The Story of Laurie Bembenek and the Tragic Murder of Christine Schultz | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and I'm Holly and this is a special episode of
[Music] morbid we have podcast host New York time bestselling author executive producer Queen extraordinaire and friend
of the Pod Holly Madison on the show today hi Hol thanks for having me back you guys it's always so fun to come on
here my god of course we were so excited that you wanted to come back you're always welcome course
anytime and guys if you're not listening to Girls Next Level podcast start listening yeah you're missing out if
you're not listening and join the patreon because I joined the patreon so I've been Slumber partying it lately oh
I need to join it's a amazing I want a slumber party at patreon is always where I rant about my drama like some older
Playmate went on a podcast this week and was like saying stuff that I wasn't too
happy about so I have to have to respond on the patreon you know what else hell yeah good for you you have to say
something somewhere you know I saw some of that on Tik Tok and I was like if you
go against hly I just don't like you anymore you've made an enemy of course but we're here today to
talk about your not even new show anymore because now it's on season 2 so the Playboy murders and I'm so excited
to talk to you about it we are basically just going to Dive Right In because congratulations on season 2 and it's
premiering January 22nd yeah Monday January 22nd I'm so excited we have seven episodes this season and they're
all so different some of them are kind of famous cases from back in the day a handful of them are cases I never even
heard of some of them involved people I met and knew personally so I'm really excited about this season it's going to
be so good the vibe is so right of this show oh it like it's just everything about the show is such like a it just
hits all the things you like you know what I mean like the music the coloring of it like everything I love it it just
drew me right in thank you everybody on the team does such a great job I was so happy with season one I got more
positive feedback on that than like anything I've ever done in my life so I'm super excited for everybody to see
season 2 no it's so good my husband Drew and I we watched season 1 as soon as it
came out and we were hooked instantly and I wanted to ask you personally like what was it like putting the first
season together like how much obviously so much work went into that yeah well the production team is great they
already had the cases picked out before I even joined because when my agent first told me about the project and that
it was called The Playboy murders I was like no I don't want to do another I can't handle another Playboy project
like I'll have nightmares at night if I do that like I can't do it okay well just look at this deck and let me know
what you think so he sent the deck over where they presented the cases they wanted to do and a lot of them were
cases I'd never even heard of you know coming from a person who thought she knew everything about what happened to
anybody ever involved with Playboy and I was like this is a show I would actually
watch so I was super excited to get on board and the experience was great you know we shot all of my stuff out here in
Vegas and just had a great time doing it and telling the stories and for me just
even learning more about the cases is so exciting definitely it's it's just so good like it captivates you the second
that you start watching and you're sharing stories that need to be shared like it's it like you said there's
stories that even you didn't know about and you're like very well versed in like
the history of Playboy yeah so it's like these people they fell all under the radar and it's nice that the show is
actually bringing them back into the light and I like that you guys kind of cover everything like even unsolved
cases you've covered so hopefully they can get new light shed on them yeah yeah I mean I think that's every True Crime
producers dream is for maybe you know something to come out of sharing those cases that are unsolved like maybe
somebody will come for forward or somebody remembers something yeah definitely did anything change with your
process um when like you were able to were you able to pick some of the cases for season two or did they bring all of
the cases to you again yeah season two we collaborated and there were some cases I knew about that they didn't know
about because they involved some people that I'd met before and had found out that horrible things had happened to
them after I lost touch with these people so it was probably about like 5050 cases they came up with and cases I
came up with and they're just the best team to work with and I love them and it's been a lot of fun that's awesome
that's the dream yeah it's cool that you were able to have your like more of your
input yeah has there been one specific case either season one or season two that really stuck with you that like
kept you up at night I know for me it's like Dorothy Stratton and star Stow those two ones just really stick with me
yeah I think for season one star Stow really stuck with me too it's one of the unsolved cases you know she was at the
Mansion as a playmate so I can relate to some of her story and I had known who she was before and I knew that something
tragic had happened to her before but I didn't know too many details and I remember even you know back in my
Playboy days being very captivated by her photos because they did this really cool like Glam Rock pictorial with her
back in the 70s which was very kind of unusual for Playboy to do so to me yeah and then this one that
we're going to cover today it sticks with me a lot too because I just finished reading um Lori benedick's
autobiography so really getting into how she felt about the whole case and what she was going through so right now
that's the one that's kind of sticking with me that's kind of how I feel right now too and I'm sure you do
Elena this case I couldn't believe it I had never heard of it twist turn that's the thing it's so twisty it really is by
the end of it you're like what just happened like what happened everybody lost here and you still don't I I think
I still don't really know what happened you know me either like if somebody's ask me you did it I'm like I don't know
I don't know that's the worst part but yeah I mean we should probably just get into it so Holly will'll hand it over to
you to kind of walk us through the case yeah so this case got quite a bit of coverage a long time ago like before
your time early 80s because this involves a woman who worked as a Playboy bunny was I think framed for murder and
she went to prison for nine years escaped from prison was on the run the nickname she got back when she was on
the police force was Bambi so everybody had this slogan run Bambi run because this point everybody was rooting for her
so to get a little more into this story like I said this is about a woman named Lori Ben benck she worked as a Playboy
bunny for only three weeks at the Lake Geneva Wisconsin Playboy Resort and it's crazy because you know even reading her
autobiography she wasn't really happy with how she was kind of only known in the press as a Playboy bunny and back
then when she was on trial it really worked against her because people saw her as like this manipulative Fe fatal
like using her sexuality against men kind of it was kind of Twisted that way and it's crazy because she was only a
bunny not there's anything wrong with being a bunny but she was even only a bunny for three weeks and anytime people
would talk about her in the media they would either run a picture of her in her Playboy Bunny uniform or a picture for a
beer calendar she had done once when she was doing some modeling when she was young they never ran a picture of her in
her police officer uniform or anything like that so it's just a good example of how somebody is more than just their
headlines and that's why I love getting into these cases is you can dive into more of who the person was and lorenia
Ben benck she was born in 1958 she was the youngest of three children born to like a middle class family in Milwaukee
Wisconsin her father interestingly enough was a former police officer and he had resigned from the job when he had
found out or seen some corruption in the police force I'm not sure what he saw but he went on to w become a carpenter
after that she went to Catholic school she later went on to get her associates degree in fashion merchandising after
that she worked in retail she did some modeling where she did uh I believe it was a Schlitz beer calendar and some
other things but that wasn't enough for her and she decided she wanted a challenge and she really wanted to be a
police officer it's cool that she got to follow in her dad's footsteps too yeah yeah absolutely and kind of you know
this could have gone so differently you know her father resigned from the police
force because he saw corruption and this could have been a way to like you know Circle back around and it could have
ended more POS but as we'll see in this story it didn't really go that way summer of 1979
the Milwaukee Police Department was basically a known boys club and they hadn't been you know trying to hire
women or minorities very much but there was encouragement to do so by the time you hit 1979 and they had put
an ad in the paper asking for these kinds of recruits Lori saw this ad and she decided to go into the Milwaukee
Police Academy and you know she was 5' 10 she had blonde hair blue eyes she was really beautiful high cheekbones but you
know she was over the modeling thing she wanted to do something that she felt had
a little more meaning and a little bit more of a challenge you know she was very athletic she thrived in the police
academy and in the police academy you know very grueling training and you know people would develop these friendships
and relationships and come up with nicknames for each other and her last name was Ben benck but that got turned
into Bambi that became her nickname at the police academy I don't know that it was necessarily a nickname she loved or
anything but that's where later we'll get like the Run Bambi run slogan and everybody's calling her Bambi in the
media when this case eventually broke I think I read that she ended up not liking it because obviously it took on
kind of like a life of its own at that point toward like the end of her like getting out of prison and everything
yeah it kind of started to sound very bimbo at the end because here she's been classified as like nothing more than a
Playboy bunny and like being called Bambi just kind of took a turn it's like they used it against her there's two
different things too that come out about like where that nickname came from and one of them is like a nicer way where
it's like she was so fast and she lapped all the guys so they were like she's like Bambi she's fast and other people
are like no it's because of her big de eyes and I'm like yes I don't know I like the other one better yeah and I'm
sure she probably did too I think I think all those reasons are probably reasons that stuck so much is there's so
many it all fit together one interesting thing to know is when she was in the police academy she made a friend another
woman who was training to become a police officer named Judy Zess and she would come into play several more times
during this case and this whole journey yeah Judy is uh Judy something Judy makes a mark she makes a fewy scares me
Judy scares me too so Lori graduated she excelled as a congratulations gift for herself she
brought a bright orange Camaro and it was a fast car for a woman who was going places what a badass congratulations to
me gift I love that that's awesome amazing I I just think about this time you know what was written about it and
she just must have felt like like was so promising at this moment yeah exactly she was she was working for everything
she wanted to work for and she was succeeding really exactly that's all you can ask for so she's on the police force
she's finishing her training you know in the early 80s it was obviously a lot of
men on the police force and there was a lot of socializing where the lines could
get kind of blurred apparently on the police force at this time there was a lot of you know going out to bars and
partying and things like that there was even later on she would find pictures of
these police gatherings in the park in public where people were like getting naked and like dancing on tables and
stuff I don't care about people getting naked obviously but this was considered like incent exposure so what are they
doing she was just seeing a lot of hypocrisy and like male officers getting away with a lot of things that female
officers couldn't get away with a huge double standard was going on for sure and they're like ticketing people for
indecent exposure and then being naked in the park it's like no what's going on another issue she had
was with some of the officers wives you know at these social events people would
have a few drinks and they'd get a little mouthy with each other and you know women would come up to Bambi and be
like you know I see my husband looking at you you know why don't why don't you dress and bag your clothes or something
like that and just like get in her face yell at your husband yeah why are you coming to me yell at your husband
exactly that's his problem man go yell at him I I was thinking that too when I read that I'm like how embarrassing to
have to go up to somebody and say I see how my husband's looking at like like honestly girl like together
let's go yell at him like I'd be like why are you yelling at me exactly let team up so beyond the sex parties and
the drugs allegedly some of the other officers were up to even more serious things such as soliciting sex workers on
the job sleeping through shifts in squad cars pay drugs using drugs even selling
pornographic material wow so there's a lot of a lot going on I'm like when were you guys working in between all that
seriously seems like a lot exactly and in Lorie's autobiography there was a lot of that when she's talking about her
training and like disputes that would come up and like certain shifts and areas of town that officers wouldn't
want to work or they would have this thing where they'd have to check in and like make phone calls from where they
were at certain times of nights back to headquarters just so people knew they were working and some police officers
didn't want to do that because a lot of them I don't want to say a lot of them but some of them weren't working they
were like sleeping in their cars or off doing other things and they didn't really want to like be on their beat so
much wow that's so that's scary they like Milwaukee what's going on you okay and that comes back later too with with
a certain someone yeah absolutely So eventually Lori got her she called to get her schedule and was
told not to come in at all and she was dismissed from the police force because she had gone to a concert with a handful
of friends including Judy and Judy was caught smoking a joint and Judy somehow said that Lori was involved in this or
that Lori knew about it and didn't report it and because as a police officer she saw something illegal going
on and didn't report it that was treated as if she was doing it too right and for
her that kind of blew her mind because she'd seen police officers do so many other things and actually committing
illegal acts so she's like wait this isn't there and she started to notice that women weren't lasting on the police
force and people of color weren't lasting on the police force and it seemed like those candidates were being
looked at with a more critical eye and being dismissed it's like okay we're going to call these people in because of
you know Federal rules or whatever was going on at the time you know we need more minorities and more women but they
didn't want to keep those people on the police force at least that was the conclusion she was coming to based on
what she observed and you can see why she thought that you know exactly it seems absolutely like they were looking
for the first moment when they could clear it off it was very performative like oh let's hire all these people and
like women and people of color and then completely get rid of them as soon as we
can yeah exactly so even after that happened Lori remains friends with Judy which which is here's when I start to
cringe like I think we've all in our lifetimes had that toxic friend who for whatever reason maybe they're fun maybe
they're magnetic maybe they're fun to vent to maybe you know whatever they provide you some support and some way so
you look over all these kind of toxic things even something huge like you know Judy throwing Lori under the bus and she
ends up losing her career basically but she's still friends with Judy yeah a big
one just since they're both out of a job why don't we go down to the Lake Geneva
Playboy club and try out to be bunnies because back in the day you could make a lot of money being a Playboy bunny it
was a job where you tended to get tipped really well you know you could bring somebody a cup of coffee and get 50
bucks back in 1970s money so yeah that's huge so they went down just in time before they were doing an open casting
call and they got the job and back then at the Lake Geneva Club you were supposed to live down there too kind of
in dorms that makes sense so there were a lot of rules and regulations working as a bunny you know you kind of had to
keep your eye on customers and like facilitate their experience all over the place whether it was at the ski chalet
or in the Cabaret where there are performances and things like that like those clubs seem So Glamorous looking on
on the outside I think they really were you know like the Chalet and all that like it just feels like such a glamorous
atmosphere it definitely looks like it but then there was like all kinds of shady stuff going on like behind closed
doors with the members and stuff yeah for sure yeah the Lake Geneva Club sounds really fun and I guess it was
even familyfriendly too like you could bring your kids and stay there was really interesting it was it's
interesting to me just how the brand has been perceived throughout the years and
even in the 2000s like we would be considered really unbrand friendly you know for coming from Playboy and things
like that but then you go back to the 70s and apparently there was like a resort that was kind of seen as a family
resort even though it was Playboy brand so it's it's just interesting to me like
where it's gone over the years yeah it truly has evolved and it's and it's evolved like like you know Hills and
Valleys kind of thing definitely yeah it's never like a straight line no that's why it's so fascinating though to
research I know because you always find something new everybody just always feels different yeah so many layers so
Lori eventually filed a lawsuit a complaint against the Milwaukee Police Department because she felt like she was
unfairly dismissed so this was kind of something that would hang over her head a little bit she wasn't satisfied
working as a Playboy bunny she only kept the job for three weeks she wanted to join the military but as she was going
through that process she found out that as long as she had like an open lawsuit going on she couldn't join the military
they didn't want anybody with that kind of yeah I didn't know that was a thing either either but it was really
important for her to pursue Justice and I wonder she doesn't talk about this too
much in her autobiography but I wonder how much of her dad's experience kind of played into this it's almost like
wanting to finish out like a generational trauma in a way like if her had resigned from the Department after
seeing corruption like I wonder how much of that was in her motivation to go after and do this complaint against the
police department I could definitely see that being a driving Factor cuz in a way
like her justice would be his Justice you know it's like unfinished business right exactly that's a perfect way to
put it yeah and she was only like 2122 when this was all going on it's funny when we look back on these older cases I
feel like people became such adults at like age 18 back then like think about like a 21y old 22y old like I was this
idiot girl in college I look at Lor's story and all the things she had done and she's you
know doing this big lawsuit and everything and it's just crazy like how much had already gone on it's such a age
I know she's just pursuing so many things like so wholeheartedly at such a young age it's wild yeah so despite her
grudge against the police department her Social Circle still included a lot of people connected to the police and
through a friend she met a man named Fred Schultz he was a detective on the Milwaukee Police Department he was
dating a friend of hers but they caught each other's eye and eventually connected after he broke up broke it off
with a friend Fred would tell Lori that was love at first sight and this Fred guy you know based on her autobiography
seems like a little bit of like a love bomber yeah definitely I got that Vibe so he was tall blonde handsome Lori
loved a man with a badge and even though she was receiving Veil threats P for pursuing this case against the police
department she was falling for Fred she would have things happen like she would go out to her car and find like a dead
rat on the window oh my God very symbolic yeah so there were there were things happening where she didn't feel
100% safe that's so scary and I almost wonder getting involved with a man who was a detective on the force I wonder if
there was a feeling of shelter a little bit in that it wouldn't turn out that way but I wonder if you're kind of
feeling threatened by this big Force you're going up against but you're making these intimate connections with a
man who's on the police force maybe that feels a little safe in like a counterintuitive way does that make no
it really does I could definitely see that she was looking for protection and an ally you know like maybe he could
help even like maybe can make every side or maybe somebody who's going to like let you know what's going on yeah and
this is the guy that's supposed to like know you like you know intimately and know who you are as a person and know
you're not a bad person you know like so you're hoping that he can convey that to
everyone else and that they'll listen to him and stop leaving dead rats on your windshield and he's a detective which
it's like he should have a little pull you know he's little above the patrolman at that point so it's like you would
think he would be able to they would listen to him maybe and take his word take his word at some point absolutely
so by Christmas that year Lori and Fred were super close they were spending every day together and an important
thing to note about Fred is he was recently divorced from a woman named Christine Schultz he had two children
with her and he was paying a lot of money in in child support alimony and the former wife and children were living
in a home that he had built himself kind of his dream house so I think it'd be safe to say and based on what Lori wrote
in her book that he was harboring a lot of resentment toward Christine for having to pay all that money and you
know she's living in the house and you know he would always speak poorly about Christine to Lory and it wasn't a great
Rel which is not great yeah definitely not great at all yeah and actually Fred and Christine had only been divorced for
six months by the time Fred and Lori were married oh I didn't even realize fresh that soon yeah and there were
times in Lor's autobiography where she mentioned she felt like Fred either wasn't completely over Christine or just
had some sort of weird Obsession whether it was resentment that Christine had moved on with someone else and he was
still paying the bills I don't know but there was a time where Lori found the wedding ring from Christine in Fred's
pocket and she kind of went off on him like what what why is this so why is this something you're carrying around
yeah I would be pissed off about that so A few months later after they were married in the spring of 1981 Lori was
abruptly awoken by a phone call from Fred it was a quarter to 3 in the morning and she could barely make sense
of what he was saying but he was telling her that something had happened to his ex-wife Christine the call in the early
morning hours of May 28th 1981 might have startled Lori awake but nothing compared to what had just happened in
the house that Fred had built with his own two hands in the middle of the night his eldest son had awoken and described
that a man had been standing behind his younger brother with his hands around the boy's neck when the boy was able to
get free the man ran from the boy's room and into his mother's room Christine had
screamed please don't do that and a sound that the boy described as a firecracker echoed Through The Upstairs
Hall they ran to the mother's room as the man who was wearing a green track suit alleged edly although later the
oldest son would say no he was not wearing a green tracksuit he was actually wearing a green army jacket and
the boy in great detail described how he knew it was a jacket because it was like
kind of flapping at the edges it was like an army jacket that didn't have any writing or camouflage it was just kind
of that green army jacket and he was very specific in describing when he was on the stand the perpetrator's body as
being like very square shouldered and very straight up and down like not like a more hour
female figure like the oldest son was very adamant that it was a man who had done this and they were young I think
wasn't the oldest one like 11 yeah 11 years old these are young kids seeing all this it's so sad and that's a really
important detail I didn't realize that he later said like no it wasn't agreeing jogging suit because the jogging suit
becomes such an important detail it really does at 2 a.m. the boys called their mother's boyfriend to come help
and sat by her side they were even the oldest one was trying to do first aid the best he could trying to stop the
bleeding it's really heartbreaking that is heart-wrenching yeah she passed away that night next thing you know all the
police officers are at Lor's husband's house the house he had built anyway that Christine still lived in every cop in
town was there and it was almost like they lost one of their own because this was so closely connected to the police
department yeah Fred's oldest son had gotten a good enough look at the man who killed his mother to give the cops a
description an intruder a man around 5'8 with a long red ponytail had come in and they had collected reports from all
around the neighborhood that people had seen a man wearing a green track suit with a long red ponytail jogging
throughout the neighborhood over the past few weeks and someone had even found a man in the green jogging suit
with a long red ponytail like asleep in a parking lot at a business and like KCK
that person out so that's really interesting it's very strange that is strange yeah it is so for Lori this
obviously it's a huge shock in a tragedy to lose somebody this close to you but also she finds herself kind of the
mother of the two sons yeah you got to step into that yeah and she was someone who had never wanted to have kids wasn't
really prepared for that but she really stepped up to the plate as best she could and again she's so young when this
happens like to have to step into the role of a mother to to traumatized grieving children like that's huge truly
traumatized cuz that's the the sad part about this too is like you can search and search and search and there's like
barely any information about Christine you know cuz it's really focused on like the the shenanigans that happen
afterwards and it's like I think you can find out that Christine was like 30 years old she was a mother of two that's
loved her kids and it's like that's really all you can find out so it is like always sad when somebody gets like
left behind in these but if you search and search you can't find anything it just got so sensationalized I think with
all like you said the shenanigans is the perfect way to put it and the way Fred comes off from what I read like
Christine must have had a hard time dealing with him coting constantly fighting about money and things like
that rough yeah I think it was definitely unpleasant I saw some quote that said she was sick of his
philandering ways which you can kind of see yeah he met he met Lori pretty quick
put two and two together yeah so standard procedure after a murder is to cvas the area and look at those closest
to the victim that list included Christine's boyfriend her ex-husband Fred Lori and their roommate Judy because I think
I neglected to mention Fred and Lori were living with Judy's s the woman was smoking a joint and kind of threw Lori
under the bus she was also their roommate they were just trying to make ends meet you know Fred felt like he was
giving most of his money you know as he should to his kids he was really bitter about not
still living in the house and he wanted to move back into the house after the murder and Lori did not want to do that
she was adamant opposed to it but he really wanted to go back to that house that's interesting yeah that's really
interesting yeah reclaim it so Fred and Christine's boyfriend both had aliis Fred you know was on duty at the time
and they didn't have anything to worry about it seemed um Judy and Lori both refused to take polygraph tests Lori was
worried that the Milwaukee Police Department would take her results and this opportunity to use it against her
like she was already afraid of them because she filed this big and she' already G through so much with them and
then I read somewhere that it came out that Fred was lying about being on duty and that he was actually he said he was
working with his partner and then it came out later that they were actually drinking at a bar but then some
detective looked into that and there was a lot of holes within the story so it's
like was he even working where were you Fred yeah his story is so suspect and then Lori says in her autobiography that
you know when Fred and his police partner came back to their apartment they felt the hood of Lor's
car to see if like she' been out and she and she wrote in her book that she thought well that's a weird thing to do
and the car was not warm so it was determined that it couldn't have left the driveway that night so they thought
um once inside the house Fred grabbed his Off Duty gun and his partner examined it the partner said the gun did
not smell like it had been fired recently a canvas in the neighborhood turned up 12 different people that claim
to have seen the man in the red ponytail in the green track suit you know the the
was the the report that he was seen laying in the hospital's parking lot at some point and I guess the person who
spotted him in the hospital parking lot had went up to approach the man but he had like got out of the way before they
could get up to him that's such a strange one yeah that's sketchy that he was avoiding people yeah it's really
weird I want to know who this guy is I know is it your real hair no no I'm willing to bet so back at the scene
there was no sign of forced entry so there was the thought that maybe the killer was somebody who knew how to get
into the house a safe that was in the den was tampered with there was nothing in it so they don't know if somebody got
what was in it or what was in it in the first place Christine had been shot at close range in the back and the bullet
that killed her had gone through her heart her wrist was bound with clothes line and a bandana was tied around her
face as a gag after examining the body police discovered a single strand of reddish brown hairlike material on her
right cap a few days after the murder on June 10th a plug was called the apartment complex that Lori Fred and
Judy lived in there was something clogging up the pipes between their apartment and the neighbors the plumber
discovered that the cause of this clog was a red wig the fibers from the wig matched the hairs that were found on
Christine's leg a day later the detective came by and took Fred's two guns his service revolver and his
off-duty gun on June 18th police ballistics would find that the gun that shot Christine matched the off-duty gun
that was in the Schultz apartment on the night of the the murder while Fred was at work and Lori slept at home without
an alibi so sadly things are not looking good for Lori at this point no not at all it's that flushed wig that is so
weird to me I'm like first of all who flushes a wig down the toilet why would you call the pl even
flush I if I tried to do that it would just the toilet would overflow yeah it would just shoot it back like it would
it wouldn't even suck it down every time I try to picture that I'm like no that can't how how would that work what force
does your toilet have because that's toilet yeah exactly like did they cut the wig up like I don't know weird
and it just seems like if you were really trying to get rid of that you would do it differently I don't think
you would flush it down the toilet unless may you were trying to frame someone police officers yeah like if
that was coming out of that house you've all been police officers like you all know how this works that seems like a
very silly thing for any of you to do to try to get away with it a good point you
know yeah it really does Lori was arrested on June 24th despite an eyewitness account Christine's own son
who kept insisting that the killer was a man Lori spent three nights in jail after her arrest her husband Fred said
he could not get the money together to bail her out immediately after her release cuz she was let go eventually
Lori began doing interviews with the Press she wanted to make it clear she did not kill Christine Schultz and she
felt she was being set up for speaking out against the Milwaukee Police Department that's so scary can you
imagine if that is the truth how helpless she must have oh my God I can't even imagine like oh I can't imagine
horrible yeah so the trial was very sensationalized and it was supposed to be the first televised trial in the city
which to me is crazy CU this is like the early 80s and I didn't realized they were televising trials I thought that
was more of like a '90s thing like around the time of like OJ and yeah I didn't know it was this far back yeah I
didn't either yeah so she was being characterized as you know this fatal Playboy Bunny you know her looks became
a point of contention in the trial you know she felt like she couldn't do anything right as far as how she dressed
if she wore anything that looked cute she was being told she was too sexy if she wore like a button-up the neck
peasant blouse people didn't like that either they felt like she was trying to fool everybody into thinking she was the
school M and you know they kind of took that the wrong way that happens so often
when women are on trial and it's like murder or not we're not here to to talk about what she's wearing we're here to
figure out did she do this or not it's so silly what does her cleavage have to do with the murder trial at hand it
should have nothing to do with it right have you guys ever read Mara Clark's book from the OJ trial I haven't read it
but they picked her apart during that trial and it's like she wasn't even on Tri I know she was just trying to do her
job yeah it's such a good book and she's like they wouldn't shut up about my hair
no they would it must be so hard when you're just trying to like prove yourself and
trying to do your job which you have earned and worked for and being the victim's family I would be so pissed off
if that's what people were focused on like the lawyer's hair or even the person on trial their hair their
appearance I could give two shits I want to know did they do this or not exactly
that's what we're here for yeah absolutely so the evidence was mostly circumstantial but nail in the coffin
was testimony from you guessed it Judy zest oh man scary Judy she's back Judy claimed that she had heard Lori say that
she should have Christine quote unquote dusted she also claimed to know that Lori and Abid jogger owned a green track
suit but Lori even through her autobiography insists that she never owned a green tracksuit that wasn't even
a color she really wore so she was being painted as a woman who was both a cunning seductress and a woman who was
foolish enough to shoot her husband's ex-wife with his gun and then flush the evidence in her own apartment but the
jury believed the witness testimony and gave great weight to the two damning pieces of evidence the link to the
murder weapon and the red wig found in her own plumbing and Lori was found guilty of first-degree murder and at
only 23 years old was sentenced to life in prison wow so like that escalated so fast and
it's like you wonder if anybody was like hey why would she flush a wig down the toilet to get rid of it and then call a
plumber right to come find it to like why why would she do that like she was a police officer why is no one being like
that's wild and then the green jogging suit it helds so much weight and it's like they never even searched her stuff
to see if she had one yeah that's yeah as far as I know no one ever found a green jogging suit and it seemed like
such a big deal in the in the cas more circumstantial evidence oh and never should be used to convict someone yeah
that's the thing because pretty much everything was circumstantial yeah and then you have Fred's eldest son who's
insisting this person was in a green tracksuit it's just ridiculous and he's saying this was a man this was a man's
builds like I'm sure of it and I mean he must he saw this person's face too this
person was like choking his brother yeah standing right right at him it's like I
know he was clearly being traumatized at the moment and was under great duress yeah so I can't imagine how feels but
like he got a look and is saying he's confident that he knows that was a man so it's like take him into account here
well and I was saying to Elina earlier I I really don't believe that Lori did it
I don't know if maybe she was involved somehow I can't say one way way or the other but to me it doesn't make sense
that with um with Christine being shot at such a close range I feel like she would have been able to fight off Lori
because Lorie's a slim like she's tall but she's a pretty slim woman I I feel like she could have fought her off but
remember she's has gone through Police Academy training that's true where you're literally like trained to take
someone down that is true that's just Devil's advocating I have I don't believe she really did this but yeah I
don't know who did this but just to Devil's Advocate which is a good point it's just the fact that it's at such
close range and that she was even able to like Tire up and everything and and to go after the children first to yeah
to be strangling child a strange line of thinking for her I don't know you if that was the case like she would not
want the kids to see her that that would be the last thing you'd want because they would recognize her like they would
see her face and they would be like what is and she and in this case she would have been actively assaulting them in
front of each other like that's weird and that doesn't make a lot of sense also with what you said earlier where
she really stepped into a mom rule for them before she was apprehended for this you would think that they would they
would realize like she was there that night it was her that would be very messed up to attempt to murder one of
them and then step in as the mom like that's that would be Str not that people haven't done worse but like just doesn't
line up and I feel like the boys would have yeah would have realized it was her and recognized her and been even more
traumatized by that yeah absolutely so she goes to prison and over the next several years from behind bars Lori was
working diligently to get what she felt like she had been denied a fair trial and she was hard at work on appeals and
while she was in prison she was really active she did a lot of things she started a prison newspaper she started
collecting cans to raise money for a salad bar because she felt like the food wasn't healthy and she really advocated
for better conditions so she definitely kept herself busy and was going after the appeals there was even something
else in the trial where a clerk at a wig store claimed that Lori had come in and
bought a red wig using a check but Lori never even had a checking account that was another part to me that was just
like we're just going to blow past that she said she bought this specific wig with a check and she doesn't have checks
and it's like whose name was on that check yeah like find me the check then yeah you don't have any records that's
just hearsay at that point yeah it's so crazy and you know it's was also a dark time for Lori because she only got two
letters from her husband while she was in prison the second one was a letter letting her know that he wanted a
divorce he wrote goodbye and good luck woo that's rough yeah so one day during visiting
hours at the prison a friend of hers had her brother come as a visitor Lori Lori
thought he was very good-looking and he had just recently gone through a divorce
so Lorie's friend you know kind of set them up and thought they would could start like communicating and be penp
Pals and stuff but they quickly fell in love and decided to get married Lorie's appeals were denied and eventually they
came up with a plan to escape and this was quite a detailed plan that Lor's parents were even involved in so Lorie's
new husband was talking with Lor's parents they encouraged him to get a vasectomy because Lori didn't want kids
they also decided they were going to escape by driving across the border to Canada and they thought the best way to
do that without being caught you know they needed to come up with fake IDs and they thought the easiest way to do that
would be to get real birth certificates but how are they going to do that without using Lor's name so they decided
to or he did go to the cemetery and find gravestones of babies who had died and had birth dates that kind of lined up
with their ages so he took down the names and then wrote to the office you know the birth certificate office of
Records to get new birth certificates for these people and I guess he was able to do that so that was kind of we and
weird that's a little darked that's Sinister it's Sinister and it's odd what people could get away with back back
then yes whoever you know the office that supplies the birth certificates like they don't back then have the
computerized records to enter a name and be like oh no this person passed away like who's asking for this right you
think he' get caught right away with something like that like today you would think you would never get away with that
no way but still you hear it happens sometimes that's the thing people do people do use like people who have
passed their names it's it's very strange that one's chilling though like using babies names it's like o and the
fact that cuz obviously like computers weren't what they are now or really a thing back then he had to go to the
actual Cemetery like yeah yes that's Eerie commitment yeah crazy I found his name
too it's um Dominic googli googli I think oh perfect there you go imagine being the family of those babies and
finding that out later too yeah that's I would be so mad you almost in a way hope
that they didn't find out I hope they didn't cuz that'd be so disturbing do that would be a terrible thing to have
knowledge of so it's like you don't need that no yeah unnecessary knowledge yeah
so it's year nine of Lorie's sentence and she had been noticing that in the laundry room with the present there was
this little window that was often left open so that factored into her plan she was able to squeeze through the small
window frame out into the cold night and she sprinted toward her new husband Dominic was waiting there in his car
with the birth certificates ready to drive to the Canadian border so they go up to the Canadian border they're asked
you know what brings you to Canada they say oh we're on our honeymoon and the border patrol officer was like okay have
a great time crazy just slipped right through so a jailbreak is always going to be a big story but when that involves
somebody like Lori who had already attracted so much media attention in the first place it became a huge story and
at this point in time though everybody who has about the story it's kind of like the overall public sentiment is
like people were rooting for her it was almost like a Bonnie and Clyde thing like people made t-shirts they made
bumper stickers they made songs and the slogan was run Bambi run that's wild it really is wild it's crazy just how
public sentiment turns at first was this vilified F fatal and then nine years later everybody's like rooting for her
that's scary yeah it scary how the tide turns so quickly it really does it's just it
kind of goes to show you like a lot of whatever happened in the in the trial didn't hold that much weight on people's
hearts you know public was so willing to be like I don't know what happened here
but I don't think she was part of it right so they were able to live in a small town in Canada for three months
she worked as a waitress and eventually at the cafe she worked at someone recognized her so the Canadian mounties
ended up surrounding the restaurant and Lori was soon in custody that must have been so scary so it's July of 1990 at
this point again she's Front Page News the ex cop had been on the lamb for months and she was finally in police
custody however she refused to go back to the US and filed for political asylum in Canada she couldn't go back to the
States and face the same system that she claimed had treated her so unjustly before journalists clamored to get to
Canada for an exclusive with her Canadian officials were sympathetic to Lor's case and granted her Asylum and
only returned her to wiconsin after obtaining a commitment that there would be a review of her case she returned to
the states in April of 1991 there was enough proof that police had mishandled the investigation that Lori was given
the right to a new trial not wanting to risk the same Prejudice to her good looks and overall infamy she believed to
have happened in her first trial Lori took a deal she pled no contest to the second degree murder and was sentenced
to 20 years which was commuted the time served she was released from custody 3 hours after the hearing having served
served a little over 10 years for the murder of Christine Schultz which to me the fact that they
were willing to give her time served for murder I'm like yeah I don't I don't even think you guys were convinced that
she did this yeah I think so I think they looked back on this case and was like that was very circumstantial there
were a lot of conflicting stories it wasn't really enough to hold water which is such a tragedy for Lori one and then
for Christine too that perhaps her the real person that murdered her I mean got away with it forever yeah and is just
walking around exactly it's so scary so Lori went on to do a lot of things she was an artist she had exhibitions she
moved to Washington State to be closer to her parents who lived in Vancouver at the time she went on to write a book
about her experience called woman on trial I just finished it it's really good and she even had an interesting
incident with Dr Phil she continued to do press she was on the Oprah show she went on Dr Phil and what she was going
to do on Dr Phil was he was going to do um a DNA test on some evidence they had and she was going to go back on the Dr
Phil and kind of like open the envelope and reveal like whether or not it was her DNA or not and while uh the DNA test
was happening she was sequestered in I believe it was like a rented apartment and she was supposedly like locked in
there with no phone or anything and I guess to ensure that the results would be a surprise on the show and she kind
of came down with like this PTSD attack she was getting flashbacks from prison she was getting really panicked she was
in this apartment on the second floor and she ended up jump ended up jumping out the window and she injured herself
so badly that she had to have the lower part of one leg amputated that is mindblowing when I read that absolutely
insane I guess she severed an artery and like fractured a couple bones and then it became infected so it was amputated
from the knee down oh oh my God it's so scary and such a strange story and it ended up you know with the DNA results
ended up being inconclusive so that didn't even wasn't even all that that's awful wow not that they could try her
again even if it wasn't so it didn't matter either way yeah Lori was diagnosed with PTSD she had hepatitis C
and suffered from alcoholism which led to passing away a young age she was only in her early 50s when she passed away
from liver and kidney failure in 2010 so young so young definitely and what a way
to go I mean that's awful and what a life yeah a lot packed into a short period of time and just really marked
with tragedy and she never got the justice that I I think she deserved personally absolutely and it must have
been so stressful going through all of that but of course by the time you're in your 40s and 50s you know you're maybe
you're dependent on substances and your body's really been through it it just I believe led to a really young death for
her absolutely and there's all kinds of unanswered questions in this case like I
read that there was male DNA found on Christine's body that never really got tested and it seems that her boyfriend
at the time was cleared so you wonder like he had to have been cleared somehow so did they test that DNA and I think
they cleared him with an alibi with an alibi so maybe they didn't even and it's like so why didn't anybody ever test
that DNA yeah so weird and then there was like um there was hair I think it was the hair that was not the one found
on Christine's calf because I think that was the wig hair but there was other hair found at the crime scene and they
they came out uh a hair analyst from a a crime lab in Madison Wisconsin concluded
that they were consistent with blonde hairs that were found in Lorie's brush but then the medical examiner who worked
on the case came out later and completely opposed that claim and she said I recovered no blonde or red hairs
of any length or textures all the hairs I recovered from the body were Brown and
were grossly identical to the hair of the victim and then she went on I do not like to suggest that evidence was
altered in any way but I can find no logical explanation for what amounted to the appearance of blonde hair in an
envelope that contained no such hair at the time it was sealed by me yikes is Sinister is the fact that I mean cuz I
don't think that the the uh the hair Analyst at the crime lab was lying obviously but it's like the hair
was in the envelope it's like how' it get in the envelope and I mean sorry but who had access to that brush the medical
examiner is coming right out and being like I don't like to CU she's like I'm not going to say it but like it wasn't
there when I saw it right so how did it end up there yeah and then it's so crazy
it is and then I also read and this is I think this was just recently reported on
that and it was reported on by Milwaukee magazine they said new ballistics tests
revealed that the gun that Lori supposedly used was actually not the murder weapon that's interesting and I couldn't
find like really anything else on that but they they retested some of the guns and it was at least coming into question
it was coming into question so there's just a lot unanswered here oh and then one more thing Fred I guess was a uh
allegedly in one of the incriminating photos that Lori had so nak book full on included the new really yeah she was
like [ __ ] you Fred she like for revenge porn but in a public place it wasn't like it
was a selfie he sent her or anything but yeah so that's that's interesting that he was in one of those picture and I'm
not saying anything it's just interesting that he was in one of those photos and that she was going to go to
the department with those photos you know it is interesting I don't know there's there's just so much like dirty
stuff happening in that environment that it's like it's all been so tainted yeah it
started it's hard to find any truth it started with corruption and I feel like it ended with at the very least just
mishandling yeah so and it's really sad it's it's so sad for Lori because I really don't believe she did it and what
a life again I don't know who did it but I really don't think she did it and I think she to have that kind of life
based on that is wild and so sad and tragic and then it's so sad for Christine and her two boys like I don't
know if her two boys wanted you know are trying to just move on and don't want to
know but it's like to not know who did that yeah I can't even imagine and it's so sad yeah it's so sad all the way
around it's such a crazy situation yeah I hope that somehow they could like test
that DNA someday or and you know maybe the Playboy murders will make people want to yeah make it happen more maybe
that would be very interesting for sure that'd be crazy is just one of the stories that
you're going to cover in your new series and I'm so excited to see it seriously soed thank you so much I'm really proud
of it and you did a great job telling that story by the way you really did thank you I was nervous I'm like oh I
got to tell the story their style it was perfect you did a great job that's a captivating story for sure it
is and I'm just going to have you say really quickly where people can watch it cuz I did not ask you where people can
watch the new show oh yeah the Playboy murders season 2 premieres on Monday January 22nd on
Investigation Discovery and after that it will be available to stream on Max so excited hell yeah we love ID Discovery
here oh yeah it's on in my house 247 I just uh go back and forth between that and Bravo Perfect combo awesome you got
the best of both worlds right there well guys first of all thank you so much hly
for joining us again and guys we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird as this case
and not so weird that you don't go check out the Playboy murders and listen to my
dog spark for a little while W [Music] Wu

Holly Madison joins us to give us a sneak peak at one of the cases they are covering on Season Two of the Playboy Murders. We talk about the tragic murder of Christine Schultz and the trial, conviction, and escape of Laurie Bembenek. It's a tragic story that is light on justice for anyone!

She also chats with us about the second season overall of the Playboy Murders which premiers on January 22nd! You can find it on Investigation ID and stream it on MAX!

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

Holly Madison discusses <i>The Playboy Murders</i> season 2 and the wrongful conviction of Lori Benbenck for the murder of Christine Schultz.

Key points

Holly Madison Returns. Holly Madison joins the podcast to discuss her new show, 'The Playboy Murders.'
Season 2 Excitement. The second season of 'The Playboy Murders' premieres January 22nd with seven unique episodes.
Unraveling the Case. The hosts delve into the complex story of Lori Ben benck, a former Playboy bunny.
Behind the Headlines. Discussion on how media portrayal affected Lori Ben benck's trial and public perception.
Lori's Lawsuit. Lori filed a lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department after her dismissal.
Lori's Pursuit of Justice. Lori's determination to seek justice is fueled by her father's experiences with corruption.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I still don't really know what happened!

Elena's confusion about the case's outcome.

5:50WatchFeb 1, 2024

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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