“Bluegrass Needs Another Benjamin”

Summary

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Murder & Magnolias, Episode 4: “Bluegrass Needs Another Benjamin”

Air date: November 29, 2022
Host: Keith Morrison (Dateline NBC)
Theme: The unraveling of a privileged Southern couple’s life amid betrayal, plotting, and a murder-for-hire scheme.

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Main Theme and Purpose

In this captivating episode, Keith Morrison delves deeper into the Southern gothic tragedy of Nancy Cannon and Chris Latham—a seemingly perfect Low Country couple whose bitter divorce gave way to a chilling murder-for-hire plot. The episode traces the twisted journey from marital strife to criminal conspiracy, examining the roles of love, revenge, and desperation, and highlighting the lengths to which each character will go for vindication, money, and self-preservation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Southern Scene and Family Lore

• Morrison opens by placing listeners in Conway, South Carolina in 1988, recalling the night Chris asked Nancy’s father, O’Neill Cannon, for her hand in marriage.
  • Nancy recounts a vivid family story meant to “test” Chris’s intentions, ending with her father’s warning after a violent childhood spat:
    Nancy Cannon (03:25):
    “He said, well, son, I'm going to let you marry her, but I am going to tell you, if you ever hit her, don't go to sleep.”

2. From Love to Deceit and Conflict

• Morrison transitions to present day, hinting at betrayal and violence, then introduces listeners to recordings of Chris Latham and his lover, Wendy, displaying an intense, if illicit, affection.
  • Chris: "I think of you every second, honey." (03:58)
  • Wendy: "I think of you every second." (04:01)
  • The juxtaposition of their "young love" and the reality of their age underscores the delusion and escapism running through their actions.

3. Wendy’s Role, Prison Recordings, and The “Bluegrass” Payment

• Phone calls from jail reveal conspiring:
  • Joe Boykin (ATF, 06:05): “Their affection for one another in graphic detail, but also … they're conniving and scheming with one another.”
  • "Bluegrass needs another Benjamin" is code for needing another $100 bill—a $50,000 bribe for a Kentucky lawyer defending Sammy Yenawine, the accused hitman (06:21).
• Wendy and Chris manipulate Wendy’s parents to fund Sammy’s lawyers, hoping to keep Sammy from “rolling” (i.e., cooperating with authorities).

4. Estrangement, Obsession, and Escalating Divorce Warfare

• Nancy is isolated after news of the murder plot:
  • Nancy Cannon (07:56): “Not a peep, not a text, not an email. Nothing. Not a friend...Not one single person reached out to my children from team Chris.”
• She confesses becoming “maniacal,” obsessed with retaliation in her divorce:
  • Nancy (09:20): “I was becoming maniacal, like an evil villain ... I mean, I was Dr. Evil. I was so excited that I was hurting him. And it was just making me so happy.”

5. Public Confrontations and Pettiness

• Nancy makes public scenes in Chris’s workplace, accusing him of affairs to embarrass him:
  • Nancy (10:13): “Oh, my husband, Chris Latham, works here. Have you slept with him?”
  • Her actions escalate to trespassing and Chris leveraging his influence to push for her arrest.

6. Courtroom Antics and Spiraling Suspicion

• Nancy tries to out-irritate Chris in minor legal battles—a child's game with adult consequences.
  • The date/time of a court hearing later appears in the hit packet, suggesting Chris may have relayed this to the hit team (16:41).

7. Living in Fear and the Hitman's Death

• After the plot is exposed and suspects arrested, Nancy describes her ongoing fear:
  • Nancy (19:43): “What kind of evidence are they going to turn over? ... Should I go ahead and line something up now? And I think that was the fear.”
• Sammy Yenawine’s jailhouse death—officially ruled suicide—leaves uncertainty and lost secrets:
  • Bill Nettles (20:40): “He's so volatile ... I think it just pushed him over the edge.”

8. Circumstantial Evidence and the Slow Arm of Justice

• Prosecutors bide their time to build a case, aware of Chris’ potential to flee but believing he feels invincible.
  • Bill Nettles (21:48): “He really thought he was smarter than everybody else.”
• Crucial evidence: printer logs and photos tie Chris directly to the murder plot.
  • Bobby Callahan (23:35): “Printer log showing him from his computer and printer printing out maps of Nancy Latham's residence that were in the hit package.”

9. The Dramatic Arrest – Nancy’s Detective Work

• When agents can’t locate Chris, Nancy helps, using Facebook clues to determine his whereabouts at Lake Jocassee.
  • Nancy (25:52): "Here's the address... I'm like 99.9% [sure he’s there]."
• The FBI arrest Chris at a lake house packed with teens:
  • Joe Boykin (27:33): “Chris Latham looked right up at me and all he could say was, you gotta be kidding.”
  • Arrest occurs just after midnight on Nancy’s birthday.
    • Nancy (29:08): “Best birthday present ever. Happy birthday to me.”
  • Joe Boykin’s quip (29:24): "If you want to find a husband, call a pissed off wife."

10. Chris’s Side of the Story (Detention Center Interview)

• Chris, well-dressed in jail, claims media bias and maintains his innocence:
  • Chris (32:28): “There's only one side of this story that's been out there, and the media ... I've been tried and convicted in the media long before this ever started.”
• His defense: Nancy’s alleged adultery (which she denies), and that his divorce was not uniquely acrimonious.
  • Chris (34:14): “I've been blessed with the people, friends and family that truly know me … they know that I would never even think ... to harm Nancy.”
• He denies Wendy Moore (“Wendy number two”) had a motive to kill Nancy:
  • Chris (35:21): “There's no incentive whatsoever for Wendy to want to harm ... Nancy Latham.”

11. Divorce Settlement and the End of the Latham Marriage

• With Chris under criminal indictment, he has no leverage. Nancy receives most of the marital estate, and reclaims her maiden name:
  • Nancy (37:23): “Cannon. That's a powerful name. Bright Cannon.”

12. Cliffhanger: Awaiting Justice

• Morrison closes on the note that Chris and Wendy face trial in a few months, as Nancy steels herself for the ordeal.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (by Timestamp)

• “If you ever hit her, don't go to sleep.”
  — Nancy Cannon’s father’s warning to Chris at their engagement (03:25)
• “I was Dr. Evil. I was so excited that I was hurting him.”
  — Nancy Cannon on her rage-driven behavior during the divorce (09:20)
• “If you want to find a husband, call a pissed off wife.”
  — ATF Agent Joe Boykin’s advice after Nancy helps locate Chris (29:24)
• "Best birthday present ever. Happy birthday to me."
  — Nancy Cannon, on learning of Chris’s arrest on her birthday (29:08)
• “I've been tried and convicted in the media...”
  — Chris Latham, maintaining his innocence and blaming public perception (32:28)
• "Cannon. That's a powerful name. Bright Cannon."
  — Nancy, reclaiming her identity after the divorce is finalized (37:23)
• “You gotta be kidding.”
  — Chris’s stunned reaction at the moment of his arrest (27:33)
• "There's no incentive whatsoever for Wendy to want to harm...Nancy Latham."
  — Chris, denying any conspiracy by Wendy Moore (35:21)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Engagement family story, father’s warning: 01:02–03:35
• Prison phone calls/Bluegrass needs another Benjamin: 03:48–06:26
• Nancy reflects on divorce, obsession: 07:56–09:20
• Public embarrassment at the bank: 10:13–10:50
• Trespassing charge and petty battles: 11:47–16:23
• Hit packet, possible tipping of hit team: 16:41–17:31
• Living in fear after arrests: 19:43–20:04
• Sammy Yenawine’s suicide: 20:40–20:57
• Evidence against Chris: printers and logs: 22:05–23:53
• Nancy’s detective work finds Chris: 24:28–26:13
• The arrest scene at Lake Jocassee: 26:13–29:08
• Joe Boykin’s “pissed off wife” quote: 29:24
• Chris’s in-custody interview: 31:39–37:23
• Nancy reclaims the name ‘Cannon’: 37:23

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Episode Tone & Style

• Southern charm and dark humor blend into a tale of escalating pettiness, psychological warfare, and danger.
• Morrison’s narration is wry yet empathetic, relishing the ironies while respecting the fear and suffering involved.
• Nancy’s candor and self-deprecation bring levity to an otherwise suspenseful, grave story.
• Audio clips and quotes keep the narrative visually and emotionally vivid.

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For New Listeners

This episode is riveting for true crime fans, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how messy divorces can turn deadly amid privilege and power. Nancy emerges as a fierce protagonist, while Chris’s protestations of innocence are chilling and revealing. The stepwise tension, from family anecdotes to undercover operations, makes for irresistible listening—even if you missed earlier episodes.

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Next Episode Tease:
Chris and Wendy’s trial looms, with Nancy prepared for court; the true fate of all players remains uncertain.
Quote:
Nancy Cannon (38:12): “I watched as Wendy turned around and smirked to her family. And I remember Chris kind of got this look on his face like, yeah, we're getting off... This is not good. This is not good.”

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Transcript

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[Keith Morrison]

Sometimes, in moments of crisis, it's instructive to look back in time to think anew about the old family stories we once found so amusing. Like the Night of the Shrine dance in Conway, South Carolina, way back in 1988, family stories have a way of fusing fact and fiction together after a few dozen tellings, and this is one of those. It was getting late, the story goes, and Chris was getting antsy. He'd wanted to speak with Nancy's father, but he knew the timing needed to be right. When he finally saw his chance, Chris asked O' Neill Cannon to step outside,

[Nancy Cannon]

and he said, Mr. Cannon, I would like to propose to your daughter, and I want to ask for her hand in marriage. And my dad said, well, son, I got something to tell you first.

[Keith Morrison]

What followed was a long story about Nancy and a squabble she'd once had with her brother, Neil, when they were kids, something about a backyard baseball game. Anyway, this is how Nancy tells it, he said.

[Nancy Cannon]

When Nancy was a little girl, she and her brother were playing ball in the backyard, so whoever was catching was calling the strikes or balls. And Nancy happened to be catching. And when she called her brother out on a strike, he got so mad he took the aluminum baseball bat in his hand and slammed it down on her hand that was on the ground as she was catching. And he said, oh, Nancy screamed.

[Keith Morrison]

What Chris was thinking as he listened to Nancy's father way back then, we cannot know. But listen, he did, polite as any supplicant would be, as the story went on and on until o' Neill Cannon said this.

[Nancy Cannon]

In the middle of the night, I hear Neil screaming at the top of his lungs and I run to his bedroom and I see Nancy had was standing on top of the bed straddling Neil, and she had an aluminum baseball bat and she was swinging it like Paul Bunyan chopping wood. He said, I grabbed her and pulled her off of him and she still threw the bat at his head.

[Keith Morrison]

According to family lore, Chris stood there slack jawed as Nancy's father got to the point.

[Nancy Cannon]

He said, well, son, I'm going to let you marry her, but I am going to tell you, if you ever hit her, don't go to sleep. And that was the prequel to our marriage.

[Keith Morrison]

Rather appropriate, don't you think?

[Nancy Cannon]

I definitely think

[Keith Morrison]

in this episode you'll hear from the man. Now, on the receiving end of Nancy's metaphorical bat, Chris Latham.

[Chris Latham]

Nancy tried to break into my home.

[Keith Morrison]

You'll hear two lovebirds, alleged conspirators, cooing on a recorded line.

[Chris Latham]

I think of you every second, honey.

[Nancy Cannon]

I think of you every second.

[Keith Morrison]

I dream of you every time I close lives. And you'll hear how one of the plotters suddenly died behind bars, taking crucial secrets to the grave.

[Bill Nettles]

He's so volatile, and knowing that he was probably going to spend a good portion of the rest of his life in prison, I think it just pushed him over the edge.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm Keith Morrison and this is episode four of Murder and Magnolias, the podcast from Dateline. Every day they queued up beside the telephones, women all dressed in the same baggy prison scrubs, unflattering gray and white horizontal stripes. An observer in the women's section of the El Cannon Detention center in Charleston would have noticed a tall blonde standing by the phones. She was almost always there, either on the phone or waiting for one, An

[Nancy Cannon]

inmate at Charleston County Detention Center.

[Keith Morrison]

Though her collect calls to the outside were limited to 15 minutes, Wendy made dozens of them. Anyone standing within earshot would have known she was speaking to a lover who was on the outside.

[Chris Latham]

Can't wait to ravish you when I get here.

[Nancy Cannon]

I can't wait either.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, yes, the intensity of young love. But truth be told, Wendy and her banker boyfriend were decidedly middle aged.

[Chris Latham]

You and me together? Yes.

[Keith Morrison]

Just you, me and Jesus?

[Chris Latham]

Yes, honey, absolutely.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, well, it wasn't just you and me and Jesus, as the agents heard again and again. It may have sounded like a summer of frustrated love, said Joe Boykin, but it wasn't just that. Oh, no. Plans were afoot.

[Joe Boykin]

Many of them were their affection for one another in graphic detail, but also

[Keith Morrison]

phone saints, kind of in essence.

[Joe Boykin]

Yes, yes. But the other part was I would use the word. They're conniving and scheming with one another.

[Chris Latham]

Bluegrass meets another Benjamin. Avoid

[Keith Morrison]

translation. A lawyer in Kentucky needed another $50,000 to defend Sammy Yenawine. That's right. It seemed Chris Latham was somehow covering the legal costs of the man who plotted to kill his wife.

[Chris Latham]

Oh, no. Whatever. We'll figure that out.

[Joe Boykin]

Wendy and Chris basically collaborated to get Wendy's two parents to foot the bill for Sammy Unawine's lawyer.

[Keith Morrison]

And why would they do that?

[Joe Boykin]

So Sammy wouldn't roll.

[Keith Morrison]

As far as the agents could tell, Chris Latham was doing all he could in those phone calls to keep Wendy close. After all, she was the one in jail for allegedly plotting to have Chris's wife killed. And the agents were sure she knew things Chris would not want revealed.

[Chris Latham]

I'm telling you, there will be a plan, okay? Now we're going to work on it. Hang tight.

[Keith Morrison]

Of course, Nancy knew nothing about those calls. But what she did know was in the weeks after the foiled murder plot became front page news, her husband had not lifted a finger to contact his own daughters. Not a word of shock or dismay or a pledge of innocence. Nothing.

[Nancy Cannon]

Not a peep, not a text, not an email. Nothing. Not a friend reaching out to the girls. Not a friend of his, not a relative of his. Nobody to say, are you okay? Are you safe? Are you? I can't believe this is happening. I want to make sure you're safe. Not one single person reached out to my children from teen Chris.

[Keith Morrison]

During those long months, Nancy had plenty of time to think about the arc of their love affair. What had happened to the young man she fell in love with at first sight.

[Nancy Cannon]

I just really felt like, gosh, this guy's going to be a great daddy.

[Keith Morrison]

And what had happened to her? Their divorce, it seemed, had brought out the worst in both of them. Even Nancy's divorce attorney could see that.

[Nancy Cannon]

He said, you are letting this divorce change you. You are letting Chris and his attorney turn you into a mean spirited person. He said, you need to get back to who you are because you can't let somebody else change you.

[Keith Morrison]

Nancy knew it was true. But in those bitter months before the hit packet surfaced, Nancy just hadn't been able to stop. She couldn't stop collecting evidence of her husband's affair, Couldn't stop throwing zingers his way at depositions, couldn't pass up an Opportunity to shame him.

[Nancy Cannon]

I was becoming maniacal, like an evil villain who's so excited that, you know, I put the laser beams on the shark's head. I mean, I was Dr. Evil. I was so excited that I was hurting him. And it was just making me so happy.

[Keith Morrison]

Things got so bad at one point, Chris sent a memo with her photo to the bank security officers instructing them to evict her if she entered bank property for a non banking purpose or if she started making a scene, which she did frequently.

[Nancy Cannon]

So I went to my local bank of America to cash a check or. Or do something at the teller window, which was always when I would try to find that opportunity to get a dig in, like, oh, my husband, Chris Latham, works here. Have you slept with him?

[Keith Morrison]

And during one of those days at the bank, she bumped into a woman she knew sitting in the lobby. The woman's name was Coco.

[Nancy Cannon]

And she said, you husband works here, right? And I said, yes, he does. And he slept with so many people here, that's why we're getting a divorce. And she said, like, wait, why are you getting a divorce? Because you're so nice. And I said, because my husband has been having sex with so many people who work at the bank. And she said, at this bank? I said, all the banks, all the bank of Americas, he's just throwing it out like mints at a Christmas parade. And Coco was like, oh, my God, tell me more. So of course, my voice is now escalating and I'm talking very loudly. And I said, oh, by the way, one of the women he's sleeping with just happens to be married to one of the guys who works right here in this branch. That was the kind of nonsense that I was doing just to make his life difficult for fun.

[Keith Morrison]

All that was before she learned about the plan to have her killed, before she and her girls went into hiding, before anybody was arrested. Just Nancy making Chris's life difficult. There was another night when she drove by Chris's beach house and noticed Wendy's Durango parked in the drive. Nancy decided to take a quick picture as further documentation for her divorce case.

[Nancy Cannon]

So I'm at the edge of the road at Sullivan's island and I'm taking a picture of her car in the driveway. And when I hit the button, I guess the flash on this disposable camera had gone off because all of a sudden it was, you know, that loud kind of, that pop of flash. And I thought, oh, crap. So as I'm walking around the car to get back in the driver's side, I see Chris come out the house with his boxers on, no shirt, and he's carrying a flashlight of all things, and he's following me like he's making a beeline for the car. And I thought, I'm not going to drive away. I'm going to seize this opportunity to just get one more dig in. So I rolled down the window the tiniest crack and I said, don't mind me just taking pictures because I thought that is going to irritate him more than anything else. Right?

That kind of.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, taking pictures. And I drive off and I'm just kind of giggling to myself at my awesomeness.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the way it is sometimes with ugly divorces. Competent mature adults regress, let loose their inner 10 year old. The giggling didn't last long. The very next day, Nancy learned that Chris had filed a trespassing complaint against her with the Sullivan's island police. The summons said he was seeking a protection order from Nancy.

[Nancy Cannon]

So next thing you know, there's a police officer at my door and he's like, I have a warrant for you. You have to be in court for X day.

[Keith Morrison]

Not so funny now. Nancy didn't like the direction her little photo escapade had taken. A possible trespassing rap wouldn't look so good for her in divorce court.

[Nancy Cannon]

So I called my sister in law, Kelly, who's an attorney, and I just said, girl, you gotta help me. And she said, okay, I'll have a conversation. She calls the courthouse, she talks to the clerk of court, they're like, yeah, we get it. Divorced people are crazy. You sure? Let's wait until their divorce and then we'll hash this out.

[Keith Morrison]

Chris Latham, of course, was not at all ready to let it slide. He had juice in the Charleston area in time. The clerk of the court on Sullivan's island was feeling the heat to get Nancy's trespassing case on the docket.

[Nancy Cannon]

Months had passed and every day Chris Latham was calling, saying, I don't understand why, why haven't we had our day in court. I don't understand why she isn't arrested. He was calling in, he was calling everybody who knew the judge, he knew all the movers and shakers and was one himself. So if anybody could pull strings to make this happen, it was him.

[Keith Morrison]

In the end, an initial hearing of Nancy's case was put on the court calendar just six days before their divorce case was scheduled to begin. Nancy hired a lawyer and showed up on time for the late afternoon hearing.

[Nancy Cannon]

So Sullivan's island was renovating their courthouse. So they had a little trailer. Off at the side is where they were hold holding court. And when you walk into the trailer, you are in the courthouse like you are. You are. You see the judge sitting at a table up front. There are a ton of chairs. My soon to be ex husband sitting on a row. So we go and sit right behind him just for fun, because that's, you know, anytime I can get like a little bit of irritation in there.

[Keith Morrison]

As Nancy and her lawyer, a man named Rutledge, waited, they made small talk weekend plans. Nancy remembers telling him she might go to her dad's place. As they talked, Nancy noticed her husband sitting right in front of her, furiously tap, tap, tapping on his phone. But she didn't notice. As court was called to order, Chris used his phone to snap photos of her.

[Nancy Cannon]

Well, the judge said, you know who would like a jury trial? Rutledge grabs my arm, stands me up. We do, sir. And the judge said, okay, you're gonna have a ju. A jury trial. Come back X day. Rutledge is like, yes, sir. Thank you so much. So once we say we want a jury trial, Chris Latham jumps up. You can see he's so irritated. And he starts walking to the door as fast as he can. And I was like, well, there you go. I guess I won. I've irritated the bejesus out of him.

[Keith Morrison]

As she and her lawyer headed out, said Nancy, they noticed that Chris was standing by the door, still tap tapping on his phone.

[Nancy Cannon]

As we walk up, he said, here, let me get that. And he pushes the door open for us. We walk out. And as we're walking down, Rutledge said, well, that was mine. Considerate. And I kind of look back and there's Chris watching us walk away.

[Keith Morrison]

What was Chris Latham looking at? Who had he been texting or emailing? Nancy had no idea at the time. Only later, when she saw the hit packet splayed across Kathy Harrow's kitchen table, did she notice that the date and time of that court hearing was scribbled on the pages. So was her father's home address. Had Chris Latham somehow been communicating with the hit team that day? Hard to say. But if he was, he was out of luck. The hitman, Sammy Yenawine, had returned to Louisville. Is that why Nancy survived?

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[Keith Morrison]

If you need a new appliance, this is your sign Shop at Lowes now to get up to 35% off and next day delivery on hundreds of major appliances. A new appliance now means an easier to do list later. Our best lineup is at Lowe's, valid through 318, while supplies last. Selection varies by location. Order by 4pm Available Monday through Saturday, subject to availability, fees, exclusions and restrictions apply. See Lowes.com appliancedelivery for more details. It was another restless night for Nancy Latham. She'd had so many since the plot on her life was uncovered. Tossing and turning, the clock radio's red numeral seemed to mock her as she counted down the hours till daylight. She flipped the pillow to the cool side and tried to drift off. But no, her mind kept churning, recycling the same old thoughts. She still couldn't fathom it. Her husband had actually wanted her dead. Did he still? Had he hired someone else? Someone who might be out there beyond the window, watching, waiting for a clean shot?

[Nancy Cannon]

Chris had so much money that that was our thought during that time frame. Wendy's already arrested, Sammy's arrested, Aaron's arrested. What kind of evidence are they going to turn over? And so does he. Feel like I don't have anything else to lose if they arrest me. Should I go ahead and line something up now? And I think that was the fear.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, there was plenty of fear. Remember Sammy Yenawine, the original assassin contracted to kill Nancy? Two months after being brought to South Carolina to stand trial, he was found hanging in his jail cell. Had Sammy lived, he might have named names, might have cinched the case for prosecutors. But no, he'd taken those secrets to the grave. Though some did wonder if Sammy's death had really been a suicide. Sammy's wingman, Aaron Wilkinson said he never doubted it.

[Bill Nettles]

I knew that he killed himself. He's just, he's so volatile. I think with, with, with the knowledge he was probably going to spend a good portion of the rest of his life in prison. I think it just pushed him over the edge.

[Keith Morrison]

Through all of this, Chris Latham remained a free man. The agents had collected plenty of circumstantial evidence implicating him, but prosecutors were reluctant to greenlight an arrest.

[Bill Nettles]

I felt like we really needed to make sure that we had all the evidence before we went in.

[Keith Morrison]

That's the voice of Bill Nettles, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina at the time. It was his office that would have to prosecute the case.

[Bill Nettles]

I was a criminal defense lawyer before I took this job, and I knew that if we were to charge him and the forensic evidence wasn't back, that that would make a cross examination about us rushing to judgment.

[Keith Morrison]

Nope. The U.S. attorney wanted to take his time, cross the T's, dot the I's and so on. It was a gamble. Of course Chris Latham could flee, but Bill Nettles didn't think he would.

[Bill Nettles]

I wasn't that worried about that because, you know, he really thought he was smarter than everybody else. When you've got a murder for hire, a part of the killing is how you're going to get away with it. That's part of the plan.

[Keith Morrison]

And believing you can get away and believe.

[Bill Nettles]

And if, because if you didn't believe you could get away with it, sure you wouldn't do it.

[Keith Morrison]

Waiting, however, did carry a cost. ATF agents Boykin and Callahan wanted to compare the computer printouts from the hit package with the printers that Chris Latham and Wendy Moore had in their offices. But by the time they got a search warrant, those printers were gone.

[Bobby Callahan]

We interviewed numerous co workers of Chris Latham and Wendy Moore who said without a doubt that they did in fact have printers located in their respective offices.

[Keith Morrison]

ATF Agent Bobby Callahan said they searched everywhere for those missing printers, even that rented house on Sullivan's Island.

[Bobby Callahan]

And we conducted a search warrant on their offices at the residence that they shared in common. And we did not recover those printers.

[Keith Morrison]

Hmm. In the whole bank of America building, two printers, Chris and Wendy's printers, had gone missing. And only those, well, let's just say

[Joe Boykin]

also in our investigation, we didn't undercover a rash of printer theft at U.S. trust.

[Keith Morrison]

That's Agent Joe Boykin.

[Joe Boykin]

Just a couple of missing ones, just two particular ones.

[Keith Morrison]

And Wendy Moore's laptop never recovered. They did find the printer logs, though. And in there was gold buried deep in the computer data gibberish on the bank's central server as something akin to a smoking gun.

[Joe Boykin]

I don't know that Chris Latham was the most computer savvy person in the world, and I don't know if he realized what was on those items.

[Bobby Callahan]

Printer log showing him from his computer and printer printing out maps of Nancy Latham's residence that were in the hit package, as well as the photograph that we recovered from Chris Latham's phone of Nancy Latham's residence and her vehicle, which was also located in the hit package.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, it was early August, four months after the murder plot was revealed, that a grand jury returned a criminal indictment against Chris Latham. And that afternoon, Agent Boykin called Nancy. He was on the road. He told her, and he needed a favor. If Chris wasn't in town, he asked, where might he be?

[Joe Boykin]

And she told me that they had regularly vacationed up on Lake Jocaste and stayed in lake houses up there.

[Nancy Cannon]

I said, I tell you what, give me a few minutes. Let me see what I can find out.

[Keith Morrison]

Nancy padded downstairs to the den where Madison was noodling away on her computer. Pull up your Facebook page, she said,

[Nancy Cannon]

look at the children of your father's best friends. She did. And she said, what am I looking for? And I said, anything about a vacation? Well, one of the girls, one of the daughters, happened to post on Facebook, we are at Lake Jocassie in a house built for 14 people. There are 21 of us. How are we going to make this work? Okay, good information. Thank you very much. And in that post, she had tagged Wendy Moore's children and his other friend's children.

[Keith Morrison]

Nancy had a hunch. If all those kids were together in the same lake house, the odds were good that Chris Latham was there, too. A quick Google search turned up a list of rental properties on Lake jocassie, a sprawling 7,000 acre lake near the North Carolina line. And only one rental claimed it could sleep 14 people.

[Nancy Cannon]

I called the owners of the house, and I said, I see that you have a house for rent on the lake. Is there any way that I can go look at it right now? And they said, no, I'm so sorry, it's occupied. I said, okay, was there any way you could give me the address for the house so I can Google map it and see where it lays out on the lake? They said, absolutely. Happy to give it to you.

[Keith Morrison]

With address in hand, Nancy called the agents back.

[Nancy Cannon]

I said, here's the address, and they said, how sure are you? I said, I will not bet my children's life on it, but I'll happily bet mine. I said, I'm like 99.9%. They said, okay, we'll talk to you later.

[Keith Morrison]

The agents were 150 miles from that big house on Lake Jocassee.

[Bobby Callahan]

That was a very long day.

[Keith Morrison]

By the time the agents got to the lake, teams of local law enforcement had been assembled at a nearby staging area. Hoping to preserve the element of surprise, the agents, Boykin and Callahan, crept up on the house, sometimes crawling through the woods and underbrush to get a closer look.

[Joe Boykin]

We didn't want to just walk up and he'd not be there and tip our hand.

[Keith Morrison]

Hanging out on the porch, the agents could see a half dozen teens standing around drinking beer. Out on the drive, they spotted Chris's big Ford Excursion. Yes, he was there.

[Joe Boykin]

So once we were able to verify he was inside the house, we went down and encountered a young man outside in the yard and told him who we were and why we were there and followed him into the residence.

[Keith Morrison]

The house was built on the side of a hill that sloped down to the lake. Upscale, rustic you could call it. When the agents entered, they found themselves on the second floor of a large indoor space. As Agent Boykin looked over the railing down to the lodge like living room below, he saw Chris Latham in shorts and a T shirt standing before a stone fireplace.

[Joe Boykin]

Chris Latham looked right up at me and all he could say was, you gotta be kidding.

[Keith Morrison]

It was at that moment, said Boykin, that the clouds opened up. Rain pounded on the roof as Chris Latham changed into a light blue long sleeved T shirt and jeans because he was going on a long ride back to Charleston.

[Bobby Callahan]

Shortly after we had gotten Chris in the car and we're heading back to Charleston, we received a phone call from his attorney. And he advised us not to talk to him, not to ask him anything about the case. So we honored that request. And we only told him, if you need something to eat, if you need to use the bathroom, let us know and we'll oblige.

[Keith Morrison]

It was slow going in the driving rain, the windshield wipers working at full speed. At one point, Chris indicated he needed to make a rest and asked the agents to get a carton of chocolate milk. While Chris was inside with Agent Callahan, Joe Boykin dialed Nancy.

[Nancy Cannon]

They called me, let me know that he was now arrested. He was in the car and they were headed to Charleston. And they said, and we want to thank you because were it not for you, we would have never found your husband. We had no idea where he was.

[Keith Morrison]

Sweet revenge. Oh yes. Even more so when you consider it was after midnight when Chris Latham finally walked into the Charleston County Detention center to be booked on conspiracy charges. Which meant the date was August 7th, Nancy's birthday.

[Nancy Cannon]

Best birthday present ever. Happy birthday to me.

[Keith Morrison]

She slept well that night for the first time in months, said Nancy. And a few days later, when she saw Agent Boykin, she thanked him again in person.

[Nancy Cannon]

I said, why in the world would you think that I would be able to find Chris? And he looked me down the eye and he said, if you want to find a husband, call a pissed off wife. And I was just like, that is a great point.

Yes.

I mean, when a woman puts her mind to it, we can find just about anybody.

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[Nancy Cannon]

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[Kate Snow]

hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor, host of the podcast the Drink with Kate Snow. I sit down with all kinds of celebrities, musicians, athletes over a drink of their choice for candid conversations about how they made it there with actor, comedian, host Joel McHale. I could barely stop laughing. You know Joel from Community or the Soup, his new show, Animal Control. He asked for four bottles of Washington State wine for our interview. He has news about whether there's a community movie coming. He tells the story of how he got one of his first big acting gigs by lying about his height. And you have to stay through the credits. He's so funny. We have behind the scenes bloopers and outtakes from our conversation. Hope you'll listen and follow the drink wherever you get Your podcasts.

[Keith Morrison]

Chris Latham was in a talkative mood when I spoke with him at the Charleston Detention Center. He had dressed like the banker he used to be for our visit. Navy blue blazer, powder blue dress shirt must have shrunk a little, though the clothes had been made for a bigger man.

[Chris Latham]

I want to answer all your questions here. Know that whether I can or cannot.

[Keith Morrison]

Gotcha.

[Chris Latham]

Yeah. Sitting in silence all this time is painful.

[Keith Morrison]

He was in his early 50s when I met him, with sandy gray hair and sky blue eyes and a soft southern voice that seemed designed to radiate calm.

[Chris Latham]

And I want my side of the story told as well.

[Keith Morrison]

What do people not understand about you and your situation that they should know?

[Chris Latham]

There's a lot. You know, everything that's gone on has been a media frenzy. There's only one side of this story that's been out there, and the media, in my opinion, has taken this. And I've been tried and convicted in the media long before this ever started.

[Keith Morrison]

And what was Chris Latham's side of the story? Well, it begins with adultery. Nancy's adultery. Had his divorce trial not been sidetracked by a certain murder plot. Well said, Chris. His legal team would have proved that in court.

[Chris Latham]

Yes, we had proof.

[Keith Morrison]

What was your proof?

[Chris Latham]

Absolute proof. Well, number one is there were 9,355 phone calls. There were cloaking numbers that they used that we proved also that various emails back and forth between her and her paramour.

[Keith Morrison]

Pot calling the kettle black. I asked him about those reports from Nancy's private eyes of a woman sneaking into his hotel room, staying all night. Well, that said Chris, was a simple misunderstanding. You're saying that's not true?

[Chris Latham]

No, I'm not saying that that's not true. We spent some time. Do I need to get into this?

[Keith Morrison]

See, I don't want to get in the weeds here. I mean, she makes a claim, you make a claim. I don't know which one.

[Chris Latham]

That person was being a friend.

[Keith Morrison]

And so it goes, he said, she said. Bitter exes squabbling over blame and pride and the size of the settlement package. Except in this case, all that was now moot. Chris was in jail, accused of trying to have his wife killed. What's it like to be accused of plotting to kill your wife?

[Chris Latham]

You know, I think it's horrible. It truly is. But I've been blessed with the people, friends and family that truly know me. It's been remarkable how they've stood beside me throughout all this time. And I feel truly blessed that they've done that they know who I am. They know that I would never even think. I have no desire, none whatsoever, to harm Nancy.

[Bobby Callahan]

Hmm.

[Keith Morrison]

Never did.

[Chris Latham]

Never did.

[Keith Morrison]

You must have been pretty mad for a while.

[Chris Latham]

You know, it's a civil thing. A divorce is a very common thing that people go through.

[Keith Morrison]

Sure.

[Chris Latham]

I just wanted to get to the other side. I don't think my divorce was any uglier than a lot of divorces that take place out there. You know, maybe I had some characteristics of my divorce that makes it more interesting for the media and others to pay attention to, but, you know, divorces are awful for everyone.

[Keith Morrison]

And what about his lover, Wendy Moore? Wendy number two. Did she conspire with her ex husband, Sam Yenawein, to have Nancy killed? Chris was adamant. No, no, no, no.

[Chris Latham]

There's no incentive whatsoever for Wendy to want to harm, you know, Nancy Latham. I mean, what's in it for her, I ask you?

[Keith Morrison]

Well, what's in it for her? I mean, she can have you without you having to pay alimony, without you having to pay house payments, without you having all those financial obligations, and without you having that woman around who's been driving you crazy for years.

[Chris Latham]

Yeah. No, if anything, Wendy wanted this chapter closed. She was very supportive of trying to settle it without going to court, to take the high road every single time, just to get this chapter closed in my life so that we could begin our chapter in our lives. As far as any upside for Wendy, No. The one thing that we were waiting on, Keith, was my vindication. My vindication before my daughter's vindication.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes, according to Chris, a divorce trial would have proved that Nancy was the one who had cheated Nancy, who had the affair and caused the divorce. The charge Nancy has always denied.

[Nancy Cannon]

He had accused me of having an affair. He had accused me of slashing tires, and none of it was true.

[Keith Morrison]

Truth. Well, whatever the truth was, one thing was now crystal clear, even to Chris Latham. He had no chance of getting a favorable ruling in a divorce court trial. Not now. Not with a murder for hire rap hanging over his head. So he settled, since it seemed unlikely Nancy would ever be able to collect on an alimony judgment. With Chris now out of work and looking at a lengthy prison stretch if convicted, the court awarded her a larger portion of the Latham marital estate. It was November 2013, less than four months after Chris's arrest, the Latham divorce case was finalized. And that day, Nancy Latham reclaimed her maiden name.

[Nancy Cannon]

Cannon.

That's a powerful name. Bright Cannon.

[Keith Morrison]

Great name.

[Nancy Cannon]

The day that I got the divorce, the day that I got the divorce, I started going by canon.

[Keith Morrison]

She might be a canon now, but Nancy would have to keep her powder dry, at least for the next three months. That was when her ex husband and his girlfriend would have to face the big guns from the Department of Justice and go on trial for plotting to have her killed. Next on Murder and Magnolias.

[Nancy Cannon]

I can say that I would never do anyone harm, especially not the mother of someone whose children were the same age as my kids, went to school with my kids, who I was, you know, in love with their father.

[Chris Latham]

You know what I mean?

[Nancy Cannon]

I watched as Wendy turned around and smirked to her family. And I remember Chris kind of got this look on his face like, yeah, we're getting off.

[Keith Morrison]

What was going on in here? In your head?

[Nancy Cannon]

In my head. I thought, oh my gosh, this is not good. This is not good.

[Keith Morrison]

Murder and Magnolias is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beacham is the producer, Brian Drew is the audio editor. Thomas Kemen is assistant audio editor. Keani Reed and Reese Washington are associate producers. Susan Nall is senior producer, Adam Gorfin is co executive producer, Liz Cole is executive producer and David Corvo is senior executive producer from NBC News Audio. Bryson Barnes is technical director. Sound mixing by Bob Mallory. Nina Bisbano is associate producer.

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