GUILTY: "MOTHER-IN--LAW-FROM-HELL" SOBS FOR MURDER HIT PLOT ON LAW PROF SON-IN-LAW

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Good evening, everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Nancy Grace and this is the Friday Night special
Crime Stories.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
And tonight the so.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Called killer mother in law suspect guilty and a murder
case for the state alleges she masterminded an execution.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
A paid hit on her own son in law. The
law professor.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's right, a so called killer mother in law. But
for real, I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. So
consumed with rage, with anger over her daughter's divorce and
subsequently not having visitation with her grandchildren, that she commits murder.

(01:03):
She murders her own son in law over visitation. It's
really hard to imagine that.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
You know, so.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Often when we hear about a violent crime, many people
will make excuses. Oh, they were under stress, they grew
up in a bad family, they're uneducated, they're this, They're that,
they were using drugs, they were using alcohol, a million excuses.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Let me tell you about this mother in law.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Her family, highly educated, called a five star family by politicians, lawmakers, rabbis,
friends of the family's neighbors. No one within their circle
can accept this woman, the matriarch of a very wealthy,

(02:04):
very educated family, whatever do such a thing.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
But guess what, I agree with police?

Speaker 3 (02:12):
She did it.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
She had her own son in law murdered.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Because he refused to give up his children. What do
we know about the case? Let me just start with
our friends at crime Online.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Donna Adelson, the mother of recently convicted murderer Charlie Adelson,
is caught by police trying to board a plane leaving
Miami and heading to Vietnam. Her husband, Harvey is with
her as police take her into custody, the latest person
to be arrested in the murder for higher plot killing
of Nan Markel. In charging documents and a warrant request,

(02:54):
prosecutors noted that on recorded jail phone calls, Adelson discussed
killing herself and leaving the country. Following Charlie Adelson's conviction,
he is facing a mandatory life sentence. Three other people
have also been convicted in Markel's murder. Donna and Harvey
Adelson had one way tickets purchased for Vietnam. Vietnam has

(03:16):
no extradition agreement with the United States.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Okay, let me understand this with me an all star
panel to make sense of what we know right now.
But first two Joel Waldman joining us out of this
jurisdiction in Florida, host off surviving the survivor Joel the
mother in law. First of all, who's Charlie Adelson. Charlie
Adelson is the brother in law, and he's not just.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
The brother in law.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
He's apparently a very well respected periodontist.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
This is the brother in.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Law of the dead husband, the dad, Dan Markel, the
law professor. I want to first start with the mother
in law trying to flee the jurisdiction to Vietnam. But
this is just after her son is convicted in the murder.

(04:13):
Let's just start. Why is the mother in law at
the airport with her husband, Harvey, with a one way
ticket to Vietnam. Tell me how that whole thing went down.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Well, Nancy, in a word, she didn't want to be arrested,
and she knew that it was coming. What a lot
of people don't know is that this happened over nine
years ago, so they've been waiting for justice all these years.
The two convicted hitmen are in prison, as it is
the middle woman.

Speaker 6 (04:40):
But just to get back to your original question about.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
Donna Adelson, it was on a Monday that Charlie Adelson,
the ex brother in law, was convicted, and then exactly
a week to the day, Donna Adelson is arrested at
Miami International Airport. And what we found out since then
and is almost immediately after Charlie's conviction, Donna and her

(05:05):
son Charlie were on the phone for thirty five hours
that week.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Good Lord in Heaven. Thirty five hours in one week. Guys,
you're hearing Joel Waldman. He is a host of an
incredible podcast, Surviving the Survivor. Joel, don't lose any of
those thoughts. Dave Ehrenberg is joining us.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
PAULM.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Beach County state attorney and friend of Dan Markel, also
with me Tamara Demco, I've got this. She is a
doctor at a JD. An RN. She went to Harvard
Law School. But aside from all of her education in

(05:47):
her achievements, she's a close friend of the murder victim,
Dan Markel. And again this case is like my head
is spinning around with all the ins and outs of
this case. But to break it down, this law professor
Dan Markel, young, attractive, devoted father. He goes out of town,

(06:11):
he comes back, half the furniture is gone and the
children are gone, and he can't find the children. That
starts a very acrimonious divorce with Wendy Adel's son Okay
as her mother that just got nabbed on a one
way taken to Vietnam.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Dragging along the father.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
What did he know, Harvey?

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Is he just along for the writer? Does he know anything?
Long story short?

Speaker 2 (06:35):
David Ehrenberg, before I go to tamaraw Dave, I heard
you say something that I researched intensely. You were describing
Wendy's brother, the brother in law now convicted of murder,
and you referred to him as the Maestro, and you
mentioned he drives around town in his ferrari and his

(06:58):
name tag license Flight actually says the Maestro.

Speaker 7 (07:02):
Yeah, he is someone who's very self assured.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
That's one way to put it right.

Speaker 7 (07:08):
It was a book by Bob Woodrod years ago about
the Maestro I think it was Alan Greenspan and how
he controlled the world's economy. This is how he sees
himself in that same vein that he controls things. So,
you know, that's a pretty interesting piece of evidence to
show that this guy self assured. To use the euphemism
is the kind of guy who would help plan a

(07:30):
murder and think he could get away with it.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Is he just as smarter than everybody in the room.
What they can't read? That sign at the jail says
this is being recorded.

Speaker 6 (07:40):
Hello, exactly.

Speaker 7 (07:42):
You know, he was so cock sure of himself throughout
the trial, the fact that he took the stand and
spun this preposterous lie that he was the victim of extortion,
which made no sense, and he believed he had won
over at least one member of the jury, and so
he was shocked. You should see the face when he
walked in after a short deliberation, because he knew his

(08:04):
goose was cooked, and he.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Just put his head down, like, I can't believe somebody
has finally called me on my shiit. He finally finally
had to answer up that he arranged the hit.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
No one want to see address of your emergency. Okay,
tell exactly what happened.

Speaker 8 (08:24):
We heard looked in the garage, goal was up, and
I thought the gentleman was backing out, and I went
back to my house, but he never backed out, and
I came back over and his wind his driver's side
window is shattered, and he's moving his head around, but
he's not responding. I've called his name, asked what's going on?
And I call his name, asking what's happening. He's not

(08:47):
responding to that, but his head's kind of rolling around.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Okay, is he conscious?

Speaker 8 (08:52):
Well, I can't tell.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Okay, is he breathing?

Speaker 8 (08:56):
I can't tell that. I'm assuming he's breathing if he's
moving his head around.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Did you ever hear him talk or anything? No, okay,
he said. He's sitting in the car right correct, the
driver's seat.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Oh my stars.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
When I hear about the execution style hit on a
loving dad of two little boys, a loving dad devoted.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
To his children. When I hear that, it just pounds
it in. He was alive.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
He didn't get shot and just die instantly. He was
still trying to speak, He was still moving his head around.
Professor Dan Markel, I had heard of him as being
a renowned law professor, just crackling with legal intelligence, totally

(09:52):
devoted to his family.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Hearing that NI one one call.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
And realizing that he's moving his head around trying to
speak to a neighbor is excruciating. I've thought it through myself.
Did the victim die immediately? Did they know what was
happening to them? What were their last moments on earth?
Was he thinking about his children? Will I ever see

(10:17):
them again? Am I going to live or die? Let's
listen to more of that nine to one one call.
We're gonna hear it just like the jury.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
So they're saying his head is bloody.

Speaker 8 (10:26):
Now, yes, I'm bloody. I mean it's the window shattered.
I don't know if he's tried to shoot himself. I
don't know what the situation is.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's the driver's side window, correct, that's correct.

Speaker 8 (10:38):
He's still moving around, So who's alive?

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Okay? Looks like I should have an ulcer coming up
the roadway. Okay, well, we need the mt. The officer's
going to be there first. They're not going to come
until we figure out what's going on. But they're on
the way as well. Okay, we'd better be if this
guy's got a shot.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
The state alleges she asked her mind and a paid
hit on her.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Own son in law.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Howe in the hay did a mild mannered law professor
end up dead execution style.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
And his own garage in his own car?

Speaker 2 (11:17):
I mean he's pulling in home to see his children
and his wife and bam, he shot dead.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Listen to this.

Speaker 9 (11:25):
Dan Markell comes home to find the house empty, his
wife and two boys gone, and divorce paper is left
on a bed. Dan Markel describes the day as his
pearl harbor without warning, life as he knew it was
gone for six weeks. Dan Markel says he doesn't know
where his children are, much less as soon to be
ex wife. Markel claims Aidolson is getting held from mother

(11:47):
Donna Adelson and brother Charles Adelson, keeping her location secret.
Their divorce order is for them to share joint custody
of the children.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
My stars, the whole family is in on keeping the children,
the two little boys away from daddy.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Let me tell you something.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Dave Mack joining me along with Gigi McKelvey. First of you,
Dave Matt Crime Stories investigative reporter Dave Mack. There was
never an allegation that Professor Martl beat the children, abuse
the children, starve the children. In fact, if anything, he
injulged them. He petted them too much. They were his

(12:29):
mini means. He adored them. So the whole family gets
in league with the wife Wendy Adelson to hide the
children from the dad.

Speaker 9 (12:42):
What it's so shocking Nancy that, Okay, the marriage is
at that point where Wendy wants out. Now you've got
to remember that Wendy Adelson's family is all in South Florida,
and that's where she wants to go with her children.
We're talking to it eight hour difference between where the

(13:02):
where the Markel's lived in the northern part of Florida
and where the Adelson family lives in southern Florida rather,
and when Wendy doesn't get that approval to move with
that's it. That's where everything begins, Nancy. They actually, I
say they the Adlson family. You mentioned Dan Markel comes

(13:23):
home to an empty house, right, Well, he had gone
to a convention and he was like the keynote speaker
at this big event. They made sure that he got
the message that Wendy wanted a divorce right before.

Speaker 6 (13:36):
He went on stage.

Speaker 9 (13:38):
They played it out perfectly, and there was some crowd
of damaging him like that. It was amazing what they
did to this man.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh my stars, you know, hold on gg when I
got Eric Fatus really quickly, guys, Eric Fattus thatt on
Trial Lawyer or TV legal analyst, founding partner Varner Fattus
elite legal, former famony prosecutor. That's important now, Defense attorney Eric,
when you are about to go to trial, strike a jury,

(14:06):
give a legal presentation in front of hundreds of lawyers
who are going to be as firing legal questions at you,
you got to be sharp. It's like a Wimbledon tennis match.
You can't miss a thing. I remember thinking in court,
I'd be watching the witness and watching the jury. Watch
the witness, watch the jury as questioning. We take place

(14:28):
like a tennis match, because if you miss one word,
one sentence, legal term, you're screwed.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Anything could go wrong.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
And so right before he takes the stage in front
of hundreds of lawyers, that's when he gets hit with
the knees. Your wife wants a divorce and he comes home.
The house is picked clean and screw the furniture. The
children are gone. Oh I can't even imagine that fatness.
You come home, You're children are gone. That is what

(15:02):
happened to him.

Speaker 10 (15:02):
Oh, I mean that is going to shake anybody have,
let alone someone who is preparing for a big professional presentation.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
You got to be on.

Speaker 11 (15:10):
Your game, you've got to be listening. There are details
you've got to take in. You got to make sure
you don't miss anything. This is a high stakes presentation
for him, and they did this in a calculated fashion,
intentionally to shake.

Speaker 10 (15:23):
Him up as much as they could. And really, you know,
his life is crashing in upon him immediately before he's
about to give this kind of speech.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I mean, clearly problematic.

Speaker 10 (15:34):
And show some malice on their part.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Well, I'm going to tell you something, Fattest.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
I don't know about you, but when I would go
into try case, I would wait until everyone was ready,
and I had a reason for this, the jury. I
wouldn't come in after the jury, that's rude, but I
would wait till the defense was in place, the defendant
made it from jail around, bond was in place, everybody
was stated, why then I'd go in because I did

(16:01):
not want them speaking to me and throwing off my concentration.
Before I went and waited for the jury coming, I
didn't want to think about anything at all other than what.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
I was about to do.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Tunnel vision has to be that way, and I can
just imagine him going to take the podium and going, hey,
here's the divorce papers.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Anyway, back to what happened to Gigi.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
McKelvey, investigative journalists, host of podcast a hit podcast, Pretty
Lies and Alibis. Gigi, I want to get back, not
from the speech that got totally ambushed.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
I want to get to the day he was murdered.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
So he's coming home and what he drives in does
the garage, and the garage goes up and he goes
into the garage.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
What happened then, Gigi, Well.

Speaker 12 (16:57):
We know that Dan was on the phone with a
special school that Wendy wanted to enroll their oldest son,
and so he was actively talking to somebody as this happened.
He told the person on the phone, there's someone unfamiliar
to me in my driveway and he needed to see
who that was. The person on the other end heard
maybe a struggle, heard some loud noises and was asking

(17:19):
you okay, and he could hear groans and so he
tried to call in text and no response obviously, So.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Gig McKelvey, isn't it true that the killer apparently followed
markel into or right behind him, basically trapping him in
the garage.

Speaker 12 (17:40):
That's correct, pulled up to where he would not have
been able to back out or move in any way
or get out of his car without being face to
face with somebody who was going to kill him.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Ron Bitman joining me, former sheriff and Arundel County, Maryland,
former homicide undercover, a narcotics detective, and author of a
crime trilogy, Silent Blue Tears. Ron, this is a hit.
There's no two ways about it. There's no sex attack,
nothing is stolen, there's not a carjack nothing. They come up,

(18:09):
bam right in the head and leave.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's a hit.

Speaker 13 (18:13):
That's an execution, premature, with a malice, the forethought, and
absolutely first degree murder one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Now another thing, Dave Mack joining me, Crime Stories, investigative reporter.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Isn't it true that.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Just before he was murdered, Professor Markel was on the
phone with the wife again basically the only person left
standing that hasn't been formally.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Accused of murder.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
They have been talking that whole morning, and Markel had
left her a voicemail about wanting to talk about the boys,
and she texted him his plans won't work. Then they
argued about when Wendy could get the children.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
She was saying he.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Could keep them a little bit longer and then he's dead.
Isn't that the scenario they're arguing about the children that morning?

Speaker 9 (19:16):
It was a constant discussion between Dan Markel and Wendy
about the children and about when Dan would have time
with them, when he would see them, where he would
see them was a big part of this.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Geography really plays.

Speaker 9 (19:28):
Into this entire case. But yes, Nancy, she kept him
on the phone and distracted all morning.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Okay, guys again, Wendy Adelson has not been charged and
has not been named as a person of interest in
her ex husband's murder.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
She is a lawyer, a very good lawyer.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
She has not been named a.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
POI or suspect.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Okay, what more do we know?

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Listen?

Speaker 9 (19:58):
After the court prevents it's Wendy Aedelson from moving to
South Florida with the children, Adelson's mother, Donna, suggests the
family offer Markel one million dollars to allow the children
to relocate to South Florida. Donna and husband Harvey will
contribute a third. Charlie Aedelson, Wendy's brother, will contribute a third.
Wendy will pay a third. Donna Adelson also suggests telling

(20:19):
Markell that Wendy Aedelson is going to have the boys
converted to Catholicism, knowing Markell and his family are strict
to Jewish faith. Donna Adelson believes the mere thought of
his children being raised Catholic would convince him to let
the boys move to Miami.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Man talk about down and dirty to doctor Sherry Schwartz,
joining us out of this jurisdiction, I might add forensic
psychologists specializing in capital mitigation and victim advocacy. She has
written multiple books, the one Unlike the Best Criminal Behavior
and the other one where law and psychology intersect. Doctor Sherry,

(20:56):
thank you for being with us. Doctor Sherry number one.
Try to bribe Markel the mother he's on trial right
now for having her son executed. The mother in law
literally from the gates of Hell, of course. Oh yeah,
don't be fooled by that right there. We'll just wait
till you hear what we found on those wiretaps. She's

(21:19):
presumed innocent until proven guilty. Doctor Sherry number one trying
to bribe Markel, offering him a million dollars a cool
meal if he would let the boys relocate from Tallahassee
hours away to Miami, He's like, hell, no, I want

(21:39):
to be with my children.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
I don't even want this divorce.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Then, after the bribe didn't work, she allegedly decides to
torture him by telling him he is a devout and
strict Jew. They're going to tell him that they are
having the boys baptized and converted to Catholicism.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Don't you know? He did a backflip.

Speaker 14 (22:09):
Generally speaking, when you're talking about this level of cruelty
where it's very similar to characteristics that we see in
narcissistic parents. It's all about power, manipulation and control, and
when the person, the target in this case, mister Marcall,
doesn't go along with what the narcissist wants, there's a
state of narcissistic rage where they will engage in acts

(22:33):
of extreme cruelty, such as not just bribery, but threatening
that they're going to convert the children to a different religion.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Doctor Kendall Crowns is joining me. Chief Medical Examiner Terran County,
that's fort Worth. He is the esteemed lecturer at the
Burnett School of Medicine that is at TCU, and he's
a star of a brand new hit podcast, Mayhem in
the Morgue. Doctor Kendall crowns, I want you to hear

(23:01):
the trajectory path of the bullet.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
That tore through Dan Markel's face.

Speaker 9 (23:10):
Listen, the Florida criminal law professor was pulling into his
driveway and on his cell phone when he was fatally shot.
The killer was waiting for Markel outside his home in
Tallahassee's been Hills Section, then followed Markel into the garage.
When he opened it, Markell was shot in the side
of the head through the window of his car. The
bullet entered just beneath Markell's jawline.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Doctor Kenvill crowns, I'm having my hot tea, but I
think I need something a little stronger than that. Did
you hear what was just said that the bullet entered
just beneath.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Markel's jaw line. Now, let's think this through.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
So he's driving on the left side of his vehicle,
so it would have been the left jawline just below
it and rips through his face and neck and he lived.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
He lived.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
He was trying to talk say something to the neighbor,
and his head was moving around.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
What happened?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
And how long could he have endured that before he died.

Speaker 15 (24:12):
So the gunshow wound of entrance going under his left
jawline would be you'd have in this area of your
neck the crowded artery, the jugular vein, but if it's
a little anterior it may miss those, then continue through
into the mid section of his neck, which would hit
his trachea, his thyroid, and then continue out the right

(24:32):
side of his neck again possibly hitting the jugular and crowded.
If those two vessels are hit, he's going to survive
for minutes. If those two vessels are not hit, he's
going to sit there inhaling blood through his damaged trachea,
unable to speak because the area could involve his vocal cords,
and then sucking in blood and he could survive for

(24:54):
quite a while with that injury. But if it hits
the made your vessels, he's going to go Wait a.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Minute, what did you say about sucking in blood?

Speaker 15 (25:04):
So if he had, if it hits the trichia area,
it'll it'll cause blood to go into the airway or
mainstem broncos and you'll be sucking in that blood, kind
of gasping in the blood. Not able to talk, but
just making a noise because your vocal cords are damage,
but you're sucking in the blood.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Doctor Kendall Crowns, Do you know what you're saying? Do
you ever think about it? I mean, when I think
about Markel, I immediately think about as two boys, because
one day, whenever they can mentally and emotionally take it,
they're going to find out the details about how their

(25:43):
dad died, and they're going to have to find out
that their dad was sitting in his car, had been
arguing about how much he wanted to see them and
be in their lives and be the primary caregiver, and
then he ends up with this horrendous injury, pain beyond

(26:06):
excruciating to the neck and face, the head, and he's
sucking in his own blood. I mean, do you ever
think about what you're saying or is this like just
a clinical analysis for you?

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, of course I.

Speaker 15 (26:21):
Think about what I'm saying, But the emotionality of thinking
about the individual's life outside of him, of the injuries
that I see at autopsy, I try not to think
about because if I get wrapped up in the emotion
of all of it, I wouldn't be able to do
my job. So in a way, yes, it's very clinical
to me. You ask me a question, I will give

(26:42):
you a clinical answer, describing what's injured, not thinking about him,
his family, the pain and suffering, etc.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
Crime Stores with Nancy Grace.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
After eight days of testimony, the twelve member jury deliberated
for approximately three hours before returning a guilty verdict against
Donna Adelson. She was found guilty of first degree murder, conspiracy,
and solicitation in Dan Markel's death. Adelson is the second
member of her family to be found guilty in this case.

(27:22):
Son Charlie was convicted first to hired killers and to
go between also sentenced. Donna Adelson gasped aloud as the
judge read the verdict. Judge Stephen Everett told Adelson to
control herself as she started to cry, instructing her to
not have any more outburst in front of the jury.
Ruth Markel, Dan's mother, said in her impact statement that

(27:45):
Donna Adelson is a curse.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Back to the facts of the case. Tamara Demco, a
very dear friend of Dan Markel's, was living in Tallahassee
when Dan was murdered. Tamara hardly even know where to start,
but why don't we start with the day of the murder,
what happened.

Speaker 16 (28:08):
I did not find out about Danny being shot until
he had already passed. So the nineteenth of July, I
received an email from a law school friend that said,
I just heard what happened to Dan. Are you okay?
And she knew that I was very close to Danny.
So I went to Facebook and I looked and I

(28:30):
saw the awful news and it was horrifying because he
was shot in broad daylight before noon on the eighteenth
at Friday, I was working two miles down the road
while my dear friend was being murdered, and the thought
was just horrifying. It broke my heart to hear the news,
and it was very.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
Devastating, Tamara, I think you'll agree with me. Women all
over the world, I only wish their husband would take
the children to school in the morning, do the school run.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
I happened to love.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
That's my favorite part of the day. But be involved,
play with the children, do something with the children. And
I mean, I got lucky because my husband does. But
so many women feel that it's all on them. And
here's the guy, your friend, Danny Marcel, who is fighting

(29:30):
tooth and nail for his children, what, if anything, do
you know about his battle with his wife and his
in laws over the children.

Speaker 16 (29:41):
I think you're absolutely right, Nancy, Danny was just so
passionate for life, and he was most passionate about his boys.
He was a real friend, someone who would go out
of his way to see you and to support you,
and he was just a blessing to everyone he met.
But the boys were his life, and he and even
take time out of his schedule to go meet up

(30:03):
with the boys just for snack time. That's the kind
of dad he was. You'd also seen them to sleep
at night and he would play with them. He was
just a wonderful, wonderful dad, and the boys deserved and
still deserved to know him and who he was. The
divorce is very contentious.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Well that's one way to put it, Tamara. I mean,
because did I have those facts right that he goes
he's a professor. It is FSU correct. Danny Markel was
a professor at FSU.

Speaker 16 (30:33):
Florida State University, correct, and.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Was apparently in the academic world, very well regarded.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
He was also devout.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Because Joel Wallman, I'm diverting away from Tamara, but I
want her answer isn't it true that we find out
the mother in law, Donna Adelson, she quit work and
spent her whole cultivating her three children like they were
hothouse plants, going to the right schools, going to the

(31:07):
right camps over the summer, getting this award and that award,
and the whole shebang.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
And I'm not detigrading that, I'm applauding that.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
But isn't it true that she tried to get Wendy
to bribe Danny with a million dollars.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
To give up the children.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Essentially let them move seven or eight hours away to
be close to her, the grandma. And then when that
didn't work, she wanted Wendy to threaten to raise them
as Catholics, yeah, and have them baptized and they were
devout Jews, thinking that would throw them over the edge,
and Wendy, to her credit on that well, ostensibly would

(31:51):
not do it.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Didn't that happen, Joel Waldman.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
Nancy, this just shows you how demented the matriarch Don
Aedilsen is at the wedding. Obviously, prior to all the acrimony,
Dan Markel, as you just mentioned, was becoming more and
more involved in his Judaism.

Speaker 6 (32:09):
He really wanted a kosher.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
Wedding, and lo and behold at the wedding itself, they
pulled all the kosher food. It was something that was
perplexing to the Markell family. They couldn't understand it. They
had friends who are coming.

Speaker 6 (32:21):
Who would only eat kosher food.

Speaker 5 (32:23):
And then as things heated up, and as this to
force got more than working.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, whoa, whoa Joe, Wait, isn't this was this the
big wedding with two hundred guests in Boca Raton.

Speaker 6 (32:34):
Yes, it is two hundred plus guests.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
And it was in the New York Times. You know
how hard it is to get your wedding. I did
not try, Jack, You don't look at me that way.
I was lucky to get it in the Make and Telegraph.
Oh and the headline was something like Grace secretly Mary's
husband converts from that Baptist to Methodist. Okay converts anyway,
something to that effect was in some paper. Long story short,
it was so big it was in the New York Times.

(33:01):
This is the first I've heard that they pull the
kosher food. Who pulled the kosher food?

Speaker 6 (33:05):
This is the Adelson family.

Speaker 5 (33:07):
They pulled the kosher food, and all the guests there,
you know, probably a good portion would only eat kosher food.
So there goes the wedding meal for a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
And I bet Markel threw a fit like nobody's business.

Speaker 17 (33:21):
Nancy.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Yes, Karen Stark's psychologist at Karenstark dot com.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Karen with a C.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Go Karen, go, go go the.

Speaker 18 (33:31):
Mother in law.

Speaker 17 (33:32):
They have given them a wonderful education, but there are
no good values of morality that we're talking about. They
didn't seem to get that at all. What an outrageous story.
You have guests who can't.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Eat, Karen, you do know there's been a murder, so
let's not get too hung up on the wedding. Although
I agree with you that.

Speaker 17 (33:58):
I mean, I know, Nan, but you know what, the
thing that really gets to me the most beside the
murder are the children.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yes, I agree. Back to the children, good, thank you.
Let's get the ship right in out of the weeds
and back on the road. And since we're so much
on the road and we're out of the weeds, Joel Waldman,
isn't it also true that there is a third sibling.
You've got Wendy who was married to the murder victim,
and to this day everyone insists she knew nothing about

(34:28):
the plot by her mother and brother to kill him.
You got Wendy, you got the brother, Charlie, who's convicted
of hiring a hitman to kill his brother in law.
And you've got a third sibling that was in love
with an Indian girl who was Hindu. And the parents,
the Adelsons, threw such a fit. He broke off married

(34:48):
someone that they would accept. That marriage fell apart after
a couple of years, and he went back to his
original first love and they're together today.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Is that right, Joel?

Speaker 5 (35:00):
That is one hundred percent correct. There is just such
thick irony here. And I have to say this because
the podcast is called Surviving the Survivor, because my dear
mother is a Holocaust survivor, and this Jewish grandmother, Donna Adelson,
at one point threatened to have her own Jewish grandchildren
march down the streets in Nazi uniforms. Dan Markel was

(35:24):
too Jewish. Dan Markel was too Jewish, but Rob Aidelson
marrying a non Jewish woman, she was just beside herself,
so they dug their noses into that relationship. Insisted that
Rob Adelson, that now Estrange, son of the Adelson family,
marry a Jewish woman.

Speaker 6 (35:43):
He did for a short time, he was.

Speaker 5 (35:44):
Not in love, and then later he reconnects with this
Indian doctor, this woman, and now he is happily married
and completely disconnected from the Adelson family.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Dave Ehrenberg, I'm having a hard time believing what I'm hearing.

Speaker 7 (35:58):
Yeah, it is is Joel is one hundred percent correct.
They are not going to win Parents of the Year.
There was an article that came out from a supporter
of the Aedolsons, which was a little suspicious because of
the timing. It looks like perhaps it was from a
paid supporter, someone who said he's known the Eedelsons forever

(36:20):
and they would never do something like this. They must
be innocent. But then it was revealed that the author
of the piece hadn't spoken to the Aedelsons in twenty
five plus years, hadn't seen them in more than twenty
five years. So they don't have a lot of defenders
right now, Nancy. And the big question is Donna is guilty.
What's the next shoot of ball? Because I don't think
prosecutors will be done there.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
You may you believe prosecutors are going to go after
the father in law, Harvey Aedelson, who was with Donna
Adelson on his way to Vietnam. Didn't he go, hey,
why are we going to Vietnam? I mean, or why
don't we have a one way ticket to Vietnam? We're
not coming home?

Speaker 3 (37:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (37:01):
And you know what that is.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Yeah, there's that and several of the phone calls that
are under suspicion.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Of course, the fans got in on this. Guys.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
We cannot sign off without talking about the bump. Okay,
which'll get to But his phone, Harvey Aielsen's phone took
a lot of the phone calls around the time of
the murder.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
But you know what, let's bring it home. Let's bring
it home just a moment.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Let's take a listen to our cut to the nine
to one one called listen to this.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
Okay, what's going on with him? I don't know.

Speaker 8 (37:37):
The driver's side window is all bashed in and he's
got blood all over his head.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
To Tamara Demco. She is a doctor, she is a jd.
She is an our n.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
She's a Harvard Law school classmate with Danny Markel. She's
known since nineteen ninety seven. Was at work a few
blocks away when Dan he was murdered. When I think
of this, I know he was brilliant. I know he's
a Harvard law grad. I know he's a law professor,

(38:11):
wrote all sorts of very impressive works.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Of legal acuity.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I know that. But a dad so involved, so full
of life, it's very hard for me to take in
that his own in laws would have him killed.

Speaker 16 (38:27):
Very hard for me to wrap my mind around that too.
I actually grew up in the same town as the Edelshon's,
my family's home a mile away from their home, and
I guess lectured for Wendy Edelson in her law school classes.
It was really something that I did not want to
consider as a possibility, and it's heartbreaking in and of itself.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Samara, of course you were not on Charlie Aedelson's The Maestro,
But now that you were seeing the evidence unfold, what
do you think.

Speaker 16 (39:02):
I think that there was a very concerted effort and
a long time planning. I believe the Adelson's or planners.
I'm very grateful for everyone who's worked hard for justice
in this case, and I firmly believe and hope that
justice will continue to happen, and will continue to seek
it to the point where everyone involved is held accountable,

(39:26):
and that a callous disregard for life and the cold
calculation of the murder is not something that a self serving,
This kind of self serving, premeditated and heinous act should
never be viewed as inconsequential and repeated by anyone. And
that's the just kind of justice that I'm looking for.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Tamara Demko joining us, did you know Donna Adelson the
mother in law.

Speaker 16 (39:51):
I had been to their home in Coral Springs. I
had also been to Wendy's home and Aqua Ridge. And yes,
I've met Donna several times. I've had drinks with her,
I've had dinner. I've gone to high holiday services with
the family as well.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Can you just tell me what she is like, what
Harvey Adolson is like, what Charlie Adelson is like. There
are people, even when confronted with the evidence, and it's
pretty strong evidence, including fifty six thousand dollars in cash
put in the go between account, Charlie Adelson's girlfriend, who

(40:30):
hired her, who arranged for her common law husband and
his friend to do the hit. Her account gets all
this money poured into it. The hit men get money
and Charlie Adelson. Hey, Dave Erinberg and Joel Waldman jump
in if I've got this wrong. There are a lot

(40:51):
of meticulous facts in this case. But Charlie Adelson had
a habit he whenever dealing with cash with staple the
money together. I've never seen that in my life. And
they would get cash stapled together. Is that right, Dave Ehmberg?

Speaker 3 (41:10):
That is correct.

Speaker 7 (41:12):
It's like a fingerprint.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
You know.

Speaker 7 (41:14):
That was a unique thing that only Charlie did. And
for the defense lawyers, they had a problem. How do
you explain that the killers had in their possession of
these stapled stacks of bills?

Speaker 19 (41:25):
How do you explain it?

Speaker 7 (41:26):
Well, Charlie, I think they built his defense around that
where he tried to explain it by saying that he
was the victim of an extortion plot and that's why
he had to pay the killers or else they would
kill him and his family. Of course that didn't make
any sense.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Well then how come he's still alive?

Speaker 3 (41:44):
Well?

Speaker 7 (41:44):
And that's and also don't how extortion works where the
killers go and first murder your enemy and then they
come back and they say, okay, we've killed your enemy.
Now we're going to kill you and your family unless
you pay up. Why not just skip ahead to just
say pay us or we're going to kill you and
your family. So none of this made any sense.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
He hated Dan Markel, correct, Charlie Aielsen hated Dan Markel.
So that's theory is completely fast Awkwards exactly.

Speaker 7 (42:13):
It made no sense and the jurors didn't buy it.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Either, tamoraw dimco back to you, I was asking.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
You what were the Adelson's like, specifically Donna.

Speaker 16 (42:25):
Donna seemed like an involved and loving mom. She was
great to have to chat conversations with, and she was
very proud of her children, very much involved with the
grandchildren as well. I think from the surface level, they
seemed like a normal family. If you were to go
to their home in Coral Springs, there are pictures up

(42:47):
on the wall of the kids. She spent a lot
of time supporting Wendy. There was nothing abnormal on the surface.
I would say that Harvey. Harvey always came across as
a little bit more quiet, but certainly friendly, and Charlie
was very lively. He was always on the go and

(43:10):
enjoyed partying quite.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
A bit, and Dave Ehrenberg joining US Palm Beach County
state attorney and friend of Danny Marcel. He has been
really Charlie. Charlie Adelson has been referred to as thinking
he was James Bond, but in fact he's a periodontist.
What does that mean?

Speaker 7 (43:32):
Well, I'm from South Florida, and as Joel and Tamrek
would say, that's not that uncommon. He loved the fast
life with his ferrari and his fast women and his
clubbing lifestyle and drugs, and he was well known that
he was involved with steroids. And here was a guy
who was a nerd back in high school who then

(43:53):
became this wealthy, flashy, fast living guy who thought that
he could get away with murder.

Speaker 16 (44:01):
And that's the.

Speaker 7 (44:02):
Kind of person who would commit this kind of crime
because people say, why do you think you could get
away with it? Well, when you're hopped up on steroids
and you think that you're smarter than everyone else, Yeah,
you think you're above the law and you wouldn't get caught.
And it took nine plus years for there to be
justice for Charlie.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
And the FBI.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
God bless the FBI, God bless them. Look, I was
a FED for three years. I hate the federal government.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Except the irs. I love you.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Please don't look at me, Joel Waldman, Could you please
explain what I'm talking about? As the bump, Charlie Adelson
would never been convicted are murdering his brother in law
over a visitation with Grandma, and Donna Adelson would not

(44:53):
be in a jail sale up in her seventies trying
to flee to Vietnam right now if it had it
been for wire taps and surreptitious recordings, one of the
most amazing ones that actually worked, Joel Waldman, and I'm
gonna hear from Robert Crispin and doctor Gorniac, renowned forensic pathologist.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I want to circle back to doctor Gorniac.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
On what Danny Markel experienced because when the neighbor came up,
he was still rolling his head around and moving, which
in my mind means he was suffering after he was shot.
Joel Waldman, as it's called the bump. If Adelson's had

(45:39):
kept their traps shut, they wouldn't be in jail right now.
Tell me about the bump as it is called.

Speaker 5 (45:46):
So the bump is now an infamous FBI sting. So
the FEDS got involved once this case started to move
and they thought that the Adelsons were possibly involved.

Speaker 6 (45:58):
So it's interesting bring it up.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
I just did a tour for my podcast to the
location where the bump happened, and it happened to take
place right in front of where the Adelsons were living.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
And it's an iconic, the iconic, the icon yeah, the
icon yes, yes, and it's a.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
Very lavish building.

Speaker 5 (46:15):
I think units started around two million dollars.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
So whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa the icon condo building. The
unit started two million dollars.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
That is correct, Nancy, Welcome to Miami. Yes, and it's interesting.

Speaker 6 (46:29):
This tour I did.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
I was curious to see these different spots. So I
also went by Charlie Adelson's house.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Wait a minute, did you video that I did?

Speaker 6 (46:37):
It's on my website on the YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Oh so we can see. I can't wait to say this. Okay,
go ahead, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:43):
So Charlie's house is nothing like what you would expect.
It's sort of a rundown home right off the highway.
And keep in mind, this is a guy who in
court admitted that he was making three and a half
million dollars a year between twenty fourteen and twenty eighteen.
So that goes back to the James Bond quest because
that is not really the salary of the periodontis.

Speaker 6 (47:03):
But we do know through these.

Speaker 5 (47:05):
Wiretaps that he was illicitly dealing steroids as well. But
back to the bump. So this bump happened right in
front of this Icon building in South Beach. It's a
beautiful area. You can literally this is what's so sad.
You can literally take a stone from where the bump
happened and throw it and hit the school that the
two Markelle children attended, and Donna was on her way

(47:29):
to pick up her grandchildren.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
You may after they killed Danny Markel and move the
children down to South Florida, right that's where they're going
to school.

Speaker 5 (47:38):
And change their name from Markel to Adelson. So these
two young boys are gonna have a lot, a lot
and Nancy, I know, you know this firsthand, a lot
of grieving to deal with and a lot of you know,
understanding about what happened to their family as they become
these young teens that they are.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Now not only changed their last name from Markel back
to Adelson, and the maiden name of the mom, but
took away the oldest son's middle name, which had been
the Hebrew name of.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Dan Markel's grandma.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Right, so all trace of Dan Markel has been removed
from their life.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
It's it's difficult to process, it really is. So this,
you know, this bump happened literally across the street from
the school that they were attending at the time, and
ultimately when they got the uh, you know that video
and audio, there's no doubt that that is, you know,
a big piece of evidence that influenced jurors. And then

(48:36):
there's one other piece of audio from a restaurant, the
so called Dulce Beata tapes that have the little woman
Katie mcbanawa and Charlie Aedelson talking. So it's a combination
of this.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace, Donna Agelson's attorney, and he
portrayed the accused murderous mother in law as a woman
who became too involved in her daughter's divorce and that
led to insults and name calling in so many emails
between family members. But she said that did not make

(49:13):
her a murderer.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
It was not proof.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
Jurors heard from Adelson's oldest son, doctor Robert Adelson, an
ear nose and throat specialist. The mother and son are estranged.
He described his mother as controlling and said she hated
Dan Markell. Adelson, seventy five, did not take the witness
stand in her own defense. After the guilty verdict was read,
Adelson shouted, oh my God, breaking down in tears. The

(49:38):
judge admonished Adelson to control herself, then ordered the jury out,
giving Adelson a two minute break to collect herself.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
This is the trial of the monster in law, the
suspect who ordered the hit, according to prosecutors, to murder
her son in law because he would not let his
children move eight hours away to live. I hear wow,
I wonder why after trying to bribe him for a
million dollars, threatened to indoctrinate the boys in another religion.

(50:09):
A plot unfold. I haven't even gotten to all the
wire taps.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
You're going to totally wig when you hear this. But
let's take a step by step because it can get complicated.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Listen.

Speaker 9 (50:21):
Charlie Aedelson, brother of Wendy Aedelson, uses his girlfriend Katherine
mcbanawad to arrange a murder for hire, using the father
of her two children, Sigfredo Garcia, and his friend Louis Rivera,
to kill Dan Markel. The end result that Wendy Aedelson
can move her two children too South Florida, near her family.
Exactly what happened when Dan Markell was killed?

Speaker 1 (50:44):
What happened when you got to the driveway of Dan markill.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
Right behind him, and of course I jumped out and show.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
How many times did Garcia shoot Mark?

Speaker 20 (50:58):
Mister moyle cole Blood Cold Blood Gig McKelvey joining US
investigative journalist, star of Pretty Lies and Alibis podcast.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Gigi's been on the case from the very very beginning.
Gig Cold What I mean? He just rattled off, how
many times you shoot him? Twice? He doesn't care about
the children, He doesn't care about Markel's family, devastated family twice. Okay,
forget about that. Let me talk to you about the plot.

(51:33):
Let me understand. Wendy Adelson, the mother of the children,
the one that got the divorce.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
The lawyer, Wendy Adelson's brother.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
He decides to intervene and he gets his girlfriend, Katherine
Magbwana to arrange a hit and the hit men are
the father of her chill ldren, Sigfredo Garcia and his
friend Louise Rivera. Okay, there is Catherine Magbonwa and the

(52:10):
father of her children, Sigfreda Garcia and his buddy Luis Rivera.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Tell me how that whole thing went down, Gigi. And
isn't it quite the coincidence? Isn't it odd that everybody
around Wendy Adelson is dropping like flies now her mother
is on trial, but she is unscathed.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Neither person of interest or suspect.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Tell me how this whole thing went down with the
girlfriend with Charlie Adelson's girlfriend. Man, she must have been
a piece of work, because when I think of hit man,
I don't think, hey, I'll ask my husband to get
some of his low.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Life friends to pull off a hit.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
You know, they're not all as in priests and virgins, Gigi,
birds of a feather, you know the rest. So he
thinks his girlfriend can arrange a murder and guess what
she does.

Speaker 12 (52:58):
Yeah, I mean that's essentially what happened. And it was
pretty soon after they started seeing each other at Halloween
party where they're getting in their car to leave, and
he just asked her, hey, do you know anybody that
would hurt somebody? And she said yes and left it there.
And it wasn't until later on when the relocation was

(53:19):
a big issue with Donna, and we're going to hear
that on these wiretap calls as this trial progresses. It
was getting fever pitch. I don't think Charlie cared where
Wendy and the boys lived. He's a playboy making millions
of dollars every year, but it was important to Donna.
And as time went on and Donna got more frantic

(53:39):
and more obsessed with the location issue, he finally went
to her and said, we need to get this done.
That is when she went to her baby daddy, Sigfredo Garcia,
and proposed, would you like to make some money to
take care of somebody?

Speaker 1 (53:54):
And he said yes.

Speaker 12 (53:56):
After that he got his childhood friend, Luis Rivera, who
was the leader of the Miami sector of the Latin Kings,
to come along as a ride along essentially, and that's
where the plot started.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
So Charlie Adelson, aka the Maestro, who is Wendy Adolson?

Speaker 18 (54:17):
Ah?

Speaker 2 (54:17):
There he is? What a fine figure of a man,
vanity plate maestro? Okay, whatever, So how is he making
so much money hand over fishgg how much money are
we talking about? What did he do for a living.

Speaker 12 (54:32):
He's a periodontist, so that's a dental surgeon. Harvey the
father was only a dentist and owned the Adolson Institute,
which is their family dental practice. But Charlie would also
travel around South Florida and do day work at these
other dental offices, and he got paid a lot of money. Also,

(54:52):
the family preferred cash payments as opposed to credit card payments.
Charlie was notorious for having a safe his stacks of one.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Hundred bills in there. But Charlie, Yeah, he was driving
around supercars.

Speaker 12 (55:07):
He had a boat throwing money out left and right,
and he had to.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Meet with a supercar. The last thing I want is
a man pulling up in an expensive car. I mean
a guy pulls up in a Lamborghini.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
I'm like, bye bye. You know what that means to me?

Speaker 2 (55:25):
That means he's having a midlife crisis, or he feels
like he's got to have a really expensive car to
impress people, because obviously his personality and intellect don't cut it.
So not interested. My husband drives a beat up SUV.

Speaker 19 (55:43):
Beat up, totally beat up, and he doesn't care. That's
what I like about him. So this guy, what kind
of car? Is a supercar? Charlie Adelson, I believe he
had a Lamborghini If I recall correctly, it must have
been why I said Lamborghini.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Oh, I could just see him driving up now the
strip in Miami in his Lamborghini Maestro on his vanity.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
So who's doctor Bubner?

Speaker 2 (56:10):
B n E R Who Dave Mac?

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Who's doctor Bubner?

Speaker 2 (56:16):
I noticed that you, Dave Mac keep talking about doctor Bubner,
and I'm wondering why he just love to say Bubner?

Speaker 1 (56:23):
Who is that?

Speaker 9 (56:26):
Doctor Bubner is a Miami doctor who is a breast
augmentation specialist, and he refers to himself first as doctor
Bubner and then of course his patients are so happy
with the results that they in turn call him doctor
Bubner and.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Uh, okay, great, what does he have to do with
this case?

Speaker 9 (56:48):
He's like the missing link in the Dan Markel murder mystery,
if you want to call it that. The prosecutors that
were investigating the case, they actually were able to high
end doctor Bubner. Between Katherin Macbanawah and Charlie Adelson and

(57:09):
that he did Katherine macbanawa's breast augmentation surgery as part
of the payment she got from Charlie Adelson for helping.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
To star's wait stop stop stop stop stop place play
speak no more. Are you hearing this, fattus? I assume, fattus,
you've seen the series of moodies called The Apple Dumpling Gang. Okay,
Scott don Nott's and others in it. Yeah, you need
to see that. I showed it to the children. But
I think the title says it all. So the go

(57:43):
between Katherine mcbanoa, who set up the hit for Charlie
Adelson for his mother or the monster in law got
paid with a breast lift implants.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
I'm so happy right now because.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
That's not hard to trace, right, he paid her with
knee breasts a and me.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
Right right, Nancy.

Speaker 10 (58:08):
But that the key there is Charlie paid her. Charlie
paid her, not Donna. It's not Donna fronting the bill
for this new press. And so what we're talking about
is is certainly this uh you know, code of folks
who are.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Conspiring with one another.

Speaker 10 (58:24):
And then we have Donna Adelson, who, according to the fence,
is just kind of a protective grandma.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Protective mother tried the million dollar bribe. O. Did you
not hear you need to turn up hearing aids? Did
you not hear?

Speaker 1 (58:39):
GJ.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
McKelvey, just say, Charlie Adelson didn't give a flying fig
where those boys lived. He only did it because his
mother drove him insane to do it. He doesn't care.
He didn't have a dog in that fight, no skin
in the game. He did it because his mother would
not leave him alone. He didn't care about the boys.

Speaker 10 (58:57):
But to say that that call this murder for higher
plot is a logical leap that I'm not sure the
evidence has supported yet. And so, uh, you know, I
just think that's a bit of a stretch the prosecutor.
They've already got there pound of flesh with the four
other convictions, and in defense of saying leave this.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
Okay, wait a minute, you're talking about the conviction of
the brother, the playboy, Lamborghini Brother aka Maestro, the girlfriend
with the breastlift, Katherine Maybanoi, the hit man, and his
gang cohort. Those four have been convicted. None of them

(59:40):
care about where the boys live. The only one that
cares is Donna eight oldson. Catherine mcbanoi testifies under oath
about how Charlie Adelson couldn't take a link without Mommy
saying okay, you can go.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
So this was like a regular part of the way
this worked.

Speaker 20 (01:00:03):
Whenever this conversation came up, he yes, we consult his
mother and come back.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
And speak to you, and Jackie is an.

Speaker 9 (01:00:09):
Investigators use an undercover agent to make contact with Donna Adelson.
The agent hands Dona Adelson a press release of Markel's murder,
asks Adelson for five thousand dollars, and provides a phone number.
Investigators intercepted called. Donna Adelson makes to Charlie asking him
to meet with her about paperwork hand delivered to her
outside her condo. Charlie asks if it involves him, and

(01:00:31):
Donna says, probably both of us. Donna says she doesn't
want to discuss this on the phone. Investigators continue to
intercept calls. This time Charlie tells mom not to talk
about things in the apartment. Adelson asked his mother what
the letter asked for. Donna says this TV is probably
about five Charlie asks if they ask for five thousand dollars.

(01:00:53):
Donna Adelson responds affirmatively. Adlson calls Katherine mag Banawa and
explains someone approached his mother. They're regarding her son and
his ex girlfriend and asking for money. Investigators record Adolson
saying to mac Baniwa, my mom doesn't know these guys.
He says, paying someone off is not an admission of guilt.

(01:01:13):
Conversations continue between Charlie Aedelson, Donna Adelson, Katherine Macbanawa, and
Siefredo Garcia, all monitored by investigators.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
You know Eric Fattus's worst nightmare is a wire tab.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Hey or an undercover agent?

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
Eric Fattus, did you hear that an undercover agent approaches
Adolson on the street. He's got a press release or
an article about Markel's murder and says, hey, you owe
me five thousand dollars. I have info on you and
your son.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
What does she do?

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
John?

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Call police? She calls her son.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
And goes, don't talk on the phone and makes us
some crazy jargon to tell him a bribe a five
thousand dollars she has just been put to her and
they go, don't when somebody says don't talk on the phone,
you know it's something bad or don't put it in
writing you don't want to leave a trail, and that's
what she says.

Speaker 10 (01:02:10):
Well, hey, what it could be. It sounds a little
bit like entrapman. It sounds a little bit like government overreach.
It sounds a little bit like Charlie Edelson was involved
in some misdeeds and the government's trying to rope in
somebody who did not have any direct involvement. Look, the
mother may have known that Charlie Adamson did what he
did and may have wanted to talk with him about that.

(01:02:31):
None of that is criminal. And the fact that she says, oh,
it involves both of us, well, she's the one who
received the document and received the bump, which was this
surreptitious encounter. And so hey, look, you know, calling your
son to talk about it is not crime.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
You know what when you say things like Ron Bateman
come out, you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Know, let's school Eric Fattis.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
If it's possible Bateman former sheriff, author homicide undercover, you
name it Bateman.

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
When I hear the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Words don't talk on the phone or don't talk in
the apartment, why not talk in your apartment? If some
guy I don't know literally bumps in to me on
the street and tries to extract five grand from me.
I'm calling police, but neither one of them call police.

(01:03:23):
In fact, they don't talk on the phone all that started.

Speaker 13 (01:03:27):
Let me talk about that for one second. I've been
in those positions. I have been the undercover guy. I
have been the hit guy for a relationship that went bad.

Speaker 21 (01:03:36):
And I was.

Speaker 13 (01:03:37):
The guy on the phone during the undercover call in
this case with a wife, and it is so funny.
And I'm being undercovered narcotics detective for a long time
and got into this role as a hit man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
People always talk on the phone.

Speaker 21 (01:03:53):
They try to talk in code, and I was talking
in code to this one particular lady. It's just so
funny there not as diabolical with their planning of a
murder like people think they should be. I had Maryland's
first life without parole case ever happened, and it was
a contract murder involving a wife and a husband. Totally

(01:04:15):
different case where I was the undercover hitman. But again,
it's just so funny how just things just crumple down
and the worst thing that you can have in any
kind of crime is another person. And if there's another person,
which in this case, there are several they'll altern on
each other, which obviously in this case they have what

(01:04:35):
I call in this case, and I don't know if
I've coined this I it's my own.

Speaker 13 (01:04:40):
Thing or not, but it's relationship terrorism, like that bomb
that was dropped on the husband before he went for
the speaking engagement. And then these guys here, the Garcia
and Rivera. I mean, come on, you think there's no
ring cameras across the street or at the front of
the house. I'm I mean, come on, it's just it's so.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
And now it culminates from the hitmen to the breastlift
as payment for setting up the hit, to the son,
the brother Charlie Adelson, to the mother, Donna Adelson. Now
the only one unscathed is Wendy Adelson, and all of this,

(01:05:26):
according to prosecutors, was for her.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
She says she knew nothing of it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
And speaking of Donna Adelson, she came this close, this
close to getting out of the country and going to
a non extradition jurisdiction, specifically the nam caught at the airport.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
Listen, this is a sweetheart.

Speaker 18 (01:05:54):
Let's go just get away, just get away somewhere, so
we could have sometimes think.

Speaker 10 (01:06:02):
Okay, so your testimony is that you weren't trying to
go to Vietnam because you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Wouldn't be able to be extradited from there.

Speaker 18 (01:06:10):
So my husband actually had said, you know, we've been
to Vietnam before with friends, we run vacation and it
really was like a place of peace. And so he said,
if we go to a non extradition country, then if

(01:06:31):
the law enforcement decided that they wanted to arrest you
or me, whatever both he said, then he said, we
won't be sitting in a foreign prison waiting months to
go back. We could buy a ticket and we could
go home. And my understanding was that I could go
home and I could turn myself in if that's.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
What they wanted. Yeah, that's how it typically does not work.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
You go to a non extradition country and then when
the cops want to arrest you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Just come home. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
That is what we call in the law flight as
evidence of guilt.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
You leave the scene of.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
The crime, or you leave before you can get caught.
Everyone is wondering what else was heard on those tapped
phone calls to gg McKelvey. We have been listening to
Ellie on the stand now going on two days. What

(01:07:33):
did they say?

Speaker 12 (01:07:34):
They pretty much went through a couple of calls, initially
about Wendy, and I think what the prosecution was trying
to do was show that Donna was complaining about relationships
and jobs that Wendy had chosen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
And she was having Charlie do her bidding for her.

Speaker 12 (01:07:51):
You need to talk to your sister, talker out of this,
You need to talk her into this. So I think
the first couple of calls, that's what that was for.
Then we get into those bump calls that we've been
talking about, where there's panic.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
You know, Donna's not wanting to say much.

Speaker 12 (01:08:05):
Charlie notoriously repeats himself in these wiretap calls, but it's
what we're hearing is the absence of the question, which,
ex Girlfriend, what is five thousand dollars? Why is this
random guy handing me some article about Dan on the street?

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
What is going on?

Speaker 12 (01:08:25):
No police called nothing at all except that phone call
right after that, Charlie, we need to have dinner.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
This involves the two of us.

Speaker 12 (01:08:34):
The TV was about five and they have determined over
the course of these wiretaps, TV is code for murder.

Speaker 9 (01:08:41):
Jeffery Lecash was dating Wendy Agelson around the time of
Dan murder and says he felt like he was being
framed as the possible killer. La Casa says Wendy pushed
for details about an upcoming trip to Atlanta on July eighteenth,
when he was leaving direction of travel. Turns out the
killers rented a car similar in color and style to

(01:09:01):
La CAS's gray Nissan Sentra and travel in the same
direction as La Cass as they head out of town.
He also notes he had plans to travel that route
the same morning in June twenty fourteen that the hitman
arrived in Tallahassee during their first attempt to kill Markel.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
JJ mccalveny, joining US investigative journalist, So Wendy Adelson's boyfriend
thought her family, including her, was trying to set him
up to take the fall for the murder.

Speaker 12 (01:09:34):
Absolutely, and he told a story that would support that.
He and Wendy actually were on a break at her request.
She had just got back from a ten weeks day
in Miami, and they met up and she said, look,
you know, I really just want some days alone. And
this is at the time that the actual murder happened.
They met up one last time, and as they're going

(01:09:56):
to their car, she turns and asks him about his trip.
It was happening the next day, Hey, what would cause
you not to go on your trip? Which way are
you going? And he thought it was odd, and so
he goes on about his day and come to find
out both times, the first attempt that happened in June,
that law enforcement did not know about, in fact, until

(01:10:18):
Luis Rivera told them in his profer they ranted a
car very similar to Jeff Lacass's. And I don't think
it's much of a coincidence that on two separate trips
in two separate months, when the killers are in town,
that's when Jeff Lacass scheduled to go out. He would
have taken a route that would have went very near

(01:10:39):
Dan Markel's house about the same time that the two
hitmen would have been fleeing the area after the shooting.
I absolutely think they tried to set Jeff up because
it would be easy. He disliked Dan because he adopted
the Adlesim way of thinking about Dan at the time
he was with Wendy.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
That's what you do.

Speaker 12 (01:10:56):
Sometimes when you're in relationships. So it could have been
the perfect storm for him, but thank goodness he was
able to.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Isn't there other than brainwashing? The boyfriend Dave mac I'm interested,
I'm curious about a conversation. According to the boyfriend, Jeffrey Lacasse,
he says, Wendy Adelson, the mom of the boys, Dan

(01:11:24):
Markel's wife that wanted the divorce and moved the boys away.
Wendy Adelson, according to Lacas, says, and I'm reading it verbatim,
can I tell you something confidentially? Last summer, my brother
looked into all options possible to take care of the
Danny Markel problem, including hiring a hitman, and it would

(01:11:46):
cost about fifteen thousand dollars. Okay. Then there was a question,
is this some kind of joke Charlie Matt and the
boyfriend says, this was no joke.

Speaker 9 (01:12:08):
Jeff Lecash actually has already testified Nancy, and he broke
this all out. Georgia Kapelman when the prosecutors actually was
able to bring this out of him, and she even
went back to, what was this a joke? Kind of
like how Charlie blew off the TV as a divorce
president kind of thing as a joke? And he was like, no,
this is not a joke, because think about it. In

(01:12:31):
contact Nancy, you've got Wendy Adels and volunteering that Charlie
came up with a plan and it would cost fifteen grand.
That's beyond joking. That's not an off handed comment. That
is a very firm I got to get this off
my chest kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
And she did, you know what.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
And I don't care how angry I get at my husband.
If someone said, hey, I'm going to give you a
TV as a divorce present, it's cheaper than a hit man,
they would get a total knuckle sandwich. Okay, But according
to what the boyfriend says, this was no joe. And
let me remind everyone, Wendy Adelson.

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
Has not been charged. She is not a.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Person of interest in the murder of Dan Marcel. Everyone
in our country is innocent. They are presumed innocent until
and unless the state pierces that presumption of innocence with
guilt to prove the incident actually happened and the defendant

(01:13:34):
is guilty. Wendy Adelson, as of tonight, has not been
charged as a suspect or person of interest in this case.
And we wait as justice unfolds for the so called
monster in law, Donna Adelson, Nancy Gray signing off goodbye

(01:13:55):
friend

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
B.

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