Carthage (E. Texas): Quirky 1996 murder now a movie "Bernie"

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.avclub.com/articles/bernie,73066/

The above is a review of the new Hollywood movie "Bernie". It's based on a strange real life murder that
happened in Carthage, Panola County, Texas. Panola County is on the eastern border of Texas, close to Shreveport, LA.

The title character, Bernie Tiede (rhymes with "seedy"), was a local assistant funeral director in Carthage who was a frequent escort/confidante
to an 81 year old local millionaire lady, Marjorie Nugent. It could be alleged that since he was gay, he was after her fortune.

She was allegedly the meanest woman in town. He eventually shot her 4 times in the back with a .22 rifle (the "armadilla gun")
and hid her body in a freezer. After 9 months of covering the murder up, he was arrested. He is behind bars for life.

Carthage people did not want to believe that he had done it. Some people opined that they would have killed her themselves
for $5, if not the huge money that the shooter was already destined to get in the dead woman's will.

This is a black comedy, starring Jack Black as Bernie Tiede.

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment ... bernie.ece

The above link is the stub of the Dallas Morning News story. It contains a photo from the movie. Without a subscription to DMN,
we can't read the rest of the story.

SIA

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2012-05-01/feature5.php

The above link is a 4 page article from a recent issue of Texas Monthly and discusses the making of the movie.

The movie was filmed in 22 days in Bastrop, Texas (filling in as Carthage, Texas), in October 2010, probably due to the director
and actor Matthew McConaghey (sp?) both being from Austin and wanting to sleep in their own beds after each
day's shoot. Actor Matthew M. is a native of Longview, TX so he was able to channel the East Texas prosecuting attorney well.

The murderer, Bernie Tiede, is currently 54 years old and will not be eligible for parole for 15 years.
He was imprisoned in Beeville, TX but is currently in New Boston, TX.

The extras from the movie come from East Texas, and lived at Bastrop's Hampton Inn during the filming.

A funeral director in Bastrop declined to have his business used in the film due to a "reliable source" that told him some
outrageous acts would be filmed there. No such action took place during the filming.

SIA

[surprise_i'm_armed]

This movie has just been released on DVD, so anyone can get it via the mailing option
on Netflix.

I was down to Austin this past Labor Day weekend and we rented the only copy they had in stock
at "I Love Video" on Airport Blvd in Austin.

There's a funny scene where one of the Panola County, Texas locals is describing the various regions of the State of Texas,
with an accompanying map on the screen:

"Dallas - It's full of rich snobs driving Mercedes.

From San Antonio down to the Rio Grande - that's where the Tex meets the Mex.

Southeast Texas, from Houston over to Louisiana - that's the Carcinogenic Coast.

Central Texas is home to the People's Republic of Austin. It's full of hairy-legged women and fruity liberals.

The Panhandle.....(he's totally stumped and does not know HOW to describe the Panhandle!),
well.....<the Panhandle is shown on the map with a large question mark on it>.

And Panola, well it's well behind the Pine Curtain."

The movie was quite interesting in that it shows how the title characater, Bernie Tiede was a very
generous soul, interested in others welfare, but snapping and killing his benefactor as if he was watching someone
else do it.

One thing that I thought was a little odd was that the murder rifle appeared to be a a .22 (the armadilla gun!), but
when he shot it, the gun's report was like a weak pellet gun.

SIA

[74novaman]

Since it was at the dollar box, my wife and I watched it recently.

I was pretty amused, especially for a dollar. It's one of those movies that I enjoyed at the dollar box but would have been less happy had I paid theater prices.

I'd say it's worth watching.

Being from the panhandle, I did like that guys breakdown of the different areas of Texas.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post ... linklater/

The above link is to a 5/7/14 article detailing the release from prison of Bernie Tiede.

He was sentenced to life for 1st degree murder. Panola County DA Danny Buck (Mathew McConaughey's character in the movie) declined to try him again
on 2nd degree murder charges. That carries a 20 year term. Bernie had already served either 15 or 17 years in prison, according to varied reports.

He was a model prisoner. He taught classes to other inmates. One of the most popular classes he taught was Anger Management.

By the way, while Mrs. Nugent was dead in the freezer, he was playing Robin Hood with her money. He gave $100,000 to the local United Methodist
chuch for a building project. He also gave a large amount ($10,000?) to the trophy shop in Carthage. The trophy shop was about to go out of business,
but Bernie wanted the local children to continue getting trophies. He bought 1 or more used cars for people who needed them. While doing this, he
continued to drive his own well-used automobile.

So now he'll be living in Austin in the garage apartment of the movie director.
His job will be working in the law office of the female lawyer who got the ball rolling on his release.

SIA