Snapped: Women Who Murder - Shirley Nelson

Episode Date: December 31, 2023

When a prominent Santa Rosa, California, couple is found gunned down at the offices of one of the world's most popular cartoons, detectives are left to untangle the inner workings of a decades-long marriage to solve this shocking crime.Season 31 Episode 01Originally aired: July 17, 2022Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I don't. Bosh Legacy, watch the new season, now streaming exclusively on FreeVee. If you need a new addition to your weekly true crime lineup, there's a podcast you need to know about called Generation Y. Every week hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new true crime case covering every angle and theory to try to discover what really happened. Listen to Generation Y on the Wondria or wherever you catch a podcast. Terror rings out at the headquarters of the country's most popular cartoonist, sending shockwaves through the country. There was a shooting and it was at the Charles Schultz offices.

This is the last thing you would expect to happen. This was the case that was getting the media coverage. This was the case that people were paying attention to. When the dust settles, Charles Schultz's second-in-command is desperately clinging to life. He had gunshot wounds in his back. Was this an active type shooter or a targeted thing? Was there a suspect at large? The search for the shooter will expose a crack

in the picture-perfect lives of the local power couple. He fell for a woman much younger than him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Charles Schultz had threatened both of them to stop this. She had this feeling of, I think, ultimate betrayal. She said it, if I can't have him in this life, I'm sure his hell gonna have him in the next one

because we're both going to hell together. Was this a crime of passion or something much more calculated? I never had any doubt about her mental capacity. She planned it, premeditated it. They saw her as this person who had lost everything. She talked about why she did it and how he had made her life miserable. I don't think anyone would say what she did was okay,

but they can understand why she did it. July 5, 1995. It's a quiet morning in the sunny town of Santa Rosa, California. Nestled in the heart of wine country, this upscale family-friendly town is known for its most famous resident, cartoonist and creator of the Penoetz comic strip, Charles Schultz. I've lived in this county for almost 50 years now, and Sonoma County's all-time leading citizen without question is Charles Schultz. And everything he brought to this community

both in terms of Penoetz and his wife's philanthropy gene. She's a grateful anthropist. Santa Rosa is a larger town, but it still has a rural feel to it. I'm going to cruise around. I'm going to get to know my beat, get to know the people in my beat. But just before 11 a.m., the serenity is

shattered in the most unlikely of places. The 911 call came in from someone who worked in the office. This is the last thing you would expect to happen at Charles Schultz's studio. This was a place where families come. Within minutes, officers arrive on the scene. There was a gentleman face down not moving. There were people standing out front,

and they were just deadpan. Normally on scenes like that, there's a lot of chaos. People are yelling. Nobody was saying anything. That just really stood out to me as something very eerie. It was just very obvious that everybody was shocked. me is something very eerie and it's just very obvious that everybody was shocked. Witnesses identify the victim as 53-year-old Ron Nelson, Charles

Schultz's business manager. He occupied a very prominent position in the whole Schultz operation. He had been working with Schultz from about 1972. He was the first vice president and the treasurer for the company, and he was very much involved in helping to develop and market products from the Penox cartoon strip. Mr. Nelson had gunshot wounds in his back.

He was basically close to death that they arrived, mainly from blood loss. Medics attend to Ron while officers race to clear the scene. There was a lot of concern about was this an active type shooter or was this a targeted thing and was there a suspect at large? As officers secure the building, they find another injured person. We had our weapons drawn for our safety,

and we found a female laying on her back on the floor in the back office. She had a gunshot wound to her chest. She's conscious enough to identify herself as Shirley Nelson, Ron Nelson's wife. It was not something that we ever responded to there. Why is this happening? What's going on? Born in Pennsylvania on January 18, 1930, Shirley DeLong was always taking care of others.

She was always very caring. She loved animals, she loved sports, she loved people. She didn't really talk about her childhood, or siblings or parents or anything like that. She never really dealt a lot into the past. Like many young girls, Shirley dreamed of falling in love and starting a family.

Her first marriage was very, very young. And he was Catholic and their family expected an abundance of children. And that was very difficult for her because I know she had tried for so very long to get pregnant. And every month it was such a disappointment to her. She very much wanted children, It was such a disappointment to her. She very much wanted children, but she was never able to. The family was kind of cruel to her. Because of their religion, they somehow ended up getting an enolment.

They were married for a very short time, but I do not know for how long. Not long after her first marriage ended, Shirley remarried in 1954, and she cheerfully gained two stepchildren. After her first marriage, she had met my grandfather, and she was in our life from the day that I was born. She was always there. My the day that I was born. She was always there.

My impression was that her pattern was to build her world around a man. Shirley gave her all for her new family, but that marriage also ended. I don't know anything about their marriage, just that they were married for about 12 years. The split left a significant hole in Shirley's life. She had no professional training, no skills, outside of the home. Shirley struggled to find her own identity as a new divorcee.

But that all changed when she met handsome 24-year-old graduate Ron Nelson in 1966. Her and Ron met in a bar in Minneapolis. He had just graduated and got his CPA. She was out with a bunch of girlfriends. She was about 11 or 12 years older than Ron. She was older than Ron, but she never... I don't ever feel like she felt

that was holding the relationship back. She never, ever looked her age. She looked very young. She loved that. No one could guess her age. And Ron liked that too. She was always very well dressed. And he liked to show her off.

In Ron, Shirley finally found someone who made her feel fulfilled. Ron knew that Shirley couldn't have children, and he was okay with that. After less than a year of dating, the two tied the knot in 1967, and shortly after, Ron landed a covet of dating, the two tied the knot in 1967. And shortly after, Ron landed a coveted job within the Charles Schultz Empire. Mr. Nelson was the business manager for Charles Schultz. Ron did a lot of the licensing agreements around the world. It was a vast, vast empire of stuff everywhere.

It was a vast, vast empire of stuff everywhere. Ron's prestigious position came with an equally elite paycheck. They got swept up into the world that they lived in for so long in the Schultz universe. And it's a pretty dynamic place to be. Her marriage to him gave her access to the Charles Schultz Community Society. They lived in a country club in Santa Rosa. They did live on the golf course. They had a pretty strong practice of getting out

of the golf cart, bringing their little dog, and playing a few holes at the end of each day. Shirley and Ron did dinner parties. They traveled. They did golf tournaments and fundraisers and so forth. They were just caught up in a whirlwind, a grand life, really. She had a bit of arrogance about her from being in that position of, you know,

wealth and her husband being well-known. In May of 1995, the Nelson celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary. On the surface, it seems like Shirley and Ron are living the dream. But on July 5, 1995, the two are clinging to life after suffering gunshot wounds. They found Mr. Nelson out in front of the office

of Charles Schultz. He was almost dead. Inside, officers radio for paramedics to help Shirley. My job is to make sure that the scene is safe, so my priority was locating a weapon, where was the gun. Coming up, a high stakes love triangle is revealed. He was aware that there was some marital problems. Everybody was shocked at what had happened.

I don't think she could handle it, and she didn't. If I can't have him, you're not gonna have him either. July 5, 1995. Santa Rosa detectives are called to the scene of a shooting at the offices of Penoetz creator Charles Schultz. First responders attend to the injured couple Ron and Shirley Nelson as officers search for the murder weapon. He had multiple gunshot wounds in his back and at least one of them penetrated up through his pancreas,

his liver, all the way up through his abdomen area. Paramedics rush Ron to the hospital. He had lost his pulse, dropped his blood pressure, and I think he was also kind of DOA. Meanwhile, after a thorough search of the Schultz offices, investigators locate a crucial piece of evidence. There was this 357 magnum gun, pretty big gun. The sergeant came in and told me that the weapon had been located.

The concern now was to make sure that both of these people received medical care. Paramedics hurried surely to the hospital. From the very beginning, an officer is assigned to Shirley. They actually write in the ambulance with her to the hospital. And what Shirley reveals to first responders is downright shocking. They said what happened, and she replied, I shot him.

I shot my husband. Is the son of a bitch dead. And she said, I shot myself. She was very agitated, very angry, and kept repeating, did I kill him? I hope he's dead. It became apparent pretty quickly that it was, you know, a domestic situation and that Shirley had done the shooting.

When she arrived, I'm not sure she had much of a pulse. She was eventually resuscitated and had surgery to repair injuries. There was a lot of damage and it was a very serious surgery and they weren't sure she was going to repair injuries. There was a lot of damage, and it was a very serious surgery, and they weren't sure she was going to make it. Ron was in the same situation. They were struggling to revive him, bringing back. As doctors work to save Ron and Shirley's lives, detectives at Schultz Enterprises

try to make sense of the crime scene. We have all the people at the scene who had information about what had occurred, and we just start delegating. You interview this person, you interview this person. According to Ron's co-workers, just before 11 that morning, Shirley drove up to the office in a car no one recognized. She just wanted to be able Shirley drove up to the office in a car no one recognized. She just wanted to be able to get access to the office without being detected.

I think that if her car had pulled in, there was a chance that someone else would let her husband know that she was arriving. She parked right in the front, got out of the car, walked in. She had these great big sunglasses on. But investigators say Shirley's efforts to go undetected were misguided. It was just bizarre. Anybody who saw her said, oh, they're Shirley,

dressed weird. I mean, she's very distinctive, and they would have known who she was. They were very familiar with her. Shirley Nelson had come in there and said to the receptionist, is he in there, and then she went into his office. He stood up, and she shot him twice in the back.

And apparently fired at least two other rounds. I missed him. There was no doubt that she was the one who shot him. Detectives are eager to talk to a key witness. Ron's closest colleague, his boss, Charles Schultz. He actually said he didn't even hear the gunshots, because his office was at the other end of the building. Mr. Schultz says, though he didn't see the shooting,

he thinks he knows what caused it. He was aware that there was some marital problems, because I think Shirley and Ron and Jean Schultz and Charlie, I think they had a social relationship, you know, outside of work also. And he was aware that the relationship was not going well. He said Ron had an affair with his secretary. And it was something that he kept hidden for a while.

Ron, he was 50 something that the time. She was, I believe, she was 41. He fell for a woman who much younger than him in his work situation. Mr. Schultz says he'd hoped Ron and his secretary, Eileen Christensen, would break it off. Schultz disapproved and said that they should find a way to end it. His concern was that it could lead to some kind of sexual harassment, lawsuit. He was very adamant. He had been very vocal and had threatened both of them to stop this or that they were both

risking termination. He warned him not to do it, and he did it anyway. Family members say just a month before the shooting, Ron finally came clean with Shirley, and she took the news pretty hard. She was physically upset, tearful, a steric all would probably be a better word. The fact that it was his secretary and they were working together was a big blow.

Surely historically, she builds her life around her man. She viewed, you know, I need to keep a perfect home. My man comes home, he has to have his drink ready for him. Dinner ready on the table, that's who she was. Though blindsided by the affair, Shirley's closest friends say the relationship had started deteriorating much earlier. Shirley had a stroke in 1991, and I think that was the point where Ron just realized she

is much older, and that he saw then that age gap. And I think slowly but surely that chipped away at him. That changed her quite a bit. She didn't have any physical signs of stroke, but that was an eye-opener of where her age possibly was and her health. Obviously it exposed her fragility. I think that impacted him and his view of her being with a significantly older woman.

And I think that changed the relationship. Friends tell detectives after her stroke Shirley was determined to get the relationship back on track. She had tried dressing nicer, which she was very well dressed and very put together. She tried to lose weight to tone her muscles. Her all was just to win him back. After speaking to witnesses at the scene,

authorities shift their focus to the car Shirley drove to the office and identify it as a rental vehicle. We found out it was registered at whatever rental fleet and we just start backtracking it. And then that leads us to, hey, did you guys rent this car, who'd you rented to? And that's how that starts. To detectives, the rental car suggests Shirley was attempting to enter the office unnoticed. I think that if her car had pulled in,

there was a chance that someone else would let her husband know that she was arriving. He could have gotten out of there before she got to his office. With little evidence left behind in the car, detectives head to the rental agency. That's where Shirley's car was, so we served a search warrant on that to get inside the car. Inside Shirley's personal vehicle, detectives find 357 caliber bullets and a receipt for a Smith & Wesson revolver. She had purchased this gun at Montenegrohock. Please interview the owner of the gun shop

about how she had bought the gun. The timing of Shirley's visit to the gun store falls eerily in line with the demise of the Nelson marriage. By June 8, I believe, Ron had already left the house and had moved out. And she went to this gun shop around June 15th. She had gone down to the store to buy the gun and filled out the paperwork.

But state law says there's got to be this two-week waiting period, so a background check can be done. The gun store owner says in the interim, Shirley took lessons. She met a man named Max Scott, who's the next sheriff's officer in the county, and Max had an indoor gun range. He gave her lessons,

and started teaching her how to shoot this 357. She was going down there, you down there on a fairly regular basis, practicing and shooting the gun. Coming up. Against all odds, Shirley and Ron survive, each with their own crazy story to tell. She said to him, you destroyed my life, you're going to hell with me.

And investigators wonder, was there another intended target? Surely expressed a lot more disdain for Eileen than she did for Ron. She commented that she wished she had taken her too. The holidays usually include hours on planes, cars, trains, flying baby next to you, put on those noise-counseling headphones. Mom and dad arguing about directions in the car, air pods in. No matter how you listen, we have the perfect headphones on distraction. A new season of the critically acclaimed Dr. Death Podcast is back with a story of miraculous cures, magic, and murder.

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Follow even the royals on the Wendery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen everywhere on January 8th or you can listen early and add free on Wendery Plus right now. Join Wendery Plus in the Wondering app or on Apple Podcasts. It's been nine hours since police found Ron Nelson and his wife Shirley gunned down at the offices of America's most beloved cartoons. Because it happened at the Charles Schultz property, a very famous Santa Rosa landmark. There was a lot of talk about what happened, obviously, because it was such a violent crime.

So it was an extreme amount of media attention from all over. As the hospital staff continues life-saving efforts on Ron, authorities get word that against all odds Shirley has survived the shooting. She had a coin plank, a 357 magnum gunshot going straight to her chest, so how she survived it, I don't know, and they didn't either, because they thought for sure she wasn't going to make it, but she did.

When we were notified that she was stable and out of surgery, that's when we went over to interview her. Obviously, there's a lot of laws about interviewing people that are suspected of crimes. So I needed to make sure she understood I was with the police department that I wanted to ask her questions. At approximately 6.30 p.m. on July 5th, detectives meet with their shooter and make sure she is capable of answering questions. I wanted to be sure that she understood who I was and why I was there. I was trying to establish if she was able to comprehend what was really going on. You know, she was coherent enough.

And she seemed pretty clear about the events of what happened. I started asking her what happened and you know, she said she shot herself in the chest. She was pretty clear that she wanted to kill her husband and kill herself. Since Shirley has no previous criminal record, investigators must determine if she fully understands her actions. During her statements to police, she very freely admitted that she went there to shoot her husband.

She made a comment about all of this over a f***ing a motel room, something to that effect, and how she was sorry that Ron was in dead. She talked about why she did it and how he had made her life miserable. And she couldn't see any other way out. Because her identity was so closely tied to Ron. When he is telling her this relationship is ending,

in her mind, it wasn't just that their marriage was ending. It was, in some respects, her life was ending. She just kept saying that there was no life for her without him and that she felt that she couldn't go on without him and that if she couldn't go on, he wasn't going to go on either. She did say several times he's not going to leave me like garbage.

Though Shirley is clearly distraught over Ron's affair, an aspect of her story catches investigators off guard. In the hospital bed when she was talking to police, she said very glowing things about him and talked about him as a sweet man. Her identity was wrapped up in Dean Mrs. Ron Nelson. I think Shirley saw her marriage as really close to perfect. Initially, she thought maybe this was a, you know,

been life crisis, this is a temporary kind of thing, and so she initially starts, I think, trying to win him back, or to convince him that this is nothing serious, and things deteriorate from there. She felt that Eileen had seen this opportunity and betrayed her, betrayed him, betrayed Mr. Schultz as well. I think Shirley expressed a lot more disdain for Eileen than she did for Ron. As it all went down, I know she was never willing to put him in the same light that she put

Eileen. She did have hopes they were going to get back together. From what friends were saying, she was working out at the gym with a personal instructor more often. As investigators dig deeper, they uncover some disturbing information. Shirley is trying to win run back. And at the same time, I think she's

becoming increasingly disturbed and distraught. She's talking to her friend, and she tells them, hey, this person is destroying my life. All of the anger and rage I think that she felt initially toward Ron is now directed toward Eileen. Shirley had talked about giving money to Eileen or even buying her house if she would cease the affair

with her husband. When that didn't work, Shirley developed a new strategy. Shirley says she was prepared to put her firearms training to the test, but things didn't go exactly as planned. He stood up and she shot him twice in the back, and apparently fired at least two other rounds and missed him. When I asked her about the actual shooting, she talked about how she was moving around while she was firing, and that's why she didn't

successfully kill Ron, that something had gone wrong. And according to Shirley, there was one more mark she missed that day. She had apparently missed being able to shoot Eileen Christensen. She also commented that she wished she had taken her too. While Shirley spills her innermost thoughts to investigators, they learn Ron has miraculously survived his injuries. He was shot in the kidney, in lung, in the intestines, and also it nicked his artery as well.

He had lost a lot of blood, but they were able to obviously revive him and save him. Investigators are anxious to interview Ron and rush to his hospital bedside. I did interview him. He was conscious. He was aware we had a conversation. And he gave me a little bit of a history, but we didn't get too much given his condition. Ron confirms to police that while the couple had been separated for about a month, they were still in touch.

On some occasions, Shirley and Ron had sexual encounters. And he would say things to her in her mind that were giving her an impression he was thinking about coming back. He's still wanting to hang on to Shirley, still maintain that friendship, that camaraderie, that relationship.

And yet, he's clearly not willing to give this other person up. You have somebody whom, in some respects, maybe getting the best of both worlds for a little bit. MUSIC Coming up, shocking allegations are exposed. The day before the shooting, they were out on the golf course, and many people witnessed their argument. That to her was like the dagger.

You know, that was like him saying to her, I want something you can't give me. And all eyes are on Santa Rosa as an unexpected person rushes to Shirley Nelson's defense. He loved Shirley. He said that he was never going to let her spend a day in jail. Wasn't going to happen. Investigators are interviewing Ron Nelson

after he has survived an alleged murder suicide attempt by his wife, Shirley Nelson. Ron has just admitted that during his affair with Eileen, he was still sleeping with Shirley. Shirley is a very fragile, broken person. You're showing up and having sex. I mean, that's pretty mixed signals. Ron says on July 4th, he met Shirley

to tell her their marriage was over for good. The day before the shooting, they were out on the golf course and many people witnessed their argument. He kept at her and was telling her she wasn't good enough. And that's when investigators say Ron dropped the final bombshell. Ron said, you're old. I found someone younger. We're having children, and we're going to build a life.

When Shirley and Ron first got together, they talked about it and made the decision they were going to have kids. However, as we all know, those things can change. I didn't want to have kids, and now I do. And in Shirley's case, I can't. This is impossible for me. I can't. This is impossible for me. I think that to her was like the dagger. You know, that was like him saying to her,

I want something you can't give me, and I have somebody else who can maybe give it to me. And I think it really is the first time it surely realizes I have permanently lost him. Ron believes that conversation is likely what led to the next morning's horrific events. And when she walked in, she said some things to him. She said to him, you destroyed my life,

you're going to hell with me. Words that affect. I think he instantly realized what she was trying to do, and he was trying to escape. He sort of tried to crouch down to get away from it, and he was hit twice by the bullets. There were five bullets in the gun, and she fired all five of them.

The final bullet was the one she shot herself with. Because it happened so quickly, there wasn't a lot of in-depth, and what'd you do next? What'd you do next? Detectives leave Ron to rest, and secure a warrant to search the home he once shared with Shirley. We believe there'd be evidence of the crime at the house. We got in there, and on the table, you had a variety of different letters to different people.

She had left some of their wedding photographs out, along with 10 letters that she had written, both through friends and also to Charles Schultz. When you read the letters, it was mainly about the depth of love she had for Ron. Despite all the things that he was doing to her, she wanted to be with this man. She said, if I can't have him in this life, I'm sure his hell gonna have him in the next one because we're both going to hell together.

And she then started this process of getting her financial business in order. She wrote letters to all of her friends saying goodbye and explaining what she was doing. On July 6, less than 24 hours after she attempted to kill her husband, detectives arrest Shirley Nelson. I went to the hospital where Shirley was, walked in, identified myself,

Tom Schwartheim Center's police department, and I'm going to be... I'm placing an arrest for the attempted murder of your husband, Ron Nelson. I think she was anticipating it coming. In the following days, she remained at the hospital because of her injuries and because of her mental state. It was the trading psychiatrist who said things like she was delusional. She felt like she was going to join with him

and in the afterlife and those kind of things. This is somebody who needs ongoing care, that if she doesn't have some ongoing care and more intensive care than we can provide here, she may do it again. She may hurt herself, so we need for her to get some more treatment before we can release her. She was at the Mill Health Facility for a period of time, and then when they released her, she went to the county jail. The judge didn't want to give bail to her, but I was able to convince the judge

that as a matter of law, she was entitled to bail. And he reluctantly said, OK, 2 million. Well, at that time, you know, 2 million dollars bail was unheard of around here. The price tag seems outrageous, but soon an unlikely and powerful ally steps in to help. He said that he was never going to let her spend a day in jail. Wasn't going to happen.

He loved Shirley. He respected Shirley. She did. She did. Coming up, Shirley's mysterious benefactor is revealed. I find out that he's ready to put up $2 million cashier's check to bail her out. And Will Shirley's story resonate with a jury? The media was pretty hard on her.

One of the quotes that I recall was money talks and privilege walks. September 1995. It's been two months since Shirley Nelson attempted to kill her husband, Ron, before turning the gun on herself at the offices of Charles Schultz. This was the case that was getting the media coverage. This was the case that people were paying attention to. With bail set at $2 million, It appears Shirley Nelson will remain in jail.

But the community is stunned once again when Santa Rosa's favorite citizen offers to help her. The next day I find out that Mr. Schultz is ready to put up $2 million cash years check to bail her out. He also recognized knowing Shirley ready to put up $2 million cashiers check to bail her out. He also recognized knowing Shirley and who she was, that this was completely out of character for her, and that she needed help.

She didn't need to be locked away in prison. He called me up and said, got the money, let's go get her. He called me up and said, got the money, let's go get her. After she was released from custody on bail, she ran into a place in the Oakmont, clear on the opposite side of town from where Mr. Nelson was still living in the family home. There was controversy over her not being in jail because people felt that there was a double standard

for people who had money, and also people who had notoriety or celebrity status. The media was pretty hard on her. Um, she was wrong. She was. Despite his close relationship with Ron, popular cartoonist Charles Schultz remains steadfast in his support of Shirley. Despite his close relationship with Ron, popular cartoonist Charles Schultz

remains steadfast in his support of Shirley. Charles Schultz, he made a very strong statement at that point to Eileen and to Ron. I don't like what you did, and I'm willing to support her. On April 23, 1996, nearly a year after the shooting, Shirley's attorneys hope the jury will be as understanding of their client's plight. Shirley was charged with the tempting murder.

The whole crux of the case was what her mental state was at the time, and whether she was capable of premeditating and having the rational ability to do this. Shirley Pled, not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors alleged Shirley knew exactly what she was doing. I never had any doubt about her mental capacity. She knew it was against the law. She knew it was criminal behavior.

She intended to kill her husband, and that she planned it, premeditated it, and went through a series of steps to carry it out. Going and buying a weapon and learning how to shoot a weapon, those are not things you do in the heat of the moment or a passion. Those are things that take time. the heat of the moment or a passion, those are things that take time.

The defense counters by arguing that Shirley was in an emotional freefall following the separation from her husband. She fell apart. Pretty hard. He was her everything. Her identity was him, being his wife and his partner. And so it was pretty devastating for her.

Shirley is trying to win Ron back. And at the same time, I think she's becoming increasingly disturbed and distraught. These are all things that are kind of building up each day and then culminate with the argument on July 4th. An argument the defense says finally broke her. She always wanted children, so that had this feeling of, I think, ultimate betrayal. You know, certainly was kind of like the straw

that broke the camel's back. With both sides passionate about their stance, no one knows which way the jury will go. It was a hung jury 9-3 in favor of a quiddle of first three attempted murder charge. And I think at least nine of the jurors did not believe that she had the requisite state of mind to be a co-blooded killer. They saw her as this profoundly depressed person who had lost everything that she was compromised

mentally by her situation. I think many members in the community, not just those 12-think, before you start cheating on your wife, end your marriage, there's a right way to do it and the wrong way to do it. I don't think anyone would say what she did was OK, but they can understand why she did it. Rather than opting for a retrial that might elicit the same outcome, prosecutors offer Shirley a deal. Her plea agreement was that she pled guilty the same outcome, prosecutors offer Shirley a deal.

Her plea agreement was that she pled guilty to attempted murder, which made her technically eligible for probation. On April 16, 1997, Shirley accepts a plea bargain of one year in jail, five years probation, and 3,000 hours of community service. I do think the sentence was extremely lenient for attempting to kill somebody. This case did generate fair amount of controversy.

One of the quotes that I recall was that money talks and privilege walks. In the end, Shirley serves about six months behind bars. The other time she was basically in a mental facility. I think that being in custody and in doing all the hours of community service at the Santa Rosa Food Bank. We're transformative for her.

There's a gave her a chance and a very weird and strange way to find a purpose in life again. When she went to jail, she talked a lot about the girls that she met there. I really believe that those women helped grandma to understand she could rebuild her life. I believe that she was a different person and the retrospect that she saw things

and other people that maybe she hadn't seen before or just had her eyes closed to. Mm. Mm. 27 years later, Shirley's story continues to be shared in hopes that it inspires others battling with their mental health to seek help. We need to reeducate ourselves so that there are avenues

and ways for people and places for them to deal with these things so that they don't get to the desperate position of either wanting to kill themselves or somebody else. It's so important to get help in those situations because there is always life on the other side of that. I feel like Grandma went full circle. She regretted it. She said time and time again, I'm glad he didn't die. She forgave herself, and I think that was a big part

of healing. She did a lot of volunteering. That was her life. I think she did a lot of good. She did a lot more good than she would have if she would have gone to jail for the rest of her life. Ron and Shirley Nelson divorced in early 1997. Shortly after, Ron married Eileen Christensen. After Shirley was released from jail on September 22, 1997, she moved back to her country club home. She died in 2008 at the age of 78.

My dad, Tom, is one of the most charming men you'll ever meet, the love of my mum's life. But for 52 years, he was also something else, a wanted fugitive. From neonhameedia and Sony music entertainment, listen to Smoke Screen, my fugitive dad. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now, or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts.