Susan Grund's Secrets - Deadly Women - S04 EP11 - True Crime

It was just a shock to see what kind of real person she was. She developed the idea that the best way to handle family problems was to simply get rid of them. To call her a femme fatale would be an understatement. And a murdering mom who disappears in plain view. She thought she had found the perfect system of committing murder. These deadly women are not what they seem. Secrets and lies. For the well-heeled, there is only one place to lunch in 1947. It was a real good restaurant. The judges ate there. The doctors, lawyers, people that lived and worked downtown would all go in there for lunch and for coffee during the day. Point something is 25-year-old Ann Jett Miles. Ann Jett was very good at dealing with people. That came into the restaurant and she shined. That was her world. Ann Jett was a very beautiful woman. She had a gorgeous face and very good complexion. Everybody loved Ann Jett. Judge J. Taylor Phillips remembers the service at Lyle's Restaurant as a young lawyer. She would come and sit with you sometimes and talk with you. She was just a nice person. But Ann Jett's thrilling career is about to be ripped from under her. Has had enough. What's going on? I sold it. You sold it? You sold the restaurant? What happened? Ben sells the family restaurant. A mom with his wife's dreams. What about our baby? It's worked twice now. I'm sick of running this place. Oh, you're sick of running this place. Well, that's just fantastic, okay? She tried to cast all kinds of spells. She had all these candles that she burned. Green was for money and red was for love. Of course, the black candle was for death. Ann Jett believes in black magic. But when she really wants something, she also turns to more practical agents. She used an ant poison. It was called tarot ant poisoning. And it was supposedly very sweet to attract ants. And a clever murderer can put it into any different type of food and the victim may have no idea that they're ingesting it. He's been sick with rheumatic fever since his time in the service. But once he sells the restaurant, it very rapidly deteriorates. There can be bleeding from the nose and mouth. Swelling of the soft tissues around the eyes. Weeping skin lesions. And there can be the onset of acute liver failure. Nobody could quite pinpoint it. Nobody could figure out what it was. Author Jacqueline Weldon has documented the painful death of Ann Jett's husband. A death doctors attribute to encephalitis. I think it was almost a committee decision to come up with a cause of death because they could not pinpoint anything else. Life insurance payout and the proceeds of her husband's sale. Ann Jett buys back her passion. It's under new management. It became more popular than it had ever been. It was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One happy customer is Joe Gavrit. A dashing pilot from Texas. As soon as he saw her, he was captivated by her. He told her that night he was going to marry her. He courted her very energetically. In just a few months, she agreed to marry him. But Joe is flying into trouble. His new wife is not what she seems. Within months of walking down the aisle, Joe will be dead. Ann Jett is pretty much of a sociopath. She has no feelings of empathy or love for anyone. Before she's 30, Ann Jett Lyles has been widowed twice. The secret to her misfortune, arsenic poison. First husband Ben dies shortly after selling the family restaurant. Second husband Joe dies of a mysterious illness after just three months of marriage. But instead of mourning, Ann Jett is thriving in her restaurant. She was not the grieving widow. She was laughing and talking to people, friendly like you know. Just like it was a big, big ball. It looks like Ann Jett has gotten away with murder, twice. With another life insurance payout, she buys a new home. But then, a complication. Her mother-in-law announced that she'd move in with her. I don't think Ann Jett had planned on that. But Julia Lyles moved into the house with Ann Jett and her grandchildren. But Ann Jett finds a way to eliminate her problem. And make even more money. Ann Jett had discovered that her mother-in-law had a great deal of money in savings in a couple of banks in Atlanta. Upwards of $40,000, $50,000. Ann Jett was a money person. She was interested in money. She tried to get me to witness the will of Ms. Lyles. And I wouldn't do it because it wasn't her signature. I could tell. I'd seen her signature before and it just wasn't hers. Ann Jett is forging her mother-in-law's will. Because Julia Lyles doesn't have long to live. She would take her things like buttermilk and chicken pot pie, things that she would tell the staff were her favorites. A lot of people would comment and say, you know, I'm so impressed by Ann Jett. But it's a lethal devotion. Somewhere in Ann Jett's mind, she developed the idea that the best way to handle family problems was to simply get rid of them. Get rid of them by murder. Ann Jett's poisonings. There's a look that trumps them all. That's really good luck. You should make a wish. Her daughter simply became an accessory that she didn't want anymore. I'm not sure she ever loved that child, really. She just acted ugly to that child every time I've ever seen her. Sit yourself down. I've just had about enough with you. Daughter Marsha will also die in an arsenic-induced nightmare. The child was having hallucinations. She saw bugs crawling on her. Ann Jett was standing in a corner laughing as though she found it very amusing. But this murder changes everything. A young child, suddenly dead, makes no sense at all. The doctors at the time could find other explanations for the deaths of the two husbands. But Marsha was to all appearances a healthy child. Police demand an autopsy. And within a very short time, the results came back and Marsha had died of arsenic poisoning. They exhumed Ben Lyle's body and they exhumed Julia Lyle's body and again found traces of arsenic in both of those bodies. Ann Jett's secrets are finally revealed. Far from the vivacious host with a run of bad luck, she's a serial killer with no mercy. People just could not believe that this woman that they thought they knew so well and liked so much could have done this. It was just a shock to see what kind of real person she was. Ann Jett Lyles is convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death. But she appeals on the grounds of insanity and is diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. She said, well, they think I'm crazy. If they don't think I'm crazy, they're going to fry my ass, so they have to think I'm crazy. Ann Jett is spared execution and lives out her life in an asylum. She dies of a heart attack at age 55. But her charm survives to this day. A lot of people never thought she was evil. I think a lot of people thought that she just had some mental quirk that caused all of it and it really wasn't her fault. Ann Jett was a very high-functioning, dedicated, driven, successful businesswoman. That is not a description of a paranoid schizophrenic. Ann Jett was crazy like a fox. Some secrets aren't very far from the surface. She needed the sexual attention of a lot of men to feel good about herself. Others are deeper. That is a very cold-blooded individual. To call her a femme fatale would be an understatement. In the case of Susan Brund... Susan is a very intelligent, very witty, very lovable person. ...to decide which secret to believe. In Peru, Indiana... Hi, Susan. ...the 1980s will be a whirlwind... You alone? ...for the girl they called the nightstand Su-Ann. So, how have you been? I've been good. Susan, who was actually born and raised as Su-Ann, had a bit of a racy reputation at high school. She certainly liked the boys and the boys seemed to like her. It appears that Susan had a lot of difficulty attaching to one man and staying with him and being faithful to him. It wasn't in her DNA. At 17, Susan is married to a country singer. But she's already moved on to her next lover. Gary Campbell, who lived in the same apartment block. And in a quite extraordinary move, she literally took her clothes from one apartment into Gary Campbell's and set up home with him and married him. True crime author, Wensley Clarkson, has charted a long line of trouble trailing Susan Grund. Susan gave birth to Jacob, her first child with Gary Campbell. But unfortunately, she was convicted of child abuse on Jacob and her husband, Gary Campbell, took custody of the child. Susan's need, which I believe was to be seen as a sexy woman by a lot of men, overruled her need to be a good wife. Susan moves to a new town and husband number three. She becomes pregnant again but the marriage doesn't last long enough for the birth. So what does she do? She hot foots it back to Peru pregnant with a second child. At 25 and pregnant, Susan meets husband number four, Jimmy Grund. Once again, Susan bewitched a man. It's quite extraordinary this. She's pregnant, she goes on a blind date with Jimmy Grund and soon after that, they fall in love and get married. Susan must have thought the skies had opened for her when she met Jimmy Grund. He was educated, he had money, he had prestige. He was way out of her league. And yet, he was drawn to her. Against the odds, Susan becomes a big name in her hometown. Jimmy and Susan played a role in, I guess, high Peru society if there is one. It's a very small town but they were the upper crust. J.W. Lee befriended Susan years later. He says she enjoyed the marriage. They had a lot of good times together. She's relayed a lot of fond memories of her marriage to Jim with me and it seemed like they had a pretty good one. But the town is starting to talk. Perhaps, one night Stan Suan might not have disappeared completely. Not long after marrying Jimmy, there were rumours beginning to circulate in Peru about her having affairs with other men. Susan seems to be keeping secrets again. But this time, it will end in murder. Was he so bewitched by her that he didn't question any of her behaviour? Little Suan has transformed herself from poor trailer trash to Susan Grund, wealthy influential wife of a prominent attorney. But it's about to collapse around her. There were many facets to Susan's personality. One of them was to be the sexy, desirable woman. And the other was to be the socialite, prestigious wife married to a successful man. They didn't mix. One rumour has Susan sleeping with her stepson, David Grund. There were plenty who doubted and plenty who knew that it was true. David totally denied ever having had relations with her, which is to be expected. But enough people in the town knew what was going on. There's one thing on which everyone agrees. David owns a 9mm handgun. It was rumoured that Susan had many affairs. I heard things from my family and nobody was fond of her in my family. Jimmy's niece is just a child when her uncle's marriage starts to fall apart. Speculation of the family was that he told her he wanted a divorce. Susan's behaviour finally pushes Jimmy too far. What do you think? And he started to question a lot of aspects of her character, finally, and then started to push for a divorce. You dare me to do what? I'll get half of everything. You're not getting a cent! And then, something extraordinary happens. The local police got a call from Susan saying she'd found her husband shot sitting on a sofa and the house was ransacked and obviously someone had broken in and decided to shoot Jimmy Grunn. It's robbery. They think it's cold-blooded murder. Something didn't add up about this so-called break-in. The police themselves were mystified because it's so rare that a break-in results in a shooting. There's just one clue. Implicating Jimmy's son, David. Jimmy Grunn was shot with a 9mm pistol and by an extraordinary coincidence his own son owned a 9mm pistol which he'd reported stolen just a week earlier. Police can't find the murder weapon because Susan hides it. The reason that Susan picked up the gun at all and hid the murder weapon was because she knew that it was Jim's son's gun. Susan was trying to protect him. The Grunn's think Susan is protecting herself after staging a robbery to collect $250,000 in life insurance. The police worked incredibly hard on this case because they knew virtually from the beginning that Susan had to be the guilty party. Susan confides in her sister and her mother who help hide the murder weapon but their secrecy lasts only a few months. Eventually Susan's sister cracked. She couldn't cope with the knowledge of knowing what her sister had done. They arrested Susan in November almost exactly three months from the date of Jim's death. Charged her with murder. At the trial, Susan claims innocence but admits to hiding the gun to protect her lover Jimmy's son David. Susan claimed that David had decided that the only way to get rid of Jimmy so that they could be together was to murder his father. David Grund denied categorically that this so called affair had ever occurred with Susan and he was charged as an accessory but then acquitted. It was very well known that David had an alibi and had nothing to do with his father's death. The jury is left in doubt and deadlocked. It takes a second trial in March 1994 to convict Susan Grund of murder. She's serving 60 years in prison. Despite all her planning, all her scheming, all her connivingness, all her artfulness Susan Grund got sentenced to life. Susan's fiancé J.W. Lee believes justice was not served. Susan is innocent of murder. Susan will be eligible for parole in 2019. When she comes home from prison, it'll be a whole brand new life for her. For some, Susan's release will right a terrible wrong. Others believe she should stay where she belongs. I think that Jimmy Grund was a means to an end for Susan Grund. When she found that he was about to pull that away from her, she found herself in no choice but to murder. Everybody knew that she had done it. Some secrets are so shocking. She was cold and calculating and cunning. No one is willing to believe. Some people are very, very skilled at lying. One woman is about to meet her maker. I don't really think she had a conscience. And she has a lot to repent. Anyone who killed in the slow and extremely cruel fashion in which she did it, I think that is nothing but evil. Frank Hilley arrives home from work early in Anniston, Alabama. He's expecting to find his wife in the kitchen. But she's in the bedroom. Frank! Walter. Marie Hilley is sleeping with her boss. Get dressed. Get out. And this isn't her first infidelity. Marie was having not one, but maybe multiple affairs with people. Author R. Robin McDonald believes Marie chased the money and affections of more successful men. It was clear that she had affairs with men who she felt could do something for her. That she needed something from. With husband Frank and his modest income. What Marie really wanted out of life was to spend lots of money, preferably other people's, and do whatever she wanted to do. Marie decides on a new strategy. Life insurance. On her husband. In 1975 he's struck by a mystery illness. He couldn't keep food down. He could not keep anything on his stomach. Violent illness. Marie tells her husband she has an antidote. Apparently supplied by her doctor. Frank had said to his sisters, Marie is going to have to learn how to give me shots. She says the doctor has told her she needs to give me shots. But far from helping Marie's injections are secretly killing her husband with arsenic from rat poison. By injecting arsenic in a very high concentration and injecting it directly into the body there was absolutely no doubt that the full dose was delivered. This was a death sentence for Frank. Within weeks Marie goes shopping with a $31,000 insurance payout. You have to put that in perspective of the time and place. This was 1975. It was a small town in Alabama. $31,000 sounded like a lot of money then. Marie poisoned her husband solely to get the insurance money and to be rid of him. Marie's new found wealth doesn't last. Her constant spending drains her account and she needs another source of income. Her daughter Carol is now in the hospital with a mystery illness. Did you bring her medicine? Yes, I did. Now remember what I said. No one can know about this. Doctors are baffled but Marie knows exactly what's wrong. I think that she thought she had found the perfect system of committing murder because arsenic poisoning mimics so many different symptoms. After murdering her husband for insurance money Marie's now trying to kill her daughter. She insured her life and she wanted the money. Hi Carol. But before Marie can kill again there's a breakthrough. A doctor looked at Carol's fingernails and saw the half moons the traditional signs of arsenic poisoning. In Carol's case the doctor was astute and was beginning to put together what had happened particularly in light of Frank's death. Carol is saved but to convict Marie police need more evidence of poison so they exhumed her dead husband. Frank had over a hundred times arsenic in him that he should have had as well. The evidence incriminates Marie in the murder and attempted murder of her own family. The town of Aniston can scarcely believe it. When Marie Hilly was arrested people were actually stunned. I think the nature of the crimes themselves and the suspicion of what had happened and the potential brutality of it really shocked Aniston. The most shocked of all daughter Carol. I feel sorry for her because she not only was the subject of someone trying to kill her, it wasn't just someone this was her mother. Marie Hilly might have killed her entire family had she not been caught. But instead of receiving justice Marie other plans her deceits are not over. Hilly is leaving town before anyone catches her. She's skipping bail after being charged with her husband's murder and the attempted murder of her daughter. After Marie left Aniston she went to Florida where she assumed an alias, Robbie Hammond. She met a man and subsequently married him, became Robbie Homan. Blissfully ignorant of her deadly history Joan Homan is head over heels. But like everyone else in Marie's life he gets a surprise. After two years reborn as Robbie Hammond she tells her husband she has a fatal illness. Robbie's condition has worsened. Joan Homan was not terribly bright and very accepting almost gullible in a way. She claims a doctor in Texas can help her. I sure hope so honey. Robbie has an identical twin sister. And that she can stay with her twin sister there. Yes I have. Lies on top of lies. It was like she had fantasized and created this person in her mind and you know who knows maybe she did exist in her own mind. He is reborn again as Terry Martin. She assumed the role of the twin, called her husband and told him that his wife had died. She decided that she wanted to leave that identity behind and when she was gone nothing else that was any better had come along so she decided that she would just go back and move in with John again as a twin sister. I'd like you to meet our lovely neighbors Brad and Susie. They were great friends with Robbie. Well hello to you. I've heard a lot about you two. She had lost a good bit of weight 50 pounds she had bleached her dark hair blonde Uncanny isn't it? That's amazing. Unbelievable. John was fairly convinced that that was not his wife that that was his wife's sister that did come back. I just want to say for both of us that we are so so sorry to hear about your loss. John and Terry pick up where John and Robbie left off. Can I offer you some wine? Sure. Marie liked to play games with people. She thought she was smarter than everyone else. She actually thought she could come back as the twin sister of a man she was married to. She may have fooled him but she didn't fool anyone else. Friends don't believe Terry's story and call the police. They ask her we have reason to believe you are not Terry Martin. Who are you? Backed into a corner about to be exposed Marie tells the truth for once in her life. She told them my name is Audrey Marie Hilling. Marie is arrested again destined for her original murder trial. But there will be one more twist. Yeah I remember it well. I was in the office and in fact I was quite upset about it because nobody was notified locally that Marie had even been given a furlough. Incredibly Marie is given another chance at bail and once again she makes a run for it. I just totally couldn't believe it. It was beyond belief and I just in my mind I thought well if she gets out of town she's going to be gone and she'll melt right in again and she's good at doing that. But this time the master deceiver will not succeed. During her last days on the land in dreadful weather Marie faces justice she's eluded for three years. The report came on the radio that there was a white female on the outskirts of Anniston and she was wandering around and it appeared that she was soaking wet and she was disoriented and in fact I think they said she was even crawling around on the grass. She died of hypothermia sometime later there that day. Marie Hilling I think it's easier for a woman to hide a dark secret because people simply don't suspect women of being evil. They are beyond suspicion and all the more deadly. Ann Jett Lyle's social skills masked her true vocation as a skillful murderer. Susan Lund's secrets were not believed when it counted she's still arguing to this day. While Marie Hilling thought she could run away from herself justice tracked her down. Each could keep their secrets and lies through the tragic silence of their victims.