The Murder of Marjorie Jackson

While my last several blogs have been about crimes that took place between the mid 1800's and the 1920's, I went a bit later for this one. This one took place in 1977 in Indianapolis. Yes, I know a few of the ones I have done lately have involved Indianapolis. And, while I was alive then, and even living in Indianapolis at the time this was one I had not heard of until I did some searches of famous crimes. While it is said to be infamous in Indiana and there have been many articles done on the crime over the years, for me it did not reach the level of say, the Sylvia Liken's or the still unsolved Burger Chef murders.

Marjorie Jackson was an eccentric, extremely wealthy widow who had lived alone since her husband, Chester, had died in 1970. Chester's father, Lafayette, had been the founder and owner of Standard Grocery stores. Lafayette was killed in his Washington Street store in 1931 (and may be the subject of a future blog) and Chester inherited the chain of nearly 250 stores (or at least that is what it eventually grew to as information was unclear). Chester sold the company in 1947 and invested the money, $14m of which was in coal stocks. Chester and Marjorie would marry in 1952 after meeting and starting an affair while they were both still married to others. It appears that neither of them had children. In 1954 they bought the house that they would live in for the rest of their lives.

It was said that Chester did not necessarily trust banks, which was a common thing with his generation but it is unclear how much money he kept in the home or if he used a bank at all. Upon his death his estate was estimated to be worth between 14 and $19m. Initially it seems that Marjorie kept an estimated $9m in one the bank, Indiana National. But in early 1976 it was discovered that an employee of the bank, Herbert Biddle, had embezzled about $700,000 from Marjorie and she apparently decided that Chester had the right idea in keeping his money at home. It was estimated that between January and May of 1976 Marjorie withdrew over six million dollars from her Indiana National account. She would show up with a suitcase or a grocery bag and demand anywhere from $500,000 to a million dollars at a time in one hundred dollar bills. Many officials, not just at the bank, but even the local prosecutor tried talking Marjorie out of doing this. In fact, the bank even filed a case claiming she was incompetent and needed protection. The judge ruled against the bank.

It is unclear just who knew what about Marjorie before her untimely death in 1977. The word “hoarder” was not really around back then. Today we know much more about those who hoard things and those who have had experience with someone or studied it knows that hoarding comes with a lot of other behaviors that go way beyond having a house of clutter. Hoarders are not only often neglectful of other areas of say their homes or even themselves. They tend to attempt to keep their homes a secret, allowing only few visitors, if any inside. They will challenge anyone who defies them in any way they perceive but only really outside their home.

Since Chester's death Marjorie had become quite the recluse. The outside of her home was severely neglected which cases her issues with her neighbors and while not mentioned there was likely a run in or two with city officials about the condition of her home. She did not associate with her neighbors and they had little desire to associate with her. It appears when she was outside she was prone to talking to animals, practicing religious rituals and would throw out racial comments. She had two brand new cars in her garage but only one was ever even plated. Those who did have run ins with Marjorie often regretted it as she was described as being brash and combative. While I have no doubt part of the reason the bank filed the lawsuit that they did was to help themselves, I also cannot say that there was not a twinge of truth that they worried of her mental health.

It seemed to be no secret to those who knew her, and to those who did not know her, that she likely had piles of money stashed in her house. It was said that her home was broken into several times but she would never report it. Seeing the condition of her home after her death some would wonder if she could even tell she had been robbed and if that was not why she did not report it. But, at some point two teenagers named Walter Bergin and Douglas Green broke into Marjorie's home. They made off with what was estimated to be about $817,000 in cash and jewelry. They began flashing things around and word got out that they had been to Marjorie's house. One of the two boys even confessed to a grand jury what they had done. The police and prosecutor went to Marjorie's house asking her to press charges against the men. She met them at the door with a gun. Now, it was a cap gun, and who knows how realistic it looked, it was the anger and defiance behind it that matters. She ordered the men off her property and still refused to press charges. So this incident tells us whether she knew she had been robbed before they showed up at her door or not, even when informed she refused to cooperate.

On about May 2, 1977 two different men, Howard Willard and Manuel Robinson entered Marjorie's home. It was thought that they made off with about a million dollars, likely in cash. Marjorie was apparently not home at the time. The two men returned a few days later but were not as lucky. Marjorie was home this time. They shot Marjorie in the stomach and ransacked the home. No one could ever tell for sure exactly how much they made off with this time but it was said to be anywhere from three to five million. They attempted to pour gasoline around Marjorie and set her, and her home on fire. It is so unclear how the fire did not engulf the house considering its condition but apparently it simply either burned slowly or smoldered for two to three more days. On May 7^th the fire department was called because there was smoke coming from Marjorie's home. They got inside, doused the fire and found her body on the kitchen floor.

It seems that it was then that everyone realized just how “eccentric” Marjorie really was. There were piles of things all over the house. They discovered 50 loaves of bread, 150 pounds of coffee, 200 (yes, it said 200!) dozens of cookies. This did not count the multitude of cakes, many of which had inscriptions such as “To God, from Marjorie.” There were other “gifts” for God around her wrapped in aluminum foil and some of those were piles of money. They also found about five millions still stashed away throughout the house. Money was in closets, drawers, toolboxes, and even vacuum cleaner bags. There was no way of knowing what, if anything was taken from the home. They believe they came up with the figure of at least three million missing based on information they had about what she had removed from the bank over the years but that was just the cash, who knew about anything else. In fact, when her estate was estimated after her death it was believed to be worth $25m, several million more than it had been in 1970 when Chester had died.

Word obviously got out about the the murder and the thought of all the money taken. Citizens were on put on alert to pay attention to anything that seemed unusual... and someone did, quickly. A car dealership had become suspicious of a man who had bought a car with cash and then came back for another, again paying in cash. This lead took investigators to the home of Manuel Robinson on May 10^th, just three days after Marjorie's body had been discovered. At his home they found about 1.6 million dollars hidden. When he was asked about the money he claimed he was “keeping” it for someone but could not tell investigators who the person was. Eventually he gave investigators a phone number of the alleged person. In the meantime Robinson, his girlfriend Annie Young and his friend, John Williams were all arrested. It is unclear under what charges Young and Williams faced but really this is the last we hear about them and they were never charged in the murder or burglary so I can only assume charges were dropped.

The phone number that Robinson gave investigators belonged to a woman named Marjorie Pollitt. Marjorie lived in Mooresville Indiana, town just south of Indianapolis. Marjorie had been married and divorced twice to Howard Willard, and it appears they were dating again. It was discovered that Pollitt had made several large deposits of money into at least two Mooresville banks between May 2^nd and May 6^th. The couple had also been around town flashing money. They had gone into a local bar one night and bought rounds for everyone for about an hour. Then they bought a car with $15,000 in cash and put another thousand down on another car.

It was not clear exactly when Howard and Marjorie left Indiana but they did so before authorities made their way to them. Either before they left or on their trip they ended up buying an RV. They first went to Georgia where they picked up Marjorie's sister. This part seemed to be quickly added into one of the stories of the case. But, I mention it because apparently at some point before authorities caught up to them Howard Willard had a conversation with famed attorney F. Lee Bailey. Later, when it was revealed that Bailey had talked to Willard he released a statement that said “I told him I would represent him only if he would surrender and return the money. I suggested for the safety of the child who was with them that he place the money somewhere for safe keeping while I negotiated his surrender and not to keep the money in the camper.” I can only assume the “child” that Bailey referred to was Marjorie's sister but I never found any other reference to her or any child or their age.

However, after making the stop in Georgia, Howard and Marjorie Pollitt headed to Arizona. Once there, and apparently after talking to Bailey, Howard put money in boxes and buried them in the desert. Pollitt would later tell FBI agents where they were. It is unclear if she told them how many there were or if she even knew for sure herself. Eventually authorities would find the couple at the RV park and they were arrested. But, as was the case when Robinson was arrested, it seems that charges against Pollitt did not get very far or at the very lease were nothing compared to what Howard and Robinson would face as there was nothing else on her. For that matter it does not appear that F. Lee Bailey was in the story any more either.

As far as the money, it was reported that two FBI agents went to the desert where Pollitt told them and they recovered $1.7m of the money. They knew this money had come from Marjorie Jackson's home after it was examined. Back in 1976 when she had been taking the money out of the bank in a suitcase she apparently had to set her visits up in advance because the local bank did not hold that there. The bank would get the money from the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago and they would record the serial numbers of all of the bills. This record was used to check against the money found connected to Howard Willard and Manuel Robinson. Adding that with purchases that could be proven investigators believe that more than one million is still missing. There is a theory about where it is but I will address that later.

It is not exactly clear if Willard and Robinson were tried together at trial or not although admittedly there seemed to only be talk of one trial. The case almost made history in Indiana as being the first “major” trial (conducted in December 1977) in which cameras were allowed in the courtroom. However it only lasted a few days as the defense had argued against them and the Indiana Supreme Court intervened and the cameras were removed. Willard was charged with eight counts. There were two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony, two counts of first degree burglary, two counts of the commission of a felony while armed, one count of first degree murder and one count of first degree arson. He would be found guilty of all charges and would be sentenced to life in prison. He did die in prison in June of 1987 when he collapsed after jogging.

As far as Robinson goes things were not as clear. Some things indicate that he was not even charged with murder, while other information says he was acquitted on the charge of murder. He was found guilty of burglary and arson charges. At least this is how things read. I did not find anything that stated that Robinson testified against Howard Willard or made any sort of plea deal. He was released from prison in 1988. In 1990 he was arrested again, for what I am unsure, and spent another ten years in prison. According to articles I read his last known whereabouts was Florida.

During all of this one of the defense attorneys stated that had the two men not attempted to set fire to Marjorie Jackson and her home it could have been months before her body was found since she was such a recluse. I am not completely sure I believe this. Marjorie did have a nephew who worked for the Indianapolis police department. Although he was not on the case he was called to the crime scene to identify her body. Her sister was alive and had several children at the time of her death but I have no idea how much contact she had with family members.

When all was said and done investigators believe that at least $1.6m of Marjorie's money was never found. Robinson's defense attorney says that he always told him that either the police never found all of his money, or they did not report it. In fact, Robinson told a reporter that it was his belief that law enforcement had kept about $450,000 of the cash they found in house.

At some point an investigative journalist was given a tip to obtain the FBI file on this case. The journalist stated he had seen many FBI files provided through the Freedom of Information Act but he had never seen anything like the one for this case. There was a notation that the file had been “partially destroyed” in 1993. The file also, like many before were redacted, which that in itself was not unusual. But what he found odd was portions that were redacted seemed odd and unnecessary. Then there were names that would have should have been redacted and were not. He said when he first began reading it and noticed that one names of the two FBI agents that recovered money in the desert was not redacted he thought it was a mistake, as sometimes happens but by the time he saw it for the sixth or seventh time he felt differently. He did some digging and wholeheartedly believes that this agent, named in the file, actually took money found in the desert. He claims he has evidence that the now deceased agent placed money in a Swiss bank account and then after he retired he took the money out and bought property. He believes that the FBI never publicly acknowledged this to save their reputation. It appears the FBI has not commented on this.

At the time of Marjorie Jackson's murder it was said to be the largest cash deist from a residential burglary in U.S. History. It may still hold that title. The Tammy Acker murder case in Kentucky in 1985 came close but fell short.