How Five People Went to Prison for Dan Markel's Murder

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

Tony Brueski (0:10)

Have you seen the new Hulu doc, Welcome to the Family? The Murder of Dan Markel, it's about the Adelson family. Charlie Adelson, Donna Adelson, Wendi Adelson, their friends, Catherine McBonna, the whole crew comes in this four-part docu-series. If you've not followed this case, you're probably like, whoa, I got to go learn more about that on the YouTube. Well, thank you. Welcome. You found the right place. We're about to put together a four-part series. Now, keep in mind, we've covered this case from way back. So if you want to actually watch the trial coverage and commentary of it on the channel, there's thousands of videos for you to do that. But if you're wanting to kind of get the recap, we're going to give you a four-episode series here that really dives into what happened here in four different lanes over the next handful of days. We're going to be talking about the hit. That's today's video. We're going to talk about the dentist, Charlie, his dad. We're going to talk about the matriarch, Donna, and Wendi as well in our fourth video. The unindicted co-conspirator who has never had charges against her, maintains her innocence.

Got somewhat of a deal to say some things exactly what that deal is and how it protects her. We don't know the answers to those questions exactly. But whatever it is so far hasn't caused her to end up behind bars. It may mean that that's part of the agreement or it may mean she just didn't know enough.

We're going to dive into all of it, and I'd love to get your thoughts in the comments section and sub stack in YouTube as we discuss the Adelson's. This is a wild, wild case. Dan Markel filed a motion in family court to keep his mother-in-law from being alone with his children. That's got to be a fun one to have to do. His boys were coming home saying, Grandma says you're stupid. She says you're trying to take away her sunshines.

That's lovely. That's Donna. That's who was telling the kids, her un-grandchildren. Daddy's trying to take the sunshines away from me. You're my sunshines. And then the kids go back to dad. Why is grandma saying this? Because grandma's a narcissistic cunt. Oh, wait, you can't say that to children. You can't say that to kids.

The hearing for that motion was scheduled, then continued. I never put back on the calendar, because why? Well, Dan was dead before the judge ever heard it. Puts a little kink in plans. On July 18, 2014, two men drove five hours from Miami in a rented Toyota Prius, followed Dan from his gym to his garage on Trescot Drive in Tallahassee, and shot him twice in the head. He was 41, a Harvard-educated law professor at Florida State, a father who dropped his two sons at preschool that morning. He built a career studying criminal punishment theory, authored a book called Privilege or Punish, founded a widely read legal blog called ProfsBlog, and held the chair at FSU's law school. He grew up in Toronto, came to Florida for the work and stayed for the boys. He died at a hospital that night. He died at the hospital that night because two men who killed him didn't know him were hired. And the family, the prosecutors say, ordered the hit, paid for it the way they ran every other piece of family business, through the dental office and monthly installments. With the grandmother signing the checks.

What? Yeah.

An interesting way to pay for a murder? Right there, basically, on company letterhead?

With everyone involved, can we get your signature on this too, please? Okay, great. We just want to make sure the paper trail is really rock solid when we get convicted. Dan Markel married Wendi Adelson in 2006 and both worked at FSU's law school. The marriage fell apart after their two sons were born. Wendi filed for divorce in September of 2012 Court records say Dan came home from a trip and found the house was empty. Papers on the bed. The divorce was finalized in July of 2013 Then came the fight that made Dan Markel a target. Wendi wanted to move the children to South Florida near her parents and her brother Charlie, but the judge denied the relocation permanently in June of 2013 The boys had to stay in Tallahassee near their father. They can't just move because grandma is needy. Because grandma is a needy, petulant 13-year-old in her brain. And thinks the world revolves around her because she's married someone who's made it that way and trained her children to do the same, except for the one who ran away to New York and is only the seemingly sane member of the family.