"MONSTER-IN-LAW" DONNA ADELSON LIES TIL BITTER END, LEARNS HER FATE IN COURT FOR MASTERMINDING SON-IN-LAW'S MURDER

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the mother in law from Hell.
The real life monster in law, Donna Adelson learns her
fate in court for masterminding her son in law's murder,

(00:22):
still insisting quote, I'm an innocent woman.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Okay, I'm Nancy Grace.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
being with us.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Monster in law Donna Adelson learns her fate in court
for the murder for hire shooting death of her son
in law, esteemed law professor Daniel Marcel. As you recall
the Florida grandma found guilty of murder just weeks ago.

(00:57):
As she was sentenced in court, Adelson insists she's innocent.
Quote I swear to you on my life, I was
not involved in any way with Danny's murder.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
You know what, Just.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Shut your pie hole, because the evidence pruse you were
very much involved, in fact that you masterminded it.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
And I have.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Spoken to Agar who agrees.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Donna Adelson, the matriarch of an extremely wealthy Florida family,
gets a sentence of life behind bars.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
She deserves that and so much more. And this is why.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Let me just start with our friends at crime Online.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
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,

(02:08):
prosecutors noted that on recorded Jaill 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

(02:30):
no extradition agreement with the United States.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Okay, let me understand this with me an all star
panel to make sense of what we know right now.
But first too, Joel Waldman joining us out of this
jurisdiction in Florida host dom 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 2 (02:58):
The brother in law.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
He's apparently a very well respected periodontist.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
This is the brother.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
In law of the dead husband, the dad, Dan Markill,
the law professor. So 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.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Let's just start.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Why is the mother in law at the airport with
her husband, Harvey, with a one way ticket to Vietnam.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Tell me how that whole thing went down.

Speaker 6 (03:37):
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 is the
middle woman. But just to get back to your original
question about Donna Aedelson, it was on a Monday that

(03:59):
Charles Adelsin, the ex brother in law, was convicted, and
then exactly a week to the day, Donna Adelsin is
arrested at Miami International Airport. And what we've found out
since then is almost immediately after Charlie's conviction, Donna and
her son Charlie were on the phone for thirty five

(04:22):
hours that week.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Good Lord in Heaven, thirty five hours in one week.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Guys, you're hearing Joel Waldman.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
He is a host of an incredible podcast, Surviving the Survivor.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Joel, don't lose any of those thoughts. Dave Ehrenberg is
joining us. PAULM.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Beach County state attorney and friend of Dan Markel also
with me. Tamara Dimco, I've got this. She is a
doctor a jd.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
An Rn. She went to Harvard Law School.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
But aside from all of her ag in 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,

(05:21):
devoted father. He goes out of town, 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, it's her mother
that just got nabbed on a one way taken to Vietnam,

(05:42):
dragging along the father. What did he know Harvey? Is
he just along for the writer? Do he know anything?
Long story short, 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

(06:04):
and murder and you referred to him as the Maestro.
And you mentioned he drives around town in his Ferrari
and his name tag. I mean the license plate actually
says the Maestro.

Speaker 7 (06:16):
Yeah, he is someone who's very self assured.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
That's one way to put it right.

Speaker 7 (06:22):
It was a book by Bob Woodard 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

(06:43):
murder and think he could get away with it.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
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 2 (06:54):
Hello, exactly.

Speaker 7 (06:55):
You know he was so cocksure 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. Used to see the face when he walked
in after a short deliberation, because he knew his goose

(07:18):
was cooked, and.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
He 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 arrased the hit.

Speaker 8 (07:31):
No one want to see address of your emergency application. Okay, come,
exactly what happened?

Speaker 4 (07:38):
We heard it 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.
The window is shattered, and he's moving his head around,
but he's not responding. I've called his name. I asked
what's going on? And I call his name, asking what's happening.

(08:00):
He's not responding to that, but his head's kind of
rolling around.

Speaker 8 (08:03):
Okay, is he conscious? Well?

Speaker 4 (08:06):
I can't tell.

Speaker 8 (08:07):
Okay, is he breathing.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
I can't tell that. I'm assuming he's breathing, if he's
moving his head around.

Speaker 8 (08:14):
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 2 (08:23):
Oh my stars.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
When I hear about the execution style hit on a
loving dad of two little boys, a loving dad devoted
to his children.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
When I hear that, it just pounds it in. He
was alive.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
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

(09:06):
devoted to his family. Hearing that nine one one call
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?

(09:28):
Was he thinking about his children? Will I ever see
them again? Am I going to live or die?

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Let's listen to more of that nine to one one call.
We're going to hear it, just like the jury.

Speaker 8 (09:39):
So you're saying his head is bloody, now, yes, some bloody.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
I mean the window shattered. I don't know if he's
tried to shoot himself. I don't know what the situation is.

Speaker 8 (09:48):
It's the driver's side window, correct, that's correct.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
He's still moving around, So who's alive?

Speaker 8 (09:55):
Okay, looks like I should have an austar coming up
the roadway. Okay, well we need the EMP. Well, 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.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Okay, you'd better be if this guy's got a shot.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
The state alleges she masterminded.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
A paid hit on her own son in law, Howe
and the hey did a mild mannered law professor end
up dead execution style in.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
His own garage, in his own car.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
I mean, he's pulling in home to see his children
and his wife, and bam, he shot dead.

Speaker 9 (10:38):
Listen to this and Markell comes home to find the
house empty, his wife and two boys gone, and divorce
papers 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 Markell says he
doesn't know where his children are much less as seemed
to be. Ex wife Markel claims Atle's and is getting

(11:00):
help from mother Donna Adelson and brother Charles Adolson, keeping
her location secret. Their divorce order is for them to
share joint custody of the children.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
My stars, the whole family is in on keeping the children,
the two little boys, away from daddy. Let me tell
you something, Dave Mack joining me along with Gigi McKelvey.
First of you, Dave Mac, Crime Stories investigative reporter Dave
mac There.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Was never an allegation.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
That Professor Markel beat the children, abuse the children, star
of the children. In fact, if anything, he ejulged them.
He petted them too much. They were his mini mees.
He adored them. So the whole family gets in league
with the wife, Wendy Aidolson to hide the children from

(11:54):
the dad.

Speaker 10 (11:55):
What it is so shocking, Nancy that okay, 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.

Speaker 7 (12:11):
With her children.

Speaker 10 (12:13):
We're talking an eight hour difference between where the where
the Markel's live in the northern part of Florida and
where the Adolson 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.

Speaker 7 (12:31):
Nancy.

Speaker 10 (12:32):
They actually, and I say they, the Adolson family. You
mentioned Dan Markel comes 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 he went on stage.

Speaker 7 (12:52):
They played it out.

Speaker 10 (12:53):
Perfectly, and there was some crowd of damaging him like that.
It was amazing what they did to this man.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Oh my stars, you know, hold on, Gigi. Let me
go to Eric Fattus really quickly. Guys, Eric Fattus, veteran
trial lawyer or TV legal analyst, founding partner Varner Fattest,
elite legal, former felony prosecutor.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
That's important, now, Defense.

Speaker 1 (13:14):
Attorney Eric, when you are about to go to trial,
strike a jury, 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

(13:37):
and watching the jury.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Watch the witness, watch the jury as questioning.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
We take place like a tennis match, because if you
miss one word, one sentence, legal term, you're screwed.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Anything could go wrong.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
And so right before he takes the stage in front
of hundreds of lawyers, that's when he gets hit 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. Faddest you
come home and your children are gone. That is what

(14:15):
happened to him.

Speaker 11 (14:16):
Oh goes. I mean that is going to shake anybody have,
let alone someone who is preparing for a big professional presentation.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
You've got to be on your game.

Speaker 11 (14:25):
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 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. I mean,

(14:47):
clearly problematic and shows some malice on their part.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Well, I'm going to tell you something, Fattest. I don't
know about you, but when I would go into try case, I.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Would wait until everyone was ready, and I had a
reason for that, 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 be it from jail around,
bond was in place, everybody was seated. Why then I'd
go in because I did not want them speaking to

(15:16):
me and throwing off my concentration.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Before I went and waited for.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
The jury comeing in, I didn't want to think about
anything at all other than what.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
I was about to do.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
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. Anyway, back to what happened to
Gigi McKelvey, investigative journalist, host of podcasts A hit podcast,

(15:46):
Pretty Lies and Alibis gg I want to get back
not from the speech that got totally ambushed. I want
to get to the day he was murdered. 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 2 (16:08):
What happened then, Gigi.

Speaker 12 (16:10):
Well, 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

(16:33):
you okay, and he could hear groans, and so he
tried to call in text and no response.

Speaker 13 (16:38):
Obviously, so Gg McKelvey, isn't it true that the killer
apparently followed Markel into or right behind him, basically trapping
him in the garage.

Speaker 12 (16:53):
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 faced face
with somebody who was going to kill him.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
Ron Bateman joining me, former sheriff in Arundel County, Maryland,
Former homicide undercover, an narcotics detective and author of a
crime trilogy, Silent Blue Tears.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
Ron. This is a hit. There's no two ways about it.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
There's no sex attack, nothing is stolen, there's not a
carjack nothing. They come up, bam right in the head
and leave.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
That's a hit. That's an execution.

Speaker 14 (17:28):
Freema, sure with malice. The forefought absolutely first degree murder
one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Now another thing, Dave Mack joining me Crime Stories, investigative reporter.
Isn't it true that just before he was murdered, Professor
Markel was.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
On the phone with the wife.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Again basically the only person left standing that hasn't been
formally accused of murder. 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

(18:11):
won't work. Then they argued about when Wendy could get
the children. She was saying he 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 10 (18:29):
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 7 (18:40):
Geography really plays into this entire case.

Speaker 10 (18:42):
But yes, Nancy, she kept him on the phone and
distracted all morning.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Okay, guys again, Wendy Adelson has not been charged and
has not.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Been named as a person of interest in her ex
husband's murder.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
She is a lawyer, a very good lawyer. She has
not been named a POI or suspect. Okay, what more
do we know? Listen.

Speaker 9 (19:12):
After the court prevents 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

(19:32):
Markel that Wendy Aedelson is going to have the boys
converted to Catholicism, knowing Markell and his family are strict
a 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 1 (19:46):
Man talk about down in dirty to doctor Sherry Schwartz
joining us out of this jurisdiction. I might add forensic
psychologists specializing in capital mitigation and victim advocacy.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
She has written multiple books.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
The one I Like the Best Criminal Behavior and the
other one where law and psychology intersect. Doctor Sherry, Thank
you for being with us, Doctor Sherry number one. They
try to bribe Markell 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.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Oh yeah, don't.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Be fooled by that, right there. We'll just wait till
you hear what we found on those wiretaps. She's 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

(20:49):
away to Miami.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
He's like, hell, no, I want to be with my children.
I don't even want this divorce.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
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 2 (21:21):
Don't you know?

Speaker 3 (21:22):
He did a backflip.

Speaker 15 (21:23):
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

(21:46):
of extreme cruelty, such as not just bribery, but threatening
that they're going to convert the children to a different religion.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Doctor Kendall Crownsey 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
is a star of a brand new hit podcast, Mayhem
in the Morgue. Doctor Kendall Crowns, I want you to
hear the trajectory path of.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
The bullet that tore through Dan Markell's face. Listen.

Speaker 9 (22:24):
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 Beenten 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 1 (22:44):
Doctor Kendall 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 3 (22:56):
Markel's jaw line.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Now let's think this through.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
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.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
And he lived. He lived.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
He was trying to talk, say something to the neighbor,
and his head was moving around. What happened? And how
long could he have endured that before he died?

Speaker 16 (23:25):
So the gunshown 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 interior 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

(23:46):
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 trachia,
unable to speak because the area could involve his vocal cords,
and then sucking in blood and he could survive for

(24:08):
quite a while with that injury. But if it hits
the major vessels, he's going to go.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
Wait a minute, what did you say about sucking in blood.

Speaker 16 (24:18):
So if he hits if it hits the trachea area,
it'll it'll cause blood to go into the airway or
mainstam broncus 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 1 (24:36):
Dodgor Kendal 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

(24:56):
dad died, and they're going to have 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.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Caregiver, and then he ends up with.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
This horrendous injury, pain beyond excruciating to the neck and
the 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 2 (25:34):
Well, of course I.

Speaker 16 (25:35):
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

(25:56):
you a clinical answer describing what's injured, not thinking about him,
his family, the pain and suffering, etc.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace, of.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Course she went down fighting, lying through her teeth to
the bitter end.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
In court, Adelson gives a statement she maintained her innocence
and accused the state of not being able to make
up its mind about who the quote mastermind really was.
I mean, woman, does it never end with you quote?

(26:44):
If I had become aware of this plan before Danny
was murdered, I would have stopped it. What happened to
Danny is unforgivable. But I am an innocent woman convicted
of this terrible crime without evidence. I swear to you
on my life I was not involved in any way
with Danny's murder.

Speaker 16 (27:02):
I was not.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
You know, there's got to be some psychiatric or psychological.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Reasoning behind lying to the bitter end, even though you've
been proving guilty in court. Could you just say I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. I was blinded by rage jealousy. If only
I could take it back. But oh, hbl Inn, she's
gonna lie to the bitter end. Why do I say

(27:28):
she's lying? This is why.

Speaker 5 (27:30):
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. Son Charlie was
convicted first to hired killers and to go between also sentenced.

(27:54):
Donna Adelson gasped aloud as the judge read the verdict.
Judge Stephen Everett told adels And 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 Donna Adelson is a curse.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Back to the facts of the case.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Tamara Demco, a very dear friend of Dan Markel's, was
living in Tallahassee when Dan was murdered.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Tamara, I hardly.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Even know where to start, but why don't we start
with the day of the murder, what happened.

Speaker 17 (28:34):
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

(28:56):
saw the awful news, and it was horrifying because he
was shot in broad daylight before noon on the eighteenth
a 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 1 (29:16):
Devastating, Tamara, I think you'll agree with me. Women all
over the world only wish their husband would take the
children to school in the morning.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Do the school run. I happened to love. That's my
favorite part of the day.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
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,

(29:55):
who is fighting tooth and nail for his children.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
What if anything, do you.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Know about his battle with his wife and his in
laws over the children.

Speaker 17 (30:07):
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 loyal 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 would even
take time out of his schedule to go meet up

(30:29):
with the boys just for snack time. That's the kind
of dad he was. You'd also see 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 was very contentious.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Well that's one way to put it, Tamara. I mean,
because did I have those facts right? He goes he's
a professor. It is FSU, correct, Danny Markel was a
professor at FSU to State University, correct, and was apparently
in the academic world very well regarded, who was also devout.

(31:11):
Because Joel Wollman, 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 life cultivating her three children like they
were hothouse plants, going to the right schools, going to

(31:33):
the right camps over the summer, getting this award and
that award, and the whole shebang.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
And I'm not detigrading that. I'm applauding that.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
But isn't it true that she tried to get Wendy
to bribe Danny with a million dollars.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
To give up the children.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
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

(32:18):
not do it.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Didn't that happen?

Speaker 6 (32:19):
Joel Waldman, Nancy, this just shows you how demented the matriarch,
Donna Aedelson is at the wedding. Obviously, prior to all
the acrimony, Dan Markel, as he just mentioned, was becoming
more and more involved in his Judaism. He really wanted
a kosher wedding, and lo and behold, at the wedding itself,

(32:40):
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 who would only eat
kosher food. And then as things heated up, and as
this deforce got more than working.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Ye, whoa, whoa Joel Wait isn't this was this the
big wedding with two hundred guests in Boca Ratone.

Speaker 6 (33:00):
Yes, it is two hundred plus.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
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 making 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. Lavish, Wait,

(33:27):
this is the first I've heard that they pulled the
kosher food. Who pulled the kosher food?

Speaker 6 (33:31):
This is the Adelson family. 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 1 (33:42):
And I bet Markel threw a fit like nobody's business.
Nancy Yes, Karen Stark's psychologist at karenstark dot com.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Karen with as go, Karen, go go go.

Speaker 18 (33:57):
The mother in law Nie have given them a one 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.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Can eat, Karen, You do know there's been a murderer,
So let's not get too hung up on the wedding.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Although I agree with you that, I mean, I.

Speaker 18 (34:25):
Know nance, but you know what, the thing that really
gets to me the most beside the murder are the children.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yes, I agree, back to the children. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Let's get the ship right and bask out of the
weeds and back on the road. And since we're so
much on the road and we're out of the wage,
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 the plot by her mother and brother.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
To kill him.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
You got Wendy, you got the brother, Charlie, who can
good 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 Adolsons threw such a fit, he broke off married
someone that they would accept. That marriage fell apart after

(35:18):
a couple of years, and he went back to his
original first love and they're together today.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Is that right, Joel Waltman?

Speaker 6 (35:26):
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. Den Markel was

(35:50):
too Jewish. Den Markell was too Jewish, but Rob Adelson
marrying a non Jewish woman, she was just beside herself.
So they dug their noses into that relationship. Insisted that
Rob Adolson, the now estranged son of the Adelson family,
marry a Jewish woman. He did for a short time,
he was not in love. And then later he reconnects

(36:13):
with this Indian doctor, this woman, and now he is
happily married and completely disconnected from the Adelson family.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Dave Ehrenberg, I'm having a hard time believing what I'm hearing.

Speaker 7 (36:25):
Yeah it 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 Adolsons, 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 Aedelsns forever and they

(36:47):
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 Aelsons 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 now, Nancy,
And the big question is Donna is guilty? What's the
next shoot a ball? Because I don't think prosecutors will
be done there.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
You mean, you believe prosecutors are going to go after
the father in law, Harvey Adelson, 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 17 (37:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (37:27):
And you know what that is?

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, there's that and several of the phone calls that
are under suspicion.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Of course, the fans got in on this. Guys.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
We cannot sign off without talking about the bump, okay,
which I'll get to. But his phone, Harvey Adelson's phone,
took a lot of the phone calls around the time
of the murder. But you know what, let's bring it home.
Let's bring it home just a moment. Let's take a
listen to our cut to the nine to one one

(37:57):
called listen to this.

Speaker 8 (37:58):
Okay, what's going on with him? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
The driver's side window is all bashed in and he's
got blood all over his head.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
To Tamara Jimco. She is a doctor, she is a JD.
She is an r N. 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 Danny was murdered.
When I think of this, I know he was brilliant.

(38:31):
I know he's a Harvard lawgride. I know he's a
law professor, wrote all sorts of very impressive works of
legal acuity.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
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 17 (38:54):
Very hard for me to wrap my mind around that too.
I actually grew up in the same town as the Adelson's,
my family's home a mile away from their home, and
I guess lectured for Wendy Adelson 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 1 (39:17):
Samarrah, of course you were not on Charlie Aidelson's the Maestro,
But now that you were seeing the evidence unfold, what
do you think.

Speaker 17 (39:28):
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,

(39:52):
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 he in his
act should never be viewed as inconsequential and repeated by anyone,
and that's such a kind of justice that I'm looking for.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Tamara Dimko joining us. Did you know Donna Adelson, the
mother in law.

Speaker 17 (40:17):
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 have had drinks with her,
I've had dinner. I've gone to high holiday services with
the family as well.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Can you just tell me what she is like, what
Harvey Aidolson is like, what Charlie Aidelson 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

(40:56):
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 al said, Hey, Dave Erenberg and Joel Walman,
jump in if I've gotten this wrong.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
There are a lot of meticulous facts in this case.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
But Charlie Adelson had a habit he whenever dealing with cash,
would staple the money together. I've never seen that in
my life and they would get cash stapled together.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Is that right, Dave Ehrenberg.

Speaker 7 (41:36):
That is correct. It's like a fingerprint.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
You know.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
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? How do you explain it? 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

(42:02):
to pay the killers or else they would kill him
and his family. Of course that didn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Well, then how come he's still alive?

Speaker 7 (42:10):
Well, 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 in
your family. So none of this made any sense.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
He hated Dan Markel, correct, Charlie Aielson hated Dan Markel.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
So that's theory is completely beast awkwards.

Speaker 7 (42:38):
Exactly. It made no sense, and the jurors didn't buy
it either.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Tomorrow, dimco back to you. I was asking.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
You what were the Adelson's like, specifically Donna.

Speaker 17 (42:51):
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
seem like a normal family. If you were to go
to their home in Coral Springs, there are pictures up

(43:13):
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, is
a little bit more quiet, but certainly friendly. And Charlie
was very lively. He was always on the go and

(43:36):
enjoyed partying quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Dave Ehrenberg joining US Palm Beach County state attorney and
friend of Danny Marcel.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
He has been reading Charlie.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Charlie Adelson has been referred to as thinking he was
James Bond, but in fact he's a periodontist.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
What does that mean?

Speaker 7 (43:58):
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

(44:19):
became this wealthy, flashy, fast living guy who thought that
he could get away with murder. And that's the 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

(44:40):
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 2 (44:46):
And the FBI.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
God bless the FBI, God bless them. Look, I was
a Fed for three years. I hate the federal government
except the irs.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I love you. Please don't look.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
At me, Joel Waldman, could you please explain what I'm
talking about? As the bump, Charlie Adelson would never have
been convicted a murdering his brother in law over visitation
with Grandma and Donna. Adelson would not be in a

(45:20):
jail Seale up in her seventies trying to flee the
Vietnam right now, if it hadn't been for wire taps
and shruptitious 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 2 (45:42):
I want to circle back.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
To Dodtor Gorniac 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. Waldman, as it's called the bump.
If Adelson's had kept their traps shut, they wouldn't be

(46:08):
in jail right now.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Tell me about the bump as it is called.

Speaker 6 (46:13):
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. So
it's interesting you bring it up. 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

(46:33):
where the Adolsons were living, and it's an iconic.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
The iconic, the icon, yeah, the icon, yes, yes, and
it's a.

Speaker 6 (46:40):
Very lavish building. I think units started around two million dollars.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
So whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa the Icon condo building, the
unit started two million dollars.

Speaker 6 (46:50):
That is correct, Nancy, Welcome to Miami. Yes, and it's
interesting this tour I did. I was curious to see
these different spots. So I also went by Charlie Adelson's tows.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Wait a minute, did you video that I did?

Speaker 6 (47:03):
It's on my website on the YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Oh so we can say I can't wait to say this, Okay,
go ahead, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (47:10):
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 question, because
that is not really the salary of the periodontis. But
we do know through these wiretaps that he was illicitly

(47:34):
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 to pick up her grandchildren.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
You main, after they killed Danny Markel move the children
down to South Florida, right, that's where they're going to school.

Speaker 6 (48:04):
And changed their name from Markel to Adelson. So these
two young boys have are gonna have a lot, a
lot and Nancy, I know you know this, you know 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 now.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
Not only changed their last name from Markel back to Adelson,
the maiden name of the mom, but took away the
oldest son's middle.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Name, which had been the Hebrew name of Dan Markel's grandma.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Right, so all trace of Dan Markel has been removed
from their life.

Speaker 6 (48:40):
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

(49:02):
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 his combination of this.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Circuit Court Judge Stephen Everett says in court Adelson has
quote an utter lack of remorse for the crime. He says, quote,
you certainly can choose to deny your involvement and maintain innocence.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
The court finds the evidence in this case is clear,
and so did the jury, and this is why.

Speaker 5 (49:47):
Jurors heard from Adelson's oldest son, doctor Robert Adelson and
ear nose and throat specialist the mother and son are estranged.
He described his mother as controlling and said she hated
Dan Markel Alson 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

(50:10):
judge admonished Adelson to control herself, then ordered the jury out,
giving Adelson a two minute break to collect herself.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
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.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Eight hours away to live by her.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Wow, I wonder why after trying to bribe him for
a million dollars, threatened to indoctrinate the boys in another religion.
A plot unfold. I haven't even gotten to all the wire.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
Chaps. You know what. You're going to totally wig when
you hear this.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
But let's take a step by step because it can
get complicated.

Speaker 9 (50:52):
Listen, Charlie Aedelson, brother of Wendy Edelson, uses his girlfriend
Katherine Macmanawad 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 7 (51:15):
What happened when you got to the driveway of Dan
Mark Hill.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Right behind him, and Garcia jumped out and show.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
How many times did Garcia shoot mister Moyle? Cold blood?

Speaker 19 (51:33):
Cold Blood Gigi McKelvey joining US investigative journalists star a
Pretty Lies and Alibis podcast. Gigi's been on the case
from the very very beginning, gg cold What I mean?

Speaker 2 (51:48):
He just rattled off, how many times you shoot? Twice?

Speaker 1 (51:51):
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. Let me understand.
Wendy Adelson, the mother of the children, the one that
got the divorce. The lawyer, Wendy Adelson's brother. He decides

(52:17):
to intervene and he gets his girlfriend, Katherine Magbwana to.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Arrange a hit. And the hit men are the.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Father of her children, Sigfredo Garcia and his friend Louise Rivera. Okay,
there is Catherine Magbonwa and the father of her children,
Sigfreda Garcia and his buddy Luis Rivera. Okay, tell me
how that whole thing went down, Gigi. And isn't it

(52:50):
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. Neither person of interest or suspect
tell me how this whole thing went down with the
girlfriend with Charlie Adelson's girlfriend. Man, she must have been

(53:11):
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 life friends to pull off a hit.
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.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
What she does. Yeah, I mean that's essentially what happened.

Speaker 12 (53:32):
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 a big issue with Donna, And

(53:52):
we're going to hear that on these wiretap calls as
this trial progresses. It was getting fever pitch. I don't
think Charlie cares 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 and more obsessed with the location issue,

(54:13):
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 2 (54:26):
And he said yes.

Speaker 12 (54:27):
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.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
And that's where the plot started.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
So Trulie Adelson aka the Maestro, who is Wendy Adolson?

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Ah there he is?

Speaker 1 (54:50):
What a fine figure of a man, vanity flat maestro?
Okay whatever? So how is he making so much money?
Hand over fishgg how much money are we talking about?

Speaker 2 (55:02):
What did you do for a living?

Speaker 12 (55:03):
He's a periodontist, so that's a dental surgeon. Harvey the
father was only a dentist and owned the Adelson 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,

(55:23):
the family preferred cash payments as opposed to credit card payments.
Charlie was notorious for having a safe with stacks of
one hundred bills in there.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
But Charlie, yeah, he was driving around supercars.

Speaker 12 (55:38):
He had a boat throwing money out left and right,
and he had a supercar.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
The last thing I want is a man pulling up
an expensive car. I mean, a guy pulls up in
a Lamborghini, I'm like, bye bye.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
You know what that means to me?

Speaker 1 (55:56):
That means he's having a midlife crisis, or like he's
got to have a really expensive car to impress people,
because obviously his personality and intellect.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Don't cut it. So not interested.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
My husband drives a beat up SUV, meat up.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
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.

Speaker 12 (56:24):
I believe he had a Lamborghini if I recall correctly.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
It must have been why I said Lamborghini.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Oh, I could just see him driving up and now
the strip in Miami and his Lamborghini and Maestro on
his vanity.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
So Who's doctor Bubner?

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Bob n e R Who, Dave Mac, Who's doctor Bubner?
I noticed you, Dave Mac keep talking about doctor Bubner,
and I'm wondering why he just love to say Bubner?

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Who is that?

Speaker 10 (56:57):
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.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
And uh, okay, great, what does he have to do
with this case?

Speaker 10 (57:19):
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 tie
in doctor Bubner between Katherin macbanawa and Charlie Adelson, and

(57:41):
that he did Katherine mcbanawa's breast augmentation surgery as part
of the payment she got from Charlie Adelson for helping.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
To stop Stop Stop Stop Stop place play speak no more.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Are you hearing this? Fatus I assume foutus. You've seen
the series the Moodies called the.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Apple Dumpling Gang. Okay, it'scot 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 between Katherine MCBADOI who set up the hit for
Charlie Adelson, for his mother or the monster in law

(58:24):
got paid with a breast lift implants I'm so happy
right now because that's not hard to trace.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Right, he paid her with knee breasts A and.

Speaker 11 (58:37):
Me right right, Nancy. But the key there is Charlie
paid her. Charlie paid her, not Donna. It's not Donna
fronting the bill for these new press. And so what
we're talking about is is certainly this uh you know,
code of folks who are conspiring with one another. And
then we have Donna Adelson, who, according to the fence,

(58:58):
is just kind of a protective grandma detective.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Mother tried the million dollar bribe. O. Did you not
hear you need to turn up your hearing aids?

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Did you not hear? GJ.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
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 11 (59:28):
But to say that that cause 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 he leave this.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
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 may Banoi, the hit man, and
his dang cohort. Those four have been convicted.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
None of them care about where the boys live.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
The only one that cares is Donna Adelson. Catherine mcbanoi
testifies under oath about how Charlie Aidelson couldn't take a
link without Mommy saying okay, you can go. So this
was like a regular part of the way this worked.

(01:00:34):
Whenever this conversation came up, he yes, we consult his
mother and come back and speak to you.

Speaker 9 (01:00:39):
And Jack is an Investigators use an undercover agent to
make contact with Donna Adelson The agent hands Donna 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 Charlie

(01:01:01):
asks if it involves him, and 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.
Adilson asks his mother what the letter asked for. Donna
says this TV is probably about five. Charlie asks if

(01:01:22):
they ask for five thousand dollars. Donna Adelson responds affirmatively.
Adelson calls Katherine mcbaniwa and explains someone approached his mother
regarding her son and his ex girlfriend and asking for money.
Investigators record Adelson saying to mac Baniwa, my mom doesn't
know these guys. He says, paying someone off is not

(01:01:43):
an admission of guilt. Conversations continue between Charlie Adelson, Donna Adelson,
Katherine Macbaniwa, and Sigfredo Garcia, all monitored by investigators.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
You know, Eric Fattus's worst nightmare is a wiretap? Hey,
or an undercover agent? Eric Fattis, did you hear that
an undercover agent approaches Alsen on the street. He's got
a press release or an article about Markel's murder and says, hey,

(01:02:13):
you made five thousand dollars, I have info on you
and your son.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
What does she do?

Speaker 8 (01:02:19):
John?

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Call police? She calls her son and goes, don't talk
on the phone and makes us.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Some crazy jargon to tell him a bribe of five thousand.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Dollars she has just been put to her, and they.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
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.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
What she says.

Speaker 11 (01:02:41):
Well, hey, what it could be. It sounds a little
bit like entrapping. It sounds a little bit like government overreached.
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 Adamsonson did what he
did and may have wanted to talk with him about that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
None of that is criminal.

Speaker 11 (01:03:03):
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 1 (01:03:18):
You know what when you say things like Ron Bateman,
come on, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Let's school Eric Fattis.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
If it's possible Bateman, former sheriff, author homicide undercover.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
You name it Bateman.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
When I hear the 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
into me on the street and tries to extract five
grand from me, I'm calling police.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
But neither one of them call police.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
In fact, they don't talk on the phone all that started.

Speaker 14 (01:03:58):
Let me talk about that for one second.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
I've been in those positions.

Speaker 14 (01:04:02):
I have been the undercover guy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
I have been the hit.

Speaker 14 (01:04:04):
Guy for a relationship that went bad. And I was
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. People
always talk on the phone, they try to talk in code,

(01:04:26):
and I was talking in code to this one particular lady,
and it's just so funny. They are 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 different case where I was

(01:04:47):
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.
There's another person, which in this case there are several.
They'll alternal to each other, which obviously in this case
they have what I call in this case, and I

(01:05:10):
don't know if I've coined this, if it's my own
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

(01:05:30):
the house. I mean, come on, it's just it's so.

Speaker 5 (01:05:34):
And now now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
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 according

(01:05:58):
to prosecutors for her, she says.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
She knew nothing of it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
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 Vinam caught at the airport.

Speaker 20 (01:06:24):
Listen, it was this idea, said, sweetheart, let's go just
get away, just get away somewhere so we could have
sometimes to think.

Speaker 11 (01:06:33):
Okay, so your testimony is that you weren't trying to
go to Vietnam because you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Wouldn't be able to be extradited from there.

Speaker 20 (01:06:41):
So my husband actually had said, you know, we've been
to Vietnam before with friends with run vacation and it
was it really was like a place of peace. And
so she said, if we go through a non extradition,
then if the law enforcement decided that they wanted to

(01:07:05):
arrest you or being whatever both.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
He said.

Speaker 20 (01:07:08):
Then he said, we won't be sitting in a foreign
prison waiting months to go back. We could buy a
ticket and we can go home. And my understanding was
that I could go home and I could turn myself
in if that's what.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
They want to do. Yeah, that's how it typically does
not work.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
You go to a non extradition country and then when
the cops want to.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Arrest you, you just come home. Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
That is what we call in the law flight as
evidence of guilt.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
You leave the scene of the.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
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 did

(01:08:04):
they say?

Speaker 12 (01:08:05):
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 and she was having
Charlie do her bidding for her. You need to talk
to your sister, talker out of this. You need to

(01:08:25):
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 (01:08:35):
You know, Donna's not wanting to say much.

Speaker 12 (01:08:36):
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 (01:08:55):
What is going on?

Speaker 12 (01:08:57):
No police called nothing at all except that phone call
right after? Did Charlie? We need to have dinner? This
involves the two of us. The TV was about five
and they have determined over the course of these wiretaps,
TV is code for murder.

Speaker 9 (01:09:12):
Jeffrey Leacash was dating Wendy Adelson around the time of
den 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

(01:09:33):
La cass gray Nissan Sentra and travel in the same
direction as La cass as they had 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 1 (01:09:48):
JJ mcchelvey joining US investigative journalist. So Wendy Adelson's boyfriend
thought her fam including her, was trying to set him
up to take the.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
Fall for the murder.

Speaker 12 (01:10:05):
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

(01:10:27):
to their car, she turns and asks him about his
trip that 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,

(01:10:49):
until 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

(01:11:10):
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 Adleson way of thinking about Dan. At the time
he was with Wendy. That's what you do sometimes when
you're in relationships. So it could have been the perfect

(01:11:31):
storm for him, but thank goodness, he was able to persevere.
Isn't there other than brainwashing? The boyfriend Dave Mack, 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 Markel's.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
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

(01:12:17):
cost about fifteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Then there was a question, is this some kind of
joke Charlie made? And the boyfriend says, this was no joke.

Speaker 10 (01:12:40):
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.

Speaker 7 (01:12:49):
Him, and she even went back to, what.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
Was this a joke?

Speaker 10 (01:12:53):
Kind of like how Charlie blew off the TV as
a divorced president kind of thing as a joke, And
he was like, no, this is not a joke, because
think about it in context, Nancy, You've got Wendy Adels
in volunteering that Charlie came up with a plan and
it would cost you afteen grant.

Speaker 7 (01:13:11):
That's beyond joking.

Speaker 10 (01:13:13):
That's not an off handed comment.

Speaker 7 (01:13:14):
That is a very firm I got to get this
off my chest kind.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Of thing, and she did, you know what, 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 hitman, they
would get a total knuckle sandwich. Okay, but according to
what the boyfriend says, this was no joke. And let

(01:13:37):
me remind everyone, Wendy Adelson.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
Has not been charged. She is not a.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Person of interest in the murder of Dan Markel.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
Don't worry.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Donna Adelson is getting three hots at a cot behind
bars right now, and we're all paying for it. While
she gnashes her teeth and switches her tail, planning her appeal.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
We wait as just as some faults.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
Fancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend,

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Host

Nancy Grace

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"MONSTER-IN-LAW" DONNA ADELSON LIES TIL BITTER END, LEARNS HER FATE IN COURT FOR MASTERMINDING SON-IN-LAW'S MURDER