Blanche Taylor Moore, The Oldest Woman on Death Row (Part 2)

[00:00] These long dog days of summer, I mean, we just made it through a heat wave. Mama was parched through this heat wave. I was hitting up Dunkin' every single day, and I will continue to probably for the rest of my days, but especially this summer. Dunkin' is helping everyone stay cool this summer with its lineup of refreshers. These drinks are packed with bold, fruity flavors and served ice cold. It's amazing. Dunkin' refreshers are the perfect afternoon pick-me-up. I like to [00:30] back for a second one because I'm just feeling crazy.

They come in a variety of delicious flavors, including fan favorites, mango pineapple and strawberry dragon fruit. And then for a limited time, there's black cherry and there's pink pineapple. I'm going to tell you something right now. And it's a bold claim, let me tell you, but I stand behind it. Pink pineapple will change your life. It is so good. It has me feeling like I'm sitting in a pool resort side, just living, [01:00] Try your favorite flavor with green tea, sparkling water, lemonade, or Dunkin's all-new Limeade. I haven't tried the Limeade yet, but I'm going to.

Usually I get my drinks made with green tea. And occasionally lemonade, but I do really like the green tea. Or, or, if you don't want to build your own, try one of Dunkin's curated refreshers, like the Cherry Lime Ricky or the Ultimate Pink Daydream. The Cherry Lime Ricky, mmm, scrumptious. I could drink like three of these a day. They're so freaking yummy. Head to Dunkin' today and find your favorite refresher. [01:30] Dunkin' Refreshers contain less than 1% fruit juice. Limited time offer. [01:36] Chilling crime cases are mysterious, but finding coverage shouldn't be.

With the State Farm Personal Price Plan, you have options and can personalize your plan to help create an affordable price, so you can get back to cracking all of life's bigger cases. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Head to com to get a quote. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. [02:06] availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. [02:12] Still waiting in line?

Again? [02:16] That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with com. Over 4 million businesses have skipped the line with com. Join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds. Then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to com and use code PODCAST for a free welcome gift. Taxes and fees apply. Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. [02:46] is morbid. This is morbid.

I started that with no warning. So I do have to give you like, well, jumping right in. You jumped right in. Yeah. I was like, I have to yawn. I have to burp. Hold on. And then I was like, okay, hey, we're, and you were like, whoa. I was like, all right, here I am. [03:16] I am. Here she be. [03:18] Here I do. What's up? Uh, I don't know. Today, Alina said, whatever, I'm getting cheese fries. It's true. I literally said that and then I got cheese fries. We got Wendy's, you guys.

And it was right. I didn't get a faux-faux-faux. I got... I've written it back. Do they sell that still? I don't think they have a faux-faux anymore, but I don't know. I'm not positive. I don't know either. Wendy's? I'm speaking out of my ass. Like, I don't have any clue if they have a faux-faux-faux. Well, then why would you tell me that they do? Because it felt like a long-running... [03:48] little special yeah you know if they still have a phone but maybe it's like the dollar menu and it's just always there maybe [03:55] I used to fuck so heavy with that when I was in high school.

We love the dollar. We broke as hell. We were like, oh. [04:01] minimum wage [04:02] Let's go. Let's go get us some dinner at Wendy's for a dollar. It's true. Those were the days. They were. And so were the faux faux faux days. Yeah. Now, I just got a Dave single, like, with a combo. Which was great. I think it was probably, like, $9. I got spicy. Spicy. [04:17] nuggets because she's reckless spicy nuggies are my favorite i know you love a spicy nuggies i love a little spice we know we know a little spice a little spice i can't do the spicy nuggies because of ibs yeah you know you know ibs girlies rise up yeah and i got heartburn [04:38] I know.

Yeah, that sucks. You don't get heartburn. No, I don't. [04:43] Which is like, I feel precarious saying that. How does it feel to be John's favorite? [04:48] I know. To be 40 and say that you don't get heartburn, life is like, oh, we haven't given that to you yet. Oh, we forgot. Oh, there you go. I'm like, oh. So I'm like, thank you, universe. I appreciate it. I just thought of something that I've never gotten, but I'm not going to say it. [05:02] Because I'm not going to. Now I want to know what it is.

I'll tell you later. Maybe I'll like, I'll sign it to you. Okay. But I'm not saying it. I'm not going to speak it into existence. [05:10] It's just a task that most people have to fulfill. Oh, I know exactly what it is. Like when you turn 18. No, I didn't. No, I didn't say it. No, I didn't say it. You said it without saying. But I didn't say it. So husha, husha, husha. I think you all know what she's talking about. What task she has not been given. Called for. Called for even more.

Don't call me. I'm busy. Guys, say it to her. I'm going to kick you. I'm going to kick you in the shin. I'm going to come over there and I'm going to hi-yah your foot. [05:40] Just fill it with boop. [05:42] What? Just fill the comment section with... [05:45] No, don't. What are you doing? I'm just kidding. What are you doing? I'm just kidding. No, I'm not going. [05:52] I won't go. You mean legally? I think you get arrested. All right, moving on, moving on. Moving away from that task. You're screwed.

You're screwed. Anyways, this is part two. [06:04] of a two-part series. It kind of reminded me of that song where you're like, standing in time with my mouth open wide. Yeah, yeah, we remember that. Yeah, it's been, it's been, you know, it's been a crazy day. It has been a crazy day. A good day. Yeah. Good day. Yeah, a good day. Just like a little kooky day. A little silly. It's been a kooky week. Yeah, it's weird because I think it's, [06:31] Is today Thursday? Yeah. Something. I don't know. I think it's Thursday.

Days don't have meaning anymore. I woke up and I thought it was Monday. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I think every day is a weekend when the kids are out of school. Yeah, that's true. So nothing makes sense to me anymore. Where am I? Yep. All right. Well, speaking of kooky, um... [06:50] days yeah this is a kooky part too it's obviously very tragic but my god this woman [06:58] Yeah, already. I'm like, whoa, Blanche. [07:01] Nothing like my pup. Nothing like your pup. Really, only a little bit like Blanche Devereaux, the character.

Yeah. And the fact that she was a flirt, but she wasn't a murderess. Yeah, that's where the comparison ends. So at the end of part one, Blanche's long-term boyfriend passed away suddenly. That was Raymond, Raymond Reed. And it seemed it could have been from Guillain-Barre syndrome. Her husband James had also passed suddenly not too long ago, and they thought [07:31] passed away under strange circumstances. But at the time of each death, nobody really looked at the deaths as anything other than, you know, just a tragedy. Yeah. I didn't think any foul play was involved or anything like that.

[07:43] But Miss Blanche, let me remind you, now the oldest woman on death row, her luck was going to run out eventually. And can I just tell you, it's kind of like an episode of The Pit, but like, even better. Oh. It's like The Pit with arrests. Oh. Yeah. There was an arrest on The Pit. [08:01] Wasn't it a bad arrest though? It was a dumb one. What's her name? The red headed one. [08:06] oh mckay yeah yeah fuck that arrest when they arrested mckay and i was like yeah fuck that i was pissed about that oh you know what you haven't finished season two yet no there's a good arrest in season two okay cool i think he gets arrested [08:19] So yeah, it's like the pit.

It's like the pit. And it's also kind of like, um, house. It's a little bit like house. Okay. Okay. I'm locked in. So we'll get there. It's a little toward the end. Whoa. Now, whoa. You said you were locked in and then it felt like you were backtracking. I'm like, can I be locked in for that? You have to be. It's your literal job. Yeah. All right. So Raymond's death removed one obstacle from Blanche and don't forget Pastor Dwight. Pastor Dwight going public with their relationship. And when the lawsuit against Kroger was settled in the summer of 1987, [08:49] they were finally able to be together without fear of consequences.

Because remember, part of the reason that they were kind of like living their relationship out in the shadows was that Blanche said her... [09:01] ordeal with Robert Hutton at Kroger made it so that she couldn't be with men. Oh, yeah. So she gets the settlement and all of a sudden she's cured. Yes. After the lawyers were paid, the settlement left Blanche with about $100,000. So for now, her money problems were also gone. That summer, she and Dwight planned to get married. But that plan had to be put on hold when just one month after the settlement, Blanche was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The doctor told her it was luckily still early enough that the cancer could be treated if she had a double mastectomy. And the idea of [09:31] surgery was obviously devastating to her, but she went ahead with it. [09:34] And it was successful at removing her cancer. After that, she got some reconstructive surgery done. And in the end, nobody could really tell that she had gone through this in the first place. Now, with her surgery out of the way, Dwight slowly started introducing Blanche to his family and his friends. They found her to be somewhat strange and not really anything like his previous wife.

Blanche told them that she was a devout Christian. Yeah. [10:00] but she also didn't seem focused on the things that like i guess supposedly good christian women do oh i don't know what that is i was gonna say it just makes me think of that tiktok where it's like she reads she's a bible girl who reads her bible i think i misquoted it i've never caught that what does he say [10:21] Go home and read your Bible. I think it was a Vine. I'm going to find it. I've never received that on my For You page.

Yeah, well, you should. [10:32] I want a church girl that goes to church and read her Bible. I love that. That's what his family wanted. Oh, that makes so much sense. This episode might be unhinged because we're unhinged. We're very unhinged right now. So however off-putting they might have found her, it was obvious that [11:02] Let's try to give her a chance. And nobody really went to him and was like, we wish she was a church girl who went to church and read her Bible. And read her Bible. You're my email.

Now, Blanche, while she was getting to know her soon-to-be family, she was also increasing the distance between herself and Raymond's family, her boyfriend that had passed away. They'd been together for over 10 years at that point. So she had become very close with his children, Ray and Stevie. But... [11:28] After they all agreed to split up the inheritance three ways, Ray and Stevie just really didn't see or hear from Blanche all that much anymore. Now, at the time, they were obviously grieving the loss of their father and really not in any place to be dealing with his estate.

So they considered it a blessing that Blanche was there, sweet Blanche, to help them with everything. Sweet Blanche. But after several months had passed and they were out of the initial stages of grief... [11:52] things were starting to look pretty fucking suspicious. Yeah. When Raymond died, Blanche told his sons that he had written a will, and it dictated that his estate, which included a pension from Kroger and a life insurance policy... [12:05] was to be split between all three of them. Ah. That's what she said. Okay. Once they had time to go over their dad's documents, though, their opinion of Blanche started to change.

They weren't as thankful for her anymore. Oh, no. For one thing, when they went to see a lawyer with a copy of Raymond's will, they learned that it said absolutely nothing about splitting anything with Blanche. Oh. Yeah. Their father had left everything to the two of them and made Blanche the executor. [12:32] Oh, she didn't get anything. She was just supposed to see it up. Yeah. Oh, damn. So by the time they got around to seeing the will, most of the estate had already been divided, though. [12:43] Now, not long after Blanche finished her reconstructive surgery, Stevie Reed called and confronted her about the money.

Not wanting to make things any more difficult, he actually took a pretty reasonable position. He was like, what was done was done. You've already got some piece of it. Like, that's fucked up. We're not going to take the money back. But the life insurance money hadn't been paid out yet. I think it was just the pension. [13:05] So he was like, when that gets paid out, we're not giving you a third of it. No. Because you're not entitled to it. You're not in the will. As far as the estate went, there wasn't really much to speak of.

The real payout was the life insurance. So when Stevie told Blanche that they weren't splitting it with her, she lost her fucking mind. Oh, man. She went on a tirade about the will and the letter that Raymond had supposedly written before his death, laying out his wishes. This tactic of high pressure insistence had always worked for her in the past. Yeah. [13:35] his position. Good. And insisted... [13:37] something about this all just wasn't right yep so when she realized that he wasn't going to back down she yelled at him to keep the damn money and basically never speak to her again okay that was really the last time that his uh raymond son's ever heard from blanche honestly good yeah but it's like bullshit that she did get money from the estate she got stuff like and she wasn't entitled to it no and honestly big of them to let her have it honest i was gonna say that was really big of [14:07] all the money that they were getting in fees.

Yeah, it's honestly not worth it. No, it's not, unfortunately. Now, the money she had received from Raymond's estate had already run out, and with all the hospital bills and the time that she had been out of work for her reconstructive surgery, the money from her settlement with Kroger wasn't going to last her much longer. [14:26] So a few days after her conversation with Stevie, Blanche brought up the potential of marriage with Dwight because she's like, I got to hitch my fucking ride to somebody. Yeah, of course. And he was just as enthusiastic as he had been in the past.

But before they went forward with their marriage, he said he wanted to tell her about his past relationship. [14:44] So they drove into the mountains for the weekend to get away. And Dwight told Blanche the full story of how his marriage had fallen apart about his 17 year affair with his secretary and about how he had lost his congregation as a result. [15:00] But also, Blanche doesn't have a leg to stand on. No, she doesn't. [15:04] She cheated on her husband for the better part of their marriage. Exactly. With multiple men.

Yeah. She also cheated on her mister with other men. On her mister. Yeah. Now, Dwight knew that the affair was wrong, he said. But he also said he knew how much he loved Eileen and genuinely believed that they would end up married. That was his mistress. So he said while he wasn't proud of the affair, he didn't regret the relationship. [15:27] Now, given how close they'd become over the previous year, Dwight probably expected some amount of sympathy and compassion from Blanche. I mean, she does want to marry him after all.

So he was stunned when she just quietly called him a sinner and like kind of shut down. Whoa. Rather than listening to his story without judgment or disapproval, she was devastated. And she insisted that he turn the car around and take her home immediately. Yeah. [15:50] instead he pulled over and he gave her a minute to collect her thoughts and then listened as she told him about her father and all the awful things that he had done throughout his life clearly she was feeling triggered by the honesty yeah because remember her dad was like a huge womanizer now after the confessional car ride things between dwight and blanche kind of went back to normal or at least dwight thought they did blanche on the other hand was still harboring very intense feelings of betrayal and she was pretending everything was okay when they were [16:20] but she couldn't help let some of her anger seep out around Dwight's family.

[16:25] One afternoon, she and Dwight's daughter Debbie went out together shopping. [16:29] And Blanche kind of started to pry about how Debbie and her brother Doug felt about their father's divorce and all the events that had led up to it. And Debbie said they really didn't have any anger towards their father. And both she and Doug understood that sometimes things don't work out with people. That kind of should have put the matter to rest. Yeah. But Blanche pressed on. [16:49] She outright called Dwight's previous mistress a slut. Whoa. And said that Debbie's mother must absolutely hate her dad for what he did.

[16:58] But Debbie insisted everybody moved on amicably. Like, we're all over it. Yeah, let it go. Let it go, exactly. It really wasn't your situation. Blanche lost her shit, though. What? When Debbie was like, it's fine, like, everything is cool. She told Debbie her father, a. the man Blanche is about to marry, was a wicked, evil man who deserved whatever karmic retribution he got. [17:21] what yeah so debbie was like what the fuck debbie's like i'm sorry what but she chalked blanche's response up to her religious upbringing because dwight had told his daughter that blanche had been raised in a fundamentalist religious community that had very outdated views so debbie was like okay maybe her outburst is just like a result of those views i guess people are so much more [17:50] I would have lost my shit.

I would have lost my shit. Because I'd be like... [17:53] That's insane what you just said. It's also her father. Like how you reacted. I'd be like, you're not going to marry my dad now. I'm going to make sure of it. So she was like, okay, like I'm going to let that go. But she put that into her back pocket. She never forgot that shit. And she really never felt entirely comfortable around Blanchett. Yeah, I imagine. I wouldn't either. Now, this is, I think it's like sweet. She never told her dad that this happened.

I mean, that was kind of her. Because I think she just didn't want to fuck things up for him. And hurt him. [18:23] Yeah, and her, exactly, because he really loved Blanche. Like, he wanted to marry her. He wanted to continue his life with her. Because if you... [18:32] I imagine in her case that she's like, well, he's not going to not marry her. Yeah. Like he loves her. So all I would be doing is hurting his feelings. Is that really worth if he's going to go through with it anyways?

Am I going to pile on hurt feelings as well? Which, again... [18:50] she's she's that's pretty smart and pretty like kind it's also just like such a shitty position a awful position and i also wonder if she was like somewhat afraid of blanche because that was very wild behavior that would freak me out yeah i'd be like i don't want to be involved yeah i don't like when people are over the top like that it's like you get it together so she never said anything about blanche's outburst so as far as dwight was concerned things couldn't have been better he didn't know anything about karmic retribution that he was in for so in the summer [19:20] plans for their wedding.

It was to be a fall wedding at Dwight's congregation just after Thanksgiving. Everyone in Dwight's family was pretty excited when they heard the news. Dwight's sister Nola said, we thought Blanche would be a tremendous asset to Dwight's ministry. Blanche's daughters, on the other hand, were less enthusiastic about their mother's new fiancé. Cindy said, we're capable of a good deep belly laugh. He's capable of a giggle. [19:44] Like they just didn't feel like he really fit in. Yeah. It also didn't help that her daughters were really attached to Raymond after their father passed because he was a huge part of their lives.

Yeah. And they kind of always hoped that Raymond and Blanche would end up together. So this was a little tough. It's tough for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. [20:00] As they were planning the wedding, Blanche revealed to Dwight that her daughters were going to be the ones paying for the reception. [20:07] Oh, up until that moment, Dwight had never considered Blanche's finances or her source of income, which is wild because like I'm not blaming him. But like when you are getting married to someone, please get an idea of their financial. Yeah, just for future.

Because you're tying yourself to their debt. Yeah, your stuff is their stuff. Their stuff is your stuff. Now, he knew that she got some money from Raymond's death and the settlement from the Kroger suit. But that was really all he knew. I don't know that he knew how fast she was running out of that. When it came to his finances, the complete opposite was true. [20:37] Once they decided to get married, he gave every detail about his income sources to Blanche, including his life insurance policy and retirement package. Oh, boy.

She had a full view of everything. Oh, boy. Now, as Thanksgiving approached, Dwight was getting more and more excited about the wedding. [20:55] But just a few weeks before the wedding was supposed to take place, his enthusiasm was cut short when he suddenly became very ill. [21:04] It started with a terrible case of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. And what was weird was that he never really had stomach issues before this. So he kind of chalked it up to just nerves and excitement and stress leading up to the wedding. But a few days later, he was still experiencing these kind of GI symptoms.

And then his symptoms elevated to also include a skin rash and numbness and tingling in his arms and hands. Oh, that's not good. So the new symptoms concerned him enough [21:34] singles, the same illness that Raymond had been diagnosed with prior to his death. [21:39] Okay. Weird. Yeah. One week before the wedding, Dwight and Blanche managed to make it out to go to dinner. [21:45] And then returned home and went to bed. Dwight's stomach had been bothering him since they got home, which he figured maybe he just ate something weird.

So he went to bed. But unfortunately, not long after laying down, he bolted upright and projectile vomited across the room. Oh, my God. And then just collapsed on the bed in pure agony. Holy shit. The next morning, he was still in too much pain and too sick to do his usual visits with parishioners. [22:13] And strangely, to his surprise, Blanche, who ate the same exact meal that he had the night before, was the very picture of health. Oh. So it wasn't the food. Weird. Yeah. Now, the theory that Dwight had been experiencing some sort of food poisoning became even less plausible as his symptoms persisted for days at a time.

[22:43] driving or giving a sermon. Oh, no. Imagine you're in the middle of church, like trying to [22:48] like lift people up and then you just have to go vomit. Oh, that's awful. Yeah. So things became more alarming on the afternoon of Blanche's physical with her doctor for the marriage license, which, by the way, I looked this up. [22:59] It's been phased out since, but up until like the 80s slash 90s, you had to get a physical before you got married to get your marriage license. They wanted to rule out like syphilis and like any kind of infectious diseases.

Interesting. Isn't that crazy? It's not a thing anymore. But you used to have to get a full-blown blood test. Damn. [23:29] you [23:31] Summer always seems to fly by, and July is one of the busiest months out of the year. Between vacations, summer activities, and weekend getaways, keeping everyone healthy while staying on budget can be a challenge. That's where GoodRx can help. With GoodRx, you can find free coupons and compare prescription prices to save on medications for yourself, your family, and even your pets. GoodRx is free and it's easy to use.

Just search for your prescription on the website or the app, compare prices, and get a free coupon to show your pharmacist. [24:01] X to save at over 70,000 pharmacies nationwide, including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Publix, Kroger, and so many more. Good Rx is not insurance, but it works whether you have insurance or not, and it could even beat your insurance copay price. I myself have insurance, but whenever I'm rolling up to the pharmacy, I am opening my Good Rx app and seeing what's available as far as coupons go. I hand it right over to the pharmacist working, and they're always like, girl, I know you're [24:31] And they're like, we got to tell more people about this.

Save time and money at the pharmacy this summer. Go to com slash morbid. That's com slash morbid. [24:42] This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. I happen to be somebody that struggles with people-pleasing, so a lot of times I will build things up and up and up and up and up and then kind of get to the point where I'm like, I need to let this out to this person. Even in 2026, that stigma and just stigma in general can get in the way of a lot of things, like getting support for your mental health.

Maybe you've encouraged friends to consider therapy while avoiding taking that first step [25:12] yourself that you should handle this all alone. But therapy with BetterHelp, the world's largest online therapy platform, can be a space to slow down and talk through what's been building before it feels unmanageable. Just take a short questionnaire to identify your needs and preferences and BetterHelp will handle the initial therapist matching work for you. Their industry-leading match rate means BetterHelp typically gets it right the first time. Feel confident knowing BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and [25:42] hold you back.

Find support with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at com slash morbid. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash morbid. [25:55] Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90% with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust com. Go to com and use code PODCAST to try com risk-free for 60 days.

[26:25] Thank you. [26:29] Now, the doctor gave Blanche a clean bill of health, but he was slightly concerned about how Dwight looked. He was like, you don't look so good. You look like shit. He was like, I might not give you this fucking license. The Reverend assured the doctor that he was just experiencing a flu, like a terrible, really bad one. Yeah. And he said, I'm going to take some medication when I get home. I'll be all right. As they were driving, he felt another wave of nausea that wash over him.

And he quickly pulled over to the side of [26:55] enough time to get his door open to vomit, and behind him he could hear Blanche laughing at the fact that she was the one coming from the doctor, but he was the one vomiting. [27:06] Imagine you're vomiting and your partner is laughing at your fiance, who you're doing to marry in like six days. [27:14] Thank you. [27:15] If Drew ever laughed at me while I was vomiting... Oh my god. There would be... I love you, babe. There would be a safe corner on this earth.

I'd lose my shit. No, like, are you kidding me? Like, what? That's awful. Now, he might have found it humorous as well, but when he looked at the ground, he saw streaks of red blood in his vomit. Oh no. So things were escalating here. And the days that followed, it became abundantly clear that he was far too sick to go through with the wedding. So they pushed it back six weeks to give him time to recoup. You gotta go to the hospital. Yeah. [27:44] Like, why is no one going... [27:46] to the hospital he's about to go to the hospital okay things only continue to get worse within a day or two of that doctor's appointment that was blanche's uh dwight's symptoms became much worse he was nauseous pretty much constantly and now his abdomen was starting to swell oh so this time he didn't bother with just going to a doctor like a doctor's appointment instead he had blanche drive him straight to the hospital yeah they waited in the emergency room for hours and [28:13] The ER doctors ran some tests.

They took an x-ray and they diagnosed him with a bowel obstruction. Oh, shit. Now, they recommended that he go home and rest, consume a liquid diet, and then it would eventually pass. I don't think it was like super big at this point. Also, it was what? The 80s. Like almost the 90s. Oh, my gosh. That's pretty serious. He did as they suggested, but less than 24 hours passed before he was back at the hospital. [28:43] was. Maybe you should keep him in the hospital. Maybe you should admit him. Yeah. In the x-rays, they could clearly see a mass, but they couldn't figure out what it was because it had gotten bigger.

Yeah. [28:53] But no cancer that they knew of grew that exponentially within 24 hours. [29:00] So... [29:00] weirdly so he's told he has a mask he's told it's getting bigger despite not have having any explanation for what this mass in the x-ray is blanche immediately ran to the phone and called dwight's sisters to tell them that it was cancerous [29:15] huh the mass in his intestines was cancerous he loves to call family members and prematurely diagnose or call for time of death yep yeah she sure does before calling anybody that's wild emergency services she's wild she's a wild lady [29:31] Like, whoa.

Yeah. So after talking over their different options for what they could do here, the ER doctors explained that they did want to do surgery to remove the mask. But the problem was his heart was showing signs of stress that were very concerning. And that came as a surprise to Dwight because as far as he knew, his heart was strong. He never really smoked or drank to excess. And like he exercised. Yeah, like never had a problem. No, he never had an issue. [30:01] the results appeared to be the profile of a much older person who had suffered heart problems for years.

[30:08] So he was like, what the fuck has happened to my body? What is going on? Now, he agreed to do the surgery, and a few days later, he was administered the anesthetic and wheeled into the OR. But when the surgeon cut into his intestine, he was like, [30:20] They were stunned to find that contrary to the x-ray, there was no cancerous mass or mass at all in Dwight's intestine. What? There was no sign of any kind of blockage either. His intestines were just inflamed. [30:36] What the fuck? But there was no mass.

And they had seen a mass on the x-ray. The inflammation didn't account for what they saw on the x-ray. Nothing about this made any kind of fucking sense. Yeah, apparently. And they would have known if he had passed the blockage, so it wasn't that either. Yeah. [30:53] Now, just to be certain that they didn't miss anything, this is so gross, the surgeons pulled out the entire length of Dwight's intestines and inspected them from one end to the other. [31:05] holy shit you know how long intestines are yeah they inspect and that's just like tedious and like also recovering from that yeah having your fucking and like you're literally being disemboweled yeah literally rebowled yeah [31:18] They found nothing.

[31:20] So they put everything back and they sewed him up. Wow. When he came out of surgery and was conscious enough to speak to the doctors, they explained that they hadn't found anything during his surgery. And the best they could estimate was maybe he had a kink in his intestines and they worked that out. Wow. Now, the news that he was cancer free obviously came as a relief. But a surgery like this had been very traumatic and it was also going to take a long time to recover. So he was going to need to take it easy.

Wow. [31:47] Now, fortunately, he had Blanche by his side. Yeah, thank goodness. And she said she would be there to help him through. She told his family, Dwight and I are going to live in sin for a while because I'm going to have to move in with him to care for him. [32:00] Okay. So they did. Great. As the weeks passed after the surgery, Dwight started talking about the wedding again, but Blanche insisted he was too ill to think about that. She was like, we don't need to talk about the wedding.

We don't need that. She might have been right, but he was insistent that they at least kind of restart any kind of preparation. But unfortunately, before they could get to that, Dwight's doctors found another mass in his x-ray during a follow-up visit. Okay. [32:25] Initially, they expected to find evidence of some kind of intestinal problem, but when they looked at the new x-ray, they found an entirely new mass in a different area, roughly the same size as the previous one. Now, since it wasn't possible for that original mass to have worked its way back up to the original spot, they knew it was different.

But since it wasn't long enough after the initial surgery, they couldn't do another surgery. [32:50] They can't just keep opening you up. So after the follow up appointment, they kept an eye on the mass. But since Dwight's symptoms seem to have improved a little bit, they weren't as concerned. OK, then in winter, as the new wedding date approached. [33:05] Dwight's previous symptoms appeared with a ferocity that he had not yet experienced. Blanche rushed him to the hospital. He was admitted immediately and hooked up to a ton of machines to monitor his very erratic vital signs.

By that time, there was fluid amassing in his lungs, and he was experiencing painful diarrhea and vomiting a quote-unquote milky foam. Yeah. So once he was stable enough for surgery... [33:33] His doctors opened up his intestines for a second time, and for a second time, found absolutely nothing. No mass, no blockage, just irritation. This is horrifying. It really is. So he managed to recover much faster than he had before, and he was able to be discharged after two weeks in the hospital. But at that time, he had the opportunity to consider his relationship with Blanche.

It [34:03] as she was the first time. It's weird because he got better faster when she wasn't there. Weird. [34:09] Also, for that matter, she didn't really seem as committed to being his nurse during what was expected to be another long recovery now that he was out of the hospital. Now, he's just thinking, like, maybe she doesn't want to be there for me anymore. He's not thinking the worst. So he decided not to bother Blanche with his recovery for the second time. And instead, he took up his sister, Nola, on the offer to come stay with her and her husband.

To his surprise, when he told Blanche his plans, she kind of seemed offended. [34:36] She was like, you can't, you don't think you can rely on me? No. And he was like, well, you didn't seem interested at all. So I thought I was like taking something out of your plate or off your plate. But she was like, whatever. Whatever. [34:49] It's like, okay. So he went to stay with us. I have to like try to survive this. Like Jesus. Also... [34:55] Mind you, this is his fiancée. Yeah. Like, and he's like, okay, I'm sorry for bothering you with my intestinal issues.

Damn. So. I feel bad. I feel so bad for him. This is awful. This is awful. [35:07] During the weeks that he was with his sister, Blanche never visited and she barely, I don't, she, she didn't call him, he called her. My God. They only spoke a handful of times when he called and each time Blanche was distant or dismissive. [35:21] So Nola, his sister and her husband, kind of read these... [35:25] like Blanche's behavior as signs that their relationship was on the decline and they probably weren't going to get married.

[35:31] But Dwight assumed it was just Blanche's personality. He was like, that's just how she is. Very forgiving. Yeah. Better people than I. He's very forgiving. If he was overly optimistic, it might have had something to do with his speedy recovery. Because not only was he healing quickly from the surgery itself this time, but all of his other agonizing symptoms also seemed to be clearing up. [35:53] Because he was staying with his sister and Blanche wasn't visiting. Exactly. [35:57] As far as he was concerned, though, everything was on track to getting back to normal, and maybe they could get married.

Oh, man. Poor man. Run away. I know. [36:06] So by February 1989, the last of Dwight's symptoms had faded, and he was finally feeling like himself again. And now that his illness was behind him, he really was so excited to get back to Blanche. He really missed her. That's so sad. In March, he got a call from his son, Doug. [36:21] inviting his dad to come to New Jersey and visit and meet his new grandchild. Dwight could not have been more excited. But before making plans to travel, he talked to Blanche and he said, I really want you to join me.

Like, I want you to meet my grandchild. But as my wife, I really want to marry you. So with all the talk of marriage they'd been through and all the times that Blanche had declined or just put him off, he expected her to have some other reason why they couldn't get married this time. [36:47] But to his surprise, she accepted the invitation. [36:51] It's because she's not done yet. Yeah. Now, rather than go through with yet another potentially frustrating experience of planning like a bigger wedding only to keep pushing it back, they did get married in a very small ceremony on April 19th with Dwight's friend, Reverend Jim Rosser, officiating.

[37:09] With all the chaos of the doctors and hospitals in the recent months, there wasn't time and there really wasn't money for a lavish honeymoon, so they decided to consider the trip to New Jersey their honeymoon. The next day, Blanche and Dwight got into his car, they drove to visit Doug, finally as husband and wife. [37:25] Now, shockingly, the visit to New Jersey passed without incident, and after a few days with Doug's family, Blanche and Dwight were on the road headed back to North Carolina. [37:36] For several weeks at this point, Dwight had been symptom-free, felt like he was finally getting his life back, got to meet his grandchild, hang out with his kids, no issue.

But that all came to an end on the trip back home. [37:49] While they were on the Cape May ferry, Dwight was standing by the railing and he was just looking out at the water. And all of a sudden he got hit with a super intense wave of nausea. At first he was like, okay, maybe I'm just seasick. [38:02] But within a few minutes, there was no point in denying the obvious. As soon as they got home, he went to lay down. And the next morning, he was feeling slightly better.

That same morning, he visited some parishioners. He returned home. He put on his gardening clothes. He went out to spray the weeds and the dandelions with weed killer. Mm-hmm. [38:22] Around noon, Blanche returned home from shopping and she called Dwight into the house to have some lunch. She picked up chicken sandwiches on the way home. Oh no, don't eat what she's giving you. No. Over lunch, he listened to Blanche talk about the plan she had to fix up their small house. And then, without any warning, Dwight stood up from the table and projectile vomited so violently that the force struck the far wall.

[38:48] my god he literally projectile vomited across a room and hit another fucking this is torture it is torture it's slow like this is so agonizing yeah this is [38:59] Awful. It is. [39:02] So when that finally stopped, he fell to his knees, then flat on the floor face down, which like, I would never allow my husband to fall on the floor face down while he was vomiting. I'd be right there holding him. But he vomited again face down on the floor. Oh, yeah. [39:18] Throughout that entire vomit stream across the room, and then when he fell to the floor...

[39:24] Blanche never stopped talking about hanging curtains and blinds and fixing up the house. [39:30] even as she finally helped him get off the kitchen floor and walked him to the bedroom she was just going on and on about home renovations [39:38] Despite the full-blown fucking crisis unfolding before her. She is an evil... [39:45] Evil lady. To be able to be that removed from a situation that I think we all know she created. Inhuman. Yeah. Yeah. [39:55] Because even if she didn't create that, obviously she's on death row. But even if she didn't create that, to be that insensitive to the suffering of someone you are claiming to love...

Someone you're married is inhuman in a way I cannot... [40:13] comprehend. No. Like it's that's so scary. It is to think of this man just suffering like that. [40:20] For so long. And she's not only indifferent. She's just like... [40:25] It's not even like it doesn't hit her in any way. No. Yeah. Not at all. Like that's horrifying. [40:31] That's so brutal. That's so sad. This is brutal in such a different way than what we usually see with these kind of things. And like violent. Very violent. Very gruesome. Because it's.

[40:42] It's like slowly killing somebody and watching it all happen. For months and months and months and months. Like, holy shit. It's remarkable that he made it through some of this. Now, the next day, Dwight went to the ER but found little help there. The attending physician consulted with a doctor who originally diagnosed Dwight with the bowel obstruction. And after hearing the whole story, he just prescribed medication and sent him home. [41:06] It's like, guys, something is wrong here. Later that night, Blanche was sweet enough to make Dwight some soup.

But then he became violently ill again. Oh, my God. Almost like the medication wasn't in his system at all. He begged Blanche to take him back to the hospital. And once there, it was a repeat of the day before. The doctor looked him over, discharged him with medication. Dwight begged the doctor to please admit him. He was like, no, something more is going on here. [41:36] referring him to another doctor so he had to go home. [41:41] the health care system i was literally just gonna say health care in america everybody yeah people in other countries are probably like what they're like how the fuck did this happen like yes we are asking the same thing how the fuck did this happen this same thing is probably happening right now as we speak it's 2026 and it's probably still happening this is that's fucking ridiculous to look at somebody and just be like yeah sorry i don't have the time [42:02] Oh, okay.

Like, what the fuck? Yeah, it's such an awful system. So that night, he's discharged again. The scene replays itself all over again. Blanche made Dwight soup. He ate it. Almost immediately, he became violently ill. Begs Blanche to drive him to the ER for a... [42:22] What is this, the third time? She begrudgingly agreed to do so. That's the other thing. She was like, oh, he had to beg her to drive him. Oh, my God. This time, though, he insisted that they drive 40 miles to North Carolina Memorial Hospital. Wow. [42:35] Unfortunately, the doctors there at the new emergency room were no more sympathetic than they had been at the last...

[42:42] hospital this is disgusting and they did the exact same thing medication go home to rest [42:48] That's horrific. And it's like, guys, it's well documented that the medication is not doing anything. Two days passed. And by that Friday morning, Dwight was barely able to move or stand up. And he was just in constant pain. Like, that's awful. True agony. Yeah. Blanche dismissed his complaints for hours, but eventually relented and drove him back to the hospital. [43:18] see you. Finally! [43:20] It's sad. Like, I love, I've had great experiences with, like, doctors and everything.

Yeah. But I've heard these horror stories where some of them don't have the time and they're overworked. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's not even that they don't care. It's that they can't care. Exactly. You know what I mean? Which is even worse. I mean, you literally see it on the pit. Because they're understaffed, they're underfunded, they're not supported, they're working these long hours. Like, yeah. [43:42] The healthcare system is fucked in this country. And meanwhile, we have a trillionaire that could fix it all in the blink of an eye.

Where you at, boy? Yeah. Now, once he was finally settled in the hospital in the fucking ICU, the intensive care unit. They don't just throw anyone in there. No, it takes a lot to go to the ICU. Dwight became the responsibility of Dr. David Wams, a third-year fellow in the cardiology department at the University of North Carolina. [44:12] Dwight, Wands was young and he was very eager to prove himself on a complicated case that had baffled other more seasoned professionals. Honestly, best case scenario. It really is. Yeah. So the day after, this is where it starts to remind me of a pit episode.

Yeah. [44:27] The day after admittance, Dr. Wands sat down with Blanche, who was more than happy to fill in the details of her husband's medical mystery. She gave Wands a list of medications that Dwight had been on and tried to remember anything he had eaten right before becoming sick this time. [44:41] And she also mentioned that he had been out in the garden spraying the weed killer. The mention of gardening got Dr. Wands to think that Dwight may have been inadvertently poisoned. Blanche told the doctor she didn't think that could be it, but she still agreed to return home and gather up all the pesticides they had in the house and come back with them.

As soon as she left, Dr. Wands ordered a full toxicological workup for his patient. [45:05] badass yeah so blanche arrived home that afternoon to the phone ringing it was debbie on the other end calling to check on her father blanche seemed nonchalant and said her dad was in the hospital but don't worry it's just for some tests oh yeah and he she said it's really just because he didn't trust the other doctors i'm like no but she's been admitted to the icu yeah like wow not telling his children that well luckily fucked debbie still wasn't comfortable with blanche after her [45:35] thing.

And there was something in Blanche's voice that made Debbie suspicious. Oh, she knows. So after hanging up with Blanche, Debbie called a friend who was more familiar with hospital systems and explained that she was hoping the friend might be able to call the doctor and ask the right questions to get some answers here. So Debbie's friend called and left a message for Dr. Wands, who returned the call a few hours later and absolutely insisted that Debbie and her brother should get to the hospital right away because they weren't sure if her father was going [46:05] That's how down bad he was.

Holy shit. Again, he's in the fucking ICU. Yeah. [46:35] No drama. It's a girls' girls summer, and DSW has just the shoes. Shop the Sierra Miller Collection right now at your DSW store or com. [46:48] Looking to scale your outcomes beyond search and social? [46:52] Realize is Taboola's AI-powered performance platform, driving incremental growth by engaging high-intent users across a global network of 600 million daily active users on premium websites. Reach and convert your audience on premium websites and placements where your customers actually spend their time. For more information and to create your account today, go to

com slash podcast. You've tried melatonin, the white noise machine, the blackout curtains, the magnesium, and you're sleeping. [47:21] Fine. [47:23] Not great. [47:24] Just fine. [47:25] At some point, you have to consider the four-year-old pillow is doing more damage than the magnesium is fixing. [47:32] Coop Sleep Goods is running a bundle sale July 9th through the 20th. [47:36] The starter bundle is the move. Two pillows plus a sheet set, 40% off. And we're not saying it'll fix everything. [47:43] We're just saying you've tried everything else. [47:46] Coop's pillows are adjustable, designed to fit how you sleep, not just tolerated.

Mix and match any two pillows at 25% off or go all in on the starter bundle. One real upgrade beats six mediocre ones. Head to com slash comedy. That's C-O-O-P com slash comedy for 40% off the starter bundle and 25% off all other bundles. [48:12] now dwight continued to deteriorate over the next few days to the point that death seemed inevitable and frankly imminent the doctors could not figure out what was happening and they were powerless to do anything more than slow the progress of whatever was killing him then on may 13th they got the break they needed when the toxicology report came back in

[48:38] If there had been a different doctor on when the results arrived, maybe they would have dismissed the results as an anomaly or a false positive. Who knows? But this time, the results came to that young hospital intern who took one fucking look at those results and was shocked that so shocked that he couldn't help but show everybody. Dwight's results showed a level of arsenic in his system that was 20 times the lethal dose. [49:05] Oh, my God. 20 times the lethal dose. According to author Jim Schutz, who again will link his book in the show notes, it was the most arsenic that had ever been found in any living human being in the history of the hospital.

Enough to kill a large mammal. [49:24] Wow! [49:27] enough to kill a large mammal is crazy [49:32] That's nuts. I'm literally picturing a bear. Literally. Like, like, 20 times the lethal dose. How the fuck did this man survive? I mean, he was suffering. Like, holy shit. Like, we can't actually even put into words how much he must have been suffering. Now, thinking that had to be a mistake, Dr. Wands called the lab, but they insisted that there was no mistake. They themselves were so shocked that they triple-checked the results. Wow.

Yeah, because, I mean, [50:00] I'm sure they never saw that before. No. So suddenly everything started to make sense. Arsenic tends to behave like a chemical, but it's actually a heavy metal. So when they looked at the x-rays over and over, what the original doctors thought was a bowel obstruction was actually arsenic that had pooled in Dwight's intestines. Because it's a metal, the x-rays didn't penetrate the pool of arsenic. So that's why it looked like a mass. That makes sense. [50:30] But into him to remove the mass, there was nothing there.

Arsenic will work through a person's system in a matter of days and would have been gone by the time the specialist followed up. Goddamn. This young doctor... [50:42] A fucking winner, maybe. So the test results were the critical missing piece of the puzzle. But while they may have been the key to solving the medical mystery at hand, they now raised a new question. How the fuck did the arsenic get there in the first place? I'm sure I bet I know. No, you're so. Yeah, I have an idea. [51:00] Maybe. Yeah, it's gonna be crazy.

[51:03] Now, after asking the family members to step out into the hall, Dr. Juan sat right down next to Dwight's bed and explained what he found. [51:11] And asked that very question. He was like, how do you think this got into your system, buddy? How'd you get so much arsenic? Dwight was still in bad shape, but he had regained consciousness and appeared to be improved enough to think and talk. He told Dr. Wands that he'd been spraying weeds that afternoon just before lunch, so he thought maybe that was it. But the doctor was like...

[51:29] No, no, no household chemical contains that amount of arsenic. And if the heavy metal had been the problem all along, that meant that he would have had to have been consistently consuming it for almost a year. [51:41] So like, who's feeding you arsenic? Who's feeding you? Yeah. Dwight would spend more than a month in the ICU, luckily steadily improving as the arsenic just worked its way out of his system. Given the unusual nature of the circumstances, though, he was moved to an isolation unit and assigned a sitter. So that meant somebody was in the room at all times, day and night.

At no point could his family or hospital staff be allowed in that room [52:11] Wow. Because they knew somebody was off here. Somebody in your fucking circle. And they're going to give you more arsenic. They're going to finish off the job if we leave you alone. Exactly. That's actually terrifying, isn't it? Oh, my God. So Wands and his supervisors contacted the police to report their findings. [52:30] But the department was small and overworked, so they left a message and they waited for a return call. Is anyone doing their job besides Dr.

Wong's? No. Several days passed with no word back, so they decided to call the State Bureau of Investigation. A few days later, the case was assigned to investigators Dave McDougall and Phil Ayers. [52:47] The first thing that the investigators did after speaking to the doctors was obviously to interview family members and people in Dwight's circle. Pretty much everybody was fucking baffled by the situation. Like, they were like, I don't know how that amount of arsenic got into him. But Blanche seemed the most invested in them being wrong. She dismissed the idea that anyone would try to kill Dwight.

And instead, she insisted, no, it must have been the chemicals that he used on the garden. Yeah. [53:15] She even went so far as to say that after spraying the lawn, Dwight wiped his hands on a kitchen towel, and she then used that towel to dry her face and had a bad reaction. I doubt it. But when she was reminded that the poison would have to be legitimately ingested, she came up with a news story about Dwight possibly having eaten tainted grapes just before their trip. [53:37] But the doctors were like, no, he wouldn't ingest 20 times the lethal dose of arsenic by eating a couple of grapes.

And it's like, good try. Yeah.