March 20, 1976: Marjorie Congdon LeRoy marries Roger Sipe Caldwell

On this day in 1976, Marjorie Congdon LeRoy married Roger Sipe Caldwell at United Methodist Church in Littleton, Colorado. It was the second marriage for both. They had dated two months before becoming engaged on St. Patrick’s Day. According to biographer Gail Feichtinger, “Though short on cash, forty-two-year-old Roger had other attributes, including a wry smile that matched his sense of humor…. Marjorie felt she’d found a kindred soul in Roger. They were both black sheep estranged from their families…. After their marriage, friends said that Roger adopted Marjorie’s ambitions and passions and tried to overlook her excesses. But like Dick LeRoy [Marjorie’s first husband], Roger quickly became the buffer between her, the Congdon trustees, and her family.” Of course, adopting Marjorie’s ambitions led to Caldwell’s conviction for the murder of Marjorie’s adoptive mother, Elisabeth Mannering Congdon and nurses Velma Pietila at Glensheen, the Congdon family estate in Duluth. Marjorie was acquitted, and Caldwell later released, but they never reconciled—and neither did they divorce. In 1981 Marjorie married Wally Hagen in North Dakota shortly after the unexpected death of his wife Helen. Wally later died unexpectedly himself, just as state officials were about to take Marjorie to prison after an arson conviction. In one of many, many odd coincidences connected with this tale, North Dakota officials brought bigamy charges against Marjorie Congdon LeRoy Caldwell Hagen on March 20, 1983, the seventh anniversary of her marriage to Roger Caldwell. Learn more about Marjorie, who is thought to have gotten away with murder five times, here.

Roger Caldwell’s 1977 mug shot, taken after he was arrested for the murders of Velma Pietila and Elisabeth Congdon. (Image: John DeSanto)