Chapter 1: What is the story behind 'Murder & Magnolias'?
Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor, host of the podcast The Drink with Kate Snow. I sit down with all kinds of celebrities, musicians, athletes over a drink of their choice for candid conversations about how they made it there. With actor-comedian host Joel McHale, I could barely stop laughing. You know Joel from Community or The Soup, his new show Animal Control.
He asked for four bottles of Washington State wine for our interview. He has news about whether there's a Community movie coming. He tells the story of how he got one of his first big acting gigs by lying about his height. And you have to stay through the credits. He's so funny. We have behind the scenes bloopers and outtakes from our conversation.
Chapter 2: How did a bitter divorce lead to a murder-for-hire plot?
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Hey, everyone. Craig Melvin here from today. The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are finally here. And as we gear up for the games, the Today Show is celebrating the athletes who define what it means to push for greatness on our podcast series, The Road to Milan.
NBC News correspondent Stephanie Goss sits down with athletes at every step of the Olympic journey, from seasoned veterans like Lindsey Vonn and Michaela Schifrin to newcomers like Isabel Levito and Jordan Stolz, who are stepping onto the world stage for the first time ever. It's a great way to get to know the athletes who are about to give it their all as the world watches.
Listen on the Today Podcast feed or search The Road to Milan wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, everyone. I'm Blaine Alexander, and today we are talking Dateline.
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Chapter 3: Who was the unlikely hero in the murder plot investigation?
Today I'm here with Keith Morrison to talk about his original podcast series, Murder and Magnolias. Keith, my friend, it's so good to talk to you.
It's a delight to see you.
Now, if you have not listened to it yet, you need to go do so. We drop the full series in the Dateline feed as a bonus. while Dateline has been taking a break for these past few weeks for the Winter Olympics. So go there, listen, and then come right back here.
And later, we will be joined by Dateline producer Carol Gable to share what it was like behind the scenes reporting on this story as it unfolded. And then as always, we're going to take some of your questions. Okay, let's talk Dateline.
Chapter 4: What was the significance of the 'hit packet' in the case?
Keith, so this story was fascinating for a number of reasons. Can you just give us a quick primer, just kind of run down what the story was about?
It's about a very successful couple in Charleston, South Carolina, a banker and his wife. They're society people. They have parties all the time. They seem to have the perfect life. It wasn't perfect. It was a bitter divorce. And then we discovered that the husband was seeing a woman who happened to know somebody who
kind of spent some time in the underworld, had spent some time in prison, and secretly arranged to have this man kill the wife, Nancy Latham.
Chapter 5: How did the team conduct interviews with all parties involved?
But the plan went awry. The person who was actually had volunteered to be the trigger man was arrested in a traffic stop. And it turned out he was trying to figure out a way not to do the killing. He was a drug addict, and he gave the whole story away. So they were able to, in the end, protect Nancy, get the proof to arrest the husband and the girlfriend, and they went to prison.
It was a rich story in its details, and the characters were fascinating. And it was a rare situation where we were able to conduct interviews with everybody. Outside and inside prison. Nancy, of course, who turned out to be a very funny woman. In fact, she later on made a, I don't know if you could say made a living, but she became a stand-up comedian for a while after this was all over.
Chapter 6: What challenges did the producers face while reporting the story?
But Chris Latham spoke to us. Wendy spoke to us. You know, Charleston has given us a number of really remarkable tales, and this is one of them.
Let's start with those fascinating characters. I have to say you give a great primer, but there is so much to this story that it's almost impossible to kind of summarize it all.
Right. You get lost in the weeds as soon as you start to describe it.
You do. But one thing that you can't really describe, even with the rundown that you just gave, I think just the southern feel of these folks, of these characters, and the fact that it took place in South Carolina somehow just takes the story to another level for me.
Yeah, it did for me, too.
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Chapter 7: How has Nancy Latham rebuilt her life after the events?
And I don't live there. I'm not from there. I grew up in Canada, far away from that culture, but I love it. And the producer I've worked with for many years on a number of stories in Charleston, Carol Gable, would call me and say, you won't believe the latest.
And she had some new nugget about this story over a period of time while we were watching developments before we actually were able to complete doing it.
So let's talk about the couple at the center of this, the Lathams. So you mentioned you grew up far away from South Carolina. I'm right next door. I'm in Georgia. I'm not originally from here, but certainly lived in the South long enough to, you know, know it.
Chapter 8: What insights do the hosts share about interviewing criminals?
When you talk about those two, they are kind of like this quintessential just Southern charm success story, right? He's a money man. He's got the brains. And she is just a charmer and knows society. And you put those two together and you have magic.
Dynamite. Yeah. He was on the board of the Spoleto Festival, which was the big, big thing in Charleston every year. And you don't get a role like that unless you're a pillar of society. And she was the hostess who could charm everybody. So they were they were great together.
Do you find that when there are these people who are pillars of society and, you know, murder plot notwithstanding, we'll get to that in a second. But just when it comes to those folks who are high in society and then divorce happening, there's usually some sort of added drama that's infused.
There usually is. The thing about people is we're all made of the same stuff. You know, we all have feet of clay. We all lie. We all lie probably a lot more than we think we do. And we try to protect the lives we're living while living the life we fantasize about living on the side. People have been doing that since time began. This was a case, for whatever reason, Chris Latham,
was so drawn to this Wendy person, fascinating character in her own right, that he was prepared to engage in these terrible acts against Nazi.
Of course. Well, let's talk about the thing that kind of sets this whole, at least the storytelling investigation in motion, which is this traffic stop that takes place.
Which this happens in so many of our stories, doesn't it? There's one little thing that happens. Without that thing, What might've changed? What might've been different? It might've been all different than the murder may have occurred. So Aaron Wilkinson was a drug addict. Aaron Wilkinson was with his wife and his dog driving through Charleston.
He had promised to do this deadly errand for his friend, Sam, but he was trying to kill time as opposed to killing the person he was supposed to kill, Nancy Latham. So that by the time He had a deadline to do it. He just was trying to wait out the deadline.
And it was the middle of the night and he was driving down America Street, which was another fascinating thing to me that he was at the end of America Street where there is a tremendous amount of poverty and there are drug addicts and there are people sleeping on the street. At the other end of America Street, some of the wealthiest families in Charleston live. you know, mansions by the sea.
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