MARJORIE CONGDON

Much of the following information was learned from the book Will to Murder: The True Story Behind the Crimes and Trials Surrounding the Glensheen Killings by Gail Feichtinger, John Desanto, Gary Waller, and John E. Desanto (2005:X-Communication).

Most Minnesotans know of Marjorie Congdon as the woman who was tried and acquitted of conspiring with her then husband, Roger Caldwell, to murder Marjorie’s mother. Surprisingly, there is a rather significant connection between Marjorie and her family and St. Louis Park.

Marjorie was one of two adopted daughters of Elisabeth Congdon, heiress to a taconite fortune in Duluth. Brought up in the family’s Glensheen Mansion and in the finest schools, Marjorie was nevertheless troubled, and at age 16 she was actually given the label “sociopath” during a stay at the Meninger Clinic. Mother Elisabeth, fearing publicity, did nothing.

In 1951, Marjorie found herself in St. Louis, Missouri, and married Richard “Dick” LeRoy, an insurance executive. When LeRoy was transferred to Minneapolis, the family moved first to Minneapolis, then to St. Louis Park. From 1952 to 1954, the LeRoys lived at 2744 Salem Ave., a bungalow built in 1941. They purchased the house from Kenneth and Alice Wolfe; he was to become mayor of St. Louis Park and a State Senator.

A neighbor remembered Marjorie as being very industrious. For example, she stripped all the kitchen cupboards and repainted and decorated with Pennsylvania Dutch designs. She always had a project going.

Her children were always dressed like out of a magazine ad. Starched and pressed, plus she loved to entertain. When we were invited to dinner, it was never casual. It was a 3 or 4 course meal, with fine china and polished silver. We were invited for dinner several times. She always seemed like a nice person. She was a product of her upbringing, in that she liked a genteel life. The first time she invited me over I was met at the door by the Doberman pinscher peering out through the little window on the door.

The family briefly moved to Mankato, and then in 1955 returned to St. Louis Park, this time to 3330 Huntington Ave., a larger house on the shores of Bass Lake in the Minikahda Oaks neighborhood. This house, built by a Mrs. Tisdale in 1927, housed Marjorie, LeRoy, and their 7 children. The current owner of this house remembers Marjorie well. The LeRoys moved to an 8 bedroom house on Fremont Ave. in Minneapolis in 1957, but took good care of the new, pregnant owner of the Huntington house, giving her all of her maternity clothes and sending up strawberries to the hospital. But she could also make up fibs faster than anyone could keep track of.

Marjorie was a compulsive spender and liar, and eventually Dick LeRoy had enough and divorced her. In 1975 she ended up in Arizona and married Roger Caldwell. They were soon up to their ears in debt and desperate for money. On June 26, 1977, Roger Caldwell got on a plane to Minneapolis, drove up to Duluth, smothered Marjorie’s mother with a satin pillow, and bludgeoned her nurse to death with a brass candlestick. Roger was convicted of murder, but in a separate trial, Marjorie was acquitted of conspiracy. Caldwell served five years and committed suicide in 1988.

Marjorie married again in 1980, apparently without bothering to divorce Roger, and is still wanted in North Dakota for bigamy. Wally Hagen's wife Helen had died mysteriously after eating Marjorie's homemade marmalade. She was never tried for that escapade. In 1985 she was given 21 months in the Shakopee Women's Prison for an arson conviction concerning a house in Mound. In October 1992, third husband Wally Hagen died under suspicious circumstances. The next day, Marjorie was back in prison serving a 15-year sentence for arson, this time in Ajo, New Mexico. She was released in January 2004, to much trepidation.