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It was the most tragic thing that ever happened to the city, and I think it was also the city's finest hour. Saturday, April 6, 1968 was an unusually beautiful spring day in Richmond, Indiana. Downtown was bustling. All the charming little shops were full of people.
A little after 1:45 in the afternoon, college-aged Jack Bales and Greg Oler walked into the Marting Arms sporting goods store on the southeast corner of 6th and Main. They approached the rear counter. Greg told the clerk that he was there to pick up the arrows he had ordered. He had just landed a spot on the Purdue University archery team a couple of minutes after the best friends entered the store. At 1:47 p.m., the entire building exploded.
When I came to, I was on top of a lot of debris. Jack Bells told the Palladium Item newspaper. There was a beam across my back and legs. Greg was nowhere around.
Greg Oler had fallen into the massive crater where Marting Arms used to be, so had everyone else in the store. Jack Bales didn't know it yet, but he was the only person in the building who survived the blast. Outside on the streets was just as hellish. The explosions had been massive. Fireballs shot hundreds of feet into the air. The wall of smoke sparkled because the sky was filled with broken glass.
The lucky individual still breathing ran for cover to avoid being pummeled by the raining debris and body parts. In the midst of all of that, I saw this man and his head was torn off and part of his legs was torn off and his, with the explosion, his clothes were torn off and he must have been about 60 feet in the air, lying. I watched him, watched him and he landed and
no more than five, six, seven feet in front of me. A black curtain covered downtown Richmond, Indiana. From afar, it looked like a mushroom cloud, like a bomb had been dropped in the middle of the city.
Every building as far as the eye could see had been damaged. At least 15 were completely destroyed. As I looked at it and I said, my God, where do I begin? And that was my first impression because it seemed so hopeless. There was so much damage. There was so much fire. There were so many fatalities and wounded, injured, if you will, victims.
We had something like 127 buildings that sustained damage from the explosion itself. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, National Guard troops, and volunteers spent two days combing the rubble in search of survivors. Dozens of people were missing. They were either buried in building materials or disintegrated entirely. Some of the bodies recovered were unrecognizable.
Coroners chopped off fingers at the pop-up morgue to identify individuals by their prints. Richmond firefighter Bill Smith told Firehouse Magazine that many of the deceased had been trapped in basements. He said one woman begged him to save her as he tried to pull her free. But the rapidly spreading flames and smoke offered no hope. That woman was swallowed by the inferno, as were all the others stuck inside.
In the end, 41 people died that day in Richmond, Indiana, including seven children. Five families suffered multiple losses of life. More than 150 were injured. Two people were never found. Eyewitnesses reported that a giant flame had engulfed a young man across the street from the Marting Arms store when it exploded. It's assumed that every trace of that young man's existence melted away that day.
The other missing person was Don Marting, the owner of the shop. Most thought it was because Don was at the epicenter of the blast, which forgave nothing in its way. But the more conspiratorial types wondered if Don Marting's disappearance was all a part of the plan. The plan for Don to skip town and skip out on any past debts he may have left behind. Maybe it was some kind of insurance scam. Maybe Don set fire to it all and smiled as he watched it burn in his rearview mirror.
Maybe he tossed his wedding ring out the window while speeding towards the setting sun. It was fun to think about. More fun than the initial worries of a plane crash or another riot which were spreading rapidly across the country. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated two days earlier, but reality has a far duller edge. An investigation revealed that the most likely culprit of the explosion was a gas leak. We had the sense that there was a gas leak.
Business owners in the area reported smelling natural gas days before the explosion. Several reported having to prop their doors open to ventilate their buildings. However, investigators reasoned the crater where Marting Arms' sporting goods stood could not have been created by exploding natural gas alone.
Eyewitnesses, including Jack Bales, had testified that there were two blasts. The first happened in the streets of downtown Richmond, determined to have been caused by a leaking natural gas pipe, which resulted in a second explosion, which occurred in the basement of Marting Arms, where a large stockpile of gunpowder had been stored.
A survey of the pipes by the Richmond Gas Corporation three days before the explosions revealed a total of 55 leaks throughout the city. A smaller one had been found under the street near Marting Arms. However, proving exact causation was made difficult. The gas company had recovered the pipe in question and refused the investigation's request to examine it.
Eventually, the Indiana Public Service Commission forced the Richmond Gas Corporation to hand over the pipe in August 1968, and just as suspected, the pipe was, quote, perforated, which almost certainly resulted in the initial explosion. After a series of commission hearings, the gas company was ordered to begin a massive program of repairs and replacements.
at the federal level in direct response to the richmond tragedy congress passed a law to set stricter standards for gas lines and their maintenance which pretty soon the supreme court will probably rule unconstitutional the investigation also resulted in 397 civil lawsuits only one of which went to court a jury found richmond gas corporation solely liable for the disaster
The plaintiff in that case, a widow, was awarded $250,000. The Richmond Gas Corporation appealed the decision, but it was upheld. The company quickly recognized the writing on the wall and settled the remaining lawsuits out of court. Total damages reportedly cost them up to $10 million. Some things are out of our control. Many things are out of our control. No one could have ever stopped it because it was fate.
That's what was supposed to happen that day. Regardless of the gas company's unattentiveness. Regardless of whatever ignited it. Because the gas didn't ignite itself. Something ignited it. And whatever ignited it that day at that time was supposed to have happened just that way. But you still wonder why, you know? Was it fate? Was the Richmond explosion supposed to happen?
The most pious among us might think so, but I bet there are 41 names on a monument somewhere that would disagree. If you ask me, the Richmond disaster is more proof of life's chaotic fragility. Nothing makes sense, and we're all at the mercy of other people's mistakes and wants and needs. Our safety hinges on good decisions and teamwork and neighborly camaraderie.
The state of Indiana received another reminder of that 44 years later, when a massive explosion devastated Richmond Hill, a neighborhood in Indianapolis, 65 miles west of Richmond. But this time it was no accident. Once again, lives are changed forever because of greed. On this episode of Swindled.
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It was just a normal night. Yeah. We, uh, sitting downstairs watching TV. I was scheduled to play golf the next day because it was such a gorgeous weekend and had just gotten up, walked around in back of the love seat to get something to drink, watch the news, make sure what the weather was going to do. And, uh,
Next thing I knew, everything went black and I was flying through the air. Richmond Hill is a quiet, tranquil subdivision paradise located in stunning southeast Indianapolis, just 20 minutes from downtown.
The newly built single-family modern homes would be a dream for any established family or first-time homebuyer. The ceilings are exceptionally tall. The two-car garage is gorgeous. There's a huge master bedroom, a full basement, a dedicated home office and laundry room, hardwood floors, an oversized island, and a breakfast nook. The gas fireplace in the spacious family room is a nice amenity during those cold Indiana winters.
and take a look at those stainless steel appliances. All you'll see is the reflection of your teeth, because you'll be smiling every time you enter this room. And the cherry on top. All 125 homes in Richmond Hill are within walking distance of a park, a playground, a pool, and a pond.
And there's a golf course just down the road for those times when dad just needs to get away. Bunch of little knuckleheads. Oh, I know. Drive me crazy sometimes. Mine are the same way. Cheers to that, buddy. Now watch this drive. You bet. Oh, and the neighbors are friendly too. No, really. Richmond Hill was and is a great community. That's why Dion and Jennifer Longworth purchased a brand new two-story home there in 2003.
The couple had reached a comfortable point in their lives. 34-year-old Dion worked as a director of product development at Indy Audio Labs. It was his dream job, and his wife, 36-year-old Jennifer Longworth, was a second-grade teacher at Southwest Elementary, who all the students adored.
The Longworths were enjoying their years together at their home on Field Fair Way in Richmond Hill. Jennifer crafted holiday decorations for her classroom while Dion restored his GTO and obsessed over his garden. The couple had come so far since they'd met in college. While working at Montgomery Wards in the Greenwood Park Mall, Dion and Jennifer Longworth were happy until Saturday, November 10, 2012, when it was all taken away from them.
This is Richmond Hill subdivision.
South of Stop 11 off of Sherman Road. Whatever it is, we'll see. I mean, it brought the entire neighborhood out of the house. Oh, my gosh. Oh, God, I'll take Blair for the... Yeah, I live around Thompson and Five Points, and there was a big old boom here, man. Yes, sir, we're aware of it. Officers are out in the area. What is it? We don't know at this point, sir. We're trying to figure it out. That is affirmative at this time. Our police park is in the corner. Bring your cot up here.
I'm on the scene, I'm on the rear of this incident. I'm on the street called Alcona and we have extensive damage to a lot of houses along this area. We got a lot of frantic people back here. We've got IMPD and law enforcement taking care of the crowd control back here. But advise all units to think about secondary devices and we're probably going to need to call a gas company out here as well.
At 11:11 PM, hundreds of people in southern Indianapolis called 911 to report hearing and feeling an enormous boom. Several wondered aloud to the operator if there might have been a plane crash, but those who lived close to the epicenter reported that a house on Field Fair Way had simply exploded.
If you just looked over there, you saw a huge, huge fireball. It was just fire. It splintered my door. It looked like a war zone. Garage doors blown in, windows blown in, house completely leveled, nothing left. We got up, ran outside, looked around. There was insulation falling down like snow. Dozens of terrified, yet courageous, Richmond Hill residents poured into the streets to help their fellow neighbors, some of them wearing pajamas.
Meanwhile, first responders at a fire station a few miles away had felt the blast and raced to the scene before being summoned. Upon arrival, they found nothing left of the house where the explosion had originated, and both of the immediate neighboring houses were in terrible shape. The Ovies lived in one of those houses. Glenn, his wife Gloria, and their two children, Amagine and Catherine, and their cat, Gidget. The explosion collapsed the walls of their home.
Glenn was getting a drink from the refrigerator at the time. The blast sent him flying 15 feet through the air until the kitchen island broke his fall. Glenn had cuts all over his body and severe road rash on his back where the drywall slid across it. He was alive but trapped under a pile of rubble. Neighbors were able to pull him free. Glenn's wife and children survived as well.
Rescuers had to pry the roof off of Gloria Olvey, who was trapped in a chair. A 2x4 had punctured her calf. Gloria sustained a broken finger, a black eye, numerous lacerations, 33 stitches in her leg, and five more in her head. The Olvey children escaped with only cuts and contusions.
Gidget the cat was found six days later hiding behind a couch, no longer housed in the living room. Go ahead. Received a call that in the basement and on the second floor, 8355 Field Fairway, we have two people trapped in the residence. Dion and Jennifer Longworth lived in the house on the south side of Ground Zero. The north side of the Longworth's house was on fire. As rescue crews approached the devastation, they could hear men screaming for help.
It was Deon Longworth. He was trapped in the basement. He was reaching out to them from a basketball-sized hole in the ground-level wall. "How is my wife?" Deon asked. "Are you going to be able to help me?" Deon told the rescue workers that Jennifer had been on the second floor when everything blew up. Deon couldn't see from his vantage point, and the firefighters didn't have the heart to tell him. But there was no longer a second floor to his home.
There wasn't even a first floor. The entire structure had collapsed into a seven-foot-tall pile of rubble, and Jennifer Longworth had died instantly from blast injuries. Dion Longworth was fighting for his life, but it was a race against time. The fire was growing larger and closer. It's so hot. Please get me out, Dion begged.
Within minutes, the flames were licking his heels. The house collapsed in on itself even further. The scene became too dangerous. The firefighters were forced to retreat. Dionne Longworth burned alive. The next morning, Dionne's parents and sister scoured the internet for signs that the beloved couple was okay. They recognized Jennifer's car in a photo parked in front of what used to be a house. The family raced to the staging area where medics were treating the wounded.
It was there that they received the news. We were sitting there and we kept hope until the coroner came and then when the coroner came we had some most awful feeling I've ever had. It was a miracle that no one else died. Daylight revealed the extent of the damage. Hundreds of people had been injured. Nearly 80 homes had been affected. At least 30 were destroyed beyond repair. Richmond Hill looked like a war zone. What happened?
Now at 6, a huge explosion all but flattens an Indianapolis neighborhood and leaves at least two people dead. The explosion happened around 11 o'clock last night on the south side of the city. Take a look at this video. Two houses side by side were destroyed. Investigators at the scene...
say around 80 other properties had some kind of damage. Tonight, people are trying to salvage what they can from what looks like a war zone. Officials are still trying to figure out what caused such a huge blast, but are looking into a gas leak as a possibility. Richmond Hill was sealed off for investigation. Fire officials immediately suspected a natural gas explosion because the flames were blue.
The eruption occurred at 8349 Field Fair Way. That much was obvious. The owners of that house were not home at the time. However, the gas company, Citizens Energy Group, soon reported that there had been no leaks in the area. The gas company has investigated the gas mains in the area, the gas mains under the streets in the area. We've not found any leaks.
But investigators did find that 8349 Field Fair Ways natural gas usage that day had more than doubled what was typically used. That information was gleaned from the house's gas meter which was still intact, as was the gas manifold, except the step-down regulator was missing. The step-down regulator moderates the amount of natural gas pressure piped into a home so appliances can safely use it.
At 8349 Field Fair Way, that regulator had been replaced with a piece of black tubing. The gas line leading into the home's fireplace also had a valve missing. The Dante valve, which prevents too much gas from being released at once, was nowhere to be found. However, structurally, the fireplace was relatively undamaged. This led investigators to believe that the Dante valve had been carefully removed rather than destroyed.
There was even more evidence that something nefarious was behind the blast. A microwave found at the scene appeared to have exploded from the inside out, denting the stove that had been mounted above. There was also an exploded metal canister among the debris that investigators theorized could have provided the spark, but it was difficult to say for sure.
So everything with a battery or cord was collected as evidence. A crock pot, parts of a toaster, a George Foreman grill, a quote "electric massager", several TV remotes. But interestingly enough, there were no TVs to go with those remotes. In fact, there was very little furniture at all to be found in the remains of the former two-story four-bedroom home. Even the portrait above the fireplace appeared to have been removed before the blast.
Everything seemed so intentional. Nine days after the Richmond Hill explosion, a criminal investigation was announced. Support for Swindled comes from SimpliSafe. If you're like me, you're constantly thinking about the safety of the people and things you value most. After my neighbor was robbed at knife point, I knew I needed to secure my home with the best. My research led me to SimpliSafe.com.
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The investigation of the scene and the cause of the explosion is an ongoing investigation, and there is no definite time frame for completion of that investigation.
However, at the same time that the cause of the fire is being investigated, there's been a parallel investigation not only focused on the cause, but also determining if there are individuals who may have been responsible for this explosion and fire. That investigation consists of numerous interviews of witnesses as well as execution of search warrants, and it's being conducted jointly by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
Based upon those interviews and the results of the search warrants, we can confirm tonight that there is an active homicide investigation in this matter. Montserrat Shirley moved to the continental United States from Puerto Rico when she was 25 years old. Montse, as her friends and siblings called her, had waited long enough to escape her abusive father, but that trauma traveled with her.
Now and again, scenes from Monsie's upbringing would intrude her thoughts. Like that time her father hanged the family dog from a tree in their backyard before shooting it with a rifle. It was such a relief for Monsie to escape the source of her pain, and the American Midwest offered so much opportunity. Soon after her arrival, Monsie met a man, John Shirley. They married in 1993.
John was a manufacturing technician who accepted a job with the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Soon after, the Shirleys relocated to Indianapolis. There, Monsie Shirley studied to become a nurse and gave birth to Brooke, the couple's only child. It was such a blessing, but she was starting to feel a bit crowded. Monsie Shirley wanted more. "She wanted us to live in a bigger house," John Shirley told WRTV.
Her sister had lived in the same housing complex. She found a house with a floor plan she liked. John and Monsie Shirley bought a new home in Richmond Hill in 2003, 8349 Field Fair Lane. It was a dream that they could not afford. The Shirleys had not managed their finances well. Monsie had at least $20,000 in student loans and more than $70,000 in credit card debt.
not to mention a high interest loan payment on an SUV that she just had to have right after they bought the house. To try to stop the bleeding, the Shirleys took out a second mortgage on their Richmond Hill home in the amount of $65,000 after only just a few years of living there. The couple owed far more on the mortgage than the house was worth. The only other appreciating assets the couple owned were their 401 s, not ideal,
In 2007, John and Montserrat Shirley filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. In 2011, the couple filed for divorce. It was ugly. When the smoke cleared, John had signed over the house, their daughter, and all of the couple's debt to Montse. He packed his bags in such a hurry that he left his golf clubs behind. Montserrat Shirley was now fully responsible for the bankruptcy settlement payments and the mortgage, which she could not afford on her single nurse's salary.
She soon defaulted on both. Monsi considered short selling the house to unload a sizable chunk of the debt, but she couldn't afford the fees. So Monsi surely got a second job and worked extra hours at the hospital just to pay the minimums on her debts while swiping a credit card for the bare necessities. Going to work to pay for a car that you need to get to work. A well-trained dog chasing its tail. Thinking about it too much will drive you to drink.
Monsie Shirley and Mark Leonard met at the Crazy Street Bar on November 12th, 2011. Monsie was there having a beer with her friend Mary, but she might as well have been invisible. Monsie had immediately locked eyes with a stranger across the room. He was tall and handsome with bleached blonde hair and jeans so tight you could tell he had a nice thick wad of cash in his pocket. He also had a state-issued tracking device attached to his ankle. Monsie Shirley was in love.
"My name is Mark," he screamed at her over a Papa Roach song, reaching out his hand. Time slowed down. Neon lights reflected enchantingly in his extra-shiny forehead. A wisp of air from the bar's underserviced HVAC system danced playfully in his beautiful rock-hard hair. Mary read the room and excused herself like a decent wingman. Mark sat down next to Monsie. At last call, they drove to Monsie's house and Mark sleazed Hummer.
They have been inseparable ever since, mainly because Mark Leonard refused to leave. Even when John Shirley would bring Brooke by for visitations, Mark Leonard would hide in the bedroom closet despite Monsey's wishes. Eventually, as in within two or three weeks, Mark Leonard moved into Monsey's Richmond Hill home. It was fine. Mark was employed. Self-employed. He had just been hired to deconstruct an old motel.
He even offered to help Monsie renovate portions of her house. A true gentleman and a Renaissance man. In his younger years, Mark Leonard was a Chippendale style exotic dancer. But he had not saved any of the dollars that had been stuffed into his G-string over the years by Virginia's slim, stained fingers. Mark was even more irresponsible with money than Monsie, surely. And together, things would only get worse.
But Monsi has said that those first few months of her relationship with Mark Leonard were terrific. He was kind and thoughtful and friendly to her daughter. But then Mark got sick. A blood disorder landed him in a coma. Fortunately, his new girlfriend was an ICU nurse. Monsi helped Mark Leonard make a full recovery. Luck was on his side.
So Mark Leonard started gambling. He brought Monsi along with him to the casinos on occasion. She would give him thousands of dollars that she didn't have. Mark would lose it all instantaneously, every time. "High rollers like us need a cooler car," Mark Leonard told Monsi as he looked upon her 2006 GMC Envoy with disgust. "What if we sell your car and buy you a BMW instead?" he pitched.
Monty Shirley must have reluctantly agreed because that's what they did, except for the whole BMW part. Instead, Monty ended up with a 2004 Taurus with a blue book value of $750. Mark Leonard bought himself a new Cadillac STS, which he totaled in front of a Southside bar within a few months. In its pathetic state, the Cadillac was parked in Monty Shirley's garage. It squeezed in next to Mark's broken down Harley.
One night he had performed a burnout in front of Club Zeus with some chick on the back of the bike and he dumped it on the ground. The handlebars were all fucked up now, but he looked cool doing it. At least Montserrat surely thought so. She was hopelessly devoted to this man. She would do anything he asked her to do. Not that Mark Leonard would take no for an answer anyway. Neither would the creditors who were calling the Richmond Hill house relentlessly.
Monsi's bankruptcy was dismissed on June 13, 2012 for failure to make payments. Her assets were no longer protected. Eventually the bank would foreclose on the Richmond Hill house. Five months later that house exploded. Montserrat Shirley and Mark Leonard had no clue how or why.
According to the Indianapolis Star, sources say gas was intentionally released into Shirley and Leonard's home and that remote detonation may have sparked the chain of explosions. And right now, the estimated cost of the damage sits at $4.4 million. Monsey and Mark were at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg on the night of the explosion, about an hour and a half away down I-74.
Monsi's daughter Brooke was staying with a friend, and the family cat, a white Persian named Snowball, had been boarded for the weekend. Nobody was home. Monsi surely said they had no idea what happened until a neighbor in Richmond Hill called to tell them their house was gone.
She was screaming, I'm glad you're alive, I'm glad you're alive. It was an explosion in the neighborhood and we were looking for your body. Monsi and Mark rushed home that night to find a scene of utter chaos. Their house and all of their belongings were indeed gone. But their problems were minuscule compared to their neighbors Dion and Jenny. Monsi and Mark felt fortunate just to be alive.
With what the fire investigators had learned about the scene in the following days, the missing valves, the increased usage, the microwave, etc., naturally, the homeowners were the initial suspects. But Monsi and Mark's alibi checked out. The couple was seen in the Hollywood Casino surveillance footage on the night of November 10, 2012.
However, there were some inconsistencies in their stories. For example, Mark Leonard told investigators that he and Monsi spent all day gambling. According to the surveillance video, Mark gambled for nine minutes. Monsi played a slot machine for a total of three minutes. For the remaining 11 hours the couple were at the casino that day, they could be seen sitting at the rooftop bar, obsessively checking their watches and phones.
Monsie Shirley also told police that she and Mark took the trip to celebrate their one-year anniversary. That wasn't true. Investigators discovered a check written to Mark Leonard from Monsie Shirley, dated 10 months earlier than when they supposedly met. Another point of interest was Snowball. The Caddo had been taken to a boarding facility for the weekend.
John Shirley thought that was kind of strange because throughout his entire marriage to Monsey, they had gone out of town plenty of times and never once did she board the cat. So why now? The local media reported on these facts surrounding the case and online forums ran wild with speculation. To be honest, Monsey Shirley and Mark Leonard felt disrespected by the scrutiny.
Three days after the explosion, the couple granted interviews with various news outlets to remind people that they were victims too. The people lost their lives. I lost my house. Everybody lost their house.
It's devastating and people keep asking me questions and questions. Like I know something, I don't know nothing. I just left my house and like we always do. Everybody's just like after me, asking me questions and everything.
Do you have anything to add, Mark?
We just need to be left alone. Good luck with that, because the evidence was piling up. Investigators had also discovered that Mark Leonard and Monsie Shirley did not have a reservation for a room on the night that their house exploded. It was almost like they knew they would have to leave that night for some undetermined reason.
Witnesses also told detectives that a white van was spotted in front of Shirley's house earlier that day. It looked like Mark Leonard's work van, but the two men inside did not look like Mark Leonard. A witness said he saw the men walk inside the house and quickly run out, as if danger was near. But the most enormous red flag of all was Mark Leonard himself.
A familiar face to the Indianapolis Police Department, whose criminal record dated back to 1992. Multiple arrests for insurance fraud.
And that wasn't all. 43-year-old Mark Leonard had been convicted of numerous felonies, including stalking, intimidation, driving while intoxicated, theft, and drug charges. Some of his favorite activities included stealing motorcycles and selling them for parts, or staging automobile accidents and pocketing the insurance payouts. Mark Leonard had spent a total of five years in prison for some of those crimes.
In life after lockup, Mark Leonard had moved on to romance scams. He created profiles on dating websites like DateHookup.com and PlentyOfFish, where he cast a big net. His profile settings indicated he was looking for love from women ages 18 to 90. Mark's headline read, "The Troubadour: I'd Rather Be Somewhere With You."
His attributes: blonde hair, blue eyes, Pisces, white, Christian, some college. With a salary range up to $275,000 a year. For the politics category, Mark chose the option "rather not say", which tells you everything you need to know.
Kimberly Barker gave the old troubadour a chance.
Mark convinced Kimberly to let him and a friend take on some home renovation projects she wanted. But instead of completing the work, Kimberly told WRTV that Mark Leonard and his buddy had destroyed her house and disappeared. They tore my house apart and got my money and took off.
And I, my brother, and I had to put it back together. Kimberly Barker eventually sued Mark Leonard. She won a $27,000 judgment against him, of which she's never seen a penny. Vicki Payton also sued Mark Leonard. She told WRTV that she'd met him at an Indianapolis bar. He was very flashy.
Leather jacket, drove a nice new Harley, had a vet, bragged about how rich he was. Rich, I'm rich, I'm rich. Mark Leonard was so rich that he asked to borrow $3,000 from Vicki for a Memorial Day weekend gambling trip. Of course, he promised to pay it back, but he never did. I never in a million years thought that I would be taken and swindled like that. You know, who does that to somebody?
Mark Leonard does that to everybody. Several other women have come forward with tales from their encounters with the troubadour. The scoundrel was always the same. He'd meet someone online and convince them to loan him money. He would forget his wallet at the casino or needed a short-term loan to finish a construction project.
Montserrat Shirley was not aware of Mark Leonard's entire criminal history, but she knew about his online dating schemes. Mark continued that lifestyle while they were together. He kept a list of marks in his wallet with their nicknames. Fat girl, rich girl, car wreck, credit cards. Monsi said she did not mind. In fact, the less she knew, the better, just as long as he promised not to fuck them.
But now, to investigators, it looked like Mark Leonard had returned to his preferred hustle: insurance fraud. Mark Leonard told the insurance company that his Cadillac and Harley were in pristine condition when the house exploded, and that he had $20,000 in cash stored in the bedroom. Oh, and an original Picasso painting. If that didn't ring any alarms, Mark Leonard's conversation with an associate a week before the explosion surely would.
Mark Duckworth told investigators that during a phone call, Mark Leonard told him he was shopping for Ferraris on Craigslist. When Duckworth asked why, Leonard stated that he had come into a $300,000 insurance payout recently. The tsunami winds came down the chimney, blew out the fire in the fireplace, and the gas kept running, and the house blew up. Except it hadn't. Two days later, Mark Leonard told Mark Duckworth that he was just kidding.
"I wondered why you would run the fireplace when it was warm out," Duckworth said. A Citizens Energy employee also came forward about a conversation he had with Mark Leonard and his half-brother Bob. It was the night before the explosion. The employee said the brother spotted him at the Gaslight Inn and peppered him with questions such as, "What's the difference between natural gas and propane?" and "How much gas would it take to fill a house?"
Mark also asked if the hose would continue to dispense gas if the regulator were removed. The utility employee thought nothing of it at the time. The public was always curious. Security footage from the Gaslight Inn confirms the story. There they are, plain as day. Mark and Bob Leonard. Mark's older half-brother Bob Leonard also had quite the checkered past. He'd been to prison for stealing cars and had been in trouble for stalking and intimidating women.
According to Bob, he and Mark did not have a close relationship. They had only recently reunited after Mark offered Bob a job to help tear down an old motel. In addition to appearing in the Gaslight Inn video, Bob Leonard's DNA was found on the door of 8349 Field Fair Way. He also told an old friend at a high school reunion that he was about to get paid $10,000 as part of a hefty insurance claim.
After the explosion, Bob's son told authorities that his father had stored some belongings at his girlfriend's house. There were totes of personal items belonging to Monsie Shirley and an old set of golf clubs. Additionally, a neighbor of Bob's in the trailer park told authorities that Bob had knocked on her door to ask if the cops had asked about the white van that had been parked in front of his house for weeks that he had recently moved. Why, she asked, just curious.
Bob Leonard was right to be paranoid. The authorities were watching him. They had even uncovered surveillance video of him and Mark at a Southside Menards home improvement store, buying the cheapest thermostat they could find. It was the slide switch kind that produces a spark. Still, when pressed, Bob Leonard claimed he had absolutely nothing to do with the explosion in Richmond Hill. If he were there that day, it would have been obvious, he insisted. He never leaves home without his little friend.
He also adds that any eyewitness would have noticed his hernia, which is the size of a basketball, which he's had since 2010. The authorities did not believe him. And after a six-week investigation, Bob Leonard was arrested at the Highland Estates Mobile Home Park on December 20th, 2012. The cops came over with machine guns, told us to get in the house. Get in the house.
The police also located the van at the motel the brothers were supposed to demolish. Inside, authorities found multiple gasoline cans and a high-powered handsaw. Montserrat Shirley and Mark Leonard were arrested the same day. The cops pulled them over after they had dropped Brooke off at school. All three were charged with up to 50 counts, including two counts of felony murder, arson, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. All three were eligible for the death penalty.
But prosecutors chose to pursue life sentences without parole instead. They believed a jury would be unlikely to impose the death penalty if they could not prove that the suspects intended to cause the deaths of Dion and Jennifer Longworth. It was so unbelievable. It just made me so angry. So angry to put all that fear into everybody and to do it just because of money and everything. It's disgusting.
The deadly explosion at the Richmond Hill subdivision was no accident. Metro police and federal agents arrested three people in connection to the criminal homicide. Among those behind bars, Montserrat Shirley and her boyfriend Mark Ray Leonard and his brother Robert Leonard. The trials of Montserrat Shirley, Mark Leonard, and Bob Leonard were delayed for years. The prosecution wanted to try all three suspects concurrently.
The defendants, who planned to plead not guilty, wanted to be tried separately with a change of venue. The incriminated got their wish. However, 49-year-old Montserrat Shirley agreed to take a plea deal at the last minute. She decided to tell investigators everything she knew about the plot that blew up her house, and she agreed to testify against Mark and Bob Leonard. Montse would agree to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit arson. The penalty would still be harsh, up to 50 years in prison.
but it was the only way to avoid a potential life sentence. From suspect to possible star witness, one of three people facing murder and arson charges in the Southside explosion is making a deal with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. Sources say Monserrati Shirley's plea change may help in the cases against the other two men also in jail.
Montserrat Shirley told investigators that the whole thing started in late 2011 when Mark Leonard convinced her to increase the house insurance policy's personal property coverage from $160,000 to $300,000. Mark told her that he planned to furnish the place with some expensive art and electronics that never materialized. Monsi did as she was told.
In February 2012, Mark Leonard first approached Monsi with the idea of burning down the Richmond Hill house. "I'm going to show you how to make money," Mark told her. He said his friend Glenn Holtz had pulled it off in the past. There was nothing to it. "I thought it was crazy," Monsi claimed. "But I went along with him." Glenn Holtz tried to ease Montserrat Shirley's fears at a pool party at his house on July 4, 2012.
Glenn told Monsie that Mark was right. It was easy money. He even agreed to safe house any property they wanted to keep from burning. Montserrat Shirley was still unsure, but she was afraid to say no. Her attorneys argued that Mark Leonard was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their relationship. Monsie was in love with the man, but she feared him. She said Mark had threatened to harm her daughter if she ever betrayed him.
The first attempt to burn down 8349 Field Fair Way occurred on Saturday, October 27, 2012. Monsie Shirley booked a room at an out-of-town casino, dropped Brooke off at Glenn Holtz's house, and boarded Snowball the Cat. Mark Leonard had agreed to pay his friend Gary Thompson $5,000 to dump six cans of gasoline in the house and set it ablaze, but Gary Thompson chickened out. The second attempt was scheduled for November 2, 2012.
Mark recruited his brother Bob to help him fill the house with natural gas. The brothers removed the valves and replaced the digital thermostat with a cheaper model. Montserrat booked a room at the casino, dropped off Brooke, boarded the cat, sat at the bar and waited for the phone to ring. Never did, even though Mark Leonard had already told his friend Mark Duckworth that his house had exploded.
"This is silly," Monsi told Mark after the second attempt failed. She offered to give him the $10,000 from her retirement account in lieu of blowing up the house. But Mark and Bob Leonard were determined. They went to a local library to research gas fires. They chatted up a gas company employee. They figured out how to use the timer on the microwave. The brothers were convinced. The third time would be the charm.
Mark Leonard also roped Gary Thompson back into the plan to help blockade the chimney with pieces of cardboard to reduce ventilation. Neighbors also reported seeing furniture sitting in the driveway in the week leading up to the explosion. It looked like it had been steam cleaned. Investigators assumed Monsi and Mark were trying to remove the gas smell from the earlier attempt.
On November 10, 2012, Montserrat Shirley booked a room at the casino, dropped off Brooke, boarded the cat, sat at the bar, and waited for the phone to ring. That call came at almost half past 11. Montse Shirley claimed she was devastated to learn that Dion and Jennifer Longworth had been killed in the explosion. That was never part of the plan, in which she was an unwilling participant, her lawyers reminded.
Mark Leonard had coerced her into going through with the plan, and then he threatened to cut her up into little pieces if she didn't help him cover it up. Montserrat Shirley's sentencing was scheduled for December 2016. In the meantime, the new information investigators learned from her testimony resulted in two additional arrests.
44-year-old Gary Thompson was taken into custody on January 28, 2015 and charged with two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit arson. Breaking news right now, prosecutors have charged a fourth person in the Richmond Hill explosion. Online documents show Gary Thompson now faces two counts of murder for the November 2012 explosion that killed Jennifer and Dionne Longworth.
48-year-old Glenn Holtz was arrested in April 2015. He was charged with conspiracy to commit arson for his role in devising the plan and aiding attempts to cover it up. Police have a fifth person in custody tonight in connection with the Richmond Hill explosion. Prosecutors charged 48-year-old Glenn Holtz with conspiracy to commit arson.
Both men would ultimately plead guilty to lesser charges. Gary Thompson was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Glenn Holtz was sentenced to three. Montserrat Shirley was handed the maximum sentence under her plea agreement of 50 years. "You were a mom, you were a nurse, you were a neighbor, and you were a friend," Judge Sheila Carlisle scolded her. "And in each of those categories, you betrayed your trust." Montse Shirley addressed the court.
First, I want everyone to know how deeply I am sorry about this horrific tragedy. This is something that will be in my heart forever. I am sorry for causing so much pain. I never thought in my mind it would be like that. I'm so sorry for keeping silent after this tragedy. I was scared for my life and for my daughter. Forgive me for my poor choices in life. Every day I ask myself why I didn't stop this. The truth is, I was scared.
The Richmond Hill residents were not convinced of Monsi's limited role. This is Glenn Ovi. Bankruptcy. Sell the house. Sell the cars. Sell whatever you need to to get yourself out of that hole. You don't turn on natural gas lines and let them run through the house. Even though she didn't turn the valve, she didn't replace the pipe, she had full knowledge on what was going on.
A former co-worker of Montserrat Shirley's wasn't buying the remorse either. "I have no doubt in my mind that the only reason she agreed to this plea deal was that she got caught," Elena Lennon told WRTV. "If she hadn't gotten caught, if she had gotten away with it, she never would have come forward. Montse deserves the full maximum sentence you can provide. She deserves to die an old lady behind bars. Maybe she will."
Montserrat Shirley's earliest possible release date is December 19th, 2037. She will be 72 years old. Her daughter Brooke will be almost 40. Brooke went to live with family in Bloomington after her mother's arrest. She lost everything John Shirley said of his daughter, except her cat, the clothes on her back, and a teddy bear she got when she was one.
Montserrat's plea offered little closure for the victims of the Richmond Hill explosion. Years had passed, but many remained traumatized. Every time they hear a siren or see a flame, it all comes rushing back. Every time the wind shakes the windows. Every time a broken muffler rattles the walls. Every time those punk kids set off firecrackers in the street, it comes back.
The screams of their neighbors echo in their ears. The shrapnel embedded in their bodies throbs with pain. It's not something you forget. Not that you could, with all of the constant reminders.
Many of the Richmond Hill victims never returned to the neighborhood. A large percentage of the families that lived through the explosion ended in divorce. Their lives had been thrown into turmoil. Living with the in-laws for months, trying to make a home in an insurance rented apartment, trying to get the cat to come out from under the couch, trying to deal with all the legal and money shit. It was a lot, but some of the victims rebuilt their houses in the same spots the originals stood.
A few expanded their square footage. A few downsized. Others were ripped off by their contractor. A home contractor is in trouble for ripping off a family who survived the Southside explosion. Gary Ogle made his first court appearance today. Ogle is accused of not paying subcontractors on a project in the Richmond Hill subdivision following the 2012 blast. Do you ever feel cursed?
Gary Ogle and his business partner Robert Fersh operated Built Right Homes LLC as a Ponzi scheme. They were using money from new customers to pay off previous construction until they eventually bottomed out. The company went bankrupt in 2013. The subcontractors stopped working mid-build. At least 30 homeowners were screwed, including one of the victims from Richmond Hill.
After a three-year investigation in June 2016, 69-year-old Gary Ogle and 68-year-old Robert Fersh were arrested and charged with corrupt business influence, forgery, theft, and perjury. Both received suspended sentences after pleading guilty. Mark Leonard had not been so lucky. His trial lasted six weeks, beginning in June 2015, after prosecutors denied Mark's offer of a plea deal.
There was a literal semi-truck full of evidence introduced. This is about greed. This is about money. This is about wanting to get that money, Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson said in opening statements. The jury would also hear from almost 200 witnesses, including Montserrat Shirley, who repeated her testimony that Mark Leonard masterminded the plan and coerced her into partaking.
The most eye-opening testimony came from Citizens Energy, who explained that on the night of the deadly explosion, the home was filled with the gas equivalent of nearly three tons of TNT. Mark Leonard's defense team took an interesting approach. They readily admitted that Mark Leonard had purposely set the blaze, but his only intention was a small fire with a bit of insurance fraud. He never meant to kill anybody, they argued. At least, not that time.
The jury then heard from a man who shed light on how Mark Leonard had spent his time in custody waiting for his trial. Robert Smith was a regular at the Marion County Jail. He was there when Mark Leonard was brought in, and they started talking. Not only did Mark essentially confess his crimes to Robert Smith, who Leonard believed to be a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, but Mark also said he had a plan to get out, and he asked for Robert's help. Mark Leonard asked Robert Smith if he knew anyone that could kill Mark Duckworth for him.
Mark Duckworth was the man Mark Leonard had mistakenly revealed his scheme to with a premature celebration. Leonard knew Duckworth was supposed to testify at his trial. If he were silenced, Mark Leonard thought he would walk free. "I just want him dead." "Okay," Robert Smith responded. "Then he can't tell on nobody." "Right. I'd rather torture him, to be honest with you." "Torture him?" "Yeah. That would probably cost you extra." "I know."
I would take a chain and fucking pound it through his groin area and hang him from a tree. Hang him from his nuts? Yeah, fucker. Unbeknownst to Mark Leonard, Robert Smith was also a longtime police informant who collected and delivered information to sweeten his own deals. Smith arranged phone calls between Mark Leonard and a law enforcement agent posing as a hitman, and Smith drew up a contract for $15,000 to have Mark Duckworth murdered.
Mark Leonard gleefully signed the dotted line. "How soon you want this thing done?" the undercover agent asked Mark. "Yesterday." "You don't want the motherfucker to suffer?" "Nah, fuck it. That takes too much time." Mark Leonard had changed his mind. He wanted the murder to look like a suicide, and he wanted the hitman to force Duckworth to call 911 and apologize for trying to frame Mark Leonard and Montserrat Shirley.
and he wanted Duckworth to tell him that Mark Leonard always kept a large amount of cash lying around that he used for drugs and whores. I guess Mark Leonard was still hoping that the insurance company would reimburse him. No luck. A warrant was issued for the attempted hit on March 27th, 2013. Mark Leonard would face a second trial for conspiring to murder a key witness. As for his first trial, on July 14th, 2015,
Mark Leonard was convicted on all 53 counts, including felony murder. By the conviction today of Mark Leonard and the guilty plea of Monserretti Shirley, we have completed two significant steps in achieving justice that we pledged for the residents of Richmond Hill.
On August 14, 2015, Mark Leonard was sentenced to life in prison plus 75 years without parole. The judge called him, quote, the worst of the worst, the prime mover of this event. He was not a bystander, turning all of those folks into felons, motivated by greed. This is John Longworth, the father of Dion Longworth. It didn't change anything. It means he won't hurt anybody else outside of prison, but...
Dion and Jennifer are still not with me. So it's always, to me it's sad to see anybody throw away their life. So this is a person who's basically thrown away his life and that's sad. So to me that just adds sadness to the sadness. Adding even more sadness to the sadness, Bob Leonard and his hernia were tried together in February 2016.
Well, a Fort Wayne jury sent another man to prison for the Richmond Hill explosion. They found Bob Leonard guilty of setting that deadly blast just to make some money. Bob Leonard was convicted of all 51 counts, including murder and conspiracy to commit arson. He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole, plus 70 years for other charges. Again, this is John Longworth. It was quite an awful crime.
A year later, Mark Leonard was back in court. He'd been found guilty of conspiracy to kill Mark Duckworth, for which he was sentenced to an additional 50 years.
In October 2017, Mark Leonard tried to appeal his original conviction and sentence but was rejected by the Indiana Supreme Court.
Mark Leonard died in prison three months later due to a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The man described as the mastermind behind the Richmond Hill explosion has died. Mark Leonard was one of the people convicted in the deadly blast in the Richmond Hill neighborhood back in 2012. Authorities say he died at a hospital and is believed to have died of natural causes. Bob Leonard, still maintaining his innocence, responded to his half-brother's death from his jail cell.
Good riddance, he told Fox 59. He was a user, and he never did an honest day's work in his life. I don't have a bit of sympathy for that son of a bitch. Yes, justice was served, and it's a huge relief. We will never forget what happened. It brought the neighborhood closer together, but two people didn't survive, and we'll never forget.
Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. The Former, a.k.a. The Electric Massager. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at Swindled Podcast. Or you can send us a postcard at P.O. Box 6044, Austin, Texas 78762. But please, no packages. We do not trust you.
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