Oklahoma Murder for Hire

Murder for hire in 1988 must have been a real monster of a time to find for a woman who was bored, and just lazy. A woman that claimed she was abused, knew how to work a young man up, back in those days it was much easier to find “a knight in shining armor”. Men all over wanted to be one, no man how scuzzy they really were.

Marilyn Kay Plantz was a woman who had been married to the same man long enough to know she wasn’t happy. She couldn’t just divorce him; she would have missed out on the big insurance pay out. That’s right, folks, you heard me correctly, she was interested in that big insurance payout. Aren’t they all? I mean after all, it was 1988 and this was a different time when women were a little more homely and a little more scandalous. Ok, woman are just as scandalous as men, I must admit that isn’t a problem for me in this day and age really, it’s not. Have you seen most of network television? You learn to ignore who’s having an affair with who. But this woman, well, I have a problem with where she took it and how she did it.

First, the children were in the house. Don’t do things wrong or illegal with the little ones around at all. It sets a very bad example, it puts them in danger, and it just isn’t proper. Be considerate.

Second, this woman didn’t just have an affair, it was a series of events that really were screwed up before this man died a horrible death. She received punishment for a heinous crime. Follow along, Friends, see what I’m talking about with this one.

Third, Marilyn didn’t just create a murder for hire situation, she was right in there with it, getting her hands nice and dirty. She was quite the murderess. She wanted that money more than she loved her children. The murder was cruel and brutal, but I will explain.

In 1988 Marilyn and James appeared to be happily married with two children, ages 9 and 5. James worked for the Oklahoma Publishing Company as a press supervisor, making very good money. And despite the rumor she kept putting out to her cohorts each time, James was good to his family. Marilyn, however, had been busy with her own little hobbies when James left for work.

A neighbor watched her as she loaded the children up in her car and disappeared with them on a regular basis, coming back very late most of the time. It looked like something very suspicious, only the neighbor couldn’t say more then that until the men started to show up at the house. Yes, friends, she brought friends home.

Marilyn was having an affair with one Clifford Bryson. Clifford should have walked away the moment she told him she was married, that was a sign of trouble right there. But he just got tangled up with her.

Marilyn talked Bryson and his associate, Clinton McKimble into doing permeant bodily harm to her husband, James for money. She didn’t have the insurance money yet and she was already spending it. Ok, Folks, let me back up a little bit for you.

James was insured for approximately three hundred thousand dollars. She offered forty-five thousand dollars of that to McKimble to drive up along the side of her husband and shoot him. They wanted it to look like an accident, this was not the way to do it. What a bunch of amateurs! Not to mention cruel mean people. I know none of them were in the church choir, but for God sake what a bunch of idiots!

Folks, McKimble decided to turn Marilyn and Bryson down. Turns out he didn’t feel very comfortable with their plan either. So, Bryson came up with plan B in the name of Roderick Farris. Now, does that name sound like he’s out of a Poe story. Like the tell tale heart? I find this to be ironic in a way. Farris hung around long enough to get arrested on an unrelated charge. What a good time to talk about things?

On August 25th, 1988, James came home and was attacked by McKimble and Bryson who’d been drinking and smoking cocaine with Marilyn. Marilyn listened as the two men beat the husband, she’d committed the vows of death do you part to, die brutally with t-ball bats belonging to her son as James called out her name for help. She was high and didn’t care as she thought of nothing but the money.

Folks, if you are wondering, you can stop, the kids were right next door, they were in the next room asleep as their father was beat to death. Well almost to death. Once he appeared unable to move any longer, they took him and loaded him in the back of his own truck. It doesn’t stop here, Folks! They didn’t know it, but he was still alive!

Maybe, they did know and didn’t care. The two men drove his truck to an abandon area where they put him into the truck and set it on fire. How the hell was this supposed to be an accident? No one in their right mind was going to believe this was an accident. I certainly wouldn’t have believed it, and she would have been the first person I would have looked for a suspect.

So, while they were gone, setting her husband on fire, she was back home cleaning up the blood in the carpet. This woman was coming down off a high and cleaning up blood. She had her children in the next room, how much more cold-blooded do you have to be? At least take the children to their grandparents under the guise of having a night out or something. Set something up! This was such amateur hour and for a this to go to trial she could defend this.

Needless to say, this didn’t look like an accident. She did try to say she didn’t have anything to do with as anyone would. The fact that the rest of the family said they had such a good relationship was hard for her to stand and say he was horrid to her. And why didn’t she just divorce. Even the jury saw she was just in it for the greed.

On a separate note, the children were awarded the life insurance policy money. It was little consultation for losing both parents. An aunt and uncle in the family raised the children. They both visited her and her daughter wanted her to have a second chance by having life in prison, her son did not speak in public. He wrote about his pain but did not speak about it publicly.

Marilyn was given the death penalty. Oklahoma is not kind to murder-for-hire plots. She was on death row for 12 years before she was shuffled off this mortal coil May 1st, 2001.