Secrets of the Congdon Mansion

by Joe Kimball

  When Marjorie's hearing finally began, she sat at a desk near the front of the room, directly across from the five parole board members. Tom Hägen and Nancy Kaufmann took seats just to her left. I sat behind Marjorie, near several guards and administrators. The warden attended, too.

  After a quick glance at the Hägens, Marjorie launched into a rambling indictment of Wally's children, claiming they had conspired to isolate Wally from his family and refused to help with his medical care. It was an unusual approach to her parole hearing. Judging by their comments and questions, the board members clearly wanted to hear her express remorse for her crime, and to show how prison had helped her become a better person. But she continued to claim she was innocent of the attempted Ajo arson.

  I saw the Hägens wince and roll their eyes at her words. When time came for public comments, Tom and Nancy felt compelled to respond. They said they'd always loved and helped their father and that it was Marjorie who tried to tear the family apart. They also warned the board about her penchant for fires.

  Partway through the hearing, I walked to the front of the room to take a picture of Marjorie. She covered her face with her hands for a moment, then, apparently realizing she looked silly, she turned her attention back to the board members.

  When the board finally voted, the decision was unanimous against parole. When they told her there'd be another opportunity in 2002, Marjorie turned, and showing no emotion, walked out of the room. The Hägens were visibly relieved. They left quickly to catch a flight back to Minnesota.

  As I left the prison, the warden waved and said “See you next year.”

  Three months later, I got a call from Bolding, Marjorie's lawyer, who said he'd just learned that the pardon board had failed to make the legally-required tape recording of the November hearing. He said he'd filed an appeal and was granted a new hearing for March 12.

  So the Hägens again flew to Phoenix for the repeat hearing. The outcome was the same: no parole. I didn't attend this time, but afterwards, Bolding reported: “The board was not impressed. They want you to come in on all fours and do the mea culpa routine and say I will go and sin no more.' They call it accepting responsibility, but in this case, whatever Marj's intentions were in her mind, there's just no evidence that she planned to start the fire.”

  But Marjorie was holding up well in prison, he said. “She's rolling right along. She knows she'll be released soon.”

  Just before the 25th anniversary of the murders in 2002, I called Prosecutor DeSanto to see if any DNA evidence existed from the murder scene. DNA crime scene analysis didn't exist in 1977, but it does now, and I figured the newspaper ight pay to test the evidence.

  Sorry, DeSanto told me. All the evidence had been destroyed.

  About a year later, though, DeSanto announced that he and others had written their own book, and there was DNA evidence still available. It had been in a box in his basement all along.

  Tests showed that the envelope Caldwell had sent from Duluth to Colorado contained saliva that matched Caldwell's DNA. This was no surprise to those close to the case, who always believed Caldwell was guilty. The real question, which is unanswered, and may remain so unless more evidence turns up: Was there a murderous accomplice with Caldwell that night in the Mansion?

  In 2003, Marjorie skipped another scheduled parole hearing, knowing that her chances weren't good and that in early 2004 they had to let her go anyway, without a hearing, because early release rules had been eased.

  Over they years I've tried many times to arrange interviews with Marjorie, figuring she might want to provide her side of the story. She always declined.

  On the verge of her release, I tried again, sending a polite letter to her in prison. A couple weeks later, I got a reply of sorts. She had scrawled a message to her lawyer on the back of my letter, saying: “Will you please do something about these people?”

  Her lawyer, Ed Bolding, sent her note to me, along with his own inscription.

  “Joe, Marjorie is not interested. Will not talk to anyone. Sorry. Regards to you. Ed.”

  Prison officials kept the media away from the prison doors the morning of her release, requiring the television photographer to use a long lens to capture her walk from the door to the rented car.

  Later in the day, a small fire caused some damage at a church in Ajo, the town once ravaged by the arson fires. Residents joked that she must be back.

  During a radio interview that day, I was asked: If Marjorie called and invited you over to her house and offered to give you her side of the story over a pot of tea, would you go and would you drink the tea?

  My reply: Absolutely I'd go, but I'd take along a photographer so I wouldn't be alone with her. And I'd pass on the tea.

  In 2007, those who've followed the case probably weren't surprised to learn that Marjorie was arrested again, this time in Tucson. She was accused of fraud and forgery after befriending an elderly man and taking his money after he died.

  Following this arrest, people who'd recently met Marjorie told me that she seemed polite and charming, and had adopted a greyhound named Blueberry.

  Finally, after nearly two years of delays, Marjorie pleaded guilty in a plea bargain deal and despite her lengthy criminal background, was sentenced to “three years of intensive probation” and ordered to pay $10,000 for attorney's fees.

  These are edited excerpts of Roger Caldwell's confession to the murders of Elisabeth Congdon and Velma Pietila. The confession was made July 5, 1983, at the St. Louis County Courthouse in Duluth.

  Prosecutor John DeSanto asked the questions. Roger Caldwell answered.

  Q Do you understand that if you say something here that is not truthful, you could subject yourself to perjury charges for any untruthful statements made in answer to the questions here this afternoon in the library, do you understand that?

  Al do.

  Q Also, Mr. Caldwell, do you understand that it is agreed as part of this plea negotiation agreement that you would receive no further incarceration for the new convictions of murder in the second degree, that you would be sentenced simply to time served or if there was an 111 month sentence, any further sentence would be simply suspended. Do you understand that? You would receive no further time in jail?

  Al do.

  Q Now with regard to the murders of Elisabeth Congdon and Velma Pietila, would you state, in your words when the incident, which led to those murders was first planned or discussed with anyone?

  A There was no plan of murder.

  Q A11 right. With regard to the murders that occurred, these murders that occurred on June 27th of 1977, would you, in your own words, simply state how it came about that you committed those murders?

  A The intent was burglary. I was surprised in the act of the commission of the burglary by the nurse who was totally unknown to me. She was loud and aggressive. I tried to silence her.

  Q Mr. Caldwell, do you know that that's kind of hard to believe that you don't remember the name used to buy the airplane ticket?

  A Well, yes, I can understand how it's hard to believe, but as you well know with the investigation you conducted, I am an old drunk. I have been on the sauce for a long, long time. I have been treated for alcoholism on two different occasions and have wandered in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous heaven knows how many times over the years, and in time of stress, I mean I would maintain a glow all day, everyday, seven days a week, year after year. Not just periodically, this was a constant, ongoing thing. I am not using, trying to imply that drunkenness was a defense, that's out of the question because drunkenness was my normal state and sometimes worse.

  Q That's what you are attributing your failure to remember the name that you used to travel?

  A There were many things that I don't remember throughout my life that were nearer and dearer to me than a false name I would give at an airline counter. I don't recall the names of uncles and aunts and nieces and nephews.

  Q Okay.

  A No. As our situation progre
ssed, as it became apparent after our marriage that Marjorie was – well, she was simply a terrible liar, that's all she did to me constantly. Not at first, but then the longer we were married the worse it got and it became – I tried to defend her. I believed her. I loved her.

  Q Now, you fly then to Minneapolis. What time do you get to Minneapolis?

  A lt was daylight.

  Q Daylight. What do you do when you get to Minneapolis?

  AWell, tried to figure out where Duluth was. I didn't know. I had only been here once before in my life.

  Q Okay. What did you do now once you got to Minneapolis Airport when you have come, as you say, to burglarize the mansion?

  A Well, tried to figure a way to get from there to Duluth and I must haue flown up (on the one previous visit) but I wasn't all that impressed with your Duluth Airport and it dawned on me that the police would certainly be checking transportation and one of the shuttle flights from the Twin Cities up to here would be probably too easy to trace and pinpoint me, so I toyed with the idea of taking a cab but then I thought, too, I honestly didn't have any knowledge of the distance.

  Q So what did you eventually do?

  A I wandered around and asked people directions and wound up taking a bus.

  Q A bus from where?

  A From the bus station in the Twin Cities on up here to Duluth.

  QAnd what name did you use to get your bus ticket?

  A I don't know that there is a name required.

  Q And do you recall when you got to Duluth, what time of day it was?

  A Late afternoon or early evening, I suppose.

  Q Then what did you do?

  A Well, I had a few more drinks.

  Q Where did you have the drinks?…In a bar in Duluth?

  A Oh, yes. Oh yeah.

  Q Then what did you do?

  A I waited until dark. And in discussions at the bar found out how the cab service worked in town and took a taxi cab out to London Road. I didn't even know the address…I told him I would tell him where to let me out. I didn't know for certain where I was going but I would recognize the site when I saw it.

  Q Where did you get out?

  A Well, I recognized the mansions, other big homes sitting off to the right, and when I got to where I thought the Congdon home was, I had him then let me out a few blocks up London Road.

  Q DO you recall during the early part of the investigation, after your arrest, when we had a cab driver look at you in a lineup?

  AI do.

  Q Was that the cab driver?

  AI have no idea.

  Q Were you frightened he might identify you?

  A Yes I was. But I don't have any idea if that's who it was. It may very well have been. I don't know.

  Q You went from the bus to a bar and then you took a cab out to the mansion when it got dark?

  A Your bus terminal, as I recall, seemed to be in a rather seedy place, in a rather seedy neighborhood, which was fine for my purposes and there were several bars in the area and I just chose one of them, a real working-man's bar.

  Q Okay. You get (out of the cab.) Then what did you do?

  A It was just approaching darkness and in my mind I thought it best to wait until the house was still and people were sleeping and I had only ever been there one other time and had never poked around or seen the grounds, so I was totally unfamiliar with the geography and I didn't want to linger on the street, on London Road. I didn't know whether it was a prominent thoroughfare. As I say, I am not acquainted with Duluth.

  Q Where did you wait?

  A First, I walked back past the house so I would make sure I knew where I was and walked clear past it and there was a little cemetery on the same side of the street as the house that wasn't in good maintenance and looked like it didn't get a lot of traffic and I waited in there. (When it got dark enough) I left there and went over to the house.

  Q Are you drinking on the hooch?

  A Yeah. I was seldom without one.

  Q What kind of booze was it, do you know?

  A vodka. A pint.

  Q Where did you get in (to the mansion)?

  A Through the window.

  Q What did you use to break the window?

  A Something on the porch, or there was an odd, it's not a room, you couldn't even call it a sun porch that this window faced out on, that was filled with clutter and I would imagine I found an object there to break the window with.

  Q What did you do after you got into the mansion through the window?

  A I remember walking past a pool table and getting to the stairs and my intention was to get up to Miss Congdon's bedroom, where I assumed, whatever valuables of small size that can be easily carried would be found.

  Q Did you know where the bedroom would be located?

  A No I didn't.

  Q Had Marjorie talked with you about that?

  A Marjorie and I never – The only talking we did about the mansion was the time she had spent there as a child and in growing-up years, but we never discussed specifics about the physical arrangements of the house other than to tell me about the boat house and the groundskeeper's house and the old greenhouses. We never went into any details about the floor plan of the house or the arrangements.

  Q Then what happens?

  A Then I started up the stairs. I wasn't expecting a confrontation…The house was dark, it was late at night. I assumed people were sleeping and I meant no harm.

  Q Had you discussed that in any way with Marjorie Caldwell? Whether someone would be there or not?

  A No.

  Q Did you know about Elisabeth Congdon having around-the-clock nurses?

  A Yes, I did know that.

  Q Now, you get to the staircase, what happened?

  A Well, I started up the stairs and immediately roused the nurse, which surprised me as much as it did her, I' m sure. I guess I was on the landing (between the first and second floors) and she was either still coming down the stairs or had reached the landing.

  Q What happens there?

  A Well, she shouted and struck out at me. I dont know that she had anything in her hand or not. She may have had.

  Q What did you do?

  A Struck back. (There was) a fight.

  Q Is the nurse killed at that time?

  A No, no. I suppose she was unconscious because then I went up to the second floor and, as I recall, she had let out a moan or something to indicate that she was still, if not awake or alert, still making noises…I found the candlestick and went back down and beat her with it to quiet her down.

  Q What did you do then after beating the nurse to death?

  A Well, I didn't beat her to death. I beat her and she died.

  QWhat did you do after that?

  Q Well, that quieted her and there was light on in a room. I poked in there, looked in and saw Miss Congdon was in there and I didn't wish to – she was obviously sleeping and I knew she was not a well woman, I didn't want to disturb her… so I thought, better if I can obstruct her hearing. Anyway, I took the pillow and put it over her heady more to block out light and sound than anything else.

  Q You know that the physical evidence in the investigation showed a blood type that (was) consistent with your blood on the bedspread and the pillow under Elisabeth Congdon's head. Would that have been because you were cut in the struggle with the nurse?

  A The nurse bit my finger.

  Q DO you recall turning the shoe of the nurse on her which resulted in those little puncture wounds on her head and arms?

  A I don't recall any detail of that. I was so terrified and panicked by what I was obviously caught up in, that it was just – it all happened so quickly.

  Q So you are admitting the murder of Elisabeth Congdon, is that true?

  A Well, I guess I am admitting to the murder of her, except murder wasn't the intention.

  Q What did you do after you put the pillow over her face? What did you do in her room?

  A I wanted to get out as quick as I could
. I was obviously in a heck of a mess and wanted to get out of there and out of Duluth and out of Minnesota just as quickly as I could, so I ransacked drawers to look for valuables, took what I could find and left.

  Q Do you remember taking the ring off Elisabeth Congdon's finger… (or) taking the watch off her wrist?

  A I have no recollection of it…I was in such a state of terror I couldn't move quick enough to get out.

  Q Do you remember taking the wicker basket?

  A I don't remember taking it.

  Q The drawers on Elisabeth Congdon's dresser were all pulled out evenly. Why were the drawers so even?

  A I don't know anything about burglary. I have never stolen anything in my life. I certainly never burglarized anybody. I have never caused any damage to anyone that I can recall in a lifetime, other than what I may have done when I was drunk. I have never burglarized a home.

  Q Why did you take jewelry items?

  A Wellj it'seemed to be a logical thing of small size and great value.

  A What were you going to do with the jewelry items?

  A I hadn't thought that far ahead…the purpose was to sell and convert to cash.