#349 Maggie Freleng with Gwen Graham

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1987, five elderly women passed away at a nursing home in Grand Rapids, MI. Gwen Graham and Cathy Wood both worked at this nursing home, and the pair had been in a brief relationship at the time. Months later, when Gwen broke up with Cathy and started seeing someone new, Cathy became angry and told her ex-husband that the five women did not die naturally, but that she and Gwen had smothered them as part of a lover’s pact that would bind them together for life. Shocked, he reported this to authorities, and two of the five bodies were exhumed. Despite there being zero signs of smothering, a medical examiner changed the manners of death from natural causes to homicide, and a seemingly made up story landed Gwen in prison for life. Maggie talks to Gwen Graham, Corina Hilton, Gwen's sister, and Elizabeth Cole, Gwen's attorney.

To learn more and get involved, visit:
https://michigan.law.umich.edu/academics/experiential-learning/clinics/michigan-innocence-clinic-0

Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	America loves its founding fathers, but that's a tough act to follow as a founding son.
0:05.7	I'm Bob Crawford. Join me, Patrick Warburton, and Nick Offerman, as we bring the sixth
0:11.1	president to life. Was there ever witnessed such a bare-faced corruption in any country before?
0:16.8	Let justice be done, though the heavens fall!
0:21.2	Listen to Founding Son, a curiosity podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
0:27.9	or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:57.9	Join the journey soon.
1:27.9	A warning for listeners, this episode contains discussion of suicide. Please listen with caution and care.
1:45.9	In 1987, Gwen Graham was 23 years old and had high hopes and dreams for her future.
1:51.6	She was a natural caretaker and wanted to be a veterinarian. After moving across the country
1:57.6	to Michigan, she went to work at a nursing home called Alpine Manor. Gwen liked it there.
2:02.8	She enjoyed her coworkers and loved helping people.
2:08.7	Gwen met a woman named Kathy, who also worked at the nursing home, and they started a relationship.
2:14.4	During that time, some of the patients at Alpine Manor passed away. It wasn't unusual, though,
2:19.6	many of the residents were elderly or in poor health and died of natural causes.
2:24.8	But months later, after Gwen had broken up with Kathy, she learned that Kathy had accused her of doing the unthinkable.
2:32.3	I'm not saying I know the police are coming down the property. They told me they said your ex-girlfriend said that you killed somebody at the nursing home.
2:42.3	I laughed at him, I said I can't believe you came down here for that bullshit.
2:46.3	But then when they charged me with four more, that's when I started losing it.
2:52.3	My name is Gwendolyn Graham. I've been in carcery and I've been missing in for 35 years.
3:02.3	For something that I didn't do, that didn't even happen.
3:10.3	From Lava for Good, this is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling. Today, Gwen Graham.
	...

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