True Crime: Dateline's Coverage of the Betsy Faria Case & Other Similar Stories

[Court]

I've always thought that Betsy never changed that form and that Pam did it. Or that Betsy thought she was signing something else. 

[AZChristian]

7 hours ago, Court said:

I've always thought that Betsy never changed that form and that Pam did it. Or that Betsy thought she was signing something else. 

Seeing how manipulative Pam is, I can believe that she manipulated Betsy into changing the beneficiary to "keep Russ from pissing away the money."  The librarian who witnessed their signatures did see them at a table in the library filling out some type of form.  In one article, it was inferred that the librarian saw Pam taking the lead during the discussions at the table.  

Pam had lost a job at an insurance company previously for "signature irregularities," so she knew that forging Betsy's signature could have bad repercussions - including having the form voided so the money would have gone to Russ.  

Given the nature of the irregularities on the form (e.g., right street address for Pam, wrong city), I can see where that could have been a mistake made by Betsy and not noticed by Pam.  

[LizBug]

Interesting to see how much weight Pam has lost in prison.  Probably because she doesn't get her soda with cherry syrup.

[fishcakes]

I just finished Joel Schwartz's book, which seems like it was written primarily by his co-author, a true crime writer, but with Joel providing insight into his own thinking at various times. There's very little that's new if you saw the mini-series and the most recent Dateline, but there were a few things:

-- both Betsy and Russ had affairs throughout their marriage. According to Betsy's first husband, he and Betsy continued to have sex about twice a month all through Betsy and Russ's marriage, the last time being two weeks before her death.

-- Pam wasn't the only one pointing the finger at Russ early on. A few of Betsy's relatives and friends also told the police that Russ was verbally abusive. (Of course, once he provided a solid alibi, they should have stopped investigating him.)

-- Pam's husband probably was not as uninvolved or as clueless an idiot as he was portrayed as being in the mini-series. Apparently he and Pam both attacked Russ at Betsy's memorial service, calling him a murderer, and later after someone (ahem) called State Farm pretending to be Russ's sister and demanding the insurance payout, Pam and her husband went to State Farm the next day to deny that it was Pam who called.

-- the judge in Russ's first trial was ridiculously inexperienced. She had only been a judge for a short time before his trial and had only presided over one civil trial at that point. Before that, as a lawyer, she had never even conducted a trial. Shortly after the trial, she was suspended for 6 months by the State Bar for misconduct having to do with cases she'd handled as a lawyer before becoming a judge. She served only one term as a judge, losing her first reelection bid.

-- Joel's original ambition was to be an actor, but he went to law school to have something to fall back on. He was cast in a small role in a James Spader movie back in the 80s, but turned it down because he'd just started working at the Public Defender's office.

-- Before the first trial, Joel's 14-year-old son who wants to be a lawyer someday, read through the police reports and said, "oh, Pam Hupp did it." lol

-- Pam tried to withdraw her guilty plea in the Gumpenberger murder in 2020, but it was denied. Capital charges were brought against her last year for the murder of Betsy by the current DA (the one who defeated Askey in the election).

All in all, the book was a bit of a chore to get through, probably because I already knew most of what happened, but also it seemed pretty repetitive by itself. The way the author details the first interrogation of Russ goes on for pages and pages of the detective telling Russ they know he did it and Russ denying it. Author says that happened 70-something times, and I didn't go back and count, but it felt like he recounted that exchange 70-something times. Also they lay out the facts of the case in full at least three times when talking about the first and second trials and the appeal.

Edited June 4, 2022 by fishcakes

[A.Ham]

11 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

-- Before the first trial, Joel's 14-year-old son who wants to be a lawyer someday, read through the police reports and said, "oh, Pam Hupp did it." lol

One of the most telling tidbits and reveals the complete incompetence of the police and prosecutor.

And of course, it helps when the then presiding judge is also highly inexperienced and besties with the prosecutor. 

It was a perfect storm of ineptitude.

[Crs97]

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

Pam's husband probably was not as uninvolved or as clueless an idiot as he was portrayed as being in the mini-series. Apparently he and Pam both attacked Russ at Betsy's memorial service, calling him a murderer, and later after someone (ahem) called State Farm pretending to be Russ's sister and demanding the insurance payout, Pam and her husband went to State Farm the next day to deny that it was Pam who called.

I’ve heard Russ blatantly say that Pam’s husband was also involved, and I’ve noticed he hasn’t threatened to sue Russ for defamation.

[larapu2000]

On 6/4/2022 at 11:02 AM, fishcakes said:

I just finished Joel Schwartz's book, which seems like it was written primarily by his co-author, a true crime writer, but with Joel providing insight into his own thinking at various times. There's very little that's new if you saw the mini-series and the most recent Dateline, but there were a few things:

-- both Betsy and Russ had affairs throughout their marriage. According to Betsy's first husband, he and Betsy continued to have sex about twice a month all through Betsy and Russ's marriage, the last time being two weeks before her death.

-- Pam wasn't the only one pointing the finger at Russ early on. A few of Betsy's relatives and friends also told the police that Russ was verbally abusive. (Of course, once he provided a solid alibi, they should have stopped investigating him.)

-- Pam's husband probably was not as uninvolved or as clueless an idiot as he was portrayed as being in the mini-series. Apparently he and Pam both attacked Russ at Betsy's memorial service, calling him a murderer, and later after someone (ahem) called State Farm pretending to be Russ's sister and demanding the insurance payout, Pam and her husband went to State Farm the next day to deny that it was Pam who called.

-- the judge in Russ's first trial was ridiculously inexperienced. She had only been a judge for a short time before his trial and had only presided over one civil trial at that point. Before that, as a lawyer, she had never even conducted a trial. Shortly after the trial, she was suspended for 6 months by the State Bar for misconduct having to do with cases she'd handled as a lawyer before becoming a judge. She served only one term as a judge, losing her first reelection bid.

-- Joel's original ambition was to be an actor, but he went to law school to have something to fall back on. He was cast in a small role in a James Spader movie back in the 80s, but turned it down because he'd just started working at the Public Defender's office.

-- Before the first trial, Joel's 14-year-old son who wants to be a lawyer someday, read through the police reports and said, "oh, Pam Hupp did it." lol

-- Pam tried to withdraw her guilty plea in the Gumpenberger murder in 2020, but it was denied. Capital charges were brought against her last year for the murder of Betsy by the current DA (the one who defeated Askey in the election).

All in all, the book was a bit of a chore to get through, probably because I already knew most of what happened, but also it seemed pretty repetitive by itself. The way the author details the first interrogation of Russ goes on for pages and pages of the detective telling Russ they know he did it and Russ denying it. Author says that happened 70-something times, and I didn't go back and count, but it felt like he recounted that exchange 70-something times. Also they lay out the facts of the case in full at least three times when talking about the first and second trials and the appeal.

I enjoyed the book, although I read it between the airing of the first and second episodes, so perhaps my unfamiliarity with the case made it more interesting.  I had also never seen the Dateline episodes, so I was completely new to it all.  I found it an extremely easy read as well.