The Deadly Groom: An Ohio-Arkansas True Crime Saga
by Joe Fenley
Category: True Crime

The Deadly Groom is the compelling true crime saga of the slaying of Marcia Good, a vivacious 40-year-old widowed mother of three, by her second husband, Richard Bennett, who viewed her modest estate as a cash cow. At first, Bennett was able to convince authorities and even Marcia's relatives that her drowning death was a tragic fishing accident in a fall from a partially built bridge over the Arkansas River on a cold, windy, rainy night. It would be another 17 years before her case was closed officially when Bennett died in prison while serving a life sentence for first degree murder. He might have gotten away completely without the efforts of Marcia's brother-in-law, Dr. Lowell Good, who hired his own investigators, and her nephew, David Zoll, who successfully fought a civil wrongful death suit against Bennett. It also took the tenacious work of Arkansas State Police Investigator Doug Stephens, who worked with Dr. Good and Zoll, and compiled the evidence that finally resulted in successful criminal prosecution. Even at that, it took three murder convictions before Bennett went to prison because the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the first two jury verdicts.