Bittersweet Infamy - #15 - Run, Bambi, Run

Episode Date: May 16, 2021

Taylor tells Josie about the daring escape of Laurie Bembenek. Plus: the dark origins of Mother's Day.

Hello and welcome to Bittersweet Infamy, the podcast about infamous people, places, and things. I'm Josie Mitchell. I'm Taylor Basso. My friend Taylor is going to tell me a story. I don't know what it will be about, but the only rule? The subject matter must be infamous. Taylor.

Yes? Mother's Day. Hey. Tell me about it. Right. I will, actually. Oh, great. Oh, good for you.

Yeah. Nice one. You gave me a theme and I will like go to it. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. You really went to the theme. That's true. I don't fuck around.

Mother's Day. It was invented by a woman named Anna Maria Jarvis. Shut up. Yeah. Anna Maria. Hey. Yeah. Love you boo.

Happy Mother's Day. Right. Did your mom do one in Anna? Yes. Okay. This is a double in. I'll just give you that. Ah, a poser.

Got you. But yeah. Super poser. That's okay. Sometimes we got to pose. Fake it till you make it. Exactly. You're right.

She was born like 1864, West Virginia, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, her mom's. Mountain mama. Mountain mama. Very true. Yes. Very true. Actually, though, she was not a mom.

Oh, interesting. Very interesting, right? But like us all, she had a mom. She did. She did. And her mom's dying wish was that there was some commemorative day. That's not true. It's fact.

That's bullshit. Here's a direct quote from Ann Reeves Jarvis, her mom. I hope and pray that someone sometime will found a Memorial Mother's Day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it. She's very eloquent for a lady with one foot out the door. She taught Sunday school, my friend. That scans.

Yep. Yep. So Anna Maria, our bud, she's like, this is what mom would have wanted. This is dope. She puts in a lot of effort and time. There's a whole movement towards creating this Mother's Day. And she holds a like Memorial for her mom that is to honor her mother and all mothers, right?

Okay. Okay. And she does that on May 10th. Okay. And she, she starts to get this, get this going. And so it's finally like proclaimed and done. It's a little shooby-doo. It is official.

There's like a Mother's Day, the second, yeah, the second Sunday of May. May Mothers, if you will. She's stoked. It's awesome. But then, but then Taylor. Okay. She starts noticing that there's just crazy commercialization around Mother's Day. Like, flower.

People have forgotten the meaning of Mother's Day. She meant it to be sentimental as fuck. It was her mom's dying wish. She didn't mean for carnations to all of a sudden take over flower shops in the spring and become this, because she like picked the white carnation as a symbol because. She created a beast. She created the Mother's Day industrial complex. She did.

She picked the carnation because as the carnation dies, it folds within and holds all of its petals together. That's quite pretty. She, she had, she had a skill, I think. If, if she worked in modern day marketing, I think she'd be really good, but I don't think she would have worked in modern day marketing because she was pissed by the current day marketing of her time. That makes sense.

So she spent the rest of her life trying to fight the commercialization of Mother's Day. What a card. What? But I guess as its creator, who better? And here's another quote from her. A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world.

Jesus Christ. Handy? You take a box to Mother and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment. Whoa. And Maria. Oh, wow. I didn't realize there was all of this drama.

Yeah. So she put all of her time, all of her energy, a lot of her finances into this project of trying to decommersualize or dememoralize Mother's Day and it led her to some economic hardships. And it was rough. It was a rough time for her. She didn't get to see through her organizing efforts to resend Mother's Day because she was placed, placed, placed in the Marshall Square Sanitarium in Westchester, Pennsylvania.

Did the fucking mob get her for rattling the cart too much about Mother's Day? What is this? People connected with the floral and greeting card industries paid the bills to keep her in the sanitarium. Yeah, Big Mother's Day institutionalized this woman who was upset with the way that it takes over the day. Holy shit. Yes, my friend.

Yes. Holy shit. All this information available on Wikipedia. Thank you, friends at Wikipedia. Jesus, my goodness. Isn't that wild? So she's passed away now? She is passed away.

She died in 1948 and was buried next to her mother. That's apt. Yeah. That is, I don't know that. That was, I haven't had my world rocked by I'm infamous before, but that might be the first. I know, right? And it's like, I'm sure the story is much longer and more like Shabu Shabao, but it's

a toy little nugget of infamy right there. That's true. I had no idea that that big floral was in the habit of silencing old women who loved their mothers. I know. Mother's Day, give your mom the coupon book for a hug. You know, like, don't get her the box of candy. The coupon book is the better solution.

I think Annemarie would have liked the coupon book idea. One kind word. No. What is this shit? A car wash. A background. No, no, no. Yeah.

It's funny that you mentioned that because what I'm giving Annemarie is this. Not just this, I sent some like nice plum, it was like plum wine, orange wine, and pear wine home for her and my dad to split and like, oh, maybe they'll be into it. Maybe they won't. Nice. The bottles aren't that big, but I also wanted to do, so my approach to the theme of motherhood, This Mother's May, they locked that woman up. They put her in a sanitarium.

They cried hysteria on that shit. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Okay. I got to shake that off. I also wanted to do this podcast and the reason that I chose the story for this podcast this week is because it was one that I first heard from my mother. So I remember, like it's one of those weird things where you remember hearing about something

from the first time and I remember I was sitting in like our little dining area and I think the TV was on and maybe something about this came on or something, but my mom was like, oh, here, this is the story on that. And I was like, oh, that sounds really interesting. And now I've come back to it and kind of learned the ins and outs of the story. And so because I mean so much of what we do too here is tell stories and I feel like there's something very sweet about telling stories that your grandfather told you or that your dad or your mom or something like that.

You're passing them on. Yeah. Exactly. In whatever form. So I think that's nice. It's the same reason that like I played cards with my grandma. So every time I play cards, I kind of think about my grandma and that's like a bit of a way of keeping her close.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my dominoes too weren't those your grandmothers? Yeah, my dominoes. Those were my grandpas. Yeah. I don't use that set anymore because my parents got me these really nice like carved like

they're beautiful dominoes. So I use those more. But yeah. That's real sweet. You're making me feel like a jackass for my story. Just wait until you fucking hear the story I'm about to tell you. Okay, good. Okay, cool.

But, uh, the story I had, um... Sanitarium. She was put in a sanitarium, dude. Okay, I'm just, I'm just, oh, the last thing is this story has a very strong fuck the police message, um, which my mother will appreciate. Um, so I know, listen, I know my people and I know their brands. So without further ado, this is the story of Laurie Bimbenik. Laurie Bimbenik.

Just a pause real quick. I think Annamarie Jarvis would also really appreciate you telling a story that your mom told you because it's exactly the beautiful sentiment of celebrating motherhood that she would enjoy rather than carnations and, you know, Russell Stover chocolate. I'm a, um, what's it called? The, the thought makes the gift or it's the thought that counts. I'm very that. Like I'm, if I can sense that a gift was like done with some like care and thought, then

I don't really care much what it is. Yeah. Yeah. So Bimbenik is born August 15th, 1958 in Milwaukee. Hmm. Um, her father had previously worked for the Milwaukee police department, um, but he quit after witnessing corruption within the department. Oh, okay.

He then became a carpenter like Jesus, um, Laurie graduates college in 1976, uh, where upon she does a bit of modeling. Okay. In 1978, she poses as Miss March in a calendar for the Joseph Schlitz brewing company, um, which I love because I feel like that's an aggressively like Milwaukee in the seventies bit of color. Oh yeah. Yeah.

I know anything about Milwaukee. It's yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. And March is a good month. She's a feminist. At one point she joins a protest demanding that the Milwaukee police establish a sexual

assault unit. Oh, good protest. Yeah. And then in 1980, Laurie herself begins training at the Milwaukee police academy. Wow. You know, be the change you want to see from within, I guess. Yeah. Um, she observes the mistreatment of women recruits and recruits of color.

They're like harassed. They're abused. Um, they're dismissed without cause or for minor infractions. And around this time, she anonymously gets accused, uh, of smoking marijuana at a party, which she did. Like you, if you're a cop, you're not supposed to be doing that. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. She denies it. It doesn't go anywhere from there. But like she suspects the complainant was the wife of a police officer who had accosted her at a party about how she was dressed and being like, why are you trying to steal my husband and stuff like that? Oh, okay. So the wife accosted her.

Yes. The wife, she has this, uh, she has this run in with like, I think a drunk wife at some party and she's like, what are you wearing? Like, like, yeah. And so it then gets this anonymous accusation that she smoke a joint. What are you asking for? Why wearing that? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Later, Lori graduates from the academy and joins the police force. Okay. She becomes friendly with another trainee named Judy Zess. Good name, Judy. Judy ends up getting arrested for smoking marijuana at a rock concert. Oh, god. In my head, it's an REO Speedwagon concert.

Right. Like, I don't know. Yeah. You can insert band of your choice in my head, it's REO Speedwagon. Yeah. So a great friend that Judy Zess is, she accuses Lori of smoking up too. Oh, okay. I take it back.

I don't like your name. It's never proven, but like the, that Lori also smoked a joint, like there's no evidence of it, but Lori, in filing the police report, she, I wasn't able to figure out exactly what she's accused of doing here, but she either fudged the report, she fudged the report in some way to keep either her or Judy out of trouble. Okay. I don't know what they used to justify kicking her off the police force. Okay.

So Judy's kicked off no matter what, but. Judy's, I think Judy's done at this point as a cop. Yeah. Yeah. But okay. So then, then this fudging is kind of like just for Lori's incrimination. Okay. So Lori, obviously not the kind of chick to take this lying down.

She's very much about acting on your principles and standing up for justice. She points out that women and minority officers are not held to the same standard as white male officers. And the old boys club that runs the Milwaukee PD can get away with harassing citizens, demanding oral sex from sex workers, selling porn out of their cars. What the fuck? Yeah. Lori also comes into possession of some photographs that depict many of the male members of the

force at a picnic in a park, and they're like dancing around naked, flopping their dongs around. They're like having wet t-shirt contests with women and, and like, they're just a total public nuisance. Oh gosh. Okay. Yeah. If they can get away with this kind of conduct at a police event.

Oh, it's a police, it's a police event. It's like. I think it's a police event. I guess if you get enough off-duty police people together. Yeah, what is that? But a police event. Yeah. It might, it may not have been like a sanctioned police event.

I don't know. Right. There weren't flyers for it or whatever. But yeah. But maybe there were. I have no fucking idea. Okay. Point being Lori's like, yo, how come I get done for me be smoking a joint at a concert?

But these guys are like, can be on fucking photographed doing this. Yeah. With no consequences. Yeah. That's a ridiculous double standard, Lori. Good. Good eye. So Lori brings the pictures of the, this naked cop party.

Lori brings the pictures. I know. Coptong everywhere. Naked cop party. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Lori brings the pictures to the Milwaukee office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and they say this is a discrimination case. This is a big deal not only because it exposes the hypocrisy of the police force, but it also implies that they've been accepting Title IX funding to recruit women and people of color to the police academy and then terminating them for minor infractions but keeping the funding, which, which I believe would be fraud. Yeah.

I'm not a lawyer. I don't know for sure that that would be fraud, but that sounds fraud-y to me. I'll tell you what it is. That's fraud-y. It's shitty. It's pretty shitty. So the images, the photographs get turned over to police internal affairs and the wheels are set into motion for an investigation.

Meanwhile, Lori slipped into a depression following her removal from the police force. She feels like a little purposeless. She briefly works at the Playboy Club in Geneva, Wisconsin as a server. She gets gigs as a part-time fitness instructor and then as campus security at a nearby university and she meets a man. Alfred O. Schultz, better known as Fred or Disco Freddy. Okay, Disco Freddy. Hmm.

Lori's childhood friend Joanne Evacus said that if she had to describe Fred Schultz in one word, she would choose loud. He takes over any room. He enters. He always needs to be the center of attention. Oh my God. Lori brings him to a party and within minutes, Joanne pulls her into the bathroom and asks, quote, where the hell did you get this squirrel?

Squirrel? Yeah. Oh, I like that. That's a good, this guy does sound like a fucking squirrel, so I think she's spot on with that one. There are other red flags. He's 10 years older than her, which I don't say coming from any place of judgment necessarily, but you'll see what I'm getting at.

When you're a squirrel and you're 10 years older, that's... Yeah. Yeah. He's brand newly divorced. Like brand newly divorced. Oh, like the papers are fresh. Like a month or two max. From his ex-wife, Christine, with whom he has two sons, Sean and Shannon.

The divorce isn't going well. Fred is always complaining about the amount of money that he owes his ex-wife. To grace his two sons. Gosh. Yeah. Squirrel. And most concerningly, not only is Disco Fred a 13-year veteran of the Milwaukee Police Department.

He is one of the naked men in the photographs from the picnic. Lori! I know Lori. Sorry, I shouldn't yell at that. No, that was right. You were correct to do that. Fuck. Ah, Lori.

No, I know. Me too. Lori don't. That's not a good idea, Lori. Baby. But there's no talking Lori out of this new relationship. Where's her head? What does she think?

Because she's involved in this case, right? In this discrimination case. I think she just, I think she may just be one of those tragic cases of a beautiful, intelligent, passionate woman with terrible taste in men. Yeah. Yeah. A squirrel farmer, if you like. A squirrel farmer.

I think she may be a little squirrel farmer. Okay. Yeah, no, you're right. It happens. I've seen it with my own two eyes. And again, I don't say that to victim blame in any way. I just say that as a, ah, Lori, I wish you picked another guy. Yeah.

No, that's my question as well. Like I want to sit down with Lori and be like, tell me where you're about in this squirrel. Exactly. I want to be in that conversation. You want to be the one who pulls her into that bathroom. I agree. Yeah. Yeah.

There's no talking Lori out of the relationship, though. And within two months in January, 1981, Lori and Fred are married. Get the law involved, Google. This causes consternation, obviously, among Lori's family and friends. There's also the Milwaukee police department because Lori's still going forward with her case against them. Right. And now she's married to a 13 year veteran of the police force.

Who's implicated within the case. Oh, yes. Who's very much implicated within the case. His dong is out, squirreling out. Yeah. There is a picture. You can see the squirrel in person. And so I watched like, it will shock you, not at all, to know that there is a early 90s

TV movie about this. Yeah. Tatum O'Neill as Lori Bimbenek. Okay. Woman on trial, the Laurentia Bimbenek story. Ooh. Love a colon. This movie made it seem like Lori was really getting harassed kind of anonymously by various

members of the police at this point. Mm-hmm. Well, there was already the track record, right, of somebody trying to, to rat her out for Snowden and Jay, right? Oh, she's been ratted out a million times. Yeah, exactly. So people are starting, were already starting shit with her at parties because she's like a pretty woman who's a cop, right?

Yeah, yeah. One of the scenes in this Tatum O'Neill TV movie depicts a car pulling up to beside her car and like a shadowy man looks and goes, are you Lori Bimbenek? And she's like, yes. And the guy flings a dead rat through her car window. Not a squirrel, but a rat. Not a squirrel, but like, I don't know. It was a really striking because the staging of this was very like proper TV movie.

Like there was some really concerned jazz playing in the background, right? Yeah, yeah. So I don't know if it's true, but I include it as a bit of color. You're welcome. Thank you. On May 28th, 1981, four months after Fred and Lori's wedding, Fred's ex-wife Christine Schultz is murdered in her home by an unknown assailant. Oh my God.

She was killed in her bedroom at 2.15 a.m. by a single 38-caliber bullet, fired point-blank into her back and through her heart. She had been gagged and blindfolded and her hands were tied in front of her with rope. I'm about to tell you something really sad, so brace yourself. Her body is discovered by her two sons, Sean and Shannon, then seven and 11 years old. The boys call Christine's boyfriend, Stuart Honak, who's also a cop. So this tight-knit cops in their wives' kind of community, right? And ambulances and paramedics are quickly sent to the scene.

Just as a sad side note, I found it really hard to find information on who Christine was as a person. This story for reasons which will become apparent later is very much centered around Lori Bembenek, but I did try. Sorry, Christine. However, it's time for a pivot. We've soaked in the reality of that moment. Fire that law and order song back up, because I feel like for the first time, we're going full.

I was even thinking like CS, like who are you? Because for the first time, we're going like proper, true crime, evidence, alibis. This is a procedural note, okay? Oh my God. I'm like gearing up for the commercial break and everything. I'm in. You are CSI level four, Josephine Mitchell. So with that said, I am about to lay some fucking evidence on you, so pay attention.

Oh God. Okay. Yes. So first of all, we've got an eyewitness account in the form of the son, Sean Schultz. Before attacking Christine, the intruder went into the boy's bedroom and attempted to tie something around Sean's neck from behind. Oh. Sean screamed the intruder left and went into Christine's bedroom, and then Sean said that he heard a loud bang that sounded like a firecracker. Okay.

So he brought the intruder flee down the stairs. He described the culprit as a masked male figure in a green army jacket or jogging suit and black shoes with a long reddish ponytail. Ew. Yeah. Well, sure enough, from Christine's right thigh, the investigators retrieve a single reddish synthetic hair. Synthetic hair. Yes. See your paying attention detective.

That is a synthetic hair as in wig. So he wears a red wig. Are you singing ooh island? I don't know what I'm singing. Not intentionally, but I have my feet. Island. Okay. Got you.

Okay. So there's no evidence of, sorry, do you need to, is there anything that you need to, because I'm going to, it's going to be a lot of this. So if you need to clarify anything, please jump in and ask questions. Synthetic red wig, Ronald McDonald. Yeah. Boom. Go. There's no evidence of a break-in, so please start looking around for suspects who had access to a key.

And naturally, their gaze turns towards Christine's ex-husband, Old Disco Freddy, who had secretly duplicated one of his son's keys. Secretly duplicated. Yeah, that's, that's sussy. How did they find that out? Because he must have, he must have had a key that he wasn't supposed to have. Right, right. They said give us your keys. It's like, oh, this is a match.

Yeah. Okay. But Old Disco Fred has an alibi, namely that he was on duty investigating a burglary with his partner, and the partner corroborates. Of course. However, the police run ballistics tests on the bullet found in Christine's body. It matches Fred's off-duty revolver. Shitake. Okay.

Yes. That's a big one. For those of you out there who don't watch the greatest show in the world, 2020, ballistic markings are basically like a gun's fingerprints. So if you examine the markings on a bullet, you can tell which gun it was fired from. Okay, okay. Thank you. I was, I was in that group that you were dressing. So thank you.

Listen. For all of us. I was raised by that really grim dude who did the voiceovers for pole case files. Yeah, you're right. It's a very grim voice. Just lots of photos of people from the 80s. You know what I mean? So now they've put Fred's gun at the scene, but Fred's got an alibi.

So the spotlight turns toward Laurie, who lives with Fred, has no alibi, and has access to his revolver and his key to Christine's house. Oh. Motive. Taylor's oldest time. Jill's wife. New wife puts the ex-wife out of the way. Yeah. Especially, specifically in this case, they said it was to put an end to Fred's financial obligations to her.

So she's the greedy new young hot wife. Okay, okay. Yeah. Who conveniently also has an investigation out for misconduct within the department. I'm sure the two things are unrelated to you. Okay, yeah. On June 10th, about two weeks after the murder, there is a plumbing issue at the apartment complex where Laurie and Fred live. The toilet is backed up at the neighboring apartment that shares drainage with the Schultz's, and the plumber goes in and produces a shoulder length.

A red wig. Shoulder length. Shoulder length. Straight curly. I think straight. Okay. What is the weirdest thing that you know of being flushed down a toilet? Actually, the other week, I flushed the toilet and my earring fell in and was gone.

Oh, that's a sad story. It was really, it was a lot to handle, because it was my favorite earring. Oh. I still have one, but I don't have the other. And now, I mean, now I think it's been long enough. I think it's okay, but I was worried about the pipes. Like, you know. This is Adam's story, but I'm going to tell it like it's my own.

Adam comes home from whatever he's just moved into a new apartment downtown with some friends. And they come back from wherever and there's water gushing out from under their doorway into the hall. Oh my God. So they come in, they're like, what is this? They bring in the emergency plumber, obviously, and it becomes apparent that someone, it was, like I say, it was brand-newly their apartment. So it wasn't them. Okay. So new construction and like.

No, no. Oh, no, no, no. Someone else had lived there, but they had just moved in just long enough for this toilet to flood. I see. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So they look in the drain and they find the smashed shards of a Russian nesting doll.

Have you used that in a story? No, but I shouldn't. Yeah, that's correct. My alley, isn't it? It's actually good for off. Damn. But yeah, people flush some weird shit is the point. On June 24th, Lori Bambenek is arrested and charged with first degree murder of Christine Schultz.

The media gets ahold of the story and naturally, what's the first thing you think they zoomed in on? That she's a pretty woman. Boom. That's exactly right. Lori Bambenek is hot. And again, tale is old this time, from Jodie Arias to Casey Anthony to Amanda Knox, the American media loves a sexy woman who's been accused of murder. In her memoir, Woman on Trial, Lori said, quote, there's so much garbage has been written about me and how I look as if that's all there is. Her past as a model is heavily referenced in news articles and specifically, they often refer to her as a playboy model.

But she never was a playboy model. No, she worked at a playboy club in Geneva for like 10 minutes after she was a cop. But that's not being a playboy model. No, but that, who cares? Yeah. You know what I mean? The press also coins the hated nickname that would come to define her in the public eye, Bambi Bambenek. What?

This is most people, for reasons that will become clear later, most people know her as Bambi. Because that was the like salacious, it was her foxy noxy. You know what I mean? Bambi with her big eyes. Yeah, exactly. Tall, thin, beautiful model type. Yeah. And so that's why like I included stuff about like her posing for this calendar.

Because of course, once she's been snared by the media, what do you think she was Miss March calendar of death by them here, you know? So she, it is material the way she looked just because it has so much to do with like... The way that they can tell the story and propagate the story. Yeah. So here's the prosecution's case against Lori. Oh, God. One critical witness was Lori's friend, that old weed smoking narc, Judy Zess. So she's back.

Oh, God. She had lived with the couple in their apartment. Before, before the apartment was the Bambinix apartment, Judy Zess also lived there. The four of them and her boyfriend as well. Oh, okay. Okay. So a roomy situation going down. Yeah.

The boyfriend is a dude named Tom Gertner. Okay. So according to Judy, as well as her mother Frances Zess, Lori was always saying someone should kill Christine. Oh, God. The phrase they specifically use is Lori always said someone should blow Christine away. And Lori takes objection to that because she's like, that's not my jargon. That's not even how I talk. Right.

Yeah. I would never... She's like, I would never use that combination of words together. That's stupid. Yeah. Judy said that Lori actually approached the fourth dude in the apartment, her boyfriend, Tom Gertner, about taking out a contract on Christine Schultz. Is he ever a witness to that?

I think so. Yeah. I don't know for sure, but he would probably corroborate it. Right. Okay. Yeah. I've seen a green jogging suit and a clothesline as in to tie up somebody in the apartment. Are they living together at that time?

They had just, Judy and her boyfriend had just moved out. Okay. Okay. But there was, yeah, enough time to move that. Yeah. It was like literally like right after, right after Judy and her boyfriend move out, I think Christine is killed. Okay.

I mean, there's the point too that Disco Squirrel is also living in that apartment as well, right? Yeah, but he has an alibi. Oh, right. His dumb alibi, whatever. Okay. Okay. Have you ever had a friend?

And I put this question here because I'm curious now. It's you. You're the friend. Who's a narc? I didn't know you were saying narc. No, you're not a narc. That's why you wait for the end of the sentence, man. I'm not a narc.

You just said friend and I thought of you. That's so sweet. Thank you. See how I turned it. I won't tell anyone that you fucking said that. I turned that around. Yeah, good job. Okay.

Another witness claims to remember Lori buying a red wig and this was the owner of the oldie wig world shoppy. Like O-L-D-E-S-H-O-P-P-E. You know, today was an exciting day. I was, I gave evidence in a trial. It's never ends at the wig store. It's always something going on. You know who buys wigs and, you know, made the good Lord bless me for saying this,

but you know who buys wigs is criminals. We get all kinds. Yeah. Yep. Okay. And most damningly, the prosecution submitted his evidence. Blonde hair is found at the crime scene that match samples taken from Lori Bambenek. DNA or just like, it's the same color.

It's the, they match. They're the same hair. Okay. Okay. Now, the description of the intruder given by the boys of a big man with a reddish coat. Yes, I was going to say, Sean was just like, it's a dude. Doesn't match Lori. Lori's 5'10".

She's a tall lady. Of course. Yeah. She's slender and she has blonde hair. Obviously a wig, whatever. Right. Could cover that, but she, like, she doesn't match the body type. Yeah.

And also 12 area residents, including two police officers noted seeing a similar looking man jogging in the area in the weeks leading up to the crime. Oh. And Sean, the eldest son explicitly says Lori isn't the culprit. Like he specifically is like, it's not Lori. Yeah. Yeah. Does he know?

I don't know why I need to know this, but I want to know this. Does he know Lori? Like, has he met Lori and like knows that's dead? Yes. Yes, he has. Okay. From what I can gather in the vein of an older dude and his much younger midlife crisis girlfriend, it doesn't seem like she was a proper stepmom to the kids or anything.

Like she wasn't, I don't think, involved in the parenting of them in any way. She was never with the kids alone, maybe. We'll say that. Yeah. Something like that. But like she, she got along with them and they with her kind of thing. Yeah. Every other week they all went to food records.

Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. She would hang out with them with their dad and whatever. Yeah. So in spite of all this, Lori faces trial on the stand. She's accused of being cold and emotionless. And she wore a modest blouse, which people were like, this is to deceive the jurors.

We all know who and what she is. You're not fooling us with this buttoned up Victorian act. You sex murderous. You sex temptress. Cool, cool, cool. So if she wore like a little leather bustier, they'd be like sex temptress, murderer, da, da, da. And if she wears the...

No winning. No winning. Okay. Absolutely. What did you say? You didn't say it emotionally enough or you said it too emotionally. Or you got angry or like, she couldn't win. She couldn't win.

Yeah. On March 9th, 1982, Lori is found guilty of first degree murder and at the age of 23, she has sentenced to life in prison to be served at the Tachita Correctional Institute in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. What the fuck? This was generally considered a shocking outcome, not least by Lori herself. Quote, I went in a fugue state. I don't even remember when he said to approach the bench. Even the judge said it was the most circumstantial case he's ever seen.

I don't believe there was enough to support a conviction, even if you want to believe they're baloney. Even the judge was saying this is a little wild. Which could give her recourse for a thing when you use the... I don't forget what it's called. Appeal. Appeal, yeah. There you go. Law school.

This is our law school. I think by... This is. You know it by the time... Alice, I'm sure we'll have... Yeah, by the time we get to episode 100, I think we could maybe sit for the bar. We could sit for the bar. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. We don't sit for the bar. We are the bar. Lori is off to jail in 1984, which I think is two years. I take it that Disco Squirrel has not been on the stand, has not done anything. So the TV movie, so this is the hell of it. This is a two-part TV movie, and I could only find the first part. So I watch the first part, but the first movie ends on a cliffhanger where they make it seem

like Fred has squirreled his way into getting immunity. Oh, okay. I couldn't find that in any of the reading that I did on this case, so I didn't go out of my way to include it in the story, but the TV movie made it seem like he finagled an immunity deal. It sounds the way that the trial moved against Lori that they probably saw him as a grieving ex-husband in some way, maybe. Those who weren't complicit.

Yeah. Oh, good. Are you ready for me to knock you over with a feather here? Yeah. In 1984, Fred Schultz writes the imprisoned Lori a letter stating that he's now seeing someone else, a 19-year-old girl, he's moved to Florida, and their marriage is over. They divorce, and Fred makes it publicly known that he thinks Lori is, quote, guilty as sin in the murder of Christine Schultz.

Oh, my good lord. Lori, meanwhile, never stops proclaiming her innocence, even from behind bars. And once the trial is over, evidence does in fact start to emerge that Lori may have been framed. Oh, really? Yes. What the? CSI Mitchell, that's not conduct becoming of the field.

Whatever. I am the bar. So let's take a look at some of the inconsistencies that point to Lori's innocence. Yeah. Okay. I'm prepared. Number one, after the murder, they gave Fred Schultz two lie detector tests, and he passed both.

However, it later came out that he was lying about his alibi. He wasn't actually working a case with his partner. Instead they were drinking at several local bars. So the alibi is still substantiated, but it proves that he was able to lie and still pass the polygraph, whether he had someone on the inside, whether he is just a good liar, or maybe it's the fact that lie detector tests are bullshit. So many little turns there. Just absolute garbage lie detector tests, fucking absolute bullshit.

Number two, on initial examination, the cops took one look at Fred's off-duty revolver. They're like, oh, there's some dust on that. That can't be the murder weapon. And they didn't even note the serial number of the gun, and they just gave it back to Fred. Sorry, I'm sorry. They knew that this particular gun was the gun that was fired on... They didn't at the time.

It wasn't until they checked the bullets, the bullet against it, that they realized this. But that also means that the gun wasn't initially collected as evidence, so there was a period of a couple of weeks where Fred Schultz just had the murder weapon, during which he could have like conceivably tampered with it at any point. Right, yeah. Yeah. So, Schultz plants an unused dusty gun in his apartment, he lends his real off-duty revolver to someone else to do the murder, and then the cops are like, oh, yeah, your service

revolver isn't the murder weapon, and then he switches him back because the serial number was never taken. Right. Okay, yeah. In any case, it indicates that the police were very fast and loose in their investigation of Fred Schultz, likely because he was one of their own, because he is the guy from the fucking DONG photos. Right, yeah, yeah.

And you're reminding me of that whole case in the first place, because the cops were never not going to suspect and point as hard as they could to Lori, because she was already vilified in terms of the k- yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. So, Josie, you remember those blonde hairs that were found at the scene? I ran a little test on you there, and I'm afraid you flunked it, Gumshoe. Oh, no. Because when I first described the scene to you, I said, oh, they found some synthetic

reddish hairs at the scene. Later on at trial, all of a sudden, there's these blonde hairs that were found at the scene. Ah, no! Okay. Dr. Elaine Samuels, the medical examiner who conducted the initial autopsy, said that the only like hairs that she found, real hairs that she found at the scene, belonged to the victim.

Okay. I do not like to suggest that evidence was altered in any way, but I can find no logical explanation for what amounted to the appearance of blonde hair in an envelope that contained no such hair at the time it was sealed by me. That's a beautiful way to set that up. Do you know what I mean? In terms of the court of law, just being like, I would never say this if this weren't a serious infraction.

Yeah. I'm not aware of the consequences of what I'm alleging. Yeah. Yeah. Without the hair evidence, there's no direct evidence tying Laurie to the crime scene, and the case against her becomes entirely circumstantial. Which the judge had already said in the first case, yeah. Now anyone with access to Laurie's apartment and thus the house key and the revolver could

have done it. So that's Fred, that's Judy Zess, that's Tom Garetner, that's anyone acting on their behalfs and anyone and the landlords conceivably too, although I can't imagine why they would. Right. Yeah. So remember that wig that got flushed down the toilet? Yeah, the Ronald McDonald wig, yeah. The Ronald McDonald wig, well, the neighbor who called it in reported that around the

time of the crime she got a knock on her door from none other than Laurie's former roommate and world's best friend, Judy Zess, asking to use the shitter and afterwards it mysteriously stopped working. Oh, that's embarrassing. But also implicating. No, in every possible way, you either just took like the world's fattest dump or you like flushed a wig down the toilet. Both are horrible.

Neither is great. Both are just horrible, yeah. And number five, and I don't even know if I've been counting the numbers on these. No, but 27. Exactly, 82. Judy basically ends up recanting her entire testimony about the jogging suit, about Laurie's animosity towards Christine, basically everything she testified to under oath. She ended up recanting.

Oh my Jesus. Where can you buy a friend like Judy Zess? Truly. I can't even believe I said I liked her name. So let me tell you about a guy named Frederick Horneberger. Anyway, that's the end of that story. Let me tell you about a different story about a guy named Frederick. He was a career criminal.

He was Judy Zess's ex-boyfriend, cops and criminals, man, hand in hand. It's so funny how that seems to be working out. And he and Fred Schultz worked on a remodeling project together at a tavern in Milwaukee. Horneberger actually goes to jail for robbing and assaulting Judy Zess around the time of the Christine Schultz murder. While he's in prison, he brags to anyone who will listen that he was responsible for Christine's death. Okay.

Publicly he denies it so it becomes his word against those of other criminals, right? Okay, yeah. In 1991, when he's out of jail, Horneberger is involved in a robbery and hostage-taking situation. He's on the phone with his sibling while this goes down. Really glad Cory's never done that to me. Yeah, that'd be rough. And he's like, look, I've taken hostages, but I just laid down my weapon at the behest

of the cops. I'm going to jail. Here are the arrangements that I need you to make. But shots ring out, and Horneberger, with his dying breath, tells his sibling that the police shot him to shut him up about his role in the death of Christine Schultz, namely that Fred Schultz hired him to murder his ex-wife. The police publicly rule Horneberger's death a suicide. Oh, very, very lucky they get to do that.

But you may have noticed we've gotten away from Lori. So all of what I just described went down in 1991. I want to rewind back a year to 1990. Okay. She weighs eight years into her life sentence at the moment. Jesus Christ. She is by all accounts a model inmate. She has gotten a university degree.

She co-founds a prison newspaper that like critiques the power. You know what I mean? Dang! She files three appeals, all of which are rejected. She meets and becomes engaged to a guy named Dominic Gugliato, who's actually her cellmate's brother. Oh, okay. And she's keeping up on her laundry.

Her whites are white, her brights are bright, and it just so happens that the repairman forgot to replace the guard on the laundry room window. Oh. On July 15th, 1990, with the help of her lover, Dominic Gugliato, Laurie Bambenic, flies the coop. No! Shit, dog! What?!

She slips out the window, scales the fence, uses a jacket to cover the razor wire at the top, and she meets Dominic in a waiting getaway car. Oh, my goodness, this is wild, okay. This is where this story truly becomes infamous. All of Wisconsin rallies behind Laurie's escape. Yeah! Wisconsin, when I thought you weren't, when I thought you were doing me dirty, pull it out, I love it.

People are protesting in the streets in support of her innocence. They're writing songs about her. One Club has a Laurie Bambenic lookalike contest. Yeah! Great place to hide, if you're Laurie, by the way. Yeah. Oh, but they'll go right there. Never mind, never mind.

People say, if I see Bambi on the street, I will turn the other way. The popular rallying cry printed on t-shirts, billboards, bumper stickers, is Run Bambi Run. Oh, yeah. And it's got the image that accompanies it is like Bambi, the cartoon Bambi, in like a prisoner's outfit with a ball and chain around her leg. Deal! We'll post, I'll post a picture of that on the Instagram.

I don't want a shirt. So for the next three months, Laurie and Dominic live on the lam. They steal names from headstones and they got fake birth certificates and security numbers. Laurie goes by Jennifer Gatzana. They're able to cross the border into Canada and they set up camp in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where Laurie works at a diner. Life is uneasy, as you might expect, and Laurie's obviously always looking over her shoulder waiting to get discovered.

So like any fugitive worth her salt, Laurie eventually ends up getting profiled on America's most wanted. Unfortunately, an American tourist on vacation in Thunder Bay spots Laurie and narks her out. In my head, it's just Judy's ass. Yeah, yeah. Or like a cousin of Judy's or something, you know, like. Her Canadian cousin.

Oh goodness, I've got to call Judy about this. Um, fucking, so if you're wondering who goes on vacation to Thunder Bay, by the way, snitches. There's that question answered. Her cover blown, Laurie applies for refugee status in Canada while the US government seeks extradition. Canada does its own, uh, investigation and eventually they agree to send Laurie back to the states as long as the state of Wisconsin agrees to review the case. Okay, okay, that's.

I say just keep her here. Yeah. She didn't fucking do it. We all know she didn't do it. Just keep her here. But I can also see Canada's point of like, it should be proven in a court of law and we're not going to pay for that court of law to go through you guys. I see, I see.

Clean up your own mess. So Laurie gets extradited and spends an entire year in solitary while the case gets prepared. No. Why solitary because she had flown the coop? Because she's a flight risk. Oh my God. Which that sounds, that sounds cruel and inhuman to me. Yes.

Um, eventually the presiding judge lists seven irregularities in the original trial, mostly to do with the gun and its bullets. So, uh, prosecutors on the new trial cut a deal. If you plead no contest to second degree murder, we will give you time served and you'll be out on supervised parole. But your name will not be cleared. Your name will not be cleared. Laurie takes the deal.

And finally at 33, she walks free for the first time in nearly a decade. She moves to Vancouver, Washington to be near her parents. She takes a swipe at rebuilding her life, but like, you can't, like this woman has unimaginable PTSD. Oh yeah. Is she still married to Gugliel? No, they divorced. Oh, okay.

Oh, no, they were engaged, but I don't think they ever married. She gets a different husband, she, she, there's another gentleman whose name escapes me, um, seemed like a nice guy, but they're not able to make it work and they divorce amicably after a couple of years. Like it seems to be a nice divorce and they seem to have stayed friends afterwards. She takes up painting and like really gets into painting, but a gallery hosting all of her work burns down. All of her work.

All of her work. They were doing a Laurie Benvenig show and all of her work burned to the ground. Oh Jesus. Um, she gets, no, I know. She gets really, really deep into the bottle, uh, drinking to cope with her many traumas. So after leaving jail, her big goal is to formally clear her name. She wanted out. Obviously she pled no contest and got time served, but as you said, that's not the same

as being exonerated. Right. Um, so she links up with a dogged attorney named Mary Ware and an investigator named Ira Bradley who make a lot of headway reinvestigating the case. So you ready for a twist? Yeah. The bullet that was retrieved from Christine's body didn't come from the off-duty revolver at all.

It came from the on-duty revolver. This indicates that somewhere along the way the bullet in evidence was swapped out. Wh-wh-what? Okay. So everything you knew about the gun evidence, throw it all away. It's meaningless. Totally meaningless. It wasn't even from that gun.

Yeah. And, and her blonde hair, throw it out. Yeah. Yeah. Throw it out. They also discover that the crime lab had been aware of the presence of semen on the body that was not mentioned at trial and of blood under the fingernails that was never analyzed.

Oh my God. How would you, if there had been a sexual assault unit in the police? It's, it's just that kind of like really endemic systemic rot of, of a police department that you just hear like, you know. So Lori needs money to fund the analysis of blood evidence because America and she finds it in an unlikely place. The producers of Dr. Phil approach her with an offer to pay for testing under the condition that Lori hears the results for the first time live on the show.

Also because America. Yes. Fuck. She accepts, but they never film the episode because according to Lori, the producers isolate her in an apartment in advance of the show. So she won't find out or something? So she won't, I don't know, they feel like they need to hawkishly watch her. So her PTSD kicks in, she attempts to escape from a second story window.

She falls and ends up needing to have her foot amputated. The producers of Dr. Phil deny the allegations, quote, and this might make you mad, quote. We of course feel that it is unfortunate that she hurt her leg during an apparent prank when she left her room to go through a window less than an hour after arriving rather than using the front door not ten feet away. Okay. Yeah. The results of the blood test have never been revealed.

What? Dr. Phil has them and I guess they just don't feel like it's important. This woman did put them through a lot. Wait, wait, wait. Dr. Phil still has them. Or like the- Oh wait, why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he?

They're in the vault. They're in the ABC vault. You know? Jesus. Jesus Christ. So Lori ends up getting a settlement from the producers of Dr. Phil and she lives off that for the remainder of her life. She fights with drinking and poor mental health, is on a lot of medication due to her leg injury

and pre-existing health issues. She does her final interview with WTMJTV's Mike Jacobs where she's noticeably struggling. It's really, like I watched it, it's really sad. She looks like shit and sounds really sad. She talks about how sometimes the enormity of her life circumstances will hit her and she'll just cry. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacobs asked her to rate her life out of 10 and she said, she said two. That's a horrible question. I just, I want that to be. Rate your life from one to ten. Yeah. That's- Taylor, rate your life on a scale one to ten. That's so hard.

Don't do that. Yeah, you're right. It's a horrible question. That's- It's not a good interview question. Taylor, in November 2010, her persistent kidney and liver issues see her committed to hospice care and on November 20th, she dies of liver failure. How old is she?

She's 40. She died at 52. 52. Okay. She died at 52. Here's where everyone ends up. Dominic Gugliata O'Lorri's accomplice in her jailbreak was sentenced to a year in prison for his role in Lori's escape, but he got released after six months for good behavior.

I mean, I'm glad, I'm glad, but it's also like, why couldn't you extend that same courtesy to her? Yeah. Okay. Judy Zess, no updates. Presumably, some were calling the cops every time her neighbors have a loud party. Total Karen. Big Karen energy from Ms. Zess.

As of 2011, which is the most recent update I could get, Fred Schultz lived in Cape Coral Florida where he ran a construction company and denied any involvement in the crimes, no charges have ever been brought against him to this day. Even with Judy's boyfriend, oh, I guess, yeah, the police were like, no, it was a suicide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lori Vanbenek has still not been formally exonerated for the murder of Christine Schultz.

Her lawyer, Mary Ware, continues to fight for her innocence. For whatever it's worth, Lori has been unanimously exonerated by public opinion. Yeah. Yeah. I have literally, in all the weird shit people want to be like, is the Zodiac killer, you know, really the unabomber, like people, I have literally never even heard a theory of this case that entertained the idea that she was guilty in a modern context. Yeah.

Yeah. Instead, Lori is remembered as an icon, a wronged innocent and someone who stood up for what was right at great personal cost. Here is a comment on Lori's obituary from an admirer named Melody Lapierre from December 4th, 2013. I hope that the legal system that destroyed this woman's life finds the compassion, if not the obligation, to grant her the pardon she so justly deserves. She stands as an example of the horrors and injustices that women have had to endure if

they try to stand up for their rights as equals. The Good Old Boy Network is still alive and well, even in 2013. The same injustices and persecutions exist. It destroys your inner spirit and hurts you to the core. I applaud Lori for having the strength to fight. I applaud her parents for raising her to be a young woman with the strength to fight for her convictions. May her name always be a source of inspiration to all women, both young and old.

You're in God's hands now, Lori. Your star shines brightly." Aw. That's really well put. Yeah, no, I thought that was lovely when I read it, and I was like, that's a nice note to end on because this poor fucking person. Yeah. That's wild.

Fucking disco squirrel, dude. Disco squirrel, Judy's ass. Judy's ass. Thank you for never being Judy's ass. Yeah. For thanking people for not being other people. Oh, yeah. Thank you for not being.

That's actually a good shorthand. It's like, don't Judy's ass to this. Yeah, she got Judy's ass vibes. I'd stand back. Yeah. Yeah. Man, it really, yeah. That's like, just people fucking having it out for her.

Yeah. She was just the right, like, fall person for just the right skimming manipulator, and it killed two birds with one stone. And again, this has never, none of this has ever been proven, obviously, in court. So don't take this as, like, don't sue me for slander, as usual, disco fred. Just live in, you got off lightly on this one. Don't fucking rock the boat, bud. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know, courts, as we have seen time and time again. Yeah. How can we really trust them to... Lori Bambennett can get a life sentence, but the ogres can't get arrested. Yes. Yes. Yes.

And it's both because of sexism, like, in part, right? Yeah. Yeah. Man, that never should have happened. I love the idea of her, like, getting her university degree and, like, starting a newsletter. But it's sad, because I feel like at the height of her powers, she was such, like, a proactive, community-minded person with a lot of, like, potential to do something really good in the world.

And then, especially, if you look at, like, the later interviews that I'm talking about, where she's literally, like, two months out from being in the ground, she looks, she looks like, like, she's a shell of herself, and it's so sad. Yeah. I can't believe Dr. Phil. I mean, I can't believe it's Dr. Phil. I can't believe Dr. Phil, yeah. But that's just, like, such a horrific story, you know?

Yeah. But they wouldn't take any type of responsibility for the fact that she felt, like, even if you didn't intend to activate some type of PTSD response, like, wouldn't you feel, I guess, like, again, legally, maybe you couldn't apologize, because then she could sue you, and then, you know... Yeah. No, it's exactly that. That's so heartless, and just, like, exploiting this woman, who, like, for some reason has

a bill in the thousands to get fucking blood evidence from a murder case that concerns her conviction, where it seems incredibly likely that there was all kinds of squirrely shit going on behind the scenes, within the police, within the prosecutor's office, within this weird, like, circle with, like, Judy Zess and her boyfriend and her ex-boyfriend, whether they're all, like, either a cop or a criminal or a former cop. Or both. A cop and a criminal. Or both.

Yeah. Yeah. So there's all of these machinations working against this 23-year-old woman, who, like I say, the worst thing she did in this story is picked a really shitty guy. Yeah. And that shouldn't...shouldn't land you in a life like that. No. A two out of ten life.

Ugh. Not a two out of tener. Um, do you want to tell them what we are doing for our next episode? Oh, yeah, I do. I just remembered. Do you...do you know what we're doing for our next episode? Uh, May is a month where we're gonna hit every other Sunday three times instead of twice. Yeah.

So, for our dear listeners, we've invited a guest to come on down and tell us a story. Uh, so you're gonna be hearing three voices, not two. Yeah, that might take some getting used to. I know that you're just like, fuck, these two just talk so much nonsense about everything already. Now we're gonna add another person. But you're still listening, so joke's on you. Yeah.

But yeah, no, I'm really excited. I think it'll be a fun thing to try. It doesn't necessarily mean that we're gonna, like, we don't know what it means, just that we're really excited to invite some other voices into the room and just see what stories kind of stick with people, because I think that's what a lot of this is, is just, like, what are the weird...like, like I say, I had a conversation with my mom. I don't even remember what brought it up, just that she mentioned Run Bambi Run. Mmm.

Okay, so that was the context of how she told you? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so next episode, we're gonna have a guest. We don't know what the story's gonna be. No, neither of us does. Yeah. I'm excited.

I can't wait. I'm happy to anyone who's listening who is a mother, happy mother's me again, or, or I don't know. So people have such fraught relationships with motherhood. Yeah. Do you...is that a nice thing to do? Um... Everyone out there who's listening, I hope you're happy.

I hope that you are safe and that you are being treated the way that you deserve. And thank you for listening. And I love you. I love you too. Love you, mom. Love you, mom. Thanks to Taylor for that story and to all of you for listening in. If you want more infamy, we release episodes every other Sunday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,

and at bittersweetinfamy.com. Stay sweet. The sources that I used for this week's story were the 2010 Associated Press Obituary of Laurie, entitled X Playboy Model, convicted of murder, dies in Oregon. Kind of a misleading title if you ask me. I read an article by Eric Gunn in Milwaukee, MAG, called Laurie's Last Days. That came out in 2011. I used the Way Back Machine and it went to True Crime Library, which if you read about

True Crime, you know, 10 years ago, you were probably on that website a lot, so it was a charming return. It was the article Bambi Bambenek by Catherine Ramsland. I quoted from a Mary Valles article in the New York Post from Friday, November 14, 2003, titled Bambi Sue's Doctor Phil After TD Plan Cost for a Life. I looked at the Victims of Homicide Wiki page for Christine Schultz. I read the Laurie Bambenek articles on Wikipedia and Murderpedia. I watched an episode of SNAPT, Season 28, Episode 11, Laurie Bambenek, and I watched

Woman on Trial, the Laurentia Bambenek story, starring Tatum O'Neill, which is the first half of a two-movie series above Laurie Bambenek. I couldn't find the second half, so hopefully my telling was adequate. The song you're listening to now is Tea Street by Brian Steele. Thanks for listening, as always.