00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid it's morbid in the
00:00:27
morning it is how are you over there gel I'm good you swell I'm swell you have a
00:00:34
nice sweater on today I do I have a sweater on I have plaid pants on Sweater Weather Sweater Weather Sweater Weather
00:00:42
it's nice sweater weather over here it's nice sweater weather I know we're hitting that nice November Chilly Willy
00:00:49
air yes it's the time of year when my uniform is leggings high socks and a big old crew neck it's the best time of year
00:00:56
it's the most wonderful time seem to be comfy precisely that's how the song goes
00:01:04
yeah I feel moderately unhinged today I like that yeah I think we all do who doesn't amongst us honestly if you don't
00:01:11
there's the door Shannon bador just kidding I love Shannon bador um we have some exciting news to share with all of
00:01:17
you guys we are doing another culture fly box if you remember um I believe it was last year that we did the last one
00:01:23
and you guys loved those so we said honey let's do another honey honey why don't we do another one of those so this
00:01:29
one is very cool it's available for pre-order right now on the Wonder shop um there is a t-shirt there is a little
00:01:39
pop socket there's a little speaker there the speaker is so cute the speaker is adorable I love it there's like
00:01:45
little um ear pods and there's an LED candle so that's exciting you can change the colors of it it's a little it's like
00:01:54
Cathedral looking it's very cool the the aesthetic aesthetic yeah yes so that is
00:02:00
available for pre-order right now on the wry shop um and I think they're starting
00:02:05
to ship out on December 6th so yeah go which is the best month because cuz you Bor that month and we got Christmas on a
00:02:16
but my birthday and Hanukkah my birthday and your birthday number one number one yay he
00:02:25
was number one you won't get that because you don't watch SpongeBob um yeah so I think that's all the bit
00:02:33
nasty we got you got anything to talk about um no I well this is just like a little side note uh John and I watched
00:02:41
trap the other night for fun and how was that guys watch trap just for the fun and how just it's I did I wasn't
00:02:50
thinking everybody was being like totally truthful when they said that it was just a concert but they were it's a
00:02:59
concert it's a concert it's a concert it's like the um it's ight Shaman's daughter who is like the oh here's the
00:03:06
thing she's great good voice she she's beautiful amazing voice she plays instruments and [ __ ] like she's very
00:03:12
talented [ __ ] Trifecta um didn't sign up to watch her whole concert though so didn't buy tickets to a concert to your
00:03:18
knowledge it is a Wy movie John and I were like it was that a fever dream I've heard some interesting reviews it goes
00:03:28
crazy yeah my cousin went to see it in theater he's my cousin your nephew and um he came back with not quite a rave
00:03:35
review yeah I was shocked it was not a good movie uh but it was but it was one of those like that you just can laugh
00:03:42
the whole time what's going on remember the village that's the thing he he Nails
00:03:46
it a lot but this was not one of those times no uh and that's okay we can't all you know about a thousand I them all but
00:03:55
I will say Josh hartnet in it oh honey Josh Harnet he is a snack would have play if had he been given an actual
00:04:04
character to play he would have played it flawlessly like he I could see like when he had little moments of being able
00:04:10
to play this like scary serial killer yeah you were like oh you would en nailed that like he would have eaten it
00:04:17
up okay but he didn't get a lot he didn't get that I just whenever I think of him I think of him in 30 Days of
00:04:23
Night yeah he's great in that I love him in 30 Days of Night oh the end of that movie will literally make me SOB that oh
00:04:30
that movie that's a great movie that movie we covered it on scream like probably a few months ago at this point
00:04:37
maybe last year I don't really yeah it was my pick right yeah it had to have been last year at this point cuz I think
00:04:41
it was cold out when we covered it was it really yeah whoa uh but yeah that's a great [ __ ] movie Josh hartnet is
00:04:48
great um trap is not great but go watch it watch it anyway um but uh yeah and we
00:04:55
and we just covered a good movie on screen good mov if you're looking for something to listen to that's just kind
00:05:00
of like light-hearted and fun uh we covered fresh on scream it was Ash's pick that movie is so good it came out
00:05:07
in 2022 it only came out on Hulu I feel like that movie should have had like a box office release I feel like it should
00:05:14
have a re-release to be quite honest I feel like it needs a theatrical release that movie is [ __ ] great especially
00:05:20
right now I'm like damn you should release that let's can we can we like get to it's one of those movies I was
00:05:25
shocked by how much I like this movie yeah I made John watch it and he loved it too I know I was happy that to hear
00:05:30
that he also I had a feeling he would love it but I'm telling you if you guys have slept on Fresh wake up go watch
00:05:36
fresh and let's get it I I feel like it needs way more attention Sebastian Stan in that movie holy [ __ ] um Daisy is it
00:05:44
edgers Edgar Jones Edgar Jones um she [ __ ] phenomenal like and I think it's Mimi cave who directed it cave I was
00:05:52
like holy [ __ ] Mimi cave it was her directorial debut yeah my mind yeah crazy BW my damn mind so that's just
00:05:59
that's my um go watch one for fun and one because it's a [ __ ] Kickass movie oh and then just really quickly I don't
00:06:06
I think maybe I mentioned it briefly but go listen to or not listen to go watch um woman of the hour it was an
00:06:12
Kendrick's directorial debut and I thought that movie was really good it's gotten great
00:06:17
reviews people didn't quite enjoy it but I really really loveed it really I haven't watched it yet so I won't tell
00:06:22
you if I like it or not but yeah go watch it I'm interested tell you that much yeah all right but yeah that's just
00:06:27
a little uh recommendation recommendation Corner yeah I love that I love movies yeah even when they're not
00:06:34
great oh my God wait hold on oh my god did I finally get this hold up I think remember this morning I walked into you
00:06:42
and I said do you ever get one of those tiny little eyelashes in your eye and you can't find it and it just is
00:06:47
stabbing you I I think I might have just got it look at you oh wow that was a relief W you can see clearly now the
00:06:53
Lash is gone is she hold on what the [ __ ] I oh it wasn't even it's on my fingernail now it was like a little tiny
00:07:02
piece of hair the tiniest little piece sorry everybody that was really bothering
00:07:07
me so let's get into it that was like OG like yeah just trailing off OG Trail off it really was leave it in let's get
00:07:17
on with it though we've got a story to talk about today I found this case really
00:07:22
interesting um and I think you will too I'm excited is this is unfortunately a murder it is the murder of Cheryl piler
00:07:29
but lots of moving pieces in this case and it starts uh a little before midnight on April 20th
00:07:35
1968 a man named John Miller and his wife got home to the castian apartments in Burbank California parked their car
00:07:43
they were just going to walk you know from the car inside finish their night but as they were walking to their
00:07:49
apartment they noticed their neighbor 22-year-old Cheryl praver sitting in her car with the engine running and the
00:07:55
headlights still on so they were like what's going on with her over there h so they approached the car to go check on
00:08:00
Cheryl who they found sitting in the front seat barely conscious eyes closed gasping for air and bleeding heavily
00:08:08
from her head and chest oh jeez so the Millers ran inside to call the police who arrived a short time later and as
00:08:15
they waited for the paramedics uh Mr Miller looked at his watch and it was exactly 11:30 p.m. it turned out that
00:08:22
Cheryl had been shot twice in the head just above her left ear and she also had one large wound across her chest which
00:08:30
the coroner would later suspect happened when she actually tried to push the barrel of the gun away as it was fired
00:08:36
there were also 7/2 inch gashes on her forehead and on the top of her head that were made by by a blunt object possibly
00:08:45
like the butt of a pistol so somebody was like beating her and had shot her multiple times Jes her face and her head
00:08:51
were absolutely covered with blood which had also pulled in the driver's seat and
00:08:56
on the floor of the car so paramedics arrived to the scene they rushed Cheryl to the Burbank hospital but the
00:09:02
attention that she needed went Way Beyond the capabilities of Burbank hospital so they ended up having to
00:09:08
transfer her to the Los Angeles County hospital but she unfor unfortunately died as she was being prepped for
00:09:14
surgery she almost lived holy [ __ ] which I so I wish she had anyways but I so wish that she had because there is some
00:09:22
unanswered questions when it comes to this case interesting but by the time detective Lieutenant Dave McIntyre
00:09:29
arrived to the Castilian Apartments the other residents of the building had all assembled into the parking lot to say
00:09:34
like what the [ __ ] was going on to see what was happening upon his first surveying of the scene he noticed a 32
00:09:40
caliber automatic pistol lying on the passenger seat that didn't appear to have been fired and inscribed on one
00:09:46
side of the barrel was the word love and the other Paul so love Paul which was a
00:09:52
reference to Cheryl's husband of only 7even weeks Paul periler the gun was loaded with five rounds all Al on the
00:09:59
front seat was Cheryl's purse which had $35 in it which today would be a little more than $300 which is [ __ ] insane
00:10:06
yeah to think that $35 back then is worth 300 today but on the floor of the driver's
00:10:13
seat investigators also discovered two uh 25 caliber shells and outside the car toward the right the rear right tire
00:10:21
they found two unfired 25 caliber rounds as well now this struck them as particularly strange because Cheryl had
00:10:28
been shot from the left side of of the vehicle meaning that at some point her killer had stood by the other side of
00:10:34
the car probably reloading or loading the gun which is just kind of strange yeah as far as McIntyre could tell if
00:10:42
this had been a robbery or like even an attempted car jacking it had obviously gone terribly wrong the shooter had not
00:10:48
only left a ton of money in the car but had also left the car itself which was a
00:10:52
really nice car it was a 1968 so new yellow Jaguar worth obviously a lot of money yeah and the other thing was the
00:11:01
attack would have been really violent for an attempted robbery like if the killer was only trying to get away any
00:11:08
one of Cheryl's wounds that she sustained would have given them a sufficient opportunity to dip and like
00:11:13
run out of the scene so mag Andy and several other investigators fanned out across the lot to interview neighbors
00:11:19
and they started with John Miller and John Miller was a part of the couple who had first found her mhm he explained
00:11:25
that he and his wife had just got home you know walking to their apartment and they saw Char's car with the engine
00:11:30
running the radio playing and the lights on and actually at first they didn't think anybody was even in the car they I
00:11:35
think they just heard the music and saw that the car was on and the closer they got he realized that Cheryl was in the
00:11:41
front seat and he was like she was sitting in a really strange position and then he said he could hear a quote
00:11:46
terrible sound a low guttural moan oh cuz she's like I'm pretty sure like choking on her own blood oh that's awful
00:11:53
so after calling for help he ran to another neighbor Larry uh I think it's buard his apartment and said come and
00:11:59
help the girl in 17 has been beaten up real bad and to his surprise that neighbor responded by saying you mean
00:12:05
she's been shot which just like I'm sorry what what why would you assume that well when they questioned the other
00:12:11
neighbors investigators were quite surprised to learn that multiple neighbors heard gunshots but not one of
00:12:18
them called the police what the [ __ ] not one of them we see this so often it's
00:12:24
crazy Larry Bard explained that he'd been in his home uh in his living room a little after 11: p.m. when he heard what
00:12:30
he thought was a gunshot and then a few moments passed and he heard two more cuz
00:12:34
remember she was shot three times you hear three gunshots uh detectives presumed that the
00:12:40
first shot caused the wound to Cheryl's chest and the other two gunshots were to
00:12:44
her head one of the neighbors looked out his window after hearing the shots as well and he said what he uh described as
00:12:50
a man of average height and weight wearing a wh- hooded sweatshirt but he never got a look at the person's face
00:12:56
otherwise no one had seen anything in the crime was not really offering much up for clu what the [ __ ] so they were
00:13:02
like what where do we start here what is going on so while officers continued to
00:13:06
speak with the residents of the castian apartments which I guess you would never
00:13:10
want to live amongst any of them can you imagine yeah all of your neighbors are just like well I guess that was gunshots
00:13:16
right uh so while they did that lieutenants Ernest Vander gri and Warren King went to the prevailer apartment
00:13:22
where they found Charles's husband Paul who would come home after getting a message from Mrs Miller the
00:13:27
investigators found him to be in a State of Shock or at least stun silence as you
00:13:31
know you would kind of expect in that situation yeah Paul said he actually gave his wife $50 that morning to go
00:13:37
grocery shopping and then he left for work and he said later that night about an hour before she was killed Cheryl
00:13:42
actually stopped into his bar in Sunderland where he was working and they had a drink together they finished their
00:13:49
drink he said he walked her out to the car and then he went back inside and that was the last time he had seen her
00:13:54
at wow alive now these facts were confirmed with the other staff at the bar that evening
00:13:59
and when they asked whether there was anybody who might want his wife dead Paul said yes that German fellow
00:14:05
referring to a man that Cheryl had dated before she and Paul got married but he said other than that he couldn't think
00:14:11
of anybody else just one ex-boyfriend so a quick background check on charl revealed really nothing indicating that
00:14:17
her life would be cut so tragically short she was born in Brooklyn New York in 1945 and she'd always been a strong
00:14:24
willed and determined Girl by all accounts everybody loved Cheryl like not she didn't have an enemy on this Earth
00:14:30
she was always a Physically Active Child she had a really strong interest in sports from an early age and she
00:14:35
actually carried that into adulthood and when she graduated from high school she
00:14:39
wanted to move out to Los Angeles hoping to break into the film industry so at first when she moved out there she tried
00:14:45
her hand on an office job but it just didn't hold her interest for long and so she moved on and she answered an ad uh
00:14:51
for a job as an aerobics instructor at the aristocratic Spa damn what a name I know I was like the aristocrat Spa we're
00:15:00
all aristocratic up in here so she loved her job at the spa she was also really really good at it she quickly got
00:15:07
promoted first to assistant manager and then manager of another location and a short time after moving to La she ended
00:15:14
up meeting Paul who like I said owned two bars in the city he was Charming he was attentive and it wasn't long before
00:15:21
they fell in love and they actually got married pretty quickly and then just seven months later Cheryl was dead damn
00:15:29
so given that nothing appeared to be missing from the car and Cheryl was still wearing all her expensive jewelry
00:15:34
investigators ruled out robbery pretty much immediately yeah but if it wasn't robbery then that meant somebody had
00:15:40
literally gone to the apartments that night just to kill shery yeah and like she doesn't have any enemies so what the
00:15:46
[ __ ] so who would that be and by the look of things her killer was not a professional the brutality and the
00:15:51
attack implied something personal and the killer didn't stop until he was pretty certain that she wouldn't live so
00:15:58
as a matter of practice investigators also ran a simple background check on Paul and what came back was pretty
00:16:04
[ __ ] surprising Paul had only purchased his two bars within the last two years and
00:16:10
before that he had worked for a short time at an insurance industry um selling life insurance which is interesting and
00:16:17
before that he actually spent a number of years as an officer with the LAPD so he was previously one of them oh yeah it
00:16:25
turned out that just a few years into his tenure with LAPD Paul was discharged from his position after he helped a
00:16:32
friend's roommate obtain an abortion which was illegal at the time yeah so although he wasn't disciplined for the
00:16:39
illegal activity he was let go from the position because they didn't want any kind of Scandal or bad press so his work
00:16:45
history was pretty surprising to detectives but even more surprising was his involvement in other crimes serious
00:16:53
crimes including murder oh yeah that's a serious crime the one of the most serious I would say on December 11th
00:17:01
1966 the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call about a house fire in the neighborhood of El Sereno um and
00:17:09
when firefighters arrived the back of the house was completely engulfed in flames so they immediately began
00:17:15
searching the house for survivors and found in the front room the body of 27-year-old Marlon Cromwell the owner of
00:17:21
the house now initially firefighters assumed that he had either passed out or died from smoke inhalation but when they
00:17:28
got closer to his body they discovered that he had actually been shot three times in the head and two times in the
00:17:34
chest so shot five times and then his house is on fire beside the body seems suspicious seems pretty [ __ ]
00:17:41
suspicious beside the body they also discovered a towel with a ring of blood on it which investigators would later
00:17:47
theorize had been used kind of as like an informal silencer damn for the gun yeah holy [ __ ] now according to fire
00:17:54
officials there was no reason to believe that his death was a suicide cuz you're
00:17:58
not going to shoot your own self five times no and the case was being invested as a homicide but there was very little
00:18:05
evidence at the scene to develop any leads from so investigators theorized that the killer obviously set the fire
00:18:11
to destroy any evidence of murder but they had set the fire in the back room which gave firefighters enough time to
00:18:18
reach cromwell's body before it was affected by the Flames damn and autopsy showed that he'd been shot three times
00:18:24
in the head at close range killing him and then it seemed as though this the killer must have stood several feet away
00:18:30
and fired two more rounds into his chest to make sure he was completely expired this is so chaotic it is immediately
00:18:37
like this I just realized how many times I've been like damn and I'm like it's just like shocking but rightfully so the
00:18:43
the dams are the dams just keep on coming but I'm like wow it's the only thing I'm like this is so you know what
00:18:49
they're not going to stop coming so holy [ __ ] just live in a place of damn you're
00:18:54
a beaver now yeah I you're you be Beaver you Beaver so like Cheryl everybody who knew
00:19:02
Marlin Cromwell insisted he didn't have any enemies in life everybody loved him what the [ __ ] is going on yeah he was
00:19:08
just a pretty regular dude he worked as a stock clerk at a local grocery store which he'd done since graduating high
00:19:13
school um and otherwise he was a really shy quiet guy that's sad yeah at the time of his death he was married to
00:19:20
Christina Cromwell and they had one child together but on the day of the fire Christina and their son were uh
00:19:27
visiting Christina's mother like 150 miles away luckily oh yeah I mean I'm glad they weren't there me toly so she
00:19:35
seemed like an unlikely suspect you know but they weren't willing to rule her out
00:19:38
entirely cuz they said huh that's crazy said that's suspicious he said interesting now there were things about
00:19:44
Marlin and Christina's relationship that also struck investigators as particularly odd for one thing they had
00:19:50
been married for a number of years but they got divorced and then remarried just a few months before the
00:19:56
fire oh yeah and and just as interesting two months before Marlin was killed Christina had taken out a life insurance
00:20:04
policy in his name in the amount of $75,000 you know damn damn damn like wow yeah yeah just damn just damn wow okay
00:20:17
so a quick check of Christina's background revealed that she and Paul periler just so happened to have been
00:20:23
working together at the same insurance company at the time oh no I see where this is going yeah Paul and
00:20:31
Christina's workplace Behavior led many of their co-workers to assume that they were carrying on a spicy Affair oh no
00:20:39
then go the [ __ ] away yeah just just leave go away run away together it's shitty but it's much less shitty than
00:20:47
killing people because everyone will be fine without you but just move on well while interviewing those co-workers
00:20:53
detectives learned that not too long ago Christina had undergone a pretty serious
00:20:57
makeover during which she lost 75 pounds dyed her hair blonde got contact lenses
00:21:03
and capped her teeth geez so she like the [ __ ] she went for it yeah it was like a makeover scene
00:21:09
in Clueless holy [ __ ] yeah the remarkable transformation they insisted had been quote unquote coached by Paul
00:21:16
who seemed to have quite a lot of control over Christina ew yeah Paul's an [ __ ] e detectives interviewed [ __ ]
00:21:24
Paul who admitted that he had gone on a few dates with Christina but he claimed there was really nothing more to their
00:21:29
relationship than that never really serious but like but she capped her teeth for you and also like you guys are
00:21:36
married yeah like he's just sitting there being like yeah we went on a few dates who whoa whoa whoa wait no no no
00:21:42
they're not married I thought they were married Christina and Paul no no I mean married to other people yeah oh they're
00:21:48
married to other people that's what I mean like she's she's sitting there I'm like why is this not hitting you the way
00:21:53
it's hitting me I was like wait no they're not married I thought you thought they were married to each other
00:21:56
they are married to other people and he is like we went on a few dates like that's something you do when you're
00:22:02
married to other people and it's like no no babe you're there's spouses the spouses you're you can't you can't just
00:22:09
go on a date like he's like it's very much against the rul a spouse blowing past the whole like just yeah we went on
00:22:16
a few dates but like was serious I'm not even worried about if it's serious or not you went on a date yeah what the
00:22:23
[ __ ] everyone's so [ __ ] everyone's so Cavalier they really are well also soam damn I told you you are a
00:22:32
beaver so detectives couldn't help feeling that uh Paul was not telling the entire truth they were like interesting
00:22:39
they were like damn I said damn Paul so they actually assigned an officer to track Paul and Christina's movements and
00:22:47
two days later when Christina got the first payout for Marlin's Insurance the detail followed them to Las Vegas where
00:22:54
they checked into an expensive hotel together racked up a very large bill and in the six weeks that followed
00:23:00
Christina received $25,000 from the life insurance company and transferred all of
00:23:06
that money to Paul in a series of seven transfers even though their relationship
00:23:10
wasn't super serious there's a lot of lying happening here and bad lying yeah going to get caught Cheryl is still
00:23:20
alive and guess what everybody Paul doesn't even know Cheryl at this point Paul's married to another woman at this
00:23:26
point cuz correct he is married sorry I should have said that when you brought that point up I'm shook if he is married
00:23:32
but not to Cheryl just to another woman yeah we'll get there so he's been he's been at it for a long time oh Paul Paul
00:23:39
stays at it but yeah so seven months later Paul used that money to purchase his first bar in Burbank which he named
00:23:45
the grand Dutch now based on their investigation detectives in the Cromwell case theorized that following her
00:23:53
makeover Christina divorced Marlin and started her relationship with Paul only to remarry Mr Cromwell less than a year
00:24:00
later in order to arrange for his murder and to cash out on that life insurance policy cool is it cash out or cash in I
00:24:07
feel like do both work I think you can use both yeah I would say both is fine thanks well unfortunately all the
00:24:14
evidence they had was circumstantial and there was really no way for them to prove that either Christina or Paul was
00:24:20
involved in the death it just kind of looked like it yeah according to author Ken herwitz it appeared to the district
00:24:25
attorney that even though they were likely they were the likely ones to commit this murder it was best to wait
00:24:30
and hope that more evidence would arrive yeah and boy did it because remember it's just best to wait just best to wait
00:24:36
they probably did it but like let's let's say wait for more evidence I'm like yeah it's guess okay now after
00:24:43
learning of Paul prevailer connection to the death of Marlon Cromwell detectives
00:24:47
who were investigating Cheryl's death looked for an insurance policy taken out in Cheryl's name and they found that
00:24:54
just a few months before her death Paul started a policy with a $25,000 payout EK and this policy also had a double
00:25:02
indemnity clause meaning it would pay double in the unlikely event of an accidental death or murder oh no I feel
00:25:10
like insurance companies need to not advertise this and just have it be a happy surprise in the midst of a tragedy
00:25:18
that's what I think it's like a you know like it's really sad everybody's upset we're going through grief and oh here's
00:25:25
a little silver lining guess what you get more you got the good but you didn't know that ahead of time so we can be
00:25:31
sure that you didn't take that into consideration when all this was going on exactly well while investigators
00:25:38
continued to pursue the insurance angle two detectives paid a visit to Paul's first wife Leila hoping to learn what
00:25:45
kind of husband Paul had been to her any anything interesting about his past oh come on Leila on us had never met Cheryl
00:25:53
and actually didn't even know she existed oh when the detectives informed her of her death
00:25:59
and when they told Leila that Cheryl had been killed she started trembling and quote could not get her hands to Be
00:26:05
steady she was like freaking out oh she told the Burbank detectives that her marriage to Paul had started out like
00:26:11
most marriages do he was romantic attentive they seemed genuinely happy to be married he seemed happy they did have
00:26:18
money trouble from the early days former girlfriend Morgan St James said money had always been important to Paul he
00:26:24
wanted things that were uh that were far beyond his reach and according to ilila
00:26:29
it was important to Paul that people see him as successful which he defined in financial terms okay he even made it a
00:26:36
point to inform everybody that uh everybody he met that his cousin Stanley cubrick was a wildly successful film
00:26:43
director hoping they would associate him with cubrick success I'm sorry what wait
00:26:50
wait wait you got to say it damn what I told you I told you this is quite an interesting case idea Stanley curi was
00:26:59
going to make an appearance here I don't think Stanley curi did either I didn't know that yeah I don't think he had any
00:27:04
intention of making I think Stanley said keep me out of this he said I'm going to
00:27:07
go make an art film by yeah that what yeah wow however Paul was nothing like his cousin we it doesn't sound like it
00:27:15
it doesn't sound like it in fact after being fired from the LAPD he seemed to just move from one scheme to the other
00:27:21
just blowing his and lela's money along the way on like frivolous [ __ ] shortly
00:27:25
after their wedding that was when Lila noticed a big shift in Paul's personality she said he became volatile
00:27:31
and Moody he would just ignore her instead he would choose to stay up late watching old movies and clean his guns
00:27:38
like instead of interacting with her at all it's a no for me yeah his indifference to ilila soon turned to
00:27:44
anger and violence and I just want to give a trigger warning for like um domestic abuse here this is a pretty
00:27:49
rough one in fact Lila reacted so physically to the news of Cheryl's death basically because there were so many
00:27:56
occasions where she believed that Paul was actually going to kill her oh that's awful yeah one afternoon just about a
00:28:03
year into their marriage she went out for a few hours and when she got home she found that Paul was extremely drunk
00:28:09
and he was pissed about something like enraged before she could even open the driver's side door Paul yanked the door
00:28:16
open and was on top of her punching her in the face over and over and screaming at her I'm going to kill you whoa he
00:28:24
then dragged her out of the car and started beating her head against the side of the car car to the point where
00:28:29
she lost Consciousness and he only stopped when he saw another car approaching she ended up being
00:28:35
hospitalized for several days with very very severe injuries to her head and face but she declined to press charges
00:28:42
because she was afraid of Paul still obviously so he never faced any kind of consequences for the assault wow yeah
00:28:49
that's horrifying horrifying now his attack on Lila seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere but it was just the
00:28:55
beginning of a series of events that caused her to be absolutely terrified of her husband a month or so after the
00:29:01
attack in the car Leila suffered two serious hit and runs like one after the other that left her really badly injured
00:29:08
but luckily still alive in one of the incidents she recalled the driver stopping after he hit her car and
00:29:15
looking at her in the rear view mirror but she could only see his eyes so she couldn't identify him what the [ __ ] now
00:29:21
despite not seeing the driver either time she believed the hit- and run incidents had definitely been
00:29:25
orchestrated by Paul in an effort to get rid of her and in each case there was also an insurance policy that paid out
00:29:32
$5,000 after each incident so they got $10,000 or I really should say Paul did yeah when asked why if she believed he
00:29:40
was trying to kill her did she stay with Paul for so long she explained that she
00:29:45
believed if she tried to leave he would kill her at that point yeah it must be terrifying yeah of course and as we know
00:29:50
that is the most dangerous time to live an abusive partner mhm and in the end it
00:29:55
turned out that the fear that made her stay was actually also so the thing that finally convinced her to leave Paul good
00:30:00
just a few weeks after that second hit and run Paul convinced Ila to join him for a day in the mountains and he said
00:30:06
you know we'll do some target shooting so she reluctantly agreed to go with him I know she reluctantly agreed to go but
00:30:13
when they got into the woods Paul just paced around for a while and never fired a shut a shot excuse me and then decided
00:30:21
it was time to go home justly no I don't like that at all so at was that sounds like he had intent and he lost his nerve
00:30:30
100% and that's exactly what Lea thought she said she she knew she believed that
00:30:36
he fully intended to kill her that day that's horrifying and she knew that if she didn't leave him it would just be a
00:30:41
matter of days before he did get the confidence to do it so it was also around this time that she learned of
00:30:47
Paul's relationship with Christina Cromwell which the courts would have deemed a justifiable reason to disolve
00:30:52
the marriage so she took that opportunity and she divorced Paul damn but also another thing think about here
00:30:58
is she had to have a reason to divor like a justifiable reason she couldn't just feel like I don't want to be in
00:31:04
this relationship anymore yeah like what dumb so hearing Lila's descriptions of the abuse she suffered at the hands of
00:31:11
her ex-husband Paul was as far as the detectives were concerned only further evidence of a pattern of behavior that
00:31:16
had probably led to the death of his current wife Cheryl but the problem was they couldn't prove that he had anything
00:31:22
to do with Cheryl's death according to Ken herwitz Paul walked Cheryl prevailer out to the car on the night of the Mur
00:31:27
murder but his employees had never said that he left the bar for enough time to physically get to the apartment commit
00:31:33
the murder and get back so he hadn't done this Jesus physical evidence of Paul's involvement was obviously hard to
00:31:40
come by but the circumstantial evidence was just piling yeah 10 days after Cheryl's murder investigator sat down
00:31:47
with Paul's cooworker and pretty much the closest thing he had to a friend a guy named Alan Halverson they had
00:31:54
actually worked together at the insurance company and Halverson was drawn to Paul's Charisma and exciting
00:31:59
lifestyle but the more time he spent with Paul the more he started to see a side of Paul that few others had ever
00:32:05
seen save for his ex-wife Lila at first Allan was evasive and pretty much seemed
00:32:11
to be protecting Paul telling investigators that he just knew how much Paul loved Cheryl and how he would never
00:32:16
do anything to hurt her but the detective specifically one detective named detective King could tell that
00:32:22
Halverson was an empathetic person and didn't seem accustomed to lying so he just kept p in until Halverson finally
00:32:29
caved after taking a deep breath he looked at the detectives and said he was afraid of Paul after everything he had
00:32:36
seen and heard oh man according to him Paul wasn't just involved in the inm attempted murders of Lila but also
00:32:42
several local robberies and the death of Marlon Cromwell and he knew this all for
00:32:47
fact holy [ __ ] Halverson said the two men had been out at a bar drinking together and had become quite drunk and
00:32:53
Paul confessed that he'd killed Marlon Cromwell Halverson said he made made the remark that quote I killed her husband
00:33:00
referring to Christina cromwell's husband wow so the detectives could tell there was more than just fear motivating
00:33:06
alen Halverson's silence like Leila Allan also believed that Paul would kill him if he ever said anything about the
00:33:13
murder confession or his knowledge of the other crimes but at the same time he was embarrassed and ashamed for not
00:33:19
giving the the police this information sooner yeah he told detective King don't ask me why I continued working for him I
00:33:26
can't give you a logical explanation of why I did it so at 6:45 p.m. four Los Angeles police officers armed with
00:33:34
shotguns entered the Grand Duke bar and announced that they were placing Paul under arrest for the murders of marlin
00:33:40
Cromwell and Cheryl periler wow and the attempted murder of his ex-wife Lea praver oh [ __ ] and as they placed Paul
00:33:49
in handcuffs and escorted him out of the car he said don't you guys ever give up
00:33:54
that he was just like GH like he's just like oh my God like wow wow shortly after midnight a second team of officers
00:34:01
caught up with Christina Cromwell at the apartment she shared with her sister and
00:34:05
placed her under arrest for the murder of her husband wow now the evidence against Paul and Christina was pretty
00:34:11
much almost entirely circumstantial but there was a lot of it and the prosecutor
00:34:15
from the District Attorney's Office Vincent biglo uh bugliosi excuse me decided to take a chance of that what
00:34:22
evidence they did have would be compelling enough for a jury when the news hit the papers the next day the
00:34:27
Press couldn't help but draw comparisons to the popular film Double Indemnity where a wealthy woman seduces an
00:34:33
insurance agent and convinces him to kill her husband oh [ __ ] it's very similar I love when they're like we
00:34:39
can't help but look at this and say it's the same it is what it is it's a movie yeah the United Press International
00:34:46
described the case as The Late Show come to life Wow saying that the prevailer case quote does Double Indemnity one
00:34:53
better like okay guys people died here this isting wild yeah it's like this is literal this is real people it's not a
00:34:59
movie script these are not actors but the other aspects of the case were too good too salacious to be ignored as far
00:35:05
as the Press was involved Paul's previous employment as an LAPD officer rumors of illegal abortions and of
00:35:12
course his ongoing affair with Christina Cromwell which had motivated most of the
00:35:16
crimes I'm like I don't really know if it was his affair so much as it was the money but yeah it was of it all right so
00:35:23
on May 2nd Paul and Christina were both formally charged and arraigned a short time later in District Court the judge
00:35:29
Joan dempley Clan uh denied bail for both of them and remanded them to the custody of the county pending a
00:35:35
preliminary hearing on May 14th bugliosi took the case to the grand jury with a simple case like we said built on
00:35:42
circumstantial evidence the prosecutor alleged that Paul praver and Christina Cromwell had been carrying on an
00:35:48
extramarital affair for years and that they had conspired to kill Leila prevailer in order to cash in on her
00:35:54
life insurance policy and when that plan failed they devised a new strategy this
00:35:59
time targeting Marlon Cromwell and when those Insurance funds were beginning to run out they targeted Paul's new wife
00:36:06
Cheryl prevailer I like imagine being this ruthless of a human being when you sit there and you
00:36:14
wonder like did he just plan to kill her all along because they were married for
00:36:19
seven months that's the thing and it's like so he's dating Christina but and at the same time is he just hunting for a
00:36:25
woman to kill to marry and kill yeah that's the thing was there ever any love there like did he pick her specifically
00:36:31
because he was like oh I can kill her like and who killed her that's yeah who did it actually like who pulled the
00:36:38
trigger holy [ __ ] now buglio like we just said couldn't connect either of the accused to the murders directly but the
00:36:45
circumstantial evidence more than 30 witness statements and multiple Bank transfers were compelling enough for the
00:36:51
grand jury to return indictments on all charges it was actually really unusual for a jury to indict without knowing the
00:36:57
identity of the actual killer but Boo's strategy emphasized that quote those responsible for the murder stood to
00:37:04
profit from insurance policies on the victim's lives and thus they should be held equally as responsible as whoever
00:37:10
did commit the murders yeah on all counts Paul and Christina pleaded not guilty lies yeah now a trial date was
00:37:18
set for November and in the meantime lawyers for Paul and Christina started petitioning the court to have the trial
00:37:24
separated arguing that it would be pre prejudicial for Christina to be tried with Paul quote because the greater
00:37:30
number of counts against him uh Superior judge Pierce young listened to both sides but ultimately denied that motion
00:37:37
to sever the trials he said nope he locked those two in as codefendants and to make matters worse for them after
00:37:43
judge Young's decision the prosecutor's office announced that they'd be seeking the death penalty I mean honestly if and
00:37:50
and again we've are we've gone if you've listen to this you know our stances on the whole thing yeah we're gray like
00:37:55
super gray but I lean more towards being against it if there's if there's a case
00:38:00
where you it makes sense that they're going for it this makes sense like I can see why they were going for it here yeah
00:38:07
same so Paul and Christina's trial began on November 18th 1968 which is weird because today is November 19th which is
00:38:16
the very next day but we were actually originally slated to record this yesterday that is weird and that happens
00:38:22
a lot that's the thing it's something that happens so often but so yes uh years later prosecutor Vincent buio
00:38:29
would make a name for himself as the prosecutor in the case against the Manson family say it say it say it say
00:38:37
it damn that's crazy though yeah and subsequently as an author like yourself oh my God there's some big players in
00:38:45
this I know but at the time because this all happened before that he was young and pretty relatively inexperienced as a
00:38:52
prosecutor far green he was green so those two facts left many people wondering if he was the right person for
00:38:58
the job people were like I don't know if this case is going to go like we want it
00:39:02
to but when it came time for those opening arguments everybody was about to have egg on their face a big
00:39:09
disgrace yes I don't know the rest of the words something all over the place but years later something all over the
00:39:16
place right kicking your can all over the place is it kicking your can you got mud on your face you big disgrace
00:39:26
kicking your all over the place why does that feel wrong I don't know I guess your can is your butt yeah I'm looking
00:39:33
it up I like that yeah we right okay I second guessed myself I need to stop doing that I second guessed myself too
00:39:39
well years later buio himself would write I sometimes wave an opening statement feeling that it takes the edge
00:39:44
off my witness's testimony when the jury has already heard the story from me but
00:39:48
in this case he understood that the timeline was long and pretty complicated the evidence was not always explicit in
00:39:54
its importance and the killer was still unknown so he decided to take some time to clarify these finer points of the
00:40:00
case and told the jury that the deaths of Marlon Cromwell and Cheryl praver had quote all the earmarks of planned
00:40:06
executions he continued saying we intend to prove by very strong circumstantial evidence that Paul praver was
00:40:14
responsible for the murder of his wife Cheryl emphasizing the word responsible to mean it was him who set things in
00:40:20
motion not necessarily pulled the trigger yes but he is responsible here interesting so lawyers for the defense
00:40:27
on the other hand they actually chose to wave their opening statements which I didn't know was an option I also didn't
00:40:33
actually maybe I did yeah I feel like it's it's not something that really pops up in our cases I think I knew that it
00:40:39
was a thing it just it really doesn't pop up in our cases a lot yeah I didn't know even think of one to be honest but
00:40:45
with more than a hundred Witnesses called and a large amount of complicated evidence the trial dragged on for almost
00:40:50
3 months so during this time most of the Public's attention was focused on Paul and Christina's behavior in the
00:40:55
courtroom which many people found to be in poor taste Paul's former girlfriend Morgan St James said Paul was flirting
00:41:01
and winking with the court reporter and Christina showed up in a mini skirt what
00:41:06
yeah not really either things you want to be doing while you're on trial for murder probably not but despite the
00:41:11
distractions buosi stayed mostly focused on what evidence he could show to the jury to convince them of Paul's guilt he
00:41:17
wasn't able to prove Paul pulled the trigger in either case obviously but he was able to show the bank transfers that
00:41:23
happened shortly after each murder occurred and the policy started paying oh and it was the timing of the murders
00:41:29
and the transfers more than anything else that really seemed to get through to the jury cuz that's hard to argue it
00:41:35
is like you got numbers in front of you yeah but regardless of who actually committed the murders the quick transfer
00:41:41
of funds seven in total was according to booly OC evidence that neither murder uh
00:41:46
would have occurred without Paul's orchestration exactly now if his strategy was focused and simple intended
00:41:53
to make sense to anybody on the jury the defense had different ideas about how how they should proceed rather than
00:41:59
attempt to you know refute the prosecution's evidence and witness statements or anything like that lawyers
00:42:04
for Paul and Christina attempted to place blame on each other because they each had their own set of lawyers ah
00:42:09
there it is I was waiting for that yeah Paul's lawyer Mel album argued that Christina had orchestrated both murders
00:42:16
in order to have Paul all to herself oh and her lawyer argued that Christina was
00:42:21
just another victim who'd been manipulated by Paul which is kind of believable yeah absolutely now in
00:42:27
February 15th buosi gave his closing remarks he summarized the case for the jury as just a simple matter of murder
00:42:33
for profit and criticized the defense for quote throwing up a smoke screen around the facts of the case in order to
00:42:38
escape into the darkness of Reasonable Doubt which is poetic yeah and correct Escape into the darkness yeah I love it
00:42:46
if you listened to the rewatcher it made me immediately think of into the dark into the darkos go listen to the
00:42:52
rewatcher go listen to that show it's great Mel Alba meanwhile tried to place blame on the prosecution's main witness
00:42:58
you might remember one Alan Halverson oh I do AR and he argued that it was actually Halverson who had killed Sherl
00:43:05
oh not true but after closing statements were given the jur given the jury retired for deliberation on February
00:43:13
18th after 3 days of deliberation they returned to announce that they found Paul praver guilty on two counts of
00:43:19
first-degree murder wow and guilty on one count of attempted murder wow yeah so they found him guilty across the
00:43:26
board damn and they found Christina Cromwell guilty of one count of first-degree murder as well Vincent bu
00:43:32
Leo's case had been very complicated as we know very circumstantial but in the end he was able to convince that jury
00:43:39
that each defendant had played essential roles in the deaths of their spous spouses even if they didn't do the
00:43:45
killing themselves that's very very interesting yeah and as a green prosecutor at the time that's the thing
00:43:50
like that's very fascinating and I mean he must have been very persuasive with such a circumstantial case yep to be for
00:43:59
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt I think I think those damn we should just name this episode damn I think those
00:44:07
transfers really spoke for themselves and the fact that they there are you know two deaths here and there's some
00:44:15
time between them very specific and those transfers align so perfectly with like in conjunction to that timeline you
00:44:22
know what I mean mhm so Paul and Christina were back in court for sentencing on February 24th 1969 and
00:44:29
bugio followed through on his earlier statements and asked the jury to sentence each of them to death for their
00:44:35
roles in the murders he told the jury to Paul praver The Taking of a human life is like taking a drink of water scary
00:44:42
that hits Christina's attorney David K kogus argued that his client was quote not an equal partner in the slaying of
00:44:49
Cromwell and that she went along with the crime only because she was under uh prevailer fali influence wow yeah
00:44:56
pulling out this F goly I know I had to look that up the following day February 26 the jury announced their decisions
00:45:03
for her role in the murder of her husband Christina Cromwell was sentenced to life in prison but she did get the
00:45:08
eligibility for parole after seven years oh whenever you hear life in prison and
00:45:14
then you're like but after seven years you can probably get out it's like what is that yeah think I that too like what
00:45:21
a weird conflicting statement the rest of your life unless you can reach of the board in
00:45:27
like wow as for Paul prer though they sentenced him to death in the guas chamber yes which is honestly you have
00:45:35
to think about how remarkable that is because that is remarkable everybody on that jury KN like sat there knowing that
00:45:41
he did not actively kill Cheryl and did not act I mean we don't know if he actively killed um but they but they
00:45:48
could not technically prove that he had a actual physical hand in the act itself
00:45:54
right but to sentence him to death even still is interesting that's the thing this is an
00:46:01
interesting case yeah but when asked for comment on the sentences Paul told reporters it was the sentence he'd been
00:46:07
hoping for he said I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison whoa so just like one final Jack yeah it's her
00:46:13
being it's him being like you know what I wanted that I wanted that actually so thanks like okay you petulent [ __ ]
00:46:18
child but for those most affected by the trial the verdicts and sentences came as
00:46:23
obviously a significant relief Alan Halverson and Lila prevail the state's two most important Witnesses
00:46:30
actually started spending a lot of time together during the trial shut up and they eventually got married oh my gosh
00:46:36
cuz they had the bond over like this very unusual shared experience wow isn't that awesome I hope they had a lovely
00:46:43
life it sounds like they did oh good yeah you know and in 1972 as you might remember well not saying you were alive
00:46:51
but wow that's not what I was saying just because it's come up a lot California repealed the death penalty
00:46:56
and all death row inmates had their sentences commuted to life in prison which honestly is actually hilarious to
00:47:03
me that he was like I wanted to to go to the guest chamber and the state was like
00:47:07
oh psych you thought only a few years later too so this meant that Paul who had been sentenced like we just said to
00:47:14
die in prison was now eligible for parole though as early as 1984 forgot about that so in response to that I also
00:47:22
was not alive then either she wasn't just you you were you were like on your way though no I'm at the end of the next
00:47:30
year U I wasn't on my way I don't know how it all works they were thinking about you actually they weren't you were
00:47:36
surprised I was goingon to say they didn't actually you weren you were the stomach flu but in response to that
00:47:40
change Leila Halverson Halon now oh look at that and California assemblyman Patrick Nolan started lobbying very hard
00:47:48
to keep Paul who they described as a cold calculating killer in prison for the rest of his life yeah I get that
00:47:54
they said we're asking everyone to join us with requesting that the board of uh prison term reopen the prevailer case
00:47:59
and revoke his parole in light of the cold-blooded crimes committed by him yeah and it turned out that they were
00:48:05
not alone in their Quest they also had the support of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in a
00:48:11
statement to reporters Deputy district attorney Steve saer said periler is performing on paper like a model
00:48:17
prisoner but he himself did not believe that Paul had genuinely reformed in any way yeah and openly supported the
00:48:23
Halverson's case so in 197 six Christina Cromwell was actually paroled from prison oh I knew you were going to tell
00:48:31
she did not spend a lot a lot of time in there in the years that followed though
00:48:34
she did become a key witness in the District Attorney's efforts to keep Paul Behind Bars whenever he became available
00:48:41
for or eligible excuse me for parole yeah and what else are he going to do at a parole Hearing in 1986 when Elena was
00:48:48
alive mhm Christina Cromwell testified for nearly 4 hours and during that time she told the board that in 1966
00:48:56
this is crazy Paul had given his parents a trip to Mexico as an anniversary party
00:49:03
but then tried to have his parents murdered as they traveled between Tiana and enata I'm sorry he tried to have his he
00:49:12
tried to kill his own parents Paul's father was shot in the face during the attack but was unable to identify the
00:49:20
shooter in the case went cold oh this guy's a [ __ ] monster he was going way far back his parents anniversary he was
00:49:29
gonna have them killed in cash in on the money [ __ ] yeah he's a he's a [ __ ] cold
00:49:33
blooded yeah but at the time it was also revealed that during the attack on Leila
00:49:38
where Paul beat her brutally Christina was in the car waiting nearby to help Paul flee the scene oh [ __ ] which I'm
00:49:45
like yeah yeah that's [ __ ] up yeah now all of Paul's subsequent awful it is awful all of Paul's subsequent Bots for
00:49:53
parole have been denied and he remains in prison to this day at Mule Creek Correctional Facility in California damn
00:50:01
yes that wasn't even intentional I just me damn in reflecting on the case for the Discovery Channel
00:50:08
executive director of the Los Angeles Police Museum it's a mouthful told producers Paul was from a moneyed family
00:50:15
and certainly could have found easier ways to get money oh yeah he said as these attacks went on each got more and
00:50:20
more violent I don't think he was killing for insurance money I think prevailer was a stone cold killer I
00:50:25
think exactly I think it's started off as a money thing like or what he was trying to think of as a money thing but
00:50:32
there's no way I think the money was an added bonus I think he liked the feeling
00:50:36
of power of being able to just be like that person gone and he's obviously like a monster I mean lit monster in his own
00:50:43
marriages like he's a monster he had his own parents attacked as an anniversary was shot in the face like are you
00:50:50
kidding me yeah like wild poor Leila I know like he's a monster and then to find out that the woman he was cheating
00:50:57
on you with was sitting in the car in the getaway car and then she's just out walking around like what that's [ __ ]
00:51:04
yeah scary scary [ __ ] but strange story very strange case very interesting and
00:51:11
who the [ __ ] killed Cheryl well that's a that's the the main takeaway here who
00:51:16
killed Marlin is who the [ __ ] is the person who did it we don't know they escaped into the darkness literally
00:51:23
which is honestly like the scariest [ __ ] I've ever heard very haunting yeah you
00:51:28
just wonder who he was connected to and wow that's the thing like you don't know
00:51:33
how far this goes D they just don't but we'll never know that's that that's the the case for you and uh we hope you keep
00:51:42
listening we hope you keep it Dam damn but not so weird that all you can say is damn but I've been there too
00:51:52
so keep it that way I can't help it bye damn damn beavers a [Music] [Music] [Music]