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| Marjorie Orbin in jail talking to True Crime author Camille Kimball |
The TV show
Scorned, in which I appeared as myself while an actress portrayed Marjorie Orbin, raised a lot of questions for viewers. First, see Marjorie for real in the photo above. That's after several years in jail. The actress portrayed a much younger version of Marjorie. Marjorie's hair was platinum at that time though, while the actress portrayed her as a honeyblond.
Here are the most common questions raised by the show--
1.
What about Marjorie's lover, Larry? Was he a suspect or did he just get off by testifying against her?
My Answer:
The knee jerk reaction for 100% of people first hearing about this crime, including police, is to look first to blame the bodybuilding boyfriend of Marjorie. Larry behaved badly in the early days of the investigation. He was physically strong and powerful. He was sleeping with a married woman. Who wouldn't immediately want to finger him as the culprit?
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Larry was scrutinized intensely for years. But not a shred of evidence was ever developed against him. There isn't even any evidence that he knew his girlfriend was actually considered to be the wife of someone else. Taking all evidence together, some investigators concluded that Marjorie, far from being love-struck at the gym, had coldly selected Larry to be the fall guy for a plan she already had in her head. He certainly did fit nicely into the terrible plot that unfolded. But everything Larry told police could be corroborated by other evidence. He seems to have been ignorant of Jay's fate and even of Jay's true role in Marjorie's life. There isn't even the slightest whisper that Larry knew about it afterward and helped her in anyway.
Marjorie, of course, maintains that it was Larry who committed the crime and
she who was ignorant of what he was up to.
As for immunity, yes, Larry was granted a certain limited kind of immunity in order to testify. But let me be clear that none of Larry's testimony contained any knowledge of the crime. He just testified about things like how he met Marjorie and how often he went to the house and other details of their romance.
The immunity he received--just good lawyering on the part of his own attorney--is called "use immunity." That means that police can still charge Larry Weisberg with a crime any time they develop evidence against him--they just can't use his own testimony for the purpose. This limits the police pretty much
nada. Larry's own testimony contains not even a teensy bit of suspicious material. And after years of scrutiny, there's no suspicion to be found against him elsewhere, either, apparently.
Larry looked good, but he did not look the same age as Marjorie. Compare to the actor on Scorned.
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| Larry acted stupidly, but not criminally. |
2.
Why don't Marjorie's other ex-husbands come forward to cast light on her character?
My Answer:
When I wrote my book, WHAT SHE ALWAYS WANTED, a couple of her husbands that I contacted did not know she had become embroiled in a murder case until I reached them. They were upset and did not want to talk about her.
One former boyfriend did have a lot to say. He was still fond of her, in a way, but also was afraid of her and relieved she was behind bars.
Another former boyfriend not only came forward to testify at her trial in her behalf, but also paid substantial legal bills for her well into six figures. He is still very loyal to her.
And one former husband contacted police and had quite a bit to say about her. His stories did not make her look good. Prosecutors made the decision not to use this information at trial and this ex-husband did not testify. I also made the decision not to use the material in the book. The information was highly inflammatory and impossible to corroborate, so while it may have been true, it was too unfair to Marjorie.
By the way, Marjorie also has said a lot of highly inflammatory things that can not be corroborated and I would not put them in the book nor say them on TV. Like a prosecutor, I have certain standards that have to met before I will use information. This standard applies to both sides.
So the bottom line is most of Marjorie's ex-husbands, boyfriends, and lovers are unlikely to show up on TV talking about her. She is a sore subject for most of them.
3.
Did Jay Orbin ever date non-strippers?
My Answer:
Sure he did! He was a very nice man and he would have been better off if, for instance, he had married his high school sweetheart, who continued to be a friend of the family even after his death and helped support his loved ones through the trial.
Why
did he marry Marjorie? My own theory is derived from something Marjorie said directly to me when we were talking as that photo above was taken. She said she studies people as soon as she meets them to evaluate them, how much can she "get away with" with this person?
"I will roll right over you if I can," she said.
I believe when Jay came to Las Vegas, Marjorie was good and ready to leave the stripper life. She saw Jay as her ticket out. She said and did whatever it took to get him to volunteer to be that ticket and convinced him it was his own idea to boot.
I hope you enjoyed the show
Scorned on ID. I'm happy to answer your questions. I enjoyed the time I spent with the producers of the show. There are always a million different ways to tell a story and, as expected, they told this one differently than I did. Many of the statements presented as "fact" in the TV show were from a single source, Marjorie herself. Since Marjorie is a convicted liar, in my book I always make sure to point out the other pieces of information that complete the picture. For instance, Marjorie says a lot of derogatory things about Jay's sexual prowess but Jay is not here to defend himself. One fact we do have, though, is that Marjorie needed fertility treatments while Jay did not. Therefore, we know that some of the insulting things she says about his private nature are absolutely untrue. Please keep these types of things in mind as you watch the show. You can always get a copy of WHAT SHE ALWAYS WANTED (download it or get the paperback--click below) and compare my version to theirs.
Another thing I'd like to mention is that the detective on the show, Dave Barnes, did not testify in Marjorie's trial (except for an extremely limited time at the very end) and did not help convict her. He is a very controversial figure in and of himself. The detective who was instrumental in putting Marjorie behind bars is Jan Butcher, whose voice can be heard on the tape of the phone call
Scorned put on your TV screens. They only identified her on TV, though, as "Phoenix Police." I know Det. Butcher declined to talk to
Scorned. She did talk to me.
Listen to it on TV, then learn more about that very remarkable phone conversation in WHAT SHE ALWAYS WANTED.
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