Further reading for The Main Line Murders
Engaged to Murder: The Inside Story of the Main Line Murders
Info:
June 1979, the body of Philadelphia area school teacher Susan Reinert was found in the trunk of her car, bound in chains in a parking lot in Harrisburg Pa. She had been brutally beaten and died by an injection of morphine. Susan’s children Karen, 11 and Michael, 10 were no where to be found and never seen again.
Reinert was a high school English teacher, married with two children and happened to be having an affair with the chair of the English Department. William Bradfield, the man she was having an affair with, was described as a pseudo intellectual who was full of himself. In 1979, Susan leaves her husband, tells her friends she is going to marry Bradfield and gives him $25,000 that he says he is going to invest in an up and coming business venture and makes him the beneficiary of her life insurance policy as well as making Banfield the the sole heir of her estate. What Susan didn’t know, was that Banfield was living with another woman, as well as dating two other women at the same time.
On the night of her murder, Susan was taking her kids out to meet Banfield. A neighbor watched them leave the house just after 9pm, three days pass before Susan’s car and body are found. Bradford’s had an alibi, as he claimed to be out of town with friends, police did not have enough evidence to bring him in for the murder. However they brought him in for theft and deception for taking her money for a bogus investment.
In the meantime, the principal of the school that Susan and Bill taught at, Jay Smith who was known as “eccentric” aka creepy, had a history of fire arms violations and robbery. But it was the fact that his daughter and her boyfriend had gone missing a year prior that sparked real interest. When his house was searched they found many types of porn, as well as chains and locks.
In the end, Bradfield was convicted of plotting the crime and died in jail in 1998. The police believe that Smith was the one who plotted the crimes, and he was convicted and sentenced to be executed.
This brief synopsis does no justice to the craziness of this story…legit…read the book.
Episode 75
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