Transcript of The Sweater Letter Murder - Ontonagon, Michigan

Hello everybody, and welcome back to "Small Town Murder" Express.

Yay! Choo choo!

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigalo, I'm here with my co-host.

And I'm Jimmy Wissman.

Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another crazy "Small Town Murder" Express episode, all aboard the murder train. Pulling away from the station, we have some crazy stuff today. Ten pounds of murder in a two-pound bag, as usual. It's, uh, we're going to stuff it in there, though, so let's do it. And, uh, before we start, though, head over to shutupandgivememurder.com.

Okay.

Let's go on a trip, shall we?

Where to?

Bag's packed over there.

Yeah.

Go behind your chair and see.

Wow.

All right, well, there we go. All right.

It's just a, it's just a fanny pack.

It's just, it's all you're taking for the road?

It's.

Just a toothbrush and a prayer.

Tooth.

Where is it?

Not even, I'll get the paste when we get there.

That's right. Just bring the brush. That's, I know I'll need this. So let's get on, go on a trip. We're going to Michigan this week.

Okay.

Ontonagon, Michigan. Oof.

Yeah, it's a UP shit.

It is way up. It's as UP as it gets, as up the UP as you can get here. It is, uh.

Right up in your UP.

Right up your UP. Uh, O-N.

Put your up.

O-N-T-O-N-A-G-O-N. Ontonagon.

Very native here.

I looked it up to try to get the pronunciation. It's, like I said, far northwestern UP. Like.

Oh.

As far away from everything as, as possible. It's 5 hours and 15 minutes to Minneapolis. That's kind of the closest.

Wow.

City. 8 hours and 50 minutes to Grosse Pointe Park, which was our last Michigan episode.

Yeah.

Episode 703, the Puppet Master Killer. That was crazy.

They get overtime driving that. Good God.

Oh, absolutely. It's 9 hours. That's wild. Uh, Ontonagon County, it's in.

Mm-hmm.

Area code 906. Population here, very small. I mean, it's a summertime kind of outdoorsy community.

Sure.

1,322 is the population.

Ooh.

Tiny. And it's in the middle of nowhere. Uh, median household income here, pretty low. Much lower than the national average.

Really?

$42,500.

That's got to be fixed income folks, right?

Very. There's some of that.

Not working for that.

And people who work in the area to keep it up for the summer.

Yeah.

And then the median home cost, though, also very low. And that's because it's a lot of cabins and things like that.

Sure.

$92,900, so.

Wow.

You can actually afford it if you make 42.5.

Average house.

That's median, yeah. Uh, nickname here is Harbor Town.

Sure.

Because it's right on the water up there.

Yeah.

In the middle of nowhere. Um, a little bit of history. Uh, the village is located within Ontonagon Township, apparently.

Mm-hmm.

Um, at the mouth of the Ontonagon River on Lake Superior.

It's got to be so fucking cold.

It's, in the, in the summer, it's actually pretty hot there and humid.

Is it?

Yeah. It's actually pretty warm, but in the winter, it's going to be cold, yeah.

Oh my God.

But frigging gorgeous, too, up there. I mean.

I believe that.

It's pretty. Um, the name is an Indian name of the Chippewa dialect that means "my bowl is gone." Rumor has it some.

A lot of stoners up here.

Oh, my bowl. That's what I said.

My bowl's gone.

My bowl's gone, dude. So it was a young girl, apparently. Legend has it, a young girl went to get, like, some water out of the river with a bowl or something, and the bowl flew away, and she said, "My bowl is gone." And they named it. And I said, "Yeah, if the kid's coming back with their bowl is gone, I'm going to be very suspicious of what bowl is gone exactly."

Yeah.

Was it kicked at least? Or was it.

Right.

Was it half full? That's a problem.

Did you clear it?

So it was a lot of copper mining up here, apparently.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how you even find the copper up here, but they found it. And, uh.

Oh.

So there's still, like, old abandoned mines you can find up there.

Yeah.

And shit that's kind of cool. In 1874, a plank road was built for.

Wow.

Between, uh, these two different mining establishments, but they built a 14-mile plank road.

Wow.

That's a long goddamn road. Uh, it was called Miners Road. Um, and, uh, the industry, it was a lot of industry here for a while. They had the Smurfit stone container, which I think we've talked about before.

Smurfit?

Smurfit. Like, that sounds like a Smurf who's had it.

Smurfit.

Ah, Smurfit, man. I've had enough. That's it. I'll Smurf this, man. Smurf you, Smurf this whole place.

Who wants to go to the mine?

Smurf everything, man. I don't give a shit anymore. I'm tired.

Smurf it.

Tired of, you think it's easy being blue, man? Smurf you. Smurf it all to fucking hell, dude.

My shoes are always dirty. They're fucking white.

What?

Whose choice was this?

White soles.

Everything's white.

Whose idea was that? Walking around in a fucking diaper and a goddamn stupid hat? That's my outfit?

With my blue chest out. Always with the blue chest.

A diaper and a beanie cap? That's what you guys thought was a good outfit for me?

Smurf this.

Smurf this shit, man. Like, I'm in a rap video in 2005. Is this what I'm doing?

Yeah.

So, uh, that place closed in 2010, though. Um, here's some reviews.

Oh.

There's only three reviews of the whole town. Um.

Really?

So I'll give you all of them. Here's five stars. "I enjoy living in this small, friendly town. The scenery is beautiful, and it's a wonderful area to raise a family in a safe and caring community."

Oh.

They could just never leave because they'd be shocked by the outside world, probably.

Oh, they wouldn't be able to believe this shit.

Um, here's four stars. "I love living in Ontonagon. I moved here only three years ago, but everyone has been so friendly. I've never been treated like an outsider. Everything in town is in walking distance, uh, and with a car, the outdoor activities are endless."

Oh, boy.

"Many forests, hiking trails, waterfalls, skiing, snowshoeing. I feel perfectly safe here."

Yeah.

They love the outdoors.

Waterfalls, too.

Oh, yeah. Oh, it's pretty up there. It really is. It's gorgeous.

Wow.

Uh, then finally two stars. "Not so enthralled."

Wow.

Uh, "High drug area and crime rate." I looked it up. It's not a high crime rate. Um, "People are not very inviting if you are not born and raised there." I could see that. Um.

Mm-hmm.

"Very little to do. There are some jobs, but you have to know someone to get hired."

Yeah.

Yeah.

The nepotism of the 1,300 population town.

That'll happen. It sounds like the four-star one is probably a lady who's reasonably attractive. Everyone's been so nice to me since I moved here. It's weird. I've never felt like an outsider.

I've never pulled a chair out ever since I got here.

Whereas the next one's a guy with a receding hairline who's like.

Yeah.

"Everybody treats me like shit here. I can't even get a fucking job. What the fuck?"

They make me buy my own groceries.

Yeah. It's crazy. Uh, "Things to do here." Well, number one, go to the lake. I mean, it's right there.

Yeah.

Knock yourself out. But also, the Porkupine Mountains Music Festival is coming here.

Oh, boy.

Now, you can imagine how fun it would be to try to book bands to come all the way the hell out here.

Oh, God.

It's got to be.

Concerts.

Brutal. Um, bands like Danny Frank and The Smokey Gold.

And The Smokey Gold.

Oh, yeah. T-A-E and The Neighborly.

TAE?

Yeah, but all caps. Like, it means something.

Yeah.

Uh, The Blue Moon Marquee will be there.

Yeah.

Uh, Blair Crimmins and The Hookers. Oh, that's fun. That'll.

Blair Crimmins.

They'll bring people from all around. The Hookers are coming. Blair Crimmins. The Steel Wheels will be there. Um.

What was the guy's, the Crimmins, uh, that was, uh, that was in Boston, the comedian? Uh.

Oh, yeah.

Wally? No? Uh, Bob.

God damn it. Know exactly who you're talking about.

Ah, is it Bob Crimmins?

Oh, that's going to drive me crazy here.

I can't remember.

It'll come up for me.

He was from when Stand Up Stood Out. He was the fucking assaulting guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he was funny. Yeah. Um.

Badass.

Damn it.

Amazing.

Well.

Just died.

Boss Mama and The Jebber Hooch will be there.

The, the Jebber who?

Jebber Hooch. J, J-E-B-B-E-R Hooch. Okay.

Jebber Hooch.

Boss Mama and The Jebber Hooch. The Abby, Abby Posner Trio. Uh, Cousin Curtis will be there. Oh, thank God.

Fucking hell.

Jesus, Cousin Curtis. The Fretliners will be there.

Mm-hmm. Okay. I can see that.

Charlie Parr. Um, Northern Days. The Benson and Sibs. Benson and Benson, with an E-N at the end. Um.

Uh-huh.

The Conga Boys have two sets, so watch out for that.

Oh, because they get the crowd involved.

They, yeah. It's, it's hot shit. They go from 3:00 all the way to 5:00. They're, they're pushing on through.

Gotcha.

Then from 6:00 to 6:30, PK Mayo.

Don't look at me, man.

Um, Macaulay Hurricane and Hule. Okay.

You'd think that this would be local music, but there's no fucking way 1,300 people have this many musicians.

Yeah.

Living amongst them.

God, no. They wouldn't have this kind of, uh, just equipment.

No way.

Laying around.

Right.

Uh, then there's a busking barn as well.

What the fuck is that?

Well, the busking barn is an all-acoustic stage offering amateurs and professionals. By the way, it's literally in a fucking, like a, like a.

Yeah.

Like a log cabin barn.

Oh.

That's what's going on there. Um, an inter opportunity to play an intimate and nurturing setting. Okay. And, uh.

Yeah.

Scheduled performers receive a complimentary two-day pass. So if you perform here, you get to come to the festival for free.

Oh. Well, that explains why there's so many musicians.

Yeah.

Nobody said they're good at this.

No.

They just want free admission.

Such luminaries as Iron Mule. Um.

Yeah.

Christopher Hick, uh, Erickson, a.k.a. The River Man.

Oh, boy.

Del Hopper, Todd Swanson, Andrea Stadder, Bad Melon Morganfield.

Bad Melon?

Got a bad melon. He points at his head. Fucking weirdo. Bet, Bet T, Bet, T, two separate words.

Oh.

And The Ray Man.

Right. Oh, Betty or Bet T.

Bet, T, and The Ray Man. Them too will be there.

Them too, yeah.

The Boondoggle Cats.

This is all people that just wanted free admission.

Oh, that's it.

You can't convince me otherwise.

No. They made up these names as they.

Yeah.

Applied for this. Uh, Maple Moon.

Maple Fawn. Yeah.

Um, ELO Spirits. I think it's just Electric Light Orchestra.

Yeah.

All of their.

Spirits of them.

Fucking hits. The Muddy Boots, Hippie Steve and the Beave.

Fucking A.

And finally.

I like that.

The Whaling Loons will be there.

Okay.

And don't forget about Thomas Jackman either. He gets all his jacking done.

I think they're all Whaling Loons, to be honest.

That's it. Everybody. That said, it's murder time, everybody. Let's talk about some murder.

Wow. What a.

What a festival.

What a lineup.

Yeah. This is something that they got going on here.

That's the deepest lineup we've ever had.

There's so many.

For a town of 1,300 people.

There's so many.

That's a crazy that's all day.

Every day.

Two days.

Yeah. Just nonstop.

Yeah.

I don't think they get a lot of time. They get 20 minutes, the open the acoustic barn people. There's set times such as 4:15 to 4:35. So it's very regimented.

Very, yeah. And we are.

Yeah.

You're not done. We'll pull the, we'll pull the plot for now.

Oh, you're coming off stage. No, it's, it's like an awards show. They start playing other music, and it's.

Yeah.

Drown you out, and your mic goes down. So.

Playing Oscars music over your fucking.

You're like, "What? What's this.

Yeah.

With the swelling instrumental? What's happening right now?" Um, all right. Let's talk about Robert Bruce, um, Moilanen. Uh, M-O-I-L-A-N-E-N. All right? Uh, Bruce, Bruce Moilanen. Uh, he's born March 29th, 1954. He's the, uh, his dad's name is William. And, um, he's a six-foot-tall kind of a guy. He's, he's Finnish, as we know. Um.

Okay.

Apparently, a lot of the people in the UP are Finnish. I didn't know that.

Oh, Finnish. I thought you said thin-ish.

No, no. He's thin-ish.

I'm thin-ish.

Yeah.

Like, I.

Yeah.

If you looked at my legs, you'd be like, "Oh, that's probably a skinny guy." See my arms? Probably a skinny guy. Then you see my belly, and you're like, "Hmm."

What happened there?

Something doesn't fit. What happened?

Um, we know he had an appendectomy in 1959.

That's tough.

Uh, he was confirmed in the Lutheran Church in 1969, which is at 15 years old, which I guess can confirmation. If it's like Catholicism, it take you got your, you know, com communion first, then confirmation. It takes a while.

Say he, he did that in the Lutheran when? How, how old was he?

15.

10 years earlier, he had an appendectomy?

Yeah.

When he was five?

Yeah.

I'm shocked they found that.

Found his a his appendix? Tiny?

Yeah. Found that it was.

Oh.

Found that it was, like, sick. Because.

Well, he went to a hospital.

I mean, you got to communicate how.

Yeah.

Well, I guess a five-year-old can tell you, "Motherfucker, this hurts."

Sit here. Fever. Yeah. There's symptoms.

Yeah. Yeah, there's that too. Yeah.

They look at it. I would hope doctors would know, even in the '50s, what the fuck happened to that.

I had a friend that was in their 30s that they almost missed it, and they almost died.

What happens?

It's happened.

They sent him home to eat soup, James.

Well, there you go. That's.

Seems stupid. So.

Yeah.

Um, he had a couple no real legal problems, two speeding tickets, a citation for improper overtaking.

Oh.

On the road, shit like that.

That was fast.

In the early '70s, too. He was probably shit-faced also. They didn't care.

Yeah.

They were like, "Wow."

We did it in a school zone.

Yeah. Well, they were like, "I mean, I'd like to let you off. You are shit-faced." So, I mean.

Yeah.

Obviously.

I mean, you're judgment.

Your judgment's going to be impaired. But, I mean, they don't want to give him one because he's drunk. They're like, "I feel bad. You know, you're being drunk and all. It's not even."

This one's on you, though.

You know. But I still got to give you one. Uh, he ran on the track and field team at the high school around here. Um, he was in two car accidents by the time he was 23.

Yeah.

74, he was a passenger. Um.

Yeah.

Minor injuries. 76, again, uh, he lost control of his car. Minor injuries. Newspaper had him printed, so we'll give you kind of his background here. Um.

Is, is it up in this area where all this happened?

That's where he was, I believe.

Yeah.

Uh, yeah. There, but there's also he's going to live in a different area than this exact area, but still in the UP.

Yeah.

Um, as an adult, he worked at General Hospital in Marquette, which is up there in the UP, um, as support staff. We'll talk about I think he drives, as we'll talk about. Um, he, uh, one of, uh, later on, a woman that will know him that worked at the same hospital as him said he was kind of crude. He pretty much said what was on his mind. That's kind of what he was like. Um.

Yeah.

He's outgoing, but he doesn't have a lot of friends, which is interesting. It's odd to be outgoing and lonely. That's odd. You got to.

Yeah.

That just means you're kind of a douche that no one wants to be around at that point.

That's, that feels desperate and sad.

It's sad. Well, if you're trying and no one's interested.

Yeah.

Normally, it's like, "Well, you got to put yourself out there." And if you put yourself out there, you'll meet people. It's like, "Well, he puts himself out there. No one's interested in hanging out with him." So.

That is, that's a flaw.

So that's on him. Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, and the reason why is he thinks he's the smartest person in the world.

Ugh.

He's really, really thinks he's smarter than everybody and anybody. Very much so. Very confident, as he puts it. But it's mainly fucking arrogance. Um, now, somewhere between '74 and '76, between those two car accidents there, he meets a girl. It is disputed.

Sure.

Whether it was '74 or '76 or '75, even. Somewhere in there. Mid-'70s.

Yeah.

He meets a girl.

Yeah.

Uh, Judy Diane Blake is her name. Uh.

Yeah.

She's born October 16th, 1957, so about three years younger. Um.

Yeah.

She's from Hancock, Michigan. Her parents are Dale and Mary Ann. Uh, Dale ran a business called, very creatively, Dale's Service.

Oh, okay.

So there you go. Really, really.

Yeah.

It's really, uh, creative there. Um, their family's big in the church, in the Redeemer Free Lutheran Church.

The Redeemer.

The Redeemer. Redeemer. That's all I can think of immediately. Redeemer.

You say Redeemer, and all I see is that monster just.

Firefly.

Fly, fly through the air.

Come on, Jesse. Um, so she has two brothers, Jerry and David.

Yeah.

And, um, she is very much into here's a quote from a book. I'll give you the title of the book and everything later, because the author did a good job. Uh, Judy's family, her parents, her brothers, these people are like rocks of the community. They're very religious and very private.

Oh.

Upper Midwestern Stoics. I mean, that's.

Yeah.

Pretty common shit here. Um, Judy is the quietest of the quiet in her family.

I know.

She's pretty quiet. Um, really into the outdoors. That's what she's like. Which, I mean, Christ Almighty, if you grow up in northern Michigan, it's.

Yeah.

That's what's out there, man. So the, there's she's got a lot of woods around her house, and they're always in the woods and always doing things. And she's very organized. She trains.

Yeah.

Springer Spaniel dogs.

Oh, very cool.

That's what she's good at here. Um, she also works in the hospital system in Marquette, at Marquette General. That's where they meet, these two.

Cool.

Um, so she was a we don't understand exactly what she is, whether she's a nurse or something else, because it's disputed. But either way.

But he's a driver, so they're delivering something. So he, she's in contact with that?

Yeah. Well, I mean, they're all in the hospital, apparently, so.

Oh, he's in okay.

I mean, wherever they work, they'd end up at the hospital at some point.

Yeah.

So you'd run into people. Now, their relationship is strange, everybody says, because Bruce is loud and brash.

Yeah.

Kind of confident. And she is ver Judy's very.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Wow.

Not even meek, just not a.

Mild. Yeah.

Mild. Yeah. Very Midwestern. Um, but it makes somehow it makes sense. A friend of hers who worked with them said, "I think he was something different than she was used to. Bruce was someone who came across as being very sure of himself. One of the things that he saw in her was a close family relationship, and it was a group that he could kind of feel like he was a part of a family. Bruce's family isn't that close to each other. Nobody's really tight. He doesn't really stay tight with his family." So.

Okay. There's a lot of psychological shit going on here, but that's interesting.

Exactly. Exactly. So, I mean, it's and you can throw in opposites attract and all that shit too, and whatever it is.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Um.

Compensating for what she doesn't have. Same thing. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, later on, uh, a, a detective will, uh, kind of summarize Bruce.

Oh.

Thusly. Nobody cared for Bruce. Nobody had anything good to say about him. And on the other hand, everybody that knew Judy loved her.

Wow.

That's, that's the couple we have here. He's a dick, and she's a nice lady. That's what everybody says.

I mean, you if you're that guy, you might see how she behaves and how that.

No.

Attracts people, and then you just kind of adapt.

Yeah.

To be a better person.

He might almost see it as a buffer to the world, as far as.

Yeah.

You know, maybe she can people will like me more if they like her, type of thing.

Yeah.

Not sure what their psychology is, but.

That could be viewed as psychopathic also, if you.

Yeah.

See somebody else and learn from their behavior and try to adapt to be.

That could be.

Like everyone else.

Either really healthy or really unhealthy.

Or just punning.

Yeah. One or the other. Well, it depends on if you understand emotions and.

Yeah. Also, depending on how you utilize that too.

That's the other thing. Yeah.

For your personal gain, whether it be friendship or robbing and raping and pillaging.

That's the thing. Yeah. Well, we'll find out what happens here.

Okay.

So 1978, they get married. Um.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, the family, a friend of, of, uh, Judy said the fam her family thought about it like this: "I don't think they cared for Bruce. I think he was wild, and he was also obnoxious."

Yeah.

So, and he's also, like, 23 years old. And there's a lot of people I know who were.

Cocksure at 23.

Pretty crazy at 23.

Yeah.

And then you meet him at 43, and they're a completely different human being.

The world is humble.

The world is and just you realize that's not the way to be after a while. It's got you nowhere. You bang your head against the wall enough and see other people.

Yeah. Unless it's just a fucking delusional person that.

Yeah. That's.

Is a.

Possible to.

Comedian that can't leave their fucking town.

We've seen that plenty.

And that's there's so many of those in.

So many.

Every town. And I know seven off the top of my head in Arizona.

I'm saying I think of a lot more than that, probably.

So bad.

If you sat down with a pen and paper. Uh, so.

Delusional in their 40s that they're so fucking important.

50s, 50s, some of these people.

Yeah. Yeah.

Out of their minds.

We didn't even want to do this on camera.

No.

How unsure are we?

No. We the yeah. Our first thing, they came to us and they're like, "Netflix, watch it." And we were like, "Nah, that's okay." And they were like, "What?"

That can't possibly be worth it.

People that people that work with us were like, "No, no, no, no, no. You have to do this."

No, you have to.

Like, "This is a big deal." We were like, "No, that's okay."

You don't have a choice.

We're good. No, we're okay. Because we're just we didn't want to be on camera. We didn't want to do it.

Yeah.

So.

Well, he's their money.

They're like, "Not much."

Yeah. Okay. Well.

Not really.

Sounds wonderful, then. Yeah. But no, no, no. They, they're fine. Netflix is very fair. We're not being.

Yeah.

We're not pitching about that. So 1980, both Judy and Bruce are working at the General Hospital in Marquette. This, uh, Leanne woman works there as well. She we get a lot of quotes from her. She knows both of them. Um, now, coworkers describe Bruce as spending most of his shift at work flirting with female employees. That's what he does.

Not his not her?

No. The same well, he's married to her. He doesn't need to flirt with her at work. So he should be, but he's, he's like.

Yes, he should.

He's but this is Bruce. He's like, "I don't need to fucking flirt with her. I already got her."

He already got her.

I need to fucking bang this broad in the broom closet. I got to flirt with her.

Yeah.

So to, to, to flirt with women at a place that you and your wife both work is.

Balls.

Wow. Huge balls.

What the fuck.

So then Judy's coworkers never knew whether she knew or not. Nobody wanted to start anything. And it's the Midwest, too, so they're all like, "I don't want to get involved." It's very much, you know.

Yeah.

Uh, then June 16th, 1989. It's about, you know, 10 years goes by. They have a daughter named Elise that's born here. Now, by then, the Blakes have accepted Bruce as.

Mm-hmm.

He's not going anywhere. It's been a decade.

Yeah.

It's been 15 years since they met each other. He's still here. Now they have a baby. It's this is it. So they just accept him after a while.

He's ours.

Yeah. So, um, you know, they have a, a house in Marquette. They have, uh, Springer Spaniels that she trains. They have.

Yeah.

Their her family lives in Ontagon, uh, Ontanagon. So that's where they are. I guess they're.

Yeah.

They're retired there or what. But they live in Marquette, and they're both working at a hospital. They have a toddler. And, uh, that's their life. Now, 1991, Bruce is up on the roof of their home working on the chimney.

Uh-oh.

Which you should leave that to a professional, by the way. You don't know what you're doing. So.

Call somebody.

He please call somebody. He this is like plumbing. Like, please don't try to get down there with a wrench.

I don't.

Just.

I don't know how that works.

It's not going to work.

I don't get it.

No.

It's just a hole in the roof and a hole in the house.

It's all.

And it somehow keeps smoke out.

The same way that the little thing in the toilet keeps shit from coming back.

That's amazing.

It's incredible.

Amazing.

So he put a couple of concrete chimney blocks up there.

Huh.

Judy was on the ground below on the patio, uh, cutting some flashing. So she's in the stoop.

She's helping. Yeah.

Their daughter's about two and was, like, crawling around in the yard, basically.

Oh boy.

Um.

Yeah.

One of the blocks went over the edge.

Uh-oh.

It weighs between 80 and 86 pounds.

Oh, dear God. That is moving.

So if someone drops that from six inches above your head, you're fucked. If someone drops it from the roof.

You're in a lot of trouble.

You're in a lot of trou fucking trouble. So, uh, it hit Judy in the head. Not a direct blow. That would have been a cartoon thing that would have.

Yeah.

Pushed her foot into the ground, probably.

Right.

Um, not that, but.

Clipped her.

But yeah, glancing blow. Which, by the way, didn't matter because it gave her a severe concussion where she had to spend days in the hospital.

Wow.

Um, it's a lot. Uh, later on, a friend said Bruce was working on the roof. She was on the ground. An 86-pound cinder block fell off the roof and hit her. She had some significant injuries, and she had to be hospitalized. Now, Bruce because they were like, "How the hell did that happen?"

Yeah.

He said, "Fuck." This first thing he said was, "I must have accidentally nudged a block with my foot while I was moving around up there, and it was closer to the edge than I thought." Now, to move an 80-pound block, you don't accidentally nudge that.

No.

That doesn't get bumped like a glass of water.

No. You got to shove that thing to do it. So.

Yeah.

Then he said he told another person that the s that, uh, uh, scaffolding collapsed, which is interesting.

Mm-hmm.

And then.

That's around the side of the house.

Yeah. Then later on, like, a couple years later, he had a third version where Judy was on the roof, and she fell off the roof. And that's how she got hurt.

What?

So it's wild. So that's what she told he told he'll, like, years later, tell police that. Meanwhile, at this point, it's not like that at all. At this point, they look at all the records, and they said Bruce made the statement that Judy was on the roof and fell off the roof and hurt herself. And of course, we got all the reports. So Bruce gave an account that was fictitious. Because at the time, he didn't say anything about Judy being on the roof. She was never on the roof. And then years later, all of a sudden, she was on the roof. Um, so it's, it's a lot. Now, he files an insurance claim not for Judy, but for the patio, because the block had damaged the patio on the way down.

Yeah.

So that'll those'll come in handy later. Um.

Yeah.

Judy thinks about leaving around this point, by the way. Maybe it's because he dropped a fucking cinder block on her head. That's possible. Not sure.

Not, not a real capable man if he's on the roof dropping 80-pound blocks.

Yeah. He's doing cartoon shit to me. I can't.

Yeah.

He had a piano up there dangling. I'm, I'm worried. And Anvil was next.

Yeah.

There's other things that he thinks he's going to do here. So she tells tells her friends she's thinking about leaving Bruce. Uh, one of her friends, this Leanne lady, said, "I think she was afraid. I think she knew something was happening, and she had to get out, but she couldn't quite get there."

Okay.

Um, they said if she didn't have a daughter in the mix, chances are Judy would have taken the step and maybe initiated a divorce. And that's the thing. If you have a toddler.

Yeah.

Society and the world and everybody tells you, "Try to make it work. You have a kid. You got to try to make it work. You got to try to make ."

It's also.

It's very common.

She's been she's from a home that's, that's stable.

Stable.

And she knows what.

Yeah.

Stability helps with.

Yes.

And.

And they're church people, and everybody at church is going to tell you, "You got to make it work."

Yeah.

And, you know, that's.

Yeah.

It's the child, and as you raise them, and everybody has problems, and.

Yeah.

So.

I came from broken home after broken home, so I didn't I had no fucking qualms.

Fucking qualms.

About divorce.

No. I didn't even think about it.

Fuck this. I'm not doing this.

I never I never thought twice about it.

Yeah.

Went through quite a bit of unsta unstable fucking situations.

Yeah.

Don't care. So she, though, she talked about it. She talked about it to Bruce, apparently. Um, and so, you know, she talked about maybe we should break up. And he, I guess, talked her into staying, trying to work it out. Now, around this time, there's another woman, sort of.

Oh. Oh.

Sort of. Sh Bruce wants there to be another woman, but this other woman isn't so interested, which is hilarious for a married guy.

He's trying to get a throuple?

No. He's trying to fuck another chick on the side.

Oh.

And she's not interested because he picked some other married chick from the hospital who has no interest.

Very much like.

This is.

Another.

Yeah. This is Gail Lampenin, uh, who he picks. Now, uh, Bruce was driving the Marquette General Hospital, uh, CAT scan mobile unit. He was the driver for that.

They do mobile CAT scans?

I guess so. They did in upper Michigan then, which makes sense in a rural area that you would.

I'll bet it's a deliverer to the CAT scan machine from these small towns.

May I have no idea. It's really irrelevant here.

Yeah.

So, uh, he knew Gail, uh, for about two years because she worked at the Portage View Hospital in Hancock. So he knew this woman.

Yeah.

Uh, she now, she is fucking happily married. She's met Judy.

She doesn't want this.

No. She's met Judy. And she considers she later on, her quote is that Bruce is a "pest," which is the worst insult you could get from a woman, a pest.

I think so.

Yeah. So a, a little dick pest would be worse, probably. But outside of that.

The only reason I know is because he showed.

He got it.

And I didn't touch it.

I didn't ask for it.

Yeah.

So Bruce made regular unannounced visits to Gail's office. He'd bring flowers.

Oh.

He'd bring cards. He'd tell her that he understood and he knew that her marriage was about to end. And she'd be like, "What are you talking about? I'm not ending my marriage." She's like, "No, no, no. I know you are." It's weird.

Oh, boy.

He talked about the fact, "Well, I'm getting a divorce, so you should end your marriage and we'll be together. Here's some flowers." Um, uh, one of the ladies from the, uh, hospital said Bruce had kind of this fixation, and he would give her flowers and cards. Uh, he seemed to like her a lot and put a lot of te of attention toward her.

Yeah.

Now, she just ignored him, basically. That her goal at the time because this was we're talking 1991. This isn't go right to HR and they'll take care of it type of thing like they would now because they'd be worried about a lawsuit, obviously. But back then, this was if someone's picking on you, you just kind of you know, you just ignore them. Just put you know.

Have they touched you? Then get back to work.

Then get back to work. Exactly. And they you don't want to be people didn't want to be the subject of that because you didn't want to whatever. So she said, um, one person said, "It's like how do you tell somebody you don't want to be friends with them?" Uh, "We just didn't know how to say it, so we kept ignoring him and hoped he'd go away." That's kind of a quote from all the women here. Now, sometime a few months after the chimney incident, Bruce and Judy's house caught on fire.

Oh.

Yeah.

The chimney didn't start working.

I guess the chimney's fucked up. That's why you hire a professional.

Broke it.

Yeah. He fucked it up worse. Judy and their daughter were home alone asleep, and Bruce was not there.

Oh boy.

So later on, they said the fire started because Bruce had piled wood stove ashes next to the firewood pile in the basement, which.

Oh my.

Okay. Anybody that has a I have wood stoves in my house, and I have no.

You got to make sure that shit's out.

It's it's never out. It stay like, if you have a fire overnight and then 5 o'clock the a in the afternoon the next day.

Oh, it's so hot.

There's still coals in there. There's still.

Yeah.

Things. And so you put them in a separate container.

Yeah.

And then that container stays separate until your time to take it out, and you put it with the other ashes. But you don't just throw it near wood because it's fucking coals.

It's a spark and fuel. That's crazy.

It's a lot. Yeah. So the, the house catches on fire. Judy and Elise get out unharmed. The house doesn't you know, doesn't completely burn the place to the ground or anything. So that's nice. Um, there was this is a quote from a cop later. "There was suspicion by a number of people that perhaps this fire and the chimney block incident were not an accident."

Okay.

Now it started to be like, "Jesus, this is, uh " this lady.

Probably a lot of accidents.

Yeah. This lady is really accident prone for shit that has nothing to do with her. Um, this is less than a year, two near-fatal household accidents. So they're like, "That's weird." Um, then early to mid-'92, there's some financial trouble with the couple. Um, I guess they were having all sorts of problems, all caused by Bruce.

Oh.

Bruce.

He's spending too much?

He's doing something with his money. Um.

Yeah.

Later on, it's described in a book, quote, "He was borrowing money from one place to pay money to another place."

Oh, he is so bad at this.

He's not good. He was totally irresponsib uh, irresponsible financially, whereas Judy, everything was always in line with her.

Uh-huh.

Now, Judy doesn't tell anybody about this.

About him fucking up?

She's embarrassed. She doesn't tell her parents. She doesn't tell anybody. Again, this is a I, I think there's a lot of this comes from embarrassment and people not wanting to be embarrassed because you get Judy a few different things that if sh if she was less embarrassed and more vocal, might have helped her here. Um, so.

Shame. Shame is just.

It's tough.

It's tough.

And it's ingrained in people from an early age, and it's just kind of how some people are. It's not a negative thing. So she told a handful of people that her marriage was in trouble and a couple people that she was thinking about divorce, but mainly friends, people from work. Um, one of the later on, one of the cops said, "These financial problems that built up were mostly Bruce's doing, if not all Bruce's doing, but she kept very quiet. She didn't want her family to know about their financial problems because I think she was embarrassed. There were just very few people that she told that there were marital problems and was even thinking of divorcing him."

Yeah.

Summer of 1992, Bruce won't leave Gail alone. He keeps fucking coming at her.

Still a pest.

It's been months of her having no interest whatsoever.

You know, there's something to the psychology of in financially enslaving his wife while at the same time pursuing else other things elsewhere. It's it he's putting himself into a position where she can't leave, and he can do whatever the fuck he wants.

Well, she can leave because she has a family. So her family will.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? That I, I just think this is basically he's trying to have he's, he's deemed Judy as weak.

Okay.

He in my mind, he's deemed Judy as weak. He can fuck around with the money. He can drop a cinder block on her head. He can fucking.

Doing what?

He can try to bang other chicks.

From work.

From work. And she's not going to say shit about it. I think he's.

Mm-hmm.

He's thought of her as he's going to play her for a fucking sucker and do whatever he feels like. And she's just going to sit at home with this toddler.

Take it.

And take it. I think that's how he thinks it is. But Judy isn't, isn't quite there, isn't quite as weak as he thinks.

Weak as she is.

Yeah. Um, so he kept he kept at her. He kept showing up at her office, this Gail with flowers and cards, and she would ignore him, and it just kept going on. Then Thursday, November 26th, 1992, it's Thanksgiving. Um.

Yeah.

Bruce, Judy, and Elise, who's now three years old, drive to Ontonagon to spend the long weekend with Judy's parents, Dale and Mary Ann.

Yeah.

Uh, Judy's brothers are around. They have all the dogs there. And it's also the last week of Michigan's deer season for guns. I think you can use bows later, but for.

Oh.

Shooting deer season, this is the last day. Um, or it's the last week. It runs from November 15th to November 30th, this particular thing. Um, so in Michigan, by the way, in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, this is a bigger holiday than Thanksgiving, these hunting things.

Oh, this is such a big deal.

It's a huge deal there. So the woods are full of fucking people on the last week because they want to use their tag before it's, it's expired.

Got to make sure you get your meat. Yeah.

So Sunday, November 29th, 1992, still this weekend, in the morning, it's the last Sunday of deer season.

Yeah.

Huge deal. All the men go out in a large hunting party with all the brothers, Bruce, the fathers, everybody goes out here, friends. Bruce went with them. Um, so Judy stays back with her mom and a little Elise, okay? Um, she's not big into hunting. She likes to walk her dogs instead.

Fair. Yeah.

So early afternoon, Judy takes the dogs out. I think it's four dogs, uh, for a walk on the trails behind her house. Um.

Together.

She's got her own Springer Spaniels, and she's got her parents' dog, Streak, as well. So I think there's four dogs, but we're not sure. Now, she's not wearing orange, which is.

Mm-hmm.

If you go near a tree in Michigan in hunting season, you head to fucking toe hunt your orange. You have to.

Yeah.

It's just what you do.

Get Tennessee volunteers clothing and just outfit yourself for all of them.

Head to toe.

Yeah.

Look like a giant Peyton Manning fan. So.

Long horns. Whatever. Just orange it up.

Orange. Um, so Syracuse, you're big Syracuse fans now.

Let's go. I'm a huge Minutemen fan.

Oh, man. So, um, approximately four are they the Minutemen now?

Aren't they?

I they were always the Orange Men. Why wouldn't they be the Orange Men still?

Oh, Orange Men. You're right.

Yeah. St. John's Red Men changed.

Okay.

Yes. Because I'm like, "Why is orange offensive? What fucking who is orange? I never heard of that before." I've heard of lots of colors, but not orange. So somebody orange.

I just mixed, uh, two New York school.

Two New York school people.

Yeah.

Two.

Men and maiden men.

Yeah.

Because they're orange.

Two New York yes, you did. You connected those like flippers of dolphin. Yeah.

Like an absolute moron.

I love it. So 4:30 p.m.

Oh, yeah.

Two and a half hours had passed since Judy left, and she wasn't back yet.

Yeah.

Apparently, there are different accounts of what happened, but we know at least Streak, the parents' dog, comes back home without her, shows up at the house.

Oh.

So they're like, "Oh, Jesus." Um, now they thought, "Oh, fuck. We should go tell Ju Judy's probably searching for Streak."

For the dog. Yeah.

The dog probably got away, and she's out looking through the woods for this dog, and the dog's at the house.

Oh, no.

So we should go out and tell her that the dog's home and you're good here. So that's all we know. So Mary Ann goes looking, "Mom, here." It's getting dark now. It's in 4:30 and way up in the fucking UP in, in late November. So it's getting dark. Um, they go out looking, and, uh, Mary Ann and there's a family friend also follows this path here, uh, the one they know that she usually goes on. They find the rest of the dogs in the woods by themselves alone. No Judy.

Oh, the other three are there by themselves.

Yeah. They just find the other dogs hanging out.

Yeah.

So they're like, "Okay." Uh, then away from the, the dogs here, about 5 or 6 hundred feet further into the woods, they see Judy.

Oh.

She's lying on her side across the hiking trail, partly in a puddle of water.

Oh.

So this is not resting, obviously. You don't rest in a puddle.

No.

In no late November in Michigan.

That's cold.

That's cold. So she's not moving. They go run over there. They roll her on her back, and they see blood everywhere on her.

Oh.

And they're like, "Oh, my God. Jesus Christ." So Mary Ann screamed here, and, um, she said, "I could see that she was not alive. I could see all the blood, and I just panicked, and I started going home." And she ran. She just ran out of the woods, ran to the closest house that was by the trail, and called the police from there. Uh, the police are called at 5:12 p.m. So the police arrive. They find that Judy has been shot. Um.

Uh-huh.

A bullet went in the front of her chest, went through her heart, and went out her left side.

All the way through her, huh?

All the way through her. That's a powerful round, obviously.

Yeah.

Um, now it entered about an inch to an inch and a half, uh, lower than where it exited.

Okay.

So there was an upward trajectory.

Yeah.

So that's something they got to think about too, where this shot could have come from.

Yeah.

Um, now they place the time of death between about 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.

Okay.

So we know she's been out here a while, but we don't know exactly how long because they're terrible at telling time of death ever. And especially outside, it's difficult with temperatures and much easier if they're in like a 72-degree house to figure it out.

Yeah.

So, um, that evening, Detective Sergeant Bob Ball, he's the guy who comes out from about 60 miles away.

Right.

Not a lot of homicide detectives up here in this area. Uh, he goes out to the scene. They go out with flashlights. They found a body. He's got a wound. They found a pack of dogs and really nothing else. There's no other clues. There's no human footprints near her that aren't from her mother or the family friend. There's no shell casing. No one had.

A bullet.

No one had called about a shooting. No, the bullet went through and through also. No hunter came forward to say, "I fired at a deer and heard something off about it," or.

Yeah.

"I might have hit somebody by accident." Um, a news anchor from up here said, uh, that this is hunting season in upper Michigan. It's an absolute must that you wear orange when going out. One thing they noticed is that she's not wearing orange because she was found in the woods on the last Sunday of deer season. You might suspect that it's a hunting accident. That's what everybody thought.

What a terrible accident.

It's fucking horrible. It happens all the time in this area.

All the time?

These hunting a remember Drop you didn't see Drop Dead Gorgeous?

I saw it.

And Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I saw it.

Oh, yeah. He's hunting season. She's like, "Yeah, you know," and she's at the morgue. Just that's.

Just very common.

Very common. People constantly. Um.

Wow.

So they now, this guy said he'd worked accidental shootings before. Again, if you work up here, you've seen you've worked a few of these if you're a homicide detective or someone who investigates death at all. And he knew that a deer rifle can fuck you up at a distance. And that's probably what this is.

Boy. Oh, boy.

Yeah. He said, "I've inv I've investigated a number of shootings that have been accidental. Those bullets travel tremendous ranges. And if indeed someone just shot at a deer and missed the deer, it could hit someone, and the shooter wouldn't even know it."

Wouldn't have a clue.

Wouldn't have a clue. Um, so the investigators fan out with flashlights to go over the area, uh, because it's dark. And, um, they said one said this is Ball. He said, "We weren't buying that it was an accident. We weren't buying that it was a murder. We were out here investigating. That's our that was our job." So.

Yeah.

We just started out with, "We don't know what happened, and let's find out."

We're doing we're doing our best to figure that out now. We just know a woman's got a through and through.

Yeah. And, and that's how you should investigate something like this is I'm not going to make any assumptions. I'm going to see where the evidence leads. So.

Right.

Now, they find one thing that night. On a maple tree 37 feet from where Judy fell, there's a fresh mark in the bark.

Yeah.

A blaze mark, they called it. Um, they did a, a test on it, a sodium whoa, rodizinate test, swabbing the spot with a chemical to see if it reacts to lead.

Okay.

They said a posi yeah, positive reading is if it turns purple, which it did. So that confirmed that this is, in fact, a bullet strike on a maple tree approximately 37 feet from where she'd been shot.

So it's like a ricochet, an accident.

Yeah. Like a, a bullet grazed it. So now they, they know where Judy was standing, and they know where a bullet hit a tree. So they have that. Um, they drove stakes into the ground where she was found and ran a string to the blaze mark as well.

Yeah.

So they're doing all this type of shit. They walked the line roughly back about 100 feet looking for a shell casing because that's why they did that, to say, "Okay, if it's here, a shell casing would fly there." And they didn't find any shell casing. So then they went and searched for the bullet that should have gone after it hit the tree. So they kind of looked for a ricochet point and all that. But the area kept expanding, and it's super dark out. And so they're really now they're pissing in the wind. They're walking around the deep woods with a flashlight looking for a thing this big in the dark.

And something that could be, uh, fragmented by now too.

Fra could totally.

Could come apart.

Could be stuck in a in a in a tree that where you couldn't see it go in.

Yeah.

There's a million things. So, um, they, they end up leaving that night. And they said, "Okay, well, this isn't going to work here." Now, that night, they go inside though, away from the woods to talk to the family here. Uh, this Ball dude, he goes and talks to the Blake family. And, um, he said, "The first thing that comes to mind is when you've got somebody shot, you want to be able to account for family members. Number one, you want to be able to account for the spouse."

Okay.

And they're all up there, family and spouse.

Yeah.

So that night, he sits down with all these people. Um, he said her husband, Bruce, didn't say a whole lot, but he was critical of his wife because he had learned she walked the dogs in the woods that day and wasn't wearing orange.

Uh-huh.

But I was thinking, "This guy just lost his wife, and now he's critiquing her, and I was uncomfortable." So.

Okay.

Yeah. I, I that is uncomfortable. This fucking. I told her, like, "Hey."

Yeah.

"Be sad now." Um.

Yeah. Let's not place blame until we know the whole story too.

Yeah. Let's start with sad, and we'll fan out from there.

Yeah.

So Judy's father told the detective and the family, including Bruce, of saying that, you know, he'd ever we'd all been hunting together at the time.

Yeah.

And he said the cops said Bruce never said anything. He just let us believe by not saying anything that he was at the hunting camp. So apparently, Bruce had actually wandered off on his own for a while here.

Oh.

They said one of the things that Bruce volunteered that really sent up a red flag for me was the fact that he told me he said Judy was not wearing orange that day, so he's being critical of his dead wife, and then also didn't tell me about the wandering away from the hunting camp.

Yeah.

So for the moment, it's ruled a hunting accident. It's the fourth in Michigan just that season. So happens. Um, there's a Wire Service Associated Press ra ran a national roundup of hunting deaths under the headline, "Carelessness and Hunters Equal a Deadly Season." And they put Judy.

How many times a year does that happen?

A ton. A t that's four times just in the season, just in Michigan.

Right.

I mean, add in Wisconsin, Minnesota. It's, it's a lot, man.

It's got to be 150 people every year. Yeah.

So many. It's a lot. Um, so they then they filed Judy into the hunting deaths. They said Judy was walking her dogs last weekend, and they have a whole thing. She was the fourth hunting-related fatality in Michigan this season.

Oh.

From the Associated Press. Um, so that was the whole that's how it worked. Um, even the prosec the prosecutor in the area said you wanted to think this was an accident. Poor Judy. You know, she was walking the dog, and someone took her movement or something, and it happens all the time. December 2nd, 1992, so three days after the shooting, the cop returns to the Blake house to talk to Dale and David specifically. Um.

All right.

He's because these are guys that were with Bruce. He wanted to know who could account for Bruce for the entire afternoon. And they said, "We wanted to do to interview David and Dale Blake, and we wanted at this point, we would be very specific in our questioning and try to determine who could say, uh, determine who it was that could say where Bruce was that entire afternoon." They said that Bruce was with them all morning.

Huh.

But then in the afternoon time when Judy would have been shot, neither man could say where he was. He wasn't with them.

Disappeared on us.

Disappeared.

Yeah.

Um, so at this point though, Judy's parents are completely backing Bruce and think the police are being dicks and keep bothering this poor man who needs to take care of his young daughter.

Yeah.

It's very, very rude. It is. Um, so the family yeah. Mary Ann said, uh, or one of the cops said, Mary Ann said, quote, "I just feel that you folks have made a horrible mess of this investigation." Basically, now you're trying to blame Bruce for it.

You're really fucking it up, guys.

Yeah. Um, and you know, the cops said they supported Bruce 100% right away. In fact, they weren't real happy with the police because the police were zoning in on him.

Mm-hmm.

So Bruce takes an extended leave from work, which if you have a toddler and a dead wife.

You're allowed. Yeah.

That's normal. Starts going on ski trips, which is strange. Um.

That's not that's not allowed.

That's not allowed. Unless you're teaching your toddler to ski, that's fine. Just bonding.

Yeah.

He may I feel like he's just, uh, in some lodge somewhere sipping hot cocoa, waiting for the chicks to come in off the fucking slope though.

Yeah. Overtipping the bartender.

Yeah.

That happens to have great snow bunny tits.

He made frequent visits to his in-laws, hung out with them. Um, within a few weeks of the funeral though, he asks out Judy's childhood friend, who I think works at the hospital too. This is Leanne Jessup.

Yeah.

And the cops said, "Bruce's demeanor was completely out of character for someone that should be a grieving widower. That didn't seem right at all." Now, within a few weeks of the funeral, you should not be asking your fri wife's friends out on dates. That's weird. Sorry. That's just strange.

Especially especially ones they've known their whole life.

That's so weird. Then there's something really weird. Bruce drives this is days after the funeral. Bruce drives to Gail's house. Remember Gail, the woman he was obsessed with?

Yeah.

Uh, with.

The past.

With boxes of Judy's clothes.

Oh.

And just leaves them on the porch. They said he showed up here with about five this is according to Gail, with about five boxes of sweaters and clothes and just put them on my porch. Um, you know, it was the holiday time, and we were busy, and I just never paid attention to him and left him in there. So.

Wow.

Apparently, he gives her the clothes. So the boxes sat out on the porch.

Uh-huh.

She just basically ignored them, just like she ignores everything with this guy. Um.

Left the boxes sitting out there?

Just sitting on the porch. So then.

All right.

According to Gail, Bruce started telling Gail that he expected a financial windfall from Judy's death from this life insurance. So he's like trying to.

Yeah.

Up his stock, like, "I'm going to have some money pretty soon, you know. Might want to get on this train before it leaves that station." So, uh, December 11th, 1992, Bruce comes in for a formal interview in the police station. This is the first one that's not like in a living room.

Mm-hmm.

And they said Bruce produced the names of close to 30 people that had seen him at different points during the day. But there was a window during the early part of the afternoon that Bruce could never come up with anybody to alibi for him. They said there became a very clear chunk of that day, uh, that was in the time period that we believe she died that his time was unaccounted for. Uh, then they found a witness who had seen Bruce hunting alone in the area of the shooting as well.

Oh.

Which is that's not good for, for old Bruce here. Then December 13th, 1992, here comes Marble Dan.

Who's that?

Marble Dan is a 42-year-old local copper mine employee when the copper mine was still open before the old Smurfit closed down. And, uh.

I thought it was a character I was supposed to know. I was like, "Uh-oh."

This is old Marble Dan. His name's Dan Castle, but everyone calls him Marble Dan from now on.

Yeah.

Uh, he's an amateur metal detecting expert as well.

Oh, I love those guys.

And he's helped police with his metal detector before find shit. So he comes in, goes into the woods alone. He has a slingshot, some marbles, and a metal detector.

Oh.

Okay. It's got very primitive yet effective ways here.

Okay.

So he said, "Well, it's a big area. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. I knew the bullet was there. It was just a matter of time and getting it in the right place." Well, yeah, like a needle in a haystack.

Right.

So he searched three times. The metal detector finds nothing. And he said, "Once the snow comes in and starts settling, because winter's about here, the bullet's going to be gone until at least spring, if not forever, if it seeps into the ground."

Right.

So he's out here. Now he brings everything. And he said, "I wanted to find this thing before winter really set in for good, so I devised a way with my slingshot." He stood where the shot would have come from and fired marbles at the blaze mark on the maple tree and then watched where they bounced.

Right.

Okay. He said, "After they hit the tree, they all ricocheted into the same general area, and it gave me more confidence that's approximately where the bullet should have landed also."

Oh.

So he takes his metal detector to where one of the marbles landed and clears away the leaves and everything and gets a hit on something and finds a crumpled fucking bullet.

Wow.

This fucking marbled hillbilly up here just, just completely came up with his own science and did it beautifully. Um.

That's an amazing experiment too because a bullet goes so much faster than a marble.

It does.

But somehow energy dissipates from it exactly the same.

It's so strange. It's so weird. So from that day forward, everyone called him Marble Dan.

Yeah.

So it goes to the crime lab. It's a flattened .30 caliber bullet. Um.

Yeah.

Under the microscope, they saw fibers on its surface. The fibers matched the clothing Judy was wearing when she died. So this thing went through her off the tree and ended up there.

And the fibers stayed on.

Because they're burned on. They're singed on.

Yeah.

Yeah. So then it dropped to the ground about 80 feet from her body.

Uh-huh.

So they said, "You could draw it from the height of where the bullet struck the tree to the height where the bullet went through Judy. We can show that a bullet passed through the body at an upward angle because the entrance was an inch or inch and a half lower than the exit wound." So they said a long stray bullet from a distant hunter would have been dropping by the time it reached her, not rising. That's more.

Going up. Right.

Than it happened.

Yeah.

So they said, "Based on the trajectory, we determined the shooter had to be in a direct line from the blaze mark across where the body lay straight back in this more dense wooded area right back behind us and probably not any further back than 100 feet." And they said, "Less than 100 feet in the thicker cover on a straight line." They said it was a perfect shot. That's what it was, a perfect shot. People up here know how to shoot rifles. They're all hunters. They're good at it.

Yeah.

So they compared the bullet to the rifles found at Bruce's house. Nothing matched them.

None of them match.

So they said, "We couldn't come up with a gun, the right .30 caliber class gun." So that was a big frustration. Bruce said he didn't own a .30 caliber gun, but then police found a bank loan paperwork in which Bruce had listed under things of collateral a .30 caliber rifle that he had. So they're like, "Well, either you committed bank fraud or you lied to us. Which one?"

You used to have a .30 .06 or, uh, yeah.

Yeah.

You're going to jail for this.

Then it all happens. December 18th, 1992, Gail goes to the cops and said she finally opened the boxes, and I have something for you. She tells this the Ball guy, the Bob Ball, the detective. And he said, "She said, 'I've got a letter here. I think you might want to take a look at it.'" The letter is written by Bruce, but as Judy. He's pretending to be his wife, writing Gail a letter.

In his own handwriting.

But it's, it's Bruce writing it.

Right.

Uh, it's amazing. Okay. Uh, there's a bunch more to it, but he said, "These are for you. Enjoy them if you can use them. After 14 years, we don't see things the same anymore." I guess Judy and Bruce, uh, here. "At this point, you are the only woman he trusts." And then this is the best. It really shows Bruce's full character here. PS. What do you think the PS is?

You should probably fuck him now.

PS, he's incredible in the sack.

Ah.

Boom. Bruce, you fucking idiot. You that's an applause of stupidity that we have to give you. That's amazing.

Ha. What a moron.

Oh my God. PS, he's great. He's incredible in the sack. So.

I'm still coming.

It's still it happens. It's been weeks actually. It's still going on.

Ha.

Still just really fucking, uh, contracting. So.

He really is just the most proud person ever. Imagine being that proud of yourself.

It's insane. So basically, this letter is purported to be Judy telling her, "Look, you should just fuck my husband. I don't think I'm I think I'm done with him, but you should fuck him because he's really great." Which is.

He's great.

That's amazing. Um, so Gail read the letter and said, "You know, you read the letter and you just thought this is crazy, you know. The PS on the bottom said he was incredible in the sack, and you know, you just laugh about it." Yeah, you do, as we all did, and I hope all of you did as well.

You don't you don't even give it a chance. You just.

No. And Ball, the cops said, "This was the type of letter that one woman would not write to another woman, especially a woman she didn't know. We figured it right off the bat that Bruce was the author of that letter. That was like an explosion. The letter was critical." And, uh.

Wow.

He said, "That letter was so freaking weird." And it is. That is weird.

Yeah.

She found it in the arm of one of the sweaters. That's where he put it.

Tucked it in a nice one.

Yeah. He said, "It's not illegal to be creepy, but this goes toward motive and the underlying reasons for Bruce to get rid of his wife."

Yeah.

Now, they do handwriting comparisons, and they know it's definitely not Judy's handwriting. It's inconclusive whether it's Bruce's or not, but it's certainly not Judy.

All right.

So there we go. Um, now the then they find out he has a shitload of insurance policies on Judy.

Oh.

Reaching, uh, $321,000, which is a fuckload of money in 1992 in the middle of nowhere Michigan.

Yeah.

Um, several of the policies carry double indemnity claw uh, clauses, meaning if Judy died of natural causes, it pays out, but if she died in an accident, you get paid double.

Double. Yeah.

This is an accident, hunting accident.

Super accident. Yeah.

Then in the winter of '92, going into '93, Bell has or Ball, he has all these all this evidence, but still he's not sure how he if he has enough evidence to convict yet. So.

Yeah.

He asked the women that Bruce was bothering at work to report back to him what he did.

Mm-hmm.

So Gail agreed to log every call and conversation, and that Leanne woman did too. Um, so Gail said, "Bob asked us if we would document phone calls and any interaction with him. Was it going behind his back? Well, if he had nothing to be guilty about, it wouldn't hurt him, you know. It could be helpful." Um, Leanne said that, um, a few days Bruce took her to dinner and started talking about Judy's death. So she thought.

Oh.

She didn't know it was a like a date. She thought it was like.

Yeah.

You know, whatever, a friend. She said he picked up a napkin. He took this napkin out, and he proceeded to draw a picture how Judy was shot. And I knew from that moment on that he was the one that for sure did it, and I was scared to death. All I could think of was how the hell to get out of there. Yeah. So she said she couldn't take the napkin with her because it would have been suspicious, and she was afraid. So she described it to Ball, and Ball said that the sketch matched the shooting perfectly.

Wow.

Um, Leanne said that, quote, "I would have this same nightmare, this repeating nightmare. There was Judy and Elise and I running through the same woods trying to run away from Bruce. Uh, I would have it. I would wake up in the she in sweats and cry and be scared to death." You, you put yourself with the wife and daughter. You're really wanting to you're really think highly of yourself here, don't you?

Yeah.

Um, now the Blakes, who had called the investigation a horrible mess, had now started to turn away from that and start to think that Bruce was the guy that did it.

Mm-hmm.

Early 1993, they're asking him to take a polygraph. Like, "Just take a polygraph, and we'll get you out of here." He said, "Well, I already took one privately in past. I did a private polygraph, so."

I don't trust myself, so I got a guy to do one for me. I'm good. Trust me.

So the detective said, "Well, what's his name, and will you sign a release?" He said, "No problem."

Yeah. We'll get it done.

So they call the guy, the pri polygraph guy, and the guy said, "No, he didn't pass, number one. It was inconclusive. Not he didn't fail either. It was inconclusive. But the examiner said that when he went to get Bruce from the waiting room to do the test, he was passed out in the waiting room. He said he had to kick.

He said sleep?

He had to kick him in the leg a few times to wake him up because he believed that Bruce took something before the test so it keeps his heart rate down.

We left him sitting a little too long, and he napped on us.

People do that all the time with lie detectors.

Yeah.

If you take drugs, it fucks them all up. Um, then April 23rd, 1993, Bruce is back at the police station. He agreed to a state police polygraph, and he does it. Um.

Okay.

Now, the lieutenant who's giving him the polygraph told him that, "Your statements appear untruthful." Then they put the sweater letter on the table.

Oh.

And explained that, by the way, Gail's been working with us. Just so you know.

This is our sweater we found your sweater letter.

They said, "We can see it had a tremendous effect on Bruce." Then he realized here, she's working with the police, but ju it just kind of choked him up. Then he started to cry. Then he said he shouldn't say anything more without an attorney.

Oh.

And so the cops told him, "You don't have to say shit. We're.

Yeah.

You just fucked everything up, so we don't care." Um, and then he started talking. And he said, "I did it. Fine. You're right." He admits it.

Really?

"I used a .30 caliber rifle," he said. He said, "Afterwards, I took it apart and I threw it in the Ford River." That's why he couldn't find the rifle. It's in pieces in the river.

It's in many pieces. Yeah.

They said, "Why did you kill your wife?" And he said, "She threatened to divorce me. I didn't want to give her half." That's what it was.

Half of the debt? There's nothing.

She was going to take half of everything. What little he had those were the words he used, what little he had. That's what the cops said.

Oh my.

Um, his exact words were, "She was a tyrant at work, and she was a tyrant at home." So he said, "I couldn't take it anymore."

Okay.

Um, and she he also, quote, "He said he killed his wife because she was a tyrant at home and a tyrant at work. She was not a good cook." Yeah, that came out too, the cop says. "And she cooks like shit." Also, just saying.

Fucking burns everything.

And they said this whole thing. That was Bruce's downfall. He was cheap. That's it.

He was cheap, and, and her cooking wasn't his favorite.

Yep. And he gives an account. He said, "The first time I put the scope on her, I couldn't do it."

First time.

Yep. He said, "I put it up again 20 minutes later." I he's just stalking her through the woods as she walks, and she has no idea.

"The first time I put it on her, then 20 minutes later, I put it on her again."

"I put it up again, and I put it down. I put it up one more time. I put it on her chest, closed my eyes, and pulled the trigger," is what he said.

Wow.

So he said he couldn't do it, so he stalked her through the woods. Think about that. 20 minutes later, she's in a completely different space. He had to.

Right.

Stalk her like an animal. The prosecutor said he knew her habit. He knew she was going to be walking the dogs, and he waited. She waited. Uh, she walked by one time. He just couldn't do it. Then when he uh, he said, "When she came back, I closed my eyes, and I just shot, and then I ran." He named the caliber, the disposal, the river. He said it was because of a shitty cook. She's a tyrant. She's going to divorce me. And the book later on describes him as this was a guy who thought he was smarter than all the law enforcement types up here in the Upper Peninsula and that they'd never figure this out.

What the fuck?

Um, he's arranged for Elsie or Elise to stay.

Right.

With, uh, David and Yvonne Blake, her godparents, members of Judy's family. They go to the river. They search the river. They cannot find the gun.

No.

It just it's nowhere. So they don't know.

It's in pieces.

But he it's they he's admitted to it. Um.

Yeah.

1993, in July, he tries to recant. He said the coercion the confession was coerced. It was police pressure, exhaustion. He said he would have said anything to make him leave us leave me alone. Then they go back to the roof. They climb the roof of the house with an 86-pound block and try to make it fall off the way Bruce said that it did.

Yeah.

And so they said, "No, even if you jump, the roof moves. The block doesn't move."

Right.

So they said just that didn't work. They said the first test is going to be with the block position right on the edge of the roof. They jumped on the roof. The roof flexed. The block stayed where it was. They concluded there's no way that the block went over the edge unless somebody pushed it. He said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if I push something off a table, it's going to go out and fall."

Right.

So they do all that. Then they get another guy, a surveyor. He does checks out the angles and distances between the body and the tree. It is not that's not the common way they do it to get like a land surveyor to do it, but I guess it holds up if you do it right.

Man, that's all you've got up here. That's all you've got.

That's it. Um, the prosecutor, by the way, is a 26-year-old woman, and she's on her own on this case.

Nice.

Yeah. She's this is her first big deal. Her office is in an Indian casino. Like, it's.

All right.

Not a lot she called herself a one-woman show, youngest prosecutor in the state of Michigan by myself, and this was my first big criminal trial.

And you should see her at Keeno.

She's amazing. She's incredible, Jimmy.

She's incredible.

You have no idea. Uh, he's got a seasoned defense attorney, Bruce does.

Yeah.

Um, so it's a big trial for the area. The prosecutor said, "I felt the evidence was there to convict Bruce of Judy's murder. I felt a jury could easily find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It was a pretty big case for the UP. I was told, 'Oh, people are taking bets at the mill that you're going to lose this case.' At the mill.

Yeah.

They're down at the mill betting each other." Um, so it starts. Bruce walks into the trial with holding papers over his face, which is pretty funny. Um.

Let me talk to me.

They said that, uh, the prosecutor said laid out all the evidence. The defense said it's deer season.

Right.

He said, "This is crazy." He goes, "We all live in Michigan. We all know that what happens in deer season." They said Bruce was arrested and charged with the homicide of his wife during hunting season, and he said it wasn't true. His wife died as a result of a hunting accident. He said 700,000 armed people in 14 days are in the state of Michigan hunting. That's more than the standing army. Some of them are in the county. It's it's that's how many people.

700,000 people are out in the woods shooting?

It's fucking crazy. Um, they bring out the block on a dolly to show that, you know, how heavy it was and the fact that this couldn't be an accident. Um, they have, uh, you know, all this type of thing. They bring the letter in, and, um.

It's not a letter.

And they said this too, by the way. Somebody says later on, one of the jurors says, "That PS, certainly I can't think of a woman in the world that would write a comment like that. I mean, at least not the ladies I know." I mean, they exist, but not up in the UP. They've long.

And they aren't writing it, uh, during a divorce to set you up with new strange. It's not happening.

And it's some clothes too. It's for your new for your new strange.

Yeah. Also, you should fuck my husband and also try on the red cashmere.

Yeah, you should check that out. He really likes that one. So while Gail was on the stand, he fell apart. One of the jurors said, "I think everyone in the jury saw that after viewing him for several days with no kind of emotion whatsoever, then this woman takes a stand against him, and he's an instant sobbing mess. It's definitely validated, not just her testimony, but his reaction was concrete." Um.

That's the moment he realized he's not going to fuck her.

Yeah. And they said that, you know, here we go. Uh, the defense comes up, and they put on no case.

Oh, really?

Yeah. And the the prosecutor said, "I was ready for Castleman to stand up and start presenting a defense case, and he stood up and said, 'The defense rests.' And I was like, 'What?'" I mean, that happens a lot, but she doesn't know that probably. So, um, now there's no witnesses, no case. The lawyer said that he told the court his witnesses had backed out at the last minute, afraid what the town would think of anyone who testified for Bruce. He said, "If you're going to have someone who's hostile testify, and after all, it's not going to help you, your purpose isn't going to make the life of that potential isn't to make the life of that potential witness miserable in small-town USA."

Okay.

Closing arguments. They lay it out. Um, they said that the, the, the pro the defense says it's all forced. The co it's coerced, the confession. There's six detectives, four formal interviews, six informal. There's calls at work, at home. Your house is searched twice. Your car is searched. After a while, pressure gets to a person. "Well, that would make me just want to admit to a murder I didn't do." Yeah. He said, "Often, I just want you off my case. I'm going to say anything, uh, that you want to hear in order for you to leave me alone."

Hmm.

He wasn't held anywhere, though. He was going on ski trips, and in between it, he was inconvenienced with a fucking interviewer too, while he tried to bang people. Um.

No one's breaking your ankles over and over again.

No. Six hours of deliberation. He is found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and felony firearm use.

Right.

The jury foreman said, "The clincher for me was when he broke down. I saw a shell of a man sitting there, you know, scribbling on a piece of paper. And the fact that the minute, uh, Gail opened her mouth, he was a mess. It just kind of solidified his emotional attachment to this woman, and things just fell together." He never touched her. That's the other thing.

Right.

She has never given him one iota of encouragement.

But there was fantasy, and now it's shot to shit.

Now, sentencing comes around. "You, sir, may fuck off two years for the felony firearm charge to be served first, then mandatory life without parole." So.

Ooh.

Eight dicks. Um.

It's over.

The defense attorney said, "Somebody discharged a gun at a time when it's lawful, and everybody and their mother is discharging guns. It's the last day, the last minute, the last hour. There's only one more day to hunt. 700,000 armed people in 14 days. There's more than an army. What was, uh, there what was there that day that nobody knows? It's very difficult to prove a negative." So he appeals based on he said his coer a confession was coerced, which it's not. The chimney block, he tried to say they shouldn't have had a, a whole, you know, thing in court about it.

Yeah.

He also tries to fight about Elsie or Elise. God, I keep calling her Elsie. Elise, who, uh, ended up staying with her godparents, uh, there, and they adopted her when she was five. Um, November 29th, 2007, the 15-year anniversary, uh, Marianne Blake dies. The mom died on the same day.

Really?

At 71.

Really?

Yep. Um, he's a dick in jail. Bruce and two other inmates have a federal lawsuit about secondhand cigarette smoke in prison.

Mm-hmm.

"You kill me faster. Who cares? Life without motherfucker." He has a big thing. They said they were exposed to high levels of environmental tobacco smoke and that no separate ventilation or barriers are in place to protect their health.

He needs a ceiling fan.

Yeah. Then he files a thing saying the, the staff is mean to him because he filed this thing, and he wants to be transferred and all this shit. Anyway, 2011, all the claims he brought up are all dismissed.

Yeah.

So he is, uh, number 235252 at Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan.

Still there.

The book is called Hunt to Kill by Dave and Lynn Distel. Uh, Dave was a writer for his wife is from this area and did like a lot of the interviews of people from around this area.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so, uh, he, I guess, was a Los Angeles Times sports writer and columnist for a long time. He's the ghost writer of the book Michael and Me, which was the book it's a famous book about Michael Jordan.

Right.

That talks about that he loves to bet and fucking gamble and all that shit. Michael Jordan.

He's a ghost writer of that.

He hates that book. Yeah. That's that book. So that's, that's pretty interesting. It was on Forensic Files in 2004.

Yeah.

Season 9, episode 2, Hunter or Hunted. So there's that. It was also an American Justice episode. There you go. Onto North Michigan.

Wow.

Very quickly here before it's a crazy fucking story.

Through and through.