Going West: True Crime - Glensheen Mansion Murders // 190

Episode Date: April 9, 2022

In 1977, a Minnesota heiress was found murdered in the bed of her mansion alongside her night nurse, who lay next to a bloodied candlestick. As investigators began looking into her inner circle for motive, someone stood out amongst the rest. This the story of Elisabeth Congdon, also known, as The Glensheen Mansion Murders. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast Disclaimers and Disclosures (to be included in the show notes/description) • Note: The podcast ad for the IMPACT app is unscripted and being recorded live. It may contain some slight differences. Please visit https://impact.interactivebrokers.com/ for full details of products and services. Interactive Brokers, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. • The projections or other information generated by IMPACT app regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. Please note that results may vary with use of the tool over time. • The paid ad host experiences and testimonials within the Podcast may not be representative of the experiences of other customers and are not to be considered guarantees of future performance or success. The opinions provided within the ad belong to the host alone.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Teeve and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. This week we have almost like a real life case of clue, so thank you so much to Jennifer for recommending this one. This is such a wild story that it has spawned three different books, multiple episodes of True Crime, DocuSeries, and even an award-winning musical. Oh, I'm super excited to get into this one today. So am I, because although of course this is a tragic and true murder story, I do enjoy discussing cases like this because there's so much mystery behind them. So thank you so much everybody for tuning in and we are officially 10 episodes away from

200, which feels surreal. I know, what should we do for our 200th episode? You guys should let us know. Yeah, we'll make a post on our socials and you guys can go follow. If you don't follow us, by the way, our Instagram is at Going West Podcast. We're on Twitter at Going West Pod. Heath and I have personal,

if you wanna follow us, I'm at Daphne Wool. Heath is at Watkins Phoenix. He just changed his. It's Gwokin underscore Phoenix. So yeah. Gwok like Gwokim Moly. That's right, that's right. So yeah, guac like guacamole. That's right. That's right So so yeah, so let us know what you guys want to see for that episode and looking forward to it All right guys. This is episode

190 of going west so let's get into it Music Music In 1977, a Minnesota airstse was found murdered in the bed of Hermanshin alongside her nightmares, who lay next to a bloodied candlestick. As investigators began looking into the eras's inner circle for motive, someone stood out amongst the rest. This is the story of Elizabeth Congden, also known as the Glenshin Mansion Murders. Elizabeth Manorin Kongden was born on April 22, 1894 in Duluth, Minnesota to parents Chester Congden and Clara Hesperia Bannister Congden.

And Elizabeth was the second youngest of seven children born to the Congdenes, alongside Sibling's Walter, Edward, Marjorie, Helen, John and and Robert plus an orphan nephew of Clara's named Albert whom the Congdon's took in and raised as their own. I don't know why but it's so hard for me to think of a young child being named Albert. I don't know. I know what you mean. I can't idea. Yeah these are all very old timing names of Walter too. Yeah. Love it though. So before they became forever linked to a pair of horrific murders, the Congdon's were a prominent and well-respected family in Minnesota.

And before we go into the true crime portion of this story, we want to delve into a bit of the family's history because it's all quite interesting. So and it's relevant. So Elizabeth's father Chester was a descendant of early Quaker colonial settlers of Rhode Island, dating all the way back to the 1600s. And Chester himself grew up in upstate New York, and attended college at Syracuse University, before studying law, moving to Wisconsin to teach, and then finally settling in to St. Paul, Minnesota,

to open his own law practice. Now during his expansive career in law, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney and was eventually elected legislator for the Minnesota House of Representatives. And after relocating to Duluth, Minnesota, he purchased an iron mine that made him like a millionaire overnight. Wow. Wow, yeah, that's pretty amazing. Yeah, lots of success going on here. Yeah, so his wife Clara and Elizabeth's mother was the daughter of a reverend in San Francisco,

whom he met while they were in school together at Syracuse. The Congans were known for their humanitarian work and philanthropy and as good kind people and loving parents. In 1892, two years before Elizabeth was born, they settled in Duluth, Minnesota. And with Chester's career just basically flourishing, he purchased 22 acres of land along beautiful Lake Superior to build his family of nine a sprawling estate. Oh, and he means sprawling a state. Yes, so the construction on their home began in 1905 and it finished officially in 1908.

So it took three years. Yeah. And it cost $854,000 or in today's money, $22 million. And since today's story takes place inside this very mansion, we'll describe what it looks like to hopefully give you guys a good visual. Built in the opulent Victorian style, the property boasts five stories, 39 rooms, and 27,000 square feet of indoor space. So this is freaking huge.

It's fucking huge. So the rooms were immaculately constructed and decorated, gleaming marble fireplaces throughout, stained glass, bay windows, wallpaper made from animal fur, and lavish furnishings imported from Europe. And of course we posted photos if you guys want an actual visual, but there you go. Also, the entire house was equipped with an intercom system to contact the full staff who resided in their own quarters of the house. So basically, you could call your staff at any point and just say,

hey, I need you in the main room or whatever. So there was also an elevator, a billiard room, a massive roundabout driveway, multiple porcelain fountains, manicured gardens, spa bathrooms, and even central heating and cooling. So it's safe to say no comfort was spared. And back in this time, central heating and cooling was like a not a very common thing. So in addition to this beautiful red brick main house that he built for his family to reside in, the property included a boat house, a carriage house, and a gardener's cottage. They named the property Glen Sheen because it was built in a Glen,

and there was always a Sheen coming off of the water of Lake Superior. Chester Kongden passed away in 1916 when his daughter Elizabeth was just 22 years old. With his wife Clara following 34 years later in 1950, leaving the mansion to be inherited by the last surviving Kongden child, which was Elizabeth, and she lived there until her death. But before we get into that, a little bit more about Elizabeth herself, since she is the victim here. So, Elizabeth moved away from her tight-knit family and the stunning Glensheen mansion to

attend boarding school at Dana Hall in Willesley, Massachusetts, and then in 1915, she began attending college at Vassar College in Pekipsi, New York. But when her father Chester passed away of a heart attack, just over a year later on November 21, 1916, like Heath just mentioned, she moved back home to Glensheen to care for her mother and stay close to her siblings. Elizabeth, much like her parents, was a gentle and charitable person and beloved in her community. She was an avid volunteer and served on the boards for her parents' alma mother, Syracuse University, and her own, the Dana Hall School. And she also volunteered at her local hospital. She was the

president of the woman's junior league. And she organized Duluth's local chapter of the Red Cross Nurses Aid Committee during World War II. And most impressively, she started a woman's clinic with a doctor friend of hers named Elizabeth Bagley. So she's out there doing some amazing things. Absolutely. So maybe it was her charitable endeavors that kept her busy, but for whatever reason she just never married. But that was not for a lack of suitors, as she had a long-term relationship with a boy named Fred Wolvin, who, similar to the Kongdins, was a bit of a legend in Duluth as his father was an American freight and shipping magnate.

He eventually proposed and she actually said no. She was like, nah, I'm good, I got other stuff going on. She didn't, however, let that stop her from starting a family. In 1932, when she was 36 years old, she adopted a three-month-old baby girl from North Carolina originally named Jacqueline Barnes, and she eventually renamed this baby girl Marjorie after her older sister. And then she adopted a second little girl she named Jennifer three years later. And more evidence of what an incredible personalisabeth was, she was a single adoptive mother of two in the 1930s, which was pretty rebellious against societal norms at this time.

Yeah, absolutely. So her girls enjoyed a very charmed and privileged upbringing at Glensheen and got to grow up alongside their grandmother Clara and the massive Kongden clan that's heart sick, Kongden clan that eventually grew to 18 grandchildren. They spent their childhood between Minnesota and Arizona, and the girls attended Elizabeth's secondary school, which was Dana Hall, in Massachusetts. And this is where the family's perfect veneer started to crack. From the moment Elizabeth brought Marjorie's new sister Jennifer home, when you know Marjorie was about three years old at that time, right?

Marjorie started acting differently. Even as an only child, she had been shy and withdrawn, but now that there was competition, you know, she only seemed to get worse. Household staff reported rarely seeing her, calling her a bookish and introverted child who enjoyed reading in her room and preferred to be alone. Nothing wrong with that? I agree, but I think it was more so not really what she did, but more so how she acted. Like, she was just very, very reserved, and I think it just kind of worried them. I see. So, you know, while the kind, Cognden family and especially her mother Elizabeth really embraced Marjorie as their own,

she always kind of came off as an outsider. She was described as short and slightly stalky and her extremely poor eyesight forced her to wear thick glasses from a young age. Her sister Jennifer, however, was growing into an affable, friendly and outgoing young woman, which definitely formed a bit of a rift between the two sisters. It was around the time of Jennifer's adoption that family members began to notice marjorie acting strangely, and not in the normal way that like quirky children sometimes do, she would apparently laugh maniacally at nothing and started pulling out her own hair.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, a little bit strange for sure. Yeah. She's a child. I don't know how strange this is, but- Oh, we'll get into it. Yeah, I'm sure we will so to appease her struggling daughter Elizabeth tried her best to be a loving mother to Marjorie by spoiling her and hoping she grew out of her odd habits and The flinty aggressive personality. She seemed to be developing as a preteen But at 13 years old Marjorie did something that is a huge red flag if I've ever heard one. She had apparently been begging her mother Elizabeth for a horse, but when Elizabeth finally, though reluctantly obeyed, she seemed completely disinterested and unenthused.

Frustrated, Elizabeth decided to sell the horse, but then caught Marjorie trying to poison it, and what I can only imagine is, and if I can't have you, then no one can scenario. the horse but then caught Marjorie trying to poison it and what I can only imagine isn't if I can't have you then no one can scenario. I agree. I mean, I think the big red flag here really is the fact that she is trying to murder an animal at 13 years old. So this is what we mean by strange behavior.

It wasn't just, oh, I like to be by myself and I'm an independent kid. Or laugh maniacally. Yeah, I'm kind of weird, but it's like you are doing some very questionable and concerning things that a child or anybody should not be doing. Right. So, Marjorie was growing into this greedy and demanding young woman as she went off to Massachusetts to study at her mother's beloved Alma Mater, Dana Hall at 16.

She remained a loner at school achieving good grades, but unable to make friends. When Marjorie returned home to Glen Sheen and started stealing money from her mother Elizabeth, Elizabeth finally decided to get some help. And she sent her daughter away to the minor-gror clinic in Topeka, Kansas. And then, in 1949, at just 17 years old, Marjorie Congden was diagnosed as a sociopath. Pretty extreme stuff here, you know? And I know that different psychologists actually look this up to see if you can actually be

diagnosed as a sociopath. And I feel like people have different thoughts on that. Obviously, psychologists are all different, and they work in different ways. Absolutely. And we are also not psychologists. That's true, and this is 1949, so kind of take that with a grain of salt as well,

but still a very interesting potential diagnosis for young Marjorie. But this diagnosis was not going to stop Marjorie from getting what she wanted, which apparently was her mother's money. In what is a very typical move for sociopaths, Marjorie learned during her time away from Glen Sheen how to manufacture charm in order to manipulate those around her. Less than a year after her diagnosis, Marjorie met the unwitting Richard Webster or Dick

Leroy, who was a 23-year-old Navy vet and insurance underwriter. By 1951, when she was just 19, they were married on a beautiful June day at none other than Glen Sheen Manchin. Marjorie's uncle and Elizabeth's younger brother, Robert, gave her away, which was very sweet, and her sister Jennifer served as her maid of honor. Richard was handsome and successful, eventually opening his own insurance agency and becoming a stockbroker,

and he was a member of Mensa, which is a society for people with extremely high IQs, and we actually discussed Menza in episode 163 of going last a few months back for the murder of Peggy Carr. So Marjorie and Richard Leroy had seven children together. Steven, Peter, Suzanne, Andrew, Rebecca, Heather, and Richard. The family started out in St. Louis, Missouri, before settling into the Minneapolis area where Richard was transferred for work.

So they moved around every few years, always kind of trading up to a nicer, larger house, and a better neighborhood, and a neighbor in Minneapolis actually remembers Marjorie as a picture perfect matriarch, dressing her children like the Von Trap kids in beautiful, coordinated, and probably very expensive outfits, and she loved to entertain and show off her home. She really prided herself on how things looked on the outside,

with much less regard for how she was going to sustain her extravagant lifestyle. Her instability led her to be suspected of arson when accidental fires occurred in two of their family homes. Not a good sign here. But she couldn't hide her true nature forever and eventually her husband tired of just this reckless spending on her part and her impulsive nature, so by the end of their marriage 19 years later, Richard was over a million dollars in debt. So Elizabeth actually helped where she could, even apparently contributing over 350,000 dollars to pay down what her daughter owed. But Marjorie's compulsive lying and spending proved to be too much for Richard, so in 1970 they called it quits.

Now let's catch up on what was happening over at Glenshean. In 1968, 74-year-old Elizabeth suffered a massive stroke. She was in a coma for over a week and sustained brain damage and hearing loss, and her right side remained partially paralyzed, not to mention her ongoing struggle with diabetes. So sad that's so much going on at once. Yeah, and this left her confined to a wheelchair, and dependent on the care of a full-time nurse and live-in care staff. That same year following her sharply declining health, the Kongd and estate elected with,

you know, the permission of Elizabeth to donate the mansion to the University of Minnesota Duluth after her death, and, you know, whenever that may be. So in 1971, Elizabeth's last surviving sibling, her sister Marjorie, who also happens to be her daughter's namesake, passed away leaving Elizabeth to tend to family matters, including her troubled daughter on her own. And by this point, all the condoms including Elizabeth and Jennifer were aware of Marjorie's voracious spending. So at that point, they vowed to stop gifting or loaning her any money.

Which makes sense. I mean, they've done a lot for her. And she's just a brat. And she's just she's not stopping this compulsive act of buying these extravagant things that she can't afford. And now she's divorced. So, you know, what, what can they really do? They've done enough for her. Yeah, they kind of just have to cut her off at this point. So as the years passed on, ailing Elizabeth required around the clock care, which is where her nurses really came in. But in the early morning hours of Monday, June 27th, 1977,

something horrible happened in the Glenstein mansion. Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, in the brisk, lakeside chill of the night, someone lurked outside of her stunning family home. Around 2am, Elizabeth was already fast asleep in her second story bedroom, while her night nurse, Velma Piedla, remained on duty, checking the home as she did. Velma had previously been had nurse and had become very close with Elizabeth and actually retired one month before this night so that she could spend the rest of her days playing golf with her husband and enjoying days with her grandchildren.

But someone had asked her to fill in for them that evening. So against her husband's wishes, Velma agreed this one last time. But tragically, by morning, both Elizabeth and Velma would be dead. Just around five hours later, at 7 a.m. on the morning of June 27, 1977, Daners-Mildred Garview arrived to relieve her coworker, Night Nurse Velma Piatila, from her duties, and found the door unlocked. Now after checking in with the cook in the kitchen, Mildred headed upstairs to check in on Elizabeth, but a horrifying discovery stopped her in her tracks.

Velma lay crumpled at the top of the stairs, bled into death. An autopsy would later find that Velma died of a skull fracture and sustained 23 lacerations to her head and her body. She was reportedly covered in blood and cold as stone. A bloody discarded candlestick lay on the landing nearby posing as a likely murder weapon. And this is kind of where that murder mystery escalates. Yeah, very clue. Absolutely. Very much is. Yeah. Of

course, I mean, 23 lacerations, that is brutal murder. That's overkill. So Velma was 66 years old and left behind a loving husband and three children. And like we mentioned, this poor woman wasn't even supposed to be working that night. She was supposed to be retired and enjoying the rest of her years with her family,

making this situation all the more tragic. After confirming Velma's gruesome fate, Mildred raced into Elizabeth's room, fearing the worst. She lay peacefully but completely still in her bed, a satin pillow covering her face. Closer inspection confirmed the worst case scenario. Elizabeth Congden was dead, her face blue and her tongue slack. Her room had also been ransacked, jewelry and pillows strewn about the floor, and she

was missing an ancient gold coin from the Byzantine era, which was worth a small fortune, plus a diamond ring and a gold wristwatch that she never took off. Mildred fled the scene and then called 911. Something I want to know about is the cook, and I feel like you guys are probably wondering the same thing if the cook was actually there, if she just checked in and did she or there. Sorry, you're right. I don't know why I'm assuming that the cook is a woman. I don't know. But I wonder if there was actually somebody else in the house. Because remember, this is 7 a.m.

So this murder had happened only hours earlier. It's still very early in the morning, potentially even before Elizabeth is supposed to be up for the day. So even if her other staff did begin to arrive around this time, they maybe didn't even go upstairs. They're just reporting to their quarters of the house waiting to kind of be called on. Yeah. So because it still is very early. So but that that part definitely interests me. That's what I was thinking to like maybe they just hadn't gone upstairs quite yet. Yeah, totally. So police surmised that the double homicide was a botched robbery because just like he

said, there were items missing. This ancient gold coin was gone. You know, there was stuff strewn about the house. And the perpetrator had likely entered through a broken window in the billiard room downstairs. Because they found this broken window obviously, it seems like that's the way that the person entered. Yeah. So definitely a possibility. And they guess that the burglar ascended the stairs, looking for Elizabeth in particular and was surprised to be apprehended by Velma, the night nurse, resulting in her brutal murder. So she was just kind of a casualty of this situation, which like you said, is so sad because she was not supposed to be working that night.

And even her husband had asked her not to do it. And she was probably just being helpful and a wonderful coworker and helping somebody else out. Just an extremely unfortunate victim. So unfortunate. So the killer then probably, you know, after murdering Velma, found Elizabeth asleep in her bed and smothered her with the pillow until she passed away, and then just scooped up any valuables that he or she could find before fleeing in Velma's car, which was a 1976 160 miles or 257 kilometers south of Glenshin at the Minneapolis

St. Paul International Airport. So that is even more of a mystery. How the target there and why is it there? And being at the airport, whether this is staged or not, at this point in the story, it just makes you think, this is 1977 where they're not really tracking, it's not like today where we know exactly who's getting on the plane and who's not. Right.

But if this is a stage scenario, I think this is kind of where you're going with this. If this is, that's kind of a genius idea to plant the car at the airport because it's like, oh, they must have got on a plane and just took off somewhere. And could have gone anywhere and what day did they fly? What day did the car get there? So also, the keys for the car were recovered from a trash can nearby. So it's like somebody dropped off the car and then threw the keys in the garbage. Yeah.

So early on in the investigation, no suspects were on the docket here. And police even wondered if more than one culprit could have been involved. And it may sound outlandish how few leads there really were, but with no security camera footage on the grounds of Glenstein or of this incident, and no distinguishable fingerprints found at the scene of the murders, or in the car that was left behind, and with the gate to the mansion, having just happened to have been left open the night before the crimes took place, there really wasn't any evidence pointing one direction or another. However, investigators were about to take a sharp turn. So three days after the murders, the family began to arrive in Duluth for Elizabeth's funeral, with her daughter Marjorie and her new husband Roger Caldwell in attendance,

and they were eager to get their hands on that inheritance. It was there that things started to unravel for the Colorado couple. Investigators and family members noticed scratches all over Robert's face and hands, but Marjorie explained that he had been kicked by a horse. I mean, I guess that happened. Interesting injuries from a horse. Yeah, my horse scratching your face with a toe. You know, good question. So meanwhile, even those closest to Marjorie suspected her involvement in her mother's death. Her sister Jennifer upon hearing the news reportedly said it to Marjorie suspected her involvement in her mother's death. Her sister Jennifer upon hearing the news reportedly said it was Marjorie.

Yeah, like just no way around. Well, it was Marjorie. And as we know, I mean, I know you're going to get into this, but as we know, Marjorie was a bit of an odd child. So for her sister to just come out and say it was Marjorie, like you've got to be pretty, like not the best gal. Yeah, that's a hard core of a Marjorie, like you've got to be pretty, like not the best gal. Yeah, that's a hard core. Marjorie, that's a hardcore accusation.

Absolutely. So with Roger and Marjorie in town playing the roles of bereaved family, please set their sights on them, as they pursued one small lead, more evidence fell into place. A search of the couple's Duluth hotel room turned up jewelry matching the description of what was taken from Elizabeth's room. And then get this. So a self-addressed stamped envelope. Self-addressed. Yeah. In Roger and Marjorie's mailbox in Colorado, contained the missing ancient gold coin covered in Rogers fingerprints, and it was postmarked in Duluth the day of the murders.

It's kinda hard to get around this. You know, it doesn't look good for you guys. DNA found at the scene of the crime matched Rogers and blood found in addition to Velma's matched Rogers blood type. He was eventually even identified by the cab driver who claimed to have dropped him off at Glensheen the evening of the murders. I mean, come on, dude. I knew really this dumb.

You just got ID'd by the cab driver. Like, there's this is too many things. Yeah. So while the small town police force struggled with the case of this magnitude, the evidence just became insurmountable. And get this as well. So during a visit to Glenshin to visit her mother, Elizabeth, in 1973, so four years before the murders, Marjorie had visited. And during this time, Elizabeth fell violently ill

from accidental ingestion of a steroid, a steroid, sorry, called mapproba mate coincidentally or not, after Marjorie had made her homemade marmalade. Whoa. So she made marmalade? Yeah, she makes her some marmalade. Elizabeth becomes very ill and it is uncovered that she had consumed mapproba mate.

I don't know how this wasn't attempted murder at the time if maybe they didn't find out until later on. Or maybe they didn't push an investigation. Maybe Elizabeth didn't want that. But either way, that occurred four years prior. So if that isn't motive to you, like or proof of motive that she was trying to kill her mother before, I don't know.

So by 1976, three years after this, and one year before the murder, Marjorie had relocated to Golden, Colorado to start a new. And that's when she met and remarried a single father named Roger Caldwell, and that she met at a parents without partners meeting. So I didn't want to put this before, but just in case you're confused as we're talking about Roger this is her

new husband who she remarried just a year prior and they were living together in Colorado. So the two reportedly had a very volatile relationship because Roger was described as a violent alcoholic and Marjorie continued her reckless cycle of like borrowing and overspending. So this was not a good mix. They both had some issues and it affected the other person heavily. But as we can remember, Marjorie, who was cut off by her mother and also had accountants managing her trust fund and her family's estate. She grew desperate.

Yeah, she was super, super desperate because she had really no money in her hands. So she and Roger decided that they wanted to invest in a horse ranch outside of Golden Colorado, even going so far as touring a few and promising banks and realtors that her mother would cover it, which Elizabeth absolutely would not have done. So she's just kind of spending her mother's money without her mother's knowledge? So messed up. So, knowing that she'd be denied, Marjorie actually sent Roger to appeal to the board of trustees

in charge of the family's money, citing that her son was as mad as needed the fresh air for his health. But they saw right through this very flimsy story, and Roger and Marjorie were denied once again. And Marjorie was not used to not getting her way. So with their cars repossessed and their home for closed, Marjorie would do anything to get her money, except, of course, do the right thing. So it turned out that she knew how to get her way after all,

and this was by getting her inheritance. So upon her mother's death, Marjorie was to receive $8 million, which is a huge chunk of money, especially to Marjorie who is very desperate for money. So on June 24, 1977, Marjorie had her will notarized, allocating $2.5 million to her husband Roger in the event of her mother's death. And three days later, 83-year-old Elizabeth Congden was found dead in Glenshean mansion.

So it was more than obvious that Marjorie and Roger had motive and there was a slew of evidence against them. On July 5, 1977, Roger was arrested by Duluth Police for the murders of Elizabeth Congden and Velma Piatila. While Marjorie was not yet apprehended, Suspition's Guru was Roger collapsed at their hotel shortly before his arrest. Suddenly, of a supposed heart attack, but after being hospitalized for his condition, it was revealed that he had also been poisoned.

Duh, duh, duh, yeah. Marjorie the Poisoner. Wondering who did that. And that's something you're trying to make light of this murder at all because this is terrible. And if Marjorie did attempt or did actually poison her mother years prior, which I believe she did, it's like, you're doing it again.

There's so much against you already, just stop. Yeah, it's just so typical of Marjorie. Right. It's like, come on, we already on to you, ladies, stop it. Yeah, and it took police over a year to indict Marjorie, you know. Right, it's like, come on, we already, we're already on to you, ladies, stop it. Yeah, and it took police over a year to indict Marjorie on any charges. But on July 11th, 1978, just three days after her husband Roger was convicted of killing Elizabeth and Velma at Glen Sheen, the summer prior, Marjorie was arrested for her involvement in the crime.

She seems like she was the ringleader, she was the puppet master. Absolutely. She was the one who convinced Roger to do this, but I think he's the one who did it and he acted alone. 100%. You know, it does seem like she is the one in charge of all of this. Yeah.

However, Marjory's cachet as a clung-dun and her ability to pay a top miniapolis criminal defense lawyer with her inheritance made her trial, you know, a much different one. Absolutely. So while Roger was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, Marjorie was acquitted of all charges and left a free woman. Absolute insanity. I can't even wrap my head around this.

So consistent with the behavior of sociopaths, she charmed the entire courtroom, knitting and reading while the details of the horrific double murder unfolded. She's literally fucking, I don't know. Crochet in the courtroom, what the hell's going on? How does she think that's gonna help her case when the conversation at hand is your mother's murder

and you're just fucking nitting. Yeah, and she also brought a birthday cake to court for her lawyer, Ron Meshburcher. So it's like, I'm a sweet lady, I make cake. Right, yeah. Wow. No. Man, playing a character. So upon hearing the news of her innocent verdict, some members of the jury even hugged her, congratulating

her on her freedom. That literally sick ends me. Are you kidding? Oh, God, I can't shake my head any more than this. So in 1982, Minnesota Supreme Court overturned Roger's conviction. The following year on July 5, 1983, exactly six years after he was first arrested for the murders, Roger was released from prison. Five years later, on May 18, 1988, Roger took his own life, and in his suicide note,

he maintained his innocence. I mean, I will say though, obviously it's hard. It's hard for me because if his blood was found in his finger print with the coin, it's hard for me to believe that he was innocent, but I do think that Marjorie is a con woman. I think that she was a manipulator. So I also wouldn't be surprised if she was behind it herself and just made it seem like Roger was the one, but it is pointing to Roger to me. It's pointing to both.

She seems like a criminal mastermind in my opinion. I completely agree. So while that may mean the end of Elizabeth, Velma, and Roger's stories, Marjories continues. In 1980, while still married to Roger called well as he was serving his prison sentence, she met a Colorado man named Wally Hagen, also still married. Shortly thereafter, Wally's wife died in a nursing home, and the last person to see her alive was you guessed it, Marjorie Kongden. The Poisoner.

Yes. So Marjorie and Wally married in March of 1981, and then the pair bought a house that they could not afford and were forced to sell it. New homeowners reported a chemical varnish coating the floors the day they moved in. And the following day, the house burned to the ground. The Marjorie, the Poisoners slash Arsoner.

And we know she was suspected of that previously. Like she's just a, yeah, which we're just, she's repeating things. So it's almost like we know you did this before. Why would you do it again? Because now I just think you did that even more. Well, this is the best part coming up. So are you right. So after a lifetime of getting away with our sin and much more, Marjorie was finally arrested

and tried for the crime. And this time, it was indefensible. But in 1986, after serving just a 20-month sentence, Marjorie was released. And she and Wally moved down to Arizona, where she, her sister Jennifer and Elizabeth, had spent many happy days in her youth. In the first two years, Wally and Marjorie resided in the small town of, I think it's uh-huh? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Sorry. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Arizona near the border of Mexico. And it experienced over 2,500 unexplainable fires. Wow. Yeah.

So this was just in the first two years that they were there. So in 1991, Marjorie was caught in the act two years that they were there. So in 1991, Marjorie was caught in the act of setting a neighbor's house on fire with him inside. What? This woman? She was caught in the act. It's just, I hate to laugh, but she's... This is five years after she got out of prison. She's caught in the act of our sense. She just does not quit. This is, I mean, it's kind of funny, but it's absolutely horrible. So, but luckily her look had finally run out once again, and she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. I think at this point, you just have to say she, we need to keep her behind bars. Yeah, I mean, we know

all the things that she's been doing. The fact that she tried to burn down her neighbor's house with him inside. Yeah. And she was caught. Right. And there's all these unexplainable other arsons. She had been convicted for arson previously. Oh, man. So for some reason, Marjorie was given one more evening with her husband, Wally, before she was locked up. And guess what? He died that night of a drug overdose. Oh my god. Which she attributed to suicide not wanting to live without her. So she's saying, oh, he killed himself because he didn't want to live without me. I think it's the other way around. I think she didn't want him to live without her. Right.

So prosecutors attempted to charge her with murder, the murder of her husband Wally, on top of her arson charge, but without any hard evidence, no sentence was carried out. Even though it's very clear that this woman has either murdered multiple people or has at least attempted to murder multiple people. So after her release in 2007 because she did get out again, Marjorie was under suspicion of murder once again when a gentleman friend of hers named Roger Samus who was in declining health and living in a nursing home

suddenly died. Marjorie had pushed to obtain power of attorney, meaning that she could act on his behalf for him shortly before his passing because she was probably trying to get money out of it. Right, meaning that she, yeah, she would be in control of his assets and his money. Exactly. But not only did she attempt to transfer herself the inheritance money that he received from a friend after their passing,

but she had him cremated before a cause of death could be determined, or in autopsy was even performed. So she was on top of this whole scenario. I, just this woman is shocked by this woman. And in typical Marjorie fashion, she got off on just three years probation. Wow. I don't know how she brought in for this.

Yes. What? So Marjorie Manoring, Kongden, Leroy, Caldwell, Hagen, it's still around. It's still around. There's a whole lot of dead husbands. There you go. They're tied on to her name.

Yeah, she's still around and she's living in Tucson, Arizona and she's almost 90 years old. The journalist who first covered the murders in Duluth and continues to report on Marjorie's whereabouts and transgressions still thinks that she had something to do with the murders of her mother and Velma in the summer of 1977. Da. And as more than just a mastermind or accomplice.

So he basically thinks that she was probably physically there. Right. And a strand of dark brown hair, not matching anyone known to be at the scene of the crime, was found next to Elizabeth's body. Which could help prove that Marjorie was there, potentially. Right. But it seems that no matter how much evidence is stacked against Marjorie, for the trail of disasters and tragedies she's left in her wake. True justice will never be served.

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and on Friday, we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. He is worried that Marjorie's gonna come for us, after what we said. I don't know if she might come try to poison me. I'm just saying, this is like the evidence is so stacked against her, it's insane.

And I just feel like I'm so surprised that she is a free woman right now and has lived to 90 despite all of what has happened around her. She's still kicking and she is still out of prison. Just the magnitude and just the amount of different things that she's done throughout her life, the different cases she's been involved in. It's just mind blowing. I mean, this whole story is wild. This is a crazy story start to finish. Just the family's backstory, the murder itself, how all the things that Marjorie did and was able to get away with, wild, wild story. So thank you guys so much for joining us today at Going West, at Going

West. On Going West. On Going West. In Going West. Who knows. We really appreciate all of you guys so much. Also thank you guys so much for leaving us nice reviews. We love when you guys leave us reviews. It makes our day so please. It really does make our day. So please continue doing so. Yeah, even though we don't do shout outs anymore, just know that when you leave us a nice review, we do read most of them if not all of them.

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