Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow Part 3

Sandra Bridewell has fallen from grace in Dallas Society.  Shunned by neighbors and most friends in the posh Highland Park community that is home to oil and real estate barons. In Parts 1 & 2 Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow we reveal Bridewell's connection to three mysterious shooting deaths and the stories about them label Sandra, The Black Widow. She flees to the West Coast to escape her scandalous reputation. True Crime author John Leake unveils in his book The Meaning of Malice: On The Trail Of The Black Widow of Highland Park how Sandra Bridewell tries to reinvent herself eventually as a missionary. FOLLOW the True Crime Reporter® Podcast  SIGN UP FOR my True Crime Newsletter THANK YOU FOR THE FIVE-STAR REVIEWS ON APPLE Please leave one – it really helps. TELL ME about a STORY OR SUBJECT  that you want to hear more about

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
-
- Sandra Bridewell has fallenfrom Grace in Dallas society,
shown by neighbors
and most friends in theposh Highland Park community
that is home to oil andreal estate parents.
Her connection to threemysterious shooting deaths
and the stories about themlabel Sandra the Black widow,

(00:21):
she flees to the West Coast
to escape her scandalous reputation.
True crime author John Leeunveils in his book, the Meaning
of Malice, the BlackWidow of Highland Park,
how Sandra Bridewell tries toreinvent herself eventually
as a missionary

(00:42):
- De magazine.
It's our local glossymonthly magazine about events
and gossip and events.
In Dallas De Magazine in May
of 1987, did a cover story
on the Black Widow.
So by then, she's given that moniker,

(01:05):
the Black Widow, that d magazine
cover story, which is published a year
after Sandra left Dallas, was a sensation.
- The Black Widow storywould've gone viral,
but this was the pre-internet age.
But someone started pumping out copies
of the story on their fax machines to

(01:27):
wherever Sandra Bridewellshowed up in the Bay
area of California.
- So Belvere is an upscale, affluent
community just on the northside of the Golden Gate.
The San Francisco Yacht Clubis actually in Belvedere on the
north side of the Golden Gate.

(01:48):
Sandra's taken up residencein Belvedere in an apartment
next door to the Yacht Club.
She's ingratiated herself
with this affluentsociety in Marin County.
These de magazine copiesstart showing up at the homes
and offices of prominentpeople, and the signal is clear.

(02:08):
Be very, very careful with this lady,
- But all these wealthy menare loaning her money. Yeah.
- She's gotten back intothe borrowing money from
married men,
- Tens of thousands of dollars.
- The two men that came forward,
and their wives werefully cognizant of this,

(02:32):
and even supportive
of the husband's decision to come forward.
Said that one. Okay.Remember, this is 1986.
Okay? So a dollar wenta lot further back then.
I think one guy said thatshe'd gotten about 30 K out
of him, 30,000.
The other guy, she'dgotten $76,000 out of him,

(02:57):
and they claimed that she asked
for this money as a loan
after they loaned her the money.
She then said, well, thankyou for your generosity.
I think I'll be moving on my married way.
And then when, when themen then said, well, no,

(03:17):
wait a minute, that that,what are you talking about?
That was a loan. She said,
I don't know what you're talking about.
Why didn't you discussthis with your wife?
These two guys concluded they didn't want
to be pushed around like this.
So they told theirwives what had happened.
The wives forgave them, let's say,

(03:39):
or decided that they were goingto stand by their husbands,
even though their husbands had made these
indiscreet decisions with Sandra.
So those were two civil cases that added
to the fact pattern.
This is what she does.
She befriends, let's say, married men.

(03:59):
She borrows money from them,
and then she doesn't pay them back.
Now, I believe those two guysthat came forward are the tip
of the iceberg, and
- It's a classic romance scam.
So where to then, uh, they're figuring out
who she is out there.
- So now we're getting intothe section of my book.
I title it, wandering Spirit.

(04:20):
She becomes a wanderer, a a, a drifter.
She, she leaves the Bay Area.
She turns up in Tucson, Arizona.
And then through the veryexcellent reporting of
an investigative journalist inDallas named Glenna Whitley.
You know, now we're gettinginto this era of Sandra,

(04:41):
or wandering around, but akind of heightened awareness.
So Glenna starts getting calls from people
from different partsof the country saying,
I've encountered this woman.
She's in Tucson for a while.
She then circles back to the Bay Area.
She goes to the South Bay,to Palo Alto in the heart

(05:04):
of Silicon Valley.
She lives there for a while,
and then in the early nineties,she changes her persona.
She seduces a married man in the Bay Area.
She claims she's pregnant.
He is trying to figure out a way
to manage this with his wife.
His wife says, well, okay,you've suffered the relationship

(05:27):
with her, but you know, I I don't trust
that you'll stay away from her.
So what he, the arrangementhe makes with Sandra is
he moves her to Boston
and he rents an apartmenton Boston's Beacon Hill,
and that's the arrangementshe's gonna be on the

(05:48):
other side of the country.
Okay. At that point, I found evidence
that Sandra develops aninterest in religion.
Okay, so now she's crossedthe threshold of 50,
or getting into the early nineties.
Yeah, 1994.

(06:09):
She's 50 years old,
and she develops an interest in
Christian, the Christian religion.
Now, she'd already demonstratedan early interest in this
when she was a member
of the Highland ParkPresbyterian Church congregation,
but now she really gets into it.
She actually receivessome ministerial training

(06:31):
and starts introducingherself as a minister
and as a missionary.
And this is a whole notherchapter in the story
of Sandra's adventuresas an apparent minister
and Christian missionary.
- And she says she was amissionary in India, China.
- People would occasionallyencounter Sandra on

(06:54):
an aircraft, you know, in an airport,
just random encounters ina coffee shop, wherever.
And she proclaimed
to be a Christian missionaryin the United States in
between missions.
So she claimed she was often in, in Africa
or India, doing the work of the Lord as,

(07:15):
as a missionary looking
after the, the needy, the,
the undernourished likeChrist himself tending
to the sick and the poor.
And people found this very compelling,
and she knew the Bible very well.
- And she meets a man at achurch conference in Colorado.
Now she's changed her name.

(07:35):
Now she's Camille, whichwas the name of her mother,
first name of her mother.
But, uh, , uh, she
marries this person, whirlwind romance,
and then he's leftholding the bag for money,
- Right?
So this is her fourth husband.
And, and I think that he was a man
that was genuinelyseeking spiritual renewal.

(08:00):
His, his, his firstmarriage had not worked out.
And so he, he attends ministerial training
Institution, and they had this seminar in
Colorado Springs.
And so he's doing this sort
of ministerial apostolictraining at this institute,

(08:21):
and he meets this woman whointroduces herself as Camille,
and he's genuinely moved by her
apparent embrace of the Holy Spirit.
First of all, her, her knowledge
of particularly the NewTestament is just astonishing.
And she seems to be, as heperceived her, sort of burning

(08:44):
with the spirit of, of God.
So he marries her,
and the way he describesit, as soon as they married,
I mean, on their weddingnight, her personality seems
to undergo a radical change.
The the sort of sweet Christianlady turns into very quickly
what he perceived to be in his own words.

(09:06):
These aren't mine, uh, uh, like a witch.
And he quickly comes to wit,
and she's taken out a bunchof credit cards in his name.
She's never there.
She's doing all of this,traveling to Tony Resorts
and spends all of his money
and steals his gold coincollection, steals his car.

(09:26):
I mean, he, it's like he justdoesn't know what hit him.
Now, what I think isastonishing about the story is
he had traveled to ColoradoSprings from San Antonio.
His home is San Antonio, Texas.
He's never heard anythingabout this woman. Mm-Hmm.
. So it's a hugeshock to him to discover,

(09:50):
you know, you're notthis lady's first rodeo.
He gets the marriage an old and, and,
and escapes from thisthing. He's dead broke.
- Yeah. She sticks him with what, $150,000
and charges on his credit cards. Correct.
- And, and he was very proudof his gold coin collection.
She, she decided to take thatalong with his Ford Explorer,

(10:12):
and none of that propertywas, was ever seen again. So
- Then there's an encounteron a flight with a missionary,
and she's Camille.
Now, Sandra Bridewell is
claiming she's backfrom a mission overseas.
Where does, where does this lead now?
- She lands in San Francisco.

(10:33):
She, you know, it's not, it's funny.
She off oftentimes circlesback to the Bay Area.
This lady with whom she'ssitting on the plane lives in
Santa Rosa, which is north,just north of Marin County.
And Sandra is talking to the lady.
She says, I'm headed back to San Francisco
after my last mission.

(10:53):
And she says, well, where do you live?
And the lady says, I live in Santa Rosa.
And Sandra says, oh, really?
I'm on my way to Santa Rosa,
but gee whiz, turns out Idon't have a place to stay.
I'm meeting with somepeople in Santa Rosa,
but I haven't yet organized accommodation.
So that quickly lands her in a church
congregation in Santa Rosa.

(11:14):
She meets an elderly man.
He's really, at the end ofhis life, he's on dialysis.
I mean, he's not in good shape,
but Sandra makes the casethat she could be a caretaker
of this elderly man.
His wife who's initially gratefulfor the, for the home care

(11:34):
quickly realizes there's somethingstrange about this woman.
She seems to be tryingto ingratiate herself
with my husband, who has an estate,
and who's at the end of hislife that turns into a rupture
with, with the elderly man's wife.
But by then, he's alreadybeen pretty charmed by Sandra.

(11:57):
A a a conflict develops the Santa Rosa
Sheriff's Department gets involved.
They report Sandra to, um,protective services of some sort
of adult protective agency.
And they tell her, youknow, you're gonna have to
back off from this family.

(12:18):
She's not arrested for anything,
but it's an important momentin terms of law enforcement.
Sheriff's Deputy writes anincident reports saying,
law enforcement shouldkeep an eye on this lady.
He says, I don't think she'sa minister or a missionary.
I think that she is con artistwho seeks elderly people

(12:40):
with an estate in orderto ingratiate herself
and to obtain access to the estate.
So I have that incidentreport. Sandra then disappears.
Okay, so this is California, right?
She turns up again a fewyears later in North Carolina.

(13:05):
She's introducingherself to elderly people
as Camille Bowers.
So now she's really changed her name. And
- Does she at this pointresemble like a bag
lady she's carrying around? She had boxes.
- She does, her circumstanceshave obviously diminished
considerably from when she wasa socialite in Highland Park.

(13:29):
She looks, first of all, she's very thin,
but in a kind of fascinatingway, it almost adds
to her saintly appearance.
She almost looks likean acetic saint Mm-Hmm.
the wayshe's presenting herself.
But yes, people observed.
She seems to be carryingaround sort of tattered bags
and worn out old suitcase.

(13:50):
But she says, I'm a Christian missionary
and I'm in between missions to Africa.
I could use a place tostay in the interim.
So she and Grace, she answers herself
with an elderly lady inSouthport, North Carolina,
a lady named Sue Mosley.
- Mosley was an affluentelderly woman who lived alone

(14:11):
and had serious health problems.
The Good Samaritan took inBroadwell, who professed
to be an itinerantminister in missionary, who
quoted the Bible chapterin inverse Bridewell,
who used the alias.
Camille Powers helped withthe shopping and cooking.
Once she had won Mosley'strust, she stole her identity.

(14:34):
Bridewell got caught trying
to transfer Mosley's monthlysocial security check
to her bank account.
Jane Todd, a North Carolinasheriff's detective
who investigated the case,said Bridewell was a psychopath
who moved in on the elderlyMs. Mosley, like a predator.
The detective said, quote all

(14:55):
that business about being a good Christian
and a missionary tendingto the needy of the world.
That was just a lie. No doubt.
She was the evilest personI've ever encountered.
In 2007, Sandra Broadwellfinally had a day of reckoning

(15:17):
with a criminal justice system.
In the case of the elderly, Ms. Mosley,
while awaiting trial on federal charges
of aggravated identity theft,
John Leak interviewedbroadwell behind bars.
- The voluptuoussmoldering, femme fatal had,
had been replaced by aslightly gaunt looking.

(15:39):
And, and her, her demeanorwas very dignified.
She had this erect posture.
She made direct eyecontact, kind of had this
dignity about her, which I, I found,
I couldn't quite put my finger on it,
but I found it very interesting.
And, but clearly either through her own

(16:01):
wits or her attorney, youknow, told her, don't talk
to anybody about any of this.
I could not get her to tell me anything.
- Bridewell AKA SandraCamille Powers pleaded guilty
to federal charges ofaggravated identity theft.
In 2008, she served twoyears in a federal prison.

(16:22):
While behind bars, shebecame a prison pen pal
with a North Carolina minister,
- A church minister
or pastor in a ruralcounty of North Carolina,
for some reason, has taken a fancy to
Camille Bowers, as heis still calling her.

(16:43):
He persuades the prison system that
upon being released fromher federal sentence,
he will look after her.
She can work for hischurch and his charity.
You know, during herprobationary period where she has
to remain in NorthCarolina, she then charges

(17:06):
a very large Victoria Secret
lingerie purchase on thepastor's credit card.
And, but he's too embarrassedby this to actually,
he told the sheriff's deputy,
but he stopped short
of filing a formal report with a statement

(17:28):
- In the wake of the federalidentity theft conviction.
Oklahoma City prosecutorsreopened the homicide
investigation of Alan Reig,Bradwell's third husband.
The grand jury declined to indict her.
Broadwell then turnedup in Vermont, offering
to bail out a farmer who was in financial

(17:50):
by purchasing his herd offleece bearing alpacas.
- And she says she'sinterested in purchasing
his alpaca herd.
She says that she hasexperience in animal husbandry
because her first husbandwas a thoroughbred
racehorse breeder.
And she would likes rural living,

(18:10):
likes living on a farm, likes animals.
So she answers the Craigslist ad.
A whirlwind romance ensues.
And it's yet another saga in this story.
He, like others in theinternet age, begins
to think, well, there'ssomething odd about this woman.

(18:32):
He does a Google search for her alias,
and she gets this, he gets this hit,
and he realizes she's done time in a
federal pen in North Carolina.
And the story unfolds from there. But she,
- Uh, she tells him she's hada, she's pregnant, correct?
Back to the same old
- Scam.
Correct. She, she says, oh,
and by the way, I'm pregnant now.

(18:54):
He doesn't know her age.
He assumes that she's in her fifties.
She still looks like an attractive woman,
but he, nevertheless, hisparents are both doctors.
He thinks she's too old to get pregnant.
Now, unbeknownst to himat the time she claims
to be pregnant, she'sactually in her late sixties.

(19:15):
I, I think she's 66 mm-Hmm. .
Later upon discovering her trueage, he realizes that that's
rather absurd claim.
- The Vermont farmercut off the relationship
and Sandra Bridewell faded away.
There was a recent sighting

(19:36):
of her at the Boston Logan Airport.
Lee obtained a heavily censored FBI report
that raises questions.
If Bridewell had allegedlybeen involved in cocaine
smuggling, international arms trafficking,
and with an accomplice in themurder of her third husband,
now 80 years old,

(19:57):
Sandra Bridewell wants acelebrated Dallas socialite
continues to be a figureshrouded in mystery and intrigue.
She's a woman of many faces,murder, suspect, seductress,
romance scammer, saintly, missionary,
and convicted identity thief.

(20:17):
Sandra Broadwell enduresin the public imagination
as a mysterious princess of darkness.
This is Robert Riggs reporting.