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The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Jerry Gorton's Dark Secret IV: The FBI profile was completely wrong about who killed Margaret Ebe.
Tunnel vision can be the ultimate enemy of justice. In this riveting exploration of the Margaret Ebbe murder investigation, we reveal how a questionable FBI profile led detectives down a singular path focused on former university employee Charlie Stone, potentially blinding them to other suspects and evidence.
The Ebbe family, desperate for answers about their mother's brutal killing, hired private investigator Thomas Reed, who embarked on a costly and ultimately absurd pursuit of Stone. From staking out his Pennsylvania residence to ordering pizzas from the Domino's where he worked just to interact with him, Reed's investigation reads like dark comedy—expensive hours billed with nothing substantial to show for the effort.
Meanwhile, the case took a devastating turn when Metropolitan Detroit magazine published "The Two Mrs. Ebbes," a cruel article that painted a lurid and largely fictional picture of the victim's personal life. Based heavily on the FBI profile and questionable sources with personal grudges against Ebbe, the article suggested she had willingly participated in bondage with her killer—a narrative that shattered her family and misled the public.
What makes this case particularly troubling is how the FBI's behavioral science unit was credited with solving previous high-profile cases when there's little evidence they contributed. Yet their profile in the Ebbe case was treated as gospel, narrowing the focus of the investigation dramatically while potential leads went unexplored. Despite Flint Police maintaining an impressive clearance rate for homicides during a record-breaking year of violence, the Ebbe case remained frustratingly open.
As the episode introduces us to Art Ludwig and his wife Nancy Lepore, new threads begin to appear in this complex mystery. Their seemingly perfect life together creates an intriguing counterpoint to the main investigation, suggesting connections that will become clear as Jeffrey Gordon's deadly secrets continue to unfold.
Have you ever wondered how a murder investigation can go wrong despite the best intentions? This episode shows exactly how confirmation bias and overreliance on profiles can derail the pursuit of justice. What would you look for if you were investigating this case?
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, kiara, and this is part four of Jeffrey Gordon's Deadly Secret. Let's begin so. Detectives Kinn and the Catch were not the only ones on Stone's Trail. The Ebbies were too, or rather the private investigator they hired.
Speaker 1:It was a somber Thanksgiving for the Ebi children. Less than three weeks after their mother's murder they gathered at their dad's parents who had been devastated by the news. One of their relatives asked what they were going to do about the murder. The kids had not been planning to do anything. It was in the cops' hands. The relative said if it had been her mom she would do more. She would hire a private investigator and get to the bottom of things. Lynn disagreed, but that planted the bug. That planted the bug.
Speaker 1:Her siblings eventually decided to hire a PI out of Ann Arbor named Thomas Reed. Jonathan had his first meeting with him on September 20th 1987. And they end up spending a fortune on him. According to Lynn, the money came out of the proceeds from their mother's estate. The PI talked to the Flint cops. He filed report after report, mostly in lock form, and he just kept sending these reports and they just couldn't stand the guy. Unlike some PIs, reed seemed to enjoy the limelight, not hanging back in the shadows. He managed to alert the Flint reporters who he was and was quoted in the paper nearing the first anniversary of Evie's death that even if he were fired he would keep working the case because it was so unusual. And he said quote I will work on this until I reach a conclusion, end quote, though there's no evidence that he continued to work the case once he was fired. In another article in November 19, he said that he was working numerous new leads and might soon release a composite sketch of a new suspect. But he never did. At 1.30 pm spoke with Todd Seed of the Flint Journal and gave him details of how we were going to proceed with the investigation. And 11.687 at 3.10 pm spoke with Newcaster Barb Schroeder from TV12 concerning the investigation. And 11.1387 at 3 pm talked with Barb Schroeder who wanted to know if in fact we were meeting the following Tuesday at 3 with the Flint Police Department.
Speaker 1:He traveled to Boston and Florida conducting interviews with former friends and colleagues of their mother and though he told King he disagreed with him about Stone being a viable suspect, he traveled to Pennsylvania too For his visit to Stone. He flew to Philadelphia, rented a car on May 31, 1988, and stayed until June 6. On June 1, he found from the Newark Delaware police that Stone had recently been in trouble with them. He had been hanging around the library of the University of Delaware trying to strike out out-book conversations with women, some of whom were frightened and called the police. The cops asked him not to return to the library police. The cops asked him not to return to the library. Other than that he had no trauma with any police agency in the tri-state area Except for his brief conversation with police.
Speaker 1:The first three days of the detective's trip were fruitless, uneventful and expensive for the Ebbies. He recorded 16 hours of billable time the first day, 11, the second, 14 the third and three days of trying. He never even saw Stone, couldn't verify that he still lived where King and Dickette found him. Couldn't find the car he thought Stone was driving, a Chevy Citation of 1974 vintage. He went to the place where he thought Stone worked, but he had not worked there for a year. On the fourth day things improved. They were still fruitless, still expensive, but at least they got comedic.
Speaker 1:Reed staked out Stone's supposed residence in Landenburg from 5.20 am to 4.30 pm, apparently just staring at the house waiting to see Stone on or his Chevy. His report to the Ebbes of the day is unintentionally funny. He says, quote I simply couldn't take the chance of wasting additional time. I decided to contact one of the neighbors. A brainstorm, as it worked out. This was the best thing to do. I went to the residence next door to Mr Stone's residence and spoke with the lady of the house at 4.30 pm. She indicated that she knew Charlie Stone quite well but didn't quite feel comfortable going into specific detail and asked that I come back at approximately 5.30 pm to speak with her husband. The husband he reported provided a wealth of information, such as Stone was still living next door and occasionally took trips out of town for two or three days. And occasionally took trips out of town for two or three days.
Speaker 1:He delivered pizza for Domino's in downtown Newark and used to deliver pizzas in Newcastle, delaware. And what a surprise, given that he delivered pizzas. He generally worked afternoons and evenings. He also told Reed that Stone hung out after work at Klondike Kate's, a bar popular with University of Delaware students. So the detective decided to stake out Klondike Cates from the inside and await Stone's post-midnight arrival. He was hoping to run into him. Mr Stone ended up not showing up and he called Domino's Pizza and found out that he ended up working late. This happens to be a very busy franchise and he put in a note this was approximately a 16-hour day. Quote June 4 was a Saturday.
Speaker 1:The detective wrote that he decided not to try to talk to Stone at his house before going to work, but would wait till he got to work. In conducting limited surveillance at this particular establishment, he was able to verify that it was not unusual for individuals to stop by the Domino's Pizza pick up their own pizzas. Surveillance has its rewards, so hence the plan plan. At 7 45 pm, the detective went into dominoes and ordered a pizza. While waiting, he would look for the opportunity to strike up a casual conversation with his query. And only one problem the query was not on a delivery. Timing is everything. The detective got lucky, though, because Stone came back before Reed started arousing suspicion by not carrying out his carry-out pizza, and the detective did indeed strike up a conversation. He was going to be in town for a week wonder what was a good place for some action, and Stone told him about Klondike Cakes. The detectives thanked him and said he would try it and if Stone wanted to stop by later he would buy him a drink. Back to Klondike on the Ebis Dime where Stone did not go after work the best late plans.
Speaker 1:Sunday the detective called Stone's neighbor at 2.20 pm and verified that Stone was home. He got there 20 minutes later. Stone's car was gone. Just miss him, said the neighbor. So he left and pulled onto Route 896 just in time to see Stone driving by in the opposite direction. Reed pulled a U-turn, followed Stone to a rural cemetery where he got out and started taking photographs of headstones. He said quote. I drove by him based on the fact that it would have been very unusual for me to run into him out in the country after meeting him at the peace establishment end, quote.
Speaker 1:And that night the detective had a plan he would go back to Domino's, order another pizza and strike up a conversation with Stone. And strike up a conversation with Stone the Deja Vu plan, you could call it. He ordered his pizza and thanked Stone for the tip on Klondike Cates, but said it was too young a crowd and did Stone have any other suggestions for a cool place to hang out? Ben against Stone replied lots of women there. Now Bennigan's stone replied lots of women there.
Speaker 1:And the detective stated that he would be in town for approximately one more week and asked him to join him for a drink. And he again stated to him that I knew no one in town and this is him talking. And then he said well, mr Stone was very polite, seemed somewhat excited about the conversation with him. So he indicated that he wouldn't mind at all having a drink with him. And somewhat excited must be a relative term, because Stone also told him that since he was working late each night for the next week he was going to have to pass on that drink offer. At least it was only a six hour day In six days.
Speaker 1:Reed had talked to Stone twice about places to hang out in Newark. Maybe he was hoping to get Stone drunk. Before he mentioned the reason for the trip, margaret Irby learned that Stone still lived where he used to live, still drove the car he used to drive, still deliver pizza, still work late. There. He had been the pizza, though he had gotten to watch college kids get hammered at Klondike Skate, and so the trip wasn't without its rewards. The detective had one day left, so he made it through all of it without surveilling the dominoes or ordering another pie.
Speaker 1:The report of his final day reads, quote on Monday, june 6, 1988, I ended up contacting an individual. I believe to be a reliable informant. I would be glad to give you more detailed information concerning the individual and how he may be contacted. I ended up taking a late flight out based on the fact that it was the most inexpensive fare. Note this was approximately a 14 and one half hour day. This was approximately a 14 and one half hour day. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions concerning the information stated in this report. End quote Questions. There were none. What was to question? Deep dish or regular? So in September 15, 1988, on behalf of the Ebi family, reed offered a reward of $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the murder. Finally, lynn, margaret's daughter. She confronted her siblings and said I had enough. Cash me out. From now on you're paying it three ways. Shortly thereafter they terminated his services. Nothing came of it, except Stone was more convinced than ever that there was a conspiracy to get him, one that involved the Flint police, the FBI, the Red Runs administration and now some suspicious guy hanging around down in Oaks Stone was proof. Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. We'll be right.
Speaker 1:Back In February 1987, king got his next homicide case. He didn't need a bigger caseload, but this one worked out well. He needed a sense of accomplishment. A call came in to the PD saying there was a guy beaten to death with a baseball bat in a house in Flint. So King was out running that morning about 5 am. It was snowing up a storm and when he got back home he had icicles hanging from his mustache and his wife said to call the desk because they had a body he needed to look into. The whole thing ended up a comedy of errors and after working every non-stop, king was in a mood for comedy.
Speaker 1:The body had been taken to the wrong hospital. Instead of going to the Hurley Medical Center where it was supposed to go, some rookie cop had dispatched it to an osteopathic hospital instead. By the time King tracked it down, the nurses there had cleaned the body, stitched the wounds so they could send it, nice and neat, to the funeral home. Destroy all the evidence in the process and need to the funeral home. Destroy all the evidence in the process, turns out there have been white trash folks two men and a woman boozing it up big time at a house in Flint. The two survivors were sitting at the police department and they told King that they had been partying with the dead guy before he was dead. And then they have left the house to get something to eat and when they came back he was dead. And then they have left the house to get something to eat and when they came back he was all smashed up. No eyewitnesses, two suspects telling a story that's stupid but hard to refute, a body that's been all cleaned and fixed up and is nearly useless from an evidentiary point of view.
Speaker 1:King puts the two in separate rooms. He talks to the man, gets the same story, talks to the man, gets the same story, talks to the woman. She's telling the tale when suddenly she starts crying and in 20 seconds spills are an entirely different story. She was going to have sex with the one guy. The second guy wanted to have sex too, so the first guy beat him up with the bat. King goes back to the guy's room and he looks at King and says she talked to you, didn't she? Okay, I'll talk to you. It was one of those dramatic confessions. You never get dramatic confessions. But King was still back where he started from a dead end on Abby. Three months have gone by. The list of sexual partners he thought surely would lead to a quick arrest, had not the Mott employees had come up clean. Stone did it. But how to prove it? The Mott genius had outwitted King so far and he had been outwitting him since they were five and showed no signs of stopping now and show no signs of stopping now.
Speaker 1:In April the Abbey family was devastated once more, this time by a peculiar profile in a monthly city magazine called Metropolitan Detroit, one of those slick city magazines more often given to features on the five best pickup bars or the ten best pizzas in town than to serious journalism. But Metropolitan Detroit was locked in an ad and circulation war with another city monthly, a war it would soon lose and was trying to beef up interest in what had once been a fat, well-read magazine. Had once been a fat, well-read magazine. Maybe it could beef up readership and sales by shedding its image as a dispenser of puffery in what was less puffy than sex and murder. The Ebbes thought they were participating in what would be both a tribute to their mother and a way to generate publicity about the case. Publicity they got a tribute hardly, as its name implied. The magazine rarely, if ever, dealt with things or events outside the metropolitan Detroit area. Flint was far off to its normal radar screen. If he was going to send one of his associate editors to Flint, if he was going to be able to grab attention back home with any subsequent story, well, its goals wouldn't be served by being reverential.
Speaker 1:The article titled the Two Mrs Ebbes was not only cruel, it was dead wrong. How wrong would take years to find out. The article approached Ebby's life and death the way an investigative reporter might report the death and secret life of a national figure. Ebby was a public figure of sorts in Flint, to be sure. The writer, cynthia Shaw Glasscock and the magazine seemed to take pride in rooting out the secrets of her life, though the secrets amounted to little more than revealing that the gay house was a bit run down. That shock of shocks, given the knife-in-the-back nature of academia knife-in-the-back nature of academia Abby had not been liked, had even been despised by some of those who reported to her when she was provost and that she liked men Glass got quoted, a real estate agent who said that when Abby met with her about a place to live, the first question she asked was about the city's eligible bachelors. Margaret Ebby said the story was a woman who appeared to move in Flynn's highest circles, was gifted, attractive and energetic, but intoned the article melodramatically said, quote. Melodramatically said, quote. There was something else, a question of who this woman was really.
Speaker 1:In the days and weeks following her own death, investigators discover that there was more to know, that in fact she was not a person easily known, that, like a planet in orbit, there was a side of. So, if you read between the lines, the article early on seemed to hint of a willing participantin. There was no sign of theft, there was no sign of struggle, no indication that she was drugged or assaulted sexually against her will, while police will not comment. One hears, though this too is unconfirmed that her wrists had been bound and then released. End quote. Later, a woman identified only as an acquaintance tells Glasgow the following quote you had the feeling that the well-dressed provost could become a different Margaret Ebby dress wildly, maybe, and attend functions, let's say, not normally attended by a university provost. End quote. One picture, as Glasgow seemed to suggest orgies and wild carry-ons.
Speaker 1:How an editor let such rank speculations remain in the story is hard to imagine. The source clearly had no idea what Evie did in her spare time. All she had was a feeling that the well-dressed Evie might be someone who could dress wildly, clearly Class. God had not been able to get sources who knew if there were orgies or if Evie had wild clothes. Worse is the unspoken implication that event A dressing wildly and going to abnormal functions, if true somehow made event B getting her head nearly severed off with a serrated knife her fault. Her head nearly severed off with a serrated knife, her fault.
Speaker 1:Glasgow wrote that Evie had expressed concern for a lack of security, particularly a security alarm at the gatehouse, and had asked Mrs Mudd, without result, to install one. It was Evie's fault then that she didn't pay for a system out of her own funds. And the reporter additionally wrote quote Others wonder why, if Margaret was so scared, she didn't buy her own system. I had the feeling she was penurious. End quote. So you know, wild and cheap. The agent went on to say that three months before Abby's murder she had called Abby to tell her that a two-door had come on the market if she was interested in buying instead of renting. The article says that she told the agent I don't believe I'm interested because I'm so happy here. But she wasn't happy.
Speaker 1:According to Glasgow, by then she apparently believed she needed the gatehouse and the status it conferred. Abby had resigned as provost and was difficult to work with. According to Glasgow, she treated those above her reverentially and those below her with cruelty and disdain. The bad Margaret Abby was arrogant, abrasive, aggressive and insensitive. One woman who used to report to her had been treated for stress After the back festival was over.
Speaker 1:Evie had to go back to being an ordinary music professor, not a powerful administrator. All she had left, wrote Glasgow, margaret Evby feared was the gatehouse. This is a dramatic overstatement that overlooks her rich social life, family involvement and granddaughter. The gatehouse was hardly the only thing in Ebby's life, as her calendar for the weekend she died proves. The gatehouse was all she had, though, wrote Glasgow, and the house itself, like Ebby, was not what it seemed. Glasscock found it tacky and in bad taste. It had, she said, green shack carpeting throughout wood trim on the exterior that seemed to show spots of rot and a tiny kitchen that looked like it had not been updated since the 40s and the basement leaked. One can barely imagine. Well, maybe one can, considering Abby was paying $375 a month including utilities.
Speaker 1:Glasscock also told of the FBI's involvement, of those sharp, allseeing or knowing profilers, and that the word on the street, meaning the word she was getting from police or FBI on a not-for-attribution basis, was that the cops knew her killer but were forced to play a waiting game for more evidence, to wait for the killer to make a mistake by now. Later in the article there was no need to read between the lines to see the victim being blamed, and this is what Glasgow wrote, quote imagine this a slightly inebriated male of indeterminate age goes to Margaret Evie's house to talk. Exact time of day or night, uncertain Financial and occupational stress weigh heavily on his mind. Mrs Evie lets him in, they talk and, though he had not intended it, a rage is unleashed and he kills her, slashing her delicate throat. Afterward the man remains in the Flint area despite his desire to leave. He also undergoes a personality change. The above scenario is fact according to FBI behavior scientist experts Using the same method employed in tracking down Varno Bailey, the man recently found guilty of the abduction and slaying of Sean Moore. The FBI last December released a profile of the killer. The agency concluded that the assailant not only knew Margaret Ebby, he had been in her home before Late Friday night or very early Saturday morning.
Speaker 1:Margaret Ebby is at home after a quiet entertaining evening with friends. There is a knock at the door, surprise. She calls for identification and a familiar voice responds A very familiar voice Together. The two go upstairs. Once in her bedroom, both parties undress. Margaret is nearly hanging her clothes, as is her habit. Then she readies the bed, pulling back the covers and turning on the electric blanket she uses in place of a bottom sheet. She willingly gives him her wrists it's a game they have played. Before he fastens them tightly, passion follows. Then, before he frees her, he gets up. She is so calm now doesn't notice. Perhaps her eyes are drowsily closed. Then the cold steel of the blade presses her skin. Death comes quickly. He unties her hands, end quote.
Speaker 1:What Glasgow didn't know, or didn't write about, if she didn't know, was that the woman who served as the main source was Margaret Strubble, the same woman who had once told the Flint Journal how wonderful her boss was and who later claimed to reporters to have told her husband that Amy would never live through the month of November had in fact been a suspect herself. Abby's other friends had told King that their relationship had soured when she quit the bag festival and Abby wouldn't rehire her. Straubel had later bad-mouthed Abby, claiming erroneously that she had blocked Straubel's admission to a graduate program at University of Michigan. At one point, during what King described as a hard interview with Straubel, the woman broke down and began crying. Briefly, king thought she was about to confess to Abby's murder. She was eventually cleared. Glasscock also had no way of knowing that Straubel had, according to private investigator Reed, told him that she once considered her husband a suspect in Abby's death, that he had hated Abby and acted very suspiciously the weekend of the slaying. Adding a final odd touch to the story, strobel claimed that Glasgow had never interviewed her but had pulled quotes of hers out of various Flint Journal and Detroit News stories. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:The heavy murder was Flint's most prominent unsolved homicide in 1986, but hardly its only one. There were 61 murders for the year, an all-time record for the city, and as February 1987 rolled around, 18 of them were still unsolved. King's caseload was brutal, as was the entire homicide squad's. Even so, its clearance rate for homicides in 1986 was 71%. The state average was 46%. In Detroit it was 40%. According to FBI figures, the national average was 74%. Given its caseload, given its budget, woes and resources, the Flint PD more than held its own. Police still seek clues to 1986 homicides.
Speaker 1:Read a Flint Journal headline from the Sunday paper of February 8, 1987. The Abbey case was most prominent in the roundup of unsolved murders. The others were more than you would expect. Robert Fordham, stabbed to death days after being indicted on cocaine charges. Victor Arteaga, shot somewhere else and dumped in front of a stranger's house. Sammy Sanders, a 15-year-old boy, stabbed next to his home for his tennis shoes. Eric Gibson, wanted on an armed robbery charge, shot with a large caliber handgun in the back. Reading between the lines, it was bad news. The Evie case had moved in the editor's mind from the category of breaking news to the category of a looking back feature.
Speaker 1:In June it was time for the paper to take another look back. Every slaying investigator still making progress. Read the headline for June 22nd. As usual, detective DeCatch was quoted prominently. It remains a case that still generates a great deal of interest, not only in the community, but when it was presented last month at the Homicide Investigators Conference at the Michigan State Police Academy in Lansing. He said DeKach told the reporter that while there had been no startling developments in the case, detectives were still working on it and making progress.
Speaker 1:He declined to elaborate. He said the shopping list of things that have to be done was immense at the beginning of the investigation. It is still long and we are continuing to do things on the list. In fact they were out of the to-dos and have been for some time. But the catch was hardly about to tell a reporter looking for an angle that they have given up, that there seemed to be no chance that they have solved the case, that Charlie Stone was home free. Ironically, the catch continued to plug the FBI. He said the general profile provided by the FBI limited the number of possible suspects.
Speaker 1:And another Big Sunday feature on November 1st 1987 said who killed Abby? One year later, question still on number Answers. And that was the headline. And the cat said you know we think about it all the time. That's still the number one topic of conversation. What are you doing on the Eddie case? He told the reporter that he got asked the question at the supermarket, at football games, at social gatherings, games, at social gatherings. King got the same question from his neighbors and the folks at church. Rarely a Sunday went by without someone at church asking King what progress they were making. And again the catch praised the FBI. He said we know that the profiling technique works and we'll still remain confident that we will solve this case. And we'll still remain confident that we will solve this case.
Speaker 1:Gene Harrington may have conjured up some magic when he worked up Ronald Bailey's profile. The press and Flint police had every reason to believe he had conjured up some more with the profile of Abby's killer. It certainly helped set the course of events for years to come. It helped put Charlie Stone directly in King's metaphorical crosshairs. It helped keep him there. It kept the Flint PD from expanding its investigation. It served as the basis for Metropolitan Detroit's devastating profile of Evie and the article's image of a woman inviting a lover to tie her up and have sex with her.
Speaker 1:There was only one thing wrong Harrington's profile as a factor in solving the Bailey killings seems to have been worthless. That such a profile even existed can be discerned from reading any of the thousands of inches of newspaper clippings on the case which commanded headlines in the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, the Suburban Observer, the eccentric newspapers. For months, Not once is the profile even referred to. Nowhere is quoted by the papers as a means to solicit tips. Harrington's name never comes up. That's not to say that Harrington didn't do a bang-up job or that it wasn't distributed to police, but no one at the time seems to have paid the least bit of attention to it, including the police involved. The cops never credited it. The papers never used it.
Speaker 1:According to the Livonia Observer, which gave the Bailey murders blanket coverage for more than a year, the first time Bailey's name came to the attention of a local police was on September 6, 1985, when his name turned up on a list of owners of gold 1985 Jeeps which witnesses had seen at Moore's abduction. Bailey got caught not because of the vets but because he was stupid enough and frantic enough to grab a kid in broad daylight while driving a car that stood out a mile away. The first description to match Bailey was on a wanted flyer put together by those same witnesses. Reporters covering those cases had no memory of any involvement by FBI profilers, but the Bailey murders were off the radar screen in Flint. If the FBI wanted to brag about how they have helps of the case. How did they? They did everything her name but named Bailey in their profile. Who was to dispute it?
Speaker 1:There was another thing wrong about the profile of Abby's killer. It didn't have a shred of truth to it, not a bit of real insight. It was the wildest sort of inaccurate hocus-pocus, malarkey. The FBI couldn't have been more wrong about Abby's killer if it had said Benjamin Franklin had come back from the dead to electrocute her. The profile gave the Flint police some direction though, a direction they follow as faithfully as a ship's captain eyeing a compass and fog bank. They believe in Harrington, they believe the profile. They would believe it for years, despite any lack of results, results, despite eventual evidence to the contrary. It was their story and they were going to stick to it. Margaret Eby had been killed by someone she knew, and when it came time to exclude a whole category of possible suspects the estate's various contractors, subcontractors, vendors who might have access to the gatehouse grounds or even to the house itself, but who did not know Ebi personally the FBI profile provided one excuse. The workload for police and manpower and budget problems provided three others. We'll be right back. Let's go to talk about other people now.
Speaker 1:There was no sign in the summer of 1954 that Art Ludwig would become a pioneer of the fledgling TV industry or that it would make him wealthy. Little to show anyone, least of all his exasperated mother, that he had become much of anything, as he had partied his nights away and wasted the mornings in bed. He was a Korean War vet who had enlisted in the National Guard. When he was still in high school he spent his tour of duty stateside at Fort Rocker, alabama. Art showed leadership skills in the service. He was a tank commander, then a platoon sergeant and finally a company first sergeant before his discharge Christmas of 1953. He would later rise to the rank of colonel in the Army Reserves. He returned to Brainerd, minnesota, and was happy to be part of the post-war ebullience of the times.
Speaker 1:Brainerd, a town of 4,500, that is 125 miles north of Minneapolis, is the self-proclaimed heart of the lake country In long, a tourist mecca for those hoping to fish or swim, to get sunburn on or near one of the Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. Art was from a large family four sisters and two brothers, one of whom died as a baby. Four sisters and two brothers, one of whom died as a baby. His dad, arthur, had owned a local grocery store but went broke during the Depression when he continued to sell on credit to his friends and neighbors. The family moved north to Duluth for a while where his dad found a job as a machinist. But the lure of Brainerd soon brought them back.
Speaker 1:So Art graduated from Brainerd High School in the class of 1949, and during high school he worked as a busboy at the Llano Lakes Bar and Cafe, one of just two real restaurants in town and the only one with a liquor license. On summer weekends. It did a big business and closed too late for Art to avoid breaking the curfew laws that was in effect for kids, so he and another busboy would sleep in cramped quarters reserved for them over the restaurant. He was smart, witty, sharp with the pattern, good with the girls. Ludwig was content to just let the days and nights fall by and when he returned to Brainerd after his stint in the army.
Speaker 1:So Christmas came and went, new Year's came and went, with not much to distinguish one night from the next. There was always a party somewhere or a gathering at friends at one door and another, and early one night in January of 1954, art was drinking with some friends and one of them said they were leaving the next day. And when Art asked them why, they said well, because we're going to college. He said where. He said the University of Minnesota. And Art said well, that sounds like a good idea to me. So the next morning Art brutally hung over, but he managed to get out of bed, piled himself into his friend's car for the drive south. When they got to Minneapolis, art went to the registrar's office and they asked him we can register you, because where are your transcripts? And he said what are transcripts? Normally that would have been the end of it, but the post-war days were boom times for American colleges, as they enrolled classrooms full of ex-soldiers, taking advantage of the GI Bill and raking millions of Uncle Sam's dollars. So the registrar's office worked around the immediate lack of transcripts and sent him to a counselor to figure out how he could take the requisite 14 hours required by the GI Bill when nearly every class was already filled. Somehow the counselor found the hours, including courses in English, literature, history and speech. And he was in.
Speaker 1:Art enjoyed life as a college student and, returning to Brainerd for the summer, vowed to enjoy life as a college student on break too. It was back to a routine of long nights, short mornings, and the summer was broken up by two weeks of what was then called AT for active training, as part of his ongoing military obligations. While at active training at Camp Ripley, minnesota, art ran into a friend from his days at Fort Rucker. At Camp Ripley, minnesota, art ran into a friend from his days at Fort Rucker. His name was Walter Butler, and Butler's father owned a new TV station, wtcn. There have been two stations in the Twin Cities and the Federal Communication Commission said there could be two more. In his infinite wisdom, he had assigned both of them the same channel 11. St Paul's News Station WMIN would sign on and present two hours of programming and then sign off. Wtcn would then sign on, run two hours and sign off, and so it went throughout the day. When Art ran into Butler at active training, butler shook his hand enthusiastically and immediately offered him a job at the station, and they told him that they needed a switchboard operator, and Art said sure, having no intentions of ruining his summer by taking any sort of meaningful employment After active training, art went back to Brainerd and forgot all about TV.
Speaker 1:Years later he said I have not spent an hour watching TV in my life. I know I would never even turn one on or off in my life, my life. I know I would never even turn one on or off in my life. But a few days later he was lying in bed deciding when and if to get up. When his mother, dolores, came to his room he said there's a man on the phone. I said who is it? He said Walter Butler. I said I don't want to talk to him. Tell him I'm not home. A couple of days later, on another late afternoon morning I believe, his mom came to his room again and said it's Walter Butler. Again, he said I don't want to talk to him. Tell him I'm out.
Speaker 1:A few days later his mom came to his room once more and this time she was poking him in the ribs with a broom handle. She said it's Walter Butler again. Why does he keep calling you? She said because he wants me to go to work with him. She said. And he said I don't want to. She said well, what are you going to do this summer? He said nothing. I'm a veteran. I'm going to stay home with you and party till I have to go back to school. That part. He said it was unsaid, of course. And she said where are you going to stay? He said here. She said nope, no, you're not. No son of mine is going to lay in bed when he's wanted for a job. And she poked him harder in the ribs, got him up and sent him to the phone.
Speaker 1:Art drove to the Twin Cities. Butler had told him he'd mostly be needed on the switchboard on weekends but there would no doubt be other hours. As he was filling out the application, someone walked into the office, asked him what he was doing, told him he wasn't going to be a switchboard operator after all, grabbed him and led him to a nearby soundstage. A stagehand had failed to show up for work and in those days of live TV, stagehands were the glue that held the shows with their cheesy backdrops together. It was also the TV era of an on-the-job training. Everyone in the business was new to it. If you walk into the station and apply for a job, and that's the day a salesman quit, you were a salesman. If a stagehand stayed home with a hangover, you were a stagehand, or was a stagehand.
Speaker 1:In the alternating two-hour blocks of time, the crew at WTCN put on cookie shows, clown shows, the accordion school on the air, church shows and evangelists. It also put on the number one rated show in Minnesota TV, the Casey Jones show. At noon the half hour began with a filmed black and white opening shot of the local rail yard, then broke to the studio in a cheap plywood set with Casey the train engineer leaning out the window of his make-believe engine. He would get out of the train do his lunchtime stick. For those kids lucky enough to live within walking or running distance of school. The special effects were such that the stage crew would chain smoke furiously leading up to the show, so the smoke enveloping the engine would look like steam.
Speaker 1:One of the stock-and-trade bits of business for those shows, whether it was Casey Jones in Minneapolis or Soupy Sales in Detroit, was to have the star go to a door at the edge of the set, open it and engage in a wide variety of interactions with imagined off-camera characters or, in some cases, real-life camera characters. Art and his co-workers constantly tried to throw Casey off the script by planting surprises on the other side of the door, surprises he could see but the audience at home could not. The goal was to fluster the star, and flustered Casey was one day when he went to the door during one live commercial as he always did at the same time each show to accept a glass of the sponsor's cold, delicious milk. Instead of a stagehand passing him a glass, there stood the station's biggest buzz female employee, stark, naked with a full glass of milk lodged firmly between her breasts. As she pushed them together, he had to pry the glass loose, drink it down without choking, and nearly failed. They were heady.
Speaker 1:While day's STV invented itself and its pioneers prided themselves on being heady and wild themselves, in that pre-ESPN era, wtcn carved out a niche as a sports station covering everything from high school basketball games to the Big Ten football to pro sports. In time it was the sports station of the area. It handed total coverage of all of the feeds for the visiting teams of the Minnesota Twins, of Major League Baseball, the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings, the National Hockey League's North Stars, and it branched well beyond the Twin Cities, contracting to send his truck and crew out to send feeds to other stations for games out of Kansas City and Milwaukee. Art, whose early duties included chain smoking to make a mock train engine look like it was steaming, quickly worked his way through the ranks engine looked like it was steaming quickly worked his way through the ranks. Just two years after hiring on, he was directing and producing live sporting events.
Speaker 1:His family grew as quickly as his career. He met an attractive waitress named Barbara at a restaurant not far from the station, started dating her and they were married in 1956. The next year his first of seven daughters, laura, was born. His second I should say the youngest, not the second Julie was born with Down syndrome in 1969, died from related complications two years later. By then, wtcn, which would be bought and have its call letters changed to K-A-R-A, was then a knowledge giant of local sports, and Art was a production manager of its sports telecast and vice president of programming. The frequent road trips and the ongoing socializing and drinking inherent in those days in the TV business began to take a toll on his marriage. By the early 1970s his marriage was going south fast and by 1973, art was separated from his family, living with a male friend going through the usual guilt a parent undergoes when he leaves his children.
Speaker 1:Art went to the office Christmas party that year. It was at the Park Terrace, half a mile down Excelsior Boulevard from the TV station, an upscale bar and restaurant that was across the street from the staff's normal hangout at Jennings Red Coach, he found himself talking to and being intrigued by and the last woman he would have thought would pique his interest Not that she wasn't attractive. Nancy Jean Lepore was trim, 5'2", 108 pounds, brown hairs, green eyes, pretty, even beautiful, if you caught her at a certain angle. She was working at an ad agency then, but she had once worked at the station and art had not much liked her. Something about her rubbed him the wrong way and he said I didn't particularly care for her. She was very efficient in everything she did and her approach to her job I interpreted that as I don't know well coldly efficient In a business where a lot of people goofed off a lot. In other words, she could seem sort of like a bitch, but at that party they found themselves standing alone when people they have been with wandered off to get a drink or chat someone else up. They started talking and, to Art's surprise, the Teutonic persona of the office was gone and in front of him was this funny, charming, winning woman. Was this funny, charming, winning woman?
Speaker 1:Often Christmas parties have a way of exaggerating people's charm and wit, and in the light of the next day Art didn't think much about it. But until a couple months later, as was standard operating procedure for many at the station, he popped into the red coach after work. And this was, you know, the time that birth control, pre-aids, pre-herpes, pre-mothers against drunk driving era. So you never knew what kind of action or energy level you would walk into. But chances were you wouldn't be bored at the Red Coach. If nothing else, there would be other sharp, funny, high-energy people there, slinging lines, trading, banter, bitching about bosses.
Speaker 1:Nancy was at a table with some of her old friends from the station. Art sat down, the drinks and conversation flowed. One by one people drifted off and suddenly it was just Art and Nancy. Again they hit it off. It was funny, the way the right person can make you funnier, glibber, more interesting. They made each other very funny, very glib, very interesting.
Speaker 1:So a week later they went out to dinner on their first date. Not quite love at first sight. It was nothing less quickly clear to both that something special was going on. Though he was 18 years her senior, she was born the same year he graduated from high school. The age difference never bothered her. She totally loved him, according to her best friend, patty, who is a professional photographer with a studio specializing in commercial advertising in Eden Prairie, minnesota, alt had met Nancy in 1971, on her first night as a waitress at the Five, a downtown Minneapolis nightclub. The bus told Nancy to show her the ropes and they hit it off.
Speaker 1:From the start they were meant to be together. According to Patty, art and Nancy were meant to be together. They were one of those unique couples. When she met him she thought that does it? Art worried about his kids and what they thought of him At first. They thought I had deserted. Their mother Was in no hurry to get divorced and remarried. Nancy didn't pressure him, but she made it clear that was what she wanted when she started flying with North Central Airlines in 1976, she had a t-shirt made up that said Marry me and fly free.
Speaker 1:In 1977, the same year he got a divorce. They moved in together in an apartment in the Minneapolis suburb of St Louis Park. On June 2, 1978, they were married in Mount Oliver Lutheran Church, where her parents, samuel and Gladys, were members. It was a big wedding in the largest and most impressive ornate church in Minnesota. The wedding was one to remember and so was the honeymoon. She lived up to the t-shirt and they flew free to Rome, greece and Egypt, where Luxor had just been open to tourists and the sight of two Americans was enough to solicit a crowd of the curious who politely followed them around.
Speaker 1:They continued to fly free, at least one big trip a year. They rode a boat through Aberdeen Bay in Hong Kong, where thousands of junks were tied together in a sort of oriental version of a trailer park. Laundry hung everywhere. Kids play on most of the boats. There were puppies on each boat too. Kids play on most of the boats. There were puppies on each boat too. Art didn't have the heart to tell his animal-loving wife, who thought nothing of berating strangers if she saw them being unkind to their pets, that the boat owners were not raising pets, they were raising dinner. On another trip to southern China, they toured a 2,000-year-old open-air market with food of every kind hanging up Dead rats, songbirds, those singing, hundreds of puppies in cages. By then Nancy knew they were being offered as food, not pets. She wanted to buy them all and set them free. It killed her to see people walking home from their market with puppies and cats on ropes.
Speaker 1:They visited Europe repeatedly, including tours behind the Iron Curtain before it fell. They went to Australia, to New Zealand, to Kenya. Usually the trips were with little or no planning, reflecting Nancy's spontaneity. But she would come home and say we're going. She would think nothing of going to Europe for two weeks with just our airline passes, no hotel reservations, nothing, according to Art. At first they would argue about it. Art did a lot of traveling in his job and prefer things a bit more structured or a bit more upscale, accustomed to staying in the plaza in New York or on his expense account. But she would say I don't tell you about TV, don't tell me about travel.
Speaker 1:Neither spoke a foreign language, but it didn't stop, nancy, once they have clear customs somewhere, from going up to strangers and coming back with recommendations on places to stay and things to do. One time they stay in a shabby pension with a crack under the door so big so the crack was so big a cat squeezed under it into the room. Another time, in Paris, they stay on the third floor of a third or fourth class joint with an elevator only big enough for one in a room so small you had to stand sideways to close the door. It was just after a series of terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists, and they came back to the hotel one night after dinner to find 15 Middle Eastern types sitting in the lobby, chain-smoking, and Art said I was sure we were going to be murder in our sleep. But Nancy was nonplussed.
Speaker 1:They rarely rented cars, preferring to walk for hours wandering through our galleries and museums, as at home. What one liked to do, the other invariably liked to do too. The only significant disagreement seemed to be in the area of hotel choices. Back in Minneapolis they bowl in a mixed doubles league. They were avid fishermen and they would stay on the frontier lodge on Lake Cajiro Gama, up by the Canadian border, where he kept a boat and a 32-foot trailer. When they were not on the boat fishing for walleye, northern pike bass and crappies, they were canoeing through the Boundary Waters area. There's a photo that shows Nancy beaming a huge smile, holding a loft of 22-pound salmon that she caught on Lake Michigan.
Speaker 1:In the winter. They would ski either on weekend trips north of Minneapolis or on day trips to Salt Lake. His schedule permitting, it wasn't unusual for them to pick up the Saturday morning paper. Drive to the airport park in the employee lot of Republic Airlines. Take the employee shuttle to the terminal and, in the employee lot of Republic Airlines, take the employee shuttle to the terminal and, in those pre-9-11 days, quickly, clear security, get on a plane. And it was also the days when airlines fed you, enjoyed breakfast, or they read the paper and flew west. They would arrive at Salt Lake, catch a shuttle bus to one of the many ski resorts west of the city, scale to mid-afternoon, catch a shuttle back to one of the many ski resorts west of the city, scale to mid-afternoon, catch a shuttle back to the airport, pick up an evening paper and read it while eating dinner on the flight home. They would have dinner with friends Saturday night, then repeat the process on Sunday and, depending on art's work schedule, again on Monday. They loved to fly, it didn't cost them a dime and they loved to ski. And what better way to spend two or three days in the winter?
Speaker 1:Art, well off financially, took an early retirement from the TV station in 1989, and by then Republic had merged with Northwest and Nancy's seniority was such that she could bid for the flights at the beginning or end of her schedule. That left, and that left her with plenty of time for recreation. She could catch a trip to Seoul to Seoul, say, that would be in six or seven days on the job at the beginning of a work cycle, catch another long trip at the end of the month and have 10 or 12 days in the middle to do whatever they wanted. She would look at the social calendar, then look at the bid sheet and bid flights so she could attend every party, every fishing trip, every family function.
Speaker 1:According to Art, patty Old, the friend, had stooped up at Nancy's large wedding Not long after Patty got engaged. But she was having a small wedding, typical of Nancy outgoing, fearless and brash. She called Patty up and said Patty, I want to be in your wedding. Other words Patty uses to describe her are confident, persistent, caring, honest, humorous, witty, playful, spontaneous. She said when I think of Nancy, I think of I love Lucy. That was Nancy, always full of surprises. She was always coming up with surprises and doing weird things to make you laugh. And Nancy and Art would banter back and forth like Ricky and Lucy giving each other dicks, but in a way it was clear to the observer that was always loving, never malicious.
Speaker 1:The two of them were everybody's entertainment. They were so funny together they were perfect by 1989, after 11 years of marriage, things were idyllic according to art, and they remains. They remained so and by then his daughters had grown to accept nancy, even love her. A couple of them were particularly close to her. The couple had their fishing, their bowling, their frequent trips to exotic locales, boating, skiing parties, a big house in Minnetonka which is like an affluent suburb of Minneapolis that she would pick out and decorate her beloved kooka-koo as well, snuffy and each other. So there was no question about them wanting to go off with their buddies or her going off with her friends. They did everything together and they reached a plateau in life where everything was perfect. They lived life. Nancy lived every second of her life on earth. We'll be right back. Second of her life on earth. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:In late of January 1991, art and Nancy took a quick trip to Las Vegas. One day they returned to their room and Nancy had to fumble at the door for her key, which was buried somewhere in the collection of stuff in her purse. It took off Art and he chastised her for it. It was one of his pet peeves hotel security or the lack thereof. He was always nagging at her to have her key ready so she could make a quick entrance. Don't be a target, he said. Don't waste time at the door. She thought he was a bit phobic on the topic. After all, this was a guy who, when he was still working and on the road, would depot his hotel room door, then put the wastebasket underneath the handle and put a glass full of water balanced between the edge of the basket and the door. Several times he had woken in the morning to see that someone had tried to come in the glass. Knocked over by my own experience. Hotels are not safe places, he says. You act like you're at home, but you're not. Hotel security is horseshit, no matter the name of the hotel or where you go. That was what Art would say.
Speaker 1:Art also nagged Nancy about working as an add-on flight attendant. As an add-on, you pick up crews in the middle of a trip or drop off a crew in the middle, where most flight attendants travel in groups to and from hotels. Add-ons often travel alone. Art says quote I didn't like the idea of her going into hotels by herself. But she said I was so fashioned I can handle myself. I'm a world traveler. She said end quote. She had agreed to curtail her add-on duties, though One battle won, according to Art, or so he thought.
Speaker 1:The morning of Sunday, february 17, 1991, as was the practice since he had retired, art drove Nancy to the airport. She had a busy day ahead of her. On the way she told him that she was flying this trip as an add-on. Earlier in the month she had been scheduled to work a troop charter for Northwest ferrying troops on civilian aircraft to Saudi Arabia. At the last minute the trip was cancelled To pick up the hours she would need to fill out her month's requirements. So she and Art could take a planned vacation ski trip to Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 1:Nancy had signed on as an add-on for a flight to Las Vegas. There was joining another crew for a field plane where she would help out with the dinner rush, then leave the crew, wait and continue on from its stopover in Detroit. Art was ticked off, but what could he do? It was just this one last time anyway. Nancy kissed Art goodbye, got out of the car at about 7 am. She would overnight in Detroit, then pick up a third crew Monday morning, continue on to Fort Lauderdale, memphis and Indianapolis. Tuesday she was doing Indianapolis, new York, memphis and Minneapolis and she was scheduled to finish three killer days. When she touched down at her home base at 5.06 pm, art would pick her up at the airport. It would be a couple of days of R&R and then they would be off to Lake Tahoe to ski.
Speaker 1:Art went home to finish reading the paper, have some coffee, watch News of Desert Storm on CNN. He was coming down with something too. He never got sick, but he could feel cold or worse. Coming on Monday Art woke up feeling terrible. He would stay in the day before, try to soak the coal out in a long hot bath, but the rest and the hot water had not done a thing. He was an active guy in his retirement. If he had nothing else to do he would often go for a run in the neighborhood. But this day he felt so lousy he decided to sit in and do nothing, not a thing, which was very unusual for him. He would sit back, nap, read, watch TV and hope things didn't get worse. Well, they would Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.
