"Hero" Husband and Father Turns Out To Be His Wife's Murderer

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

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New Jersey
I was looking through the ABC news site and came across this story that piqued my interest. It's a long, but interesting read. Mark Winger was known as a loving, good man and his wife's family came to love him. He also must've been a good actor, seeming visibly very upset after his wife's murder. The police believed his story that an intruder who had previously driven his wife from the airport, then began stalking her, entered the home and killed her with a hammer. He shot and killed the man, he said as he was wielding the hammer against his wife and it was ruled self defense. The case was quickly closed but more than 4 years later, he wound up being indicted for her murder as more evidence piled up against him. The case was reopened:
"In December 1999, more than four years after the murders, the Springfield State Journal Register ran an article based on allegations in the civil lawsuit that Winger had arranged the murder himself and killed both his wife and Harrington. The allegations were based on a blood spatter expert hired by BART Transportation in the case.

"Everything came to a head ... It changed everything," Simic said of the article. "I mean, it went from Winger as the hero who was defending his wife -- this noble, stand-up guy -- that every man wanted to pat on the back, to manipulative, deviant murderer."

10 months earlier the best friend of his murdered wife admitted to having had an affair with him and that he had talked crazy about it being easier for them if his wife was dead. However, not long after his wife's murder he married the nanny who was hired to care for their adoptive daughter. Reexamination of the alleged murderer's car yielded a note written to the man on the back of Winger's bank slip, inviting him to the house...complete with what time to come.
Just a week shy of 6 years after the murder, on Aug 23rd 2001, the grand jury indicted him. On Aug 1, 2002 he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Her murder also took place in August..on the 29th. I bet he literally thought he'd gotten away with murder.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/families-torn-killer-dad-reflect-years-believed-hero/story?id=77097895
 

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I remember that case from Forensic Files. While in Prison he filed an 8th AM complaint. This is a snip from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the District Courts dismissal of the claim. Simply a nusaince lawsuit, that is all.


For a year Mark Winger was prevented from exercising outside his prison cell, except on one occasion for an hour. This confinement, Winger claims, violated the Eighth Amendment. Previously we reinstated Winger's suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which the district court had dismissed at screening on the mistaken view that the complaint did not state a claim. See Winger v. Pierce, 325 F. App'x 435 (7th Cir. 2009). On remand the court granted summary judgment for the defendants, all prison officials.
 
Yes, I saw that case on one of the many crime dramas that I watch. I watch so many these days that the stories are starting to repeat. Who would have ever thought that these stories about murder would be more of an escape than the news these days!
 
 

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