Beyond All Repair - Beyond All Repair Ch. 4: The Husband

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Amory meets Lyn Page and Linda Dillard, friends of Marlyne Johnson and her husband Richard, who share more about the Johnson family. Richard struggled with alcohol abuse and gambled, and Marlyne had started saving money in case she needed to leave him.  Richard eventually agrees to talk to Amory and shares memories of his wife and the day she was killed. If you have questions about the case, the real people at the center of this story, or anything else about this series, we want to hear them. Email [e-mail] with a voice message or written message. Listener note: This episode has descriptions of violence and strong language.  *** Consider becoming a "BEYOND" member today: This show is made at WBUR, a public radio station, which means we cannot make shows like this without public support. Join our "BEYOND" membership program and receive access to extra episodes, a private feed of the show for ad-free listening and early access to some of the final episodes in the series: wbur.org/beyond

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Heads up, this show contains descriptions of violence and strong language. Last time on Beyond All Repair. There was really no connection between Sean Correa and the victim Marlene. The only connection is Sophia Johnson. There's a reason this little son of a bitch who I happen to be related to is up here lying. This is a story that was concocted by Karaya to save himself from the charge of murder in the first degree. He would do anything to save his own skin, so I definitely don't trust his testimony at all. He's somebody that's manipulative, a pathological liar.

Like, he almost killed me. I could have been his first victim. Was there any physical evidence connecting Sophia to the crime scene the way that there was the drop of blood on Sean's boot? Physical evidence, no. It's December of 2022. I'm in Vancouver, Washington, about to meet a woman who'd warned me in advance she's a hugger.

All right. Hello there. It's really nice to meet you. Goodness, I've been looking for... Look at this place. Oh, God, it's a museum. It's a museum. I you. Oh my goodness, look at this place. Oh God, it's a museum. It's a museum. I've barely stepped foot into this basement apartment, but it is a feast for the eyes.

Hand-woven rugs, pottery, animal skulls, houseplants, and an aroma coming from a room to the left. I smell some incense, maybe. I made pumpkin spice muffins this morning. Oh, that could be it. That could be it. This hugging muffin maker is Lynn Page. And the room to the left is basically the everything room. There's a music space with a synthesizer from the 70s, an office zone with a desk and a computer,

an art-making area with a table and various fabrics and fibers. And there's always a work in progress. And so it's always a mess. Now, let me show you this. Okay. Lynn walks me over a couple steps to a particularly impressive work in progress. Oh, my gosh. This is a huge macrame.

What is that, two feet tall? Yeah, it's 23 inches. 23 inches. Plus the fringe. Plus extra string. And I'm not done with it because I'm putting fringe on it now. The tree is done. This is what I'm making for Dick and Jean for Christmas. Dick and Jean, a couple Lynn is friends with.

Dick is short for Richard, Johnson, the widower of Marlene Johnson. Lynn has known Richard since junior high, and she's only become better friends with him since then. 23-inch handmade macrame kind of friends. But Lynn was also a confidant of Marlene's when she was alive. confidant of Marlene's when she was alive. And her closeness with both of the Johnsons offers a window into a marriage and a family that not many who know about Marlene's murder have ever gotten to peer into before. We didn't know whether or not they were going to separate. And that's where that $10,000 stash comes in. I'm Anne-Marie Sievertson.

From WBUR and ZSP Media, this is Beyond All Repair. Chapter 4, The Husband. The husband. Ten months before stepping foot in Lynn's museum of an apartment, she left me a voicemail. My name is Lynn Page, and I understand that you've been in conversation with Brad and Richard Johnson recently, and they suggested that I give you a call. The irony of Richard leading me to Lynn

is that later in this episode, Lynn will lead me back to Richard Johnson, who you will get to hear from. But when I first reached out to him, he wasn't sure he wanted to talk to me. In fact, I'd say he was pretty sure he didn't want to, or at least didn't want to be recorded. But Richard told me about a couple people who might want to talk to me, friends of the family, one of whom attended every single day of Sophia's trial in 2003 and had taken detailed notes. You can return my call if

you're interested in talking about this, the A-frame murder, which is the name of my book. A book? The A-frame murder? Hell yes, I was interested in talking to Lynn. And frankly, I think you should read it. Hell yes, I wanted to read it. Lynn emailed me a PDF of her unpublished opus, The A-Frame Murder. It's fiction, technically. Lynn changed all the names. Marlene is Maureen.

Sophia is Sonia. Sean is, wait for it, Shane, confusingly enough, which I'm sure actual Shane will cringe at hearing. Lynn added some other embellishments and signature flourishes. Quote, Like a gust of cold air through a warm room, his extended sigh blew across our silent attention. But the details of the trial itself are based off of pages and pages of shorthand transcriptions of witness testimony and notes.

Pages that Lynn had typed up and filed away. Until 2020, when it occurred to her that Sophia and Brad's son, the one Sophia had given birth to in jail, had just turned 18. The time felt right to finally do something with those notes. So she wrote the book. I read all 239 pages of it and hopped back on the phone with Lynn about a month later. Why did you decide to attend the trial? Well, because Marlene was my friend, and because I was the only one who was going to do it. Who would be able to attend every single day?

Lynn was a self-employed massage therapist at the time. She gave Richard massages at his house every other week. I'm kind of like his sister that he never had, who calls it like it is and tells him what he needs to hear. With Marlene, Lynn had more of a spiritual sisterhood. My time with her was mostly in the teepee, and we'd just chat about, you know, any old thing going on. The teepee. Lynn says she has Cherokee ancestry, and she's had several teepees over the years,

including a 22-foot tall one that Marlene and Richard let her set up on their property. You've heard of a man cave. Well, this was a lady lodge, where Lynn says she and Marlene drummed and chanted, and where Marlene would open up about problems in her marriage to Richard. As a couple, he was, in those days, he was different than he is now.

Lynn says the Johnsons were on the verge of divorce more than once. At a certain point, Marlene started putting money aside. She had done what we friends of hers counseled her to do in case there was a breakup of the marriage. She needed to be able to take care of herself. Lynn was pretty open about the existence of tension in Marlene and Richard's marriage generally. But when it came to Richard and the source of the tension... I would... She worried about his drinking and his gambling. Now, more than that, I, you know, it's hard for me to say much about that.

Richard's drinking and gambling. There was clearly more to the story here, and I was hesitant to press further during this first phone call. But as I told Lynn, I had another call to make to someone named Lynn Duh, whom Richard had also suggested I talk to.

She's a talker. Okay, get her on the phone. She'll dump everything. Oh, God, I love her. And I love a talker. Mostly what I remember about her were the birds. She loved the birds so much. This is Linda Dillard, who says Marlene spoiled the birds both outside her house and inside.

She had one particularly memorable pet bird. Beep, beep, beep. That's what the bird said all the time. Beep, beep, beep. She loved that bird. And that bird would rip your nose off. But not hers. Linda was the Johnsons' house cleaner.

She'd come every other week, and Marlene was usually home at the time. I was there four or five hours, and we talked about everything you can imagine. I could imagine a fair bit after talking to Lynn, but I was hoping to hear more about Marlene and Richard's marriage. Linda also knew about the money Marlene had set aside. That was in case things got weird and she wanted to leave.

Does that have to do with Richard's gambling and drinking problem? Yeah. I also was in a battered relationship. Does that have to do with Richard's gambling and drinking problem? Yeah. I also was in a battered relationship for several years. I'm so sorry to hear that. I got out. But we used to talk about that kind of stuff because we had things in common like that, and we could just tell each other anything. When you say you had things in common, was Marlene being abused?

Oh, God. Physically, I don't believe so. But they would have some pretty rough arguments. Marlene and Richard. Yeah. This all had an eerie feeling to it. Big arguments. A marriage on the rocks.

A stash of money set aside by a woman who ends up getting killed in her own home with no obvious sign of a break-in. Linda's felt this too. When it all came down, you know, people always think the husband did it. And that thought came across my mind a few times just because you're wondering and wondering. It seemed like Linda and Lynn might be holding back. I didn't blame them. I was a stranger on the phone on the other side of the country. Until...

What's in the hummus? This is great. It really is. Yeah. I wasn't. And Linda, Lynn, and I were eating salad and bean dip together, knee to knee, around a small table in the everything room in Lynn's apartment. I went easy on the garlic because I didn't want you to have to worry about breathing on people in this closed space.

That would be more your problem. Exactly. I'd be worried on your behalf. We waited to dig into the topic at hand until after we dug into lunch. And then we started just talking about their friend, Marlene. Their very generous friend. The chair you're sitting in came from her. That credenza with all my cookbooks in it came from her.

Some of the hand-woven rugs I'd unceremoniously stepped on coming into Lynn's place, those came from Marlene, too. And Linda has a big yellow bread bowl in her house that used to be hers. I used to tease her all the time about it. I says, when you die, I get that bowl. And she gave it to you? Well, Dick ended up giving it to me. Oh, he did?

Yeah. A smaller but maybe more poignant gesture are the feathers Marlene would give each of them, left behind by skybound visitors to her yard. Just good. She was good. And crappy things kept happening to her. And then ultimately, the worst thing happened to her. And then ultimately, the worst thing happened to her. And if you knew her, you just can't imagine that anybody could do that to her.

When you said bad things kept happening to Marlene, Linda, what were you referring to? Just stuff in life. Just the regular, are you having a good day or are you having a bad day? Those kind of little things. Except Dick's drinking and gambling. That was an ongoing deal. I wasn't going to go there. I've already breached that dam.

I wasn't going to go there. But there we were, breaching that dam together. It caused her great anguish. I told her many times, you just get rid of them. No. She stood by her man. But she did listen to those of us who were encouraging her to get her own credit cards, bank account, establish herself. That was what she was supposed to be saving for her possible exit from that marriage.

Marlene's separate bank account had come up in one of my unrecorded phone calls with Richard. He'd told me that Marlene was just saving up for a new heat pump for their house. Was that the agreed-upon narrative? I don't know that story, but I'm sure. Dick did not know about her bank account that was hers. And whatever she told him, if he found out, was bullshit, Lynn's expression suggested. And there are secrets that Linda has kept well beyond Marlene's grave and will likely take to her own. See, even now, I wouldn't talk about it. even now, I wouldn't talk about it.

Now, Linda and Lynn have nothing nice to say about Sophia. She played the whole damn family. Yeah, she did. They told me she came across as bratty and materialistic. That they heard stories from Marlene about Sophia getting caught in lies, being

unkind to animals, and having a temper. She was just a bitch. But these friends also want to know what Sophia has told me about her backstory, about Marlene, and about the murder. What she said to me is, as long as they think I've done this, then they're not looking for who actually did this which is very true that is very true and that's what makes it a cold case it's listed in vancouver as a cold case is it yeah shit if somebody got away with this horrendous thing, they're very clever, whoever that might be. So you're going to have to be really good at trying to figure out who's telling the truth and who's not telling the truth. Would Richard Johnson tell me the truth? starting with his relationship with Marlene as Linda and Lynn remember it?

I was about to find out. More in a minute. Thank you. how to recharge, and your social sweet spot so you can build a social life that doesn't drain your battery. Try therapy with BetterHelp. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Visit betterhelp.com slash beyondrepair today to get 10% off your first month. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts.

I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great.

A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother****er lied. Like a liar. Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine

and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Do you find yourself searching for true crime podcasts that are different from what you're always recommended? Do you want to make a real difference in the cases that you're following? Well, you're a crime junkie. True Crime Podcasts from some of the most infamous to those that you have never heard covered before. Listen to Crime Junkie Podcast now, wherever you're listening. Okay, so it is a spray situation.

I'm assuming so. I know. How would they get it so perfect? Hi. Hi. That's Jean. Hi, Jean. Hi, I'm her.

See, she got your name right. She did. Lynn and I have pulled up to a therapist's office on a residential street in Vancouver, not far from her house. Jean, Richard Johnson's girlfriend, is outside waiting for us. This is where Jean and Richard suggested we meet, which makes sense. I don't expect everyone to invite me into their museum of a home and feed me garlicky bean dip. Certainly not when I'm about to ask them uncomfortable things. I'm Amory. I'm sorry for the cold hand. It's a warm hand.

I know. I offer Richard a cold hand, but he greets me warmly in his reserved, soft-spoken way. He's narrower than the Richard I saw in trial footage from 20 years ago. Can you state your name and spell your last name for the record, please? Richard M. Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N. Your occupation, sir? Well, I... Richard's in his late 70s when I make this visit.

He slurs his words a bit, he warns me. Slurred words were the least of my concerns. I was predicting this interview to be unpredictable. Lynn had told me that Richard can go on and on about his wife being murdered, but also that he wants this to all go away. The vibe in the room feels a little like an intervention, like Richard probably doesn't want to be there and is only talking to me as a favor to Lynn or Jean or both.

But I'd waited a full year for Richard to feel ready to go on the record with me. I'd flown across the country. It's now or never to talk to him about Marlene. How did you meet her? I met her over at Jimmy's house one time. Jim was a friend, and I said, man, that's a good-looking woman. And then I saw her another time, and... She had the most wonderful dimples. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I can see that. That's Lynn chiming in, helping Richard along. I had asked him to bring any photos of Marlene that he might want me to see. He brought four or five of her old driver's licenses. An interesting choice. But Marlene didn't take a license photo the way most people, or at least the way I take a license photo. She looks casually perfect in all of them.

Cheery, youthful, fair skin with black curly hair that's in pigtails in one of the photos, matching dark eyes and the sweetest smile, as if she'd been genuinely happy to be at the DMV. And yep, the most wonderful dimples. The second time Richard saw Marlene was on Christmas Day, again at his friend Jim's house. They were in their early 20s at the time.

Marlene showed up with Brad, one-year-old baby. Richard Johnson might be dad to Brad, but he's not his biological father. The third time he ran into Marlene, she did not have a one-year-old in her arms. not have a one-year-old in her arms. I was out at the Longhorn prowling for, you know, with the tavern. Marlene was there with a friend, whom Richard also knew. And I'm a pretty shy person. You know, I don't just talk very easily to people I don't know, but I knew them. And so I sat down and talked, and we proceeded to talk until they closed the place. And then we had Chinese dinner at four in the morning. That's how all the best memories are made. Yeah.

I thumbed through Marlene's driver's licenses again, looking at them through a slightly different lens now. A young mother who'd already been through a broken heart in marriage, finding new love and a new iteration of family. I studied her eyes from picture to picture, looking for signs of hope or pain or premonition. A stretch, I know, and certainly not something I was going to say out loud. But it's hard to look at a photo of a person who doesn't know they're going to die an unimaginably brutal death and not want to whisper some warning into their two-dimensional ear. What came out of my mouth in the moment was, she has really kind eyes. Yes. She's beautiful.

Yeah. And she aged really well. Yeah. At least up until 58 years old. Richard walked me through the day of Marlene's murder and the immediate aftermath. Well, I was at the office at midday or so. And then I, at that point in my life, sometimes I took a long lunch and went up to La Center and gambled. La Center, Washington, about 20 minutes from Vancouver, where there's a cluster of casinos.

I wasn't expecting Richard to be the first to bring up his gambling. I was glad he did, although I also wasn't expecting him to talk about it in the present tense. Everybody's wondering why I don't just throw all my money away gambling, but actually I have luck occasionally, more than occasionally. Sometimes I would win four or five thousand dollars in one hand. So it's a part of my life, and I keep it under control. So it's part of my life, and I keep it under control.

I had heard that Richard had gone to the casino the day Marlene died. He may have been mid-card game when the attack was happening, in fact. Detective Rick Buckner had surveillance footage. I believe we had Richard at one of the casinos gambling. Okay, but again, was it his twin brother? We don't know. Pause. Richard has a twin brother, identical,

who also lived in the area and who also gambles. So was the person they saw on the casino's surveillance footage at the time of the murder Richard Johnson? Or was it the nearly indistinguishable David Johnson? I mean, there's little things in the investigation that we could never really pin down. Richard says he went to the casino for an hour or two around lunchtime that day, and then back to his office. And then, in the late afternoon... And all of a sudden, a phone call came in, and my secretary starts going nuts and just says,

you've got to go home. And so I drove home. And as I got near the house, before I rounded the bend where you could see the house, I just started crying. I knew something was bad. I just knew it was... I'm true enough.

There were a few moments like this during my conversation with Richard, where the emotion overflowed so suddenly it was almost startling. He told me he suffers from PTSD. Well, it was shock. You know, I mean, you get them up there, and the sheriff's there, and they got a chaplain to talk to you. And you can't even step foot on the property.

All they wanted to do was find out if I was involved in it. For a couple weeks, that's where they were at. And, you know, that's about as frustrating as you can, you know, imagine because they're wasting their energy. Instead of finding the person that might have killed my wife, they're looking at me. We were looking at everybody at that point.

Police are pretty hard. There's not a lot of compassion there. But as Linda said earlier, people often do suspect the husband when a spouse is murdered, especially if there's a history of problems in the marriage, which Richard was also open with me about, and about supposedly trying to fix them. Probably the most significant counseling that I had was for alcohol abuse, you know, and I voluntarily did that and was sober for five years. Otherwise, I would have lost my marriage.

I was having some issues with alcohol and stress. Lawyering is a stressful job. Richard's a real estate attorney, was a real estate attorney. He stopped practicing law, or even really believing in it as a result of how he feels the legal system has failed him time and again, beginning with failing Marlene. Richard refutes the idea that her murder is a cold case. No, it's a botched case. That's all it is. I was so full of anger that I knew I was unfit to practice law.

And so I just surrendered my license. And you stepped away from law because you lost a sort of faith? I have nothing but contempt for the law at this time in my life. Nothing but contempt for the law and the people that earn their living off of it. And then, of course, they put me up on the stand and have me testify. And sir, when you were gambling on Tuesday, January 8th, isn't it true that you drank some black Russians at the New Phoenix? That's what I told the detectives. That's what I told the detectives. That's what I told them.

So is that the truth? I told the detectives the truth. I have no reason to lie. You know, their lawyer was very effective at goading me, and I'm sure my temper came out, which has been exploited more than once. Didn't you know I was convicted of domestic violence for raising my voice? And so if they had any evidence at all that I was involved,

my temper would have led them to that, but obviously I wasn't. I was out playing cards in the center at the time. And I had no motive. But I have a temper. And I don't need to get into that sad chapter of alleged domestic violence. That law is so flawed. Don't go there, Dick. All right. You're on the record here.

It's over and done with now, finally. I'm not going to go there either in this series, other than to acknowledge that Richard did have a domestic violence-related charge brought against him six years ago. It was in the relationship he was in before Jean. And there was another relationship Richard spoke openly about, the one with his son, Brad, which has been complicated at times. Richard raised Brad. They love each other. But I couldn't help but detect some degree of bitterness, maybe even distrust, because Brad brought Sophia into the Johnson family.

And as far as I'm concerned, she is the person who committed, who murdered my wife. And nobody's ever going to convince me otherwise. Now, I don't think Richard blames Brad for Marlene's murder. But he does hold him accountable for things he didn't tell him and Marlene about Sophia. Like the fact that she'd been married once already. To be fair, Brad had too. So had Marlene. But it was the deception that Richard told me he's still angry about today.

Not only her lying, but convincing Brad to lie. After Marlene's murder, Richard had an interesting conversation with a legal partner of his. This guy told Richard that he'd run into Brad and Sophia at the courthouse about a month before they got married. And he says, what are you doing here? And then, well, Sophia's here to get her divorce finalized. Well, don't tell Dad. That's the kind of lie I'm talking about. I didn't talk to Brad for about two years.

I get why Richard would be unsettled by the secret-keeping here. But I also don't think that's something you cut off contact with your son for years over, unless there's a deeper, unspoken sense of betrayal simmering below. Or maybe the therapist's office was having an effect on me. therapist's office was having an effect on me. I had this conversation with Richard Johnson in December of 2022. Almost exactly a year later, he died suddenly, days before his 80th birthday. He'll never hear this, but it's still important to me to say, hear this, but it's still important to me to say, I don't think Richard Johnson killed Marlene. He may have had a temper. He had a history of addiction. And as much as he laid into Brad and Sophia for lies they told, it's quite possible he lied to Marlene at times about his gambling

and alcohol use during their marriage. I don't know. I do know that I had the sense talking to Richard that I was in the presence of a man who was as scarred as he was flawed, who lost his wife of 32 years in the most nightmarish way and was never the same. I also think there's a chance Richard was wrong about Sophia being the person who murdered Marlene. Linda and Lynn at least seem open to another explanation. Because I still don't know for sure. None of us know for sure. And as such, they left me with words of warning. Be careful.

You're digging in a place that's been very peaceful for a while. Digging in a place that's been very peaceful for a while, and if Sophia didn't do it, then you might dig up something that nobody wants you to dig up. Do it anyway. Do it anyway. Dig. And then I want to know.

Yeah. Moments after Linda left Lynn's apartment that day, she came hurrying back in with something in her hand, a large brown and white feather that she'd found on the hood of her car. Marlene was here, she said, a sign, Linda thought, that she'd been watching over our conversation. A sign of approval? I wish I knew.

But I have kept digging. And the next spot to tell you about is one where most people didn't think to look. Hey Brad, how's it going? Oh, not bad. Another peachy day. Another peachy day? If anything were to happen to Richard or to Marlene, who inherits it? Brad Johnson. Next time, the motive and the secret that Sophia and Brad may have been keeping together. Who's married to Brad? Sophia Johnson. So the embezzlement started, and what year did I marry Brad?

I don't remember talking to Brad much about it, saying, you know, it's your problem. I don't know a thing about it. There's no erasing him from those pictures depositing the checks. Beyond All Repair is a production of WBUR, Boston's NPR, and ZSP Media. It's written and reported by me, Amory Severson, and produced by Sophie Codner. Mix, sound design, and original scoring by Paul Vikas, production manager of WBUR Podcasts. Theme and credits music by me. Our managing producers are Soma Tajoshi for WBUR and Liz Stiles of ZSP Media. Our editors and executive producers are Ben Brock-Johnson of WBUR and Zach Stewart-Pontier of ZSP Media. If you have questions about the case, the people at the center of this story, or anything else, we want to hear

them. Email beyondallrepairpod at gmail.com. You can send a voice memo. You can send a written message. You do you. beyondallrepairpod at gmail.com. Do me a favor, will ya? Eat a treat, go for a little walk, tell someone you love them, and tell them about this show. In that order. Thank you for listening. I'm not going to let you go. Thank you so much.