Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
Jeopardy Champion Murders His Wife - The Paul Curry story
09 Mar 2025
Paul Curry, a former nuclear engineer and Jeopardy! winner, was convicted in 2014 for the 1994 nicotine poisoning death of his wife, Linda Curry, in California. Prosecutors revealed that Curry stood to gain substantial life insurance benefits from Linda's death, highlighting a financial motive. Despite the crime occurring in 1994, Curry wasn't arrested until 2010, following a prolonged investigation.
Full Episode
You know that show Jeopardy? So this two-time Jeopardy champion ends up murdering his own wife. So the guy's name is Curry, and Curry's 32, he's a nuclear engineer, and he's super smart, like a genius. He's apparently a member of Mensa, and he's also the kind of guy who makes sure to let everyone know how smart he is.
And one time he and his big brain, they go on jeopardy and he wins a bunch of money. He actually wins the show twice and he gets like $60,000, which is great money, especially in the 80s. But then one day in 1989, Curry's whole life changes because he meets this woman. Her name's Linda. Linda's 45. She's a little older than Curry and she works with him and she thinks he is foink.
And so they hit it off and they start dating and eventually they start smashing. A few years later, in 1992, they end up getting married. And Linda has never been happier. She's super in love with Curry and his big brain. Here's the thing though.
I guess Curry doesn't feel the same way about her because for some reason, about a month into their marriage, his behavior starts to get a little suspicious. Like he starts demanding that everything be put in his name, the mortgage, life insurance, 401k. Not only that, he starts insisting that he take out a $1 million life insurance policy on Linda.
And when Linda is like, okay, but are we going to take a million dollar life insurance policy out on you as well? Curry's like... Nah. But anyway, so Linda agrees to this because remember, she's super in love with Curry and she'll do anything to make him happy. But then things get even weirder.
One day, Linda's at home and the phone rings and she picks it up and there's a woman on the other end who's looking for Curry. And this woman is wondering why he hasn't paid his child support. And Linda's like... Curry has a kid? She had no idea he had a kid from a previous marriage that he's supposed to be paying for and isn't.
Not only that, he had been married twice before and he never told her. So this marriage is off to a good start. Regardless, none of these lies really matter to Linda because she's still way into him for some weird reason. And so at some point around 1993, Curry's weird ass decides, okay, I'm tired of this marriage. I got the life insurance policy all set up and now it's time to unalive her.
Why don't these people ever just get a divorce? Anyway, and so he gets right to work on this plan. And he starts making all these fancy homemade salad dressings because I guess Linda really loves salad. So he makes these salad dressings for her and he'll put small amounts of nicotine in them, which over time the nicotine builds up in her system and starts making her sick.
And eventually Linda starts getting gastrointestinal problems from this and she gets really sick and she checks herself into a hospital she's so sick. But the doctors don't really know what's going on or what's wrong with her. Then, while she's in the hospital one night, while she's asleep, someone sneaks in and tampers with her IV bag.
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