Six months after we were divorced, Marvin invited me to his wedding. He was marrying his neighbor, Penny. When they first met, she was married and had three young boys, ages 8, 10, and 12. Marvin had seduced her and convinced her to file for divorce from her husband of twenty years. Marvin suggested an attorney for her to use, one that he selected on her behalf. One with a merciless reputation and the vicious qualities of a Pit Bull, the kind of qualities that he himself admired. He would be sure to carefully observe this lawyer's tactics and techniques, like a student would a mentor. These "private lessons" would be valuable to him, and of course, paid for on someone else's dime. This lawyer would render Penny's husband nearly destitute. Broke, most of his acquired assets lost in this divorce that was overseen and coached by a sociopath. Penny's husband was evicted from his home of twenty years, as his wife and three children went to live in the house next door.
Marvin married Penny two weeks later, and the following week a "For Sale" sign went up in front of Penny’s old house. In a matter of weeks, it sold at $85,000. After twenty long years of house payments this house was just recently paid off. Now all that money was Marvin’s.
Along with the sale of her house he manipulated Penny into selling her other assets; antique furniture, and a paid for truck. Within a four month period of time, Penny's paid for house, furniture, and vehicle were all gone. And so was the money from the sale of her items.
Now that Penny was cash broke and without assets, he would devise another plan to open up other opportunities for him to take from her. He was like a vampire draining the last available drop of blood from his victim. He applied for numerous credit cards via the mail, using each card for the maximum amount of available credit. He forged Penny’s signature on the applications, with him only a secondary cardholder. Thus, he had complete use of these many credit cards, and no fiscal responsibility.
Marvin accessed Penny’s Credit Union account, and found that he could withdraw up to $6,000. He received that check in the mail just one week after forging the application to withdraw. Somehow, he was able to cash that check.
Marvin would begin to use the credit cards that he had applied for; they were coming in the mail at a rapid rate. He hurriedly went about the task of using them to charge items up to their maximum credit limit. So on it continued for Penny, with his "what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine" type attitude in full operation. This would be the case until he could squeeze her completely dry, and then he planned to discard her.
Now that the scheme to max-out the credit cards was well on its way, he would look for other things that he could take from Penny. He would focus his devious attention on the one thing left to take from her, her children.
Two months after Marvin put all of Penny’s funds in his own name, two of her children came to Penny and told her that they were being made to “do things” with their new stepfather. They gave their mother graphic details of what had occurred in her absence. The youngest child, Nick, then 8 years old, denied any such encounters of his own. When Marvin arrived home, Penny immediately confronted him.
Marvin flew into a rage, a rage inspired strictly for the sake of theatrics. He really wasn't angry, nor was he sorry. He could have cared less about his victims state of suffering, it was all about him. Marvin was afraid because he had gotten caught. He wasn't in fear of any legal consequences because he would see to it that there were none, one way or another; he was smarter than "the system". What he was in fear of, and the last thing that he would allow to happen, would be for his activities to be interrupted. Marvin pounced on the opportunity at hand; to use the very scenario that presented itself as an excuse to outwardly terrorize this family, Penny and the children being alone with him in the house. He stormed about the house, raging and pounding on walls and destroying some of the children's toys, their beloved PlayStation and other belongings. Marvin screamed that they were "all a bunch of losers and ingrates" and that "without him they were nothing", making sure that everyone within the confines of the house would hear its echoes. He yelled that the children were "retarded" and that their mother was "insane" and that they were all "liars and he would prove it". Now, he intentionally lowered his voice, so only Penny could hear what was to follow. With an icy-cold glare Marvin looked her directly in the eyes and hissed "who would believe someone who's insane? They'll believe me." Penny's blood ran cold. She knew what he was alluding too. She had been diagnosed years ago with bipolar disorder and was taking prescribed medication for this condition. Then Marvin announced that he would be divorcing her; and as a reminder that all her assets and money were gone he added "and where ya gonna go with your brats you stupid bitch?"
An even more sinister plan occurred to Marvin. "I'll prove you're an unfit mother and gain custody of your children." "Go take some more of your pills bitch, you're gonna need it." It was as if the devil himself was whispering in Marvin's ear as to what to say. And that's precisely what Penny did, as if she were hypnotized.
The very thought of this malignant monster gaining possession of her children generated a psychological and emotional meltdown in Penny. She could not bear the thought of what she was about to have to endure. Penny snapped. Void of all rational thought and as if she were following Marvin's command, Penny went into the bathroom medicine cabinet, got her bottle of pills, and swallowed what remained in the bottle in front of Marvin. He didn't jump into action and try to stop Penny. Instead, he stood by and watched her. Marvin felt this intense jolt of power that he had never experienced before, a total unharnessed rush of adrenaline. Could he have become so adept at manipulating people and events that he could get them to obey such life-altering commands? He felt all-powerful. He would savor the image of this moment forever.
Marvin didn't respond by calling 911 to report an overdose to summon an ambulance for Penny. He didn't dial for help to try to save her life; instead he simply glared at her with contempt. Penny knew about the children now, but she hadn't yet had the opportunity to tell anyone. If Penny did die she wouldn't be able to tell, ever. And the fact that she did it to herself, all the better! Within the next fifteen minutes, Penny regained enough rational thought to call for her own ambulance. She was treated and released from the hospital several hours after she arrived.
Before Penny awoke the next morning, Marvin left the house to begin damage control. He chose an attorney, the same aggressive, Pit Bull, take no prisoners, lawyer he had used before. Marvin liked his style. And he also thought that he would more than likely get some sort of preferential treatment since he was a repeat customer. Marvin was right about that. And he always made sure to remind his attorney just what a valuable client he was. Marvin had just awarded his attorney two cases that morning; one, the divorce from Penny; and the other, a child custody case, because he was filing to keep Nick, as he had promised Penny.
Marvin filed whatever had to be done to keep Nick, and filed for divorce from Penny. He had her money. He was taking her child. Now he needed to discredit her testimony if she pursued a child abuse case. Four days after filing these two cases, Marvin told Penny to get out and take her two brats with her. Only two. He told her he was keeping Nick. Somehow, he orchestrated that. Marvin made it happen. He kept Nick because Nick didn’t tell. Nick had denied any indecencies with Marvin. I don’t know how Marvin managed that. I believe he filled Nick with cunning lies. I believe that somehow Marvin convinced Nick that he was better off with him. I suspect he told him that being an only child would provide him with more than he would have with Penny. He wouldn’t have to share; everything would be just for him. Marvin poisoned Nick with lies about his family. He bribed the boy with “stuff.” He had a powerful hold on this 8 year old child.
Penny was emotionally battered to the point she left the house with her two older boys, leaving Nick alone with a child-molesting sociopath. He convinced a small circle around him that Penny was insane, and the older son’s were confused because of their mother’s insanity. Nick was young enough not to have been infected with his mother’s madness, Marvin maintained. And certainly Nick’s consistent denials that there had been improprieties gave Marvin a thick smoke screen to hide behind. Nick was questioned by many people, but stayed with his story of innocence. Marvin, with Nick’s help, convinced the legal system that keeping Nick, at least temporarily, was for the best, and he was awarded temporary custody of the young boy.
Again I gave “the system” the benefit of the doubt. I had to believe that the authorities had investigated the situation thoroughly before awarding custody of a child to a man who was not his father.
I’m sure that Penny’s suicide attempt had a lot to do with the outcome. He painted Penny as unstable, which of course she was. He neglected to mention that he had been the one to convince her to take more medicine; that he had badgered her with, “Take more of your pills, bitch,” until she snapped and did just that. Marvin broadcasted Penny’s bipolar diagnosis to all his acquaintances, and implied that the children likely would have starved if he had not taken over the cooking in the home. When he was asked why he filed for custody of only Nick instead of all three children, Marvin said that he and Nick had a special bond. “Nick loves me and needs me,” Marvin said. “That little boy needs me and he thinks I hung the moon.”
Marvin had custody of Nick for the next five months. I saw them together at a school function once during that time. Nick was draped across Marvin’s lap, his head resting on his stepfather’s chest. The boy reached up and put his arms around the older man’s neck. His little voice was almost dreamy as he cooed, “I really love you, daddy.” Nick was not yet nine.