Marjorie is now 84 years old and shes still out there. Even her attorney Ronald Meshbesher couldnt get her off. MinnPost thanks these generous donors: INDIVIDUALS AND FOUNDATI0NS Blandin FoundationOtto Bremer FoundationBush FoundationSage & John CowlesDavid . The last I heard, she was calling herself Marjorie Hagen and living in the Southwest. Interesting. Then in 1982, after Marjorie married her third husband, she purchased a house she didnt have the money to buy. Sign up for The Growler's mailing list to receive the latest news in food, drink, and culture, and special events you won't want to miss. 2023 The Growler Magazine. In 1990, the Hagens moved to Ajo,. I burst out laughing, says Poling. Gray Duck Media. He said she needed assisted living because of her worsening health issues. Police said they believed he was exposed to natural gas from the kitchen stove through a garden hose. Elisabeth Mannering Congdons legacy is long, yet her individual accomplishments have largely been forgotten. SCL: You never turn your back. This post is riddled with false statements about both the mansion and the family. In 1979, she was acquitted in the smothering of her adoptive mother and the beating death of a night nurse. Alarmed, Elisabeth sent her away to a clinic in Topeka, Kansas for a psychological evaluation. Overnight, Congdon became a very wealthy man. She went up to the prone figure. SCL: Very much so. Marjorie did not call the fire department. The court granted him a new trial. But too many people remember only that she was killed at home at Glensheen mansion, along with her nurse, Velma Pietila, in 1977. In 2010, her attorney's court motion to remove her from intensive probation so she could get into an assisted living complex was denied. Most Minnesotans know of Marjorie Congdon as the woman who was tried and acquitted of conspiring with her then husband, Roger Caldwell, to murder Marjorie's mother, heiress Elizabeth Congdon. Her trustees earlier had cut Marjorie off from the Congdon millions, after the. What they did is public record.. They purchased the house from Kenneth and Alice Wolfe; he was to become mayor of St. Louis Park and a State Senator. Born in 1853, the son of a Methodist minister, Chester showed ambition and drive at an early age. On June 27, 1977, the aged heiress to a vast mining fortune is killed along with her night nurse at Glensheen, a posh mansion perched on the Lake Superior coast. We were invited for dinner several times. Marjorie Congdon became Marjorie LeRoy on June 30th, 1951. Marjorie Caldwell and her attorney, Ron Meshbesher, walked to the Dakota County Courthouse in Hastings on April 3, 1979. Suspicions about Marjorie were already heightened by a 1974 incident in which Elisabeth became dangerously ill after eating a sandwich made by her daughter. Then the story took another turn when the Minnesota Supreme Court court threw out Roger Caldwell's conviction based on the new evidence introduced at Marjorie's trial. Marjorie Caldwell and her defense attorney Ron Meshbesher walk into the Dakota County Courthouse. She was given 15 years, but on October 30, 1992, Wally was found dead, a day before she was to report to prison. The next owner of this house remembered Marjorie well. In 2005, the museum reversed course. I thought that was kind of brilliant., Although hes best known for his work with The Suburbs, Poling is no stranger to the stage. In 1975 Marjorie Congdon met Roger Caldwell at a Parents Without Partners meeting in Colorado. She remains a free womanthough shes been twice convicted of arson or attempted arson, and served two sentences for those crimes. On March 24, 1992, she was arrested for burning down her neighbors house. In a 2009 plea agreement, she pleaded guilty to attempted forgery and was sentenced to three years of intensive probation. An autopsy subsequently revealed Walter Hagen had died of a drug overdose. But prosecutors didn't want to risk a not guilty verdict. She worked very hard to support her community and church, and wherever she saw a need, she worked to fill it. Marjorie did not call the fire department. Ricky LeRoy was only 17 at the time of the murders and is now a well-known attorney and advocate for poor defendants. She warned Roger if he wouldnt do something about his drinking, she would. Marjorie's second marriage was to a man named Roger Sipe Caldwell. She always told stories about her nursing training in World War I, and I was fascinated. Nancy and her brother Tom were always curious about their mother's rich friend, Marjorie Congdon. She resides in Tucson, Arizona. And he said it's too grisly to discuss on tours with families. I had an appetite for travel and interest in other cultures, and worked with aborigines in Australia. I had to wonder: Do you fear for your personal safety? We remember all the wrong things about Elisabeth Mannering Congdon. She put her foot down. She was accused of murdering her third husband, although those charges were dropped. Marjorie is now the same age her mother was when her mother was murdered. But if anyone thought Marjorie was the victim in this relationship, they had another thing coming. I wanted more people to understand why she was so special. MinnPost | P.O. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the fire at her neighbor's home and to a concurrent eight years for the storage yard fire. A satin pillow was lying over Elisabeths face. Winter is coming, so . Marjorie was caught red-handed setting fire to her neighbors house. Marjorie could not have been pleased. Will you still be able to buy Godiva chocolate? Poling says he and Hatcher are acutely aware that audience members for Glensheen will include members of the victims families, investigators who worked on the caseand possibly even Marjorie Congdon Caldwell. "We always believed, and the whole theory of the case was, that she was the woman behind the man," DeSanto said. On January 13, 1984, Marjorie was given 21 months in the Shakopee Womens Prison for burning down her and Wallys home in Mound, Minnesota. But when she fully enters their lives, they become entwined in a series of bizarre crimes. The day after she was convicted, Wally Hagen was found dead of a drug overdose. Eighty-nine-year-old Marjorie Congdon has been called both a sociopath and a psychopath. Their manipulation of others is symptomatic of that need. SCL: I visited archives all over the country. Although Marjorie was brought up in the familys opulent Glensheen Mansion and attended Dana Hall Prep School in Massachusetts, she was nevertheless troubled, and at age 16 she was actually given the label sociopath during a stay at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, in the summer of 1949. Roger returned to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and committed suicide by slashing his wrists on May 18, 1988. Marjorie was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. She was introverted and spent most of her time reading alone or playing by herself in the nooks and crannies of the vast mansion. She was short, wide at the hips and bookish looking. His conviction had been overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court after fingerprint evidence used in his trial was called into serious question during Marjories own criminal trial in 1979win which she was acquitted of her alleged role in planning the murders. Zenith City Press That's in part because of what happened afterward when the story gets even crazier.. At the same time, she essentially only comes after people she can get something from, and none of my siblings or myself have anything for her. You think youre in a Gothic murder mystery, and then humorous elements come in and you end up popping into different worlds.. Marjorie Congdon has been diagnosed a psychopath. She got along swimmingly with the other inmates, and she sent a bouquet of flowers to the warden every week. It looked like justice was finally catching up with her. Sure, there've been times over 40 years when I wished the whole thing. After other evidence was discovered at their home in Denver, Marjorie tried to poison Roger, but he was sent to Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park on July 5, and was ready to be handed over to Duluth police on July 7, 1977. Psychopaths are not shaped by their upbringing. Illustration by Allegra Lockstadt; Photography provided by Dana Hall; Glensheen | University of Minnesota-Duluth; St. Paul Pioneer Press | Handwritten will courtesy of Zenith City Press as presented in Will to Murder: The True Story Behind the Crimes & Trials Surrounding The Glensheen Killings, considered the Definitive Book about the murders. Suzanne is estranged from her mother, telling MinnPost interviewer Amy Goetzman in 2014 that the last shed heard, her mother was calling herself Marjorie Hagen and living in the Southwest. We don't really hide from it, but it's definitely not our number one marketing message to get out there.". My interest in travel, education, nature and nursing all come from her. A neighbor remembered Marjorie as being very industrious. They are thinking about restoring the greenhouses, which were torn down in 1971, and bringing in bee hives and selling Glensheen honey. The next day the house caught fire. While darkly comic elements pepper the musical, Poling emphasizes that he and Hatcher have been respectful of the victims. Our reporters are only able to do their work thanks to support at all levels. They are not creepy. Only the quick action of Dick LeRoy prevented the fire from spreading and burning the neighborhood down. She took her pulse. She was convicted of attempted arson, and the judge allowed her to go home before reporting to prison to make arrangements for her 84-year-old husband. "It really was like a house in a time capsule.". Required fields are marked *. A civil suit filed by five of her seven children in 1979 to disinherit their mother from her inheritance on the grounds she was involved in the murders was settled out of court in 1983. The Guilford Press, 1999, Hendry, Sharon Darby. Is that your grandmothers influence? Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. In 1986, he was elected St. Louis County Sheriff; he retired in 1999. Relations between Marjorie and her family members were highly strained, and the Congdon estate closely monitored all communication between Marjorie and her mother. The next day, DeSanto charged Marjorie with conspiring to kill her mother. Velma was covered in blood. In November 2010 a judge in southern Arizona refused her request for a reduction in the terms of her probation so that she could move to a nursing home. Surprisingly, there are some rather significant connections between Marjorie and St. Louis Park. The Caldwells were broke, living in Colorado, and had been asking Miss Congdon for money to buy a ranch. Withdrawing further, Marjorie began to act strangely, pulling out her own hair and laugh in an odd manner. The Marjorie Congdon Story: A Timeline | Artful Living Magazine A timeline outlining the alleged crimes committed by infamous Minnesota criminal Marjorie Congdon, the suspected mastermind behind the Glensheen murders. The blood type turned out to be type O; the same blood type of Velma Pietila and Roger Caldwell. Psychopaths are at their most dangerous when their manipulations are thwarted. But it didnt stop there. Elisabeth Mannering Congdon about the age she was when she adopted Marjorie. MP: In your memoirs, your grandmother seems to be a much greater influence on you than your own parents were. She was released on October 19, 1986, and she and Wally moved to Ajo, Arizona. What happened Marjorie Congdon? When he drank, he turned violent. The terms are not interchangeable. "People have seen her as recently as the last couple weeks, walking her dog without a walker," Feichtinger said at the time. Her children were always dressed like out of a magazine ad. js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; No witnesses survive, and the cops in a small northern Minnesota city have to make their case based on purely circumstantial evidence. Nor was anyone else in the Congdon family. 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