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The _perfect_ wife who ensnared four people to kill at her command _ Nothing Personal(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hollywood, California, the factory time that turns out American dreams.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: She didn't want to live in the real world. She
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: wanted to live in the fantasy world where everyone bound
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: to her feet.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen's dream becomes her husband's nightpe man.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: She was just a fem fatale that nobody ever wants
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: to run into in her life. But Bob did, and
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: he paid the price.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: It's a diabolical plot straight out of the movies, with
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: some truly unhappy endings. My name is Steve Sharrippl. I
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: grew up in a pretty rough neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I've seen good people turn bad and bad people turn worse.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Some took contracts to carry out a hit. Some were
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: victims of a hit. It's a hit met life and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: death and just part of the business. It's nothing personal.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It's early December nineteen eighty eight. A two bit drug
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: dealer named Jimmy Bernstein is getting ready to do what
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: hitmen call a piece of work. Bernstein's target is Bob Samuels.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Samuels is a nice guy who's made a solid career
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: working on Hollywood production cruise, but he never figured on
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a starring role in the bizarre story of his own demise.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: The problem in Hollywood is separating fantasy from reality. Bob
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Samuels works on fantasys, but he lives in the real
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: world as an assistant cameraman. Bob works behind the scenes.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: The past few weeks, he's been putting in long hours
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: on the movie Lethal Weapon two. It's an irony he
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: won't live to appreciate. Would be hit man Jimmy Bernstein,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a u who's never killed anybody. He's been hired for
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the job by Bob's wife, Mary Ellen. She's been dreaming
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of a life without Bob.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Mary Ellen Samuels was a truly evil woman. She used
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: everybody that came into her life, and she did it
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: for a financial gain.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: How does a beautiful Hollywood wife turn from trophy to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: husband killing harpy? Well, you know how they say beauty
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: is only skin deep. Mary Ellen Samuels is who they're
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: talking about. To understand why a contract has been put
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: on Bob's life, I need to give you a little
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of what we call in the business backstory. Bob Samuels
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: grew up twenty miles in a world away from the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: sunset strip in Santa Ana, California.
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: Well, Santa Anna at the time was very rural and
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: we had beanfields, orange groves.
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: You could play in the streets.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: And it was almost like the country in Santa Ana
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: at that time.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Bob has dreams and talent. He likes photography. Old friend
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Helen Potts and old flame Sherry Toomey always knew he'd
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: make it.
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: Bob and I would go to the movies a lot.
• 3:12
  Speaker 7: They always liked to see films and to see how
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: it was, you know, you read the credits, and always
• 3:19
  Speaker 7: used to tell me, I'm going to do that someday.
• 3:20
  Speaker 8: He used to tell me all the time that looking
• 3:22
  Speaker 8: through a camera always gave him a second look of life.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Bob gets an eye full of that second look. He
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: becomes an assistant cameraman on big features, the kind that
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: have the budgets to hire the best guys.
• 3:34
  Speaker 9: In ten fourteen or take eleven.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Bob isn't the kind of guy to let it go
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: to his head. Hitting the big time was something to share.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: Bob would call me quite often when he was filming
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: out of the state. I remember one night they were
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: filming a movie with Kurt Russell and Killing McGillis and
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: Goldie Han was there too, and he passed the phone around.
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: We all talked.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: Movie stars liked to hang around with Bob because he's
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: such an.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Now Working behind the scenes isn't glamorous. Sure, you meet
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of big stars, but the work's hard, the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: hours along, and nobody's inviting you on to the red carpet.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, roll it up, maybe pose on it. Ah,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: not so much. Bob is doing great professionally, but working
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: crazy hours and traveling for months on end can take
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: a heavy toll on your love life. The serious living
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: relationship Bob has with Sherry Toomey in the late seventies
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: falls apart.
• 4:31
  Speaker 8: I didn't really enjoy the lifestyle. He was on location
• 4:35
  Speaker 8: quite a bit, and I always said, I'm not going
• 4:37
  Speaker 8: to marry somebody who's not going to be around.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: It looks like Bob will never find the right woman
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to settle down with and start a family. But before
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the decade is out, he meets the girl of his dreams. Well,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: he actually's known her since they were kids, but back
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: in high school dreaming about a beauty like mary Ellen,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Gernick was about as close to her as a guy
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: like Bob Sam was ever gonna get Looking at her
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: could stop your heart. As it turns out, it will
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: stop his. Too bad. He can't see past that skin
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: deep beauty.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: She was a bright, talented young child. She was, you know,
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: the star of the plays in school. She's very popular,
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: high school homecoming queen, things like that.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: When she leaves Santa Ana, Hi, Mary Ellen was headed
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: for stardom. She gets about as far as her sock
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: draw well, a little better than that. Those shapely games
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of hers do their turn in the dazzling lights, showing
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: up in quite a few stocking ads. As for her
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: acting talent, well, let's just say Mary Ellen's legs never
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: carry her to Hollywood. Instead, she gets married as a kid,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: gets divorced, and a decade after high school, she's back
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in Santa Hana, a single mom would a da Nicole,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And there she runs into Bob Samuels, but now nerdio.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Bob has the glow of Hollywood about him. The formerly
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: unattainable homecoming queen is his for the asking. Unfortunately for him,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: he does.
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: They seem very happy.
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: She had a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of spunk.
• 6:23
  Speaker 6: She was a character, real outgoing.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Before you could say action, Mary Ellen is starring in
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: her own production of wedding Album Too. She and Bob
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: tied the knot in nineteen eighty.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: He had a home that he lived in when he
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: married her, he made it their home. Nicole was already
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: in the picture. He adopted her. He centered a private
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: Catholic schools. He was just a very caring, loving, hard
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: working family man.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So Bob gets his dream, a sexy wife, an instant family,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and Mary Ellen gets it's her fantasy and entree into
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: tinsel town, star studded social scene. But you know the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: problem with dreams, you wake up. Happens every time.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: I think she probably believed she would have this glamorous lifestyle,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: and when she realized that they lived in a home
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: in the San Fernando Valley, and he got up and
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: he went to work, and it was just your normal, average,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: everyday life, she got a little bit bored.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: The parties are occasional, the work is constant. Mary Ellen
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: has a hard time waking up and smelling the cappuccino.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: She isn't the center of the celebrity universe. She's a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: nobody and gazing across the pillow at Bob Samuels doesn't
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: sweeten that bit of pill.
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: Mary Ellen was I don't know if she was in
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: love as Bob was with her. She was very flirtatious.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Luckily, she still has some assets and she works them.
• 8:08
  Speaker 8: I know. Bob used to get upset with her all
• 8:10
  Speaker 8: the time about the kind of clothes that she would
• 8:12
  Speaker 8: wear because they were very revealing.
• 8:15
  Speaker 6: Mary Ellen was just not conservative.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: So what happens when your visions of having crashed the earth?
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: You choose reconcile or run. Mary Ellen goes running, all right,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: running up bills.
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: What do you think? He called me, and he said, Sherry,
• 8:34
  Speaker 8: mary Ellen spent twenty two thousand dollars in one month,
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: and I have nothing to show for it. And so
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: I think at that time is when he realized there
• 8:44
  Speaker 8: may be a problem.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: She also finds a crowd who tweets her like a star,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: but they aren't exactly a list is more like degenerates,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and she's very close with her fans.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: She'd ever sell a boyfriend, you know, different ones, and
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: she was running with a real unsavory bunch of people.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Bob was aware that mary Ellen cheated on him. They
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: broke up several times, but then mary Ellen would always
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: lure him back.
• 9:13
  Speaker 8: Again when people told him, you know, maybe she'd have
• 9:20
  Speaker 8: second thoughts, but he was determined to stay married. He
• 9:25
  Speaker 8: wasn't the type of person to fail at anything.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: So Bob had a plan to save his marriage. He
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: bought Mary Ellen a sandwich shop. Now that sandwich shop,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: it's kind of the whole story on a bun. The
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: guy's thinking, I know what, the little woman needs something
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to do, you know, a little mad money. But that's
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: not her dream. It's her nightmare, slinging subs into San
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Fernando Valley and she's thinking, boy that I hitch my
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: wag into a dog. This boy's got a goal for
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: all of It's glam Hollywood as a dogie dogged town.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: If you don't make it as a top dog, you
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: become a marginal mutt like Jimmy Bernstein, a shifty, low
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: red opportunist. Jimmy carries a business card that reads James V.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Bernstein Specialist, but his only specialty is posing as a player.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Mary Ellen Samuels, he's a player tonight and
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the game is murder. It took a couple of years
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: for Bob Samuels to understand that he had a bit
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: of a fantasy reality problem of his own. He would
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and won the Hottest Babe in Santa Ana, but she
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't in reality the woman he fantasized about.
• 10:47
  Speaker 8: He loved mary Ellen very much, but who he met
• 10:51
  Speaker 8: in high school obviously wasn't who he married. And I
• 10:58
  Speaker 8: don't think she became real until he was married, probably
• 11:02
  Speaker 8: about four years. The whole purpose I think was of
• 11:07
  Speaker 8: marrying Bob was monetary, because I don't think she had
• 11:09
  Speaker 8: very much growing up, and so all of a sudden
• 11:12
  Speaker 8: she was into this great life, and it is a
• 11:16
  Speaker 8: good life. She partied all the time.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: Other than Bob Samuels, who was a normal person, mary
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Ellen didn't associate with anybody who had a steady job
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: who had family values. Most of the people that she
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: associated with either were selling drugs or were using drugs.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: And the sandwich shop that's supposed to give her a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: pastime and an income, it doesn't quite pan out. Mary
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Ellen doesn't roll up her sleeves, but she does expose
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: her clause the place becomes a combination coked in and piggybank.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: When he'd go away on location, she would always get robbed.
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: He told me that he got her as safe and
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: he put it in the back and he told her,
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: don't leave that much money in the drawer, take it
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: back and put it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: In the safe.
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: And he'd come home from location again. All her money
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: was stolen again, Ben robbed again. But that's not what
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: was happening. And she was involved with drug sales and
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: using drugs herself.
• 12:15
  Speaker 8: Mary Ellen was into a lot of cocaine and that's
• 12:18
  Speaker 8: where all the money went.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Poor Bob tried everything, he begged, he pleaded, He read
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: books about how to keep a marriage together. Mary Ellen
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: had no time for one thing. She was busy bring
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: a daughter, Nicole over to the dark side. By the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: times she's hit her teens, Nicole has taken a lead
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: role in her mother's unhinged trauma.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Nicole Samuels, she was a sixteen year old girl, very attractive,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: young lady. She had a wonderful life, and yet she
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: seemed to be a good student for mary Ellen Samuels.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: She grew up in this school of manipulation. She also
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: learned very early on to dress provocatively and go bar hopping.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: Mary Ellen and Nicole were like twins. They liked to
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: do everything together. I remember one time there was a
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: wedding and they came and it was a nice, pretty
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: afternoon wedding and Nicole and mary Ellen walked in there
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: with matching twin leather jumpsuits, skin tight.
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: I mean they look like catwoman.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen doesn't just suck in her own daughter. She
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: brings along all Nicole's friends, just fixing. Is then mother
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: to a whole gang of party kids, including Selina Krawl.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Nicole is my best friend, my confidant.
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: We talked about.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: A lot of things. We used to go to clubs
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: with mary Ellen. I was only sixteen at the time,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and although we were underage, we still got in. We
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: still drank, We did everything that a twenty one year
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: old would do. We's go to Beverly Hills, anywhere in
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: La you know, the sky's a limit because we didn't
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: pay for anything and we weren't expected to.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Mary Ellen, for the most part, hung out with people
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: who were much younger than her. She actually spent quite
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: a bit of time with her daughter, Nicole's friends.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: She was just overboard at all times. I mean even
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: down to her clothing. She was just you know, always
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: hanging out and just you know, the shortest dress she
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: could put on and the highest heels she could possibly wear.
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: She was the cool mom she was.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: You know, if you want to have a good time,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: go hang out with mary Ellen and Nicole.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: And who's stuck with the bill for this night, Crawley,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: You guessed it, Bob. But what hurts more than the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: bar tabs is financing his adopted daughter, Nicole's transformation into
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: a mini version of her mother. Let's not forget Bob
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: has raised and cherished in the call as his own.
• 15:03
  Speaker 8: Bob was so unhappy, you know, with the situation because
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: mary Ellen was not a very good mother and not
• 15:10
  Speaker 8: directing her in the right way that she should have done.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Finally, in nineteen eighty six, Bob admits to himself that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: he and mary Ellen are doomed. After six years of
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: tumultuous matrimony. Mary Ellen moves into a condo and takes
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the call with her. Bob is devastated. She does fine,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and why not? The bills still go to his house.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: So even after they separated, Bob supported mary Ellen and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: her lifestyle. I mean, this broad had some expensive tastes.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Bob's heart is breaking and his wallet keeps growing. Mary
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Ellen continues to shower his cash on her pleasures, close, jewelry, vacations, cocaine.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: You get the picture if you don't check out a
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: license plate.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: The license plate was a custom one and it said
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Nasty Vixen, which was pretty prophetic.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Things go on like this for a couple of years.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Bob Clink said a fantasy that his dreamgirl will someday return,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: But Mary Ellen has no desire to become someone she
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: never really was. So Christmas nineteen eighty eight was not
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the most wonderful time of the year for Bob Samuels.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Bob and Mary Ellen had been separated for two years,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: so he's heading into another Christmas alone in an empty house.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Couldn't get any more depressing. Turns out, it certainly could.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: By nineteen eighty eight, something has changed, maybe turning forty.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: That fall makes Bob decide to move on his life.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Whatever his epiphany, he gets serious about a divorce. Mary
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Ellen does the Manton quickly concludes that for her, divorce
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: would be a disaster. Widowhood, on the other hand, now
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: that could work. One of Hollywood's greatest may West had
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: that light. Is that a gun in your pocket? Or
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: you're just happy to see me? Mary Ellen Samuels was
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: not unfamiliar with flirtatious repartee, but this time she really
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: was looking for a guy with a gun in his pocket.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: By the fall of nineteen eighty eight, with divorce looming,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen Samuels is getting desperate. For two years, she's
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: been trolling amongst Ellie's bottom feeders for someone she can
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: beguile into pumping off Bob so she could get all
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the owners.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: He spent two years pretty much talking to every body
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: that she met in those circles about how much she
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: hated her husband and how much she wanted to have
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: him killed.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: But it's kind of like her acting career. No one
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: takes her seriously. Maybe it's that a plot seemed straight
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: out of Tom and Jerry cartoons.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: She talked a lot about a lot of things, and
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: it wasn't this one scenario. It was one hundred different scenarios.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Let's drop something on his head, Let's have the garage
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: door opener.
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: Come down on top of them.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: She told so many people that it was kind of comical.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: If you're looking to have someone killed, discretion might seem
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: like a good idea. It's unbelievable that nobody calls the cops,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: gives you an idea of the crowd mary Ellen's running with.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: There were a couple of people who appeared to take
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: her up on it. At least two or three occasions
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: where people agreed to have Bob killed or to kill
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: only to take the money in rule.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: And I was still young at the time and naive.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: You don't really think that people are going to do
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: something like that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe old mary Ellen was just getting a little long
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: in the two to inspire a homicide even for money.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: But Nicole, now she was a babe. They are so close,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: so tight that mommy dear is enlist her darling daughter
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: into helping or it's her little problem.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: She used her sixteen year old daughter to look for
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: hip man. She drew her sixteen year old daughter into
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: this evil plot.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Nicole and I were at school one day and she said,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: I need to get a gun. People don't usually carry
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: those things around with them or have them in their locker.
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: Nicole became like her mom.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: She really did in several aspects because her mom molded
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: her to be a little Mary Ellen. It was all
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: about appearance and what this guy could give you, and
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: that was the bottom line.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Even baiting her honey trap with Nicole isn't an instant's success,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: but Mary Ellen has a predator's eye for picking out
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the vulnerable or weak willed. Jimmy Bernstein is just to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: pray she's been hunting for.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: James Bernstein was very tall, heavy set guy, a loner.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: I don't think he had any friends. He was a
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: drug dealer and not typical person. He would see Nicole with.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Jimmy is over the moment. Nicole is way out of
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: his league. He can't believe is good luck.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: She needed something from James Bernstein and that's why.
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: She was with him.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Bernstein even asked her to marry him, so did
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: some other guy. To most girls, that would be a dilemma.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: To Mary Ellen's door, it was more of a brain
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: teaser which fiance went with which ring.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Nicole had two engagement rings and she would switch them
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: back and forth depending on who she was seeing or
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: not saying. It was pretty much a yo yo game.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Jimmy doesn't know he's one of a pair of potential grooms.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: He's only engaged to one girl and he loves her.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: So Jimmy's in love and now Mary Ellen spins him attail.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: She tells him that Bob Samuels is an evil, abusive
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: man who's been raping his beloved Nicole since she was
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a kid.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Mary Ellen started talking about how he used to abuse
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: her and how you know, she needed to take care
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: of it because she couldn't live like this anymore.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: She had I think a black eye and maybe some
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: bruising around her neck or her shoulder, and she told
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: the neighbors that Bob had beaten her up. And it
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: turned out that she just had plastic surgery and she
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: was just you using this plastic surgery and then natural
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: bruising to perpetrate this myth, so there was never any evidence.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Swallows at hook Lion a sinker.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: Nicole pretended to be engaged to Jim Bernstein while she
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: was engaged to somebody else to draw him into this
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: plot so that he would feel so outraged at what
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: they claimed was happening to them that he'd go out
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: and have Bob killed. They wanted him to do it
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: with sort of a sense of righteousness, like you know,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: riding their white horse into the sunset, trying to save
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: these damsels in distress. That was part of their manipulative brilliancy.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: So Jimmy's being played for a fool, but it's hard
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: not to empathize with the guy. He really thinks the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: girl he loves is being abused by an evil, evil man.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, what would you do? Would you cross the
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: line had herself a hit man.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: Robert Samuels was not an abusive husband, although that certainly
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: is what Mary Ellen and Nicole wanted the world to believe.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: So, just as the nineteen eighty eight holiday season is
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: getting up to speed, Jimmy Bernstein is fired up with
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a misplaced desire to protect his beloved. Perfect timing for
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen, who seems to have gotten wind of Bob
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Samuel's new resolve to cut her loose. She ever feeds
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Jimmy cash to keep his anger stoked in his mission
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: clear a whopping fifteen hundred bucks. As for Bob, he
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: sees Mary Ellen in the call from time to time.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Too bad that Spider Man movie is stuck in development.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: If he was working on that one, he might know
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: what his spidery senses are picking up.
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: We had talked and he had told me he said,
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: I think there's something going on, you know. He goes,
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: I don't know what it is.
• 24:00
  Speaker 10: He told me that he had had a great life
• 24:04
  Speaker 10: and that he had done everything that he wanted to
• 24:08
  Speaker 10: do life. And I said, well, what are you saying.
• 24:17
  Speaker 10: You really surprised me by the way he was talking.
• 24:21
  Speaker 10: He had a reministion.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Bob Samuel's marriage is about to end. That much, is Sartain.
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: It was telling me that it was almost final.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: He was going through with it this time, and he
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: was going to finish this divorce.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe Owen's plan is to make sure what ends it
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: is that till death do us part. Thing and love
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: struck Jimmy Bernstein is how unwitting tool. When you're watching
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: a movie, you don't think of what goes into making it.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Bob Samuels is one of those guys who made sure
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: everything was perfect so that when the lights go down,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: we're transported into a story that seems real. In her
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: own way. Mary Ellen was a great actress in the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: dim Lights of those sleazy San Fernando Bars. She nailed
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the part of the abused and protective mother and that
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: act tricked the guy who got another guy who got
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: a gun, and two days later showtime, It's the night
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of December seventh, nineteen eighty eight, Bob gets back from work,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: he has a shower. Somebody gets in the house. Somehow,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Bob has bought a tanning bed. Hey, you gotta look
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: your best when you work, can show biz. The cops
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: think he might have been headed to it. Who knows
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: wherever Bob was going. He never gets there. He has
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: jumped in his front hallway, clubbed, hurt bad, but still alive.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: A pillow has put over his head. He was forty
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: years and two months old. We don't know for sure
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: who was here the night Bob got killed, but we
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: know enough. It could have been just Jimmy Bernstein, the
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Coole's fiance, or it could have been a guy named
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Mike Silver, Bernstein's pal. Or it could have been both
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: of those guys. But no matter how you slice it,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: poor Bob Samuels was dead and the grieving widow knew it.
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: Hi, Bob is Mary Ellen. Listen?
• 26:55
  Speaker 11: I'd like to leave the dog with you for a
• 26:57
  Speaker 11: while this Friday, Nicole and I have something to do.
• 27:00
  Speaker 11: Could you call and let me know if that's all right? Hi, Bobby,
• 27:04
  Speaker 11: it's me. Haven't heard back from you about Friday. I
• 27:07
  Speaker 11: guess you're busy working. Could you give me a dingle
• 27:11
  Speaker 11: read there, Bob, why aren't you picking up?
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: Maybe I'll just bring the dog over into it.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: So that was part two of mary Ellen's plan. She
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: leaves Bob a bunch of messages even though she already
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: knows he's dead. That approved she wasn't involved, right, I mean,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: who leaves messages for a dead guy. She let him
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: lie there, dead in the hallway for two days, leaving
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: message after message to his corpse. Then finally mary Ellen
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Nicole turn up at the house just like the messages said.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Berstein has been told to make the hit look like
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: a Burgleary gone wrong, but he flubs it. So what
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: do Bob's wife and daughter do. If you want something
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: done right, you do it yourself. They pull out drawers,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: They topple furniture. They even take a crow bought to
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the door frame until it looked like, well, a fake burglar.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Nicole called me the day after it happened. It's done.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: We went to the house, he was there. It didn't
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: look messed up enough, so we messed it up some more.
• 28:28
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I didn't want to know that.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: I didn't think it was going to happen in the
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: first place, and then to be put in that situation.
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: I just didn't know what to.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Do at all. Satisfied with her handiwork, mary Ellen finally
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: calls nine Detective George Daly gets the case.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Mary Ellen called nine one one and said that she
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: had gone over to her husband's house having not been
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: able to cond packed him by phone, and when she
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: got there found him lying deceased in the hallway. And
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: as such, she like all other family members, are start
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: out as persons of interest and once they're ruled out,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: we go on to, you know, other things. So we
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: took her story for what it was and we worked
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: our way through everything else from there.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: But right from the get go things look screwy.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: It was amateurish. You could tell just that a burglary
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: hadn't occurred, that this scenario was set up.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: The flora mary Ellen's plan. She forgot to take anything valuable.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Detectives pick up on little details like that. That's why
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: they call them detectives. Down at the cop shop, mary
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Ellen is still playing her widow to young scene. She
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: throws in a big helping of slutty tramp because it's
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: always worked for her. But hey, this is a tough crowd.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: Well, Mary Allen was a deceptive kind of person. You
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: could tell that right away. Here we're involved in a
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: murder investigation and she's flirting and trying to be cute.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: She tried to look cat like.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: All the time.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: I guess she felt that people would be drawn to her.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Everything about her just seemed to be wrong.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: The cops didn't buy her act. Like I said, tough crowd.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: They knew Mary Ellen how to be involved. But life
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: is in a movie. Making a case in the real
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: world involves more than seeing through an act. For starters,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you need some evidence, and unfortunately there isn't any to
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: be had. Mary Ellen walks off got free. She gets
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to keep playing the widow, but the reviews of her performance,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: especially a Bob's Funeral, are not altogether positive.
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: Mary Allen told me they went on quite a shopping trip.
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: They had to have new dresses for the funeral, and
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: Mary Ellen came with a real tight backless that black
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: dress long. I mean it was like a cocktail dress,
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: and she was actually like enjoying herself. Oh hi hi.
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: She was running around like it was some kind.
• 31:35
  Speaker 7: Of a showing, like a party instead of a time
• 31:40
  Speaker 7: to mourn.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: The cold supporting role is also deemed to be lacking
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: a certain authenticity.
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: Oh, her daughter was the same way. I mean, they
• 31:50
  Speaker 6: were all glamorized.
• 31:51
  Speaker 12: You know.
• 31:55
  Speaker 7: I looked at Sherry and I said, Sherry, this is
• 31:57
  Speaker 7: not a woman in mourning.
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: I smell a rat.
• 32:04
  Speaker 8: We got the tombstone. Mary Ellen didn't pick it out.
• 32:10
  Speaker 8: His sister did. She never even knew.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: What it said. Now, with Bob six feet under, Mary
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Ellen's lifestyle dramatically improved. And why not, she inherited everything
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: he worked his entire life for. On top of that,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: she had a cool quarter million from Bob's life insurance company.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they paid, They had to. Nobody was charged.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen even moved back into Bob's house.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: The crime scene in the house was in the hallway,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: and instead of cleaning the carpets, they threw a throw
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: rug over it to hide it and just went as
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: normal like nothing happened.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: With the housekeeping taken care of, mary Ellen got to
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the real business of coping with her husband's unsolved murder.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: All that new cash proved healthful. She found solace in
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: a Porsche. She more than the dressing rooms of a
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: hundred boutiques, and she wiped her tears on Lacy little
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Peekaboo she picked up at Hollywood's trashy Lingerie.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: In total, mary Ellen Samuel's got the equivalent of about
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: five hundred thousand dollars. She threw herself a very elaborate
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: birthday party, hired limousines, bought a condominium and CanCon bought
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: fur coats. She was leading the life that I suspect
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: she thought she deserved.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: But not all of the plays of Mariella's drama have
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: a pinach. Remember Jimmy Bernstein, Nicole's fiance, you know, Bob's killer.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Jimmy is having a hard time. He figures out he's
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: being played for a chump, getting dumped by the new
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: heiress is salt in the wool.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: That's he sees the flamboyant lifestyle that mary Ellen Samuels
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: is living and he's not a part of it. So
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: whether it's pangs of guilt that caused him to decide
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: that he maybe he should go to the police or jealousy,
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: who knows. But he was definitely suggesting to people around
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: him and that he'd at it and he was going
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: to go to the police.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: It looked like Jimmy Burnstein was going to be the
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: showstopper who brought down the curtain on Mary Ellen into
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: fantasy life. She was now living for real. But Mary
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Ellen had an interesting way of dealing with problematic relationships,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: and Jimmy Bernstein was now in her cross heads. If
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: I was Jimmy, I'd be looking over my shoulder.
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: Marilliell and Samuels had few choices. I suppose she could
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: have tried to seduce him, as she had others, but
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: how long would that last? And it was it was
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: sort of natural for somebody like Mary Ellen. She'd gotten
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: away with it once before, why not just get rid
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: of him?
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: So how do you rid this off of a used
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: up patsy? Hit those dark and dingy boars, tore her
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: over those rocks and find another.
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: Mary Alan Samuels was very good at identifying people who
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: were at a point in their lives where they were
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: easily manipulated, either young, vulnerable people, people who had issues
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: or problems with drugs.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: Paul Gall was a guy who, because of his economic circumstances,
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: almost didn't have a chance against Mary Ellen. They pride
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: him with money and he accepted because he didn't have
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: any money.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: She knew Gall had lost a brother to drugs. Jimmy
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: was a dealer. Dealers deserved to die. Paul could see
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: her point. To seal the deal with her latest assassin,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen sucked in another needy stooge, Gaul's girlfriend and Hambling.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: She was a woman who had her own issues, probably
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: didn't have a lot of confidence in herself, didn't have
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: much going on in her life. And here comes Mary Ellen.
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: Samuels this wonderful, exciting, flamboyant lady.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: And apparently owed some money to Mary Ellen, and she
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: recruited Paul Gall and Darryl ray Edwards to do this
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: thing on James Burnstein, and I guess they agreed to
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: do it to wipe out Ann Hamley's debt.
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: Paul Gall was the one who orchestrated the plan. He
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: was living with the friend Ann Hamley. Together they decided
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: to let Jim Bernstein move in with him so that
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: they could keep close track of him until they were
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: ready to execute their plan.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: So Mary Ellen's acting career is finally taken off. I mean,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: how many people do you know who've roped in not one,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: not two, but up to four people to kill on
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: her command. Mike for Bob. Now, Paul and Daryl for Jimmy,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: very impressive, incredible take that Meryl Street. For most women
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: in life as a widow starts out pretty rough. Sometimes
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: people need to get away, clear their heads, take a
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: break from all that grief. Sometimes they need to head
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: to Cancun with a sack full of cash and indulge
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: in a little fashion shoot with their new squeeze. This
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: year's color green as in greenbacks, lots of them.
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: The two of them are partying in their room, and
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: somebody got the brilliant idea that it would be fun
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: to take pictures of her covered in this money.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you need to get away to find solace and
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: inner peace. And sometimes you need to get away to
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: establish an alibi because you've hired a guy to kill
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the man you're tricked into murdering your husband. Hey, it happens.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Mary Ellen Samuels has blown through most of the half
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: million she inherited since husband Bob was put in his
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: grave six months ago. Back in La Jimmy Burns's about
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: to pay the price for falling into Mary Ellen's web. Ready,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the guy delivering the invoice will be Paul gall And
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: as Chum Darrel. Paul's an amateur just like Jimmy was,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: so he steadies his nerve with some bruskies. In fact,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: he could barely stand. How they managed to get into
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the car thoughtfully lent by Mary Ellen is a mystery.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Jimmy thinks he's going along to help them steal some drugs.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: The plan is to strangle Jimmy in the car. Turns
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: out Bernstein doesn't want to die. Unlike Bob Samuels. He
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: has a split second to run for his life, but
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: unfortunately he doesn't run fast enough.
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: Paul took him and punched him in the esophagus a
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: whole bunch of times so that he would not be
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: able to breathe. But it takes about three to five
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: minutes of sustained pressure on somebody's throat in order to
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: strangle him. They did that, threw his body over a ravine,
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: took all of his identification and tossed that, and then
• 39:29
  Speaker 4: they went back to Ann's house and partied.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: It took a month to find Jimmy in that ravine.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: I d inum took a while too, but they did.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: When investigators went to his house, they found some paperwork
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: that linked them to Bob Samuel's kill. They also discover
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: a twenty five thousand dollars life insurance policy Jimmy had
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: taken out the day after Bob was whacked. He's soon
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: to be ex fiancee and Nicole as his soul beneficiary.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Poor Jimmy was another deluded SAP with a fantasy reality disconnect.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Detective Daily calls Mary Ellen in for another heart to
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: heart to break the ice. He asks about Bob's murder.
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: This is where it happened.
• 40:18
  Speaker 9: In the bar.
• 40:19
  Speaker 12: Somebody walked right up to you, and I was sitting.
• 40:21
  Speaker 9: At the bar, some guy Kim already you bought me
• 40:23
  Speaker 9: a drink, or in general conversation, I was madder than
• 40:25
  Speaker 9: hell at Bob at this particular time.
• 40:28
  Speaker 12: What made you make a comment? Did you make a
• 40:30
  Speaker 12: comment or something that elicited this guy to say that
• 40:34
  Speaker 12: he would be glad to help.
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Kill your husband.
• 40:37
  Speaker 12: What kind of a comment would elicit some kind of
• 40:39
  Speaker 12: a thing like that from.
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: A stranger in a bar.
• 40:42
  Speaker 9: You'd be surprised the conversations that happened in a bar.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: But the main piece of evidence they find is Anne Hambley,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Paul Goll's housemaid.
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: No, we had drinks.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: She knows the whole story, and it paws out of her.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: What did you hear? Being a party to a homicide
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't sitting too well with Anne, who also feared she
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: might know too much for Mary Ellen's comfort. She had
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that right.
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: Harry Ellen was beginning to plot the murder of Annie Hamley,
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: and for much the same reason, she really knew too much.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: So she gave up Paul. When Paul discovered that shutting
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: up Jimmy Bernstein was enough to put him in the
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: gas chamber, Paul traded mary Ellen's neck for his own.
• 41:28
  Speaker 9: This is what doesn't make sense.
• 41:30
  Speaker 6: If I, supposedly okay, was.
• 41:33
  Speaker 9: Going to have this done, you think for a minute
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: I would open my mouth to a lot of people.
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: Does that make any sense to you?
• 41:41
  Speaker 9: If I ever was going to do something.
• 41:44
  Speaker 12: You know what's funny about it, It doesn't make any
• 41:46
  Speaker 12: sense to me because I think if I was planning
• 41:48
  Speaker 12: to have my husband done away with, I don't think
• 41:51
  Speaker 12: i'd mention it to anybody.
• 41:53
  Speaker 9: I've said, I hate you and things I've got, but
• 41:55
  Speaker 9: I've never ever in my life one of.
• 41:57
  Speaker 7: The man did.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: She was manipulating, she was conniving, and we had it
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: in our mind that this was all a big act.
• 42:09
  Speaker 12: You're a principal accessory to murder.
• 42:11
  Speaker 6: Yeah, well I'm not.
• 42:14
  Speaker 12: And all of these things are gonna get put together.
• 42:16
  Speaker 12: And and mary Ellen, you're gonna you're gonna have to
• 42:18
  Speaker 12: pay the price over this thing.
• 42:21
  Speaker 9: Well, I'm telling you something right now.
• 42:23
  Speaker 6: This is just I have never ever who looked to
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: Mary Ellen.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: I put my handkcuffs on her and we brought her
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: to jail. That was rewarding. I tell you, that's a
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: high most people never ever attained in her whole life.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: She just never envisioned that this was ever gonna happen
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: to her. She just thought she was home free. But yeah,
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: the wheels adjust. This roll slowly, but they will roll
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: over you at times.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: At her trial, Mary Ellen tries to revive her desperate
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: abused wife act. The jury finds it unconvincing.
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: She was trying so hard to be this, you know, caring, loving,
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: endearing personality.
• 43:16
  Speaker 8: I was there every day of trial, and they tried
• 43:21
  Speaker 8: to make her out to be a girl scout cookie
• 43:25
  Speaker 8: mom with a midlife crisis.
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: One of the things that she did was to try
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: to turn things around on the police, and she testified
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: on the stand that the only reason that the police
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: zeroed in on her and arrested her. To begin with,
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: was that they wanted to ask her out on a date,
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: and she refused.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: That performance thanks too, especially compared to the sordid tail
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: the cops on fold. They have the check she'd written
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: to her hit men.
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: She tried her best to be regal and to be
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: you know, prim and proper. But as the trial went on,
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: I think she was totally disrobed. I mean, you know,
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: she really was shown to be what she was, an avaricious,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: greedy woman.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: They wild to caught with Mary Ellen's Can't coude?
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: Road show, mary Ellen lying on a bid nude covered
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: in approximately twenty thousand dollars in twenty dollars bills. It
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: just showed right through this photograph exactly what this woman
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: was made of.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: That happy snap was the most effective modeling Mary Ellen
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: ever did. She makes headlines and she earns the Monica,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: the green widow.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: She was just a femme fatale that nobody ever wants
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: to run into in their life. But Bob didn't it.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: He paid the price.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: That shot even gets her into California's most exclusive club,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: death Throat at Long Leg. Mary Ellen is going to
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: socialize with people can appreciate her talents.
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: The defense at that time brought in Mary Ellen Samuel's
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: elderly parents, and they were elderly, and they were ill,
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: and they were very feeble, and it was very heart
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: wrenching for anybody sitting in the courtroom to watch these
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: elderly people basically begging the jury to spare the life
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: of their daughter. And they talked about how she had everything,
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: was given everything as a child. They didn't know anything
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: about the condo and cancuon. They didn't know anything about
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: her Porsche. They were living on a fixed income not
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: too far, about two hours away from Mary Ellen. During
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: that year when she's out there leading this lifestyle, she
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: went once to visit her elderly, fragile parents. So to me,
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: that was if you didn't know before, you knew at
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: that point who Mary Allen Samuels was.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: She could have had a good life the way it was,
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: but she chose not to. She chose the other path.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: She didn't want to live in the real world. She
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: wanted to live in the fantasy world where everyone bowed
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: to her feet.
• 46:12
  Speaker 8: Can you imagine going out to dinner talking about how
• 46:14
  Speaker 8: you're gonna kill your your husband and then to actually
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: have somebody do it for fifteen hundred bucks. I was
• 46:21
  Speaker 8: very angry with her. I mean, he would have paid
• 46:23
  Speaker 8: her any amount of money she wanted. He would have
• 46:27
  Speaker 8: done anything to keep Mary Ellen. And really, I'm surprised
• 46:32
  Speaker 8: you didn't.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Know that Paul gall takes to stand against mary Ella.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: He does his time, and it's now out on parole.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: His accomplished Daryl is still riding away in prison. As
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: for Nicole, well, the DA decided not to charge you.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: She changed your name and moved away. She now has
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: grown up children of her own and says she doesn't
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: want to talk about the past. Maybe that's okay, maybe
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: it's not. I mean, the way the DA figured it,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Nicole was just a kid with an evil mother. Me,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not so sure. Bob Samuels is buried in his hometown,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Santa Anna, California. He shouldn't be there. He should be alive.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: He was a good, hard working guy who didn't deserve
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: to be the target of a homicidal plot. And there's
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: nothing clever to say about that. It's just a dirty,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: rotten shape.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: All he did was lover and consequently it's what got
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: him killed.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Poor guy, and Mary Ellen, well, she did get what
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: she always wanted, the lead role in a great piece
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: of theater. The end isn't quite what she had in
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: the script, but hey, that's Hollywood for you. Somebody's always
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: messing up your masterpieces.
• 48:18
  Speaker 8: Most