True Crime with Kimbyr - Model Julie Nist Goes Missing: Who Is To Blame? Part 1

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

In this episode, Kimbyrleigha dives into the tragic case of Julie Nist, also known as Julie Scully. Julie, a model from New Jersey, met George Skiadopoulos, a Greek cruise ship officer, during a vacation with her husband, Tim Nist. Their affair led to her divorce and a move to Greece. But the romance turned deadly when George, in a jealous rage, murdered Julie, dismembering her body to fit it into a suitcase. This haunting tale of love gone wrong ends with George's conviction and the aftermath that shook both the U.S. and Greece. Join Kimbyrleigha as she unravels this chilling story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They say to go after what you want in life, romance, happiness, love, wealth, but sometimes chasing our dreams leads to our worst nightmares. Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlea. If you've never been here before, nice to meet you. I want to introduce you to Julie Nist, but before I do, I'd like to introduce you to her parents, Julia and John. Julie's mother's name is Julia Bowman. She was born just a couple days before Valentine's Day on February 12th, 1943 in Twin Lakes, which is an Indian reservation in New Mexico. She's part of the American Indian Navajo tribe, which is the second largest Indian nation in the United States. Back when Julia's mom was growing up, life on her

reservation was not easy. There was a lack of electricity and running water and not much to do, which led a lot of individuals down a path of alcohol and drug addiction to escape their everyday life. Julia was 12. Her parents decided to send her away. She went to a boarding school because they wanted her to learn English. This was located in Brigham City, Utah. When she got to the school, Julia started to realize that she didn't even know what the world was like beyond the reservation. Now she was free. Julia was a beautiful girl. She had dark, long hair and gorgeous almond-shaped eyes. She'd also been very confident and independent. And as she spent more time away from her family and away from the reservation, the more she decided she didn't want to go back. It would be a couple more years before Julia was brave enough to tell her parents how she was feeling and that she wouldn't be coming back. However, instead of abandoning her education, she decided to just transfer to another Indian American school in Nevada. She loved it. And when she was 16, she started working as a nanny, which opened up her world even more.

The family she worked for would take trips and she would accompany them so that she could help with their children. One summer she actually went to San Francisco and while she was there, she was introduced to big city life. She'd never seen anything like it before. The traffic, the people, the noises of a city, the big skyscrapers. Everything was brand new and it opened up this door of so many more possibilities. She wanted to explore so she decided to move to Colorado Springs. As soon as Julia moved to Colorado Springs, she started working. as a nurse's aide. This was at a facility for the mental ill. Julia was perfect for this

job. She was very friendly. She liked to socialize. And Colorado Springs itself was perfect because they had an active nightlife and she would be going out with friends all the time. There was a problem though. There was something that nobody knew about Julia. She had some demons while she was working at the hospital. One of her coworkers who was also a close friend introduced her to amphetamines. The co-worker seemed to always be alert, pulling double shifts, picking up extra work, yet still finding time to have the energy to party all night. Julia was curious about how in the world she was able to do that. She got up the nerve to ask and her friend said she had the secret.

She had been stealing pills from the hospital. Speed pills. You want to try? Of course, Julia was naive, so she said yes. This would be the beginning of a long, bumpy road of addiction. Maybe if she could have seen her future before deciding to swallow that first pill, Julia would have made a totally different decision. If only she knew.

As they say, hindsight is 2020. She really enjoyed speed, mostly because it allowed her to stay up for days at a time. This seems like a good thing to some, but it wasn't. Even though she was awake, she was experiencing a lot of irritability. She was slowly becoming less of herself. She wasn't to Julia everyone used to know. It's usually a slow decline. It's not noticeable at first. Not only was she doing amphetamines, she also became a heavy drinker. I'm highlighting this because of what happens in the future.

Julia loved the nightlife because she got a lot of attention. She looked different from everybody else. She was the only Navajo girl. This made her extremely popular in her town. One night on July 4th and 1964 while she was partying at a pub with friends, she bumped into a tall, handsome military police officer named John Scully. John was stationed at Fort Carson. He was 25 years old. He grew up in Philadelphia and he was very different from Julia. John looked in her direction and he noticed right away her beautiful dark hair, olive skin, just an exotic beauty and he made his way over to her to start a conversation. They really didn't have that much in common except for the physical that both of them felt instantly. John was smitten. He asked her out right away and she said yes.

So they went on their first date and they hit it off. After only a few more dates, John proposed to Julia. He said the minute he saw her, he knew that he was going to marry her. It sounds like a fairy tale. Right now anyway. On July 2nd, 1965, two days before their year anniversary of the day they met for the first time, Julia and John were married. They had a small ceremony at a Catholic church in Colorado Springs and they realized they couldn't afford where they were living so they moved back to Philadelphia close to John's family. This is also when John ended up applying to the Philadelphia Police Department and on February 6, 1966, he officially started working for the Philadelphia Police Department as a patrol officer in North Philadelphia and it is well known for being a dangerous

area. As you can imagine, this was hard on Julia. She was constantly worried and it wasn't like today. they didn't have cell phones or a mode of communication that was readily available to keep in touch. There were times he had to rush out in the middle of his day off because he was on call and there was an emergency. But in the spring of 1967, Julia found out she was pregnant. Right away, she imagined this would change her life and put it in a new direction because she would have something to focus on at home while John was working. Julia gave birth to Julie Marie Scully on January 3, 19, By the way, I will say that as this story goes on, we're going to be saying the names Julia and Julie a lot. I definitely try to keep it straight.

Just know it is very hard and confusing when people have very similar names. Now they were a family. He started taking his family on fishing trips. This was a pastime that he enjoyed with his own family. As Julie grew up, she and her father built a really strong bond and she became a very adventurous little girl who adored nature. They spent most of their time exploring the countryside and fishing in the lake. Another thing they would do that became a tradition in their family was crabbing. This was one of the activities that helped build their strong bond.

However, one reason she could have enjoyed it so much was because she was constantly looking for approval and praise from her father. This will be a thread that carries through this story. Julia wasn't thrilled about these vacations after a while because she felt like a third wheel. She was bored, she was left out, and she was sitting in the trailer as they were bonding over fishing and she just wanted to go home. It was also hard on her because she was hiding a secret from her family. They didn't know about her addiction.

And as she was getting older, it was finally starting to really catch up with her. She became unpredictable and temperamental. She had been seeing several doctors and each one of them tried their best to wean her off amphetamines, but it just wouldn't work. Sooner or later, she fell into a very deep depression and ended up trading one drug for another. She started doing heroin. She gave birth to another child, though, and his name was John Patrick Scully. He was born on November 10th, 1969.

Now was Julie's turn to find out what it felt like to be left out because it turns out John spent most of his time with John Jr. and not Julie. It made Julie ramp up her efforts to seek the love and attention from her dad. He was working more than ever. He was hardly coming home and even on Christmas he had to leave. Julia was feeling abandoned. She was alone taking care of two children and she felt like she was a single mother. And then something terrible happened.

Julia was not paying close attention to Julie and she was playing outside in the front yard when she walked into the street and she was struck by a motorcyclist. And it was serious. Julie was rushed to the hospital and there was more bad news. She suffered internal injuries and they were major. She had to go through emergency surgery including the removal of her spleen. But Julia was worried about something else. The doctors were injecting Julie with morphine to help with the pain.

and Julie seemed to be enjoying it. Julia was terrified that this was the first step to a life of addiction for her daughter, Julie. Another tragedy happened in 1973. Julia was making efforts to stop doing speed, but it seemed like the withdrawals were too much for her, and every time that she would try to wean herself off, she fell into another deep depression. She felt so alone because she was hiding this from her family.

She could hardly sleep, which was making her life harder because she was taking care of kids while she was completely exhausted and irritable and angry with the very short fuse. This mental downward spiral led to Julia taking an entire bottle of sleeping pills. When John got home, the kids were in bed, and he found Julia unconscious. Nobody expects this to happen. You cannot prepare for this. However, John was used to being in these high stress situations, so he quickly sprang into action, saving her life.

She was rushed to the hospital, and they were able to pump her stomach in time to save her. Even though Julie was young, she was still witnessing all this. She was being brought up with a mother that was not stable. And as Julie got older, it became more and more apparent and it was a constant battle. The downward spiral did not stop for Julia. Her family now knew her secret and there were more, more outward signs of drug abuse. Julia began gaining excess weight. She didn't look like herself anymore and this made her fall back into an even deeper depression.

And it wasn't long until she tried to take her life again. and the same thing happened with the exact same outcome. But fortunately, they were able to save her. Both of the children wanted someone to pay them attention. Julie was impacted the most. She felt unwanted and second best to whatever her parents had going on in their lives. As a matter of fact, in 1976 on Julie's ninth birthday, her parents would prove they really did care more about their own needs

and what they were going through in their life than what their child felt during a very special day. They had friends over and family, and Julie's whole world came crashing down. John was having an affair. And during Julie's birthday party, he tells everyone he has to leave, whether it was a work thing or meeting friends. I don't know, but Julia was suspicious. John had been confiding in others that it was really hard on him being with Julia. He lost interest because of her drug abuse. She wasn't the woman that he fell in love with, especially when it came to the way that she looked.

It might sound superficial, but the drugs, they took a toll on her body. She lost her beautiful physique due to the excess drinking, and it was hard because he loved her so much. But from the beginning, it was that physical attraction that drew them together and now it faded away. And so had John's loyalty. The only thing that had been holding their marriage together were their kids. He had been looking for a way out and he found it. John said every time he came home, Julia was completely wasted and he couldn't even talk to her about it. Not to mention the two times he had to save her when she took the sleeping pills.

He had done all he could in his mind, and none of this excuses cheating. But if he was looking for a way out, I guess he found it. Some people want to be caught. And maybe John was one of those people. John walked out the door at the party, and Julia walked out right behind him. And as she looked, she saw John's mistress. And not only that, she saw them kissing. She's already in such a bad place in her life.

I can only imagine how much worse that felt. He's doing this in public. And he wasn't worried about it. That's why it seemed to me as though he wanted to be caught. It wasn't long before John completely left. The whole family was devastated and of course this didn't help because Julie started sinking further and further into depression and drinking more and more. Then she started taking her sadness and anger out on the children.

She would continuously try to turn them against their father. She would try to make them think that the reason John left was because of them. She would try to make them believe he didn't love them anymore and that was not the case. This hurt Julie because. She adored her father. She missed him. And she was worried that maybe she would never, ever be close to him again. So this started a rebellion. Julie had always been a really good student, but her grades started to slip.

And of course, her father was very upset. So he decided to switch her to a private school called Holy Name in Kensington. He was hoping that Julie would do better if she had more rules and structure. She definitely wasn't getting that at home. So maybe if she got it in school, her grades would go up and they did. She was hanging out with a better crowd and she was doing way better, but it didn't last long. Julie was very popular and she started skipping school. She was about to be a teenager.

She was 12 years old and she was gorgeous. She was tall. She had long, black, shiny hair, perfect skin, a big, pretty smile. And even from a young age, her beauty and her charisma were the traits that were admired most by others. Just like her mom, she stood out in a crowd in a good way. She knew she was pretty and boys were always trying to get her. her attention. She was also boy crazy. A lot of girls are at that age, but she cared a lot more about boys than school. And boys were just way more interesting. Skipping school progressed into staying out

late. And I mean, late into the night. Her parents were worried, especially because the area they lived in was a rough one. So Julia was scared, Julie would be introduced to drugs. For example, Julie was supposed to be having a sleepover. And when Julia came in to check on the girls, they were gone. And she panicked, which a parent would do. It's to be expected. So she calls 911 and eventually the police found the girls in downtown Philadelphia, which is probably very scary for a parent.

The reason Julie did stuff like this is because she did not have any respect for her mom. And the arguments just got worse and worse. And it was a cycle of arguing, running away, the police picking her up. Julie's dad was absent because he was way too busy with work to care and nothing was getting resolved. Finally, Julie couldn't handle it anymore. And she wanted to move him with her dad. her dad was living with his girlfriend Lorelei at the time. They had a really nice house and definitely were not used to having kids around. So they sit Julie down and they tell her the rules of the house

what they expected if she was going to live there. She had a curfew on the weeknights and John wanted to know where she was at all times and he was a cop. So this pretty much meant she was not going to be able to hide much from him and like most teenagers she butted heads with adults. In this case it was John's girlfriend Lorelei. Julie did not want to listen. She really never had a mother figure in her life and no structure like this, so she rebelled against it. Every single time Lorelei would try to get Julie to do something, they would get into a big argument. John realized or thought it was Julia that had influenced her kids in this way and made Julie turn into this type of teenager, even though teenagers are usually like this anyway, but he decided to fight for full custody and he ended up getting it. Julie was put into therapy,

because John thought that would be best so they could figure out how to curb her bad behavior and put her on a good path. Julie met with a psychiatrist to discuss her life and her childhood and she described it to be pretty awful. We can't sit here and compare her childhood with hours or others because if we do, we would be invalidating her personal feelings. This was the only life she knew. She knew it to be a harsh one in her perspective, so that's valid. In 1982, Julie finished middle school at Holy Name and now her father was concerned about where she was going to go for high school. He only wanted the very best education for Julie. As a police officer, he was used to getting special treatment. He would use his status to get things in the community. So he

figured, why not try it when it came to Julie's education? This wasn't Julie's idea. Julie did not want this. It was John. There was a well-known prestigious high school in the area. It was a high school of engineering and science. It opened in 1979 and it had a path to transfer to Temple University. The high school is actually on the Temple University campus with students taking college courses as part of their high school program. Only a couple hundred students were accepted into ninth grade every year. It was very, very hard to get in. And they all had to go through a rigorous application process and take an entrance exam. John decided to put on his entire police uniform and go down to the high school to speak with the principal.

We won't know exactly what the conversation was about, but we do know that John. tried to persuade the school to accept Julie. He also wanted her to be classified as a minority because of her Navajo heritage. In the fall of 1983, Julie was accepted and John was over the moon. He had ruthlessly attempted to get her into the school and he felt his hard work had finally paid off. Now Julie, wanting to please her father, was just as excited. But at the same time, she was juggling her desire to have fun with friends and hang out with boys with being a serious student. You could have guessed, but partying was taking the lead. Friends said she was always partying and putting pleasure first over her school work and she was skipping school all the time,

mingling with college students and the popular crowd who were always getting in trouble. And it wasn't long until John got a call from the school to discuss Julie's attendance. Saying John was pissed was an understatement. He was livid and he was super disappointed. He felt like he tried so hard to make this work. So of course they started getting to pretty big arguments. It's hard. Parents think they know best. As parents, we want our children to live the best life possible. We've been there, we've done that, and we don't want them to go through the same struggles. Sometimes they take things for granted and then they can't go back in time. It's understandable. Julie's 14. She was still so young, but she boldly told her father she wanted to

withdraw from school. John thought this was all out of spite because in his mind she was doing this to him because he cheated and left his family. The truth was Julie felt second best to Lorelei and she felt John chose his girlfriend over her. She didn't feel loved and she was using partying as a way out of her sadness. She liked going to parties because when she walked in, she was the center of attention. All eyes were on her. All of this attention seeking behavior escalated once Julie was introduced to sex. This was just another tool in her arsenal that she could use to get attention from men. She began jumping from one boy to the next. She would have a long string of casual relationships. She would get into one and then get bored very easily, end it, and find another boy.

From what her friend said, she always seemed to have a boyfriend and she needed something or someone all the time. She never seemed to want to be alone. Her brother was on a completely different path. John Jr. coming from the exact same family and the same background did not act out this way and he ended up going into the Navy. By 1984, it's 16 years old. She decided it was time to leave high school and instead she got a job as an administrative assistant and she loved making her own money because she enjoyed buying clothes, jewelry, makeup, who doesn't, what girl doesn't like that? And she was also living with friends. So she could do anything she wanted. And this seemed to work very well for her. She had everything she could possibly want except a guy. And she found one. His name was Neil Ziegler.

Neil was six years older than Julie. He was tall, handsome, and he came from a very wealthy family in Morristown, which is one of the most affluent communities in South Jersey. Not sure if this is going to be surprising or not, but Julie and Neil end up getting married in November of 1985, just a couple months before Julie was turning 18. She didn't even tell her dad. And being with Neil gave Julie financial and emotional stability, but she still felt like she was missing out on having fun despite. being in love. When John did find out about the marriage, he was actually happy because he felt like it would keep Julie on a better path. John really liked the fact that Neil's dad was a doctor and a professor, and as soon as things started to look better in John's perspective, Julie wanted out of the marriage, and he was just like, it figures. Once again, he felt like she was doing this out of spite. The marriage was annulled in 1988. Julie had nowhere to go, so she was forced to live back with her mom. And at this point she found a job at an insurance company and it paid very well. Julie was somewhat selfish with her money though and she wasn't even helping pay Julia even though she was living under her

roof as an adult. She continuously just spent her money on material things and they began to fight. Julie moved out once again and moved into an apartment with friends. One thing was very apparent to everyone, including Julie, everywhere she went. People, whether it was men or women, almost broke their necks to catch a glimpse of her when she walked by. She was always being asked if she was a model. She was tall. She was 5.7. She had a perfect body, very proportional. And people just thought she was stunning. Most importantly, she knew that she had a power of her men and she knew how to use it. And she loved using it. All that was on the outside. That was just Julie's shell. On the inside, she was very insecure and she was desperately in search for love. She wanted that loyal devotion

and affection and not just these casual dates and she was determined to find a man who truly loved her and gave her exactly what she wanted. She felt like she was quite a catch and that she deserved it. And a man like this ended up finding her. Julie was used to being invited to lavish parties all the time. And on July 8th, 1989, Julie's at a fancy yacht club party. She's enjoying herself. She's drinking. She's dancing with friends. And all the while, there's a guy in the crowd that has his eyes on her and his name was Tim Nist. Tim is captivated by Julie's beauty and he's telling his friends, I need to go over there and talk to her. It wasn't hard because Julie was very friendly and Tim was clearly well off. She was impressed with him. He was

dressed nice and then he asked her if she wanted to take a spin around town and his Porsche. Of course she did not pass on that opportunity and they end up hanging out and talking all night. They wanted to see each other again. Tim invited her to to the beach to go surfing and they were pretty much taken with one another. Tim was responsible. He was financially stable and he was 11 years older. That was a good thing because like her dad said, she needed that structure to keep her on a good path. They did grow up in very opposite situations though. Tim was the fourth child. He had three older sisters. They were a middle class family. They lived near Princeton, New Jersey and he really had no big problems growing up. A very close family,

stay-at-home mom. His dad owned a pesticides and fertilizer business. His family instilled very good habits and manners and discipline in him. He studied engineering. He dropped out of college and then he started his own car restoration company. Tim was a good looking guy. He was tall. He's 6'4 with a great sense of humor. In the 1980s, he switched careers and he opened up a landscaping company. This is when his career really started to blow up and he started making a lot of money. The real estate market was at an all-time high. So people were buying homes. They were new homeowners and they wanted manicured lawns made sense. And he was doing this work all out of his condo. He just had one employee, which was a secretary helping him set up the appointments and managing his books and the clients.

As soon as Julie came into his life, she wasn't thrilled about that part about him having a secretary. But Tim told her he wouldn't be able to run his business all on his own. I was wondering if you would call this jealousy. Because as an adult, I would assume Julie would. be mature enough to realize it's just an employee. However, the people we spend the most time with have a better chance of being in a relationship with us or a closer relationship. It happens all the time. Actors end up dating each other, you know. Tim also had a lot of other women in his life. He didn't seem like he was wanting to settle down anytime soon. If he had, he would have been married already because he had been engaged several times throughout his 20s. However, Tim was spending a lot more time with

Julie than anyone else and they both had a love for ice hockey which made going out with each other a lot of fun they had a routine they would go to the jersey devil's games together and then they would go out and party all night the age difference never seemed to be an issue but what was an issue was julie's insecurity because her father cheated this was always a concern tim on the other hand was not jealous but tim was not her boyfriend yet julie was put her boyfriend yet julie was put pressure on Tim. Tim knew if he lost her, he'd probably have a hard time finding someone like her again, so he didn't want to let her go. She was so gorgeous, she had a good sense of humor. She was friendly. He couldn't help but say yes. He almost regretted it though. He had not seen all of Julie's

true colors until one St. Patty's Day. Tim and Julie planned to meet up at a pub, but Julie was running a little late and when she walked in, Tim was sitting at the bar talking to a blonde girl. Without saying one word, Julie walks up to Tim and punches him square in the face. Ultimately, this led to a black eye and as you expected, Tim was blown away. It completely took him by surprise. It was very embarrassing. He wasn't doing anything wrong in his point of view. It was an innocent conversation to pass the time until Julie got there. Of course, he knew Julie was on her way and he was probably going to introduce them to one another.

Tim had to get Julie to chill out, but even after that, she told him, first, I'll kick her ass for talking to you and then I'll kick her ass for being a blonde. That struck me as very odd. Why hurt someone over the way that they look? I don't know. Why did she have something against blondes? Was the woman that her dad cheated on a blonde? I don't know.

But all I know is I wondered what would that have to do with an innocent girl? There was also quite a double standard at play. Julie was someone that overtly flirted with men. She expected that to be okay with Tim. But if he stepped out a line in her perspective, her temper would rage. There was a lot of emotional baggage there, and there were two chefs in the kitchen and their relationship. They both wanted to make the rules. Julie was 21, and ironically, she was working at a law firm doing the exact same type of work that Tim's secretary did for him, another kind of double standard.

It was okay that she worked for men, and it was fine that she was a secretary, but it wasn't okay for Tim to need one. Julie would constantly tell Tim that she wasn't comfortable with it and even made comments to the secretary. Julie was at work one day when a local newspaper called the Trentonian landed on her desk. An article that was in the newspaper caught her eye immediately. And it was an ad looking for girls that lived in the area to enter a beauty contest. Julie had stars in her eyes. She ripped it out, brought it home, showed it to Tim. Tim was a former photographer and he got excited.

There was a cash prize as well as vacations and other perks. involved. He told Julie she should enter and he would take all of her pictures so they wasted no time. Tim thought Julie had the perfect bikini body ever since they first met and they went on that date surfing. He was 100% confident that she would win first prize. No doubt about it. So he took a bunch of her photos and then they submitted it to the Trentonian. I'm very familiar with this newspaper. I used to live in New Jersey. In order to sell more newspapers, they had a very clever marketing strategy and I'm guessing their demographic was men. They had this special page, page six, dedicated to swimsuit models and I know because I was one of them. I was in pageantry

for years. This is just a small caveat and that's how I found myself in New Jersey. And this is what drew me to want to learn more about this case. It was a fun pastime for me. I learned a lot, but the newspaper was always looking for new girls. My best friend and I were approached while we were just working on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. I was selling casino memberships. I was young. I thought it would be pretty cool to be in a newspaper, but I'm telling you all of this for context. It's not a big deal. It wasn't anything to be bragging about per se, but it was fun. Julie didn't just see it as fun, though. She really thought this was her chance. She could probably use this to catapult herself into a career in modeling. Julie hadn't heard a response, though,

and it had already been a week. And maybe she was in a bad mood. But, But all we know is that Tim walked into his office to find his secretary was gone. The phones were ringing off the hook. He didn't know what was going on. And then Julie just strolls out and takes a seat at the secretary's desk. And of course, Tim's confused. He asked, what's going on? Julie, she's got a big smile.

And she says, I guess she just left. But Tim wasn't an idiot. He knew Julie. He knew that she must have made that poor girl feel so bad that she walked out because it was clear from the beginning. Julie was trying to sabotage the professional relationship between Tim and his secretary. All the attention had to be on Julie and Julie alone. Tim could not run his business alone and Julie knew that.

So she gave him pretty much no choice but to let her run his business. She quit the law firm and then came into Tim's office and reworked all of the processes that were already in place. And she sort of took control of everything. This wasn't a bad thing. Tim was old school. He was still working off paper ledgers and Julie transitioned. to everything onto a computer. The thing was, when you gave her an inch,

she would take a mile and she knew she had Tim wrapped around her finger. He gave her so much freedom, and she loved that because she could go out and party, do whatever she want, and Tim would never give her a hard time about it. She had been working at Tim's for a couple months, and she was opening the mail every day.

She still had not heard back from the newspaper. She was pissed. Instead of realizing that maybe she didn't make the cut, she decided to go down to their office to question them about why she hadn't been given a response. I guess some people can look at this as being persistent and I know persistence can pay off, but then some people may look at it a little bit differently. Maybe she just didn't get what she wanted and she thought she deserved it and you could call it entitlement, but I'm not sure. She shows up, she barges in, she demands to talk to the editor

and the editor didn't even know her. They get hundreds of random entries from girls all over New Jersey. When she gets to see him, her exact words were, yo, what gives? Why is it my picture in the newspaper? The editor was shocked. This is not something he saw every day. He actually had never had this happen before. He did give Julie a chance to speak,

and I don't know what they talked about, but she did end up getting accepted into the beauty pageant and would also be featured on page six of the Trentonian. Julie couldn't hold back her assignment about what she had accomplished, so she announced it to all of her friends and to Tim, and they started preparing for the competition. You're going to find that the competition didn't go as Julie planned. It was only the second time that the Trintonian even held one of these beauty contests.

And just so you're aware, all these contests are just for publicity. They're for marketing and finding more models for their newspaper. They would make girls like me when I was 18 feel special. Then they knew you were more likely to want to participate in more and more. They would give you gifts, hotel stays, VIP clubs. They even drove me around in a limo. Some refer to this as grooming. And one reason why is because they would also introduce you to high rollers.

And those high rollers would want a female companion. And they would even hand us their room keys. I think you know where I'm going with this. Being in this contest in my perspective isn't that big of an ordeal. There were only 12 girls that were named as finalist. And they were competing for a trip to California as well as get this, a chance. And this is what I'm talking about with the way that these beauty pageants go. a chance to enter another bikini contest.

Wow. That's what you're getting when you're winning, a trip to California and a chance to enter another contest. Well, there were a couple hundred people that came to the Marriott. So it was a pretty big crowd. They were there to watch the women, mostly men in the crowd. Do I think these contests are rigged? Yes, I do.

But that could also just be a conspiracy theory. I don't know. What I do know is that Julie was a very confidence she was going to win because just a few weeks ago, her picture appeared in the Trentonian page six as promised by the editor. She definitely thought that was going to give her a leg up in the competition. There she was, five foot seven, and one of her most prominent attributes, and this is from what I read, so I had to mention it, was her large chest. That got her a lot of attention, and she knew how to show it off in the right way.

This wasn't just a beauty contest. This was something she thought was going to completely change her life. All eyes were on her. this is what she always dreamed of. Just keep that in mind. Ever since she found out that the editor was going to let her compete, she spent so much time buying swimsuits, trying them on for Tim, posing to make sure she had the right stance as well as the perfect look for this competition. She was practicing anytime she had free time. She took this very seriously. She learned how to walk down the runway and answer questions because if you didn't know, they ask you all these silly questions. I'm going to show you.

I'm going to show you one from a long time ago. You might remember. Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is? I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps.

And I believe that our education, like such as South Africa and Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq in the Asian countries. So we will be able to build up our future for our children. Thank you very much, South Carolina.

Okay, does that bring back memories for you? Because, oh my God, I was so embarrassed for that poor girl. I'll never forget that clip. So this is what they call the personality phase, where you get to answer some questions so that the judges know, you're not just a pretty face, so to speak. And this is where the whole thing about the large chest comes in. She asked him, what are three words that you would use to describe me?

Because that was one of the previous years' questions. And he literally said, quote, skinny, big tits. That's what he said. So the girls, they're gathered on stage, and they would take their turn standing in front of the judges. And Julie didn't go till the end. And maybe they were saving the best for last. I'm sure that's what she thought anyway. You know what these beauty pageants are like, and if you don't, you've got the bikini-clad women,

usually very tan, either spray-tanned or back then from using tanning beds. But I don't want you to think this is easy because it's not. It's pretty nerve-wracking. The crowd is filled with all these men, they're cat-calling you, they're screaming to get your attention because they think after you walk off stage, you're going to give them a chance. That's also why the judges want to be part of these competitions most times. Unfortunately for Julie, only one of the judges chose her to be a winner. All of the other judges did not agree, and she did not even place in the competition. Not only did she feel defeated, she was angry, and as soon as she walked off that stage,

she went right to Tim, and she told him that she was way prettier than the girl that won. All she got to take home were some measly vouchers for a store nearby, and that's pretty harsh, in my opinion. It's like, here's a voucher for your time, because I told you these things. are pretty much a joke. They really are. While she's at the competition, she meets another model. Her name is Cheryl Chupless. They ended up becoming really good friends. Cheryl's talking to another editor of the Trentonian and he's responsible for hiring promotional models. The editor's name was Gail Baldwin and he knew he didn't have anyone on his roster that looked like Julie. He was talking to her

and she was eating this up. She was so happy that people were giving her this attention. She was on top of the world in that moment knowing, okay, I didn't win this competition, but I just made two solid connections. They would be hired to go to places like bars and get the crowds hyped up on one of the newest drinks. They would hand out samples for the patrons to test out. And nine times out of 10, it's usually an alcohol company. So Gail hires both Cheryl and Julie to become one of the new promo girls. And what's funny is when they said that Cheryl and her became really good friends, I laughed because Cheryl was a blonde. Just throwing that out there because you remember what happened at the pub on that St. Patty's Day with the other blonde.

I guess as long as you don't flirt with her man, she's fine with you being a blonde. And that's good because I didn't want someone else to get punched in the face. Julie got her first promo job in the summer. And she was sent out to a few bars and a nightclub to promote a company called Hub City Beer. She did such a good job. And her and Cheryl were like a tag team. They had such good chemistry that they started sending them out with each child. other time and time again and they were working a few nights a week. Ultimately, they got hired for

gigs from Miller Brewing Company and Coors Light. They were going all over South Jersey Shore doing these promotions. For Julie, it was second nature. She had a very extroverted personality. She loved talking to people. She would go right up to them. She wouldn't just do the promotion. She would stay afterwards and men would buy her drinks and her and Cheryl would just party it up. They became very popular in the local nightclub scene. They were actually handing out their schedules so that mostly guys would know where they would be on any given night. There were baseball players that were even following them from bar to bar during the week. All the while, Julie is still working her full-time job at her boyfriend Tim's landscaping company. Although Tim was proud of all her accomplishments,

he never went to any of the events. He didn't get involved. He didn't go to her modeling shoots or the nightclub appearances, he was a home body, completely opposite of Julie. Tim loved to spend time at home with his dog and I'm the exact same way so I can totally relate. The more promo work she did, the more modeling jobs she was getting. And ultimately, she has this big surprise for her mom. They're driving in the car together and she says, mom, look, and she's on a huge billboard right over the highway in her bikini. And this was an ad for guess who? The Trentonian. It gave her a lot of exposure and it helped her get even more modeling gigs. The modeling gigs were paying off for Julie and they were also paying off for the Trentonian

because their sales kept going up. Right after adding these women to the papers, they noticed a really steep increase. Probably because like I said, their demographic is men. Julie was becoming a local celebrity. Everywhere she went, people would recognize her. I'm sure it made you feel pretty famous because you're in this bubble where everybody knows who you are and she was being invited to all kinds of new events and fundraisers and rubbing elbows with important people. But as they say, all good things must come to an end, right? And by the fall of 1990, things were really slowing down when it came to the promotional work. Now Julie started entering even more beauty pageants because even if she didn't place, she would still win some money. And it also can be somewhat of an addiction.

The rush of planning for the contest and being on stage and the anticipation of finding out if you won and then the letdown when it's over. She did win some titles. She held the title for Miss Muscle Cars, Miss Hawaiian Tropic, Miss New Jersey, and Miss Beach Haven. She was in a really happy place at this time in her life, but there is something she wanted. She wanted Tim to take the relationship to the next level and she was putting a lot of pressure on him to propose specifically. she wanted him to propose before Christmas. Oh, she had no shame. She was very persistent. And Tim even called her controlling. But he finally gave in. Just like she marched down to the newspaper, persistently asking them to put her on page six and then announcing it once it happened,

she did the same thing once Tim proposed. She called up Cheryl to let her know right away. He proposed on Christmas morning. And just like she hadn't wasted any time preparing for the pageants, she wasted no time at all starting to plan for her wedding. This was going to be the most important day in her life. You can also imagine if she took the competitions as seriously as she did. Her wedding was going to be a huge affair that no one would forget. That summer, June 12th, Julie was once again on stage at her second Trentonian swimwear contest. This time they invited all their friends to get into the crowd and cheer for Julie when she was up on

stage because maybe that would make the judges see that she was clearly who they should pick. Unfortunately, once again, Julie did not place. She did get a free bathing suit, though, and a membership to the Hillsborough Country Club for a year. She was still getting featured on page six, though, so that's a plus. But of course, remember, this is just a big selling strategy for the Trentonian. Julie was interested in stepping up her game, so she decided to try sending out headshots all over New York in hopes of becoming a famous actress, but that didn't pan out for her either. She thought the reason she wasn't hitting it big in New York was because she was spending so much time working for Tim. She couldn't possibly give modeling all of her time if she was at the office

focusing on him and his business. The thing was, she couldn't stomach the idea of Tim hiring a secretary, so she remained working there because she didn't work. want him to hire someone else. Tim even told her, and these were his words, I promise I'll only hire someone big, fat, and ugly. So she didn't have to worry about anything. After all, Tim was about to marry her.