said they could. Well, less than half.

So you judge girlfriend said, that was just the first question. Returnees hadn't even begun their questioning at that point. We felt we needed to try again somewhere else. So they had to declare a, my trial, wow. And relocate the trial outside of this county.

I'm just like shook by this.

They supported this man so much that no one in town could impartially be on a jury to convict. M.

i'm like, I don't even know what to say about is I like looking at pictures of him because I like to, I have a kind face.

What is he does? 是 看着 爸爸， i will say, wow. But while the district attorneys office worked to get the trial moved to nearby san Augustine, which is about an hour from cartage scrappy homes there, the defense attorney was in deep negotiations with A D.

A. To arrange for a plea bargain that would make a trial and necessary. But by february of one nine hundred and ninety nine, the negotiations stalled.

In 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, now, with no plea bargain in sight. Berney's trial began february first thousand nine hundred ninety nine before the same judge, judge guy griffin, in the one hundred and twenty third district court.

Now, despite being just an hour away from cartage, residents of san Augustine hadn't been following the story. Only only a handful of those interviewed for potential jury duty seemed interested in the case, which? Ww, you know, that's good.

yeah. So that being the case, the jury poll was quickly reduced from three hundred and forty one individuals to one hundred and four, which was just as quickly reduced to the work. Was that number in the any bug, David said. D, I prepared to give his opening statements on february third. O now the prosecution case was simple. Bernie teeth had a tied margery with problem promises of constant companionship, spent years manipulating her with romantic promises, they said, in order to access her fortune and all the first day of testimony, Davidson called several witnesses to the stand to give the jury details of what they claimed was a shame romance.

So we taking the .

pictures, yeah.

IT sure seems like he was. He was angling some way.

IT shows us Robert Evans, who was a friend of margery. Because bernie was not peel me french. I had. Robert Evans told the jury how, while having lunch with margry in her home, they were interrupted by bernie, who greeted margery with a kiss and he told the jury he definitely believed this was just one of the ways in which bernie had manipulated margery oh damn, that's fucked up. yeah.

And Angela row and acquaintance of margery offered similar testimony, telling me jury about one incense where burning qual brushed up against mrs. Nugent with his body in a way I did not think was appropriate. H and SHE also told the jury about a shopping trip she'd taken with margins or margery purchase some laundry.

And SHE elaborated, IT wasn't the kind of lazio seventy five old woman should wear. I won't think my grandmother should wear IT. So SHE was saying like something .

was going on. Something strange was happening here.

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It's so funny because I literally got a facial the other day, and the girl who did my facial recommended that this product to me. So I started using IT immediately. And I really do feel so hydrated.

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Discovered selema scream at drunk elephant dot com. Now, the second day of testimony included a number of law enforcement officials and experts to explain the evidence and gave descriptions of how the investigation had come together. Bernie just saw their sobbing as the prosecution showed the court photos of the crime scene in the freezer where he had stuff to margin his body.

Well, I mean, shop the fuck up. You.

yeah. Why you crying now? You are not crying for the past nine fucking months.

Are you crying because .

you're reaping what you saw? You were literally walking past that that freezer for the past nine one, that's thing i'm fuck in .

crock elsewhere cki you do you put her in a freezer for nine fucking months like you said, walked right? Buy IT went out spending our money and you're sitting crying at crime, seen photo, shut up crying because .

you got to buy and you're crying because you probably say, have fucking terrible that now that you're sitting in front of a room, people who aren't, you know, accepting your good deeds.

school IT feels like, even feels like he can manipulate you through a story of the same thing. Because in the begin you're like, what going on berny seems fine. And then when you get to them, you like, fuck you berny.

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. The mid showed, quote, bags of ice, a White tray in some boxes of food below which could be seen. The small grey oval that was the back of mrs.

Newton's head got lunching, my god. Now, the next day, the jury was again confronted with photo and video evidence. In this time, they actually showed margery's body being removed from the freezer.

ow. Once I had arrived at the state police at lab in the images were so disturbing that the jury sent the judged note requesting a fifteen minute break to compose themselves. Wow, because remember, this is an elderly man, woman shot four times. We all have grandparents and elder elderly parents like I can't imagine having .

to see and everybody knows somebody who's elderly yeah.

Now berney's defense attorney who scrappy homes there lodge a formal objection to the video, claiming that IT was maca and was shown only to prejudice .

the jury or show to show what your climate did to this and confessed to do yeah, yeah, yeah, it's my club. You're right. But asked me about IT.

When outside the courtroom, he elaborated his objection, saying to reporter Stephen king couldn't have done IT any Better.

Feel like you could have I mean, shut the fuck up just like what we're not talking about novels here we're talking about and sound like a piece of shit talking about a fucking fiction writer in comparison til like, you know, like you're like Stephen king. Good to rid that but written that any Better. It's like this is your life so like maybe this mother maybe just look at the video and see that that's a real and that's what that I did to her and admitted you're doing to her and we're not talking up. You should take another yeah you should take another avenue here to defend your client because you're not doing a great job.

Maybe just don't say anything. But despite having confess to the murder, bernie did pleaded not guilty, so the trial was necessary to determine his responsibility in in his defense. Scrappy homes told the jury bernie was never motivated by money. Never motivated by money.

He stole over .

fuck in a half a million dollars from this woman. Yeah, never motivated by money. That's a bol's move to go .

in that direction.

He said instead that IT was merger's, coin quote, possessive, demanding nature that had become intolerable in his client, simply coin quote, snapped.

So what you're saying is that when that becomes too much to handle in your work environment, that you should just kill your boss .

is and that's okay, you should get away with that. Could yes, snapped? Absolutely would like. I do wonder if he did just snap. You can look at IT through that lens because he hasn't no players here like you like.

Well, that this is whole thing is very shocking. It's a shocking act. I mean, to put in a, to put margery in a freezer in and walk by her for nine months, some things got and spend her money feels more that feels like more than a snap IT does. You can snap hoops in the more you made a big mistake. But this is this is a lot more than that. You just feels like you there's something you've got to have a lot fuck up inside due to be able to do that shit and to be able to walk by that freezer and be able to spend her money and go her home everyday and tell her loved ones oh, that she's fine. She's just like does not want to talk .

to you like or like she's had a stroke like yeah .

one point to make up stories and shit like that's a really diabolical he had that inside .

him absolutely but they said in time margry became overbearing in demanding of all of bernie's time, which eventually pushed him to the point of an impulsive action resulting in her death. 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 in civic organizations?

I don't know mine because he has, he has a hero complex.

I think he has a roman hood company. I think that is what is that the of?

So so that's a problem to my friend like that. That's not good. So.

so given berney's confession, scrappy holmes objective was more or less damage control in a lesser sentence. That was what he was out for. So he needed to convince the jury that bernie had acted in a moment of passion in impulsivity and that he actually didn't impose any threat to, you know, or future danger to the community.

But unfortunately for the defense, the prosecution did a more than adequate job of portraying berny as a con artist after one thing and one thing only. And in his closing statements, the D. A.

Told the jury, from this evidence, you can find this defendant was a liar, a liar, coward and back shooter, 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. And after less than an hour of deliberation, they returned with a guilty verdict. I mean, yeah, I would he literally confess to that point.

Now, given burn's confession, the guilty verdant was pretty much expected when IT came to the punishment phase. However, homes was hopeful that his client reputation would go a long way to secure letter sentence, David said. The prosecutor, on the other hand, was pushing for a strict sentence, he told reporters, I think you've GTA look at the crime, and the punishment should fit the crime.

And margery's family was also hopeful for the maximum sentence. Her granddaughter, Susan said, were relieved that there was a guilty verdict. He deserves ninety nine years.

I mean, yeah.

So the next day, on february eleven, the court reconvened for the sentencing phase, where the jury deliberated for less than two hours and returned with the sentence of life in prison. Wow, what should I mean? You murdered some, yeah, and stole all their money.

exactly. And they also gave him a fine of ten thousand dollars. Well, now, margery granddaughter, Susan told reporters, this was a horrible, terrible crime.

He deserved the war. Sentenced he got, but he could get. And obviously the jury thought so too. And margery son, rod junior, was also in town for the trial. He was actually expected or 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. And when he finally was able to talk, he said, i'm really here to see justice done and for closure. This crime, to me, is about finding old people who are vulnerable and stealing from them. Yeah, it's like one person, absolutely. Now, after he was convicted in, sentenced in the whole line, defense attorney clifted homes immediately fired papers requesting the judge declare a mistier, which was rejected yeah, but followed by the usual round of appeals.

How many goes now? Among the issue cited for the appeal was the claim that the judge refused to allow the defensive psychiatric expert to testify, which they alleged could have confirmed bernie's quinque lack of future dangerousness and provided important evidence as to quinque his mental condition during darling in after the office. So they were saying, you didn't let our psychiatrists 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.

the murder and it's like, okay.

it's valid yeah to an extent for .

sure but it's like, but he d put her in a freezer and what about is around and just lived his life and spent her money that's so I don't know if that would have helped you. I quite on they would have been like, yeah, this smocked out. agreed.

Doctor frederic Myers explained that in his opinion, at the time of the murder, bernie was under considerably more stress than Normal in quote, might have had some disassociated event that made him temporary, psychologically degraded. Not in addition to that, when they asked whether bony bernie would pose a future threat to the community, the doctor stated, IT is my opinion. He absolutely would not pose a threat or danger to inmate climates, guards anyone in that system.

Ha.

so initially, the court of appeals ruled that the lower court actually had errored in their refusal to admit doctor meres testimony into evidence, but when IT was sent back for reconsideration, the appeals court did determine that the error was quantite te harmless and ultimately upheld the sentence.

Because it's like I really, really trying to say that like he was really stressed out, more stressed out than Normal. So he murdered .

someone pretty .

much because like I am right now, in this moment, I am very stressed out and I have a lot of stress in my life. I don't expect to get away with murdering someone because of I that once not no, i'm glad that one didn't hold up and they weren't like, well, he was stressed out. Could 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 in prison rest your life yeah but as we know, burning teeth cases, far from typical there, we're going to be some more twist in terms before you faded from the spotlight.

About a decade after burne entered the texas department of criminal justice, the story of margin nugents murder at the hands, the hands of the town's beloved formal partisan, made its way to the desk of screen writer Richard link. Latter later. Now Richard had red skip poll's works to, i've quoted here at his thousand nine hundred ninety eight article about the murder midnight in the garden of east texas.

IT was publishing texas monthly. I definitely recommend reading IT, but he approach tall's worth about collaborating on a screenplay about the case. Now the film you might remember IT wasn't too long ago, titled simply berny was released in two thousand and twelve. I remember seeing commercials for that.

Oh my god. yeah. I haven't watched IT still. I have either.

But IT was IT. He IT was a pretty big movie in overall. Overall.

IT was well received by critics. IT was jack back?

Yeah, I think you're right. Actually.

I am. I hope i'm not remembering that wrong, but I feel like that just pop in. I will checked for me, but I want to say I think it's jack black as bernie.

I feel like you're right. yeah. So the critics, they like to the movie, but in car page linked leaders, hollywood adaptation of margery murder was not as well one resident set 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.

Yeah, that's the thing like that is jack back and the way it's played off on here from one of seen is like this looks like a comedy .

ikes like for .

I I D didn't see IT, so I won't say IT is but like the way the advertising IT is a little comical. Don't that very off putting when you know the actual story?

Yeah so in district torney, danny bg davenants and agreed in telling local news station K L, T V. He put this new gan in a freezer and then went and preached in churches. Yeah, if I was a dark comedy, you can't make a dark comedy out of a murder.

You want to make a fiction story out of, like i've said, dark comedies happen all the time. Fiction, yeah, like you made that up, right? I didn't actually, in fact, on google when you type in burney the movie and like this movie comes up yeah google says why to watch delightful, dark and hilarious dude yeah like delightful, dark, hilarious.

That's upsetting .

that wine yeah that's on.

That just shook me yeah. Well, despite local criticisms of the film, some people close to the case actually felt like I was an accurate portrayal. Margey nephew, joe rode said.

There are little things in bernie that aren't exactly true. Bits of dialogue and name changed here in there. But the big things, the weirdest things, happened exactly as the movie says they did wow.

Now, more than ten years after the murder occurred, the residents of cartage actually reconsidered their stance on berny tea after that movie, which is interesting that this buckin jack black movie made these people change their opinions, dian Davidson said. The community has completely turned one hundred and eighty degrees. They want him to service time.

Wow.

wild. But while locals had turned on the man they once rushed to defend, Austin based attorney jodie coal reached out to link later find out more about the story.

He saw the film and told him, I could raise some issues I wonder about, huh? Now, like many people who had seen the movie are simply heard about the case to hear something just didn't add up, like why margy's closest friend would turn on her so quickly without acute provocation and how one of the area's most loved residents could be so easily convicted and receive the harsher penalty. Ah which if you are looking at IT from an outside scope, I mean, I said at this whole time this.

Wild yeah I understand having questions yeah so a turney call there ended up speaking with berny after reaching out about like the film was making and watching IT and just having questions upon questions so shaded up talking to burning multiple times and eventually filed a writ of habit st. Corpus on his behalf, arguing that the jury had been prevented from accessing critical testimony that would have likely influenced their under standing of the crime and their attitudes during the penalty face. After several interviews with the clinical psychologist, coal actually learned in this is a trigger warning for sexual trauma, coal actually learned that bernie had experienced considerable sexual and psychological abuse as a child, oh, which significantly influenced cocoa nibble at the time of the murder.

According to bernie margery quote, often demanded in ridicule, tenant became critical and accusatory toward a male gardener with whom mister tee had a clinician sexual relationship. Oh, so the effect, they said, was essentially what one wood experience an abusive domestic relationship, which ultimately LED to margery murder. wow. Now a second psychological evaluation conducted by doctor Edward Green or gripen actually produce similar findings in his report, the doctor wrote, after years spent repressing the effects of childhood buse in hiding his homosexuality in a community he worried would not accept him, mister tee learned to compartmentalise his emotions, allowing him to act Normally for months after the murder.

So that can explain that yeah now given the extent to which burney's attitude and behaviour after murder eries death factor into his sentencing, coal succeeded in winning burning a new sentencing hearing and he was released from prison on in may of twenty fourteen and actually took up residents in in link leaders garages in L A. While he awaited a new hearing what cozy twist events now, in addition to the new psychological reports, coal also indicated burney's confession had more less been arguing that law enforcement and officials threatened to release scandals information to the public if he didn't tell the, if he didn't tell the truth, which is what we touch on early with those movies that they found. Now, the allegations of both new evidence and a potentially coerced confession didn't sit well with da.

Danny buck Davidson, and I actually really like this guy. He told reporters a new hearing felt like the right thing to do, considering the circumstances. He said, prosecutors are good guys and were supposed to do.

It's right. So he wanted to stand by doing this. right? Pretty bad off now. Another granddaughter of margry is shanna.

Nugent disagreed and told the host of the toy show, IT just doesn't feel like this is right. IT doesn't feel like justice. I get the, and i'd totally, yeah, grandmother was brutally murdered.

So burning is new. Hearing finally came in April twenty sixteen in a new jury learned of his history of abuse and how affected his actions at the time of the murder. M, and in the months that followed, defense attorney mike degree in told the jury that bernie te killed nugent because her abuse triggered the trauma he had faced when he was Younger.

But it's still not okay to kill .

someone exactly. They were trying to say like yeah psychologically yes, that what would happen again now. The attorney also alleged that contrary to what the previous story had heard about burning, manipulating at isolating margry in the months before her death, IT was in fact margery who, quote, alienated most of her relatives and who had a reputation of being unlikeable, which is going back to this, again.

exactly. No equal.

So the new jury deliberated for a little over four hours before returning with the sentence of ninety nine years, or life in person, which weirdly feels like a not to what her granddaughter said before her that he deserves night yeah serious. Ly does you'll get together and help that call out which like he deserves IT don't tell her no. So with the new sentence on the record, bernie was returned to the the texas department of criminal justice to continue serving his sentence, and he remains there to this day.

Dam.

what a wild food story.

That is a roller coasters. IT is a poor margery.

That's the thing to get. The reputation that SHE not only gone in life, but in in death is just really sad like, yeah, I know IT doesn't sound to me like most people took the time to try and understand no one do what he was that and she's regardless of her attitude, regardless of what I was or wasn't exactly, nobody does.

Yeah ah that's that up.

It's really sad and I just can't.

But what, like I understand movies being made about, you know, big cases and all that, like, that's gna happen. This happen, this happen forever to make a case like this that a dark, a delightful, hilarious movie is like, wo, and I never saw IT nor and known neither of. And I just like everybody who's in that movie, i'm like, I like those.

I'm like this. It's like, shocking. I'm like, this is strange.

This was an interesting to see, interesting decision because .

it's jack black, surely mclean and Matthew. I hey, like all three of them were like that like surely mcclean plays margery wow. And it's like, did nobody will be looked into this? Like what is just a strange move? It's yeah but again, I haven't seen the movie, so maybe it's being described wrong. Me i'm going to say I know anything about IT because I know I don't really have any interesting but very string watching IT, just I don't either after hearing the door the wild.

that is the tragic case of the murder of margin nugents and margin, the small town that really paraded around.

he he really manipulated everybody and and he really placed himself in a position of looking like a hero. Yp.

and with that, we hope you keep listening.

and we hope you can. We going to be even up the entire town into thinking .

that you're some kind of hometown hero and realistically, you walking fast freezer where you are holding the body of an elderly woman that you murder nine months ago, don't keep in that way.

You piece here.

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