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Speaker 1: Robert Marshall was an upscale problem gambler. He and his

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Speaker 1: wife Maria had spent the evening in Atlantic City. They

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Speaker 1: were on their way home. There was a problem with

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Speaker 1: us tire. He stopped at arrestop and his wife was

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Speaker 1: shot twice in the back and died almost immediately.

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Speaker 2: The police didn't think this was a robbery turned homicide.

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Speaker 3: It was murder for hire.

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Speaker 2: And they believe the person who hired someone to kill

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Speaker 2: Maria Marshall was her husband.

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Speaker 1: He had a girlfriend and he wanted out, and he

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Speaker 1: wanted his wife to pay for it with her life.

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Speaker 2: Today, we're in New Jersey for the conclusion of Murder

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Speaker 2: on the Parkway. I'm Slow Glass and this is American homicide.

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Speaker 2: Just to note that this episode contained some graphic content.

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Speaker 2: Please take care while listening. On a late summer night

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four, Maria Marshall was killed at a

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Speaker 2: rest stop along the Garden State Parkway. The ordeal was

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Speaker 2: originally believed to be a robbery turned homicide.

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Speaker 1: New Jersey is no stranger to murder. We have a

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Speaker 1: lot of mobsters in New Jersey, but this was different.

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Speaker 1: It was murder for hire, which we didn't get that much.

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Speaker 2: Of Journalist Judy Peat wrote about the story for a

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Speaker 2: New Jersey newspaper.

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Speaker 1: It got national attention, a book was written about it,

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Speaker 1: a movie was done about it based on the book,

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Speaker 1: and no story about Tom's River for about twenty five

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Speaker 1: thirty years ram without mentioning the spectacular murder in the

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Speaker 1: headline or at least in the first paragraph.

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Speaker 2: Even the Toms River Little Leak team found that out

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Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety eight when it won the Little Leak

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Speaker 2: World Series.

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Speaker 1: It was huge, but they never really got their due

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Speaker 1: because of the Marshall case.

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Speaker 2: By Christmas of nineteen eighty four, three men from Louisiana

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Speaker 2: were charged with Maria's murder along with her husband, Robert Marshall.

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Speaker 1: Robert Marshall was an attractive man with a very attractive

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Speaker 1: wife and three teenage sons, I think the youngest was

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Speaker 1: about twelve or thirteen at the time, who were all

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Speaker 1: championship swimmers and she was swim team mom of the year.

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Speaker 1: They seemed to have an idyllic life.

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Speaker 2: Think about it, those three teenage boys already having to

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Speaker 2: deal with their mother being murdered, and then they had

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Speaker 2: to process the fact that their father was charged with

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Speaker 2: orchestrating her death.

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Speaker 1: Robert Marshall sold insurance and iras and did very well. However,

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Speaker 1: Marshall was in debt. He had a gambling problem. He

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Speaker 1: had just in the months before the murder up to

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Speaker 1: his wife's life insurance to a million and a half.

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Speaker 2: In fact, Robert had just taken an additional policy out

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Speaker 2: on Maria the morning prior to her murder. According to prosecutors,

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Speaker 2: Robert's motive for killing his wife was to use her

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Speaker 2: insurance money to pay off his debt and run away

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Speaker 2: with his mistress.

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Speaker 1: He had a girlfriend and he wanted out, and he

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Speaker 1: wanted his wife to pay for it with her life.

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Speaker 2: Prosecutors believe Robert Marshall put the plan in place with

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Speaker 2: the help of three guys from Louisiana, Billy, Wayne McKinnon,

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Speaker 2: Larry Thompson, and a hardware clerk named Bobby Cumber, and

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Speaker 2: they believe it all started with Bobby.

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Speaker 1: He first met Bobby at a party he was up

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey visiting, and Marshall asked Bobby if he

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Speaker 1: could find him a private.

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Speaker 2: Detective, Lieutenant Jim Churchill investigated and he learned Bobby Cumber

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Speaker 2: connected Robert Marshall to a PI named Billy Wayne McKinnon.

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Speaker 3: McKinnon talks with Marshall.

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Speaker 4: Marshall said, I have a very sensitive investigation that I

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Speaker 4: want him done.

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Speaker 3: I don't trust.

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Speaker 4: Anybody in my area to do it. So McKinnon says, well,

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Speaker 4: it'll cost you five thousand dollars for me to come

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Speaker 4: up there and do this. So Marshall sends him a

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Speaker 4: Western Union money order, which we have a copy of.

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Speaker 2: That's when Robert Marshall took things a step further.

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Speaker 4: He says, well, basically I want her done away with.

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Speaker 4: Mckinn is somewhat taken back by that, and he says, well,

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Speaker 4: you know that can be done, but it's going to

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Speaker 4: cost you a lot more than what you've already given me.

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Speaker 3: So then they negotiate some sort of a deal.

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Speaker 2: Now, according to Billy Wayne McKinnon, deal to murder Maria

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Speaker 2: amount into over eighty thousand dollars.

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Speaker 4: McKinnon has no intention of doing this, but he has

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Speaker 4: an intention of bleeding this guy for money as often

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Speaker 4: as he can, because what's he going to say? You know,

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Speaker 4: he stole from me because I wanted to kill my wife.

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Speaker 2: So McKinnon simply took Robert Marshall's money and strung him

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Speaker 2: along throughout the summer of nineteen eighty four, and by

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Speaker 2: the end of that summer he turned the job over

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Speaker 2: to his friend Larry Thompson.

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Speaker 4: Thompson's the kind of guy that does this and kind

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Speaker 4: of horns in on this scam. The authorities in Louisiana

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Speaker 4: know him. Whenever there's a homicide, he's the first guy

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Speaker 4: to think of.

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Speaker 2: McKinnon told investigators that he and Larry Thompson drove up

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Speaker 2: from Louisiana the day before Maria's murder. By then, Robert

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Speaker 2: Marshall had already paid Billy Wayne McKinnon nearly twenty thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars with the promise of more money to come after

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Speaker 2: the job was done. He and Robert Marshall then came

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Speaker 2: up with their plan. They'd make Maria's murder look like

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Speaker 2: a robbery gone wrong. At a rest stop off the

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Speaker 2: Garden State Parkway.

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Speaker 4: They tell him to pull in, park your car here,

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Speaker 4: get out of the car, and then they will do

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Speaker 4: the rest. He said, I'll have twenty five hundred dollars

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Speaker 4: in my pocket. You can take that. Hit me over

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Speaker 4: the head, but don't hit me hard enough. I'm going

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Speaker 4: to be a vegetable.

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Speaker 2: But here's where things get tricky for prosecutors.

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Speaker 3: Thompson was the only person at the scene.

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Speaker 4: Billy Wayne had dropped him off and then he circled

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Speaker 4: around and came back north after the shooting had occurred

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Speaker 4: and after Marshall had been hit on a head, So.

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Speaker 2: Billy Wayne McKinnon never actually saw Larry Thompson kill Maria.

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Speaker 2: He dropped Larry off at the rest stop, drove away

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Speaker 2: and then returned after the murder.

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Speaker 4: When he gets there, he sees Marshall land by the

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Speaker 4: rear tire and Thompson is running towards a car, gets

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Speaker 4: in the front and says take off. When he starts

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Speaker 4: to take off, he says, wait a minute, I gotta

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Speaker 4: do something. He gets out of the car, runs back

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Speaker 4: to the car and Billy Wayne sees him take out

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Speaker 4: his knife and stick it into the right rear tire

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Speaker 4: and he hears the air coming out.

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Speaker 2: So the last thing to happen was Larry Thompson cutting

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Speaker 2: the Marshall's rear tire.

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Speaker 4: There was about a two inch cut in the sidewalk,

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Speaker 4: perfect for somebody who had a fairly large knife and

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Speaker 4: just stuck it in air and.

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Speaker 5: Let it out.

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Speaker 2: Billy Wayne McKinnon confirmed what investigators originally believed about the tire.

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Speaker 4: We had an air pump brought to the scene to

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Speaker 4: inflate the tire and it wouldn't inflated. The air was

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Speaker 4: escaping as fast as it went in, So there's no

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Speaker 4: way he could have driven from Atlantic City with the

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Speaker 4: tire like that.

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Speaker 2: Now, if you remember, the suspicion over the tire was

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Speaker 2: what made Robert Marshall a suspect early on in the investigation.

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Speaker 5: He was arrested while he was Christmas shopping.

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Speaker 2: Linda Fenwick was friends with Maria Marshall.

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Speaker 5: It was complicated. It was a complicated situation.

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Speaker 2: Now picture this, It's been three months since Maria was killed.

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Speaker 2: Her husband, Robert is Christmas shopping for his three kids

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Speaker 2: and that's when police go to arrest him. He even

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Speaker 2: pleaded with the officers to allow him to first drop

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Speaker 2: off the gifts.

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Speaker 5: But they refused. I couldn't imagine anybody hurting Maria was

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Speaker 5: That was my feeling, least of all him. I was

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Speaker 5: torn between whether he was guilty or not. I didn't

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Speaker 5: think he was. In fact, he said to me at

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Speaker 5: the last time I saw him in a swim meet.

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Speaker 5: He said, don't believe everything you see in the paper.

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Speaker 5: You know, I said, Okay, don't believe it. It was

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Speaker 5: just before he was arrested.

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Speaker 2: But hindsight is twenty twenty and looking back, she remembers

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Speaker 2: Robert's demeanor changing after Maria's murder.

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Speaker 5: At first, it was very hard for him to deal with.

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Speaker 5: He he acted like a grieving husband at certainly at

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Speaker 5: the funeral at the church. But yes, he did return

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Speaker 5: to life is normal, you know, going to swim meets

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Speaker 5: and you know, helping out of the house with the

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Speaker 5: boys and whatnot. But what the boys went through was

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Speaker 5: absolutely horrible to see that your father is involved in

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Speaker 5: a murder with your mother. It was terrible. I mean,

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Speaker 5: I mean, as far as I were can saying their

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Speaker 5: father was innocent. He wasn't involved, and let's find out

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Speaker 5: who is.

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Speaker 2: Maria Marshall looked to have the ideal life. She was beautiful,

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Speaker 2: She married her high school sweetheart and they had three kids.

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Speaker 2: They lived in the up for middle class township of

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Speaker 2: Tom's River, New Jersey, where they belonged to the local

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Speaker 2: country club. Robert was a successful insurance salesman, but he

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Speaker 2: still seemed to have his priority straight. He would take

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Speaker 2: Fridays off to spend time with his family, but according

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Speaker 2: to prosecutors, it was all a facade. In early nineteen

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Speaker 2: eighty six, Robert Marshall sat at the defense table in

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Speaker 2: a New Jersey courtroom. He was on trial for murdering

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Speaker 2: his wife.

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Speaker 1: Marshall was charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder,

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Speaker 1: which is a capital offense in New Jersey, or was

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Speaker 1: at the time.

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Speaker 2: That's journalist Judy Pete.

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Speaker 1: The other person in the case was a man named

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Speaker 1: Larry Thompson. Thompson and Marshall were tried first.

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Speaker 2: In an unusual move, prosecutors tried Robert Marshall and Larry

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Speaker 2: Thompson together. Thompson was accused of pulling the trigger and

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Speaker 2: shooting Maria Marshall, while Robert Marshall was accused of orchestrating

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Speaker 2: the whole thing. The third man who would be tried

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Speaker 2: separately is Billy Wayne McKinnon. He was accused of driving

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Speaker 2: the getaway car.

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Speaker 1: McKinnon revealed the whole thing, at least his version of

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Speaker 1: the whole thing, and turned four, essentially getting a vastly

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Speaker 1: reduced sentence.

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Speaker 2: And this is important and likely the very reason prosecutors

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Speaker 2: tried Robert Marshall and Larry Thompson together. Billy Wayne McKinnon

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Speaker 2: struck a plea deal with prosecutors. He agreed to testify

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Speaker 2: against the two men.

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Speaker 1: Billy Wayne McKinnon was just going to fleece Marshall, at

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Speaker 1: least that's what he testified, but he ended up hiring

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Speaker 1: a murderer.

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Speaker 2: Billy Wayne said he subcontracted the job and hired the

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Speaker 2: co defendant, Larry Thompson, to kill Maria. If you remember,

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Speaker 2: the Louisiana hardware store clerk named Bobby Cumber was the

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Speaker 2: one who originally connected Robert Marshall to Billy Wayne McKinnon.

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Speaker 2: Although the police charged Bobby, those charges didn't stick.

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Speaker 1: The judge actually dismissed the charges against Bobby.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot more to what happened with Bobby Cumber,

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Speaker 2: and we'll share the full story in a special bonus

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Speaker 2: episode of American Homicide. But first let's get into the

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Speaker 2: case against Robert Marshall and Larry Thompson. I know there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of names in this case, so let's recap.

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Speaker 2: Robert Marshall was married to Maria Marshall. He was cheating

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Speaker 2: on her with a woman named Saran Crashhouer. During the

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Speaker 2: summer of nineteen eighty four, Maria hired a PI to

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Speaker 2: look into Robert's fare, while Robert hired a PI of

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Speaker 2: his own named Billy Wayne McKinnon to look into Maria.

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Speaker 2: According to Billy Wayne, Robert wanted him to murder Muria,

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Speaker 2: but Billy Wayne McKinnon subcontracted that job to his friend

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Speaker 2: Larry Thompson, and prosecutors made the risky decision to offer

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Speaker 2: Billy Wayne McKinnon a plea deal in exchange for his

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Speaker 2: test stimony against Robert Marshall and Larry Thompson. He would

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Speaker 2: be their star witness.

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Speaker 1: It really rested on Billy Wayne McKinnon.

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Speaker 2: And Billy Wayne McKinnon was a former deputy sheriff turned

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Speaker 2: private detective. This is not someone you'd expect to be

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Speaker 2: a hit man. He testified that Robert Marshall hired him

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Speaker 2: to kill Maria, but he said his conscience wouldn't allow

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Speaker 2: him to be the shooter.

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Speaker 1: He installed for at least three or four months. McKinnon

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Speaker 1: never expected to actually go through with it. He was

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Speaker 1: just trying to see how much he could fleece Robert

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Speaker 1: Marshall for and he'd taken twenty one thousand up front.

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Speaker 2: And eventually Billy Wayne McKinnon offered some of that money

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Speaker 2: to his friend Larry Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Authorities always believed that Larry was a stone cold killer.

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Speaker 3: He was fairly slick that way.

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Speaker 2: McKinnon said he and Robert Marshall planned out the murder

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Speaker 2: the afternoon before.

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Speaker 5: She could not be shot in the face.

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Speaker 1: He didn't want her beauty affect it, so she was

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Speaker 1: shot in the back. I mean, these were the kind

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Speaker 1: of details that came out in court and they were

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Speaker 1: pretty damning.

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Speaker 2: Billy Wayne McKinnon said he did not winness the shooting.

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Speaker 2: He was there to drive the getaway car. But here

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Speaker 2: was the problem for Billy Wayne McKinnon and prosecutors. Larry

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Speaker 2: Thompson used McKinnon's gun in the killing.

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Speaker 1: Larry Thompson this surprised everyone, but he brought up a

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Speaker 1: preacher and family from Louisiana who testified that he was

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Speaker 1: at the dentist and a revival meeting at the time

249
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Speaker 1: of the murder.

250
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Speaker 2: Larry Thompson denied killing Maria Marshall. He said he was

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Speaker 2: at home in bed that night. His son, wife and

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00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,040
Speaker 2: brother even backed up his alibi. Larry even went a

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Speaker 2: step further and said he had never even been to

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Speaker 2: Atlantic City and that was the risk prosecutors took with

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Speaker 2: having Billy Wayne McKinnon as their star witness. So, now

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Speaker 2: with a confused jury looking on, Robert Marshall was called

257
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Speaker 2: to testify.

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Speaker 3: He took a stand in his own behalf.

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Speaker 2: Lieutenant Jim Churchill was in the courtroom.

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Speaker 4: Basically, what he says is that he didn't do it.

261
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Speaker 4: He was a loving father and didn't do it, and

262
00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:25,080
Speaker 4: he wasn't in financial trouble. I had no problem paying bills.

263
00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:29,520
Speaker 2: Robert Marshall testified he had simply hired Billy Wade McKinnon

264
00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:33,600
Speaker 2: to investigate some missing gambling winnings. He said he later

265
00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:37,000
Speaker 2: learned his wife Maria, had used that money to hire

266
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Speaker 2: a detective to investigate his adultery.

267
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Speaker 4: He was carrying on an affair with Saran crash Hour.

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Speaker 2: So Robert Marshall confirmed his fourteen month long affair with

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Speaker 2: Saran and other women. He also admitted that in the

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Speaker 2: three months after his wife's murder, he vacationed with another

271
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Speaker 2: woman in Florida send flowers to an ex lever and

272
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,120
Speaker 2: was involved with a third woman. All that aside, he

273
00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:12,040
Speaker 2: maintained he was not at all involved in Maria's murder.

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Speaker 3: Basically, that was it.

275
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:20,040
Speaker 4: McKinnon who testified against him, was lying and the inference

276
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,520
Speaker 4: was that he did it, stole the money, and now

277
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Speaker 4: he's making all.

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Speaker 3: This stuff up.

279
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Speaker 2: By this point, the trial became a spectacle. In between

280
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 2: this testimony, Robert Marshall would turn to his family, smile

281
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:34,200
Speaker 2: and give them a thumbs up.

282
00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,080
Speaker 4: Marshall would have signs at a cardboard and turn around,

283
00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:39,920
Speaker 4: show up to his kids that says I love you,

284
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Speaker 4: and he'd do that so the press that was there

285
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:45,880
Speaker 4: would be able to see inflation in these cardstone.

286
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:49,800
Speaker 2: The most explosive exchange during Robert Marshall's nine and a

287
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:55,320
Speaker 2: half hours on the stand happened during cross examination. Listen

288
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,440
Speaker 2: to what the prosecutor said when he noticed Robert Marshall

289
00:16:58,520 --> 00:16:59,800
Speaker 2: was wearing his wedding ring.

290
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Speaker 4: So the prosecutor said, to hold up your left hand, Yes,

291
00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:09,880
Speaker 4: sta wedding ring on there. He said, yeah, that signifies

292
00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:13,320
Speaker 4: your devotion to your wife, your deceased wife, and you

293
00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:14,879
Speaker 4: know your devotion and love for her.

294
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Speaker 5: Is that right?

295
00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:17,840
Speaker 4: You say, we can't tell Jerry why she's still on

296
00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:23,640
Speaker 4: a box at the funeral home. Nobody came and picked

297
00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:26,520
Speaker 4: up the ashes of Maria Marshall at the funeral home.

298
00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:33,600
Speaker 2: That's heartbreaking. Maria Marshall was cremated in mid September and

299
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:35,440
Speaker 2: Robert was arrested in December.

300
00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:38,879
Speaker 4: At the time of the trial, she was still on

301
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:41,520
Speaker 4: a shelf in the funeral because nobody picked her up.

302
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,320
Speaker 2: Robert Marshall was stunned.

303
00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:47,119
Speaker 3: And he held his hand up there for like five minutes.

304
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:48,080
Speaker 3: He didn't know what to do.

305
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:51,960
Speaker 2: When he finally found the words to respond, he said

306
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,520
Speaker 2: he and his children had planned to bury Maria in

307
00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:59,160
Speaker 2: Florida over the Christmas holiday, but Robert Marshall was arrested

308
00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:00,960
Speaker 2: a week before Christmas.

309
00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:03,399
Speaker 3: It was something I'd never seen like that.

310
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:06,760
Speaker 2: In the court room before the seasoned insurance salesman hoped

311
00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:09,840
Speaker 2: the jury would ignore the mountain of evidence against him

312
00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:13,040
Speaker 2: and made one last attempt to sway the jury.

313
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Speaker 3: His boys testified on his behalf.

314
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:18,840
Speaker 2: One of his sons explained that their mother wanted to

315
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,639
Speaker 2: be buried under a palm tree. To the prosecutor's credit,

316
00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,360
Speaker 2: he went easy on the children who testified, but he

317
00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:31,400
Speaker 2: unloaded on Robert Marshall. During closing arguments, they said, what.

318
00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:34,120
Speaker 4: He did to those boys, and he said to put

319
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,000
Speaker 4: him on a stand like that, and you saw it.

320
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,400
Speaker 4: They didn't want to be there, but he made him

321
00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,720
Speaker 4: take the stand, and because of that, there's a special

322
00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:51,320
Speaker 4: place in hell for him.

323
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,159
Speaker 2: It's not always a given that the accused takes the

324
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:59,479
Speaker 2: witness stand in his own defense, especially in a murder trial,

325
00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,800
Speaker 2: but Robert Marshall did. He testified that he was hit

326
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:07,520
Speaker 2: over the head while changing a flat tire and woke

327
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:11,080
Speaker 2: up to find his beloved wife, Maria shot to death

328
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:12,680
Speaker 2: in the front seat of their car.

329
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:16,800
Speaker 6: That particular murder, because of the nature of it, who

330
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,600
Speaker 6: the people were, and so on, sent a lot of

331
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:21,600
Speaker 6: shockways through town.

332
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,680
Speaker 2: Tom kellaher is the former mayor of Tom's River.

333
00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,359
Speaker 6: Maria had been shot with a looked like a forty

334
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:32,040
Speaker 6: five automatic and they said that Marshall was hit over

335
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,199
Speaker 6: the head apparently with the same forty five. I have

336
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:39,159
Speaker 6: to tell you that I thought, why would they shoot

337
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,400
Speaker 6: a petite blonde lady who's asleep anyway and wasn't really

338
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 6: a threat to them, and only hit Marshall over the head.

339
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,120
Speaker 6: That raised a question right off the bat.

340
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:51,120
Speaker 2: In my mind, after Robert's six week trial, the court

341
00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,360
Speaker 2: of public opinion in Tom's River had pretty much convicted him.

342
00:19:55,160 --> 00:20:00,439
Speaker 6: The evidence was so overwhelming against Marshall. There's only one

343
00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:02,400
Speaker 6: or two people that really went to bat for him,

344
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:04,600
Speaker 6: and everybody else was just kind of waiting for the

345
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:06,320
Speaker 6: other shoot a drop.

346
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,000
Speaker 2: As the case went to the jury, Robert Marshall, who

347
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:12,480
Speaker 2: had been holding up signs to his children that said

348
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:16,000
Speaker 2: I love you, passed another message to his youngest son.

349
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:19,959
Speaker 6: When everybody in the world who knew anything about the

350
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,240
Speaker 6: case figured that jury is only going to be out

351
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 6: ten minutes and convict this guy. He kept temas on Listen,

352
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,080
Speaker 6: you go home, get the house ready for a big

353
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:31,480
Speaker 6: celebration tonight, and then when it's over, you and I

354
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:33,120
Speaker 6: are going to go to Florida, get a boat and

355
00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:33,800
Speaker 6: fishing of it.

356
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,920
Speaker 2: But Robert Marshall would never take his children fishing in Florida.

357
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,919
Speaker 6: The jury wasn't out very long at all, and the

358
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,280
Speaker 6: jury found him guilty. He was convicted.

359
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,359
Speaker 2: Jim Churchill was in the courtroom when Robert Marshall heard

360
00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:48,960
Speaker 2: the verdict.

361
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:52,360
Speaker 4: What happened was after the verdict came in, he fainted

362
00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:55,680
Speaker 4: and they took him to a local hospital down there.

363
00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:00,399
Speaker 2: Can you even imagine. Even after Robert Marshall was hauled

364
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 2: off on a stretcher, the jury still had to rule

365
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,640
Speaker 2: on the co defendant, Larry Thompson.

366
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 4: The same jury that finds Marshall guilty finds Thompson not guilty.

367
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:16,200
Speaker 2: That's right, the jury acquitted Larry Thompson.

368
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:19,960
Speaker 4: We spent as much time, I think, trying to convict

369
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,520
Speaker 4: Larry Thompson than we did Robert Marshall, and for some

370
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,919
Speaker 4: reason or other, they just didn't buy it.

371
00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:32,240
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. The jury believed Larry Thompson's defense that he

372
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,879
Speaker 2: was home in Louisiana on the day of the murder.

373
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 4: That he was at a dentist office with his son

374
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:42,080
Speaker 4: having some work done on his child's mouth.

375
00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 2: So Larry Thompson walked away.

376
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:50,359
Speaker 4: A freeman, a member of the jury, was pulled and said,

377
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:54,480
Speaker 4: you had so much information, so much stuff against Marshall,

378
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 4: and the judge kept talking about reasonable doubt, reasonable doubt,

379
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 4: reasonable doubt. So either a system works or it doesn't work,

380
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,439
Speaker 4: and it stays with you.

381
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:06,240
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know.

382
00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:11,560
Speaker 2: An infamous picture ran in the local newspaper Larry Thompson

383
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 2: is seen climbing into his beat up pickup truck going

384
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,679
Speaker 2: off to leave, while Robert Marshall is laying on a

385
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:24,360
Speaker 2: stretcher in the background. But there's an even more important photo,

386
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 2: a picture of Maria Marshall that Lieutenant Churchill had pinned

387
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,640
Speaker 2: to his bulletin board at work. He put it there

388
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 2: as a reminder that the case was not closed.

389
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:38,360
Speaker 4: I mean, you've been in this enough. Sure you get

390
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 4: involved in cases, but you do the best you can.

391
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,640
Speaker 4: You collect the investigation. There might be something you might overlook,

392
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:46,120
Speaker 4: but it's certainly not on purpose.

393
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:51,200
Speaker 2: With Larry Thompson's acquittal, the attention again returned to Robert Marshall.

394
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:55,719
Speaker 2: After recovering from his fainting spell, he returned to the

395
00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:57,480
Speaker 2: courtroom hours later.

396
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,920
Speaker 4: And the judge ordered him back because the hospital cent

397
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 4: there's nothing, no reason why he shouldn't go back.

398
00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 2: That's when Robert Marshall heard his sentence.

399
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,640
Speaker 3: Marshall got to death penalty.

400
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 5: You know, I expected him to serve sometime, but I

401
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:14,840
Speaker 5: was surprised that death penalty.

402
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 2: That's Maria's friend, Linda Fenwick.

403
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 5: He wrote me a couple of letters early on when

404
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,200
Speaker 5: he was in prison, telling me that he didn't do it,

405
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 5: and that you know, he missed Maria and he missed boys,

406
00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:28,240
Speaker 5: and you know that kind of thing.

407
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 2: Robert Marshall spent eighteen years on death row before an

408
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 2: appeal judge ruled that his lawyer misrepresented him during the

409
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 2: death penalty phase of his trial. So in two thousand

410
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 2: and six he was resentenced and had the opportunity to

411
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,360
Speaker 2: address the court. Here he is speaking.

412
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 7: I know I've made some terrible mistakes, mistakes which have

413
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 7: caused a lot of suffering from my family. I accept

414
00:23:55,760 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 7: full responsibility that my actions led to her death. I'm

415
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 7: deeply sorry for my actions, but I can't change the past. However,

416
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 7: I can change the future. I'll be seventy five years

417
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 7: old when my thirty year sentence is up, and I hope,

418
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 7: in prayer, I have a chance to spend what was

419
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 7: left in my life with my sons and grandchildren.

420
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:19,480
Speaker 2: By this time, Robert's three children were in their thirties.

421
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 5: I mean, he actually thought he was going to you know,

422
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 5: that these appeals were going to work, but of course

423
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 5: they didn't.

424
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 2: The judge resentenced Robert Marshall to life in prison, with

425
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:32,360
Speaker 2: the possibility of parole.

426
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 5: All three of them supported him until it was clear

427
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:39,120
Speaker 5: that he had some involvement, but the younger one supported

428
00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 5: him till his death.

429
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 2: And Robert Marshall was right about one thing. The people

430
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,440
Speaker 2: of Toms River did talk, and they talked about this

431
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:51,480
Speaker 2: case and the murder of Maria Marshall for years.

432
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 5: Yes, it had an impact on a lot of people.

433
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:57,119
Speaker 5: It's a case that's still talked about in town. I

434
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 5: mean everybody was aware of every detail of it, and

435
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:03,200
Speaker 5: they still talk about it.

436
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 2: The alleged triggerman was Larry Thompson, who was acquitted, but

437
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,399
Speaker 2: his story doesn't end there. After being exonerated in the

438
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:16,920
Speaker 2: Marshall case, Larry Thompson was later convicted of armed robbery

439
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:21,560
Speaker 2: and the attempted murder of a Louisiana policeman that landed

440
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:25,160
Speaker 2: him a long prison sentence and a lot of time

441
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:26,679
Speaker 2: to think about his past.

442
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 4: In twenty fourteen, I get a phone call saying Larry

443
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:32,919
Speaker 4: wants to talk with you.

444
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 2: So, three decades after Lieutenant Jim Churchill had investigated Mria

445
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:43,280
Speaker 2: Marshall's murder, he gets on a plane and flies to

446
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:46,840
Speaker 2: Louisiana to visit Larry Thompson in prison.

447
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 4: Larry's waiting outside the Warden's office for me, and this

448
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 4: is the first time I've talked to him ever.

449
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 2: The two sit face to face. That's when Lieutenant Churchill

450
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:01,640
Speaker 2: turned on his tape recorder and I.

451
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,240
Speaker 4: Said, this is going to be short and sweet to

452
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 4: fire those shots that killed Maria Marshall.

453
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 3: Yes, I did.

454
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:13,439
Speaker 4: Those people testified to you, including your son, they were

455
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,720
Speaker 4: either mistaken or deliberate lions on your behalf.

456
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:17,240
Speaker 3: Is that right?

457
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 2: Yes, Larry Thompson admitted that he fabricated his alibi and

458
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:29,200
Speaker 2: he killed Maria Marshall. But even with Larry's confession, double

459
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:34,879
Speaker 2: jeopardy laws prevented him from being retried. Regardless, it was

460
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,720
Speaker 2: the truth, something Lieutenant Churchill had never stopped looking for.

461
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 3: I did it mostly for Robbie.

462
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 2: Robbie Marshall was Robert and Maria's oldest son. He had

463
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,400
Speaker 2: always believed his father murdered his mother.

464
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 4: Robbie wasn't too happy with the fact that the man

465
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 4: we charged with his mother's actual murder was found not guilty.

466
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 3: He thought that it was because we didn't do enough

467
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 3: work on it.

468
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 2: With this information, Lieutenant Churchill got in touch with Robbie's brother, Chris.

469
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:12,400
Speaker 3: And I called him.

470
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 4: I said, look, I got some closure for you here,

471
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 4: So I told him, and he thanked me very much,

472
00:27:17,080 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 4: and I said, do me a favor.

473
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 3: Call your brothers and tell them you know what I

474
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 3: just told you.

475
00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,160
Speaker 2: And it was the last time he heard from any

476
00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:26,400
Speaker 2: of the Marshall children.

477
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 4: The fact that there are three young boys who were

478
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 4: left without a mother and then without a father, and

479
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 4: it's amazing to me that they've done as well as

480
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:36,119
Speaker 4: they have.

481
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 2: The Marshall children would receive shocking news. In twenty fifteen,

482
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 2: a year after Larry Thompson's confession, Robbie and his siblings

483
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 2: were preparing for the possibility of their father getting out

484
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:54,159
Speaker 2: of prison. Robert Marshall was up for parole, and just

485
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 2: before his parole hearing, Robert suffered a stroke and died.

486
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:04,000
Speaker 2: He was seventy five years old. For Lieutenant Churchill, he

487
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 2: felt like the Marshall case was finally closed and that

488
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 2: meant he could remove the photo of Maria that hung

489
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:11,840
Speaker 2: above his desk.

490
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 4: I took it off the bulletin board, put it back

491
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 4: in a file and that's where it is among the

492
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 4: nineteen file boxes.

493
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:20,880
Speaker 3: In the archives.

494
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:27,159
Speaker 2: It's been over forty years since Maria Marshall was killed

495
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:31,400
Speaker 2: along the Garden State Parkway, and nearly a decade since

496
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 2: Robert Marshall died in prison, and this is still the

497
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,240
Speaker 2: one case that sticks with the lieutenant.

498
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 4: Not because it's the hardest case we ever had, but

499
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 4: it's the one that's most memorable. I feel I know

500
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 4: more about him and her and Larry Thompson and Nickinnon

501
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 4: then they do some of my relatives.

502
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 2: And when he says him, he's referring to Robert Marshall.

503
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 4: And to have him do something like what he did,

504
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 4: and he had every opportunity to get out of it,

505
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 4: but he was so desperate, desperate to get out of debt,

506
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 4: desperate to get out of the marriage, desperate.

507
00:29:13,520 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 3: To maintain his notor ride in the community. That trumped everything.

508
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 2: Next time, on American Homicide.

509
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: I was interviewing a judge and as I was walking

510
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: out the door, he actually said, you know, there's one

511
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: case that always bothered me.

512
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 2: Journalist Judy pet wrote extensively about one person in this story.

513
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 1: It sort of stunned me because sitting judges under New

514
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 1: Jersey law are not allowed to discuss any case they've had.

515
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 2: I'm Sloan Glass. In a special bonus episode, we'll talk

516
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 2: about Bobby Cumber, the man at the hardware store who

517
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 2: passed messages between Robert Marshall and Billy Way McKinnon.

518
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: The Bobby Cumber angle was small. He was the little

519
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: guy that nobody really paid attention to.

520
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,920
Speaker 2: He was the person so few paid attention to. And

521
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 2: yet the part of this case I think is worthy

522
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 2: of so much more attention.

523
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: The way he was treated was criminal almost every step

524
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: of the way.

525
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 2: That's next time on American Homicide. You can contact the

526
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 2: American Homicide team by emailing us at American Homicide Pod

527
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. That's American Homicide Pod at gmail

528
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:38,040
Speaker 2: dot com. American Homicide is hosted and written by me

529
00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 2: Sloan Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a

530
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.

531
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 2: The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Gantz.

532
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 2: The series is also written and produced by Todd Gantz,

533
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 2: with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our

534
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 2: associate producer is Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart teap is Ali

535
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 2: Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio editing, mixing, and mastering by

536
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 2: Nico Auruka. American Homicides theme song was composed by Oliver

537
00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:17,959
Speaker 2: Bains of Neiser Music Library provided by my Music. Follow

538
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 2: American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review

539
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 2: American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way

540
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,760
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541
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

542
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 2: your podcasts