Let's Go To Court! - 2: Anna Nicole Smith & the Downfall of the KKK

Episode Date: March 5, 2018

WARNING: The audio in this episode is rough. What can we say? We were young(ish), dumb, and thought we’d save a little money by sharing one microphone. Yeah. The audio quality improves drastically after episode 9.  In this episode, Kristin talks about world-class asshole D.C. Stephenson. Stephenson led the Klu Klux Klan through a period of unprecedented growth, but his violent crime against a white woman took him down. His trial captivated the nation and ultimately led to the downfall of the KKK’s second wave. Brandi lightens things up (thank God), with everyone’s favorite Guess model/reality TV star/day shift stripper, Anna Nicole Smith. When she was just 26, Smith married an 89-year-old billionaire. When he died a year later, Smith battled her late husband’s descendants over her share of the estate. The case went all the way to the supreme court. Twice. Yeah. Buckle up, folks.  And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “D.C. Stephenson Trial” Famous-trials.com “Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty: The Rise and Fall of D.C. Stephenson” Smithsonian Magazine IndianaHistory.org “Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928” By Leonard J. Moore In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Paw Paw and Lady Love” by Dan P. Lee for New York Magazine

Brandi? Yes, Kristen? Are we experts? At what? Anything? No. No, we are not. So we're just two ladies who love black eyeliner, a cold can of Fresca, and a really juicy lawsuit. Damn skippy. I'm Brandi Egan. And I'm Kristen Pitts. Let's go to court. On this episode, I'll talk about KKK leader D.C. Stevenson, whose vicious attack on a white woman ultimately led to the decline of the KKK. And I'll be talking about Anna Nicole Smith, the Playboy Playmate, who famously contested her 90-year-old husband's will and took the fight all the way to the Supreme Court.

Brandi. Yes, Kristen? We have a sponsor. We do? No. Wouldn't it be cool though? It sure would. In the meantime, let's make this sponsored by my husband, the gaming historian, who every week sets us up with our audio equipment. Head on over to the YouTube channel, Gaming Historian. That is the uh, Gaming Historian. Don't forget the uh, people. You'll go somewhere else. That's right. All right. You ready to learn about DC Stevenson? I am. This guy was a world-class asshole. Yes.

I will say, there's going to be a huge silver lining to this story but the story itself is just awful and a total bummer and we're just gonna get through it together yeah we'll hold hands okay maybe sing kumbaya afterwards just to lift our spirits a bit s'mores yeah okay yes please so how can i have s'more something when I haven't had any? That is awful. What's that from? Sandlot. Oh, yeah. It's a great band. Sorry. Take it away, Kristen. Let's start with 1915 the movie birth of a nation just came out and it was like the titanic of its day it was this huge long movie tons of people went out to see it it was the first movie ever shown in the white house oh wow i know and it was basically KKK propaganda because the Klan kind of died out in the late 1870s. But this movie came out and kind of like re-energized people.

And I didn't watch it, so I don't know the plot in depth. But my understanding is that it basically paints black men as very sexually aggressive toward white women you know super rapey and these clan members as protectors of white women you know like yes yes like super into law and order and justice and you know just good christian men you know all that bullshit that's 1915 as a result of that movie and, you know, a lot of other factors, interest in the Klan kind of swells. And it gets huge in the South and in the Midwest. And so the second wave of the Klan, they are anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, and of course, they're anti-Black. I'm not going to get a whole lot into the Klan because I think we know about the Klan. Yeah.

Not nice guys. No, yes. As it turns out. Cross burnings, lynchings, threats of violence. And in this wave, I'm not sure if it was the same way in the first wave of the Klan, but in this one especially, there was this idea that they would protect womanhood. So what that means... Tell me what that means. I'm really excited to learn. Because obviously it's not protecting every woman. You know, it's a specific type of woman. Not just all white women. It's like the

specific type of white woman. So I did a little reading last night and it's just gross. Like, it wasn't uncommon for women who'd been divorced or who fought for the right to vote or who basically wanted any kind of independence to be beaten by the Klan, intimidated by the Klan. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Oh, there was also one of a woman who just didn't go to church much. Oh, my gosh!

Lock me up. No kidding. On to our guy. It's 1920. Could you not call him our guy? On to this asshole we're going to talk about. There we go. I like that much better. Very good. Good point. So 1920, D.C. Stevenson moves to Indiana. Okay. Here's what he tells people about himself. I just love this. He tells people, I come from a very wealthy family. I went to college, but then I had to stop to go be a war hero. He tells people, oh, I fought the Germans in France in World War I. And this is my favorite part that he told people. He said that before he left for war, he, you know, just bought a few stocks, like didn't, didn't think too much of it, went off to

war, became this war hero, came back to the United States, and oopsies, he's a millionaire now. It's like the Bitcoin story. I'm like, oh, I forgot I had this. That's what he told everybody. But, of course, the truth was just that he was a master bullshitter. He didn't come from a wealthy family. His parents were sharecroppers. He never went to college. He didn't go overseas for war. He went to officer training, but he was just a recruiter in the United States for the military. Let's see. The other lovely thing he did was he

attempted to desert his pregnant wife, but, and I'm reading directly from my notes here, she tracked his bitch ass down and got a divorce. The other thing was that he'd also been fired from his job at a newspaper for being an argumentative drunk. Ooh. Yeah. Oh. So that kind of sets the scene. Yeah. He's horrible to women, loves booze.

But apparently, right, very, probably charming. Yes. And a great bullshitter. Yeah, and that's definitely what you have to keep in mind. Absolutely. That even though, like, we know he was awful, he had some charm, and he could talk his way out of a lot of stuff, and could convince people to do things, and he eventually remarried.

By the time he gets to Indiana, he's 29 with his second wife. So in 1921, he's invited to join the KKK. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. This is when things get really dangerous, obviously, because until this point in his life, he's been kind of a drifter. He's really just a bullshitter who has nothing to show for himself. Now he has a cause to believe. And yeah, yeah, now he has friends. He's got power all of a sudden. And he becomes a recruiter for the clan which i think is so

scary because like i said i'm pretty sure he was a recruiter for the military i could have googled this before we talked you did you're right yeah okay i am positive that he was a remember two experts christian thank you thank you he in my mind he took this expertise Thank you. Thank you. He, in my mind, he took this expertise that he got from the government and perfected on this legitimate job. And then he brought it to the fucking KKK. And he was insanely effective. Under his guidance, the Indiana clan exploded. They eventually had the largest chapter of any state. It was absolutely huge. At one point in time, thanks to his efforts, one in three white men in Indiana were members of the Klan.

Holy shit. Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh. Also, this doesn't totally fit in here, but I feel like it should be mentioned. Protestant ministers got in free. Oh. Isn't that gross? mentioned. Protestant ministers got in free. Oh, isn't that gross? Yeah. That's crazy. Eventually, you know, he's experiencing all this success. He sets up an

office in Indianapolis and he starts the KKK's newspaper, The Fiery Cross. A little on the nose. Yeah. In 1922, D.C. Stevenson is doing great at the Klan, terrible at his marriage. He likes to get drunk all the time, come home, beat his wife up. So eventually they divorce. Fast forward to July 4th, 1923. D.C. Stevenson is named Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan. I didn't even know that was a thing. Grand Dragon?

Grand Dragon. Sounds a little Asian-y for the clan, right? Okay, I'm glad you're making fun of the name, because, like, I ended up coming across a lot of these names while I was researching. Yeah. These are the stupidest names you've ever heard like imperial wizard you know just like all the stuff that you think a dumb 11 year old I was gonna say like a 13 year old man made these up in his basement yes I thought about this for an embarrassing amount of time because I also when I was looking at

these titles did you ever watch Toddlers and Tiaras? Absolutely. Okay. You know, like, the first episode I watched, I expected, okay, they're going to get first, second, or third. Right? No. Little Miss Grand Supreme. Yes, Ultimate Grand Supreme.

They all sound like various, like, versions of tacos at Taco Bell. Yes! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Your mind went exactly where mine was! Okay, so here's my theory. I cannot believe you said that. My theory is that if you take all the words on the Taco Bell menu, and you put them in a bag, and you take all the words that make up child beauty pageants, and you put those in a bag, you draw from each bag you will have a clan so ultimate grand crunch wrap

oh god i can't believe your mind went there okay so he is named grand dragon prettiest eyes of the indiana clan and he's named this in front of a crowd of almost 100,000 people. Oh my gosh. Isn't that so gross and so terrifying? Yes. He was also, I think this was more private, he was also named the head recruiter for seven other states.

And the title for that, and I am not making this up, is King Klegel. What? What does that even mean? The title for that, and I am not making this up, is King Klegel. What? What does that even mean? It sounds so much like Kegels to me. It's way too close. I love that there's supposed to be this, like, really tough, masculine, awful organization, but, like, they're just a couple letters off. Exactly. awful organization but like yeah they're just a couple letters off exactly during this ceremony

he allegedly said to this crowd my worthy subjects citizens of the invisible empire clansmen all greetings it grieves me to be late the president of the united states kept me unduly long counseling on matters of state only my plea that this is the time and the place of my coronation obtain me for me surcease from his prayers for guidance yeah oh my gosh and i was just curious who was president i was gonna ask you who was president but i didn't want to like put you on the spot if you hadn't googled it no No, I did Google it. Warren G. Harding. I was going to say Warren G. Harding. Did you really guess? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Some people have come out and said that he didn't actually say this. I included it just because either way, it's kind of important to just set

the tone for he he saw himself as hugely influential and people thought of him as hugely influential especially in politics at this time because it was around this time that indiana the indiana clan got super involved in politics here was the candidate that dc stevenson loved he loved someone who was not super confident someone who was a little sheepish and someone who was not super confident, someone who was a little sheepish, and someone who was convinced that he would not win without the Klan's support. So that basically when the Klan helped him get into office, and then D.C. Stevenson said, hey, I want this, that, and the other thing, the guy would be like, absolutely. Someone with no spine was his ideal candidate. Absolutely. Other things that the Klan loved.

The Klan supposedly was very in favor of prohibition. They did not like alcohol at all. They were very much against bootleggers. I know. That's a weird one to me. I don't know why, but. They, I think it was kind of a religious thing. Yeah. Yeah. And because of that, women really kind of got on board with the Klan. Did you ever watch the Ken Burns documentary on Prohibition? Oh, it is so good. And it goes into a lot of the role that women played because, you know, at first you're kind of like,

God, dumb women. But when you learn more about like what their lives were like, okay, so they couldn't earn enough money to support their family. So if you had the bad fortune to be married to a drunk guy yeah you were just screwed and so were your kids you know all the money went out the window so a lot of them thought okay the only option is to just get rid of this alcohol like that's the best yeah course of action wow yeah it's weird it is that's such a weird thing to think about but that is true.

I mean, they wouldn't have had a way to support their families without their husbands. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure getting a divorce at that time was tough. Yeah. Absolutely. Although D.C. Stevenson managed to do it. That's right.

He got it down pat. So, KKK, they are in favor of prohibition, and they're also, again, protectors of virtuous womanhood. But the thing was, even though that's what the Klan said they were after, D.C. Stevenson was awful to women and was a huge drunk. I've compiled a list of some of his attacks on women during this time, and this is just a list of what he was either caught in the act doing or what women had the courage to come forward oh my gosh yeah so just imagine like how how how much deeper it probably goes absolutely here's here's the start of the list after that july 4th ceremony where he was named grand crunch rap supreme a woman told woman told police that Stevenson tried to rape her

and that, quote, he is a beast when he's drunk. Then, in Ohio, he pled guilty to indecent exposure after police caught him with his pants down next to his 22-year-old secretary. Yeah. So this I'm taking directly from this article I found in Smithsonian Magazine. It says, they were parked on the side of a highway,

and the officer came up to them, and Stevenson grabbed her left hand, pushed it toward the officer, and said, My God, would you insult this girl? Did you see that ring, that diamond ring? I'm going to marry this girl. We are engaged.

He added that he was an official and couldn't afford to have all this notoriety and publicity. What a winner. Yeah. Ugh. That theme... official and couldn't afford to have all this notoriety and publicity what a winner yeah oh that theme i'm just gonna go ahead and apologize right now for the amount of i'm gonna do during this because it's normal yeah yeah what do you say right what the hell do you say to that i included that quote just because i think it shows how manipulative and also how quick he was on his feet. And you'll notice as we go through this stuff, that's kind of a place he jumped to a lot of like, no, I'm in love with this woman. No, we're going to get married.

Well, I'm protecting this woman. That goes back to their whole. She's not a victim of anything. Yeah, no. Here's another gross one. In 1924, Stevenson tried to rape a manicurist who was sent to his hotel room. I read two different versions of this story, and it seems like either one could be true. Really, it seems like maybe one was just more detailed than the other one. In the first one, a bellboy attempted to save her, and Stevenson punched the bellboy. In the second one, which again was in the Smithsonian Magazine article, it went into

a lot more detail. And the woman is quoted as saying, there were three full quarts of whiskey. And when I told him that I didn't want any, he came over and grabbed me. He said that he would give me a hundred dollars if I would allow him to have intercourse with me. Of course, he was more rude than I care to be expressing it. I told him I was not in the habit of being insulted by anyone like that, and he said, you will or I'll kill you. She fled and ran into two of his associates outside who tried to console her. Don't pay any attention to him, one said.

He is a good fellow. He is drunk. He's all right when he's sober. You go downstairs and don't bother about it oh yeah what a winner yeah this guy to me i and i don't know if this is the right way to look at it but i almost get more annoyed and grossed out by the guys who surround all the people that are defending him. Yes. And, yes.

Because to me, it's like, it's one thing to have this rapist. Yeah. But it's another for these supposedly more normal people to be like, oh, he's fine. Just wait for him to sober up. He just gets a little rowdy when he drinks. I hate that. Yes. I hate that. Yes.

I hate that shit. Absolutely. I've been drunk a number of times in my life. I have never raped anybody. I don't mean to brag to you. But the fun doesn't end. Okay, so here's another one. Then, that same year, a woman who was at a party at Stevenson's home told police that he had locked her in a room,

knocked her down, bit her, and, quote, tried to force himself on me. I mean, I have no words. I know. It's just fucking awful. Yeah, yeah. This guy was completely awful. Slight side note. You know, I've been quoting a lot from the Smithsonian Magazine article,

which is an awesome article. I loved it. But this article had the dumbest subhead I've ever seen. So here's what the subhead was. The Grand Dragon of the Klan and prominent Indiana politician had a vicious streak that had horrifying consequences. A vicious streak. So, I just think, like, when I saw that use of vicious streak. It's still.

He's a Klan. He's a Klan. There's no streak. It's like. He is. Yes. That's him 100 i just think and i want to say the article is great and usually the writers are not the ones who write the subheads yeah but damn i mean you

only use vicious streak if it's like oh boy scout how to vicious streak um you know sunday school teacher how to vicious streak not leader of the clan anyway okay so that was a little side note we're in 1924 now and the important thing to know about this point in time he's built up the clan tons of members he's got political influence but he's also got this bad history of assaulting women. Around this time, he starts to have really bad blood with Haram Evans, who was the KKK's imperial wizard. And that's the head of the national organization. So he's the head, head Klansman. Yeah, he's king of the douchebags. Yes. And DC Stevenson. He's got the biggest pointy hat these two are butting heads and i think a lot of it was about financial stuff because there was tons of money to be had there was a lot of greed and also the other thing i

think is in any organization there's a certain percentage of the people who are just going to be assholes you just can't help it you know know, I don't know, like maybe 10%. In the KKK... It's all of them! So, you know, I'm sure these are just like naturally hateful people who are not going to be fun to work with. Anyway, the two of them are kind of at each other's throats. And at one point, Stevenson even resigned from the KKK,

kind of at each other's throats. And at one point, Stevenson even resigned from the KKK, but he was eventually reinstated or like tried to create his own competing group. I don't, I don't know what he did. A spinoff, a KKK spinoff, the JJJs. Just as hateful. We wear red robes. Trademark pending. So fast forward to the summer of 1924 imperial wizard haram evans he wants to get rid of stevenson so badly and all of a sudden it kind of clicks for him oh shit the way i can get rid of this guy is by using his drinking and the assaults against women to get rid of him because you know supposedly we're anti-drinking and we're, you know, just, we just love ladies. So he organizes a Klan tribunal and he charges Stevenson with drunkenness and disrespecting virtuous womanhood, etc. The Klan tribunal finds him guilty and they actually voted to ban him from the organization for life.

Man, if you are banned from the kkk you know you're awful but okay so here's here's my favorite part this is just so crazy that did not stop stevenson he just went back to indiana and was, nah, don't worry about it. Uh-huh. And he was just like, that was a plot by the Southern KKK to kind of get me out of office. Don't worry about it. Fake news. You know, let's move on. So he said their verdict was just an evil plot you know and people apparently were like okay again i'm gonna read directly from my notes

so he was a human turd but you can't shame a turd so he kept going this is the stuff they can't write in these articles right now let's talk politics with stevenson's help ed jack Jackson became the governor of Indiana. And Stevenson helped a bunch of other guys get into office in Indiana. Obviously, Stevenson was riding pretty high at this point. He was confident that one day he'd become a U.S. senator. And he thought that he might one day become president. Wow.

Yeah. Terrifying. Yes. At one point he said, i am the law in indiana and it was kind of true because he put like that's like cartman respect my authority right you know this guy kind of looks like cartman which like i don't know how you look like Cartman and then look yourself in the mirror and think I'm part of a master race. Yeah. Oh God. So he had a ton of influence on the people who ran Indiana. He could influence policies. So yeah, he was pretty much the law in Indiana. At this point,

he's rolling in dough. It's 1925. And this is the point where one in three white men in Indiana. At this point, he's rolling in dough. It's 1925, and this is the point where one in three white men in Indiana are members of the Klan. Now we're getting to the crime that eventually led to his downfall. It's January 12, 1925, the inauguration for Governor Ed Jackson. It's at this event that Stevenson met 28-year-old Madge Oberholzer. Madge was the manager of the Indiana Young People's Reading Circle, which was part of Indiana's education department. Basically, my understanding is they got together for dinner occasionally. They would see each other at parties sometimes. And eventually, Stevenson asked for her help to write a book about nutrition. So they did. That seems like a strange turn. yeah until until you hear the explanation okay

their book was called 100 years of health you know they wrote this up now for the reason they've got this book about nutrition then stevenson goes to his political friends and he says you know what every school child in indiana should know about nutrition. Oh, there it is. You should pass a bill. And guess what? The only book that met the requirements of the bill was 100 Years of Health. He's already rich. He's just adding and adding and adding.

On March 15, 1925, at around 10 p.m., Madge comes home from a date. And there's this urgent message from D.C. Stevenson's secretary. She comes to find out D.C. is headed to Chicago really soon and he needs to see her right away. It's very urgent. They have to get together. So she's like, okay. D.C. Stevenson's bodyguard comes to get her. He brings her to D.C. Stevenson's house. And when she gets there, she realizes there are no other women there.

It's just dudes, and they're all drunk. And they want her to drink. She says no. They pretty much force her to drink. She ends up vomiting. You know, it's bad. And while she's there, D.C. Stevenson keeps saying, I want you to come to Chicago with me.

Come to Chicago with me. He says he loves her. And she's like, no, I don't want to go to Chicago. She's pretty freaked out by this point. I don't think she realized what she was getting into. Right. She tried calling home, but nobody picked up. She still lived with her parents.

At this point, they're like, we're going to Chicago. And they put her in in the car and you know at this point her mind's kind of racing and she's like wait wait stop by my house i just want to get my hat i want to have a hat for this journey but and her thinking i'm sure was i'll get inside yeah just lock the door and that'll be that. Right. Well, they didn't stop for that. Instead, they went straight to the train station. Ugh. This part sucks.

Not that the other stuff didn't suck. Compared to the lighthearted fairy that so far. They got on the train and immediately Stevenson went nuts. He ripped her dress off, chewed her body all over. He bit her tongue, her neck, her face, her breasts, and her ankles. And he drew blood. Oh, my gosh. And he beat her up, and he raped her. Mm.

Ugh. Yeah. That's horrible. The next morning, the train arrived in Hamm hammond indiana and they got off there but before they got off the train you know obviously madge was in unimaginable pain because you know she's been kidnapped she was raped she was beaten up and she was bitten i mean i can't even i can't even process no no i mean that that to me is like if you want to pick the creepiest part it's the creepiest part i mean it's it's hard to say that over right but it's

yeah it's super creepy and the fact that he drew blood too i just shows how vicious it was at one point on the train stevenson starts showing off this gun he has and madge was like please shoot me just shoot me you know i'm i'm just done which oh yeah i i kind of feel for her because i always think whenever i watch a horror movie there's all they're always trying to survive to the end but i kind of feel like man once i've experienced enough stuff i think i'd be like and and i'm good i'm done you know there's no way i'm gonna have a normal life after after this yeah anyway they get off the train and at this point it's stevenson his bodyguard his driver and madge and they go to this hotel and they check in under an alias which what what's the fucking deal with the bodyguard and the driver who just you know stand by and let it happen yeah or like and i wonder if they were in the

train compartment with the two of them but i mean obviously they saw her the next day yeah bite marks and they're at the hotel they eat a little breakfast, maybe sleep or whatever. Then Madge asks the bodyguard to drive her to the drugstore to buy some makeup. Again, like, she's trying. She's just trying for an exit strategy. Yes. Just anything to get away. And I love that these guys, I guess, were either so dumb or maybe the guy felt a little sorry for her. But they believed that she just

wanted to go buy some rouge at this point like oh yeah i've been bitten all over and they kidnapped and you know my cheeks aren't rosy yeah my i've got to make sure i'm looking good he waits in the car she goes into the drugstore she buys some rouge but she secretly bought mercury tablets and she hid them in her coat and her plan was to take all of them at once and kill herself but she could only get a few of them down and so then that's poor so then she starts vomiting blood and at this point the guys are kind of freaking out a little bit like oh boy woo boy. This is more than we bargained for, more than we expected. She is, at this point, very, very ill.

And Stevenson panicked. They ended up driving back to Indianapolis. And he forced her to drink ginger ale and milk. Settle the stomach. Oh my god. Obviously she vomited that yeah i mean if you ever vomited milk it's the worst thing ever it's awful i mean but i thinking of that combination yeah ginger ale and milk i would vomit that right now and i have not ingested any mercury tablets oh this is from the Smithsonian article again.

All the while, she cried and screamed and begged to be thrown from the car and left on the side of the road. You will stay right here until you marry me, she recalled him saying. You must forget this. What is done has been done. I am the law and the power. Ugh. Yeah. Ugh. Yeah. Ugh.

She's just begging for them to let her die. Yeah, just end it. Yeah. And instead he's saying, I'll make it right by marrying you. Like, oh, God. Yeah. It's horrific. At this point in the car, it's the bodyguard the driver stevenson and madge

and it seemed like madge was gonna die but all the while stevenson kept talking about himself and how he would be fine like yeah oh don't worry about him he's gonna be fine he talked about how he wouldn't be punished and later madge told her lawyer i heard him say also that he had been in a worse mess than this before and got out of it okay this is what I was gonna say the fact that her his driver and bodyguard aren't reacting to this makes me believe that this is not the first time that they've been in this situation that's a really good point yeah yeah they're they're totally ready for this absolutely they're not shocked by this this is you know standard operating procedure oh god they get to stevenson's house finally but madge's mom is waiting at the

door because at this point she's very worried she thought her daughter would probably be out for a little while for this urgent message, supposedly. And she's been gone for hours. They said something to make her go away. I don't know what they said. But they carried Madge to a room above Stevenson's garage, and she stayed there for a few days. After a few days, they finally took her home. And they made her promise to tell everyone that she'd been in a horrible car accident. Yes, because you often end up with bite marks from a car accident.

Yeah, the car careens against yours and then you just get bitten. The guys drop her off at her house. As soon as they leave, she tells everybody the truth. She's not doing that bullshit. Her mom calls a doctor and the doctor immediately is like there's no way she's going to recover from this and he kind of goes through the list she's got a kidney infection she's in shock it looks like the bites might be infected oh my god plus the mercury tablets that she ingested plus the fact that she went for so many days with no medical treatment.

You know, you think about those first couple days. I'm sure those are pretty damn critical. Yeah, absolutely. And nothing. At that point, the family attorney came over to take a dying declaration from Madge because they knew, you know, there's no way she's going to survive this. And the idea was they wanted to get madge's account down exactly what happened maybe to use it in court good for them yeah do you need

a kleenex or anything i'm good okay madge died is it just the air in here it's just the air in here? It's just the air in here. You know, Norm's been talking about how we need a humidifier. Okay. Next week. Next week. Fine. Next week, you prissy woman. I'll take care of you. I require the specific amount of humidity in the air.

I want only blue M&Ms. I'll be surrounded by white candles my writer is very so madge died april 14th 1925 almost a month after she'd been brought back home this poor woman oh my gosh interestingly you know dcc blah blah dc steve whoa dc stevenson you've only said it 50 times so far so dc stevenson he thinks he can get get away with anything he's definitely gonna get away with this guess fucking what? He doesn't. He had a ton of influence over tons of politicians in Indiana. Here's one who he didn't have an

influence over. Marion County Prosecutor William Remy. William Remy charged him with rape, kidnapping, conspiracy, and second degree murder murder and he also charged the bodyguard and the driver good yeah yeah here's hiccup before they went to trial the coroner's office said that madge's official cause of death was mercury poisoning and she took the mercury herself yeah that that kind of sucks yeah that's that's rough because it doesn't make things impossible for the prosecution but it makes it a lot harder because basically the defense could argue that the rape wasn't and i'm quoting here the proximate cause of her death i'm gonna get technical and i'm gonna get technical thanks to the website FamousTrials.com, which is a fabulous website and has a ton of information on this case.

Any errors I make are obviously just me. It's not the guy who wrote this stuff. To get technical, since her death was caused by the mercury poisoning, according to the coroner's office, and not the attack itself or the infection from the attack the prosecutor had to prove that madge's decision to ingest the mercury tablets was a foreseeable consequence of the rape therefore making stevenson responsible you know yeah this kind of made me think of do you remember the tyler clementi case the i think it was at rutgers maybe yeah he was a student uh-huh and I I want to say he was maybe in the closet yep and his roommates videotaped him having sex yes committed suicide and I think I think the kids who videotaped it did get charged and right I

believe so and you know it's it just goes to that point of yeah yeah, it's a suicide, but if what you did to the person... A suicide that was spurred by what you did. Yes. Then you're going to be responsible. Absolutely. Stevenson pled not guilty. And he thought he could get away with anything. He was so unbelievably arrogant. In the quotes he gave to newspapers, oh God, he's's just kind of like he just treated it as like oh this flippant little thing and i think he thought that other people would see it that way too like no big deal which i haven't really mentioned this but obviously he got away with doing all kinds of stuff to women before yeah and he's a leader of the kkk so i'm sure he got away with doing all kinds of stuff to black people, Catholics, Jewish people, you know.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, putting that into perspective, sure. Maybe he thought, I can get away with anything and nobody's going to care. Yeah. He was wrong. This thing became national news. It was huge.

The reporters came in from all over the country and people were disgusted and not just everyday people indiana politicians the one he put in the ones he put into office were like and then members of the kkk were like oh yikes yeahhmm but here's the funny thing imperial douchebag haram evans you know is the bad blood frenemy was initially kind of excited about this trial because and this is just my my mind kind of spinning here but i think he thought that people would see the trial you know it would get stevenson taken out of the clan but also people would view it as like one bad apple right yeah not yeah yeah let's not spoil the bunch now the rest of us are great guys over here in the clan come join us won't you i really think that's his mindset i think he thought you know it's just one bad guy. And look how bad we think he is, too.

Yeah. So that shows, you know, how great we are over here at the Klan. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's, I think that was his mindset. Yeah. And it just, like, I really think it did not occur to him that it would reflect badly on the Klan as a whole.

Right. And that people would be like, whoa, yikes. Yeah. Don't like this one bit before trial the defense you know jumped into action they tried to get her dying declaration thrown out and their logic was she didn't write it herself which was true her lawyer wrote it but he wrote it he transcribed it for her yeah exactly they also tried to argue that madge wasn't of sound mind when she gave the dying declaration but they couldn't prove that and so that kind of didn't work out so well for them we get to the day of the trial prosecution's opening argument they said their star witness would really be madge and here And here's what he said. Holy shit!

That's fucking powerful. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Don't you wish you could have been there? Yes. I mean, it's kind of poetic. It really is.

Yeah. And I like that he's, you know, that last line of to take the deadly poison that contributed to her untimely death. The prosecution called in witnesses to testify to how ill she was because I think her parents had some like tenants in the house so they were all able to kind of say yeah here was her condition she was bitten all over she was terribly sick her doctor testified that he knew she would die because she hadn't gotten proper treatment in those first critical days then and this was this was a huge blow to the defense the doctor who did the autopsy testified that the immediate cause of death was an infection carried through the bloodstream localizing in the lung and in the kidney what he was really saying there was he said madge could have recovered from the mercury but it was the cuts that did it which i mean that's what a lot of this came down to. Yeah. What, of all the terrible shit that happened, what was it that killed her?

Yes. The defense argued that this was just suicide. He shouldn't be responsible for a suicide. Suicide is not a crime in Indiana. You know, everybody back off. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Just a simple suicide. Just a simple suicide. Yeah. No. And then the coroner testified and of course he disagreed with the doctor who had just testified who'd done the autopsy he testified that she died from the poisoning not the infected cuts or all that other stuff here's another fun detail the defense also tried to basically throw her reputation to shit it was like slut shaming in a trial yeah here's my favorite one they had a dentist testify that one time she asked him for some gin that harlot yeah she deserved all kinds of terrible stuff then a clan wife said that one time she saw stevenson and madge together at her house acting kind of cozy and someone else kind of said it's as if like page six was there like yeah you wouldn't guess it was covered up in a booth at the back of the restaurant

what's interesting to me is like first of all i feel like some you know some things have not changed you know we want to blame victims for everything but absolutely good god what the hell are these people saying because she liked to drink and because they'd hung out together maybe even flirted i mean who knows that she deserved to be killed good god i mean that still happens today yeah yeah absolutely horrible what was she wearing yeah exactly she was asking for it god she had a skirt and she was drinking and she had a vagina she had it coming you know if you don't want to get raped you shouldn't have a vagina asking for it so the attorneys got into a huge shouting match over this and the judge had

to basically shut them down and be like look we got to keep this civil but again wouldn't that be so exciting to be there to see all that? Yeah. We're getting to closing arguments now. The defense said suicide is not a crime. You can't hold Stevenson responsible for Madge taking her own life. And one of the attorneys said, and this is a quote, if a man went home and committed suicide because his banker refused to lend him money, you wouldn't hang the banker. It would be a plain case of suicide, as this is. Suicide can't be homicide. That is not the same thing. No. No, it is not. You have to wonder about that defense attorney. Like, yeah, yes, everyone is entitled to a defense. But you're trying to say that your client who raped somebody and bit somebody is the same as a banker who wouldn't loan somebody money. Samesies.

Yeah. No, I just wonder, did he really believe that? Or was that just grasping at straws? Like, this is what I've got. This is what I can argue. At this time, women are viewed as lesser... Yeah. Lesser beings.

I don't know. Things have changed on that, though, Brandy. Now we have equal pay. And all kinds of great stuff. You know, here's how I'll know we're equal. When tampons are free in bathrooms, like right next to toilet paper, that's when we'll know. Don't you think? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. In their closing arguments, the prosecution called Stevenson a sadist and a moral degenerate, which, fair. And they attacked the defense for slandering Madge's character. The jury deliberated for four hours, and on November 14th, 1925, they found Stevenson guilty of second-degree murder. Oh, good.

Yeah. Yeah. Stevenson's been found guilty of second-degree murder. You would think that, at the the very least That would be humbling That you'd be like well Need to rethink some things Make some new years resolutions Try to be a better person

I am gonna walk An extra mile a day And that Is gonna help me through this But no He still Thought he would get away with it. Even after being found guilty. Yeah, he still thought, this will be fine.

Don't worry, everybody. I'll be out in no time. The reason he thought that was because he put the governor in office. So he thought that Ed Jackson would pardon him. It was like he didn't realize. That, like, he couldn't possibly do that because like no matter how many favors he owes you

he's still in office and has everybody watching him. Uh huh. Yeah. And also you know I haven't maybe this is just me being optimistic but I want to think that Ed Jackson was like you know what? That's even too much for me. Yeah. Yeah. like i don't even want to you

know that's just gross stevenson gets pissed he thought for sure he'd be pardoned it becomes clear no you're not being pardoned you're just gonna sit in jail well he didn't want to sit in jail so 1927 he's been behind bars for i think like two years at this point. That's when he gets his revenge. He reaches out to the press and he says, I've got a big story for you. They come to him. And at that point, he released the names of all of the political leaders in Indiana who had been on the Klan payroll. Yeah. Wow. So it was a massive scandal. Yeah. The governor was indicted and so were a bunch of other officials and there was a huge crackdown which limited the Klan's influence. And also I should mention Stevenson appealed the court's decision but that

did not work. But his real revenge was releasing the names of everybody. So he got paroled in 1950, but was arrested again less than a year later and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 1956, he was discharged from prison again, and he married his third wife, who left him a few years later when he was arrested for trying to molest a 16-year-old girl. Still a winner. Some things don't change. Now, this part is just what I remember from Wikipedia, so nobody question it, please. But the 16-year-old girl who he tried to molest, that happened in Independence, Missouri. And the way he got out of that one was he paid a fine of $300. Well, yeah.

Uh-huh. Of course. Just $300 and you're on your way. Yeah. Molest away. Don't you do that again, Mr. Ray. Hey. Now give us the cost of an on sale room bud

this guy again the 300 figure that's just what i remember from wikipedia so it could be not true let's hope to god it's not true but i kind of believe it yeah so then when he was 74 he met a 55 year old widow and married her but he was still married to the third wife technically oh and he died from a heart attack in 1966 and i want to say shit i read this a while ago i want to say he died while he was like bringing her a fruit basket or a bouquet of flowers or just like... I hope it's a fruit basket. Yeah. I just like that visual.

It's just... The idea that he died that way just... Yeah. His fourth wife claimed she didn't know anything about his previous life. And, you know, that he was just a big old sweetie pie. Wow. Yeah. I'm really upset that you know, that he was just a big old sweetie pie. Wow. Yeah. I'm really upset that you skipped my fruit basket joke.

Do we need to revisit it? No. Brandy, let's talk about that fruit basket. I said that's bananas and you just... Oh my God. Oh my God. You know what? This is the second time in a row when one of your cheesy jokes just goes

way over my head like i just did not not even catch it it's too sophisticated like a different level here so try to keep up let's wrap up with the impact this had on the Klan. Because this is the massive silver lining of this whole horrible story. Yeah, you made me listen to all this shit. Show me the good stuff. So the good stuff is the impact this had on the Klan. Yeah. In 1925, the Klan had 250,000 members.

In 1928, so that was a little after the time when you released all those names and after this trial, membership dropped to just 4,000. Oh, wow. Yes. And I'm going to read you a quote from a criminal law textbook because I think this is so creepy and says so much about the impact of this case. The case and its fallout effectively destroyed the Klan in Indiana, and it may have reversed its ascendancy as a national political force. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you think about how different things could have been if this trial hadn't happened. Yeah, that is that's a that's a big silver lining. Yeah, it's... I don't want to sound...

I have not fully thought this through in my head, so just bear with me, but... You think of the amount of good that that does, to not have the Klan controlling... Absolutely. The government. Yeah. And basically, I mean, at that point,

it's like they control everything. Yeah. The good of that versus one woman dying in a horrible way i don't know well i think that's the most horrible thing you've ever said i'm totally kidding i get what you're trying to say i get it like i'm guessing that she maybe would have been behind that as well if that's what if i had to die for this to happen that maybe maybe that's okay i do wish there was more about her yeah known like was she cool with the clan i mean right well yeah i mean yeah you don't know yeah but anyway um i'm i'm

just glad that her parents thought to say no we need to take a dying declaration from her because we are going to pursue this. Because one of the big factors here was the embarrassment and shame that would come from a trial where like they just say what happened to her. Yeah. You know, because it's still shameful to talk about rape and all that stuff. But at that time, like 1925, that had to be. Yeah. Even more horrible. Absolutely. I i mean shameful for her family yeah yeah oh that was a that's a heavy one that was that was awful really heavy okay so i am definitely going to lighten it up after thank god what does that mean you didn't write about a clan i did not oh good um so when i chose to do anna nicole smith i knew a little bit going into it about the court case um with her

90 year old husband how she contested the will and how it stretched on for years and years and years but researching it i it was really interesting to me you found out that she was actually involved in a few different court cases um over her life so i'm just going to kind of do an overview touch on all of them okay cool so um anna nicole smith was born vicky lynn hogan on november 28th 1968 in houston texas she was the second child of 16 year old virgie may arthur yeah um her father was virgie's second husband second husband at 16 oh my god um his name was donald eugene hogan they divorced um shortly after anna nicole's birth um in 1969 after donald pled guilty to statutory rape of Virgie's 10-year-old sister. Oh, God. Yeah, so she really had a really tumultuous life growing up.

She wasn't raised by either of her parents. I think she was raised by an aunt. Probably for the best. Yeah. Virgie went on to marry four more times and had two more children. So at various points in her life, Anna Nicole Smith went by different versions of her name, kind of mashups between her birth name and then what would become her professional name. But I'm just going to refer to her as Anna Nicole Smith through the whole thing here.

Good, good, good. So Anna Nicole dropped out of school after failing her freshman year of high school she got a job at jim's crispy fried chicken where she met 16 year old fry cook billy wayne smith they married yes the name billy wayne yes that is some southern stuff right there um they married within a few months and at 19 she gave birth to their son daniel wayne smith three months after the birth of her son she separated from her husband citing abuse um so she um headed back to the houston area she had moved away with her um with her husband she took various jobs at that time she worked at walmart for a time she worked at red lobster um driving home one day she saw this big billboard on the side of the highway for a gentleman's club and she was really taken

by the picture on the billboard it was a scantily clad voluptuous woman in heels and she decided that she wanted to go there like go there for the job go there for go there for a job she wanted to go there for a job so she went to ggs that's this gentleman's club seeking a waitressing job she was told that there were none available but they asked her to audition instead to be a dancer so she auditioned and she was hired for the day shift i don't know if you know a lot about gentlemen's clubs but that's not we're not talking the varsity squad there that's more the b team yeah during the day during the day on like a tuesday that's not so much but she was gorgeous right so well so when she first started she actually um they said that she she actually became popular pretty quickly though she reportedly had no rhythm she could not dance

she was a very clumsy on stage and she was um very small chested she had almost no boobs so for a gentleman's club that's not you know your top seller usually interested in boobs so but she like i said she was very personable she became very popular very quick there and so she um worked a lot and she saved up for what would become her signature look it was a multi-surgery procedure that resulted in um 42 double d breasts that um consisted of two implants on each side and a total of three pints of fluid oh my god two implants two implants on each side gross yes so they were against each other yep oh my god big old knockers i believe is the official term big old titties yes so it was here at gg's that she met jay howard marshall so jay howard marshall was an 86 year old oil tycoon he was mourning the deaths of both his wife and his mistress so he had been married for 30 something years um it was his second wife

and his wife was suffering from alzheimer's and so he could no longer take her around town take her to his events you know out to dinner um and so he had taken a mistress and he did all of that stuff with his mistress and they went all over Houston I mean it was very well known that who he was and that this was his mistress so his mistress um I think she was like 52 somewhere around there um she died from complications of I believe it was a facelift some kind of cosmetic surgery she died from complications and then two months later his wife died from complications of alzheimer's so wow yeah it was he was going through a really dark time it was it's reported that he was drinking heavily every day he wouldn't get out of bed um and he's 86 years old so he's already you know kind of on the frail side and then to

you know so to lift his spirits his driver and friend dan manning suggested a trip to the titty bar to find a new lady love as he called it so what you want to bet Dan just wanted to go. Go to the titty bar. He's like, I've got an idea for you. I love you. Yes. So one October afternoon in 1991, he wheeled Marshall in his wheelchair into Gigi's. And there was Anna Nicole dancing in a red dress. And she'd had the surgery. The surgery by then.

Yes. He was immediately taken by her looks and her shapely figure. by then yes he was immediately taken by her looks and her shapely figure um the next day she traveled to his hotel room on his invitation and they spent the day eating room service and learning about each other's lives when she told him she needed to leave for work he handed her an envelope with 10 100 bills in it and told her she never needed to work again whoa so imagine right that must have been like for her yes yeah that upbringing absolutely that would have seemed like an enormous amount of money and just at and then to be told you know don't ever go back to work you're taken care of yeah you know i would never call a boob job a good financial investment but maybe it worked out for her yeah so dan manning um jay howard marshall's friend and driver told him not to fall in love

to which he replied it may already be too late for that so manning concerned alerted marshall's son pierce of the blossoming relationship and he he drove down from Dallas to Houston to warn his father of the financial jeopardy involved in the situation. J. Howard Marshall accused his son of being jealous and said he would do as he damn well pleased. How old was Anna Nicole at this point? Like, 20? 24. Yeah, 24. Okay okay well yeah yeah okay so before long Smith had stopped dancing at Marshall's insistence he bought her a red Mercedes took her on regular shopping sprees including a two million dollar trip to Harry Winston which I don't know if you

know what that is it's like a really upscale um jewelry store like diamonds and i'm so low and i don't even know what harry winston my god a two million dollar yes he put her on the marshall petroleum payroll and gave her his credit card numbers he told her he'd teach her how to spend money wow yeah she was like the real life pretty woman yes yes that is nuts yeah so during this same time her sometimes boyfriend kind of on again off again um thing he was a bodybuilder his name was clay spires he convinced her to audition for playboy despite an awkward audition as i mentioned you know she wasn't she had no rhythm yeah no rhythm and she was very comfortable being naked but she was not graceful so it was a very awkward audition but the photographer really liked her and kind of pitched her to playboy and so she first appeared on the cover of playboy in march 1992 and then she was the centerfold in may 1992 and then went on to be playmate of the year in 1993

um so she had great success with playboy well and she was so gorgeous she was and that was something that the photographer really noticed about her was that you know just she was very comfortable naked and that you know despite her awkwardness she looked like jane mansfield so um some bombshell bombshell actress yeah and so he really played that up did like the maryland looks the old hollywood curls the big hair whatever she did i mean she had that gorgeous blonde hair she was curvy yes she just yeah yeah gorgeous so following her success with playboy she signed a deal with guest jeans replacing supermodel claudia schiffer at the time she was really nervous about the deal because she had to meet

like the president of guest jeans the actual designer for machines and she thought that he'd think she was fat compared to claudia schiffer oh well we're all fat compared to claudia and she had never heard of guest jeans at the time yes so she booked a campaign with them and that led to several other modeling campaigns um marshall could not have been more proud of her he put her up in houses all over the country so that she could be near different modeling jobs he got her apartments in new york and la and houses on the beach and he bought her all kinds of properties so that wherever she needed to be she'd have somewhere he even rented her um marilyn monroe's bungalow oh my god that's so cool yes yeah oh wow so finally in the spring of 1994 smith gave in to marshall's repeated proposals

and agreed to marry him they were married on june 27th 1994 jay howard marshall was 89 anna nicole smith was 26 ew right ew yeah do you hold on. Do you think? So, I read conflicting stuff that they never had, you know, intercourse. Okay. But they had other kinds of stuff. Your hands are all over the place. I know. It was really limited what he could do because he was 89 years old and very frail

so he would lay in the bed and she would rub against him and such so yeah so shortly after this came what would become like her first court case on August 22nd 1994 New york magazine used a picture of smith on the cover of their issue titled white trash nation in the photo she's squatting

in like a short skirt so she's kind of like on the floor with her like knees bent and spread apart oh like squatting like uh-huh and between her legs is a bag of cheesy poofs and she's got these white cowboy boots on and she's got you know her big blonde hair and on the magazine the blurb says tanya lisa marie john and lorena, Roseanne and Tom, Paula, Jennifer and Bill. They're everywhere. Lock up your Twinkies. Whoa. Ouch.

Yes. God. Yes. And so did she, hold on. So she did the photo shoot, obviously. So yeah. So yeah. So I'll get to this.

So in October 1994, her lawyer filed a $5 million lawsuit against the magazine claiming that Smith did not authorize the use of her photo. The suit also alleged that the article damaged her reputation. So her lawyer stated that Smith was under the impression that she was being photographed for like the all-American look. And then it was taken this white trash direction. look and then it was taken this white trash direction editor kurt anderson said that the photo was one of dozens taken for the cover and stated that i guess they just found the picture we chose unflattering oh shut up right yeah dude yes so the lawsuit um was eventually settled for an unreported unreported amount so um she was seeking five million dollars i don't know what she ended up getting but it was i'm sure that did damage her reputation a little

because like yeah this was well before the reality show yes if people only knew her through the guest jeans ad and absolutely yeah okay yeah i'm with her yeah in december 1994 marshall became very ill with pneumonia his son pierce assumed temporary guardianship of his father and cut anna nicole off completely oh she had become accustomed to spending upwards of six figures a month and was caught completely off guard. He even forwarded all the credit card bills directly to her. He wasn't paying anything. Six figures a month. Can you imagine? No, I can't.

I can't imagine. No. I don't even know where I would start. Right? Yes. I would buy everything in TJ Maxx. I'd still be fine. Daily shopping.

Yes. Freezed in TJ Maxx. Marshall. I suppose I'd have to take it up a notch right exactly yes exactly so um she visited jay howard in the hospital and holding a tape recorder asked him to repeat his promise to take care of her but he was unable to speak oh man finally his son pierce hired bodyguards significantly limiting her access to her husband i was gonna say i was i was kind of surprised she was able to get to him yes yeah yeah so they he totally cut her off and then blocked her access can you do that to

someone's spouse apparently you can because he did yeah okay wow yeah so then um on august 4th 1995 jay howard marshall sick with stomach cancer died anna nicole smith was in new york when she got the call and she reacted with convulsions and was hospitalized wow two funerals were held what anna nicole opposed pierce's plan to burn his dad as she put it oh cremation that was jay howard's long-standing wish to be cremated yeah yeah so her funeral took place first jay howard's body lay in a casket covered with white roses and lilies and a banner reading from your lady love she wore her wedding dress and veil oh my god oh my god okay daniel who was now nine also wore the white tuxedo from their wedding the two of them rose at one point to offer the bett middler song

wind beneath my wings oh no they did in honor of all Jay Howard had done for them well and she couldn't sing right I mean I know that's like beside the point no okay until this point you know with her childhood and all this stuff I was really on her yeah the the wedding dress and veil really really got me in the banner I'm thinking of what it would be like to be his son absolutely like okay this this show you're putting on needs to stop this weird crazy show yeah so within weeks of jay howard marshall's death his son pierce disputed her claim for half of her late husband's 1.6 billion dollar estate she temporarily joined forces with jay howard's other son james howard marshall the third whom the elder howard had disowned howard the third claimed that jay howard marshall had verbally promised him a portion of the estate like smith

howard the third was also left out of jay howard Howard's will. The case Marshall v. Marshall would prove so complicated that the trial would not start for four years. Whoa. Yeah. So at this same time, Anna Nicole Smith was sued by Maria Serrato, Daniel's nanny, who after being fired by Anna Nicole, claimed she'd been plied with drugs and alcohol to have sex with her. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. Say that one more time.

Yes, yes. What? Yes. So Daniel's nanny was, after being fired, claimed that she had been given drugs, alcohol, and made to have sex with Anna Nicole Smith. Oh, my God. Yes.

And when she refused, Anna Nicole threatened to deport her if she if she didn't do it so she sought two million dollars in damages and nicole countered that it was maria who took advantage of her sexually so she did not deny that they had some kind of sexual relationship but said no no no it was the other way around um this is weird yes but she repeatedly missed her her depositions in this case because she was going through a lot of health issues at the time she was having she had to have surgeries to deal with her breast implants she was having infections and stuff um with them and then she also had all these gastrointestinal issues due to a years-long abuse of prescription drugs okay so she was doing prescription drugs heavily which was leading to

all these stomach problems and then she was having issues with her breasts and so she missed multiple depositions that she was supposed to give in this case gotcha and so the judge was furious okay and he ruled in maria's behalf ordering an, ordering Anna Nicole to pay her more than $800,000. It was money she didn't have. So she declared personal bankruptcy, claiming $9 million in debts. Whoa. Yes. Good God.

Here, though, Pierce made a mistake. He filed a claim against her bankruptcy saying that she owed so here's the son here's the son of a 90 year old files a claim against that bankruptcy saying well she also owes me money for defamation she's been running my name okay through the mud and so this then requires bankruptcy court to go in and examine the entire will testing figure out that whole relationship and figure out what's all due there and so he's now made this contesting of the will even more difficult because he was like oh no that's not all yeah so like really a really short-sighted mistake he was really fired up at the time and just like

a really short-sighted mistake that he made and if he hadn't have done that things would have been settled much more quickly okay okay so when the trial finally started in 2000 annal cole smith was called to the stand um of her late husband she told the judge i don't care what anybody says i loved that man her case was backed by pierce's brother so the older the other son that was also left out of the will said um that i lost my place he said that he lost his place well he did lose his place in the will that's correct poor guy so um he told the judge that his father had repeatedly told him in telephone conversations how genuinely he loved her and that

he did intend to provide for her after his death um so then so this that case was happening in houston that's where the will contesting was filed. The probate court was happening in Houston. The bankruptcy court was happening in California. Gotcha. So on October 6, 2000 the bankruptcy court in California ruled that Anna Nicole Smith was entitled to $449.7 million

from her late husband. Whoa. Yes. He also ruled that the stepson should pay her an additional $25 million in punitive damages. Pierce, the stepson? Yes. Okay. Judge Samuel Buford criticized Pierce Marshall, finding that he conspired with his father's lawyers and accountant to thwart Jay Howard's wishes.

He called his behavior towards Annana nicole intentional and reprehensible wow yeah you know i'm thinking about this like yeah a relationship with that kind of age gap is definitely gross yes to me but at the same time it's almost to me like there's a transaction taking place. Well, yeah. And that was kind of Anna Nicole's whole thing. Yes, she did come to love him. But yes, initially she did.

He said, you know, I'll take care of you for the rest of your life if you marry me. Yeah. And to me, it's like, okay, well, yeah, I would be grossed out if my dad did that too. Absolutely. Yeah, I would be grossed out if my dad did that too. Absolutely. But, you know, if that was what both of them signed on for, then what can you do? Yes.

So, California bankruptcy court rules that she gets $450 million, basically. Okay. Plus $25 million in punitive damages. Then we saw this other case, the prob probate case going on over here in houston i should be pointing the opposite directions but i i'm with you i'm good so in 2001 houston probate court rules that smith is entitled to nothing the judge even ordered smith to pay over 1 million dollars in fees and expenses to Pierce's legal team. So the conflict between the Texas probate court and the California bankruptcy court forced this matter into federal court. So since the two courts are ruling separately, now this needs to be looked at in federal court.

God, what a mess. in federal court god what a mess yes so in march of 2002 a federal judge vacated the california bankruptcy court's ruling and issued a new ruling this new ruling reduced the award to 88 million dollars so about half the earnings that marshall made during the time that they were married okay so he said yes you are you are you know do some of it but not his entire fortune just the part that he made during your actual marriage which was like just get half of that yes yeah so um 88 million dollars is what he decided i'd be fine with it right Right. I'd make do somehow. Yes. With the coupons.

That wasn't the end of it, though. Okay. There were just appeals going on on both sides of this forever. Okay. So in December 2004, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed this 88 million dollar ruling and said that the federal court lacked jurisdiction to overrule a probate court decision okay so says bankruptcy court or federal even federal court cannot overrule what this bankruptcy court and or what i'm sorry what this probate court said okay so from there um they asked the u.s supreme court to hear the appeal and they agreed in september of 2005 that is the crazy

isn't that crazy i can't yes because you've got all these other courts going on and so since none of these courts can have are they're all you know in disagreement with each other so it just keeps going higher and higher up the chain now it's all the way at the supreme court well yeah and when you can't agree on who gets to decide absolutely you've got no other choice yes so after months of waiting sm Smith and Pierce learned the Supreme Court's decision on May 1st, 2006. So, I mean, like eight months, nine months after it went to the Supreme Court, they finally get a decision. Yeah. The justices decided unanimously in favor of Smith.

Wow. The decision did not give Smith a portion of her husband's estate, however. It did affirm her right to pursue a share of it in federal court good god yes so they're still not saying yes you're you get this amount they're saying yeah none of that stuff counts but you can continue forward in federal court and seek a portion of the estate good grief okay um on june so who wrote the opinion rbg can you imagine yes oh that's great okay yes

so then and on june 20th 2006 less than four months after he stood on the steps of the supreme court and vowed that his stepmother would not see a dime of his father's estate pierce marshall 67 succumbed to what his family described as a brief and extremely aggressive infection following his death his widow elaine t marshall pursued the case on behalf of his estate the case was remanded to the ninth circuit to adjudicate the remaining appellate issues not previously resolved so now it's back in appeals court i i know this is a weird thing to take away from what you just said but the part of him being 67 her being i imagine she was in her early 30s at this point and he has to call her his stepmom i know yes yes absolutely that same year anna nicole had

become pregnant with a baby girl the speculation of the father was tabloid fodder and pictures of Anna Nicole and her lawyer Howard K Stern and how and her boyfriend Larry Burkhead grace the cover of every magazine in the grocery store checkout line do you remember this oh yeah it was huge I mean huge 2006 I mean you couldn't see a magazine without Anna Nicole and Howard or Anna Nicole and Larry. Because at that point they'd done their e-reality show, right? Yes. Yeah. Which, oh my God, I loved that show. Yes. So even the three, this is what's really kind of crazy. The three of them, Anna Nicole, Howard K. Stern, her lawyer and best friend, and then her boyfriend, Larry Burkhead, were all living together in the Bahamas. What? Yes, were all living together in the Bahamas.

What? Yes, they were all living in the same house together. That is... Weird. Yeah, yeah. So it was widely believed that Larry Burkhead was the father. But when Anna Nicole gave birth to Danny Lynn Hope on September 7, 2006, she listed Stern as the father on the birth certificate. Her son Daniel, who'd been living

in la traveled to the bahamas where anna nicole had been living as i mentioned with larry and howard sure um to be with his mom after she had delivered his baby sister he arrived at the hospital late that night and stayed up most of the night with his mom and howard the next morning anna nicole woke to find her son in bed with her unresponsive oh my god a team of doctors responded but it was too late he was gone how old was he like um 19 i think yeah yep um his death was ruled an accident a result of a lethal combination of prescription drugs so he had i think it was um zoloft um methadone and then something else in his system and he had he had a prescription for one of the things his mom had a prescription for another one of the things and then the third thing they're not sure where it came from but it was ruled an accident due to a lethal combination

of those drugs um following daniel's death annika smith spiraled out of control she never ate she rarely held the baby she just took her pills and howard had to help her take her pills. And she slept with a poster sized photo of her son, Daniel. Oh. In February, they flew to Hollywood, Florida. Anna Nicole was suffering from a massive infection, the product of abscesses within the tissue of her buttocks from a vitamin and growth hormone injection. So I don't know if you remember this. So she famously lost a bunch of weight. Yeah. She became the spokesman for Trimps. of vitamin and growth hormone injections so i don't know if you remember this so she um famously lost a bunch of weight she became the baby that's right so really what she was doing was injecting

herself with human growth hormone and vitamins and that's how she lost all the weight okay because she lost it like super fast really fast it was like how much weight like it was quite a bit yeah way too fast super fast so yeah so this is how she was losing the weight was through these injections and so the injection sites became super infected somehow though she was sick she'd wanted to make the trip to florida they were joined by a few of their friends as well as her next door neighbor from studio city um this is her psychiatrist, who she called Dr. Chris, and he's the one who prescribed all the medications that she was on. And she was abusing these medications.

I mean, she was on all kinds of stuff, and she had been for years. When she was pregnant, actually, when she first found out she was pregnant, she decided that she wanted to have this, like, healthy pregnancy. She just, like, stopped taking all the drugs. She started running every day and then um something happened and she had oh an implant one of her implants burst oh and so when she had to have surgery to repair it to get a new implant they put her back on painkillers and she became addicted to them again yeah oh god so with a fever of 105 degrees she struggled to sleep she took klonopin ativan valium and restoril all in therapeutic doses she was given ice baths and antibiotics she sucked the liquid sleeping medication chloral hydrate from a baby

bottle oh god on the morning of february 8th 2007 almost exactly five months after daniel died howard left her in the care of her bodyguard's wife and another woman sometime after 1 p.m he received a phone call that she was not breathing so what happened after her death it was really just in keeping with what everything that had preceded it yeah um even the disposition of her body required the intervention of the judicial system following a disposition of her body yeah so what to do with it after she died so her coward and her mother were in a argument about where to bury her and so they took it to um took it to court in Broward County so Miami Florida um Howard wanted to bury her in the Bahamas which is where Daniel was buried and her mom wanted her buried in Texas um the court was a shit show the judge

cried on the stand. What? Yes, like, just crazy. They said clearly the judge was just wanting his, like, 15 minutes of fame. Yeah, obviously. Yes. Good grief. It was just, it was a complete shit show. In the end, it was decided that Anna Nicole was to be buried in the Bahamas next to her son.

Yeah. Which, I mean, seems right. Yeah. Then another court of a different sort became involved in march 2009 then attorney general of california jerry brown held a press conference condemning anna nicole's very public abusive prescriptions he charged howard k stern internist sandeep kapoor and dr. Chris with various crimes related to helping her obtain and abuse medications. He called them her enablers and conspirators. To many, it seemed like an open and shut case. Not so, said the judge, who chastised the government

as overzealous and found it a matter of fact that Anna Nicole was a chronic pain sufferer who did not meet the legal definition of a drug addict in California. A jury dismissed the serious charges against them. So, yeah. So, like, full-on were charged with all kinds of charges. Medical, you know, malpractice for getting these prescriptions and everything and basically everything was thrown out how do you feel about that like after you've read all this you know it's hard for me to say because there's probably something true to the chronic pain sufferer

but clearly she was addicted to these medications and clearly they were enabling her yeah so i don't know i it's hard to say that i mean i think that despite them not being convicted of these things their lives were basically ruined by these charges i mean afterwards howard stern moved back in with his parents he was i think stripped of his because he was a lawyer i think he was stripped of his law degree yeah so i'm i mean i don't think anybody got away like scot-free right okay okay so then came the matter of the paternity of um danny lynn no fewer than five men asserted possible paternity of the baby girl including prince frederick von anhalt the husband of 90 year old jaja gabor oh give me a break she claimed a decade-long fair with anna nicole once again the courts were asked to intercede

and a dna test determined what was known all along the little girl was larry burkhead's larry took danny lynn and is now raising her in kentucky and los angeles after smith's death the case continued in the name of um her infant daughter in 2010 it was ruled that anna nicole smith's estate would not inherit any of her late husband's estate following the decision by the appellate court for the ninth circuit lawyers for the estate of anna nicole smith requested that the appeal be heard before the entire Ninth Circuit, not just the appeals court. However, on May 6, 2010, that appeal was denied. Then, and it's unclear to me how this happened, but then on September 28, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court again agreed to hear the case.

september 28 2010 the u.s supreme court again agreed to hear the case finally on june 23rd 2011 the u.s supreme court issued a ruling against the estate of anna nicole smith holding that the bankruptcy court ruling giving her estate the sum of 475 million was decided without jurisdiction more than 15 years had passed since the death of J. Howard Marshall, and it was finally decided that Anna Nicole Smith and her estate were entitled to nothing. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yup. That's pretty crazy.

That's absolutely crazy. I mean, how long that dragged on, and then in the end, nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and in the end, like, the people who cared about it originally... They didn't even live to see that. Yeah. Both of them died before they ever got to see any kind of resolution.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty crazy to see like how many different people were involved in that decision. Yeah. how many different people were involved in that decision. And then, yeah, it carried on after both of the initial,

initial people who were pursuing the case. Didn't even make it. Wow. Did you, did you watch her reality? Heck yeah, I did. It's so funny when you said you were going to do this case.

I was like, yes yes because i've i always kind of liked her but i couldn't i can't tell you why i know i always liked her too she seemed like really normal yeah i think like you know what i mean like not celebrity yeah yeah she seemed dingy yes but genuine absolutely i think she seemed very genuine shall we wrap this baby up absolutely join us next week when we'll be experts on completely different topics i was so afraid you were gonna make me say what i'm doing next week because i have no idea the panic on my face was like oh shit okay podcast is yours and now for a note about our process i read a bunch of stuff then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary

and i copy and paste from the best sources on the web and sometimes Wikipedia. So we owe a huge thank you to the real experts. For this episode, I got a lot of great info from FamousTrials.com, Smithsonian Magazine, and IndianaHistory.org. And I got most of my information from the article Papa and Lady Love by Dan P. Lee for New York Magazine. For a full list of our sources, visit lgtcpodcast.com. Any errors are, of course, ours, but please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff. All right, already, I'll do it.

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