Fatal Beauty | 4. There's Something About Camille
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Who is Sandra Bridewell and why is she infamous?
Listen to all episodes of Fatal Beauty ad-free right now by subscribing to The Binge. Visit The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Feed your true crime obsession. In an age before the internet could track every move and every deception, Sandra Bridewell moved like a ghost. No social media to expose her lies. Former friends and acquaintances who suspected her of wrongdoing weren't sharing their concern online. So Sandra could just find new people to charm, who were none the wiser about her past. But in May 1987, that veil of protection wore paper thin.
Yeah, one husband died while you're involved with them, and three... A lot of smoke there. So we were looking for fire.
That's Eric Miller. He co-wrote a nearly 12,000-word story titled, Sandra Bridewell is the Black Widow. It didn't mince words. The article laid out how the good people of Dallas had long gossiped that she was guilty of at least one murder. It appeared in D Magazine, which has long been a voice of how Dallas sees itself. And Sandra's face landed on the cover with a headline that read, Death and Gossip in Highland Park. Picture donning a bright smile that stretched ear to ear and looked a touch like Katharine Hepburn.
This fascination with wealth and crime is what drew people to the story.
To this day, it's one of the publication's most popular pieces. Back in 1987, when it hit newsstands in Highland Park, locals devoured every word. By then, Sandra was long gone. She'd left for Marin County, as we told you last episode. But that Black Widow article would complicate things for Sandra. For the rest of her life, as she moved from city to city, the article became a warning to people she tried to lure in. Like a woman in the Bay Area who struck up a fast and close friendship with Sandra after meeting at a black tie event. Who knows how that might have ended had someone not faxed a copy of the article to her. Here's a broadcast from San Francisco's News Center 4 with the scoop. We've learned the FBI took the highly unusual step of issuing a warning to a San Francisco woman who was a close friend of Sandra Bridewell.
Investigative reporter Glenna Whitley recounted what happened when the feds reached out.
Have you read that article, the article in D Magazine? If you took Betsy Bagwell and put her in California, you are Betsy Bagwell. Alluding to Betsy Bagwell's death, her death by quote unquote suicide.
The FBI told her to end all contact with Sandra Bridewell, to never be alone with her. This woman is terrified. Incredibly, she did manage to break free. Who knows why she was able to step away and survive while Betsy Bagwell died. We may never know. But here's what's truly scary about Sandra. She's the kind of predator who could stay under the radar. She could get people to underestimate her, to not worry even when they had heard multiple allegations against her. Some people in her affluent circle in California were simply unfazed that she'd been called the Black Widow in print.
The fact that she had never been charged, you know, she wasn't arrested, she wasn't indicted, by vindictive people that didn't like her because she was so beautiful and so, so pretty.
In those days, people gave other people like them the benefit of the doubt. There was an unspoken trust. And Sandra capitalized on it. Law enforcement hadn't been able to rein her in. With no one to stop her, she continued to hatch her next plot. Sandra was now on the move. It was going to take an army of self-appointed vigilantes to expose her misdeeds. From Sony Music Entertainment, this is Fatal Beauty. I'm Cooper Mall. Episode four, There's Something About Camille. Tracing the path of Sandra Bridewell is not a task for the faint of heart. I know from experience, it is painstakingly complicated and at times, frustrating. But there's nobody who knows this woman like Lena Whitley. For Eric Miller and his co-author Skip Hollinsworth, their 1987 D Magazine article may have been the end of investigating Sandra. But for Whitley, it was only the beginning.
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