One Deep Freeze From Murder

 Bernie Tiede Carthage, Texas a small town of about 6 thousand people in far east Texas. Home of the largest gas field in the US. And many people got rich off the gas & oil field there. Bernie Tiede (tee-dah) moved to Carthage in the mid 1980s. A sweet, soft-spoken, man with chubby cheeks in his late 20s, Bernie was hired as a funeral director and mortician at the local funeral home. And he was exceptionally good at his job. Known for his skills of making the recently deceased look peaceful and at rest. He could preach and sing at the services – he was a talented singer. Bernie grew up in east Texas, a year after his birth his parents were in a car accident that killed his mother. His father started drinking heavily to deal with his guilt and grief. He died when Bernie was just 15. He became very popular within the town of Carthage, always had a nice thing to say or compliment to give someone. Everyone knew and loved him. He sang in the church choir, taught Sunday school. He acted and sang, many times starring, in community plays. He was known as a gourmet cook. The loss he experienced in early childhood enabled Bernie to make an instant connection with the families he helped at the funeral home. He took special care of the widows, going as far as to visit them after the services, to check in on them, bring them gift baskets. And they were very appreciative. In fact, he had elderly women requesting that he do their future funeral services and quote “sing them into heaven”. In March of 1990, Rod Nugent, Carthage’s wealthiest banker and oil man died, and his widow Marjorie went to the local funeral home and met with Bernie. 74-year-old Marjorie Nugent was also well known in the down of Carthage, but for being mean and rude everyone – even family. The word often used to describe her was Cantankerous. An article written by her nephew Joe Rhodes for the New York Times in 2012: “Aunt Marge once threatened to put me in a mental institution because I wouldn’t cut my hair; how she chased me around her yard with garden shears because I wouldn’t clean out a wasp’s nest with my bare hands; how, when I was 14, she locked me in her house for two days and wouldn’t let me call home. Finally, when Aunt Marge went to the grocery store, the maid, sympathetic to my plight, unlocked the bedroom door so I could get to the phone and beg my mother to come rescue me. She did. That was the last time I went to Aunt Marge’s house. There were darker stories that even I didn’t know until the last few years. Aunt Marge, who loved to sew and shop and didn’t have a daughter of her own, tried to get custody of my sister, Carrie, by having our parents declared unfit. She claimed that my father was an alcoholic — which wasn’t true; he barely drank — and that she could provide a more suitable upbringing. It didn’t work. But apparently she was serious enough to meet with attorneys.” And in the same article: “She was 12 years older than my mother and spent a lifetime bossing her around. “She was so demanding,” my mother said. “If you did something she didn’t think was up to her standards, she’d tear it up and make you do it again.” But Bernie looked past all that and saw a grieving widow who needed help making her husband’s arrangements as her only son and grandchildren lived 2 hours away in the Dallas area. To everyone surprise, in the weeks after the funeral, the residents of Carthage witnessed Bernie and Marjorie around town together, shopping and going to dinner. Then they began going on weekend trips together to New York to see Broadway shows. Although there was a 42 year age difference between them, some people in town thought of them as a couple. They held hands. It was said they would kiss, and but it wasn’t overtly romantic, but more than say how you would kiss your mother. Others questioned Bernie’s sexuality. Bernie was effeminate, and in the early 90s in a small town in east Texas, being a gay man wasn’t readily accepted. Bernie was a closeted gay man, but he and Marjorie never discussed that topic. Marjorie and her husband had a staff of people working for them at their 10-thousand square foot estate. But in the years that followed, she let go of just about everyone but the gardener and asked Bernie to quit the funeral home and work for her as her personal assistant, business manager and travel companion. At the funeral home he had been making about $24 thousand a year. With Marjorie had not only had a salary, but access to her wealthy lifestyle. She took him on a cruise down the east coast. She paid for trips to England, Germany Scotland. They traveled down the Nile and visited the Pyramids. She took him on lavish shopping sprees. He remained living in his modest home but spent his days at her beck and call. He helped her with anything and everything she needed help with. From making sure she was up and getting her coffee, to taking her to appointments and cooking her meals. He did her laundry, washed out her panty hose, even clipped her toenails. Along with the salary she paid him, Marjorie showered Bernie with gifts: Clothes. A $7000 Rolex. She gifted him flying lessons and the planes to fly. She gave access to her checkbook to pay her bills and encouraged him to spend some of her money on himself. In 1991 she even had her will re-written to leave everything to Bernie and not a dime to her family. Bernie turned around and used the money to help the people of Carthage. Donations, loans, scholarships. For a time, Marjorie seemed different, happier. She was living out her life doing the things she loved, travelling and seeing shows…things she hadn’t done while married to her husband. But she slowly began to resent Bernie’s other interests and friends. She became more and more possessive. She wanted him available to her 24/7. Over the next few years, Marjorie’s behavior toward Bernie turned verbally and mentally abusive. They had arguments and Bernie would tell her he couldn’t be her companion anymore, and Marjorie would throw a tantrum and guilt trip him into staying. Bernie felt trapped and suffocated, but he had grown to love Marjorie and felt too guilty to leave her. Then a week before thanksgiving in 1996, as he and Marjorie were walking to the car in the garage, he took a small rifle that was used to shoot armadillos and birds and shot Marjorie 4 times in the back, killing her. He then dragged her to a small stand-alone freezer in a closet, called a deep freeze. He removed the frozen food, put the 5 ft 2 Marjorie, wrapped in a sheet in the bottom, and covered her with the frozen food. He then closed it and taped it shut. For the next several months Bernie told one lie after another as to where Marjorie was: Out of state visiting her sister, she had a stroke and was recovering in the hospital or at a fancy rehab facility a few towns over. The lies grew more elaborate, and Bernie became more generous with Marjorie’s money. He bought himself several small planes. He invested in several small businesses in town. He bought cars for people who couldn’t afford them. He donated money to the church, school, gave people loans, helped students pay for college. Over the next 9 months he spent $2 million dollars. But people were becoming suspicious that Marjorie wasn’t returning phone calls. Her stockbroker was frustrated he couldn’t get her to sign several important documents. He called the sheriff’s department. Someone else made an anonymous call as to Marjorie being missing as well. The Sherriff called her son, Rod, Jr. On August 19, 1997, Rod Jr, one of his daughters and several deputies went to Marjorie’s home looking for something to indicate exactly where Marjorie was. It was the tape on the freezer that seemed odd. Upon opening it, the top of her head was slightly visible amongst the frozen Marie Calendar’s chicken pot pies. The freezer was removed from the home, hauled onto a pickup truck and attached to a generator to take to the coroner’s office. It took 2 days to thaw her body in order to perform the autopsy. Within hours of gruesome discovery, Bernie was located and taken to the sheriff’s department for questioning where he readily confessed. He said Marjorie was a friend and a traveling companion but over the years she had become very hateful and possessive. He considered her evil and wicked. For a few months he had considered clubbing her with a bat but didn’t want her to suffer. Instead, he shot her with the rifle that was kept in the garage. He was arrested and charged with premeditated murder. But no one in Carthage could believe that Bernie was capable of hurting, let alone killing, anyone and if he had, then Marjorie had done something awful to provoke him. Besides he was doing so much for the community. The county District Attorney, Danny Buck Davidson, who was prosecuting the case lived in Carthage and people would come up to him and say, “Leave Bernie alone” or “go easy on him” or “ I hope I’m on that jury so I can make sure he doesn’t go to jail.” It got to the point that the DA asked the judge for a change of venue, citing that he wouldn’t be able to find 12 jurors in the county willing to convict Bernie. It was granted, and the trial was held 50 miles north in St. Augustine, Texas in February 1999. People stood outside the courthouse yelling “We love you, Bernie” as he was brought in for trial. The jurors picked had never heard of Bernie before the trial. DA Danny Buck Davidson presented a case of greed and betrayal. Berne Teide’s lawyer, Clifton “Scrappy” Holmes, argued that Bernie’s relationship with Marjorie had become toxic and abusive. Marjorie was 81 years old at the time of her murder and had a heart condition, but Bernie had become suffocated and trapped and shot Marjorie in an act of passion and it was not premeditated. Bernie testified in his own defense. He told the jury he arrived at Marjorie’s house around 7 a.m. to make her coffee, then went back home to take a shower. Before he left, he noticed the .22-caliber rifle that she kept around to kill armadillos and scare blackbirds and squirrels away and moved it into a bathroom near the garage. He came back to the house around 10 a.m. to drive her to the dry cleaners. She went into the garage and Bernie took the rifle from the bathroom. When she bent down to pet her dog, he shot her in the back. She fell after the first shot but was still breathing. He stood over her and shot 3 more times at close range. He dragged her body down a hallway and into the utility to the deep freeze. He stuffed her inside and covered her with food. He hosed away the blood in the garage. He found the spent rifle shells and threw them away. He left the rifle next to the freezer. And then he went on with his day. He went to a rehearsal at the college for the upcoming production of “Guys and Dolls” and after he took the cast to Pizza Hut bought everyone dinner. He said he was a terrible liar and lived in fear that he would be found out. But to everyone else he seemed fine. Like nothing had happened. He kept singing in the church choir. He kept up Marjorie’s home and paid her bills. He could have just put up with her until she died naturally. He could have disposed of her body in a number of ways. But he wanted her to have a proper burial. He knew eventually she would be found. He told the jury that Marjorie wanted him to enjoy her money. She had told him that many times, that’s why she changed her will. So, he spent the months after her murder doing just that. The trial only lasted a week and it took the jury 20 minuteds to find Bernie guilty of 1st degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison. But that’s not the end of this story…. Texas native Richard Linkkater, an independant filmmaker known for his movies including Dazed and Confused, & School of Rock, had been following the story of Bernie Teide and attended his trial. He and journalist, Skip Hollandsworth, who had also been reporting on the trial, wrote a screenplay about Bernie. It took several years, but Richard directed the movie – a dark comedy - titled, Bernie, starring Jack Black as Bernie, Shirley MacLaine as Marjorie Nugent and Matthew McConaughey as Danny Buck Davidson. (The only one who looked nothing like the man in real life). Richard and Jack Black visited and interviewed Bernie in prison to bring the story to life. The movie premiered in Austin, Richard’s hometown, in 2012. Appeals lawyer Jodi Cole was at the movie premiere and was sure there was more to the story. She approached Richard Linklater and asked if he had the trial transcripts. The trial was built on the fact that this was premeditated murder. She did a lot of digging and discovered that Bernie owned books for victims childhood sexual abuse. She visited Bernie in prison and he admitted – for the first time to anyone – that when he was 12, his uncle had begun molesting him and it had gone on for years. Forensic psychiatrist, Richard Pesikoff, met with Bernie and diagnosed him with a dissociative disorder. His report stated: “Mr. Tiede’s ability to repress and compartmentalize the abusive events from childhood and adolescence was ultimately overwhelmed by the repeated and extensive psychological abuse he suffered from Mrs. Nugent. The end result, his loss of control over his emotions and behavior, is evidenced in his final actions toward Mrs. Nugent.” Bernie murdered Marjorie during a dissociative episode brought on by the stress of her abuse, where his body acted without his mind being present. Bernie shot Marjorie involuntarily. The psychiatrist who had worked for the DA in the original trial read the report and agreed that the abuse could have made Bernie vulnerable to toxic relationships. There was also evidence that Bernie’s handwritten confession - which also was a key element to the premeditated murder conviction - may have been coerced by threatening to exposed Bernie’s sexuality and release some of his private videotapes. Jodi Cole presented her findings to DA Danny Buck Davidson, who said that in light of this new information, he would have gone for a lessor conviction and lighter sentence. He no longer believed the murder was premeditated. He worked with Jodi Cole to have Bernie’s sentence thrown out. And in May 2014, the sentencing was thrown out, Bernie was released from prison and a new sentencing trial was ordered. When he was released, Richard Linklater was in the parking lot of the prison. He took Bernie to his home in Austin and allowed him to live in his garage apartment. Bernie created a new life for himself in Austin. He joined the Gay Men’s Choir, he was welcomed into a new church. He babysat Richard’s kids. He was out for 2 years. His resentencing was scheduled for April 2016. DA Davidson recused himself from the case and was replaced by 2 new prosecutors. They did not agree with the dissociative episode theory and went out to prove elderly abuse and financial gain. The showed that Bernie forged Marjorie’s signature on many occasions. He kept 2 separate bank ledgers showing deposits and withdrawals, one he showed Marjorie, and the real one. That he doctored bank statements. The set to prove he had pocketed her money before and after her murder. Starting in back in December 1990, Marjorie was writing checks to the Bernie Tiede Investment Fund monthly, and Bernie showed her bogus deposit slips to show she was making a return on her investment. The Nugent family had questioned Marjorie’s investments in Bernie and that infuriated her. The filed for an accounting of Rod Nugent Sr’s trust and Marjorie refused. They ended up suing her and that was when Marjorie became estranged from her family. The new prosecutors and the Nugent family believe Marjorie or the bank had finally become aware that Bernie was swindling money from her and that’s what prompted the murder. According to the Nugent family, Bernie stole more than $3.5 million from them — about $2.5 million from Marjorie Nugent’s accounts and more than $1 million from a trust her Rod Nugent Sr., had set up for their four grandchildren. In the 48 hours episode I watched on the case, her 3 granddaughters gave a very different viewpoint of Marjorie, saying she was kind and extremely generous with them. When they visited in 1993, she was very happy to see them, very affectionate, kissing them. But then a year later when they went to visit, Marjorie claimed not to know who they were. Upon entering the house, they noticed all the photos of their grandfather had been replaced with photos of Bernie. Marjorie’s grandchildren believe that the moment Margorie purchased a $30 thousand dollar headstone for their grandfather from Bernie, he made Marjorie his mark. And worked his way into her life to simply to get to her money. The new sentencing trial in April 2016 was again held outside of Carthage, because Bernie still had many supporters there. Rickard Linklater was even called to testify in Bernie’s defense, saying Bernie was “a nice, generous man who did a horrible thing.” His supporters believed Bernie had already paid for his crime with the 16 years he’d spent behind bars. Bernie’s uncle testified and denied ever having abused his nephew but admitted to writing him a letter that was “sexual in nature.” Bernie did not testify this time. The jury still sentenced him to 99 years to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 2029 when he is 70 years old. Sources: 48 Hours S29 E2 “The Mortician, The Murder, The Movie” The New York Times .com The Dallas Morning news .com Texas Monthly .com Wikipedia .com