Let's Go To Court! - 27: The Strange Life of Michael Marin and Game Night Gone Wrong

Episode Date: August 1, 2018

Brandi starts us off with the strange story of millionaire adventurer Michael Marin. Marin likened himself to the dapper man in the Dos Equis commercials — the Most Interesting Man in the World. As obnoxious as that sounds, he wasn’t wrong. Marin lived most of his life on top of the world, which made it all the more shocking when he fell. Then Kristin treats us to another old timey Kansas City case. This story starts innocently enough. John and Myrtle Bennett invited their friends Charles and Myrna Hofman over to play bridge. Everyone was having a great time… until they weren’t. John played a bad hand, Myrtle insulted him, and John slapped her several times. But Myrtle didn’t take it sitting down. She ran to her mother’s room and came out with a loaded gun. As crazy as that night was, Myrtle’s trial was even crazier. 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: “Bridge Slaying Story Related,” The Morning Chronicle “Last Hand at Park Manor: The Trial of Myrtle Bennett,” The Jackson County Historical Society Journal “The Bridge Murder Case,” Wikipedia The book, “The Devil’s Tickets: A Vengeful Wife, a Fatal Hand, and a New American Age,” by Gary Pomerantz In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “The Extreme Life and Dramatic Death of Michael Marin” by Michale Kiefer, The Arizona Republic “Arson in America: The Odd Tale of Michael Marin” independentmail.com “The Millionaire Arsonist” by Heather Sutfin, swordandscale.com  

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts! I'm Kristen Pitts. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court! On this episode, I'll talk about game night gone wrong. And I'll be talking about the strange,

interesting, eccentric life of Michael Marin. Huh? I've noticed lately that every time you go first, I always say I'm so excited for your case. Yes. And I've decided... That you're not going to say it today?

You're just neutral? I want to say it so badly, but I realize that it sounds stupid if I say it every single time. You know what I really want to say? What? Welcome to Let's Go to Court After Dark. We've never recorded this late before. Yeah, so because of my ridiculous summer schedule, we are recording this Monday evening before Wednesday.

I don't know if you saw on the website, but I always put the title of the upcoming episode, and this week I was like, find out with us. Find out with us, because we don't know if you saw on the website, but I always like put the title of the upcoming episode. And this week I was like, find out with us because we don't know. Yeah. We're as surprised as you are right now. Okay. So I'm gonna talk about Michael Maron. I want to note right off the bat is that that I pulled from this really great article by Michael Kiefer for the Arizona Republic. Really great article, and I pulled heavily from it. Okay. On May 20th of 2009, Michael Marin was on top of the world. Like literally, he was on top of the world. He had just successfully climbed Mount Everest. Whoa. And was standing where only

approximately 4,000 people have ever stood before. By July 5th of that year, though, he would find himself dressed in scuba gear, escaping down a rope ladder out of his burning mansion. And by May 21st of 2012, almost exactly three years to the day after he reached the summit of Mount Everest, he was in court and on trial for arson. To understand the chain of events that led to this downward spiral, we really have to try and get a picture of Michael's life as a whole. And I say try because his life is crazy. It sounds crazy. It sounds crazy. Yes.

Michael Marin was born in December of 1958 in Oak Harbor, Washington. He was raised a member of the Mormon Church and as such, he attended BYU and served a mission. His mission took him to Japan, where he became fluent in Japanese. After graduating from BYU, he went to Yale Law School and after passing the bar in New York, he started his career in the legal department of a bank which eventually took him back to Japan. Damn. His knowledge of the language and culture that he'd gained during his mission made him a huge asset as an investment banker in the Asian market. So he began trading in complex investments for several large banks, including Merrill Lynch, Solomon Brothers, and Lehman Brothers, and he made a fortune. Worth noting here, Lehman Brothers went

bankrupt during the 2008 housing collapse. Merrill Lynch nearly did during the same time, but was saved by Bank of America. And Salomon Brothers was absorbed into Citigroup in the late 90s. So none of those banks are around in their same capacity anymore. Michael wrote a book about his experiences working in the Asian financial world called Fluctuations! Exclamation point. The inside story of how wall street fucked asia without a kiss what so he doesn't actually put fucked in the uh in the title it's like you

know yeah it's all ampersands and yeah whatever and so um it's not quite that graphic. I'm more offended by the exclamation point. The book was published in 2001 and carries an Amazon rating of 2.4 stars. Ouch. This is the synopsis. Hold on. Was this self-published? Sure was. Uh-huh.

Okay. Gotcha. Refreshingly honest, highly irreverent, and wickedly funny confessions by michael j maron inside if you dare go on safari with a deliciously profane and entertaining guide to the asian financial jungle who will show you a decade of pillage and plunder you could not have imagined and that you will never forget meet the human drill bit what i don't know discover what really happened when yasu hamanaka lost close to three billion dollars trading copper for sumitomo corporation experience the terror of the cherish thing. Again, I have no idea. Okay. Find out what keeps the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank up at night worrying about Asia.

Collect some great ideas for elaborate practical jokes and sophisticated money laundering. Marvel at the dire consequences of hysterical greed. Oh, dude. See Japan through the eyes of a foreigner who lived and worked there for 12 years, who speaks fluent Japanese, and who understands the culture well enough to tell when the emperor has no clothes.

Get the kind of candid perspective you can only get from an erstwhile wunderkind who doesn't give a rat's ass if he ever works on Wall Street again. I'm guessing he's not still Mormon at this point. Right. Oh, my God. Well, I didn't actually find anything that said he left the Mormon church, I am assuming.

Yeah. So, yeah. So, self-published book, obviously. Sounds unforgettable. He wrote that synopsis again marin could be described as a bit of an unreliable narrator though and admittedly so the book carried a note on the copyright page that read this book is a complicated hybrid of fact and fiction virtually all of the stories

and incidents are true, but in many instances, names, places, and other details have been changed or fictionalized to protect the privacy, anonymity, and safety of the individuals to whom they refer. In the book, he issued warnings to his former colleagues, boasting that he has firearms training, and that if anyone tries to sue he could unleash information that would reveal their mistresses or open them to criminal investigation oh my he also admits that he will never work in banking again given the bridges he burns over the course of the book so that's a little bit of a picture of a part of his life in a play he wrote later on in his life marin likened himself to the guy from the beer commercials the most interesting man in the world

oh shut up and by all accounts by friend and foe alike his life was at the very least interesting michael had married a woman he met at BYU and they had four kids together. They divorced in 1992 after 12 years of marriage and he'd followed his marriage up by dating a string of beautiful women. He could sing and play piano like a professional musician. He'd even had a walk-on role

in the Arizona Opera's production of Aida in the spring of 2012. He collected art. His prized possessions were said to be his Pablo Picasso etchings, of which he bragged about their value being millions of dollars. But a former girlfriend who was present when he purchased them said he'd paid only a few hundred thousand dollars. he paid only a few hundred thousand dollars um i will say though that just because he only paid a few hundred thousand dollars for him doesn't mean that their worth wasn't more than that but i think he liked to pitch it like he had paid you know sure millions of dollars for them because he's a super douche. Super douche. Yes.

So he collected art and he created art. He made acrylic busts of women and then painted and embellished them with fabrics and shells and medallions. Oh, God. Give me. You know those busts have just like huge cartoonish boobs. You know they do. Oh, I'm sure. Huge cartoonish boobs.

You know they did. Oh, I'm sure. He'd owned a Cessna and given rides out at Burning Man dressed as a commercial pilot. And he'd owned a Rolls Royce. And obviously he was an adventurer. He'd climbed the highest peak on six continents. McKinley in Alaska. Aconcagua in South America. Where? highest peak on six continents mckinley in alaska akonkagua in south america where akonkagua in south america bitch

elbrus in europe kilimanjaro in africa oh here we go oh go for it in australia and everest in asia all that was left was vincent massive in antarctica and it was on his list he it was like the next on his to-do list obviously because it was the last highest peak but you know what i think what i think there could be nothing worse on earth than being stuck in an airplane seated next to this guy can you imagine seriously you would be like trapped to hear why he is the best person he has ever met absolutely 100 yuck all told together his life seems like something imagined or fabricated but he had the pictures to back it up there were pictures of it all his adventures in asia his mountain climbs his time at burning man even pictures of him with all of the beautiful women he claimed to date he could prove it all

photoshop no i mean it really seemed that it was real he really did all of these things and for all of the interesting adventurous stuff he did he was also described and i'm guessing that you you would describe him this way as a bit of a bully a bit of a douche and someone who believed he was smarter than everyone else oh yeah and someone who would never give up without a fight in 2000 marin got a traffic citation in arizona for running his motorcycle into a car. He went over the handlebars and ended up in the hospital and was issued a ticket for failure to control a vehicle to avoid collision. One might think that a rich man would and world adventurer would just pay this citation. Yeah.

Not Marin. He appealed, acting as his own attorney, and lost the case. He wrote a self-aggrandizing and condescending brief to the court detailing the charity work that he had done right before the accident and his driving expertise for having attended a world-famous driving school. He got a new trial, but only because the audio recording from his first trial was garbled and he lost again but he still didn't let it go in 2002 he self-published another book

this time about moron drivers and it was entitled The Illustrated Guide to Morons, Drivers Edition. And I'm guessing he had no other editions. That's correct. This book is also available on Amazon, but it has no ratings. Interesting. In another instance, a woman Marin had dated for three months in 2003 filed a paternity suit against him for her newborn daughter. Marin fought the suit for two years before DNA finally confirmed that he was, in fact, the father. God, what an awful man.

Oh, I hate him so much. After paternity was confirmed, he did pay child support and introduce his daughter to his other four children. How nice. and introduce his daughter to his other four children. How nice. So now that we have a picture of Michael's life, let's talk about the events that led up to a strange escape from his burning mansion. The details of exactly how Marin purchased his multi-million dollar mansion and built more estates, which is an upscale neighborhood in Phoenix.

Current listings in the neighborhood top $8 million. Whoa. But so the details of how he came to purchase this mansion are fuzzy at best. But what we do know is that he bought the home through a series of complicated transactions after his friend and former business partner lost it to foreclosure in September of 2008. Okay. It came with a $17,250 monthly mortgage. Oh, my God.

And an impending balloon payment of $2.3 million. By the spring of 2009, Michael realized that the payments were too much for him. Really? And he was now retired. And there was no way he was going to be able to come up with the amount for the balloon payment. So he came up with a genius idea. He'd just raffle it off. He'd sell 176,000 raffle tickets at $25 a piece.

And the money would cover the cost of the mortgage. He'd recoup the money he'd put into it. And the rest he'd give to charity. What? He'd even picked a children's crisis center as the beneficiary of the raffles profits. Wait, what was he raffling off? The house. The mansion. He wasn't going to make any money off of it, Kristen.

He was going to pay off the mortgage, the people that win the raffle, get the house. He, you know, whatever money he's put into it is down payment, whatever. He gets that back. And the rest of the money goes to a children's charity. He's thinking it's going to easily clear $500,000 for this children's charity. What's wrong with that? Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

This sounds like an i love lucy scheme so while doing interviews with a phoenix news station after successfully climbing mount everest he promoted the raffle what a great way to take the opportunity to promote his charity project, right? No. Wrong! Turns out the raffle, which was to take place July 4th, was illegal. Really? And when state authorities caught wind of it, likely through his television interviews, they shut it down.

Then, on July 5th, 2009, the day after the drawing was to take place marin called 911 to report that his mansion was on fire oh and that he was going to escape using a rope ladder he claimed that he was asleep inside the house when he heard the smoke alarm as he struggled through the thick smoke he remembered that he had a scuba tank in his bedroom closet he said he put on the tank and mask climbed out a window and descended the rope ladder to escape the media response to marin's unbelievable escape from the jaws of death was huge and he did interviews that night from his hospital bed oh my god no no no then fire investigators as well as investigators from marin's insurance company oh boy was

something fishy about entered the house and what they found was shocking there was blood fucking everywhere shut up shut up no i'm just kidding i haven't said that in a while that was really good i feel like we went on like a five episode streak at the beginning where you said the sentence, there was blood everywhere. So, no, there wasn't blood anywhere. But investigators were a bit perplexed by what they saw when they entered the home.

Marin's priceless art, including his Picasso etchings. Were those fine? Were those gone? They'd been removed from the home. Weird. As had his pet macaw. Not in the home that a fancy bird that's a bird it's a type of parrot oh okay i'm stalling because i've completely lost my place you want me to talk about parrots a bit well i don't know if he's the guy from the Fruit Loops box, but if he is... It's a toucan!

It's in the name. His name is fucking Toucan Sam. Wow. Okay. You're the one who lost her place. You don't get to be condescending. I know that Tony is a tiger. How about that?

Okay. So his Picasso's gone. Not in the house. His pet macaw, not in the house. Did you know that Captain Crunch is owned by the Quakers? And he's in the military. He's actually only a... If you look at it, he's like a general, not a captain or something like that. Still.

Stop wearing Quaker life. Did I get you off again? I found it. I'm good. Get you off again. Sorry. I'm sorry. What the fuck? I'm good. Get you off again. Sorry. I'm sorry. What the fuck?

I'm sorry. We'll cut that because that's weird. It is. Let's go to court after dark. This is when we get sexy with this. I did wear my pajamas. Just full footy pajamas. And I'm in a silk smoking robe.

Like some creepy old man. So investigators are shocked by what they find. Mm-hmm. They find phone books. Oh. Marin told investigators that he believed the fire had started at the electrical box and then had been able to spread quickly because he had boxes of phone books sitting nearby what year was this it was 2009 i don't know dude but what investigators found

were boxes of phone books lined up end to end in the hallways of the house. And they found what they believed to be four different ignition spots as well. And accelerants along the way. So on August 19th, 2009, Michael Marin was arrested for arson. Yeah. Marin spent 10 days in jail before making bond. Marin was running out of money. In September, he sent out an email to friends asking if they could help him financially. It read in part, perhaps you or someone you know might like to take advantage of my situation and purchase one or more of my remaining assets from me at rock-bottom fire sale prices.

Ew, come on. If you'll pardon the unfortunate metaphor. How would you like to buy a Picasso on the cheap? Or an airplane? I've exhausted all of my other options. I'm literally at the end of my rope. So this sale, this reaching out to his friends, it seemed to sustain him for a little while.

And a friend and former girlfriend gave him a place to stay while he was awaiting trial. But by April of 2011, he had to let his attorney go and request a public defender. In the financial statement required when applying for such, he noted that he no longer had any assets. On May 20th 2012 michael marin posted this on facebook three years ago today i was on top of the world tomorrow my trial

begins one ceases to recognize the significance of mountain peaks mountain peaks if they are not viewed occasionally from the deepest valleys. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, all right. In opening arguments, Deputy County Attorney Chris Rapp laid out the prosecution's theory. Michael Marin couldn't pay his mortgage, so he burned down his house. Yep. Marin's defense attorney, Lindsay Abramson, countered,

the state wants you to make a leap that because he's eccentric, because he saved his own life wearing a scuba suit, that he committed arson. No, that's not what. Good try, Lindsey. Abramson also pointed out that many of the prosecution's expert witnesses were paid for by Marin's insurance company. The prosecution's expert witnesses were paid for by Marin's insurance company. Okay. Seems like a bit worth pointing out at trial, I think. Well, but expert witnesses are always paid.

Yes. I didn't know that the insurance company would pay for them, though. Yeah, I didn't know that either. Yeah. The prosecution called a forensic accountant to detail Marin's financial situation. called a forensic accountant to detail maron's financial situation they testified that maron's bank account went from nine hundred thousand dollars in 2008 to forty two thousand seven hundred dollars just before the fire and his 401k had been drained all the way down to fifty dollars oof yeah i he had just burned through all of that money this I mean that had to be that monthly mortgage payment that he was making $17,000 a month and whatever down payment he probably had to put down

and then I mean I can climb Mount Everest is like I think $60,000 to get a guide and whatever nothing that he was doing was cheap. The costos aren't cheap. No yes none of that is cheap. Arson investigators testified at trial about their discoveries of the phone books and accelerants inside the home. The defense offered a perfectly reasonable explanation for those things, though. Michael Marin was an artist. He used the pages of those phone books to paper mache his bus that he was so well known for. And those accelerants they found, those were simply his acrylics and resins for his art projects

that he stored open in the hallway. Michael Maron did not testify in his own defense. Oh, you know his public defender had to like... Probably fight him so hard on that because you know he wanted to. And after a few weeks of testimony, his fate was in the jury's hands. I don't know exactly when they began deliberations, but the jury returned a verdict on June 28th. At 1 o'clock p.m. when the verdict was to be read, Michael Maron sat nervously at the defense table.

The gallery was full of curious onlookers and media. News cameras were fixed on Marin, and as the verdict was announced, guilty, he hung his head, cupped his face in his hands, and appeared emotional. He put his hand over his mouth. He fiddled with his briefcase. He took a drink of Gatoratorade and then he just sat there apparently stunned the jury was excused and the judge addressed counsel to determine the next phase of the trial because the home had been occupied at the time of the fire though the

occupant was marin he faced up to 21 years in prison while a basic arson charge carries a maximum of 10 and a half years in Arizona. Oh, OK. So it's deemed an occupied dwelling. But if you're the one in there. Yeah. I don't know. I'll be the first one to declare this guy a super douche. But that seems like way too long.

Yeah. He was facing 21 years. That seems like way too long. Yeah. He was facing, yeah, 21 years. The prosecution had the choice to decide if they would pursue it as an occupied dwelling or not. So they're discussing this in court. Seven minutes had passed since the verdict was read when Marin suddenly gasped, collapsed to the floor. The Gatorade.

And began convulsing. No. collapsed to the floor and began convulsing no sheriff's deputies and emergency personnel some of the same firefighters who had been in court testifying about the fire rushed to his aid when clear liquid began to flow from his mouth they turned him on his side to keep him from choking the judge sat on the bench watching in stunned silence by the time paramedics arrived Oh my gosh. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be cyanide poisoning. Police found a canister of cyanide in his car and determined that he had purchased it from a chemical supplier online in may of 2011 a closer look at the video of marin after the verdict showed that when he cupped his hands over his face he'd put something in his mouth oh obviously we now know that it was

a cyanide capsule and it appears that had long been his plan to end his life in this manner if the verdict didn't go his way wow he purchased the cyanide a year before his trial that's crazy yes oh my gosh yeah though his friends and family were saddened by a suicide the general consensus consensus was that they weren't shocked by it he killed himself because he's michael maron said former attorney richard gearloff it's because he didn't set that fire and if people misunderstand him so badly that they thought he did this crime then he was through with people what do you think about that no yeah i don't think so either i think he set the fire yeah

yeah for sure yeah i mean what alternative is there well the alternative is that you go to jail for 10 years prison for 10 years no i like, if he didn't start the fire. Oh, yeah, and it started at the electrical box, Kristen. Faulty electrical box. And then he just happened to have all of these phone books around. The defense laid it out, Kristen. I did not buy that part either. There are several parts here that I did not buy.

Yeah, no. No. So that's the crazy story of Michael Maron. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to finish with a quote of his. This is, I believe, from his Facebook page. Now I feel like a jerk for saying that he was a super douche. Oh, gosh.

Poor, well. So this is a quote from Michael Marin. I have dared to climb the highest mountains in the world, appalling pyramids of unforgiving snow, ice, and living rock, and set my feet on windswept Heights known only to the courageous and the crazy where views far too beautiful for mere words to express, dazzle the senses and touch

in the soul, a paradise of peace and joy, where the horrors of half-lived lives are unfamiliar. I have experienced things you may never know, even in your wildest dreams. And while pushing myself beyond the boundaries of human endurance facing mortal danger with every step i have opened my eyes and beheld the face of god i am awake see i feel like i could really get behind him if he just pulled back a little bit on the I'm so great part of that message and if instead he'd taken some of his adventures and turned it into like hey this is a good motivator for not like staying in your box and being afraid yeah god how why did you let me call him a super douche and he was dead the whole time oh that was a good one that was a mess so i um the only thing i knew of this case was him committing suicide in court and

i was like i just like remembered that i remember when it happened and so i just like guy that committed suicide in court and then when i found out all of this crazy shit about his life i was like this guy is nuts yeah yeah like i mean if you read a book if like if this guy was a character in a book you would never believe it right though yeah yeah wow good old michael maron super douche according to kristen pitts i take it back now that you said oh regret okay you ready for this i am so ready i've got a local one all right So ready. I've got a local one.

All right. It's an old timey local one. Recommended to me by my friend Sandy. Excellent. And she recommended this like in the first few weeks of the podcast. Oh, wow. So she was like, you know, when we had five listeners. Yeah. One of them was Sandy.

And she was thinking of ideas for us. Excellent. Okay. And she was thinking of ideas for us. Excellent. Okay. On September 29th, 1929, two Kansas City couples were hanging out together. But these weren't just any couples.

They were John and Myrtle Bennett and Charles and Myrna Hoffman. They were wealthy socialites. They were like the big deal in Kansas City. You know, you don't hear a lot of Myrtles and Myrnas anymore. I think it's a good thing we retired those names. I mean, they just like... I don't see how you can be like 17

and be named Myrtle. Yeah. I feel like you can only be 80. You probably go by a nickname, right? Like what? What? I don't know. I think you just have to pray that you have a good middle name and be like, I go by Ann. I go by Ann.

So that day, they'd played a round of golf at the Indian Hills Country Club. Oh. Oh, yeah. Familiar. the Indian Hills Country Club. Oh! Oh, yeah. Familiar.

And by that evening, the four of them were back at the Park Manor apartment building at 902 Ward Parkway. I'm sorry. Yep. Google it. Is it still... I was about to ask

if it was still alive. I'm going to wait for you to call it a super douche then I'm going to tell you something horrible about it. So I looked it up. There is something there, but I... What do you think?

902 Ward Park? Yeah. That looks like it, right? That's an apartment building. That's an old-timey apartment building. Well, you don't have to get mad about it. I'm not! I'm excited!

Okay, so they have just been... They were playing golf? They'd been playing golf that day. Now the two couples are sitting around. They're playing bridge together. Bridge, excellent. I know nothing about bridge. It's cards.

I also know nothing about bridge. And here's the thing. A lot of articles about this go into great detail about bridge. Not happening here, folks. Here's what you need to know. It's a card game, and you play with a partner. Excellent to know it's a card game and you play with a partner excellent and it's it's a four-person game right okay i think so okay excellent i'm gonna be honest i have only and this is our second i love lucy reference of this episode

i've only seen it played on i love lucy and i remember they were around like it was four people at a table in that episode so there there you go. There you go. That's my knowledge. All right. So they're playing bridge, and each couple was on a team together. Yeah. Things were going great. They played past midnight.

Everyone was having fun. Until they weren't. Oh, no! Okay, so this next part is a little controversial. Some people claim that they know the exact cards that were on the table when the bridge game went awry. From what I've gathered, those people are kind of full of shit. Like, maybe they have a good guess, but anyway. Hardly anyone can say with any certainty what led to the incident.

But what people can generally agree to is this. John Bennett messed up. He played the wrong hand. He did some kind of move that was not the correct move and myrtle his wife was pissed because myrtle's not standing for it she's like you she's like competitive uh game night is not a game that's right yeah it's for real if you're not here to win what are you fucking doing here i'm here to eat chips you know i'm glad you said that because i was going to say my dad really likes bridge mix which is candy and i always thought that it was like named after the card game okay because you people eat snacks while they play bridge and so it's like this brocks candy mix right recently found out that's not why it's called that why is it called that it's

called that because it's a mix of different candies it's like the crap that falls off the bridge during packaging what i put it all together into one mix i like your explanation a lot better although where did you hear this definition is Is it from your dad or from like? No. Okay. You know, from the universe somewhere. Because I remember when we were kids and he told you what a hoedown was. That's when a hooker gets shot.

Yes. I'm just saying if the explanation comes from your dad, I'm not always going to buy it 100%. Okay. from your dad i'm not always gonna buy it 100 okay so myrtle was pissed because bridge was her thing and he was fucking this whole thing up because they've been winning all night and then like the hoffman started to creep up on them all of a sudden john plays this hand no fucking john so she called him a bum bridge player whoa oh no she didn't she did so he didn't appreciate that one bit did he flip a table uh worse than that okay so in the middle of this bridge game he slapped her across the face i believe it's five or six times. And like really hard.

Yeah. Well, you heard what she said. He does it one time? What do you mean five or six times? Was he alternating hands? Was it all on one side? Was it like, you know, the front of the hand and then the back of the hand?

I need more information, Kristen. I can't give you more information. I can't even tell you what cards he put down all I can say was he starts beating his wife up over this I mean five or six I mean he's got to be going back and forth front and back right would you have been okay with one time I mean your reaction is really weird it's super. I don't think it is okay ever. Okay. But I'm just saying like, you know, we've all seen it in the movies. One slap and then you're like, oh my God, what did I do?

That's not it. No, this is real life. This is down here by the Country Club Plaza. So after Myrtle is slapped, she says, nobody but a bum would hit a woman. Whoa! Yeah. She's not standing down. She's like, uh-uh, you're still a fucking bum.

Yep, yep, not taking it back. Then she got on the record player, played Sorry Not Sorry by Demi Lovato. Oh my god, it was taking a drink so john didn't like any of that yeah not a big demi fan he wanted to beat up his wife and not be insulted yeah uh so at at this point and again, the Hoffmans are still there. What are they doing? I assume being horrified. I don't know. So at that point, he's like, you know what?

I'm spending the night at a hotel and tomorrow I'm leaving town. What? Myrtle then turns to the Hoffmans and says, I think you folks had better go. They're like, goodbye. Thanks. So the Hoffmans stand up and start to leave. They all live in the same apartment buildings, like the Ricardos and the Murchins.

Yeah, I mean, what the fuck? Have you recently watched a bunch of I Love Lucy? You know, I think it was something about these two being in the same apartment building. I just burped right into the microphone. Oh, wow. After I'm making an excellent point. Pardon me.

I think it's something about them being in the same apartment building. It got me thinking about I Love Lucy, and I've thought about it all day long. Did you just burp again? No. I was just thinking about how when they're, maybe it was bridge mix that they were in the factory. Back in Shanghai when they had to stuff all the chocolates in their mix. A little mushy. So they stand to leave and meanwhile John Bennett is headed off to the bedroom and he's got his suitcase and he's just throwing clothes

in it. He's like, I'm out. Meanwhile, Myrtle runs into her mom's room because her mom lived with them and she emerges seconds later with a loaded gun wow yep i'm sorry the look on your face did you not expect that no okay so the hoffmans are still there when myrtle comes charging back into the room with a loaded weapon yep okay as soon as john saw his wife with the gun he's like oh shit he runs to the bathroom closes the door and locks it and myrtle was like bullets will go through that just fine so she fires twice into the bathroom. Yes. But the thing is, the bathroom has two doors. So he starts running out the other door.

So she starts running after him. Lost my place. Oh. Hmm. How the mighty have fallen. Fallen right off Everest over here. But this is just so you can see

the peace of hell. So he exits through the other bathroom door and he starts running down the hallway through the living room. He's trying to get to the front door. Myrtle is just as fast as he is she comes after him shoots two more shots this time she hits him he dies almost immediately oh my god where'd she hit him um i believe like in the back and maybe in the armpit

okay so that's a crazy story right her? Her trial was even crazier. Oh my God. Shortly after John's murder, murder, myrtle. Whoa. Myrtle the murderer. Myrtle the murderer. She could be a turtle or a murderer. So she was arrested and charged with first degree murder because duh.

Yeah. She'd shot him. And at the time of the shooting, there was one witness. It seems like Charles was still in there and Myrna had like peaced out. Myrna was like, I'm getting the fuck out of here. She was like, goodbye. Yeah. But here's the thing.

Myrtle was crazy rich. So she could afford Kansas City's best attorney. We've talked about him. James A. Reed? Yes! Yes! So we've talked about him before on the podcast. Former Kansas City mayor, former senator, major guy, and nowadays a major Kansas City boulevard.

James A. Reed. So there are a couple different theories as to why james a reed took this case i'm not going to get into all of them but one that i thought was really interesting was that he really wanted to become president and um spoiler alert it doesn't happen for him for those of you who don't know your history very well. I think at one point he actually contended for the Democratic presidential nomination but obviously never got that either.

So here was the thing. He wanted to become president. He needed to secure the Democratic Party's nomination. But the thing is that he had been really against women's right to vote oopsies and then a lot of women became democrats so can't came back to bite him in the ass those bitches so you know women get the right to vote. And he's like, oh, boy. So some people believe that he defended Myrtle in this case where her husband was abusive in an effort to gain favor with women voters.

OK, so this whole thing was a massive spectacle. First of all, you've got James A. Reed. And this was believed to be his last trial. So students at the Kansas City School of Law skipped classes to attend the trial. And of course, a lot of really that's a better education anyway. So I would think so. Yeah. They should have gotten credit for it.

Yes. Let's write them a letter to the law school that either doesn't exist or has been absorbed into UMKC. Yeah. I would assume that it was absorbed into UMKC. That's really what this podcast is. Just us making assumptions about shit we don't know about. Usually about Kansas City. We try to keep it local.

That's right. So, of course, a lot of Kansas City's social elites wanted to come watch the trial. So they showed up in their furs and, know top hats monocles just mr peanut was there the monopoly guy was hanging out next to him they're there you know but few people know that they're both from kansas that's not true if we get a chip on our shoulders about kansas city we just start making up famous residents so this made international news because at the time bridge was insanely popular yeah um so this became kind of like one of those stories that everyone talks about and jokes about newspapers would call in

bridge experts to speculate about what have might have been the fatal hand oh my gosh and again even though it's pretty clear that no one could truly remember the right cards because it was overshadowed by a fucking murder yeah um experts would just either speculate or just make shit up and there were tons of people out there being like, well, if only he'd played it this way, then he might be alive today. You know, just ridiculous stuff. So the whole world is watching. Yeah.

James A. Reid is ready to go. He wants another win. And he knows that jury selection is going to be crucial. Yeah. He had this huge uphill battle. The jury was going to be all men. But he needed certain types of men. Really?

That's the way to go? Male jurors? Well, okay, the article I read made it seem like it was pretty much a guarantee at that time that it was going to be only men. All right. But anyway. I think you want a bunch of women with bum husbands. Right? Or women who were really competitive bridge players.

So for three days, he studied and questioned the jurors, all with an eye for which man might be more sympathetic to a widow. Okay. And which one could be more persuaded by him sympathetic to a widow she's only a widow because she murdered her fucking husband well but if you look at it through the lens of she's been abused okay wow no nothing you wouldn't be on the jury, I can tell you that. So, he was about to put on a show for these people. Okay. Before the trial...

I did forget that he slapped her six times. Yeah, and that was not like his first time slapping her. Right, yes. Just to clarify, I'm not... I'm not condoning spousal abuse. Wow, Brandy. I'm also not condoning shooting your husband. So, before the trial started, he was like was like Myrtle I need you to look

the part here buddy are you going to tell us what she wore you know what kills me I could tell you in great detail but I cut those out because I thought well here well I can give you the basics you're just going to make it up right now no oh okay she wore alligator pumps black

she wore all black yes um she's in mourning her husband died yes she murdered him she from what i could tell it was like it was high-end black clothing but like the selections were very um conservative you know maybe to the naked eye you have a hat on of course she had a hat on it's 1930 what are you thinking it was like a cloche hat or i believe it was a beret oh all right i really should have written this down i did not think you'd be interested i'm very interested clearly you are i'm not even sure why it's like it's coming from inside me uh the other thing he said to her was, do not wear any makeup at all. Really?

Yeah. See, I think that's the wrong move again. What do you think is the right move? I think she wants to look beautiful to get the sympathy of an all-male jury. What about pathetic and haggard and upset because you accidentally shot your husband yeah that's a play too okay all right all right james a reed i guess i'll give you your road back i was gonna rename it yeah what were you gonna rename it brandy egan boulevard yeah it does actually sound pretty good.

So the other thing he told Myrtle was, hey, if you feel the need to cry, go for it. Let loose. Yeah, do not hold back those tears. So the prosecutor is James A. Page. That's just confusing. It's like they had a shortage of names. Yes. Last names, they're a shortage of names yes last names they're good first names no so he delivers this very road hell no he doesn't

he delivers a very matter of fact opening statement he's like myrtle fired at her husband four times her final two shots hit him in the back she chased him about 70 feet through the apartment you know there's witnesses there's people who heard it open and shut jury you know what to do yeah then it's the defense's turn myrtle is crying from the get-go just fountains of tears yeah james a reed starts telling the jury about myrtle's humble upbringing and his eyes become moist with tears of course they do what are you not affected james a page much like you is looking at this and he's like come the fuck on dude so he stands up and I'm going to read you the exchange. Paige, I object.

Whether she was destitute has nothing to do with this case. Then Reed says he's just trying to show something about his client's history. Paige, I don't want him standing there trembling, tears in his eyes, talking about the defendant being destitute. Reed, maybe you would tremble too if the facts of this woman's life were page i'll tremble because the defendant shot her husband in the back at this point everyone is riled up and the judge is like everyone chill but everyone did not chill oh reed keeps up with this long history, and Paige is like, look, if we're gonna hear her entire life story,

then I wanna tell her husband's entire life story. Let's make this fair. Meanwhile, Myrtle and Reed are just bawling their eyes out. Oh my gosh! And at one point, Reed turns to Myrtle, and he's like, Myrtle, remind me, how long did you work as a stenographer? And she's like myrtle remind me how long did you work as a stenographer and she's like about three years and page is just pissed he's like are we on broadway right now this is ridiculous so he objects again page asks the judge if they could pause so that

they could give quote counsel for the defense and his client a chance to finish their cry. So with that, Reed turns to Paige and goes, Jim, I just can't help it. I'm not trying to be emotional. I wish I could be as cold-blooded about it as some in this courtroom. This trial was ridiculous. Oh my gosh. It was so over the top. trial was ridiculous oh my gosh from there reed laid out a very interesting version of the facts of that night here's what he told the jury he said that the two couples were playing bridge

and at a certain point in the game myrtle went into the kitchen to prepare john's breakfast quote as she always did and as any wife should. I'm sorry. Isn't it the middle of the night? Right. So I guess she just wanted to get a jump on the next morning. Okay. What's up, Brandy?

You smelling some bullshit with this? Yes, I am. Hey, just as any wife should. I'll smell a little apple cider vinegar. Oh, my God. Everybody, I'm drinking water with lemon and apple cider vinegar because I hate myself. It smells like a foot and it tastes like one too. So when she finished she came back into the room and the two of them argued over the game and that's when john slapped her several times and you know reed was not any more details

about that front back side side the detail he included was he slapped her really hard okay all right and he said that he was going to abandon her like this is permanent i'm done with you then he ordered myrtle to go get the gun from her mom's room. What? Brandy, why are you making that face about this perfectly logical story? That doesn't make any fucking sense. What time do you have to leave to go fix Zach's breakfast? Because I'm going to fix Norman's any minute now. You know, as any wife would.

I was like, what the fuck? I don't have to leave it at that. That was good. So, yeah, he orders Myrtle to go get the gun from her mom's room. And I did not write this part down, and I regret it immensely. But, like, he made some mention of the fact that like myrtle myrtle hadn't was not comfortable around guns she didn't know what she was doing with guns the only reason her mom had a gun and i should have quoted this because it's fucking insane but he said something about how

like she grew up in mississippi and i'm quoting here around colored folk so she knew how to use a gun or some bullshit like that. That makes perfect sense, Kristen. We have a road after this. So Reed said, you know, he's telling the story to the church. Crying, Mrs. Bennett obeyed as she was in the habit of doing when her husband asked her. So picture it. Here's the scene. She walks into her mom's room. It dark she's sobbing she's being a

great wife then charles hoffman steps toward her she's startled she stumbles and oopsie the gun accidentally discharges twice uh-huh so then john the husband comes toward myrtle because you know he wants to comfort her and get the gun away from her. And because she clearly doesn't know how to use it. So at this point, James A. Reed and his co-counsel get up together in front of the jury and they act out how the accidental fatal shots could have occurred. So they're doing like this weird twisting kind of wrestling thing with one of them trying to get it. And, you know, that shows how myrtle's hand could get twisted and oopsies the gun could blow fucking shit i'm not buying this james a reed oh brandy what

what part do you not agree with all of it so pretty soon they start calling witnesses and the prosecution has witnesses who heard the shots and the scuffle like there were people below and you know people decide blah blah and they supported this theory that myrtle had chased john down but their most important witness was charles hoffman who'd been present for the whole thing yeah well he was there for the whole thing what's he have to say funny you should ask so page calls him to the stand but pretty soon page is getting angry he's like dude you're not telling the same story you told police the night that this happened this version you're telling is much more favorable to myrtle so they kind of go back and forth. And I couldn't find any exact information on how his testimony changed, only that it became more sympathetic to Myrtle. But essentially, when he took the stand, Charles talked a lot about John hitting Myrtle and Myrtle crying.

And Paige was like, this is really bad for my case. And at one point, the jury had to be removed because reed and page were arguing so much reed was like look dude you asked the guy these questions he answered them sorry you're not getting the answers that you want to hear and then he took out demi lovato then they have it on MP3? He had his iPod. So then there was Myrna Hoffman, who hadn't witnessed as much as her husband. She left.

She booked it out of there. And the funny thing is, like, she had some memory issues, so she really wasn't much help. No, star witness. So these two key witnesses have sort of like morphed into defense witnesses and then myrtle takes the stand and she just cries cries cries and she cries so hard and is so sympathetic that a lot of the women in court started crying with her wow and i think a lot of it was like talking about this was not the first time he hit me, he was abusive, and all that. She told the jury that she knew nothing about guns, that her husband hit her regularly,

and that that night she was afraid for her life. Prosecutor Page stands up. And he's pissed, of course, and he starts asking her all these really pointed questions. And she's like, what? I don't know. It was an accident. I was in a fog.

I wish I had died. She could confirm that the gun went off four times, but she couldn't tell him how or why or where or any of that stuff. Things were not looking good for the prosecution. Looking pretty good for Myrtle the murderer. So a coroner conceded that John could have been killed in the scuffle

that Reed and his co-counsel had theorized. You know, it wasn't totally out of the question. And a policewoman, which, holy crap, policewoman. Policewoman?

I know. Wow. I feel like that's what the story should be about. Yeah. Confirmed that Myrtle's husband It'd be a short story. There was a woman. There's a this story should be about. Yeah. Confirmed that Myrtle's husband... It'd be a short story. There was a woman.

There was a policewoman in 1929. So a policewoman confirmed that Myrtle said that her husband threatened to leave her that night and that, yeah, she seemed distraught. You know, so it kind of... It could fit with this accidental theory. So James A. Page is sweating. Mm-hmm. I stopped myself from saying sweating balls so then he calls a surprise witness which i thought could only happen in movies yeah who's

the surprise witness her name was annie rice and she was john b's half-sister. So... The fuck's she gonna testify about? You're about to find out. First of all, Reed was like, no way, no way, no way. The judge is like, I'll allow it. Is that what he said? That's what he said. So Annie Rice takes the stand, and she talks about how she met with Myrtle

a few weeks after the murder. Here's what she said. I said to her, Myrtle a few weeks after the murder. Here's what she said. I said to her, Myrtle, you told Brother Tom when he went to see you that you didn't know why you did it. But you do know why. Paige, what did Mrs. Bennett say? Rice, she said, nobody but me and my God know why I did it. But I'll tell you you annie when this is all over then you won't feel so bitter about it the fuck's that mean see i don't know quite what to make of that whether that means i'll tell you about how abusive he was yeah that's what that sounds like to me but the bottom line is that it seems pretty clear from that that it wasn't an accident, right?

Yeah. Like, once you know more, you won't feel so bad? Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know that it's a big help to either side, though. Really. Well, the bottom line was that it was deemed to be the most damaging to the defense.

Even though I agree with you. I don't see how that could be so bad for anybody. Yeah. Or so good for anybody. No. But Reed was upset about this. Reed was worried about it. So he gets an idea.

Hmm. He stands up. I love this, by the way. Walks over to a spot about 10 feet from the witness stand. Then he starts shouting. He says, how close was she to you when she said that? And Rice just kind of looks at him kind of strangely. So he shouts again.

She's fucking deaf. Did you hear my question? And Rice was like, I can't hear you can you repeat the question so he did and this time he's even louder how close was she to you when she said that and she's like oh okay yeah um she was about as close to me as this gentleman and she points to the court stenographer and then she goes i'm sorry i'm a little more deaf than normal i have a cold so reed had this huge grin on his face and he's like no further questions that's like a fucking movie scene i know i know it's so good oh my gosh so this trial lasted 11 days the jury deliberated for eight hours they found myrtle

not guilty wow yeah the jury had reasonable doubts as to whether myrtle set out to kill her husband that night they believed it could have been an accident what i'm a bit surprised really yeah i don't know i don't think it was an accident i do believe that she was probably abused yeah i see i think that after a certain amount of abuse, you can snap. Yeah, I don't know. I feel weird about it. Do you feel weird about it? Yeah, I do feel weird about it. I mean, I'm not...

I don't feel upset that she wasn't found guilty, but... Yeah. I do think she probably knowingly shot her husband. It makes me wonder, like, what outcome would we get today? Yeah. Mm-hmm. I feel like we understand more about domestic violence now. Well, yeah, and I also feel like there's different,

you would go a different way on defense nowadays. You'd still shout from 10 feet away. That's right. Absolutely. Because that's just good court TV. It is good. So after the trial, Myrtle and her mom. I scratched my arm right into the microphone here. Jesus Christ. Sorry.

So after the. Fuck. You pitting a crocodile over there? What are you doing? That was the loudest scratch ever. Still itches. Do you want to go for it? No, I'm fine.

I don't even see anything. It just itches. I'm allergic. To this story. So after the trial, Myrtle and her mom left Kansas City. Because at this point point they were like celebrities and they were the worst kind of celebrities so they didn't want to stick around they went to new york city where they were just kind of faces in a crowd

why are you looking at me i'm just i don't even know how to feel about it okay after world war ii myrtle became the executive head of housekeeping at the carlisle hotel in new york city um unbelievably she spent a lot of her time playing bridge with hotel guests wow she never discussed her past when she did it was always like very vaguely and you know not saying much when she retired she moved to florida she never remarried and actually grew even more wealthy over time as she got older she fought regularly with her family she didn't like that they had opinions about her money or whether or not she should live independently in the last five years of her life, she changed her will three times. She died in 1991 at 96 years old.

Her estate was worth more than a million dollars. But in her will, she left less than $4,000 in assets to her heirs. Wow. Would you like to know where the vast majority yes i would most of her money went to helen fugina and mary jacobs two nieces of her first and only husband john bennett wow and that's the story of the bridge game murder. That is nuts. Isn't that crazy? What the fuck was going on in Kansas City in the 20s and 30s? Corruption on corruption on corruption. That's what.

Yeah. It's amazing we're here today. Isn't that crazy? That was amazing. I loved that. Does it make you think about the next time you and Zach play games together Zach doesn't play games with me

why because he had a bad experience he thinks I might be too competitive he's just trying to save his own life did I ever tell you about the time that Norman and I played Taboo and I've like never seen him so mad

you know that Taboo is I've like never seen him so mad. You know that Taboo is my favorite game. Is it really? And we never play it in my family because Casey refuses to play it because of me. What did you do? I didn't do anything! Oh, bullshit. What did you do? She says I buzz too much.

She says she can't operate under the pressure. I can see you being really intense. It's my favorite game. How long has it been banned? Oh my gosh. Years. We haven't played it in years. Like 10 years.

Yeah. Maybe less than 10. Maybe like five years. Okay. Oh God. Maybe 10 years. Man, Maybe less than 10. Maybe like five years. Okay. Oh, God, maybe 10 years. Man, you really messed up. I didn't do shit! It sounds like, you know what?

I think if you did say, Casey, I'm sorry. I have said, I won't take the buzzer. I'm happy to just participate. Have you said, I'm sorry? I didn't do anything to mean to say I'm sorry. Yeah, E4. Yeah. Yeah.

I can see you're on Casey's side. You super competitive people are, like, you're scary in games. Keep the handguns away from you. They're going to accidentally discharge into us four times but no so the time that we played with norman like so i i've always loved taboo too but i'd always played with kyla as my partner and i thought i was amazing at taboo because kyla and i would always win kyla's amazing at kyla. Kyla's amazing at taboo. I suck. So suddenly I'm partnered up with Norman.

And OK, I'm not going to tell you the card I had. OK. All I said was man flannel shirt. OK, what do you say to that? Man flannel. Paul Bunyan. No. Lumberjack.

Yes. OK. OK. You know what what you know what that means means norman's bad taboo too because i said man flannel shirt and to me that was like duh lumberjack it's right around the corner yeah norman was like give me more i don't know give me more and I started laughing because he was getting so serious, which made him more mad. Yeah. And he was just like

worked up into a froth. So I just spit when I said froth. We should play taboo. I don't know. I'm afraid. I'm going to text Casey about this. See whether this is a good idea or not. If you enjoyed this episode, head on over to our social media.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Give us a like. Head on over to iTunes. Oh, my God, people. We are desperate to have 50 ratings on iTunes. We're so close to 50 ratings. And, like, nothing happens when you get to 50 ratings. No, we have just like set this goal for ourselves.

We want it to happen. Head on over to iTunes. Even if you don't listen to us there, it's a, you know, a hop, skip and a jump on your computer. Fuck, I couldn't come up with a word. And leave us a rating. Leave us a review. And we're now available on Stitcher. Yeah.

I'm going to be honest. We didn't know that that was a thing we needed to be on. Yeah. So you know what? The people asked. One person asked. And we got there. We made it happen.

I guess we're just, what we're saying is we're amazing and we're on top of Everest right now yeah this podcast that's right if there's something else that you know podcast people are supposed to do that we're not doing send us over this is true because we'll do it we'll do it we want this thing to be good we love doing it we hope you guys like listening. So if we're not doing something we're supposed to be doing, you know, send us a little love note.

Signed, Richard Heaney. And then join us next week when we'll be experts on two whole new topics. Podcast adjourned. 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 my info from the Jackson County Historical Society Journal, the Morning Chronicle, the book The Devil's Tickets. A Vengeful Wife. A Fatal Hand. And A New American Age. And oh my god, that's the longest title ever.

And finally, Wikipedia. And I got my info from the Arizona Republic, swordandscale.com and independentmail.com. What about a really long book? And a book called Michael Maron and Asia Fucked the Wall Street by Fluctuation. Wall Street. 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.