RICH KIDS WHO KILLED III: Susana Toledano

Suzy and Rick Wamsley were a well-liked couple in their mid-40s. They lived a comfortable, upper-middle-class life, and didn’t seem to have any enemies. But in the wee hours of December 11, 2003, just days after they’d hung holiday decorations around the home they’d lived in for 10 years, the unthinkable happened. Police, responding to a hang-up 911 call, found the home’s garage door, and the door leading from garage into the house, standing wide open. The scene inside was awful, writes the Dallas Observer in a detailed piece published in July 2004:

Suzy was lying on the living-room couch. The attackers had shot her in the left ear with a large-caliber weapon, according to an autopsy report, and then stabbed her at least 18 times in the chest and neck.

Rick 6-foot-1 and 240 pounds, wearing only boxer shorts had been shot in the face and back and stabbed numerous times. Police found two sets of bloody shoeprints throughout the living room, dining room and entryway. There was no sign of forced entry, and nothing appeared to be missing.

 In April 2004, law enforcement arrested a 19-year-old high school student named Susana Toledano after DNA tests determined Rick Wamsley held a clump of her hair in his lifeless hand. Once they had Toledano, the cops nabbed her best friend Chelsea Richardson, 20, and Richardson’s boyfriend, Andrew Wamsley, 19 Rick and Suzy’s youngest child. Also arrested was 24-year-old Hilario Cardenas, who was the night manager of a nearby IHOP that served as an after-hours hangout for the group.

But the stakes were higher than that, owing to the $1.56 million Andrew stood to inherit from his parents’ untimely demise.

Of course, he’d only get the money if he could get away with murder, and that didn’t happen. As Mansfield Detective Ralph Standefer told the Dallas Observer before the 2005 trial, the motive was crystal clear:

The twist in the case, though, was that the jury decided Chelsea Richardson not the son of the victims was the “murder mastermind.”

Cardenas, whose connection to the crime (other than facilitating the venue to plan it) was that he’d supplied the gun that became the murder weapon, was conviced of conspiracy to commit capital murder, and given a 50-year sentance.

Andrew Wamsley refused a plea deal, was convicted of murder, and got a life sentence. Richardson also refused a plea deal and was convicted of murder but despite her age, and the fact she’d never been arrested before, she received the death penalty.

She became one of 10 women on Texas’ death row.

Actual Mugshot of Susana Toledano

RICH KIDS WHO KILLED II: Stephen Seddon

A group of Texas youths decided killing one young man’s parents was the best get-rich-quick plan. It ended badly for everyone as does the tale of Manchester, England’s Stephen Seddon, who was more than old enough to know better.

He was also determined enough to try twice.

In March 2012, Seddon (who was in his mid-40s), his parents Robert and Patricia (both in their late 60s), and Seddon’s teenage nephew Daniel, who was being cared for by his grandparents, were in a terrible car crash.

Terrible, and odd.

Somehow, en route to a belated Mother’s Day meal, the rented BMW Stephen was driving plunged into Bridgewater Canal. Though he was disabled, Daniel was still able to free himself from the waterlogged car and claw his way to safety. Stephen, who conveniently had a seatbelt cutter and a steering-wheel lock suitable for smashing out windows within reach, also made it to the surface.

With his parents trapped in the back seat, slowly running out of air, Seddon managed to act both helpfully (screaming for assistance) and suspiciously (climbing onto the roof of the car, as if encouraging it to sink even faster). Fortunately, firefighters were quick to respond, and the seemingly doomed couple was saved. Questioned by police canal-side, Seddon had a hard time keeping his story straight.

This time, he made his move armed with a sawed-off shotgun and three cartridges; the third was apparently intended for Daniel who very fortunately wasn’t at home. (Much later, Seddon vehemently denied that he’d planned to kill the teen, blustering at “the sick assumption I would want to kill a disabled child.”)

But the older Seddons were not so lucky; they were both home that July day. Stephen shot his mother first as she tried to fight back, then turned the gun on the man who’d started to suspect the worst about his own flesh and blood. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Stephen then staged the crime scene to make it look like a murder-suicide. But the police saw right through his clumsy attempt to cast the blame elsewhere. His self-centered behavior after the bodies were discovered didn’t help his cause, as the
Independent reported:

Seddon’s reaction when police called with the “news” of his parents’ murders, was: “What am I going to do now? I’m going to lose the house, the mortgage is in my dad’s name.” He denied the shooting and said it was “ridiculous” to claim he had tried to kill his own mother and father.

What’s worse, it was discovered that he’d tried clumsily, again to provide himself with an alibi to further distance himself from the crime. After committing double murder, he drove 150 miles to buy beer, making sure he appeared on the store’s surveillance cameras. (He must’ve used his last dollar on this scheme, because it was later revealed Stephen was so broke that day, he had just £5.45 in his bank account.) He then drove to meet his wife and two of their three children for one last stay in the caravan that his parents had bought for them.

“Despite the fact that your parents had always been very generous in supporting you, you wanted more and you wanted it now  hence the plan to kill them and get your inheritance up front.?

RICH KIDS WHO KILLED I: Brian Blackwell

Eighteen-year-old Brian Blackwell was so bright his nickname was “Brains.” But that intelligence, which earned him top marks in school, also enabled him to craft an elaborate fantasy world—one he needed his parents’ money to sustain, and one he was willing to kill for.

Brits Sydney and Jacqueline Blackwell were 71 and 60 when Brian was 18; they’d had their only child later in life, and they had big dreams for him. They hoped the next step of his education would lead him to medical school, and a career as a surgeon. His grades were more than good enough. But his ambitions led him elsewhere, and it came to a head on July 25, 2004.

He was motivated, in part, by his need to impress his girlfriend, who was also 18 and a fellow student at Liverpool College, where parents forked over five grand per school term. Though they were classmates, she apparently believed his elaborate lie about being a professional tennis player. And she though he was filthy rich, so she didn’t question it when he invited her on a lavish vacation. They flew first-class to America (including a three-night stay in a suite at New York City’s Plaza Hotel), made a stopover in Barbados, and returned to Merseyside, where Brian moved in with his girlfriend and her parents, explaining his folks were on vacation in Majorca. The total cost of Brian’s trip was estimated at around fifty grand, all charged to cards in Sydney Blackwell’s name.

In fact, Sydney and Jacqueline had been dead for weeks. Their bodies weren’t discovered until September 4, when a concerned neighbor called the police to report a rotting odor emanating from their home. It was a terrible scene, as the Guardian reported:

Inside, officers found Mr Blackwell’s decomposing body in the living room. He had been beaten with the hammer while he sat in his armchair. Mrs Blackwell’s remains had been dragged into the bathroom. She had been stabbed with a kitchen knife after seeing her son batter her husband to death.

There had been an argument possibly over Brian’s financial irresponsibility, though he also told police that his parents disapproved of his relationship with his girlfriend, and that he didn’t believe they loved him anymore that turned violent. In his confession, Brian describes hitting his father with a claw hammer, and then attacking both parents with a knife:



DC Lockie: You stabbed her (your mum) repeatedly?

Blackwell: Yes but it didn’t seem hard. It didn’t seem like it was doing anything. I’ve never stabbed anyone but it didn’t feel like it was going in or anything.

DC Lockie: How many times did you stab him (your father)?

Blackwell: A few, it didn’t seem to have much effect on him and I had to push him away to stop him. He pushed back an awful lot. (Sobbing) I couldn’t believe what I’d done. I just couldn’t believe what I’d done.

In all, he stabbed his mother 20 times. His father was stabbed 30 times. Their injuries were so violent that investigators initially assumed the cause of death was gunshot wounds.

Actual Mugshot of Brian Blackwell