Blame rain coons, flew the coop with the dough. There's no witnesses.
That's awful. Local News and Little Rock now onto a story that I'm sure
will put the bee in your bonnet. Big News. Out of the Big
Apple police are on the hunt for Roy Schuster, and out of work dancer
known for a grace in the pines the Fideville Stages during his heyday, Shoe
says one of the eight million Americans who are unemployed in shut up. I
need to concentrate. This book is gonna send my daughter to college. I've
gotta finish Colleen. As such, the out of Dance is equal punts an
act of Roy Shuster. This is the Arkansas State Troop was Brigade. We
know you're in there. We have a warrant for your arrest. Egg of
the motel room with your hands up, or we'll be coming in. Oh
God, no, please, I didn't mean to killer. It was supposed
to be me, Roy Shuster. Matt with your hands up immediately, I'm
coming out. We'll get back to that in a bit. The tale of
Roy Schuster is so indicative of the period in American history that he resided the
Great depression crippled the nation financially and left millions depressed destitute, hand without work.
The introduction of sound to movies and the spectacular sets and costumes on Broadway,
we're starting to spell an end to vaudeville as we approach another depression.
One hundred years later, and watched the streaming wars heat up, we felt
like it would be an apt time to invite you to join us as we
step back and recount the story of Royce Schuster, the Alimony Killer. Welcome
to Deadtime Stories. In the nineteen twenties, roy Schuster was touring the nation's
vaudeville stages as a tap dancer and making a pretty good living at it.
Roy was making more than two hundred dollars a week, which may not seem
high now, but that would be the equivalent of just over twenty five hundred
dollars a week adjusted for inflation, considering rent in New York was about sixty
bucks a month. Roy was doing quite well while Tory Milwaukee, Roy then
twenty two years old, met a beautiful young woman, let Royster, and
happened. Great stuff tonight, Roy, Thanks John, see if a cords
and a bit of giggle juice tonight, you know it. Excuse me,
mister Shuster, please call me Roy. All right, I'm Amy, And
what you did out there shoe was the bee's knees. You ever teach anybody?
Never really been much for teaching as much as doing, But sure I've
taught a few folks here and there. Any chance you could teach me.
I'm an actress, but I figure I can make a break for Broadway if
I can pick up a few moves from you how to talk to like you?
Yeah, you'll do all right with a few extra moves. Say,
let's get together tomorrow and we'll see what we can do. Sound good?
Sounds keen? Thanks, mister shut I mean Roy. Amy and Roy started
dating shortly after meeting, and even more quickly they were engaged and married.
During that time, Amy had become pregnant with a child that may or may
not have been fathered by Roy. In order to take care of his wife
and child, Roy retired from performing and became an instructor at Ned Weyburn's dancing
school. At the time, Ned was a hot shot in the dance community.
In addition to being the main choreographer of the Zikefield Follies, one of
the most successful early Broadway shows. This guy literally coined the phrase tap dancing
and personally trained Fred Astaire, Maywest, Groucho Marx, and many more.
Mister Weyburne, I'll just finished cleaning up. Anything else I can do around
here for some extra claims, Roy, you're teaching classes, doing the clean
up, locking the doors at the end of the night. I don't know
what else you could do short of chewing my food for me. Gee.
All right, mister weyburn if you can just let me know if anything else
comes up, that would be swell. And if there's any opening in follies,
please keep me in mind. I will Roy, good night, go
home, see you tomorrow. Not mister Weyburn, Amy, I'm home.
Where are my favorite gals? You hear that, Colleen? Apparently where your
pop's favorite gals? Pretty hard to tell. With the way he's bringing home
the bacon or lack thereof, take her. She won't stop crying. Come
here, Colleen, Amy, I'm doing everything I can. Mister weyburn doesn't
have anything else for me. He already cut me down from one hundred and
ten dollars to seventy five, and he said, he can barely afford to
pay me that with everything going on. I asked about follies, but he
didn't say much. He's not gonna put you in follies. Roy, give
it up, find a real job. When Amy had become pregnant, she
gave up her pursuit of employment in the entertainment industry to concentrate on raising their
daughter, Colleen. Maybe she was jealous that Roy was still going after that
dream, and that's why she was pressing so hard for him to do the
same. I need to find a real job. How about that jerk you
go out with on your MIXI escapades? What kind of job does he have?
Your nuts? What you think? I don't know about that. I've
got almos, don't. I'm hot here, I know. In the twenties
and thirties, divorce was more possible than it had been in past decades,
but not much less stigmatized. If you wanted to file for divorce, you
had to prove that you were the victim of cruelty, adultery, or abandonment.
That process was only for the few who could afford divorce fees. The
Great Depression saw a large decline in US annual divorce rates. That's not to
say there weren't other options, like a separation. It's like diet divorce divorce
light, which is the path Roy and Amy took. Rhy is that shoe
come on in? H mister Weyburn. What's the good word? Oh Roy?
Not so good. I'm afraid I can't keep paying you the seventy five
dollars we had agreed on. I'm really hurt in these days, as I
know you are the most I can give you. He's eleven dollars a week.
Eleven dollars, mister Weyburn. I'm flat broke. Give me a break.
I've got a kid in legal fees. Boy, I like you,
but there's just nothing else I can do. Gribes. I'm opening up a
dance studio. I'm trying to crawl my way out of this. I'm sorry,
Roy, Yeah, oh right, thanks, mister Weyburn. Unfortunately for
Roy, things got worse from there. He lost his job at the dance
school, and although Roy and Amy managed to reconcile after their separation, it
was short lived, as they quickly became separated again. This time legally,
it still wasn't quite a divorce. It was a court ordered separation. Roy
struggled with negative thoughts following the court order, and eventually attempted suicide. Amy
took immedia action in response to Roy's attempt on his life. She secured a
court order directing him to pay a fixed sum for the support of his family.
Having already had his income slash to eleven dollars per week, Roy found
those payments to be extremely difficult to afford. Amy took given further legal action.
Mister Shuster, my name is Israel Siegel, and I'm representing miss Amy
Drake Shuster regarding the matter of your court ordered payment. At this current time,
Miss Drake Shuster is not willing to take any payment lower than forty dollars
a week. Amy. You know I don't have that kind of dough.
You'll ruin me. I'll have to shut the studio I open. I'm doing
everything I can. Ow me your bone. I'll have you thrown in jails.
What I'll do. Mister Siegel here told me that if you don't pay
what I'm saying you gotta pay, then you can be locked up. Please,
Amy, don't do this to me. I'm trying to make things work.
I've got the studio open now. I just got into the job as
a salesman. If I got tossed into the hoosgaul for just today, I'll
lose the studio and the job. Not to mention any day I'm behind bars.
I certainly ain't making money to pay you at this current time. Miss
Drake Shuster is not willing to take any payment lower than forty dollars a week.
I heard you, mouthpiece. I'm talking to my wife, Amy.
If you do this to me, I'll kill myself. I swear it right.
I've had my fill of this today. Mean back here tomorrow and we're
gonna settle this once and for all. The next morning, May second,
nineteen thirty one, Roy met with Amy in front of fifty one Chamber Street,
where both of their lawyer's offices were located. They visited Roy's lawyer first,
but he wasn't in the office, so the two proceeded into Israel Siegel's
office. Mister Siegel led them to a meeting room. Come in, please
have a seat. Thank you, mister Siegel. I'll stay thanks very well.
We'll get directly to it then, as it seems you're eager to begin,
mister Shuster, Miss Drake Schuster is not willing to accept any amount of
alimony payment short of the previously agreed forty dollars a week without holding you in
contempt of court. Do you intend to comply with the court ordered payment?
Mister Siegel, Amy, It's not about if I'm tend to comply. It's
about the fact that I can't. You two got me behind the abow I
am to pay. It's fair, but I'm not sure the three of us
got the same definition of the word. Mister Shuster, this is quite simple.
Do you intend to comply with the court ordered payment? Amy? Please?
Let's get back together, make it work, just you and me like
it used to be, back when it was good. Times are hard enough.
We don't gotta be alone. We could be together. Amy. Please,
do you intend to comply? We can it? Will you? Please
give me a chance. Let me explain the situation. Let me prove to
you I have no money. If you put me in jail Monday, you
will put me out of business, You will destroy my future, you will
make me commit suicide. Mister Shuster, please excuse Miss Drake Shuster and I
for a moment while I speak with my client in private. Roy pulled a
thirty two caliber revolver from his pocket. The original Dead Time stories will be
back after these brief messages. Welcome back to our show. Roy's face was
plastered on the front page of newspapers. Radio programs covered the story for all
the wrong reasons. The nation knew his name, Roy Alimony Slayer Schuster.
Authority searched for Roy for nearly a month before making their way to a motel
and Little Rock, Arkansas. Y'all show, he's the guy in the photos.
Sure as you're standing here, signed for the room under the name Anderson.
Seems nice enough. He do something wrong, filled his old lady full
of lead, caught a lawyer in the arm too. Yikes. Well he's
over in for a second. Door to the right. Take a step back,
please, Roy Shuster, this is the Arkansas State Troop was Brigade.
We know you're in there. We have a warrant for your arrest. Exit
the motel room with your hands up or we'll be coming in. Oh god,
no, please, I didn't mean the killer. It was supposed to
be me, Roy Shuster. Come out with your hands up immediately. I'm
coming out. Kick those hands up. I guess I got the electric chair
for no jewry will listen to my story. But the killing was accidental.
I went to the door, and I suppose Siegel was trying to dissuade my
wife from coming back to me. I pulled out my gun to hand it
all, but Siegel thought I was gonna shoot him, and he rushed towards
me. We grappled, and the gun went off several times as we scuffled.
When I regained my sentences, my wife was dead and Siegal was gone.
Save it for the judge Shuster. Roy was brought back to New York
to be tried for murder. Mister Israel Siegel, can you please share with
the court what you were doing on the morning of May twenty first, Yes,
sir, I was at my office where I was to be met by
missus Amy B. Drake Schuster and her estranged husband, Roy Shuster, per
my representation of his wife in their court agreed separation. We were set to
discuss the alimony payments he was trying to weasel out of. And when mister
Schuster arrived, what was his demeanor? He burst in the door and looked
disheveled, even slightly crazed. You could see in his eyes that he was
looking for trouble. What was the poipos of your meeting? We were meeting
because he had agreed to pay his dear sweet wife, God rest her soul,
forty dollars a week for alimony payment of late mister Shusta was unable to
make his payments after losing his employment as a dance instructor. I understand he
must have been feeling terribly low, given that his only talent in the world
was dancing, and not only was he not able to secure employment by practicing
his trade, he was also unable to secure employment teaching the trade. Such
a shame, a shame. Indeed, what was he requesting in the stead
of his previously agreed payment. He was aggressively demanding that the payments be lowered
or delayed. I calmly informed him that if he was unable to make his
payments, that he'd beheld in contempt of the court, as is the law.
He verbally lashed out at me. His eyes were darting around the room,
looking like a man possessed during this time. Was he addressing missus Shuster
or only speaking with you in a last ditch attempt to turn things around.
The poor sap made a hopeless plea to his estranged wife, begging for them
to reconcile and get back together. Missus Shuster showed no interest in this course
of action. I then asked mister Shuster to excuse Missus Shuster and myself so
that we could confer in the hall. He became enraged, screaming obscenities and
convulsing. He pulled out a gun. What happened next, mister Siegel,
He tactfully aimed the pits still had Missus Shuster. I hurled myself in the
way and tackled the itchy trigger fingered fiend to the ground. But in the
ensuing gunplay, Missus Schuster was struck in the head multiple times. God rest
her soul. She was a kind, warm woman who committed no crime.
He purposely shot her in the head and probably intended to do the same to
me. I'm lucky to be here before you all, only having sustained a
shoulder wound. That man is a dangerous menace to society, and if there's
any hope left in the world, he'll be harshly sentenced. Thank you so
much, mister Siegel. I call Roy Schuster to the stand, mister Roy
Shuster, regarding the murder of your strength his wife, Amy Drake Shusta,
and assault with a firearm of mister Israel Siegel. You've pled not guilty by
reason of temporary insanity. Can you shed some light on this temporary insanity.
I ain't gonna try and tell anyone I didn't do what I said I did,
but I'm here to say I wasn't in my right mind on that day
or the day's leading up to it. I put my head in an oven
just weeks before I wanted out. I didn't go there intending to kill or
maim anybody besides myself. I brought that gap to end it all. What
changed that shister Sigel wouldn't back down. He was egging Amy on. She
knew I didn't have any money, so did he. They just kept pressing.
I wanted to get Amy back. I want her back now with a
whole other way. When he tried to take her away from me, I
snapped thank you, miss to Shusta. In order to disprove Roy's claims of
temporary insanity, the state called psychiatric expert witness doctor Periam Liechtenstein, who was
the resident physician at Toombs Prison in New York and also an attorney between Israel
Land doctor Liechtenstein's testimonies. Roy Schuster was found guilty of murder in the second
degree after one week on November two, nineteen thirty one. He was sentenced
to a term of twenty five years to life. However, that is not
where the story of Roy Schuster ends. Roy was sent to Sing Sing Correctional
Facility, which is a maximum security prison in oh Sing, New York.
It's one of the oldest prisons in the country, and the phrase up the
river to describe sending someone to prison is derived because Sing Sing prisoners were sent
up the Hudson River to their incarceration. Luckily for Roy, the same year
he was incarcerated, a new prison reform offered sing sing prisoner's permission to partake
in recreation opportunities like baseball, football, vaudeville shows, and concerts, with
tickets sold to the public. The prison was able to raise money for charities
and families of executed prisoners, or so they said so. Although he never
made it into the zig Field Follies, he was soon the star of the
Sing Sing Follies. Let's hear it again for Roy Shuster and the rest of
the Sing Sing Mistreats great stuff tonight, Roy, glad you liked it,
because it's the last time I'm performing in a Sing Sing production. What are
you squawking about, Shuster? I know the crooked low lives who run this
place are pocketing the ticket money that's supposed to be for the needy families.
If I were you, I'd be real careful bombing your gobs about stuff like
that. Yeah, you can find yourself in trouble quick. Let's get you
back to yourself account blab or mouth, Get up, Shuster. Yeah,
being transferred? Transferred where upstate Clinton correction All. You can't just ship me
around with no warning like some auction block cattle. We got this piece of
paper from the warden. It says we can, so let's go. Roy
was shipped up to Clinton Correctional Facility in Dnamora, New York, or as
it's affectionately nicknamed New York's Little Siberia because of the freezing winter conditions. Once
he arrived, prison life got worse before it got better. Roy had reportedly
discovered that the warden end some of the prison staff were embezzling money from the
prison budget. Shuster, I hear you have some interesting theories about the way
I do business around here. That true? Yeah, I know you lot
of skinning money off the top, and I won't rest until your exposed.
I suspect you won't find it very easy to rest in any case. Oh
yeah, why's that? God take this man to the dungeon. At this
point, you may be thinking a dungeon. I know this takes place in
the past, but not in the Middle Ages. But here Roy is.
It's nineteen thirty five, and yes, this man was thrown into a prisons
dungeon. After serving time in the literal dungeon, Roy became a model prisoner.
He earned his college degree and tutored others to do the same. By
nineteen forty one, the New York State Board of Education commended him for his
work. If all had continued to go well, he would be up for
parole in seven years. However, corruption seemed to rear its duplicate his head
yet again. Look, the geed test is no big deal. We've come
at everything. You're gonna need to ace it. Just make sure to concentrate
on the math section and you'll be square. Yeah, I guess it'd be
nice to know I'm gonna pass like some of the other guys. It's all
about preparation. Yeah, and bankroll, which I don't got. What do
you mean you ain't. No, some of the guys been panted off the
guards for better grades. No, I was unaware. You don't need a
grease any poems. You can do this on your own. Roy attempted to
uncover this scheme, and the prison subjected him to a bocus raged sanity test,
which had him declared this insane. This declaration made him ineligible for his
upcoming parole. Lemon H. Casswell, MD, the physician at Clinton,
who had zero psychiatric qualifications by the way, signed the declaration after one conversation
with Roy. He wrote he was circumstantial in his conversation, very talkative,
complained bitterly. He was paranoid and suspicious. This man was reported for writing
letters were gone in cowardly attacks made against him by the poor Sinnel, and
requested that something be done about it. In his letters, he has shown
the paranoid idea that members of the poisonell are against him. The good doctor
didn't attempt any additional meetings or a further explanation of diagnosis on the forum.
He also neglected to list whether Roy was violent, dangerous, destructive, excited,
homicidal or suicidal, all of which are mandatory to note on the form
submitted. Roy was remanded to Danemora State Hospital for the criminally Insane without being
afforded a hearing or correspondence with any legal representative. It wasn't until nearly thirty
years later that Roy was afforded the opportunity to present his case regarding corruption and
be reviewed for parole. Mister Shusta, can you share the details of the
examination performed by doctor Caswell to test the fitness of y sanity? Your honor?
The interview that those docs passed off as a sanity test was given to
me without my concerned warning or knowledge of its purpose. What sort of questions
were being asked of you? They spent most of the time threatening me to
take back what I was saying about the bribery going on in the self study
program. Then after the whole thing, they forced me to sign the twelfth
paid transcript on the meeting, but they wouldn't let me read it. God
only knows what it said, it says on your file you received no medication
or treatment regularly. Why is that? One of the head quacks up there
said, my paranoia was so deeply rooted that they wouldn't respond to therapy.
Do you do any work? Have they assigned you a job and not?
Now? I did for a while I was a librarian. But other than
that, I study in my spare time and things like that. They try
to prepare for an honorable rehabilitation so that when I was released, I wouldn't
step out cold. I would be able to step into an honorable job.
Race Schuster was denied parole and no further investigation into the bribery allegations were deemed
necessary. Roy would be denied parole multiple times in the coming years. Despite
the following deposition from a psychiatrist working in the facility, Roy was detained.
Shusta is an individual whose conduct in general is correct, who uses impeccable logic.
He shows no obvious signs of mental illness, such as deterioration, untidiness,
hallucinatory experience, as bizarre ideas or bizarre behavior. However, the nature
of paranoia, in which an entire delusional but logical belief is based on a
single false premise, and if one allows the truth of the false premise,
the patient's behavior no longer appears abnovel. The doctor also attested that although he
believed some foul play might have occurred during Roy's examination, he could not believe
anyone would commit a man who did not deserve it. In nineteen seventy five,
Roy Schuster was finely granted parole he was seventy one. The appeals judge
who ultimately granted him his freedom apologized for his treatment and compared his incarceration to
serving in a Soviet gulag and chastise prison officials for denying him. Quote the
ordinary decency do every human. Roy spent the next ten years fighting for prisoners
rights. He died at the age of eighty one. Though it's clear it
was his gun he brought to the law office as that day that killed his
wife and injured mister Siegel, it's harder to tell if the result was because
of his mental state, whether or not his allegations of corruption in any of
the instances were accurate. It's plain to see that the justice system used his
sanity against him in multiple ways. From the denial of his temporary insanity defense
to being ineligible for parole because of his clinically insane status, Roy Schuster was
tossed around the prison system and left at the bottom. Like the last bit
of peanut butter, you can't quite get out of the jar. Alimoni Acrimony
was written by Jordan Catcher, narrated by me Skyler Fastonel, and executive produced
by Daniel Jones. Voice talent was provided by Daniel Jones, Alan Anthony,
Morion Walker Barnes, Jeremy Staple, Vince Perez, Sophia Sasone, Matt McNelly,
Shatara, Irvin Taylor, Shirty, Mariissippi Stone, Ariel Dale, and
Rainy Blake. Our theme song was written and performed by Tracy Zailes. As
always, thank you for being a part of another episode. If you've enjoyed
what you heard, let us know by leaving a five star review and rating.
It helps us out so much. You can also check out our merchandise,
ad free episodes and more over at our Patreon, which is patreon dot
com slash og Deadtime. The link to that and all of our social media
is in the episode description. The original Deadtime stories. We'll be back in
one week with a lovely new episode for you to enjoy until then. Stay
safe out there. I don't want you to be the next chapter's topic on
the original Dead Time stories.