S1: Bonus Ep 3 - Bobby Cumber

Summary

American Homicide: S1: Bonus Ep 3 - Bobby Cumber

Release Date: February 18, 2025

Summary by Sloane Glass

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Introduction: The Unlikely Conviction

In this compelling bonus episode of American Homicide, host Sloane Glass delves into the heart-wrenching and improbable story of Bobby Cumber—a man wrongfully convicted of murder despite having a verifiable alibi. As Glass narrates, the episode serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility of justice and the devastating impact of systemic failures.

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Bobby Cumber’s Early Life and Background

Bobby Cumber, a 46-year-old Air Force veteran, led a modest and quiet life in Shreveport, Louisiana. After two decades of military service, including participation in the Vietnam War, Bobby sought stability and purpose by working as a clerk and bookkeeper at a local hardware store. Described by Glass as “the sweetest little guy, humble, accommodating and gullible with terrible luck” (04:03).

“He was the sweetest little guy, humble, accommodating and gullible with terrible luck.” – Sloane Glass [04:03]

Bobby’s personal life was equally unassuming. He and his wife Myra lived peacefully with their daughter Becky and two dogs. Their shared interests included bowling and country drives, embodying a life of simplicity and contentment (03:40).

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The Fateful Encounter

In spring 1984, seeking a respite from his monotonous life, Bobby returned to his hometown of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. It was here that he encountered Robert and Maria Marshall at a high school reunion. Robert Marshall, an attractive insurance and IRA salesman with a reputation for smooth talk, befriended Bobby, subsequently requesting his assistance in finding a private detective to investigate missing gambling winnings (06:06).

“Marshall first tried to sell him an IRA because that was Robert Marshall. And then Marshall asked Bobby if he could find him a private detective.” – Sloane Glass [06:35]

Bobby, ever the obliging individual, connected Robert Marshall with Billy Wayne McKinnon, a former cop turned private detective. Unbeknownst to Bobby, Marshall harbored ulterior motives, including a motive for murder fueled by debt and a significant life insurance policy (09:58).

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The Murder and Arrest

In early September 1984, Maria Marshall was brutally murdered at a rest stop off the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Upon investigation, police discovered Robert Marshall’s numerous phone calls to Bobby Cumber, sparking suspicion despite Bobby’s solid alibi—he was 1,400 miles away bowling with his wife on the night of the murder (08:59).

“Bobby is a very important footnote in judicial history as one of the most unlikely prosecutions that anyone had ever seen.” – Sloane Glass [37:10]

Despite clear evidence of his innocence, Bobby was arrested and subjected to harsh interrogation tactics, including being held without charges or proper recordings. The police were convinced of his involvement, leading to his wrongful conviction for conspiracy to commit murder (09:09).

“I’m not guilty of this crime. I just want to go back to Louisiana and live out the rest of my life with my family.” – Bobby Cumber [09:27]

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The Trial and Conviction

Bobby’s trial in 1986 became a media sensation, overshadowing previous episodes’ coverage of Maria Marshall’s murder. Despite support from Robert Marshall and confessions from McKinnon that exonerated him, the prosecution’s case hinged solely on the problematic phone calls. The defense highlighted Bobby’s innocence, emphasizing the lack of motive, opportunity, and concrete evidence (18:06).

“No motive. No opportunity. No money trail. They really had nothing.” – Sloane Glass [18:06]

The jury, influenced by New Jersey’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws for accessories to major crimes, found Bobby guilty. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole (20:19).

“Thirty years.” – Judge Manuel Greenberg [21:04]

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Life in Prison and Family Struggles

During his incarceration, Bobby’s life unraveled. His family faced severe repercussions: their home was lost, Myra received death threats, and his daughter Becky endured relentless bullying at school. Social isolation deepened as Bobby’s siblings in New Jersey disowned him, leaving only his wife and daughter in Louisiana as his support system (24:23).

“They lost their house, they lost their jobs. They lost everything.” – Sloane Glass [23:51]

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The Fight for Justice

Journalist Judy Peet played a pivotal role in uncovering the truth behind Bobby’s wrongful conviction. In 1999, her investigative efforts led to the publication of “Flawed Judgment,” which reignited public interest and highlighted the grave injustices in Bobby’s case. Collaborating with Judge Greenberg, Peet orchestrated a grassroots campaign involving letter-writing by sixth-grade students, appealing to then-acting Governor Richard Cody for clemency (26:37).

“The only chance that he had then was to have the governor of New Jersey commute a sentence.” – Sloane Glass [27:12]

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Clemency and Release

On his final day in office, Governor Richard Cody signed Bobby’s clemency petition, acknowledging the miscarriage of justice in his case. The emotional reunion with his family marked the end of a 20-year ordeal (28:24).

“Nearly 20 years after a jury convicted Bobby Cumber for conspiracy to commit murder, Acting New Jersey Governor Richard Cody granted Bobby clemency in 2006.” – Judy Peet [30:54]

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Life After Prison and Legacy

Post-release, Bobby struggled to reintegrate into a world vastly changed by technological advancements. Despite these challenges, he focused on rebuilding his life with Myra and Becky. Bobby’s story, though largely absent from mainstream media portrayals of Maria Marshall’s murder, remains a testament to resilience and the enduring quest for justice.

“Bobby didn’t assign blame. He never did.” – Sloane Glass [32:15]

Bobby passed away in 2022 at the age of 83, leaving behind a legacy of wrongful conviction and the eventual triumph of truth through persistent advocacy and journalistic integrity.

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Conclusion: A Cautionary Tale

Bobby Cumber’s narrative underscores the profound implications of wrongful convictions and the critical need for systemic reforms in the judicial process. Through Glass’s meticulous storytelling, listeners gain a deep appreciation for the human cost of judicial errors and the relentless pursuit of justice by dedicated individuals like Judy Peet.

“Bobby is a very important footnote in judicial history as one of the most unlikely prosecutions that anyone had ever seen.” – Sloane Glass [37:10]

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Notable Quotes

• Sloane Glass [04:03]: “He was the sweetest little guy, humble, accommodating and gullible with terrible luck.”
• Bobby Cumber [09:27]: “I’m not guilty of this crime. I just want to go back to Louisiana and live out the rest of my life with my family.”
• Judge Manuel Greenberg [21:04]: “Thirty years.”
• Sloane Glass [32:15]: “Bobby didn’t assign blame. He never did.”

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Key Takeaways

• Systemic Failures: Bobby’s case highlights significant flaws in the judicial system, including reliance on circumstantial evidence and the devastating effects of mandatory sentencing laws.
• Impact on Families: The wrongful conviction extended beyond Bobby, wreaking havoc on his family’s stability and well-being.
• Role of Journalism: Judy Peet’s investigative work was instrumental in uncovering the truth and advocating for Bobby’s release.
• Resilience and Forgiveness: Despite immense suffering, Bobby maintained a forgiving and resilient spirit, embodying the human capacity to endure and overcome injustice.

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American Homicide continues to shed light on perplexing and tragic murder cases across America, intertwining personal narratives with broader societal issues. This episode serves as a powerful exploration of wrongful conviction and the enduring fight for justice.

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Connect with American Homicide

For more stories and to share your thoughts, contact the American Homicide team at [e-mail]. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and rate and review the show to help others discover these impactful narratives.

Transcript

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[Sloane Glass]

It was kind of like a mom and popping on a hardware Store journalist.

[Advertiser 2]

Judy Pepe wrote about Bobby Kumber.

[Sloane Glass]

Bobby at the time was living in Louisiana. Even though Bobby was originally from New Jersey.

[Advertiser 2]

Things in Louisiana moved a little slower than in New Jersey and Bobby was okay with that. But sitting still just wasn't in his DNA.

[Sloane Glass]

Bobby always worked. He likes working. He likes being told what to do. He was a little guy that did his job and kept out of the way.

[Advertiser 2]

In 1984, the soft spoken Bobby Cumber was 46 years old. He stood 5ft 8 inches tall and barely weighed 150 pounds soaking wet. He and his wife Myra lived in a modest one story home with their daughter and two dogs.

[Sloane Glass]

They were both quiet people. They didn't drink, they bowled. They liked going on drives in the country. They lived a very quiet life.

[Advertiser 2]

That simple and modest life fit Bobby like a glove.

[Sloane Glass]

He was the sweetest little guy, humble, accommodating and gullible with terrible luck.

[Advertiser 2]

So let's talk about Bobby's luck. Growing up, he dreamed of being a sailor. So at age 17, he dropped out of high school and went to enlist with the Navy.

[Sloane Glass]

Well, he went into the wrong door at the recruiting station and ended up with the Air Force instead. He ended up serving 20 years in the Air Force when what he really wanted to do was be in the Navy. That's Bobby. Anyone else probably would have fought that, but Bobby didn't. Because Bobby doesn't fight.

[Advertiser 2]

Not only did he have a 21 year career in the Air Force, he also fought in the Vietnam War. Then there was his wedding to Myra.

[Sloane Glass]

They got married Friday the 13th. They went to Dallas for their honeymoon for three days and it rained the.

[Advertiser 2]

Entire three days after their wedding. Bobby adopted Myra's daughter Becky.

[Sloane Glass]

She didn't know that she'd been adopted. She thought he was her birth father. And she found out in the newspaper.

[Advertiser 2]

That newspaper article ran during Bobby's trial in 1986. We'll circle back to that trial in a bit. So back in the spring of 1984, you could say Bobby's simple and quiet life in Louisiana had gotten a little too quiet.

[Sloane Glass]

His wife was paying attention to their daughter because she was having trouble in school. So he felt a little neglected and he came back to New Jersey.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby was the oldest of seven and returned to his hometown of Perth Amboy, New Jersey to visit one of his brothers.

[Sloane Glass]

And he ran into his high school girlfriend who invited him to her daughter's graduation in Toms River. Bobby was flattered, so of course he went. He always did what he said he would do.

[Advertiser 2]

Toms river is an upper middle class suburb along the Jersey Shore. And that party was filled with the who's who of Toms River. As luck would have it, Bobby wound up sitting next to Robert and Maria Marshall. Yes, the same couple we talked about in the previous two episodes.

[Sloane Glass]

Robert Marshall sold insurance and IRAs and did very well. He was an attractive man with a very attractive wife and three teenage sons who were all championship swimmers. And she was swim team mom of the year.

[Advertiser 2]

Robert and Maria Marshall were at that party because they lived next door to Bobby's ex girlfriend. And Robert Marshall struck up a conversation with Bobby.

[Sloane Glass]

And he was very flattered that a big shot in his mind like Robert Marshall would pay attention to him at all that night.

[Advertiser 2]

The smooth talking. Robert Marshall did what he did best.

[Sloane Glass]

Marshall first tried to sell him an ira because that was Robert Marshall. And then Marshall asked Bobby if he could find him a private detective.

[Advertiser 2]

Robert Marshall said he needed someone to investigate some of his missing gambling winnings. And since people in Tom's river talked, he wanted to hire an out of town PI.

[Sloane Glass]

It never did make any sense because if you wanted to go out of town, there were certainly private detectives in New York and Philadelphia. You don't have to go to Louisiana to get a detective.

[Advertiser 2]

Not to mention Bobby was a clerk and bookkeeper at a hardware store. He didn't have those kind of connections.

[Sloane Glass]

But Bobby being Bobby never questioned it. Somebody asked him for a favor, so he said he would look around and ask around down in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he was working at the time.

[Advertiser 2]

A few days later, Bobby put Robert Marshall in touch with a regular at the hardware store. A former cop turned private detective named Billy Wayne McKinnon. The strange thing is, even after Bobby connected the two, Robert Marshall kept calling. Sometimes Robert Marshall would try to sell Bobby an ira. Other calls were simply messages he wanted Bobby to pass to the private detective, Billy Wayne McKinnon.

[Sloane Glass]

They used him as a message drop. Tell so and so to call me. Tell McKinnon to call me.

[Advertiser 2]

Over the summer of 1984, Robert Marshall made 31 calls to Bobby Cumber. It got to the point where Bobby politely told Robert to call Billy Wayne McKinnon directly. But the calls continued until the day before Maria Marshall's murder. That was the last time Robert Marshall called Bobby Cumber.

[Sloane Glass]

Marshall made phone calls on his office phone to Bobby Cumber. And within two weeks of the murder, the police found phone calls immediately.

[Advertiser 2]

Maria Marshall was murdered in early September of 1984. When the police went through her husband's phone records, they found his calls to Bobby Cumber.

[Sloane Glass]

Bobby was arrested and held for 48 hours without charges, without food, and without any kind of video or audio recording while the police hammered him. They were sure that he had something to do with it. But Bobby didn't.

[Advertiser 2]

What Bobby didn't know was that Robert Marshall, the popular guy he met at a party a couple months earlier, had been living a double life.

[Sloane Glass]

Robert Marshall, he had a gambling problem, he had a girlfriend, and he wanted out. And he had just, in the months before the murder, upped his wife's life insurance to a million and a half. Marshall was in debt and he wanted his wife to pay for it with her life.

[Advertiser 2]

And that's what Robert Marshall did. He may have said he was looking for an out of state private detective, but what he was really looking for was someone to kill his wife, Maria. And when the police learned Bobby Cumber connected Robert Marshall to Billy Wayne McKinnon, they believed Bobby at the very least knew something about the murder plot.

[Sloane Glass]

But he had no idea really what was going on.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby told the police all he had done was write down simple phone messages from Robert Marshall and passed them on to Billy Wayne McKinnon. The police didn't believe him and charged him with conspiracy to commit murder. I'm not guilty of this crime. I just want to go back to Louisiana and live out the rest of my life with my family. That was the voice of Bobby Cumber, who sat in a New Jersey jail awaiting his trial. After 300 days, he finally caught a break when. When Judge Manuel Greenberg reviewed his case. And I conclude there's nothing in the grand jury transcript to indicate that Cumber knew there was going to be a murder. So Judge Greenberg dismissed the charges and let Bobby return home a free man.

[Sloane Glass]

On the suggestion of his attorney at the time, Bobby filed a $30 million wrongful arrest suit against the state of New Jersey.

[Advertiser 2]

Along with false imprisonment, Bobby. Bobby sued for mental abuse and some physical problems he developed while in jail.

[Sloane Glass]

He also thought somebody should pay his wages at the hardware store for the year. He was in jail before his trial.

[Advertiser 2]

And if you adjust for inflation, Bobby's $13 million lawsuit from 1985 would be around $87 million today.

[Sloane Glass]

He admitted. Okay, maybe he got a little greedy. But he didn't pick the 30 million his lawyer did.

[Advertiser 2]

In 1985, Bobby's lawyer told the Shreveport Journal, the important thing here is that the justice system works. And by the end of 1985, Bobby's lawyer would eat those words. After Judge Greenberg dismissed the charges against Bobby. The Ocean county prosecutors appealed that decision. And that's when Bobby's bad luck reared its ugly head again.

[Sloane Glass]

The state Supreme Court reinstated the charges.

[Advertiser 2]

Think about that. You're arrested for a crime you didn't commit. A judge then throws out the charges, and then another judge puts them back on. Even the prosecutor seemed surprised by the court's decision.

[Sloane Glass]

They knew the case was very weak. So the assistant prosecutor offered Bobby a deal. If he would plead to conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, he could go home with time served and he would be done with it.

[Advertiser 2]

On paper, it was a simple deal. But there was one big catch.

[Sloane Glass]

If Bobby did that, the $30 million wrongful arrest suit goes away.

[Advertiser 2]

It seems like bringing back these charges was a retaliation from the state against Bobby's lawsuit. I can't help but to wonder what would have happened if his lawyer wasn't so greedy and he had asked for less money. Either way, Bobby wasn't about to admit to doing something he didn't do. I said, I'm not guilty. And my attorney said, okay, fine, we'll go to trial.

[Sloane Glass]

Nobody can believe he did that. It was terrible advice. And his lawyer is famous among New Jersey lawyers for that advice.

[Advertiser 2]

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[Sloane Glass]

His lawyer told him, if you think you're innocent, I think we should go for it.

[Advertiser 2]

Journalist Judy Peet wrote about Bobby Cumber, who went for it and took his case to court. His trial featured the same judge who initially threw out the charges against Bobby. You can't help but to feel optimistic about that.

[Sloane Glass]

By the time that Bobby went to court, everybody was sick to death of the story.

[Advertiser 2]

It was the summer of 1986, and the story of Maria Marshall had been front page news for nearly two years. By then, Maria's husband, Robert Marshall, had been convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her. But here's the thing. Both Robert Marshall and one of the guys he hired to kill Maria backed up Bobby's story.

[Sloane Glass]

Marshall always said that Bobby knew nothing. But Marshall did not testify in Bobby's trial because he was a convicted murderer on death row, not exactly a star witness.

[Advertiser 2]

But the jury did hear from Billy William he was the guy Robert Marshall originally hired to kill his wife, Billy Wayne.

[Sloane Glass]

McKinnon was insisting that Bobby knew nothing about the whole plot. He said specifically that he didn't tell Bobby because he didn't want to share the money with him.

[Advertiser 2]

Robert Marshall paid Billy Wayne tens of thousands, thousands of dollars to kill Maria Marshall, and he wanted that money for himself. But the prosecution put a New Jersey state detective on the stand whose testimony hurt Bobby.

[Sloane Glass]

They said he confessed, but he didn't know what he was confessing to. He thought he was confessing to insurance fraud. And they never let him have a lawyer, of course, because once you charge somebody, they have to have a lawyer, but you don't have to give him a lawyer until they're charged. This was the basis primarily of why the judge originally threw out the charges against him. They had no motive. They had no opportunity. They had no money trail. They really had nothing. They only had those phone calls.

[Advertiser 2]

Those phone calls between Robert Marshall and Bobby Kumber were important.

[Sloane Glass]

There were 31 calls. They were all short phone calls.

[Advertiser 2]

The defense didn't dispute these calls, but they argued most of them lasted a few seconds.

[Sloane Glass]

The problem with the telephone calls was that back in that time in 1984, the phone company did not keep track of the timing below 1 minute. So any call that was either 5 seconds or 10 seconds or 59 seconds still registered as a minute. So they had no way to say, well, the total conversation was, tell so and so to call me. They had no proof of that.

[Advertiser 2]

During closing arguments, the prosecutor told the jury Bobby had to have known something about the murder plot. He said, nobody is that stupid, and listened to what Bobby's defense lawyer said in response. He stood before the jury, pointed towards his client, and said he was a simple, silly, foolish, and limited piece of flesh who will never amount to anything more than a hardware store clerk.

[Sloane Glass]

Ultimately, it came down to the jury was asked to believe that Bobby was that gullible. New Jersey is a fairly cynical state, and they just didn't believe it. They couldn't believe he didn't know anything. So they convicted him as an accessory to conspiracy to commit murder.

[Advertiser 2]

That left the wide eyed and naive hardware clerk from Louisiana stunned. And Bobby's lawyer absolutely lost it.

[Sloane Glass]

His lawyer just fell apart and then burst into tears. He couldn't believe it. It destroyed his reputation. It destroyed him, practically. He realized he had made a horrible mistake, but really didn't have the wherewithal to fix it.

[Advertiser 2]

Judge Greenberg, the same judge who a year earlier had dismissed the charges against Bobby, now had to impose a sentence on him.

[Sloane Glass]

I gave Mr. Cumber the minimum sentence that you could Give, which was 30 years.

[Advertiser 2]

You can hear the heartache in judge Greenberg's voice. Thirty years. But keep in mind, his hands were tied.

[Sloane Glass]

The thing is that the year before, New Jersey had passed a mandatory minimum sentencing law that said an accessory to any major crime would have to serve the same sentence as the players, whether they had actually committed the crime or not. So Bobby, who had never really done anything, hadn't even jaywalked, was convicted and sentenced to the maximum, which was 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby did the math and figured out his Release date would be in 2015. He'd be released on the same day of his wedding anniversary.

[Sloane Glass]

Bobby just went to prison. He ran out of appeals after about 14, 15 years. And by the time I entered the whole story, that's where Bobby was.

[Advertiser 2]

Judy learned of Bobby's story during a meeting with Judge Greenberg, the man who sentenced Bobby.

[Sloane Glass]

He actually said, you know, there's one case that always bothered me. Bobby Cumber's case. He absolutely believed that Bobby shouldn't have spent a day in jail or in prison. It sort of stunned me, because sitting judges under New Jersey law are not allowed to discuss any case they've had. However, he was on the border of retirement, and I think that he had always felt bad about it. So I went back and I looked it up, and I realized a horrible injustice had been done to Bobby, and just about everybody involved in the case agreed.

[Advertiser 2]

In 1999, Judy made her first visit to New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where Bobby was held.

[Sloane Glass]

Trenton State was New Jersey's worst prison. Its most dangerous criminals were housed in Trenton.

[Advertiser 2]

She describes her meeting like something you'd see on tv. A small booth divided by thick glass with a phone on each side. When Bobby shuffled in, his hair was gray. He was blind in his right eye after a botched eye surgery, and he had heart problems. Just walking up a flight of stairs gave him chest pains. But none of that seemed to bother him.

[Sloane Glass]

He smiled and said, it's nice to see you. I've been waiting to tell somebody my story.

[Advertiser 2]

And that's what Bobby did. He shared everything, from the party where he met the Marshals to his $30 million wrongful arrest lawsuit, to his trial and unlikely conviction.

[Sloane Glass]

He told me how hard it was on his family. They lost their house, they lost their jobs. They lost everything. Myra, his wife, she got death threats. No one would hire her. The only reason they even survived during that period was that Bobby had a pension from the Air Force. The only money they had besides the pension was his daughter. Becky cleaned toilets at the local library. That whole family is the collateral damage of Bobby.

[Advertiser 2]

Even Bobby's siblings in New Jersey refused to see him.

[Sloane Glass]

Ever since he was convicted. His entire family in the New Jersey side who were close enough to visit disowned him. No one would write to him or visit him.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby's wife and daughter back in Louisiana were all he had left. If you remember, Bobby adopted Becky, and that was something Becky had to learn from a newspaper article.

[Sloane Glass]

During Bobby's trial, his daughter was bullied in school. She was thrown off of cheerleading because she was related to a degenerate is what everybody told her.

[Advertiser 2]

Every Sunday, Bobby talked with Myra and Becky on the phone, but they had never been to see him.

[Sloane Glass]

Now Bobby would not allow them to visit him in prison. He didn't want them to see him locked up. So instead they wrote letters, more than 2,000 letters.

[Advertiser 2]

In her letters, Myra tried to stay positive. But of course it wasn't easy.

[Sloane Glass]

There were days it was hard to breathe, it was so awful. But she never considered divorcing him because he was her husband. And her marriage vow said for better or worse. And she figured hopefully this was the worst it was going to get. One of the things that Myra said was she wasn't hopeless, but she was helpless. There was nothing she could do about this. Even though she knew it was wrong, there was nothing she could do.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby's new lawyers tried everything to get him released, but they all got denied.

[Sloane Glass]

Here we have a pathologically nice guy with terrible luck which again, has sort of dogged him his entire life. And this guy ends up spending the bulk of his adult life in the worst prison in one of the worst states in the country. And it was so obvious, the injustice. And important people like the judge, even the prosecutors at a certain point no longer fought letting Bobby out of jail. But nobody would go that extra distance to fix it. That broke my heart.

[Advertiser 2]

Judy's first article about Bobby, titled Flawed Judgment, ran in 1999.

[Sloane Glass]

I got into journalism to help people. I thought that if you gave people the facts that you would actually right wrongs. Well, it didn't happen very much in my career, maybe three times that I can remember. And Bobby was the one. I don't say we were friends, but I felt very protective of Bobby.

[Advertiser 2]

Along with writing a handful of articles, Judy teamed up with Judge Greenberg in hopes of drumming up support for Bobby's release.

[Sloane Glass]

The judge and I talked to a couple of sixth grade classes and we told them about Bobby and they were outraged and started a letter writing campaign to the governor. And these are 12 year olds. You know, as adults we are just too jaded to appreciate the world's Bobby Cumbers. Luckily, there's still kids out there who.

[Advertiser 2]

Can appreciate that those letters the kids wrote to New Jersey's governor were done for a reason.

[Sloane Glass]

The only chance that he had then was to have the governor of New Jersey commute a sentence.

[Advertiser 2]

A handful of New Jersey governors came and left office, but no one would help Bobby until 2006.

[Sloane Glass]

At that time, the head of the Senate, the state Senate, took over as acting governor, a guy by the name of Cody.

[Advertiser 2]

On his very last day as acting governor, Richard Cody took action.

[Sloane Glass]

He's the one who finally signed the clemency petition and made it very clear that justice was never served in Bobby Cumber's case and ordered the state to get him out of prison.

[Advertiser 2]

Governor Cody told reporters, it's about time we did the right thing and let the poor guy go. So the governor called Bobby's wife to shoot share the good news, but she didn't answer. She had a dentist appointment that day. Of course she did. A few days later, Bobby was on a plane headed home.

[Advertiser 1]

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[Sloane Glass]

Frankly, I don't think there are very many cases like Bobby Kimber. Bobby was the very first person under the law to be sentenced to the mandatory minimum as an accomplice.

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By then, Bobby had served nearly 20 years of his mandatory 30 year sentence.

[Sloane Glass]

I just wanted this poor little shimo to go home. That's all he ever wanted.

[Advertiser 2]

While Bobby sat in prison, a book and even a miniseries had been made about Maria Marshall's murder. Neither of them mentioned Bobby by name. Even the prison guards didn't know what Bobby was in for.

[Sloane Glass]

Nobody really paid attention to him. He was just the other guy, the little squirt.

[Advertiser 2]

Judy was with Bobby on his plane ride home from prison to Louisiana. Bobby was now 68 years old. And in those 20 years, the world had changed.

[Sloane Glass]

He couldn't believe how much coffee cost. $6 a cup. It was 35 cents a cup when he went to prison. Or cell phones, the whole concept of cell phones.

[Advertiser 2]

Judy described Bobby like a kid on Christmas morning.

[Sloane Glass]

He was excited. He had a brown paper bag on his lap that was all his possessions. What few letters he could have saved were in that little brown paper bag.

[Advertiser 2]

Those letters from his wife Myra were all Bobby had from the last 20 years. Everything else he had lost.

[Sloane Glass]

His hair color, his sight, his dogs, his house, his health. I said, you know, who do you blame? And he said, who is there to blame? That was the one that really struck me. Bobby doesn't assign blame. He never did.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby didn't even blame his lawyer, who, by the way, stopped practicing criminal law after Bobby's trial.

[Sloane Glass]

That was the last criminal case that he handled. He gave up criminal law after that and became an estate lawyer.

[Advertiser 2]

His lawyer told Judy he regretted not pressuring Bobby into taking the original plea deal prosecutors offered. He also admitted that Bobby's case seemed like a sure thing.

[Sloane Glass]

He thought he'd caught the case of a lifetime.

[Advertiser 2]

When Bobby's flight landed in Shreveport, he grabbed his paper bag filled with Myra's letters and headed for the exit to meet her. Remember, they had not seen each other in 20 years. They are about to be reunited.

[Sloane Glass]

He was extremely happy and also sad because now was the time, as far as he was concerned, to put his family's life back together.

[Advertiser 2]

Bobby held onto the railing from the jet bridge to the gate while Judy followed behind.

[Sloane Glass]

So he gets in and I thought he was going to cry.

[Advertiser 2]

And at the gate, Bobby didn't see Myra or his daughter Becky waiting for him.

[Sloane Glass]

And he said, they should be here. Where are they? And he didn't realize 911 had happened while he was in prison. They don't allow people to come to the gates anymore. When I explained that to him, he said, of course, there are a lot of things I'm going to have to learn. I can do that. I'm a patient man.

[Advertiser 2]

The last time Myra and Becky had seen Bobby was in 1986, when he was being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

[Sloane Glass]

When he finally did meet them, they just hugged and cried. Bobby had trouble stopping crying. He cried through most of the day.

[Advertiser 2]

Judy rode with Bobby, Myra and Becky to Bobby's new home. Myra had to sell their old house to pay for Bobby's legal bills.

[Sloane Glass]

I would go into the kitchen periodically and one of them would follow me in, usually bursting into tears and telling me how bad it had been and how bad they felt.

[Advertiser 2]

For Bobby, there were a lot of new things.

[Sloane Glass]

He saw his grandson for the very first time. Becky got married and had a child that she named after Bobby. It just rounded out everything.

[Advertiser 2]

While Bobby was in prison, his wife and daughter had gone to college and become social workers. Maybe it was a coincidence or maybe it was their way of learning how to process their feelings.

[Sloane Glass]

Bobby sat at the table and kind of gave a speech of, it's my job to draw this out of you. I need to help make you the best I can. You're my family and I love you. That was it. Then we went to dinner and they didn't want to talk about it at dinner because they were in a crowded place and they still the habit of hiding who Bobby was from the rest of the world that Myra and Becky lived in, it was just ingrained in them. You know, they didn't know how people would handle it, that Bobby was an ex conviction.

[Advertiser 2]

And as the years passed, Judy continued to hear from Bobby and his family.

[Sloane Glass]

You know, I think I got some Christmas cards from them, but I thought it was time for me to bow out of Bobby.

[Advertiser 2]

And the Cumbers must have felt the same way because those cards eventually stopped coming.

[Sloane Glass]

It was time for them to move on with their life. And I was the reminder of what was.

[Advertiser 2]

After being released from prison, Bobby Cumber lived another 15 years, years until he passed away in 2022. Bobby Kumber was 83 years old. Bobby's obituary was short, sweet and simple. It said he enjoyed bowling and caring for his dogs. My team did reach out to Bobby's wife and daughter, even his attorney, but we never heard back. In speaking with Judy, Bobby was special and loved by many. He lived his life in service to others.

[Sloane Glass]

You know, he did everything everybody told him to. You know, he joined the wrong military. He served in Vietnam and Saigon. During the fall of Saigon, Bobby Cumber.

[Advertiser 2]

Served his country and it did not serve him.

[Sloane Glass]

Bobby is a very important footnote in judicial history as one of the most unlikely prosecutions that anyone had ever seen.

[Advertiser 2]

Next time on American Homicide. A woman found murdered in her home leads investigators to her alleged stalker, a married cop. But there's so much more to this story. I'm Sloan Glass. We'll head to Louisiana for the story of Jinorah Guillory. That's next time on American American Homicide. You can contact the American Homicide team by emailing [e-mail] that's AmericanHomicidePodmail.com American Homicide is hosted and written by me, Sloan Glass and is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Todd Ganz. The series is also written and produced by Todd Ganz with additional writing by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our associate producer is Kristen Melchuri. Our iHeart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynczak. Audio, editing, mixing and mastering by Nico Aruka. American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Baines of Noiser Music Library, provided by My Music. Follow American Homicide on Apple Podcasts and please rate and review American Homicide. Your five star review goes a long way towards helping others find this show. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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