Robert Riggs:
Dallas Socialite Sandra Bridewell cultivated an image of elegance and vulnerability.
In part one of our series, Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow, Sandra Bridewell’s first husband’s life tragically ends with his alleged suicide.
Was the promising young dentist driven to shoot himself in a fit of depression over the crushing burden of mounting debt from Sandra’s lavish lifestyle?
Or was there a sinister motive for murder?
True crime author, John Leake continues the story from his book The Meaning Of Malice: On The Trail Of The Black Widow Of Highland Park.
Within a year of her husband’s death, Bridewell hunts for a new suitor.
A whirlwind romance and marriage to her second husband catapults her to the top of Dallas society—but not for long.
John Leake:
it's no exaggeration to say Bobby Bridewell was the most popular man in Dallas society. Everybody loved Bobby. He had this infectious humor and and lust for life and having a good time and a kind of a devil may care he came from Tyler, Texas oil family, he himself had gotten out of the oil business and gotten into hotel development and was friends but his his capital. The people he knew in terms of sourcing capital, a lot of them were from the oil business. He was friends with and other major hotel, hotel people. He's friends with Eric Hilton. He was friends with the Sands family, the Hunt family, he was really well connected. Bobby is most well known for developing the Mansion on Turtle Creek. That's kind of his crowning achievement as a hotel developer.
Robert Riggs:
Any Hollywood celebrity comes to Dallas. This is where they stay or anybody that's high profile with money.
John Leake:
and that that was his vision. So the Shepherd King mansion on on Turtle Creek on the actual Creek lies just north of downtown Dallas. Shepherd King was an oil, excuse me, was a cotton Baron. You know the old saying in Texas before oil, cotton was king.
Robert Riggs:
and the Cotton Exchange was in Dallas. Correct? Huge industry business.
John Leake:
Correct. And THE Cotton Exchange brought in people from Italy there was there were pretty cultivated people in Dallas that were associated with the cotton industry. And interestingly enough, these huge fortunes were made after the Civil War. Yes, that's a whole other story we could talk about but Shepard King made a fortune in cotton and he wanted to build the most stately home in all of Dallas. So he brought in masons from Italy, and he built this mansion on Turtle Creek in the 1920s. Okay, by the time you get to Bobby Bridewell, taking a look at this in the late 70s it had fallen into disrepair like no one was. There had been some offices there. I think Totti Lee when had his oil offices there for a while, but but by the time Bobby starts eyeballing this, it's basically abandoned. And he has this vision. This could be a luxury hotel, kind of like the Hilton
Hacienda in Santa Fe, we could preserve the original mansion. Add in the same architectural style, a modern hotel to it. And the rich and famous and the glamorous will stay here when they come to Dallas.
Robert Riggs:
Leake says Bobby Bridewell’s friendship with one of the son’s of Texas oil heir Caroline Rose Hunt turned the Mansion into the first luxury property of the Rosewood Hotels and Resorts.
Caroline Hunt became one of the nation’s wealthiest women in the 1980s turning a $600 million dollar inheritance into vast wealth north of a billion dollars by the time of her death in 2018.
She was the daughter of H.L Hunt a storied wildcatter and perhaps the world’s richest man when he died in 1974.
The Mansion on Turtle Creek was a smashing success.
Sandra had made the catch of all catches.
John Leake:
Bobby owned a thoroughbred racehorse farm and training track in Celina which is about 40 miles north of Dallas, which was just an outrageous extravagance for I mean, he did well in the hotel business but to have a thoroughbred breeding facility in Celina, Texas, just north of Dallas was quite something. He was married to the beautiful Southern Belle from Virginia. The story is is that he caught her in flagrante delicto with her horse trainer. And it was kind of a blow to his heart. He loved this girl and to his ego. It was a little little bit of a, you know, a rude awakening for him. So he for the first time in anyone's memory Bobby was rather despondent. His 37th birthday was coming up. His friend Beau Price had this idea Well, you know, wheelchair, the old boy and Beau had just the woman in mind Sandra Stegall, who was recently widowed when her first husband purportedly died of suicide bow price invited Sandra to Bobby's 37th birthday party. And at the climactic moment, she jumped out of a cake.
Robert Riggs:
And Bobby is immediately smitten?
John Leake:
He's immediately charmed by this girl, and so quickly goes ahead and moves forward with divorce from his wife. The ink is hardly dried on the divorce decree when he marries Sandra month later. And that's really where I as a boy, as an early teenager became vaguely aware of this story. So Bobby and Sandra bought a house on Lorraine Avenue in Highland Park. I grew up on Lorraine. So she her three child Learn from her first marriage and Bobby buy a house just down the street from me. I became friends with Sandra's second child, a girl named Katherine, who was my classmate around the year 1983. When they had this house on Lorraine, that was fun because there was no adult supervision by then. So Sandra's marriage to Bobby was not to last very long. It was by all accounts a fun marriage with prosperity because he was developing the mansion on Turtle Creek, but it didn't last long because Bobby came down with was diagnosed with lymphoma terminal. So by the time I started hanging out at the Bridewell residence in 1983, Bobby had died had succumbed to lymphoma the year before. But during that Brief Marriage, between 1978 and 1982, when Bobby died in that four year period, Sandra was something of a socialite, and Alice she was invited to these parties and the cattlemen bear the cattle Baron's ball. I think she was actually part of the Committee on that. She was something of a lady about town.
Robert Riggs:
And when he is suffering from cancer, she becomes very close with his oncologist and the wife of his oncologist.
John Leake:
Yes, that's where the plot thickens in the story. So, by the time you get to end of 81, early 82, it's become evident that Bobby is a goner. I mean, it's very aggressive chemotherapy. You know, he's basically skin and bones lost all of his hair, he's very sick. And it becomes evident that he's not going to make it during this time in early 82. She seems to become more and more dependent needy, in terms of calling on requesting assistance from the oncologist not only as a treating physician for Bobby, but, you know, a general seeking help and assistance from the oncologist family, who also lives in Highland Park just a few blocks away.
Robert Riggs:
and this is Dr. John Bagwell and his wife Betsy Betsy?
John Leake:
and Dr. John Bagwell was the son of a very prominent physician in Dallas. Father was also John Spurgeon Bagwell. Bagwell was the president of staff at the Baylor University Medical Center, a very prominent Dallas physician so his son followed in father's footsteps studied oncology. John became John the younger became the oncologist of Highland Park society. I believe he was Margaret Hunt's oncologist, he was my grandmother's oncologist and he had a beautiful house on Maplewood Avenue, which is in the heart of old Highland Park, that original David Wilbur Cook lay out there. It's a really beautiful part of town and Sandra, it would seem began to think of Dr. Bagwell began to fantasize about Dr. Bagwell as a very interesting man with a very interesting position in society.
Robert Riggs:
And then his wife is found to have committed suicide with a handgun?
John Leake:
Two months after Bobby Bridewell succumbed to cancer. Dr. Bagwell, his wife Betsy was contacted by Sandra Sandra had repeatedly complained of her car breaking down the story that was provided to the Dallas Police. Sandra herself told the investigating officer was well my card broken down at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church. So I contacted Betsy and asked if she would give me a ride to the rent car agency at Love Field airport. So Betsy was last seen with Sandra in Betsy is car so Betsy herself is giving Sandra arrived to Love Field airport, purportedly to rent a car a few hours later. Betsy is wound shot to death in her car parked in the short-term parking lot at Love Field.
Robert Riggs:
Sandra Bridewell is the last person to see Betsy Bagwell alive. Walk me through her alibi. And the crime scene photos that you've now examined and had other people look at and why you think it was not a suicide?
John Leake:
Well the timeline of this is pretty, pretty intriguing. So Betsy meets with a couple of her. Her two best friends at the Dallas Country Club are our local golf and social club here in Dallas two blocks from the Bagwell house. Betsy meets her two friends at the Dallas Country Club and she tells them at lunch Sandra is driving me nuts. You know, I felt bad when her when Bobby died. I understand she has to rear three children on her own. But she keeps showing up all the time. She keeps saying her cars breaking down the lady is driving me nuts and you know, I told her you know, I'm gonna give her a ride to Love Field. But you know, I just how what am I going to do with this girl like Betsy is at wit's end because Sandra's bothering her. She then sets off from the Dallas country club goes to pick up Sandra and give Sandra a ride to the DC excuse me to Love Field.. Okay. Betsy does not come home from the errand even though she's in the midst of preparing dinner, or an I should say the early phase of preparing dinner. When she runs out. She just flatly doesn't come home. And so initially, no one has any idea where she is. It's only through a pretty remarkable, fortuitous event that happens at Love Field that she's discovered at Love Field. And that's something I go into in the book, her body was not apparent to
anyone just walking past the car by this really strange twist of fate. Some children look into the car. It's this brand new Mercedes 300 tt wagon. The father of the children is a Mercedes mechanic. And as he's pulling into a field, he tells the children that is the most beautiful family car ever built. That sparks the curiosity of the children that look into the vehicle. And they see this woman stretched all the way out across the the seats of the vehicle, her head and her upper body are actually lying on the passenger seat of the vehicle. Had those children not peered into the car who knows when Betsy would have been found? As it turns out, this is about four hours after she embarked on this errand was Sandra. Okay. Dallas police come to the scene. It looks like Betsy committed suicide she has a revolver in her right hand. Now, it's just described in the incident report a revolver in her right hand. Okay, only later was able to obtain the photos to look at how exactly it was found in her right hand. It's clearly braced between her right thigh and the gear shifter. In a way that looks very staged. Okay, but I'm jumping ahead. This is an it's a cheap 22 It's an RG 22 caliber revolver became infamous in 1982 Because John Hinckley use the exact same kind of weapon to shoot President Reagan and some of his security detail. It was called a Saturday nights by Saturday nights it's the Saturday Night Special. It's the weapon is stolen. It was traced back to a man who lived in Oak Cliff he had in the interim died his wife told the police well. The gun had been stolen from the glove box of my husband's truck years ago and he just never reported it.
Stolen.
Robert Riggs:
So how exactly Betsy would have obtained this stolen Saturday Night Special.
John Leake:
No one was ever able to obtain any kind of plausible explanation of that Sandra And, interestingly enough, was dining with friends at a place that which was quite well known in the day is called Le Tosca. It was an Italian restaurant on Lovers Lane. When Dr. Bagwell called the restaurant and told the headwaiter to summon Mrs Bridewell to the phone. Sandra takes the call. Remember this is before cellphones is 1982. Sandra is summoned to the phone, I guess in the manager's office of the restaurant. And Dr. Bagwell asks her on the phone. Where's Betsy? She never returned from whatever the errand was that you that you girls ran. And Sandra says, Well, I don't know where Betsy was. She took me to love field to rent a car. I went into the rent car agency and I discovered I forgot my driver's license. So Betsy gave me a ride back to the Highland Park Presbyterian Church where my car had broken down. And I got into the car and just thought, well, maybe I'll try starting and again, the car started right back up. So I told Betsy, you know, sorry about the inconvenience looks like my car's working. See you later. And she said and that's the last time I saw Betsy at Highland Park Presbyterian Church. Okay. So John Bagwell, my understanding is he's asking himself what is going on here? Okay. About an hour later after he's had this phone call was Sandra at little skirt restaurant. A Dallas police detective arrives at his house to inform him the next of kin that his wife has been found in her vehicle at the short term parking lot of Love Field shot to death and it appears to be a suicide. About an hour after the police arrived to notify the next of kin. Sandra herself shows up at the Bagwell house and gives a brief interview with the Dallas police detective. She says Dr. Bagwell called me when I was dining with friends. I began to grow concerned about Betsy so at the conclusion of dinner I came here to find out what happened what's happened and the cop tells her the homicide detective tells her well Mrs. Bagwell was fun at lowfield shot to death. So Sandra tells the police officer well. I spent the day with Betsy. Now I'm I'm inferring that this is a private conversation perhaps in the police vehicle outside the house. Dr. Bagwell does not seem to be privy to this conversation. But Sandra tells the police officer at least what's noted in the reports and they're very, very cursory eports. Sandra tells the cop I spent the day with Betsy, she seemed despondent. She wanted to talk about a nurse at her husband's hospital. And she really wanted to ask me about the circumstances of my first husband's suicide. She seemed very interested in the death of my first husband. She asked many questions about suicide. And so I don't know. I mean, I guess she was, oh, this is shocking. So you're saying that she killed herself. And so the homicide detective notes this, and the only conclusion I can draw and I've interviewed the police detective. Of course, 40 years had elapsed. He didn't remember all of the details at the time. But what the documents indicate is that the police found Sandra's story plausible, it would seem that Mrs. Bagwell was despondent, it would seem she had a morbid curiosity about the death of Sandra's first husband by apparent suicide. So the police conclude that the reason Betsy was with Sandra was because she was suffering from suicidal ideation and wanted to talk to Sandra about it.
Robert Riggs:
But Betsy, his friends that she had had lunch with didn't see any sign of depression never heard of such a thing.
John Leake:
Know what Sandra was saying to them? was the only thing causing me stress in my life is Santa O'Brien was driving me nuts. Now the plot thickens. is here, because of those two friends of Sandra Bridewell, who happened to be I'm connected with socially and through through family connections. They didn't want to talk about this. They never spoke to the police after Betsy was found. And they became aware of this. I know from multiple witnesses, they had no doubt at the time that Sandra had murdered Betsy. But they never went to the police to share their perceptions, their suspicion or their conviction. With the police. The police never spoke with either of these ladies.
Robert Riggs:
What would have been Sandra Bridewell's motive for the murder?
John Leake:
I believe that the totality of circumstances her own statements, Sandra told a woman with whom she was close at the time that she was having an affair with Dr. Bagwell. She told her, her civil attorney who was Bobby Bridewell’s attorney before he died, she told him that she was having an affair with Dr. Bagwell. Now, her representation of the affair was it wasn't related necessarily related to Betsy. His death Betsy apparently was an unhappy woman. Her assertion was I was having an affair with Dr. Bagwell. Don't make of that what you want. Okay. Dr. Bagwell denied that affair. He said it's it's not true. should say doctor by well told his friends it's not true. The police at the time that the investigation is open are unaware of this apparent intimate connection. Like they don't know about it at all. They're just taking Sandra's statement at face value. They're unaware that Sandra is telling other people not the police but other people. She's having an affair with Dr. Bagwell. The other thing that I discovered is I found evidence that she blackmailed Dr. Bhagwan. So if you look at all of these pieces together, the most plausible explanation for what happened here. Sandra believed that if Betsy were found shot to death of an apparent suicide, if it really looks like a suicide, so much so that the police would conclude that it was a suicide that Dr. Bagwell would resume or in her perception, deepen his relationship with her that she would in effect, supplant Betsy and her home and as the partner of Dr. Bagwell. Now, the evidence indicates that this scheme did not work that he realized at the time, and this was a result of my investigation. He realized Betsy, I don't care what the police are the medical examiner saying Betsy didn't kill herself. Sandra murdered her. But he's put between this rock and a hard place because the police and medical examiner are saying that your wife committed suicide. The problem with this whole state of affairs is that the police and the medical examiner are drawing their conclusion of suicide based on a very superficial analysis. I believe that if Dr. Bagwell had at the time, the police were looking at this given a full and candid account of this fraught relationship with Sandra they would have viewed this with far graver suspicion they would have questioned that initial perception of suicide. That was my investigative hypothesis when I obtained the death scene photos they were very confirmatory the death scene photos show Betsy did not commit suicide there multiple indications another party was involved.
Robert Riggs:
So after this, Sandra meets her third husband, a man much younger. How does this start off?
John Leake:
So remember, the Dallas Police Department is not privy to all of this social intrigue that is happening around the death Betsy Bagwell, they just don't know about it. But Highland Park society does and that's one of the strangest features of the story. There's like this Great Wall of China insulation between what the Dallas Police know and what Highland Park society knows or thinks it knows. So there's all this talk about something was going on between Sandra maybe she was just aspiring to supplant Betsy but the perception is in Highland Park that Sandra had something to do with Betsy his death. Okay, so why didn't law enforcement pursue this girl? That's the question that's being asked about town. Because as far as Highland Park society was concerned Sandra must have had something to do with it. Okay. This results in Sandra being ostracized. She's having a harder time getting dates because people are afraid of her.
Robert Riggs:
in Highland Park at this point, has she become known as the Black Widow?
John Leake:
Not yet. So there's this fear and suspicion about the death of Betsy Bagwell in 1982. Everyone's asking, Why wasn't she arrested? No one knows. Okay. But she is becoming ostracized or her. The number of friends is whittled down to just a couple of diehard believers in Sandra. She doesn't really have very good integration in this society more but she still has this house on Lorraine Avenue down the street from me. That's where I think my experience is a strange one. My mother didn't know that I was hanging out at the Bagwell excuse me at the Bridewell house. Because in those days, we would just leave to go plan the neighborhood. I would go plan Turtle Creek and I didn't tell my mom. Oh, by the way, Mom, I'm gonna hang out with my buddy Catherine at the Bridewell house. So my mom didn't know about this. I didn't know as a 13 year old about all of these rumors about Mrs. Bagwell, Andrew Bagwell that her son was the grade above me I never heard any talk about this. I didn't know at the time that Sandra was ostracized. Okay. In 1984 to two years after the death of Betsy Bagwell, a young man who just arrived in Dallas the day before his name was Alan Rehrig. From Edmond, Oklahoma suburb of Oklahoma City. Allen has arrived in Dallas the day before he meets Sandra, a guy and his commercial real estate mortgage office says to Alan if you're looking for a nice place to stay and you don't want to stay in an apartment, some of these people in
Highland Park have garage apartments, like back house and back houses. So go cruise Highland Park and look around and kind of peer at garages and see if you see what looks like an apartment. Maybe you could find one for rent. Alan is driving down Lorraine Avenue was June of 1984. He sees this Raven haired wide skinned beauty watering her azalea bushes, pulls over feels drawn to her gets out of his vehicle goes to talk to her says he's looking for garage apartments. She says why I don't know of any garage apartments but I'd be happy to show you around. whirlwind romance ensues. She tells him a few months later, she's pregnant. He proposes marriage she's a Christian boy from Edmond, Oklahoma and wants to do the honorable thing proposes marriage. They get married in December of 84. But a month after they marry she tells him that she's miscarried. So the rationale for marrying has now been nullified by an apparent miscarriage. Unbeknownst to Alan, he never learned this. She'd actually had a hysterectomy years earlier. So the whole pregnancy was fraudulent. He doesn't know that. She has three children from her first marriage so she proposes to him that he purchased a life insurance policy. He purchases a life insurance policy with a $220,000 death benefit.
Robert Riggs:
Six months later, the couple separated. On the eve of their first wedding anniversary Alan Rehrig (rare rig) told a friend he was going to run an errand with Sandra.
A few days later, Rehrig was found shot to death in his parked car near the Oklahoma City airport, a three-hour drive away from Dallas.
Leake says Sandra told Oklahoma City homicide detectives that her estranged husband was hanging around with gambling bookies, and she suspected of him having an addiction to cocaine.
Meanwhile, Gloria Rehrig his mother received an anonymous phone call telling her about the suspicious deaths of Sandra’s first husband and Betsy Bagwell.
Gloria Rehrig petitioned a court to stop paying her late son’s life insurance benefits to Sandra Bridewell and removed her as the administrator of her son’s estate.
Alan Rehrig’s first cousin replaced Bridewell, and a few days later, he was found shot to death in his car parked inside the garage of his home.
The cause of death was ruled a suicide.
Under a cloud of controversy stemming from her connection to three gunshot deaths, Sandra Bridewell suddenly bolted out of Dallas in 1986.
In the final episode of our three-part series, Beneath the Charm: Unveiling The Black Widow, John Leake trails Bridewell to the West Coast.
It’s a tale of romance scams and identity theft, which you will not want to miss.
