227: Insurance Fraud!

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Linda Leedom and Lula Young had been best friends for years. They were like sisters. So when Lula developed cancer, and later died in a fire, Linda was overwhelmed with grief. Then she read Lula’s obituary. She was appalled! The obituary hadn’t referred to Linda as Lula’s sister!! Naturally, Linda confronted Lula’s mother at the funeral. Things got weirder from there. A few days later, someone spotted Lula shopping at the local Wal-Mart.

Then Kristin tells us about Steven Ver Woert, whose murder shocked his family and friends. People weren’t sure who would want the fun-loving, generous man dead. But after a while, Steven’s brother spoke up. Could Steven’s ex-wife, Marty Malone be responsible for his death? Steven’s family had never liked Marty, but they were hesitant to think she was capable of murder. But when detectives knocked on Marty’s door, she acted like a total sketchball.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Too Many Hit Men,” by Gary Boynton for Crime Magazine
I Went Undercover episode, “Flirting with Murder”
Jeff Zeleny’s seven-part investigative series, which ran in 1998 in The Des Moines Register

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Dead Woman Walking” episode Mastermind of Murder
“Woman Manipulated Arsonist Into Killing Her ‘Best Friend’ For Life Insurance Payout” by Joe Dziemianowicz, Oxygen
“From the Ashes of a Friendship, Charges of Fraud and Murder” by Donald P. Baker, Washington Post
“Jury chosen for murder trial” by William C. Bayne, The Commercial Appeal
“State rests in Leedom case; Dunn credibility questioned” by William C. Bayne, The Commercial Appeal
“Linda Leedom v. State of Mississippi” findlaw.com
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