Episode 91, Season 5 - The Markle Family Murders – Murder on Main Street

Mercedes McCambridge was an Academy Award-winning actress with a long list of credits, the respect her Hollywood peers and a legendary turn in the classic horror movie, “The Exorcist.”

However, what many people don’t know is that in the late 1980s, her son, economist and financial whiz, John Lawrence Markle had involved his unwitting mother in a bizarre financial scheme that would leave him facing financial ruin and public humiliation.

And on a dark and stormy night, John Markle would choose a violent and gruesome way out.

Listen to the episode HERE.

Photo caption (L-R) Mercedes McCambridge would leave Joliet, Ill. to become a celebrated actress from Broadway to Hollywood (credit: Wikipedia); Mercedes' film debut, "All the King's Men," would win her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1950 (credit: Arkansas Democrat- Gazette); Orson Welles called Mercedes "The World's Greatest Living Radio Actress" (credit: Reddit); Mercedes and her second husband, Fletcher Markle, who adopted her only son, John Lawrence Markle (credit: MovieWeb); Mercedes in a scene from "Giant," with Elizabeth Taylor (credit: IMDB); John Markle was a financial whiz who had a highly successful career on Wall Street, eventually landing at the Little Rock, Ark.-based firm Stephens, Inc., where he continued to thrive as a futures trader (credit: IMDB); Mercedes is perhaps best known for voicing the Demon in the horror classic, "The Exorcist" (credit: SYFY and AY Magazine); Mercedes rehearsing for her role in "The Exorcist" (credit: MovieWeb); John and his family lived on Main Street in Little Rock, just a few blocks from the Arkansas Governor's mansion (credit: AY Magazine); John's family; wife Christine and daughters Amy and Suzanne (credit: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette); The creepy old man Halloween mask and guns John used to take the lives of himself and his family (credit: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette); The desk in John's study, where his body was found (credit: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette); One of 12 pages from the seething letter John left for his mother, Mercedes (credit: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

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*provided transcripts are lightly edited.

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