The Illness and Death of Raymond

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Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state Patrick loves dining out. Omar loves takeout. And Katie, she cooks from scratch Because no two people are the same So their credit cards shouldn't treat them the same That's why we made the TD cash credit card. It lets you choose which spend categories earn unlimited three percent cash back, like on dining, groceries, or gas. It's how TD is making banking more human Terms and conditions apply Ctd dot com slash cash for details Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. I'm Elena and this is Morbid This is Norbgan Honey, it's morebid post radio city. It is. We had a fucking blast. We did. It was amazing meeting you guys afterwards. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. Yeah, meeeting everybody afterwards was You guys made me feel like Harry Styles. That's exactly what I felt like. Yeah. We were like the beatles or something. It's true It was so much fun. And my parents got to come. M and papa had the best time They did. they were beaming. Seeing M New York. Ma hadn't been to New York City in like decades. Yeah and had like the best time. We got to like do a really fun dinner afterwards with all of our friends. Like, my cup is full to the brim now. It truly is But it's time to get back. Yeah, I'm happy to get back to normalcy a little bit. He spent So much time planning that live show. I think the last weeks of our lives were spent just like going over every single detail. Yeah to get it all perfect. and now and there's just like the production, everything. It was a bigger it's such a big venue that it was such a bigger production. Mara production. I just have to shout that Mar and Sophie specifically Cheese. Truly, not cheese. Gese Tuly They were the sweetest people I think I've ever met in my life and like took such good care of us took such good care of the stage and like just so much went into that. Yeah. So thank you to everybody who made that happen and thank you to everybody who showed up to support us. It really means a lot. You guys ruool. You do But now it's time to get back to like our normal day today. our regular morbid schedule back, we're home. Mercury is in Gatorade and we saw something that said I wants you to slow down. I should say Mercury is retrograde. I have to stop saying in retrograde as a student of astrology. It's retrograde because that's just saying Mercury is in backwards. Yeah, it's in backwards, you know, but it's it is, it's just backward It's backwards right now. and it said, according to Elisa Kelly, who I trust. ye trust in Elis Kelly She said, it wants you to slow down. And I said, I'm going to take that to heart, babe because I'm like a missile right now and I I need to slow down. Frankly, I'd like to slow down. Truly. Mom's tired. trruly. Moma is tired. I'm exhausted and my asthma is flaring up again. My asthma, my asthma is humidity. It said flare up. Fare give that bitch some mucus in her throat in a Goth That's what it said, now. I don't know. You said like Donald Trump Oh I've never been more insulted in my life. W. It sounded like yocie. It did. How do we move away from that? Anyway? Anthing else Do you want me to Should we just get right into the story? Actually, we probably should because I do have a long one today. Yeah, let's go. And I know like Jeffrey has his timer out. so exactly we go, Je.'reop Here we go All right, so I have a two partarter. this is obviously part one, welcome. So we're going to be talking about Blanche Taylor Moore and Blanche Taylor Moore is spoiler alert just to really start you off to to know what you're getting into oldest woman on death row in That's we're getting into. Okay. Yeah. All right. That's where we're headed. Let's go. Before she headed to death row, she was born on february seventeenth, nineteen thirty three in Concord, North Carolina. She was the fifth of seven children born to Parker PD. Kaiser and his wife Flongy Okay. I'm obsessive with. Okay Flonny. Okay, Flonny Faunted. All right. Now technically PDe, the dad was a mill worker, but his real passion was preaching the gospel. Okay. Paching the gospel. PedDe proudly fell into the category of primitive preachers, which was Kind of a group of untrained, definitely unpaid Baptist preachers who traveled around to rural locations like campgrounds to preach, which only makes me think of True Detective season one. Yes, absolutely. L what like tent revivals. What an iconic season of television. True Detective is so good. I love season. Truly. Now A according to author Jim Shutz, who we will link in the show notes and who we have used before, great author Pete preached an intense, monotonous sing song literal interpretation of the Bible. Oh I don't really know exactly what that means. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. you know. It felt like a lot. Yeah. He always seemed to find a way to make money, which was a good thing. Yeah. right. He was working or he got donations. Always be closing. but he rarely used that money on his own family The work of raising children and paying the bills basically just fell completely on Flonny, who worked full time to make do basically. Yeah basasically just to keep ahead I almost just set a head over their roofs. a roof over their heads Now of the forty or so dollars a week that she made, she always gave half of that to her husband who, according to Schozs, never made any secret of the fact that he was spending it all on young girls. Oh. ye. so that wasn't awesome That was terrible. Now in nineteen forty two, when Blanche was only nine years old, the family moved to Burlington. Burlington did offer better job prospects, but the real reason for the move was probably because Pete couldn't manage to stay employed for very long, and he kind of just ran out of options for employment in Concord Now despite his own proclivity for sex workers and gambling and drinking and generally not spending time with his own young family He was very, very strict on his own children when he was around, and he had, I don't even want to call them high standards because it's like impossible standards.ossible standards The family didn't have much flowing in, so the girls were usually dressed in pattered rags and hand me downs essentially But he would routinely inspect their outfits to make sure that they were Qote unquote sufficiently modest Come on, which is also mang guys. You're the biggest hypocrite ever. Yeah, you gota you gotta make sure You just have to be sure that everybody modesty even though you're clearly not. Modesty is the most important thing, so important. ye. Yeah Fuck off. Now the high standards didn't just end with what the kids looked like, what they were wearing, their appearances. They also were completely forbidden from participating in any after school activities. That's so fucked up. That actually pisses me off. Truly. Like a lot. Like what good does that do? They couldn't socialize with their friends, couldn't Join a club, nothing like that. they had to come to me right home from school probably pray so that's fucked up. Now when Blanche reached her early teens, she was finally given enough freedom to get a job in one of the local shops downtown, probably because they needed more money. and less about like her happiness. Exactly. But more time outside of the house also meant that she was able to socialize a little bit And when she was about fifteen or sixteen, she started dating a boy named James Taylor No' not that one. Thank you. I said of Tanglewood. Not of Tanglewood fame. N not sweet baby James. notot sweet baby James. I fuck so heavy with that James Taylor then. James Taylor, like our James Taylor, like collectively all of our James Taylor He is the most soothing he does. Voice He's the voice of a generation He is actuallyually I feel he's the voice of many generations. I think he is too. You hear a James Taylor song, like a specific one that like you just heered that beginning be. Right. It does. that old To be honest, my nervous system has been a little alite lately. Yeah I'm going to listen to a James Taylor song and I bet I'm gonna to feel Right as rain. You probably shouldnt and I think you will. I will period. Thank you for that. You met So she met James Taylor, not V, but A. A, James Taylor In a lot of ways, James and Blinnch did seem like a really good fit for each other. In public, he was a good Christian boy, he doted on his mama, he did well in school But in private, he loved a cross joke and a cold beer So he had two sides to him. Yeah. Within a few weeks of starting their relationship, James introduced Blanche to his family, which was kind of a revelation for her because she knew most people came from stable and happy homes, but she had never seen one up close or experienced one. That's so sad. It is really sad. But the cool thing was that in the beginning of their relationship, she kind of like enmeshed in this family and they loved her. love her. And they supported her got her cup filled that way. Nice. Now, by that time she had actually quit school and was just always looking for a good reason not to be home at her house So she spent a lot of time at the Taillor house And apparently her and James' mom, Isla, were very close When it came to James's relationship with Blanche, I told you the good things about him, but it was also hard not to see the similarities between her boyfriend James and her father James wasn't dismissive, he wasn't controlling, not in the way that her dad was But he was a drinker and he did love to gamble And he was also at times, according to Sootz sentimental, childish, and given to eruptions of a violent temper That's not great. He had very good facets of his person, but he had flaws and a lot of flaws. Some real flaws as we all do, but He really needed to figure out how to arin those. Yeah, when you when your flawors start, you know beccoming violent. And when they start like messing with someone else, like affecting someone else. Those are flaws, you gott to take care of. That's the thing, you know. So not long after the outbreak of a Korean war in nineteen fifty, James was drafted and he was sent to the Pacific to serve in the Amy. He returned a year later to Burlington. He proposed to Blanche and they got married on may twenty ninth, nineteen fifty two At the same time, he found work restoring and refinishing fine furniture, which I feel like would be. Such a fun job. Yeah. I love furniture videos on TikTok. Yeah, I feel like that would be very like Yeah and like Godic at the same time, do He was really, really good at the job, but the income was modest. It really was barely enough to cover the bills of two people So when Blanche gave birth to their daughter in nineteen fifty three, the family really started to struggle financially But never want to shy away from hard work. soon after her daughter was born, Blanche got a job as a checkout clerk at the local Kroger grocery store. And she was an immediate hit with all of the customers. Okay. Former coworker Brenda Green told a reporter in nineteen eighty nine. She was always pleasant, always outgoing to the customers And she wasn't just I hit with the customers. She was really popular with the men came into the store. She had I mean, a way about heru. Her name's Blanche. I know. It's just, you know, comomes with the terr. It does U Author Shud said men lined up behind her register just so they could look at her. She to each one in her busy little chitter chittering bird voice, always with some expression of concern for their personal affairs. Wow. So she was a little bit of a flir. I was gonna say, she was kind of she was digging it. She was yeah, she was doing her thing. I know nothing about this case by the way. so Well she's the oldest woman on death row. so so there's that. J like I can go with that keep that with you. Yeah. So at that time, the roles for Kroger employees were strictly segregated. Women filled the customer service jobs in the front of the store, men worked the management, the stock room, butcher rolls in the back Okay. Now given the hierarchy, the highest that a female employee at Kroger could generally expect to make, like the highest position was head cashier kindind of like a front end manager position. they were like responsible for supervising the cashiers and the bag boys, just keeping everything in check. We've seen them. Yeah. Now that was the se and we love them. We se him and we love him. Yeahah That was the job that Blanche was really determined to get. And once she set her mind to something, she did usually achieve it. Now I said that The customers loved her. Coworkers Not so much outwardly, she seemed to get along with people pretty fine, you know Yeah. But a lot of her coworkers didn't like the way that she played obvious office politics. Oh and they saw that she was very clearly intent on climbing the ladder to get that head cashier position, which like that's bound to happen. It is kind of like or you know, any retail environment. Well, and people are all vying for the same job so that it kind of creates like a It's competitive. not a great environment. Yeah. But that wasn't just it Some of the cashiers suspected that Blanche was stealing from the company. Oh, that's not good. According to Schoes, Blanche had a penchant for using loner registers and for moving around using other checkers' drawers rather than following the safe and sureure procedures designed so that each cashier would check out on a register that was entirely her own responsibility for each shift k, She just kind of floated amongst them. Yeah Now, despite the rumors of her embezzling small sums of money, by nineteen fifty nine, Blanche did work her way up at Kroger and she got that head cashier position. Oh yeah, she got it. And the promotion couldn't have come at a better time because just a few months after she moved up She gave birth to the couple's second daughter. So the extra income was an asset. Oh hey You know, it seemed things were going pretty good for Blanche in nineteen fifty. like it? Yeah personal life was starting to unravel a bit. That same year, her mother Flannie filed for divorce from PD, citing her husband's abandonment as the reason. PD. Kaiser had basically left his wife and children a few years earlier to, quote, find himself a younger woman. Oh, excuse you. And he also didn't contribute a dime to the support of their children since he left them. And now even though all of that is true that he was just a prick At the time going through a divorce would have been a pretty shameful experience, which is silly but it just was And sharing the details of her failed marriage in such a public form wouldn't just be embarrassing, but humiliating, not just for Flomy, but also for the children like Blanche. even like the adult children Now luckily, the judge was sympathetic and ordered PedD to pay twenty five dollars a week in child support. which was dropped then to ten dollars a week the following year And to everyone's surprise though, he did pay the support Yeah, so that is interesting. I didn't see that coming. At least you paid it You know, the bare minimum. t The public dissolution of her parents' marriage, which became then a big source of gossip in the small town was kind of a source of shame for Blanche And on top of that Things in her own marriage weren't really going very well. After the birth of her second baby, she wasn't really interested in being with James romantically And since getting married, in her view, he had changed quite a bit physically And she just wasn't feeling very attracted to him.. In addition, the gambling and the drinking that when he was younger made him seem wild and fun and carefree, now made him seem irresponsible and reckless and probably reminded her of her father. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah Now even though he knew he was being judged, it didn't really seem like he gave a shit at this time James kept drinking, he kept gambling. and he also had picked up a new hobby since he got back from Korea and just spent a lot of his weekends editing tape recordings of sermons from the Glen Hope Baptist Church so that the tapes could be sent overseas for missionary work, which Cool, like, you know, you're getting a little extra cash by doing that, but you're also spending all your time away from your family by That's the thing Working, gambling and drinking. Yeah. it's like one a couple of those things could go. Right, you know, L work for sure. keepeing Yeah. Gambling and drinking ifff you negatively, you gott to stop. mayaybe cut that back. Cut it back. Yeah Now, so by nineteen sixty two, the distance between James and Blanche had become so evident that even strangers would have felt the tension between them It wasn't just a lack of physical intimacy or the fact that he was just never home. Blanche also found other ways to spend her time in the absence of her husband. Oh boy. That year, she started an affair with her boss. R that coming Y And she barely tried to hide it not only from her husband, but like anyone. Yeah, she doesn't give a fuck. She really didn't give a single. That doesn't shock me. One theme of this story that you'll find is that Blanche does not give a fuck. Fucks are nowhere to be found. No, herer fuck basket is barren That sounded a lot worse than I meant for it too. but you can leave it in. So before long, the tension over Blanche's obvious affair escalated to verbal abuse and occasionally physical abuse from her husband like the night that James and Blanche argued over her relationship and he just started flinging spoonfuls of chocolate pudding at her In a mean way. I know that sounds silly. It does, but it's like but it's mean. When you really think of that, I want you to picture that not weird. They like they're having a serious conversation. Yeah, like that's fucked up Fing pudding at her Also so childish, he was Qite childish. Wow Now how Despite their troubles and Banche's ongoing affair, which he didn't give a fuck about They kind of tried to keep up appearances as a happy couple, even though it was blatantly obvious to everyone that Blanche was having an affair. But in the early nineteen sixties, James did decide to slow his drinking and he cut off all contact with his gambling circle And he joined a church and found new friends there Kille Blanche continued to work at Kroger And she also filled a lot of her free time by selling Tuppaware, which was such a thing. My god Tuppaware parties? Yeah. ye, that was like a real thing. I've always heard of them, but just buy Tuppaware I kind of want to go to a Tuppwar party because one thing about me is I make people food and then I lose my tuppaware. That's the thing when I think of Tupperware parties, I'm like Not a bad idea because I can always use more tupperwar. Should we start tupperwar parties? Maybe we should have a tupperwar party. Maybe we should have aupperwar party. Do you feel like the word tuppwar is losing all meaning? Tuppw wear. Say Tupper wear again. Tupperar wear? I wantan to say again Tpp aware. J justust one more time. So yeah, we should have those parties again. I think so too. So she just randomly started doing that And it seemed like she was a powerhouse salesperson because she routinely filled her nights with those parties and other events. But what James thought was his wife's satisfying side job was in fact a cover story that allowed her to keep her nights free, to spend with her boss Raymond who she was sleeping with and other men in town who she was also sleeping with. Fck Blanche She kind of seemed to have a growing obsession with sex.. and it was obvious to anybody who spent any time with her. At work She was relentlessly flirty, not just with her boss, Raymond, but with any man she found attractive And she found a lot of ben attractive According to Shoots, this is wild. She might be mid sentence talking about Jesus in the Bible, and she would stop and mutter to a coworker, Man, I'd like to see the dick on that guy At no part of that did I know where it was going But then we got there. had no part of that. Even at the end. she said, What the fuck? Imagine I never had someone say that to me or in my presence. I don't think I have. No, I've never heard somebody say that. Man, I'd love to see the dick on that. Wow. What do you? It's very Samantha Jones, I guess. It is very Samantha Jones. I feel like you just have to be like Okay, Oooy Blanche. U I bet I bet. Yeah. That's like what do you neat Go for it Yeahay, hope that works out for you. Awesome. Period. Hey. honestly period to me is like the best response ' you have to put an end on that sentent.ust period. period bitch Break ins can happen in seconds and traditional security systems often don't respond until it's too late SimpllySafe uses AI alerts and live monitoring to help identify threats and deter intruders before they even enter your home Using the Outdoor Camera sereries two and addvanced AI alerts, SimpllySaf's US. based live agents identify threats on your property and can help deter them, which stops crime before it even starts. That is real peace of mind. 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Head to statefarm d. com to get a quote Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state So she grew more promiscuous, more reckless And as she was doing that James actually seemed to finally grow into adulthood. Oh, yeah. look at this. His drinking and gambling was pretty much under control at that point, and he actually started spending more time with his kids and at this point in time found that he genuinely loved being a father Took them a minute. Kind of did a one hundred eighty here. Okay It took him a minute but. Exactly. Now when he wasn't doting on his daughters, he could easily be found spoiling his nieces and nephews, especially his sister Dot's children because their father had died a few years earlier in a drowning accident. Oh geez. So he was really trying to fill that that role too. The happier James became though. The more frustrated and disgruntled Banche became. Which shouldn't be the case. No, when your husband' succeeding, like you're supposed to be really happy about that And vice versa. Your husband or wife or partner is thriving. That should make you feel like, o, hell yeah. Yeah,ike part of marriage is celebrating each other's wins.. No matter the circumstances, she criticized his every move. She constantly commented on his appearance, which included a lot of fat shaming. Oh, which is like really sh mean. And if she wasn't complaining about how much money he was spending on his hobbies or on the kids, she was criticizing him like I said for how much weight that he had put on since they got married That's just mean I'd like to point out, sometimes as a sign of happiness, somet true comfortability. exactly. Now at the same time, James's family who had once been very kind and welcoming to Blanche, remember, but they're probably like what the fuck? That's the thing. They started to grow cold around there because it wasn't any secret that she was cheating on him . Not only is she cheating, but she's also bullying him Yeah while he's being a good dad and humiliating him when he's made these like life changes. Th life changes that it seemed like she wanted him to make. That's a thing. Not everybody makes those changes or grows like that. And here's the thing, like Sometimes it is too late for you for you to make it up to another person. like for them to want to be along for the ride with you, goad and do these changes and that's okay. That's okay, but you just get divorced. Yeah, you don't bully them. No. Like you just you say, okay, this ist work you're doing this, but I'm It's past the point of being repaired. I'm glad you made those changes, but you're going to make them without me. It's too far gone. and I hope you keep it up. Yeah So yeah, his family was just like, you know what? We really don't like you anymore. Yeah, don't blameem. So by the mid sixties, her world was rapidly changing and it doesn't really sound like for the better. For somebody who craved and seemed to require control to feel a sense of stability at at least one point, the ongoing upset at home was becoming unbearable for her. So in September of nineteen sixty six, Blanche experienced one of the more defining moments of her life when her father, PD passed away This is interesting This And that's all I can say. It's allegedly pretty interesting. Okay. According to the coroner, the cause of death was a heart attack brought on by chronic emphysema The des didn't come as a big surprise to really anybody who knew him because Pede had been pretty much a lifelong smoker, and he had always been pretty reckless when it came to his health. And he also led a kind of nomadic existence. He just moved from one town to another. So there wasn't a real consistent record of his health carere to speak of. Okay I think that You know, raised some eyebrows later. Yeah Now if anybody had been paying close attention to his symptoms just before his death, the cause of death might have been diagnosed as something altogether different He entered the hospital the day before he died, complaining of chest and stomach pains And he was admitted and moved to a room Over the course of the next thirty hours or so though, he experienced a range of symptoms, most of which were internal that included paralysis in the limbs Painful irritation of the nose and throat. Agressive bloating and a burning sensation in his hands and feet, among other things. What Also, if somebody had been at his bedside when he died or immediately after They maybe would have noticed a strong scent of garlic on his breath Oh, despite the fact that he hadn't been eating garlic And I don't know I wonder why I know this, but u All of those signs are prominent telltale signs of arsenic poisoning. Oh Our old friend arsenic. Yeah Now the problem was Pete checked into a large busy city hospital where he was obb obviously attended to, but it was periodically by nurses and doctors. There was nobody there who was consistently monitoring his symptoms And even if they had suspected that his death wasn't natural, by the time of the autopsy, arsenic would have passed out of his system entirely. Yeah. So even if the coroner had suspected arsenic poisoning They might not have found any evidence of that to put in the toxicology report Now Weirdly Blanche didn't really seem moved by her father's death U you know, maybe that could have provided some insight to people. I think her might be something that you would at least be like Yeah, you know, But so Who's to say they had a tough relationship? They did. That's the thing. They had a very compomicated relationship. So I see both sides. And it's not like he was a warm fuzzy Yeah um, and didn't allow them to have any kind of real life as they were growing up. so that could be distance emotionally? Yeah, that way. And she also had a lot going on at home. Yeah. While Pe was writhing in pain in the hospital, Blanche's marriage was rapidly deteriorating. By the late sixties, the once private arguments between Blanche and James started to spill over into public spaces, and their neighbors became accustomed to not only hearing but seeing the couple scream at each other in the front yard or driveway In one particularly bad incident nineteen sixty nine, neighbors watched in horror as they got into a shoving match one Sunday on their way to church. Oh, and what started as a verbal agreement quickly escalated to James trying to shove Blanche into the car She immediately got out of the car and slammed the door behind her, but her coat was caught in the door when it shut. And he started backing down the driveway. so she was pulled to the ground and dragged down the driveway on her knees until James finally stopped the car We were rooting for you. We were rooting. We were all rooting for you. How dare you? Yeah What? And on your way to church. On your way to church are you going to confession too? You're gonna sit in that pew and act like everything's fine Yeah, fuck, that is crazy. It is crazy. Holy shit Now, James had always been a pretty easily excitable man, you know He had gambled and drank in the past, Yes He got harrayed really quickly. but With all the tension in his marriage and the changing state of the world around them, the stress of life was starting to take a toll on him physically And one afternoon in nineteen seventy, as he was driving into downtown Burlington, he was stopped by a police roadblock and told he couldn't go in the direction he was going because there was an active shooting situation. Wow Now, obviously he immediately turned the car around and drove home But the situation caused him such incredible anxiety that by the time he got home, he was shaking and sweating profusely And then that turned into vomiting and violent diarrhea. What? So he finally went to see his doctor and was informed that he had had a fairly serious heart attack. Holy shit. And unless he wanted to experience another one, he needed to make some major changes in his life. Yeah So the healthcare marked a major turning point in his life. About six months later, Blanche came to her own major turning point too when Raymond Reed and his wife finally divorced. That's her boss that she was having with James was still doing his best to raise their kids you know, avoid his blood pressure spiking.us Christ. And Blanche was spending almost all of her free time with Raymond, explaining to anyone who cared that she was just trying to help him out because he didn't have a wife anymore. Oh yeah. justust trying to stand in as his wife. But at that point, they had been carrying on a pretty public affair for Almost ten years. So people were like, arere you guys serious? Yeah, arere you for real That's the thing. Be so serious right now? The increased attention really didn't seem that unusual to anybody, not even to James. He fully knew that they were continuing their affair Now, maybe it was because he was so accustomed to his wife's infidelity or maybe he was just trying to not have another heart attack But whatever the case, he really never expressed any disappointment in Blanche after they went through the whole really big period of arguing, and then it just seemed like they were like Okay, we'll live together and we'll be married, but like I fucking hate you and you know I do. so let's not even talk about it That's really sad. What a sad existence. And sad for your kids. Yeah, it's sad for everybody. Yeah So they just carried on As usual, she worked a lot, took care of the bills. She You know, had a grand old time at Kroger Holy shit, but all of that came to an end in the fall of nineteen seventy three One day in late September of that year, James started experiencing symptoms of what he thought was the flu He was getting bad headaches, his glands were swollen, and he was becoming violently ill. When the symptoms finally got so bad that he couldn't manage them anymore, he went to see a doctor. But by then, things had escalated significantly In addition to all the earlier flu like symptoms, he now had painful blisters on his hands and feet His hair was falling out in clumps And his face was beginning to swell The doctors had actually never seen anything like this, but they were like, It's not related to your heart, that's for sure. Yeah, some shit is going on. So the doctor ordered a myriad of tests to rule out various illnesses and hopefully find the cause in the case of what the fuck was going on here But after several tests, James was worried about the cost of the treatment and ask that no more tests be conducted. H, Which is like, really sad. Yeah, because it's like something is obviously going wrong. Yeah Now on the night of october second, Blanche had just cooked dinner and set the table, but James told her his throat was hurting too much to eat, so he skipped dinner.. But rather than let her husband go without dinner entirely Blanche being the sweetie Bobidi that she is. Oh no. Brought him some ice cream and convinced him to at least have some of it It might make his throat feel better I'm scared Now unfortunately within the hour after having said ice cream James was writhing in tremendous pain on the couple's bed, which then escalated to I'm so sorry Violent projectile vomiting? No No. And he said the feeling that something was inside of him trying to claw its way out Rather than call for an ambulance Blanche sent her daughter away, telling the girl she'd arrangeed for a doctor in the morning And then she made up the couch. and she went to sleep on it What? Wh her husband lay upstairs projectile vomiting with the feeling that somebody was trying to claw its way out of him. That is Horrifying I'm sure you will be shocked to hear this. But the next morning when Blanche went to the bedroom to check on James She found him on his side, his hands twisted like claws and his face a bluish purple color Oh my go. Under the circumstances, I think almost fucking anybody would call for some sort of help. Yeah. emmergency services, police, whatever have you Dad to me Blanche just calmly informed her daughter that her father was dead and then went to call her other daughter, who I think maybe was at a sleepover or something and informed her of the same thing In fact, Blanche called nearly every single one of James' relatives to tell them Their loved one was dead And also, she called the man she'd been having an affair with for ten years. Raymond Reid to tell him, also, that her husband was dead and to pollease come over And then finally, she called an ambulance reported the death I can't even picture this. Like this is Next level. This is Mayhem Why would you call, what's like a male mistress She is a mister. Paramore mayaybe paramore. Why would you call your side mans over Side piece to your house when like your husband just died? Yeah. And why would you call his whole family instead of emergency services And why would you call your daughter I just tell them, calmly, Daddy's dead Why I don't even know what to say. I don't even know what to say His death was listed a heart attack Which made sense given his medical history But like Pete Kaiser's death years earlier, no one considered the events and the symptoms that led up to the forty five year old supposed heart attack. Yeah, or the fact that those symptoms would not have been caused by heart failure. So for a short time after James' death, which just happened and life moved on apparently. Yeah, apparently. Blanche played the role of a grieving widow, but really in no time things got back to normal H daughter Cindy said in nineteen eighty nine, Mom never expected to spend the rest of her life by herself. She said she had too much to offer Mhm She was just like, yeah, don't give a shit. Yeah Blanche and Raymond continued to see each other, but they would only visit each other at their respective homes so as to not contribute to any gossip, even though they'd literally been together for like fifteen years. say Like really? But Other than the living arrangements, they were very much a couple in every sense. In thinking back on that time, Blanche's daughter Vanessa had fond memories. She said Raymond was a very good man. He was very good to us. I mean, that's good. for a little bit, the arrangement seemed to suit everybody just fine. They could carry on their affair while Blanche still had enough space to continue building her own identity independent of men in her life for like four seconds But her relationship with Reid wasn't the only bad habit that she carried on after her husband died abruptly. She also kept up her scheme of petty theft from the registers on the store. She' still at that? She She's been at that. Oh damn People started to notice the missing money and people already had in the past, but more and more people were beginning to notice. Yeah. And finally in nineteen seventy six, a bag of cash went missing from the store. Wow. As the person responsible for the register when the money went missing, Blanche was immediately suspected of the theft, and she was actually even questioned by the police And a private investigator that Kroger hired. Oh my God, But they couldn't find any evidence. And so there was no way she could be charged with anything But a few months later, most people in Burlington did find it pretty odd that Blanche was able to afford a down payment on a new house retty interesting even though she had the salary of a grocery store clerk. She's just really good at it. She's just thrifty. Yeah. Now just as it had been with her now dead husband, as Blanche started to come into her own as a single woman, Raymond Reed's life became considerably more difficult. After he got divorced, his relationship with his wife was very bitter And it was worse than it had ever been, actually, even when they were married. So it was hard for him to keep seeing his kids on a regular basis. Yeah, whichich like maybe you should think about that before you cheat on your wife, just saying. Yeah, I think that would be a good advice. That's just how I feel. But then there was problems at the store. In addition to the occasionally mysteriously missing money that he probably knew his mistress was responsible for, The store wasn't making the kind of profit that it needed to remain a viable branch. So that meant that there were more frequent visits by the store's regional manager, Robert Hutton Now like Raymond Robert, sorry, it ma confusing here. Robert. Robert. H is Marcus the Wm. We must quote Marcus the Worm at all times Robert Hutton was very devoted to the Kroger company a lot like Raymond, and he loved his job That's where the similarities between the two of them ended. Robert Hutton, the manager He was young, he was apparently good looking and said to be cartoonishly masculine Im pictureuring Johny Brow. What is what was the? It was in Twilight, one of the Twilight movies, something feminine, like aggressively feminine It reminds me of that. Cartoonishly masculine. It's hard to sayally masculine masculine. Was it aggressively feminine? I think it was like aggressively feminist. It was I think it was in the book. Yeah, it is in the book. Yeah I think it's like Jacob's chapter. Yeah. that makes sense. Yeah. didnid't he he says Rosalie and and Alice And Alice, right? Yeah Yeah Just remind now we have cartoonishly mask I love it Robert bragged about his ability to sleep with any woman he wanted to. loved telling raunchy jokes, which like you probably shouldn't do as the manager of a store. Probably not. Yeah. And he also had a habit of sleeping around with women at various stores in his district. Ew, what a pig and really didn't make it a secret So after careful review, he concluded that the Burlington Kroger did not stand a chance of survival, and the store ended up having to be closed Now fortunately, he did recognize that a lot of the staff was in fact very reliable, very competent, good people. including Blanche and Raymond. so like maybe not good be normal, but So they were all offered jobs at other area locations at a pay cut though Raymond was demoted to assistant manager in Martinsville, and that was in one of the Virginia stores. and Blanche was demoted to just a regular old cash out position in Greensboro A few months later, Hutton moved Raymond to the Durham North Carolina store and then promoted him back to manager, but Blanche stayed where she was Now not surprisingly, the demotion and relocation were major disappointments for Blanch She didn't have the power that she had over other cashiers anymore. Oh no. And she also didn't get to spend every day with her side manan. So therefore She didn't know what he was getting up to while it was away. Who's to be sure? I know, Well, you know, the way to worry about. Yeah, you gott to be worried. It took some time, but by nineteen eighty three, she managed to get transferred to the store that he worked at. Oh man, guys theitation A at least an hour long commute each way, but apparently it was worth it to her to keep up her relationship with Raymond And it also meant that she would be working alongside Robert Hutton, who she thought was irresistibly attractive since they had li years earlier. This bitch wants to have her cake andita say she does Traditional old banks charge you overdraft and monthly fees. Why pay to get your own money? Chime is banking built for you. That's why they have thousands of fee free ATMs. Chime members can earn up to one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars in annual rewards fee free. 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Yeah, But that wasn't fun for her After she moved to the Greensboro store, he actually asked her to marry him But she was like, no. my God. And then he asked her to marry him again. She said no. And she was like, no. Yeah, guys, she said no. And then he kept asking her to marry him and she continued to say No God, get it together. Yeah, She didn't just not want to marry him, but she really wasn't interested in changing their relationship at all. She was like, we can have a Clindestine affair forever and ever Now, if she wasn't interested in marrying Raymond and committing to monogamy, it's probably because she had her sight set on Robert Hutton now, the store manager, the other one Over the months that they'd been working together, she was dropping hints indicating her interest in him, but he hadn't really picked up on anything Which was kind of crazy because he was a disgusting pig who regularly groped women that he employed. God. So I guess subtlety was something he wasn't accustomed to He lacked sorely But despite his aggressiveness with some women at the store and his tendency to grab them without permission He knew that his attention wasn't wanted from Blanche He like he thought that she Did't want him to do that to her, I guess? Oh Um What made him think that? I don't really know to be honest with you, but eventually Blanche dropped the subtlety and got right to the point and just told him that she wanted him and she knew he wanted her. I guess they got together. There it is. Now by nineteen eighty five, her life was spinning out of control again. She was still seeing Raymond regularly and continuing to deny his marriage proposals. Cool. While also carrying on a sexual relationship with her boss, Robert Hutton And apparently balancing the two was getting a little bit difficult. Yeah. So that January, the chaos escalated when Blanche called Raymond one day to tell him that she had come home and her house was ablaze Oh. she said, Hello, Raymond, I got home And it's engulfed in flames. Hi S was on fire. He raced over to Blanche's house and when he got there, luckily by then, the firefighters had managed to put out the flames, but the damage had been done. When they went into the bedroom, fire investigators found all of Blanche's underwear and lingerie scattered about And she claimed that there had been a pervert prowling around the house days before, and she was pretty sure that he was the one who set the fire. Oh, excuse me. But weirdly when they asked for any defining characteristics of this person that she had seen only days earlier Flanche couldn't remember any details G all So her homeowner's insurance paid out a large sum And she sold the house as is, which is crazy. But she managed to come out ahead. and she used the money to buy a mobile home a few miles away. But This fire is where things really started to get fucking crazier in her life. Over the course of a year, she continued her affair with Robert Hutton and her relationship with Raymond while also having a bunch of one night stands with a bunch of other men in town. Blanche She's young and she's She is young and. So that's one way of describing this. I don't know how else to say. A few months after the fire that destroyed her The her house, Blanche was again, sadly the victim of another house fire. You know what? Some people Ason just kind of follows. It's crazy. follows them around. It's the weirdest thing. You can never figure out why. You really can. You know, sometometimes fire just fire curses. fire follows people. Yeah. it follows, but it it but itire follows. Fire follows So Raymond got to Blche's house to pick her up for for fucking church one afternoon. I'm sorry. It's just wild to me that this woman goes to church But he was getting annoyed that she was taking so long, which was gonna to make them late and he didn't want to be late for church S I don know he's He's a righteous man. Yeah. He's a righteous righteous. Let's be real. So after she finally got out to the car, they had barely pulled out of the driveway when Raymond slammed on the brakes and said, Blanche, there's smoke com out of your bedroom window In response, she didn't look back. She just said, No, I think that's the sun reflecting on it. Yeah. I'm sorry, but if somebody tells me that there's smoke coming from my bedroom window, I'm going to tell them Hey, would you mind pulling back in the driveway so I can figure out what the fuck that's about? Yeah, no, I'd just be like, I bet it's just the sun reflecting. I'm not worried. Yeah. she was like, listen, we're late. we have to get to church. Don't worry about that. Now crazy. Yeah. when they returned from church later that evening, I bet I know They entered the house to find that the place was on fire. Oh my God, so much fire. Can you believe it? More fire. Small flames were licking around the corners of the bedroom and Blanche exclaimed, Ah, damnit. mustust have been that pervert again. Must have been Just that that arsonist pervert. Yeah, that fiery pervert. Not a fiery pervert. So Raymond grabbed theire fire extinguisher from the kitchen and managed to put out the remains of the flames, but again The damage had been done in Blanche's bedroom was a mess of fire and smoke damage because of the fiery perurvert In the closet, there was a single wax candle burning on the floor That's odd. That's the mark of a fiery arsonist. Ht. Yes. To Raymond's surprise though The insurance company paid out a second claim on the fire Without any questions I feel like a man took that claim, I just have to say it. So during this time, Blanche managed to get a medical note from a doctor that claimed she had intestinal problems, which had been exacerbated by the fire. So it was possible she may need to take time off from work periodically Of course, she very much used that as an excuse to blow off work or call out whenever she felt like it. which put Raymond in a difficult position every time she did it because he was her manager By that summer, he finally insisted that Blanche had to return to work or she had to find a different job but rather than giveven She apparently went to Robert Hutton and initiated sex with him in his office which produced a favorable result in terms of extending her medical leave Every decision she makes I just never know where it's going. I know that was a crazy way to tell you what happened, but like How else was I supposed to wear it? Honestly, I don't know Yeah, I don't know So she didn't want to lose that job. so she got to work. Okay in a different way. She She sure did. Yeah, in case you didn't pick that up. How I picked it up. Everything that was happening at the time, it's very abundantly, massively clear that Blanche was becoming more and more reckless with every day that was passing. It would seem so. But all like that being said at the same time It really didn't seem like she had a long term strategy for anything. But at the same time, not everything she did was on impulse One week after she and Hutton had sex in his office, Blanche showed up at the law office of Walker Hoy and Cernotal Walker and or Hiian Konoto. Yeah, them. them. the law the office Of law In a meeting with Douglas Hoy, one of the men timeo. The law She laid out a long history of the sexual harassment that she experienced at Kroger at the hands of the district manager, Robert Hutton. Wha. Yeah, do you remember that she did go to his office anditi to keep her job After hearing the story, she told Hoy agreed to take the case. And in January of nineteen eighty six, she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Kroger. Well thirteen point eight million do in superior court. Wow. Among other things, the suit accused Robert Hutton of four counts of battery Four counts of assault Four counts of inflicting emotional distress and one count of invasion of privacy The suit also alleged that executives at Kroger were aware of Hutnton's sexual proclivities and failed to take any precautionary measures. Wow She claimed that on multiple occasions, excuse me, he had called her into his office or conference rooms and exposed himself to her. fondled her or made sexual advances. Look that guy. In the most egregious of these incidents, she claimed that he approached her from behind, sorry, this is all very graphic. He approached her from behind while she was stocking items and grabbed her around the waist and said, Are you ready for this And I'm not asking you if you're ready for this. That's what he asked. No That's like literally what he said. And she said They're in the grocery store, please remember. Yeah. She said when she turned around, he was nude from the waist down. Ew. She said she managed to get out of his grasp and grab his pants and underwear. and then she ran out of the store, which forced him to leave wearing a shirt and a tie and a butcher's apron Oh my go. She also alleged that he frequently threatened to fire her or transfer her to another store if she didn't acquiesce to his demands. I mean, that's fucked up Remember that Blanche is the oldest woman on death row. Remember that. Okay. Yeah, we should remember that. Now, given his history with women at the company though, because he is a pig. Yeah, Not all of this is true. like all everything that she put in her lawsuit and like we know he is piggy. But he is a pig. Yeah Uh So given his history with women, it really wasn't that hard for anybody to believe what Blanche had alleged And Robert Hutton was forced to resign from his position. Yeah. The case got held up in pre hearing motions for the next two years. until in late nineteen eighty seven, Kroger finally agreed to settle for two hundred fifty thousand. Yeah So Blanche has a lot of money now. sureure does. Now in the spring of nineteen eighty six, one of Banche's sisters called and asked if she would join them for Easter service at the Carolina United Church of Crast in Burlington. Of Crast. Her husband Blanche's sister's husband was in the hospital dying from cancer. and this was a tradition that they always looked forward to. so Blanche agreed to accompany her to the service Now Blanche had been to that service many times in her life I just feel likes you have to. You know what I mean? Laugh. I think it's blanche and fast. You gotta so she had been there a million times. But when she arrived for Easter serervice in nineteen eighty six, she was surprised to find that the church had been taken over by a fine new pastor. Oh you don't say? Reverend Dwight Moore Dwight, you say in Dwight, yeah In fact, Easter was to be Moore's first big celebration as the new pastor.. So the stakes were very high, and he was very much looking forward to this event. Oh, absolutely. Now not long before he arrived in Burlington, before he found himself as head pastor, he had gone through a really painful divorce which was not officially the cause for his moving, but almost certainly why he was reassigned. Yeah. So he hoped the new scenery in the new community would be an opportunity to heal some of his pain Now for someone who had been drawn to the flare and drama of her father's fire and brimstone preaching Blanche wasn't terribly impressed with Revend Moore when she first saw him. Unlike the preacher she was used to from her youth, He was kind of a modern church leader who focused on the more positive aspects of Christianity. And he kind of left behind like darker Old Testament lessons I thought were scary Screw Still, there was something about him that Planche found intriguing He was handsome, he was friendly, he was energetic. Maybe she didn't like his preaching, but she lacked his face. there you go. And for his part, he couldn't help but find himself drawn to Blanche as well. Oh no. As soon as that Easter service ended and the congregation made their way to Easter breakfast He immediately spotted Blanche and her sister and he made his way over to their table. Now, if he had been in Burlington for more than a few weeks, the odds were that he probably would have heard a lot of rumors about Blanche. Yeah. And while he may not have approved of that gossip, he probably would have stayed away. probablyroably But he hadn't heard about Blanche's salacious and occasionally scandalous past. So he saw no reason why he shouldn't reach out to her. Yeah, why not? About a week after the Easter service, he managed to get a hold of her address, which is a little bit sketchy, and he showed up at her house one evening. but she wasn't home He returned a few days later and managed to catch her. and the two sat down, chatted over coffee, gave her a little of his history. They got to know one another. No. As religious leaders go, Dwight Moore's backstory was surprisingly atypical After high school, he went to Duke University, where he studied theology Being educated in a traditional university I guess made him kind of an outlier in the Christian church What was more surprising was that shortly after beginning his service at his previous assignment