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Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.

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Speaker 1: I'm in southern California searching for the grave of a

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Speaker 1: very mysterious woman at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

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Speaker 1: It hasn't been easy because there's a gap next to

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Speaker 1: her husband's grave, but no marker for her. I've managed

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Speaker 1: to track down a maintenance worker who wants to help.

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Speaker 1: So when I go to this is how I found her.

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Speaker 1: To begin with a lot one of seven, space one.

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Speaker 1: I just know where the hundreds are. If this goes

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Speaker 1: I think it goes up, it must be right by

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Speaker 1: the road. Right it showed up when I did a

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Speaker 1: search on the website for it. You found it. This

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Speaker 1: is it?

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Speaker 2: So this was her husband.

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Speaker 1: It is unmarked because she's buried right here. That's her husband.

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Speaker 1: She's a murder victim. I'm a journalist. Soon we realized

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Speaker 1: that there's simply no grave marker because her case was

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Speaker 1: so controversial, so unsettling, that her family didn't want her

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Speaker 1: grave vandalized. Well, thank you. I really appreciate your help.

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Speaker 1: I mean, my goodness, I would have never found this,

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Speaker 1: I don't think. Thank you. Our victims story began in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles in nineteen twenty two, along with the story

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Speaker 1: of her killer. I'm Kate Winkle Dawson, a true crime

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Speaker 1: historian and author of American Sherlock and Death in the Air.

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Speaker 1: And this is our new season of tenfold More Wicked.

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Speaker 1: In this podcast, we've traveled from Gilded Age New York

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Speaker 1: to eighteen twenties Scotland to nineteen thirty five Texas, and

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Speaker 1: now we're landing in nineteen twenties Hollywood with a story

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Speaker 1: about a woman with a huge grudge and violent tendencies.

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Speaker 1: It's our first female killer and we're calling this season

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Speaker 1: Tiger Woman. This is a story about a family, a

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Speaker 1: very famous family with a lot of secrets.

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Speaker 3: My aunts, they just didn't want to talk about it.

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Speaker 3: They just, you know, if it came up, it was

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Speaker 3: whispered about. It wasn't something you know, you broadcast.

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Speaker 1: Do you really care about being included in the Melon legacy?

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Speaker 1: I mean, does it matter at this point in your life?

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Speaker 4: Well, I always tell the kids that you're part of

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Speaker 4: the Melons.

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Speaker 1: This season is about an absolutely fabulous time period.

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Speaker 5: The kind of money that was floating around in Los

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Speaker 5: Angeles in the nineteen twenties was huge, so I think

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Speaker 5: that that's perfect for someone running a con. People are

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Speaker 5: going to be blinded by greed.

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Speaker 1: This story is a thriller where the killer simply vanishes.

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Speaker 3: It was the three sisters that kind of put their

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Speaker 3: heads together and came up.

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Speaker 2: With this hogwash. But it played she knew how to

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Speaker 2: play to the newspapers. It just doesn't really add up.

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Speaker 1: A lot of stuff in the story, doesn't it seem

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Speaker 1: to add up?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and we just let it go.

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Speaker 1: It's a mystery.

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Speaker 6: It's a mystery, but maybe you'll be able to find

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Speaker 6: more answers.

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Speaker 5: We like to welcome you to Nashville for your safety.

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Speaker 1: And the safety of those around I've come to Nashville

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Speaker 1: to meet Daniel Phillips. No one knows more about this

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Speaker 1: story than Daniel, and he's really invested in it. It's

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Speaker 1: part of his family's history. Daniel's a direct descendant of

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Speaker 1: one of the wealthiest families in America, the Melons, and

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Speaker 1: the Melons are one of two families at the center

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Speaker 1: of one of the most brutal murders in America in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties. Daniel and I meet at a conference

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Speaker 1: room in a hotel near the airport.

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Speaker 3: Yay him, Daniel, how are you to listen to me?

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Speaker 4: To you too?

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Speaker 1: Thank you? This is lovely, this is perfect. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Daniel's relative was Thomas Mellon. Thomas had become a king

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Speaker 1: of banking and finance by the nineteen hundreds, but he

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Speaker 1: came from much more humble beginnings in rural Ireland. He

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Speaker 1: had read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography as a boy, and he

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Speaker 1: envied Franklin's rise to fame from poverty. The family immigrated

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Speaker 1: to America, where Thomas eventually went to college, then law school.

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Speaker 1: He opened a law firm and eventually became a judge.

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Speaker 1: Then came a pivotal shift in his life. Thomas Mellon

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Speaker 1: opened Melon Bank in Pittsburgh in eighteen sixty nine. The

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Speaker 1: family's legacy was born.

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Speaker 3: Thomas was born in Ireland, came to the US and

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Speaker 3: made good, and he worked hard at it, and he

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Speaker 3: raised his sons to be the same way, and they

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Speaker 3: took wealth and increased it even more so. The family

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Speaker 3: is recognized as one of the premier families in the country.

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Speaker 2: And yes, I'm a part of that.

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Speaker 1: Sounds like a blessing, right, Not really. Thomas Mellon's brother,

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Speaker 1: Samuel was Daniel's great great grandfather, and Samuel wasn't wealthy.

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Speaker 1: He was a luckless businessman who started as a terrible

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Speaker 1: clerk in his own brother's law office. Soon Samuel was

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Speaker 1: forced to close a string of failing grocery stores. He

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Speaker 1: lost money in poor real estate transactions. His brother Thomas

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Speaker 1: believed that Samuel was too trusting. Any good grifter could

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Speaker 1: con him after just one handshake. Samuel Mellon eventually moved

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Speaker 1: his family from the Northeast to Texas, So that meant

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Speaker 1: that the Mellon fortune never trickled down to Daniel Phillips

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Speaker 1: and his relatives.

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Speaker 3: My part of the family tree was the ones that

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Speaker 3: didn't do very well, and Samuel was the one that.

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Speaker 2: Was supposed to hold up his end, but he didn't.

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Speaker 2: But he was a nice guy, and you know, Thomas

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Speaker 2: loved him.

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Speaker 1: Thomas Mellon, the successful brother, had eight children, including a

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Speaker 1: boy named Andrew. Andrew Mellon became one of the most

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Speaker 1: prolific and successful industrialists in the twentieth century, and he

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Speaker 1: was an icon in politics. Andrew was the United States

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Speaker 1: Secretary of Treasury for most of the nineteen twenties. Samuel

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Speaker 1: Mellon and his family in Texas were poor, almost destitute

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Speaker 1: in comparison. He and his family drifted around the country,

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Speaker 1: allowing his brother Thomas to bail him out of trouble

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Speaker 1: whenever he fell for a swindle or a bad deal.

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Speaker 3: Thomas Mellon was the patriarch of the Melon Empire.

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Speaker 2: He's the one that created it. And the thing with

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Speaker 2: him is.

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Speaker 3: That he was about eighteen years older than Samuel Mellon,

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Speaker 3: who was his younger brother. But he loved Samuel with

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Speaker 3: all his heart. There was nothing that Samuel did that

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Speaker 3: he was not going to change his mind about how

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Speaker 3: he felt about his brother.

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Speaker 1: Daniel says that Samuel once started a bank in Texas,

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Speaker 1: hoping to be an enormous success like his big brother.

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Speaker 1: It failed.

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Speaker 3: Samuel always felt he was always smarter than his brother

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Speaker 3: and he wasn't okay, and he would always try to

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Speaker 3: come up with things he felt making more successful and

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Speaker 3: they didn't. Every time he got into trouble, his brother

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Speaker 3: Thomas would always step in and try to salvage as

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Speaker 3: much as they could.

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Speaker 1: So Samuel didn't have the Mellon acumen for making money,

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Speaker 1: but he did have a knack for making kids He

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Speaker 1: had six children, including a daughter named Nellie. Nellie Mellen

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Speaker 1: later became Nellie Phillips, and she had five children. One

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Speaker 1: of them was a boy with an unusual name, Armor.

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Speaker 1: It was a family name from the Melons. If this

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Speaker 1: true crime had been a play, Armor would be one

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Speaker 1: of the leads, both the protagonist and the antagonist. The

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Speaker 1: Phillips family was very religious, but Daniel says that from

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Speaker 1: the beginning Armor was a drifter and a grifter thanks

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Speaker 1: to his swindling father. Armor was Daniel's great uncle.

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Speaker 2: His father who was my great grandfather, d W. Phillips.

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Speaker 3: He came from North Carolina. He was in a very

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Speaker 3: large family farming. He had had some run ends with

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Speaker 3: the law in Wake County, North Carolina, around the Raleigh area,

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Speaker 3: found the need to get out of the state. He

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Speaker 3: ended up coming to Texas. He still had a wild

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Speaker 3: side because he changed his name to avoid being caught

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Speaker 3: by the North Carolina authorities. So that was kind of

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Speaker 3: the background that Armor inherited.

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Speaker 1: Of course, we're all offered choices in life. Armor didn't

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Speaker 1: have to be a con artist, but at a young

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Speaker 1: age he decided to work smarter, not harder, and a

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Speaker 1: little more devious.

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Speaker 3: With Armor, he was very much a moving target.

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Speaker 2: He did not stay very long before.

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Speaker 3: Either he got in trouble or his old troubles caught

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Speaker 3: up with him and he exited stage left.

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Speaker 1: Armor seemed destined for a doomed life with a tragic ending.

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Speaker 1: And it all started when he was fifteen years old

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Speaker 1: and he spotted a pretty young girl, another child from

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Speaker 1: a family of drifters, just like me. Claire Weaver was

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Speaker 1: a native Texan. She was born in eighteen ninety eight

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Speaker 1: in Waco, just about an hour north of Austin. She

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Speaker 1: had seven siblings, but when she met Armour, only four

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Speaker 1: were still alive. Claire's family moved several times. There never

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Speaker 1: seemed to be a permanent residence. Her father, John Weaver,

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Speaker 1: frequently traveled the country and a covered wagon with no

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Speaker 1: real destination. Clara's older sister, Ola May, said he didn't

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Speaker 1: know more than get settled down when he would pull

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Speaker 1: up and leave again.

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Speaker 3: The Weavers had come from hard times, I mean hard

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Speaker 3: scrabble lives. They probably drifted from being drifters to being grifters.

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Speaker 3: Mother Weaver, yeah, she was the one that was the

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Speaker 3: long suffering mother that was hoping things would get better

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Speaker 3: for all of her children, particularly Clara.

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Speaker 1: It had always been difficult for the Weavers. No money,

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Speaker 1: no consistent jobs, and no real prospects. Clara seemed traumatized

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Speaker 1: from the start when she was for her family moved

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Speaker 1: to Fort Worth when she was eight. She began walking

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Speaker 1: to school every day by herself, just a few blocks

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Speaker 1: from her home, and every day she passed by Missus Thompson,

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Speaker 1: a local fortune teller. They chatted each day until one

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Speaker 1: day Missus Thompson invited Clara inside and shut the door.

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Speaker 1: The woman had a bag packed for them both. Clara

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Speaker 1: Weaver was being kidnapped. Eight year old Clara Weaver was

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Speaker 1: panicked as she sat on the train. She cried the

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Speaker 1: whole way. She knew that her mother would be worried.

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Speaker 1: The fortune teller had told the conductor to let her

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Speaker 1: off in Wichita, Kansas. Clara hadn't been there before. She

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Speaker 1: didn't know anyone there. A man with a long beard

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Speaker 1: met her in Kansas and took her to a family.

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Speaker 1: Missus Thompson eventually came to the house and declared that

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Speaker 1: Clara would be her daughter from now on. After several weeks,

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Speaker 1: Clara slipped out and told a neighbor that she had

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Speaker 1: been kidnapped. The neighbor confronted missus Thompson and was nearly

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Speaker 1: beaten to death. When the police arrived, the story of

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Speaker 1: Clara's kidnapping spilled out, and she was returned home to

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Speaker 1: Texas after all of that trauma. After being returned to

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Speaker 1: her family, there was another tragedy. Clara's father died in

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Speaker 1: a motel room in Fort Worth while he was praying

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Speaker 1: in bed. Clara's mother was devastated.

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Speaker 3: They found him in that position, and he was just

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Speaker 3: a laborer all the way to this day he died.

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Speaker 3: He just worked with his hands. He was not well educated.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 3: She was able to survive because she kept the family close,

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Speaker 3: almost codependent.

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Speaker 1: Tell me warm about the codependence.

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Speaker 3: For example, the family stayed as a unit pretty much

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Speaker 3: from the time they were old enough to be adults.

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Speaker 3: When most people go off and create their own life,

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Speaker 3: they stayed pretty much close together.

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Speaker 1: So the world seemed to be against the Weavers. The

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Speaker 1: girls and their mother all struggled, but they leaned on

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Speaker 1: each other. Clara went to school to learn music. She

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Speaker 1: loved singing and playing instruments. Performing was her passion. She

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Speaker 1: learned how to act and how to deceive.

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Speaker 3: She lived by her wits. That's the way she had

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Speaker 3: always lived as a child. You know, again, when you're

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Speaker 3: drifting around hither Dion, you don't have any firm home base.

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Speaker 3: You don't have probably a lot of reason do not

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Speaker 3: look at the dark side.

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Speaker 1: Clara craved stability. She lived with her older sister Ola

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Speaker 1: May and Galveston for a while and kept going to school,

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Speaker 1: and then she moved to Houston and everything changed. She

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Speaker 1: was fourteen when she met fifteen year old Armor Phillips

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Speaker 1: at a party. He wasn't wealthy, but he was charming

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Speaker 1: and cute. He took her to dances and to picture shows.

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Speaker 1: Clara seemed to fall in love with him very quickly.

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Speaker 1: A great and wonderful love had come into my life,

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Speaker 1: she would say about Armor. He proposed to her when

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Speaker 1: she was just sixteen, and they decided to Elope and

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Speaker 1: Houston on November thirteenth, nineteen thirteen. Joan Rinner is a

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Speaker 1: true crime author and blogger.

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Speaker 5: She was completely devoted to Armor, and they ran away

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Speaker 5: together as young teenagers, so she was as bonded to

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Speaker 5: him as she probably was to any member of her family.

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Speaker 1: She told people he was the one man who filled

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Speaker 1: my heart and mind. I was extremely happy. They were

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Speaker 1: a dashing young couple, but swindling seemed to be an

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Speaker 1: Armor's dna. Clara never knew when he was telling the truth,

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Speaker 1: even to her, and he didn't quite understand why she

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Speaker 1: was so passionately devoted to him. But there was a reason.

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Speaker 2: Troubled, I think is a good way of putting it.

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Speaker 3: The relationship between him and Clara was well, it was

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Speaker 3: destined to be bad for both of them.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't long before Clara's doctor delivered so devastating news

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Speaker 1: she wasn't able to have children. She would never be

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Speaker 1: a mother, and it destroyed her dreams of having a family.

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Speaker 1: All of the suffering and the struggles she had gone

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Speaker 1: through with her family in the past seemed minor compared

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Speaker 1: to this, And now she looked at Armor differently.

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Speaker 5: He was her baby, he was her child. So that relationship,

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Speaker 5: right away, it's a skewed dynamic. He's got a lot

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Speaker 5: of the power and control which you would have had anyway.

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Speaker 1: Given the time. Armour's get rich scams had already complicated

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Speaker 1: his life, leaving him wealthy but stressed. Author Claudine Burnett

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Speaker 1: says that his wife's constant clinging made it worse.

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Speaker 6: That whole concept could have alienated Armor quite a bit.

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Speaker 6: This overwhelming love being smothered.

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Speaker 1: The couple lived in Houston until the start of World

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Speaker 1: War One, when Armor was drafted in nineteen seventeen. While

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Speaker 1: he was gone, Clara rekindled her love of music and dance.

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Speaker 1: Her beauty and talent earned her stints in vaudeville with

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Speaker 1: the Follies of New York. She danced and sang at

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Speaker 1: theaters across the country, basking in the attention from an audience,

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Speaker 1: but she never really became a star. What she really

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Speaker 1: wanted was for Armour's safe return from the war, and

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Speaker 1: when he did arrive in Houston, she abandoned the stage

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Speaker 1: to be a homemaker, but not for long. Houston felt

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Speaker 1: a bit drab, for the Phillips and Armours cons were

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Speaker 1: most successful when he took them on the road. He

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Speaker 1: eyed Los Angeles and its deep pocketed investors. Clara's eyes

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Speaker 1: brightened at the prospect of being on a Hollywood movie set,

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Speaker 1: so in nineteen twenty, the couple invited Clara's sister, Ata May,

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Speaker 1: her husband, and Clara's mother to move with him to California.

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Speaker 1: This would be where Clara's life would become derailed. I'm

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Speaker 1: in Santa Monica, standing on one of the most beautiful

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Speaker 1: beaches in southern California. I can see why so many

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Speaker 1: people come here for the weather. The cool breeze is fantastic.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate that because it's one hundred and three degrees

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Speaker 1: back home in Texas right now. For almost two centuries,

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Speaker 1: people have relocated here for this view. The migration to

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Speaker 1: California started more than one hundred and seventy years ago

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Speaker 1: with the gold rush. In eighteen forty eight, someone found

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Speaker 1: gold in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. That discovery sent the

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Speaker 1: country into a frenzy, and about three hundred thousand people

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Speaker 1: streamed into California, all looking for wealth. The American economy

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Speaker 1: began to flourish thanks to gold fever, and two years

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Speaker 1: later California officially became a state. Fifty years later, prospectors

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Speaker 1: of a different kind struck gold again, liquid gold. They

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Speaker 1: discovered huge amounts of oil near Los Angeles, and suddenly

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Speaker 1: La was rich. But it had already been well off

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Speaker 1: thanks to agriculture. UCLA history professor Jan Reef says Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles offered promise to just about anyone who could afford

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Speaker 1: a train ticket.

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Speaker 7: The trains would bring people out for five dollars and

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Speaker 7: make them payful fear if they went back, so they

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Speaker 7: tended to stay. They believed that they could make an

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Speaker 7: enormous amount of money. All they had to do was

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Speaker 7: find oil.

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Speaker 1: Central California may have been represented by oil well workers

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Speaker 1: and farm hands, but this was Hollywood in the nineteen twenties. Glitz, glamour,

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Speaker 1: film stars and money, lots of money, and there were

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Speaker 1: loads of pretty young women, all looking for a big

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Speaker 1: break and a nice paycheck, and, if they were lucky,

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Speaker 1: a loyal husband. Mostly they came to La to escape

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Speaker 1: their normal, humdrum lives, a ticket out of whatever stale

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Speaker 1: state they left behind. Hollywood mocals were building hotels just

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Speaker 1: for these naive women. Things were shifting. Victorian America was

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Speaker 1: too uptight and far too stodgy.

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Speaker 7: Just the presence of those women means that there's a

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Speaker 7: loosening of those most traditional values.

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Speaker 1: So now there was a new type of young lady

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Speaker 1: strolling around La, redefining how women dress and act. This

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Speaker 1: was the age of the famous flapper.

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Speaker 7: The short skirts, the bear sleeves, the loose boy looking

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Speaker 7: kind of thing that was still perceived as being much sexier,

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Speaker 7: and somebody who goes out dancing, somebody who smokes.

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Speaker 1: And it was a big problem for LA's increasingly powerful

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Speaker 1: devout Christians who still believed in chaperones and chastity.

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Speaker 7: So you had the people leading religious crusades about all

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Speaker 7: the corruption in Los Angeles. At the same time you

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Speaker 7: had this free wheeling lifestyle that the movies were projecting

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Speaker 7: and that there was a lot of money to be made.

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Speaker 1: California's religious leaders blamed Hollywood for dragging the country into

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Speaker 1: eternal damnation.

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Speaker 7: Some of the things that we see now again the

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Speaker 7: fear that the movie industry was going to cause all

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Speaker 7: these women to totally lose their morals and their scruples,

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Speaker 7: and it plays out in the politics.

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Speaker 1: The city was literally divided down the center, Hollywood and

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Speaker 1: its gross opulence on one side, and religion with its

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Speaker 1: rigid morals on the other.

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Speaker 5: When you think about LA in the twenties, you have

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Speaker 5: Hollywood really starting to gear up and get going, but

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Speaker 5: which you also have are probably more religious cults than

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Speaker 5: anywhere else in the United States. And Los Angeles was

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Speaker 5: this strange mix of Hollywood decadence and almost fundamentalist religions.

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Speaker 5: People came out here for the weather, and they came

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Speaker 5: out here to express themselves in various ways.

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Speaker 1: There was bound to be trouble soon. There were stars

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Speaker 1: emerging from both religion and Hollywood, polarizing figures who shaped

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Speaker 1: modern day Los Angeles. And in nineteen twenty two, one

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Speaker 1: woman seemed to embody both, a charismatic Protestant evangelist named

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Speaker 1: Amy Simple macpherson. We have none need good doubt God, God,

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Speaker 1: God of true. McPherson preached on radio shows, which made

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Speaker 1: her a media celebrity in the nineteen twenties, and she

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Speaker 1: was well known for founding the Four Square Church.

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Speaker 3: Oh thanks God for the power of the space.

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Speaker 5: She had gotten so powerful in La. She built this

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Speaker 5: wonderful angelist temple. It's beautiful, by the way. She had

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Speaker 5: a radio station, and that's when before there was ever televangelists,

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Speaker 5: there were radio evangelists, and LA had several.

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Speaker 1: McPherson became infamous after several high profile scandals. There were

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Speaker 1: allegations of affairs of very public divorce and a feud

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Speaker 1: with her mother and then she mysteriously vanished for a

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Speaker 1: month before finally resurfacing. She claimed that she had been kidnapped,

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Speaker 1: but prosecutors charged her with criminal conspiracy. The charges were

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Speaker 1: later dropped. The press that had built her image now

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Speaker 1: suddenly turned on her. The media law Los Angeles were

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00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:05,280
Speaker 1: fickle and sometimes cruel, particularly when the stories stored women

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Speaker 1: in the spotlight.

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Speaker 5: So all these scandals are kind of swirling around. You

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Speaker 5: have this odd mix of decadence, religion. All these things

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Speaker 5: are going around in the atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles was trapped between two immovable forces, the church

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Speaker 1: and the cinema, but neither side seemed shocked by very much.

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Speaker 1: Until a modish couple from Texas arrived in La in

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty. Clara transformed from small town Texas girl to

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Speaker 1: a Hollywood glam goal almost instantly.

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Speaker 5: Clara was very attractive, blonde hair, that flapper figure. You know,

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Speaker 5: she's a little more, a little more filled out, a

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Speaker 5: little more shapely maybe than straight up and down, but

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Speaker 5: still could fit into the clothes of the time. She

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Speaker 5: looks dressed of the nines, and she paid attention to

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Speaker 5: how she looked.

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Speaker 1: Clara sought out the stage once again. This time as

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Speaker 1: a chorus girl, those pretty young women who appeared in

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Speaker 1: musicals in Hollywood and at parties thrown by movie stars.

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Speaker 1: Chorus girls were an important part of the city's history,

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Speaker 1: but they also concerned conservatives in la.

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Speaker 7: There was this fear that, of course a party girl

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Speaker 7: would be a party girl, and that they would fall prey.

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Speaker 7: But of course, all you have to do is look

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Speaker 7: at some of the movies that are being created to

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Speaker 7: see that that image of a chorus girl or the

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Speaker 7: b actress who's trying to make her way into things

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Speaker 7: are live and well and hugely important in that kind

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Speaker 7: of crafting of what a Hollywood image is.

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Speaker 1: Clara craved the attention, as many young women did, but

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Speaker 1: her great nephew, Daniel Phillips, says there was another reason

390
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Speaker 1: she was so attracted to Hollywood.

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Speaker 3: She was always looking for attention because she was the

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Speaker 3: next to the youngest. She had an older brother and

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Speaker 3: two sisters, and and so she was always trying to

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Speaker 3: get attention from her family and eventually from people that

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00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,359
Speaker 3: were not her family, and it's why she went into

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Speaker 3: being a chorus girl, working in early movies out in California.

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Speaker 1: Clara loved the attention and so did other women she

398
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,639
Speaker 1: met working at a theater in Hollywood. Her former boss

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Speaker 1: said that because of her beauty, Clara was the envy

400
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Speaker 1: of the other performers, and one of those women would

401
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:30,480
Speaker 1: change her life forever, another young singer and dancer named

402
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Speaker 1: Peggy Caffey.

403
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Speaker 5: Peggy had been a showgirl with Clara. They'd worked together,

404
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 5: so they knew each other, but they hadn't seen each other.

405
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Speaker 6: For a while.

406
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Speaker 5: It was just happenstance that they bumped into each other.

407
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 5: She didn't really know anyone.

408
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Speaker 1: Her husband was working.

409
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Speaker 5: A lot, and she was glad to reconnect with someone

410
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Speaker 5: she knew, and so it felt kind of good for her.

411
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is great. I've been seeing you in

412
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Speaker 1: a long time. The pair spent time together. They talked

413
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: about musicals, beauty trends, their dreams, and their husbands. And

414
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 1: this all happened during Prohibition. In nineteen twenty, the federal

415
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: government banned alcohol in hopes of reducing crime, but it

416
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 1: really just made it worse by creating organized crime. Drinking

417
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: was illegal, but it was easy to do in certain

418
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:24,080
Speaker 1: nightclubs called speakeasies. Just about anyone who wasn't a teetotal

419
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: or went to them, including Clara and Peggy. They seemed

420
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Speaker 1: to gravitate toward each other.

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Speaker 3: I think she enjoyed the company of Clara because she

422
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 3: was bright, effvescent. You know, she was her own special

423
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 3: effect just walking around. But it was very apparent who

424
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 3: was the leader of the relationship and who was the

425
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 3: follower of the relationship.

426
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: The dynamic of their relationship was important. So while Peggy

427
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 1: and Clara socialized, Armor worked in his own way.

428
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:55,439
Speaker 2: He was always looking for Marx.

429
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 3: He was just looking for a place that was fertile

430
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:02,120
Speaker 3: for Marx only wanted you know. That's how he had

431
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,199
Speaker 3: all this money all the time. Why he always had

432
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 3: nice clothes and all these kinds of things. It was

433
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 3: a matter that he looked good. Clara looked good. As

434
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 3: long as he was able to keep the marks coming

435
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,679
Speaker 3: through the pipe, everything was fine.

436
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 1: Clara and Armor presented well. They had a lovely house

437
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:23,680
Speaker 1: in West Hollywood, a car, a telephone, nice clothes, all

438
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 1: of those important status symbols. Armor told everyone that he

439
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 1: worked in oil. That was a lie, so he was, not,

440
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: as they say, necessarily in oil stock salesman. When they

441
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: were married in this nice house in.

442
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 3: California, Okay, he was always looking for the big scam.

443
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,520
Speaker 3: He had a scam going where he was selling Russian

444
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:52,360
Speaker 3: bonds pre communist bonds. Did pretty well by that scam.

445
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 3: You know, he was selling people on the idea that

446
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 3: these were bonds that they could go to the Russian

447
00:28:57,640 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 3: royal family in exile and get.

448
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 2: Ain't gonna happen.

449
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 3: He also said he was a manager back in the

450
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 3: twenties before they moved out to California, of a rice farm.

451
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 2: Rice farms are hard work.

452
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 3: Rice farms are not really something I would seem armor doing.

453
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: Armer didn't like to work, but he did look for

454
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: any advantage, like taking a job holing around illegal alcohol.

455
00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 3: When times were not that good. He would drive a cab.

456
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 3: When prohibition came, he used the cab for delivering bootleg booze.

457
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 1: And there were plenty of opportunities for someone who wanted

458
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 1: to help the bootlegging business in LA In the nineteen twenties.

459
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 6: Gambling ships were off of the coast of southern California

460
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 6: where people could go out beyond the legal limit and

461
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 6: get a drink. There was smuggling that was coming in

462
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 6: along the beaches. There were people that called themselves importers

463
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 6: rather than smugglers. And these were very wealthy people that

464
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 6: might sit next to you and seemed respectable, but really

465
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 6: they had this underground business going.

466
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: Armors cover as a handsome, bright oil stock salesman was

467
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: safe for now and Clara loved the new clothes, the

468
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: socializing and the handsome husband on her arm. Are we

469
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 1: assuming that Clara knew everything that he was doing, that

470
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:27,000
Speaker 1: every shady deal she was aware of, and just hert

471
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: of blind eye or encouraged him? Which one do you.

472
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 3: Think she knew? And she was going to ride the

473
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 3: ride for as long as she could. She became person

474
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 3: that was kind of almost an accomplice.

475
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 2: You know.

476
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,400
Speaker 3: She never said anything that was wrong as far as

477
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:44,800
Speaker 3: what he did, as long as he provided her with

478
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 3: the lifestyle that she wanted to have.

479
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:51,280
Speaker 1: So Armor and Clara were truly happy, at least it

480
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: seemed that way. She was good looking and they both

481
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 1: wanted that image. So is that image important in Hollywood

482
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 1: in this time? Oh?

483
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 5: The image is always important in La to this day.

484
00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 5: People go out on a limb financially to keep up

485
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 5: that image. In the twenties, no different.

486
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: Arma ran his cons staying out of jail and in

487
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: the good graces of his religious family. And Clara enjoyed

488
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 1: being a bit player in Hollywood, even if she wasn't

489
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 1: destined for stardom. But of course everyone has secrets, especially

490
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:30,000
Speaker 1: in la.

491
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 3: Well, both of them always fought a lot. It's like

492
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 3: cats and dogs, and they would have fights, makeup, have

493
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 3: fights makeup. That was really their life.

494
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 5: I don't think that Clara was a meek little housewife

495
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 5: by any stretch. But on the other hand, I think

496
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 5: that he held her firmly under his thumb. In part

497
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,440
Speaker 5: it could have been any kind of coercion that he

498
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 5: placed on her. I think it was just as much

499
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 5: her blind devotion to him.

500
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: But it was important into Armour's con that they keep

501
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: up appearances, even if they fought frequently. So they continued

502
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: to go to parties, and Armor continued to search for marks.

503
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: Then he found one, an attractive nineteen year old widow

504
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: named Alberta Meadows. Armor first met Alberta at a neighbor's house,

505
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: a woman named Julia McElroy. Later on, both Armor and

506
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: Clara saw Alberta at a party and they chatted for

507
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: a bit. Clara told her friend, we were all very friendly.

508
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 2: She was a young widow.

509
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 3: Her husband had been killed in a trolley accident there

510
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 3: in la I'm sure that there was some recompense for

511
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:45,080
Speaker 3: that from the trolley company.

512
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 1: And there were plenty of accidents because these new railways

513
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 1: were dangerous. People were just starting to use automobiles and

514
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: they would drive over rail crossings without looking. But that's

515
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,400
Speaker 1: not how Alberta's twenty two year old husband, Jesse, died

516
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty two. He was a steel worker and

517
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: he had been working on part of the track on

518
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: East seventh Street when he was electrocuted. He and Alberta

519
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: had been married less than a year, and she had

520
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: been grieving ever since. She prayed at church and cried

521
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: to her parents and sister, but she had to recover

522
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: quickly because she needed to support herself. Alberta worked at

523
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 1: the First National Bank as an expert on data organization.

524
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: It was a good job, especially in a depressed economy.

525
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:33,960
Speaker 1: She may have been an obvious target for a con

526
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 1: artist like armor, but not an easy one.

527
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 3: You know, here was a young widow that was trying

528
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 3: to start her life over, and she was certainly had

529
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 3: her own means. She didn't need to have armor to

530
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 3: take care and she had a good, solid family around her.

531
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 2: That was certainly evident.

532
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: But Armor was acting differently now it was July of

533
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two. He was cold and distant. He seemed

534
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 1: more irritable. They were fighting more often, and he snapped

535
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,319
Speaker 1: at Clara for no reason. Clara was upset much of

536
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: the time. Her anxiety was building around her marriage, and

537
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 1: she argued back. Armor was staying away at night. Her

538
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 1: sister Ola May stayed at her house when he was gone.

539
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:27,200
Speaker 3: That really played into Clara's paranoia, and she decided that

540
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:28,920
Speaker 3: this was going to be something that she wasn't going

541
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:29,760
Speaker 3: to let stand.

542
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 1: She had deep suspicions. She just needed proof. Clara looked

543
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: down the street to Missus McElroy's house and walked there

544
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,840
Speaker 1: one afternoon. They sat and chatted. Clara started crying. She

545
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 1: told Missus McElroy that she thought Armor was a cheater. Yes,

546
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: said Missus McElroy.

547
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:50,840
Speaker 4: He is.

548
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 3: What threw the whole thing into a frenzy was when

549
00:34:55,920 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 3: Clara found out through the neighborhood busybody name was Missus McElroy.

550
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 3: Armory told her that he was going to leave her

551
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:06,400
Speaker 3: for Alberta.

552
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,279
Speaker 1: Missus McElroy had seen Armor leave their house late at night,

553
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:13,440
Speaker 1: and she was certain that she knew where he was going.

554
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: Alberta had been to Missus mclroy's house often, she was

555
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: friends with the woman's twin sons. Now the neighbor wanted

556
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,560
Speaker 1: to warn Clara that she would lose Armor and quite soon.

557
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 1: Missus McElroy should have known that she was triggering a

558
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: woman who was already alarmed.

559
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 3: The personality that Clara had was right for someone to

560
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 3: whisper in her ear and say, he's messing around on you.

561
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 2: He's going to leave you.

562
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 3: Clara, I think, more than anything, did not want the

563
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 3: relationship to end. She played on Clara's fears of her

564
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 3: life style changing. That fed into the paranoia. All of

565
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:56,240
Speaker 3: the things that were part of the demons that Clara had,

566
00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 3: she turned her into a weapon.

567
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: Clara felt desperate and out of control. She immediately ran

568
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: to her mother and to her sister Ola May. She

569
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: asked her friend from the chorus, Peggy Caffey, to meet

570
00:36:14,719 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 1: for a drink. She cried over Alberta and Armor. Clara

571
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:23,359
Speaker 1: warned the loss of her husband. Peggy was kind and

572
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 1: she empathized. She was sure that her own husband was

573
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 1: cheating too. Clara begged Peggy for help. She needed more

574
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 1: proof than just the word of a neighborhood gossip.

575
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 3: She started following Armor. A found a cab driver that

576
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:42,879
Speaker 3: would take her to places. His name was Streeter. He's

577
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,880
Speaker 3: with a black and white cab company. He also said

578
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 3: that she would follow Armor. She would also follow Alberta.

579
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:54,600
Speaker 1: Clara began monitoring her husband's late night phone calls. She

580
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:56,799
Speaker 1: believed he was hiding something.

581
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,719
Speaker 5: That handsome man that she thought was her ticket to

582
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 5: money and good clothes and whatever else you wanted out

583
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 5: of life. Maybe when she felt him slipping away, that

584
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,759
Speaker 5: was her possession. She felt slipping away. Either way, it's

585
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 5: a powerful emotion, whether it's love or some perversion of

586
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 5: what love should be, or if it's possession. Anytime you

587
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 5: get that kind of a strong emotion, run.

588
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,000
Speaker 1: That was terrible news for Armor, though he didn't know

589
00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:31,360
Speaker 1: it yet. What he did know was that his wife

590
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 1: was becoming more violent.

591
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 6: We can hear their friends trying to tell them, don't

592
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 6: do this, don't do that. We've heard arguments, we've had fights,

593
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:41,719
Speaker 6: We've had police come by.

594
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 1: During one fight, Clara even scaled a wall trying to

595
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:53,880
Speaker 1: catch Armor as he ran away, she yelled constantly at him.

596
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 5: Clara even chased Armor down the street, passed a liquor

597
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 5: store one time, screaming at him. So it's not like

598
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 5: it was just confined to the house. People knew a

599
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,360
Speaker 5: little bit about at least superficially knew about their relationship

600
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,120
Speaker 5: and that they had trouble for a neighborhood gossip.

601
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:10,560
Speaker 1: This is just so much fun.

602
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:13,280
Speaker 5: I were in her shoes, I'd have those curtains parted

603
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 5: to be looking out and see what was going on.

604
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:18,400
Speaker 1: I know it might have seemed like a sudden change,

605
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 1: but it really wasn't. Clara Phillips had always been erratic.

606
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:24,719
Speaker 2: When things were good, things were good.

607
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 3: When things were not so good, that's when her jealousy,

608
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 3: her narcissism came out outburst, violent outbursts. Everything that had

609
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,960
Speaker 3: to do would be at Armor or even her sisters.

610
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about those outbursts later. Now all of

611
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: Clara's anger was centered on her husband. Armor Phillips was

612
00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,799
Speaker 1: clearly in danger. He had an unstable, jealous wife who

613
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 1: wouldn't believe a word he said. Clara was unpredictable. One

614
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,040
Speaker 1: of the things that made her irresistible. But they had

615
00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:59,319
Speaker 1: never fought like this, and what would happen next would

616
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,279
Speaker 1: stun even a jaded town like La and certainly the

617
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:11,280
Speaker 1: rest of America. On this season of tenfold More Wicked.

618
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:16,320
Speaker 6: On exactly right, Piggy wanted to endear herself to Clara.

619
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:18,480
Speaker 6: She wanted to be like Clara. She wanted to have

620
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:19,600
Speaker 6: a friend like Clara.

621
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 5: You can see it was a massive headwound. There was

622
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 5: a lot of blood and there was also brain matter.

623
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 4: So I think he was looking for her. I knew

624
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:33,319
Speaker 4: he was stalking her.

625
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:34,920
Speaker 2: I knew that I'd heard.

626
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 3: That it was a psychopath with narcissistic tendencies. It's very

627
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,440
Speaker 3: apparent that you don't want to set someone like that

628
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 3: off because they'll basically go beyond the edge. They'll just

629
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 3: go and they'll lay waste, and then they'll forget about it.

630
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 1: My new book, All That Is Wicked, is available for

631
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 1: pre order now in hardback and ebooks. More information on

632
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: the audiobook later. All That Is Wicked is based on

633
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:04,439
Speaker 1: our first season of tenfold More Wicked. You might think

634
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:07,280
Speaker 1: you know the whole story of killer Edward Ruloff's crimes,

635
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:11,040
Speaker 1: but there's so much more. My book American Sherlock is

636
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:15,120
Speaker 1: also available. This has been an exactly right tenfold More

637
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:20,040
Speaker 1: Media Production producers Jason Whaling, Alexis Mrosi and Laura Sobole,

638
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 1: sound designer Eric Friend, composer Curtis Heath, artwork Nick Toga.

639
00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 1: Executive producers are Georgia Hardstark, Karen Kilgarriff and Danielle Kramer.

640
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at tenfold more Wicked

641
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 1: and on Twitter at tenfold More. And if you know

642
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:38,600
Speaker 1: of a historical true crime that could use some attention,

643
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644
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645
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