Justice Delayed: The Robert Marshall Story

A Bad Night at the Tables

If the image of Rob and Maria Marshall as the perfect suburban couple was an illusion, so too was Marshall's facade as an affluent and successful businessman, authorities later maintained. Yes, his insurance business was successful and he continued to earn, grossing over $100,000 a year, but prosecutors later insisted Marshall found himself unable to keep up with his own expenses.

Though he still denies that his credit line was getting the best of him, court records show Marshall had admitted to Beth, before Maria Marshall's slaying, that he was slipping deeply into debt. By his own estimates, Marshall was carrying more than $250,000 in debt, with another $80,000 mortgage on an office he owned. There was also the line of credit he maintained to cover his bets at Harrah's, his favorite haunt in Atlantic City. Despite that pool of red ink, Marshall has always maintained that his various streams of income and his assets were more than enough to cover the debt.

His casino finances were to play a pivotal role in the state's case against Marshall.

The way Marshall tells the story, in early 1984, he and his wife had an unusually bad night at the tables, playing with money they would borrow on a regular basis from their credit line at the casino. Ordinarily, his sister Oakleigh had written, Marshall, who prided himself on his ability to squeeze complimentary meals and other perks from the casino, tried to keep his gambling losses "to a few hundred dollars, which were offset by bigger wins." That night, however, the blackjack dealers took more than a grand from him. Marshall turned to Maria, and asked her to slip into her $3,500 share of their casino funds to cover the debt. According to Marshall's account, Maria claimed that she had spent the money before they came down to Atlantic City that night, buying clothes for their sons.

Marshall claims he thought no more about it until March of that year, when during one of their meetings, Beth told him that she had run into a mutual friend of theirs, a lawyer, and that lawyer claimed that he had been approached by Maria Marshall and that Maria had confided that she was suspicious that Marshall and Beth were having an affair. Because of his friendship with Beth, the lawyer declined to get involved, but it was suggested that Maria might have hired a private investigator to confirm her suspicions, and Marshall insists that he suspected that she had used the $3,500 to pay him.

No evidence has ever surfaced indicating that Maria Marshall had hired an investigator. In fact, later, Marshall would learn that she had made it abundantly clear that even if Rob Marshall had been unfaithful, she would have been willing to forgive him. Despite all his flaws, Marshall would later concede, it was clear that his wife loved him and treasured their marriage.

All the same, Marshall sought outside help.