WEBVTT - Family Betrayal: The Susie Newsom Lynch Story (Pt 1) 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:08.600 Diversion audio. 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:17.160 A note this episode contains mature content and quite graphic 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.280 descriptions of violence that may be disturbing for some listeners. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:26.400 I mean it, y'all this episode especially, please take care 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:40.280 and listening. Dolores Lynch lived in a two story, pink brick, 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.920 fourteen bedroom and four and a half bath country house 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.040 outside of Louisville, Kentucky. It was on four and a 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:53.320 half acres. She had lived there with her husband until 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:58.160 his death eight months ago. Now she lived there by herself, 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.520 except for when her Janie visited. 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:03.960 Every weekend up from university. 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.959 Janie was thirty nine, but she and her mother were close, 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.479 too close, some of her friends thought, and Janie's boyfriends 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.880 definitely thought so. None of them were good enough for Janie, 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.320 just like none of Dolores's son's girlfriends. 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:22.560 Were good enough for Tom. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:27.200 Dolores's friends knew that the Lynches could afford help around 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:32.440 the house, but Delores mowed her own four acre lawn, 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.399 and when her longtime housekeeper and friend went up on 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.320 her rates, Delores let her go. She was the type 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.760 of person to clean behind the housekeeper anyway, Even though 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.800 she was rich, Delores didn't act like it. She had 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.000 grown up in the Great Depression, and it showed through 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:57.960 her frugality. She mashed old bars of soap together, and 0:01:58.000 --> 0:01:59.720 she bought all her clothes secondhand. 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:02.080 But she wasn't humble. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:09.600 Dolores was vocally conservative and very judgmental. People liked her 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:14.359 adult children, Sweet Jane and all American Tom, and Delores 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.000 thought no one was good enough. 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:17.600 For either of them. 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.160 Although she mothered some kids in her neighborhood, she made 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.239 enemies of others. She threatened to shoot a neighbor's dog 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.640 if it pooped on her lawn. Again, when it did, 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.840 she shot the dog, not fatally, but still she shot 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.640 her neighbor's dog. She also popped out of her front 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.519 hedges when a horseback rider happened to pass in front, 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.320 taking photos as if he was trespassing, which she wasn't. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:50.520 Delores was also quite paranoid. Her security alarms were always set, 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:52.919 and when she left the house she took the phone 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:54.920 off the hook so no one could call to. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:55.800 See if she was home. 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.000 In short, Dolores was the type to ask to see 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.680 the manager, and she was very resentful of her. 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:04.920 Husband when he was alive. 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:10.040 It's probably part of what drove him to the alcoholism 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:15.360 that eventually ended his life. Dolores very seldom missed church. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:21.040 On this day, July twenty second, nineteen eighty four, she 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.240 left the pew with her friend Marjorie, chit chatted with 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.959 her frenemies on the way to the car, and then 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.840 said she had to leave because Janie would be coming 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:34.600 home with their Sunday doughnuts soon. Her friend Susan called 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:39.040 that evening, and the next morning. She even called Tuesday 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:44.040 morning without reaching her. Susan didn't need anything in particular, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.920 but she thought it odd when the phone rang and rang. 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.200 After work, Susan decided she would just drop by and 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.720 make sure Dolores was all right. She brought her dog 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.280 just to visit, but when Susan pulled in to the 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.760 long driveway, she saw all three family cars in the driveway, 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.600 and then when she topped the hill, she saw Dolores's 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:14.520 body lying at the garage door. Later, one of Janey's 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.960 ex boyfriends would tell police. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:18.880 Dolores was a pain in the ass. 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.080 She was the kind of person you'd invite to leave, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.240 then take an aspirin and sit down to rest for 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.640 an hour or two. But you know, shooting her in 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:53.240 the head is a bit extreme. Welcome to the greatest 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:58.120 true crime stories ever told. I'm Mary Kay mcbraer. Today's 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:03.039 episode we're calling Family Betrayal the Susie Newsome Lynch Story. 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.280 It's the story of Susie Newsom Lynch and it has 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:13.880 everything you'd expect from a Southern Gothic tale. Aristocratic families, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:20.640 old South, racism, paranoia, a feud, and of course murder. 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:40.440 I'll tell you all about it after this quick break. 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.240 Normally I try to empathize with pretty much all our characters, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.120 especially the protagonists, but listeners, I need y'all to know 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.039 I can't stand any of these people. I'm clearly from 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.799 the South, and there's nothing more annoying about the South 0:05:55.960 --> 0:06:00.400 than old money. Because the thing is there might really 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.479 ain't that old, because the South ain't really that old. 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.000 There's a kind of new money that's only a couple 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.520 generations old, too, like the kind that makes people not 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:15.520 know how to act with actual old money. There's the 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.760 dignity of the noblesse of Liege. It's the reason why 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.360 Lord Grantham on Downton Abbey isn't an asshole to his servants. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.960 He's got nothing to prove he's rich and his family 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:34.000 probably has been rich since before Hadrian's Wall. But new money, 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.120 this type, it's. 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:37.400 The most annoying. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.599 People wave it around like it's an indication of their goodness, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.880 but without doing anything good with it. 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:47.120 Let me give you an example. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.800 In my hometown, there was a private school. Generally, when 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.640 you think about private schools, you'd think that the education 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.240 would be better, the teachers would have masters and doctorates, 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.240 and the curriculum would be so tight that everyone graduates 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:03.719 and everyone gets into top tier colleges. 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:06.280 But not this school. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.920 This school was actually inside a megachurch. There were no 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:16.960 honors or ap offerings, and grades were inflated. Actually, there 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:22.680 were no entrance exams or qualifications. You literally just bought 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:29.280 your way in into a lesser education. But among elitists, 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.520 I cannot abide this shit, and I really couldn't abide 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.080 the attitude that those kids thought they were better than 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.880 we lowly public school kids who graduated high school with 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.960 a year of college credits just because their parents had 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.040 money and they thought it was important to show that 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.000 they had money in that weird flex which made the 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.760 kids mostly insufferable. I mean, like you didn't earn that money. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.240 Your daddy did put him on the phone. Also, no 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:01.400 one cares about your money, at least I don't. Maybe 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.960 other people with money care about whether you have money, 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.960 but the rest of us are busy. Granted, not all 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.160 the kids were evil or rotten, of course, and a 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.160 few of them went there instead of going to the 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.560 reform school. They got expelled to, which was an interesting dynamic, 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.960 But that was the general attitude, and anyone who came 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.160 out of there without their nose and the air was 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:28.000 kind of an anomaly. So that's the class of people 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:29.720 we're dealing with in this story. 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:31.560 And again, to be. 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:36.080 Fair, being well off does not necessarily make someone evil 0:08:36.200 --> 0:08:40.160 or bad or wrong. It's the holier inou attitude because 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.040 of the money, not because of any sincere altruism that 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.720 makes these folks so gross to me. I don't like 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.600 any of them, not the victims, not the predators. But 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.600 I'm still going to try to be fair because they 0:08:53.600 --> 0:09:06.400 do deserve that. I mentioned in the cold Open that 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.240 Dolores was resentful of her husband, Chuck, and that was 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:11.680 a gross understatement. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:13.679 She hated him. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.240 Chuck had been a big deal at ge and because 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.040 he loved his work so much and it was a 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.920 good job. He had to relocate several times across the states. 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.680 They were originally from Pennsylvania, but they lived all over, 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:31.319 from New York to New Jersey, Washington, d c. To Maryland, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:36.880 Chicago to Louisville. That's when he retired and Delores swore 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:41.040 she would never move again. She took every chance she 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.520 could to belittle her husband in front of her friends, 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.880 even cooking for him horrible combinations like green beans and 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:53.760 scrambled eggs. She often said I wish he'd die. When 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.240 her friend said, surely you don't mean that, Dolores doubled down. 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.600 Her maid, Helen said he never walked out the door, 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.080 that she didn't wish him dead. None of their friends 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:10.520 understood why they never divorced. One friend said he seemed 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:14.120 like a moral guy. I think he considered this was 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.640 his payback for the suffering he inflicted on Dolores. It 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:23.079 seems like Chuck felt he was atoning from making her 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:27.000 move so many times, a sort of she was miserable before, 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:32.680 so I'll be miserable now mentality. He started drinking to cope, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.520 and then she called him a worthless drunk Chuck said 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:41.360 she's a good woman personally, I don't see it. She 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.280 may have been a moral person, but even the people 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.239 who knew her best said she was irritated by everything. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.400 But by the time Chuck died, Dolores begrudgingly called the 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.800 police when she couldn't find his pulse as he lay 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.880 on the floor in front of the TV. She was 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:02.920 an empty nester, it is, until Janie moved back east. 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.320 Janie had already earned two degrees, and she'd been studying 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:11.120 dental work in Santa Monica, California for a while before 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:15.880 deciding to return to Kentucky. Janie was sweet and really pretty, 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.959 and she had no problems finding boyfriends, but her boyfriends 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:26.160 did have trouble appeasing her mother, and Dolores was overbearing. 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:29.840 Janie took it all in stride, but I have to 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.880 think it affected her somehow, since even though she'd been 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.120 engaged several times, she always begged off when it came 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.400 down to the real commitment. Such was the case with 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.400 her boyfriend Phil. They were very much in love at 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:48.200 the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, despite that she 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.320 was fourteen years older than he. Phil actually had thought 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.440 she was joking when she told him her age, but 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:58.600 she wasn't. After Phil had asked her to meet his parents, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.600 Janie got spooped, at least I think she did. That's 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.079 why she didn't go on the trip to meet them. Instead. 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.880 Dolores's son, Tom, Jane's brother, was supposed to visit the 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.959 family in Kentucky in just a few days, and Janie 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.680 would be home for that. Tom Lynch had moved to 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:23.200 Albuquerque with his first wife in nineteen seventy. She was 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.040 two years older than he was when he proposed. After 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:30.280 he graduated, Tom was twenty two when they made the move, 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:35.320 and he started his dental practice in New Mexico. Since then, 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:39.120 his practice had been steadily growing, and he didn't mind 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:43.400 that in New Mexico no one cared about his pedigree. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.160 Tom was actually in New Mexico just leaving work when 0:12:47.200 --> 0:13:02.640 he learned the news. Officer Steve Nobles was the one 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:07.679 who responded to Susan's police call. He didn't notice anything 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.280 amiss at the Lynch house until he got out of 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:15.040 the car. That's when the smell hit him and he 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.400 saw the body laid out by the garage. Steve realized 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.600 he was exposed, and he took cover until his backup 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:27.160 arrived just a few minutes later. His first thought while 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.120 he waited was that the daughter might have killed her 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.360 mother and could still be in the house. Officer Steve 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.719 Swinney knew the Lynches, though, and he was familiar with 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:42.400 the house too. He'd investigated Chuck's death a few months earlier. 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.160 Now they both approached the body of his wife. She 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.839 lay on her left side. Jerry Bledsoe says in his book, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.480 the top of her head and the left side of 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:00.679 her face were gone. The hot sun had blackened the 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.840 remains of her head, which squirmed with maggots and was 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.480 swarmed by flies and ants, the most grotesque sight those 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:14.320 police officers had ever seen, but they had to move on. 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:18.600 A third officer arrived. As they rounded the back of 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.680 the house, the officers saw a bullet hole in the 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:25.000 gutter drain at the end of the house. When they 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:30.120 slid open the unlocked storm door, two tiny, hungry dogs 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.040 yapped at them. They saw two drops of blood by 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:38.480 the counter, next to the telephone. The house was big, 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:43.240 but mismatched in decorps, and the officers crept down the hallway, 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:47.880 pushing open doors until they came to Janie's room. Her 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.920 purse and jewelry box had been dumped onto the bed. 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.760 Jannie lay face down in the sun room. She was barefoot, 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.640 and she had curlers in her hair. Them had been 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.680 driven into her skull by the second bullet. The first 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:09.040 was lodged in her right shoulder blade. The police continued 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.560 to secure the house, then they called in the mobile 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.320 evidence lab. They knew this would be a difficult case 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:21.080 to solve. It was two white women in a wealthy neighborhood, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.040 days after the murder, and the trail had gone cold. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.680 The state Police Department had to be called in. This 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:34.320 one was no match for Oldham County. It was just 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.200 an hour after the murders made the news in Louisville 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.760 when a volunteer minister at the Albuquerque Police Department came 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.840 to notify Tom Lynch. Tom was rushing to meet his wife, Kathy, 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.880 and his sons from his first marriage at the movies. 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.600 The chaplain said he had bad news. His mother and 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.880 sister had been killed. Tom assumed it was a car, 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:06.560 the chaplain said otherwise. Still in shock, Tom drove to 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.280 the movie theater to round up his family. His wife 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:15.360 was shocked. His eight year old Jim asked, well, Daddy, 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:25.800 who shot him? Oh? Tom didn't know what would make 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.320 a child ask that, but he was right, and they 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:33.040 didn't know who had killed them. Just one day before 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:35.480 he was scheduled to go see his mother in Louisville, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.880 Tom touched down at the airport. The police met him 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:41.680 at the airport and they drove him to the station. 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.120 Tom looked devastated, but they still had to question him. 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:53.520 Detective Dan Davidson offered his condolences and then asked basic questions. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.320 When was the last time they talked? Had she expressed 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:01.200 any fears? And after they got the preliminary questions out 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.560 of the way, the policeman said, doctor, to be quite 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.119 candid with you, I don't know if you realize this, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.440 and Tom replied, I think I know what you're gonna say. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.359 I'm the sole heir. I think you'd be negligent if 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.399 you didn't look at that possibility too. Tom agreed to 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:25.639 take a polygraph test. This is elimination, a detective said. 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.320 The detectives asked him about his financial condition. Tom said 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.120 that he'd been practicing for eight years and he made 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.280 about one hundred and twenty thousand a year. He had 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:41.439 some bills, a nice house, two cars, an ira, and 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.280 a little money in the bank. And then he added 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:46.880 that he paid five hundred dollars a month in child support. 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.680 After the polygraph, the detectives turned to one another and agreed. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:57.440 Even though the polygraph proved inconclusive, Tom was tense and upset. 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:03.680 They didn't think that Tom Lynch did it, So who did? 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:31.520 We'll take a closer look after the break. Tom Lynch 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:33.880 met his first wife when he was in college at 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:38.560 wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina. When he 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.440 was a freshman. He was a basketball player, and they 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:47.200 struck up a conversation at the library. Susie Newsom had 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.640 transferred to this private school in her hometown of Winston 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:58.680 Salem from another small, expensive private girls' school, Queen's College. 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.119 She hadn't liked it much there because the girls were frivolous. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.840 They were almost all wealthy, but they weren't what she 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.760 thought of as good families. She thought you didn't have 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.399 to be wealthy to be good. She felt there was 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:20.520 such a thing as listen to this shit genteel poverty? 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:25.360 Is that not the most condescending thing you've ever heard. Anyway, 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.439 Susie was drawn to Tom because he looked wholesome and 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.919 he was medically ambitious. She had always liked doctors, but 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:39.560 she hated hippies, war protesters, and civil rights activists. This 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:43.679 was nineteen sixty eight and she was in college, and 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:49.159 she strongly supported the war in Vietnam. She was also 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.480 a sorority sweetheart, which is a title that still makes 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.480 no damn sense to me. So when she met Dolores, 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.680 it didn't go great. It didn't go well at all. 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:06.359 They immediately disliked each other. Delores didn't like when someone 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.760 looked down on her origins. Susie was a privileged kid, 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.560 and she absolutely looked down on Dolores for her hard 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:19.680 scrabble upbringing. Tom didn't know of any actual conflict during 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:24.560 the meeting, but afterward, Susie told her family that Dolores 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:29.639 was quote overbearing and domineering, and Dolores told her friend 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.000 that Susie was quote snooty and pretentious. 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:35.400 And both of them were right. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.760 It's not that uncommon for there to be drama between 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.840 mother and daughter in law. Delores and Susie were both 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.520 bull headed about bossing Tom around. They didn't want to 0:20:47.560 --> 0:21:03.600 get along. They both wanted to win. Obviously, Susie won, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:08.360 daughters in law always do. At least she won Tom. 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:13.000 They got married in nineteen seventy, right after Tom's graduation. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.240 Even though Dolores did everything she could to try to 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:20.080 dissuade him. She said she had a gut feeling that 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.439 made her dislike Susie, even after she had tried to 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:27.000 get close to her. I don't know what trying to 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.440 get close to her looked like, but it didn't work. 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.840 They moved to the University of Kentucky and Lexington to 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:39.000 complete dental school. Dolores tried to be friendly, but her 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:41.600 friendly looked like surprise. 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.080 Visits and doting on Tom. 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:46.959 And I can't blame Susie for being annoyed that there 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:53.200 is absolutely no reason why anyone should drop by your 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.439 house unannounced. Ever, it is the most rude thing you 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:03.680 can do, vipecially when telephones exist and there are small 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:09.440 napping children involved, and soon there were. Susie had John 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.840 Wesley in nineteen seventy four and then James Thomas in 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:18.160 nineteen seventy six, and then they moved to New Mexico 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:21.240 for Tom to open his own dental practice. 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:23.440 Susie didn't like New Mexico. 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:29.280 More specifically, she didn't like that people there didn't already 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:32.680 know who she was, and they didn't respect her out 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:38.400 of habit At Christmas of nineteen seventy eight, Susie brought 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.600 the boys home to Winston Salem on her own. Tom 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:48.720 stayed behind with no explanation. While she was home, Susie 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:52.119 often complained about Dolores, but it wasn't just the normal 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.359 pest type complaints of her dropping in or being overbearing. 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:03.960 Susie said quote she's mean and evil. When she returned, 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:07.480 Susie said that it might be better for everyone if 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:11.639 she took the boys back home for good. Susie was 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:16.359 unhappy in Albuquerque and apparently unhappy in her marriage as well. 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.080 Tom resisted for a while he didn't want to lose 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:26.080 his sons. Susie favored Jim the younger boy big time. 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:29.720 She thought Jim was more like her. Really, he just 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:33.399 looked more like her. He was laid back and relaxed 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:38.359 like Tom. So John, the child who acted more like Susie, 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:44.120 sad and withdrawn, was the one who was punished more naturally. 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:48.080 He acted out this unfairness in tantrums and destroying his things. 0:23:48.920 --> 0:23:52.879 But by the following spring of nineteen seventy nine, Jim 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:58.200 displayed behavioral concerns too. He put objects in his eyes, 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:03.639 and then one day Tom came home from work and 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.159 John was holding his arm in a weird way. As 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:09.120 soon as he took off the boy's shirt, he could 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:13.040 see the arm was broken. John said he fell off 0:24:13.080 --> 0:24:18.159 the bed at his babysitter's home, but that was a lie. 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:21.400 The babysitter's husband worked nights and he slept all day. 0:24:22.400 --> 0:24:26.520 They never played on the bed there, and both boys 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:30.399 had bedwetting problems, which is another sign of abuse, so 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:32.879 the sitter had palettes fixed for them on the floor 0:24:32.960 --> 0:24:37.320 just in case. The babysitter said she saw injuries on 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:42.040 the boys all the time, like bruises and bloody noses. 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:46.080 One day, Jim showed up with red eyes, which not 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:50.040 unusual for him, and then she saw that Jim had 0:24:50.080 --> 0:24:52.560 a big, mushy lump on the side of his head. 0:24:54.320 --> 0:24:56.680 He didn't get to the doctor until Tom came home 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:59.800 from work and Tom saw the three year old's eyes 0:24:59.840 --> 0:25:04.640 were starting to blacken. The doctors suspected something wasn't right, 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:10.080 especially after they diagnosed Jim with a mild concussion. The 0:25:10.200 --> 0:25:15.119 nurses strongly suggested it might not have been an accident. 0:25:16.640 --> 0:25:21.000 Both parents were pretty offended at the implied accusation, but 0:25:21.240 --> 0:25:26.040 especially Susie. Nothing came of it. There were no further 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:40.159 investigations by child services. Susie and Tom separated soon after, 0:25:41.119 --> 0:25:43.560 and while it was not hard for Tom to say 0:25:43.560 --> 0:25:47.040 goodbye to Susie at this point, it was hard for 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:51.120 him to say goodbye to his two little boys. Susie 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:55.040 took them with her back to Winston Salem. In the divorce, 0:25:56.280 --> 0:26:01.800 Tom got two weeks summer vacation. That wasn't enough. He 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:06.679 wanted more visitation, but Susie denied him that. I just 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:10.359 want to note he's not suing her for custody, not 0:26:10.480 --> 0:26:15.800 even partial custody. Tom just wanted more visitation, like four 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:19.719 weeks instead of two, and not even necessarily all at 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:24.680 the same time. It wasn't a lot to ask, but 0:26:24.720 --> 0:26:28.840 Susie wouldn't have it. Instead, she tried to keep the 0:26:28.880 --> 0:26:33.159 boys away from Tom completely. She took them with her 0:26:33.200 --> 0:26:36.480 to Taiwan for a year while she was studying Chinese. 0:26:37.240 --> 0:26:40.280 At one point, Tom didn't see John and Jim for 0:26:40.320 --> 0:26:45.439 two years. Not only is that some evil shit, but 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:50.720 it's completely unnecessary and the reason why Susie was keeping 0:26:50.720 --> 0:26:54.480 the kids from him is even more disturbing. She thought 0:26:54.520 --> 0:26:59.440 Tom was a drug dealer with a mafia connection. To recap, 0:26:59.800 --> 0:27:04.639 Tom was a dentist. That's it. It might be just 0:27:04.680 --> 0:27:07.560 my personal opinion, but it seems to me like there 0:27:08.200 --> 0:27:12.000 might have been some jealousy at play. Tom had married 0:27:12.000 --> 0:27:17.239 his dental hygienist, Kathy after he and Susie divorced, and 0:27:17.320 --> 0:27:19.719 I say it might have been jealousy because John and 0:27:19.800 --> 0:27:24.920 Jim really liked Kathy. When a child psychologist asked them 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:27.919 about it, they said they felt even more comfortable with 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:31.760 Kathy than their own dad, although they felt good around 0:27:31.800 --> 0:27:35.760 him too. Remember, it was Kathy who had taken the 0:27:35.760 --> 0:27:38.359 boys to the movies when Tom got the news that 0:27:38.440 --> 0:27:54.960 his family had been murdered, So the boys happened to 0:27:55.000 --> 0:27:58.159 be on that two week visitation with Tom when his 0:27:58.200 --> 0:28:03.320 family died. He actually asked Susie to extend their visitation 0:28:03.680 --> 0:28:06.520 just by a few days, but of course she declined 0:28:07.200 --> 0:28:11.840 she was going camping. Tom thought that was weird. Susie 0:28:12.600 --> 0:28:16.600 going camping, but he had other concerns. 0:28:18.000 --> 0:28:18.680 He was back in. 0:28:18.640 --> 0:28:21.879 Louisville for the arrangements when he received a bouquet of 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:26.960 flowers from his former in laws, Susie's parents. Tom felt 0:28:27.000 --> 0:28:30.280 like that opened a line of communication. So after a 0:28:30.320 --> 0:28:35.000 few interactions, Tom asked Bob, that's his former father in law, 0:28:35.640 --> 0:28:38.560 if he would be willing to testify in the custody hearing. 0:28:39.960 --> 0:28:41.160 Bob agreed to do it. 0:28:42.320 --> 0:28:42.640 Again. 0:28:43.440 --> 0:28:46.960 Tom was just asking for more visitation, not full custody, 0:28:47.040 --> 0:28:52.840 not even joint custody, just more visitation. It shouldn't have 0:28:52.880 --> 0:28:55.920 been all that surprising that Bob agreed to testify on 0:28:56.000 --> 0:29:02.520 Tom's behalf, but I imagine it felt pretty relieving to Tom. Besides, 0:29:02.640 --> 0:29:06.800 Bob had noticed the kids were acting weird. Tom had 0:29:06.840 --> 0:29:11.000 noticed it too. First was their appearance. They were so pale, 0:29:11.840 --> 0:29:15.080 they had deep circles under their eyes, and the plaque 0:29:15.120 --> 0:29:19.200 build up on their teeth was egregious, especially I'm guessing 0:29:19.280 --> 0:29:21.000 to Tom as a dentist. 0:29:21.840 --> 0:29:22.960 But John and Jim. 0:29:22.760 --> 0:29:27.320