To Catch a Genius | Full Episode

[Music] if you just look at this case and you go this is a man who killed his wife for money that doesn't tell you half the story Paul Curry is a self-centered devious evildoer I see him as a coldblooded killer who's gotten away with it for almost 20 years this isn't an accident this isn't an oops it's not a suicide it's a homicide she was being poisoned she was ingesting something that was making her ill is there something weird in her lipstick is he putting something in her fingernail polish she died from a massive nicotine

poisoning catastrophic levels of nicotine in her system no she's not a smoker she doesn't smoke nicotine poisoning how common is that nicotine is one of the strongest poison ever Linda was absolutely fun we took our high heels out we dressed up we fixed our hair and makeup and we went dancing on the weekends she was a career woman was making good money at that time she did call me and tell me she had met this guy at work and that he was so so smart people described him as a genius people described them as knows

everything about everything this is jeopardy he was on Jeopardy he was and he won he won like 26 $27,000 back in the'80s Linda said you know Paul and I are going to go and get married ends up getting the car going to Vegas he wasn't the most handsome man he was very short he didn't have a whole lot to work with it wasn't looks it wasn't money it was the idea that I am with somebody who so brilliant they had been married maybe a month and she called me one night and says you know Mary

Paul wants to take out a million-- dooll life insurance policy on me what do you think are you crazy are you kidding me why would you do that you know what happened to Linda she starts getting sick week fatigued just looking bad she was so thin bunch of doctors had no idea why he's being the loving husband to his wife oh honey I'm sorry you're so sick and in the back of his mind he's got to be thinking how is she not dead how much of this nicotine do I got to give her to kill

her for crying out loud do you have any eyewitnesses ever seeing him give her any kind of poison no is there any evidence he obtain nicotine direct evidence no there's no evidence this is a hard case but I have no doubt whatsoever that he did it and I believe I'm going to be able to prove it Beyond a reasonable [Music] doubt I'm Aron morard tonight on 48 hours to catch a [Music] genius [Music] [Music] she's not going to make it if she stays with him I said you got to get away from him he's trying

to kill you it's obvious I said leave get out of there Linda I got to get you out of the house to this day friends like Mary seabold just get out of that house and Bill say and RTO I can't believe she wants to stay there can't understand why Linda Curry never left her husband Paul there's know that in my mind that she loved him she died because she loved him Orange County prosecutor Brahim Bai is taking on a case that's been unsolved for nearly two decades but he believes he'll be the one to prove

Paul Curry poison Linda with nicotine up to the moment she died that few minutes before midnight on June 99th 1994 in her mind he's the loving husband who's holding my hand who loves me who plays music for me who tells me all the nice stuff so she wasn't going to believe anything about him she said oh Paul's such a good husband he wouldn't do that Mary seol was one of Linda's closest friends it was instant bonding the two met in the 1960s when they both worked at Southern California Edison inside the Santa Noy nuclear power

plant she was tall I was tall she loved to eat I loved to eat and we could eat in those days what's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Linda fashionista fashionista always a nice new outfit with shoes to match purse to match earrings to match bracelets to match the two career women started at entrylevel positions but quickly moved up up we were go-getters and we wanted to get ahead as Linda advanced in her career moving from secretary to management she divorced two husbands and began dating Bill sandrao a life insurance

salesman what was it that Drew you to her what was it about her she had a great personality very loving we went on trips together we had a great time Linda and sandretto dated on and off for eight years but he didn't want to get married only thing that was bothering me is the way she spent money and she would spend a lot of money she would spend it yeah for every dollar she made she spent two I used to go [Music] crazy and Linda kept spending buying herself a big house in s Clemente I

have never seen a more beautiful house in my whole life Frankie Thurber was a close friend and coworker Linda's house was a dream house it's where a princess would live and Linda thought she had met her prince when she started dating Paul curry in 1989 he was 32 years old and she was 45 they would talk their little baby talk oh Linda my you know little one the little nicknames it was a little bit sickening Curry was hired as an engineer to consult at Southern California Edison teaching the power plants nuclear Engineers about safety issues

Paul had a stir earling reputation he was extremely smart Mike flower was Curry's boss the only real complaint most people had with Paul was that he was too smart too smart too smart but when people would say he's too smart was that because he's arrogant too or just because he showed everybody else up he he let people know but in a playful way I thought that he was very egotistical he thought highly of himself there was no doubt about it Curry bed about winning all those thousands on Jeopardy and being a member of Mena the

international Society of people with high IQs but that didn't bother Linda the two got married on September 12th 1992 3 years after they began dating a passionate relationship I don't think passion played into this relationship I think it was a comfort but it wasn't passion it wasn't passion Linda wondered why her much Young new husband seem so uninterested how did you know that they weren't having any sex she told me and then there were the money issues Paul and Linda had combined annual salaries of at least $140,000 but Linda noticed she had less money than

ever the reason soon became clear Curry was helping to support two Ex-Wives and three children amilies he' kept hidden from Linda it was just those little lies that just kept coming up lies and suspicious Behavior like that $1 million life insurance policy Curry asked Linda to buy making him the beneficiary he comes into this marriage with practically nothing and she's got a beautiful house beautiful Furniture beautiful clothes wonderful circle of friends and what is he bringing to the table and now he wants a life insurance policy on her for a million red flag Linda never

got that extra policy but it hardly mattered because as Curry knew Linda already had several life insurance policies worth almost a million dollars and Curry was named the beneficiary on some of them I said get him off you need to change your life policy right away that's when she told me I'll give it to you and I said no don't give it to me give it to your sister but Linda who had been married just half a year at that point in 1993 was torn so she asked Frankie who was then looking for an apartment

to temporarily move into the Curry House and spy on Paul she was afraid that Paul didn't really love her and she said Frankie would you do me a favor would you watch Paul and see if you think he's genuine with me that he really cares about me and that's when I started watching every move that he made basically Frankie didn't see anything wrong in fact quite the opposite and I went back to her and I said Linda I I've watched everything I I don't see it he dots over you he loves you he can't do

enough for you I don't know why you would be questioning that even Mary never a big fan of Paul's was impressed by the way he pampered Linda he would prepare these exotic wonderful new salad dressings as a test and then sent her upstairs for a hot bath every night he would draw her a bubble bath I mean huge bubbles I said Linda I would kill to have somebody draw me a bubble bath of course he loves you in July of 1993 just short of her first wedding anniversary Linda came down with a mysterious illness she

said I just don't feel well I just don't feel like myself and she couldn't figure out why all of a sudden she'd get sick she became so violently ill that she needed to be hospitalized when I saw Linda in that bed honest to God she looked like an 80-year-old woman her organs were failing they said they didn't even know she was going to make it that [Music] night [Music] [Music] Linda Curry came in with gastrointestinal problems it was July 1993 Linda Curry was rushed to Samaritan Medical Center in San Clane I was assigned to take

care of her that evening Sher Bundy is a registered nurse she was nauseated she had some vomiting I checked her IV so she's connected to an IV at the time yes why for hydration as she was checking that IV drip Bundy noticed something odd there was a overhead light and I could see the ivy bag was cloudy because of the light shining behind it which I knew was not right how unusual is that it's very unusual Bundy reported the incident to hospital brass and the bag was sent to the lab oh my God Linda among

Linda's visitors was Bill srto her former boyfriend she was just emaciated you know what was the cause of this they didn't know at the hospital poisoning was suspected Linda was hospitalized for 21 days she had a stroke and nearly died and then lab workers discovered lidocaine a numbing agent in the contaminated IV bag and reported the incident to the police they began an investigation that focused on one person her husband Paul this is what's so fascinating about this case he was a suspect in poisoning her before she [Music] died back then prosecutor Brahim Bai was

still in law school but eventually in 2006 the case landed on his desk at the Orange County District Attorney's office he was surprised to find detectives at the time had audio taped their interviews with Linda these are the old micro cassettes that they used back in the early to mid90s very unusual to have a case where you had investigators asked the victim who ends up getting killed about the conduct of the person who killed them I was your husband uh-huh and how long have you been married not quite a year police investigators interviewed Linda in

her hospital bed in August 1993 and zeroed in on the key question if somebody were trying to do something to you if they were trying to poison you any idea who would try to do that well the only person I could think of that would have a motive to do it would be Paul and and the only motive I can think of is many but I don't want to really even believe that or think that Linda was candid with detectives admitting that her new husband was sneaky about money issues and had lied about his past

marriages and children still there was one very big butt do you still love Paul yeah I love him very much do you believe he loves you I want to believe that he does he certainly is convincing her friends were telling her run her co-workers were telling her run you take all that and she's saying but he loves me and he takes care of me and I like how I'm feeling because of what he's saying and I like how I'm feeling because of what he's doing and she doesn't run away she stays Linda stayed with Paul

and recovered in the meantime the police investigation went nowhere but then just 5 months later in December 1993 she was again hit with a mystery illness this time Paul took her to a different hospital but the story was much the same she looked like death warmed over Linda's friend Mary seabold was very concerned something's happening to her they don't figure out what it is I didn't know if she's even going to make it and how is Paul acting through this caring and involved but Linda told Mary that her IV bag had been tampered with yet

again an alarm had gone off soon after a nurse report had seen Paul leave Linda's room this time the hospital staff put a clear sign on Linda's door it would say Mr Curry your husband is not allowed unaccompanied into the hospital room what did you think when you saw this sign on the door well I knew that other people had a suspicion that perhaps Paul was doing something to his wife [Music] in fact the police were again called and did a second audio taped interview Linda told cops that Paul was running up high credit card

bills but she still remained fiercely loyal he's a wonderful man I love him and he's always been good to [Music] me the next day detectives interviewed Paul Curry but he stuck to his story that he had no idea why Linda was getting sick I was completely befuddled when doctors couldn't solve the problem I couldn't solve the problem with Linda still in the hospital Mary found documents in the Curry House that fueled her suspicions about Paul on the high boy dresser as I walk into the room there's a bunch of papers well I just kind of

glanced at them but in big script writing I saw the word life insurance in Gold writing and I went oh life insurance and then I went oh more life insurance policies oh they're all here they're all out on this High boy dresser on the top of it now all the red flags are adding up to Crimson I mean it's really red now Mary questioned Linda after she was released from the hospital I'm asking her did did you have those things out Linda is this something you're looking at well she hadn't been home no not at

all I said Linda Linda put it together put it together and let's let's talk about what's going on there Mary warned Linda that she believed Curry was getting ready to cash in by killing Linda she said you're right there's something going on and and I need to get out of here the next day it was like the door slammed on me and she said no Mary no no I I can't I I can't leave Paul did she say the reason why she couldn't leave is cuz she didn't believe that he would do this you know

she was in such [Music] denial 6 months went by and then on June 9th 1994 Mary received an email from Curry that said Linda was feeling worse than ever I said Linda Curry's going to die Paul's going to finally get to poison her and she's going to die that very evening sometime around midnight Curry says he awoke to find Linda barely breathing Linda did not respond he calls 911 gives her CPR paramedics arrive no heartbeat no pulse take her to the hospital she dies nurse Bundy heard the news the next day when she reported to

work at Samaritan Hospital what did you think my first thought was he finally did it and my second thought was somebody really dropped the [Music] ball I received a phone call about 1:00 in the morning on the night of her death one of the first to hear of Linda Curry's death on that June night in 1994 was Paul Curry's good friend and boss Mike flower can you come to the the home of Paul and Linda Curry and I said I'll be right there what did you think Linda was dead like everyone who knew the couple

flower was aware that Linda had been sick he rushed to the curry home in San Clemente Paul was very emotional he cried on my shoulder for hours and what did he tell you what happened I can't believe she's gone her sister called me the next day word spread to Linda's good friends Bill sandero I said oh my God and Frankie Thurber I said what she was like a sister to me she just was almost even like a mother to me Mary seabold heard the news from her husband I knew that all my premonitions were true

I knew that it was Paul and I knew that uh no one could save her Linda's friends wondered if Paul had poisoned her by putting something in his special salad dressings and all those bubble baths he knew everyone was looking at him as a suspect didn't you like think no way would this guy actually killer when he knew he'd be the first suspect you know he was such a con man and and and such a a narcissist and such a psychopath I just think he thought I am so much smarter than anybody I can do

this Paul Curry knew that there is no way he could murder his wife and not be a suspect his objective was not to eliminate himself as a suspect his objective was to make sure he doesn't get charged with the crime during the autopsy the medical examiner found an unusual mark behind Linda's right ear that could have been left by his syringe then toxicology reports revealed what Linda's friends had long suspected she had been poisoned and now they knew the cause nicotine a lot of nicotine people say well maybe she's a smoker no she's not a

smoker she doesn't smoke it's not possible she could have gotten that amount of nicotine over a period of time building up in her system absolutely not the toxicology reports also reveal the presence of a large amount of the generic form of ambient a sleeping medication in Linda's body her death was declared a homicide but there was no evidence to connect Paul Curry to the nicotine the sleeping pills or a syringe so he could not be charged the fact that he wasn't charged with a crime wasn't because somebody dropped the ball it's because he was able

to cover his track [Music] Curry was about to get away with murder free to start a new life and to claim the money from Linda's estate he sto people he's going to get a million dollars out of it that was his plan not so fast as it turns out Linda had drafted this handwritten note giving her sister approximately half her estate Curry was apoplectic after he found out that things weren't as easy to get all the money and he called me and uh and he said did you know did did you know anything about about

Linda changing and and her and and her sister Pat is going to get and he was like stuttering but incredibly despite all of Linda's suspicions she remained faithful to Paul even in death she left him her house and close to a half a million dollars quote so he'll be okay if she thought he was killing her why would she want to leave him money because she never allowed herself to believe what was obvious to anybody and everybody and that's the power of the heart after Linda died Paul Curry was transferred from his old job at

the nuclear power plant and that's when a routine Security check revealed a pack of lives in his resume he was not an engineer he didn't even have a college degree the brilliant Mansa member who trained nuclear Engineers was a complete fraud so I called Paul up at the end of the day and I said Paul I'm coming in tomorrow morning at 8:00 and I'm going to fire you unless your resignation is on my fax and I came in the next morning and his resignation was on my fax but thanks to Linda Paul Curry collected $419,000

from two of Linda's life insurance policies and her retirement plan he also began collecting her retirement benefit of $564 every month but even with all that money he let Linda's beloved house slip away he let the house go into foreclosure and he got out of Dodge and went to Vegas and I understand that he got a job as a used car salesman which I found quite intriguing because a con artist is a really good car salesman but it wasn't long before Curry conned his way into a new job this time becoming a building inspector years

went by and the police investigation into Linda Curry's murder came to a complete standstill the case badly needed a fresh set of eyes it was 2002 I was working in our Cold Case unit Sergeant Ivon scha of the County Sheriff's Department inherited Linda Curry's murder from a retiring detective I would know what it was it was very distinct she immediately focused on those old audio taped interviews of Linda if somebody were trying to do something to you if they were trying to poison you any idea who would try to do that well the only person

I could think of that would have a motive to do it would be Paul sh began digging into Paul Curry's background I started with who is Paul Curry everywhere I looked about Paul Curry it was false it was fake for 4 years sha reexamined the entire case reinterviewed Witnesses and then in 206 she felt she had enough to take it to Bay Tha she says you know I have this cult case that I've been working on so I said bring me the file she comes back a few hours later with about 25 binders B I

plunged in studying the case for 3 years until 2009 when he reached out to the nicotine expert who had been hired years before to analyze Linda Curry's blood Dr Neil benowitz and I said do you remember that case it didn't take him long to remember oh yeah I remember that high level and what Dr benowitz had to say shocked bayai he said all that he needed to do is to go into a grocery store and and buy a pack of cigarettes how often have you seen nicotine used as a murder weapon never I I've read

about it but I've never seen it until now until now yes Dr Neil benowitz professor of medicine at the University of Cali California San Francisco is one of the country's preeminent experts on nicotine this was beyond anything we've ever measured levels four or five times higher than anything we'd ever seen before even after two decades benowitz remembers the Linda Curry case because of the catastrophic levels of nicotine discovered in her body back in 1994 how do you believe she had to have gotten that nicotine well I think most likely it was by an intren injection

it's the only possible explanation says Dr benowitz and remember the medical examiner did find a puncture mark behind Linda's right ear can you say how soon she had to die after she got that dose of nicotine it was my thought that death must have been within 20 or 30 minutes Dr benit says he does not remember discussing that time frame with the original investigators 20 years ago but now says bayai that one fact turns the entire case the nicotine was introduced into Linda's system during this time frame and the only other human being who had

access to her is Paul Curry Curry's story has always been that on the night Linda died the two of them were home alone for approximately 6 hours bayai believes Curry injected Linda after knocking her out with a heavy dose of ambian I think she comes home he introduces ambient into her system whether it's by way of food or a drink or a salad or one of his fancy dressings um when she's out when she's sedated he takes that syringe that he had ready with nicotine he injects her with the nicotine and he waits until he

is sure that she's not going to survive this one but where would Paul Curry get so much nicotine the answer is frightening Curry only needed to buy a pack of cigarettes if you have a pack of cigarettes you can have 300 milligram of nicotine and that's way above the lethal dose for a person the case was rounding into shape but bayai wanted more Sergeant Ivon sh track Curry to Salina Kansas where he had a new wife a new son and a new job working as a building inspector finally Curry would have to answer some tough

questioning and sha was ready to take him on face to face I was afraid that if we told him we were from Orange County that he wouldn't talk to us so prosecutor bayai came up with a plan to trick Paul Curry into believing he was being questioned by two local detectives who had no knowledge of the case Sergeant Ivon scha would be playing the part of Marie hi I'm Marie Marie Paul Curry nice to meet you on November 9th 2010 the Salina police chief tells Curry that Orange County investigators are just trying to close out

a death investigation and so they requested Salina detectives to ask Curry a few questions I'm going shut this so we can the chief of police said oh he's a building inspector he's very smart he's never going to talk to you what was your reaction when he said yes were you shocked I couldn't believe it I I thought to myself well he's not as smart as he thinks he is I guess this involves something with um a woman named Melinda this my my ex-wife I mean my was married she passed away okay how long were we

go into that interview and our plan was for the first part of it let him think he is in complete control so he's thinking I'm going to absolutely run circles around him because they don't know anything about the case and they're from Kansas I am smarter than they are but then SCH takes over and the Meandering interview becomes a targeted interrogation the night that Linda passed away you and Linda were alone correct corre was there anybody else in the house sha is locking Curry into the story that he's told all these years leaving him no

room to back away from it later so nobody snuck into the house there was no burglary at the house there was no robbery at the house nothing like that it was just you and Linda he has now boxed himself in and sha gives it to him straight Paul I believe that the cause of Linda's illness is and the cause of Linda's death are at your hands and before I ask you any other questions I feel like I need to re your rights are you arresting me not yet but for such a smart guy Paul Curry

does not do the smart thing he keeps talking were you slowly poisoning her no no of course not no despite the grilling a detached Curry seems to have other things on his mind and when sha leaves the room briefly Curry shows his impatience should I presume that I'm not going to make my 4:00 meeting today yes why is that I don't know how long this is going to take well what what is this that is taking does this Trump my obligation to my employer it's going to be awfully hard to explain professionally that's the least

of his worries at this point Paul you are not free to leave I am placing you under arrest for the murder of Linda Curry my name's yvon scha my middle name is Marie finally 16 years after Linda's death Paul Curry is called to account for her murder what I need you to do is uh stand up and turn around it felt great to pull out my badge and ID and introduce myself to him and tell him I was from Orange County and I was there to arrest him it felt great put both your hands behind

your back but the the arrest is just the beginning bayai still has a case full of holes even up to today there's no smoking gun or a smoking syringe or a smoking [Music] anything he was a monster a monster who picked his pre and that was my best friend Linda he's a liar how can you live with yourself taking this beautiful beautiful woman and setting her up to die in this courtroom sits a vicious coldblooded murderer make no mistake about [Music] that it took 20 years but in September 2014 assistant district attorney Brahim bayai finally

has Paul Curry right where he wants him he thought he's smarter than everybody else in front of a jury on trial for the murder of his wife Linda she died from nicotine poisoning bayai admits the case is No Slam DK my obligation is to prove it to you beyond a reasonable doubt you're never going to to hear about how exactly Linda Curry died defense attorney Lisa kman wastes no time pointing out the lack of direct evidence connecting Paul Curry to the murder of his wife you're never going to hear where the nicotine came from how

it got into her this is a case based on suspicion innuendo and conjecture Curry is charged with first-degree murder for financial gain which carries a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole this defendant is as guilty as Sin no surprise the defense sees things differently he is an innocent man the prosecutor uses the word murderer murderer murderer kman belittles the case against Curry questioning those Hospital IV bags that appeared to have been tampered with come on this is baloney there was no poison ever found in any of those IV bags there was no fingerprints

on it instead she tells the jury that Linda had a history of stomach problems dating back to the late 60s long before she met Paul throughout those years she gone to many many doctors all that history is not going to create nicotine in her system out of nowhere the defense argues that Linda was so desperate for a cure that she gave herself an unor Orthodox remedy a nicotine enema and it wound up killing her one way it got in there is this through her colon from a nicotine enema bayai can barely contain himself it's the

enema defense it's the enema defense there is no evidence Linda ever gave herself an enema bayai says and even if there was it would not explain the Undisputed toxic levels of ambient in Linda's system where did the ambient come from you know where it came from I'm going to show you follow my finger right there that murderer sitting right there do you have any evidence he obtained ambian did he have a prescription did she have a prescription the answer to your question is no no no no the only pertinent fact bayai says is that Linda

died that June night within 30 minutes of getting that one lethal dose of nicotine and that Paul Curry was the only person who could have administered it nobody other than this defendant had access to Linda in the 6 hours before her murder nobody the defendant had all the motive in the world to murder her all of it all of it he had to cash that check he had to cash the check she had to die Paul Curry never takes the stand to explain himself but bayai has a surprise in store one of the better witnesses

that I had is the one that I wasn't able to get to take the stand Paul Curry because the day after I signed that piece of paper to get him arrested he talks to his current wife then and he's on the phone telling her about what he thinks about our evidence I mean big trouble I got to tell you it it looks bad I mean other the fact that there's no physical evidence saying I did it I didn't do it they could put me away to prison they're serious about this with Paul's own words ringing

in their their ears jurors get the case for me when a jury starts deliberating this is when I realize there is nothing else that I could do jurors deliberate for a day and a half before reaching a verdict Sergeant Ivon schol who brought the curry case back to life in 2002 heads back to the courthouse either guilty or not guilty I didn't think it was going to hang I watched the jury come in and they wouldn't look at me where previously they would look at me and so I was afraid I was holding one of

Linda's earrings and our other good friend was next to me and I gave her one of Linda's earrings and we just held hands and held her earrings in our hands we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Paul Curry guilty of the crime of murder first degree guilty of murder for financial gain for those on Linda's side the jury's verdict brings sweet relief what did you feel peace I wish it was 20 years earlier cuz he got to enjoy 16 years of freedom but even the guilty verdict does not answer the ultimate

question why did Linda stay with Paul she didn't want to admit failure after you've waited that long and you've gone out with that many men you don't want to admit that you chose the wrong guy they're really hard to look at because they remind me of my best friend that I [Music] lost if you could go back would you do something differently oh if I could go back yeah I'd have have to just bodily take her out of the house I miss her so [Music] much I'll see her again I'll see her again 48 hours

to miss it would be a crime were you at all prepare for what happened in this case [Music] [Applause] [Music]