Shownotes Transcript
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Earnin is a financial technology company, not a bank. Subject to your available earnings, daily max, pay period max, and location. See earnin.com slash TOS for details. Bank products are issued by Evolve Bank and Trust, member FDIC. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. On the count of three. One, two, three. What are we doing? Happy holidays!
Happy holidays, everybody. I'm pretty sure today is Christmas, so if you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas! It's true. I mean, let's be real. I feel like this episode is probably going to be listened to after Christmas because, I don't know, maybe people will listen on Christmas. Does this come out on Christmas? Yeah, the 25th. All right, cool. Fitting for our Christmas tree.
I hope that you are feeling the love today. And if you're alone, I hope you're enjoying it. Just relaxing. Having a good time listening to Murder With My Husband. They keep you company. If you're alone, we're here. You know, something about
I don't know if people know this, but Garrett and I can't actually see through this Christmas tree on our set, but there's this tiny, tiny little space where I can see one eyeball. So if you line up just right, I can see your one eyeball. Yeah, I can see like a little bit of your head. Really? I can only see your eyeball. Luckily your head's big enough. I can see it over this tree. And I just find myself peeking over looking for that eyeball. Yeah.
Looking good, babe. Yeah, your eyes looking green. All right, Garrett. What is your Christmas 10 seconds? Oh, it's not really going to be like a Christmas or holiday one because we are recording this a little bit ahead of time. Well, I got a story for everybody.
So yesterday or not yesterday, it was a few days ago. I was running, you know, just doing my normal running thing. And I decided, you know, I'm going to change paths. I'm going to change it up a little bit. I'm going to go a different way. And it was a long run. It was, I think, like a six mile run. And I was tired. You do realize you have 20 more miles on top of that long six mile run. I'll get up there. Anyways, I'll start and everything was going good.
It was, oh, I was running in the dark. I was going to say, you left out an important detail. I don't recommend to run in the dark, but if you do, make sure you have some flashlight, maybe an air horn. It's something just so you can alert other people. And I'll give you context in a second.
I was running and I was huffing and puffing, making my way down the... Downtown. Making my way. I was making my way down the street or down the sidewalk. And then in front of me, I see a woman and I see two small dogs and then a big dog. And it was...
It was dark, but it was like there was some light where I could tell the dog was wearing a service vest, like a red service vest. And then the girl in front of me, the lady with the two small dogs and the big dog that's not on a leash, which is that's it's whatever. She has the what are they called? The big headphones. They're called AirPod Max's. She had AirPod Max's on. I had AirPods in.
I'm running. I'm getting closer. And I know my feet are stomping. They're stomping as I'm getting close behind her. Nothing is not turned around. I'm like, okay, I will get a little bit closer. Boom, boom, boom. Huffing and puffing, getting closer. Nothing. So I full on just stop. I stopped running because if I tried to run past her, it would have just been a nightmare. Anyways, it still was a nightmare.
because all of a sudden the golden retriever, the big dog turns around and you would think that it was a monster. He freaked out. I think as I snuck up on all of them. So he turns around, the service dog starts freaking out, barking at me. I thought he was going to attack me. I was like, Oh no, what do I do? And then when he starts barking, the little dog turned around, they start barking.
She can hear her through her headphones. She turns around. She screams. She goes, ah, and she screams. All dogs are barking at me. I'm just sitting there going, oh my gosh, what do I do? And she goes, oh my gosh, you scared me. And I was like, I don't know how you, I didn't say anything. And I was like, sorry. I just ran past her and kept running. Anyways, it was a lot. I thought the big dog was going to attack me. Little dogs are freaking out. She acted like I was a robber holding her up at gunpoint. And I
Anyways, I kept running. Everything was fine. Just thought I would tell a little story that if you're walking or running at nighttime, make sure that you have your headphones on transparency mode. Make sure your dog isn't about ready to attack me and...
That's about all I got. What do you think about that, babe? You should have looked at her and said, ma'am, let me tell you something. I was huffing and puffing. I don't know how you didn't hear. Actually, the whole thing was kind of awkward. Hopefully, she doesn't listen to the podcast. The chances are less than 1%.
No, what I was going to say is you should look at her and say, listen, sit down, mom. I need to tell you something. Sit down. I'm not running. Sit right down here on the curb and I need to tell you something. I am 50% of a true crime podcast. And every week I hear about these brutal murders who majority of the time the victims are female. I could have killed her and no one would have had any idea. You need to be running with transparency mode on. Why are your headphones on?
on and it's not her fault i'm not victim blaming but there's things we can do to stay safe and one of them is running at night in the dark in and i will say where you were running has no street lights no no street literally i had my flashlight i was hold i hold my phone as my flashlight while i'm running and so it lights up everything in front of me
And I know she has three dogs with her, but come on. Well, I'm going to be honest. That golden retriever was going to throw down. Which, great. Which is a good thing. She was also talking to her mom, which was kind of funny. She goes, Mom, hold on one second. I got to call you back. And I was just cracking up. I don't know. The whole thing was pretty funny. And that is my running story I have for everybody. That is my 10 seconds. And I guess we can get into this week's case.
Unless you got anything for us, babe. Would you like a 10 seconds on Christmas? Oh my gosh, really? Go ahead. This is my favorite Christmas present I've ever got. Just not too long because I know everyone's going to get impatient. My 10 seconds is I know holidays can be hard.
So I hope you all know that we love you so much and we can all get through this holiday together. Remember that everyone in this community is listening to the same episode you're listening to and we all enjoy it and we all love it and that can get us through. That was a very selfless 10 seconds. You know me. You know me. Don't try to trick the audience. Don't try to trick them. Okay, our sources for this episode are...
Winter of Frozen Dreams, The Shocking True Story of Seduction, Suspicion, and Murder in Madison by Carl Harder. Wisconsinhistory.org, crack.com, Badger Herald, thelineup.com, the Chicago Tribune, justiauslaw.com, shawlocal.com, kentcollinslaw.com, and newyorkdailynews.com. Trigger warning, this episode features discussions of suicidal ideation, so please listen with care. I feel like a lot of our episodes lately have kind of
Add the same trigger warning. So we all know I've watched a lot of Law & Order over the years. If there's one thing I've taken away from it, it's that a prosecutor loves direct evidence. A bloody fingerprint, an eyewitness who saw the crime, a recorded confession, a smoking gun that conclusively tells the jury, this is the guy or girl.
But that's not always how the cookie crumbles. Believe it or not, many cases find their way to the courtroom based on circumstantial evidence alone. Maybe someone was in the same place around the same time as the crime, or someone overheard the defendant having a suspicious conversation. Circumstantial evidence is tricky because it requires a sharp jury to draw their own conclusions based on what's presented.
And it makes getting a conviction that much more difficult. In today's case, circumstantial evidence was pretty much the only thing a jury had to work with.
Particularly because one of the best witnesses in the case changed their story just days leading up to the trial. And then mysteriously wound up dead themselves. It's Christmas morning in Madison, Wisconsin, 1977. And yes, I have to admit, I did pick this episode because what day is it?
Christmas. An otherworldly temperature of 22 degrees below zero has descended upon the capital city overnight. Over the last few weeks, Madison was pummeled with eight inches of snow, which still framed the icy roads because it was that cold. It wasn't melting. But it made Christmas morning all the more magical for the children at home opening up their gifts from Santa back in the 70s.
And if you asked 31-year-old Jerry Davies, however, he had little idea what day it was. As his Chevrolet whipped down Madison's abandoned streets, he wondered for a moment why the roads were so clear.
But the thought escaped his mind as soon as he pulled into the empty parking lot of the Madison Police Department. Crunching through old, dirty snow, he stomped up to the front door, swung it open. Christmas carols played softly in the background as he approached the tinsel-covered duty desk window.
An officer, not expecting to be caught stuffing Christmas cookies in his mouth at 10 a.m. that morning, was shocked to find the distraught Jerry Davies looming over him. And then the words came pouring out of Jerry. I don't know who it was, but last night I buried a man in a snowbank. It was around 1040 a.m. when a phone rang in a house just a few miles down from the precinct.
Detective Chuck Lohling was standing in his bathrobe drinking from a mug that read, My favorite cop is a grandpop.
He and his wife were preparing for the arrival of their grandchildren when Lohling's heart sank. There was only one place that could be calling him on Christmas morning, and he knew it was going to ruin his day. Minutes after taking the call, Detective Lohling was rushing upstairs for his uniform, and when he returned to the kitchen, he kissed his wife and extended his apologies. "'Save me some Christmas dinner,' he said."
Apparently, a man buried a body in a snowbank last night and he's offering to take us there. Okay. So within the next few hours, Detective Lohling and several other Madison PD vehicles were pulling up to the entrance of the Blackhawk ski jump. They could all see their breath as Jerry Davies, this man who wandered into the police, led them by foot further towards a snowbank just off the road.
Almost immediately, Lohling saw what they'd come for. An arm jetting out of the packed snow, the fingers clenched as if it had been holding something. As the officers got closer, they could see the victim had suffered several blows to the face and head. And oddly enough, the only piece of clothing he was wearing was a wristwatch.
Slowly, the police removed the body from the densely packed snow, preparing to take it in for an autopsy. And that's when Lolling heard a retching sound behind him. Jerry Davies, unable to stand the sight of the man that he'd left out there, was now vomiting all over the crime scene. Okay, so Jerry told...
The officer that he buried the body, correct? At this moment. Yes. All right. I think I know where this might be headed. So I'm just making sure I got everything organized. What is your theory? Can't tell you. I'm going to keep it right here in my head for now. Where do you think it's headed? We'll see. We'll see.
Jerry Davies wasn't cut out for whatever was about to come his way. He'd spent his entire life in Madison, Wisconsin, and other small rural communities in the area. He even went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, only to quit after three semesters.
He eventually took a job in the university's audiovisual department, but Jerry could never venture very far away from home. He was a mama's boy. He went to his hometown of Spring Green every weekend to check in on her, which is where he should have been this morning, probably eating a giant ham. If devastating guilt hadn't led him to the Madison Police Department, where he was now spilling his guts out to a room full of strangers. In
In fact, Jerry was so visibly distraught by the situation that officers had him examined by a doctor.
Before, Detective Lohling was annoyed that this man had ruined his holiday with his family. But now, honestly, he kind of just felt sorry for him. Jerry was sobbing, hyperventilating, and had a hard time getting the words out. He insisted he had no idea who the man in the snowbank was. Oh, okay. Only that he'd helped someone else put the body out there. And that someone was his fiancée, a woman named Barbara.
Barbara Hoffman. What the freak? Jerry had met Barbara in the most unusual of places. And I'm using quotes here. A massage parlor.
in Madison. Okay. A place called Jan's that offered a lot more than you paid for if you know where I'm going. Happy endings, man. But Jerry wasn't the kind of guy that just stumbled into one of these massage parlors. It took him three days and several six packs to work up the courage to finally try it out.
Three years earlier, back in 1973. See, Jerry was a bit inexperienced when it came to sex. At that point, he was about 28 years old and had never really been with a woman before. Jan's health spa seemed like the perfect place to just rip off the band-aid. And when he came for his third appointment... Oh, man. I mean, when he walked in. When he walked in for his third appointment.
Good for him, you know? Good for him. He was introduced to a masseuse named Barbara Hoffman.
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Immediately, Jerry was entranced by Barbara. She didn't bat her lashes and play coy with him like the other girls had. She was strong, assertive, dominant, if you will. She was considered the queen of the massage parlor. And what? Like I was saying, very family friendly on Christmas.
It's a Christmas episode. All right, keep going. And unlike the other workers, she talked to him. She got to know who he really was. And the more he fell for her, the more frequent a customer he became. Wait, so that was his fiancée? Well, it's going to be his fiancée, but he's meeting her right now. Over time, it became less about the sexual favors he was paying for and more about the emotional connection they were forming at his appointments.
And shockingly, it wasn't all in his head because Barbara eventually asked Jerry if he'd want to spend some time with her outside of Jan's. From there, the relationship took off to the point where Barbara quit working at the parlor in May of 1976 and got a job as a receptionist at a medical insurance firm. That's pretty crazy that that worked out. What a place to meet. What do you tell people? We met. She was my masseuse. Yeah.
She just gave the best back massages and now we're married. But there were a few red flags Jerry probably should have picked up on. Even though they'd been seeing each other for over a few years by this point, Barbara only spent time with Jerry once or twice a week. Plus, she had a hard time being intimate with him, which he found strange considering her former profession.
Still, none of this stopped Jerry from proposing to his first true love, and shockingly, Barbara accepted his proposal. However, by December 1977, as you know, things had gotten pretty weird and the wedding plans were still up in the air.
Which brings us back to that Christmas afternoon where Jerry finally composed himself enough to open up to Detective Lulling and explain the events that had led up to that snowbank that morning. Well, Jerry says that two nights prior, on the evening of December 23rd, he was heating up dinner when the phone rang. It was Barbara asking him if he wanted to come over and watch some TV on her couch.
Now, Jerry's a bit surprised to hear from her because he'd just driven her to work earlier that day. And he specifically asked if he was going to see her before she went to her parents for the holiday, but she said no, she had too much to do.
Still, when she calls him to come over to her apartment that night, he drops everything. And by 9.30 p.m., the two are snuggled up on her couch, drinking and watching Johnny Carson. A little while later, Jerry dozes off. But then he wakes up around 2.30 a.m., it's now Christmas Eve morning, to a suddenly frantic Barbara. She's saying, Jerry, wake up. I need to talk to you about something.
She claims that yesterday when she got home from work, she had found a dead body in her bathroom and she now needs Jerry, her fiance's help to get rid of it. Wait, in her home bathroom where they're at? Yes. Okay. And Jerry just happened to not see this dead body? Well. Or they're not living together? No, they're not living together. No. Oh, okay. Okay.
So now Jerry, who's still half asleep, must be wondering if this is some sort of bad dream. But he's still using his head better than Barbara because he's like, if you found a dead body, let's call the police. And Barbara's like, no, absolutely not. How is she going to explain to the cops that this dead body just happened to show up in her apartment?
Now, Jerry said she seemed scared and adamant that the shady people who ran Jan's massage parlor were behind the whole thing. Question. If I came to you and said I found a dead body in the bathroom, what is the first thing you would do? And I seem genuinely scared. Would you call the police or would you help me?
Well, I would say, do you know the body? How do you think it got here? And if you came to me and said it was the shady people who ran Jan's parlor, I would say, okay, let's call the police. If you had nothing to do with it, let's call the police. So no matter what, well, what if I did have something to do with it? You'd still call the police, correct? Yeah, but first I'd say, okay, honey, I'll help you. And I'd run out of it. Oh, okay, okay, gotcha. I'd get safe first. And then I'd call the police. But either way, you'd call the police.
Yeah, that's just a lot of trauma. I don't know if I could handle. I mean, I'd call the police too. I was just wondering because... I mean, it's hard because Jerry's... I don't know. We'll see. I feel like... I mean, he eventually does call the police as we know. That's true. I just feel like he's going to get taken advantage of here. So let's see. So...
She's like, no, no, no. It's the shady people who ran Jan's massage parlor. They were the ones who left this guy in her bathroom and she thinks they were trying to frame her for his murder. So after this, Jerry just kind of follows his fiance's lead. When he asks where the body is now, Barbara says she's moved it downstairs and out back near the dumpsters. She tells Jerry, go get your car and meet me out back and we'll just get the body off the property.
After that, they drove out to the Blackhawks ski jump and left the man there packing him tightly in the snow. The entire ride home, they sat in silence. Jerry was too afraid to ask any questions. And when he finally got back to her place, she got out, told Jerry to clean his car and sent him away.
Barbara obviously had no idea that in 30 more hours, Jerry would be overcome with guilt and replaying the entire scene for the Madison Police Department. Shockingly, the police wasted no time getting a search warrant for Barbara's apartment, particularly for a holiday. By Christmas afternoon, they were forcing their way into Barbara's now empty home to find Jerry.
There was nothing out of the ordinary. No forced entry, no signs of a dead body, no struggle of any kind, no strange smells, no blood, no fluids. Police did end up collecting a few items, some dirty clothing, towels, and a few items addressed to a woman named Linda Miller. But for the most part, it looked as though the deceased had never even entered Barbara's apartment.
Come 9 p.m., though, there was a major break in the case. The identity of the deceased man had been revealed. A woman had called the police to say that her brother, a single man with no wife, kids, or very many friends, had not shown up for their Christmas festivities.
Rather than digging into their Christmas dinner, she and her husband were driving down to Madison to confirm the identity of a dead body. I mean, you get a call, this man's missing, and you have a body that's shown up. You put one plus one equals two. And sure enough, it was her brother, a 52-year-old man named Harold Burge.
Around the same time that night, police had tracked down the location of Barbara Hoffman. She'd been spending Christmas evening at her parents' house in Park Ridge, Wisconsin, about an hour and 45 minutes away from Madison. When they knocked on the door, they asked if she would come down to the station, and Barbara went willingly. But after finding out what she was there for, she refused to answer any questions without her lawyer.
That's a first. I mean, not a first, but that does not happen very often where someone finally goes, get me a lawyer.
I do find it strange that she willingly drove to the police department and was like, so what do you guys want? Maybe I'm assuming the question started getting very like personal. Maybe. And obvious that they were thinking she did it. And she was like, no, I'm not doing this. I need a lawyer. Uh-huh. So truth was the police had underestimated Barbara Hoffman and she was a lot smarter and more calculated than most people knew.
When the now 25-year-old Barbara began working at Jan's Massage Parlor back in 1974, she was still a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Actually, she'd been majoring in biochemistry and had a 3.9 GPA and was fluent in three different languages. Holy crap, Barbara. But that year at university, something changed for Barbara. She took that job at Jans and on November 15th, 1974, just 12 credits shy of completing her degree, Barbara dropped out of school. Even.
Even stranger, she didn't seem to have any real friends or anyone who knew her or spent time with her outside of work other than Jerry Davies. And now, possibly the murder victim, Harold Burge. That's strange.
The following day, December 26th, Harry's body had thawed enough for pathologists to perform an autopsy. And here's what they found. Harry had suffered multiple blunt force injuries to the head and neck, resulting in severe brain damage. He had what appeared to be fingernail scratches at the base of his neck.
Okay. Okay.
Upon returning to Barbara's place, a forensic team scrubbed every inch looking for any hairs, fibers, blood, fingerprints, any shred of physical evidence that he'd spent time inside, only they found nothing.
Even if Barbara had done a rigorous cleanup job after the fact, the teams had ultraviolet lights and other tools that showed where blood and fluids had recently been cleaned. Okay, so Jerry, did he go, did he help move the body from inside the house? No. Or it was outside the house already and she said he was already, he was inside the house. She said he had been up in the bathroom. She had moved him by herself out back. Which...
Then Jerry came into the picture. I'm sure we'll get to that as well. As we know, bodies are not light. Especially as a...
female who's alone trying to move that i mean that's hard right but police aren't getting any sign that this body had ever even been in the house they were certain of one thing though barbara and harold weren't complete strangers after all so as they dig in they discover harold a chronically single middle-aged man shared a lot of the same qualities as jerry davies
He didn't have many friends, he never had a serious girlfriend, and he had frequented Jan's massage parlor. And who did he request to satisfy some of his more unusual preferences? The magic touch of Barbara. The queen of the parlor, Barbara Hoffman herself, of course. Apparently, like Jerry, the two even began seeing each other outside of the parlor from time to time. And that's when Harold Burge made some pretty wild, life-changing decisions.
Harry adjusted the deed to his home to include the name of his now new fiancée, a woman named Linda Miller, who he had also made his sole heir.
He then changed his life insurance policies to make Linda the beneficiary, a total that amounted to $34,000. And if the name Linda seems familiar, that's because we've heard it before. It was written on some of the mail sent to Barbara Hoffman's address. Remember they found this mail that was addressed to a woman named Linda, which is why they even collected it. Cause whose mail is at Barbara's house? See,
See, Linda Miller was the name Barbara had assumed after she left the massage parlor for her new job. She had wanted a fresh start, free of any associations from her sordid past. So she had it changed legally, complete with a savings account, a social security number, and a clear-cut motive for getting rid of Harold Burge. Because now Linda, who is Barbara, has two fiancés, two clients.
From Jan's parlor. Uh-huh. We have the victim, Harold, and then we have Jerry, who helped her get rid of the body.
Now, Detective Lohling was pretty sure he'd figured this whole thing out. And if Jerry Davies agreed to be the chief witness in the case, then he was pretty certain they'd have her behind bars in no time for the murder of Harold Burge. She had killed him because she now had two fiancés and she had used Harold to get this money to get his life insurance. Everything killed him and then was going to run away with Jerry. Even with.
This evidence, again, it's all circumstantial. So it's hard.
So after piecing together Harold's last few days on Earth, here's the rather convincing scenario that Detective Lohling came up with. On the evening of December 22nd, Harry attended the annual Christmas party for the Uniroyal Tire Plant where he worked as a forklift operator. After digging into the buffet, Harry said goodbye and headed over to his fiancée Barbara's apartment around 9 p.m. Now this
If you haven't put two and two together would make sense why Barbara could only see Jerry once or twice a week because she's entertaining an entire other fiance. Harold.
But at some point that evening, the couple had an argument, perhaps over Jerry Davies even. Either way, it turned violent. Barbara clawed at his neck as Harry fought back. Eventually, she grabbed something like a frying pan and hit him over the head with it over and over again. Perhaps not meaning to have caused a fatal blow, Barbara panicked, stripped his clothes, and deep-cleaned her apartment.
Then later that night, when no one was around, she dragged his body out behind that dumpster, which would account for some additional bruising found on Harry's legs and lower back during the autopsy. But the following day, she realized there was no getting Harry into a car by herself. Rigor mortis had set in, along with the freezing cold temperatures, made him impossible to move. And that's when she enlisted the help of fiancé number two, Jerry Davies.
At least this is the theory Detective Lohling is pushing. Problem was there was still no direct evidence connecting Barbara Hoffman to the death of Harold Burge. I mean, you've got all this circumstantial evidence. Yeah, you have motive, you have ideas, but nothing that can be proved. Right.
The only witness was a neighbor, an engineering student who spotted Barbara on the morning of December 23rd before Jerry Davies was made aware of the crime. The witness said he saw Barbara getting into a car that wasn't hers and backing it up next to the dumpster behind the apartment complex. Later, he said he saw her taking a basket full of dirty clothes outside.
So he's like, the neighbor comes forward and is like, yeah, I saw her pull a car up. Detectives are theorizing that this is when she was trying to move the body by herself, but discovering that she couldn't get the victim into the car. And then she took out some dirty clothes.
What he didn't see, though, or hear for that matter, was Barbara commit any sort of crime. He didn't see her trying to move a body. He didn't see her killing someone. So it was still very possible that she was telling the truth, that some sketchy people involved in the massage parlor were actually framing her, which in a way...
made sense because rumors claimed once barbara quit jans she stole several of their clients and set up shop inside of her own apartment keeping the full percentage for herself so she leaves jans and takes a whole bunch of clients with her it makes sense except for the part that like his life insurance and everything goes to her her like where
There's like so many coincidences. Right. Still, Detective Lohling and his team found this scenario unlikely between the insurance policy and the change of ownership on Harold's home. It looked like Barbara was trying to cash out, which was enough to arrest Barbara Hoffman for Harold's murder on January 18th, 1978.
only to have her released three days later on a $15,000 bail. I mean, they weren't going to keep her. Barbara Hoffman was a free woman while she awaited her day in court. But this made Detective Lohling nervous, particularly for Barbara's second fiancé, Jerry Davies.
In February, Lohling went to Jerry to suggest that he just cut ties with Barbara, maybe even get out of town. He felt certain that if Jerry wasn't careful, he would be her next victim. And that's because Barbara at this point knows that the prosecutor's number one piece of evidence against her is Jerry Davies. Yes. Then around March 24th, the Madison Police Department received a letter with no return address. The handwritten note inside read, I want to set the record straight.
I was scared. I was jealous. Barb is innocent and I wrecked her life. This letter was from Jerry Davies and it claimed the stories he told police during his confession were all lies. That Barbara had nothing to do with the death of Harold Davies and he was the one responsible. Oh, bullcrap.
Bullcrap. So this changes things a bit. And police are thinking this actually would make sense. Maybe Jerry found Harold in Barbara's apartment, learned about who he was, and got so angry that he took the man's life. Maybe she really did come home to find Harry dead in her bathtub like she initially claimed. Only Jerry was the one responsible. Jerry, at least what you've explained so far, just seems too innocent. Yeah.
Especially with the reactions and like completely just convulsing and throwing up and freaking out over the dead body. I don't think that's something a person who just killed someone does. Well, police are thinking maybe he moved Harry down behind the dumpster since that would have been a difficult job for Barbara to manage. And the new theory was falling into place. And now that police had a full-on confession, they finally had some direct evidence. I mean, a confession is proof enough. But that was just a written confession, correct?
Yes. Like he didn't say this. No, it was just a random note sent into the police department. All right. And then a day later on March 25th, 1978, the case took an abrupt turn. Okay. Most beauty brands just don't really understand my hair, but pros does. They have a formula that specifically addresses my hair, which makes sense because it's tailored just for me. You literally get on, you take a quiz, perfect.
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That afternoon, a tenant in Jerry's building called the maintenance man to say there was a loud clattering sound coming from Jerry's apartment and it was really starting to annoy him. So around 3.20 p.m., the maintenance guy and the property manager entered Jerry's apartment to...
A pretty horrific sight. Oh no. Jerry was in the bathtub, the broken overhead fan whirring loudly above him. His eyes were wide open with a small smirk across his face as a purple tinge had started to coat his skin. Rigor mortis had already set in for Jerry Davies. Half hour later, his apartment was swarming with police. The coroner found no signs of a struggle, no bruises or cuts. However, sitting on the toilet tank was an empty bottle of Valium.
Their first impression was suicidal overdose. No, there's no way. And when his neighbors were questioned, not a single person saw anyone enter or leave Jerry's apartment the entire weekend. Still, there was a lot that wasn't adding up.
Neither the pathologist nor the coroner knew of a single instance of someone overdosing on Valium alone. Plus, there were other little things, like Jerry had shaved before entering the tub, had written a check for next month's rent, had left out clean towels for himself. Things you probably wouldn't do if you planned to never exit the tub. Why grab a towel?
Knowing that Detective Lohling had been there about a month earlier warning Jerry about the dangers of Barbara, they collected all the evidence they could gather. And soon enough, Lohling discovers another explosive detail pointing in Barbara's direction.
Jerry had also taken out a life insurance policy. And guess who was the beneficiary? Barbara Hoffman. Oh, that's just ballsy at that point. To do it again? No way. Except, here's what's strange. Jerry had made the first two premium payments on the plan, but the third payment was stopped. And the policy had lapsed a month before Jerry's death.
which meant Barbara wouldn't get a dime of that money. And apparently she knew that because she was the one who had stopped the third payment from going through. The whole thing was incredibly odd, but it got even weirder around April 7th. A member of the state crime lab named Kenneth Kempfert had been running a series of tests on Jerry's body, trying to determine if there were anything else in his system that may have led to his death besides the Valium.
For days, Kenneth's work yielded no results until April 7th when it dawned on him
The body had a familiar yet unusual smell. Burnt almonds. If you didn't know, burnt almonds are a telltale sign that the body has been poisoned with cyanide. Interesting. I did not know that. It was the one test he hadn't yet run, but by the following day, he got the confirmation he was looking for. Burnt almonds. What in the world? Jerry Davies had ingested twice the lethal dose of cyanide.
So what did police do with this information? Well, they went back to some of the samples kept from Harold Burge's autopsy. And when they ran the test on Harry, they found he too had cyanide in his system. 40 times the lethal dose. Barbara, Barbara, Barbara killed two people. So two of Barbara's lovers, both dead with cyanide poisoning.
Problem was, there was no evidence that she was the one who had administered it. For all the police knew, it still could have been Jerry that had slipped it to Harry and then taken it himself once he realized what he'd done. A perfectly viable theory, until a new witness came forward to say he had some valuable testimony against Barbara Hoffman, and he'd be willing to give it up if they dropped a former charge against her.
against him. With Jerry Davies, their one key witness in the case, now deceased, police were eager to get whatever information they could on Barbara Hoffman. And what this new witness, William Garrett, whose name's William Garrett? Yeah. Oh, geez. Had to say was pretty damning. William was the manager of Jan's health spa,
So he worked closely with Barbara and her clients. And now he's coming and saying, I will testify against Barbara. Freaking Garrett, man. And he claimed that Barbara had laid out her plans to him shortly before she had stopped working there. He comes forward and he says, she met a guy at the parlor, although it was unclear if she was referring to Jerry or Harold, but she had a long con
to marry him, get her name on his life insurance policy, and then put her next phase of the plan into motion. She said with her extensive background in chemistry, she knew how to culture a toxin that would lead to death.
And once she'd completed the process, she'd take her new husband to Mexico on their honeymoon and administer the toxin, making it look like an unexpected illness. And then she'd collect the second payout. Now, much of the testimony added up to detectives. Barbara had been engaged to both men, had insurance policies out on both, except both died shortly before any trips to Mexico.
So despite some lingering questions, in December of 1978, Barbara was also charged with killing Jerry Davies.
A judge ruled that the murder charges for both men would be heard together during the same trial by the same jury. Got it. Which I think is smart, actually. Yeah. A day that finally came on June 19th, 1979. And frankly, Barbara had some pretty good evidence, or rather lack thereof, stacked in her favor. Also, I'm not going to lie, Barbara's pretty smart. Mm-hmm. Very, like, she's clever. Kind of scary. Yeah.
So for starters, the defense argued that they had a written confession from Jerry Davies that he was the one who had killed Harold. A letter that was confirmed to be written in Jerry's handwriting and not Barbara's. In case that had crossed your mind. And again, I will say handwriting evidence, not 100%. Like, not the most secure thing, but it definitely matters. That's kind of weird though, yeah.
Then there was the fact that Jerry's policy had been canceled prior to his death, particularly by a stopped check made by Barbara. But she could have just done that because she didn't want to get caught for the first murder. So it was a good way to like cover herself or this one. Agreed. However, the prosecution argued that this was a move suggested to her by her lawyer, just like what Garrett said. They're like, no, no, no, no. She did this to make herself look less guilty. Okay.
But if that was the case, then why follow through on the elaborate plan to kill the second man?
Like, why even kill him and not get the money? Yeah. Especially because suicide, staged or not, would render any policy ineffective. Then there was the lack of DNA or any concrete evidence, for that matter, found in both Barbara and Jerry's apartments. Not a single fingerprint, hair, or spot of blood that could conclusively say Harold Burge was even in Barbara's apartment or that Barbara was even in Jerry's apartment before he died.
Even more interesting, there wasn't any trace of cyanide ever found in Barbara's home. So they're like, where did this cyanide come from? And it turns out that Jerry himself had ordered this cyanide, which looks good for Barbara because this goes back to the theory that Jerry had done the killing. I still don't believe it, but yeah, keep going. Except when they talked to the person who had taken the order for the cyanide for Jerry, he was like,
No, Jerry was the name on the check, but it was a female who ordered the cyanide. So, you know, you have this testimony coming up. And I have to say her parents come forward at trial and testify and are like, no, we were with her on the night of the 23rd, which then wouldn't make sense because where were they when Jerry showed up? And then also how could they have driven in the snowstorm? But they do come forward and testify that they are with her trying to give her an alibi. And they only do this afterwards.
after words. They don't tell the police this originally. They only do it at trial. Yeah. So still jurors took everything into consideration and by June 28th, 1980 they came back with a verdict. On the charges of murdering Jerry Davies, the jury found Barbara Hoffman not guilty. Not guilty. And on the charges of murdering Harold Burge, the jury found her not guilty. Guilty.
Wait, so not Jerry, but Harold. Yep. Okay. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 11 years. On July 3rd, 1980, Barbara was transported to the Teichita Correctional Institute in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She was up for parole in August of 1991, but was denied. As of this recording, Barbara Hoffman remains behind bars while maintaining her innocence, saying...
I did not commit the crime of which I was accused and of which I was convicted. And that is the case of Harold Burge and Jerry Davies. Holy crap. So do I think she did it? Yes. Do I think she should have been found guilty? No. Really? Surprisingly, I just think that there is a small 1% chance that she did not do it.
And if there's any reasonable doubt, I don't think he can be found guilty. But do I think she did it? Yes. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? I do agree that there's too much reasonable doubt in this case. There's just too much. There's too much reasonable doubt. That's the problem. I mean, it's a totally plausible theory that Jerry found out about Harold and got mad. And, you know, but there's also the plausible theory that Barbara did it. But without any concrete evidence, I don't know if we can say anything.
Yeah, I don't think so either. That's crazy. Also, Jerry and Harold died. That's sad we kind of didn't go over that because we were talking about Barbara, but that's horrible. And she seems like a sneaky, sneaky girl. Yeah.
Thank you, Barbara. Thank you, Barbara. That's crazy. All right, you guys. That was our Christmas episode. I hope you have a fabulous, fabulous day and New Year. I hope you have a great New Year. We have some fun things coming up. 2024 for Oh No Media. So I'm excited to share that. And we will see you next week. Next year. We'll see you next year. Next year. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.
