Was Donna Adelson the Mastermind? Or Just a Meddling Mom?
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Was Donna Adelson the criminal architect of a murder-for-hire plot—or just an overbearing grandmother caught in the crossfire of her son’s bad decisions? In this pivotal episode, Hidden Killers host Tony Brueski is joined by legal expert Eric Faddis to unpack the prosecution’s boldest claim: that Donna didn’t just know about the plot to kill Dan Markel—she engineered it.
We dive into new testimony suggesting Donna consulted mid-plot, pressured her children, and manipulated the situation with military precision. But is that enough to prove orchestration… or just meddling?
Eric breaks down the legal difference between being the “mastermind” and simply being “involved,” and how jurors are being asked to separate motherly concern from criminal intent.
This is the crux of the case—and it could determine whether Donna Adelson spends the rest of her life behind bars.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A Better Help ad. |
| 0:02.3 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with Better Help to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:07.6 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:13.0 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:17.4 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel |
| 0:21.3 | good. Because I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:25.6 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:29.5 | A better help ad. |
| 0:31.5 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with BetterHelp to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:36.8 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:42.2 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:46.6 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel good. |
| 0:51.0 | I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:54.8 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:58.5 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 1:05.0 | So here's the question that could decide it all. Was Donna Adelson the cold calculating mastermind of a murder for hire plot or just an |
| 1:14.1 | overbearing mom who said too much, signed too fast, and let her adult son run wild? |
| 1:21.1 | Because that's the real choice jurors are facing here. |
| 1:24.0 | Guilty architect or clueless matriarch? |
| 1:27.8 | Prosecutors want you to believe Donna was pulling strings behind the scenes like a mob boss in |
| 1:32.2 | pearls. |
| 1:33.3 | And she didn't just know about the plan to kill Dan Markell. |
... |
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