Sarah Jo Pender: The Female Charles Manson Case Explained
10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories
Joe
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
They called her the Female Charles Manson. In October 2000, two people were shot to death in an Indianapolis drug house. Sarah Jo Pender bought the shotgun that morning at Walmart. Her boyfriend Richard Hull pulled the trigger. She got 110 years, he got 75. Now the prosecutor who convicted her says he was wrong. But here's the thing about Sarah Jo Pender: everywhere she goes, people end up doing things they wouldn't normally do. She manipulated a prison guard into breaking her out. She lived as a fugitive for months. And now she's one hearing away from walking free. This is about intelligence as a weapon, about the difference between pulling a trigger and aiming the gun, and about whether 25 years is justice or just good patience.
#SarahJoPender #TrueCrime #DoubleMurder #FemaleCharlesManson #PrisonEscape #Indianapolis #Manipulation
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | October 24, 2000, a 21-year-old secretary walks into a Walmart in Indianapolis and buys a shotgun. |
| 0:10.0 | Twelve hours later, two people are dead. She gets 110 years in prison. The shooter gets 75. |
| 0:18.0 | The prosecutor, who called her the female Charles Manson, now says he's wrong. But when |
| 0:24.2 | you look at the pattern, when you see what she did in prison, when you watch how she's fighting |
| 0:29.1 | for freedom right now, you start to wonder if maybe he was right the first time.. |
| 0:41.3 | October October 2000, |
| 0:59.0 | Indianapolis. |
| 1:00.6 | Sarah Joe Pinder is 21 years old. |
| 1:03.3 | She's working as a secretary. |
| 1:05.2 | She's smart. |
| 1:06.0 | She's got no criminal record. |
| 1:08.0 | She's dating this guy named Richard Hull, who is a bouncer with a temper and a rap |
| 1:13.4 | sheet. They're living with another couple, Andrew Cotaldi and Trisha Nordman, and everyone in this |
| 1:19.5 | house is dealing drugs. This, if it wasn't already, is where things get complicated, because |
| 1:26.1 | Sarah Jo Pinder had been sexually assaulted |
| 1:28.4 | a few months earlier. She was feeling traumatized, and a lot of people say that she latched |
| 1:33.2 | on to Hull because he was tough and he was protective, and he made her feel safe. That's |
| 1:38.9 | the sympathetic version. Here's another way to look at it. She found a guy who was violent and not particularly smart |
| 1:46.1 | and could be controlled. But we'll get into that. So Catality starts causing problems. He owed money |
| 1:53.2 | for drugs. He's threatening Hull's family. The tension in this house is building. And on October 24th, |
| 2:00.6 | Sarah Joe Pinder and Richard Hull drive to Walmart. |
| 2:03.6 | They buy a Mossburg 12-gauge shotgun and deer slugs. |
... |
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