The O’Toole Chronicles: Evil Meeting Evil

I was hunkering down during a recent snowstorm and my daughter stopped by to help us shelter in place. My daughter asked if we minded if she watched her favorite show, “Snapped,” as we waited out the storm. I asked out loud: “REALLY?” But I forged ahead to make my daughter happy. Why not?

For those not in the know, Snapped is a long-running show on the Oxygen Network that has run for 35 seasons, producing 651 shows. The one-hour shows are documentaries that usually trace down the elements of a murder with some odd twist or circumstance. The catch is that the culprit is usually the person you trusted the most or did the most for.  For those of us in the political universe, this sounds very familiar.

On this day, the show started out talking about the story of a courageous Vietnam veteran, Bob McClancy, who was found dead in his recliner clutching a revolver and empty container of pills. The death was ruled a natural one as his many health issues had appeared to have caught up with Bob. As family and friends gathered after his death, they mourned with Bob’s second wife, Martha Ann, who had married Bob in 1995 and the two were “happily living” a retired life in Corker Creek, Tennessee.

Martha Ann’s son from her first marriage, Sean, loved Bob and said that “Bob was down to earth, and taught him a lot about life.” Neighbors described the couple as the “perfect couple.”

As I mentioned before, Bob was a Vietnam veteran, and he bore the scars of the war and aftermath. Bob suffered from post-traumatic stress, flashbacks, nightmares, and depression. Bob previously received treatment for his physical and mental well-being.

To continue to heal himself, Bob volunteered to enter a 6-week intensive treatment program that was sponsored by the Department of Veteran Affairs. It was during that time that he met his soon to be best friend, Charles “Chuck” Kaczmarczyk, and the two became fast friends. Chuck was a frequent visitor to Bob and Martha Ann’s house, and it was Chuck who discovered the body of his best friend.

This is where it gets wild.

After Bob’s death, Martha Ann and Chuck started secretly dating and they quietly whisked off to Vegas for a secret wedding. The two newlyweds started spending lavishly and bought seemingly extravagant purchases like a luxury RV and a vintage Corvette.

Chuck and his new bride started hitting the veteran’s circuit and telling all who would listen about their wartime heroics. Martha Ann told a reporter that she was a Purple Heart recipient, yet she never served one day in the military. Chuck was walking around with a “chest full of medals” that were later found out to be a horrific fraud. Chuck and Martha Ann paraded around the veteran events as if they were the king and queen of the ball. But, as has been frequently discovered in our lives, there is much more than meets the eye.

Chuck and Martha Ann were world class culprits showing the world that they were disabled veterans and highly decorated at that. With signature theatre and phony bravado, the two used walkers when being examined by the medical professionals and military folks and faked injuries to the unsuspecting universe around them. They carried on with claims about disabilities that were caused by their so-called military service.

Sometime later, they were investigated by the federal government and the ugly fraud was uncovered. When confronted with incontrovertible evidence of videotapes and conflicting medical and military records, both admitted to the deception. Rightly, both served time for their despicable crimes – Chuck was sentenced to 30 months and Martha Ann received 20 months. The fraudulent claim for disability benefits amounted to over 10K per month. I thought then about the real military heroes who could have used those benefits.

This is where the story goes off the rails.

As Martha Ann was sent off to prison, she asked her son, Sean, to look after her personal documents and computer. Sean, who adored the deceased Bob, dutifully did as mom requested. However, during the review of her property, he came across a file in his mom’s computer that was labeled trash bin. Sean opened it and saw pictures of a deceased Bob as he was obviously posed in various positions and moved around to make the death look more self-caused.

Sean grew immediately suspicious and asked his mother to explain the pictures. Sean taped his mother (while she was serving time for the theft) where she essentially confessed to the new unspeakable crime of murder. Law enforcement was lying in wait and then they decided to pay a visit to Bob’s “best friend” Chuck.

When confronted with the evidence, Chuck turned on Martha Ann and the world around both collapsed. Chuck stated that Martha Ann had poisoned Bob for years and put “magic dust” into his food to make him sick. Martha Ann was convicted of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Chuck pled guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. As a close friend of Bob’s said about the complicit duo, “this is evil meeting evil.”

Other details about Martha Ann forging a will to cheat Bob’s only daughter out of her rightful inheritance soon rounded out the charming story of wonderful family life.

We all have come into contact with people like Bob, a hard-working veteran who deserves our compassion, time and assistance. We can’t do enough for veterans who have honestly and bravely served our country. Maybe today is the day we reach out to a deserving veteran who has truly served our country and thank them for the incredible service and sacrifice. I will reach out to my buddy, Jude, who has served in our Navy and Army and epitomizes the greatness and strength of our folks in our military.

The flip side of this crazy story is unfortunately many of us have come into contact with people like Martha Ann and Chuck, who are born schemers, con artists and criminals to the bitter end, who defrauded family, the government and our society and in the end, turned on one another to try and salvage any future for themselves. The irony is they wanted to be pitied and worshiped when all they deserved was a prison cell and our scorn.

I will say that I have met some evil people in politics and in life and some of them have an uncanny resemblance to Martha Ann and Chuck, but we shouldn’t let the tainted and toxic few contaminate life for the rest of us. I assume that is the lesson in all this.

Let me close by thanking Ryan Marie for a wonderful snow day, and for reminding all of us that there are heroes and villains among us, and we don’t need video tape surveillance to figure out the difference between the two.