Element of Truth True Story

2011-11-27T05:59:00.000-08:00

Tidbits

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.

Element of Truth Movie Based on Elisabeth Congdon

2011-11-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

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.

Element of Truth movie

Element of Truth True Story

Element of Truth Movie Based on Elisabeth Congdon