122: The Bishop's Son & The Senator's Daughter: The Murder of Vickie Lander Beckham

Southern Fried True Crime

Erica Kelley

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 10.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In June of 1994, a car was found in a ditch on a deserted stretch of Little Mountain Road in Newberry, South Carolina. A woman was found slumped over the steering wheel. Though the road was in a rural area thick with woods and steep ravines, where accidents often happen, police immediately suspected foul play. The woman, named Vickie Lander Beckham, had horrific injuries to her face and neck that could not have come from such a minor accident. Soon law enforcement discovered that Vickie, a senator’s daughter, and her husband Stephen, son of an Episcopal Bishop, were in the middle of a divorce. The investigation became scandalous front page news with the powerful men in each family caught up in the drama.

Hosted and produced by Erica Kelley
Researched by Haley Gray Research
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Original Graphic Art by Coley Horner
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Case Suggested by: Kelly Roberts

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Southern Fried True Crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and there may also be some explicit language used.
0:07.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:12.0	Typically, divorce is war.
0:15.0	Two people who once loved each other become engaged in battle, and they play dirty.
0:21.0	I probably shouldn't paint all divorces that way.
0:25.0	The media would have you believe in the sensitive, conscious, and coupling that can be achieved when both parties want the same things, especially in terms of parenting their children.
0:37.0	Unfortunately, from my experience with divorce, from my own to friends and family, I have never seen the fairy tale friendly divorces you read about with celebrities.
0:47.0	In fact, custody issues usually exacerbate an already painful situation.
0:53.0	In today's episode, we don't really know why Vicki and Stephen Beckham had started divorced proceedings.
1:00.0	Vicki was a senator's daughter, and Stephen was the son of an Episcop Helium Bishop.
1:05.0	This wasn't a celebrity divorce, though, not until Vicki was found brutally murdered.
1:11.0	She was silenced forever, though her murder and divorce were now front page news.
1:17.0	Rumors started circulating, and of course, her would-be ex-husband eventually gave his side of the story to the press.
1:25.0	But Vicki wasn't there to deny or confirm the rumors.
1:29.0	She couldn't explain why she wanted out of the marriage, or how dark her separation and divorce had gotten.
1:36.0	She had to wait for justice for the truth to come out.
1:40.0	Welcome to episode 122, the Bishop's son and the senator's daughter, the murder of Vicki Lander Beckham.
1:52.0	Newberry South Carolina is known as the City of Friendly Fulks.
1:59.0	Located in the Midlands of South Carolina, Newberry lies just outside of the state's capital in Columbia, and advertises its small-town charm and historical treasures.
2:09.0	Part of these historical treasures are the pieces of well-preserved history within the town and the larger area of Newberry County.
2:18.0	According to historian Thomas H. Pogue, Newberry got its start in 1749 when Germans settled in the lower part of the present-day county,
2:26.0	and English and Scotch-Iris settlers took up Land Elsewhere throughout the area, though the origin of the area's name is unknown.
	...

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