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The real woman was alot older and not as beautiful as Donna Mills. As you read through news articles you will see that the movie left out whole sections of her Marjorie's life, such as the death of her adoptive mother etc. As of today she is still in the Arizona Department of Corrections system.

Millionairess Arrested for Murder Congdon Mansion

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

November 3, 1992, Saint Paul Edition

SECTION: News; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 793 words

HEADLINE: Hagen may have thought he was part of suicide pact

BYLINE: Joe Kimball; Staff Writer

BODY:
Notes left by the 83-year-old husband of Marjorie Congdon Hagen indicate that he may have believed he was entering into a suicide pact with his wife shortly before she was to start a prison term for attempted arson.

But only Wally Hagen died at the couple's home in Ajo, Ariz.

Marjorie Hagen, 59, was charged Saturday with second-degree murder, which in Arizona includes assistance with a suicide. Investigators said they plan to continue the investigation and may seek charges of first-degree (premeditated) murder.

Investigators found suicide notes in the Hagens' home, where Wally Hagen's body was found Friday afternoon. Earlier in the day, a passer-by and neighbors had reported the smell of natural gas in the area; Marjorie Hagen told police that she had left a gas burner on in the house.

Autopsy results were not yet available.

Marjorie Hagen, then known as Marjorie Caldwell, was acquitted in 1979 of charges that she helped plan the murder of her mother, Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon. Hagen's husband at the time, Roger Caldwell, was convicted of the murders, and later killed himself. She later served 21 months in prison for burning a house in the Lake Minnetonka community of Mound.

Police would not reveal the content of the notes, but sources said they were written by Wally Hagen and indicate that he may have believed the couple planned a double suicide. Marjorie Hagen appeared unaffected by the natural gas when police arrived at the home, and authorities say they don't believe she intended to kill herself.

Wally Hagen's death came just hours before Marjorie Hagen was to have surrendered to police after being convicted the day before of attempted arson. Wally Hagen had been very ill, she told the judge, who gave her 24 hours of freedom to find someone to care for him.

But Wally Hagen apparently was not as ill as Marjorie led people to believe, neighbors said. And even though he had testified on her behalf from a gurney in his wife's arson trial, jurors had seen him getting out of a car, unaided, the day before.

"He was very energetic. To me, it seemed like he might have been in his early 70s," said Mary Duran, a neighbor who said she likes to think she was Marjorie Hagen's best friend in Ajo.

And Concha Lopez, who lived nearby, said she saw Wally Hagen walk his dog around the block recently. "It seemed to me he was OK," she said.

Marjorie Hagen told people that her husband suffered from Hodgkin's disease, a chronic enlargement of the lymph nodes. And she was regularly injecting him with a remedy obtained in Mexico, 35 miles from Ajo, Duran said. The remedy was a concoction of vitamins, readily available in Mexico, she said.

In early 1991, Marjorie Hagen was in jail for several months, unable to post $ 50,000 bail on the arson charges. While she was away, Wally Hagen prospered, neighbors said.

"He went from being a little guy in a wheelchair to driving all around town, flirting with waitresses," said Gabrielle David of the Ajo Copper News. "For his age, he was an active, vital person. He wasn't jumping over fences or anything, but he moved well."

During those months in prison, Duran visited Marjorie Hagen. "She was very unhappy, and said it was a terrible place to be," Duran said. "I could see her perspiring in the heavy prison garment she was wearing, while she was on the other side of the window."

Marjorie Hagen eventually posted the bail, and returned home to Ajo. Her husband became quite ill again, she told friends. And she was able to repeatedly postpone her arson trial because of his poor health.

After her conviction for attempted arson Thursday, Hagen drove her husband home from the Tucson courthouse. Fearing she might flee to Mexico, police were alerted to stop her if she headed south. One officer did meet up with her, apparently by coincidence, at a Tuscon-area store, and spoke briefly with her, officials said.

Hagen's attorneys have alleged that she was stopped and harassed several times on her way home that night, but police said there are no other reported stops.

Wally Hagen's three children, all of whom live in the Twin Cities, flew to Tucson over the weekend to collect their father's body. But sheriff's officials refused to release the body because it might be needed as evidence.

Duran said yesterday that she can't believe Marjorie would harm Wally. "It's hard to believe Marjie would do anything to cause the death of Wally," she said.

"She was very concerned about him, feeding him well and making sure he took his medication. I'd hate to think that Marjie had anything to do with it. But then again, one never knows."



Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

November 18, 1992, Metro Edition

SECTION: News; Pg. 3B

LENGTH: 487 words

HEADLINE: Hagen charges may be dropped for now;
Officials still gathering evidence in husband's death

BYLINE: Joe Kimball; Staff Writer

BODY:
Arizona officials may temporarily drop murder charges against Marjorie Congdon Hagen today. But they continue to gather evidence, which, they say, will prove she killed her 82-year-old husband.

Her attorney, though, said the dismissal will prove that there is no substance to the accusation.

Hagen, 60, became well-known in Minnesota after the 1977 slaying of her mother, Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon. Hagen was charged in the death, but she was acquitted. Her then-husband, Roger Caldwell, was convicted.

Now, Hagen is accused of killing Wally Hagen Oct. 30.

Although murder charges were filed the next day, Arizona law requires prosecutors to convene a grand jury or hold a preliminary hearing soon after charges are filed. Officials in Tucson already got one extension - with the cooperation of Hagen's attorney - but are unlikely to get another.

Marjorie Hagen is already serving a term for attempted arson. Officials said they hope to refile the murder charges when additional tests are completed and more evidence is gathered.

She was convicted Oct. 29 of trying to burn down a neighbor's house in Ajo, Ariz., about 80 miles southwest of Phoenix. After the verdict, she persuaded a judge to grant her 24 hours of freedom to find a place for her ailing husband to live. She had told many people that Wally Hagen was dying of cancer. But the next day, the odor of natural gas was noticed coming from the couple's home, and several hours later Wally Hagen was found dead. Preliminary tests found no apparent signs of cancer in Wally Hagen, and other tests "are favorable" to proceed with a case against Marjorie Hagen, investigators say.

Police are trying to gather more samples of Wally Hagen's handwriting. Notes found in the Hagen home indicated that Wally Hagen may have believed that he and his wife were planning to commit suicide together.

Despite the plans for dismissal, authorities said yesterday they are now more confident about their case. However, Hagen's attorney, Ed Bolding, said he won't be surprised if the charges are never refiled. "I've been predicting all along that they didn't have anything," he said. "They simply don't have any kind of case to show there's been a crime by Marj." He said that the murder charges were simply a "payback," because prosecutors tried to convict Hagen of arson, but the jury found her guilty only of attempted arson.

"If this had been anyone else who lived with her husband for years in a loving relationship, and he was in as ill health as Wally was, life would have gone on as usual. There might have been a quiet investigation. Instead, they lock her up on a million-dollar bond," he said.

Marjorie Hagen is also awaiting trial on another arson charge, for allegedly burning her own recreational vehicle and other property while the vehicle was at a repair shop.


Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

June 12, 1993, Metro Edition

SECTION: News; Pg. 3B

LENGTH: 589 words

HEADLINE: Marjorie Hagen given 15-year sentence

BYLINE: Joe Kimball; Staff Writer

BODY:
Marjorie Congdon Hagen was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for burning an Arizona business and trying to burn down a neighbor's house.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Frank Dawley gave Hagen the maximum sentence allowable for the two arson charges. He also ordered her to pay $ 39,000 in restitution to the damaged business.

Under Arizona rules, Hagen, 59, must serve at least 10 years of the sentence before she is eligible for release, officials said.

Also yesterday, authorities said it is unlikely that they will file new murder charges against Hagen in connection with the mysterious death of her husband last fall.

Hagen is the daughter of Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon, who was murdered in 1977 in one of Minnesota's most celebrated homicide cases. Roger Caldwell, Hagen's husband at the time, was convicted of the murder and later confessed. Hagen was charged with helping plan the crime, but was acquitted by a Hastings jury in 1978.

It's the second time that Hagen has gone to prison for arson. She was convicted of arson and insurance fraud in Hennepin County, in connection with a 1982 fire in Mound. She served 21 months in the Shakopee women's prison.

After her release, Hagen moved to Ajo, Ariz., in 1990 with her new husband, Wally Hagen. Almost immediately, the tiny retirement community had a series of arsons. Hagen was arrested after police were alerted to suspicious activity and staked out a neighbor's house.

She also was charged with starting a fire that destroyed an Arizona recreational-vehicle repair business. Police said Hagen had taken her RV there for repairs but was unable to pay the bill. They alleged that she burned down the business out of spite. She pleaded no contest to that charge.

Hagen was convicted by a jury of the Ajo fire last October, but convinced Judge Dawley to allow her 24 hours of freedom to care for her husband, who she said was seriously ill. The next day Wally Hagen was found dead. A suicide note indicated that Wally Hagen may have believed that he and his wife were going to kill themselves, but she was unharmed. Police arrested her the next day and charged her with murder, but the charges were temporarily dropped two weeks later when forensic evidence was not ready in time to meet a legal deadline. Police contended that they would refile the charges when the tests were completed, but authorities said yesterday that no more charges are expected in connection with Wally Hagen's death.

"I feel good that she got the maximum sentence on the arson charges, but I'm disappointed we couldn't make more progress on the murder charges," said Lt. Tom Taylor of the Pima County Sheriff's Office. Taylor, who arrested Hagen on the Ajo arson case and found Wally Hagen's body, said he urged prosecutors to take the murder case to trial. "I would have liked to have had a jury look at all the facts," he said.

Wally Hagen's daughter, Nancy Kaufmann, said yesterday that the lengthy arson sentence does not mitigate her disappointment over the failure of authorities to charge Hagen in the death of her father. "There's no doubt in my mind that she murdered my father. She has taken a lot away from my family," she said.

Kaufmann and her brother, Tom Hagen, urged Judge Dawley to give Hagen a lengthy sentence. "She's a career criminal and must be put away for the protection of society in general, and us, specifically," they said in a letter to the judge.


December 18, 1994 Sunday, FIRST

SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A2

LENGTH: 1389 words

HEADLINE: CHILDREN IN LEGAL BATTLE TO GAIN FATHER'S ASHES;
SUSPICIOUS STEPMOM CLAIMS RIGHT

BYLINE: By MICHELE COOK Knight-Ridder Newspapers

BODY:
Wally Hagen got to know his way around a courtroom after he married a Minnesota heiress with a habit of arson and a notoriety for murder.

Two years after his mysterious death, the 83-year-old electrician still can't get out of the courthouse. His cremated remains are locked in an Arizona court safe while his children and his widow argue over who should bury him.

The woman who won't give up the urn is well-known in these parts by her string of names: Marjorie Congdon LeRoy Caldwell Bannister Hagen.

Wally Hagen's children just call her trouble.

"The bottom line is she took our father away from us," said Tom Hagen, one of Wally's three grown children from a previous marriage. "We think she probably killed our mother, she killed our father. And now we want him back."

Marjorie Hagen, 61, first grabbed headlines 15 years ago in what remains one of Minnesota's great whodunits. That's when her rich mother, mining heiress Elisabeth Congdon, 83, of Duluth, Minn., was found smothered to death in her bed, and a night nurse found bludgeoned to death with a candlestick.

Marjorie and her second husband, Roger Caldwell, were charged with the murders in a purported pact to speed Marjorie's inheritance. In separate trials, Caldwell was convicted, while Marjorie was acquitted in 1978 by jurors who liked her so much they later invited her to a party.

Wally Hagen and his first wife, Helen, were among courtroom supporters who cheered her freedom. They met her in 1963, when their children and hers took figure skating lessons at a Golden Valley, Minn., arena.

But Wally's children say their lives turned nightmarish when their mother died in her bed in 1980 and their father moved in with Marjorie a short time later.

The Hagen family is breaking its silence over their infamous in-law because they have run out of money to fight her in court and because of the settlement her attorney and a judge suggested last week: splitting Wally's remains like a pie.

"I'm just appalled that they told me to divide my dad up," said Nancy Kaufmann, manager of Parade Ice Garden in Minneapolis, and one of Wally's children.

"What would they do if it was still a body?" said Julie Hagen, Tom Hagen's wife.

The family filed suit to gain control of Wally Hagen's body after he was found dead in his Ajo, Ariz., house and authorities charged his wife with murder.

Investigators believed that Marjorie, the chatty resident who quilted with the local sewing club and sometimes did the Bible readings at a Catholic church, murdered her husband just before going to prison for arson.

But autopsy results were inconclusive. Wally died of a drug overdose, but prosecutors said they could not prove whether the death was accidental or intentional. They had notes from the couple suggesting a suicide pact, but no evidence linking Marjorie to the death.

"There was no way that we could prove that he didn't simply sit there and say, 'My wife is going to prison, my life is nothing without her, I'll take these pills.' We couldn't disprove that," prosecutor Bill Dickinson said this week.

Today, Marjorie is Arizona Prisoner No. 98685, serving 15 years for attempting to burn down a neighbor's house and burning a vehicle. Her first chance for parole is Feb. 19, 2002.

So from her cell, she is fending off Wally's children and their attempts to bury his remains next to their mother in a Mound, Minn., cemetery.

"Really, I think it's entertainment for her," said the children's attorney, Robert Hooker. "I think she enjoys making people miserable. There are always victims in her wake."

The children paint Marjorie as a brilliant villainess who brainwashed their father, squandered his money and kept him from having a grandfatherly relationship with their children. They do not believe it is coincidence that three people close to Marjorie died in their beds.

They claim a right to their father's remains on grounds that the marriage was illegal. Indeed, authorities charged Marjorie with bigamy after the 1981 marriage in Valley City, N.D., although the case was never pressed because the couple left the state after the ceremony.

Marjorie's attorney did not return calls, but in a deposition last year, Marjorie said she divorced Caldwell in Tijuana, Mexico. She is not making her claim easy to disprove - she can't remember exactly what year she got the divorce and she says she doesn't have a copy of the decree.

"I believe that is up to you to prove and to find," she told Hooker.

An expert on Mexican law said it was a breeze for Americans to get speedy divorces in Tijuana during the 1970s and early 1980s. The Mexican courts did not require the signature of both spouses. The paperwork could be done in a couple of days for $500.

"Sometimes it was a mass production with 40 or more people appearing before the judge at a time," said Boris Kozolchyk, director of the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade in Tucson.

He said divorces are listed in a public registry, but the children's attorney said he has not yet looked for documentation in Tijuana.

For his part, Caldwell said no one ever told him he was divorced. He was released from prison after evidence at his wife's trial led the Supreme Court to rule that he deserved another trial. Rather than risk being convicted again, Caldwell accepted the prosecution's offer that he plead guilty and walk away a free man. He killed himself six years later, leaving a suicide note in which he claimed his innocence.

Nancy Kaufmann and Tom Hagen suspect Marjorie's involvement in a long list of bizarre occurrences that began when their father moved in with her around 1980.

Among them:

Helen Hagen's death. The woman who was married to Wally for 40 years died one week after being placed in a Twin Cities nursing home. State investigators looked into the death because a nurse saw Marjorie feeding Helen something from a jar shortly before lapsing into a coma, according to the children. Kaufmann said investigators told her they had insufficient evidence to charge anyone, and that her mother's body had probably been buried too long to exhume it for tests.

Shortly after Helen's death, her home was ransacked and a will she had drawn up naming daughter Nancy as the recipient of valuable lakeshore land was stolen. The inheritance had to be litigated, and Wally and Marjorie received one-third of the proceeds from the sale of the land.

The arson and insurance fraud convictions that landed Marjorie in a Minnesota prison in 1984. She set fire to a house she and Wally were selling. Wally was never charged in the crime and stood by his wife.

Wally's decision to cut ties with his children and grandchildren. For nearly 10 years, Nancy Kaufmann and Tom Hagen say they rarely knew where their father and Marjorie were living and resorted to contacting there father through the attorney who represented Marjorie at the murder trial. They say their father explained that Marjorie didn't want him talking to them. During the few telephone conversations the children had with their father, they say Marjorie's voice could be heard telling him what to say.

So far, the effort to reclaim their father has cost the family $15,000. A trial is scheduled for March, but they fear they might have to forfeit the case because they have run out of money to pay the attorney.

Marjorie's financial situation is unknown. After Elisabeth Congdon's murder, Marjorie's own children sued to block her inheritance on grounds that she should not profit from the death. In an out-of-court settlement, Marjorie was believed to have been given the annual interest off one trust, estimated at $50,000 a year.

But that income doesn't ensure that she pays bills on time. The morgue that cremated Wally delayed giving the urn to the court because Hagen had not paid her half of the bill. The children said they paid their half and part of Marjorie's portion.

Kaufmann and Marjorie say they have fought long and hard for the remains because they need "a sense of closure." If they lose, they are unclear how Marjorie wishes to dispose of their dad.

"I'm afraid she's going to win another piece of our lives," Tom Hagen said.

"And this," added his wife Julie, "is the last thing we have to give up."






Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

August 26, 1999, Thursday

SECTION: Local; Ed. FINAL; Pg. 5A

LENGTH: 576 words

HEADLINE: FAMILY NO STRANGER TO SLAYINGS
WOMAN SUSPECTED OF KILLING MOTHER WAS DAUGHTER OF MAN WHO MURDERED MOTHER-IN-LAW

BYLINE: Lynn Bartels, News Staff Writer, Librarian Carol Kasel contributed to this report.

BODY:
Eerie coincidences haunt the family of a woman suspected of smothering her 65-year-old mother and packing the body in 700 pounds of salt.

Chris O'Neil, who committed suicide Tuesday after Arapahoe County deputies found her mother's body, is the daughter of convicted murderer Roger Caldwell.

He committed suicide in 1988, four years after being released from prison, where he served time for smothering his wealthy mother-in-law and bludgeoning her nurse to death in one of Minnesota's most notorious murder cases.

Roger Caldwell had married an heiress's daughter after divorcing O'Neil's mother, Martha Lowe Burns.
Arapahoe County Sheriff deputies found Burns' body Monday night in a makeshift coffin buried under 700 pounds of rock salt and surrounded by roses, candles and stuffed animals.

''All I can tell you is this comes as a shock,'' said Howard Caldwell, one of O'Neil's uncles in Latrobe, Pa.

Arapahoe County coroner Michael Doberson announced Wednesday that Burns died of asphyxiation resulting from smothering. O'Neil, 45, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Undersheriff Grayson Robinson said the case remains active although the chief suspect is dead.

''We've got a lot of work to piece together,'' he said. ''If it was in fact a homicide, we want to make sure that Miss O'Neil was not the only suspect.''
Mother and daughter lived together in Burns' house at 6751 S. Albion Way in unincorporated Arapahoe County.

Deputies showed up Monday after Burns' other daughter, Karen Katz in California, called the sheriff because she was concerned that her mother hadn't been to work since Aug. 8.

That's when they found the gruesome scene in the basement.

Neighbors said O'Neil had moved in with her mother after her marriage collapsed two or three years ago.

Howard Caldwell said he hadn't seen his nieces in years, but that his late wife had kept in touch with Burns until she died two years ago. He said that Burns and her daughters had little contact with Roger Caldwell after the divorce.

''When Roger was in trouble, my wife contacted Martha. She said she wasn't interested in anything Roger was concerned with,'' Howard Caldwell said.

Roger Caldwell had remarried in 1976 and settled in Golden. His second wife, Marjorie Congdon Leroy Caldwell, was the daughter of Elizabeth Congdon, one of the wealthiest women in Minnesota. She had inherited her father's mining and lumber fortune.

Congdon and her nurse were found dead in Congdon's turn-of-the century house in Duluth in June 1977.
Police arrested Caldwell, saying he flew to Minnesota and killed the elderly woman because he was deeply in debt and wanted to speed up his wife's inheritance.

A Minnesota jury in 1978 convicted Caldwell of murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison. His wife then was arrested on a conspiracy charge, but she was acquitted. Information that surfaced at her trial led the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1982 to overturn Caldwell's conviction.
In a plea agreement, Caldwell confessed to the murders and was released from prison.

He went home to Pennsylvania, where he suffered from alcoholism and depression, according to various newspaper accounts.

He maintained he hadn't killed the women, but confessed so he could get out of prison.

He slashed his wrists with a steak knife in 1988 at the age of 54. Only eight people went to his funeral. His former wife and his daughters were not among them.


Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)

November 15, 2001, Thursday, Metro Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 1080 words

HEADLINE: Congdon Hagen's parole hearing today;
Her relatives have urged repeatedly that she be kept in prison in Arizona.

BYLINE: Joe Kimball; Staff Writer

DATELINE: Phoenix, Ariz.

BODY:
RSEC: Marjorie Congdon Hagen's lawyer calls her a misunderstood grandmother who has been in prison far too long for attempted arson and who should be released after a parole hearing today in Arizona.

But several of Hagen's relatives say they understand her all too well and have written letters urging Arizona officials to keep her locked up.

"We just don't want her out," said Jennifer Johnson of Racine, Wis., Hagen's sister.

Hagen _ a major figure in the 1977 murder of her mother, Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon _ has been imprisoned near Phoenix since being convicted in 1992 of attempted arson.

Her sentence for trying to burn down an occupied house in Ajo, Ariz., runs until February 2007, but her first opportunity for parole is today.

"She's done well in prison, she's not a danger to the community, and she's been an outstanding teacher in the prison system," said Edward Bolding, Hagen's attorney and longtime friend.

The 15-year sentence was harsh for attempted arson, he said. "I've had clients serve less time for murder," he said.

But Hagen's sister and the children of Hagen's last husband, Wally Hagen, disagree. Of the eight letters sent to the parole board in Phoenix from relatives and the man whose house was nearly burned in Arizona, all are stamped "Opposed."

A day of freedom

Wally Hagen died suddenly on Oct. 30, 1992, the day after Marjorie Hagen's arson conviction. Marjorie Hagen had persuaded the sentencing judge to give her one day of freedom before reporting to prison, so she could make arrangements for someone to care for her ailing husband.

Hours before she was to turn herself in, police found Wally Hagen dead. They believed it was either assisted suicide or murder. Tests showed that Hagen died of a pill overdose, and police believe that he'd also been exposed to gas from the kitchen stove through a garden hose. Marjorie Hagen was arrested and charged with murder.

But the murder charge was dropped when no definitive evidence of a crime was found, and Marjorie Hagen began serving the arson sentence.

Even before their father's death, Hagen's three children believed Marjorie Hagen had beguiled him and turned him against his family. And it didn't end with his death; the children and Marjorie battled for months over Hagen's remains. In the end, the judge gave half the ashes to Marjorie and half to the children.

Marjorie Hagen was a household name in Minnesota long before those Arizona events.

On June 27, 1977, Elisabeth Congdon was found dead in her Duluth mansion on the shores of Lake Superior. Also dead was a night nurse; Congdon, 83, was partially paralyzed and needed around-the-clock care.

Although police publicly called it a botched burglary, they immediately focused their attention on Marjorie Hagen and her husband at the time, Roger Caldwell. The couple lived in Colorado and, despite Marjorie's wealthy family, was penniless.

Ten days after the murders, police charged Roger Caldwell, alleging that he killed his mother-in-law to speed up a multimillion-dollar inheritance. After his conviction, police also charged Marjorie Caldwell with murder, claiming she had planned the crime. After a three-month trial, a jury in Hastings found her not guilty.

Roger Caldwell was then released from prison and granted a new trial, on the basis of evidence uncovered in Marjorie Caldwell's trial. Roger Caldwell, though, pleaded guilty to the murders in a plea bargain that freed him after serving five years in prison. He later killed himself in Latrobe, Pa.

While Roger Caldwell was imprisoned, Marjorie Caldwell married Wally Hagen, an old family friend in North Dakota. But officials there found no evidence Marjorie had ever divorced Roger, and bigamy charges were filed against her, though she was never prosecuted.

In 1983, Marjorie Hagen was convicted of arson and insurance fraud for burning down a house in Mound. She served 21 months in prison. After her release, the Hagens moved to Arizona.

In the early 1990s, the tiny town of Ajo was plagued by a series of arson fires. Police suspected kids were burning down the houses until one night, a Border Patrol office found a rag soaked in kerosene on his window sill. He called police, who were waiting in the house when someone lit a match by the window. After a brief chase, they arrested Marjorie Hagen.

Emotional letters

During her years in the Arizona prison system, Hagen has been found guilty of 12 prison violations, including lying to officials, disobeying orders and refusing to work. In her latest prison profile, she is considered neither a public nor institutional risk.

She has worked as a law library clerk, education aide, on the yard detail, clothing clerk and chaplain clerk over the years.

Attorney Bolding said Hagen is helping Spanish-speaking inmates learn English. She'd like to help more inmates, Bolding said, but prison administrators "won't take advantage of her talents because she's an assertive person."

Bolding wouldn't elaborate on those disputes. "With a parole hearing coming up, we don't want anyone to think anything other than that she's an excellent inmate who's served her time," he said. Hagen declined a request for an interview for this story.

Concerned that Hagen might be freed on parole, her sister and stepchildren have sent emotional letters to Arizona officials.

"One of our concerns is that she'll get out and fleece some other poor soul," said Nancy Kaufmann, one of Wally Hagen's three children. "I'd hate to see some other gentleman get taken in like my dad."

Kaufmann and her brother, Tom, plan to attend the parole hearing. "I want her to know that I'm still watching her," Kaufmann said.

Bolding has read the letters and said they are "dripping with vitriol." But he said he understands the Hagen children's grief. "They believe Ms. Hagen was instrumental in the death of their father; she was charged with that, but it was rightly dismissed."

Jennifer Johnson, Hagen's sister, said she's worried that if Hagen is released, she "could latch onto another family and ruin their lives."

"I just can't get beyond it, not after what she did to my mother. The hurt never goes away."

_ Joe Kimball is author of "Secrets of the Congdon Mansion" and is at 651-298-1553 or joek@startribune.com



Update

Marjorie Congdon is in trouble again.

Element of Truth Movie Based on Elisabeth Congdon

The son-in-law of millionairess Elisabeth Congdon goes on trial for her murder today, nine months after she was found smothered in the bedroom of her movie-set mansion on the shores of Lake Superior.

Roger Sipes Caldwell, 43, goes on trial in Crow Wing County District Court on two charges of first-degree murder in the slaying of the 83-year-old spinster and her night nurse, Velma Pietila, 67, the night of June 27, 1977.

Congdon, an invalid was smothered with a pillow in her bed. The nurse was bludgeoned with a grass candles-tick.

Caldwell is the husband of Marjorie Congdon, foster daughter and one of the heirs of the $50 million estate of Elisabeth Congdon.



1978

Roger Caldwell has sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms for the 1977 murders of his mother-in-law, elderly Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon, and here night nurse.

District Court Judge Jack Litman said he decided on consecutive rather than concurrent terms because of the nature of the crime. Caldwell, 44, will spend a minimum of 35 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

Caldwell's motive for murder was an $8.2 million inheritance that his wife, Marjorie, Congdon's adopted daughter, was to receive on Congdon's death, prosecutors charged.







Hagen, 59, will be sentenced next month in Tucson. Because she has a previous arson conviction in Minnesota, she faces a possible seven-year sentence, officials said. Hagen is the daughter of Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon, who was murdered in her bed in 1977. Roger Caldwell, Hagen's husband at the time, was convicted of the murder, and later confessed. Hagen was charged with helping plan the crime, but was acquitted in 1978. In 1984, Hagen was convicted in Hennepin County of arson and insurance fraud in connection with a 1982 fire in Mound. She served 21 months in prison.

She and her new husband, Wally, settled in Arizona after her release from prison. They moved to Ajo, Ariz., in 1990, and almost immediately the small retirement community was plagued by a string of arson fires. In March 1991, police arrested Hagen in the early morning hours after she placed a kerosene-soaked rag on a neighbor's window sill.

Hagen had tried unsuccessfully to delay her recent trial, saying her husband is ill and needs her constant care. When Wally Hagen testified in the trial, he was wheeled into the courtroom on a gurney with a "hearing ear" dog at his side. Marjorie Hagen has also been charged with another count of arson for allegedly burning a recreational vehicle. A trial in that case is pending.




Marjorie Congdon Hagen, acquitted more than a decade ago in connection with the murder of her adoptive mother, Duluth heiress Elisabeth Congdon, was arrested and charged Saturday with murdering her 82-year-old husband in Ajo, Ariz. Police say she may have gassed him.

The body of Wallace Hagen was found Friday just minutes before Marjorie Hagen, 59, was to turn herself in to authorities to begin serving a sentence for attempted arson. She was convicted Thursday of trying to burn down a neighbor's house last year.

Wallace Hagen's body was found in the couple's tiny retirement home shortly after police were notified of a natural gas smell in the neighborhood.

The judge in the arson case had allowed Marjorie Hagen 24 hours after her conviction to take her husband home to Ajo.

Marjorie Hagen, at the time known as Marjorie Caldwell, was implicated in the 1977 murders of Elisabeth Congdon and her night nurse in the Congdon mansion on Duluth's lakefront, but she was acquitted by a jury in 1979. Roger Caldwell, who was then her husband, was convicted in the case.

Marjorie Hagen's sister, Jennifer Johnson, said yesterday that she was shocked but not surprised at the latest development in the Congdon saga. The two women are Elisabeth Congdon's only children, adopted in the 1930s by the unmarried daughter of Chester Congdon, who made a fortune in northern Minnesota in mining.

Johnson, who lives in Racine, Wis., said she has had no contact with Marjorie Hagen for years. Like many other family members, she suspected that Hagen was somehow involved in the murder of their mother, according to court documents.

"I hope they make this stick. I hope they put her away and throw away the key," Johnson said yesterday.

About 1 p.m. Friday, an off-duty police officer riding his bike past the Hagen home smelled gas and notified the sheriff's office. Sheriff's Lt. Tom Taylor, who was scheduled to take Marjorie Hagen into custody four hours later on the attempted arson conviction, then went to the home.

"She told me that she'd left the gas burner on," Taylor said. "I asked if everybody was OK. She said yes. I said, 'I'll see you in a couple hours.' "

Taylor was back in his office at 4:30 when one of Hagen's sons called from the Twin Cities. Marjorie Hagen had just called, the son said, to say that his father was dead.

Taylor and other officers immediately returned to the house, where they found Wallace Hagen's body. Marjorie Hagen told them that she wasn't sure when her husband had died. But Johnson and others said yesterday that Marjorie Hagen had called one of her children from jail and had said her husband had died at noon.

Police searched the house, questioned Hagen and then arrested her at 3:30 a.m. yesterday. She was transferred to a jail in Tucson, Ariz., later yesterday, where she was being held last night in lieu of $ 1 million bail. The local gas company has determined that there was no gas leak at the home, authorities said.

The Hagens were married in Valley City, N.D., on Aug. 7, 1981. But she apparently had never divorced Roger Caldwell, who was in prison at the time, serving a life sentence for the mansion murders. North Dakota officials investigated, and filed bigamy charges against her, but never made an effort to arrest her.

Wallace Hagen's previous wife died in a nursing home shortly before the marriage. She died suddenly, after a period of relative health, family members said. Police sources said Marjorie Hagen was the last person to visit her the night she died. An investigation was started, but no charges were filed because of insufficient evidence.

Marjorie Hagen's name became a household word in Minnesota after the murder of her mother. Elisabeth Congdon was the last living child of mining magnate Chester Congdon. She was 83 on June 27, 1977, when she returned home to the Glensheen Mansion after a trip to Wisconsin.

Roger Caldwell was accused of breaking into her home that night, beating to death the nurse, Velma Pietila, on the staircase, then smothering Congdon in her bed with a pillow.

Family members immediately suspected Marjorie and Roger. The couple was desperately in need of money, the family said, having spent a sizable trust fund that the woman had set up for her daughter.

And family members pointed to an earlier incident when Elisabeth Congdon became very ill after allegedly eating some marmalade brought to her by Hagen.

After Roger Caldwell was convicted of the murders, his wife was indicted on murder charges. Police alleged that she helped plan the murder. But at her trial a key piece of evidence - a thumbprint that seemed to prove Caldwell had been in Duluth the day of the murder - was discredited, and Hagen was acquitted.

Based on that new evidence, the state Supreme Court ruled that Roger Caldwell deserved a new trial. But faced with witnesses whose memories were now fading more than five years after the murder, St. Louis County authorities decided not to seek a retrial. Instead, they offered Caldwell a plea bargain: If he'd plead guilty to the murders, he'd be released from prison without having to serve any more time.

Caldwell, who'd been jailed for more than five years, said he considered the offer for "about five seconds." He accepted the deal and returned to his boyhood home of Latrobe, Pa. There, he lived in poverty for six years before killing himself in May 1988. In his suicide note, Caldwell said that he hadn't committed the murders.

After her acquittal in her mother's murder, Marjorie Hagen faced a lawsuit related to the killing. Several of her children from a previous marriage had sued her, saying she had been involved with the murder and should be forbidden from receiving any of the sizable Congdon inheritance.

The case was settled out of court, with the children receiving the bulk of the inheritance, although Hagen was granted a portion of the interest from one of the funds during her lifetime. At the time, one of her sons estimated that she would be getting about $ 40,000 per year.

In 1982, though, Hagen was again in trouble with the law. She was charged with burning down a home in Mound. After her conviction in 1984, she pleaded with the judge not to send her to prison, saying she was needed to take care of Wallace Hagen, who was severely ill. The judge denied her request.

She served 21 months in the Shakopee women's prison. After her release, the Hagens moved to Arizona.

In 1990, they moved to Ajo, where they joined the local church. Wallace Hagen was always in a wheelchair, friends said, and Marjorie Hagen seemed devoted to him, continually at his side.

Soon after the Hagens arrived, though, a spate of arson fires erupted in the city. Police thought they were caused by a gang of kids setting fire to empty homes owned by winter residents from the North.

But on March 24, 1991, a neighbor saw someone put a kerosene-soaked cloth on his windowsill. He contacted police, who staked out the neighborhood that night. About 2 a.m., Marjorie Hagen approached the house and was chased by police. They caught her nearby.

She was in jail for several months, unable to post the $ 50,000 bail. While she was away, neighbors said Wallace Hagen's health improved. He got out of his wheelchair and started eating at the local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Marjorie Hagen would never allow him to eat there, neighbors said.

Marjorie Hagen's lawyers successfully postponed her arson trial for 18 months, saying her husband was ill and needed his wife's attention.

When the trial finally began last month, Wallace Hagen was called to the witness stand. In a grand, theatrical entrance, he was wheeled into the courtroom on a gurney, and gave his testimony lying down.

Court officials said the jury was unimpressed. They reportedly had seen him getting out of a car, unaided, the day before.

The jury found Marjorie Hagen guilty of attempted arson, and because of her previous arson conviction, she faces a mandatory prison sentence of up to seven years. Although she was scheduled to be taken into police custody immediately after the conviction, she convinced the judge to give her an extra day to take her husband home. Sentencing was set for Nov. 24.

Police sources said the Hagens' home was under surveillance Thursday night, and police kept close tabs on the neighborhood Friday. "We were afraid something like this might happen," said a police source.