Tonight at 9, Dateline NBC airs an hour-long episode devoted entirely to ... Sandra Camille Bridewell, better known 'round these parts as the Black Widow. “A lot of it is based on the Observer articles,” says producer Esther Zucker. “We basically report on what people are whispering about.”
Correspondent Dennis Murphy leads the look into “the life, loss and travels of a woman who went by many names, questioning whether or not she had terrible luck or if she is the cold-blooded criminal some believed her to be.” The show features about a dozen people, including, uh, me talking about our encounters with Bridewell and the rumors that have dogged her after the deaths of two husbands and a female friend, all shot in the head.
“It seemed like a good yarn,” says Zucker. “We were intrigued by all the alleged chapters in this woman’s life.”
Bridewell declined two requests by Dateline for an interview. She is now in federal detention in North Carolina on charges of mail, identity and Social Security fraud. She entered not guilty pleas to the charges when they were first filed in state district court.
One of Murphy’s main subjects will be Gloria Rehrig, the mother of Alan Rehrig, who was murdered in 1985. That was about a year after he married Bridewell, who remains the only suspect in that crime. --Glenna Whitley
