Murder With My Husband - 180. The Murder Mastermind

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

On this episode, Payton discusses the Carol Thompson case, and how someone hiding in her basement ended her life. Who did it and why? Who masterminded this brutal murder? Sources: “Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson” by William Swanson The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/t-eugene-thompson-dies-at-88-crime-stunned-st-paul.html CBS News - https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/cold-case-t-eugene-thompson/ Park Rapids Enterprise https://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/news/the-vault/money-sex-and-power-the-1963-murder-of-carol-thompson-by-her-attorney-husband-shocked-the-twin-cities Court Transcripts from Law.Justia.com - https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/1966/39343-1.html MNOpedia.com - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/murder-carol-thompson The Star Tribune - https://www.startribune.com/even-after-50-years-st-paul-wrestles-with-thompson-murder-for-hire/233885361/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So, money is a thing, but it's not everything. I think you really look at the importance of what are you doing with your time. The conversations that we've had with our financial advisor is very much built, building what that framework looks like that helps support those important things. The place is where you're investing your time and your resources, your family clearly, and those closest to you. Edward Jones. We do money differently. Visit EdwardJones.ca slash different.

Ritto was doing collapse before collapse or even a thing. Ritta and back to school have been around since forever. From the dorm room to the classroom, Ritta is there because filtered water will never go out of style. So this semester, get your hands on a timeless collab. Britta, it's taste over everything. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband? I'm the husband. Well, I'm a little sick. Ain't this sick, this is true. So if she doesn't sound like herself. You

know I never leave you guys hanging. I feel bad that you're sick but we're here we're recording. We almost did it. What's that um TikTok that's like no back down. No, I've seen that. There's no days off at Murna with my husband. No days off. At least not for now. You know jumping into my 10 seconds here I was thinking about how one of these days maybe maybe not my 10 seconds will be patents pregnant You know, I was just thinking about that. Don't spit your water out. What the heck? I was just thinking about that. Okay, well, it's not today. No, it's not today, but Maybe one day you never know. It could be tomorrow, it could be 30 years from now, but one of these days, Peyton did leave me for

I was day and a half, two days. Yep. If you don't know Peyton and I, which I guess a lot of you don't know us, but you know us, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. I would say they know us. I'd say you know us. But one of the things about Peyton and I is we are never apart.

We can probably count on three fingers, the amount of times that we've been apart since we've. They were all against our own choice. Since we started dating or we've been married. And yeah, so she left for two days. It wasn't that long. You won't buy it pretty fast. But she ended up getting sick because I think she was traveling and not sleeping very much. She left me and I just kind of got a bunch of work done.

I was a bachelor in days and I just hung out with Starbucks, got her a pup cop. Did I tell you that? Yeah. And yeah, we kind of just chilled. Swam a little bit, ate some food. Oh, don't say food around Daisy. She just gave me the desk there. So that's what my life was like as a bachelor. And I was just a knight hoe. Being a hoe. Doing cowgirl things, riding horses. No, just kidding, paint is not ride horses. Eam potatoes. So Daisy and I hanging out golf and our non-pregnancy announcement. That's about all I've got for everybody this week. All right, our case sources are dial M,

the murder of Carol Thompson, the New York Times, CBS news, parkropids enterprise, court transcripts from lawjustia.com, M-N-O-P-D-A.com, and the star tribune. Okay, at first listen, lawjustia.com, mnopedia.com, and the star tribune. Okay. At first listen, today's case will sound reminiscent of a classic 90s slasher film. Somewhere in a quiet, middle to upper class neighborhood, there's a stranger lurking

in a house. A woman is home alone, upstairs, and there's an elaborate over-the-top plan to take her life. Today's story even comes with a gruesome chasing. One where you think our damsel in distress is going to escape, get to the neighbors on time, and finally expose the identity of her assassin. Only for her to die, just before she can get out the description. Except, today's case isn't a 90-slash-her-film, and our damsel in distress isn't an actress.

She was a mother and a housewife in 1960s, Minnesota, and her name was Carol Thompson. You know, whenever anyone brings up like the 1960s, 1950s, I think of that movie with Harry Styles, don't worry darling. We watch it together. Actually, it's a decent movie. The concept was pretty crazy, but...

Well, what? Lawrence, P.U. and Harry Styles together. That was like a good... That was a combination we needed. It was good. Isn't he married to Olivia Wilde? No. I think they were dating.

I don't know about now. Anyways, pretty good movie. If you haven't seen it, go ahead and watch it. It's just kind of a crazy concept, especially how they use the 1950s, 1960s. Well, because of course that's what they want, they're women. Yeah. If in a pretend world. Of course, that's the era they would put in.

Well, then there's more context to it on why. Right. It's a good movie. All right. Our story today begins in March of 1963 in a blossoming upscale neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota known as Highland Park. Carol Thompson was a 34 year old stay-at-home mom of four

with kids ranging from six to 13 years old. And her husband was one of the most respected up-and-coming attorneys in the Minneapolis St. Paul area. But growing up, Carol imagined more for herself than just being a housewife. Born on October 11, 1928, Carol was the only child of a well-known business owner, and her parents had high expectations for her future as well. She certainly had the brains, the charm, and the resourcefulness to make any dreams come true, but Carol had a specific passion for literature.

She went to McAllister College, a liberal arts school in St. Paul, only minutes from home, where she studied English, Russian, and library science. But in education, wasn't the only good thing to come out of Macalister. That's also where she met her doding husband, T. Eugene Thompson. However, his friends called him Cotton for his blindingly light blonde hair. So Cotton and Carol, meaning at college. Eugene was a year older than Carol and had grown up as the son of a chicken farmer

about 120 miles outside of St. Paul in an area known as Blue Earth, Minnesota. But Eugene had no desire to follow in his father's footsteps and take over the family farm. He also loved literature, but even more than that, he loved to argue. He imagined a world where one day he'd be the chief justice of the Supreme Court. So after serving 18 months in the Navy in World War II, Eugene enrolled in McAllister to study economics and political science.

He also planned to get his law degree one day, which might be what he said to win over Carol when the two met in 1947. Less than a year later, by their sophomore year of college, the two were engaged. Carol's parents weren't happy to hear that Carol would be dropping out of college to play the role of housewife. But at this point, her priorities had changed. After all, it was the forties, and Carol bought into the saying, behind every great man, there's a great woman. She believed her new purpose in life was to support her husband, Eugene, help him reach his goals of becoming a successful lawyer.

And it didn't take long for Eugene to win over the affections of Carol's parents as well. On March 27, 1948, the two were married in a modest ceremony in St. Paul's Unity Church. And as the years went by, it seemed Carol had put her stock in the right partner. Eugene graduated from law school in June of 1955, quickly passed the bar and got himself a job at a firm in St. Paul.

One that handled everything from divorces to personal injury suits to criminal cases. With the salary he was making, Eugene felt certain Carol would never need to work a day in her life. And from there, his status only grew. He began teaching part-time at the William Mitchell College of Law. He'd taken on a role in both state and national bar associations, and on the weekends, Carolyn Eugene were regularly seen at the Presbyterian Church. Eugene even subbed in as a member of the choir. By all accounts, the Thompson's were a

well-rounded family. Although much of the time Eugene was off jet-setting somewhere for work, yet Carol didn't seem to mind she felt confident that Eugene was a loyal father and husband. Instead, she kept busy playing bridge, teaching Sunday school, she was also the president of the local women's association and the lawyers wives organization. To say that the Thompson's were pillars in the St. Paul community would have been an understatement. Everybody knew them and everyone seemed to love them. It's kind of crazy to think back just you go back to the 40s, 50s, 60s, 40s and 50s especially, such, 40s and 50s especially such different

times. You know, it was just a different, it's a different world. And great, I know there's people that are listening who were born in the 60s and so forth, but I think it's different being like an adult in the 60s, you know, like being a 30 year old married adult adult just such different times I don't think I would have been a very good girl in the 40s and 50s. I mean wife. I would have had a cook I would have had a hey you cook last night. It was fantastic. I Should never attempt a cook unless it's hello fresh. No, you're doing great. Hello fresh. She's good husband

So this brings us back to March 6th 1963. It was a morning like any other really. 34 year old Carol Thompson had woken up before the kids and her husband. She tidied up the kitchen and began cooking bacon and eggs before they all ate and went their separate ways for the day. Carol liked the peace and quiet she got when the house emptied out. Sometimes she'd even go back to bed for a little bit. Which was why on this particular day, Carol was happy to usher Eugene out a bit earlier than usual. He claimed he had to get to the office for something important, then a little before

8.30am, the Thompson's landline rang. Carol got up and wandered downstairs to the phone. It was Eugene's secretary. The woman put Eugene on the line and he told Carol he had a busier day than expected and he wouldn't be able to stop home in the afternoon like he'd originally planned. Carol was used to her husband's sudden change in plans, so she didn't even give it a second thought. She just sighed, hung up the phone, and retired back to her bedroom to read a magazine. What Carol didn't realize though was she wasn't the only person in the house at this point. Earlier that morning, a stranger had come into the Thompson's home via the side door leading

to the basement. There, he waited while the family ate breakfast, dressed, and went about their days. After Carol answered that call from her husband, the intruder creeped up the basement stairs and up to the second story of the home. Then, he ambushed Mrs. Thompson while she was reading in bed, but his weapon of choice was just as shocking as the attack itself.

The man used the metal end of a rubber hose to try and knock Carol unconscious. Then he carried the half-awaited Carol to the bathroom. Inside, the tub was still filled with water, presumably from someone who'd forgotten to empty it from their bath earlier that morning, so the attacker used it to his advantage. He attempted to drown Carol in the lukewarm water in her own bathroom. But that's when Carol came to her senses and escaped his clutches. She darted down the hall, sobbing wet, trying to get as far away from the attacker as she could. Except the man had been armed with another weapon, a Luger pistol. He tried firing the weapon at Mrs. Thompson, only his gun wouldn't go off. Caught up to Carol, grabbed her, and slammed the handle of his gun into her face.

But Carol was still standing. She rushed down the stairs and made her way to the front door. Meanwhile, Carol's attacker went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and caught up with her again before she can make it out of the front door. He took the kitchen knife and stabbed Carol through her throat. The impact was so severe, the assailant actually broke the handle off the knife, causing the blade to stay lodged in Carol's neck, which is actually probably a good thing because it clogged up the wound. Oh my gosh, I can't even picture that. It sounds horrible.

Awful. Insane. This left Carol to bleed out on the floor and the intruder made his way back upstairs and tried to wash the blood off of his clothes. But that's when he heard the front door open and then close downstairs. Mrs. Thompson, Carol, was still alive, and now she was making her way across the yard to a neighbor's house, barefoot and half-dressed in the recently fallen snow. It was a little after 9am when Carol found the strength to ring her neighbor's doorbell. When her neighbor Mrs. Nelson opened the door she was shocked to find a bloodied woman

in nothing but a bathrobe. Carol was in such bad shape Mrs. Nelson couldn't even identify her as her own neighbor. She was just standing there, clutching her throat, unable to say anything more than, help me. Mrs. Nelson and her adult son brought Carolyn's side and laid her out on the floor. The silver blade of the knife was still lodged in her neck, and she was able to etch out a few more words. A man did it, she said.

They called for an ambulance right away and rinsed the blood from her face while they waited. No way she lives. How crazy is that? It wasn't until after they cleared the mess away that they realized who the woman was. It was their neighbor, Carol Thompson. Moments later, the EMTs arrived and carted the still breathing carol off to anchor hospital. Around 9.15am, the Nelson's phone to Eugene at his law office to tell him the news.

And imagine this. Like imagine this call. Eugene was stunned to hear what had happened to Carol. What would want to do such a thing to his wife of all people? Yeah. But rather than race out the door and over to anchor hospital, Eugene asks the Nelson's to phone Carol's friend Marjorie. She was a nurse and she should go check on her instead. What? Meanwhile, Eugene got in his car and raced back to his home. That's weird. I think that's weird. Red flag number one, just popping up in the air. Don't go see your dying wife. Go home.

Yeah, that makes no sense at all. Around 9.30 a.m., detectives had already flooded the Thompson residents, finding a pool of blood by the front door, as well as a handle to a knife and a piece of epistol. They also found that the bedroom had been ransacked. On first instinct, the detectives figured this was just a robbery gone wrong. A theory that was cooperated by Mr. Thompson himself when he spoke to police that morning at the house. He told detectives that they should check the basement. That's where he kept $4,000 worth of cash.

If it was gone, the robbery theory had to be confirmed. Interestingly enough, he was right. The money was missing. I mean, I feel like I already know what's going on right away. It just seems so obvious. What? It's right there in the palm of my hand. Okay.

He's cheating on his wife. He hired someone to kill his wife and now we're here. And said, make sure to get that money. Make sure to get that money. Or he took that money himself and brought it somewhere. I mean, it could be anything. I'll tell you in a minute if you're right. All right. Let's hear it. Let's hear it.

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Freshly ground espresso beans alongside frothy steamed or iced chilled milk infused with delicious pumpkin spice. This fall try an iced or hot latte at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. Still eager to cover all angles, police asked Mr. Thompson if there was anyone he knew that might have had a motive for killing Carol. Thompson said he would scan his files to see if there were any disgruntled clients that might have taken it out on his wife. Remember, he's an attorney.

But the only person of interest he could think of was a window salesman they'd recently dealt with. One that might have had a small crush on Carol. A man named Kenneth Moran. Now that police had a name, there was some direction for the investigation to go in. But the same optimism wasn't being offered by Carol's doctors. They had removed the blade from her neck, but by that point her injuries were so severe.

After several resuscitative efforts, Carol succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at 12.58 pm that afternoon. I thought for sure she was going to live at sucks. Later that day Eugene and his four kids mourned their loss of their mother over at a family friend's home. But the clock was ticking. Every second wasted was a second more for Carol's killer to escape. Wait, where are the kids at this whole time?

Cool. Oh, duh, OK. Which meant detectives had to question her children about their morning. Each said they had left the house for school and left the side door unlocked as they always did. And when Eugene was questioned again, he admitted this was the entry point the family often used, especially when it was snowing. They didn't want anyone getting the new rug in the living room dirty, so they would go in through the side of the house. Police also asked Eugene if he remembered draining the bath after using it that morning. Eugene believed he had, though he didn't wait around to make sure all of the water had emptied. But there was still the matter of the missing

cash from the basement. However, when detectives searched Eugene's office that day, they found a brief case with the same amount of money inside. What a coincidence. Eugene says, oh, I must have forgotten that I'd moved the cash from the basement. Maybe you were under something. Maybe I was. Now at this point, police aren't suspecting Eugene has anything to do with Carol's death.

Which is so funny because nowadays, the husband... Is the first suspect. No matter what. He hasn't done anything too suspicious to set off red flags, plus he had an alibi during the time of the attack, like he was at work. Not to mention, Eugene seemed genuinely devastated by his wife's murder.

One friend said he appeared so upset that they were actually worried Eugene might hurt himself. But the oddest part was, Eugene had seemed to predict something like this was going to happen. According to the family's friend Marjorie, Eugene had confided in her week's prior, saying he'd been having terrible nightmares about Carol,

dreams about Carol dying a violent death. What? He confided in friends saying he had no idea what he would do without Carol that he might not be able to go on without her. Then, only a few months later, those nightmares eerily became a reality. Having seen Eugene's reaction, police felt their best suspect might be the man he had previously mentioned. The window salesman, turned admirer, named Kenneth Moran. How can they still after hearing those dreams be like,

nah, it's definitely not him. And the money. It makes, that makes sense. I just think it was a different time. When questioned by police, Kenneth admitted he'd known the Thompson's for a little over a year and had helped them with the redecorating of their home. He'd been at the house a few times. And yeah, it was more than just business.

He and Carol were good friends. They'd gone to an art museum together and he'd given her a ride once or twice when she needed it. However, the last time he'd seen Carol was the previous November, nearly six months earlier. And during the time of the attack, he was at a sales meeting, an alibi that was cooperated by his boss.

Kenneth admitted that while the two were friendly, there was never anything more than a platonic relationship between the two of them. They shared similar interests, and that was that. So with this information, police filled confidence, they can cross Kenneth off the suspect list. And as they do, they realize they may have been focusing on the wrong thing. Especially when Eugene Thompson started evading the police, and they learned more about a strange behavior prior to his wife's death. See back in January 1962, a little over a year before the murder.

The Thompson's went to Chicago to visit some friends from college. The husband was an insurance salesman and after learning that Carol had hardly any money in a life insurance policy, he encouraged the Thompson's to look into it further. Immediately upon returning, Eugene started to look into options. He purchased a plan for Carol that specifically paid out on accidental deaths, but he didn't just buy one. Thompson went on to buy eight different policies from eight different insurance companies. You can do that. Apparently, I mean, you look into that. Racking up a total of over one million dollars on his wife Carol. That's

about 10 million dollars today. But Eugene only had a life insurance policy of 400,000 on himself, which was incredibly strange, especially since he was the family's primary breadwinner. However, there was another suspicious matter, and it involved the family's docks in Shatsy. In the months prior to Carol's murder, the family had done that redecorating on their home, which included brand new carpeting in the house. Come January 1963, just two months before Carol's death. Eugene decided they needed to find the dog a new home because it wasn't trained very

well and it was going to make a mess on their new carpet. Of course, the kids were devastated by the absence of Shatsi, but Carol didn't seem to ask too many questions. Plus the dog barked incessantly whenever a stranger came to the home, which seemed to be a nuisance to Eugene, and maybe even Carol as well. You would kill me if I was like, I'm giving Daisy away. Well, Daisy do hear that. Dogs who bark all day,

they have to get to a new home. So stop barking. Except it wasn't just this missing dog, which would be protection if a stranger came in and this life insurance policy that made police narrow in on Eugene Thompson. It was also the incessant affairs he had with other women. See, there was a side of Eugene that very few got to see. The side who'd show up at some of St.

Paul's fancy private clubs sporting a black top hat and a silver cane, the side that carried around wads of cash, sometimes even a gun in his briefcase, boasting about his achievements, the side that charmed every young woman in the room. And in the days after Carol's death, rumors began to surface about all the names Eugene had in his little black book. and you're just off just sleeping with dozens of other women. Well, and before too, I mean, that just sucks. I get a sucks for her, her family, like that sucks. Everyone from cocktail waitresses to hat-check girls, to the wives of some of the city's elite.

Geez. Most of them were said to be one nightstands in a bar restroom, maybe a coat closet here and there. But one tip pointed police towards a specific woman, and she wasn't someone Eugene had known in passing. She worked for him, and their relationship appeared to be a full-on love affair. Sometime before the summer of 1960, Eugene had represented a young woman in her divorce. Her name was Jacqueline Okoneski and

over time the two became friendly, of course, friendly with your attorney. The 32 year old Eugene started asking the 24 year old Jackie out on dinner dates, which turned into visits to her apartment. That led to trips out of state, including one to Chicago and Carol's father's lake house without her knowing. It's starting to make sense why he just had to up and go and come home. Come 1961, however, things between Jackie and Eugene took a back seat when she went off to business school.

A degree she received on Eugene's dime. So he paid for her to go to school. And the second she finished her schooling, she got a job working in Eugene's law office as a secretary. And I wonder if he wanted to pay for her school. He wanted her to work for him. At some point that year, it said Eugene even gave Jackie a ring of some sort. Over the next several months though, Jackie seemed to lose interest in Eugene. After all, the man was still married. From her perspective, there probably wasn't much of a future there for the two of them. So not wanting to be in debt to Eugene, she repaid him back using her new salary.

And by the end of 1961, she had fully moved on. She was now dating a new man named Ronald Olson. She gave Eugene back the ring and by January had put in her notice at the law office. She was done. In February 1962, she told Eugene she was thinking about marrying Ronald, her new boyfriend. And that's when Eugene asked her to meet up. He had one final hell marry to use to try and win her back. During that meeting, he basically said to Jackie, look, before you go off and marry Ronald, just give me a year or so to get my affairs in order.

I just want to make sure if I leave my family, they're all taken care of. Only Jackie was like, nope, I'm done. I broke up with you, I'm moving on and I'm marrying Ronald. Dude, what a psychopath. Just give me a year to divorce my family then I'll marry you. Yeah.

Who says that? In June, people who are having affairs. True. In June, 1962, she married Ronald Olson as planned, but the relationship wasn't looking good from the start. By the end of the summer, she was back in Eugene's office looking to file for another divorce. Hey, will you represent me in my second divorce? It was around this time Eugene made another attempt at winning her back. Over lunch, she told her, how about this?

I'll put $10,000 in your bank account today if you promise to marry me. Jackie still refused. She wasn't interested in being with a married man or breaking up a family. Instead, Jackie reconciled with Ronald and called off the divorce. Still Eugene did whatever he could to keep her in his life, including offering her an apartment in a building he owned. Even by the end of 1962, his feelings about Jackie hadn't changed. He was to put it frankly obsessed. He was obsessed with Jackie, which I mean,

considering that of all the affairs he's had, there must be something pretty special about Jackie. And she wasn't the only complicated matter that Eugene was hiding from his wife. Back in June of 1962, around the time Jackie and Ronald were tying the knot, Eugene received an unexpected call. It was a fellow alum from McAllister, a 40-year-old man named Norman. Norman, a married father of two, claimed he'd been arrested under false

pretenses in Minnesota, and he could use Eugene's legal expertise. Eugene didn't quite remember Norman from college, but apparently Norman remembered him. And frankly, Eugene was happy for business. He agreed to represent Norman, and over the next several months, Norman and Eugene got pretty close. But what Eugene found was, Norman wasn't exactly the stand-up guy he was trying to portray himself as, yet a criminal history and absolutely no moral compass. So when Eugene told him about his problems with Jackie and his desire to leave his marriage, Norman pitched a solution. Why not just plan a hit job on Carol Thompson?

Eugene obviously took the idea seriously. After all, he'd already had a slew of insurance policies out on Carol. It's so crazy that he can even consider that considering he's an attorney as well. It's just like he knows exactly what's going to happen. They're so many other options. Well you're just, yeah, the first year I've just said I don't want to be with you. You make great money. It's not like you're desperately needing these life insurance policies. It makes no sense. Instead we go so drastic and oh yeah, let me just kill.

Just kill. Just kill. Just kill. Just kill. Just kill. Just kill. Just brutally kill my wife. And then what are you gonna do with the four kids? You just think that Jackie who doesn't even wanna be with you is gonna move in and start taking care of those kids? Yeah, yeah. The wife was the one taking care of them.

Crazy. What are you gonna do? Crazy to me. If it worked in his favor, he could certainly afford a contract kill then he committed further. He got rid of that Yappy family dogs sometime around January

1963. A move that devastated his kids but made it a lot easier for a stranger to enter the home without being noticed. It also explained those strange dreams Eugene began having about his wife's death around the beginning of February. They weren't premonitions like he'd made them out to be. They were guilt nightmares because Eugene knew exactly what was coming. However, Eugene didn't quite know who would carry out the hit. That was left up to Norman, who by late February was scanning his rolodex for someone to do their dirty work. Norman met with a few of his contacts before he learned of someone likely willing to do it for the couple thousand dollars they were offering.

Around March 3rd, 1963, less than a week before the murder, Norman met up with a man named Dick Anderson. Dick was a 35-year-old ex-marine who'd been honorably discharged and given a purple heart in Korea. Wow. And when he wasn't doing freelance assassination work, Dick made a living, selling, roofing, and siding. He seemed inconspicuous enough.

So Norman sat Dick down and asked him if he'd be interested in making a little extra cash, about $2,000 to kill a woman. $3,000 if he can make it look like an accident. Which mind you, is a little less than 30 grand today. So not exactly a life-changing amount of money, but Dick said he'd think about it. By that afternoon, he called Norman back and agreed to take the job. Only under one condition, he needed $1,000 upfront. Norman

told him that wasn't a problem and the two met up again the following day, except Norman only gave him $200 and said he would have the rest of us soon. How do you go from getting a purple heart to Being an assassin being literally like a hitman an assassin. I don't know But together after he gives him the $200 they begin to lay out the plan Everyone has a story. What's yours? Polo. Polo blue.

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And just going back to it, be one thing if you were like an assassin for like evil people. Yeah, you know, you're like, like James Bond. Yeah, you're killing like, but like, uh, innocent, like Brandon bystander, that's not, that's not okay. Mr Thompson would leave for work earlier than usual that day while Carol sent the kids off to school. Then around 825 AM, Mr Thompson would call Carol. Eugene had already removed all the other phones in the house, so Carol would have no other option but to answer the one near the top of the basement steps. And that was a Dix cue to ascend the stairs.

While Carol was speaking to Eugene, he'd strike Carol in the back of her head with the garden hose Norman had given him and carry her upstairs to the bathroom. Norman told him to make the blow swift and add an angle across the back of the neck so it looked like she'd fall fallen somewhere in the bathroom. There a tub full of water would be waiting for Dick so he could drown Carol finishing off the deed to look like an accident. Ooh, so this gets even more interesting because he filled the tub up knowing his wife was going to be drowning there.

I mean, he's an accessory to murder at that point. Correct? Oh, yeah. And I mean, he's an accessory to murder because it's his plan. He's someone coming up with everything and he's the one who hired. That's insane. A hitman. I just, every time we do a hitman story, I think, why are people still attempting to do this because they never go as planned?

Literally, have we ever seen one executed that is like, well, I guess we wouldn't know. I was going to say that there is something, but we wouldn't know about them because it ain't get caught So but look how many have failed you guys it's just not a good idea either as ones out there that have been and it look Look they're gonna have gone through don't please don't write us and tell them yeah, oh no dude send them to dear Daisy Yeah, well and then we send them straight to the police because I'm a snitch Yes, please before I was nitch. Don't be sending me those. Eugene even helped Norman draw diagrams of the house so that Dick had the

perfect blueprints for his plan. Then Norman drove Dick home, expecting the job to be done the following morning on March 5th. But when Norman called Dick the next afternoon asking if it had been done, Dick said no. He felt he needed a gun in case things went sideways. So Norman went back to Dick's that afternoon and gave him a handgun, a luger to be specific. Then that evening, Dick went to bed knowing in a few hours it was game time.

On the morning of March 6, Dick put on his tie and sports jacket. Opt up on alcohol and amphetamines, he made the eight mile drive from his apartment to Highland Park. He entered the unlock side door as planned and waited in the basement for well over an hour listening to the sounds of the Thompson family go about their morning. How do you hear those kids? I can't, like that makes me sick. And then go up.

Makes me sick. Then around 825, he heard the phone ring. That was his cue to move. But almost immediately, things weren't going dicks way. He realized the stairs leading up from the basement creaked very loudly, so he was immediately spooked by the idea of climbing them while Carol was on the phone. Instead, he waited until she went back to her bedroom and ambushed her there, which is already not as planned.

And as we learned earlier, things only got sloppier as Dick went on. You can't say those two together. When he didn't succeed in knocking Carol unconscious or drowning her, he tried to shoot her with the luger. Only the luger was loaded with the wrong bullets, so the gun didn't fire. This is just like, home alone, them trying to rob the house and one thing after the other. Except when he stabs her straight through the throat. Yeah, accept that.

Then he hit her with the butt of his gun, which also didn't kill her, but he did manage to leave a piece of the weapon behind. Finally, he scrambled to the kitchen to grab the knife, which he left lodged in Carol's throat. The whole thing read like a bad horror film. Only this was Carol Thompson's real life. And she still managed to escape Dixclutches by rushing over to the neighbor's home, at which point Dick Anderson went upstairs to wash off the blood before fleeing the scene. Later that morning he met

up with Norman and they drove north, tossing out his clothes and what was left of the gun somewhere along the highway. Meanwhile, Eugene Thompson was packing an envelope with cash about $2,500 worth. He then handed it to another attorney in the office and asked him to deliver it to Norman without question. It seems only 800 of that ended up making its way to Dick Anderson over the following days. The rest seemed to be pocketed by Norman himself, which like, duh, he's a middleman. Dick said he was going out of town to Phoenix, Arizona for a few days and told Norman when he got back,

he expected to be paid out everything he was promised, or else. Only Dick Anderson never got the chance to collect. On April 5th, the St. Paul police showed the public fragments of the gun they'd found at the crime scene. They needed help identifying the owner, and apparently the gun dick had been given was a customized luger with a black and white laminate handle. Easy to spot, if you knew it. Four days after local news stations shared the image, a traveling salesman called the police saying he'd actually made that handle for his luger in a shop class.

And the gun had been stolen from him when his apartment was robbed back in February. As police dug further, they learned the robbers had given the gun to their boss, a man named Norman Maestrian. So on April 19th, police closed in on Norman and arrested him at his home. After learning he'd passed the gun to Dick Anderson, Dick was also arrested later that day by Phoenix police. Meanwhile Eugene Thompson was still out there playing dumb.

As news outlets broadcast the giant breaking Carol Thompson's case, Eugene went before the press to say he was pleased with the outcome. He hoped justice would be brought to the men arrested. They for sure right him out. There's no and this or buts behind that. It's like Eugene was so arrogant that he actually thought He was still gonna get away with it. He not fear boy. Could he have been more wrong by May 8th Both Norman and Dick had been charged with first-degree murder But for over a month both had stayed quiet about who was behind the murder Meanwhile, few still thought it was a disgruntled client of Eugene Thompson's or maybe even a robbery gone wrong But on June 20th dick Anderson's conscience had gotten the best of him in that evening he told police he was ready to

confess. While chain smoking, a pack of cigarettes, he told the police that Mr. Thompson was the man who'd paid him to kill Carol his wife, even signed a sworn confession. Within 24 hours, Eugene Thompson was also arrested and charged with first degree murder. Okay. In October 1963, the 35-year-old Eugene finally saw his day in court. The hearing lasted over six weeks and was covered by every press outlet in the area. But Eugene hardly stood a chance. The prosecution laid out all the details from the insurance payouts to the mistress to

removing the telephones and giving up the family's beloved dog. After deliberating for 12 hours, the jury found him guilty. Eugene Thompson was sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, the couples four kids went to live with Carol's parents before growing up and starting lives of their own. See, and that's what sad too is, he ruins so many other lives just besides getting your wife killed. Yeah, their eldest son actually went on to become a lawyer. Oh, good for him.

As a state prosecutor who tried several first degree murder cases. Wow. He was eventually appointed chief judge for the southeastern district of Minnesota. Ultimately, however, Eugene only served 20 years of his life sentence before he was released on parole in 1983. Afterwards Eugene remarried and tried to reconnect with his adult children, but at least for the eldest, he never really let his father back in. Eugene continued to deny his involvement in Carol's death even after his release from prison.

Yet the eldest son always believed the jury did the right thing. Yeah. Eugene Thompson died on his 88th birthday on August 7th, 2015, without the full forgiveness from his children. I mean, what do you expect? Right. I mean, it's pretty obvious. And that is the case of Carol Thompson. That's so sad. I thought she was going to live. Like, when you started and she got over to the neighbors, I was like, oh, she's okay.

Like she's going to be okay, but. I did say at the beginning that she would die before she got the name. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I always got hold of him. You thought I was teasing? I always have hope. I'm always hoping.

I think it's actually really devastating because Carol Thompson was getting cheated on. She was getting lied to. She was being betrayed, and then the ultimate betrayal of hiring someone to kill your wife. Yeah, just for a girl that didn't even like you. And she carried the nothing wrong,

because she was a good wife, good mom, just messed up. Yeah. All right, you guys, that is our case for this week, and we will see you next time with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.