End of a 30-year Nightmare

I was stunned to hear the news Monday afternoon that Robert Marshall had died over the weekend at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton. 

What was more surprising to me was that so few people in our office even knew who he was without several hints. Marshall’s death at the age of 75 ends what had been a 30-year nightmare for some and a story that was so big in resulted in a best-selling book and TV miniseries.  I’m of the opinion that the Marshall saga ranks right up there with the Hindenburg disaster and the Toms River Little League team that won the world championship as the biggest in Ocean County history.

You would have had to live here in 1984 to know what I truly mean when the story broke the weekend after Labor Day that 42-year old Maria Marshall had been shot to death at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway while returning with her husband from Atlantic City.  Just about everyone in Toms River knew the Marshall Family. Rob appeared to be a successful insurance broker who was a high-profile part of the community.  Maria was a loving mother of three sons and very involved in their school and athletic endeavors. For a short time my wife and I took a co-ed exercise class which the Marshalls were in.

Rob and I were the only men and we would joke about our inability to stretch like the ladies. The murder was all anyone talked about especially when a short time later Rob was arrested for his role in the killing.  While he didn’t pull the trigger he was charged with hiring the people who did in a plot to collect the insurance money after his wife died. There were many other aspects to this story so much so that when the book “Blind Faith” came out most of the names had been changed (the cheat sheet with the correct ones was a popular item).

The trial 18 months later was so big it had to be moved out of Ocean County to Mays Landing and WOBM News had a reporter in the courtroom for the entire six weeks.  This was before social media and I can’t even tell you what the audience must have been like for those live reports throughout the day.

Many know that Marshall was sentenced to death. Ironically for different reasons the others involved in the killing pretty much walked free at that time.  He was on death row for some 20 years before an appeal led to that being converted to a life sentence.  Ironically Marshall was to meet with the parole board next month and many believed he could be set free although his two oldest sons testified against their father. Turns out Marshall’s health had been failing for months and in some strange way his death turns out to be a blessing…not as much for him but others.