Robert Riggs:
Amidst the sprawling cityscape of Dallas, where power and prosperity intersect with secrets and lies, Sandra Bridewell's story unravels.
Bridewell was a beautiful, alluring socialite in the affluent enclave of Highland Park when Dallas was the worldās most popular TV show and the Dallas Cowboys were Americaās team.
It is a tale woven with deception, sex, and the dark underbelly of high society in a close-knit community known as the Beverly Hills of the Southwest ā Highland Park.
Known infamously as "The Black Widow," Sandra's life story reads like a script from a classic thriller, her charm, and beauty masking a sinister reality of purported suicides, murders, beatings, romance scams, religious cons, and identity theft.
True Crime author John Leake peels back the layers of Sandra Bridewell's enigmatic persona in The Meaning of Malice: On The Trail Of The Black Widow Of Highland Park.
Robert Riggs:
Do you suspect that Sandra Bridewell is not only a Black Widow but a serial killer?
John Leake:
I do. I believe, after evaluating all of the evidence, circumstantial and physical evidence displayed in these death scene photos, I say death scene because they were originally ruled the first two violent deaths I looked at were ruled suicides by the Dallas County Medical Examiner. I obtained copies of the photos. I had those photos examined by contemporary forensic experts. Remember, we're talking 1975 and 1982. The first two cases, I had these photos examined by contemporary forensic experts really up to date in their training. And the evidence displayed in the photos shows that these were not self-inflicted. There was another party involved, so that physical evidence displayed in photos combined with the circumstantial evidence. And witness testimony leads me to believe that Sandra Bridewell is in fact an officially undetected serial killer. Now, I say officially because law enforcement has never arrested her or even subjected her to a difficult interview. But she's long been suspected of involvement in these deaths.
Robert Riggs:
Sandra Bridewell arrived in Dallas in 1950 as a child after her mother had been killed in a car accident.
Her fatherās soft drink bottling business had fallen on hard times. He lost his leg in a hunting accident. He remarried and sold cemetery plots.
Sandra did not get along with her stepmother. She had a burning desire to get out of South Oak Cliff, a working-class neighborhood across the Trinity River from downtown Dallas.
John Leake:
Sandra went to I think, a pretty good public school called the Kimball school, and, and a cliff, which is, rhythm and blues people will be familiar with that from their familiarity with the biography of Stevie Ray Vaughn Stevie Ray Vaughan was a Kimball high school graduate about a year after Sandra. So I don't think that it was a rough neighborhood on her say. But given what we now know about Sandra's social aspirations, I think it was perceived as a humble neighborhood.
Robert Riggs:
What is it there that sort of triggers this yearning and this desire to be a socialite in Dallas?
John Leake:
I think that's a fascinating question that runs through this whole story. You know, there were was an article in D magazine about send her the Cinderella syndrome that seems to be so prevalent in Dallas culture. The report was published in the 90s. But it's talking about how Dallas something about our culture here. You know Neiman Marcus, the Dallas Cowboys, the merch lessons, the hunts, seems to promote this Cinderella aspiration. Pretty girl, rich man. And this seems to have really ignited in Sanders imagination. I'm a beautiful girl. I'm talented, and she was I'm talented. I've learned about cooking French cooking and culture and interior decorating. I'm gonna find myself a wealthy man, she went to Tyler Junior College, which in those days was in the dead center of the East Texas oil patch where these huge fortunes had been made. And it seems to me likely that already then, in the early 60s, she was hoping to land perhaps the son of East Texas oil family. The interesting thing about that is she didn't do that when she was at Tyler Junior College for a year. But later she did and the person of Bobby Bridewell, he actually came from a Tyler, Texas oil family.
Robert Riggs:
And that oil money from the East Texas oil field it flowed into Dallas into Highland Park, which is surrounded by the city of Dallas as a separate city but it's also referred to as the Beverly Hills of the southwest and today it's a who's who of you know Jerry Jones has got an estate.
John Leake:
There are all of these oil families that built beautiful homes and, and Highland Park. Interestingly enough, a lot of people don't realize this David Wilbur Cook who is the landscape designer for Beverly Hills. He also did the layout for Highland Park. So it's an apt comparison.
Robert Riggs:
How does she take root in Highland Park she met she meets this young, upcoming dentist. How does that come about?
John Leake:
That's a great question. And it's kind of a sort of a romantic, sort of a youthful, sexy moment and Dallas there was a in the 60s there was an apartment complex right off of University Avenue near Southern Methodist University called the Spanish trace. And the developers of the Spanish trace we're friends with Eddie Ackerman, who was the CEO of Braniff airlines. And in the conception of this apartment complex, they had the idea. This is where the young and the beautiful and the rich you know are going to live as they're getting their start and Dallas. So the Spanish trace was a real scene. It had a swimming pool, you know, it's the 60s and why some favorable arrangement with Braniff. They had a certain number of apartments allotted to beautiful Braniff stewardesses, which would in turn draw in the well heeled, handsome young men so Sandra lives in an apartment across the street from the Spanish trice called the Windsor house. Her first husband, a guy named David steagle, was a graduate of the Baylor School of Dentistry he lived at the Spanish trace. And so that's where they they met. He was young, he was handsome and very well known don't think of dentistry is very glamorous profession, but he was studying with a famous reconstructive dentist and Beverly Hills and I suddenly his name is slipping me. Doesn't matter. But he was a well known reconstructive dentist in Beverly Hills. He was kind of the dentist to the stars, and getting your teeth your smile, perfect for the camera. David steagle was making trips out to California to train with the sky. And he as he mentioned to a friend and one notable moment they had Paul Newman in the dental chair so I think he I'm partly speculating but I imagine he told Sandra that this is what he aspired to do. And she found it compelling.
Robert Riggs:
Well, you know, and Braniff airlines really reflected this high fashion life in the fast lane because, you know, he had a certain motif painted on the aircraft, but they were the first to outfit all of their flight attendants in fashions done by famous designers. The interiors were done by famous designers.
John Leake:
Salvador Dali was a designer.
Robert Riggs:
Yeah, and the flight attendants had to meet this, hese criteria for beauty. You know, there was one slight flaw a tooth didn't look just wide enough. They didn't make the grade.
Yeah, this is this is the early era of, of jet travel. And there was this. I mean, now we just take for granted. jet travel is kind of a beatdown. But in those days, it was new, it was glamorous. And I think Braniff and pan-am had kind of deals with Hilton. Hilton Hotels was very aggressively building properties in places like Acapulco, Mexico. One of the things that the Spanish trace is, if you signed a one year lease at the trace, you are invited for the annual Acapulco bash in which you'd be flown down on Braniff. And so they were really cultivating this air of glamour and sex appeal.
So Sandra Bridewell must have thought she's hit the jackpot. She's living there. She's in the midst of all of these what she's around 22 years old. And here's this up and coming dentist. Yeah.
John Leake:
And so what becomes evident pretty quickly as she had very unrealistic expectations of how much a dentist could earn, compared to a guy working in oil, gas, real estate or banking. I mean, remember, dentistry isn't scalable. I mean, you can only spend so many hours in a dental chair or working on a dental chair. And so one of the first things that she does they purchase a house in Greenway parks, which is immediately adjacent to the park City's also a very beautiful neighborhood. She hires John Astin Perkins to be her interior designer now. He was a Yale trained art historian and interior designer who was the designer of Ross Perot, Clint Murchinson, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. So quite quickly, David realizes, wow, this interior design, project, antiques, tapestries, original oil paintings, is it's it's, it's outstripping my income.
Robert Riggs:
Yeah. And a chapter in your book, the meaning of malice. That chapter is titled, a black belt and home decorated?
John Leake:
Yes, that that Clint Murchison Senior said of his first wife. She has a black belt and chopping up apparently Clintās first wife would go to Neiman Marcus, and literally buy every single dress and her size, every single, she just clean out the joint. And, of course, Clint Murchison possessed an enormous oil fortune so he could afford it. I borrowed that phrase, oh, not shopping, although Sandra had a black belt and shopping as well. But home decorating was her thing. And she had a black belt in it for sure.
Robert Riggs:
And Murchison was the original owner of the Dallas Cowboys Correct? Backed by all that oil money.
John Leake:
Correct. So as you know, I think of this era, I think in 1974, you had the Israeli Arab-Israeli war and the oil embargo. So So oil in between 74 and 1980. It shot up to over $100 per barrel. So these independent oil and gas companies in Dallas, were suddenly if provided they add good leases at the time. You know, we're coining money. And it's interesting because this was an era of stagflation in the United States as a whole so Dallas really was standing out as a bright spot in the American economy and with America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, these mediagenic players with Neiman Marcus, some of these kind of keystones of Dallas glamour, it attracted these Hollywood producers to come up with this TV A series Dallas, and the first episode was shot in 1978. In this is the same year in which Sandra Bridewell marries her second husband, Bobby Bridewell after a few years after her first husband, apparently David Stegall, the dentist apparently committed suicide.
Robert Riggs:
So at that point, we're talking beginning of 1975. She has driven this young husband to the brink of bankruptcy. He's in debt. He's in trouble. And then suddenly, she phones a friend and says something terrible has happened to David.
John Leake:
Yes, before she called the police. I mean, this is something I've pieced together after the fact. But it all hangs together. It's something has happened today that in the story, she told us, I was sleeping in a different room. The implication being we're estranged. And I got up the next morning, around seven o'clock, I went into the master bedroom. And already upon entering the room, I could see he was lying in a pool of blood. It frightened me. So we now know or I discovered she didn't call the police she called some friends. A prominent dentist who knew David I believe she called maybe another medical man as well.
Robert Riggs:
And they would what they rush over in to see him in the bedroom and the bed dead before the police have even
Correct, correct, which I can only speculate about what she was doing there. But But I believe she was putting a layer of insulation between her and the police. In other words, when the police arrived, she's sort of beside herself with with emotion. And these men who are sort of coming there to assist establish her social bonafide, Cesar are serious guys, these are medical guys, prominent people in the community. I believe when law enforcement arrived, they perceived Wow, this is a socially integrated woman. And already straight off the bat, you see a lack of serious inquiry, a lack of serious examination of what's going on here. They survey the death scene and the marital bed. Apparently, at the time, it sort of looked like suicide, like he'd shot himself in bed. The medical examiner did not perform an autopsy, he only performed an external examination. And I ultimately obtain the external examination report. And then later I obtained the death scene photos. They tell a different story than that of suicide.
John Leake:
The first thing I noticed just reading the external exam report was on his forearm, nowhere near where the radial artery comes up into the wrist where you take the pulse, but like the forearm proper, where the muscle and and and you know a lot of fascia tissue as the medical examiner describes these relatively superficial incisions. And
Robert Riggs:
As if he was trying to commit suicide.
John Leake:
as if he was trying to commit suicide with some kind of cutting instrument. And the implication is Well, that didn't work. These these incisions to his right forearm, so he then took this pistol 22 caliber target pistol and shot himself in the head. So the first question I asked was, and I spoke some of his old dental buddies were still alive. Why would he slashed himself on the forearm? I mean, the medical examiner notes that it didn't in size any major blood vessel. He knew David knew that he studied a year of anatomy at the Baylor School of Dentistry. He knew this would have no lethal effect, it will be painful. It would be upsetting and distressing to cut oneself on the forearm, but he knew that it would have no lethal effect. So why did he do this? Before shooting himself in the head. And then when I looked at the death scene photos, you can see from the blood stain pattern, he never moved, his right arm never moved, so it's not like he climbs into bed with a razor slashes himself thinks to himself, you know, oh, no, I'm not bleeding out. I'm gonna have to go find the pistol the bloodstained shows he got into bed with a loaded and cocked pistol was lying there and never move. So in other words, if you follow the logic of this, I'm gonna get into bed with a pistol ready to go. The cartridge chambered. But before I shoot myself in the head, I'm going to slash myself to no lethal effect. On the right forearm. I just found that strange. And then, but then when I got the photos, and I started looking closely at the photos, the first thing you notice is he's been tucked in. Okay, so the way the bedding is tucked along the backside of his legs, the backside of his buttocks, someone has smoothed out the comforter on the right side of the bed and then tucked him in. The Comforter is drawn up over his left hand, lying outstretched left hand lying on the weapon. The Comforter is drawn up over that. Now it's impossible to shoot yourself in the left side of the head with the pistol. The hand then falls on the bed. And then to then draw the covers up. That's impossible.
And you track down the origin of the pistol the the gun
over the gun belonged to one of David's close friends who lived in a big fancy house just north of Preston Center in Dallas. David's medical offices were impressed and center. Sandra was very close with this man's wife. I know from multiple witnesses. Sandra was always hanging around over at the house. The ladies both had a love of champagne, they would hang around at the pool, drink champagne into the evening. The pistol was found or was known to be in a dresser and the back house apartment over the garage. I do not believe that David went into the back house apartment over the garage and stole the pistol I believe the totality of circumstances indicates that she did.
Robert Riggs:
David was the father of their three children. But the people that came to console her you talk to them and they were kind of bothered she had a cheerful demeanor and she leaves while even taking the portraits of her children.
Well that you're you're referencing his dental office so David had works all of these years to become and reconstructive dentists. And in his office. He had three portraits of his children of his three children by Giddings, the famous studio photographer, and when Sandra sold his dental practice to, interestingly enough, a female dentist in Dallas. The female dentist said Kathy's Giddingsā portraits of your three beautiful children, their their beautiful like come by and get them any time. And she just thought it was notable that Sandra and ever came by to get the photos.
Robert Riggs:
A year after burying her first husband, whose suspicious death with a handgun was ruled a suicide, Sandra struck up a relationship with a very wealthy high profile restauranteur.
John Leake:
She goes on the hunt and probably the most interesting relationship that she had in the year after David died of a purported suicide. So it was with Norman Brinker, who was a famous entrepreneur. He was an Olympic equestrian. I believe it was the 1952 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. A real man And in full man about town, handsome rich he de Norman Brinker is famous for starting this whole new style of dining in the United States. It's somewhere between fast food and really formal they call it casual. That there's a categorical name for this casual dining chains that are affordable for middle class families, but you nevertheless took your family and sat down and had proper service. So Steak and Ale was an early Norm Brinker. And then ultimately, he I think he was involved in Chili's, TGI Fridays, you know, multiple casual dining chains and he made a great fortune. Norm Brinker is really one of the great restaurant tours of all time and terms of his portfolio. Sandra, encountered him at a gas station excuse me at a Philip a carwash. Pardon me, Sandra and encountered norm and as he perceived that at the time, it was a fortuitous encounter at a carwash, and he found her very charming. He invited her out on a date and they had a brief romance or a fairly high profile they were they were spotted at about town. But, sadly for Sandra was not to last
Robert Riggs:
So now she goes on the hunt for other wealthy men. Is she doing that at this point at church she's attending or is it some other social function but she is she even showing up in their offices?
John Leake:
So,church, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, and I have taken pains to protect the identity for the family. She did seduce a churchwarden at St. Michael, a married man, a very wealthy man and was able to extract how to put it well, I'll just jump to it. She persuaded him to cosign a loan, he thought he was just guaranteeing the loan that so that she could get the loan and service the loan herself. She didn't pay a penny of the loan. And when he countersued her, it was a cross-action suit. He was sued by the lenders for non-performance. He then did a cross-action suit against Sandra for non performance of the loan, at which point she revealed with the court reporter present that the loan arrangement had come about following the commencement of an intimate relationship. And as she began to speak with the court reporter typing away about the details of their intimate relationship, his attorney, waived the whole thing off and said we'll settle the matter. Let's just forget it. We'll put it we'll petition the court to dismiss this with prejudice. And it's an interesting moment in Sandra's career, because she realized if you're a married man, and you're a high profile guy, and particularly if your public image is that a churchwarden, you are going to take great pains to avoid exposure.
Robert Riggs:
What was about her that made her so alluring, you know, I read how she would touch men on the arm as she told him some what you describe her as she was apparently a striking brunette. But what was this other aura that just sort of exuded sex?
John Leake:
I think and I remember Right, I encountered Sandra multiple times in my early teenage years, I lived down the street from her. And I even as a 13, and 14 year old boy, remember this smoldering. Now I wouldn't have described it in these terms. At the time, I didn't know, I didn't know what I was looking at. But 13, 14 It's a time of awakening sexuality. I remember even then thinking, There's something mesmerizing about this woman. She had these big brown eyes that would just hold you IN her gaze, and whatever you were saying, and I mean, look, I was 13 or 14, I was probably talking about a BMX bike or something. She would hold you with his gaze as though it was the most fascinating thing she'd ever heard. And she had this lustrous brown hair. And what I remember and what other men have admired was this, this white skin, this, this milky white skin that contrasted with her Raven hair and brown eyes. So she was she was devastating. Particularly if you are a man who had not had this kind of attention from a woman like that, you know, for a long time, if ever.
Robert Riggs:
Sandra Bridewell will have a devastating effect on men and women in the years to come.
In part two of our three-episode series, Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow, John Leake explores more mysterious shooting deaths in Sandra Bridewell's social web.
Itās a tale of intrigue and sorrow you will not want to miss.
