https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Margo_Freshwater
SUMMARY OF NASH CASE FROM UNSOLVED MYSTERIES, DATE OF THIS PUBLICATION NOT SHOWN
Real Name: Margo Freshwater
Aliases: Tanya Marie Randall
Wanted For: Murder, Escape
Missing Since: October 4, 1970
Case
Details: In 1970, a blond, wide-eyed teenager from Columbus, Ohio named Margo Freshwater was in the Tennessee State Prison for Women. She had just been convicted for first-degree murder but would not remain there for long. On October 4, she and another inmate, Faye Fairchild, escaped by scaling a fence while being escorted by an unarmed guard. She has now been on the run for over thirty years, which is the longest in Tennessee state history. Police believe that she has blended into society, as a mother, and possibly even a grandmother and well-abided citizen.
Margo's story began in 1966 when she met forty-one-year-old Glenn Nash, a lawyer who was being investigated by the Memphis Bar Association for legal misconduct. He was apparently suffering from mental illness and felt that agents from the association were plotting against him. She met with him in order to get her boyfriend out of jail. She had no money to pay him, so he took the case pro bono. He also got her a room at a local boarding house. They began an affair. He felt that the bar association was out to get him; on December 6, 1966, they left and told Margo's landlady that they were going bowling. In reality, they went on a three-state crime spree.
Hillman Robbins
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During a liquor store holdup, Glenn took the cashier, Hillman Robbins, into the backroom. Margo waited on a customer as he accused him of being an agent for the bar association. He then tied up, shot, and killed him, who left behind a wife and two children. A .22 and a .38 were both used in his murder. A witness saw Margo and Glenn fleeing the store in a white Ford Fairlane.
Twelve days later on December 18, a witness saw an almost identical scene: a couple fleeing a Florida convenience store in the same car; inside the store was the body of Esther Bouyea. She had been shot in the neck. Police at first did not connect the two murders until they found Glenn's car abandoned on a highway shoulder. In the trunk, they found rope and shell casings that matched those used in Hillman's murder. The car was traced to Glenn and an A.P.B. was issued. Then, on December 27, a cab driver named C.C. Surratt picked up him and Margo and was then found shot to death.
The police staked out the nearby bus stations and their efforts soon paid off. Glenn and Margo were arrested at one of them, were taken to Mississippi, and charged with C.C.'s murder. However, Glenn was declared mentally insane, incompetent to stand trial, and was taken to a mental hospital. He was later released and is still married to his wife, whom he had been married to during his affair with Margo.
Margo stood trial for the murders, but she said that Glenn had imprisoned her. She claimed that he said that he would kill her and her family if she tried to escape. Authorities were uncertain of her involvement in the murders. The jury was unable to decide and failed to reach a verdict twice. Three years later, she was tried for Hillman's murder, convicted by the jury, and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison.
Eighteen months later, Margo and another inmate, Faye Fairchild, scaled a barbed wire fence, hitched a ride, and vanished. They went to Baltimore, where they said their goodbyes. In the early 1990s, Faye was arrested in Chicago, but Margo has never been found.
Extra Notes:
This case first aired on August 26, 2002 episode. It was previously profiled on America's Most Wanted
Looking back in time, now some 57 years ago, (as of 10-2022) he had it all planned out, his defense. And it worked. It worked in his mind. Somewhat as Professor Moriarty's real thrill was that he would defeat his greatest adversary, Sherlock Holmes, in a game of logic and reason. He provided all the clues needed to defeat his game - left on the liquor store counter. There in the wide open for all to see. Most everyone saw but didn't connect or think to ask. Was his adversary really the Memphis Bar Association? Not hardly. Was his adverary ever the Chatgttanoog Bar Association? Not hardly. Why would any intelligent investigator, lawyers and psychiatrist swallow the words of an obvious psychopath? But they did.
He knew all about the The McNaughton rule, didn't he. You knew he did. You knew he had recently tried a homicide case using that very defense tool. And he was proud of the fact that although he lost the case on appeal, in Brief writeup the appelate judges had complimented Nash on his very fine display of legal acumen.
Mugshot in Hernando, Co. Mississippi police station following murder of C.C. Surratt
I never knew Margo. I never met her. And the first time I heard about her was when I went to the Dojo to teach the evening karate class and Cathy brought up Margo's name in the context of her being her dad's new girl friend. The night of the day of Hillman Robbin's murder - I was again at the Dojo to teach the class. After the lesson, Cathy, Jerry (later her husband) and I sat around engaging in small talk. Cathy brought up that dad had not been home since the previous evening. "I wonder where he wentg to?" she asked in the manner of one not really asking the question knowing the answer and afraid to say it.
As regards Margo - anything I say relating to her - it is speculation. I surmise that she was in a real difficult dilema. I surmise that she NEVER knew what Nash was going to do - or participated in any way in the murder. It happed suddenly! The shot's rang out. Robbins was dead. What was she to do? We are talking about an eighteen year old girl at the time. We are also talking about a true Professor Moriarty type of personality, type of mind. Nash was indeed very intelligentg. He had an IQ measured at the Mississippi State Hospital for Criminally Insane as around 125. But that is very typical of most attorney. But in my opinion, IQ numbers are a myth, a falacy. What is true is that speed of learning, processor time, is real. Some people think much faster than others. But "fast learing, fast comprehension, is NOT a function of "intelligence." Speed of learning has has an anatomical basis and can be explained in bio-physical terms. Quick learning is also supported by how much you have learned, in the way of facts, collecting reasoning patterns, etc., becasue at least according to theory - the more you learn the more neural connections are made. And when you have a very broad knowledge base - then you have also accumulated a LARGE body (excuse me please) of ASSOCIATIONS. And this attribute probably has more to do with quick thinking and also DEPTH of thinking than any other determinant. That is why I say Nash was no smarter than any other typical lawyer. He was NOT a genius. He was not extraordinary brilliant. And he never played multiple chess games keeping all the moves in his head. I know because I was his chess partner and we played the game through mail. What he was, was not super superior in cerebral capacity - but like most lawyers - well educated - especially in terms of human nature. It is not the psychiatrist who have the "inside knowledge" of how people think, especially criminals. A good criminal trial lawyer knows the criminal mind vastly better than any psychiatrist or psychologist. The learn the realities of human behavior through direct experience. The psycho-medical bunch get their knowledge through books and the development of fancy constructs which they come to believe themselves. And THIS is how Nash was able to cleverly fool all those psychiatrist from the various states. How that came bout is for another webpage later.