As always, thanks to everyone for this chat. I'm in the UK and have been catching up by reading through, as well as watching some highlights of the inquest recordings and speaking with a friend!
All of this information has been knocking around in my brain and some clusters of thought started emerging when I was in the shower this morning. Fundamentally, I've been asking myself - do I think this man has the information to answer the question of what happened to Marion? And, as I think we're all hoping, I think there's a good chance he does. So then my mind goes to - what do I actually think happened, even if we possibly have no hope of ever proving it, or compelling RB to tell us?
If he is responsible for her death, I see two competing storylines as the most likely. One: the serial conman killed her in cold blood, because that was always the plan. Two: he was pulling one of his regular cons and something went wrong. Either he realised he'd 'have to' kill her for some reason, or they fought and he killed her in the heat of the moment.
So then I start thinking, which do I find more likely? A criminologist would want to look at all the evidence on his past behaviour for clues. We likely don't have all of what the police/ lawyers have (yet) and obviously they themselves will never have everything. But, based on what we have heard, there's compelling evidence that this is what he did - he pulled these cons on women, for financial profit (though only a modest profit). More could come out, but I don't currently have a sense that he was motivated by sex or a pure love of violence. Which makes me tend to think scenario two is the more likely.
It leaves me with questions and uncertainties, though.
Do others see what (may have) happened with Marion and definitely did happen with the other two women we heard from as an extension/ escalation of an MO? Was he essentially 'doing the same thing' with these women as he did with his series of wives, but he realised he didn't have to marry them, he could just say he had intentions to? Or is there a difference in how he classified these women - i.e. wives (relationships motivated by something else) vs. women he conned (relationships motivated primarily by financial gain)? In terms of the timeline, it makes sense to be to see this as an extension or escalation of an MO. He moved on from marrying them to simply saying he intended to. But, I'm very aware that I'm not as up to date with the details of the case as others on here are.
Sorry if this has been answered before, but are RB’s other two ex wives still alive? I know one died young and I have a vague recollection another may have passed. It feels like it would be really important to hear from them, or speak with people who knew them at the time they were married to RB. Was his behaviour with them in any way similar to the behaviour he exhibited with the other women he conned?
Part of why I think these questions are important is that the evidence given by the two women he conned seems to suggest that he didn't have serious concerns about being caught. It was almost as if he thought confusion and shame about what had happened would be enough to stop them coming forward and pressing any charges? That pattern/ 'psychology' if you will, makes me think that if didn't ever plan to kill the two women we heard from. Sure, he had all the name changes, fake documents, travelling around etc., but he would've known that he couldn't possibly hope that quite surface level deception would be enough to stop him getting caught. But then, does Marion's case itself represent a further escalation of what he was doing? It does seem that he went to greater lengths to cover his tracks with Marion than the other two women we've heard from.
Oh, and one other thing. I've mentioned before that his demeanor reminded me of GSK, albeit superficially. Something that suddenly struck me today... Many here have commented on his general (******) attitude towards women, which might have been quite longstanding. It's widely believed that GSK was fixated on a past engagement he'd had with a woman ('B'). I could be way off track, but something in this story about MC reminds me of this. I don't have my head round the details of when RB and MC were in acquaintence, though, so I could be way off.
I too think there is a difference between conmen and killers. But he does seem to have a pathological hate of women.
