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Hi Crime House community, it's Vanessa Richardson. And if you love digging into the most gripping true crime stories, then you need to listen to another Crime House original Crimes of with Sabrina Deanna Roga and Corinne Vien. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of Paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Sabrina and Corinne have been covering the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains and and this month they'll be diving into the paranormal. Listen to Crimes of every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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This is crime house. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. It's not just a saying, it's a means of survival. Because in the world we're entering, trust is a trap and betrayal is often fatal. I'm Carter Roy and this is Scams, Money and Murder.
- [01:20]
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And I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Thursday we'll explore the story of a money motivated crime gone wrong. Whether it's a notorious con, fraud, burglary or even murder.
- [01:32]
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From the archives of Crime House to show murder, true crime stories and killer minds. These are some of our favorite cases that have kept us lying awake at night wondering if money didn't make the world go round, could all this have been avoided? And as always at Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Scams, Money and Murder wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:04]
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This week's episode is one from Crime House, the show where the theme is killer couples who also committed major financial crimes. First we'll go back to 1934 when bank robbers and star crossed lovers Bonnie and Clyde faced their final shootout. Then we'll jump ahead to 2002 when Erica and Benjamin Siff toxic marriage turned deadly. By the end of the night, they had executed two innocent tourists in a drug fueled rage. While Bonnie and Clyde committed their crimes as a means of defiance, Erica and Benjamin acted out of misplaced anger. Despite having very different motivations, both couples were willing accomplices in their desire to hurt and destroy. All that and more coming.
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- [03:50]
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On the morning of May 23, 1934, six policemen were camping out in the muggy woods alongside a desolate stretch of highway in Louisiana. They'd been there for two days now. Their leader, a former Texas Ranger named Frank Hamer, had gotten a tip that 25 year old Clyde Barrow and his 23 year old girlfriend Bonnie Parker were headed this way. The infamous bank robbing couple had slipped away from police countless times since their two year crime spree began. And the lawmen were starting to think they'd done it again. Just as they were losing hope, they saw a Ford V8 car crest the hill in front of them. And as it got closer, it slowed down to inspect an old truck the officers had left on the side of the road as a decoy. Through the windshield of the Ford, they could see Bonnie and Clyde. This unsuspecting couple had murdered 13 people, including nine police officers in robberies and shootouts across the south and Midwest. That morning, Frank Hamer was determined not to let them claim any more lives. In a low voice, Hamer issued a one word command to the heavily armed lawmen beside him. Shoot. Before Bonnie and Clyde were America's most famous outlaws. They were just two kids trying to get by during the Great Depression. Bonnie Parker's story began in 1910 in West Dallas, Texas. From a young age, Bonnie was a gifted student with a deep love for theater. Her biggest dream was to become an actress. But her hopes came to an end in 1926, just before her 15th birthday that year, she dropped out of high school to marry a local bad boy named Roy Thornton. The relationship didn't last long though. In early 1929 Roy was arrested and jailed for burglary. After that 18 year old Bonnie divorced him and moved back in with her mom in Dallas where she found work as a waitress. While Bonnie was trying to get back on her feet. She had no IDEA her soulmate, 20 year old Clyde Barrow was just a few miles away on the other side of town. After his parents cotton farm failed in the early 1920s, the Barrows moved to the slums of West Dallas, hoping there would be more opportunities in the city. But Clyde was one of seven children and with so many mouths to feed, his parents struggled to make ends meet. For a while, the family slept under a bridge until his father found work at a gas station. After that, the whole Barrow clan lived together in a cramped supply room behind the front counter. But Clyde didn't plan on being there for long. By the time he was a teenager, Clyde had quit school and moved away from his parents. He spent his days roaming the streets with his brother Buck, picking fights and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. Neighbors called them the Terrible Barrows. Though Clyde didn't seem to care about his bad reputation. He continued causing trouble in Dallas for the next few years. But soon he was about to get a new partner in crime. In December 1929, just before Christmas, 20 year old Clyde stopped by a friend's place where when he arrived, she already had company. 19 year old Bonnie Parker, who was in the kitchen making hot chocolate. Bonnie and Clyde wound up talking all night long. By the time the sun rose, they knew they were meant to be together. But they were only dating for a couple of months when Clyde's track record threatened to destroy their relationship. On February 12, 1930, Clyde was arrested for car theft. He was booked in the nearby Waco County Jail, awaited trial. This was the second time Bonnie's significant other ended up behind bars. But this time around, she wasn't going to give up on them. In fact, she was willing to do anything to help get Clyde out. In March, she went to see Clyde during visiting hours. When the guard wasn't looking, Bonnie handed Clyde a pistol she'd smuggled in her handbag. Days later, on March 11, 1930, Clyde pulled the gun on an unsuspecting. He forced the man to hand over the keys to his cell, let himself out, then pushed the guard inside and locked the door. After that, Clyde and his accomplices ran out of the prison and stole a car. They sped north out of state. But just a week after the daring escape, Clyde was arrested in Ohio. He was extradited back to Texas, where the authorities tacked another four 14 years onto his sentence. Bonnie had sworn to wait for Clyde, but now she was going to have to wait a lot longer. Clyde spent the next two years at one of the most brutal penitentiaries in the state, the East Prison Farm. When inmates weren't picking and hauling cotton in the blazing sun, they were being beaten by guards. To make matters worse, Clyde was sexually assaulted by one of his fellow prisoners. Eventually, Clyd retaliated by beating the man to death with a metal pipe. Another inmate, who was already serving a life sentence, took responsibility for the murder to spare Clyde any additional time behind bars. But after two years at Easom, Clyde was reaching a breaking point. He couldn't take the hard labor anymore. So in early 1932, he had a fellow prisoner accidentally sever two of his toes with an axe. The injury got Clyde out of the fields, but it might have been in vain because Clyde had allies beyond the prison gates who were close to getting him out. Clyde's parents had spent months petitioning a judge to reduce his sentence. They now owned the gas station where the family lived and said they needed Clyde's help to run the business. The judge was sympathetic to their pleas. He talked to the Governor and on February 2, 1932, 23 year old Clyde Barrow left Eastham Prison. On crutches, but free. 21 year old Bonnie was thrilled to have Clyde back, but prison had changed him. He was angrier now, furious at the system that had allowed him to be brutalized and assaulted. He didn't think anyone deserved to be treated that way and he was determined to strike back. Clyde told Bonnie he wanted to attack Eastham prison and liberate the other men being tortured there. Clyde knew it was a suicide mission and he didn't want Bonnie to have any part in it. But she'd seen what Eastham had done to him and she shared his anger. Once Bonnie was officially on board, she and Clyde started planning. If they wanted the raid to be a success, they needed three things. Firepower, manpower and money. They tackled the money problem first, robbing stores across East Texas with a couple friends Clyde had made in prison. On the night of April 30, 1932, Bonnie was serving as the getaway driver when one of these robberies took a deadly turn. After a close call, Clyde and one of his accomplices shot a clerk in Hillsboro. They managed to escape with just a handful of cash. But the newly formed bar gang had just committed its first murder. The gang spent the rest of the summer on the road, keeping a low profile. Except they couldn't run forever. In August, the crew was at a country dance in Stringtown, Oklahoma. Bonnie and Clyde were on the dance floor when the town sheriff arrived with one of his deputies in tow. It's not clear if Clyde thought they were there for him, but as soon as he saw the cops approach, he drew his pistol and opened fire. One officer died instantly, while the other was gravely wounded. In the ensuing chaos, Bonnie, Clyde and one of their friends made it to the getaway car. But in their rush to escape, they left one member of the Barrow gang behind. He was arrested and taken down to the station in police custody. The accomplice gave up Bonnie and Clyde's names. Soon, local papers reported that the pair of lovebirds were on the run before criminal exploits were all over the news and the public was hungry for more. Little did they know, Bonnie and Clyde were just getting started.
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- [13:43]
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- [13:43]
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- [14:19]
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By late 1932, 22 year old Bonnie Parker and 23 year old Clyde Barrow were speeding back and for forth across the Midwest. The criminal couple was on the hunt for money and firepower. They were gearing up for an armed raid on the labor camp where Clyde had spent two years. But not all of their robberies had gone according to plan and they left several bodies in their wake. Now the police were hot on their trail. But while it seemed like Bonnie and Clyde weren't the best criminals, they were excellent escape artists. They only hit cities that were close to state lines. That way, if they were being chased by officers in one state, they'd just speed across the border into the next one where those officers didn't have jurisdiction. And they stole new cars so frequently that the police never knew what vehicle to be on the lookout for. That's why the duo stopped in the little town of Temple, Texas on Christmas Day, 1932. Clyde wanted to switch cars and he'd spotted a V8 Ford on a residential Marshall Street. Clyde was starting the engine when the owner came running outside and tried to pull him out of the driver's seat Clyde didn't hesitate. He shot the man dead. And he and Bonnie hit the road again. Bonnie and Clyde spent the next couple months on the move, camping out in the wilderness to avoid detection. By early 1933, it seemed like they were in the clear. Which meant it was time to get back to work. Sometime that winter or early spring, they broke into a National Guard armory in Illinois and escaped with several Browning automatic rifles. These were powerful machine guns, and Clyde was eager to put them to use at Eastham Prison camp. But before he and Bonnie risked their lives to break his friends out of jail, it was time for a family reunion. Clyde's brother Buck, the other half of the terrible Barrows, had recently been released from prison. In April of that year, Buck and his wife Blanche had rented an apartment in Joplin, Missouri and invited Bonnie and Clyde to stay with them. The two couples enjoyed a relaxing vacation together, swapping stories, playing cards and reportedly drinking a case of beer a day. But the good times lasted less than two weeks. Neighbors had complained about the rowdy parties at Buck's apartment. And on April 13, a group of local police officers showed up to investigate. Clyde spotted them walking up to the building and immediately opened fire from the second story window. The police dove for cover and shot back, riddling the apartment with bullets. Inside, Bonnie, Clyde, Buck and Blanche grabbed whatever they could and ran through a hail of gunfire to their car parked downstairs. Together, the four of them piled into the car and sped west out of Joplin. They left behind two dead cops, which made Buck and Blanche accomplices to murder. Whether they liked it or not. They were now officially a part of of the Barrow Gang. For the next two months, the group traveled as far as Okabina, Minnesota, where they robbed a bank. And as far south as Rustin, Texas, where they took two people hostage during a botched car theft. They later released their hostages several miles outside of town and gave them some spending money for their trouble. But their crime spree hit a rough Patch. In June 1933, 24 year old Clyde was making one of his speedy getaways in North Texas when he lost control of the car and crashed into a ditch. In the process, it flipped over and caught fire. Clyde, Buck and Blanche made it out unscathed. But Bonnie's leg was trapped under the dashboard. By the time they got it free, she was badly burned. They carried her to a nearby farmhouse where the farmer's wife treated Bonnie's injuries and. But the Barrow Gang's reputation preceded them. The farmer recognized the group from the papers while his wife helped Bonnie. He ran outside to alert the sheriff. Officers raced to the house, but the outlaws were a step ahead of them. Using the farmer's wife and son as shields, they were able to load the badly injured Bonnie into the farmer's car and escape. By July 18, about a month after the car accident, the gang was holed up in a pair of adjacent bungalows at a cheap motel in Platt City, Missouri. They stayed inside as much as possible, treating Bonnie's wounds with whatever medicine they could find at the local drugstore. Even so, they managed to attract the motel staff's attention. The manager thought it was strange that Blanche had paid for the rooms with loose change and that the two couples covered their windows. Newspaper. He mentioned these suspicions to one of his friends, who happened to be the county Sheriff. At around 11pm on July 20, 1933, the Barrow Gang heard a loud knock at the door. When Blanche called out that she couldn't answer because she was naked, a stern voice ordered her to open up immediately. Then chaos ensued. Clyde and Buck grabbed their rifles and began shooting through the windows and doors. There were a dozen or more officers outside and they'd come prepared with Thompson submachine guns. Two bullets hit Buck in the head, blowing off the top of his skull, though somehow he was still alive. Blanche dragged her bleeding husband to the adjacent garage and loaded him into the car. Clyde did the same with Bonnie, who was heavily sedated with painkillers for her leg. Clyde opened the garage door to find an armored police car blocking their escape route. So he fired at the vehicle, injuring the driver. The man slumped onto the horn and accelerated the car out of the line of fire. The police mistook this for a ceasefire signal. Clyde took advantage of the pause to speed out of the garage and onto the highway. Clyde drove late into the night, putting as many miles as he could between them and Platte City. When he thought they'd gone far enough, he pulled off at a nature preserve near the town of Dexter, Iowa, to set up camp. His brother Buck was drifting in and out of consciousness, bleeding heavily from his head wound. Blanche had been blinded in one eye by flying debris in the firefight. Bonnie was awake again, but couldn't move fast with her burned leg. The Barrow gang was in bad shape, and it was about to get worse. As Bonnie and Clyde figured out what to do next, they spotted movement in the bushes. It turned out that a group of hunters had seen their campsite and notified the police. Now, close to a hundred cops deputized town folk and curious onlookers were Advancing on their hideout, the group fled into the woods on foot. Bonnie and Clyde were able to get away, but Buck and Blanche were too slow. They were arrested and Buck was taken to the hospital. He died three days later. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Clyde had managed to escape through nearby cornfields, steal another car and get on the road once more. The duo spent the rest of 1933 hiding out with extended family near Dallas, mourning Buck's death and letting Bonnie's leg heal. As the year came to a close, the couple finally felt ready to embark on the mission that had inspired their entire crime spree. Liberating the inmates at Eastham Prison Camp in Texas. Clyde got in touch with some friends who were still locked up and started planning a great escape. On January 16, 1934, 23 year old Bonnie and 25 year old Clyde pulled over to the side of a country road at the edge of the prison camp. Bonnie waited in the car while Clyde, armed with his Browning rifle, made his way to a small creek along the camp's perimeter. On the other side, guards were leading a crew of inmates into the fields for another day of hard labor. They didn't know that two of them had pistols that Clyde had stashed in a drainage ditch a few days earlier. Soon the armed inmates drew their pistols and overpowered their guards, killing one and wounding the other. Several guards tried to intervene. And that's when Clyde fired his Browning. Knowing how powerful his weapon was, the guards turned and fled. Meanwhile, Bonnie blasted the horn. Five prisoners went running towards the sound, jumping into the car with Clyde. Clyde had finally achieved his dream of striking back at Eastham Prison Camp. But his victory was short lived. All of the escaped inmates were recaptured within a few weeks. It also made state officials extremely angry and and even more eager to finally capture Bonnie and Clyde. They knew there was only one man for the job. Former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. As the winter of 1934 turned to spring, Bonnie and Clyde robbed more banks in Texas and Oklahoma, leaving more dead bodies in their wake. All the while, Hamer was tracking their movements. Soon he started to see a pattern. And based on their recent activities, Hamer figured Bonnie and C.L. were headed to Louisiana next. He also reasoned that they planned to stay with a man named Iverson Methven while they were there. Iverson was the father of one of the inmates who'd recently escaped from Eastham. Hamer was right on both counts. He reached out to Methven and struck a deal. Amnesty for his son in exchange for Bonnie and Clyde. On the morning of May 23, 1934 Bonnie and Clyde were driving to Methven's cabin in Louisiana when they recognized his truck sitting on the side of the road. Curious, they slowed down to see if their friend was having car trouble. Meanwhile, in the bushes just up the road, Frank Hamer turned to his five deputies and issued a single command. He shoot. As the car coasted to a stop, all six officers started firing. They didn't stop until they were certain they'd hit their targets. Then they carefully approached the bullet riddled vehicle. Clyde Barrow was slumped over the steering wheel, shot through the head. Bonnie was sprawled out the passenger side door, her red dress covered with bullet holes and the deputies could still smell her perfume. Bonnie had always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory with Clyde by her side. In the end, her wish came true. Now the star crossed lovers would be together for eternity. Coming up, another killer couple whose road trip turned deadly own a small biz.
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- [27:01]
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Meet the computer you can talk to with Copilot on Windows Working, creating and collaborating is as easy as talking. Got writer's block? Share your screen with Copilot Vision to help spark inspiration and use Copilot voice to have a conversation and brainstorm ideas. Or maybe you need some tech help with Copilot Vision. Copilot sees what you see. Let Copilot talk you through step by step guidance so you can master new apps, games and skills faster. Try now@windows.com copilot your favorite true crime series, 48 Hours is back for a new season and so is the official aftershow podcast Postmortem. Every Monday, listen to a new episode of 48 Hours and then join me 48 Hours correspondent Ann Marie Green on Tuesday for a new episode of Postmortem where we bring you a closer look at each case.
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This case was eye opening on so many different levels.
- [27:53]
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Follow and listen to 48 Hours on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [28:02]
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68 years after Bonnie and Clyde reached the end of their road Another killer couple made their mark on crime history. This duo also loved playing with guns and living fast and loose and. But unlike Bonnie and Clyde, they weren't quite as good at dodging the law. It was a little after 2:30am on the morning of May 26, 2002, when Erica and Benjamin Siffrit's trip to Ocean City, Maryland took a nasty turn. The night had been a blast so far. The 24 year olds got drunk at Hooters, snorted crushed up Xanax and danced the night away at Secrets, a popular local nightclub. They even made a couple of new friends. A 32 year old mortgage broker named Joshua Ford and his 51 year old accountant girlfriend, Jeannie Crutchley. The two couples had left the club together and Erica and Benjamin invited Joshua and Jeie to come up and visit their luxury condo. But as they gave their guests a tour of the swanky rental and Erica started to get anxious, she couldn't find her purse, which had $10,000 worth of designer jewelry inside it. After a brief, frantic search of the condo, Erica and Benjamin decided there was only one explanation. Joshua and Jeannie must have stolen the purse. Erica grabbed her.357 Magnum revolver from the bedroom and brought it to Benjamin. Then he aimed the weapon at Joshua and Genie, demanding they hand over the bag. The terrified couple insisted they hadn't touched it and begged Benjamin to put the gun away. But Benjamin wasn't convinced. With Erica's help, he herded Joshua and Genie into the condo's upstairs bathroom. Then he started shooting. The journey to that Ocean city condo started three years earlier, in 1999. Back then, Erica Grace was a 21 year old college student at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was the only child of a wealthy Pennsylvania contractor, and while she'd been a high school basketball star, she was struggling to make a splash on the college team. Benjamin BJ Siffret, also 21, had joined the Navy right out of high school. He'd complet completed the grueling training program to become a Navy SEAL and passed with flying colors. Now he was stationed in Norfolk, a couple hours away from where Erica was studying. With a spotless disciplinary record and expert marksman status, both Erica and Benjamin had everything going for them and all the resources to achieve their dreams. But one tragic event put them on the road to disaster. They met each other. Erica and Benjamin first locked eyes at a bar in Fredericksburg in the spring of 1999. At first, Benjamin wasn't interested in a relationship. But after they ran into each other at a party. A few months later, they started dating and things got serious quickly. Erica had dated other men in the past, but her relationship with the handsome Navy SEAL seemed to consume her entire life. She rearranged her class schedule so she could spend as much time in Norfolk with Benjamin as possible. And then in late 1999, after just a few months of dating, 21 year old Erica and 22 year old Benjamin ran off to Las Vegas and got hitched. Erica's parents didn't even learn their daughter was married until months later. The transition to being a Navy wife was difficult for Erica. Benjamin traveled a lot, staying at military bases in different parts of the US for months at a time. Erica, who would later be diagnosed with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, couldn't bear to be away from her husband for any length of time. She suffered from debilitating panic attacks whenever she was alone in their apartment. So even though she was still in school at this point, she started skipping class and following him around the country. And whenever they were at a base, she would beg him to sneak her into his quarters. This was against Navy policy, but Benjamin did it anyway. And it wasn't long until he got caught. After that, Benjamin began racking up disciplinary violations left and right. He cussed out his superior officers and repeatedly left training when he wasn't supposed to. On one occasion, he nearly ran over a group of marines while speeding off the base at 50 miles an hour. It all added up and by October 2000, 23 year old Benjamin was kicked out of the Navy with a bad conduct discharge. Now Erica and Benjamin had unlimited access to each other and it was a recipe for disaster. Once Erica finished her degree in early 2001, she and Benjamin moved to Altoona, Pennsylvania to be closer to Erica's parents. They wanted the couple to be happy there and gave them money to open a scrapbooking supply store at a local mall. But living and working together wasn't great for their relationship. They fought constantly and started drifting apart. Soon, Benjamin was cheating on Erica. Eventually she found out and confused, confronted him. And although Benjamin did cut things off with the other woman, the experience caused Erica so much anxiety that she started popping Xanax throughout the day to remain functional. After she caught him cheating a second time, she upgraded to crushing the Xanax pills and snorting them to enhance the effects. Despite their whirlwind romance, it seemed like Benjamin just, just wasn't ready for married life. He was an adrenaline junkie who joined the Special Forces because he wanted adventure. Now he was working at a suburban scrapbooking shop. For him, cheating on Erica wasn't just about the sex. It was about the thrill of trying not to get caught. After Erica found out about the second affair, Benjamin decided to look for other ways to get his adrenaline high. Sometimes, while driving, he'd spot a police car and slam on the gas. Once the officer turned on their sirens, Benjamin would lead them on a desperate chase before eventually outrunning them. But after a while, even provoking the cops lost its luster. Benjamin needed another way to satisfy his craving for excitement. He told Erica about his dilemma, and together they came up with a plan. They would seek out new thrills together by becoming criminals. In high school, Benjamin had worked for a locksmith, so he knew how to pick locks. Soon, he and Erica were burglarizing stores around Altoona and selling the stolen merchandise on ebay. They didn't need the money. They had Erica's parents for that. For Benjamin, it was about the rush he felt when breaking into a shop. For Erika, it was the chance to surround herself with nice things. Jewelry, designer accessories, and above all else, Hooters merchandise. It's not clear when or why her obsession with Hooters started, but they broke into so many of the restaurants that before long, Erika had a closet stuffed with over 200 pieces of hooters branded clothing. For the next year or so, Erica and Benjamin ran their shop by day and broke into businesses by night, some of them located in the same mall as their scrapbooking store. Despite their questionable choices, it did seem like the robberies helped save their relationship. And soon the couple was ready for a romantic getaway. On May 25, 2002, Erica and Benjamin left Pennsylvania for a week long trip to the freewheeling beach town of Ocean City, Maryland. Erica's father had a top floor penthouse there, in a complex called the Rainbow Condominiums, which he let his daughter and her husband use whenever they wanted. As soon as they arrived, Erica snorted some Xanax and they went out for a late lunch. Naturally, they ate at Hooters. It was dusk when they left. They were both pretty wasted after a couple pitchers of beer, and they were looking to keep the party going. They stumbled onto a bus heading for Secrets, a popular nightclub, but were too drunk to pay their fare. As they argued with the driver, some friendly tourists stepped in to help. Joshua Ford and his girlfriend, Jeannie Crutchley. Joshua, who volunteered with the Salvation army and coached youth karate classes, could see that the siffrits were having a hard time, so after paying their bus fare, he invited them to sit with him and Genie. Erica and Benjamin appreciated the help. The two couples struck up a conversation and discovered they were all heading to Secrets. Benjamin promised to buy Joshua and Jeannie a drink to repay them once they arrived. But in a few hours, Erica and Benjamin would repay their friend's kindness in a much more brutal way than that.
- [38:13]
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- [39:11]
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On May 25, 2002, Erica and Benjamin Siffret spent hours drinking and dancing with their new friends at a nightclub in Ocean City, Maryland. It seemed like an unlikely pairing. Joshua Ford was 32 and his girlfriend Jeannie Crutchley was 51. Meanwhile, Erica and Benjamin were just 24 years old. Even so, the couples were really getting along. It probably helped that Erica and Benjamin were were very drunk and as usual, Erica was supplementing her buzz by snorting crushed up Xanax pills. By the time the lights in the club came on around 2am, none of them wanted the party to end, so Erica and Benjamin invited Joshua and Jeannie to come check out their luxury condo. They said they could smoke weed and hang out in the hot tub there. Once they arrived at the penthouse apartment of the Rainbow Condominiums, Benjamin led Joshua and Genie from room to room, showing off the big screen TV and the Jacuzzi tub. Meanwhile, Erica stepped away to snort some more Xanax, but when she returned, she realized her purse wasn't in the living room where she'd left it because of her obsessive compulsive disorder. Erica panicked whenever she couldn't find her belongings, and it was very Important. Important that she find her purse because it contained a $10,000 canary diamond. Erica ran around the condo, frantically, tearing open drawers and looking in closets. Joshua and Jeie were smoking weed in the living room, but they got up and helped her look when they saw how upset she was. Still, the purse didn't turn up. And that's when the mood shifted. Before I continue, most of what we know about the following events is based on Erica's account. With that in mind, we know the story she told police was designed to minimize her involvement. On top of that, she was incredibly inebriated at the time. But according to Erica, Benjamin went on to accuse Joshua and Jeannie of stealing her purse. Even though. Though they insisted they hadn't touched it. Benjamin didn't believe them. He stomped around the living room and screamed in their faces like a drill sergeant. When he told Erica to bring him the gun from the bedroom, she did. Then he pointed it at Jeannie and Joshua and told them to undress for a full strip search. Jeannie grabbed Erica by the arms and tried to reason with her, reminding her that all they'd done that night was try to help them. Benjamin just laughed, then brandished the pistol and chased Joshua and Genie up to the second floor. They ran into the master bathroom and locked the door behind them, but they had nowhere left to go. They were on the 11th floor. The only way out was past Benjamin, Erica, and the gun. Benjamin tried to knock the door down, but Jeannie and Joshua were bracing it shut with their bodies. That's when Benjamin lifted the.357 Magnum and began firing. Joshua staggered back, shot in the arm. Benjamin saw his opening and kicked the door down. Then he barged into the bathroom and executed Joshua Ford and Jeannie Crutchley at point blank range. A few minutes later, Erica found her purse. It had been under their bed all along, but the damage was done, and the siffrits were going to hide the evidence. Benjamin had been trained as a medic when he was in the Navy SEALS and had experience dissecting corpses. And now he didn't hesitate. He used a pair of knives to remove Genie and Joshua's heads, arms and legs. Then he and Erica stuffed the remains into black duffel bags. Just after sunrise that day on May 26, 2002, Benjamin and Erica loaded the duffel bags into the back of their jeep and drove 30 miles north to Rehoboth Be Beach, Delaware. They pulled into the parking lot behind a Food lion grocery store and threw the bags containing Joshua and Genie's dismembered bodies into the dumpsters there. On the way back to the condo, they swung by a Home Depot for cleaning supplies, then stopped at a seafood restaurant for a plate of crab legs. Erica and Benjamin spent the next few days mopping up gallons of blood from the floor, painting over the blood splatters on the walls, and hanging a new door to replace the one Benjamin had kicked down. But even then, they didn't let the double homicide interfere with their vacation. Photos on Erica's digital camera showed the couple playing mini golf, getting tattoos, and eating chicken wings at Hooters in the days after the murders. In some of the pictures, Erica was wearing a ring on a chain around her neck. It had belonged to Joshua Ford, and there was still some of his blood splattered on the inside. But those weren't the only trophies she'd taken. She'd also put Joshua and Jeannie's driver's licenses in her purse. By the middle of the week, Joshua and Jeannie's co workers in Virginia were starting to worry. Neither one had showed up for their shifts, and when family members visited their homes, it seemed like they'd never returned from their weekend trip to Ocean city. On Tuesday, May 28, 2002, Joshua and Jamie were officially reported missing. That same day, police in Virginia reached out to the Ocean City Beach Police Department with descriptions of the missing tourists and their vehicles. Detectives in Ocean City started combing the small town. Before long, they spotted Genie's red Acura parked outside their vacation rental. Investigators searched the unit and found all their belongings were still inside. It was clear to the authorities Joshua and Genie had been in Ocean City at the time of their disappearance. The detectives geared up for a thorough investigation. They didn't realize it would be over in about 24 hours. Two days later, on Thursday, May 30, Erica and Benjamin spent most of their time ripping out the blood soaked wood molding in the bathroom and dumping it down the condo's garbage chute. By the time the sun set, they were exhausted and looking to blow off some steam. So they turned to their their favorite pastime, breaking into Hooters. There was one restaurant conveniently located just down the road from their condo. Benjamin picked the lock. Then he and Erica carried armloads of T shirts, coffee mugs, and cigarettes from the gift shop to their Jeep. But they didn't realize they'd tripped the restaurant's silent alarm. Minutes later, a police car rolled up alongside them in the the parking lot. The officers put Erica and Benjamin in handcuffs while they sorted through the stolen merchandise. Before long, Erica started to feel a panic attack coming on. She asked the police if they could go into her purse and get her Xanax. Searching through the bag's contents, the officer found her Xanax and Joshua Ford and Jeannie Crutchley's driver's license licenses. The officer immediately recognized their faces from the missing persons flyers currently covering the walls of the police station. He shut Erica's purse, grabbed his radio and called the detectives assigned to Joshua and Jeannie's case. Erica and Benjamin Siffrit's vacation was over. Ocean City police and paramedics rushed to Erica and Benjamin's condo, hoping to find Joshua and Jeie there. Instead, they discovered a poorly covered up crime scene at the police station. Erica and Benjamin were questioned separately. Each of them blamed the other for the murders. In June 2003, after a heavily publicized trial, 25 year old Erica and 26 year old Benjamin were confused. Convicted of Joshua and Jeie's murders, Benjamin's defense team was able to persuade jurors that the killings had been Erica's idea and he was sentenced to 38 years in prison for second degree murder. Erica was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. Erica and Benjamin Ciffret had embarked on their life of crime in an attempt to save their marriage. In the end, it wasn't enough. In 2010, while locked up in two separate prisons, the couple filed for divorce. Reflecting on this week in crime history, it's clear that meeting the right person can change our lives for the better. But meeting the wrong person, well, that can end in disaster. Master it's impossible to know if Bonnie and Clyde and Erica and Benjamin Siffrit would have been happier if they'd stayed single. But the world probably would have been a safer place if they had. Thanks so much for listening. Listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Scams, Money and Murder. If you enjoyed this episode, you can check out more just like it by searching for Crime House the show wherever you get your podcasts. Scams, Money and Murder is a Crime House original. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media, rimehouse on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Scams, Money and Murder and Crime House the show wherever you get your podcasts and to enhance your listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back next Thursday.
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See mintmobile.com Looking for your next crime House? Listen, don't miss Crimes of with Sabrina Diana Roga and Corinne Vien. Crimes of is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of the Paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances and more. Their first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains. And coming up next is Crimes of Paranormal, real life cases where the line between the living and dead gets seriously blurry. Listen to Crimes of every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.