Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Jerry Springer Show Murder - The Nancy Campbell‑Panitz Story

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

Nancy Campbell‑Panitz appeared on a May 2000 episode of The Jerry Springer Show alongside her ex-husband Ralf Panitz and his new wife, aiming for reconciliation—but was met with audience jeers and emotional humiliation. Just hours after the episode aired and shortly after she secured a restraining order against him, Ralf murdered Nancy in her home.

You won't believe what happened to this woman after she appeared on the Jerry Springer show. Now the woman, her name's Nancy, and Nancy's in her late 40s when this story starts, and Nancy has a problem. Her husband, this guy, Ralph, with an F, Ralph, is getting abusive. He starts, like, pushing her around and getting physical with her, and Nancy isn't going to put up with this. So, in 1999, after only being married for 15 months, she finally leaves him and files for divorce. However, for some reason, Nancy can't seem to quit this loser.

Eventually, she gets lonely and they get back together and they start smashing again. And over time, they become an on-again, off-again thing. But then it gets worse. In the year 2000, during this on-again-off-again time, Ralph gets a little time off-off-off-on-nancy. I guess this is when they're not together. And he starts smashing with this other woman, her name's Eleanor. And Ralph and Eleanor really hit it. off. In fact, they like each other so much that they quickly get married. But of course, Ralph

doesn't tell Nancy that. In fact, he's still smashing with Nancy on the side, even though he's now married to this new woman, Eleanor. Yeah, this whole thing is a total mess and it doesn't get better. Because just over two months later, after marrying Eleanor, Ralph apparently gets this genius idea to drag all of them onto the Jerry Springer Show, which it's the year 2000s. So the Jerry Springer show is one of the hottest talk shows on television during this time. Now, here's the thing though. Nancy is still not over Ralph. She really wants to get back together with him. And she now knows that he is with Eleanor, but she doesn't seem to care. In fact, she's told by the Jerry Springer show's producers beforehand that the premise of the episode they're going

to be on is that she is going to reunite with Ralph, that Ralph is going to leave Eleanor and be with her. And Ralph himself is totally acting that way and playing into this false narrative. He even smashes with Nancy the night before they go on the show. However, unfortunately, that is not, in fact, what the episode is about. The episode is called Secret Mistress's Confronted, and it's really going to be Ralph with Eleanor ambushing Nancy when she comes out and telling her to get out of Ralph's life. They've got the audience thinking that Nancy is some kind of stalker,

and they plan on humiliating her, which is just incredibly cruel. Anyway, and so Nancy goes on the show. Nam, what's going on? Ralph and I are trying to restore our marriage, and this trailer trash won't leave us long. Ralph loves me.

Ralph wants to be with me, and you red-headed bitch from hell. But see, Nancy has a little surprise for Eleanor. She drops that bomb about how she and Ralph smashed the night before. You said you talked to him the last couple nights. Anything else? I slept with him the last few days. You see. But Eleanor doesn't seem to be mad at Ralph for cheating because I guess she's just going to stand by her man. You know what? I hope you enjoyed yourself immensely the last two nights because it's the last time you were ever going to see.

The last time. He wants to be with me. He's back here to be with me. Okay, let me just remind you that this is Ralph. Like, this is the turd they're fighting over. But anyway, so then they bring out Ralph. And the audience, like, immediately hates him. Here he is, Ralph.

What's going on here? Yes, I had sex with my ex-wife yesterday. Yes? But the matter of fact, a month ago, I married Ellie, and I do love Eleanor. And so Ralph chooses Eleanor, as he and Eleanor had planned. And as humiliating as this is for Nancy, she still has some dignity. He's telling you he doesn't want to be with you. That's fine.

Bye. And so Nancy walks off stage, and immediately the producers are like, oh shit, because they wanted her to stay and start a fight and act all crazy and all the other things that are typical for an episode of Jerry Springer. And so they try to convince her to come. come back and brawl by saying they won't pay for her plane ticket home unless she does. But none of that works and Nancy just leaves. Good for her. And I wish I could say that that's the end of it all, but obviously it's not. Because about a month later, Ralph is back on his

bullshit again and he breaks up with Eleanor and he and Nancy decide to give their relationship another try. And so they get back together for a while and Nancy and Ralph enter into a lease option to buy a house in Florida. I mean, they're really going for it. And of course, Nancy is the one putting down the money for the down payment for the house because, you know, Ralph's a loser. And it isn't long before she and Ralph start fighting again. And he's getting all violent and abusive with her again. And I guess he feels like the house they're leasing is rightfully his because he invites his adult nephew to move into the house with them. And to make worse during all this he gets back together with Eleanor and he invites her to move into the house

with them as well. So now there's Ralph, Nancy, Eleanor and this random ass nephew all living in this house. And even though Nancy feels like the house is hers, she can't take this bullshit anymore. And she leaves. Good for her again. And then she gets a lawyer and she seeks a court order to get her house back from Ralph because like she's the one who put down the down payment. And ultimately, the judge grants Nancy ownership of the house and also grants her a restraining order against Ralph. So then Ralph, Eleanor, and adult nephew are escorted to the house by police and told to collect all their stuff and get the hell out. And so now Nancy has her house and Ralph's goofy ass is out of her life and everyone can just move on and be happy. Until.

That same day after getting their stuff out of the house, Ralph Eleanor and the adult nephew, they all head to a local bar. And coincidentally, that Jerry Springer episode that they were in just happens to be airing on this day. Because, you know, shows take a while to air after you film them. And so they're in this bar and Ralph is sitting there watching the episode and he watches like the entire thing. And he's drinking a lot and he's getting pretty wasted. And this episode is not making him look good. And he is super pissed off about losing that house to Nancy.

and he's probably watching the studio audience boo him on the screen, and I'm sure he doesn't feel good about that. And suddenly, Bro just snaps. He is not going to let all this slide. And so later, he goes back to the house, which is now Nancy's, and she's home. And he goes inside, and he finds her there in the kitchen, and suddenly, boom, he attacks her,

and he grabs her by the neck, and pow, he hits her in the face over and over again until she's eventually unalived. Then Ralph flees, because he knows he's in trouble. And police immediately start looking for him. And they can't find him for a while, and they, like, get a warrant for his arrest, and he and Eleanor, they go on the run for about four days. And I guess they plan on fleeing to Canada.

But when that doesn't work, Ralph finally turns himself in. And so, bam, they arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of Ralph. in police custody. And ultimately he goes to trial and he's found guilty and he gets sentenced to life in prison. While Eleanor, who was with him on the run, she gets no prison time because she claims that she had nothing to do with the murder and that she didn't even know what happened. And I don't know if that's true, but that's just what she claims. And by the way, to this day, Ralph and Eleanor are still married, like she still goes and visits him in prison all the time.

I guess they're gonna make it work. Okay.