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Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid.
small bit did you like my like weird shrill introduction i loved it thank you i'm sure everybody loved it i hope so yeah for them i know they will it's for the people you know i know it you know i know it we're very silly today yeah it's a silly day just a tuesday just a silly ass tuesday a silly ass tuesday why is that so i don't know because it's silly tuesday i don't know what's happening i swear it's true we sound like it but life man just high on life this is just a toasted asiago bagel with cream cheese i did not know where you were going with cup of coffee I didn't hear the part where you
said I just had, so I thought you said it's just a toasted Asiago oh no, I did say that because you were saying this is just us and I was like yeah, it's just a toasted Asiago oh, you're high on the Asiago I see yeah, you should plug your book oh yeah, I have a book a couple now I have a sequel coming out a couple of books books um you guys have been awesome with the pre -orders you're fucking killing it um the butcher game comes out september 17th you can pre -order everywhere right now um it's gonna be awesome i promise you it's longer it's gorier it's got some shit in it so fucked and ash has read
it i read it and i love it and i would read it again i'm probably gonna read it again when it comes out yeah i want i think i yeah i want a hardcover one oh yeah the hardcover will come out first oh cool i'll buy that um and it will be followed by a paperback at some point so i already have that um but but yeah if you um if you can pre -order that would be so fucking sick of you sick i'd be forever in your debt uh you guys have been awesome about it but it's it's very very helpful to authors to pre -order for sure.
And you know, sometimes, sometimes you get the book like a day early sometimes.
That's happened to me.
I'm not saying it'll happen all the time, but like it happens.
So it's one of those things that it's like, you might as well roll those dice and see if you can get the book a day early.
Being first is the best. It is.
It always is. It's like the drag queen.
Me, me, I'm first. There you go.
You can go to thebutchergame .com And it will give you a list of all the places that you can order it at.
And, you know, like I'm going to be letting out some little quotes from the book.
I've been doing that now and then.
Notable quotables. That Mikey has made.
Mikey's made those graphics.
He's so good at that.
All by himself. All by himself.
You need to know that the talent is there.
The talent. The talent, the charisma, the uniqueness nerve.
Exactly. And, of course, can't forget the talent.
It's all there. The cunt is showing, baby.
baby. Serving cunt, cunt, cunt.
So it's fun. And the audiobook will be available, so you can pre -order that.
It's all exciting. It's the same narrators for the sequel.
It is Joe and Sophie.
We love Joe and Sophie.
They're amazing. And I'm very excited that they came back, so yeah.
Yay! Yippee! I'm excited about it.
Let's get this bitch on the New York Times best -selling off this list let's do it again I don't know who I am today I'm several different people I don't know who I am I have anxiety today I got things to do but I'm silly today feeling a lot of emotions feel a lot of things going on yep are you gonna take us back in time today I am indeed um right at the top of this story like silly all aside I want to get serious for a second because this is is an interesting story and it's kind of like my typical kind of socialite vibe but because i'm taking you back in time there are heavy themes of homophobia ah
and that was a bummer going through this to say the least it always is it was um very angering going through this and it's not i mean the person who committed the crime is the one who faces these themes so it's you're gonna feel a lot lot of different feelings going through this conflicting feelings yeah because you're going to be upset for them that they face things like this yeah but then also at the same time they are the murderer so so you feel a little bit you feel a little bit stressed yeah it's going to be stressful it will be feel all your feelings feel them all feelings are valid yeah but let's
get into it it's they're not fact but they're valid that's exactly what my therapist says she says my old therapist actually not the new one the old one said feelings aren't fact yeah Yeah, it's true.
The new one. But they're valid.
Probably would say the same thing.
There you go. Anyway, so let's get into it.
Patricia Hartley Burton was born September 1st, 1921, the only child to William Burton and Lucille Wolfe.
I fucking love the name Lucille.
That's, I love the name Lucille.
It's so cute. I feel like, how could you ever meet a Lucille and not like them?
I don't know. It hasn't happened to me.
Now, William was the son of Emanuel Bernheimer, the owner of Lion Brewing, which was one of of the largest breweries in the united states in the early 20th century so when william turned 21 he had inherited a trust fund of 250 000 which today would be like inheriting six million motherfucking smackaroos oh my or dollars if you're nasty smackaroos is much better smackaroos smackaroos is definitely where it's at that's a lot of money a lot of smackaroos a lot of smackaroos they were rolling in smackaroos a lot of cha -ching a lot of cash cash i don't know a lot of cash a lot of cash a lot of cash
i was going somewhere else and then my brain forgot where we were going i saw you struggling and you were making this motion with your hand and i was like i want to help but i don't know where you're going yeah cash that's what i was was trying to say cashish not cashash like cashash tm but so as the heirs to the bernheimer fortune william lucille and their daughter patricia lived a remarkably privileged life everything was insanely extravagant they had butlers they had this they had that they had everything you know like the gilmores yeah exactly but even richer even more wow but don't tell emily
that i would would never.
But despite having been raised in a family of brewer industrialists, William actually didn't really have any interest in brewing or running a major corporation.
That could present a problem.
Yeah, it didn't even.
He was just like, yeah, I'm not that interested.
So the business just went to his brother, George.
And William, he still got to keep his money.
And he pursued a career in painting and visual arts.
Now, despite their seemingly charmed life, the Burtons had what people, especially back then, would have considered a non -traditional marriage.
According to author Alan Levine, who wrote a book about this case, Details Are Unprintable is the title.
Definitely a good read.
I'd check it out. Good title.
Alan wrote, There's sufficient evidence to strongly suggest that William Burton was gay, and his marriage to Lucille was somewhat of a sham or like a cover -up kind of.
Because obviously, he couldn't be a very out gay man at that time.
Yeah. Now, William's parents seemed to be aware of his sexual orientation, but they insisted that he quote, find a nice girl and get married, settle down and have children.
Okay. Hence the marriage to Lucille on September 25th, 1920.
Not surprisingly, William and Lucille's marriage was not very happy because neither of them was really living their true identity and their true lives, you know.
So you can't truly be happy.
No. In March of 1925, less than five years after getting married, Lucille actually ended up filing for separation on the grounds of cruelty.
In her filing, she alleged, among other things, that William had, quote, used profane language in front of their home and had caused a crowd to gather.
And she also said that he was physically abusive on more than one occasion.
Whoa. And had taken their daughter to an undisclosed location for several days without informing her.
Oh. So things were nasty.
That's fucked up. It's super fucked up.
Things were nasty behind closed doors.
William denied the allegations, but the court did end up siding with Lucille.
And in May of 1926, she was granted a divorce, and she was awarded primary custody of Patricia. But just four years later, 1930, Lucille and William actually ended up getting remarried in a small ceremony in France.
Later, Lucille admitted that she had only gotten remarried for the sake of Patricia, who William adored and couldn't stand to be apart from.
It was kind of like keeping the family together for the sake of her daughter and for her ex -husband, but there wasn't real love between William and Lucille.
It was, from the jump, very fractured and very sad.
I was going to say this is just very sad.
And for William, I imagine it was lonely.
I hope the abuse allegations weren't true, but the court saw them as true.
Yeah But it sounds like William was lonely It sounds like Lucille was lonely It just sounds miserable And then Patricia just suffers Because she's being brought up in such turmoil Yeah and it's like that's not That's not healthy Yeah and she sees the example of her mother Just kind of like Dealing with it Yeah just like Bearing the load of all this Yeah The other thing was While the remarriage likely surprised Those who knew them well It was It had the benefit of upholding Social expectations Yeah And shielding them from any further gossip up about William's sexuality.
Very 40s. Very, very 40s.
And actually at this point, 30s.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're not even there yet.
We'll get there. Don't worry.
Don't worry, we'll get there too.
We're on our way. Very 30s.
Yeah. So throughout a good portion of Patricia's life, the family lived in Europe, spending most of their time in and around Paris.
France was among the capitals of the art world at the time.
And it also at the time was a country that had pretty accepting attitudes around homosexuality.
At the time, gay relationships were definitely not encouraged but it was a place that would have been tolerant of william's casual relationships with men yeah especially given his station he lived a little bit more of a privileged life so people were willing to kind of look the other way okay which is silly yeah that even had to be done they had to look the other way yeah it's like get over it that's wild but during this period the family spent considerable time traveling back and forth between new york until finally deciding to move back to the united states in the later 1930s just before the start
start of world war ii patricia often referred to her parents as strict but there's actually a lot of evidence to suggest that when it came to their daughter william and lucille weren't any more strict than the average parent at the time in fact according to author levine patricia was quote spoiled rotten by both her parents as they competed for her affection oh man to think of your parents competing for your affection is like it's great but they want you to know how much they love you you but that should be a competition yeah and you just see all the chaos so it's like yeah it's a little hollow
it is a little day i'm sure but by the time she reached her late teens patricia was receiving a regular and sizable allowance from her father uh was an active member of new york's cafe society and a regular contributor to philanthropic causes in addition to the tea dances and luncheons that she hosted she was also a regular at the debutante club gatherings and fundraisers around the city oh so you see where my socialite shit is coming yeah I was gonna say you love that I do I wish I could have been a debutante a debutante now it was during this period circa 1939 so you're right we are approaching
the 40s that Patricia who was on the hunt for a husband first met Wayne Lonergan Wayne was born January 14th 1918 in Toronto Ontario to Thomas and Clara Lonergan an insurance salesman and a homemaker respectively the family which also included Wayne's siblings June and William lived a middle class life they lived in a nice neighborhood seemed to have like a fairly average life but behind closed doors there was a considerable amount of dysfunction Clara the mom regularly suffered from crippling anxiety and depression and she also experienced psychotic episodes that according to Levine quote made
made her indifferent to her young children as well as paranoid and delusional so it's really sad yeah she was hospitalized in psychiatric institutions on at least four occasions including one hospitalizations uh about six months after wayne was born wow so she was really going through it and yeah wayne and the kids were having to kind of figure it out yeah like come to grips with that other than that little's really known about wayne's early life but in 1932 his parents transferred him from a Catholic school to Harvard Collegiate Institute, a public high school.
But for whatever reason, that only lasted a year, and by 1933, he was transferred back to the Catholic school system.
Later, after Wayne's trial, his aunt told reporters, Wayne had always been a fine boy, but he fell into bad and fast company after he went to New York in 1938.
Oh, eek. When When you say after his trial, I said, uh -oh.
Oh, no. But yeah, maybe not entirely true, Auntie Wayne there.
Oh. Alan Levine speculated that the reason for Wayne's transfers between high schools actually might have had something to do with some delinquent behavior.
His own delinquent behavior.
Yeah, not necessarily the entire state of New York.
Not like he was friends with yucky people.
Yeah, once he moved to New York, he fell in with a bad crowd.
Not necessarily. He did well in school and he was actually highly intelligent, but his high intelligence left him bored a lot of the time.
That's often an issue.
It is. I think that was the case in my last story.
And inevitably that got him into trouble.
In December 1933, he was actually arrested a few days before Christmas when he was caught shoplifting a microphone, a purse, and a lighter from a department store.
What an interesting array of items. Yeah, a microphone, a purse, and a lighter.
Like, the purse, you're like, oh, was that like a Christmas gift?
Like, that's kind of sad that you finally had to steal that.
Microphone, you have things to say.
Yeah. You have a show to put on.
And a lighter. And a lighter.
Fires to start. You know, arson.
Great. Yeah. But this was the first of several run -ins with the law.
Wayne's poor behavior in his teenage years, at the same time, though, might not have been entirely his fault.
Life in his house with, you know, his mom, she was pretty emotionally unavailable.
she was going through her own things it just wasn't really easy for the kids that's sad and to make matters worse when he was only 15 years old Wayne's father actually died of coronary thumbrosis leaving the children solely in the care of Clara who was unemployed and didn't really have a lot of skills and this was during a particularly bad economic time period in Canada oh man so they were really going through it yeah so the year after he turned 16 or the year when he turned 16 excuse me he dropped out of high school and attended Dominion Business College, where he took courses in business management.
But after a while, this was also pretty unstimulating for him.
And within a few months, he dropped out.
So in the years that followed, Wayne just kind of jumped from one job to another.
He had a short stint as a special constable for the Ontario Provincial Police in 1937.
But like the other jobs, all of these were unsatisfying for Wayne.
He wanted bigger, bigger, more exciting things for himself.
So in 1939, he landed a job as a bus dispatcher with Greyhound Bus Lines, from whom you can not buy a VIP ticket.
I don't know if you guys remember that story.
You're like, I need to be clear.
There's no such thing.
No VIP ticket on Greyhound Bus.
When you told me that, I almost died.
In case you don't know that story, I once bought a VIP ticket because they advertise VIP tickets and I thought I would get like a special, more comfy seat.
No, bitch. I sat in the back next to the bathrooms and not anything about that experience was VIP.
So fake as fuck. Very important.
I wanted to be a very important Greyhound bus rider, okay?
And I wasn't. I love that you bought a VIP Greyhound bus ticket.
It's one of my top favorite things that you've ever done.
Wouldn't you think that you'd at least get an extra leg room?
I mean, yeah. I've bought You know what I rest my case Anyway Just for those out there Don't be fooled You can't buy a VIP ticket Don't be fooled like me Don't get yourself in the same situation But anyway He got a job with them Maybe the VIP tickets were his idea That took him to New York But the job was was hardly more exciting than what he'd done to that point.
But the good thing was it did get him out of Toronto and allowed him to get to the decidedly more glamorous New York City.
New York! Where he was confident that his charm, charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent would be rewarded.
it. Okay, let's take a poll.
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Happy wedding. Hey there, my weird weirdos.
I wanna take a minute to recommend another podcast called Who Took Misty Copsy?
In September of 1992, 14 -year -old Misty Copsy leaves the Washington State Fair with her best friend and is never seen again.
Her body is never found.
At the time, Western Washington is home to prolific serial killers like the Green River Killer, which leads to different theories on who's responsible for what happened to Misty.
Over the course of eight episodes, host and cold case investigator Sarah Kalin speaks with Misty's friends and family, looks at police records and different anonymous tips to try to figure out if Misty's disappearance is the work of a serial killer or someone who knew her.
No suspects are ruled out.
After 33 years, Sarah Kalin hopes to answer the question, who took Misty?
You guys are going to love this.
If you listen to Morbid, we know that you love a cold case and we always tell you a cold case is never cold.
So definitely give this a listen.
Definitely look into the case.
Listen to Who Took Misty Copsy wherever you get your podcasts.
I love it. Now, although he had always tried to make money through what back then would have been considered legitimate employment, quote unquote, there is ample evidence, including a number of Ontario police reports that suggest he also made money as a sex worker or an escort prior to relocating to New York, which they'll end up using against him.
But it's like, who really gives a fuck?
He needed money. Yeah.
A job is a job, baby.
I feel like that's not the issue here.
Me too. But throughout his life, Wayne mostly, he kind of like went back and forth denying that he was gay or bisexual.
But there is evidence that his clients were almost exclusively male.
And on a few occasions when he was feeling less...
Inhibited. Inhibited.
Why can't I say that?
I understand because when you say inhibition...
Yeah. It changes the inflection that you feel.
Yeah. So when you go to say inhibited, you say like in inhibit.
Yeah. Like, you know, it just makes you.
And then you're going to say like in a.
Inhibit. Yeah. But it's inhibited.
On a few occasions when he was feeling less inhibited.
You got it. He admitted to having at least some sexual interest in men.
It seemed essentially that he probably did have some kind of interest in men and women.
Like to me, it seems like maybe he was bi.
Yeah. But obviously you couldn't come out and say that back then without facing legitimate consequences.
That's wild. Yeah, which is sad.
Yeah. But who really knows?
And the only reason I bring it up is because his sexuality ends up playing a role in his later trial.
Otherwise it's like I wouldn't have brought it up otherwise because it's not pertinent to me at all but it plays a role in the trial.
Exactly. But anyway, it was actually through William Burton, Patricia's father in case you forgot, that Wayne came to meet Patricia in 1939 william had met wayne so patricia's father had met wayne okay in late 1939 and despite their 20 -year age difference they kind of entered a short -lived relationship oh wow in later interviews wayne would acknowledge his relationship with william burton but he would always insist that it was patricia he was interested in huh yeah it's interesting but at the time homosexuality was not only a crime but also considered by most including medical professionals to
be a mental illness so given which is insane that's like that's like inconceivable no it truly is well and it's sad that like people are still trying to make that happen yeah but given the stigma and potentially serious consequences of being labeled gay or bisexual you can understand why wayne would have gone out of his way to conceal his sexuality absolutely but like i And remember, like I said earlier, William Burton had the luxury and protection of wealth and status, where Wayne didn't really have that.
He's a middle -class, blue -collar kind of guy.
You can't cover it up with that stuff.
Exactly. But anyway, nobody really knows why, but William and Wayne ended their relationship after a few months.
And with William's approval, Wayne started dating his daughter, Patricia. Okay.
Yeah. There's a lot of different theories.
some people think that it was kind of like do you remember the um the fucking william woodward story where he was he set uh ann up with his son so that they could carry on the relationship but then they kind of fell in love yeah to me it kind of seems maybe like yeah is what happened here like wayne was dating patricia so he could stay close to william but then maybe it worked out that he actually did fall in love with patricia wow or maybe it just like the fact that you've had At least two cases where this scenario happens is pretty wily.
Yeah, it is. Yeah. I love a fucked up high society face.
You do. It's my favorite thing ever.
Damn, these high society bitches are, like, secrets on secrets on secrets.
Yeah. Like, what? Scandals on scandals.
Scandalo. But according to journalist Dominic Dunn, one of my faves, Wayne Lonergan, quote, was one of those young men in New York who liked to be taken care of, and he had the kind of look, swagger, and charm to ensure that he was.
I don't look him up.
I know you should. This certainly explained at least some of his interest in William Burton, but also his interest in Patricia. And for her part, Patricia didn't really seem bothered by this kind of arrangement.
She'd spent her entire life seeing her father carry on relationships with men while still being married to her mom.
So the idea that the companionship of her latest love interest could be bought honestly seemed fine to her.
Yeah, like this is not something foreign to her.
Exactly. So not long after meeting, Patricia and Wayne were frequently spotted at some of New York's fanciest restaurants and nightclubs.
They were really hitting it off and having a good time together.
The relationship, though, resembled Patricia's parents' marriage in other ways, too.
Most significantly, she and Wayne were decidedly non -monogamous, the two of them.
They spent a great deal of time together socially, but Wayne also courted other wealthy young women at the time to kind of climb the social ladder, it seemed.
and Patricia may have been doing the same thing I think people just focus more on Wayne because of what happens later yeah but within less than a year of arriving in New York he had pretty much integrated himself into the Burton family while also gaining entrance to the prestigious Princeton Club and acting as a popular escort for prominent historian and culture critic Lucius Beebe among others Lucius Beebe Lucius Beebe what a cool fucking name now while William Burton seemed to approve of Patricia's relationship with Wayne.
Her mother, Lucille, was vehemently opposed to their affair.
Her feelings were probably an amalgamation of worrying that her daughter was going to end up in a similar position to hers.
And she also didn't love the fact that Patricia was dating outside of her social station.
Because remember, they're high society.
They're going to all these nightclubs and, you know, like afforded the best of the best. And now she's dating some middle class blue collar guy yeah who like reminds lucille a lot of her father yep slash husband not which is not a flattering portrait to her exactly whatever the reason though lucille strongly disliked wayne and wanted patricia to have a proper society debut so in the summer of 1941 she took patricia to california in hopes of breaking up the relationship but unfortunately for Lucille Wayne followed them there and on July 30th he and Patricia eloped to Las Vegas so not only did he
like be like no you're not breaking us up we're just gonna get married now yeah and actually you made it easier for us because Vegas is right there yeah yikes damn and you can imagine for a high society woman her high society daughter eloping to Las Vegas wasn't really what she'd hoped for to the middle class guy that she didn't approve of yeah scandals yes much scandal so after the wedding patricia and wayne moved into an apartment on park avenue in manhattan back to high society ship william burton had actually died from a heart attack a year earlier oh leaving patricia with a 230 000 trust which is about 3
.5 million today whoa and that allowed the couple to To continue their life of extravagance and luxury.
Now they had a butler, a cook, a laundress.
Damn. Yeah. Sounds amazing.
But there was a lot about Wayne that Patricia didn't know.
And what she thought she knew was pretty much a bunch of lies.
Oh. According to author Alan Levine, Wayne Lonergan was a consummate liar.
Among other things, he had convinced Patricia that he had his own money from investments and that he hadn't married her for her inheritance.
Oof. But it never seemed to occur to her that their expenses always seemed to be paid out of her pocket.
Anytime they did anything, it was on her dime.
That sounds like willful ignorance.
It's just like, you know what?
I'm just going to believe this.
And I think a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that they were also both carrying on other shit.
Yeah. So she's just like, all right, whatever.
She's like, cool. We're married on paper.
My mom is pretty pissed about it, but at least I'm married.
We go to social events together, and that's it.
let's go off and do our separate things you know now as soon as they were back in new york wayne and patricia like i was just saying got back to their life of leisure leisure they were dining at the finest restaurants spending their nights at popular clubs like el morocco and the 21 club they became members of a small group the society pages had dubbed celebritans stop it young men and women whose notoriety and celebrity were purely the result of their wealth oh so this This started long ago.
Oh, it started. I watched a documentary recently where they were saying like Paris Hilton was the first of the Celebutons.
And that's my girl right there.
I ride for Paris. She's not the first Celebuton, baby.
Patricia is one of the first. And this is in the 1940s at this point.
Yeah, absolutely. It goes way further than that.
But they traveled by limousine daily.
They gained entrance to exclusive clubs and rooms across the city.
And they never had to worry about having a reservation.
if they showed up, there was a table for them.
That must have been nice.
I know. I love the extravagance.
That's fancy. I love it.
Yeah, I do love the fanciness of it.
Oh, it's so fun. But the nightclubs and limousines were an important part of Patricia and Wayne's lives.
But for Patricia, the excitement only went so far.
She had been brought up in this kind of lifestyle, but she also had been instilled with a desire to contribute to society in some way.
So a few months after the wedding, she actually took a nurse's aid course at Bellevue Hospital.
And she completed that in early 1942.
And she started volunteering at Bellevue and St. Clair's Hospital three days a week.
Damn. So she wasn't just like throwing money at causes, which, I mean, even still, that's great that you're supporting causes and giving your hard -earned money or, you know, money.
Your money. Your money.
But she also was like going to the hospital and doing the damn thing.
Yeah, she was actually getting involved.
Yeah, exactly. Wayne, on the other hand, didn't really feel a drive to contribute to anything other than his own life and he was very happy to just lay around the apartment all day until it was time to go out in the nighttime ew yeah it's not super hot but it turned out this fundamental difference in character and ethics was going to be the first obvious crack in their marriage oh yeah there's no way that's gonna last no now wayne got a stipend of 700 a month which is about thirteen thousand dollars today oh just that a month just a measly $13 ,000 a month as a stipend but he would blow through
that before the month was even close to being over and would inevitably go to patricia asking for more money how though like what are you spending that on everything because you're not paying bills with that nope like that's just your fun money yeah how much fun are you having the most fun one could ever have and that's the thing like it's so clear that they were going hard they're going to these nightclubs these these you know private rooms these dinners these any like anything that they were going to and they were giving to like philanthropic causes of course but patricia was like this kind
of only goes so far like you can only get so much out of this and then yeah i'd like to be involved in actual normal society and like go see the other side of life like there's a finite amount of money here we're not actively making money exactly this is a trust this can run out to me you know yeah and just also i don't want to lay around the apartment all day like yeah we can do that but that doesn't mean we should yeah and i think she saw that yeah he didn't see that and you have to remember she had grown up this way so it got old for her faster yeah she's like this high life is like fine yeah
but like whatever i'd also like to like be a little bit regular yeah and he contribute had grown up in like kind of a struggling household working and working going going from job to job.
And then he finally got here where he doesn't have to do shit.
So he's just basking in it.
That's a tough like conflict of just experience.
Yeah. Essentially. Exactly.
You both experienced totally different like, uh, upbringings.
Yeah. I was like, what is the word?
Upbringings. And now you want the other one.
Like you're used, you're used to the other thing.
Now you want the new thing.
And when you're married and you, you want like two vastly different things.
things it's just not going to work out.
Yeah. Like you you don't have to want all the same things.
No of course not. There's got to be a common ground.
Yeah that's the thing like you need a little compromise with each other.
And they just didn't have that eek.
So when she would suggest that you know maybe he go try to find a job Wayne would just balk at the very thought of giving up this life of leisure.
Instead he focused all his attention on climbing the social ladder.
He played cards most afternoons.
He went out of his way to make the acquaintance of the city's most famous residence later when detectives interviewed their friends and acquaintances nearly every single one of them reported that patricia was usually unhappy that's sad yeah and also it's like at least like personally man that's unattractive oh if you're just loafing around the house all day oh the lack of ambition not hot oof like that is uh And you could tell it was having an effect on their marriage.
Yeah, she's like, this is not okay.
Most people don't find that attractive.
No. So as the months went on, Wayne's less desirable character traits continued to show themselves in addition to his just straight up laziness.
He also seemed to care little for Patricia's happiness and pretty much did everything without any kind of regard for her feelings.
When they went out to nightclubs, he would just leave her for more interesting or exciting social opportunities.
What the fuck? Sometimes he would just skip their plans or obligations altogether.
If he found something else he wanted to do, he'd just go do that.
Wow. And other times he would literally return home, like essentially to her home because she's the one with the fucking money.
Yeah. From a night out in the company of men or women that she had never met or seen before.
This sounds like a nightmare.
Yeah, it's horrible.
Situation. So she complained about his behavior and like tried to talk to him about it, But he ignored her and just carried on doing everything that she asked him not to do.
More than anything, though, the tensions in Wayne and Patricia's marriage could be traced back to the fact that he had no control over their finances.
Because remember, this is her trust. They're living off of her trust fund.
But after all, Wayne reasoned he was the husband, and it was a man's job to take care of such things in a marriage.
To make some money, honey.
Exactly. But he felt it was emasculating that she was in charge of all the finances.
Now, it got to the point where the arguments between Patricia and Wayne got heated and were generally carried out with little regard for whoever was in earshot.
They would just fight in front of anybody.
Oh, they're those people.
Yeah. They're those people that are like, there's that couple.
You're like, we're still at dinner.
Wait until we get in the car.
I'm uncomfortable. Oh, God.
But according to Daily News gossip columnist Danton Walker, they fought like cats and dogs.
There was never any peace between them.
them once when they got into an argument i heard her say to wayne i suppose that's to be expected when a girl marries a man who's beneath her whoa shots fired damn someone give him some aloe for that burn you guys hate each other yeah you don't like each other maybe just go your separate ways fine just don't be married but despite their increasingly fractured marriage wayne and patricia did their best to keep up appearances for social expectations yeah that's what's important And in October of 1941, Patricia became pregnant.
And on July 1st, she gave birth to their first son, William Wayne Billy Lonergan, named for his father and his grandfather.
Patricia absolutely adored Billy.
But if her new maternal responsibilities prompted any urge for her to change her priorities or for Wayne to change his, it didn't show.
Billy's birth did little to alter either of his parents' social lives and he spent a lot of his time in the care of a nurse named Elizabeth Black.
That's really sad. Yeah.
I never understand the mindset of like, oh, my life doesn't need to change.
Yeah. There's a child here now.
I feel like it's very of that time in this social station.
Well, and I was going to say, this social class for sure.
Definitely. Like the wealthy elite.
Yeah. It's sad, though, because you're like.
It's very sad. You're going to be so.
Disconnected. Yeah, exactly.
exactly yeah and it's like why have a baby yeah like why why bother obviously it was like different back then yeah it definitely was in 1920 a broke immigrant in boston became one of america's richest most infamous men practically overnight he swindled the modern equivalent of a quarter billion dollars and and etched his name into history as the mastermind behind one of the most notorious scams ever, the Ponzi scheme.
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but by early 1942 the u .s had finally entered world war ii and young men around the country were all driven by a sense of patriotic duty to join the military and fight according to dominic dunn it was actually an embarrassment not to be in uniform well shit so never one to miss an opportunity to impress or meet social expectations wayne also desired to join the military but he was was turned down on more than one occasion due to rumors surrounding his sexuality what the fuck literal rumors about him you know carrying on relationships with not women my god so he couldn't join the military what an embarrassment
yeah exactly that's an embarrassment for the country this man wants to fight for his country and they're like no not because you might like who you love like what what so the denial from the military was a blow to his ego I mean I can understand that yeah but it was only one of what would turn out to be many frustrating disappointments that year as the months went by Wayne and Patricia's marriage continued to crumble and she actually started talking about separating and even getting a divorce it's probably for the best man probably and kind of a big deal for her to be talking about this one at this time
two in this a social class and three as a woman yeah so wayne strongly objected to the idea of separating likely for financial reasons but by 1943 the marriage had completely fallen apart and they did separate in july of that year when billy was literally one years old like he turned one that year oh so no longer socially tied to wayne patricia just resumed her life of partying and nightclubs filling her date book with social engagements seeing different men every night just going crazy Yeah.
Wayne, on the other hand, floundered without Patricia, or more specifically, without her money and status.
Fearing that she was going to divorce him and cut him off completely, he started brainstorming ideas to get back into her good graces.
And he decided that she would be less likely to leave him if he was in the military.
But of course, he had already been twice denied by the US military.
So he returned to Toronto, because remember, he's from Toronto, Oh, yeah.
In late summer of 1943 and he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force or the RCAF.
To his surprise, the ploy actually worked and Patricia agreed to postpone the divorce.
Wow. But unbeknownst to him at this point, she removed him as heir in her will and instead listed their infant son as her sole heir.
That's not going to be good when he finds that out.
And he will. as a cadet he managed to avoid combat and was stationed in toronto which allowed him to actually travel back and forth to new york to visit billy whenever possible patricia meanwhile had moved on from her husband and was now seeing a man named mario gabolini he was an italian count who occasionally worked as a decorator that is the fanciest shit i've ever heard is sometimes i work as a decorator i'm an italian count who sometimes works as a decorator okay mario cool shit damn am that's that's hot girl shit that is hot girl shit no on the night of October 23rd uh Patricia and Mario
went out to dinner with another couple then they made the rounds to the usual nightclubs finally ending the evening around 4 a .m at the stork I mean well she has a baby yeah also I would die I'm 28 years old and I can't stay up till 4 a .m I mean don't I can barely get past 11 at this point yeah I had a glass of wine the other night and stayed up until like midnight and the next morning done for done done for but when he was interviewed by police a few days later gabellini told investigators that patricia had been in a wonderful mood that night and others even went so far as to suggest that she
and mario had become engaged that evening whoa and that's why she was in such happy spirits after leaving the stork they went to an apartment of some friends for a few more drinks and then mario finally dropped patricia off at her apartment around 6 a .m Holy shit.
When we said all night, we meant all night.
Now, that same weekend, Wayne had been given a 48 -hour pass from his military duty, so that allowed him to return to New York for the weekend to visit his son.
By all accounts, Patricia knew that he was coming to the city that weekend, but hadn't made any plans to see him.
him. In the time that had passed in separating, Wayne had become aware that she had cut him out of her will, which caused an explosive argument between the two of them, and she really had no desire to revisit the topic again.
So she was like, oh, yeah, I don't want to see you while you're in New York.
On the morning of the 23rd, Wayne went to a toy store and bought a toy elephant for Billy, and then he returned to the apartment of his friend John Hargis, where he had been staying for the weekend.
That evening, while Patricia and Mario were out on the town, Wayne Wayne was attending a Broadway show in the company of another friend, and after that, they went to the 21 Club.
After visiting a few more clubs and had a few more drinks, he ended up dropping off this friend at her apartment a little after 4 a .m. My goodness, you two.
Yeah, they stay out late, Mama.
Damn. Now, rather than return to Harge's apartment, Wayne's later story would be that he decided to go for a walk during which he encountered an American soldier by the name of Maurice Worcester.
He said they struck up a conversation and Worcester mentioned that he was waiting for a taxi to take him downtown and he was hoping to find a room for the night.
He didn't have concrete plans.
Instead, Wayne said he suggested that the man come back to Hargis' apartment with him.
And initially they slept in separate beds, but according to an interview with Wayne later, that didn't last long and eventually he joined Worcester in bed for what the interviewer described as quote unquote acts of perversion.
Acts of perversion.
It's like, nope, just two people engaging in consensual sex. But just to show you what we're dealing with.
Wow. So on Sunday, Mario Gabellini called Patricia's residence and Elizabeth Black answered.
Gabellini wanted to speak to Patricia, but Elizabeth told him she was still sleeping.
But Mario insisted he really wanted to speak with her.
And Black tried to wake Patricia by knocking on the locked door, but she was getting no answer.
It wasn't until several hours later that they finally got the door to the bedroom open.
and they found Patricia's nude body splayed out on the bed.
Oh, shit. By then, her body had become rigid, and her, quote, arms were raised as if she had been attempting to thwart something from hitting her.
There was a large gash in her head, and her hair had become matted with a large amount of dried blood that also had seeped into the sheets and as far as into the mattress.
There was a lot of blood.
There was also significant bruising around her neck, indicating that somebody had attempted to strangle her.
On the floor by the bed, Investigators found a heavy brass candelabra that usually sat on the nightstand, pieces of which had actually broken off in the struggle.
Holy shit. Like a brass candelabra was broken.
Based on the bloodstains found on the base of the candle holder, it was clear that this was the weapon that had been used to inflict her head wound.
After an initial search of the apartment, detectives determined that nothing had been stolen and there was no sign of forced entry, so a robbery was quickly ruled out.
Elizabeth Black was the first to be interviewed, but she explained to the police that she was actually somewhat hard of hearing, so she actually hadn't even woken up when Patricia got home that morning, and she hadn't seen her since the night before.
When detectives learned that Patricia had been out all night with Mario Gabellini, suspicion naturally fell on him.
So he was picked up by police and questioned for nearly 12 hours, and he actually was held in the tombs for several days, but eventually they were able to rule him out as a suspect.
Later that afternoon, during an interview with her mother, Lucille Wolfe, investigators learned that Wayne and Patricia had become estranged, and although he was stationed in Canada at the time, he had in fact been in the city on the night of the murder.
So, ugh. But unfortunately, by the time detectives got to John Hargis' apartment, Wayne had already left the state and returned to Toronto.
Oh, shit. Mm -hmm. He just fled.
He just said goodbye.
Bye. So the following day, an autopsy was conducted by New York's deputy medical examiner, Dr. Milton Halpern.
In his report, he confirmed that Patricia's cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation, with additional blunt force injury to her skull, likely caused by the broken candelabra discovered at the scene.
He said she bled a great deal and put up a desperate struggle.
Several of her fingernails are broken, and I found the pieces scattered on the floor on both sides of the bed.
Oh, my. I also picked up an artificial toenail that probably came loose when she kicked her attacker.
Wow. Yeah. And like that's all of that is shocking.
Also that artificial toenails were a thing.
Yeah. Okay. I'm glad that struck you as much as it struck me.
You know, they're actually coming back.
I've seen people have them before.
I've never like seen anybody that I know have them.
Yeah. But on my like Discover page on Instagram, all of a sudden I'm seeing like - That's interesting.
People putting, um, like, almost like acrylic, like, tips on their toenails.
Wow. That's interesting.
To vibe. I mean, they look nice, but.
My goodness. What a, what a fight.
Yeah. For, like, most, several of her fingernails to be broken.
And, like, scattered around the room.
Like, scattered all around.
Like, that's horrifying.
Yeah, it is. His report also noted several bloody fingerprints that were discovered at the scene, though none would prove useful in identifying the killer in that moment.
Oh, in that moment.
In that moment. While Dr. Halpern conducted the autopsy, investigators started digging into Wayne Lonergan's background and quickly determined that of all the men in Patricia's life, he was really the only one with a motive for murder.
And a very strong motive at that.
She had been his meal ticket for years, and now she had not only threatened him with divorce, but had cut him out of her will.
That's a double whammy.
Yeah, that's it. Not to mention, he also had a criminal history for petty crimes, and because of the time period, they looked at his admitting to having some sexual history with men as a strong indication of a deviant personality.
My, the fact that that factored into whether or not he could be a vicious murderer or not is insane.
It's not apples or oranges.
No, it doesn't compute.
But it played, and that's why I'm like focusing on it, it played a heavy role in this case and especially the way that the press reported about this case.
Now, fortunately, among the belongings found in Patricia's room was an address book with the addresses where Wayne was staying in Toronto.
So he was quickly located and arrangements were actually made to bring him back to New York ASAP.
So as legal arrangements were put into motion to get him returned to the U .S., Assistant District Attorney John Lower flew to Toronto to interview Wayne in person.
According to the press, Wayne quote, denied point blank he had any connection with Patricia's death, though he admitted he had been in New York over the weekend.
Investigators were already deeply suspicious of Wayne by the time they caught up with him in Canada, but they became even more so when Lower discovered several notable scratches on his face.
He also admitted that he had been wearing his uniform over the weekend, his Royal Canadian Air Air Force uniform.
But when he was asked to surrender that uniform for examination, he claimed the uniform had been stolen by Maurice, who also had scratched his face while they were intimate.
Wow. Yes. Okay. According to Wayne, the two had been engaging in sex when suddenly Maurice changed his mind and that led to an argument.
And during that argument, he said he scratched his face.
After things calmed down, Wayne said he went back to his own room and went to asleep, but he got up a few hours later and said he found Maurice attempting to steal his watch and his uniform.
Wayne claimed to have confronted Maurice again, and a second fight occurred, but he said Maurice managed to flee the apartment with the watch and the uniform.
So that's why he didn't have his uniform to hand over.
On its face, the story seemed absolutely ridiculous.
Why would an American infantryman want a Canadian military uniform?
I was a little confused by that that one i don't think he would but still lower insisted that they'd look into the story he told the press we want the uniform it might tell an interesting story now from the moment that he was arrested in toronto investigators in new york made no secret that wayne was their primary suspect in this murder the day after patricia's body was discovered deputy chief inspector patrick kenny told reporters we consider wayne lonergan a very likely suspect by then detectives had had already caught up with uh gene jayberg i think it is the woman that wayne had attended a show
with that night oh yeah before the murder uh who confirmed that she had spent the afternoon and most of the evening with wayne and that she did not notice any scratches or marks on his face at the time oh wayne those were fresh it took more than two days but investigators were finally able to get wayne back to new york on october 28th where he again denied having anything to do with his wife's death upon arriving in new york he told reporters i had nothing to do with pat's murder i want to be at her funeral and i want to see our baby it's unclear whether he knew it at the time but at that point patricia had already
been buried and had a funeral so there's a chance that his statement to the press was just for show yeah or he might not have known but there wasn't any chance he was going to see his son anytime soon patricia's mother lucille had been awarded temporary custody study of Billy, which would eventually become permanent.
Oh, man. If you remember, she wasn't a big fan of Wayne.
No. And now that was going to be even worse.
Those closest to the case were pretty positive that Wayne had murdered Patricia, but not everybody was convinced.
In those people's minds that were not convinced, he had an alibi that was so socially unacceptable, it only made it easier to believe.
One detective told a reporter a guilty man would never offer an alibi so degrading wow yeah but still others found the story about maurice wister impossible to believe journalist sid boehm wrote in new york uh sorry in the new york journal american he's lying the only bit of truth in the whole story is that he admits he's a degenerate can we move on everybody a woman was murdered and that and we stopped talking about this guy's sex life for a minute you like literally like this gets lost that that's like the fact that she was murdered at the at all but she was brutally murdered in her own home
where her infant child is absolutely and nobody's focusing on that part that you're right all they are focusing on is this man's sexuality that's it and trying to use it as proof that he's like a vicious murder and some people are literally willing to believe his alibi just because there's no way a man would ever ever admit to being even slightly homosexual if he was guilty.
What? It's wild to think that this even happened at all.
And it's wild to think that some people still fucking think that way.
I was going to say, this isn't completely gone.
That's the thing. And I think it's important to say that.
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it was very clear that the salacious aspects of the story were far too irresistible for the press who like we were just saying latched on to wayne's sexuality and quote -unquote scandalous alibi and just spread that across the front pages of the papers all over the city wow versus a woman's brutal murder yeah let's uh follow the evidence that would be so sick that'd be cool yeah in In reality, Wayne's story was actually a lot more plausible than people realized or were willing to admit at the time.
Throughout a lot of history, queer men who risked anonymous sexual encounters, because remember, he met Maurice that night.
Yeah, that night. With strangers, there was an exponentially greater risk for them.
And a lot of times, those people were victims of assault, robbery, murder, like those things happened.
But in Wayne's case, there really was no risk.
So the police were right to be skeptical.
Because within a day, detectives had interviewed John Hargis' butler, who actually only remembered Wayne because he had been so rude that weekend.
Oh, people are going to remember you if you're a dickhead.
The butler told police there had never been an American soldier in the apartment that weekend or anyone else for that matter.
Similarly, when Wayne's alibi had made it to the papers, an American serviceman from Connecticut named Maurice Worcester came forward and told police that while he had been in New York that weekend, he had, quote, never seen or heard of anyone named Wayne Lonergan.
Holy shit. Yeah. This man was just going to totally blame it on this guy who he had never met.
Yep. Wow. Yep. So detectives interrogated Wayne Lonergan for nearly 24 hours straight rate with breaks uh very few breaks and very little food but he stuck to his story for a while but still investigators had already begun reporting to the press that they had their killer a detective told reporters we feel that we have a very good circumstantial case against him a case that will be extremely difficult for any defense to attack knock down or shake in any degree damn a strong case that was actually really starting to take shape because despite wayne's insistence that he had nothing to do with Patricia's
death, after intense questioning and scrutiny, his story was beginning to fall apart.
When detectives confronted him with bloody fingerprint evidence collected from the apartment, which they insisted could prove his guilt, he finally broke down and confessed in great detail to the murder of his wife.
According to Wayne...
That's so brutal. Yeah.
Wow. According to Wayne, after he dropped Jean off at home early that morning, he returned back to John Hargis' apartment apartment but a few hours later he decided to pay a visit to Patricia. He arrived at her apartment a little before 9 a .m and she let him in and then returned to her bed.
They had a brief discussion about him wanting to see Billy which turned into an argument during which Patricia allegedly told him you're not going to see the baby again ever.
Wayne claimed it was that statement that sent him into a rage and he continued telling detectives I lost my head.
His connection to Billy was his his last chance at accessing patricia's fortune at all and if she severed that tie he was never going to see another penny from her yeah so he explained that after patricia threatened to withhold their son he grabbed the candelabra from the nightstand and struck her in the head with it the candelabra broke so he grabbed the identical one from the other nightstand and hit her again still not subdued patricia managed to get out of bed and began fighting him him, punching, kicking, clawing at his face, hence the scratches.
And finally, Wayne grabbed her by the throat, and he said he started squeezing as hard as he could.
He estimated that it took several minutes, about three minutes, quote -unquote, for her to actually die.
When he said he finally let go of her body, he realized that the blood from her head had gotten all over his hands and his uniform, so he went back to John Hargis' apartment, where he cut the uniform into strips for easy disposal and then pulled a suit from harges's closet and left a note that he hoped would later support his alibi he wrote john thank you so much for the use of your flat due to a slight case of mistaken trust i lost my uniform and borrowed a jacket and trousers from you i will return it on my arrival in toronto i'll call you up and tell you about it yours wayne once he got talking
it seemed like he couldn't stop and the only thing he didn't want was for the case to go to court he actually asked the assistant district attorney jacob groomant suppose i say i'm guilty and have it over with can i do that groomette explained that while he certainly could confess to the da and the investigators in the room any legal consequences would have to come from a judge so he was going to have to see the inside of a courtroom at some point yeah but for whatever reason wayne seemed very reluctant to provide the details of the murder itself self it was describing the act of killing patricia that he
wanted to avoid especially in the court yeah so grumet explained that he could bring in a stenographer and take the confession meaning wayne would only have to go over the details once but if he planned to confess to first degree murder a guilty plea actually wasn't permitted under new york law and he would have to stand trial now the details of patricia's murder her brutal murder may have been the primary thing that wayne wanted to avoid but of course there was also the matter of his sexuality that the press was fucking harping on obsessed with literally obsessed with like why are you so obsessed
with me yeah wayne asked the assistant da well suppose i have to go to trial will you bring all this out about what i am about my morals he had mostly denied like i said his homosexuality or bisexuality but regardless of what he said there was evidence of his his supposed quote -unquote deviance like no his deviance is that he's a murderer that's the thing that's the deviance that's the deviance right there who he's sleeping with that is he's a murderer exactly he's a vicious callous cold piece of shit murderer what the fuck are you doing talking about who he goes to bed with like and and claiming
that's the deviance of the story the story he's an asshole exactly god but like most queer men he knew that that was what was going to be splashed across the newspaper every single newspaper in new york and it would have probably a primary role in the trial itself so that was a big another big reason he didn't want this to yeah go to court because so grume and lower tried to minimal minimalize his sexuality when speaking in hypotheticals but the press had already seen to it that any version of this story that was told was going to be framed as a deviant murder.
It's like, no, he's just a horrible vicious murderer.
Also, all murder is deviant exactly.
Because it is murder.
Why is this deviant?
And the others aren't.
Like all of them are deviant.
This one's very deviant because of how brutal it was.
Nothing to do with preferences.
Nothing else. So on October 30th, 1943, a grand jury indicated Wayne Lonergan for the first degree murder of Patricia after which he was returned to a cell at Rikers Island.
Damn. I know. If anybody had hoped for a speedy trial and resolution, they were going to be very disappointed.
Five days after the indictment, Wayne's lawyer, Edward Broderick, succeeded in getting an 11 -day stay in the Court of General Sessions in which to enter a plea.
It's unclear why Lonergan or Broderick wanted to put off entering a plea to the charge, but it was going to be the first of many delays in the case that was receiving intense press coverage.
A few weeks later, Wayne ended up pleading not guilty to the charge of first -degree murder, but Broderick succeeded in delaying a trial with just one motion after the other.
So after multiple delays and shakeups, the trial finally got underway on March 22nd in New York's Court of General Sessions.
Despite the courtroom theatrics leading up to the trial, the opening statements from the prosecution and defense were actually surprisingly short.
Not required to offer a motive for the murder, Grumet laid out the facts of the case, explaining that Wayne Lonergan had murdered his wife, and after a few days of attempting to deny his actions, he confessed to the crime.
He told the jury, we have only his statement as to what transpired there just before he killed her.
His wife, the only person in the room at the time, is dead.
As for any of the salacious details emphasized by the press, Grumet did his best to live up to the promise that he had made to Wayne, saying, I don't believe it's necessary to go into the sordid story of degeneracy that he told, indicating it had no bearing on the facts of the case.
Because it doesn't.
It literally doesn't.
I'm surprised it was even allowed to be brought up so much because it really doesn't have anything to do.
It feels like it's a very extraneous thing to add into a pretty brutal and open and shut case.
It's actually like, it was kind of surprising to me that the prosecution didn't rely more on it because they could have back then.
like it just was a thing that happened a lot I think they just didn't need to they didn't need to in this case he had admitted it but we've seen cases where they didn't need to and they still did so it was kind of surprising that he he was like yeah we don't have to talk about that yeah that is a little surprising I think it was mostly just it's open and shut a little bit I mean pretty much he confessed he has all the motive in the world like he was there it's an easy case for the DA there's nothing to really contend with here yeah so they're probably like why not just get this done quicker exactly
Exactly. Which, honestly, good, because it has no place in a courtroom.
It's ridiculous. Now, the defense, on the other hand, gave opening remarks in which Wayne was made out to be another victim in the case.
Broderick told the jury, we'll show you that this defendant, Lonergan, from the very inception of this case, has been the victim of double dealing, double crossing, and double talk.
His defense was a very simple one.
He said his client was innocent and had only confessed under duress and coercion.
In fact, he argued, if anyone appeared guilty in the case, It was Mario Gabellini who had been with Patricia just hours before her murder.
According to Broderick, Wayne had only confessed after being subjected to illegal and immoral tactics that included, quote, allowing the defendant to go hungry for a lengthy period, plying him with brandy and pyramiding a series of petty discomforts.
A number of witnesses were called to testify as to the discovery and facts of the case, including Elizabeth Black, Dr. Halpern, Lucille Wolfe, and Gabellini himself.
self, but the most damning evidence that you just called it out against Lonergan, it was the confession.
He confessed in great detail.
Despite Broderick's repeated attempts to prevent the confession from actually being introduced into the courtroom, including badgering nine police witnesses into admitting coercion, about a week into the trial, the confession was read aloud for the jury.
Through the confession, the jury heard in his own words how Wayne had killed his wife in in the heat of an argument over their son and over money.
How he panicked, destroyed his uniform, and threw it in the river.
And how he bought makeup later that day in order to conceal those heavy scratches on his face.
So on March 29th, the state rested its case.
In the lead -up to the trial, Broderick, the defense attorney, had made allusions to several important witnesses that he was going to call to prove his client's innocence, including tombs, stool pigeons, and a well -known wealthy lawyer who was in the murder chamber at the killing.
The murder chamber at the killing?
Yeah. None of those exciting supposed witnesses were ever called, and he rested his case after calling three witnesses.
Cool. Yeah. So on March 30th, the defense rested their case, having proven little, if anything.
I was going to say, after doing what?
After doing theater.
Yeah. In his final remarks, Jacob Grumet revisited the facts of the case.
He emphasized the violence of the murder, which, like, thank you, finally somebody does that.
Can we talk about that part?
He told the jury this was brutal, cold -blooded, deliberate murder.
There she was on the side of the bed opposite to him, but he was determined to kill her.
He grabbed her by the throat with both hands and continued to strangle her for three minutes.
Given the brutality of the crime and the defendant's repeated attempts to cover up what he had done to avoid detection, Grumet encouraged the jury not only to find Wayne guilty, but also to impose a death sentence.
Whoa. The jury retired for deliberation on March 31st. And after ten and a half hours, they emerged to find him guilty of murder in the second degree.
The jury foreman later said, there's no question that Lonergan murdered his wife.
But I think it's obvious he did not premeditate it.
I don't think he went to see his wife for the purpose of murdering her.
I can agree with that.
I agree with that. From what I know.
Yeah. I mean, just that he didn't go there with like any weapon.
With a weapon or anything.
It seemed like it was in the heat of the moment.
Yeah. Yeah. Wayne said nothing when the verdict was read.
Outside the courtroom, District Attorney Frank Hogan addressed the press, saying he believed the jury's verdict was fair and just. Joseph Broderick was similarly unmoved, saying that his client was a soldier of fortune.
He said it's his belief that if his number's up, it's up.
Alrighty. I don't think it's that your number's up.
I think you murdered your wife.
Yeah, I think that's more it.
Yeah. Yeah. The jury also rejected Wayne's claims of coercion, saying the people assert that the defendant had sufficient sleep in Canada and Statler Hotel in Buffalo, and that this was all necessary in order to discover whether or not the defendant was guilty of murder.
Yeah. So two weeks later, on April 18th, Wayne returned to the court of general sessions where he was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Again, he said nothing after the verdict was read, and he was transported to Sing Sing Prison.
He went to some of the worst prisons.
Get the biggies. Yeah.
While Wayne seemed to resign to his fate, Broderick appeared more than hopeful when he stood before the press.
He told them, I doubt it.
His confidence notwithstanding, Wayne's appeal was ultimately rejected, as were his later attempts to a new trial.
Not shocking. shocking according to dominic dunn in prison lonergan enjoyed the sort of celebrity certain high -profile killers achieve among the other inmates his charm worked for him in prison as it had in life damn which is crazy when you think of the prisons that he was in that's crazy yeah and it's also like no i want you to not have a great experience in prison like i don't want anything bad to happen to you like i'm not yeah crazy but you should go to prison and not become a celebrity have a fun time yeah you know it's not for funsies no now after serving several years at sing sing he was transferred
to clinton prison in dana mora before being released in december of 1965 after serving 22 years of his sentence oh excuse me following his release he was deported back to canada where he lived quietly in toronto until his death from cancer in 1986.
so this man's Just went like 20 more years after strangling and bludgeoning his wife to death in her bed where their infant son was in another room.
Uh -huh. Cool. Yeah.
Sick. Literally sick.
Really sick. Wayne and Patricia's son, Billy, grew up in the care of his grandmother, Lucille Wolf, like I said earlier.
A few months after Patricia was murdered, Lucille actually petitioned the court for a name change.
and Billy was rechristened William Anthony Burton.
I think she didn't want him to carry his father's name.
And as far as anybody knows, Wayne never made any attempt to contact Billy after he was released from jail.
In an interview later in his life, he told a reporter, I know where my son is, but I'd rather not say.
He's had enough to put up with.
No one ever hears of him or where he's living.
He has a bodyguard to keep it that way.
Honestly, I'm glad he didn't.
Yeah, it seems like hopefully William was better off without being wrapped up in any more of this.
He does. He had enough to put up with.
And I hope his grandma was great for him.
I know. She seemed really loving.
Her name's Lucille, so I feel like she was.
Yeah. You know. Now there was never really any question as to whether Wayne Lonergan murdered his wife.
He confessed as much just a few days after his arrest and with the exception of a few insignificant details, there's no reason to doubt that his confession was anything other than what it was.
It lines up perfectly.
And the fact that you can't find his uniform, all that stuff, it's like it all lines up.
Yeah, the scratches on his face, everything.
But there are, however, a number of people who believe that he, how he was portrayed in the press, had a significant and negative influence on the trial and sentence.
Alan Levine said, Given the lack of any physical evidence, which today might cause a jury to have doubts, the intense publicity around Lonergan's sexuality no doubt contributed to a preconceived and negative bias about him in the minds of a typical 1940s male heterosexual jury whose members subscribe to the anti -gay attitudes of the era.
Which I think it's a case of two things can be true at once.
Yeah, for sure. I'm sure that jury had some bias because of what they had read in the papers.
And, you know, I'm sure they saw what they saw in the papers.
But I think they also heard his confession.
They heard that it was detailed.
They heard it lined up.
And it didn't seem— Why do you have scratches on your face?
Right. you lied about that guy maurice wister like exactly i feel like that's pretty pretty pretty decent especially when he's being like yeah i did it yeah i completely agree yeah i think it's really shitty that his sexuality came into play as often as it did just like what a waste of time entirely unnecessary yeah because realistically it didn't play a huge role in the trial no if i mean if those jury members were biased because of what they read in the papers it played some role obviously i don't think you can say it didn't play any role but like logic like it shouldn't have like it just didn't
it didn't have anything to do with the crime that was committed exactly so like why are we talking about it exactly that's and i wish somebody had said like somebody should have been like we're why are we talking about this his defense attorney should have said that that's like having like being in a murder trial and them harping on the fact that you played field talking but that having nothing to do with it it's like why are we talking about that like why this is just like mess and noise like why are we talking about it it's wild so weird absolutely wild but it's an interesting story i know and i
feel so bad that patricia gets kind of lost in it all because it's so focused on his shenanigans and it seemed like she was like a pretty good person like the fact that she had all this wealth and status but still decided to get to get back yeah and like would volunteer at the hospital and that kind of thing yeah it's nice and all of that was lost you know yeah and i hope that billy you know did i hope he like thrived yeah me too same poor guy i know so that is another high society story for you riddled with mess and mess and mess and mess and mess and mess but anyways we hope you keep listening
and we hope hope you keep it weird but don't swear that you murdered your wife and clued blood with a candelabra because holy shit that is dark Thank you.
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Hey, weirdos. you know Ash and I have covered some seriously dark tales about romance gone really wrong.
Oh yeah, there are so many cases where too good to be true turns out to be exactly that.
Well, get ready for a love story that's going to blow your minds because this one is happening right now.
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Meet Travis. He falls head over heels for Lily Rose.
She's gorgeous, she's understanding, and she's literally perfect.
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That's right! Lily Rose is an AI companion, a computer program designed to be Travis's dream woman.
And at first, it seems like a perfect relationship.
But when Lily Rose's behavior starts getting strange, this love story takes a dark and twisted turn that no one saw coming.
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