Bosom Black as Death (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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[2] In January of 1994, two teenagers were sitting in a bedroom in Texas studying for one of their classes.

[3] At some point, one of the teens picked up a copy of Shakespeare's play called Hamlet and began reading lines out loud.

[4] And at some point, the teen who was reading read aloud a particularly famous section of the play that deals with death.

[5] And at this point, the teen who was listening started rocking back and forth before finally just starting to sob.

[6] The teen who was reading stopped and asked what was going on, and in between sobs, the teen who was now very emotional, said that the play had reminded them of a horrible thing that they knew about, but had not told anyone about.

[7] And now, after hearing those lines from Hamlet, the teen said they just had to get this secret off their chest.

[8] And so they would.

[9] Months later, the secret that was uttered inside that bedroom between these two teenagers would make front page news across the country.

[10] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[11] So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to install a sliding door lock on the Amazon Music Follow buttons bathroom door, but install it so that the latch doesn't doesn't quite reach the other side.

[12] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[13] I'm Dan Tibergki.

[14] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[15] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[16] What's the answer?

[17] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[18] Hysterical.

[19] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[20] Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free on Wondery plus.

[21] On a December night in 1992, in a little apartment in a tiny Texas town called Mansfield, a 16 -year -old girl named Marie Robards sat down at the dinner table.

[22] After taking her seat, Marie looked across the table and almost started laughing at her father, Stephen.

[23] Stephen, who was 38 years old and delivered male for a living, was six foot four inches tall with long legs and long arms, and so him trying to sit at their little kitchen table made him look like a giant trying to sit at a kid's table.

[24] Stephen saw Marie smiling at him, and he smiled back, and then the two of them sniffed the air and exchanged excited looks.

[25] Stephen barely ever cooked, so he and Marie rarely sat down at the dinner table to eat together, but tonight was going to be different.

[26] Recently, Stephen had started dating a new woman who lived in the same apartment complex as he and Marie.

[27] Her name was Sandra Hudgens, and she loved to cook, and tonight that was what she was doing.

[28] And her Mexican feast she was preparing was filling the apartment with delicious smells.

[29] As Sondra stood over the stove, seasoning tacos, rice, and refried beans, Marie began telling her father about her day at school.

[30] She said all of her classes were interesting and going well, but chemistry was her favorite class.

[31] In fact, she said she loved science in general so much that she had started thinking about going into a pre -med program when she went to college in a couple of years so she could become a doctor.

[32] Stephen knew Marie could become a doctor if she wanted to, or really anything else she set her mind to.

[33] His daughter was intelligent, beautiful, charismatic, and a highly disciplined student, so much so that on the weekends, Marie often stayed in and just did schoolwork while most of her friends and peers were out and having fun and partying.

[34] And while this certainly made Stephen very proud of his daughter that she was so studious, secretly, Stephen sometimes wished that Marie would step away from her schoolwork even for a day and just go out and be a teenager and have some fun.

[35] And lately, given what Marie was going through with her mother and Stephen's ex -wife, this secret wish of his was all Stephen thought about when he looked at his daughter.

[36] Up until just a few months earlier, Marie had been living with her mother, Beth, and her stepfather, Frank, in a nearby town.

[37] Marie and her mom had always been incredibly close.

[38] Marie often said her mom was her best friend.

[39] But Marie's stepfather was, a police officer who took discipline and rules very seriously, and so he was quite strict with Marie, which often caused the two of them to argue and created a lot of tension in their household.

[40] And their living situation got infinitely worse when Marie walked in on Frank in bed with another woman.

[41] Marie already did not like Frank, but now she hated him.

[42] However, when she went to her mom and told her what she had discovered about Frank, her mom, who was crushed by the news, no doubt, still said she would not be leaving Frank.

[43] This caused a huge fight between Marie and her mom, which ended with Marie moving out of the house and into her father's apartment.

[44] Stephen was overjoyed to have his daughter living with him, but at the same time, he knew this was not really a happy arrangement.

[45] Ultimately, he knew his daughter just really felt hurt by her mother and longed for things to go back to the way they were when she and her mom were just best friends.

[46] In the kitchen, Sondra announced that dinner was ready, and she turned away from the stove and began walking over to the dinner table, her hands full of serving dishes.

[47] And right as Marie got up to help Sondra put the food on the table, the landline telephone rang in the living room.

[48] They all looked at each other to see who was going to go pick it up, and Marie said she would, and that she would tell whoever was calling that they were in the middle of dinner and they should just call back.

[49] But a few moments later, when Stephen and Sondra heard Marie answered the phone in the other room, they heard Marie start yelling at whoever was calling.

[50] And after a few moments, even though they couldn't quite tell what Marie and this other person were actually yelling about, it became clear that the other person that she was talking to had to be her mother.

[51] Eventually, Marie slammed the phone down and stormed back into the kitchen, her face bright red and her hands shaking.

[52] Stephen asked her if she was okay and, you know, what's wrong, but Marie just took a deep breath and suddenly a calm look came over her face, and she just said, I don't want to talk about it.

[53] And after a quick glance at each other, Stephen and Sondra simply nodded, and then before long, the trio was back to chatting about Marie's schoolwork and her college aspirations.

[54] But as much as Marie wished that big yelling fight she got into with her mother could just fade out of everyone's mind, it couldn't.

[55] Because over the next couple of months, Marie and her mother would get into more and more of these types of yelling fights on the phone.

[56] and Stephen and Sandra, who often overheard these fights, would always ask Marie afterward what was wrong and was everything okay.

[57] But Marie would just continue to ask for privacy and demand they not talk about it.

[58] And for the most part, Stephen and Sandra did just that.

[59] They rarely pride and instead just kept an eye on Marie hoping that someday soon the fighting with her mother would just stop.

[60] And by the middle of February of 1993, so two months after that first yelling for, fight Marie got into with her mom, it seemed like that was exactly what had happened, because the angry phone calls stopped, and Marie seemed happier and somewhat back to normal.

[61] But beneath the surface, something else entirely was going on.

[62] On the night of February 18th, so right around the time that the yelling phone fights stopped between Marie and her mom, Marie was home alone at the apartment sitting on the couch reading from one of her science textbooks.

[63] Her father, Stephen, was out at church, and Stephen's girlfriend, Sondra, was at her own apartment nearby.

[64] As Marie flipped through the pages, she heard something bang against the front door.

[65] She wasn't sure if someone had knocked, or if maybe someone had accidentally hit the outside of their door.

[66] And so Marie just sat there for a second, staring at the door, wondering if the knocking sound would start again, and after a few seconds, she heard it again.

[67] Marie glanced at her watch and saw that her father had only left about 45 minutes earlier, and normally he would stay at church for hours at a time, so this likely was not him, and Sondra was not scheduled to come by that night, so it likely was not her either.

[68] Marie waited a moment, and when she heard yet another bang, she called out to see who was there, but no one answered.

[69] After a few more moments of silence, Marie stood up and began walking over to the door, but before she could get there, the front door suddenly flew open, and her father stumbled inside, and he looked absolutely terrible.

[70] His face was pale, and even though it was cold outside.

[71] There was sweat dripping down his forehead and his dress shirt was also drenched in sweat.

[72] Marie frantically began asking her dad what was wrong, what was going on, but all Stephen could get out was that he needed to lay down.

[73] So Marie rushed over and helped her enormous father stumble across the room until he kind of collapsed on the couch.

[74] And then once he was lying down, Marie, who was really starting to panic, told her father she was going to get Sandra and she'd be right back.

[75] And so a moment later, Marie had run out the front door into the cold night air and she charged across the parking lot over to the row of apartments where Sondra lived, and then once she found Sondra's door, she began pounding on it.

[76] When Sondra flung the door open, wondering what was going on, Marie quickly explained that her father was very sick and they needed to do something, and so without asking any more questions, Sondra just ran with Marie back to the apartment.

[77] When they got there, they found Stevens still lying on the couch, but he was borderline unresponsive and looking much more pale than when Marie had left him.

[78] Sondra had no idea what was going on, but she knew whatever this was, it was bad, and so she rushed into the living room, she picked up the phone, and she dialed 911.

[79] The paramedics would arrive just a few minutes later, but it was already too late.

[80] Stephen had died.

[81] Shortly after his death, the coroner would conduct an autopsy and conclude that Stephen had died from a heart attack.

[82] After her father's death, Marie, who was totally crushed, moved back in with her mother, Beth and her stepfather, Frank.

[83] Even though Marie and her mother had stopped fighting, their relationship was by no means fixed, and Marie still hated Frank.

[84] But Beth promised Marie that things would be different this time around, and true to her word, Beth made a real effort to spend as much time as she could with Marie just like the old days.

[85] And for a time, despite the tragic loss of her father, Marie was basically happy.

[86] But in the summer of 1993, a few months after Stephen died, Marie discovered a note that another woman had written to Frank, and based on that note, it was obvious to Marie that Frank was still cheating on her mother.

[87] But again, when Marie brought this note to her mother and pleaded with her to leave Frank and for them to just go live by themselves somewhere else, Marie's mother refused and said she would not be leaving Frank no matter what.

[88] And when she said that, Marie felt like her mother had turned her back on her and was choosing Frank over her own daughter.

[89] As such, Marie decided that she could not bear to live with either of them anymore.

[90] So in June, just four months after Marie had moved back in with her mom, Marie moved out again, this time to live with her grandfather, who lived in Mansfield, the same town where Stephen's apartment had been.

[91] Right away, Marie felt totally relieved to be away from all the drama surrounding her mother and Frank.

[92] And not long after moving in with her grandfather, Marie's senior year of high school began, and quickly Marie was fully immersed in her schoolwork and spending almost no time worrying about all the issues in her family.

[93] Marie also began going out and seeing friends on the weekends, just like her father had always secretly hoped she would.

[94] But as happy and normal as Marie seemed, beneath the surface, this was not true.

[95] Because Marie had a secret, a secret that she was now starting to struggle to contain.

[96] I'm Dan Tversky.

[97] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[98] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[99] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[100] She's like, I can't.

[101] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[102] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the download.

[103] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[104] Well, you were holding something back.

[105] Intentionally.

[106] Yeah, well, yeah.

[107] No, it's hysteria.

[108] It's all in your head.

[109] It's not physical.

[110] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[111] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[112] Or is it something else entirely?

[113] Something's wrong here.

[114] Something's not right.

[115] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[116] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios.

[117] Hysterical.

[118] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[119] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[120] Hey, all you fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[121] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.

[122] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.

[123] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[124] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphics Stories.

[125] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[126] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[127] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely stunning.

[128] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[129] Again, that's book .bollinstudios .com.

[130] One afternoon in January of 1994, almost a year after Stephen's death, and six months after Marie had moved in with her grandfather, Marie and one of her friends went back to Marie's grandfather's house to study after school.

[131] The two girls walked into Marie's bedroom, took off their winter coats, tossed their backpacks on the floor, and then after talking for a few minutes about school, and what they wanted to do that weekend, they both decided it was time to actually start studying.

[132] And so Marie and her friend both sat down on the floor, they unzipped their backpacks and took out their copies of Hamlet that they were reading for their English class.

[133] Hamlet is a very famous play by William Shakespeare that tells the story of a Danish prince whose father, the king, has died.

[134] Marie and her friend discussed the plot and the characters of Hamlet, and then Marie's friend said she wanted to read out loud one of her favorite parts of the play.

[135] So she flipped through her book and found the section she was looking for, and then Marie's friend held her book up in front of her face, cleared her throat, and started reading that section out loud.

[136] Marie's friend read a part of a very intense scene where one of the characters reveals a secret he's kept throughout the play.

[137] Oh, wretched state, oh bosom black as death, the character cries out to make it clear how upset he is about this secret.

[138] Marie listened to her friend read this part, and all of a sudden, she began feeling this pit in her stomach forming.

[139] Marie's hands started to tremble, she felt a lump growing in her throat, and then she just started sobbing.

[140] Her friend who was reading was stunned, and she stopped reading mid -sentence and asked Marie what was wrong.

[141] Marie struggled to catch her breath, then she wiped the tears from her eyes, and she looked up and through a cracking voice, she told her friend that, like the character in the play, she too had a secret that she had never told anyone, but now she had to get it off her chest.

[142] Marie's friend was stunned at this revelation, but quickly told Marie that she could trust her and that whatever this secret was, she was sure Marie would be okay, that they could figure out what to do together.

[143] But when Marie actually began telling the friend what this secret was, the friend's face went pale in her mouth opened in horror.

[144] Marie's secret, which had to do with her deceased father, was way bigger than the friend had anticipated.

[145] And if this was true, and the friend told anyone about it, it would make headlines around the country.

[146] Based on this wild secret story that Marie would tell her friend, and on later interviews conducted with Marie and Stephen's friends and family, here is a reconstruction of what happened the night Stephen Robards died in his apartment on February 18, 1993.

[147] On February 18th, about an hour before Stephen left for church, church, a delivery person arrived at Stephen and Marie's apartment with the takeout Mexican food Stephen had ordered for dinner.

[148] After paying the delivery person, Stephen put the containers of food on the kitchen counter so Marie could begin eating while Stephen stepped into the other room to get dressed for church.

[149] When he came back out again, he wolfed down a plate of food, gave Maria a kiss and said goodbye, and then headed out the door for the night.

[150] Once outside, Stephen got into his car and made the short drive to the church he attended in his neighborhood.

[151] He was in a great mood because he always looked forward to weeknight services.

[152] There was usually a smaller crowd than on Sundays, so it was easier for him to talk to friends and share in the community experience the church had to offer.

[153] When Stephen finally arrived at the church, he stepped out of his car and began walking towards the entrance.

[154] Even though it was a cold winter night for north Texas, with temperatures lower than 40 degrees Fahrenheit, Stephen felt warm and sweat was starting to bead on his forehead.

[155] But he just wiped the sweat away and didn't think too much about it.

[156] Stephen walked inside the church, took off his coat, and began chatting with other members of the congregation who were standing near the front door greeting new arrivals.

[157] A few moments later, Stephen had left the front entryway and made his way to a seat in one of the church's long wooden pews.

[158] Shortly after that, as the minister took his place in front of the congregation and got ready to begin the service, Stephen's vision began to blur.

[159] He felt sweat.

[160] dripping down his forehead again, and now he was having a hard time focusing, like he was overtired or something.

[161] But Stephen just continued to wipe the sweat away and told himself everything was fine.

[162] But just a few moments later, he began to feel a sharp pain in his stomach.

[163] Stephen winced and grabbed at his midsection and bent over in the pew.

[164] The people sitting next to him looked worried and asked if Stephen needed any help.

[165] He told them he was okay through gritted teeth, but as he did, he started to feel nauseous, and so quickly he stood up, apologized to the people sitting next to him, and he hustled out of the row and out of the church as fast as he could.

[166] Once outside, Stephen felt the cold air hit his skin, but he was still burning up and sweating profusely.

[167] The pain in his stomach was getting worse too, but he managed to not throw up and got into his car, turned it on, and began driving out of the lot back towards home.

[168] By the time Stephen pulled into a parking spot in front of his apartment, the pain in his stomach had gotten exponentially worse, and now, on top of everything else, he was struggling to breathe.

[169] He managed to get his car door open, and he groaned in pain as he stumbled to the front door of his apartment.

[170] His hands were shaking as he raised his keys up to the lock and tried to unlock the door, but he couldn't get the keys to fit in, and he sort of fell forward and slammed against the outside of the door.

[171] This was the first loud thumping sound that his daughter would hear inside as she studied her science textbook.

[172] Stephen took a breath and then managed to get the keys into the lock and open the door, stumbling inside practically onto Marie.

[173] Marie helped him lay down on the couch and then she ran off to get Sandra.

[174] Meanwhile, Stephen's throat began tightening up like he was being choked.

[175] And while Stephen lay alone on the couch waiting for Marie and Sandra to return, he began to convulse and foam at the mouth.

[176] And when Sondra and Marie did return to the apartment, Stephen was no longer responsive, and a few minutes later, when paramedics arrived, it was obvious to everyone in the room that Stephen was just getting worse.

[177] And so, Sondra, sensing this, grabbed Marie and pressed her face into her chest, so Marie would not have to see her father die.

[178] Stephen then made one final gasping sound, and then he would die.

[179] As Sondra began to cry, Marie pulled herself away from her and just stood there motionless staring over at her now deceased father.

[180] Even though Marie's outward expression showed shock and horror and sadness, inside, Marie felt differently.

[181] She was pleased.

[182] The night had gone exactly to plan.

[183] After Stephen had put that takeout food on the kitchen counter and then stepped into the other room, Marie had rushed over to the kitchen, pulled out a folded up paper towel from her pocket, that contained an odorless, tasteless white powder inside of it, and then Marie quickly sprinkled that powder into the refried beans, something she knew her father would be eating, she stirred it up so he wouldn't notice, and then she grabbed a few untainted tacos for herself, rushed back to the couch, and waited in the other room.

[184] When her dad came out a few minutes later, she watched with joy as her dad did exactly what she hoped.

[185] He began eating huge quantities of the refried beans.

[186] Afterward, he grabbed his jacket.

[187] gave Maria a kiss and headed out the door for church, not realizing he was already a dead man. Marie had poisoned her father, but it would turn out the reason she did it really had nothing to do with Stephen.

[188] Instead, it had to do with her mother and her very strict stepfather, Frank.

[189] Frank believed it was very important that Marie, whose parents were obviously divorced, pick which biological parent, Beth or Stephen, she wanted to live with.

[190] And once that decision was made, he told her it was final.

[191] Frank did not want Marie to feel like she could bounce back and forth from one household to the other.

[192] She basically needed to commit to one family or the other, and that was it.

[193] And Frank told Marie, who was living with Frank and Beth, and so her de facto decision had been to live with them, that if Marie ever moved out to go live with Stephen, then Marie would never be welcome back to live with Beth and Frank.

[194] And after Marie caught Frank cheating on her mother, and her mother refused to leave Frank, Marie moved out of the house and in with Stephen.

[195] But shortly after moving in with Stephen, Marie had a change of heart and missed her mother terribly and wanted to move back in with her and with Frank.

[196] But because of Frank's rule, Frank said no. Marie had been furious and tried to persuade her mother to change Frank's mind and let her come back home and live with them, but her mother continued to stand by Frank and just said, no, you need to stay with your father now.

[197] And so this led to all of those yelling fights Marie got into with her mother on the phone that Stephen and Sandra kept overhearing.

[198] Marie was absolutely furious and heartbroken and eventually felt so desperate to find a way to go live with her mom again that she decided the only way was to kill her father, because then her mother and Frank would have to take her back.

[199] And so, on February 18, 1993, Marie poisoned her father's refried beans with a chemical called barium acetate, which is toxic to humans.

[200] Marie had stolen the chemical from her chemistry classroom.

[201] The reason the coroner had not noticed that Stephen had been poisoned is because in order to detect barium acetate, you basically need to run a special test at a special facility.

[202] And the coroner had not thought there was any evidence of foul play, so he had not asked for that test to be run.

[203] Marie had gotten away with murder.

[204] But nearly a year later, while studying Hamlet, Marie's friend happened to read the part of the play out loud where Hamlet's uncle admits to killing Hamlet's father.

[205] And in that moment in the play, Hamlet's uncle realizes he'll never be forgiven because no matter what he does, he will always be a murderer.

[206] And when Marie heard those words, oh wretched state, oh bosom black as death, she felt a crushing sense of guilt wash over her and she promptly confessed to her friend what she had done to her father.

[207] Marie's friend kept Marie's secret for several months, and during that time, Marie did get to move back in with her mother until, of course, she moved out again after catching Frank cheating again and she moved in with her grandfather, and then shortly after that, Marie's friend did go to police, at which point Marie was arrested.

[208] Marie was ultimately found guilty of murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

[209] However, in 2003, she was granted parole and is believed to still be living in Texas today under a different last name.

[210] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[211] If you enjoyed today's story, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories just like this one, many of which are not available on this podcast.

[212] They're only on the YouTube channel.

[213] So that's going to do it.

[214] I really appreciate your support.

[215] Until next time, see you.

[216] Hey, Prime members.

[217] You can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[218] Download the Amazon Music app today.

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[220] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[221] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[222] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reid was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[223] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[224] What happens next?

[225] Depends on who you ask.

[226] Was it a crime of passion?

[227] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[228] This was clearly an intentional act.

[229] and his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[230] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[231] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[232] Everyone had an opinion.

[233] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[234] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[235] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[236] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[237] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.