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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. And I'm the husband. Well, I'm a little sick. Peyton is 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 TikTok that's like, never back down, never give up. Yeah, I've seen that. There's no days off at Murder 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, Peyton's 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 would. 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. It went by 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 and Daisy and I just hung out at Starbucks, got her a pup cup. Did I tell you that? Yeah. And yeah, we kind of just chilled. Swam a little bit, ate some food. Oh, I'm sorry.
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 in idaho being a hoe doing cowgirl things riding horses no just kidding peyton does not ride horses eating potatoes 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, Park Rapids Enterprise, court transcripts from lawjustia.com, mnopedia.com, and the Star Tribune. Okay, at first listen, today's case will sound reminiscent of a classic 90s slasher film. Mm-hmm.
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 chase scene, 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 90s slasher 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. Yeah. We watched it together. Actually, it was a decent movie. The concept was pretty crazy. Well, Florence Pugh 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. Or girlfriend? I think they were dating. I don't know about now. Anyway, it's a 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 vibe. 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 pick. Well, then there's more context to it on why and everything. 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 6 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 11th, 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 Macalester College, a liberal arts school in St. Paul, only minutes from home, where she studied English, Russian, and library science. But an education wasn't the only good thing to come out of Macalester.
That's also where she met her doting husband, T. Eugene Thompson. However, his friends called him Cotton for his blindingly light blonde hair. So Cotton and Carol meeting 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 Macalester 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 Carroll when the two met in 1947. Less than a year later, by their sophomore year of college, the two were engaged. Carroll's parents weren't happy to hear that Carroll 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 40s, 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 27th, 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, Carol and Eugene were regularly seen at the Presbyterian Church. Eugene even subbed in as a member of the choir.
By all accounts, the Thompsons 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 Thompsons were pillars in the St. Paul community would have been an understatement. Everybody knew them and everyone seemed to love them.
You know, it's kind of crazy to think back just you go back to the 40s, 50s, 60s, 40s and 50s, especially such different times. You know, it was just a different, a different world. And 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, 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 to cook. I would have had to. Hey, you cook last night. It was fantastic.
I should never attempt to cook unless it's HelloFresh. No, you're doing great. HelloFresh, he's a 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 830 a.m., 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
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 Thompsons' 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-awake 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, sopping wet, trying to get as far away from the attacker as she could. Except the man had been armed with another weapon.
Of course.
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 could 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. That 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 9 a.m. 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, and she was
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 carol inside 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 Carroll off to Anchor Hospital. Around 9.15 a.m., the Nelsons phoned 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 Carroll.
Who'd 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 asked the Nelsons to phone Carol's friend Marjorie. She was a nurse and she should go check on her instead. 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 residence, finding a pool of blood by the front door, as well as a handle to a knife and a piece of a pistol. 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 corroborated 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.
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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 p.m. that afternoon. I thought for sure she was going to live. That 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?
Oh, duh. Okay. Which meant detectives had to question her children about their mourning. 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 briefcase 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 onto 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. Yeah. 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 weeks prior saying he'd been having terrible nightmares about carol dreams about carol dying a violent death 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 thompsons 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 corroborated 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 feel confident they can cross Kenneth off the suspect list.
And as they do, they realize they may have been focusing on the wrong man. Oh, you think? Especially when Eugene Thompson started evading the police. And they learned more about his strange behavior prior to his wife's death.
See, back in January 1962, a little over a year before the murder, the Thompsons 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 Thompsons 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 need to look into that. Racking up a total of over $1 million on his wife, Carol. That's about $10 million 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 dachshund, Schatzi. 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 Shotzi, 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 you 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. Dang, how disrespectful, too. I mean, like, your wife dies and you're just off just sleeping with dozens of other women. Well, and before, too. I mean. That just sucks. Like, it just 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. Sure.
Most of them were said to be one night stands 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. Dude, come on, man. It's starting to make sense why he just had to up and go and didn't come home and
Come 1961, however, things between Jackie and Eugene took a backseat 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. No wonder he wanted to pay for her school. He wanted her to work for him.
At some point that year, it's 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
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 Hail Mary 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. What a psychopath. Just give me a year to divorce my family. Then I'll marry you. Yeah. Who says that? In June 19, 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, he 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 Macalester, 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. He had 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. There's so many other options. Well, you're just... Yeah, divorce your wife. Just say, 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 hire someone to brutally kill my wife. And then what are you going to do with the four kids? You just think that Jackie, who doesn't even want to be with you, is going to move in and start taking care of those kids? Yeah. The wife was the one taking care of them. Like, what are you going to 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 dog 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 could make it look like an accident, which, mind you, is a little less than $30,000 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 up front. 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 it soon. How do you go from getting a Purple Heart to being an assassin? Being literally like a hitman and assassin.
I don't know. But together, after he gives them the $200, they begin to lay out the plan. It's that time of the year. Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax, and think about...
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On the morning of the job, Mr. Thompson would leave the side door to the home unlocked, allowing Dick to come in and hide in the basement. And just going back to it, it'd 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 random 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 8 25 a.m 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 Dick's 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 at an angle across the back of the neck so it looked like she'd 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 drowned in 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 the one coming up with everything and he's the one who hired 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? No. That is like, well, I guess we wouldn't know. I was going to say that there is some, but we wouldn't know about them because they didn't get caught. It failed, you guys. It's just not a good idea. I bet you there is ones out there that have been and it looked like an accident. Have gone through. Please don't write us and tell them. Yeah. Oh, no, do. Send them to Dear Daisy. Yeah. And then we send them straight to the police because I'm a snitch. Yes. We've been through this before. I'm a snitch. 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 6th, Dick put on his tie and sports jacket, hopped up on alcohol and amphetamines. He made the eight mile drive from his apartment to Highland Park.
He entered the unlocked 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 Dick's 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, except 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 Dick's clutches 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,
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 Mastrian. 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 break in 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 rat him out. There's no and ifs or buts behind that. It's like...
Eugene was so arrogant that he actually thought he was still going to get away with it. Did he not say that? 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. And that evening he told police he was ready to confess. Well,
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. He even signed a sworn confession. Within 24 hours, Eugene Thompson was also arrested and charged with first-degree murder. 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 couple's four kids went to live with carol's parents before growing up and starting lives of their own seeing that's what's 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. 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. Yeah. 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 out. Yeah, I just... I don't know. I always got hope in me. 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 Carol did nothing wrong. She was a good wife, good mom. Just messed up. 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.