Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Nice Guy Murders His Best Friend - The Bernie Tiede story

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

This is the story of Bernie Tiede and how he murdered his friend Marjorie.

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So this guy, he's rich. In fact, he's one of the richest men in this small town in Texas.

But one day, he unfortunately dies. And his wife, she goes to the funeral, and her name's Marjorie. And there, at the funeral, Marjorie meets the assistant director of the funeral. This guy, Bernie. And Bernie is known to be the nicest guy in this small town. While Marjorie, on the other hand, she's known to be kind of a jerk. In fact, Marjorie's such a jerk. she doesn't really have any friends.

And Bernie, he kind of feels bad for her. So he becomes friends with her, and he starts inviting her out to things. And suddenly, they're hanging out a ton. And soon enough, they become really close. Like they're going out for nice dinners and seeing plays at the local theater. And Marjorie's got her husband's money,

so she's the one paying for all this stuff. And so this relationship, it goes on for about three years. And eventually, Marjorie asked Bernie to quit his 24,000, a year job at the funeral home and come and become her business manager. And she starts to pay him a pretty nice salary so that he can spend even more time with her. But Marjorie doesn't stop there. She pretty much buys Bernie whatever he wants. Clothes, cars, a Rolex, several small airplanes, flying lessons for those airplanes.

Plus they go on tons of trips together. Hong Kong, Bangkok, Russia, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, Egypt is crazy. Now, Bernie, he's still known to be the nicest guy in town, but now he has access to Marjorie's checkbook. So one day he decides, hey, I kind of want to share this wealth. Her wealth, of course. So he starts giving gifts to the local people in the town. He buys at least 10 cars for people who couldn't afford one. He buys a house for a local couple.

He even gives away some scholarships to some students, all using Marjorie's money. And poor Marjorie has no idea he's doing it. any of this behind her back. And she still loves him, a lot. She's got his photo up all over her place. She modifies her will, making him the sole beneficiary. I mean, as far as she's concerned, Bernie would never do her wrong. He would never hurt her. Until... As the years go by, Marjorie becomes more and more of a jerk. And she starts being an asshole to Bernie. She becomes really controlling and she's demanding and she makes him check in with her all the time and she gets really mad if he's late or if things fall behind schedule.

And this goes on for a long time and eventually Bernie has had enough. And one day he just snaps. It's in the morning and he goes over to Marjorie's mansion like he normally does. I guess he's there to drive her to the cleaners. And as they're leaving, she's walking ahead of him in the garage. and he quickly goes into a bathroom and he gets a rifle that he had placed in there earlier that day. And he goes back into the garage and he points that rifle at Marjorie's back while she's not looking. And suddenly, blam!

He shoots her in the back and she falls to the floor, but she's still breathing. So then, blam, blam, blam! Bernie shoots her three more times, unaliving her. And then he drags her body to another room and he wraps her in a sheet. and he puts her in a deep freezer. And then, strangely, Bernie just continues on with his life, as if everything is completely normal, as if she's not dead, as if he didn't just murder her.

Like he's still out on the town, spending all her money on himself and on other people. In fact, I think he spends almost $2 million of her money. And the whole time, when anyone asks about Marjorie, he just makes up crazy excuses as to why she isn't around. Like, oh, she's busy, she's washing her hair. And poor Marjorie, she doesn't really have any friends. Remember, she's a jerk.

So no one really notices, or I guess cares that she's not around. So no one bothers to investigate. And this goes on for nine months. Bernie just carrying on with his life as if he didn't just murder someone. But then Marjorie's estranged son and granddaughter notice that she's missing. and they show up to her mansion looking for her. And they're there, and they're with some sheriff's deputies, and they're combing through the place,

and eventually they find her there stuffed in the freezer where Bernie put her. And so police, they take Bernie in for questioning, and he just straight up admits to everything. He's like, yeah, I shot her. And pow, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. And he goes to trial, he's found guilty, and he gets life in prison. But his story's not over.

Because then, oddly, this famous movie director, Richard Linkletter, he hears about Bernie's crime and he's fascinated by it. And he decides, hey, I want to make a movie about this. And he does, one where Jack Black plays Bernie. And when this movie comes out, an appeals attorney, she sees it and she doesn't like the outcome of Bernie's trial. She thinks Bernie doesn't deserve life in prison. And more specifically, she believes this, that Bernie had an abusive childhood and that Marjorie was also kind of abuse of

to him, and this had triggered him into a dissociative episode. And because of this dissociative episode, he flipped out and shot him. So she comes up with this theory and she brings all her evidence to the same district attorney who got Bernie convicted, and she convinces him that she's right, and he actually helps to get Bernie's life sentence thrown out, and Bernie gets released on bail. And for the next two years, Bernie lives at Richard Lankletters' house, where he waits for his new trial to start.

But once the new trial actually finally happens, the jury once again finds Bernie guilty. And he gets sentenced not to life in prison, but to 99 years in prison. Which is kind of the same thing?