When Dick returned from Fancy Gap in September, he had given up drinking completely and suffered from severe alcohol withdrawal again. The lack of alcohol was taking its toll and he was probably enduring a mild case of delirium tremens. He grew increasingly paranoid and later became convinced that his son, Muriel, and his longtime employees were all trying to kill him and take his money. He angrily accused them all of wanting him dead and in the next breath offered them gifts, money, and apologies. It was a sign that Dick’s ill health was starting to affect his mind.
Nevertheless, he handed out more money. He set up a $45,000 checking account for Muriel for Christmas, along with a note saying, “May this Christmas and birthday gift bring you happiness whenever you sign your name. This is better than jewels. A big, big kiss, Buck.”
That same Christmas, they hosted a party and hunting trip on Sapelo and invited local dignitaries, including Judge Stephen Scarlett of Brunswick, who was newly appointed to a federal judgeship. Muriel wasn’t impressed with the judge’s promotion and told him, “How can a little country lawyer like you be a federal judge when you have not traveled? You were born and raised in this backward section of Georgia and have never seen the world.”
Dick flew into a rage, ordering her to “shut up.” Judge Scarlett was offended and asked to be excused. Muriel’s elitism and directness was clearly at odds with the genteel ways of the American South.
At another party over the holidays, Dick was ill and couldn’t attend, so Muriel hosted on his behalf. When she announced to the guests that Dick would be unable to join them, she remarked that Dick would be “better off dead.” Karl Weiss told Dick about it, which further convinced him that Muriel really did want him dead. Karl and Muriel continued to fight. Muriel made menus for him to follow every day and often produced them one hour before he was supposed to serve the meal. No matter how hard he worked, it was never good enough for Muriel. Once he was scrubbing the kitchen with sweat pouring down his cheeks, and Muriel came in and said, “That’s right. Whoever wants to work for me has to sweat.”
In spite of the fact that Dick constantly accused Muriel of trying to kill him, he bought Muriel a handmade rifle in the early part of 1959 so she could participate in turkey shoots. When they weren’t out shooting birds, they were befriending them. Dick had a flock of geese on the island and he decided to keep one of them in the house. He named her Gretel. Dick let Gretel have baths in his bathtub and kept her in his bedroom, even when she relieved herself all over the floor. It didn’t take long before Gretel knew the sound of Dick’s voice and followed him all over the house.
Dick then became paranoid that the world markets were on the verge of collapsing, so he kept millions of dollars in bearer bonds in Muriel’s locked closet and buried gold around the island.
Muriel was not without her own eccentricities. She carried a six-inch knife around with her at all times, at Dick’s suggestion, to cut flowers in the garden. Muriel had been intensely interested in gardens her entire life and throughout their marriage, and she felt the servants on the island did a terrible job of maintaining them. So she trimmed them herself, almost obsessively, every day. Her knife-wielding frightened the servants.
The island residents soon noticed that all was not well in Dick and Muriel’s land. Once, Dick and Muriel visited Sapelo’s school and Muriel refused to smile at the kids, who thought she was snobby and cold. On another occasion, when Dick and Muriel had an argument, he placed dynamite all around a turkey-shaped fountain in the center of the farm complex. BOOM! When the smoke cleared, he had blown all the windows in the surrounding buildings. The turkey statue was still intact.
When Dick wasn’t fighting with Muriel, he was in bed, getting worse by the day. The tobacco heir had danced with death several times as a youngster and managed to survive his wild habits. Now, his breathing problems were so serious that he had to have oxygen administered regularly and was heavily medicated most days. After years of world-class jet-setting, the couple now spent nearly all their time on Sapelo Island. Gone were the days when they would visit Pompeii, convinced they were lovers there in previous lives. There were no more outrageous side parties at the Kentucky Derby, one of their favorite events.
These days Dick wanted to spend all his time on Sapelo, his private empire. But Dick was Muriel’s only real companion on the remote island and she had grown increasingly ill at ease under the circumstances. They deliberately irritated each other with their oddball behaviors, day in and day out. Dick built a pond on the estate to represent the world’s oceans and continents, just because Muriel hated the idea. Muriel read books on voodoo, burned incense in honor of Buddha, and performed witchcraft rituals in Dick’s presence, just to make him nervous.
Muriel wrote to her friends that Dick was “still very weak” during March of 1959 and said she’d only been able to take him on two drives around the island. In three months he had been outdoors only twice, and up to dinner only four times. Dick was still interested in developing the island and never gave up on the idea of building a golf course or a resort, which he discussed with Muriel often to keep his mind occupied. His sons visited, including Will, Patrick, and Michael, whom Dick hadn’t seen in years.
When Muriel told Dick she thought Michael was a little terror, he claimed that she hated his kids. That wasn’t true—she loved his boys and always encouraged Dick to spend more time with them—she just didn’t like this one. But Dick was offended and ordered her to leave them alone.
Muriel left for Palm Beach to get away. Her mother, who was also in Florida, was nagging her to visit anyway. Eleanor still pressured Muriel to visit her as much as possible and managed to keep a hold on her all these years.
Muriel expressed her exhaustion with taking care of Dick when she wrote to a friend of hers that she needed a long vacation. She’d been away for only twenty days in six months, and by her standards, that was too much time spent on Sapelo Island.
Dick required close monitoring and a strict health plan, which he rarely followed when Muriel was around. The plan was undercut by his continued smoking. Dick had given up the bottle but couldn’t shake the cigarettes. He kept his oxygen tank in his bedroom at Sapelo and had a dehumidifier installed in his sitting room.
While Muriel was gone, Dick complained about her constantly. When a servant mistakenly salted Dick’s food and blamed Muriel for telling her to do it, Dick once again became convinced that she was trying to kill him. The truth was that no one was killing Dick faster than he himself. On another occasion, Fred Johnson couldn’t find Dick’s oxygen mask and Dick started to black out. Fred managed to find it under a pile of dirty clothes in the closet. Dick concluded that Muriel had deliberately hidden it.
His rants echoed the past. When Dick was getting tired of Marianne, he fantasized that she had hired a former Mafia boyfriend to murder him. Dick turned on Muriel the same way, taking bits of information and arriving at histrionic conclusions—mainly because he was sick of the marriage.
When Muriel returned from Palm Beach, they argued incessantly. It was worse than before. Dick complained that Muriel ran into his room at three in the morning just to berate him and curse at him—likely because he refused her advances. Dick’s attraction to Muriel had steadily waned along with his health, leaving Muriel in need of affection. Dick also accused Muriel of being anti-American, and said she mocked the American way of life even around his friends and guests. Muriel thought Americans were uncultured and she didn’t like the commercialism of American television. She had a special loathing for the South, saying, “The average Southern worker is quite good, but a Spanish mañana is like a LeMans racer compared to the mañana of the South.” Muriel especially rankled Dick when she made fun of the U.S. Navy. When Dick expressed dismay at her statements, she promised never to repeat them. But she always did, especially after she had a few drinks.
Dick and Muriel had been married for seven years, and together for eight. Although they were from two different worlds, they were equals in
intellect and passion, and the pair could have been riding the highs of a marvelous life together. But Dick’s drinking and mood swings were more than Muriel could bear, and Dick, who was very down-to-earth in spite of his wealth, grew to loathe Muriel’s high-handed snobbery. Soon, Muriel’s rude demeanor and constant complaining, along with Dick’s inability to make a sustained commitment to love, family, and his health prevailed.
In 1959, Dick resigned as director of Delta. He had held the post since 1949 and didn’t have the energy for it anymore. The company credited Dick for making it a world-class airline, rivaling all the top airlines in the United States. Dick nominated his old friend and widower of Ella Cannon, Emory Flinn, to take his place. Dick also made moves to sell most of his Delta stock. He had been the largest stockholder his whole life, but it was time to close that chapter as well.
Although Dick had given up many of his business interests—he sold American Mail Line in 1957 and had resigned from most of the business posts he had held throughout his life—he kept himself busy in other ways. He donated money to the New York Maritime College in the Bronx for a new planetarium. He became a permanent resident of Sapelo, and established research programs at the University of Georgia. For years, Dick had experimented with marsh crops before making the decision to turn over large chunks of the island to marine biology research. They had their inaugural salt marsh conference in 1958, and the program would be called the University of Georgia Marine Institute. The program would receive funding from his own Georgia Agricultural and Forestry Foundation, as well as the Sapelo Foundation/Sapelo Island Research Foundation, which Dick had established and financed since 1952, and of which he and Muriel were trustees. In a ceremony at Sapelo, university president O. C. Aderhold recognized him for his generosity. The program and its access to Sapelo Island’s unique saltwater marsh wildlife would give the university a huge scientific advantage in marine biology.
Later that year, the North Carolina State College alumni association presented Dick with a meritorious services award and an honorary Ph.D. for his work for the Democratic Party and his funding of agriculture and industry programs at the college. In addition, Dick was credited for establishing the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the college.
Dick had also been hard at work developing Golden Isles Airlines, which would merge with the islands’ Baker Flying Service and provide service from Georgia’s coastal islands to other Southern cities. Dick’s goal with Golden Isles was to provide feeder service from small cities and communities in the Southeast that weren’t large enough to receive regular airline services. Although Dick had long since given up flying on his own, he enjoyed keeping himself involved in aviation through business interests like this one.
Dick appointed all the officers for the new feeder service and financed the merger. The airline would operate from McKinnon Airport on St. Simon’s Island after they built more offices and a hangar for the airline. Dick purchased four twin-engine, nine-seat De Havilland Doves and planned to begin service later in 1959.
In addition, Dick made plans to help build a much-needed $70,000 gymnasium at Darien’s local black school. The town was deeply grateful to Dick for making the offer, and the gesture further cemented Dick’s reputation in the town. The gym would be called the Richard J. Reynolds Gymnasium.
While Dick earned more fans around town, Muriel earned more enemies. Muriel still felt helpless and trapped on the island and longed for their jet-setting days. The servants continued to bear the brunt of her unhappiness.
After years of putting up with her, Dick’s servants couldn’t stand Muriel. She wouldn’t let them eat the same food she and Dick ate, even if there were leftovers. She ordered them around imperiously. And she still couldn’t get along with Karl Weiss. He found her demands outrageous and indefensible, and they butted heads nearly every day. In spite of this, Muriel also confided in Karl and told him where she kept many of her personal effects and private papers in her room. Muriel admitted that Karl’s personality got on her nerves, but she always maintained that she had compassion for him because he’d had a difficult life. While Muriel may have simply been eccentric, complex, and emotionally unstable, it was hard for the victims of her verbal abuse to see it that way.
Summer 1959
Although Dick drove her crazy, Muriel did listen to Dick’s medical advisers. His primary caretakers included Dr. Harry Rollings of Atlanta and a nurse named Miss Waxman. Both Rollings and Waxman were appointed by Dr. Valk. Dr. Rollings, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, had been the chief surgeon of Hunter Air Force Base during the war. In June of 1959, Dick convinced Dr. Rollings to order Muriel off the island and give them both a much needed break. Rollings wrote letters to Muriel, saying that her own smoking and the arguing between them was harming Dick’s health and encouraged her to get away. Muriel was reluctant—something didn’t feel right about it. But she did need a vacation, and her mother, now back in England, was begging her to visit. Perhaps Dick needed the space, Muriel reasoned. He had just sent his sons off on a long trip to Nairobi as well, so maybe everyone needed to be kicked out for a while.
On June 17, the morning of her departure, Muriel woke up early and Dick came to her bedroom for a couple of hours. They had breakfast together, and Muriel gave Dick a bath with the help of his servant, James Banks. She washed his hair and styled it, and cut his fingernails, as she always did. She put him in fresh pajamas and they sat and talked until 11:30 while she finished packing. Her plane was leaving at four that day, so after she put Dick to bed for his afternoon nap, she held his hand until he drifted off. Before he fell asleep, he said, “You don’t mind, darling, if I don’t go to the airport?”
“Not at all. Tom Durant will take me… are you sure you want me to leave you?” Muriel asked as she kissed him goodbye.
Dick insisted she take the trip and assured her that he would be all right, saying, “Write me very long letters every week. Put all the local news in the world in it,” and sweet-talked her all the way out his bedroom door.
Before she left, she took $200,000 in bearer bonds out of her locked closet to take on the trip. Dick always left her in charge of the bonds and Muriel considered them joint property.
Muriel said goodbye to nurse Waxman and the staff and boarded her private plane at the Sapelo hangar with enough luggage to last her the rest of the summer. She waved goodbye to Tom Durant.
Muriel arrived in New York, where she would tend to some business for a few weeks before going to Europe. For months, Muriel had been working with Strat Coyner on setting up a new will. On July 2, she received her new will from Coyner and executed it in New York. She made Dick the beneficiary but added provisions for charity. Coyner was in constant contact with her while she finalized it.
Before she left for Europe, she went to Cartier and picked up a $100,000 bracelet—just a little something to dress up her evening wear on the French Riviera.
Finally, she flew to Paris, where a car and chauffeur that Dick had arranged met her at the airport. Muriel made her way to the Riviera, spending most of her time in Monte Carlo where she played her favorite game of chemin de fer. Gambling was always a great weakness.
She wrote Dick gossipy, colorful letters and sent him gifts along the way, including records she thought he would enjoy. On July 15, Dick sent her a telegram saying he was playing the records she sent at five that morning. Throughout the trip, Muriel stayed in touch with Dick constantly, checking on his health and general status. He sent her lovely letters at each hotel she stayed in and expressed how much he missed her. He even sent her $200 worth of flowers on their anniversary. It had been the first extended amount of time they’d spent apart since their marriage.
On August 15, Dick called and they talked for an hour and a half. He asked where she was going to stay and suggested she go to London. Muriel said she’d go to Biarritz first, and then on the 1st of September she’d go to London and stay until the 15th, at which time she would return to Sapelo. “Which hotel are yo
u staying at again?” Dick asked. Muriel said, “The Hôtel Le Café de Paris in Biarritz.”
“What’s the exact address? Can you spell it?” Dick asked. Muriel recited the address. Dick went on to say he couldn’t wait for her return and sent her a telegram later that day repeating the same.
The morning of August 16, Muriel received a call from Dick’s lawyer, Frank Wells. Frank said he was in Biarritz. “What are you doing here?” Muriel asked. Frank said, “I’ve got something serious to discuss.”
After years of Dick’s drinking, illness, and brushes with death, Muriel panicked. “Oh my God, is Dick all right?”
“Yes, yes. Dick is all right. But I need to discuss something with you at your hotel.” Unconvinced, Muriel said that was fine. Half an hour later, he showed up, along with his Paris associate Charles Torem.
“Come in, come in,” Muriel said anxiously. “Have a cup of coffee.”
Frank declined and abruptly said, “We have come to tell you that your husband is through.”
“What?” Muriel asked. “I don’t understand.”
Frank handed her divorce papers and the two disappeared. It was the coup de grâce.
Muriel thought, Is this a joke? It must have been a joke. She had just spoken to Dick yesterday. The file accused Muriel of stealing the bearer bonds, buying an expensive bracelet for herself, infidelity as discovered in her personal diaries, and changing her will without telling Dick. The grounds for divorce were mental cruelty.
Muriel had just become the next victim of Dick’s complete doorstopping technique: the smoke screen, the dispatch of lawyers, the residency trick (which she didn’t yet know), and the final blow. She didn’t believe it at first, thinking Dick was simply sick or drunk and was throwing another temper tantrum, although she was furious that he had been reading her diaries. Many of them dated from 1937, well before she knew Dick, but they were still personal and intimate. Muriel would return to America right away and find out what was going on.
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