Bernie Tiede

Bernhardt Tiede II (/ˈtiːd/; born August 2, 1958) is an American mortician who was convicted of the November 19, 1996 murder of his companion, wealthy 81-year-old widow Marjorie "Marge" Nugent, in Carthage, Texas. He was 38 at the time of the murder.

These events are the subject of the critically acclaimed film Bernie (2011), a dark comedy directed by Richard Linklater and starring Jack Black as Tiede. The film attracted attention to Tiede's case, and new evidence was discovered. He was temporarily released on bail in 2014, pending a resentencing hearing. Despite the new evidence, Tiede was sentenced to 99 years to life.

His case is also featured on the Season 3, Episode 7, titled "Millionairess Mortician", from the show Deadly Sins.

Bernie Tiede is the son of Bernhardt Tiede, a native of Olegnow, Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. Of German descent, Tiede had immigrated in 1926 as a child with his family to the United States. The elder Tiede had served as a professor of music and choral director at Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, Texas (1946–1948), at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas (1948–1957), at Kilgore College in Kilgore (1957–1968), and then McMurry College in Abilene, where he served as director of the McMurry Chanters until his death. In addition to his work as a university professor, the elder Tiede also served as church music director and as a vocal performer. Bernie Tiede's mother was his father's first wife, Lela Mae Jester (1933–1960). They married in 1957, and Bernie was born the next year in Tyler. Jester was killed in an automobile accident when Bernie was two years old. Tiede’s father, who was driving the car in which Jester died, never forgave himself, and started drinking frequently.

His father died in Abilene when Tiede was fifteen. Tiede graduated from Cooper High School in 1976. He became a mortician, working in Carthage as assistant director of the Hawthorn Funeral Home. He was very popular in the town.

Tiede met the wealthy widow, Marjorie Nugent, in March 1990 at her husband's funeral, which Tiede had helped arrange as assistant director at Hawthorn Funeral Home. The two eventually became inseparable companions, although she was more than 40 years his senior. In 1991, Nugent altered her will, and disinherited her only child, Rod Nugent, leaving her entire $10 million estate to Tiede. By 1993, Bernie left his job to work for Nugent full time as her business manager and travel companion.

In November 1996, Tiede killed Nugent by shooting her in the back four times with a .22 caliber rifle. He placed her body in a freezer used to store food at her Carthage home. According to the Amarillo Globe-News, Nugent's estranged son, Rod, an Amarillo pathologist, had grown concerned about not being able to reach his mother. After traveling to Panola County nine months following her death, Rod declared Nugent a missing person. He and his daughter entered his mother's house, where they found her body in the freezer.

Tiede was taken in for questioning, and he admitted to Nugent's murder to police in August 1997. He said that after the murder, he had prepared the body, and placed it in a freezer. After this, Tiede acknowledged using Nugent's money for civic activities, gifts to academic and civic groups, and to friends. She had given him power of attorney over her funds. A jury convicted Tiede of first-degree murder, and sentenced him to 50 years in prison. When he appealed his sentence, the appellate courts ruled that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to have found premeditation, a condition of the charge.