114: An Inconvenient Woman

At 7:36 pm on the first Tuesday in July 2008, Carol Kennedy made her nightly call to her mother. Ruth Kennedy lived across the country in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 83-years old at the time and Carol worried about her living on her own. She had called her mother almost every night since her father died in 2006. Despite her advanced age, Ruth was not immune to worrying about her daughter, who was recently divorced and also on her own. Carol reassured Ruth that she had locked her doors and was in for the night. It was 7:59pm when Ruth heard her daughter say two last words: “Oh no.” The tone of the words was surprise, not fear, and then there was no sound at all. She didn’t hear the phone drop or any voices. Now the line was dead. This episode of True Crime Brewery, An Inconvenient Woman, is the story of an apparently loving and long-lasting relationship. When one person ended up brutally beaten to death; the other would be the primary suspect. We have no way of knowing what happens behind closed doors, in a marriage. When a marriage ends in a violent murder, some of their secrets come to light while others remain in the shadows. When a relationship turns from companionship to malice, from malice to murder, all we can do is find justice for the victim, seek punishment for the killer, and attempt to learn something about human behavior.